Weird War Tales #1: Review

Weird War Tales #1
Written by Darwyn Cooke, Ivan Brandon, Jan Strnad
Art by Darwyn Cooke, Nic Klein, Gabriel Hardman, Steve Pugh

Valhallahan
A few things led me to picking up titles, one is my love of the old Weird War Tales issues that I've picked up from bargain bins over the years and another being the overall concept: Eerie short stories set in wartime, with optional moral message. Like any given issue of Weird War Tales, I was expecting it to be a -wait for it- mixed bag(winner of 2010 award for Valhallahan's most over-used phrase). Thus it was but sadly it was a mixture of 4 good pages and a load of crap. The anthology features, as ever, a themed representation of Death, and as drawn by Steve Pugh, it is positively tattoo worthy. This one page is by far and away the highlight of the book, but at the same time it lacks the charm of Death's previous Weird War Tales incarnations.

Another of the major selling points of this issue is the presence of Darwyn Cooke, something which played no small part in my purchase of said periodical. Well, Cooke fans prepare to be disappointed! There are like, 3 pages from Cooke and it's a fun but very silly skit about dead military leaders in Hell. Enjoyable, but nothing to spend $3.99 on by any stretch. In fact there's little or nothing to justify that price tag for such a mediocre effort.

I haven't really mentioned the other two stories in the book, because quite frankly they're not worth mentioning. Not shit, but so ho-hum I'm struggling to remember what they were about a day after reading.

Two boring anecdotes on the bus out of a possible lock-in with some drunken veterans. Save your money for '70s back issues or buy the '90s Vertigo version(runner up in the 2010 award for Valhallahan's most over-used phrase).

What I got and Why 15/8/2010

Valhallahan
The Weird World of Jack Staff #3 - I've always been curious about Jack Staff. I really dug Paul Grist's Kane, but only with the recent relaunch have I entered the Weird World of Jack Staff. I’m awfully glad I did!

The Walking Dead #76 - Consistently brilliant, it'd take a lot to make me drop this title. In fact nothing short of the (joke) ending to #75.

Scarlet #1 - I thought I’d try this out, because although I'm sick to death of Bendis' Marvel Universe work now, I used to be a big fan. Here’s hoping he's still got some of the old magic in this creator-owned series.

Daytripper #9 - The penultimate chapter of this excellent Mini, and it looks like they're starting to bring it all together. I heartily recommend this series.

Shadowland: Blood on the Streets #1 - I got this because we were going to do it for Swap Shop until Ash hit me with a surprise turkey instead (stay tuned!). It's not bad, but it’s not great either, I was left thinking "The Shroud is actually kinda cool" and "Dear god, why do they still write Silver Sable stories".

CBGB OMFUG #1 - Part one of Boom! Studios anthology series about the legendary New York Punk venue. I like comics I like Punk, it’s not rocket science.

Origins of the Marvel Universe - I went on about the one page origins in that siege freebie a little while back, and this is a whole comic of them. 1 page of 'who they is and what they does' for most of Marvel's major characters. Well worth the price of admission. The Ghost Rider page by Mark Texiera is particularly cool looking, I'd like it on my wall. An excellent buy for a Marvel Newbie.

Jonah Hex #58 - Because it’s Jonah Hex.

DareDevil Black and White - Basically this is the same format as Marvel's Magazines they put out over the last year or so; short black and white stories by interesting creators and a prose story at the end. Looked good to me.

Invincible Volume 12: Still Standing - I really Love Invincible; it's one of the few current series I pick up solely in Trades, it sucks to wait so long between instalments, but like a trip to your mum's house, I'm guaranteed a good long ride for my money each time. This is what superhero comics should be.

Love and Rockets - I really dig L+R, and these trades are a great way to experience it, comprehensive, inexpensive and nice to look at on the shelf. This volume reprints couple of Minis by Jaime, including Women's wrestling drama "Woah Nellie!" and Penny Century.

Vertigo: Winters Edge #1 - A late '90s vertigo anthology; basically a short from each of the main books they were printing at the time, with a House of Secrets framing strip. Highlight at first glance is the Paul Pope Hellblazer story. The book does seem to contain a bunch of nonsense about fauns too though, so be warned.

The Savage Axe of Ares #1

The Savage Axe of Ares #1
Red Mercury by Gregg Hurwitz & C P Smith
The Gods Answer All Prayers by John Barber & Jefte Palo
Bonebomb Babylon by Ted McKeever
Wojna by Duane Swierczynski


Valhallahan
*Contains minor spoilers for The Savage Axe of Ares and a major one for Siege #2*

Red Mercury opens up this anthology, and is probably my favourite of the bunch. The story follows a pair of “soviet turncoats” trying to get to the Yankees to sell them some McGuffin or other with Ares playing the role of their grim guardian angel. It feels like something from Weird War Tales and is the better for it if you ask me, it’s a creepy little tale, with a twist in the end that you can probably see from a mile away, but it didn’t hamper my enjoyment. The art was a bit uneven in places, but I felt it complimented the creepy ‘real-world’ feel of the story nicely.

Making the most of the fact that our swarthy protagonist has been around since before Mary’s unplanned pregnancy The Gods Answer All Prayers is set in the distant past. As Ash pointed out, this is more like a classic Conan tale, but if Conan was even more of a bastard. Conan (a typo-but that says it all really) battles a giant snake and wins a Pyrrhic victory for a capricious princess. It’s a bit too much like a Conan tale to be honest, but it has got a nice commentary from Ares.

Thirdly comes the insanely titled Bonebomb Babylon, Ted McKeever’s contribution to this curate’s egg. I know that Ted McKeever’s artwork has its fans but I can’t say I number among them. I’ll admit it has a certain frenetic charm, but well, it’s ugly. Really, really ugly. He actually seems to be reigning in the ugly a bit here, but I doubt he’ll win over many new fans with his additions to the Marvel Magazines. The story’s quite light and quite Hellboy, I can’t imagine people will be talking about it for years to come.

This brings us to Wojna, the illustrated text piece, which, (alongside the monochrome nature of the issues) is what makes Marvel’s magazines stand out from the multitude of one-shots and anthologies that are released in any given month. I must admit, I’ve skipped them in the previous magazines I’ve read and probably would have again were I not reading this to review. Set far in the past again and taking the same approach to the character as seen in Red Mercury, we see Ares, the twisted guardian, seen through the eyes of a less than great soldier, a technique which, when used too regularly, runs the risk of turning the lead into little more than a host for other people’s stories, like The Crypt Keeper or more relevantly, Death in Weird War Tales. In the accompanying illustrations, Leonardo Manco, proves again that he draws a mean Ares, delivering the best rendition of the character here.

This anthology feels like a tryout for the character’s future direction if/when he’s returned to life in the Marvel universe. There are a lot of possibilities, but I wonder if Ares could sustain a series of his own. Much like Namor, he is a great addition to Marvel universe as an obnoxious sod who finds himself fighting on the side of the angels when it suits him, but he’s not quite likeable enough to hold this reader’s interest for too long. Perhaps this is why we are shown him through another’s eyes for the majority of this issue. Taken out of the context of the Marvel universe as he is here, he’s a bit of a one-note sword and sorcery-type, and I found myself comparing him to other more famous characters too often.

I give it three and a half blood-stained battle axes out of five; a good read but not essential by any means.

Action Ash
Red Mercury didn't actually impress me as much as my co-reviewer here. The story is ok but the twist is totally obvious, as Valhallahan pointed out. The art was good for the characters but some of the back grounds were appalling. Whack!

The Gods answer all prayers was my personal favourite. Although Ares is completely interchangeable with Conan, or every other sword and sorcery bad ass, I really enjoyed it. I admit I be biased due to being a massive Conan fan but I think it's a great little story. Also, Palo's art is pretty damn good and I'd like to see him do something else of this ilk in the future.

Bonebomb Babylon was how Val described it. The only thing I want to add is WTF!?!? The Golden Fleece as a giant monster? As a bit of a mythology geek I thought this was just stupid. Totally Lame! No points to McKeever!

Wojna = tl;dr

Three slaughtered hoplites out of Five