Saturday, May 9, 2009

Free Comic Book Day - Blackest Night, Avengers and Shatner Presents

OK, your ol' pal Chuck dropped the ball on Free Comic Book Day - but he'll try to make it up to you with a week-late bonus review of three Free Comics:

- The Avengers is almost a mini-comic - it's about an inch smaller than a regular-sized comic - but it's packed with a fun team-up (of sorts) between the New Avengers and the Dark Avengers.

Written by Brian Bendis with art by Jim Cheung, the story begins with Thor hurtling to the Earth, beaten by a monstrous opponent.

The story that follows is somewhat slim, but features the usual sharp dialogue and a fun story.

It's kind of a sidebar to the regular stories unfolding during the Dark Reign, but it's not bad, and worth reading.

Grade: B

- Blackest Night #0 may be the standout of the freebies. It features great art and story, and offers a solid set-up for this summer's Blackest Night story.

It's safe to say that several of the dead characters who will rise in that series are mentioned here, as two guys who know about rising from the dead - Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan and Barry (The Flash) Allen - talk about friends who have passed.

The issue also features a recap of the other colorful Corps out there, and it has an illuminating essay by Geoff Johns, which I enjoyed a lot. Recommended!

Grade: A-

- William Shatner Presents offers a preview of three different comics that feature stories by you-know-who, including The Tek War Chronicles, Man O' War and Quest for Tomorrow.

I really wanted to like these comics, because I'm a Shatner fan - but the fact is, these samples are just average at best. A few pages of story isn't enough to give the reader a good basis to judge the concept, and the art ranges from good to average to much less than average.

This comic is really just for the hard-core fans of Shatner.

Grade: C-

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