Gillian Devine Comic Reviews

Another (mis)adventure in the world of The X-Filesis proving to be always welcome.

Labyrinth might seem, on the surface, to be simply an 80s kids' movie. It is that, but it is also, clearly, so much more to so many more people.

This is an immediately visually stimulating first episode. With an electric blue sea and sky which would otherwise seemingly be at risk of merging into one they are maintained as being entirely opposite. The captains of the sky, and of the sea, are locked in battle for reasons currently unknown. The animation style is very similar to, if not directly inspired by, anime, though its bright colours, angular features in the characters and overall quirky theme. A few of the characters are downright bizarre in appearance, not least of all the hybrid shark-man type thing. The pirate language is played up to a great degree here, almost to a comic effect. Yuhai talks like a "traditional" pirate but wants nothing more than to win a rosette. At the same time, she runs a tight ship despite losing the use of an eye during a scuffle. As for the other characters, the two "heroes", aside from being captured, making wisecracks, and rescuing the obligatory "damsel in distre

When Kent Allard, The Shadow, says that "When a man chooses to wear a mask he covers more than his face.", it shows the dual nature of the man's disguise, both as a distinct persona The Shadow, and as an anonymous author dipping into and out of each persona he invents personally. This makes the line between the believable and the unbelievable harder to identify, and in itself goes into the territory of The Twilight Zone.

It is left on quite a cliffhanger: we wonder what will the father do next, having been sprung from captivity. Also, there is the question of what the daughter will do to get herself out of prison. She will quite possibly stop at nothing to wield her unique form of power once again. Hopefully these questions will be answered sometime soon.

This is a slightly atypical Twilight Zone "episode", in that it's only part of a series focusing on the same plotline, whereas they usually focus on one episode, and one occurrence, at a time. The surrealism of the situation, however, is very much in keeping with the traditional Twilight Zone, and it looks like it means to go on in this vein. The storyline is quite confusing, with various names for the same person " and that person even keeps changing into another " so things should continue strongly providing the reader can keep track of who is who.

The title character is the epitome of the popular idea of the "strong female character"; personality-wise, in refusing to compromise even slightly, and literally, in not being afraid to sucker-punch the very king, along with other would-be assailants on her autonomy. Originally made into a film in 1985, the story of Red Sonja has clearly stood the test of time, being a mixture of old-world storytelling and modern depictions of women with personality. The animation is very striking " liberal with its depiction of the female form, perhaps slightly excessively so considering these same women are clearly not afraid to do battle, but perhaps in this fictional world their armour is mainly invisible, or comes mainly in the form of ready fists and a lethal stare.

A fascinating "what if" approach to the X-Files which shows that brother and sister aren't all that unalike.

It will be interesting to see how the tale unfolds in the next issue, and to find out whatever happened to the rising stars in the woods when shooting what one can assume to be the next big cinema release, and their connection with Vampirella.

A continuation of the tradition of telling stories which don't quite make sense

Colourful depiction of life in outer space

Overall, this issue has less promise due to the confusing storylines; a couple of them are darkly humourous but it is uncertain whether these will carry over into the next issue. The most prominent storyline in this issue is unfortunately the least easy to figure out just what's going on, so hopefully in the next issue of A Train Called Love the more interesting storylines will take prominence.

A throwback to different types of love from a bygone era.

A timeless offering from the Peanuts franchise.

A story with a lot going on, for better and for worse.

A decidedly modern tale of love and hiding.

Zombie debut which promises much more to come.

The X-Files always thrived on mystery and the unknown, so in this sense the first comic of the new series remains in familiar territory, only serving to make the reader guess what is to come. Certainly the forthcoming revived TV show will draw in many left in suspense as to the fate of both agents, and as yet it's unclear to what extent the comic and the TV show will tie in. The story re-opens on a much-changed world " politically, socially and technologically " so it will be interesting to see how Mulder and Scully operate, and collaborate, in this unknown era. The challenges they will soon face are sure to be as strange (if not more) as ever before.

A snippet of a series combining rock'n'roll and cool animation.