The Man who Never was

Red Tithe by Robbie MacNiven My rating: 4 of 5 stars Going into this story after reading about the unique lore of the Carcharodon Astra chapter, I had a lot of expectations. Especially after reading about Tyberos the Red wake, who's a veritable beast, even when compared to your standard space marine. After reading it, those expectations were, may be 70-75% met you could say. The space sharks are a chapter whose founding is shrouded in mystery. A fleet-based chapter, they've been wandering the far fringes of the imperium for the past 10000 years, exiled for reasons unknown. There, they wage a silent never-ending war, against the horrors and threats which hide in the shadows, threatening to consume the Imperium. Based on their age, as well as the parts about them being exiled, my head cannon is that they might be the remnants of the legion belonging to one of the lost primarchs. Whatever the offenses of them or their gene father might be, they were condemned ...

For the Emperor by Sandy Mitchell My rating: 5 of 5 stars Caiphas Cain, Commissar and hero of the Imperium, is basically the 40k version of Tanya Degurechaff from The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Vol. 1: Deus lo Vult . if you haven't read that book yet, why haven't you? Go and read that right now. A simple descriptor of that story is a middle-aged man reincarnated as a young girl, becomes a conscripted child soldier in an alternate history pre-WWI era Imperial Prussia, with mages acting like aerial weapons. Where she uses her knowledge of real-world military history, as well as her considerable intellect, to commit war crimes which technically are compliant to the Geneva convention. Intrigued? Go read it. Caiphas Cain is much like Tanya, in the sense that, the last thing he wants to do, is to be in the frontlines fighting a war. Or facing down heretics, Xenos or chaos. Unfortunately for him, he happened to be form in the world of 40k, where according to ...

Death World by Steve Lyons My rating: 4 of 5 stars Imagine a group of soldiers, facing the predator. Now imagine, that every person in that group, is an 80s action movie protagonist, dripping with manliness, swag and regularly give one another, epic handshake like Dutch and Dillon from predator. Now Imagine, instead of a single predator, it's a planet full of predators. Now Imagine, if the entire fracking planet is the predator, and is trying to deal with these pesky creatures on it, like you would deal with mosquitoes irritating your skin. That would give you a near idea as to what you can expect from the novel Death World, by Steve Lyons. If features a mission embarked upon by the legendary members of the Catachan Jungle fighters. As they come across a planet designated as a 'death world'. In case anyone was wondering what that designation meant, it's quite literal and mentioned at the beginning. A little context on these guys. Thes...

Batman-superman World's Finest 4: Return to Kingdom Come by Mark Waid My rating: 4 of 5 stars It's good to see this story revisiting the continuity of Kingdom Come , and expand upon the backstories of those characters, how they came to their sorry, miserable, defeated states. Also, a good bookend to the story of David, introduced at the beginning of this run. The kid had serious Jason Todd vibes going for him. Even though he had Rafael level of anger issues, you feel bad for the kid, going through the entire cocktail of survivor guilt induced PTSD trauma, with a whole bunch of reality hopping side effects added on top. Even though Magog was a character you saw only in the Kingdom Come reality, and one that seemed to be created for the express purpose of serving as a more violent foil to Superman, it's good to get more fleshed-out backstory for him. As well as a cathartic ending for his arc of suffering and guilt. Even without those, ther...

The Gospel According to Artyom by Dmitry Glukhovsky My rating: 5 of 5 stars Note: This really should've been a review that comes after writing about the main story. But there is much for me to ponder over in regard to Metro 2033 , which requires a detailed discourse. So, here goes. // Spoilers for the main story // This short excerpt, more of an epilogue, is a companion piece to the main story of Metro 2033, added during a later edition, to provide more context as to the mental state of our protagonist Artyom. Following the destruction of the Botanical Gardens, and the Dark Ones' nest that was located in it, the whole metro rose in celebration, at the elimination of a dangerous threat to their existence. Artyom, who played an instrumental role in bringing about this victory, was hailed as a hero. Little do they know that their hero is a broken man, plagued with remorse and guilt. For only he knew, in the literal last minutes before their dem...

20th Century Boys, Volume 1: Friends by Naoki Urasawa My rating: 4 of 5 stars It's difficult not to draw the parallels between Naoki Urasawa's '20th Century Boys' and It by the master, Stephen King. After all, both have a group of kids, turn to adults, battling a greater evil through various time periods in their life. Yet that is where the comparisons end. Where Mr. King's work is one of pure horror, involving the malevolent soul consuming entity of Pennywise, Urasawa's work is more an intricate quagmire of suspense, conspiracy and revelations, through the lens of the major cultural events in several time periods. Generally, I have an aversion to suspense, mystery thrillers, because they focus too much of the twists and revelations, and eventually write themselves into a corner, necessitating the writers to pull something out of their ass to keep the story going. Also, in many of such stories, the characters are merely. the...

JLA: Earth 2 by Grant Morrison My rating: 4 of 5 stars Rating 4 out of 5 | Grade: B+; Beyond Good & Evil lies, the Multiverse Premise An unexpected visit from an Earth-2 version of Alexander Luthor (who is good) prompts the Justice League of our reality to travel to the parallel antimatter version of their earth, where morality if reversed. Good is bad, and Bad is Good. Luthor, the only superhero of this reality, is fighting a losing battle against the Crime Syndicate, filled with the evil counterparts of the Leaguers. This includes Ultraman (Superman), Superwoman (Wonder Woman), Owlman (Batman), Power Ring (Green Lantern) & Johny Quick (The Flash). Being the paragons of justice that they're the League is unwilling to let the billions of people in the antimatter reality suffer due to their overpowered overlords. Setting off to face off their evil mirrors, some would reaffirm their vow towards doing good, others would be forced to look...

The Devil's Pilot by Richard D. Nolane My rating: 3 of 5 stars Rating 3 out of 5 | Grade: B; WWII dogfights with Nazi Jets Here we are back again, indulging in the junk food of Alternate history fiction; what if the Nazis won the war. Only this time around they didn't. As what happened in the real world, WWII happened, and the allies defeated Imperial Japan by dropping the nukes on Hiroshima & Nagasaki. Everything is quiet on the eastern front. Only, the western front is still very much a contested battlefield. Downright catastrophic weather conditions saw the Landings at Normandy, as well as D-day, turn into a devastating failure. Much like the Persian fleet on the Greek shores, the allied naval offensive was blunted, and the Axis powers got a brief respite, allowing them to stay in the war late into 1946. The coinciding launch of the Lippisch .13a , the German ramjet prototype, swung the scale more in favor of the Germans, especially wh...

God Complex, Vol. 1: Dogma by Paul Jenkins My rating: 4 of 5 stars Rating 4 out of 5 | Grade: B+; The Gods of Olympus, rule over all mortals It was a couple of years back, when I picked up the series God Complex, written by Paul Jenkins. But for one reason or the other, I never continued the series, even though the first chapter was very much to my taste. Even without having any background about the premise of the story, what caught my eye was the cover art. In a rare instance, the cover art did what it was meant to, and drew in unsuspecting readers, promising them an engaging tale. I can’t point out what exactly about the cover caught my eye; objectively speaking it’s quite straightforward. It’s a solo pose of Hermes, one of the main ‘Rulers’ characters in the series, posing stoically. Other than the athletic frame, and dapper style waistcoat and pants, all other features, especially those where the all too important human features ought to be, are ...

Zombies vs. Robots vs. Amazons by Chris Ryall My rating: 3 of 5 stars Rating 3 out of 5 | Grade: B; Sardonic yet morbidly funny robots vs. dull Aliens. Plus, Amazons! I loved the premise of the Zombies Vs. Robots comic by Chris Ryall, with its dark comedy, and sardonic robots with sass equivalent to Marvin, the manic, paranoid, depressed robot from Dougles Adams' brilliantly hilarious The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy . So naturally, I wanted to explore more of this world, and how it came to such a depressing, yet hilarious stalemate between the undead & unfeeling. This collection features a series of standalone stories, some of which detail how (view spoiler) [ humanity, in its arrogance & hubris brought about the zombie plague, while experimenting with a time machine. Hardly the most original concept for the end of times (hide spoiler) ] The other part of the narrative focuses on a hidden population of Amazons, in paradise island, doing a good job at surviv...

DCeased by Tom Taylor My rating: 5 of 5 stars Rating 5 out of 5 |Grade: A+; Don’t you get it? We ARE The Walking Dead! Premise Darkseid, in his latest bid to invade earth, is once again thwarted by the Justice League and driven back to apokolips. Undeterred, he kidnaps Victor Stone a.k.a Cyborg, whom he believes to be one part of the vaunted Anti Life equation. The other is the essence from the Black Racer, the embodiment of death itself. But in combining cyborg’s life essence with the Black racer's deathly one, Darkseid gives rise to a catastrophe beyond his calculations, which then promptly kills the New God, and destroys Apokolips. Unfortunately while this was happening, Cyborg was teleported back to earth, and carried with him the corrupted plague that the Anti Life equation had become. It jumps from cyborg, to the world network, enslaving and corrupting anyone who were staring at a screen. The people who were exposed to the equatio...