Evil Ernie #4
Written by Jesse Snider
Art by Jason Craig
Colors by Maxflan Araujo
Letters by Troy Peteri
Covers by Ardian Syaf, Dan Brereton, Kyle Hotz, Stephen Segovia
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: February 13, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

Evil Ernie is shaping up to be more than just a splatterhouse comic. Oh, don’t worry, there’s plenty of delicious limb cleaving and ball eating. Yes, ball eating. This series is sick. But, Evil Ernie is displaying much more character development and meticulous plotting than you’d ever expect from the comic subgenre of gratuitous violence.

In the last issue, Ernie ran into Uriel the archangel who told him that his true destiny was to lead Heaven’s war against Hell. Uriel was right in the middle of trying to save Ernie’s soul when Smiley revealed himself as a demonic, facehugging parasite and stabbed him in the head. Evil Ernie #4 was all teed up for a huge showdown between Smiley and Ernie. However, after a little sitdown, Ernie shelves his moral crises and instead focuses on his missing arm and surviving the chaos unleashed at the Widmark maximum security prison.

Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt #4
Written by Steve Darnall & Alex Ross
Illustrated by Jonathan Lau
Colors by Vinicius Andrade
Letters by Simon Bowland
Covers by Alex Ross & Stephen Segovia
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: December 12, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt #4 is one fantastic comic book! It’s got a very old school vibe, yet it’s set in modern times, making it one of the few properties that can actually work in modern day. Dynamite has done other pulp heroes and wisely left them in their original time frame, but the creative team proves that Peter Cannon can be updated for current times with great success.

Steve Darnall and Alex Ross bring you an action-packed, well thought out, fun, and entertaining comic to us this month. There is SO much going on in this book, it’s crazy. You’ve got about six different mysteries and subplots running at the same time, yet it’s never confusing or misleading. This issue in particular is a lot of build up to what’s coming, yet the writers are able to weave some great action seamlessly into the story without going out of their way and making it awkward. The character of Peter Cannon is SO interesting, I dare say he’s one of the most entertaining characters in comics today. He’s a modern day guru with deep, dark hidden secrets and he’s also headed towards a war that he probably won’t win. Yet, the character is never bogged down in needless self pity; he’s a true hero and there’s a lot of those missing in comics today.

Evil Ernie #2
Written by Jesse Snider
Art by Jason Craig
Covers by Ardian Syaf, Dan Brereton, Kyle Hotz, Stephen Segovia
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: November 14, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

Evil Ernie‘s origin story continues with issue #2, and what a friggin’ bloodbath! The goopy, fleshy parts of helpless sinners just drip off the page. Ernie goes on a rampage hunting down his father within a prison, and anyone who gets in Ernie’s way is subject to his wrath of violence. Well, anyone who’s a sinner; a prison complex is an all-you-can-maim buffet of sinners for Ernie to feast upon. Unfortunately, Ernie’s father is a slippery sonofabitch who may avoid meeting his maker.

Smiley plays a much more prominent role in this issue as Ernie’s cohort. While rampaging through the horde of sinners who attempt to take Ernie down, Smiley lets him in on a useful tidbit: all of Ernie’s violent awesomeness isn’t free–like a battery, he can run out of juice. Hmmm, I wonder what this giant hint is foreshadowing? Ernie is a living(?) hypocrite of an anti-hero. However, he revels in his hypocrisy and gleefully tells his victims that he’ll meet them in Hell. He’s one of them.

X-Treme X-Men #1
Written by Greg Pak
Pencils by Stephen Segovia
Inks by Dennis Crisostomo
Colors by Jessica Kholinne
Letters by VC’s Joe Sabino
Covers by Julian Totino Tedesco and Salvador LaRrocca with Marte Garcia
Marvel Comics
Release Date: July 25, 2012
Cover Price: $2.99

After reading X-Treme X-Men #1, I found myself doing something I haven’t done in years….actually CARING about the X-Men. Although I’m a huge fan of “The Wolverine,” the X-Men as a whole, seems to bore me. I haven’t really cared about them since the late 80s/early 90s when it was Beast, Angel, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, and Iceman. I’ve tried a bunch of differnt times to get back into them, almost every reboot or restart, to fail time and time again…until now.

Writer Greg Pak writes a VERY entertaining first issue, actually a very entertaining issue in general, here putting a spin on the X-Men team that we haven’t quite gotten before. A team of X-Men from a different dimension are sent on a mission by a Charles Xavier floating head to destroy 10 different Charles Xaviers across the multiverse.

The Shadow #3
Written by Garth Ennis
Art by Aaron Campbell
Colors by Carlos Lopez
Letters by Rob Steen
The Shadow created by William B. Gibson
Covers by Alex Ross, Howard Chaykin, John Cassaday & Stephen Segovia
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: June 20, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

You know the great thing about The Shadow #3? IT’S ONLY THE THIRD ISSUE! It’s only the third issue and we’ve gotten SO much story!! I can’t really imagine how this title is going to read when it gets into the teens. So far each installment has been PACKED with information and storytelling, and this issue is no different.

Garth Ennis proves that this is definitely NOT your father’s Shadow. Or, actually, your grandfather’s Shadow. First off, a lot of times foreign enemies are portrayed as helpless stereotypes. Basically the Star Wars Stormtroopers of history. Not so, here. They are portrayed as cunning, smart, and perfectly capable of destroying the United States and whatever else they plan to conquer. That’s the first brilliant part of Ennis’ writing.