Matthew Brady Comic Reviews

While the series might have the title Revenge of the Vampire Dimension, the story wraps up at the end of this issue, leaving the rest of the mini-series to go wherever it pleases. Maybe the vampires will make a return, or maybe Clevinger and Wegener will head off into directions unknown. Whatever the case, it should certainly be tons of fun to read. Having this series on the shelves is one of the highlights of modern monthly comics. Long may it last.

With the first mini-series, the stories jumped around in time, giving us a taste of Robos adventures over the years, but the follow-ups have stuck to longer, single era tales, giving us a chance to spend more time with the character and tell fuller stories. This one is shaping up to be a doozy, and it should be great fun to see Clevinger and Wegener continue to pull out all the stops.

So is the series worth a look? So far, the stories themselves have been only OK, perhaps because the writers are struggling to work around a vague concept of Roddenberrys that hasnt been established very well. Maybe the last two issues of the mini-series will answer some questions and attempt to tie things together, but at this point, it seems pretty scattershot, with some interesting moments or ideas, but nothing that adds up to a satisfying whole. Give any of the teams more space to work and more time to flesh out a deeper story and you might have something, but for now its just a shallow pond that might or might not be worth anybodys attention.

If Simmons can flesh things out a bit more in future chapters, possibly making us understand the backstory of these demons/gods a bit better, the whole thing might hang together a bit better, but even if he just focuses on action for the remaining page count, this should be a diverting, viscerally entertaining series. It wont be much more than that though. The copycat style does tend to evoke an Ive seen this before response. Lets see if he can bring something a bit more unique than that.

And thats not all; the illustration section (which includes several color pages) that closes out the book is full of wonderful Baker imagery, including some sketches from live models that show that Bakers cartoony style is built on a foundation of realism. These drawings show that Bakers imagination is far from exhausted; hes got a wealth of stories and characters poised to spring from his brain onto the page, and there is no doubt that theyll all be lively, fluid, exciting, hilarious, and unforgettable. Hes a modern treasure, and this book is a great demonstration of that.

No, this is definitely some good reading, and a great example of Hickmans ambition. In the closing pages, he suggests several future stories that could be told in this universe, even showing some of the end results of all the political machinations. Its a nice tease that will hopefully be followed upon. Lets hope he wont be too busy writing comics for Marvel to get back to it.

So if you havent been reading The Goon, well, this probably wouldnt be the issue to start with, but its a good one for long-time fans. Powell is stretching himself on the title; where before Chinatown, he focused mostly on single-issue stories that had some continuing plot points, he has been telling a long, continuing story, and doing an excellent job of it. Its a nice deepening of the series mythos, and it remains a great read each month. If you havent read it before, pick up one of the collections and give it a chance.