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Off the Beaten Path

9/14/06

Welcome back to another exciting edition of Off the Beaten Path, a long awaited edition, as it may seem. I have no excuse for my long absence, so with that said, this weeks column is called "A Stitch in Time" featuring an unerring British bloke, a Rocket man, and a whole crew of forgotten misfits for your reading enjoyment all doing what they do best, which is to say fight, curse and propagate the species. If you have read Hunter Killer you may have seen the advertisements in the last pages showing the finished upcoming issues, a great marketing ploy to sate the readers and 'Prove' they will be 'on time' from this day forward - if I could , I would show you the next few columns I have already written, but alas, that would defeat the whole purpose of a weekly column, so you'll have to take my word that they will be weekly from this column forward, thank you, and as always…enjoy.

Title- Battler Britton

The Basics-

Back from a 30-year hiatus (due in large part to the sale, transfer and re-sale of said intellectual property) Commander Robert Britton or 'Battler Britton' as he is better known defends the skies from the scourge we collectively know as the Nazi's. The story starts off with Battler bringing his ace crew to an outpost in the desert South-West of Alexandria, ostensibly to meet and subsequently train the Americans in aerial combat. As one would assume, rivalry ensues between the two groups of fighter pilots, and Britton must find a way to bring the two sides together as one happy family. Not your most imaginative story, however Garth Ennis brings his hard boiled no nonsense style to this military story, revolving around the unbreakable Commander Britton, harkening back to the early runs of this character and bringing alive a piece of comic book history while delving into WWII.

The Art-

The cover is beautiful, the rest of the book is gritty and hard, very sketchy styling, the hope, I believe is to bring the feel of flight battle to the reader, it will take a few more issues for me to determine if this is possible for Colin Wilson to achieve (note: issue 3 is on stands, and yes, he is able to bring the feel to the reader). It has a very British pop art feel to it, hard edges, 'bam' style explosions, very retro. Retro is cool, if you don't believe me check out the next review.

The Verdict-

If you were a fan of Black Sheep Squadron, or just like a straightforward military story with a hero who never falters and by no means ever fails, this is the book for you, as for me, I'll stick to television for my infallible heroes.

Title- Retro Rocket

The Basics-

Meet the man in the machine. Part human, part machine, mostly machine…almost entirely machine, the once state of the art courageous battle droid with the soul of a man this is Retro Rocket. A military man/machine in body and soul, he commands both awe and pity from his military peers. With years of service under his belt and the courage of ten men, Retro rallies the troops each and every day. Unfortunately for Retro, times have changed, battle mechs are no longer frankensteined military weapons using the parts of battle injured soldiers, now men pilot the state of the art weapons, only to leave the cockpit for their normal lives at the end of the day. Not so for Retro, he retires to an old hanger where an old mechanic wrenches on him day in and day out. More change is coming, Retro is getting outdated faster than could be imagined, his trusty mechanic is well past retirement and a new younger mechanic is set to take over. The story is nothing new, think one part Batlestar Galactica (old technology fighting new) and Black Sheep Squadron, Robotech, the humanity found in Astroboy, throw in a pretty girl, there you go, the story in a nutshell.

The Art-

Solid, strong colors and lines, not strong on details. The Mechs are basic solid colors from the old color wheel, with square edges and little detail in the mechanics of each machine. This is a combination of computer-generated scenes and old-fashioned hand drawn (computer colored) characters. Rudimentary, basic, yeah, I'm running out of ways to say boring. So, B O R I N G!

The Verdict-

I want to keep reading this one solely because I want to see if I'm right about the utter predictability of the storyline from issue to issue. I say pick one up, and make a drinking game out of it, drink for every plot line you've seen a hundred times, and take a shot for every complaint Retro makes, then a double for every angry tirade his new mechanic throws, now that's a book worth buying! Fun for the whole family.

Title-Battle Hymn

The Basics-

Strange could not accurately describe this beauty. Meet America's newest team of Soldiers…The Proud American (overly patriotic), Johnny Zip (fastest man alive, obnoxious boozehound and womanizer), The Artificial Man (exactly as stated, along with his creator Dr. Cloud), Mid-Nite hour (the British super hero sent to keep an eye on the Yanks), The Defender of Liberty (a knock off of the Proud American, a shabby knock off at that), Quinn Rey (the fish man in love with Betty) and Betty the whore (responsible for recruiting the fish man, and servicing the rest of the crew, literally), meet the Watchguard! Political intrigue and an underlying plan of action make this beauty tick, what does any of this last sentence mean? About as much as this series.

The Art-

Probably the best part of this book, aside from the confusion brought about from reading it, the Golden Age style shines through from page to page, not to mention some of the amazing covers. The pin ups and extra art in the last pages of each issue are worth the price of admission.

The Verdict-

Buy it for the art, and the art only, if you are a B. Clay Moore fan, this may be your cup of tea, not a badly written book, just not what I'd call exciting.