Comicsin' It Up Volume 4

Here are today's additions to my comic book marathon.

Identity Crisis, written by Brad Meltzer, was excellent. It's really a thriller, or a murder mystery, except its cast features all the great heroes of the DC Comics world. Good storytelling, apart from the beginning part being a little confusing with the story leaping through characters, many of which weren't very familiar to me. It soon develops into a gripping and moving story, though. It was interesting to read this shortly after Marvel's Civil War, because it touches on similar issues, albeit from a very different, more personal viewpoint. In my opinion, Identity Crisis worked better as a story.

Thor: Vikings is from Marvel's MAX imprint, which is targeted to a more mature audience. And, indeed, it's delightfully gory. It's written by Garth Ennis, who's work on Hellblazer was spectacular. This wasn't quite on the same level, but it was still lots of fun to read. The story features Thor and Doctor Strange taking on a horde of cursed 1000 year old vikings. Art's not bad, although the book features some of the ugliest computer lettering I've seen.

Domestic pick of the day is Jadesoturi: Sangfu. It's a prequel to the awesome Finnish movie Jade Warrior (Jadesoturi), drawn and written by first time comic book artist Tuomas Lius, in collaboration with the creators of the movie. It was a pretty cool addition to the movie, but rather too short to work as an independent work.