TKO Comics - Some Trades For You

I really meant to post this a lot sooner. I honestly can't tell you how I first learned about TKO Comics, the publishing company. I think it was one of those targeted ads that appeared on Facebook. We all know that Facebook knows us better than we know ourselves. 

What really caught my attention was that at the beginning of the pandemic, they said that they were giving 50% of the proceeds from your purchase to a local comic book shop of your choosing. I thought this was an amazing and very generous idea. For those that don't know, the comic book industry has razor thin margins, so something like a pandemic will absolutely wreck havoc with the comic book shops, which are all independent.

I looked at the talent that they gathered for these books and saw that I legitimately wanted to get over 80% of them, so I took the plunge and purchased a few, while also making sure it was going to help some of my favorite comic book shops. What further interested me, was the diversity and inclusion I saw with the titles, whether it was in the art team or the stories themselves. Over the years I have gravitated towards more normal comic books that are minus the super heroics. I just want good stories, so I don't always need someone flying around in a cape. Comic books have evolved to have more choices out there. This is why I'm glad a company like this exists and they can be successful to lure more talent and provide more offerings.

The other thing I want to call out and I didn't fully realize this until I got the books, but they are larger than the normal comic book size. They are sized more like magazines. I think this gives you a chance to really take in the wonderful artwork that you will see.

Anyways, let's talk about the books I read and my personal takes on them. These are just my opinions, so you can take them with a grain of salt. 

One thing about me. Whenever I read comics, I always read them in the order of what seems the most interesting to me. So I always start with what I consider "good" and then work my way to the bottom of the stack. This isn't an exact science because some times something on the bottom of the stack is better than what is on top.

Away we go:

The Banks

Writer: Roxanne Gay

Artist: Ming Doyle

There were many reasons this book went to the top of my stack. I like Roxanne Gay as a writer (World of Wakanda) and a person, having read some of her work and seen her in interviews. I really like Ming Doyle as an artist (Mara), so seeing these two combined was really intriguing. Also, it was a story about three generations of black female bank robbers. So this checked a lot of boxes for me. With a lesbian and black writer creating the story, I knew there would be an air of authenticity. It was not going to feel pandering because it comes from someone that truly knows.

Now the real question is, was it good? I would say a resounding yes. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is essentially a heist film and it layers in the history and family dynamics of the groups involved. There were not any world ending stakes and it did not end exactly like I thought it would, but I think it sticks the landing for the story it was trying to tell. The dialogue is all really good. The art is fantastic. It is a well put together package and I can say without a doubt that it was my favorite of the rest of these books I will talk about. 

7 Deadly Sins

Writer: Tze Chun

Artist: Artyom Trakhanov

I honestly had high hopes for this book. I saw that the main character was a black guy and it was taking place in the old West. Also, calling it "7 Deadly Sins" made me think of the Magnificent Seven, so I attached some pretty high hopes to this. What I found out is that I was severely underwhelmed and I can honestly say this book was my least favorite of the books I read. So that theory I had above about the best books not always being at the top of my stack and vice versa is proven out by this book. It is not what I thought it was going to be. They do try to spend time saying that our main characters are different personifications of the 7 Deadly Sins, but I just don't like the way the story unfolds. It does a great job of making the cast pretty diverse and the art is actually pretty good. I like the style. It's just the writing does not match the story. Some of these characters are terrible people and they just don't get any better. Others are almost TOO good, so it's a weird balance to try and strike. I just think this book misses the mark. I am a sucker for team books and this group never really feel like they gel as a team. You can argue that, "What do you expect? They don't know each other!". That's not the book I want. I want them to figure it out. Again, this is just my opinion.

Pound for Pound

Writer: Natalie Chaidez

Artist: Andy Belanger

This book was well done. The art was great and the story was pretty good. It was not a ground breaking revenge story, but I did like the cast. Dani Libra was a strong, female character that was grappling with her own demons. I liked that it focused a little on the world of MMA. It wasn't a huge focus, but it did give a tangible reason for why she was kind of a bad ass. It had more twists and turns than I expected, but I thought it went well. 

I also want to add that this is another book that felt like it had an authentic voice. Diversity matters in comics, so I was glad to read this and it Natalie Chaidez's dialogue did not feel force. I don't know who Andy Belanger is, but his art was really good here. There was some good action sequences here that were handled very well.

Sara

Writer: Garth Ennis

Artist: Steve Epting

This is a phenomenal creative team on this book. Ennis is a master of war stories and Epting is one of the best artists in comics today. He is a name that makes me jump onto a book if he is on art duties. So that is why I gave this book a chance.

I'll be honest, this book is technically great, but I can't say that I really enjoyed it a lot. I'm not that into comics dealing with World War II or wars in general, so that was already an uphill battle. I am into bad ass female characters and that is essentially what the titular character, Sara is. Past experiences have left her cold. The art is great, but the problem is the way the ladies of this special forces unit are drawn, they all look the same. They even sound mostly the same, so it is really hard to tear them apart. 

The story does a good job of showing how snipers acted in this war and some of the technical aspects of it, which are great. It just didn't blow me away like I thought it would. That is not to distract from how good it is, it's just not for me.

Sentient

Writer: Jeff Lemire

Artist: Gabriel Walta

This is the book that has gotten Eisner Award buzz. I can say that buzz is well deserved. This is a very good book. Some strong sci-fi, but with a human touch. This is a very good concept. I was totally engrossed, waiting to see what would happen next. It moved at a good pace and I'm glad it didn't overstay it's welcome. This is the kind of story I would love turned into a movie, provided you have some good child actors. The art is also very good. 

I want to say a whole lot more about this book, but I feel like I would give away some big moments that you have to experience for yourselves. It is very heartfelt. I wish I could lavish more praise on this book, but it wouldn't do it justice. Out of all these books, it is my favorite, second only to "The Banks". This is a book I would gladly recommend to just about anyone.

The Fearsome Doctor Fang 

Writer: Tze Chun, Mike Weiss

Artist: Dan McDaid

Rounding out my initial list is this book. I bought it because I liked the appeal of a pulpish, noir book. This is definitely that book. It reads like a good old fashioned pulp novel. I haven't read them, but I've read enough comics modeled after pulp fiction to get the idea. It is more diverse than I thought. Given the time period this takes place in, it's no small matter that a white guy, a white woman and a Chinese man would work together and bring different skill sets to the table. Quite honestly, this book was a lot of fun.

It follows the well worn trope of enemies becoming friends. It works here to make for some tension and then a growing respect with each other. I also really loved the art in this book. The coloring combined with that to give it an old 30's feel. The action was really good and well paced. The story kept moving and didn't get bogged down in too much exposition. It was also pretty straight forward without any convoluted twists and turns for the most part. I can appreciate that. This is definitely another book I would recommend, provided you like pulp noir.

The Old Guard

If only they had called it the "Right Guard". Just for my own personal amusement because I am 12.

When I first heard that this movie was being adapted from the comic series of the same name, I was excited. Then I promptly forgot all about it until Netflix alerted me to it. It was more because life got in the way than anything else. 

Needless to say, this movie is pretty great. Is it faithful to the comics on which it is based? I don't know. I read the series when it came out in 2017. For me, that is a long time in comic book years. I remember broad strokes at best. However, I do know that I liked it and I am a huge Greg Rucka fan. If nothing else, I'm glad he was able to get another one of his properties adapted into film. The TV show, Stumptown is another one of his properties. I'll give my thoughts on that show at a later time.

Anyway, the movie. It stars Charlize Theron. I love her transition into action star over the past few years. She's very good at it. This movie is no exception. She has the steely glare of a person that has seen it all and done it all in this movie. You sympathize with her because she really wants to be done with everything and each time it isn't, she's full of disappointment. Why does she feel this way? We'll get to that in my brief plot summary.

I won't dwell on the rest of the cast, but they are all very good. I do want to mention that the delightful Chiwetel Ejiofor is also in this movie. So I did not feel any weaknesses in the cast.

To quickly summarize, what I liked about this movie and the books is the backstory. Here you have a couple of near immortals and the toll that being alive for hundreds or thousands of years has taken on them. I've always thought that I would not want the power of immortality. I think you would go mad if you can never actually die. Here, this group of mercenaries work to slowly change the world while also hoping for death. I think it is less altruistic than that, but the movie tackles that a little. You get a sense of their loneliness because they are the only ones of their kind. They don't know why they exist and how things will end for them. Since this is a two hour movie, you can't dwell on it as much as you want, but I think they are effective at conveying it. RE: my comments about Charlize up above. Also, I think they effectively set up what could be a sequel. For now, they discover a new person who is also one of the immortals, so we get to see some of the world through her eyes. As always with these kind of movies, an evil company wants to learn their secrets and monetize that. So there you go, I summed up the plot basically.

I think where this movie shines is that the action scenes are really good. One of the things I am a sucker for is tag team moves. There are a couple of those in here. There are just some really cool moves in general. I definitely had a few, "Oh SHIT" moments, so that is a good thing. I thought the fight choreography was pretty good. When I say pretty good, I mean, for an American movie. Let's be honest, if you watch any martial arts films, this is not that, nor is it trying to be.

I didn't know this until afterwards, but this movie is well funded. You can tell that by the set pieces, the way it's filmed, etc. This could have easily been a theatrical release, but I think having it on Netflix is the better move and ensure that more eyes will see it. It is a small action movie and it would have drowned in the noise of a box office summer. I was honestly hoping this would be a series so you can delve into it, but I think Theron is still too high profile for something like that. 

Given the times we are living in and being at home more, I would absolutely say to watch this movie. You get to see a bad ass female kicking ass.

X-Men: Mutant Genesis

A couple of weeks ago, a couple of friends posted about how some me X-Men graphic novels were free on Amazon Prime. Specifically, the collection called 'Mutant Genesis', which gathers the first 7 issues of the Jim Lee run on X-Men in the early 90's. I thought, "Wouldn't this be a fun experiment? How does 2020 Kevin feel about this comic almost 30 years later?" I will tell you, what an experiment it was. There is some stuff that now in retrospect is pretty problematic. Other stuff I simply forgot. While I was reading this, I took down some quick notes to spur my discussion. If you're looking for a plot synopsis, you won't get that here. With that being said, the format of this will be different than my normal reviews. I will type up each of my "hot take" notes as I saved them on my phone while reading. Then I will give more context to them. It's not like I was going to write full sentences each time. If this works out well, maybe I will do this more often. Let's get to it. These were taken in order as I read, so you can start to see some of my thoughts come together.

Claremont is wordy

I will argue that Chris Claremont is the greatest X-Men writer of all time. He charted the X-Men for 15 years and really made them into what they are. I can never take that away. With that being said, he is EXTREMELY wordy. Pages are filled with tons of speech bubbles. The dialogue at times is extremely overwritten. Less is more sometimes and Claremont never got that. I believe some of it is a product of the times. Marvel comics were written in a way to always introduce stuff as if the reader is coming to it for the first time. So you will get lots of panels of characters explaining their powers in the most ham-fisted way. 

Gambit doesn't know consent

Alright, here is where we get problematic. Gambit was your typical 90's roguish heart throb, that steals kisses and women's hearts. Looking back on this now, this is REALLY a problem. I will have more specific examples later, but at this point, he forcefully kisses Jean Grey as if it were some kind of prize. Nevermind he was in the danger room and it was a robot that blew up on him. This will be come a pattern with this dude.

Over explaining everything

As mentioned above, there are SO MANY SPEECH BUBBLES. This is why comics of this era take so long to get through. I don't need to elaborate more here.

Old school X-Men; watching them training as a team is cool and is a good intro for new fans in this case

We get to see the X-Men training in the danger room and here is always one of the strengths of their books. It is always cool seeing them do team up moves and actually working together. It's always hammered home that they need to work together to accomplish missions, so it is always cool to see how they get there. It's a show, not tell part of their story telling. It also serves as a way to show how they interact to new readers. This I approve of.

Jim Lee art is fantastic

You are seeing Prime Jim Lee here. He is a great artist and it really shows throughout this run. He does have a penchant for putting everyone in cool poster poses probably more than he should. I think that is also a product of the 90's. All of his X-Men look great. You will see me reference his art more in my later notes.

Old school Nick Fury!

For those that don't know, before all the Marvel movies, Nick Fury was just an old white guy with the Reed Richards hair style. White hair on the sides, brown hair on the top. This is truly a different era of comics.

Wolverine is gonna wolverine

Wolverine is always the lone wolf and I made this comment because he runs off to do his own thing as he always does.

Brown and yellow the best costume?

At the beginning of this series (first three issues) Wolverine is in his Brown and Yellow costume, a staple of the Claremont run. I would argue any of you that it is his best costume. If you won't accept that, it is my personal favorite. Look, the yellow and blue one is cool, but this one is streamlined in a way that the other ones aren't. For one, he doesn't have those damn shoulder pads. I just think it is a cool look.

Flatscan = mutants' n word for humans

Some of the more evil mutants refer to humans as "Flatscans". Like the n word, I don't know why you choose this derogatory term, but here it is. 

Mutie = humans' n word for mutants

Guess humans need their own word, in case you couldn't tell they hate mutants. Here you go. This has been a public service announcement for you all.

Start of gold and blue teams!!

Here is where we see the start of the infamous gold and blue teams of the X-Men. For the uninitiated, the Gold Team consisted of Storm, Colossus, Jean Grey, Iceman and Archangel. Storm lead this particular team. The Blue team consisted of Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Beast, Psylocke and Jubilee. Cyclops is the leader of that team. I think there is no argument here. The blue team is clearly the cool kids team. This book was also the one that followed their adventures. Look, all the heavy hitters are on that team. It's not even fair. Also, why give Storm the weaker team?! Hmmmmm....

X-men are low key the bad guys in this. Magneto was trying to mind his business. They attacked him first thinking he was like he used to be

Oh man. Let me delve into this a little bit more. So we know Magneto is like the X-Men's #1 villain. Everyone gets that. At this point in time in the comics, he had turned good, served as the headmaster of Xavier's school while was gone and worked with most of the team. All of a sudden after some humans bothered him, he defended himself, the X-Men roll up on him and start to fight him without talking first. They are all like, "You will always be evil. A leopard never changes their spots" and all that kind of nonsense. I'm on Magneto's side in this one. He even tries to give them a chance to back off saying he means no harm. They fight him anyway. The X-Men are kinda a-holes.

Splash pages abound!

I mentioned before how Jim Lee is all about the splash pages? Yeah, in these action scenes they are exactly that. Beautiful yes, but sometimes completely unnecessary in their composition. That being said, if I had to money to buy these pages of original art, you better believe I would.

Forgot Rogue and Magneto were a thing

I totally forgot that Rogue and Magneto had a thing. Before they slid Rogue over to Gambit, her and Magneto had a connection. Let's just ignore the glaring age differences between the two. This relationship was further explored again during the Age of Apocalypse storyline that would appear a few years later. Anyways, she is the only one that keeps trying to appeal to Magneto and vice versa.

A lot of nonconsensual kissing in this book. Jean/Gambit, Fabian Cortez/Psylocke, Cyclops/Jean, Dazzler/Longshot

Alright. Let me tackle each of these scenarios. We talked about the Jean/Gambit one earlier. For the Fabian Cortez/Psylocke one, they are in the middle of a battle. Cortez takes it upon himself to force a kiss upon Psylocke, where he explains that his mutant power is to heighten the powers of other mutants. He couldn't put his hands on her or do it. No, he had to have a super rapey kiss. He even gloats about it like he is taking some of her power away. Awesome guys. For the Cyclops/Jean one is slightly different. They are together at this point in the book. However in this moment, they are in the middle of a battle where Cyclops has been turned bad. He forces his kiss on Jean and then asks her if it is as fun as Wolverine's. Then blasts her with his optic blasts. WOW. Finally, the Dazzler/Longshot kiss. For context, Dazzler and Longshot used to be a thing. Then Dazzler lost her memories (via some old x-men story with the Siege Perlious or something? Look, go wikipedia it. It's some soap opera, comic booky nonsense) and she is minding her own business in her normal life. Longshot shows up out of nowhere and talks about how they were once in love and kisses her. Nevermind Dazzler reacts initially to not even knowing who he is. That doesn't stop our boy, Longshot. No means no, man.

Professor X is a dick

Look, I don't think I need to explain anymore than that. In this run, he comes off as super judgemental towards Magneto. He has taken this moral high ground that he hasn't earned. Yes, Magneto was bad in the past. However, he has gone out of his way to avoid conflict with the X-Men until they force his hand. Then he decides to turn the X-Men to his side with some mutant wackiness (re: someone's special power or something). Just pages of pages of Xavier speech. Man, this book has made me PRO Magento.

Moira modifies Magneto's genetic structure to make him good, but was unethical. He finds out and is PISSED. Self fulfilling prophecies guys.

Whew. Let me get into this one. I will summarize some more comic book wackiness. At one point, Magneto got turned back into a baby. Moira decided to raise him and tried to change him to make him a good guy. She is a scientist and she takes it upon herself to help herself to some genetic modification of Magneto. The reason being, "He was bad before, but what if I take away that part of him. Then he can be good". I don't think I need to explain how morally wrong that is. When Magneto finds out, he is justifiably pissed. As he explains, now he has doubts whether any choice he makes is truly his own or because of this modification. She tries to tell him that because he was bad, she was only trying to make him better. He explained that seeing humans murder his parents (he was a holocaust survivor) is what made him who he is. Look, you can't blame him. His point is, my experiences made me who I am, not my genetic code. How dare you? So in effect, in trying to make him good, you made him MORE bad. I will march on the streets for Magneto at this point. 

Mets jokes STILL hold true. Ha!

There were some jokes about the NY Mets sucking in these issues. This part is still true! In this way, these issues have aged well.

Final issue of Claremont writing is issue #3

At this point, issue #3 was the last issue (at the time) of Claremont writing the X-men after 15 years. This is a huge deal. Just wanted that to be said because they explicitly say that on the credits page so you KNOW.

Moira tried to fix Magneto and then gaslights him saying his bad all along anyway?! WOW

That shaky moral high ground the X-Men keep standing on? Totally erased in these issues in my opinion. I think this comment is in reference to Moria getting one last dig in on Magneto as he chooses to go down with the ship when Asteroid M is destroyed. Basically she is saying that no genetic changes would make him good. Last time I checked, you were playing around with people's genes. Let's have a Magneto day, guys.

Magneto gave Professor X the business in his speech

I can't remember all the specific, but Magneto basically dresses down Professor X on his way to his "death". I think it was chastising him for always thinking his way is the best way without hearing anything else. Yo, the X-Men are the real villains.

Ugh. "Smart people" dialogue is the worse, re: beast

So at this point, Claremont is gone and Jim Lee and Scott Lobdell have taken over plot/script duties for this next four issues in the collection that introduces us to Omega Red. At this point, we get numerous lines of Beast using many big words to nail hope the dialogue. I went back to get this choice section to illustrate my point. Here is some of Beast's dialoge: "Then it's serendipitous I heard about your impending gastronomic ventures.. and decided to avail myself not only of your charming company..but also this most capacious jeep." What a normal person could say is, "Hey, we're tagging along on your date, Gambit". This dialogue is THE WORST.

Comics go a lot quicker without Claremont writing

These issues read a whole lot quicker with Claremont not writing. Bad dialogue aside, there are not pages and pages full of speech bubbles now. If anything, it's more focused on ACTION.

Wolverine is just back in his blue and yellow for no reason

Well, after those three issues to start this run, Wolverine is just back in his blue and yellow costume. Well okay. That is a choice. No explanation needed.

Hmm, Psylock just happens to be swimming and in a bikini huh?

Alright. So at this time, all the X-Men ladies were turned into sex symbols. Psylocke particularly. You have an asian ninja with a british accent and purple hair. Checks a lot of boxes. In this instance, she just HAPPENS to have been doing a few laps in the pool in a two piece bikini. Then she has to spring into action to fight some bad guys. So she throws on a jacket that doesn't hide anything. I bring this up because Jim Lee draws a sexy Psylocke and we never forget that because she is always posed for maximum effect. I got nothing else to add here.

Jim Lee did some of the plots?

I finally took notice of the credits that Jim Lee the artist is now Jim Lee the writer. Writing is not his strong suit. Like, at all. These issues move quickly and have some cool twists, but man. Stick to what you are good at. 

Lee's version of Wolverine is my favorite. Adam Kubert is second

Jim Lee absolutely draws my favorite version of Wolverine. Back then, he was portrayed and drawn as the 5'3" guy he is supposed to be. That is one of his characteristics. It's why there are so many short jokes made at his expense, but also what makes him more dangerous. The most defining feature is his distinctive hairstyle. It is patently ridiculous, but also simultaneously awesome. He has a definite look that you always know it is him when you see him. Adam Kubert also draws an amazing Wolverine, but Lee wins out easily.

Forgot about Sabretooh and birdy!!

I don't know why Sabretooth had a female sidekick, but he did. Maybe it's to counter the Wolverine/Jubilee duo? I know they explained it, but who cares. It's just a thing here and we have to deal with it. It's patently ridiculous that Sabretooth needs a sidekick at all, really.

Gambit/Sabretooth. Hint of their connection

Ooooooooh man. I forgot about THIS. There is some dialogue that hints at a past connection between Gambit and Sabretooth. What is a throwaway bit of dialogue turns out to be something much bigger. That comes to light in Uncanny X-Men #350. I know there is a statute of limitations on spoilers, but I won't say it here. It is just some real, deep cut X-Men stuff. Quick hint: It was REAL bad.

Good action, a lot of sexy Psylock poses

Lee does great action scenes. I don't want to take anything away from him on that. In the middle of these, it's hard to not notice the sexy Psylocke poses for no reason.

And there you have it, my hot takes on "X-Men: Deadly Genesis". Feel free to check it out yourselves and see if you felt the way I did!

Kevin's Panels in Tremendousness

Welcome again, dear readers. I realize it's been a while since I did this because of what is going on in the world (Pandemic). If you haven't been here before, here's the deal. I take a terrible picture of a panel in a comic book with my phone that is funny to me while I am in the middle of reading. Then I pass along those savings..I mean, fun to you. To make it funnier, I just show the panel completely devoid of any context.  Then I goof on it because I love. Who cares what was happening at that moment!? This time we have a real treat. It is probably one of my favorites because this is from the late 70's and it gives you a window into what was hip then. This particular gem is from Fantastic Four #168.

To keep MY mouth fresh, I prefer a minty flavor. Spearmint of course because Peppermint is a tool of the devil.

Look, I may not be an expert in family dynamics, but I don't think if my sibling teased my spouse about not getting any from ME, my go to would be, "Nuh uh. We sexed up right there on that couch next to you this morning". I mean, do you REALLY want to have that level of overshare? I sure don't! So does Sue think she won the argument? Look everyone, get you a spouse that will be your ride or die like good ol' Sue Richards here. The chef's kiss though is saying her brother has a FRESH MOUTH. As an INSULT. Someone makes fun of me from now on, I will question the freshness of their mouths and how it should be...dirty? Wait, I'm all turned around now. Damn you Fantastic Four! What even counts as an insult back then!?