Guest Author - Travis Belk

This week in comics saw the premiere of the new Shazam series, a sudden betrayal in X-Factor, and the return of Lobo. We also got to see the impact of the recent Marvel Civil War title delays on other tie-in issues. But before we get to those, let’s discuss the book of the week!

Book of the Week Serenity- Those Left Behind TPB
Writer- Joss Whedon/Brett Matthews
Artist- Will Conrad

This trade paperback is actually a compilation of the Serenity mini-series that came out last year. For anyone unfamiliar with it, Serenity is based off the now cancelled Fox TV sci-fi series, Firefly. A movie was released last year; also called Serenity; that was a sequel to the TV series. The comic bridges the gap between the series and the movie. The TV series is my favorite series of all time. The characterization was incredible and made you care about the cast. I’ve never cared about a show like I did about Firefly. I recommend anyone that has not watched the series or the movie to buy the DVDs and do so. You will be glad you did.

The comic picks up where the last episode of the TV series left off. We see the crew on a job that goes awry, as is their usual luck. Badger, their recurring boss, shows up and offers them another job to make up for their loss. Mal accepts to Inara’s chagrin as she is trying to leave the ship once and for all. The job turns up to be a set-up by Agent Dobson from the pilot episode of the series. He combines forces with the mysterious Blue Hands. They get River and Simon, Dobson gets the captain. Their trap goes according to plan, but since there is a movie after, we know Mal and his crew triumph. We see the final fate of Dobson and the Blue Hands. Throughout the story, Shepherd Book becomes more uncomfortable with their illegal ways and opts to leave the ship as well before he starts to become to much a part of the lifestyle.

The comic is a great read and Whedon brings the magic of the series to paper. The art is fantastic and looks very much like the characters from the show. The covers from the original comic mini-series are also included and are beautifully detailed. My one complaint is the ending felt rushed. The battle with Dobson and his crew went way too quick I felt. Another issue in the series would have allowed Whedon to flesh that out a bit more. Regardless, it was a wonderful tale and my pick of the week.

And the rest :

52 #17
The issue starts off dedicated to Lex Luthor and his new Justice League. We learn there are negative effects to the metagene that he has given the members. The story then switches to our lost space trio, Animal Man, Adam Strange, and Starfire. They are at odds being confined on their spaceship and don’t have enough power or air to get back home. They are attacked by the Pursuer, whom they had escaped from several issues back. Lobo shows up and kills the Pursuer and offers to lead the trio to safety. Starfire reveals he is helping them because he needs their help as well and apparently he has found God and given up on violence.

This started out as a poor read because there was so little offered about Luthor’s JLA. We get a couple of pages dedicated to them and still don’t know most of their names or powers since they were first introduced. It felt there was too little information given on them at this stage of the game. The rest of the issue redeemed itself though. It was interesting to see Strange’s behavior towards alien princesses. The best part of the story was Lobo. Even though he has apparently found religion, he is still his lecherous self. This is hysterically portrayed in a wordless exchange with him and Starfire that involves her metallic bodice. The art is great on this issue and I am anxious to see what happens next with the space quartet now.

Cable & Deadpool #31
This issue picks up with Deadpool engaging Captain America and his rebels in combat. Deadpool makes his wisecracks and ends up getting captured when Cable gets involved. They duct tape up Deadpool and go engage the government forces off-panel. Cable returns and frees Wade and teleports with him to the president of the United States. Cable warns the President that he has to stop his current direction or the country will end up suffering. The President then orders his troops to fire on Cable, and Deadpool to arrest him as an authorized government bounty hunter.

This is your standard Cable/Deadpool fair with lots of wisecracks. It’s interesting to see both characters on different sides of the Civil War. What was bad about this issue is that it revealed information that the reader won’t learn about for another month. Due to artistic troubles, Civil War #4 was delayed until next month rather than coming out last week. Apparently one of the rebels is killed in that issue. Cable mentions this but does not say whom. This leaves the reader confused since we never received the Civil War issue due to Marvel delays. Marvel was on a fantastic path and botched it. I even told one of their top editors that they need artists that can keep a schedule and he said he is convinced that the readers don’t care if books come out late if the quality is good. So now we the readers get to reap the benefits of that folly.