New comic book Wednesday has come and gone. The dust at your local comic shop has settled. An eerie silence descends as you finish reading your last superhero book of the week. Now it's time for something a little more sinister. Welcome to Bagged and Boarded: comic reviews of the sick, spooky, twisted and terrifying!
Constantine No. 6John Constantine, the world's most popular a-hole magician/detective, is dying. He's a bloody mess (actually bloody, I'm not affecting his accent here) and his friend Lloyd is running out of time and options. Zatanna's not answering the phone (remember, this is Constantine from DC Comics, not Hellblazer by Dark Horse) and Constantine's metaphysical umbilical chord is about to snap. And when that happen's he's dead dead, for real. But friends and foes all sniff an opportunity, and an epic struggle ensues literally over his dead body.
Bag it or board it up? Don't mind the fact that Constantine was just seen last week not dying, acting as possessed villain against Swamp Thing in his monthly. That's just a small timing issue, I assume. This issue is a blast, it makes me want to read all the Constantine I can, and I recommend you do the same. This series is great, and hasn't lost much of its charm in the big switch to DC.
Ghosted No. 2The gang of con artists, paranormal investigators, and psychic mediums continue their quest to pull of the biggest heist in history. They're tasked with stealing a ghost! This issue we see the gang setting up equipment, making plans in the mansion (during the daylight), and generally scoping things out. When one of the spectral thieves stumbles into a secret room he's teleported onto a weird, disjointed plane for a moment. Things are definitely not what they seem...
Bag it or board it up? And why should things be just like what they seem? This is an easy read, a fun romp, and I bet it's going to get very weird. I like issue two much more than I liked the first issue, and I liked the first issue quite a bit. I think that's because of the dip into the truly bizarre. This is not going to be just a simple ghost story. I'll be keeping up with this series, for sure.
It Came!It's somewhere around 1958. In the British countryside a giant something crashes into the ground. Suddenly a giant, metal, alien robot monster raises from the dust and stomps his way toward London. Sounds straightforward, right? Well, it is, but this comic is not! This comic is designed to look like you're watching a cheesy late '50's B-movie. The color is all black and white and gray, there are inserts designed to look like advertisements for products and other films, and the end of this comic even features faux-IMDB pages for the two "actors" playing the characters in the comic.
Bag it or board it up? So. Meta. Can't. Think. Straight. I love this idea, I love when people play with the medium. These guys are creative, bright, and doing something very interesting and new. I've seen some comics try something similar to this, but these guys are knocking it out of the park. What a treat this was to read!
The Walking Dead No. 113Poor Rick. You're always so screwed. Rick's pinned down by the psychopath Negan and his followers. He's staring down a baseball bat wrapped with barbed wire. His son is separated from him (probably for the best right now), and Andrea is busy with a psychopath in her sniper spot. Things are looking bad, and this is a very tense episode.
Bag it or board it up? Some people will call this issue one of those issues where "nothing happens." Those people don't get it. Don't listen to them. There is so much character play going on in this issue. Even though all the characters are pinned down and in a stand-off the comic will still get your heart pumping. This issue is as close to a Tarantino film as The Walking Dead is ever going to get. When are we going to get to this storyline on the show? I wouldn't miss a second of it. This has been a great week for horror comics with these four really solid titles, and a good Dead issue is just the icing on the gory, horrific, haunted cake.