Jim Krueger

Summary: Predators and Prey is more of a collection of stand-alone issues than it is a single cohesive story arc. However, they're all tied together by the fallout of the events of "Harmonic Divergence", the first issue, in which Harmony gets her own MTV reality show, sparking a new pop-culture trend for vampires... and sparking a flame of outrage and fear towards the Slayers who are preying on the new celebrities. In "Swell", Satsu and Kennedy intercept a monster bearing a terrible cargo - show more a vamped-out Hello Kitty-esque doll, who's not nearly as cute and cuddly as he appears. "Predators and Prey" involves Buffy and Andrew tracking down a group of slayers who've gone rogue in Italy. "Safe" checks in with Giles and Faith as they visit a Slayer Sanctuary that is not all that it claims to be. In "Living Doll", Dawn gets her turn in the spotlight as we finally get an end to - and an explanation of - the thricewise business. There are also some short stories (3-4 pages) included at the end, featuring a day on set with Harmony, and an ad campaign for Vampy Cat.

Review: I was initially a little bit disappointed when I realized that this wasn't a single arc - I wanted a good solid story. But then I realized that multiple short pieces allow more time to check in with multiple characters, and *then* I realized that one of those short pieces starred Giles and Faith, so I was a happy camper again. Perhaps the downside to spending so much time with Harmony, Satsu, Kennedy, Andrew, Giles, Faith, and Dawn is that there's an unfortunate scarcity of Xander, and zero Willow. Still, each of the stories (except maybe "Harmonic Divergence" - Harmony gets old *real* fast) was very entertaining, moved the various pieces of the story along nicely, and was full of Buffy-style banter. (I particularly liked watching Andrew and Buffy team up.) The art continues to be good, although there were a few places where I couldn't always tell who a character was supposed to be at first glance. But, overall, it was a fun, fast read; made me giggle at more than a few places; and has at least temporarily sated my Buffyverse cravings. Now when's the next one coming out? 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Don't read this series unless you've seen the show, and don't read this volume until you've read the other four first. "Harmonic Divergence" would probably make sense on its own, but all of the rest of them build pretty heavily on what's come before. show less

Alex Ross and Jim Krueger’s Universe X: Volume I collects issues #0-7 with new appendices, Universe X: 4, Universe X: Spidey, and Universe X: Cap illustrated by Doug Braithwaite with Thomas Yeats, Jackson Guice, and Brent Anderson; inks by Bill Reinhold with Al Williamson, Robin Riggs, Garry Leach, John Totleben, Ron Randal, John Romita Sr., Al Milgrom, John Stanisci, and Will Blyberg; colors by Laura Depuy with Pete Pantazis and Nick Bell; and letters by Todd Klein. The series continues show more to chronicle the end of the Marvel Universe in the same vein as Ross’ Kingdom Come did for the DC Universe. Beginning with Earth X, the series forms a narrative akin to Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. Chapter Three makes this clear with a direct reference to the Divine Comedy and Purgatorio.

As Universe X begins, Reed Richards prevented the destruction of the Earth at the hands of the Celestials by summoning Galactus, secretly Franklin Richards who has reached the highest form of evolution and is susceptible to the identity others project upon him. Thus, Reed and X-51 – the Machine Man – must never acknowledge him for who he truly is. Meanwhile, Reed has installed Human Torches around the world to burn off the Terrigen mists that transformed humanity. Humanity is loath to relinquish its new abilities, but larger changes are afoot. Steve Rogers looks after the resurrected Mar-Vell, who promises to return the dead to life. He has begun by bringing back Susan Richards and now travels with Captain America to collect what he needs in order to achieve his victory over death. Kyle Richmond, the former Nighthawk, narrates this volume in conversation with the Gargoyle, Isaac Christians, revealing events going on elsewhere in the world including the actions of Immortus’ church and the Tong of Creel, who seek to gather the broken parts of the Absorbing Man. Flashbacks reveal that it was the Absorbing Man who defeated the Avengers, setting the stage for Hydra and Norman Osborn to further shatter America.

This volume only collects the first half of Universe X, which is the middle volume of the larger trilogy. It primarily sets up the final confrontation while using the epistolary format to deepen the background of the world that Earth X introduced. An interesting narrative experiment that served as a possible conclusion to the Marvel Universe, it never quite achieved the same staying power as Alex Ross’ Marvels, which looked at the early years of the Marvel Universe, or his Kingdom Come, that told a similar story for the DC Universe. Still, this narrative features gorgeous artwork and the storytelling helped to expand experimentation in mainstream comics. show less

Anything that starts with an introduction from the great Joss Whedon is bound to be good. Seriously good. I had high hopes, and was not disappointed.

This takes a look at some of Marvel’s most beloved heroes in a future where they are anything but extraordinary. When the rest of humanity develops super powers, our heroes find that they aren’t needed as before, and move on with their lives – get old and out of shape, get depressed, and grow apathetic. And yet these heroes are still the show more ones that, in the end, fight to save humanity… which leads this to be a story about people who aren’t so much more special than the rest of humanity fighting to save the world anyway. Seeing these characters on even ground with the rest of humanity gave a completely different perspective than what we’ve seen before.

This is a dark story. Darker than I am used to seeing about Marvel’s superheroes (but that may be because I’m not too familiar with the entire Marvel catalogue). It was so intriguing to see how much some of these heroes have fallen, and to see them go to some really dark places – especially Captain America, Iron Man (and yes that’s taking into account his alcoholism et all) and Mr. Fantastic. I really thoroughly enjoyed exploring the darker side of these guys.

There were a lot of characters in this book that I wasn’t actually familiar with, and that certainly made parts of the story harder to follow while I familiarized myself with them – in particular Machine Man and Uatu, who are both very central and are partial narrators to this story. The two of them had an interesting relationship; as Uatu went blind and couldn’t function as a Watcher, he brought Machine Man up to the moon to watch the earth for him. Right from the beginning, Uatu kept focusing on and criticizing Machine Man’s programmed humanity. At one point, Machine Man pretended to wipe all of his humanity from his system, and it was interesting to see how the roles of Uatu and Machine Man almost completely swapped – all of a sudden, Uatu was asking Machine Man for theories as to why humans were acting in one way, while Machine Man was the one reprimanding Uatu on his curiosity and human characteristics.

I found that the narration jumped around a bit too much for my liking – it showed small bits of different arcs in the story in quick succession, leaving it difficult to keep up with everything that was going on in each area of the world or with each character. I would have almost preferred it if each chapter had been focused on only one story arc. I can see how that would have been difficult for Machine Man and Uatu’s storyline, however, as they were supposed to be able to see everything happening on earth at all times, but as a reader it felt slightly disjointed at times.

All in all, this was an awesome read. It was a great introduction to characters I didn’t know previously, that I would like to learn more about. There are more in the series that I’ll definitely be picking up at some point.

The Bottom Line
Highly recommended to fans of dystopia or superheroes. show less

This is the second volume in Alex Ross’ Justice Series. The super-villains of the world have tried to kill the core Justice League of America superheroes. They have survived and are trying to figure out what the villains are planning. Are they trying to build a better world or is it a conspiracy to destroy the current one?

Part of the fun of reading an Alex Ross comic book, or graphic novel, is seeing his interpretation of the Silver Age DC characters. I scan the cover to see if I can show more recognize all of the characters depicted and then I look for my favorite super-heroes within the story. Ross’ illustrations bring these imaginary individuals vividly to life.

This installment was more enjoyable than the first. Volume one was just the beginning of the story and was a bit confusing. Volume two explains why the villains are doing what they are doing and gives you hope that the super-heroes will find a way to defeat them and save the Earth. show less