Review of BATMAN JUDGE DREDD graphic novels

THE BATMAN/JUDGE DREDD FILES

Writers: Alan Grant/John Wagner

Art: Simon Bisley/Carl Critchlow/Dermot Power/Glen Fabry/Jim Murray/Jason Brashill

Collects vol 1-3 of the Batman/Judge Dredd books. You won't find too many other books as beautifully illustrated as this one. Neither character has looked much better than they do in this trilogy of stories that take place in both Gotham and Mega City One (courtesy of a trans-dimensional device) that all tie in together as Batman and Dredd join forces to fight criminals, monsters and cyborgs with a few inevitable clashes of personality along the way.

Review of BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD animated movie

BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD animated movie

From WARNER BROS. ANIMATION

Written by Judd Winnick

Directed by Brandon Vietti

Starring the voice talent of Bruce Greenwood, Jensen Ackles, John Dimaggio, Jason Isaacs and Wade Williams.

Review by Stewart Loud

It's a terrible thing when sidekicks lose the plot and start murdering lots of people but the silver lining on this particular occasion is that Warner Brothers released this blindingly good animated feature. Oh well, swings and roundabouts. Re-telling the story from DC's Batman comics of how Jason Todd, the second Robin, became the Red Hood after he was murdered by the Joker, this cartoon is everything a feature length Batman movie should be and a shit load better than the live action Dark Knight film, but don't get me started on that. “Lets not do that again.” What the hell broke your fall? The pissing ground?!

JENNIFER BLOOD by GARTH ENNIS review

JENNIFER BLOOD #1-3

Writer: Garth Ennis

Art: Adriano Batista and Marcos Marz

Published by Dynamite Entertainment

Review by Stewart Loud

Do you lament the absence of Garth Ennis' unique writing talents from the pages of The Punisher? Do you like gritty, realistic, violent crime/vengeance stories? Do you maybe just have a strange urge to see what the Punisher might be like if he were a woman who was married with two kids and living in a nice house in a quiet suburban neighbourhood? If you answered yes to any or all of the above questions then start reading Jennifer Blood!

ULTIMATE AVENGERS vs NEW ULTIMATES #1-6 review

ULTIMATE AVENGERS vs NEW ULTIMATES (DEATH OF SPIDER-MAN) #1-6

Writer: Mark Millar

Art: Lenil Yu

Published by Marvel Comics

Also available in collected edition paperback from Panini UK LTD

Review by Stewart Loud

Someone's been feeding the covert Avengers team and the Ultimates misinformation to turn them against each other and it results in one hell of a tear up! In the midst of all this confusion, someone puts a bullet in Spider-man and can you guess who pulls the trigger?

ULTIMATE AVENGERS 3 #1-6 review

ULTIMATE AVENGERS 3: BLADE vs THE AVENGERS #1-6

Writer: Mark Miller

Art: Steve Dillon

Published by Marvel Comics

Also available in collected edition paperback from Panini UK LTD

Review by Stewart Loud

All the vampires in the world have decided to get together in one massive bunch along with a few freshly bitten super heroes and go and batter Nick Fury and all of his Avenger and S.H.I.E.L.D. mates at the Triscellion. Looks like Blade's the only guy who can save them all from being eaten or turned into vampires but no bastard will listen to him!

ELEPHANTMEN WAR TOYS Volume 1: NO SURRENDER review

ELEPHANTMEN WAR TOYS Vol 1: No Surrender

Collects Elephantmen War Toys #1-3

Writer: Richard Starkings

Art: Moritat

From Image Comics

Review by Stewart Loud

War Toys is a prequel to the on-going Elephantmen series set in the year 2239 during the war between China and Africa as they fight over what's left of Europe after it was devastated by a disease that reduced its population to mere thousands. If there's one thing I enjoy reading about, it's post-apocalyptic future war and chances are you'll enjoy this one too.

A look at PUNISHER #1 (2011 new ongoing series)

PUNISHER #1 (2011)

Writer: Greg Rucka

Art: Marco Checchetto

Article written by Stewart Loud

The new Punisher ongoing series written by Greg Rucka is finally here and #1 really is a very good looking book indeed. The comic opens with a shockingly violent, messy gunfight at a wedding reception resulting in a massacre and is followed by what looks like it could shape up to be every bit as good as Rick Remender and Garth Ennis' runs before it. Welcome back to the 616, Frank. It's been too long. And you seem to be sporting a hair do a bit more like mine as well!

THE BOYS Volume 8: HIGHLAND LADDIE review

THE BOYS volume 8: HIGHLAND LADDIE graphic novel

Collects #1-6 of the Highland Laddie mini series

Writer: Gath Ennis

Art: John McCrae and Keith Burns

Published by Dynamite Entertainment

Review by Stewart Loud

Women pooping out 17 foot tape worms and guys getting speared through the head by falling shafts of frozen piss. It's a Garth Ennis book all right! In the latest volume of his tremendous series The Boys, Hughie takes a trip to his home town of Auchterladle in Scotland for some time to himself after his break up with Annie since he discovered the details of her secret identity as a member of The Seven and how many cocks she had to juggle to gain membership.

REQUIEM VAMPIRE KNIGHT book 4 review

Collects the stories THE CONVENT OF THE SISTERS OF BLOOD and THE QUEEN OF DEAD SOULS

Writer: Pat Mills

Art:Olivier Ledroit

Published by Panini Publishing

Review by Stewart Loud

My favourite series of 2011 continues apace in another brilliantly twisted, shocking and funny graphic novel from 2000ad creator, Pat Mills. This one's so good I'm almost wishing I hadn't given all the previous books 10/10 so I could score it higher than them. Yep, loads more nudity and gore, plenty of off colour Monty Pythonesque jokes, more spectacular artwork and more ideas and plot devices so dark and original that it grabs your attention like a sobering slap in the face for your brain.

FEAR ITSELF UPDATE

FEAR ITSELF UPDATE

The Nazi's, that's right, THE NAZI'S have attacked America and seem to be winning, Odin and the the rest of the Asgardians have left Earth, some grizzled old ancient God dude called the Serpent has unleashed hell on Earth in the form of 7 magical hammers that have taken control of 7 Marvel characters and turned them into unstoppable engines of destruction AND main characters are getting killed off! Marvel will probably bring them all back in a few months, they always do, but for the moment they are dead! Looks like once it's over, the Marvel universe will never be changed forever....err....again. It's a Marvel special event all right!

MARVEL CATCH UP - AVENGERS Volume 2 (#7-12 and #12.1)

AVENGERS Volume 2 premier edition hardback graphic novel (Collects AVENGERS #7-12 and #12.1)

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Art: John Romita Jr and Bryan Hitch

Published by Marvel Worldwide

Review by Stewart Loud

Viscous, power hungry murderer, Parker Robbins AKA The Hood, has escaped from prison to ruin everyone's day by shooting plenty of people in the head and attempting to collect together the all powerful infinity gems which it turns out he has little to no clue how to control properly. To combat this potentially world buggering turn of events, the Avengers, New Avengers and Secret Avengers join forces with Red Hulk and the Illuninati responsible for firing Bruce Banner into space before World War Hulk. Sounds great doesn't it? Meh, it's not bad.

MARVEL CATCH UP - SECRET AVENGERS Volume 2 EYES OF THE DRAGON (#6-12)

SECRET AVENGERS Volume 2: EYES OF THE DRAGON premier edition hardback graphic novel (Collects Secret Avengers #6-12)

Writer: Ed Brubaker

Art: Mike Deodato and Will Conrad

Published by Marvel Worldwide

Review by Stewart Loud

With Steve Rogers proudly packing what appears to be a colonial marines pulse rifle on the front cover, you know you're gonna be in for an exciting ride in volume 2 of Marvel's comic following the covert Avengers world police style strike team. Things certainly do heat up in these issues as Steve's team travel to Hong Kong and China in their mission to uncover more about the secret but powerful organisation known as the Shadow Council led by the Enigmatic Thorndrake and Nick Fury's doppelganger, Max Fury. Time for some people to get kicked in the mouth!

MARVEL CATCH UP - AVENGERS Volume 1 (#1-6)

MARVEL CATCH UP - AVENGERS Volume 1 Premier edition hard back graphic novel (Collects Avengers #1-6)

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Art: John Romita Jr

Published by Marvel Worldwide

Review by Stewart Loud

The Siege is over, Norman Osborn's been locked up and the American President has put former Captain America, Steve Rogers in his place as America's top cop in charge of organising the super hero community. One of the first things Steve does is put together an all star main Avengers team to inspire confidence and security in the public and what a team it is!

MARVEL CATCH UP - SECRET AVENGERS volume 1: MISSION TO MARS (#1-5)

MARVEL CATCH UP - SECRET AVENGERS Volume 1: MISSION TO MARS premier edition hardback (Collects Secret Avengers #1-5)

Writer: Ed Brubaker

Art: Mike Deodato, Will Conrad, David Aja, Michael Lark and Stefano Guadiano

Published by Marvel Worldwide

Review by Stewart Loud

Set after the end of the Marvel Siege, Steve Rogers has put together a covert strike team of heroes to operate behind the scenes and tackle threats best kept secret from the world. Equipped with state of the art S.H.I.E.L.D. air craft and technology, Steve's dream team of War Machine, Black Widow, Moon Knight, Valkyrie, Beast, Nova, Ant Man and Sharon Carter are there to carry out missions involving everything from industrial espionage to travelling to other planets and beating the living daylights out of whoever Steve tells them too.

CROSSED 3D graphic novel review

CROSSED 3D Volume 1 hard back graphic novel (3D glasses provided with book)

Writer: David Lapham

Art: Gianluca Pagliarani

Published by Avatar Press

Review by Stewart Loud

A stand alone short story graphic novel released after the original 6 issue Crossed mini series by Garth Ennis telling the story of a small group of grizzled, well armed fighters on a suicide mission to rescue a medical team and their supplies who've become trapped in a skyscraper in the centre of New York, a city completely over run by the Crossed. There's heaps of graphic violence, guys getting their cocks out, a scene where dozens of lunatics pelt the stories main characters with handfuls of their own poop and the whole thing is presented in stunning 3D. Greatest comic ever printed then? Well it's not bad.

TRANSFORMERS 3: DARK OF THE MOON review

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON

Directed by Michael Bay

Starring Shia LeBeouf, Leonard Nimoy, John Malkovich, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Review by Stewart Loud

After the horrific train crash that was Revenge Of The Fallen almost erasing all the good memories I had from the first of Michael Bay's Transformers films with it's truly terrible Jar Jar Binks style comedy characters, vomit inducing gags and an overall story that felt like it was written by someone who didn't give a shit about the Transformers legacy, I wasn't sure if the franchise could be salvaged and reshaped into something I wouldn't be embarrassed to say I've been a massive fan of for 25 years. None the less, the trailers did make it look temptingly epic and as I've been an enormous Transformers fan ever since the original comics and cartoon series in the 80's I was never gonna miss out on watching this in the cinema in all it's 3D glory. So, was it any good?

ELEPHANTMEN Volumes 1-3 review

Review of ELEPHANTMEN Volumes 1-3

Collecting #1-23

Writer: Richard Starkings

Art: Moritat

Published by Image Comics

Review by Stewart Loud

Lets be honest. Elephantmen is a slightly comedic title for a comic book. And a bunch of 10 feet tall humanoid wilder beast in roles as investigators, crime lords and policemen in L.A. doesn't sound like a plot with much potential for greatness. So when I started reading the series I was a little confused as to what all the fuss was about, with the back of each graphic novel being emblazoned with five star review scores and quotes from reviews singing it's praises. Having now read volumes 1-3, I'm definitely a fan of this startlingly original sci-fi epic.

THE BOYS volume 7 THE INNOCENTS review

THE BOYS Volume 7: THE INNOCENTS graphic novel

Collects #39-47

Writer: Garth Ennis

Art: Darick Robertson, Russ Braun and John McCrea w/ Keith Burns

Published by Titan books and contains very adult material

Review by Stewart Loud

The events that made volume 6 so exciting suddenly seem a little mundane as Garth once again ups the tempo of his massive slap to the collective faces of all Marvel and DC's popular characters, The Boys. While it's still very funny in places, the story has definitely taken a far more serious turn as The Homelander and the rest of the supes begin to look like more of a threat to the world than they already did and Butcher shows more of the unpleasant side of his character after he learns of Hughie's involvement with Starlight.

REQUIEM VAMPIRE KNIGHT book 3 review

REQUIEM VAMPIRE KNIGHT Book 3: DRAGON BLITZ and HELLFIRE CLUB

Writer: Pat Mills

Art: Olivier Ledroit

Published by Panini Publishing

Review by Stewart Loud

In book three of my new favourite series written by my new best mate, Pat Mills (well I met him once anyway) it's time for a double helping of plot thickening with a side salad of comedy and more graphic nudity than I thought was actually allowed in a comic book.Requiem attempts to escape the service of Dracula and his order of vampires to be with his one true love from his human life, Rebecca but the vast and varied factions and nations of Resurrection aren't gonna make it easy for him. I think I spotted Hell Boy in there at one point as well.

EMINEM/PUNISHER: KILL YOU review

Review of EMINEM / PUNISHER: Kill You one-shot

Writer: Fred Van Lente

Art: Salvador Larroca

Yes you read right. It's a Punisher/ Eminem crossover story. What's next? Spiderman teams up with Ice Cube? Who knows, but if this travesty is the best they can come up with for a Marvel, hip hop collaboration then I seriously fucking hope not.

2000ad's BAD COMPANY: GOODBYE KROOL WORLD review

Bad Company: Goodbye Krool World

Collects story originally published in 2000ad progs 500-519, 548-557, 576-585 and 601

Writer: Peter Milligan

Art: Brett Ewins, Jim McCarthy and Steve Dillon.

Published by Rebellion

Review by Stewart Loud

This graphic novel collects together one of my all time favourite comic story lines. Originally published in the UK comic 2000ad in the mid 80's I first read it when it was re-printed in classic 2000ad monthly in the early nineties (comics which I read twice and then lost). Then again a few years ago when I spotted this graphic novel in my local comic shop. Now I'm writing online reviews, I've decided to read it again and give it the review it deserves to see if I can persuade a few other people to give it a try. Having read it 3 times before and knowing how it all ends in the mind blowing climax of the story I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy reading through it all again but I was every bit as engrossed in this dark, nightmarish tale of future war and horror as I was the first time I read it over 17 years ago.

PUNISHER/BATMAN (both books) review

PUNISHER/BATMAN crossover specials

Here's a couple of short reviews of the Punisher/Batman books that came out in the 90's. One was brilliant and one was toss. If you really think about it the two characters have quite a lot in common apart from their views on capital punishment. Can't understand why they never made any more of these. The potential is there for some fantastic stories.

2000ad's BUTTON MAN volume 1 review

BUTTON MAN volume 1: THE KILLING GAME graphic novel

Collects 2000ad progs 780-791

Writer: John Wagner

Art: Arthur Ranson

Published by Rebellion

Review by Stewart Loud

Violence and/or murder for cash reward is the name of the game in John Wagner's (Judge Dredd, History Of Violence) tale of how ex British soldier and mercenary, Harry Exton gets drawn into his role as a “button man”, the name given to the participants of a well organized, highly secret and brutal blood sport played for the amusement of a group of shadowy upper class elite types known to their button men as only “the voices”. Good money if you're a survivor but they don't have much of a retirement package for those who decide they want out of the game.

REQUIEM VAMPIRE KNIGHT book 2 review

REQUIEM VAMPIRE KNIGHT Book 2 : Dracula and The Vampires Ball

Writer: Pat Mills

Art: Olivier Ledroit

Published by Panini Books

Review by Stewart Loud

Oh my God, it gets worse!....Or maybe better….. It depends how you look at it. Either way, the first book was bloody marvellous and this one's just as good!

The second book in Pat Mills mind bendingly good, Requiem series expands the wicked world of Resurrection he introduced in the first book. We see a lot more of the political landscape of Resurrection as we're introduced to various factions within the ruling elite as well as other countries and nations of creatures within the savage hell dimension and treated to some truly awe inspiring and stomach turningly brutal battle scenes between them and the vampire forces led by Dracula. Again I was surprised by the series' ability to actually give me a physical sensation of unease with how unrelentingly nightmarish it is.

THE BOYS volume 6 THE SELF PRESERVATION SOCIETY review

THE BOYS volume 6: THE SELF-PRESERVATION SOCIETY graphic novel

Collects #31-38

Writer: Garth Ennis

Art: Darick Robertson, Carlos Ezquera, John McCrea, Kieth Burns

Publisher: Titan Books

Review by Stewart Loud

The conflict between The Boys and the worlds super human community jumps up a notch as Vought America launches their first open attack against Butcher and his crew since they resumed their campaign to police the super heroes that inhabit Garth Ennis' fucked up Marvel/DC universe parody. Then the pace slows down a bit for some origin stories about Mother's Milk, Frenchie and the Female. Another shockingly violent, laugh out loud instalment of the New York Times best selling series, The Boys.

PUNISHER: FRANKEN-CASTLE COLLECTED EDITION review

PUNISHER: FRANKEN-CASTLE hard back collected edition

Collects: Dark Reign: The List – Punisher

Punisher #11-#16
Franken-Castle #17-21
Dark Wolverine #88-#89

Writers: Rick Remender
Daniel Way
Marjourie Liu

Art: John Romita Jr, Jefte Palo,
Tony Moore, Stephen Segovia,

Mike Hawthorne, Paco Diaz,
Dan Brereton, John Lucas,
Roland Boschi, Andrea Mutti,
Luca Malisan

This massive book brings together every part of the Franken-Castle storyline, from the untimely carving up Frank receives from Daken in The List to him seeking out Daken for some retribution or "punishment" in the pages of Dark Wolverine and finaly his return to normality in Franken-Castle #21. I’m well aware that a lot of Punisher fans avoided this arc on the grounds that it sounded stupid so I’ve written a larger than normal review explaining why you should all give it a try. I DOUBLE DARE YOU!!!

ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN BOOK 1 review

Review of All Star BATMAN and ROBIN volume 1 graphic novel

Writer: Frank Miller

Art: Jim Lee

Review by Stewart Loud

I'm a huge fan of Frank Millers work and even though I don't read much Batman, his Dark Knight Returns story is one of my all time favourite comics so I was shocked and amazed at just how much of a mess this re-telling of Robin's recruitment into Batman's war against crime was.

ULTIMATE AVENGERS 2: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT review

ULTIMATE AVENGERS 2: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT graphic novel.

Collects Ultimate Comics: Avengers 2 #1-#6

Writer: Mark Millar.

Art: Lenil Francis Yu.

Review by Stewart Loud.

I'm a big Mark Millar fan and I'm a huge Punisher fan so when I spotted this on a shelf in a comic shop in Leeds I had to own it!
Mark Millar writing a Punisher story is a bit of a dream come true for me and the opening section of the book is mainly Punisher related criminal murdering shenanigans, with the Punishers trademark cold,dry dialogue and inner monologue expertly written by Miller so I wasn't disappointed. Also the Ultimate version of Frank Castle is an ex cop so it's nice to have a fresh version of the Punisher to get in to. However, the book isn't solely about him so here's what else you can expect.

JUDGE DREDD vs ALIENS review

Review of JUDGE DREDD vs ALIENS: Incubus graphic novel

Originally published in 2000ad progs 1322-1335

Writers: John Wagner/Andy Diggle

Art: Henry Flint

Review by Stewart Loud

Judge Dredd proves once and for all that, no, he isn't frightened of anything when he goes head to head with science fictions most fearsome face biter in one of the best, and most obvious comic book crossovers since Alien and Predator.

There have been quite a few comic book crossovers involving the Aliens creatures over the years. Predator, Batman even Superman. Some have worked well and some have just been plain awful so I was relieved to discover that the collision between Geiger's iconic monster and 2000ad's flagship character falls firmly into the category of Aliens crossovers that work.

MARVEL UNIVERSE vs THE PUNISHER review

Review of Marvel Universe vs The Punisher hard back graphic novel.

Collects Marvel Universe vs The Punisher #1- 4

Writer: Jonathan Mayberry

Art: Goran Parlov

Review by Stewart Loud

Once again, Frank shows everyone what an uncompromising, unstoppable tough guy he is by kicking the spandex off of the rest of the Marvel Universe in this alternate universe/what if story of a world in ruins after the global epidemic of a doomsday virus that turns almost every single human being, super powered or otherwise, into a savage cannibal. Bring on the punishment!

XIII books 6-7 THE JASON FLY CASE and THE NIGHT OF AUGUST THIRD review

Review of XIII books 6-7 The Jason Fly Case and The Night Of August Third

Writer: Jean Van Hamme.

Art: William Vance.

Published by Cinebook.

Review by Stewart Loud.

This week I'm doing the write-up for the latest couple of books publishers, Cinebook, have kindly sent over for me to review.

Jumping straight in at books 6 and 7, the back story is quickly recapped and we're introduced to Jason Fly, a man who, after waking with terrible amnesia and injuries with no memory of his past or who he is whatsoever, has so far discovered that he used to work as some sort of American government super operative after taking part in a top secret, black ops training program and was subsequently injured (in the brains) causing his total memory loss. Now he wonders the land looking for information and people that might help him piece together his life and help him regain some memory of who he used to be, all the while being hunted by shadowy government agencies and assassins who want him dead because of what he might discover.

PUNISHER IN THE BLOOD #1-5 review

Review of Punisher: In The Blood 5 issue mini series from Marvel Comics.

Writer: Rick Remender
Art: Roland Boschi, Bertilorenzi and Dan Brown

Rick Remenders outstanding Punisher run climaxes with this fantastic 5 part story picking up right where Franken-Castle left off with The Punisher returning to the streets of New York 100% human to once again take on the criminal underworld and in particular track down his old partner Microchip, who after being resurrected by The Hood during the Dark Reign had worked with The Hood against The Punisher and played a part in the attempted resurrection of Franks family.