BotTalk Reviews

Having commandeered the Omega, Kirk receives a message from the Tellarite ambassador, asking him to liberate their planet from The Emerald Chain.  The Omega arrives and destroys the orbiting base.  Suddenly the Challenger, under command of Admiral Sato arrives and attacks the Omega.  Zed manages to disable the Challenger's systems and makes a proposal to Kirk and Sato.  Work together.  Kirk and Sato meet face to face. A lot happening here, and at the same time, little.  Decades have passed since Kirk took the Omega.  We see bits of Borg technology in his body.  Sato is now old and grey.  But their confrontation feels lacking.  Sato spent all this time tracking down Kirk, cleaning up his mess and trying to work through the repercussions only for Zed to steal the moment.  I hope next issue we see Sato and Kirk put their long conflict to bed with a satisfying conclusion.   six out of ten.

SOLOMON KANE: THE LION ERRANT part 2: Love and Hate  The Chauragarh Fort in the Satpura Range. Chandra Shah ((????-????), Prince Vir's uncle, Dalpat Shah's younger brother and the master of the horse archers) informs his sister-in-law (the dowager queen Rani Durgavati) that Ramih Khan (Mughal general, regent of Sidhi) will be invading Garha. The Narmada River Valley. A mysterious black-maned Asiatic lion has been Solomon Kane's companion for six consecutive days. Qara Bahadur Khan (the occupying governor who serves the third Mughal emperor, NOT Baz Bahadur the last Sultan of the Malwa Sultanate) invites Kane to the palace of Jahaz Mahal in Mandu (now in Madhya Pradesh). The Chauragarh Fort. Kalyan Shah (Prince Vir's future father-in-law and the Master of the musketeers) will be arriving soon. Vir Narayan ((1545-????), son of Durgavati) tells his betrothed (Kamla Devi, daughter of Kalyan Shah) that he will not be fleeing from the army of the two Khans (Asaf & Ramih)....

Aerialbots VS Yodelling! The bold new era for the Autobots and this book continues! Robert Kirkman, chief architect of the Energon Universe, writes the flagship Transformers title and Jason Howard takes over as regular penciler for this new story arc with Mike Spicer on colors. Howard had previously drawn issues # 13 and # 14 of this book, along with many covers. In this thirty-fifth issue, the Autobots must rely on their new human allies to save the dying Shredhead’s life! Also, Thundercracker leads the Aerialbots to track down the forces of Cobra-LUH-LUH-LUH-LUH-LA! So Shredhead ain’t dead? Nah, they’re fine. Although who knows after Doctor Arkeville gets done with them. It does seem like Onslaught is dead for now, which is a shame and kind of weird considering he’s got a new toy out currently, but I guess Kirkman isn’t constrained to Hasbro’s whims as much as other writers were. Wheeljack and Doctor Arkeville have a bit of back-and-forth about fixing Shredhead, which is kind of amus...

Creators : Larry Hama (writer), Paul Pelletier (penciler), Tony Kordos (inker), Francesco Segala (colorist), Sabrina Del Grosso (flatter), Pat Brosseau (letterer) Story : Lift-Ticket and Wild Bill fly the Tomahawk helicopter through bad weather to deliver Shockwave and Rock 'n Roll to Snake-Eye's cabin to help Scarlett but are relived to discover he has been able to deactivate his implant on his own and they all head back to the Pit.  At the Pit, Dawn is trapped but begins to take out the cameras so the team has no clue where she is.  The Pit crew (Mainframe, Dial-Tone, Stalker, Duke) are able to contact Helix and Beachhead to get an update on Sean, who is attacking the Terror Drome.  Sean is driven off but Helix and Beachhead take out most of the remaining Cobras and create a truce with the remaining ones to stop Sean.  Snake-Eyes arrives at the Pit and confronts Dawn, using Arashikage abilities to help destroy her implant as well.  Meanwhile, in Darklonia, Sea...

80 restored and fully colored pages of barbaric savagery! Inside this magnificent full-color magazine you will find the following: Classic revitalized art pin-ups in stunning color: Conan the Barbarian by Tim Conrad from Savage Sword of Conan (1974) #18 Conan ad by Tim Conrad from Savage Sword of Conan (1974) #4 Conan the Barbarian by Tim Conrad from Savage Sword of Conan (1974) #12 Original Cover Painting by Dan Adkins for Savage Sword of Conan (1974) #18 THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE Chapters 3 & 4 by Robert E. Howard, Roy Thomas, John Buscema and Alfredo Alcala. (New Colors by GFB Group/GFB.it) Khemsa (a wizard who works for the Master of Yimsha) gives Conan his Stygian girdle (of great magic powers) and dies. Conan teams up with Kerim Shah (a spy of King Yezdigerd of Turan) to rescue Queen Yasmina of Vendhya (who wants the see the Black Seers of Yimsha dead). Conan uses the girdle to kill The Black Seers (the Four rakshasas of the Black Circle).  The Master of Yimsha kills...

A special forces team and an American National Space Administration astronaut (Arch) are shadowing John Christopher Brent (James Franciscus)'s spaceship (the rescue mission from Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)). Fired upon by a Yautja ship, the spaceship of Arch and the soldiers crash-lands on the Planet of the Apes. Searching for George Taylor (Charlton Heston)'s ship (The Icarus/Liberty 1), Cornelius and Zira encounter the two soldiers that survived their ship's emergency landing. The soldiers threaten the chimpanzee couple, a wounded Predator (an alien Yautja warrior) slays the soldiers. Freshly ejected from her spaceship, astronaut Arch encounters primitive, mute humans, she overhears General Ursus proclaiming that "The only good human is a dead human!", that Taylor has ventured into the Forbidden Zone (the ruins of New York City) and that they should follow and invade the Zone. Gorilla soldiers mounted on horseback assail the wild humans and Arch, the w...

Creators : Dan Watters (writer), Pye Parr (artist), Pierluigi Casolino (colorlist), Rus Wooton (letterer) Story : Alex Sector helps Gloria Baker get to shore due to the events of last issue while Matt Trakker takes on Miles Mayhem.  Sector helps Baker understand what her mask can do while she swims for shore.  Mayhem gets away while Baker finally reaches shore only to be saved by Bruce Sato as Vanessa Warfield tries to take down Baker.  On Venom's ship headquarters, we discover Mayhem has a lot more secrets as he consults with a high-powered Baron. Writing : This issue is full of action.  Baker is trying to get away from Mayhem then Warfield, Trakker versus Mayhem and Sector trying to get everyone out alive from behind the scenes.  I enjoyed Sector's introduction, as in the cartoon, you really got the sense he was more of a planner and here we get that, he does well in the "command center", helping the operatives out.  And the reveal of Miles Mayhem talking...

CONAN & DRAGONERO part 4 (of 7): Ice & Flames (chapter one) The lair of the Undine. Conan's dragon tries to incinerate the Cimmerian and Dragonero, Dragonero's bastard sword (Saevasectha/Cruel-Cutter) shields our heroes. The dragon gets Conan (who is looking for payback) off of its back. Dragonero can feel the power of the gems hidden within the scales of Conan's dragon, Dragonero uses his powers to see what the dragon is planning... it wants to amass the power of the stolen magical gemstones to conquer Dragonero's world with its brethren... the renegade dragons who wanted to rule over everything and everyone.  Dragonero hurts the left wing of Conan's dragon, Conan closes its right eye forever, Dragonero opens its neck, it crashes in a mountain. The dragon is much too dangerous, Dragonero cannot show mercy, he plunges his blade into the dragon's breast. The gems within the dragon begin to glow, the magical energy is teleporting Conan of Cimmeria and Ian ...

Jim Zub's Cursed Shores Beyond part 1: Perilous Waters (with a snippet from the poem: The Sea (1923) by Robert Ervin Howard) The Western Sea. We are aboard Captain Quinn (an homage to Harley Quinn) Corvaxis' ship: The Briney Wren (a very salty songbird). Conan the Buccaneer, Valeria, Morley and the rest of The Red Brotherhood raid a Zingaran military ship (a ship that sinks other ships), the Zingaran captain yields and Conan and co. steal their cargo. Morley mentions that Valeria met Conan in Robert E. Howard's Red Nails novella. Morley wants to duel Valeria for a kiss, she wants his share of the Zingaran booty if she wins. A violent storm assails the ship. Conan's barbarian-sense starts tingling, he knows that a threat is approaching.  Conan sees an invisible man with glowing eyes (a Predator (1987) homage) murdering the first mate. The phantom kicks Conan's derriere. The ghost spares the Cimmerian... for the UPCOMING RITUAL. The glistening spectre knocks Conan out...