#Drawing - Beware the Jabberwock!

And because I'm a big Adam Strange fan and I absolutely adore his Assassin's Creed-esque take on Young Justice...

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun, the frumious Bandersnatch!”

His last name is Strange

CBR Strange Adventures

 

Once more, Adam Strange is confronted with some more Strange Adventures, this time again under Jim Starlin's pen.

Last time, it seemed the Rann–Thanagar War was once and for all over...or was it really?

Don't miss out my previous Adam Strange-related reviews!

Mystery in Space

Adam Strange: Man of Two Worlds

Adam Strange: Planet Heist

Rann–Thanagar War
Countdown to Adventure
Rann/Thanagar: Holy War

Comic title: Strange Adventures
Art by Jim Starlin, Manuel Garcia, Rafael Albuquerque, Michael Schoyket & Scott McDaniel
Story by Jim Starlin

Published by DC Comics
From 2009
Lineup Adam Strange, Rann/Thanagar; Captain Comet
Format: Trade paperback collecting the entire 8-issue limited series.

The "mysteries in space" continue!
Adam Strange confronted to an epic adventure of cosmic proportions...again!

This story is actually a direction continuation of Strange's latest space adventures, for this it follows the threads left open in Rann/Thanagar Holy War with mostly the same cast of characters.

Our hero Adam Strange hasn't been having it easy as of late.
The Earth-born archeologist who had been transported to Ranagar by accident originally saw his wife die once, his adopted planet Rann get stolen, the nearby planet Thanagar crushed into the sun only to have all that population invade his world, a relocation to the planet Throneworld after the destruction of their homeworld, an intergalactic war erupt among the system and finally a dangerous cult trying to destroy all life in the universe.

Finally with some time to catch a breath, Strange has been patrolling the now vacant space with his wife Aleanna and his own squad of rocketpack-equipped trained Rannians.
That is when Adam noticed some stars were missing in the sky. Has some planets been disappearing lately?
But only Strange seems to have notice so, his father-in-law Sardath doesn't seem to believe these disillusions..

Strange Adventures follows the so-called Aberrant Six Jim Starlin was hinting in the previous "Holy War".
The villain Synnar (a Thanos-like figure, the same type of villain Starlin depicted that Marvel space villain while he was working over there in the 90s) has not been destroyed, but rather displaced, his powers given to the unstable The Weird by accident.

Actually the main characters here seem to specially by Adam Strange, continuing his various plots from his recent series (the role of a leader he should pursue over the adventurous past he had), The Weird Jim Starlin actually created in 1988 and finally brought back to the front scene in these new stories, and finally Comet aka the all-new revamped Captain Comet from another Jim Starling recent series.

The story also focuses on others, like Eye another DC space villain/anti-hero who's personally connected to Comet.
The current Starman, the prince from the now depopulated Throneworld planet, which he offered to the Rannians and was renamed "New Rann".
And finally Bizarro, the failed Superman clone, who sorts of land on this adventure quite randomly.

The Bizarro side stories were originally presented as back-up features, but work quite well here as little segments cutting the bigger story, each new chapter. They usually feature guest artists, such as Rafael Albuquerque or Scott McDaniel. with a more cartoony "blocky" artstyle which works great for Bizarro.

Adam Strange teams up with these space heroes once more to investigate the new danger arisen and to try to stop the disappearing of these galaxies.
But by bringing the Weird back to normal, won't they be giving the power back to Synnar, only to risk having to stop him another day??

It's a much better and more focused story than Starlin's last.
While there he had trouble jumping from a character to another, here it's a bit more streamlined and straight forward. Also the cast's much simpler to handle here.
Jim Starlin also takes on art duty at some points, with his gorgeous and realistic art, fitting for this kind of story.

Overall, it's much better than the past Rann/Thanagar: Holy War story line.
Less characters, less messy plot. Some threads are kinda forgotten in the middle (the new villainess Lady Styx finally gets some background and an origin story...but is as quickly forgotten over Synnar).
It's still an epic story, only not as huge in scope so in the end it's much more interesting to follow.

Simply put - better handled.

The story does take some strange turns to work out some new decisions Starlin had to take though.
Remember Hawkman special I discussed in my past review?
I think Starlin originally wanted to retcon Hawkman to be closer to the scifi character he was in the 70s. His aberrant six probably were characters from "a parallel universe", or errors in the continuity. No doubt the likes of Power Girl, Huntress, Superboy Prime and Hawkman were supposed to be the original ones.
But since Hawkman complicated Geoff Johns' written origin was kept during Blackest Night (all through the current revamped version in "The New 52"), that original plot had to be thrown away in favor for a new one.
Thus a silly moment were a misplaced candle made Bizarro the new Aberrant one over Hawkman.
Also this makes that awful special I complained about even more useless. Nothing was accomplished, it wasn't significant and was just a waste of paper.

ANWAYS!-
If you like the space heroes of the DC Universe, you'll enjoy this no doubt!

I give it:

2 / 3 Plastic-trophies!

 

CBR Rann/Thanagar: Holy War

 

And we're back with Adam Strange once more!
Fresh from his adventures with Starfire and Animal Man in Countdown to Adventure, it's the return of the Rann–Thanagar War conflict in this culmination of different space opera storylines!

Don't miss out my previous Adam Strange-related reviews!

Mystery in Space 

Adam Strange: Man of Two Worlds 

Adam Strange: Planet Heist  

Rann–Thanagar War
Countdown to Adventure 

Comic title: Rann/Thanagar: Holy War Vol. 1 & 2
Art by Jim Starlin, Ron Lim, Rick Leonardi & Rob Hunter
Story by Jim Starlin

Published by DC Comics
From 2008
Lineup Adam Strange, Animal Man, Rann/Thanagar, Captain Comet
Format: Two trade paperback collecting the entire 8-issue limited series as well as both Rann/Thanagar: Holy War one shots, the Hawkman Special & Adam Strange Special.

This is it!
Finally, the end of the Rann/Thanagar space conflict in the DCU!

Written by Jim Starlin, an author who was already quite well versed with space antics from his past experience on other space events, the Cosmic Odyssey and some New Gods events.
He also took partially care of the artwork in this Holy War.

Rann/Thanagar: Holy War was a limited series that followed the previous Rann/Thanagar, Countdown to Adventure, as well as combining the sub-plots brought in Starlin's own Mystery in Space mini-series.
After the death of the original Captain Comet, this book introduced a new younger incarnation of the space hero.

The universe is still under the repercussions of the war against the new villainess, Lady Styx.
The heroes got close to have another "Darkseid" wannabee around, stopped just in time thanks to the combined forces of various heroes.

Everyone returned to his place, only to find out, it wasn't over yet.

Adam Strange and Hawkman found out a new sort of religion has been formed, around the cult of Lady Styx. Churches are being opened all over their respective worlds, on Rann and Thanagar.
The problem is, it isn't a crime to have another faith. But surely there's something they can do to prevent people from bringing Styx back...is there?

The story then goes into various directions before coming together.
We're (re)introduced to the various protagonists and the new players.

The new Comet is trying to keep a job in Hardcore Station, something to make some quick bucks.
The war gets toThroneworld, home of the Starman Prince Gayvn.

The apparent new threat reveals itself to be called Synnar the Demiurge (a Thanos-like character, the way Starlin used to actually write Thanos when he was at Marvel).
He wants to alter time and space with his godlike powers, using pawns - the very same villains our heroes had been fighting!

Oh, also. Hawkman's backstory gets revealed to be fake(?). Or at least, that's what the Demiurge tells our hero to confuse him further.

Well, I could have done without the retcon/changes in Hawkman's status quo.
I mean, it starts from the Demiurge/narrator/Jim Starlin making Hawkman notice errors in the way Egypt's been represented in Hawkman's past...because it wasn't errors, but false memories!! (dun dun duuun!!)
This "Hawkman Rann/Thanagar: Holy War Special" issue really is a waste of time and ink. I mean, it's barely touched upon, forgotten later on, never explained or expanded.
Geoff Johns' revamp of Hawkman as distant Egyptian ruler born and reborn time after time with a curse, using Thanagarian technology was simple enough.
Yeah, it sounds complicated put like this, but a rescapee from another timeline having false memories of a "distant Egyptian ruler born and reborn time after time with a curse" is far worse!!

Later in the 2nd trade paperback, Adam Strange's own Special issue is a bit filler but at least it's relevant to the main story.

But I disgress;
It's a simple enough cosmic crossover, featuring a bunch of DC space heroes fighting a religious threat and a mysterious villain.
It features a huge cast of colorful characters, old and new.
Strange takes the leadership, which comes naturally from his recent stories.
Space swashbuckling adventure!

But perhaps it tries too much?
Prince Gavyn's planet Throneworld gets depopulated thanks to Lady Styx...only to be later occupied by the population of Rann?
Zeta-beams are used left and right, wasn't it supposed to be Rann's secret weapon?
A bunch of our heroes are revealed to be part of so-called "Aberrant Six"?
Oh and the recently reintroduced The Weird swon't be appearing outside this story I guess...?
And apparently Bizarro was in this book.

It's the conclusion of several storylines, and even so it hints at a future mystical threat for the DC's magical characters like Phantom Stranger, Etrigan,..

The story jumps from place to place with intrusive narration boxes all over the place, there's several art shifts due to the various artists, most of the art way too confusing and sketchy...

Overall, it's the long awaited conclusion to DC's science fiction space-based crossover!
...and it's a bit messy.

The art's a bit bland and generic, the story goes in all sorts of direction for such a straightforward plot...

I think we could have done without the bad fillers (that Hawkman retcon ends up being disregarded completely, since he appeared after that as his usual modern self in blackest Night and the Egyptian Immortal even survived into The New 52 reboot!) and the excessive cast that doesn't get used much (Animal Man, what are you doing in here?!).
This could have filled one single trade paperback, instead of being stretched way too long.

Check it out if you enjoyed the previous related titles.

I give it:

  1.5 / 3 Plastic-trophies!

Outcast Studios - LIVE DRAW NIGHT March 2012

http://outcaststudios.com/forums/

It's that time again...

This Sunday night was held another one of our usual LIVE DRAW NIGHT drawing jams at the Outcast forums.
Our quarterly Jam session featuring 4 hours of non-stop drawing.
As before, I kept my Twitter account updated all the way through the challenge.

It was fun, it was crazy, lots of neat fun art were produced by all who entered the jam!
Here's my usual blog-recap of the evening.
You can have a look at my past entries in these following posts:
- LDN February 2011
- LDN May 2011
- LDN September 2011
- LDN December 2011

Let's dig into these drawings produced by yours truly, shall we?
HOUR ONE
It consisted in a series of 5 minutes quick sketches to warm things up.

The LDN was going strong already!
Here's Hellboy, in all his chum glory.

Bow, mortals, before the fantastic Galactus!

Someguy called Briareos apparently...

Catwoman's turn now!

And finally, Daredevil!


HOUR TWO
Two 25 minutes sketches, using both two different set of proposed characters and then reimagined as "ROCKSTARS".

So I simply took STEEL.

...and here's Black Canary!

HOUR THREE
25 min per sketches - using proposed characters and a little gimmick rule.

First one was to make your own Amalgam character using 2 of the first proposed characters.

So I took Booster Gold and Jubilee and made "Booster Lee"!! XD
'didn't came out half bad, if ya ask me~


Jubilation Lee Carter, aka Jubilee Gold!!
A sparkly mutant in search of fame and fortune in the past.

This second one was a gender bended character.

I took Adam Strange, though I prefer to consider this to be Alanna Strange in a similar costume personally~

HOUR FOUR
Remembering a Legend: Moebius

RIP Moebius
To end the night, we got to pay our respects to the passing of this comic book artist, we had a little homage to Moebius to come up with.
A 50 minutes drawing.

'Went with this tribute of Arzach/Moebius.

~

And that's all folks!
Hope you enjoyed 'em all!


The next one will be in June (sadly..).
Another fun practice session, and fun time.
You can join in the jam at the outcast studios.

Good Night everybody!~

CBR Countdown to Adventure

 

And we're back with the Man of Two Worlds, Adam Strange!

This one's a continuation of both the space opera-crossover of the DC Universe The Rann–Thanagar War as well as a direct sequel to DC's year-long epic storyline 52.

Building up upon both stories, it teams-up everyone's favorite space-based adventurer with Animal Man and Starfire from the Teen Titans.
The trio had formed a friendship over the past stories.

This book is also a tie-in and one of these stories building up their events Infinite Crisis and Countdown - took you can skip both of these if you're not a big fan of these kind of comic books.

Don't miss out my previous Adam Strange-related reviews!

Mystery in Space 

Adam Strange: Man of Two Worlds 

Adam Strange: Planet Heist  

Rann–Thanagar War

Comic title: Countdown to Adventure
Art by Eddy Barrows, Allan Goldman with Julio Ferreiro and others
Story by Adam Beechen

Published by DC Comics
From 2007-08
Lineup Adam Strange, Animal Man, Countdown
Format: Trade paperback, collects the 8-issue miniseries.

This book can be simply summed like this:
It's the continuing adventures of Adam Strange, Animal Man and Starfire as they face down a returning threat and meet down with the mysterious Forerunner.

It's also a direct continuation of their subplot from 52. If you missed that, let me recap for you:

Previously in 52:

After preventing the infamous Rann–Thanagar War, our heroes find themselves stranded in space.
Adam Strange - Man of Two Worlds, archaeologist on Earth and space hero on the planet Rann, Animal Man - family man who is able to tap into the animal life on Earth to channel super powers, and Starfire - Tamaranean slave princess turned superhero thanks to the Teen Titans.
 
After meeting with the legendary intergalactic merc' Lobo [link], helping out a revolution and saving some dolphins while they're at it, our trio end up at odds against a certain Lady Styx, a would-be universe conqueror.
Adam loses his sight (but it becomes all better at the end), Buddy Baker, Animal Man, misses his wife and two children quite a lot and Starfire starts thinking seriously about herself and making a life of her own away from the Titans.
They face down Lady Styx's armies, avert her rise to power and defeat this powerful new empire.

Finally they return to their respective lives after a year long adventure in space.

Their Mystery In Space resolved, Buddy gets back to his family, Ellen Baker and their two kids, Cliff and Maxine.
But a 5th wheel follows the Bakers at home, Starfire now left powerless is brought to home as well.
First unconscious, trying to regain her energy after the traumatic confrontation in 52, she then awakes and decides to stay a bit with the family until her powers either come back or she makes peace with herself and thinks about her future new life.

Meanwhile Adam Strange gets back to Rann to his own family.
The threat of Lady Styx averted, he is able to return full time to his newly repopulated world (who houses the population of the planet Thanagar, extinct now -> see Planet Heist).

Long story short, an actor from Earth gets Zeta Beamed away to Rann as well, from a movie Buddy Baker was working on as a stuntman.
Adam finds himself replaced by this Champ Hazard guy.

While on Earth, people in San Diego start to get more and more agressive near Starfire and Animal Man. First Buddy's own son Cliff gets quite possessive around the exotic princess. Then people they meet in the street, at the school, etc.
Did Starfire bring back some sort of alien virus back to Earth with her?

Can they prevent the city from being overrun by this hysteria?
What are those mysterious Healers guys doing around the place?
Can Adam stop Champ before he gets too far, having no regard for any life whatsoever and totally irresponsible?
Is Lady Styx back from the dead?!?

Adam Beechen crafted one interesting fun story. Perhaps nowhere near as good and well crafter as the above mentioned 52, but a decent follow-up nonetheless.
The art is sort of uneven throughout the book.
Mostly good and decent, but there's lot of various rushed faces, weirdly proportioned figures (the kids specifically).. I mean no disrespect, but this looks half rushed by the middle of the series.

A mysterious madness plague is infecting both Earth and Rann, Lady Styx did lots more than our heroes thought before defeating her.
Earth is slowly succumbing to this plague while Rann sees one third of her population causing riots and "believing in her"...

A fun serial, in true fashion to the ol' genre from the 60s-70s.
(only, stretched through the course of a whole book instead of a simple short issue!)

Overall, it's a pretty fun book.
Simple enough.
Nothing more.

For fans of the genre and characters!

Adam tries to escape to Earth with his family..only to find out it has already succumbed to the same plague as his adopted world.
One of the so very few times DC has let the spotlight on these so underused underrated cast of characters.
Animal Man gets to shine throughout the tale, as well as Starfire.

Will they be able to restore the infectees and return the people to normal? Read on!

I give it:

  2 / 3 Plastic-trophies!

 

CBR Rann–Thanagar War

 

Time for some more Mystery in Space!!

Rann–Thanagar War was a direct sequel to Planet Heist.
It was one of the stories DC released as part of the hype to build up yet another event called Infinite Crisis (alongside Villains United, OMAC Project and Day of Vengeance).

I usually tend to avoid big epic crossovers and mega-events (if they're not Green Lantern related or assigned to way too many authors to be properly coordinated)...but being the first, and only Adam Strange centric one, this was a must read for scifi comics fans.

At least..that's what I thought.
Surely a mini-event following a mini-series, both leading into another bigger event cannot be that bad...can it?

Comic title: Rann–Thanagar War
Art by Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Joe Bennett and Marc Campos
Story by Dave Gibbons

Published by DC Comics
From 2005-06
Lineup Adam Strange, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Countdown
Format: Trade paperback, collects the 6-issue miniseries.

Promoted as part of the Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Rann–Thanagar War is a sort of a reimagining of of an old interplanetary conflict between DC Comics' interstellar heroes, originally depicted in World's Finest Comics in the 70s.

The idea to have this big epic space war between various stars-based DC proprieties' been around for ages since the original Crisis, but it took until 2005 to see it finally take shape properly.

Without dealing with this "Infinite Crisis" mentioned above, per say, Rann–Thanagar War is actually a continuation of the story from Adam Strange: Planet Heist, crossing over with on-going stories from Green Lantern and Green Lanterns Corps.

A Man of Two Worlds joins forces with two immortal Egyptians/Aliens Hawkmen!

After dealing with Thanagarian rogues who tried to bring in an all-out war and the end of the universe as we know it, Adam Strange is now facing yet another cataclysmic event of cosmic proportions!
Our space adventurer his now trying to save two planets from the brink of a war.
His adopted planet Rann was teleported into Thanagar's star system.
But now the system is getting unstable... Thanagar is getting lured into its own sun and will be crash landing soon!

After helping out the surviving Thanagarians into its principal city Ranagar, the Rannian forces and populations start getting ideas about these intruders. After all aren't they the reason their homeworld's been transported into this place to begin with? And vice-versa.
Tension arise amongst these two races, blaming one another for their current condition...

Strange goes to Earth to bring in Hawkman and Hawkgirl, two Earth heroes used to Thanagarian technology and civilization. But once he comes back.. he seems to arrive a bit too late to prevent a war...

Meanwhile, Green Lanterns Kyle Rayner and Kilowog are sent on a covert mission to this very same planet. Ordered by the Guardians to check out the location because of rumors regarding a dangerous incoming menace.
They are however asked not to interfere in politics, as GLs shouldn't, this would mean having the Corps taking sides in other planets' internal conflicts.

The war begins... is it too late?
Soon, the Thanagarian heroine Hawkwoman joins in, as does Tamaraneans and the cruel Blackfire (sister of Teen Titans' Starfire). Various other planets are drawn into the conflict one by one.
Alliances are forged, other allies join our heroes. Blackfire tries to take this occasion to seize power.

It's an actual Star Wars of epic proportions that quickly overtakes most of DC's finest science fiction heroes, featuring Adam Strange, the Green Lantern Corps, the Hawks, the Omega Men, the L.E.G.I.O.N. and even Captain Comet!

Rann–Thanagar War is a pretty fun story.
It last for only 6 chapters, but lots of things happen in these few pages.
The art is quite gorgeous all over the book, including various talents and shining stars from DC's creative team.

It's a story about an elusive peace threatened by two very different populations from different worlds.
There is various quickly thrown around subplots which served as basis for other books later on (more on that below).

Religious fanatics aspiring for power are trying to overthrown these worlds at war.
Blackfire betrays various groups to gain more power herself.
Tigorr and the Omega Men come back to help Adam Strange, whether they planned for it or not.

Finally a common enemy emerges from the ruins, Onimar Synn., the Sin Eater. A "deity" that used to plague Thanagar long ago. Now back with the intention to take over the planet, feeding off the souls of the people and building an army of undead at the same time.
Captain Comet joins in as well to defeat this god, who has the ability to manipulate Nth Metal (a metal native from Thanagar) alongside various other dangerous powers...

Overall, it's a fun crazy colorful book that goes all over the place.

The story, written by one of my all-time favorite authors, Dave Gibbons (cult classic Green Lantern writer and Watchmen artist) is fun enough. I love his work.
But I really think, had DC let this be a self-contained story, this could have been much better in the end. (like an absolute must read experience)

But the book was then followed by an event, and various titles were sprang off from this mini.
Including a L.E.G.I.O.N. title, various related spin-offs concerning specific characters (such as Adam Strange and some others) and other tie-ins (another Rann-Thanagar War later on).

But if you like scifi comics, Adam Strange comics or other space-based DC characters? This is as good as it gets.
Ignoring the sequels this story ended up being a lead into, it is a big epic crossover featuring tons of fan favorite and obscure character from all over the cosmos.
Including DC's greatest space champions from across the universe Adam Strange, Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Green Lantern, the Omega Men, L.E.G.I.O.N. and the Darkstars!

If all this sounds good to you, despite the unresolved subplots, grab a copy, sit down and enjoy the show~

I give it:

  2.5 / 3 Plastic-trophies!