The Man who Never was

Daemonifuge by Kev Walker My rating: 4 of 5 stars Rating 4 out of 5| Grade: B+; Nuns with guns, in Space! The Adepta Sororitas, or the Sisters of Battle always had a special place in my cold dead mechanical necron heart. There is something so mesmerizing about Nuns in space unloading a truck load of lead onto the heretic, mutant & xenos in one hand, and on the other hand preach the holy word of the Emperor so that you may reach salvation that only his divine grace may bring forth. Plus there are a slap in the face of anyone who says that nerds only like female characters in scantily clad 'boob armor'. The Sororitas are an insult to such comments. I mean, look at them, clad in armament & swagger. They are the freaking emperor's favorite daughters. Plus, plus, there are much needed inclusion in the sausage fest that is the Imperial roster, filled with Astartes, Mechanicus & the Imperial guard. I mean, the Aeldari & Drukh...

Punisher/Batman: Deadly Knights #1 by Chuck Dixon My rating: 3 of 5 stars Rating 3 out of 5| Grade: C ; Drown em in lead! The second entry in the Batman/ Punisher crossover, is more of the same, when it comes to the balls to the wall action. As one would expect from a comic featuring the duo. One notable difference is how, this time around, Frank Castle will be encountering not the emotionally conflicted murder machine Jean Paul Valley, but the OG caped crusader. Which is a breath of fresh air, as their encounter is exactly what you'd expect. Castle, the emotional brawler, who has no hesitation to leave a crowd of bodies in his ways, vs the cold, calculating restraint, and refined fighting force which is Batman, who, as Frank rightly points out, is crazy enough to jump into gun fights with his bare fists, and skilled enough to actually win. The antagonists this time around are the Joker & Jigsaw, which leads me to question whether or ...

Batman/Punisher: Lake of Fire #1 by Dennis O'Neil My rating: 3 of 5 stars Rating 3 out of 5 |C; A Blast from the past God, the Jean Paul Valley Batman, that takes you back. Remember when Batman's back was broken by Bane in the now infamous Batman: Knightfall, Part One: Broken Bat storyline. And how he chose the antihero, or rather the overzealous hero Azrael as his successor. You know, the guy that was indoctrinated & brainwashed by a religious cult to be the enforcer for St. Dumas, and was not all right up in the head? Who then ended up doing a shit poor job donning the cowl, let a bunch of people die, and had to be taken down by the OG Batman? Man, the 90s comics landscape was a real wild time. Frankly, the only decent thing he did was take down Bane, like a beast. Anyways, this comic crossover, takes place in that brief period where, Jean Paul Valley was still the Batman. As you'd expect from the era, it's dark, depres...

Zombies Vs. Robots by Chris Ryall My rating: 4 of 5 stars Rating 4 out of 5 |B+; Life? Don't talk to me about life. Premise: Humans discovered a technology which made time displacement possible. But, in an inverse case to the Terminator, organic matter gets annihilated during the trip. So, they created robots of various classes, to travel as proxies and collect necessary scientific information. Something went wrong, it was postulated that one of the robots might’ve accidentally brought back a virus, either from the past or future. But this resulted in the spread of a zombie virus in the human world. A portion of the human population succumbed to the virus. Another portion got turned into the undead, and preyed on those who remained uninfected. Perhaps in a bid to augment their fast dwindling fighting force, the humans commissioned various military class robots, to serve as a bulwark against the spread of the Zombies. This proved to be a stop ...

Damnation Crusade by Dan Abnett My rating: 5 of 5 stars Rating 5 out of 5 |Grade: A; For the Emperuh, Hell Yeah! After reading a slew of sub-par 40K graphic novels, with at best, passable art style and story, Damnation Crusade was a much needed breath of fresh air. Then again, what else can you expect from the mind that penned, Horus Rising & Eisenhorn . Damnation Crusade, follows the centuries old journey of a Black templar Space marine Raclaw, from the time he was first recruited from his war torn home world (which world isn't in 40K), to being a prospective aspirant, to a rookie neophyte, a war hardened battle brother, to the highest honor in the chapter, being entombed in an Imperial dreadnaught christened Tankred, called to serve in times of dire need. Now here's the thing you need to know about Imperial Dreadnought. They are perhaps the single most important, valuable and venerated war resource for their respective chapters. Not on...

Animal Farm: The Graphic Novel by Odyr My rating: 4 of 5 stars “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm Whenever anyone starts talking about some of the most relevant & enduring works of the 20th century, one would be remiss if not mentioning the works of George Orwell such as 1984 & Animal farm. And for good reason. If learning history teaches us not to repeat our past mistakes, then Orwell is the man who has distilled tomes upon tomes worth of philosophical, ideological & political thoughts into a manner which is easily digestible to the laymen, without needing to delve into the manifestos which govern those political ideologies. One need not read a hundred or so political treatises by historians or analysts regarding the rise & fall of communism in its flagship enterprise of the Soviet Union. (Although it’ll do you good, if you were to expend the time & effort to do so...