Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Quick GN Reviews

The Ride
by a bunch of folk
Image, $9.99

Created by Keven Gardner, The Ride attempts to bring mindless action movies to the comics page, and in that it largely succeeds. The premise behind this anthology is that a particular 1968 Camero ends up being involved in a variety of high-octane situations: A high-octane Hong Kong gangster shoot-out, a police hunt gone bad, a deadly insurance scam, etc. The stories succeed or fail largely based on the artist; some, like Cully Hamner and Brian Stelfreeze, are clearly at ease with this type of story, while others are not. For mindless action, it costs about the same as a movie ticket to a Hollywood action blockbuster, and will leave about as much of an impression.

Rating: 3 (of 5)



Dark Blue
by Warren Ellis & Jacen Burrows
Avatar, $8.95

Dark Blue begins like it's going to be another of Ellis's ultraviolent stories about one badass cop against the evil criminal that no one else can take down. Then about halfway through there's a big ol' plot twist, which mainly works because you're expecting this to be the standard Ellis story. As this is an Avatar comic, it has the expected R-rated disemboweling and whatnot, which of course Burrows is able to pull off. Told in just six economical ten-page chapters, this is Ellis & Burrows doing what they do well.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

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