BotTalk Reviews

Jim Zub's Twisting Loyalties part 4: Purged Zula, guardian of the grasslands, is sure that Conan, who speaks with a forked tongue, is a servant of Set in disguise. Conan tries to convince Zula otherwise. Zula transforms back into a panther, then into a woman (from Conan the Destroyer (1984)). Conan swears to Zula that he has never worshiped the snake god and that he has never set foot in Stygia. Zula informs the Cimmerian that his aura is tainted/cursed by dark magic and that his soul is in jeopardy. If Conan wants his spirit to be saved he'll have to reach Zula's ancestors' ancient monument, an immense "Olmec" stone head. Zula transforms into a harmless raven and takes flight, Conan follows on foot. We get two flashbacks, one from The God in the Bowl and another from Conan the Barbarian #18. Conan rapidly climbs to the top of the stone head, an amazed Zula starts his True Form ritual. Zula will try to exorcise the Set poison from the Cimmerian. If Conan canno...

At Bozeman Montana; Benjamin Sisko, Beverly Crusher and Kahless steal The Phoenix, Zefram Cochrane's experimental warp ship.  Sisko intends to travel to the Bajoran Wormhole but after consulting a star chart, discovers it does not exist in this reality.  In space the Maquis attack Worf's fleet as Spock details how the Vulcans managed to overcome being assimilated by the Borg.  Lore becomes unhinged at the Vulcans constantly being a problem in every universe he creates and detonates a star in an attempt to defeat them.  The Maquis fleet is destroyed and Lore gives Worf a new mission, track down Ben Sisko.   Meanwhile, Hoshi Sato discovers T'Lir. This was a very busy issue.  With The Phoenix being stolen and a fleet battle between Worf's Starfleet and Spock's Borg.  His explanation of how the Vulcans managed to overcome the assimilation process was quite clever I thought.  At this point a lot of our characters, like Worf, are simply a corrupted exag...

Creators : Dani, Dan Watters, Brad Simpson Story : Jinx has infiltrated a Cobra airbase and set a charge to blow up a Cobra Night Raven S3P, before it can carry out a mission.  In trying to escape, she runs afoul of Crimson Guardsmen and a Night Creeper.  Fighting her way out with a time bomb ticking, Jinx must make use of all her skills to get away before it blows up. Writing : Being the second in a month-long run of "Silent Issues", paying homage to the original silent issue (GI Joe #21), the Jinx issue can take place at any time after Jinx was introduced to the team (or maybe before?).  There are no named characters besides her in this and we then only see some Crimson Guards and a Night Creeper.  It's a pretty self-explanatory story; one we've seen in action movies countless times - the hero needs to escape before the time bomb they planted blows up.  As that, it's not anything too original.   Art : Overall, not a huge fan of the art in this issue. ...

Who do you belong to? Nobody! With Robert Kirkman’s Void Rivals having launched Skybound’s Energon Universe, noted writer/artist rolled-into-one Daniel Warren Johnson takes the reins on the linchpin of this initiative, the flagship Transformers comic series! Well, he maintains the reins on the writing of this series at least, as does Mike Spicer on colors. Jorge Corona has taken over regular penciling duties with a style all his own but this issue sees Ludo Lullabi fill in for a Megatron solo story! Sooo, we’re NOT following up on last issue’s cliffhanger? Nope! You’ll have to wait another month to see the fallout of the return of Megatron, because DWJ decides to give us some backstory on how Megatron became the mad, bad dude we’ve barely seen so far! He brings in the Quintessons here, who haven’t featured much in this book but play a big role over in Void Rivals, so it’s nice to see some cross-continuity ties to the larger Energon Universe. In an effort to perhaps provide some insight...

And they’re on the Titanic ocean liner! And really, they’re kinda foggy on the details about the Titanic except for Brad Boimler who should know overachiever that he is. So off to another zany adventure and finding out how they get out of this one! Where they run into the bridge crew who tell us they are chasing a mysterious hooded woman who’s going through time and causing chaos like some kind of time travel chaos demon, and so combined, the crew work to figure out a way to save the day millions of years in the past. First off I just want to point out that a Dark Sith rebel without a cause Beckett Mariner got old after a while on Lower Decks, temporal psychosis seems fun and streaming trek is missing a huge opportunity to make a Temporal Wars Star Trek. Just saying, we love time travel. But instead we get academy and I’m getting off topic. This was a good conclusion but I could live without the Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home time travel heads thing. I get it, we all love Star Trek IV ...

In a new reality created by Lore, Benjamin Sisko works a menial job and is plagued by dreams of the reality we all know.  He is attacked by Kahless.  As they struggle his memories fully return.  Meanwhile Worf and Alexander track down and battle rogue elements opposed to Lore.  Elsewhere, Lore directs Data on the creation and continued maintenance of his new universe.  As Borg forces gather in the Delta Quadrant, Sisko and Kahless approach the Phoenix Warp Ship in Bozeman Montana.   This is the big crossover event story the two Star Trek ongoing books have been driving towards for months.  And... honestly it is a mess.  You have the familiar faces of both books scattered across the galaxy.  Some in familiar places, others completely out of place and seemingly out of character.  I have to assume at some point the two crews will come together, realize Lore is the enemy, and defeat him.  But this reality under Lore holds no interest fo...

Creators : Phil Hester (Writer/Penciler), Travis Hymel (Inker), Lee Loughridge (Colorist) Story : In a war-torn city, a mother and her son see figures fall out of a crashing helicopter.  Beach Head is fighting off Cobra troops that tried to capture him.  He gets seriously injured when one trooper tries to use the mother as a shield but is able to defeat him.  The mother and son drag Beach Head to their home and try their best to fix him up.  The son goes out and retrieves some of the Cobra gear and the mom trades it for a GPS system.  The vendor sells her out to some Cobra troops and Alley Vipers come looking for Beach Head, as he's trying to use the GPS to send a signal out.  Beach Head engages in a cat and mouse game, trying to take out the Alley Vipers.  The mother and son provide assistance but when it seems like the Alley Vipers have them, a Joe Tomahawk arrives and Beach Head and the mom and son are saved. Writing :  So this is an interestin...

Creators : Larry Hama writer/breakdowns), George Roussos (colorist), Steven Leialohla (finishes). Story : Storm Shadow arrives at a Cobra castle with a captured Scarlett, much to the surprise of Cobra Commander. High above, Snake Eyes makes a parachute jump out of a Lockheed C-130 Hercules towards the castle.  Storm Shadow imprisons a defiant Scarlett while Destro sees that the computers have picked up an intruder.  Snake Eyes lands and begins to take out some Cobra troopers while Scarlett begins her escape and Destro looks over his "chess board" with custom chess pieces of various Joe and Cobra characters, pondering the Baroness' piece.  Scarlett is able to escape and quickly overpowers a surprised Storm Shadow while Destro leads some troopers to the roof to deal with Snake Eyes, who fools them into going in the wrong direction.  Storm Shadow gathers red ninjas while Scarlett steals a COBRA C.L.A.W. and makes her escape.  Snake Eyes finds Scarlett's oubliette p...

SOLOMON KANE: THE SERPENT RING part 1: Dead Man's Promise.  Abramo Bensaid is writing to his wayfaring brother Paolo Laurenti, whom he has not heard from in 1.5 years. Abramo mentions Paolo's employer, Rolando Zarza (thorny shrub in Spanish), a Knight of Malta. Kingdom of Ndongo, Africa. Paolo is attacked by the owners of the artifact that he has stolen. Eight of Paolo's helpers and one marinheiro (Portuguese sailor) are murdered. Paolo shoots at his aggressors with his flintlock and flees to the safety of a Portuguese caravel sailing ship. The Barbary Coast. Solomon Kane (aka The Sword of Vengeance), the wandering Puritan from Devonshire is now a "Sea Dog", a privateer on an English galleon (Captain Wheeler's ship: The Reprisal) in the service of Queen Elizabeth (Elizabeth I). Wheeler, who has a license to attack and capture vessels belonging to "enemies" of England, decides to attack the Gaviota (seagull in Portuguese)... a Portuguese caravel. Alwa...

Creators : Larry Hama (writer), Chris Mooneyham (artist), Francesco Segala (colorist), Sabrina Del Grosso (flatter), Pat Brosseau (letter) Story : At Castle Destro, Cobra Commander is being held prisoner by Destro who warns him of the consequences if the Baroness doesn't survive the surgery, with Destro flying the best out to his castle to save her.  In Springfield, the Iron Grenadiers are in control, rounding up Cobra Troops and the mutant cyborgs, though they are worried what the cyborgs might do.  On Cobra Island, Revanche and Alpha-001 land and are able to restore the mutated people to normal but the cyborg mutants they kill by detonating an explosive in their head, including the ones in Springfield.  In Pensacola, Muskrat and his team, along with the Serpentor coffin and Dr. Mindbender, arrive on shore and are arrested while Dr. Mindbender is taken away in an ambulance.  The Joes are eventually set free and Dr. Mindbender escapes and steals the ambulance.  ...

Over the course of several years we witness the life of Helen Grosvenor.  The British digging up Egyptian artifacts and how her former childhood friends view her privileged status.  Bringing a boy she has a crush on to the dig site, Helen falls unconscious and finds a man standing before her on the dunes, covered in wrappings.  Later, in a mirror, Hellen sees what may be different aspects of herself.  Possible past lives.   This is... disappointing.  We spend so much time with Helen but she comes across as a modern, privileged teenager.   It is so pedestrian and cliche.  There is so little of the actual Mummy and the mythos of the various Universal Monsters versions of the Mummy here.  It is just the first issue so hopefully this will improve.   six out of ten.

Berlinghoff Rasmussen and Nymira Vondect run a snake oil scam.  With the grift completed they move on to the next and we see how the two came together.  Rasmussen saved her during the parasite space station debacle.  They are out in space having an argument when Lore begins breaking down reality.  The planet they were just on vanishes due to a space/time rift.  They fly through the rift and emerge near the Defiant.  As they try to explain the situation the shockwave entangles both ships. I have to say I never really cared for Nymira much.  I get that Defiant was/is a ship of rogues and renegades on a secret mission.  And what we've seen of her past fits that.  But I just never formed any attachment to the character.  To be honest when I saw her on the first page it was only then that I realized that she had been gone for multiple issues.  Also happening as a little vignette is the ongoing mine standoff which concerns Miles O'Brien. ...