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Comics: Take On Me

by Dee. 9/2/2022
Fellow comic enthusiasts: Once again, it's time for the monthly comic round-up. I present the following, from Marvel Comics Spider-Punk, from DC Comics New Champion of Shazam and from Dark Horse Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories.

Spider-Punk (Marvel Comics): Straight from Earth-138, (part of the known Spider-verse) comes Hobie Brown, Spider-Punk. Currently we are at issue 4, so you'll need to do some quick reading to catch up. The premise is this: Venomized Norman Osborn, who was President of the United States, is now dead. Chaos reigns, though our Spider-Punk and his merry band are struggling to get a handle on it. Some familiar Avengers and other characters are reimagined and have great character designs. Faced with Kraven and some skinheads, our heroes make short work of them. But they return the favor by picking up some unusually deadly alien tech.

The illustration is rough, a bit jagged around the outlines, and it couldn't suit the comic any better. The palette is bright, with lots of yellow backgrounds, and the tone of the comic is so tongue-in-cheek that you can feel the energy jumping off the pages. There's fast-paced action and enough information to not feel completely lost in this universe. The splash pages during fight scenes are well put together and flow very well. For those who might be concerned, the foul language is censored, so the age range on the book could easily be around 10+. Otherwise, the superheroic level violence isn't graphic or concerning.

New Champion of Shazam (DC Comics): Mary Bromfield (aka Mary Marvel of the Marvel Family) has newly lost her powers, and is coming to grips with her mundane life journey outside of the superhero one as a college freshman. A message via talking bunny comes to her during orientation, telling her that she's the next champion of Shazam. With a supervillain terrorizing people at the bank, she activates her power, jumping right back into her familiar role.

The art on this is amazing, as Evan "Doc" Shaner (Man of Steel, Supergirl, Doom Patrol) brings an art style that looks perfect for Mary Marvel, whether one of the more serious panels or the light-hearted romp that is this book. The script flows nicely, with only a brief mention of how everyone in the family lost their powers. I look forward to reading more issues of this, to see what themes they tackle outside of "well, I guess I have supercharged powers now".

Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories (Dark Horse): This is an all-ages Star Wars anthology comic, which promises that they focus on all different parts of the SW timeline. In this story, Obi-Wan and Anakin are off on a mission to recover hostages from the Separatists, and they run into General Grievous. Since this is only the first issue, there is a protracted fight scene, but it's always fun when lightsabers are involved.

The comic is not photo-realistic to Ewan McGregor et al, which might be a distraction for some fans, but the script feels true to the characters. The colors are nice and bright, with most of it being shades of blue and brown. The story felt a little rushed, but if they are looking to do one story per issue, it needs to move pretty fast. I just hope that we see more of particular characters who are secondary, as Mace Windu, Yoda and the little wookie girl from this story deserve to shine more.

That's all, folks,
Dee
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