Trade Tales! - Exile on the Planet of the Apes

Next up for the month is a return to Boom Comics’ Planet of the Apes books. They had quite a few mini-series and even a main series that was supposed to bridge the gap between Battle for the Planet of the Apes and the first POTA movie. I looked at one of these minis a few years back and quite enjoyed it. I thought it fit well into the original series as a whole and gave an origin for Doctor Zaius.

It’s sequel is today’s pick: Exile on the Planet of the Apes. It mostly has the same team who did Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes. Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman were the writers. Instead of Hardman handling the art, those duties go to Marc Laming. Jordan Bellaire returned to do the colors for the first issue, but Darrin Moore did the rest for the story. Ed Dukeshire stuck around for the letters. So, what happens when humans start to rise up and attack apes?

 

Exile on the Planet of the Apes

Writers: Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman

Art: Marc Laming

Colors: Jordan Bellare and Darrin Moore

Letters: Ed Dukeshire

Editor: Dafan Pleban 

Tales from the $3.99 Bin! - Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers #10

Next up for the month is a quick look at the Boom Comics' version of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Who knew this series would catch fire the way it did? If someone told me that there would have been a pretty good Power Rangers comic series out there, I would have looked at them a little weird, and then go check it out. Right now, the series (and its spinoff) are doing their own thing after their major crossover, “Shattered Grid.” Which reminds me… How does “Comic Crossover Central” sound? It might be the name for my new blog.

Anyway, I’m not talking about a new blog today. I decided to look at the run and find something to talk about. Since the series is mostly full of story-arcs, I’ll be talking about Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers #10, a standalone issue. Kyle Higgins wrote the issue. Johnathan Lam handles the pencils and inks. There is a 2-page mini story at the end that’s done written by Steve Orlando and illustrated by Corin Howell. All I can really say about it is that it was pretty funny. It’s just a mini that has Bulk and Skull get tempted by Rita in being heroes. With all that said, how does one of my favorite Power Rangers deal actually deal with being a Ranger?

Favorites – 12 Favorite Black Characters in Comic Books

You know, I really haven’t done much for Black History Month here. I tend not to do much in February anyway. Heck, I’d rather talk about us any other time. Why regulate blackness to one month anyway? Maybe I shouldn’t complain since a lot of history could and does get swept under the rug. It’s also possible that I’m just filling up space with this paragraph. After all, I’m usually a dude with few words.

Since it’s Black History Month and Black Panther is finally coming to theaters, it’s time to get to this post. I’ve wanted to do this for a while but never knew when to do it. While there aren’t many, there are some cool black characters in comics. While some of them aren’t necessarily my favorites, there are some I really like. I especially like when they’re actually well-written. I’d probably say that Marvel uses them better but DC has good ones too. So, here are some of my favorite Black characters from comic books. It’s also not in any order either. First, I have some honorable mentions:

• Bishop (Marvel) – Lucas Bishop’s up here mostly because he may be the second black superhero I ever ran across. For those who don’t know, he’s another X-Man from the future. I first saw him on the 90’s X-Men cartoon. I thought his power set (he can absorb energy and use that energy) was pretty cool. There’s also the fact that was one of the only X-Men who had sense to carry weapons. That being said, I was not a fan of what the writers did with the character around the late 2000’s. How can you turn one of the only black dudes on the X-Men into a villain? At least he’s not like that now.
• Falcon (Marvel) – Sam Wilson isn’t really one of my favorites. Guys who fly and can communicate with birds aren’t my thing. I also haven’t read much of anything with him in it. Still, I did like his turn as Captain America when he was written by Nick Spencer. Yeah, it’s the guy who made Steve Rogers into a fascist. We can’t all be perfect. Also, Anthony Mackie has been killing it in the MCU. Maybe he gets to wield a shield in a later movie?
• Black Lightning (DC) – Then, there’s DC’s first black superhero. As you can tell by the name, Black Lightning has power over electricity. I really didn’t see any of Jefferson Pierce until Infinite Crisis. He was pretty cool in Brad Meltzer’s run on JLA. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen much from him since then. I haven’t even gotten to watch the CW show yet. I’ve heard that it’s good, so here’s hoping I can get some more Lightning goodness there.
• Bronze Tiger (DC) – Ben Turner, aka Bronze Tiger, is pretty much in the antihero side of things. While he has been a villain (especially on CW’s Arrow), he’s sometimes a good guy. I talked about him last month. While I haven’t read a lot on him, I like what I’ve read so far. He’s just a dude who’s awesome at martial arts. That’s cool to me. If you saw what I was posting last month, you’d see that.

Trade Tales! - Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes

I think it’s time to return to the Planet of the Apes. Back in 2011, Boom! Studios had acquired the license for Planet of the Apes. I think they still have it. They’d have to have it in order for that Star Trek/Planet of the Apes crossover to come out some time ago. Yes, someone had the awesome idea to have William Shatner and Charlton Heston meet in comic form. I’m not talking about that today though. One thing Boom! did do was try to bridge the gap between the fifth and first POTA movies. I really haven’t read much of those unfortunately.

Today’s book is a prequel to the first movie in that it’s supposed to take place 20 years before the 1968 movie. Betrayal of The Planet of the Apes was a miniseries that was released in 2011. I actually found this trade and another book at Books-A-Million on New Year’s Eve. I decided to take it light that night. The miniseries was written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman. Hardman also handled the art with the mini. Jordie Bellaire handled the colors and Ed Dirkshire handled the letters.

Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes

Writers: Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman

Artist: Gabriel Hardman

Colors: Jordie Bellaire

Letters: Ed Dirkshire

Editor: Dafna Pleban

Trade Tales! - Irredeemable Volume 1

“Mark Waid is Evil”... well, it has to be someone. I guess Joe Quesada, Dan Didio, Victor Von Doom, Satan, Random McRandomson, and Big McLargeHuge were already taken up by other people.

The final (sort of…) bad boy on the list is another one that I’ve only gotten into recently. It’s weird and maybe even sad because this one didn’t start out that way. In 2009, writer Mark Waid got with Boom! Studios to produce a comic about the world’s greatest hero becoming a villain. Irredeemable was its name and the hero/villain went by the name of the Plutonian. I never really had much interest in reading this mostly because I didn’t know who Boom! Studios was. Also, my wallet tends to do the talking. I did hear about how good the series was. When I decided to do this month, I searched for the first volume and got it for pretty cheap.

Mark Waid, a guy who should have been on a regular Superman book at one point in DC’s history, is the writer. The art is provided by Peter Krause. I have been exposed to some of his work before this and I’ve even talked about it here. He did some fill-in issues on The Adventures of Superman in the 1990’s. I remember not liking some of his artwork there too. I might not say the same about this now though. Ed Dirkshire did lettering and Andrew Dalhouse did the colors. So, let’s see what happens as a hero decides go all Anakin Skywalker/Hal Jordan/ insert any other hero that has gone bad.

Irredeemable: Volume 1

Writer: Mark Waid

Art: Peter Krause

Colors: Andrew Dalhouse

Letters: Ed Dukeshire

Editor: Matt Gangon