In the third installment of the official Diablo III comic book, our mopey hero returns home seeking the punishment he has been craving since the first issue.

The issue begins on a cool note, as a band of Khazra goat demons argue with the thugs who are pursuing Jacob. In a truly creepy moment, the thugs’ leader, Ivan, starts bleeding from his facial orifices as he strikes a bargain with the demons.

It soon becomes apparent that Ivan is possessed by a sinister force—a force that offers to make the Khazra great again if only they will reveal Jacob’s location. The Khazra spend about five seconds contemplating the offer before declaring that Jacob and his wizard friend, Shanar, are hiding beneath them.

Thankfully for Jacob, Shanar has some more nifty wizard tricks up her sleeve, and she deploys several new in-game spells, including Mirror Image and Electrocute. Meanwhile, Jacob engages in some expository combat with Ivan that reveals that the madness affecting Jacob’s people is apparently spread by blood.

A well-placed lightning bolt from Shanar knocks Ivan to the ground, which gives Jacob an excellent opportunity to rid himself of the madman who has been pursuing him for the past three issues. Common sense suggests that it might be a good idea for him to use his flashy magic sword to lop off Ivan’s head. Sadly, common sense is not Jacob’s strong suit.

Instead of killing Ivan, he uses his sword to carve glyphs into his chest. Shanar is naturally confused, and Jacob explains that he will return to his home city of Staalbreak with Ivan and the other thugs so that he can face justice for killing his father.

The problem is, Jacob’s plan is epically stupid. I understand that he feels guilty about killing his father (he has, after all, been moaning about that since the first issue), but the idea that he will find justice back home is just laughable.

He knows his people are suffering from an insanity-inducing plague of unknown, but undoubtedly sinister, origin, yet he is willing to let them sit in judgment of him. That is not nobility. That is not ‘doing the right thing.’ It is a logic fail of titanic proportions, and Jacob richly deserves the slap that Shanar administers to try to jolt some sense into him.

Naturally, things go to Hell as soon as Jacob returns home. The townspeople start to stone him as soon as he enters the city. He is dragged before the constable (who has the face of a demonic Kewpie doll) and is cheerfully informed that there will be no trial. Jacob was found guilty as soon as he fled the city. Jacob begs for a chance to address the people, and the constable agrees, provided Jacob surrenders his super powerful magic sword.

Because Jacob has all the common sense of a head of cabbage, he agrees to this proposal and is promptly hung from a gibbet by his wrists. The townspeople start stoning him again, and they refuse to listen to his attempts to warn them about the plague. He spends an entire night hanging from the gibbet before Shanar saves his sorry butt once again.

Throughout the issue, readers have cause to question Jacob’s intelligence. If he did not know about the blood plague, then his decision to return home to face justice would seem noble, but he knows something is rotten in Staalbreak. He watched his father go crazy. He saw Ivan and his minions eat a boar while it was still alive.

Heck, he even heard Ivan speaking in the voice of a demon! All these things suggest that Jacob’s countrymen are under the influence of something nasty, but he seems oblivious to the danger he faces. He apparently believed that all he had to do was address the people, and they would realize that something evil was afoot. Calling him naïve would be the understatement of the year.

This is the second time Jacob’s masochistic guilt has gotten him into a dicey situation from which Shanar has had to rescue him. We can only hope he has finally learned his lesson.

The article Diablo III Sword of Justice: Issue 3 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

When starting reading Issue 2 of The Occultist, I had to wonder if the publisher had made a mistake. Was this really part of the same series? Just two panels in, the reader is confronted with a shocking sight: an ordinary woman. In a series where the rest of the female characters are perky nymphets with bikini-model bodies, the sight of a plain-looking hausfrau was nothing short of amazing.

But of course Mrs. Frumpy was only a bit player, and the next scene returns us to the usual fare of buxom women whose breasts are hellbent on escaping their tops.

Like Issue 1, Issue 2 zips around like a bumblebee on speed. After being introduced to Mrs. Frumpy and her equally plain husband in Calvert, California, we jump to a semi outside of Littleton, New Hampshire. The driver (who looks like a refugee from a leather bar) is driving a sexy redhead to Plymouth, but the glimpse of a reptilian tail emanating from her posterior suggests that she’s not entirely human.

Next, we’re whisked off to Plymouth, where our hero, Rob Bailey, unleashes his mystic whoopass on the gaggle of supernatural foes who were trying to kill him at the end of the last issue. His foes have some cool abilities, but Rob is able to vanquish them all without even a bead of sweat on his forehead. Detective Melendez is ostensibly fighting alongside him, but she does nothing except thrust her bosoms out and complain.

The next scene shift brings us the single most irritating part of the entire series: Rob’s girlfriend, Valerie MacGregor. In the last issue, she was portrayed as something of a sex kitten. In this issue, she’s portrayed as something of an idiot. When she wakes up alone after having sex with Rob in the last issue, she gets all panicky and decides that she has to run after him.

“You’re not supposed to leave me. Heart beating so fast. Hurts.” Yeah, she actually says that. I really hope that there’s some explanation for her behavior, because right now she’s an appealing candidate for president of the TSTL Society. I don’t want to spoil anything, but suffice it to say that Valerie’s heroics lead her straight into the villain’s clutches (I never saw that coming!). Despite being a serious contender for the Darwin Award, I have a feeling she’ll probably survive the series.

The rest of the issue has more abrupt scene shifts. After effortlessly defeating most of his enemies, Rob finally gets beat up by a snake-demon-thing (who was disguised as the sexy redhead earlier in the issue). Just as Cobra Lady is about to administer the coup de grâce, the two statuesque bounty hunters from Issue 1 arrive on the scene and one of them whisks Rob and Detective Melendez away to a “Babylonian Pocket Garden” (which admittedly looks pretty freakin’ awesome).

But Rob may have exchanged the frying pan for the fire, and, as always, the issue ends on a cliffhanger. Although a lot happens in this issue, we’re still no closer to understanding the ‘big picture.’ We learn some interesting tidbits about Rob’s life, but we’re still in the dark as to the exact nature of his great powers.

Most of the time, Rob is so overpowered that he’s something of a Marty Stu, and it isn’t until Cobra Lady starts beating him up that he appears to be in any real danger. Since this is a three-issue series, the final issue is going to have its work cut out for it if it’s going to provide a satisfying conclusion to the current storyline.

OVERALL GRADE: C-

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In 2001, Hellboy quit the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D). If that was not bad enough, Liz Sherman is currently in hiding, Abe Sapien is in a coma, and Johann Kraus is left with Kate Corrigan to go with to Russia as backup this time around. The Russians have an assault team assembled for Johann and Kate to lead into the fire.

If only it were that easy. As if these men could make up for the loss of Hellboy, they charge heroically to their deaths, combating evil. Mike Mignola and John Arcudi have teamed up once again to continue the Hell on Earth: Russia issues for #4, bringing the storyline into sharper focus with each successive single issue release.

Art was done by Tyler Crook while colors were by Dave Stewart.  Lettering was done by Clem Robins, and the cover was by Dave Johnson. This senior team has created the perfect setting for huge monsters and grand explosions.

It becomes obvious that this mission into the mines could only have succeeded with Johann Kraus’ help. Kraus, with his deep conceptual thinking, is certainly poised in this issue to shake things up for Kate Corrigan as they continue through Russia’s hellish atmosphere. Different from Hellboy in that way, Kraus is a deep thinker, which contrasts very much with Hellboy’s simpler thought process.

By no means lacking in courage or skills, Johann Kraus does maintain his image as the thinking man’s character. Kate Corrigan, on the other hand, is frustrated, brash, and hard to deal with when in Russia. The missing key members of their team take its toll on her psyche, leading to bursts of impatience and rage.

Fans of Hellboy will remember her friendship with Hellboy from previous B.P.R.D issues as well as her concern for Abe Sapien from Issue #1 of Hell on Earth: Russia.  She will come face to face with the concept that some people just accept the fact that they will die.

Exposure to the contagion found in the mines of Russia changes the structural chemistry of every living human it touches, turning them into mindless killers. Unluckily for him, Johann Kraus is on the hunt for this contagion with a set of monsters, each of which is more grotesque than the next.

On the one hand, you have a blue Jabba-the-Hutt-type creature, and on the other, you have what looks like the giant brain bug from the end of the first Starship Troopers movie. It is a lose-lose situation, no matter which ugly monster Kraus will find first. The concept of Kraus’ mortality will also come into play, since Kraus is technically dead and without a body, but is a sentient free-feeling personality.

The feel of this story is a different kind of desperation. In comparison to Hellboy’s policy of casual violence, B.P.R.D always seems to have a more serious edge. This is definitely true with B.P.R.D Hell on Earth: Russia, since the first issue has already set the stage for the almost rapid deceleration of Russian society due to this spreading contagion.

The ending of the story is quite explosive. While some fans will clamor in fury, true fans will wait impatiently for the triumphant return of one of the series best loved characters. Entertaining as always, the conclusion is sure to be jam-packed with excellent plot twists as well as a rescue operation. B.P.R.D Hell on Earth: Russia is on sale here through Dark Horse!

The article Comic Review: B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: Russia #4 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Dark Horse Comics has released Issue 4 of their ongoing continuation of the cult TV show, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’. When we last left our heroine, she had been betrayed by her erstwhile ally, Severin. The issue begins with a flashback showing Severin working his mojo on a vampire in a bid to gain information about his girlfriend, Alessandra. He seems to be able to steal magic from vampires, but in doing so, he kills the underlying human.

A mysterious stranger told Severin that he needed to destroy Buffy. As he lunges to attack her and steal her power, he taunts her in typical Buffy-villain fashion. As they grapple, both the San Francisco Police Department and her former vampire love interest, Spike, converge on her. The former plan to arrest her, while the latter is trying desperately to save her.

This issue turned out to be a bit of a letdown, actually. The writers seemed to be treading water throughout much of the text, and the fight between Buffy and Severin was not terribly dramatic. A bunch of panels showing Severin gripping Buffy while mysterious green energy dances around them does not make for a very compelling fight. It almost felt like the fight scenes were being used as filler in between the scenes that were happening elsewhere in the city.

I do not want to give away too many spoilers, but the end of the issue wraps up the ‘Buffy as fugitive’ plot arc in a way that just felt rushed. It seemed to end because the writers needed it to end, rather than ending in a natural fashion.

The dialogue also seemed to suffer in this issue. There were a number of instances where writer Andrew Chambliss seemed to be trying too hard to capture Joss Whedon’s famed Buffyspeak (worst line of the issue: “I’ve just got to keep with the fighty until you use up all your snap, crackle, and pop.”) With Whedon, it seemed natural; with Chambliss, it tends to feel contrived.

In my review of Issue 3, I noted that the characters sometimes did not resemble the actors who played them on TV. That problem is even more pronounced in Issue 4. Willow has a brief walk-on part towards the end, but you would be hard-pressed to tell that she was once played by Alyson Hannigan. Buffy’s resemblance to Sarah Michelle Gellar is also at an  all-time low in this issue, and she still tends to look like she is twelve years old.

OVERALL GRADE: B-

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When I was offered the chance to review the first issue of The Occultist, I was excited. I’m a huge fan of contemporary fantasy, and the series description sounded intriguing. I was expecting something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but alas my hopes were dashed.

The hero of the series is Rob Bailey, a college student who has received mystical powers from an arcane artifact called “The Sword.” Now he must learn to use his new-found powers while avoiding death at the hands of  a bunch of “hit mages.” Apparently, this series is based on a one-shot comic that appeared last year.

I haven’t read it, but the writers do a decent job of getting the newbie reader up to speed on what’s come before. Apparently, Rob’s friend/mentor Jacob Elder died in mysterious circumstances, and Rob feels some regret that he was not able to save him. The police get involved, and they suspect that Rob might be hiding information, but he’s able to divert their attention by means of his magical mojo.

But when the buxom lead detective goes hunting for clues, she inadvertently stumbles onto something much more sinister, setting the stage for an epic battle between Rob and a bunch of supernatural baddies. Throughout the issue, it’s clear that writers Mike Richardson and Tim Seeley are determined to keep things as mysterious as possible.

The reader doesn’t learn much about Rob’s power. Rob’s hand is green, and when he gets frustrated, his eyes glow green as well. He’s able to manipulate the mind of the detective who comes to visit him and survive a leap from the roof of his dorm, but it’s clear that Rob himself is as much in the dark as we are as to the exact nature of his “gift.”

Unfortunately, despite the promising setup, the first issue ends up falling flat. The writers are so busy trying to be mysterious that they forget to make the reader care about the main character. Rob isn’t particularly interesting, and his power isn’t well established enough to draw the reader in.

We know he’s in some kind of danger, but it’s all kind of vague at this point. The issue ends with the promise of a big battle, but the whole thing is set up at the last minute, making it hard to get terribly excited about it. Art-wise, The Occultist is quite well done, though artist Victor Drujiniu seems to be a bit unsure of how to portray Rob, and his appearance varies from page to page.

Drujiniu is clearly targeting a male audience, as almost every woman in the issue has mountainous breasts and isn’t shy about showing them off. The Occultist has an interesting premise, but fails in the execution. There are some tantalizing hints of interesting things to come, but right now the story is just too inchoate to be interesting.

OVERALL GRADE: C

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