100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call

- Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso

Gritty in substance and as well as style, with incredible covers by Dave Johnson, 100 Bullets is an unrivalled page-turner, with a tone similar to The Wire, which it predates by 3 or so years. Risso’s artwork is evocative of Sin City, whilst Agent Graves is so perfectly imagined and captured, he is a testament to this pairing’s synergy. The entire volume is sublime, including the 8 page ‘police station at Christmas’ scene – never has so much been conveyed by so little. The only disappointment is that I arrived late to this party, but I’m glad that I did. Read.

Rating **** (stick)

Rampage

- Uwe Boll

Disappointingly, Uwe Boll has made another film and it has all the creativity of ‘paint by numbers’. After the career high of Darfur, which is entirely legitimate, Rampage is undoubtedly little more than a tax haven for the wealthy, a side-project for a limited mind financed by a trustfund. Predictable, lacking in insight (I wonder if he or anyone involved had seen Falling Down), Boll has plumbed the depths of dull - the second half of the film is similar to watching someone play a computer game from the 90s. However, if you've not seen Raging Boll; check it http://goo.gl/FcJFS

Rating * (bust)

The Thing (2011)

- Matthijs van Heijningen Jr

An oddity, as The Thing is neither a prequel nor a remake.  ‘The Thing’ itself is an analogy for this films’ shortcomings – it assumes the originals’ form via replication and refuses to reveal its true self. However atmospheric and tense the sequences may be (there are undoubtedly recreations with CGI replacing the delightful animatronics of the 1982 version), the lack of ingenuity impedes genuine praise. Mary Elizabeth Winstead gives a solid impression of Kurt Russell but supporting cast, including Eric Christian Olsen (plus shirt, minus hacky sack), are underdeveloped. However, van Heijningen Jr manages to fulfil The Thing’s limited potential.

Rating ** (twist)

North 40 #1-6

- Aaron Williams & Fiona Staples

Williams attempts to modernise Lovecraft with little to no success in North 40. The wretched deconstructed storytelling often left me bewildered, which was only compounded by a larger cast than Williams could cope with - a zombie princess, hulking hillbilly, vampiric freshmen and old world speak from a Sheriff with a southern lilt to name but a few. The saving grace of this series is Staples’ inventive art - thankfully she has moved onto better things (Saga) – which was rewarded with an Eisner nomination (must have been a close second to J.H. Williams for his outstanding work on ‘Tec Comics).

Rating * (bust)

15 covers of The Walking Dead #100? Happy Hunting

- spotted this over at Bleeding Cool earlier, the back 8 appear to be the regular covers   (left to right, 1st row) by Adlard, Silvestri, Quitely, McFarlane, (2nd row) Phillips, Hitch, Ottley and Adlard (wraparound). I'll speculate the two covers behind chromium are blank. The black and white cover on the left (3rd row) is the retailer variant, to the right the 1:200 sketch variant. Front right appears to be a sketch variant of the Ottley cover, whilst on the left, is the Roberts' variant available to those who got tickets for The Walking Dead Escape event at San Diego.

Hawkeye #1 Advanced Preview

- David Aja has added an advanced and unlettered preview of Hawkeye #1 to his blog and it's all sorts of awesome (as was his work on Daredevil) with art which is reminiscent of David Mazzucchelli's Batman: Year One. Fraction announced recently the series will be "what he does when he's not an Avenger" and will feature both classic and new Marvel villians', along with Clint Barton "weaponising anything around him". Due to hit the shelves in August, with a proven creative team (Fraction & Aja combined on The Immortal Iron Fist), here's hoping for a long and successful run.

Saga #1

Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples

Lacking the immediacy of Y and suffering from jarring narration, BKV is a masterful storyteller and this is an incredibly strong first issue. It blends science fiction and fantasy in a way which is often attempted yet seldom mastered. Staples’ artwork is worthy of the high praise it has attracted. I was fortunate to find North 40 in the UK equivalent of the ‘dollar bin’ recently and although the plot is akin to a B-movie horror, each page is a visual delight. BKV described Saga as ‘paracosm’ and it’s one I’d love to step into. Fortunately, with Saga, I can.

Rating **** (stick)