Comic Review: Black and White – Remastered, Vol. 1

Published: December, 2019
Written by: Art Thibert, Pamela Thibert, Taylor Grosso
Art by: Art Thibert, Periya Pillai, Hack Shack Color

Image Comics/Extreme Studios (original run), Hack Shack Studios, 52 Pages

Review:

I had the old issues of Art Thibert’s Black and White back when Image published them in 1993. I barely remembered the series but I did always like Thibert’s art, especially his X-Men stuff.

So when I saw that he was crowdfunding a remastered version of that old creation of his, I figured I’d back it and get reacquainted with these characters.

Overall, this was an energetic and nice read. This version of the book looks really good and it is improved upon.

I wasn’t quite expecting it to end in the middle of the story but I also backed this awhile ago and I might have forgotten that detail. So there is a second volume coming out in the future, which will complete the story. When that happens, I’m not sure, as Thibert is currently working on another project called Chrono Mechanics.

As far as the story goes, I found it pretty interesting but it reads like a lot of the other early Image superhero stuff. It feels as if it doesn’t know where it’s going and it’s trying to find its footing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as Todd McFarlane’s Spawn was a bit shaky in its early issues. I would definitely say that this is better than Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood, which I always thought was poorly written. So for early Image stuff, I’d say that this is somewhere in the middle.

I liked the characters but I also didn’t feel like I was given enough material to fully understand them, which doesn’t do much in generating excitement over the eventual second volume.

Still, this did a decent job of laying some groundwork for future exploration. However, I’m not sure if Thibert wants to keep this series going or if the second part will just be the actual end of it.

Rating: 6.25/10
Pairs well with: other early Image and Valiant superhero comics.

Comic Review: X-Men: Mutant Genesis

Published: 1991
Written by: Chris Claremont, Jim Lee, Fabian Nicieza, Whilce Portacio, Peter David, Len Kaminski
Art by: Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Kirk Jarvinen, Tom Raney, Terry Shoemaker, Paul Smith, Andy Kubert, Jerry DeCaire, Ernie Stiner, Steven Butler, Art Thibert

Marvel Comics, 437 Pages

Review:

I’m pretty excited for the current Jonathan Hickman run on the X-Men titles. I haven’t started reading them because the two miniseries that are coming out are doing so just about weekly. So I want to wait to have all twelve issues before giving it a read. But from what I’ve heard, it’s absolutely solid and quite refreshing.

However, before getting into the new stuff, I wanted to travel back to the height of my time reading and buying X-books: 1991.

The reason I wanted to go back there was because it was a transitional period, as the original X-Factor team came to an end, the New Mutants became X-Force and two new X-Men teams formed, each with their own ongoing monthly series. It was also a transition from the Chris Claremont era into the era of Jim Lee.

This thick trade paperback collects multiple story arcs but all of the arcs are unified in their purpose, which was to end an era and to create a new one.

Here we have the final stories of the first X-Factor team, as well as stories involving the newly formed X-Force and New Warriors, Freedom Force and the X-Men team as it existed when Claremont moved on from the series.

This almost feels like an omnibus.

It also features a lot of great creatives on the writing side and art side.

Ultimately, this was a hell of a fun read that flew by despite its meaty 437 pages.

We get dozens of heroes and a whole slew of major X-villains like Magneto, Apocalypse, the Shadow King, Proteus and Fabian Cortez, just to name a few.

While a lot of the ’90s comics I go back to don’t have the same effect on me as they did when I was twelve, this is a solid f’n read. Seriously.

And what’s really surprising is that it has all these creatives working on it and it still turned out to be a really well managed and fully realized vision that brought an era to its end, quite epically, and generated real excitement and enthusiasm for what was to come.

Rating: 10/10
Pairs well with: other major X-Men crossover events from the era: X-Tinction Agenda, X-Cutioner’s Song, etc.

Comic Review: Deathstroke, Vol. 2: Lobo Hunt

Published: December 14th, 2010
Written by: Rob Liefeld, Justin Jordan
Art by: Rob Liefeld, Art Thibert, various

DC Comics, 266 Pages

Review:

I guess this came out in a time where I wasn’t paying close attention to new comics. Because I would’ve been on board for Rob Liefeld’s take on Deathstroke, especially since his most famous creation, Dead Pool, was done as a sort of parody of the character.

But, man. Having read this now, I kind of wish I never knew about it.

I hate to be harsh but the writing was a disjointed mess that was all over the f’n place. Plus, this collection doesn’t finish Liefeld’s story! It ends on a cliffhanger where Deathstroke and Hawkman are about to fight a horde of evil hawk dudes and then you turn the page and it’s a totally different story.

I mean, what the fuck, DC? Was the Hawkman story a crossover? Where’s the rest of that story? You just jump right past it and into another arc done by a completely different creative team. And frankly, the second half of this book should have just been a volume three, as it is drastically different than the Liefeld stuff that’s left incomplete.

This collection is garbage. It’s poorly organized, its a total clusterfuck narratively and tonally due to the creative team change midway through.

Honestly, this is only worth checking out if you are a Liefeld die hard. And even then, you’ll still be disappointed.

Although, I should mention that I thought it was neat that Liefeld utilized Jim Lee’s WildC.A.T.S. characters, as they’ve pretty much faded away into oblivion since Lee sold them to DC.

Rating: 4/10
Pairs well with: the Deathstroke collection before this one and then the other New 52 stuff after it.

Comic Review: Deathstroke, Vol. 1: Legacy

Published: December 2nd, 2013
Written by: Kyle Higgins
Art by: Joe Bennett, Art Thibert

DC Comics, 180 Pages

Review:

I’ve been a fan of Christopher Priest’s solid run on Deathstroke, so I wanted to go back and check out some of the earlier Deathstroke titles since the start of DC Comics’ The New 52.

I kind of wish I hadn’t though, as this was nowhere near the great level of Priest’s work over the last few years.

In this story, Deathstroke is a real shithead. There is very little about him that makes him interesting or redeemable within this collection of issues. Frankly, this was a total dud.

The bulk of the plot deals with Deathstroke fighting with his son, Ravager. Usually, Ravager stories are good and engaging but nothing in this story felt organic. It felt kind of forced and the characters completely lacked depth. I think that it relies on the reader knowing everything they need to know about Deathstroke, Ravager and their past.

Being that this was the launch of the Deathstroke character within the rebooted New 52 canon, it needed character development and it certainly needed to spell things out a bit more for the reader.

After this collection, we get the second and final volume of this short-lived Deathstroke series. But I want to read that one because it is written and drawn by Rob Liefeld. It’ll be interesting to see his take on the character, as his most famous creation, Deadpool, is a parody of Deathstroke.

Rating: 5.5/10
Pairs well with: later Deathstroke stories.