A few of the twists are not very original, and I feel like there really could be a lot more content in each issue. I'll keep reading for a while, but A few of the twists are not very original, and I feel like there really could be a lot more content in each issue. I'll keep reading for a while, but I need more to get hooked....more
The characters are very much typical western archetypes (as admitted by authors in the post-story bonus material) and a little predictable. Some of thThe characters are very much typical western archetypes (as admitted by authors in the post-story bonus material) and a little predictable. Some of the supporting characters could use a little more personality, but the world is well thought out and pretty damn fun. I'm in for the next installment for sure....more
This was awful. Jodorowsky must be the world's oldest, horniest teenager. My favorite part is when Metabaron #1 plugs the controls to his spaceship inThis was awful. Jodorowsky must be the world's oldest, horniest teenager. My favorite part is when Metabaron #1 plugs the controls to his spaceship into the mechanical socket that replaces his dick (as it was shot off two pages prior). [image]
In 500+ pages I only saw only 3 characters: the invincible Metabarons, the cowardly robot narrators, and the greedy everyone else in the galaxy. The Metabarons were each presented with an impossible task to overcome which they each solved by being even more powerful than they had been before, smashing the indestructible obstacle with a power that had never before been seen in the galaxy. All of the characters were flat, lifeless stereotypes of the 3 character categories. It kind of felt like reading an Image comic from the 90's. The dialogue of the robot's was the first offender. They repeated the same formulaic conversation every time they appeared to interrupt the story. And the art was great, so again, it felt like reading an Image comic from the 90's.
And dear God the dialogue. Jodorowsky uses the prefix "paleo" on every single page. EVERY. SINGLE. PAGE. And then he crams an extra techno-meta-electro-bio-meca-prefix onto each page just for good measure.
I'm not typically a Mark Millar fan (he generally can't hold a deadline or my attention, and he's said some real sexist shit in interviews), but I am I'm not typically a Mark Millar fan (he generally can't hold a deadline or my attention, and he's said some real sexist shit in interviews), but I am a sucker for Flash Gordon so this homage story was pretty fun. The real show stopped, however, is Croatian artist Goran Parlov's art. He has a definite Moebius influence to him which works incredibly well for sci-fi. So far Parlov has only done a bunch of Punisher Max issues, but I'm hoping he will do some more sci-fi stuff in the future. I'll be watching for his next project.
Compared to other EC collections, this one is not the best. The 4 stories in each issue all revolve around the same three themes: time travel, atomic Compared to other EC collections, this one is not the best. The 4 stories in each issue all revolve around the same three themes: time travel, atomic bombs, and being the last human survivor on Earth. A common third theme was time travelling to the future where atomic bombs had wiped out all of civilization on Earth. The twist ending's were there, but all-in-all the stories seemed more bland than in other EC collections.
The art in this volume is also mediocre compared to what EC would publish later during it's legendary period. Every issue collected in this Archive features Al Feldstein, Jack Kamen and Harvey Kurtzman each doing art chores one story. Incidentally, those are probably 3 of my least liked EC artists. They are all good artists, I just prefer Al Williamson (who makes no appearance in this book). Wally Wood began drawing one story each issue starting with the 4th issue, but this is pretty early in his career and he hadn't quite found his masterful skill yet....more
I picked this up based on a glowing review from one of my favorite writers, Bruce Jones. I only made it a little over halfway through the book (117/20I picked this up based on a glowing review from one of my favorite writers, Bruce Jones. I only made it a little over halfway through the book (117/209 pages) before deciding to put it down. There just isn't any overarching plot.
Is it too much to ask of a sci-fi story to include some fantastic contraptions, plot twists and a few memorable characters? Instead we get a study on nearly mute cavemen and their development as a species. This was fun the first time, but the 4th time I read about how "thinking this thought for the first time ever was a huge milestone for the development of this Forgotten Planet" I had to roll my eyes.
And then there's my favorite plot hole / incomplete thought: these primitives were descendants of a marooned spaceship crew, a group of people who were advanced enough to travel through the stars. I can swallow some garbage in a sci-fi story, but I could not accept that in 40 generations an advanced space faring race could devolve so far back that they lose their ability to communicate, use tools, and have even forgotten about fire.
The author has an annoying tendency to end each chapter 4 pages too late. After the main character's action has subsided the author spends several pages just rambling on about what the dangerous giant insects are doing. Maybe this is an attempt to paint a picture of just how dangerous this Forgotten Planet is. Or maybe the insects are actually the main characters of the book. I can't tell. The cavemen were just as boring as the bugs.
I stuck with the book into the second installment hoping for a drastic change, but these cavemen are still just dicking around in the mushroom forest fighting the same 4 species of giant insect over and over. I can't tell where this book is going and I stopped caring a while ago. ...more
This is a really awesome premise for a road trip sci-fi story: a team of scientists has a machine that jumps from dimension to dimension. UnfortunatelThis is a really awesome premise for a road trip sci-fi story: a team of scientists has a machine that jumps from dimension to dimension. Unfortunately for them they can't control where it jumps or when it jumps. This makes for infinite fun sci-fi world building, and I'm glad that so far the story hasn't been stuck in one place for more than an issue or two. The world building is the best part of this series.
And on the flip side, the characters are easily the weakest part of this series. We've already had a few "major" character deaths, which seemed pretty inconsequential at the time but the surviving characters sure do seem to want to sit around and mourn their loss for a long time. I can't help but think that it would be more effective if the reader were made to care about the dead character before their tragic death scene.
Remender's writing gets on my nerves at times. The second half of the first issue is almost all internal dialogue, written in sentence fragments, à la Frank Miller. There are only so many number of pages that I want to read a character internally berating himself, and that number is close to zero. Scalera's art has its faults as well. There are several panel lay-outs where I felt like I was missing a panel in between moments. This could actually be the fault of the script writer and not the artist, but the final product makes it seem like the artist's fault. (view spoiler)[ For example, in issue 6 Kadir and McKay encounter an albino ape alternate-reality version of McKay, complete with onion logos (and maybe his own pilar, I can't tell)... where did this guy come from? Did he just warp in? I find that super confusing if that is the case, as this is happening on a planet where spirits are using albino apes as hosts. So it could also be that this was an ape already on the planet, but if that is the case where did he get his gloves and jacket? This may be a teaser at something yet to come, but it was done so confusingly that it didn't impress me or make me want to follow up. Then later in that same issue it appears that everyone is saved from the floating spirits by a shaman that I can only conclude was picked up in issue 4 (although this was definitely not specifically shown in issue 4). And if he was picked up then, what was he doing during the interim? None of the characters ever bother to mention "Oh hey, we accidentally picked up an extra dude" and they don't show him in any of the other group shots until he is saving the day. (hide spoiler)] Sigh. And my final complaint is that the completely blank pages that signify when the group is warping is just lazy.
I'll pick up the next trade, but I need the story to flow a little more naturally in upcoming segments....more
I've always been a fan of Tony Moore's art. His covers for this series (especially the first few) were outstanding, however his interiors just don't sI've always been a fan of Tony Moore's art. His covers for this series (especially the first few) were outstanding, however his interiors just don't seem to be hitting their stride with the space/sci-fi settings in this book. Jermone Opena's art in the second arc is spot on. And that kinda concludes all the positive things I have to say about this book.
The characters all seem to be 2-dimensional stereotypes of what a person should act like. The main protagonists "Texas-ness" is so heavy handed he may as well change his name to Yosemite Sam. Characters went from raging to pacified in the space between a single panel. Instead of having a pay-off twist in every issue, entire arcs were building up to the single pay-off that could be seen a mile away. The numerous shortcomings of Fear Agent makes me really appreciate Saga.
I was gung-ho to read the second volume of this library series until I got to the incredibly weak 3rd arc of this collection where the authors break the primary rule in sci-fi space opera and bring our characters back to modern day earth. I hate Star Trek 4 and I hate Escape from The Planet Of The Apes. I want my space operas to be set in space. ...more
Now THIS is how you gild a turd. The 1980 Flash Gordon movie is pretty terrible. The plot makes next to no sense, the characters range from unlikable Now THIS is how you gild a turd. The 1980 Flash Gordon movie is pretty terrible. The plot makes next to no sense, the characters range from unlikable to stupid and the special effects are a decade behind Star Wars, which came out 3 years before. The production company must have blown their whole budget on the Queen soundtrack.
That being said, this comic adaption of that turd is about as great as a silver screen adaptation can get. The story is still pretty bad, but Jones did a decent job of making the incomprehensible mess of the original source material into something less cringe-worthy. But that isn't why you are reading this. You are reading this because Al Williamson did the art on it. My 4-star rating is based on this book being an art book. I mean look at this:
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This is Al Williamson at his best. The hardcover version of this book measures an oversized 8.5" x 11.25" so you can really see Williamson's detailed line art. (I have no idea what the dimensions of the softcover version are.) My only complaint is that it appears that the publisher of this book limited colorist Rick Veitch to only using about 10 different colors. This would be less distracting if I hadn't noticed that there are only 2 shades of green and one shade of red which are used in almost every panel. ...more
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