“Hanna Barbera Future Quest” #1 and 2
(DC Comics, August and September 2016)
Writer: Jeff Parker
Many children watching television cartoons such as “The Herculoids”, “Mightor” and “Space Ghost” in the early and mid-1970s must have fantasised about the prospect of these characters, and more, interacting within the same continuity. In that regard, writer Jeff Parker is playing in the fields of imagination of tens of thousands of kids across the world in writing this series.
SMOSH #1 (review)
Dynamite Entertainment, May 4th, 2016
Writers: Michael McDermott, Yale Stewart
“SMOSH” is a comedic comic book series published by Dynamite Entertainment, based on the same-named web-based comedy channel from Youtube stars Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla. The duo only serve as co-developers of the story alongside Dynamite editor Rich Young, with zombie anthology FUBAR’s Michael McDermott and online webcomic JL8’s Yale Stewart on writing chores.
The stories themselves are based on recurring SMOSH comedy skits that Messrs Hecox and Padilla conceptualized and starred in, which in a way justifies the use of the SMOSH brand even without the active participation of its creators.
Dynamite Entertainment’s decision to publish an SMOSH comic book is a commercially sound one – Messrs Hecox and Padilla’s network of Youtube channels boasts of more than 36 million combined subscribers. It also helps that the bulk of SMOSH’s audiences consist of that very lucrative teen/tween demographic.
However, the execution palls as neither of the two writers commissioned seem capable of translating SMOSH’s brand of comedy into comic book form.
The Five #1 (review)
( Mysteria Maxima Media, April 2016)
Writer: Laith Tierney
An independent publication from Australia, issue one of The Five explores the creation of a modern Illuminati. Members of this secret society are a pantheon of sorts: a god of international money markets, a god of global fame, a goddess of pornography, a god of tinpot mysticism (which is, perhaps, the most awkward fit of the line-up of characters) and in a surprising twist at the end, a goddess of global terrorism.
G.I. Joe: Deviations (review)
IDW Publishing, March 2016
Writer: Paul Allor
Review by Neil Raymundo, 30 March 2016
Comic book villains have a variety of motivation. Some are propelled by a lust for power (Julius Caesar in “Asterix”; the Kingpin in “Daredevil”) and some because they embody power (Lucifer Morningstar in “Lucifer”; Death in “East of West”). Others are motivated by psychosis (The Joker in “Batman”). Some reform (Magneto in “X-Men”) and some are motivated by vengeance and incapable of reform (Lex Luthor in “Superman”). Some are motivated by something else.
The “G.I. Joe” franchise started as a line of toys produced and owned by toy company Hasbro, originally created in 1964 and consisted of 12-inch figures representing four branches of the U.S. armed forces ( both “G.I.” and “Joe” were generic terms for U.S. soldiers in World War Two though the latter term has become derogatory in some South East Asian countries.) The toyline is responsible for popularizing the term “action figure,” and at the time developed a small following among young boys.