Before Watchmen Moloch

Before Watchmen Moloch #2: This was an excellent yet creepy story.  J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) is a really good writer.  Moloch was barely mentioned in the original Watchmen comic and to see him fleshed out was a great idea.  Issue number one was Moloch’s life story and this issue was a simple single story of his end.  The story connects in a great way things that happened in the original comic; this I am sure was more of what Alan Moore was hoping for when the idea for Before Watchmen was broached.

Nite Owl

Nite Owl number four was really good; it shows what can be done when a real writer writes a comic book.  Someone who is used to writing more than just one liners and quips.  J. Michael Straczynski is one really good writer and even though half the book is just a filler rant that filler rant was really good and moved the story along.  Very good stuff.

Before Watchmen

I have been reading the new “Before Watchmen” comics (all of them) I’m up to date on each series now.  I have to say the issues are rather uneven in quality; some of the books are excellent and other suck.  From reading about this maxi-series I understood that these books would be untold stories of the characters before the Watchmen comic.  But what we are getting is a rehash of the back stories told in the original Watchmen comic.  This points’ out the inherently impossible timeline of some of the characters whom would in some cases had been in the hero business since the 1930s while the main Watchmen story happened in the 1980s.  It makes the stories disjointed and uneven. Do not even get me started in the two pages per issue side story of the zombie pirate story I will not name.  In the original Watchmen comic the Pirate story fit into the main story in timing story and gave another angle at the morals of the main story.  The new story just sucks. 

I do want to say the Moloch series while seemingly slapped together to get more cash out of the series was good so far.  The issues written by JMS show a polish that the other comics are missing.

Comic Book Madness!

Alright I have been procrastinating and never did post the review of these comics as planned. So instead I will write two short reviews on the issues below.

Thor! I bought the trade paperback of Thor issue 7-12 and issue 600. Still not sure how they got from issue 12 directly to issue 600, but oh well. I just have to say that these issues of Thor were very disappointing. The new Thor series started out so well. Thor was back, he was a god and he was kicking ass as needed. Then flash to issue seven and suddenly he is all whiny and angsty. If I wanted whiny teenage angst I would just read X-men or spiderman (or something else). The writing and plotting was suddenly horrible and after the first six issues I expected a lot more of the same from writer J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) because when normally when he is on a roll all his stuff is good. But unfortunately the comic went from action and discovery to boring with a hint of Loki. I don't know if I will pick up the rest of the issues the JMS wrote. I know he left Thor at some point and maybe this is a good thing.

The Bad:

• The visit to Captain Americas grave - ugh come on everyone knew Capt would be back.
• Issue 600! I mean what the heck with that fight? And why even bother with the Avengers 2.0?
• Spoilers: Doctor Doom (and I never thought I would put that down as a bad thing).

The good?

• A goddess getting hit by a bouquet of flowers. errr....
• Thor got to say goodbye to his dad.

Alright now onto the Trade Paper back of the comic Abe Sapien: The Drowning.

I really liked this comic. The writing was sparse yet told a story. The story moved along at a nice pace. The book was very entertaining! I liked it!

In short this comic covers Abe Sapien's first mission without Hellboy and being the B.P.R.D it is a dozy. There is an ancient evil from before time, water demons and a cursed island. All in a all a nice creepy story. My only complaint about this comic was the art. It might have been a decision on the editors/writers part but the artwork was just not that crisp and clear.

In short one hit and one big horrible miss!

Until next time have a great day!