Comic Quickies: A Fond Farewell

The Intrepids #6:  We begin this Comics Quickies with a fond farewell to what has steadily been one of my favorite comics for the past six months, The Intrepids.

I couldn't ask for much more in a comic; The Intrepids pretty much has it all.  From skilled, twist-filled, and fun writing, to art that gives the series a unique feel, and makes each page feel like a little gift, this is truly a wonderful comic.

If mad scientists, cyber bears, robo squids, attack monkeys, high-tech body modifications, action, humor, adventure, spy/special agent hi-jinks and dark pasts hold even a flicker of interest for you, then I urge you to give The Intrepids a shot.

If The Intrepids were a Batman, it would be the Adam West Batman.  If The Intrepids were James Bond it would be Roger Moore.  If The Intrepids were a wrestler it would be The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, and if it were a car, it would be a Delorean.

It may be too late to get your hands on the single issues, but there will be a trade collection coming soon so just keep an eye out and then give it a read.

I think this video captures how I feel about the end of The Intrepids.

Loose Ends #1:  This one bills itself as a '4 issue southern crime romance'.  The first issue, which takes place almost completely at a roadside dive bar, mostly delivers on that billing and acts predominantly as a set up for what is to come in the following issues.

I enjoyed the seedy setting, flawed characters, and dangerous regulars of Bobbi's Hideaway.  The story that takes place at the bar is quite interesting and filled with an interesting twist that has me intrigued for the next issue. There are still a few elements that are so far, unexplained but I expect, more shit will come to light in the coming issues.

On top of what looks to be some strong writing, Loose Ends also offers some great art, and comes in a slightly oversized format, with thick, high quality pages.  This is a comic that looks good, feels good, and reads uhm, good...shit, I couldn't make that work. You get the idea.

Mystery Men #4: Mystery Men is a comic series that started out pretty solid, with a moment or two that made me cringe, and has sadly, slowly deteriorated from there.

The biggest contributors to the decline has been the addition of the two latest team members, The Surgeon, and Achilles.  These two guys have pretty much ruined the comic for me.  Every time The Surgeon speaks it's in cheesy medical lingo.  For example, after he dispatches a cop with a syringe full of green...stuff, he declares: "My diagnosis: a feeble mind, leading to faulty detective work.  This operation is concluded...let's scrub down and compare notes."  Yeah, so bad, and there's others, that's just the first one I came to.

Achilles is a pain with the dialog too, but in his case, it's his conflicted inner dialog that drives me nuts.  Nothing has been done to make me care if he is a killer or not, so when he mentally whines about deciding to take someone's life, I find that it just annoys me.

Yeah, there's stuff to like about the comic, like other characters who are pretty cool, and interesting, there's some pretty great art as well, and the plot of the series is interesting, but I just flat out cant stand that there are guaranteed to be at least two groan inducing moments per issue.  Long story short, I wont be buying the fifth and final issue to this mini-series.