BotTalk Reviews

Creators : Larry Hama (Writer), Chris Mooneyham (Artist), Francesco Segala (Colorist), Sabrina Del Grosso (Flatter), Pat Brosseau (Letterer) Story : The battle for Springfield rages on with Cobra forces leading  Serpentor-Khan's forces into a trap.  The Dreadnoks and the Joe Ninja Force bring the Baroness to the hospital so he can be healed, with Zartan pretending to be Cobra Commander.  Meanwhile, Serpentor-Khan arrives, changing the tide of the battle and the Cobra forces retreat.  Just as Serpentor-Khan believes he has the upper hand, Destro's forces arrive. Writing : This is a fast-paced battle issue. All the action takes place in Springfield and it's a back and forth between a ground battle, air battle, and the commanding forces figuring out what to do. I felt that it flowed really well and even though the perspective changed to different areas, the pace never let up.  I also enjoyed that the story didn't switch to the Joe's command team at the Pit, as I fe...

The Kelvin Universe Enterprise crew and the Defiant crew get to know each other. Spock... the Prime Spock, warned Kirk about certain future events, hence why the Enterprise was waiting for Sisko and crew.  Eventually, Kirk and Sisko approach Starfleet about working together to stop the reality shockwave unleashed by Lore.  Starfleet agrees and a large fleet of ships is gathered.  The assembled fleet is useless though, as the shockwave hits and annihilates everything.  The Enterprise and Defiant manage to survive, though the Enterprise is eventually overtaken by the shockwave as Defiant escapes. The Defiant has returned to its own time/space continuum but everything is gone.  No stars, no life signs, only the black void of space. Lots of nice moments in this issue.  The Enterprise and Defiant crews geek out over each other and compare notes.  0718, a very underutilized character from the Kelvin films, takes it upon himself to build Data a new body. ...

Creators : Joshua Williamson, Tom Reilly, Jordie Bellaire Story :  Duke is leading the G.I. Joe team on some training exercises - Clutch, Stalker, Cover Girl, Rock 'n Roll and the Baroness, while giving a bit of background on each.  The Baroness does struggle working with the crew and Duke feels they are not ready yet. In Springfield, Destro shows off his newest gun to Cobra Commander who is very impressed with it.  In Abu Dhabi, G.I. Joe agent Risk (the one missing a part of his left pinkie) beats up some people and tells them not to sell to M.A.R.S. Industries.  Back at the Pit, Hawk and Duke talk it over on what it means to be a leader and what the team needs. They then get their first mission; to retrieve a piece of Cybertronian tech while at the same time Cobra is going after it.  While the Joes are retrieving the tech, they come under attack by Cobra forces, who seem to have them outgunned and out-technologized with their new laser rifles.   Writing ...

Is it More Than Meets The Eye Time? You bet! 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. However, this fourteenth issue sees Jason Howard step in to pencil the second part of a Starscream-centric tale. More Starscream origin stuff? Yes! We see how Megatron molded Starscream into the cruel murderer he is today! And in the present, we see how the Starscream of today has been molded by his injuries and some nosy humans into… half the ‘bot he used to be! The M.A.R.S. salvage squad from last issue has fused Starscream’s upper half with a H.I.S.S. tank, resulting in a true Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover! Much of the issue is spent es...

Lower decks 1. Opens with single panels following a boring and uneventful round of episodic non-adventures with each panel having its own episode title (Cerritos Factor sounds like a novel title btw). Each panel shows Mariner's annoyance at such easy mundane work, and as the lower decks cast is about to unwind on the holodeck, they’re called to the bridge where we find the U.S.S. Bonaventure lost in space since the 23rd century. An away team beams aboard the derelict ship, powers it up and learns the Enterprise under Kirk’s command had found the ship in the odd space anomaly, and the Bonaventure’s crew eventually escaped the time trap that was a pocket in the garment of time. However the ship is abandoned and powered down until the Cerritos away team powers it back up and learns from the ships logs that the crew had copied Kirk and Spock’s solution to breaking free and got out. Billups, Rutherford, and T’ana get the engines working again but some unknown cause causes the ship to ju...

Battle of the Black Stone part 3: Quest into Darkness, the epic new Conan event from Heroic Signatures and Titan Comics is almost over. Only six Heroes remain, the Pict gate is behind them, the HEROES OF MAN are now deep into the Pictland jungles west of Conajohara. Brissa tells her tale from Savage Sword of Conan #4.  Our heroes are looking for the BLACK STONE BEAST's "source of corruption". Conan talks about his grandfather and past adventures. Brissa compliments multiple times the Cimmerian with the minuscule ego. Brissa reveals a tiny piece of the cursed BLACK STONE.  Slain scribe James Allison appears once again as an apparition, he's not only drawn to mighty, courageous souls, his spirit also can guide our heroes towards the source of corruption Solomon Kane is sure that he is on a mission from God, Dark Agnès de Chastillon is not so sure. Kane and Agnès converse in French, he mentions that he traveled along the Isère river in southeastern France... in 1574. Agn...

Sword-brothers, sword-sisters, the venerable spinner rack is sporting another brand new issue of SSOC!  61 mind-altering pages of barbaric savagery in black-and-white printed on newsprint!  Inside this succulent magazine you will find the following treasures: Pin-Ups: Conan by Tim Sale (from Tim Sale: Black and White - Revised and Expanded. RIP, Tim.) Conan by Sedat Oezgen Conan by Marco Rudy KING CONAN: THE ENSORCELLED, PART I: The Beast in Brythunia by Jason Aaron and Geof Isherwood The Graaskal Mountains splitting Hyperborea and Brythunia. The Brythunian border. Conan II aka Prince Conn, Conan's firstborn son, sits on the throne of Aquilonia while his father is away. The King of Aquilonia, Conan, is fifty-eight years old, he's on a diplomatic mission and a hunt. He enters the cave of the Witch of Graaskal. The Witch and King Fabiano (of Brythunia)'s freshly hypnotized mercenaries (from Nemedia) attack! The Witch burns Conan's chest with her hand. The now marked barba...

Jim Zub's Frozen Faith part IV: The Hidden World. Horsa and Niord bring Conan (still clutching his gossamer garment clearly never fashioned by human hands) to their Aesir War Camp. Conan eats and reflects on his past. He's a boy again helping his metalsmith father. An earthquake hits, his dad thinks it is Crom sliding his feet. We learn that Lihamm "The Tree" (beheaded by Brissa way back in Conan: The Barbarian #2) thinks that earthquakes are actually Devils moving around underground. Hence the saying Crom's devils. Back to reality. Gorm (the one that saw Atali on the bloody field of Wolraven) comments on the stew, Conan thinks he's talking about his mental state. Did Conan really encounter a Goddess? Conan questions his senses and reality. While daydreaming about the daughter of Ymir, Conan gets hit behind the head by a jealous Osmin (the friend of Bergen from issue #14). We get another flashback of Conan's youth. Alfred E. Neuman hits Conan over the hea...

Void Rivals has better things to do tonight than die! It does and it continues here with issue # 13! Void Rivals is Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici’s sci-fi comic that tells the tale of two crumbling planets linked by a “Sacred Ring” (it’s not Halo), their peoples at war for generations. When a member of each culture are stranded together, the two find they must put aside their differences if they want to survive. This story takes place in the so-called “Energon Universe”, Skybound Entertainment’s initiative to relaunch properties like Transformers and G.I. Joe within a shared universe that also happens to include the original characters and setting of Void Rivals. It’s the start of a new arc in this thirteenth issue, as our titular characters take separate paths again. Solila ventures deeper into the depths of Zertonia while Darak returns home to Agorria with Springer. Oh and Pythona and the Skuxxoid poke their heads into the plot. Pythona? So Cobra-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!!! is invol...