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.

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!

Thor is Back!

Thor is Back! or so says the back cover of the Trade Paperback edition of issues 1-6 written bye J. Michael Straczynsky. I actually bought this six issue compilation after hearing good things about the new Thor online. I did not even know Thor had died / ended at some point in the past. I had collected a bunch of Thor comic books when I was a kid and for the most part enjoyed the issues very much (I still have them here somewhere).

Without spoiling anything this was an enjoyable read and you should read it if you get the chance. Other wise I am just going to comment on the comic below and so it is time to insert a spoiler warning.

Warning! Spoilers below - this comic is old enough if you care about such things go read the comic before continuing! Spoilers below!

I have to say that I was very happy with these six issues reprinted in this collection. The writing was sharp and I expect a lot from JMS after watching Babylon 5 (B5). While JMS can sometimes write some really bad stuff when he does not listen to others (see B5). The pacing of the issues was good I was always entertained. The art was good I would even say a little better than your normal comic book. Lots of big nicely done splash pages that would befit the return of a god.

The story starts out with the rebirth of Thor (of course). There is some interesting dialog between Thor and Doctor Donald Blake. Thor returns to earth and builds Asgard in of all places Oklahoma - which makes me happy since I was born in that great state. Lots of interesting dialog with the locals which makes me think this is a comic book where is the fighting? Well we get a bit of that when while looking for the lost souls of other Asgardians Thor meets and then kicks Iron Man's ass. This was great because well Iron Man is so full of himself and Thor is a god of Thunder. This fight should never be anything but one sided and even Thor says he had always held back in the past. As a side note this is where those of us who did not read Marvel comics during the Marvel "Civil War" period found out what happened to Thor. It seems that yes indeed Tony Stark is an ass.

There are then many pages devoted to Thor's new quest to find and recover the other Asgardians. They have become trapped in human bodies and might die if not freed. The recovery of other people of Asgard leads to the predictable funny interactions with the locals of the small town that is now the neighbor of Asgard. Of course Thor's search reveals evil that must be dealt with once it is discovered. This evil appears to include Dr Doom for some reason.

The last comic ends with a nice climatic piece of art and I hope to find the next Trade Paperback compilation sometime soon.