Drafted #1
Written by Mark Powers
Art by Chris Lie
Colors by Joseph Baker
Letters by Brian J. Crowley
Devil’s Due Publishing
Cover price: $3.50; On-sale: Sept. 12, 2007

In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. — President Ronald Reagan in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Forty-second session, September 21, 1987.

I’m one of those sore-headed skeptics who have never really believed an alien invasion would unite humanity.

I always thought if aliens attacked, half the countries on the planet would be scrambling to make deals with the invaders. Some groups of religious fanatics (and ALL religions have them) would welcome the end of the human race as “divine retribution” or “final judgment.” Others would waste valuable time blaming the government for being ill-prepared or the education system for not giving us the tools we need to stop invaders or even video games and hip-hop music for creating the kind of culture that would make an alien invasion possible.

In short, I don’t think a global invasion crisis would necessarily bring out the best in people. But the new comic book series Drafted, could make me change my mind.

Writer Mark Powers offers a grim fable of aliens who show up with an ultimatum: join them in fighting another group of aliens or be annihilated.

Give Peace A Chance
Frankie B. Washington’s series gives readers a lot for their money

Peace # 0-2
Created, written and drawn by
Frankie B. Washington
Cover by Crystal Correia
FWB Press
Cover Price $3.00; Available Now

Frankie B. Washington is man with big ideas.

In the first three issues of his epic comic series Peace, Washington destroys and creates a new universe, introduces the gods who run the universe, and re-imagines Boston as a futuristic city-state full of gang conflicts.

And that’s just the beginning.

For those who complain (as I often do) that readers just don’t get much for their money these days from comic books — rejoice! The three issues of Peace I read are so dense with plot and story, that I read all of them five times before even starting to review them and I was still finding new stuff with each re-reading.

The “0” issue begins with three cosmic entities, Om (the greatfather), Ura (the greatmother), and Mu (the “abstract entity” who is their off-spring). No sooner are these entities introduced when a bunch of even newer gods pop up. Ura creates primal Earth and Mu creates a pantheon of gods on Earth, each beginning with the letter “M” (Mertoth, Mystal, Madillo, Moxoma, etc.) This pantheon are known as “the Wildgods” despite the fact some of them have some fairly tame names such as “Mull,” “Mush,” and “Mang Mang.”

SAVED BY ZERO
Can Black Zero redeem a ruined post-apocalyptic world?

Ruin #1 of 3
Written by Tom Pinchuk
Art by Mike Gallagher
Letters by Phaedra Gallagher
Alterna Comics
Cover Price: $3

Post-apocalyptic science fiction is always tremendously depressing.

Whether it’s DC Comics Kamandi, or The Atomic Knights or Marvel Comics Killraven version of War Of The Worlds, or any of the hundreds of Earth-Conquered-By-Zombies comics currently available, the story unfolds in a predictable pattern:

We see a world not too different from our own, ruined by a natural disaster, or alien invasion, or the final World War or (insert your own favorite catastrophe here). We are supposed to identify with the unconquerable human spirit that refuses to surrender and struggles to regain its humanity against all odds.

But there is a much more melancholy and disturbing subtext. We are drawn in to the plight of people who watched helplessly as the world got pulverized like a Cub Scout in a mosh pit. In other words, we are expected to cheer for, and identify with, the losers.

Doesn’t everyone know it’s much easier to prevent world-wide cataclysm than to wait for a champion to arrive and fix everything after the big-doom happens? This is especially true in a totalitarian post-apocalyptic world ruled by an insane despot. I mean … didn’t anyone ever read anything by George Orwell?

In the Alterna Comics mini-series Ruin, we have all the key elements of good post-apocalyptic science fiction. Lord Carnus has ravaged the world, drowned armies, filled the oceans with blood, and enslaved the few remaining survivors. In short, he’s committed every imaginable crime against humanity except for giving Taylor Hicks a recording contract.

THE PRIVATE LIVES OF THE GODS
2007 Xeric Award Winner Erik Evensen takes a fresh look at some very old stories.

Gods of Asgard
Adapted and Illustrated by Erik Evensen
Letters by Matt Talbot
Additional Inks by Ken McFarlane
Published by Studio E3
On-sale date: Sept. 2007
Cover price: $14.99

Fans, scholars, and academics have often referred to comic books as “The Mythology Of 20th Century.”

However, many comic books have borrowed heavily from myths that are much, much older.

Wonder Woman has always been steeped in Greek mythology and many of her friends and allies through the years of been gods of the Greek pantheon. Thor, Hercules, and now Aries have long been featured characters in Marvel comic books and have fought with and beside standard superheroes. (In fact the trickster god Loki, in an effort to defeat Thor, inadvertently created the first team of The Avengers.) Captain Marvel gets his power from several mythical gods (and, for reasons I’ve never understood, the Biblical King Solomon — what’s HE doing hanging out with Mercury and Hercules?).

Now, Erik Evensen has produced a new look at the old gods in God Of Asgard, one of the most ambitious graphic novel projects of recent years.

Make no mistake — this is not a gods-as-superheroes project or even a gods-as-valiant warriors comic book. Using source material from the translation of Snorri Sturluson‘s Prose Edda; Bulfinch’s Mythology; Kevin Crossley-Holland‘s The Norse Myths, and numerous other sources, Evensen has created a work as richly satisfying as happy hour in Valhalla.

Although there are action/adventure stories in Gods Of Asgard, there are also plenty of “origin stories” of the various gods, stories of deceit, lust, friendship, loyalty, and just about every other aspect of the private lives of the Norse gods. All told clearly and orderly and all told with an obvious interest and affection for these ancient tales.

HIT AND MYTH
Alterna Comics presents a new horror anthology of uncommon quality.

Morbid Myths #2
Edited by Chris Carpenter
Stories by Dale Mettan and Dwayne Biddix
Penciled by Dwayne Biddix
Inked by Gary Mitchell
Alterna Comics
Cover Price: $3

There have been horror comic hosts as long as there have been horror comics.

There have been great horror comic hosts (such as The Crypt Keeper and The Old Witch in EC Comics), semi-great horror comic hosts (such as Caine from House Of Mystery and Abel from House Of Secrets over at DC Comics), horror comic hosts who really don’t serve any useful purpose (such as Dr. Graves from the old Charlton comic The Many Ghosts Of Doctor Graves), and horror comic hosts that are only there because they were based on TV shows that had hosts (such as The Twilight Zone comics and the comic adaptation of Boris Karloff’s Thriller).

The best of the horror comic hosts offer a narrative to introduce the story; tell us how we should feel about the “victim” of the story; (if we should feel sorry for the characters or if they deserve their fate) and then provide a kind of “closure” that gives the reader a sense of safety after they’ve just seen something terrible.

In short, a good horror comic takes a reader somewhere strange and terrible and a good horror comic host is the bus driver that gets you there, abandons you, and brings you back home afterward.

Morbid Myths is a horror comic with a pretty good host — his name is Job and he wears half a skull as a mask over half his face, the kind of half-mask The Phantom In Opera used in the terrible movie adaptation of the terrible Broadway musical.