Comics
Review: ‘Captain Ultimate’ #3
A pleasant tribute to kids cartoons and superhero comics, “Captain Ultimate” #3 is a fun and nostalgic blast to the past. Readers will be genuinely charmed by this earnest superhero tale. What’s not to like in a comic book that has time-traveling wrestlers, intrepid reporters, and a robot alligator.
WRITTEN BY: Benjamin Bailey & Joey Esposito
ART BY: Boykoesh
PUBLISHER: MonkeyBrains Comics
PRICE: .99 cents
RELEASE: October 16th, 2013
With the story of a lifetime in the grasp of her hands, Ratcliffe thinks she has the scoop on the forgotten hero, Captain Ultimate. She just has to convince her editor-in-chief that readers still want to know about Captain Ultimate’s origin. In the future, the Ultimate Power was created by an ambitious group of scientists. Designed as a belt, the Ultimate Power would eventually find its way to the right hands. But that right person would have to wait as the lab was suddenly ambushed by an alien race of robot alligators. Will Nick Mason, the most hated wrestler, answer the Ultimate Power’s call and be a hero?
Writers Benjamin Bailey and Joey Esposito focus more on the back-story of Captain Ultimate in this installment. Combining Superman and Green Lantern’s origin story, readers get to see who Captain Ultimate was in his previous life as Nick Mason. Hated by children and other wrestling fans, Nick Mason made a living as a wrestler known as Captain Carnage. Tired of being a heel and being booed at every night, Nick wanted to be liked by everyone. Bailey and Esposito focus on the internal conflict of being who you are versus who you are supposed to be.
Without being preachy, Bailey and Esposito teach a valuable lesson to children about being true to yourself. Bailey and Esposito reinforce their message by saying it is perfectly okay to dream a little bit bigger. Nick could be making more money as a heel but that’s not what his heart desires. Wanting to be special, Nick has dreams of his own and doesn’t want to turn away from them.
I really enjoyed the character designs of the robot alligator alien race from artist Boy “Boykoesh” Akkerman. In a wide shot, the robot alligators are storming the lab base where the Ultimate Power is. In some of the designs, the robot alligator has this huge canon for a hand. At the top their heads, we see their pink brains behind a glass helmet. Their cybernetic right eye is always glowing red , thanks to Ed Ryzowski’s coloring.
I guess it’s the kid in me that absolutely loves lasers. I thought it was particularly funny when the robot alligators opened their mouths and started shooting lasers. In a big panel, Akkerman illustrates hundreds of robot alligators flying in the air like airplanes, shooting at the rooftops of these futuristic buildings.
Fun for all ages, “Captain Ultimate” #3 has such a good old-fashioned heart that will definitely win over readers. With a strong message about being true to yourself, this is a great way for kids to be introduced to comics. Be sure to get your copy here.
4/5 Skulls
Reviewed by – Jorge Solis
IDW Dark and Paramount recently joined forces to launch limited comic book tales set in the worlds of Smile and A Quiet Place, and we’ve learned today that they’ll continue hanging around in those franchise universes with two brand new limited series tales.
Entertainment Weekly has exclusively revealed this afternoon that IDW Dark’s Any Given Smile debuts in September, while A Quiet Place: Rising Tides arrives in November.
First up, from writer Stephanie Williams and artist Pablo Collar, Any Given Smile puts a football-themed twist on Parker Finn’s successful Smile movie franchise.
The five-part limited series is “set in January 1995, during the American Arena League football championship game in St. Augustine, Florida. The rising superstar of the Sharks, backup quarterback Dupree, is feeling the pressure from his teammates, the fans, and also the city’s gambling underworld, to whom he owes a considerable debt. Meanwhile, a sports journalist investigates a string of suicides that may be connected to the big game. At the very least, they are connected to a sinister entity that preys on the minds of its victims.”
From writer Declan Shalvey and artist Luke Sparrow, A Quiet Place: Rising Tides will also be a five-issue limited story. The comic book tale “brings the creatures to the Florida Keys, where a father-daughter duo attempt to survive on water in a houseboat.”
EW further details, “This tense family reunion coincides with the arrival of the vicious creatures that hunt through sound. Grace and her dad find safety on the open ocean, but she’ll have to make landfall sooner or later; the father’s oxygen tank and their supplies are running low, while a hurricane swiftly approaches.”
Learn more about both comic books over on Entertainment Weekly.
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