Here are my (biased, opinionated) impressions about the Free comics given out on Free Comic Book Day. AKA: How I Looked A Gift Horse In the Mouth And Love The Bomb. Naturally, I’m only covering the free books that I managed to get my grubby little paws on. Apologies for not posting about this in advance of the event, and for how late this is, it took me a long time to read the books.
Amazing Spider-Man: Swing Shift (Marvel Comics) :spidey: Dan Slott and Phil Jimenez. I liked this one quite a bit. But I am a Spider-man fan, and I don’t really care that much about continuity. I thought the villain in this one was hilarious. I thought the humor of this book was good, I think ASM lately has been a bit too heavy. This was my favorite read of the day. 9/10
Marvel Adventures Three In One 2007 FCBD Edition (Marvel Comics) by Fred Van Lente & Paul Benjamin, & James Cordeiro. Marvel turns out another great book for FCBD. I loved the Iron Man story, reminds me of when Tony Stark was a super hero. The hulk story was also pretty entertaining. I had pretty much ignored the Marvel Adventures books until recently with a Spider-Man Magazine that came out a month or so ago which had a preview story of M.A.S-M in it. Now I’m kind of hooked on it, I like the action-style of them, and I like the fact that the heroes are heroes and the villains are villains. Sure, it’s simplistic, but sometimes that’s fun to read too. 8/10
Justice League Of America #0 2007 FCBD Edition (DC Comics) By: Brad Meltzer & Various. This book didn’t do a whole lot for me when I read it the first time and as a reprint I can see the marketing appeal to it but for existing fans, of which I am, there wasn’t much to love about this. 5/10
Legion Of Super Heroes In The 31st Century 2007 FCBD Edition (DC Comics) By: J. Torres & Chynna Clugston-Flores. Pretty entertaining even though I’m obviously not the target audience for this one either. Good humor told in an interesting way that not only told a story but also did a good job of introducing the characters. I liked this enough to want to keep picking up this title for a while. 8/10
Astounding Wolf-Man #1 (Image Comics) By: Robert Kirkman, Jason Howard. Pretty entertaining, light hearted read. It got me hooked enough to put in an order for #2 in my May Previews order. Artwork was clean and simple. Not really a lot happening here and didn’t feel like a complete story, but not bad as a setup for their new book. 7/10
Little Archie: The Legend of the Lost Lagoon (Archie Comics) By Bob Bolling & Jim Amash Mildly. entertaining, seemed too kiddy to really appeal to me. That’s not the comic’s fault, I’m not in their target audience. But I have to grade based on my opinions and not what I think someone else might like. 5/10
The Umbrella Academy / Pantheon City / ZeroKiller FCBD (Dark Horse) By: Gerard Way, Gabriel Ba, Dave Stewart, Nate Piekos. Umbrellla Academy was pretty entertaining, but I don’t think I’d care to read about it on a regular basis. An interesting twist at the end to explain the body on the first page, but I had a hard time identifying with any of the characters, good or bad. I didn’t get the Pantheon City story at all - basically there wasn’t enough shown of it to get a feel for it. Artwork was nice on that segment, however. Zero Killer was a fairly complete mini-story set in a post apocalyptic setting which I tend to like anyway. It had some memorable characters and action scenes. I liked Zero Killer enough to preorder it. Overall this was a good book because it did a pretty good job of showing you what these books are about. 7/10
Pirates Vs Ninjas 2007 FCBD Edition Special #1 (Antarctic Press) By: Fred Perry & Wes Hartman, & Craig Babiar. A complete comic, even if it is a reprint, but it was all new to me. Story made sense, was full of laughs, and had great art. Since pirates and ninjas are the epitome of cool, it’s really hard to see how they could have possibly gone wrong on this one. A fun read, and hooked me into ordering their next PvN series. 9/10
Worlds Of Aspen 2007 FCBD Edition #2 (Aspen MLT) By: Michael Turner & Various. Some great looking art and if I were more of a dragon lover I would have been hooked on the art alone, but the stories in this make almost no sense at all which is not good considering they are trying to hook me into their regular books. I think maybe they tried to cram in too many previews in one book instead of just picking one or two to show in detail. Not a waste of time, because the art was so good, but not enough to hook me. 6/10
Bongos Free For All 2007 FCBD Edition (Bongo Comics) By: Matt Groening. What’s not to love about the Simpsons? Ok, well this book was pretty entertaining, even if it was probably aimed at a different audience than your’s truly. That’s the great thing about the Simpsons, I guess, it hits on so many levels that nearly anyone can enjoy it. This story involves Bart and his daydreaming adventures. I had a fun time reading this but not enough to make me a Simpsons subscriber. 7/10
Family Guy Hack/Slash Flip Book 2007 FCBD Edition (Devils Due Publishing) FG: Matt Fleckenstein & Various; H/S: Tim Seeley & Emily Stone. This was a flip book with half devoted to Family Guy and the other half devoted to Hack/Slash. They probably couldn’t have picked two comics further apart from each other to use in a flip book if they tried. But interestingly enough, both of the comics appealed to me, though on completely different levels. First you have Family Guy, which is one of my favorite Adult Swim shows. This comic is ripped right out of the TV show, with the same style of humor and art. I enjoyed it quite a bit even though it didn’t feel much like an actual story. Lot of good laughs in it. Then you have the Hack/Slash, which was like a sadistic little slasher flick or something. Full of intense violence, murder, maiming, and torture, Hack/Slash is best read on an empty stomach. The twisted side of me enjoyed it, but unfortunately nothing was resolved by the end of the book (except we learned about the protagonist). Unfortunately for the publisher, neither one of these books compelled me to begin dropping down real money to read. I did enjoy the free taste, just not enough to hook me. 7/10
Lone Ranger New Battlestar Galactica Flip Book 2007 FCBD Edition (Dynamite Entertainment) By: Brandon Jerwa and Stephen Segovia, and various. Another flip book, this time with a western on one side and a scifi on the other. The artwork of this book is top notch, on both sides. Neither one of these feels like a complete story, but they are both pretty good hooks that leave you wanting to read more. I enjoyed the BSG story probably more and actually liked it enough to put in an order for the next book in that series. 8/10
Transformers The Movie Prequel #1 2007 FCBD Edition (IDW Publishing) By: Simon Furman & Chris Ryall, & Don Figueroa. Not bad as a movie-tie-in comic goes. There was pretty much a complete story here, and it felt compelling enough to possibly make me want to see the movie and I’m not really a big Transformers fan. Great artwork. Megatron certainly looked like a bad ass. Definitely worth a read. 8/10
Tokyopop Choose Your Weapon 2007 FCBD Ed (Tokyopop) I don’t like manga. This didn’t change my mind. 3/10
Th-th-th-th-THAT’s ALL, Ethel.