BotTalk Reviews

Three months pass and Dr. Jack Griffin lives with the fear that Tommy, his escaped ward, may come back and kill him.  He halts the experiments and tries to be patient.  One day a note arrives from Tommy, stating he will take everything from him.  But the invisible boy walks through flour and strangles a dummy.  Griffin is now invisible too and takes care of him, leaving his body in the snow.  With his death he becomes visible and is discovered.  Griffin leaves everyone and everything behind, takes a room far away at The Lion's Head inn and begins work on finding a cure. Having Griffin live in fear of the young Tommy was a nice way to turn the tables.  He thought to simply be patient and things would go back to normal, but for him that was never in the cards.  Griffin is not a man we can sympathize with.  Like any good villain, you can only go so far in understanding his side.  Ultimately, this comic ends where the original Universal 1933...

Kathryn Janeway and the rest manage to escape from Species 8472 in a shuttle and head back to Voyager.  They find a cave and decide to hide so a new deflector can be built.  Sending out a probe, they find wreckage from a Borg cube, destroyed during the invasion of  several years ago.  Seven discovers Borg drones, cut off from the Collective, who have a working deflector.  8472 make contact with Janeway.  They want the deflector.  Janeway can either ally with them, or the Borg... The Borg drones who survived the 8472/Borg war and just happen to have a working deflector is very convenient.  At least they remembered Voyager's upgrades provided by Future Janeway.  This issue moves at a fairly brisk pace, only giving us a few pages to spend time with The Doctor and Tuvok.  It does give the feeling of a Voyager season finale though.   seven out of ten. 

Scourge of the Serpent part 3 (of 4): Behind the Mask. The epic new Conan event from Heroic Signatures and Titan Comics is almost over. The Thurian Age of Kull of Atlantis (from Robert E. Howard's The Shadow Kingdom). Gonar the Seeker (from Kings of the Night) reminds the reader once again that the impossible to comprehend verity is that time and space do not exist, that EVERYTHING is transpiring NOW. The Hall of Society, King Kull sits upon his throne and gazes upon the courtiers, the ladies, the lords and the statesmen. The King of Valusia wonders... are they all shape-changers plotting his demise? Chief councilor Tu alerts his King that the hour of the council is at hand. Kull and his Pict ally, Brule follow the councilors to the council room.   The door of the council chamber is now closed, all seventeen councilors place themselves in the order of their rank before Kull's dais. Brule remains by Kull's side. The councilors begin moving toward Kull. Brule utters the words...

Creators : Joshua Williamson (writer), Tom Reilly (artist), Jodie Bellaire (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer) Story : Cobra Command and Duke continue to run from the horde of Dreadnoks chasing them in a high-speed desert chase.  Duke releases Cobra Commander so that he can help him fight back.  Meanwhile, back at Cobra HQ, Destro begins his takeover and offers Cobra as open for business with many of his former clients while at the Joe base General Hawk reveals he his off to talk with General Flagg about what's going on and wants to be told when Duke checks in.  Through some clever fighting and driving, Duke and Cobra Commander make it to an almost-abandoned town with one tough resident.  Writing :  Williamson keeps the action going on this issue.  A few pages are devoted to other things but the bulk of the issue is the running chase/battle between Duke with Cobra Commander vs. the Dreadnoks.  Cobra Commander also nicely points out how similar he and Duk...

A crew in cryosleep wakes up and eventually begins the explore a planet.  As they talk the things they mention seemingly appear, although alien and distorted in nature.  Eventually they come upon two lifeforms, one beating the other.  One of the crew intervenes and they are soon overwhelmed by aliens and taken into custody.  Placed in a holding cell they attack the wall and it reacts.  They escape and eventually the real aliens show themselves.  They state that the planet can read their minds, that the planet is for relaxation and therapy.  They offer to start over and go through a reconfigured therapy but it will take centuries.  The crew, except for one, agree.  Alone, he returns to Earth but those in charge refuse to believe his story. In every aspect this has the feel of the original Twilight Zone.  The black and white art.  The designs of the space suits and spaceship.  The aliens.  The ending.  I expected nothin...

James T. Kirk and Captain Sato discuss classic literature while the command crew arrives.  They make final preparations to engage Transwarp drive when a fleet of Klingon ships are detected.  The Borg-enhanced Omega arrives and immediately comes under attack.  As the Omega fights for its life Kirk begins to flashback to the death of his son (David Marcus in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock).  As a Klingon boarding party breaches the hull Kirk appears on the bridge, reporting for duty and wearing a Starfleet uniform. We see the polarity between a resurrected Kirk and Sato, his modern counterpart.  Sato knows little of war while Kirk is more than experienced, Sato even giving Kirk a specific number of people who died as a result of orders he gave.  We get some time with the crew of the Omega... but not much.  A few even appear to have been killed off during the battle.  This is still the most engaged, to pardon a pun, I've felt with an IDW Trek c...

As the landing party tries to avoid The Seed they become separated.  Spock and D-6 encounter Scotty and the trio manage to escape in a mini sub as the underwater complex is destroyed.  Underground, Chapel comes face to face with La'an Noonien-Singh and Number One, now possessed by The Seed.   Again, a lot going on this issue... and again, very little seems to happen.  The cliffhanger of the Enterprise being surrounded is followed up on by only a few pages.  The action of this issue is focused on the surface, with Chapel having several conversations with her old friend, now possessed by The Seed.  It is the old routine of a friend telling someone things they don't want to hear or don't want to admit.  Seen it before a thousand times.  D-6 continues to feel like a Star Wars character and Scotty hardly registers to me as actually acting like Scotty. six out of ten.

Part 3 starts with a quick flashback scene with Christine Chapel and Jinare before returning to the present with the plant terror trying to coax chapel to join, but is stopped by Una Chin-Riley.  Una and Chapel stay behind to buy time for the rest of the landing party, meanwhile in orbit the ship is about to be attacked by an alien race. Spock and D-16 make it to the sub but are stopped by the returning giant squid from issue one.  In between space and underwater we learn the vine creatures were imprisoned by an ancient race called the Arken (who are surrounding the Enterprise) who have less than benevolent reasons for imprisoning the vine people, the vine people are pissed and we’re left in another cliffhanger. One of the many things I’ve always liked about Star Trek, they introduce an alien race that’s considered ancient and give you enough information that leaves you wanting more. And with this issue specifically they are doing just that while keeping the pacing moving alo...

A Scourge of the Serpent Novel by Tim Waggoner Cover by Jeffrey Alan Love  From Titan Books and Conan Properties International Also available unabridged on audiobook from Blackstone Publishing, read by Bradford Hastings  Spoilers! Spoilers!  The Deities of Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age are rallying against the sinister snake-god Set (the great serpent Jörmungandr) who is busy preparing for the arrival of the even more wicked Woeful Eye (Shuma-Gorath?) who is planning a conquest of Conan's planet. Set recruits Stygian sorcerer Uzzeran (Master of the Revenants (corpses steered by Set shadow-snakes)), Shengis (Uzzeran's Stygian servant who wears the Snare amulet that ensnares Serpent-Men) and Rynthia (a Zamorian woman who was raised by sorceress Nabishut). Ishtar (fertility goddess of the Shemites) recruits Conan and Valja (a Zamorian woman). Mitra (god of the Hyborians symbolized by The Phoenix) recruits Naerys (an Ophirian priestess of Mitra & a former test subject o...

Jim Zub's The Conquering Crown part 1 (of 3): The Implausible General A CAPITAL, BRAND-NEW CONAN ARC BEGINS NOW! Poitain, Aquilonia's southernmost province is under siege by the soldiers of King Ferdrugo de Ramiro III of Zingara.  Count Trocero of Poitain and his knights get ambushed by Zingaran archers.  Captain Prospero of Poitain (King Conan's future right-hand man) is defending Culario (capital of Poitain).  Tarantia (capital of Aquilonia). Numedides the Mad King of Aquilonia, whose subjects are starving in the streets, wants his army and his knights (The Black Dragons) to stay by his side... he will send a lesser, more expendable force to assist Trocero... the Mercenaries. The leader of the Westermarck Wolves, Sumner (an homage to Andrew Sumner, COO of Titan Entertainment Group) rouses his sellswords, including Conan and Ular. Conan & Co arrive in Poitain to meet with Count Trocero.  Count Trocero and his knights + the Westermarck Wolves fight the Zingarans,...

Brad Boimler and Sam Rutherford ordered an android from Harry Mudd Companions! Beckett Mariner tries to avoid going to the dentist! Cerritos is visiting Laaperia for second contact! Surely this is a normal day for the Cerritos! And it kind of is, Boimler and Rutherford’s android goes on a rampage while Shaxs Drazon chases down Mariner to drag her to see the dentist. Eventually the Cerritos arrives to make second contact with the Laaperians, but when the away team beams down, they arrive into a... to be continued! A good issue after a string of not great issues, and is a day in the life type story that eventually reaches the overarching plot, a plot that is a mystery for the crew to solve.  So a good story, decent art as always.  It’s about as Rick Berman era trek as you can get. 7/10