Review of Star Trek: Crew #1 (IDW Publishing).........“Trek or Treat?”

Review By Eddie

For years, there have been 2 constants in my life to which I would consider myself a geek.

One is comic books, the second is Star Trek.

The first time I saw The Original Series was when I was a kid, around 3 or 4. My grandfather and I would watch it together. Over time, I lost interest. Then when I started working in my teens, and started coming home late, after a very miserable day, I would catch the show playing late night... This became my comfort food, so to speak. I would take in every detail about the show (the sets, the characters, the plotlines, the drama, ect...). And for years I thought I was unique in this sense.

Until I read Star Trek: Crew #1

Set 8 years before “The Cage”, Star Trek: Crew follows the story of a female Starfleet Cadet who will eventually evolve to become the character “Number One”, played by Majel Barrett Roddenberry, in the original Star trek pilot episode way back in the 60’s.

Even back then, a strong female lead was frowned up by TV execs. But Star Treks creator, Gene Roddenberry, wanted to take a more realistic and progressive approach to what the future might look like... The network didn’t.
Although they gave Gene a second chance with another pilot, the network brass told him he had to make some revisions to his show. One of which was dropping the female second in command (a.k.a Number One)... For anyone who has seen the episode “The Cage”, that short sightedness on the networks part at that time, has always been a sore spot in the “What could have been?” department.

I am glad to say to my fellow fans, you may now rejoice in knowing that both Number One, and Majel Barrett Roddenberry, both get the treatment they deserve thanks to one man: John Byrne.

As I mentioned before, I always thought my attention to details concerning Star Trek was unique. But Mr. Byrne just proved to me that not only is he THE artist and writer for subject material like this, you can honestly feel the love he has for the history and characters of the Star trek Universe.

From his renderings of the interiors of the U.S.S Enterprise, to the uniforms, props, character details, and ongoing dialogue peppered with subtle references, which will have any fan reaching for their favorite source of Trek reference material, all the while wanting first time readers to learn more, John Byrne delivers what looks to be both an amazing start off to a great 6 part series.

This series looks like is will both be quite a Trek and a treat indeed. 9/ 10

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Review - Justice League of America #31 - When the Roll-Call Turns into a Wake-Up Call.

Review by Eddie

For months now, I have been reading in hopes that the current JLA series would somehow be restored to its former glory. The amount of chatter about what’s wrong with this book from Fans, and what it could have been, has been overwhelming. And the drawn out plotlines and fight scenes could have been easily done within the span of 1 issue, rather than 3 or 4.




In short, it’s been a bit of a mess.

So when I started reading JLA #31, the opening page put a smile on my face.

Within 4 panels, starting with an opening shot of the JLA’s Silver age Satellite in orbit around earth, then slowly descending into Earth’s atmosphere, then burning up, then the final panel on the page of Zatanna asking Wonder Woman what she was thinking about, the following words in Diana’s response would set the tone for this issue.

“Better Days”.

And As I read more into the book, that’s when I realized that someone had been listening to the fans concerns all along. Page after page certain issues were addressed, such as the team’s inactivity and its sense of non accomplishment, leaving the Heroes feeling unfulfilled and ultimately leading to the eventual issue of what do, and how to rectify the situation?

The decisions made lead one to hope that if the powers that be have started listening to what the fans want, they will hopefully continue to do so in future.

The Story is the outcome all readers of the series have seen coming. The question now is will these decisions make not only the League stronger, but bring the fans back, especially those who want to see a return to “Better Days”?

Read if you must, but it is defiantly a must read...7.5/10 Read more...

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Goemon - 1/6th scale Goemon Ishikawa collectible figure

This 1/6th scale Goemon Ishikawa (石川 五右衛門) collectible figure stands approximately 31cm tall and features:

Hot Toys 12-inch figure body with over 32 points of articulation

Highly detailed head sculpture with authentic likeness of Yosuke Eguchi (江口洋介) as Goemon Ishikawa

Dressed in his movie-accurate costume of removable waistcoat with fur and leather-like belt, sleeveless jacket in red color, patterned shirt, grey pants and boots

Accessories included:
“Tenka” sword with scabbard
Smoking pipe
Treasure Box
Map
Signature paper with the Goemon sign
Hanzo’s Shuriken star (Throwing knife)
Kunai Knife
12-inch figure stand with Goemon nameplate

Prototype shown, final product appearance and colors may vary.

Release date: MAY - JUNE, 2009

Artists:
Head Sculpt - Kojun
Painting - JC.HONG
Clothes design - HARUE Creative

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