Mini Reviews!: Axe Cop, World's Finest, Earth 2, The Hypernaturals

I'm a little short for time this week, so instead of doing a review of a single issue like usual, I thought I'd give some brief thoughts on a few of the books I read this week. 

Axe Cop: President of the World (#3 of 3): When I started reading this miniseries, I wondered if I would continue to find its random plot and general silliness as amusing after this third issue. Thankfully, Axe Cop continues to find laughs in the most absurd, childlike plot twists. For example: an ordinary man gets forcibly injected with "the blood of everything," turning him into the villain Every Man, who has the power of--everything? This is exactly the kind of comic book I imagined when I was 8, except perhaps with more knock-offs of 80s slasher villains and some kind of Aeon Flux-y super spy. 

Axe Cop is a simple pleasure, but not a guilty one. If you don't like it, you probably have humour cancer.  

World's Finest #5: I don't disagree with those who say that this book doesn't move the plot forward in any meaningful way, or that it seems to be stalling between the first arc and the next, but you know what? I'm OK with that. For a standalone issue, #5 is packed full of story and art from Jenkins and Perez, and half of that story is so good that it's worth the $2.99 price point by itself. Seriously, Huntress saves a Take Back the Night rally from a woman-hating gunman. How awesome is that? Huntress is becoming my favorite member of the Bat-family, and while Power Girl needs to put some R&D money in designing a costume that doesn't burn off her body every issue (or just GIVE HER BACK HER OLD COSTUME DC), her characterization is great too. Sorry for shouting. 

World's Finest isn't breaking the mold, but it's the kind of fun, good-natured comic that I wish DC would publish more often.

Earth 2 #5: Speaking of great DC comics, Earth 2 continues right where #4 left off, with the new "Wonders" taking on one of my favorite Pre-52 villains, Solomon Grundy (just "Grundy," here). What can I say? I love Earth 2. This is how a reboot should be done.  There would be far fewer problems across the DC line if they would have just wiped the slate clean like they have with this title.  I have no doubts that Alan Scott is going to choose to be hero over spending eternity with his dead lover Sam, and will save the day by defeating Grundy with the help of The Flash, Hawkgirl, and The Atom. Beyond that, I have no idea where this series will go. 

In these past 6 issues, the groundwork has been laid for an exciting new chapter in DC Comics history and can't wait to see where Robinson and co. take these characters next.

The Hypernaturals #4: Hypernaturals is a good cosmic superhero story, if, and only if, you are a fan of the Legion of Superheroes. I know this title is creator-owned and supposedly therefore less restrained but in four issues, this book has just failed to make me care about the future of the series. The art is great. The production of this book is quite excellent, and has been far more consistent in this regard than either Extermination (great story/terrible art) or Higher Earth (good story/good-to-terrible art). Even so, I can't just get excited about this series when I feel like I know exactly what it wants to be: The Watchmen meets the Legion of Superheroes. There is clearly a mystery going on and one of the heroes is going to turn out be evil or something like that but I just don't care. 

Overall, I felt that this was a really strong week for DC, as Animal Man, Swamp Thing, and Dial H, which I also read, were all excellent.

What We're Reading: August 2012

Reviews of today's comics will be up later on this evening, but in the meantime, here's an update on what we're reading this month:

What We're Reading, August 2012: 

-Animal Man (DC)
-Archer & Armstrong (Valiant)
-Axe Cop: President of the World (Dark Horse)
-Bloodshot (Valiant)
-Black Kiss II (Image)
-Dial H (DC)
-Extermination (Boom!)
-Glory (Image)
-Hell Yeah (Image)
-Higher Earth (Boom!)
-The Hypernaturals (Boom!)
-Harbinger (Valiant)
-Hit-Girl (Icon)
-Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files of Judge Dredd Vols. 1-5 (Rebellion)
-Prophet (Image)
-Revival (Image)
-Saga (Image)
-The Secret Service (Icon)
-Super Crooks (Icon)
-Swamp Thing (DC)
-X-O Manowar (Valiant)

And depending what comes out each week, possibly more!

Axe Cop: President of the World #1

Axe Cop: President of the World
Writer: Malachai Nicolle
Artist: Ethan Nicolle
July 25, 2012
Dark Horse

This is my first Axe Cop comic, and am I ever glad I decided to buy it.

If you're somehow unfamiliar with the premise of this book, here's what you need to know: Axe Cop is written by an eight-year old and drawn by his older brother, and tells the story of Axe Cop, a cop with an axe.

Oh yeah, he's now declared himself the President of the World, and has declared Axeville (formerly Oakville, WA) the capital of the World. God sets up a force field to protect the earth from bad guys for a million years, and a man made of Goo (called Goo Cop) keeps harassing Axe Cop to save his family from aliens.

As you can probably tell, the story is completely random, going in a different direction on nearly every page. The cartoon-like art style perfectly captures the energy and silliness of the story, and the art style of Axe Cop in general reminds me a lot of two of my favourite comedy series, The Tick and Flaming Carrot. Even if the story makes no sense (seriously, things get really strange at Weird Ape Planet), Ethan's art is very good and reminds me a lot of both Erik Larsen and Bob Burden.

If somehow this crazy book has flown under your radar, President of the World #1  is your chance to jump in to the weird, random adventures of Axe Cop.