We start this issue off on QO’NOS the Klingon homeworld. Several Klingons stand around a table talking to April on a comm device. April tell them he has accepted that Phaedus IV belongs to the Klingon Empire, and in order to secure the safty f the innocent Phaedans he asks to be made the Colonial Governor reporting to the Imperial Command. When the Klingons ask why they would allow that, April says he would give them the Enterprise.

Back on the ship Kirk,Spock and Scotty are gathered in engineering. Scotty tells them that the energy field that hit them when they arrived was gone, but April’s program has them locked out of everything, and April controls it all from the bridge. Kirk suggests they take the bridge and Spock says ‘easier said than done’ in his Vulcan way, but agrees it’s the only way. With the aid of their tricorders Kirk and Spock attempt to get to the bridge by way of the Jefferies tubes.

April opens communication with Kirk to tell him he knows what he is doing and drops a blasting shield between him and Spock. They agree to keep trying to get to the bridge separately. April rambles on about Star Fleet as Kirk kicks his way through some panels to end up in 10 forward. where Uhura, Bones and several other crew members are trapped. Kirk tells everyone they ran into some glitches. Bones asks him if what he’s look at out the window was responsible.

Spock makes his way into a turbolift shaft as Scotty comes up with another solution: shut down the warp core. April begins his negotiations with the Klingon commander Kor when Scotty accomplishes his goal of “shutting off the Enterprise”. Kirk uses his badge comm to ask Scotty what’s going on and after he explains, Kirk tells him about the Klingon ship sitting outside.

Spock makes it to the bridge and hits April with a phaser on the lowest setting. April tells him he is trying to save an entire people and that the Enterprise was just one ship. Kirk gets on the bridge and shoots him again. The lights come back on and Kirk get the shields up and Spock gets them out of the area. Later in the brig Krik asks April what he was thinking, saying he could have started a war.

After talking to April Spock gives the Captain an update on the bridge crew and Mudd. Kirk says he is keeping her ship, as it may come in handy some day. He says he hates that they had to run from the Klingons. Spock says that would have started a war, and though Kirk agrees he thinks April was right. That they left the Phaedans to die and if Star Fleet wasn’t out there to prevent something like that from happening, then what are they out there for?

Spock meets up with Uhura and she asks him to promise her he won’t go running off again and he does.

Kirk radios Pike who informs him everything that happened is now classified information, and once he drops off April to forget about him. He tells him to proceed to the Nibin system per orders. “and Kirk, do your self a favor…remember who your real enemies are.”

The final page is set in London at the Star Fleet Data Archives where access is granted to a John Harrison……

Well that’s it folks, now you are prepared to go see the movie. I’m not sure how any of this is going to fit in because I haven’t seen it yet, but if you have already feel free to leave comments, thoughts, and complaints below, or head over to the Message Board of Doom! Also if you want to read these full comics for yourself click here to find a local comic book shop in your area!

Welcome Back to *TOTALLY SPOILED* with Harvey Locust where we are going to spoil the Ferengi out of the new Star Trek Countdown series. This is the second issue, so if you missed the first one, CLICK HERE to read it first. Now enough with the yappin’ lets get on with the story….

On the surface of Phadaeus IV, at the edge of explored space, is where we find Kirk and Spock confronting Captain April and his rogue army of the indigenous population.  Kirk berates April, calling him a phony but April’s only concern is asking about his ship, which Jim smugly tells him was decommissioned two years prior and that Jim has the new one that he can’t get back to because April shot it down.

April claims that it was an opposing faction that did it but he is interrupted when explosions start going off.  April and his “men” lead Kirk and Spock deep into some caverns in the mountainside as the attackers pursue. Once inside, April takes Kirk’s phaser and seals off the entrance then gives the phaser back to Kirk.

On the ship, Chekov still can’t get through the interference and Uhura wants to go back down to the planet to look for them. Bones tells her they are probably perfectly fine and Kirk needed some shore leave anyway.

Back in the cave, Kirk asks April who attacked them and why does Star Fleet believe him dead.  April says he will tell them once they are safe and then reveals what seems to be a dead end is actually a hologram covering the entrance to his home.  Spock notes that the hologram is more sophisticated than those currently in use at Star Fleet.

Inside, April begins the story of what happened.  How his Enterprise was the first to check out Phadaeus IV.  How everything looked normal for an iron aged society “and then we met The Shadows”.  April tells and shows them a video of a mass genocide taking place on the planet where one race slaughters and enslaves another based on their color.  Children being eaten or used as pets.  He tells them that after seeing that he snuck off the ship with as much technology and phasers as he could carry.  Spock inquires as to why his first officer had not arrested him for breaking the Prime Directive. April said that his first officer, Alex Marcus, was his best friend.  Marcus told him he would tell everyone that April was dead, and the fact that Spock and Kirk believed him to be dead was proof that Marcus proved up to his word. Spock calls April out, saying there is way more weapons and technology on the planet than what April first described. April admits to having outside help.

Back on the ship, Uhura is still debating going after them when the ship is approached by a small  vessel with a Bajoran woman on board claiming to make a delivery to April.  When asked who she is…

On the planet surface, April has Kirk look through some binoculars at a Shadow army sitting off in the distance and tells him Sulu and Hendroff are captured there.  That starts an argument between the two which gives Spock the opportunity to run off and attempt a rescue on his own.

TO BE CONTINUED…

(click here for part 3!)

If you liked this and want to know more about what Kirk and the crew have been up to since the last movie (including adventures that happened in Star Trek The Original Series but with the twist of the new timeline) head on over to the Message Board of Doom where we will be taking a look at the ongoing comic series one issue at a time, and you can tell us about your thoughts, hopes, and half baked ideas on the new timeline and what it means to the Star Trek Universe in general.

I picked this up in a special deal that my local shop was promoting whereby, for about $35, you buy the 8 basic variant covers and they include a ninth metalized (is that a word) version of the Charlie Adlard cover H. A fine deal. I’m not going to be able to get the Comic Con B&W cover and there’s no way in hell I’m getting the Charlie Adlard B&W 1:200 cover (currently going for anywhere from $400 -$2000, depending on the ignorance of the buyer) and I appreciated the store trying to give the regulars a little discount. All of the covers are beautiful. My favorite is probably Silvestri or Ottley’s. Silvestri got the mood right and the picture fits the epic nature of the 100th issue fairly well. Ottley just drew the hell out of Michonne and I love the expression on her face.

The story itself was absolutely brutal. I felt drained after reading it. A lot of it was expected due to the huge amount of build-up, but the second half of the book is absolutely bleak and doesn’t give you a glimmer of hope. The tension created from the “selection” scene is heartbreaking and more than a little sickening and after knowing these characters, some of them for the past 9 or 10 years that the comic book has been in production, I was hurting right along with Rick.

Half of me hates this book, because it creates such an emotional attachment to these characters and strips it away without pause and with brutal efficiency, but I also love it because Kirkman has created a fictional world where you’re not comfortable. Where you can’t settle in to knowing which characters will live or die or guessing your way at how the Scooby Gang will make it out of this snafu.

Read the issue, then go have a lie-down. You’re gonna need it.

A picture of my haul (forgive the quality of a phone camera):

Left-to-right (Cover designation noted next to artist):
Top Row: Bryan Hitch F, Sean Phillips E, Ryan Ottley G, Marc Silvestri B,
Bottom Row: Frank Quietly C, Todd McFarlane D, Charlie Adlard H, Charlie Adlard (Chromium) L

Not pictured is Charlie Adlard’s Cover A because it is currently on loan to my brother-in-law for reading.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Please welcome Josh to the DOOM team. He’s going to be doing some comic reviews for us so give him that old DOOM welcome… just try not to spill anything on the floor while you’re doing it.

The first wave of trade paperbacks for DC Comics’ New 52 line of books are arriving. Rebirths and new beginnings are the aim of the game and where better to begin my reviews than by looking at a book that…has had little to none of its continuity altered by the reboot.

Brilliant.

But that isn’t to say it’s impossible to pick up Green Lantern Vol. 1 without having read preceding books and enjoy it. Quite the contrary, the book works surprisingly well as a stand-alone, a jumping-on point, and a continuation. Building on the characters’ stories while providing a new exciting adventure, peppered with enough information and backstory for new readers to quickly and easily engulf themselves in the Green Lantern mythos.

Following the events of War of the Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan has been relieved of his power ring and shunted back to earth by the Guardians of the Universe, the creators and overseers of the Green Lantern Corps. In his place, the power ring has chosen long time Lantern foe Sinestro for its new bearer. The Guardians take this as a sign that Sinestro deserves a chance at redemption for his past crimes and, thus, set him free. And Sinestro’s first goal as a reinstated Green Lantern? To free his homeworld from the scourge of his very own Sinestro Corps. (And, no, he most certainly does not appreciate the irony there.)

On earth, Hal Jordan pines for his days as a Lantern, defending the earth against horrors from beyond the stars. But the mundane trials of life — bills, unemployment, taxes — prove somehow more daunting than any superpowered alien for the former test-pilot-turned-superhero. More problems abound when Hal’s on-again/off-again love interest Carol Ferris finally calls it quits after one comical misuderstanding too many tips the scales (protip: When at a romantic, candlelit restaurant, don’t ask your girlfriend to cosign your lease. Save that for a parent’s funeral). Afterward, Hal promises himself to put his past as Green Lantern behind him and move on. Unfotunately for him, Sinestro has other plans as he seduces Jordan into a covert mission to liberate his homeworld. The bribe: a construct power ring and one last taste of Green Lantern glory.

Like Scott Snyder’s Batman series, Green Lantern proves you don’t need to retread an origin to create a new, reader-friendly book. All you need is a good story and skill enough to disguise the artifice with plot and character. The backstory for Hal Jordan, the history and purpose of the Green Lanterns, Sinestro’s past as a villain, all of this is conveyed organically as part of the narrative. No awkward exposition. No clunky dialogue. No moments when the reader feels they’re missing something.

And the narrative here is a strong one. Few can argue how well Geoff Johns has managed to reinvigorate the Green Lantern franchise, specifically with the character of Hal Jordan, beginning with Green Lantern: Rebirth through The Sinestro Corps War and on to Blackest Night. (It’s no wonder that the Green Lanterns received four books dedicated to them upon DC’s relaunch.) Here, Johns continues that magic, weaving twin tales of redemption and second chances (and third, fourth, and tenth chances in Hal’s case) into a tale that will thrill the old and enthrall the new.

Sinestro and Hal form a strangely compelling buddy cop team — an odd couple, to be sure, but with more in common than either would like to admit. Imagine Murtagh and Riggs with superpowers and you’ll begin to get the idea. Their reparte crackles with equal parts venom, snark and begrudging admiration. And one can’t help but hope their twisted buddy act continues through a good part of the series. A particular favorite moment of mine, Sinestro, despite having just been punched in the face by Jordan, can’t help but burst out laughing at the idea that he only “thinks” he’s better than Hal when it’s quite obvious that he is better than Hal. A smiling Sinestro is a very…disturbing thing.

Pencils by Doug Mahnke bring the bombast of alien brawls to stunning life. Action is coherent and flows nicely while rarely skimping on the details. His alien designs and renditions of recurring secondary villains (I particularly like one called Slushh: a mound of stretchy, sentient goo filled with the floating bones of its victims. He needs his own spinoff) are wonderfully ludicrous.

He does, however, have a problem with facial expressions. Near the end of chapter/issue 1, Carol Ferris maintains the same expression for the four straight panels she appears in: wide doe eyes with slightly parted lips (you know…like a blowup doll). It seems anything more subtle than the usual Happy, Sad, and Angry faces gives Mahnke trouble. For example, that same issue ends with a full page spread of Sinestro fighting a member of the Sinestro Corps but, according to his face, Sinestro is distracted by the smell of a particularly bad fart. Truly odd given he was in the vacuum of space at the time.

Minor quibbles aside, Green Lantern Vol. 1 proves an excellent book for old and new readers. Building on the recurring theme of the Gaurdian’s fickle nature, Johns teases us Sinestro’s long and winding road to redemption, Hal’s struggle to subdue his death wish heroics, and the grand and glorious prospects of a “Third Army.” While Green Lantern shows that the reboot and reset of all DC’s titles to issue #1 may have been unnecessary, hopefully it at least introduced new readers to Green Lantern, its characters, their quests, and the struggle of many races, many species to weave peace and justice throughout the galaxy.

Greetings Venturoos!

2011 has come to a close, and we have all been waiting with bated breath for some VB related news. We know Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick are writing season 5, and getting it ready for production, which should be in the coming weeks.

So while you are waiting for new episodes, check this out! Jackson updated his blog with a bit of holiday cheer in the form of a re-gift! From December 17th-20th, Jackson posted some old comic art he drew for the comic anthology Monkeysuit, along with a piece he made for the exhibit “Too Art for TV Too”, and another piece for a comic themed show called “Agents of P.O.O.C.“.

Monkeysuit was a comic anthology that ran from 1999-2005. It featured many animators that may sound familiar to you, as some of them went on to work on the Venture Bros., including Jackson, Doc Hammer, Douglas Lovelace (Storyboard revision supervisor, storyboard and design), Chris George (Character design and storyboard revision), and Stephen DeStefano (Art director and storyboard artist, voice of Dr. Entmann). The “Too Art for TV” exhibit is curated by Liz Artinian, who you may know as the color supervisor for the Venture Bros. The “Agents of P.O.O.C” show was held at Maxwell’s in New Jersey and was curated by Karl Heitmueller.

In Re-Gifting (pt. 1), Jackson shares “Oh, To Be Super!” from 2000’s “The Bride of Monkeysuit”.

Re-Gifting (pt. 2) brings us a back cover page comic from 2003’s “In Search of Monkeysuit”.

Re-Gifting (pt. 3)’s “Pet My Danger” is from 2001’s “Viva la Monkeysuit.” And yes, that’s supposed to be Jackson at the end. Also, Sluggo Rabbit is a bit like Brock, isn’t he?

And finally, Re-Gifting (pt. 4) contains two Spider-Man themed pieces; “An Ideal Web” from the “Agents of P.O.O.C.” show, and “Parts of the Body” from “Too Art for TV Too”.

If you like what you see, you can pick up all the issues of Monkeysuit on Amazon. So go check it out! Also, if you live in the Los Angeles area, and you’re interested in seeing some pretty cool Adult Swim inspired art, including The Venture Bros. of course, Gallery 1988 is holding a group exhibition starting on January 13th- February 4th. More info can be found here.

JJ and his amazing friend Jason have nothing original to say. So little, in fact, that they feel the need to footnote this episode. Credit where it is due, I suppose. JJ shares how the worst thing EVER happened to him this week, and Jason takes issue with the overreaction of the general public. Calm down people, it ain’t the end of the world. All this…and one of the stupidest moments in comic book history are revealed in this very stream of consciousness episode.

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I’ve made no secret up to this point that I have loved every moment of the Captain America trailers we’ve been getting from Marvel. The tone, the images, the dialogue, it has all been getting me as giddy as a school girl in anticipation for the film’s release.

Well, as if they knew I was feeling a little jaded by recent movies, a second full length trailer was released last night and to quote JJ Hawkins “I need a cigarette”.

Have a gander at the trailer below and then join me in my celebrations.

– Oh No He Didn’t!

Not much you can say other than…

… of course he jumps on it!

There are a lot of great lines in the first half of this trailer outlining the attitude of Steve Rogers but this one action sums it up pretty darn well.

– I Don’t Know Much, But I Know I Love You…

I haven’t seen any of Haley Atwell’s previous films. I don’t know what kind of actress she is. But if she isn’t actually in love with Chris Evans in real life, then she is damn good at her job because there is nothing but sex in her eyes every time she looks at him in these trailers.

Luckily, it appears that her character will also be a bit of a bad ass in the film too so I’m glad to see that “swooning woman” is not her only job title. I think Peggy Carter is going to be a big hit.

– Original Shield!

Oh yeah, and jumping through some sort of FIRE MOUNTAIN!

– Ominous

I won’t deal with spoilers but long time fans of the comic will know what this thing is.

We know what it is. We know why it’s there and we know who will be involved. And I can’t friggin’ wait.

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As a writer, I know I’m supposed to remain disconnected and unbiased about what I’m writing. As a blogger, I say screw that… this is going to be awesome!

Ahem. Or, you know, something more professional to that effect.

JJ and his amazing friend Aaron discuss the film Thor. A lot. I mean A LOT. The whole hour is dedicated to this Norse wonder. So if you haven’t seen it, don’t listen. If you have seen it, join us…FOR ASGARD!

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Hands Down is the continuing stooooooooory of a gang of geeks who have gone to the dogs. Mentally. It made more sense when The Muppets used that description. Not that the members of Hands Down are Muppets. It’s just that I loved that show and… listen you try writing these descriptions, it’s not easy OK! This week Colin has a lunch date with Charnita and she needs to fill him in on the latest developments. How shall he take the news?

I have never read an issue of Dylan Dog. Not because it’s bad, I’ve just never heard of it. Or to be more precise, no-one has ever recommended it to me. I have a good comic book store I frequent in Dublin and they have a great selection but these damn books are expessive so unless I recognise something about it or was given a thumbs up by a friend, it doesn’t even register on my radar.

Tiziano Sclavi’s comic may not be on my list but I have a soft spot for Brandon Routh and that means I’m suddenly interested in this film. The former Clark Kent plays the title character, a human detective who is the number 1 choice for un-dead problems. That’s right folks it’s Vampires, Zombies and Werewolves, oh my!

Helming this film is… Kevin Munroe? Nope, I haven’t heard of him either. According to his IMDB page the only other previous film he directed was TMNT. If our resident Turtoligist, Colin Hill, could leave a comment at the bottom of the page as to his skills it would be greatly appreciated.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, apart from Routh, I have no idea what we’re getting ourselves in for. So lets take a look at the trailer.

Are you ready? Lets do this!

– Party Posse

I have been to many clubs in my life. In different countries. But never, not once, have I been to one that looks like the clubs we see in movies. Every movie club ever either looks like a strip club or an empty warehouse. And they never look fun either!

I would not be caught dead (or un-dead for that matter) in a dump like this. Look at it. You’d be more likely to catch rabies than get laid. You might even get rabies from getting laid.

It’s a pet peeve. The club thing, not the rabies.

– Dumb And Dumber

I’ve spoken before how sometimes the comedy side-kick in a film can get really annoying if it’s mugged to death. Hamming up every line and being overly goofy are trademarks of this profession. Sam Huntington looks like he could end up down the same road judging by this trailer but he’s not half as bad as these two.

I don’t know who they are. They’re probably only in the film about 5 minutes in total but the flashes of them I see here make me want to gouge out their eyes and then my own.

I understand this film isn’t taking it self too seriously (or at all) but these sort of doofuses, doofi if you will, can really kill scenes. Besides, dead or not, they’re medical professionals! Stop giggling like teenagers!

– Colour/Color

I have no problem with this scene really, it’s a joke about zombie arms and it’s OK.

Two weird issues though.
1) Is it me or does Routh’s voice seem really badly dubbed through this whole trailer?
2) What is up with the colour pallette they’re using here?

Blech. It’s a nightmare colour spectrum.

– Check Out The Guns On That Guy

Gun owners, is this normal?

Big Brandon gurning as he muscles the gun open. Is it normally that tough to do?

Either way, Routh having some throw downs with a bunch of monsters is something I’m looking forward to seeing.

– For The Ladies

As if the Thor and Captain America trailers weren’t enough.

Gratuitous man nipples.

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Overall… this looks a mess. I have a sneaky feeling the Dylan Dog franchise would have done a whole lot better if it was made into a TV series instead. As it is? I doubt this will get good reviews. It might end up a fun watch, there is enough ridiculousness going on here to give a giggle I’m sure. It’s just a shame that this trailer inspires nothing in me. With the volume of heavy hitters out this summer, this Dog will most likely be left out in the yard.