Terminator: 2029-1984 (comics)

Writer: Zack Whedon
Artist: Andy MacDonald
Collects: Terminator 2029 #1-3, Terminator 1984 #1-3

I may have mentioned before that Dark Horse are pretty much the kings of the licensed comic. Well, here's more proof. Dancing in the raindrops of the films - hell, the second half takes place directly after the first one - we get another winner from a company that knows what's up with this kind of thing. Other entertainment mediums may struggle with the licensed product, but Dark Horse makes it look simple.

What we get here is a two part story spanning the advertised time periods. We follow Ben, a new character to the franchise, as he struggles to survive in the hellish future alongside the woman he loves and Kyle Reese. Things get wonky when they rescue an old man who claims he is also Kyle Reese; only thing is, he claims to be Kyle after he'd been sent back in time. But that couldn't be true; Kyle died in the first film, didn't he? Sure, Ben wouldn't know that, but we would. Things turn out to be more complicated than we thought and it isn't long before Ben himself travels to the past to save Kyle, Sarah Conner and the future.

The best compliment I can give is that Zack Whedon immediately sets about making us care about Ben - a character we have no pre-existing attachment to like we do Reese or the Connors - and succeeds quite handily. It's easy to buy into Bens life and struggles, not to mention his ultimate reason for going back in time. By the end of the book, I'm ready to continue on with whatever awaits him in the future, which is, of course, a win, I'd say.

The cherry on top is that the first half of the book allows us to stay in the future for a while. One thing I always wanted from the franchise is more of the future we only glimpsed in the first two films; Salvation, of course, doesn't count because that movie was a colossal failure. Only on occasion would we get a real glimpse into the lives of the resistance; one of the few times I can recall offhand happened in another winner from Dark Horse, Robocop vs Terminator*.

The book admittedly plays fast and loose with the aspects of time travel, which I imagine will be a turn-off for some. By the end of the book, we seem to have steered clear of the road that would take us into the events of T2. But to be fair, the franchise has always played along these lines; "no fate but what we make" and all that. Hell, most of Robocop vs Terminator was about the guy with top billing changing the future. If you don't think about it a great deal, it works fine. But if you're a stickler for it "making sense", well... you probably should just stick with the first film, but regardless, this probably won't work for you.

If there's a downside to this book, it's that I don't really understand the thought process behind a move late in the book. This comic spends a fair amount of time putting a particular toy back into play, only to shove it right back in the toybox by the end. I suppose it's possible Whedon is merely moving the pieces into place in case he doesn't want to contradict the second film, but I'd rather he just gone full bore with it, or at least kept this piece in play for now.

Other than that, the only thing particularly wrong with this book is that there's no more available right now and no word on a continuation.

The Score: 8.5 out of 10

I really enjoyed this one. Easily the best Terminator comic I've read thus far that wasn't a crossover. I hope more Terminator from Whedon is in our future, but for now this is a rock solid entry in the franchise. Well worth owning if you're a Terminator fan; if you're not, then yeah, don't buy it, but in that case what are you doing reading a Terminator review in the first place?

* I don't really get what is stopping a trade paperback of the original Robocop vs Terminator miniseries from happening. It seems Dark Horse has the rights to both again. Hell, they just did a new RvsT crossover which has its own trade coming. I'm pretty sure a collection of a Robocop and Terminator crossover by Frank Miller and Walt Simonson would sell more than enough to make the endeavor worth it. Am I missing something here?

Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Lost Command (comics)

Writer: Haden Blackman
Artist: Rick Leonardi
Collects: Darth Vader and the Lost Command #1-5

We don't get many stories that focus on Darth Vader himself, do we? Kind of a rare treat. This miniseries does not disappoint.

We start about a month removed from Revenge of the Sith and Vader has since begun his campaign to wipe out the remaining Jedi. But before long the Emperor has a fetch mission for him. Seems the son of the future Moff Tarkin has up and went missing on a mission to a backwater part of the galaxy. Naturally, Vader's got to clean the mess up. He's even given a shadow because the Emperor's an idiot; why he was shocked Vader tossed him over a railing to his death in Return of the Jedi I'll never quite get.

What we have is a rounded portrayal of the iconic Sith lord. Haunted by visions of what could have been, we catch the occasional glimpse of that spark of humanity his son would one day revive. The rest of what we get is a Vader that is as deadly as we've ever seen. It isn't long at all before we see just how ruthless, cunning and vicious he could be. While the Vader of the films was fine with getting his hands dirty when necessary, it was never to the extent we get here. He actively participates in a brutal, efficient takedown of a city, orders survivors drowned, tosses civilians into hot tar pits to get information from a hostage and has no qualms about sinking an entire city.

Dude doesn't play games.

The story is engaging and moves at a brisk pace. It's helped along by a Darth Vader that feels authentic*, if younger and a bit more brash than we saw in his later years. Even his fleeting moments of sorrow over his lost wife work; the few scenes we get are more believable than the entire half of Episode II dedicated to building that "love story". Even if you give pause at the slightest bit of self loathing or regret, know that Blackmans got you covered; by the stories end, Vader proves himself every bit the evil prick we've always thought he was. Maybe even worse.

I don't have a lot to say about the art other than it's pretty decent. Leonardi uses another style to differentiate the visions of what could have been from reality. It works pretty well. That he can draw a mean Darth Vader certainly helps.

The Score: 8 out of 10

Even if you're not a fan of the prequels, this is well worth the money. It bridges who Vader was and who he has become better than the films ever thought about. We also get a hell of a reminder of just why Darth Vader is one of the best villains to ever hit the silver screen. If you need some of your faith restored, this should do the trick.

*The dialogue passes my general litmus test for this kind of thing. Meaning I could imagine Darth Vaders voice reading his lines.

The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite

Writer: Gerard Way
Artist: Gabriel Ba
Collects: Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite #1-6, two page internet preview story, Free Comic Book Day 2007 story

Holy hell, talk about defying my every expectation.

Listen. Between you and me? There was absolutely no reason for this to be any good. It's written by a singer in an alternative rock band. I've little experience with My Chemical Romance aside from hearing a song or two that I thought sounded kind of cool, but even if they're the best - or worst - band going, there's a difference between writing music and writing comic books. Besides that, the track records for any comic book written by a musician of any kind is piss poor. Remember those Insane Clown Posse comics? No? Good, you must have blocked them out of your memory. Couple this with the fact that I had never heard of the artist before and man I thought this was going to suck harder than a cheap hooker; Grant Morrison giving it praise is why I ultimately took it out for a read.

I'm sorry for not giving you the benefit of the doubt, Gerard Way; at the very least, you've proven you can put together a good comic.

The story starts with seven kids with extraordinary powers being born after a wrestler drops the atomic elbow on a space octopus. The seven are taken in and adopted, later becoming a dysfunctional family and superhero group, the Umbrella Academy. After seeing their first adventure, we jump forward twenty years. They've all grown up, one of their number is dead and by this time the team has long since disbanded. But now, their adopted father has died and the apocalypse is on the horizon. The remaining members of the team need to put their differences aside and reunite if there's any hope for the world.

First off, it's easy to tell Gerard is a fan of Grant Morrison. More than once this comic reminded me of the style of rapid fire ideas that can make Morrisons comics the most interesting thing to hit a page. From a living white violin with the power to bring the apocalypse through song to the Academy fighting an insane Eiffil Tower piloted by Zombie-Robot Gustave Eiffil, this comic is just bursting with the kind of insane fun that draws me in every time. He's also got a knack for writing a bit of dark humor here and there, which is more than welcome; juxtaposing an "isn't this worth fighting for" speech against a seedy streetcorner with triple X signs and hookers fighting next to a homeless guy is just morbidly hilarious.

To my surprise, it's all very well written. Way manages to craft some believable drama in the midst of the insanity, with the different relations between the dysfunctional kinda-sorta-not-really-a-family bringing some emotional weight to the proceedings. None of them are actually blood related and within the dynamic lie grudges, chaffing personalities and serious dysfunction. Some members get along well while others might come to blows. Way manages to make us feel like we know the members of the Academy fairly quickly, which I think is high praise. By the end, it's easy to be attached the the team and their insane world. It's even easier to want to see what might be next.

If Gerard Way is not a comic fan, I'll be surprised, because there are aspects to this comic that seem to homage some of the greats. Late in the book, when attempting to piece things together, The Kraken meets with a very Commissioner Gordan-esque inspector. The scene feels like a reference to Batman, right down to Kraken disappearing while the inspector is still talking. The team itself - including the power sets and general looks - feels very much like an homage to the Doom Patrol; hell, the fight with an insane Eiffel Tower made me think of the Painting That Ate Paris from Morrisons Doom Patrol run. Also, some character interactions remind me of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. By that, I'm thinking largely of the rivalry between The Kraken - a hot headed brawler who doesn't like taking orders, just like Raphael - and the team leader Spaceboy, who reminds me of Leonardo of the Turtles, only far more interesting (lets face it, Leo can be kind of a bland cliche of the stern leader just as often as he can be awesome). Some of it's probably intentional, some of it might not be, but it's nice regardless.

I mentioned earlier that I'd never heard of Gabriel Ba before and that's true, but I'll remember him from now on. His art is at times a bit too blocky for my liking - not really a fan of that sort of style - but he clearly has an eye for detail and skills in telling a story with art. The details in his art can convey as much about the story as the words. To elaborate on that a bit, one thing he did I liked happened midway through the first issue when we jump ahead twenty years to the time period the rest of the comic takes place in. The first thing we see is Spaceboy. In the twenty years since, his head has somehow been grafted onto an apes body. There is no exposition explaining this, the comic just moves forward; instead, in the background, we see newspaper clippings that give you everything you need to know about what happened without any exposition. Good stuff.

Also included in the collection is a two page story that was put up on the internet as a teaser of sorts and the Free Comic Book Day offering. The former is nice to see included - though it may be non-canon - but doesn't offer much. The FCBD offering, however, holds more value. Seeing as it takes place before the Umbrella Academy originally broke up as a team, it offers a look at the group in their prime, something we didn't see at all in Apocalypse Suite proper. It's very much in the same vein as the main series and I'm glad it was included. To round it off, there's a sketchbook section at the back, showing a lot of the original concept art of the series numerous characters. It's worth a look to see how the designs evolved prior to the project.

The Score: 8.5 out of 10

Man, was this a great read. This was definitely a surprise in regards to how good it is; I'd heard the praise, but I couldn't believe it until I'd seen it. It's great folks. I'd recommend dropping the coin - followed by the Atomic Elbow Drop - as soon as possible. No hype; it's just great comics. I'll be back for Dallas and whatever else Gerard Way feels like writing.