Writer: Tom Beland
Artist: Juan Doe
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99

I enjoy a well-written Fantastic Four. Sort of like a cheeseburger, you know? A good cheeseburger reaffirms your life, makes you passionate about eating a cow again. A nasty cheeseburger, using the wrong cheese or not cooked all the way though will turn you off from meat forever, damning you to the bottom end of vegan-hood! A bad Fantastic Four comic will do the exact same thing. Fortunately, this isn't a bad Fantastic Four comic.

The basic premise is simple enough. Ben Grimm leaves the pleasure and comfort of the Baxter Building once a year for a few days but never tells anyone where he's going. Of course, the rest of the team can't stand Grimm having any kind of personal life, so they sneak around and are nosey until they find out that Ben Grimm has his own island full of fans that treat him like a hero, in love with his orange skin and sunny disposition. Not all is blue skies and ice cream, however. Underneath the surface, something dark and semi-evil is about to explode, with devastating repercussions! Well, not that devastating, but you get the point.

The art and the words. They make this comic grade A good. The characterization in the dialogue sums up the Fantastic Four perfectly. It really isn't hard to write these characters. They are all so different. But to make them interesting and worth reading, that is a tough order. And the conversations are more important than the typical junk comics tend to fly around. Ben Grimm has "issues" and this comic explores some of it. It does get a bit serious and heavy-handed at times, but not enough to turn any one off.

The art is wonderful, too. More and more, I enjoy a book where the artist does the inks, pencils, and coloring, all the work. It makes for a more enjoyable read, like the artist has a plan. The coloring, the facial expressions, the backgrounds, all of it looks amazing and deserves praise.

I'm sort of sick of all the one-shots bouncing around, but this one is worth your time, dime, and attention.

On Another Note: Like most of you, I just read the end of the Spider-man arc, One More Day. I am appalled. I know it is just a comic. And I know that, in time, Mary Jane and Peter will be back together. But I think it is the stupidest, most idiotic, most absurd decision I've ever seen in a comic in the seventeen years that I've been reading. Because of this, I refuse to read another Spider-man comic book until things are back the way they should be. I'm not doing this as a form of protest. I don't feel like reading the garbage they've reduced the character to.

RATING: 4.5/5

Story by Michael Town, David Elliot and Ronald Shusett
Script and Art by Steve Pugh
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.50

Water-based entertainment is always a hard sell. There are many reasons for this. One, most of us don't live in the middle of the ocean. That fact saddens me. Two, there aren't a lot of intense situations in the middle of the ocean. You have sharks, you have boats, you have storms and that's about it. I mean, what's the big deal about a bunch of water? Shark-man is cool because its adds something to the mix that makes the story compelling and interesting: Human drama.

Shark-man takes place in the fictional New Venice City. It was designed to be a utopia, free from all the hassles of the main land. The founder of the city fashioned himself a water-world Bruce Wayne, complete with a cave, some awesome gadgets, an outfit, the whole nine. But the twist to the story happens when all that is taken away from him. I won't ruin anything for you, but this story has the typical formula of "the new guy" and a "secret villain". You'll want to read the next issue just to see how the mystery will unfold. Whether the unfolding is interesting as the initial slam-bang opening is debatable. But I was hooked and ready to get issue two.

There are three things that make this book compelling. One, the setting. New Venice City is positively amazing and as complicated as it needs to be. There is political intrigue, police, coast guard, the works. Imagine how hard it would be to keep a city floating in the middle of the ocean? It's good stuff and I have the sense that the writer's have taken all the details into consideration. Two, the art work is positively amazing. Just incredible. This is one really, really good looking book. I'm worried that the comic won't stay on a time table, because of it. If this book can come out regularly, it could be a smash hit. Three, the writing is very talented. The reader isn't spoon feed. The script is crisp and clean, with nothing hindering the story. It isn't too complex and it isn't boring or over done. I want to say "perfect" but I don't want to get hated on for it. [Editor's Note: You can do it for any Image book, Jarvis, because I won't read it.] It is really good. How about that.

The one thing that will hinder this book is its "Image" standing. This book might slide under the radar, unless Image is prepared to do some wonderful Marketing. I wish DC would have given Aquaman this kind of love. Or Marvel treating Namor with this level of attention. Comic readers don't want to read about Atlanteans or whatever living under the sea. We want to deal with real-live people we can relate to. The big wigs should read this comic and take notice. This is how you write a water-super-dude.

RATING: 5/5

Writer: Peter David
Art: Jorge Lucas
Inks: Robert Campanella
Colors: Brad Anderson
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99

There are three comic characters that I love. Spider-man. Batman. The Hulk. These are characters that I dig on, love, can't get enough of. In my opinion, there is no one working on Spider-man that is worth a (bleep). Batman has Grant Morrison penning him, so he's in good hands. And the only, THE ONLY, writer who can do the Hulk justice is Peter David. I didn't ask you to agree with me. I'm stating a fact.

This particular Hulk story is a bit off on some places, but it hits a certain point that I enjoy. The Hulk is gone, looking for some peace. He runs into a research team that is studying global warming. A researcher comes across Fin Fang Foom and all hell breaks loose. Well, not really. But that's part of the problem.

When you have the Hulk, you don't put him in a situation where nothing breaks or goes boom. That is the joy of the Hulk. You can mess with him as much as you want, the guy isn't going to die. World War Hulk was a bit, well, ambitious. But they knew how to write a comic. Hulk + buildings going boom = Happy Jarvis. I don't understand why Peter David would put the Hulk in the middle of a snowstorm. Especially with Fin Fang Foom. The fight scene is about four pages long and somewhat boring. I mean, its Fin Fang Foom. The guy can level a skyscraper with a sneeze. Just feels like a lost opportunity.

The art for this book is amazing. The best "old school" impersonation I've seen in awhile. And even though there are only four colors in the whole issue, they are vivid colors and makes the book ping.

It's a good comic. Worth the money and the time? Not really. But, with the "red" Hulk comic coming towards us like a Mack Truck, this might be the last time you get a fresh, true Hulk comic you get in a while.

RATING: 4/5

Story and Script: Alex Sheikman, and David Moran
Art: Alex Sheikman
Publisher: Archaia Studios
Price: $3.95

I want to get something out there right now. I am a card-carrying geek. I am. If it is geeky, then I at least have heard of it. That's standard. Nothing's changed and everything is strange. However, just because something is sci-fi rooted and weird does not mean I have to like it. I do have to respect it, give it the dues it deserves. But just because you toss in some swords, some guns, drugs and a monkey does not mean I have to like something. It might help, but it isn't a guarantee.

That is my biggest problem with Robotika: For a Few Rubles More. I never had the chance to read the first series. I shouldn't have to read the first of something just to understand a sequel. Pieces of media should be stand alone. Going into Robotika 2, I was somewhat confused, but still followed things. A drug is being manufactured, most likely using dead people. And this drug is the best drug ev-foor! Some people make it and other people are willing to kill to get it. A warlord is in charge of some place. And the entire world is like the wild west meets samurai-Japan meets the Matrix. Wait, not the original Matrix. Matrix: Reloaded. Ugh. Oh, and there is a monkey. Yep. A monkey.

I'm fine with things being strange, but the strangeness can only be appreciated if things are clear. Is it so hard to give a brief summary? Let me know where I am? What's going on? Is that hard? Why do I have to constantly guess about stuff? Then feel stupid when I'm wrong? This is the same exact thing I feel like I deal with when I read my students work for the first time. It's like they are so excited about telling a story, they rush to the climax, forgetting the build up altogether.

The art of Robotika:FFRM is good enough to carry this book, however. I like it a lot. The artist likes drawing a lot, too, because there are plenty of panels that were drawn first, plotted out second. It's obvious. I worry about the book coming out on time. Artists who like to draw pretty pictures are notorious for being late. Cross your fingers. Once again, I feel like this book is a vector for the artist, leaving the writing behind. There are some interesting concepts, but I couldn't invest into them because so much was left out. It is worth a flip through, which is more than I can say for some other books out there.

RATING: 4/5

Writers: Mike Carey, Macon Bliar
Artists: Vasilis Lolos, Scott Kolins
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $3.99

Like a lot of people, I could go either way with Wolverine. I respect him, and I like him when he is with the right teams or written by the right writer. But there was a time where Marvel just put him in a comic just to sell books. Well, they are still doing that, actually. Wolverine in the Avengers? Um, weird. But you can't complain about him too much. He is a great character and, given the proper creative team, he can be amazing.

Wolverine: Firebreak is a good example of this. Logan gets caught in a fire and is blinded by the chemicals. He stumbles across a family and has to help them get out of there while Hydra agents try to kill them. It just works. Wolverine being blind ads a great element to the narrative. He is a walking tank usually. Here, he shows a sign of weakness and vulnerability. He might die. Or worse, he might get the people he's trying to help killed. This is classic, mean Wolverine. He's not soft and cuddly. There is a reason why he doesn't baby sit too often. The family he is helping are also more interesting than the usual comic book fare, with their own internal problems and trepidations. Mike Carey is really showing his talent. The comic just shows that some people have writing skills and, with proper motivation, will produce a good book.

Two things bother me, though. One, this book has a back up story that is alright, but not nearly as good as the first one. It has some government agency crap with villains and killing and the usually boring "meh". I'm not impressed and I'm rather sure I've read it before. This shows that Marvel isn't one-hundred percent behind plain ol' solid story telling. Firebreak could be one solid story, no problem. Two, the price, which might be tied to the book having two stories. I can say, easily, that this book could have sold twice as many copies if it was one story at half the price. That is the only reason why I can't give this book a solid, easy 5/5. It is worth a read, and hopefully will be bundled in a TPB in the future.

RATING: 4.5/5