DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH #9

**

Stranded in an alternate universe overrun by zombies, the only safe-haven being a secret research lab run by non-zombified humans attempting to solve the zombie epidemic, Deadpool has found himself doing missions to help himself and his traveling companions to return to their own universe. With the assistance of the severed head of his alternate self now a zombie, one of these missions is to capture a Super Human within the universe who has also been turned into a zombie. By using the severed head, Deadpool lures the Super-zombie into a trap to then capture him and take him back to the secret lab. To pay Deadpool for his services, the lead researcher, a very fine, rather horny Professor Veronica pays Deadpool by sleeping with him.

Published for May of 2010 by Marvel and written by Victor Gischler and pencilled by Bong Dazo, This comic book left quite a bit to be desired. I was really looking forward to reading this story, knowing that Deadpool is indeed the "Merc with a mouth," I was expecting a lot more action and attitude from this one. The pace of the book was rather slow and the only somewhat humorous repartee was between Deadpool and his own zombified severed head, and even that was more annoying than funny or interesting.

The redeeming factor in this issue was the artwork by Dazo. His rendering of the zombies were grotesque and over the top, but only slightly which made for a great hand-drawn comic feel. And even his illustrations of Professor Veronica were gorgeous enough to make her reward good bait for Deadpool's capturing of the zombie.

I did not like how the story ended though, just as it seemed that the action was going to start as the zombies learned the location of the secret laboratory, the issue ended with "To be continued..." Though I thought the artwork was awesome, I've always been more story oriented and the story just didn't trip my trigger in this one, which is why I rate DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH #9 a two of five stars.

PROJECT A-KO the graphic novel

**1/2

A United States adaption to graphic novel form of a Japanese animation film, PROJECT A-KO definitely has a Japanese anime feel to it. Katsuhiko Nishijima and Kazumi Shirasaka wrote the original storyline for the Japanese anime using characters designed by Yuji Moriyama. However Tim Eldred is responsible for transforming the film to comic form with the artistic assistance of Ben Dunn's pencils. This graphic novel, published in 1995 by CPM (Central Park Media) Comics, is a collection of four comic books chapters released previously as individual releases.

PROJECT A-KO follows three main characters: A-Ko -- our heroine, a red-haired, 15-year-old high school girl who has inherited super strength and speed from her super-hero parents; B-Ko -- A-Ko's nemesis and classmate who happens to be an engineering genius and sole heir to her families fortunes; and C-Ko who considers A-Ko to be her best friend in the world and spends every moment devoting herself to making her best friend happy, up to and exceeding the point of being overbearing and highly annoying. Oh, and did I mention that C-Ko is the object of both A-Ko and B-Ko's affection?

The heart of the story is definitely about the struggle between A-Ko and B-Ko in order to win the heart of C-Ko. Battles are ever escalating between the two as B-Ko continues to build stronger, more powerful robots in order to do her bidding and A-Ko continues to destroy them. The story is filled with many different comedic shticks that involve A-Ko's constant tardiness, and C-Ko's cooking as well as her constant mood swings. They even stick an agent in there who is trying to kidnap A-Ko for her relation to a certain "Super" guy as well as a known "Wonderful" lady!

Now that the plot-line stuff is out of the way, lets get down to reviewing it. This was the first book that I've read that has had a heavy Japanese influence in the story and structure. I liked all the banter between the characters, I thought that it was all quite humorous! Typically, I'm not a fan of anime or manga, but I know enough to know that traditional manga is printed in reverse and generally in black and white. To start out with, I believe that it was the fact that this was an American adaption and that it was coming from an anime film that this was in color, which I did like. The illustration was solid and definitely had the feel of the Japanese anime. Even though the story was told well, I still find that the characters truly weren't that interesting and that the plot wasn't what was keeping me turning the pages. This is why I give PROJECT A-KO, out of a possible five stars, a two-and-a-half.

MAD-DOG #1

****

First off, I would like to apologize to those who actually follow this blog because I haven't posted anything in a long time. During the Wisconsin winters it gets very cold, and our computer room in the house here does not have heat, making it very uncomfortable to sit and freeze my proverbial backside off just to write a review to a comic book that no one has thought of in years. However, now that warmer weather is on the rise again, I'm hoping that I will be able to get back to doing some more reviews. And, in fact, the comic book I will be reviewing for you today is among one of my favorite series. Unfortunately it didn't fit the times that it was in and therefore suffered a short run by Marvel, however I found the series highly entertaining. It's called Mad-Dog!


This series of Mad-Dog, a part of Marvel's "Ace Comics" line goes back to May of 1993. Mad-Dog used a rather unique style to fit two comic books into one. It seems that the editors couldn't choose between which version of the Mad-Dog character to write into their comic series; a wholesome, upstanding super-hero with dog powers and a young boy side-kick, or an almost rabid animalistic Mad-Dog hellbent on destroying the people who cursed him with his canine abilities. Their solution was to run both characters in the same magazine, one starting at one cover going half-way through while the other character starts at the other cover and runs upside-down heading back to the center.

Writer Evan Dorkin and penciler Gordon Purcell handle the "rough-edged" character while Ty Templeton handles writing and drawing on the clean-cut version. Let's start with the rough-edged Mad-Dog. With his DNA fused together with that of a dog, Dr. Jeffrey Austin finds himself with super-human strength and speed as well as heightened senses and a bit of a temper that he can't control. This first issue doesn't go far into Dr. Austin's background, but alas, true believers, I have read ahead a bit to give you the background. Mainly the first issue is an introduction to Mad-Dog as a vigilante in the Chicago-land area beating up gang-bangers. The illustrations in this version are highly detailed and action oriented even if the coloring was quite dark. To compare Mad-Dog to DC's Batman would make this version of Mad-Dog edited by Tom DeFalco most conducive to the "Dark Knight" style character.

On the flip side of this issue we find editor Bob McKay's more PG Mad-Dog. Dr. Jeffrey Austin in a veterinarian who, thanks to an experiment gone wrong, has many dog-like abilities. Along with his side-kick, Buddy, "The Bravest Boy Alive," he battles wrong-doers all around town. Reading this version of Mad-Dog, I can't help but this of Adam West's Batman from the original TV series way back when. The art has a more golden-age feel to it, going as far as using action words like "Wham!" and "Crash!" While I did enjoy both versions, I found that I did prefer McKay's more wholesome Mad-Dog, simply because the subtle humor in it cracks me up! Considering also the double-sided format of the comic book, and that I enjoyed both Mad-Dogs. I would have to rate Mad-Dog #1 a four out of five stars.