Brandon JerwaRezensionen

That was pretty fun. Not great but entertaining enough to make me smile a few times.

Ticks all the boxes:
- cold war
- ninjas
- super-soldiers
- sword-fight while falling from an airplane...

There are a few glaring problems (i.e. treatment of women!) but I do genuinely wish more of these were made. Great idea to provide interesting backstory for immortals we see for only a few minutes on screen.

Not great but I'll try the next issue to see if it improves, art was so so and the origin story a bit rushed.

This is one I really liked, and it left me wanting to read more. The origin story of Snake Eyes has it all: intrigue, friendship, betrayal, tragedy, and a good story. We learn the story of the silent and mysterious ninja member of the G.I. Joe team. In addition, we get a look at the early days of Cobra and G.I. Joe as well as how Storm Shadow came to be Cobra's ninja. If you are a G.I. Joe fan, this is one worth reading. And it does lend itself to rereading too, which is a good thing. As always with this newer G.I. Joe series, the art is very good in this volume as well. It was neat to see certain characters who turn out to be bigger players in the G.I. Joe series later. That was interesting to me. Overall, a volume I enjoyed.

Brandon Jerwa and Cezar Razek’s Stargate: Vala Mal Doran focuses on the titular former goa’uld host, con-woman, and SG-1 member as she plans a major heist. Unfortunately for her, she’d previously crossed a member of the Lucian Alliance who seeks to disrupt her plans while he gets his revenge. One by one, her plans begin to disintegrate as she crosses all of those on her team. Years later, Vala’s past catches up to her when she’s a member of SG-1. Cezar Razek’s art takes full advantage of the comicbook medium and introduces several non-human aliens that would’ve been prohibitively expensive to include in the television series. Interestingly, many of the alien ships’ designs more closely resemble those from Battlestar Galactica, a Sci-Fi Channel series for which Dynamite also had the comic book license at this time.

Like Dynamite’s previous volume focusing on Daniel Jackson, General Landry appears with his face in shadow, indicating that Beau Bridges may not have signed over his likeness rights. Interestingly, General Jack O’Neill also appears, though his face is similarly often obscured or appears different enough from Richard Dean Anderson’s likeness. While all of SG-1 appears in this volume, many have minimal roles, with Colonel Carter barely speaking, Colonel Mitchell having only a slightly larger role, and Razek portraying Teal’c with his again head shaved. Despite that lapse, the inclusion of General O’Neill suggests that the present-day events of the story take place sometime after season 10 of Stargate SG-1.

The first half of the story, focusing on events from Vala’s past, is the strongest, but the story breaks down once it needs to shift from the more fantastic first act to a more grounded Stargate SG-1 setting. In that way, the second half closely resembles Entity Comics’ 1997 continuations of Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich’s original Stargate film. Like those comics, this should be viewed as a non-canonical story that fans can take or leave as they choose. This book also shows shows a noticeable decline from the quality of the previous comic license-holder, Avatar Press, who hired writers and artists that better captured the look and feel of the series during the height of its popularity.

More expansion upon the Battlestar Galactica universe, tells of a story that you don't hear about on the TV programme, very good graphic novel

Not a topic that I'd usually pick up, but this graphic novel is illustrated by Portland's own Steven Lieber. He's done a great job, as always. It's a deeply felt story about soldiers, their families, and the cost of war.