Advanced Review: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – Helldiver Book One – Death Is Just The Beginning

March 31, 2012

Written by: Michael Mendheim, Mike Kennedy and Sean Jaffee
Art by: Simon Bisley
Colors by: Chad Fidler
Additional Art by: Hoel Boucquemont, Vince Proce
Cover by: Ivan Khivrenko
Published by: Heavy Metal

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a surprisingly smart story about religious factions battling over the seals to usher in the Apocalypse. This book is fast-paced and high concept like a big-budget Hollywood film. The Seventh Sign, Stigmata and the DaVinci Code all spring to mind. This comic starts off on the right foot with a mysterious and rather gruesome suicide in a church. That grabbed me right away. From there plot unravels in an engaging and fast paced manner.

Professor (or is it Rabbi?) Adam Cahill is warrior from a religious sect in charge of protecting the Seven Holy Seals. Break the seals , and it’s the end of the world as we know it. We are introduced to him through his daily life in teaching at B’nai Jeshrun Hebrew School in Chicago. The theme of redemption is brought up in class discussion and immediately I knew what this book was going to be about. “That’s where each soul is confronted with his or her sins, and how they respond to this reflection is the difference between salvation and damnation.” This of course makes perfect sense for a book called The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Then he goes home to his family and has dinner with his wife and child, showing that he might be a warrior and professor, but he’s also a family man too. Later on this is leveraged into some primal emotions when his family is under threat.

We get down to the nitty gritty when Adam is sent away to help defend some of the Seals at the Church of Trinity in Kiev from fanatical cultists. He’s too late. They find one of their priest crucified to blood drawn pentagram with his guts hanging out and they jacked one of the Seven Holy Seals (they have 4 now). The cultists are still there and Cahill freaks the fuck out on them. Cue bezerker rage. Cue bloodbath. Cue important exposition. From here I let the publishers blurb summarize: “… ageless forces have conspired toward a prophetic event foretold by numerous cultures and multiple religions, and when that cryptic date arrives, they strike against the order without mercy! Adam’s world is shattered, his family murdered, and he is sent spiraling into Hell itself. There, he must find three corrupt souls, chosen by Divinity, to join him in battle against the legendary Horsemen of the Apocalypse. These broken individuals must band together to not only save their own souls but decide the fate of Humanity.”

So yeah, Cahill becomes a Helldiver, which from what I can tell is like the Punisher, Hellblazer and Ghost Rider rolled into one. I can’t help but have a chuckle and think about “Holy Diver” by Dio whenever I see the word Helldiver. The reveal of divine intervention was a bit silly to me as well. That’s just something that I personally struggle with in almost any religious story involving the voice of God. As an agnostic leaning liberal I tend to find all such reference to the the direct hand and voice of God incredulous. My baggage is my baggage I know. It’s just one of those things. I do like that Cahill response is very human and complex. He reluctant at first, and it’s completely understandable. Becoming a Helldiver means giving up your soul and you place in heaven, but fighting for a higher cause. It’s just the sort of lofty plot point and character developement needed to sell the idea of the Apocalypse. There’s also some other religious viewpoints about the end of the world that are explored as well, so it doesn’t feel single-minded. Judaism, Christianity and Satanism all have a role thus far.

There’s some kind of code that’s happening in the dialogue and narration. Every few pages or so a number or letter is highlighted in red. I’m no cryptographer, so I couldn’t tell you what the hidden message is, but I’m guess it has something to with the theme of redemption, or hidden law from the Torah. It’s just evidence of another complex layer of intrigue that’s subtly infused into this endgames tale. I find it refreshing because while I drawn this title with the promise of Bisley vision of the Apocalypse, I thought it was going to be a fairly trivial story, and it’s anything but that.

Look we all know Simon Bisley’s art stands tall. It’s herculean Frazzetta on steroids with the showmanship of a WWE cage match. Hulking bodybuilders with rope-y veins and psychotic eyes locked in mortal combat and drenched in a thick spray inky blood and brightly oil-painted ice cream colors. He made Slaine, Lobo, Doom Patrol, Fakk2 and Judge Dread pop with violence and glory. Simon’s gone on to work on album covers, magazines and movie posters.

He’s been on and off the comic scene these last few years, but has returned with a vengeance in The Four Horsemen. Here he shows some restraint, poise and temperament. Unfortunately there’s also a down-side to this as well. There are some panels that feel cramped and hampered by shot-scale choices and composition. But that’s most the more “normal” talking heads set-up scenes. Which, let’s face it, has never been Bisley’s strong suit. He’s best suited for epic battles and bone-crushing splash pages. Also, for some reason he draws eye’s too big on long and mid-shots and makes it almost manga-esque at times. That contrasts starkly with his penchant for detailed renderings. Cahill as a Helldriver is not the most original design from Bisely. He’s basically Lobo with straight hair and a trench coat with two swords strapped to his back. It’s look badass, but he looks like Lobo. There’s also an orgy scene that I would had liked to have scene with a bigger panel. I mean what’s the point of including a satanic orgy ritual if you draw it on one small panel. I remember the B&W book Faust from the late 80’s and 90’s by David Quinn and Tim Vigil. Issue #5 has a crazy violent blood orgy scene that was a double page spread that left a lasting impact on me to this day. I feel if you are going to go all-out, do it big. I mean this book is published by Heavy Metal, I don’t think anyone will bat an eyelash.

There is also some panels that are not Bisley in this book. Joel Boucquemont, Vince Proce, Ivan Khivrenko contributes some rather death-metal looking hellscapes, which kind of throw me out of the Bisley world for a bit. Some of the coloring is over saturated and photoshopped textured. But then again it seems the whole book has a bit of photoshop grunge textures on the borders and bleeds. A quick flip through the book and it looks like you have some very dirty and violent stained glass. It fits the subject matter, so I don’t actually mind it much, but I think it could be pulled back just a touch to a subtler and less distracting effect. Ultimately the story telling is good and easy to follow, so it’s easy to forgive anything that isn’t super polished.

The true pay-off is towards the end of the book where the art picks up considerably. Bisley is channeling Ivan Albright, Hieronymus Bosch, and WarHammer Games in his vision of hell. There’s some stark industrial wastelands, twenty-eyed demons trapped in dungeons, skinless victims hammered into architecture, and a big-titted succubus to rule them all. Breast implants in hell? Makes sense to me. And finally one of the Horsemen is revealed. That fucker is a doozy. He’s like Lock-Jaw from He-man crossed with Oderus-urungus from Gwar. And he’s sporting a BFG gattling gun on armored horseback. So now you have to pick up the second and third book. How can you not! I need to see the rest of the horsemen designs by Bisely and I most definitely need to see the raze the planet in an Armageddon holy war. Hopefully we’ll see some more consistency with the art in following issues.

The Four Horsemen is a solid story “golden fleece” type story about redemption, duty and faith, mixed with a rite of passage journey, and probably some other shit that is over my head. The set-up is solid and the beginning of the second act sold me on the rest of books. The art was a little all-over place but it ended strong. I have no doubt that the following volumes will surge with that burly signature Heavy Metal style we all know and love. If you are into sprawling good vs. evil epic stories of biblical proportions, then this book is for you.

Story: 7.5
Art: It ranged 6 to 9

Jerry Nelson

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New Avengers TV Spot: Hulk Smashes lots of Puny Aliens

Matthew Sardo

March 31, 2012

Just saw this TV spot online today and had to post it. The trailer gives us our best look yet at Loki’s Alien Army and I’m not convinced yet that they are Skrulls. I am convinced though that Joss Whedon may be right when he says this will be the best Hulk movie we have seen as Hulk goes off at the end of this trailer. This movie is going to rule in so many ways my head may explode.

http://youtu.be/btxgn72q8RI

Marvel Studios presents in association with Paramount Pictures “Marvel’s The Avengers”–the Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson, and directed by Joss Whedon,

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Wrath of The Titans Review – I’ve found my new Drinking Game

Matthew Sardo

March 30, 2012

Review by Mike DeVivo

Review Score: 6.5/10

Going into Wrath of The Titans I was very excited. The trailers had me invested in the awesome Monsters and Special Effects and I liked that they were going to make a movie that was still in this world allowing them to tell a new story .

After a small voice over by Zeus played once again by Liam Neeson we are transported to a small fishing town where Perseus (Sam Worthington) now takes care of his son after the death of his wife. Life’s simple now for Perseus until he is visited by Zeus who asks for his help . Since the events of the last film humans have stopped praying to the Gods. This in turn has Weakened the Gods and marks the Return of The Mad Titan Kronos who is the Father of Both Zeus and Hades. Perseus still defiant of his Father Zeus refuses leaving Zeus to go into Tartarus to ask help from his brother Hades.Hades as well as Ares turn on Zeus and Poseidon and plan to drain Zeus’s powers to release Kronos once again in exchange for Immortality. Poseidon makes it out alive just long enough to tell Perseus that his father has been taken and Perseus finally decides to fight again to save Zeus and all of humanity.

That’s pretty much everything they set up story wise. The total running time of the film is 99 minutes which gives you very little time to establish the multitude of new characters they introduce. I will say that all of the new additions were mostly welcomed . Bill Nighy being my favorite of the bunch . He plays the crazy God Hepheastus who forged the weapons of the Gods. He mixes a great deal of humor and weight to every scene he’s in and is genuinely having fun in his role. Toby Kebell and Edgar Ramirez are both great in their roles as Agenor Son of Poseidon and Ares son of Zeus. Ares in particular was a nice surprise since there was very little shown with him in the trailers. He’s the right mix of Evil and childish rage that works . I wish I could say the same for the Creatures and Mythological Beasties in the film but unfortunately Wrath falls into that unfortunate territory where the Studio throws every bad ass scene at you in the trailers and ruined any sense of surprise and fun in the process. There are some great scenes here and there but it does become disappointing when you realize there wasn’t much left for you outside of the first 2 min trailer.Special Effects are spotty at times. Most of the Creature work is great but there are times especially with certain death scenes that I was left scratching my head at how terrible the CG execution was. Rosamund Pike who plays Andromeda also underwhelms in the main female lead role. She doesn’t feel genuine as a character and ends up being nothing more than eye candy with no real story of her own . In a day and age where there are so many strong female characters in films it makes little sense to bring an underdeveloped character into the movie and expect us as viewers to care .

wrath-of-titans-1 — One of the Many Monsters who maim , tackle , and bring the hurt to Perseus in Wrath of the Titans

Surprisingly there is decent character development with the supporting characters and towards the end of the film it seems like this film is more about the relationship between Hades and Zeus . This again would have worked great if Perseus was more involved in the story of his father and brother but ultimately Sam Worthington goes through the motions during the movie. Each Action set piece is an excuse for him to yell something and then get tackled , and thrown repeatedly . It would actually make a great drinking game for you and a couple of friends when it comes out on Blu-Ray. Every time Perseus is Tackled and or thrown you have to take a shot and I guarantee you and your friends would be all kinds of drunk with the amount of bumps , kicks , slams , and tackles Perseus receives. It becomes comical at a certain point. He essentially is a human Bowling pin in this film.

I wish I could tell you that I loved this film but I found myself only liking it slightly . The Monsters and set pieces are great but with a short running time and the studio blowing its wad in the trailer your left wanting more at the end of the film. With so many movies coming out this Summer I have to recommend that you wait to see this when it comes out on Blu-Ray and DVD, like I said it will make for one of the funnest drinking experiences of your life just not the best movie going experience.

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Review: The Walking Dead # 95 In A Larger World Part Three – Jesus Vouches for Rick, Knife Fight Ensues.

Matthew Sardo

March 29, 2012

Written by: Robert Kirkman
Art by: Charlie Adlard
Coloring by: Cliff Rathburn
Cover By: Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn
Publisher: Image

Alright! Here we go, time to roll up your blood stained sleeves and dig in! The pussyfooting stops right here! The Walking Dead #95 finally delivers on the promise of exciting new stories with outsiders. Jesus vouches for Rick and his crew and they granted access to a massive walled-in community. There’s two hundred plus people in this well-established community and a bad-ass hotel that acts as kind of headquarters. We introduced to the boss of the town that looks like a combination between a casino-owner and sleazy used-car salesman. He thinks he’s the shit, and let’s Rick know it.

Right in the middle of giving Rick the five-cent tour there is suddenly some action. One of their other scouts is back from a peace-keeping pow-wow and shit didn’t go over too well. Rick can’t seem to keep the fuck out of trouble if his life depended on it. Which in this case it might. After big-boss man get’s into with his scout, Rick finds himself in the middle of a knife fight. I can’t give away too much more than that, but some serious shit goes down. Fucking Rick… Jesus vouched for you, and you get into a fight like 5 minutes later. Is that how you repay him? Christ almighty!! In all seriousness though, it looks like this trading expedition is going to end badly for Rick’s camp. Everything seemed to be on the level, but this turn coat scout flipped the fuck out and ruined everything. The story is pretty wide-open from here and it sets up an interesting conflict that can be explored in various different tangents. It ends in a Kirkman signature cliffhanger that leave you guessing and wanting more. My guess is that in part 4 all hell breaks loose and we are going to see some serious human on human violence. It should prove interesting.

The art team on this continues to knock it out of the park. Adlard & Rathuburn constantly delivers what the story ask for. In this case it’s scope, scale, and little bit of opulence and a ton of grit. The walled-in community looks huge, and that hotel was lavishly rendered. The knife fight was exciting and absolutely grimy. Blood, mud, ruckus; it felt like a scene cut straight from Deadwood. My only critique is on conceptual aspects of the cover. The way it’s composed it feels more like a panel than a cover. There’s just a bit too much negative space on the top and all the action is crammed on the bottom. It’s fucking nitpicky, I know, but when you are executing on such a high-level that’s the sort of thing that stands out. A solve would be to pull back a little on the scene an reveal more of the fight, or even use an overhead shot and get it all in. But really, when all is said and done, it’s one of the most consistently good-looking black & white books out there.

In A Larger World is shaping up to be quite the arc. What started as a slow-burn has ignited into an explosive and fresh story for The Walking Dead. War, siege, feuds, raids are all on the table now. The stage is set for conflict and I for one am ready for an epic warlord saga in the world of a zombie apocalypse. Like Game of Thrones but with zombies. Check out this issue and see what all the fuss is about.

Story: 9
Art: 9

Jerry Nelson

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Review: Avenging Spider-Man #5 – Captain America, Art School Student

Roger Riddell

March 28, 2012

Avenging Spider-Man #5
Writer: Zeb Wells
Art: Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan [Inker], Sunny Gho [Color Art]

The latest issue of Zeb Wells’ Spider-Man team-up book sees Spider-Man pairing off with Captain America–because, well, they’re both Avengers and that’s kind of the point of this book. Also, both characters have movies coming out in the next few months.

At the beginning of the issue, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hawkeye, and Spider-Woman are in Avengers Mansion reading a reprint of an old comic strip in the Daily Bugle. The comic strip, it turns out, was drawn by a pre-super soldier serum Captain America, who, as it turns out, wasn’t just scrawny and weak–he was an art school kid. The Avengers are all joking around about the comic having “liberty bonds” in every sentence (Hey, it was World War II, you know?) and Cap himself walks in right as Spider-Man sticks his foot in his mouth.

Captain America tells the Avengers that they’re going to round up the rest of the Serpent Society, who were causing trouble in the last issue of Avenging Spider-Man (and who also caused trouble this week in Avengers vs. X-Men #0, because they are omnipresent or something).

Anyways, realizing that both he and Captain America were nerds, Spider-Man calls dibs on teaming with Captain America and then annoys him with his trademark banter. Ultimately, the two have a bonding experience later in the issue, which I guess is different from when they were pretty close friends during Spider-Man’s time living in Avengers Tower prior to 2006’s “Civil War” story. Back then (during Straczynski’s “The Other” storyline in Amazing Spider-Man), they were sparring partners and Captain America taught Spider-Man how to catch a bullet with his bare hands instead of just dodging it, because Captain America can do that, too. For the record, neither of them ever really spend much time catching bullets with their bare hands, but that’s beside the point.

Wells does a great job here of furthering the idea that Spider-Man can’t help but be a pain in the ass to his fellow heroes, as has been the case since he first became a member of the Avengers. Unlike other writers who handle Spider-Man in an Avengers setting, though, Spider-Man isn’t just written as a wise-cracking idiot here. As much as he annoys the others, you an see that they acknowledge what he contributes to the team and that there’s a certain level of respect for him–although in the case of characters like Wolverine and Captain America, their respect has long been established). That Wells also manages to add something more to the Captain America mythos with the art school comic strip is icing on the cake.

The art in this issue strikes a nice balance between realistic and traditional, and I wouldn’t mind seeing Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, and Sunny Gho on more books. My only real complaint here would be that Spider-Man seems to have gotten a bit shorter, only coming up to Captain America’s shoulder in one panel (Spider-Woman, by comparison, appears just a few inches shorter than Cap on the same page). It just kind of makes Spider-Man look like a little kid by comparison, when he’s actually around his mid-20s–not to mention it makes me wonder just how short Wolverine is supposed to be, since he’s shorter than Spider-Man.

Regardless, Avenging Spider-Man continues to be fun and, so far, offers a lot of easy jumping-on points for new readers who might be uncomfortable just diving right into the character’s flagship book.

STORY: 9/10
ART: 9/10

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Review: Uncanny X-Force #23 – Someone gets their head skinned…

Roger Riddell

March 28, 2012

Uncanny X-Force #23
Writer: Rick Remender
Art: Greg Tocchini, with color art by Dean White and Greg Tocchini

X-Force’s Otherworld adventure concludes with a bit of a twist in this week’s Uncanny X-Force #23.

As you may recall, Captain Britain (Psylocke’s brother) and the Captain Britain Corps abducted Fantomex and Psylocke, taking them back to the mythical realm of Otherworld. By my calculations, Otherworld is home to all British people in the Marvel Universe–or something.

Anyways, the Captain Britain Corps intended to put Fantomex on trial for killing the child reincarnation of Apocalypse (way back in Uncanny X-Force‘s first story arc). Before the Corps could wipe Fantomex from existence, Psylocke–who is also Lady Britain when she’s in Otherworld–escaped with him. Unbeknownst to either of them, Wolverine, Deadpool, and Nightcrawler (the one from the Age of Apocalypse timeline) had come to Otherworld to rescue them before getting pulled into stopping a siege on the Tower Omniverse.

The Tower Omniverse is a tower in Otherworld with doors to all realities in the Marvel multiverse, and a character known only as the “Goat Monk” wanted to spread his dark magic across all of existence. Oh, and a former barrister and Weapon Plus experiment known as the Skinless Man, or Weapon III, showed up to exact a personal vendetta against Fantomex, who is also Weapon XIII. He ended up skinning Fantomex’s head.

If it sounds like the plot of this story was a little bit cluttered, well, it kind of was. There’s a lot to take in here, and a lot going on at one time. This issue stays pretty much that way. Wolverine and Deadpool attempt to kill the Goat Monk, Psylocke and Fantomex overcome the Skinless Man, and Captain Britain is forced to make a difficult decision following a big reveal on who exactly the Goat Monk is.

Despite having all of this happen in about 20 pages of story (I’m not counting ad pages in that page count), Rick Remender does still manage to throw in some good character moments. We see the attraction between Fantomex and Psylocke teased a little bit more, Psylocke coming to grips with the fact that the right decision is not always the easiest one, and Age of Apocalypse Nightcrawler’s rough exterior cracking to reveal some of the deceased mainstream Nightcrawler that longtime readers are familiar with. Additionally, Remender continues to provide some of the best Deadpool banter not written by Daniel Way.

This hasn’t been a perfect storyline by any means, but it has its moments. Maybe I just need to read the whole thing over again in one sitting, or maybe it carried on an issue too long, but it felt as though it jumped around a bit from time to time. I will say that the sort of undefined–perhaps even sometimes hazy–look that the art has works very well to convey the story’s setting, although it is somewhat inconsistently detailed. Some panels look roughly sketched, while others show a great deal more detail.

The Otherworld adventure has been a nice breather following the “Dark Angel Saga,” but it feels like it falls a little short of the rest of the series. With that in mind, I’m really looking forward to the next issue, featuring Age of Apocalypse Iceman, and the upcoming “Final Execution” storyline.

STORY: 7.5/10
ART: 7.5/10

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Exclusive Interview with Monocyte Creators Menton3 and Kasra Ghanbari plus special guest Ben Templesmith

Matthew Sardo

March 22, 2012

Mike DeVivo here for Comic Vault . ComicVault was fortunate enough to be invited to the Studio space of Menton3 , Kasra Ghanbari , and Ben Templesmith . We talked about how the artists first met, MONOCYTE issue 3 , the genesis of the story, Brotherhood, and dick and dick jokes. We also were allowed to take pictures of their studio to share with all of you which can be seen at the end of the interview!

ComicVault: Menton3 Can you tell me how you and Ben met and started operating out of this space together?

Menton3: There was a company called Comics Pipeline that represented both of us. They had a dinner and we were both at the dinner and we were just texting awful things to each other the entire time because we wanted to talk.

Kasra Ghanbari: Which Menton lost

Ben Templesmith: I called him the Amish Terminator I think.

Menton3: Kasra and I had the studio space before we met Ben and it ended up being really organic actually. We asked him if he would work on a cover for MONOCYTE and he agreed to do it which was an honor. I spent several years deciding whether or not I wanted to get into comics and then I saw Ben’s work and saw that you can thrive in this industry. He’s a wonderful artist and its amazing to see Ben do work .

CV: That cover is great , there are tons of layers to it .

Ben Templesmith: When you have a very dense story with tons of visuals its very easy to come up with something . The original painting is in the hallway actually.

CV: Ben can you tell me a bit about the short story you did in issue 2?

Ben Templesmith: We all talked about it and I had this humorous idea for the story which they liked. It marked my first two published comic pages in a very long time . Kind of my first come back.

CV: You also have Choker still though correct?

Ben Templesmith: Yes but there hasn’t been a new issue out in over a year….but the new issue is now finished and you can tell everyone its coming out shortly so spread the word. Fell I’m not sure about but I’m hoping it comes back soon. I actually started doing artwork again because of Menton3.

CV: So that brought you back into wanting to do comics again?

Ben Templesmith: Yeah I was dealing with some personal things , and you can’t create when you’re not happy. I wasn’t really sure whether I was going to come back to the States. Menton3 invited me out to stay with him for a few weeks during the summer and I decided Chicago seems to like me and I like Chicago. Menton3 makes me feel creative…and I don’t just mean in the bedroom.

CV: I definitely get a sense that you guys have a constant underlying sense of humor amongst each other. That and you all seem to enjoy the occasional Dick and Fart joke.

Kasra Ghanbari: It’s a lot of Dick and Dick jokes basically

Ben Templesmith: It has to be told that we have a thing in the studio that when Menton farts he lets people know. However I recommended that when we fart now we have to name them after movie titles .

Menton3: I think the best one Ben had was “There will be Blood”

Kasra Ghanbari: When he farts for me its “The Unforgiven”

CV: “A Thin Red Line”

Menton3: “Single White Female”

Kasra Ghanbari: “Wild Blue Yonder”

Ben Templesmith: “Jackie Brown” You can see now why I brought it up.

Menton3: Obviously there is a lot of camaraderie between us

CV: So how did the idea about MONOCYTE come about?

Menton3: I got a commission to do a superhero character that I really loved as a kid. So before I did this commission I wanted to go back and read the books again to get excited about doing this piece and they were terrible. I realized I had placed all these projections on this character as a child that weren’t there. So I began writing all of those projections I had on paper and also with the idea behind it of what would be a cool superhero to me right now. Which lead to the basic concept of MONOCYTE. Kasra is my art rep and also my best friend and I started talking to him about the project. Kasra started to legitimately poke holes in the story and ask legitimate questions. So between the two of us over six months we created this world. Then we decided that we wanted the entry point to be at a time of great change.We literally have hundreds of years of story before this and after that we have planned as well.

CV: I noticed in issue 3 GROD opens the book up by quoting psalms . It seems like he’s using religion now to gain followers. How does that affect the belief system of the Olignostics?

Kasra Ghanbari: In a way he was resurrecting one of the old methodologies the Olignostics used to rise to power to begin with.Those ideologies borrow heavily from Catholicism and when the time came to resurrect his race he naturally went back to those ways.

Menton3: Grod finally has the power that he so wanted and now he’s verbally masturbating using these Catholic Ideologies . I’m not speaking for Ben or Kasra , but I have major issues with the Catholic Church. If your Catholic I don’t have a problem with you.What ever you believe is right for you and that’s fine. If I walked down the street in a Nazi Uniform people would be upset for a real justifiable reason. If a Priest walks down the street in their uniform people are happy. Can you tell me though of another organization responsible for more genocide , torture, rape and pillaging than the Catholic Church? Yet no one holds them accountable because they are closer to god than us.To me that’s Hubris at such an extreme level that its not even fathomable. We have million dollar churches being built while people are starving. Writing,making Music,creating for me is about internalizing my anger and getting it down on paper. So MONOCYTE for me was the manifestation of that kind of anger. The Catholics are represented to me by the Olignostics and their mouths are these white anuses represented by the collars of Catholic Priests.

CV: Explain to me the creative process that goes into making an issue of MONOCYTE

Ben Templesmith: Before they say anything I’ve observed them doing this and its insane. They put hours into this and it’s some of the most complex intense stuff I’ve ever seen.It shows in how good their work is.

Menton3: Kasra and I make these characters real in our heads. For instance The Shepperd was supposed to be a much smaller character originally but after Kasra and I started talking about her it became much larger. I put these characters into my head and have them talk to each other and then the story flows from there. There isn’t anything in a MONOCYTE book that isn’t meant to be there. Kasra and I debate everything before it goes on the page. Kasra injects a ton of realism that I couldn’t have come up with. I know way too much about Alchemy and The Occult and Kasra is very into Biotech. So the Olignostics are based on a lot of info Kasra had and the Antedeluvians are based on things I’m familiar with. So then we write a loose script and put it on note cards . Then I do the artwork. After that we sit down at the computer with what Kasra’s written and argue for 4 days straight in a great way and that’s how the book is made.

CV: How do you view the overall progression of MONOCYTE from issue 1 to 4?

Kasra: Issue one was an introduction to the world. Issue two was the destruction of The Olignostics. Issue three was the attempt to destroy the Antedeluvian power source, and issue four was Resoultion. Though issue three has bled into four. It’s still not determined yet how we are going to end issue four. We just got a hard cover approved by IDW which will have 50-60 extra pages and will have a story in there along with a bunch of extras. There may be multiple endings and a whisper as to what may happen next in this world.

Menton3: It became really important to us in issue 3 to start talking about who Monocyte was . We weren’t going to give him a back story at first but it became really important to do it and I feel really confident about it.

CV: Issue three is great ! So Augustus is now the character of Monocyte. Can you share a little bit about that sequence where we meet Augustus for the first time?

Menton3: Those pages are actually taken from a self published book I did called Ars Memoria . That was book 1 of 16 and MONOCYTE is a part of that story. Monocyte is a product of what he really wanted to be , but based in a society that tells you legitimately that you don’t have a choice when you do . We can look around and say people shouldn’t starve and pedophilia is bad but were not doing much about it. One of our whole things with MONOCYTE was how would you have it be. Like if you walked up to an everyday person on the street and said “would you like Immortality”that person would most likely say fuck yes. Well what happens when that person is Brittany Spears and you have to deal with that pop music for the rest of your life. So we wanted to explore to what end does this go to . How bad can things get? After that can there be a resolution.

CV: Towards the end of issue 3 Monocyte is outside of the Gate of the Antedeluvians . Moses is waiting for him and creates the Avatar of Life to take on Monocyte . I get a sense that Moses and the Antedeluvians are better suited to end Monocytes life.

Menton3: I’m definitely making a joke about Moses because it never says how he dies in the Bible. Moses isn’t dumb and realizes that the one thing that Monocyte wants in Entropy. Moses knows Monocyte has an issue with life and if death can have a manifestation so can Life. When we get into the Iconography of life we started talking about flowers and trees. In this world though where nothing has died for so long I wanted to examine what The Avatar of life would look like.Some people haven’t picked up on it but that creepy thing that talks to Augustus in the middle of issue 3 is actually the bird skull which also has talked to him through the entire book. At the end of the issue that Skull gets knocked off of his head by the character Light and we were hoping you’d be shocked that there was a person underneath that.

Kasra: The thing is Monocyte has always been human. What you see is his armor being knocked off of his body. Menton3 designed that armor to represent ego .

Menton3: Vices and Virtues , Vices have always been represented by elaborate clothing and Virtues are always naked and bare. I wanted to initially show Monocyte as ego. So I covered him in Bone Armor. When he does get hit by Light there is a part of him that remembers he’s human and that becomes the virtue. He’s starting to remember who he once was.

CV: In the short stories too it seems like the slaves are starting to remember who they are as well.

Kasra: What Monocyte essentially has done is liberated the humans. So when the conduit was destroyed it freed the slaves. However there is a price to pay for that. In the first short story the slaves now have to reclaim their sense of consciousness and self in order to become a collective. As a collective they realize they have power and rise up against their common enemy.In the other story in issue three we see one of the slaves drawing an Alchemical symbol for sulfur which looks similar to a flower. That’s like a spark in the memories of the other humans who see that image. From there they reconstruct themselves and become proactive humans again working in concert with each other with love for one another.

Menton3: As a whole Kasra and I really believe in Brotherhood. We really believe that if everyone was just nicer to each other things could be better . So our story has always been about the humans. We got a lot of flack originally because people were like where are the humans . We wanted to be true to the story but we have to tell this story in this way so that it doesn’t become cheesy and worthless in the process.

CV: So can you tell me a bit about the Hardcover Edition that you revealed is coming out?

Kasra Ghanbari: Its going to be solicited in May and out by July. Its going to be 9 X 13 format and 224 pages. With about 60 pages for us to play with. Obviously some other artists and creators will elaborate on the world as well as an additional story by Menton3 and I.There will be added sketches and sculptures , fan art, lots of fun stuff.

CV: Could you share with me some of your personal influences?

Menton3: Top for me is William Shakespeare . I don’t think there’s anything in the human condition you cannot find in Hamlet. Another one is an artist by the name of Hieronymus Bosch . Looking at his paintings changed me as a person. Of course there are contemporary people like Ben Templesmith, Ashley Wood, Matthew Bone, Bill Sienkiewicz.

Kasra Ghanbari: Yeah Sienkiewicz , George Pratt, Dave McKean. Outside of that Lars Von Trier as a film maker. What it really comes down to is people who show us how they see the world and that they see the world in a compelling way.

CV: Anything you want to tease to us about issue four?

Menton3: Well issue four starts out with Monocyte getting his ass kicked and he continues to get beat down throughout the issue . It will be interesting to see how Monocyte deals with the thing he fears the most.

CV: On that note guys thanks so much for your time!

Below are pictures that I was allowed to take of the studio . You will notice original artwork from the pages of MONOCYTE all around. Enjoy!

[nggallery id=69]

Mike DeVivo

Follow me on Twitter @pandasandrobots

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Review: Wolverine #303 – ‘Back In Japan’ Concludes!

Roger Riddell

March 22, 2012

Wolverine #303
Writer: Jason Aaron
Art: Billy Tan, Steve Sanders, and Paco Diaz [Art]; Matt Miller, Sotocolors, Jim Charalampidis, and Rachelle Rosenberg [Color]

Wolverine’s return to Japan has not been without incident. As a matter of fact, the trail of carnage could probably stretch across at least one of the nation’s islands.

Azuma Goda, head of one of the many branches of Hand ninja (Seriously, the Kingpin and Norman Osborn both have their own small armies of these guys), has masterminded a plan to eliminate the Yakuza and sparked a gang war in the process. Goda is also behind the yet-to-be-explained resurrection of Wolverine’s arch-nemesis Sabretooth and has also enlisted the help of Mystique.

Kidnapping Shin, the new Silver Samurai and boyfriend of Wolverine’s adopted daughter Amiko, Goda lured Logan and his former ninja girlfriend Yukio to the cave of the Mind Ninja. Here, Logan was caught in hallucinations and forced to resort to his baser animal instincts, slaughtering the ninja and being tricked into a compromising situation by Mystique. Meanwhile, Goda was able to coerce the new Silver Samurai into working for the hand.

As issue #303 opens, Wolverine is taking out the remainder of Goda’s ninjas in some Tokyo back alley and Mystique is ensuring that Shin eliminates the remainder of the Yakuza bosses. Goda explains his endgame to Sabretooth, which involves faking his death to become “invisible” in the ninjutsu sense, because the deadliest villains are those you never see.

Unfortunately, Goda underestimates Sabretooth–a mistake that quickly spirals into the arc’s conclusion.

As the second-to-last issue in Jason Aaron’s nearly-flawless run on Wolverine, this story continues to pack in the ultra-violence and kung fu b-movie homages of the previous three issues while reestablishing Sabretooth as the greatest threat to Logan. Aaron also seems to be leaving a lot of leeway to his successor, Cullen Bunn–particularly as it pertains to Wolverine’s current girlfriend Melina Garner, who was introduced at the beginning of Aaron’s run.

The art in this issue is once again done by a large team of artists, but it remains mostly unnoticeable between chapters with the exception of the art in the opening pages having a somewhat more visceral, gritty feel than the rest of the issue.

Overall, “Back In Japan” is a fun ride. I feel like I need to give the entire story another read-through to get the full picture, as two to three weeks between issues can do a lot to impact your ability to appreciate a story of this scope, but this story succeeds just for managing to pack in a little something for every Wolverine fan.

STORY: 9/10
ART: 8.5/10

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Review: Deadpool #52 – Still trying to die…

Roger Riddell

March 21, 2012

Deadpool #52
Writer: Daniel Way
Art: Ale Garza [Penciler], Sean Parsons [Inker], Dommo Sanchez Amara [Colorist]

In his ongoing efforts to die permanently by flushing out the holder of a serum that can negate his healing factor, Deadpool staged a fake turf war between the Kingpin and Tombstone. In the process, he’s brought Hydra Bob, his teammates on X-Force, and Wolverine’s estranged son Daken into play, as well.

Unbeknownst to Wade, however, Kingpin and Tombstone were never fooled, and the other pawns in his insane game of chess are catching on to the fact that something is amiss.

In Deadpool #52, we see Wade continuing to keep this game going as he instigates Daken and leads X-Force into a suicide raid on the Kingpin’s headquarters, where Wilson Fisk and Typhoid Mary have kidnapped Hydra Bob and are torturing him for information. The most impressive thing about the “Dead” story arc so far is that Daniel Way has managed to play these characters off of each other in a believable way, all while depicting them as accurately as any other writer has. That takes a bit of skill when dealing with this many characters in a single book.

This issue ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. Will Deadpool get his wish? Was a certain other character depowered by the serum, as well? Is there really a commercial parachute capable of handling the Kingpin’s weight? [The answers are “I don’t know,” “That’s even harder to say,” and “Yeah, probably”–in that order. Thank me later, kids!]

If you’re a fan of this series, or even just a casual reader, this isn’t a story to sleep on. Be sure to pick up the previous two issues, too, if you haven’t already.

STORY: 9/10
ART: 9/10

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Review: Amazing Spider-Man #682 – ‘Ends of the Earth’ Begins!

Roger Riddell

March 21, 2012

Amazing Spider-Man #682
Writer: Dan Slott
Art: Stefano Caselli, Frank Martin Jr. [Colors]

On the verge of death, Dr. Otto Octavius has initiated his final diabolical plan. Using a towering structure that rises from his base beneath the sea (Where do these guys get the funding and materials for these things?), he has positioned an array of satellites in Earth’s orbit to create an “Octavian lens” that will…stop global warming?

After threatening to burn the half of the world currently facing the sun (and giving Chicago a sweet cameo), Octavius pulls a 180 and tells everyone via satellite feed that he is merely showing them the Earth they are leaving to their great-grandchildren and actually intends to preserve the planet as his final act. It would seem noble enough, if the other five villains rounding out the latest incarnation of the Sinister Six (Sandman, Mysterio, Electro, Rhino, and the Chameleon) weren’t smirking behind him.

Though many of New York’s citizens (and even a few Avengers) are buying the idea that perhaps Doc Ock might have good intentions for a change, Peter Parker–who has spent the last several months preparing new gadgets for just such an occasion in his lab at Horizon–isn’t convinced.

Meanwhile, New York’s Mayor, J. Jonah Jameson, has vowed to shut down Horizon Labs at any and all cost following the peril his astronaut son was in onboard the company’s space station in Amazing Spider-Man #680 and 681, setting up a subplot that could potentially complicate Peter Parker’s life again and expanding Jameson’s personal crusade against Spider-Man to include Horizon founder Max Modell.

Overall, this is a great first issue to Dan Slott’s much-hyped “Ends of the Earth” saga. Not only do we see yet another cool new suit that Peter has designed to help him as Spider-Man, but Slott establishes a sense that the technology Pete developed has been put to practical, “real-world” use in the Marvel Universe. This, of course, keeps in tradition with the idea that the book is just as much about Peter Parker as it is about his alter ego.

Furthermore, Stefano Caselli’s art feels as briskly paced as the story without sacrificing detail. The opening pages, with Spider-Man stealing a few tricks out of an old enemy’s bag, are especially fun.

If the rest of this arc is this good, “Spider-Island” will have tough competition for “Best Spider-Man Event of the Last Decade.”

STORY: 10/10
ART: 10/10

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