Link: http://www.thelengths.com

With the release of the third issue of Howard Hardiman’s latest work, The Lengths, I thought maybe I’d tell you all about it, let you know how good it is, so that you would all go and get it.

And let’s be clear; I am going to be telling you how good it is and insist that you get your copies ASAP.

The Lengths tells the story of Eddie, a young, art school drop out living in London, and his relationships. As if that wasn’t dramatic enough, the crux of the story pulls us in deeper to an emotional world of emotional twists and turns that ensnare Eddie, and the reader too. Because Eddie is also Ford, a male escort, drawn into this world by a powerful fascination with another male escort, Nelson.

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I have to start this review with a disclaimer; I consider the writer of Sugar Glider, Daniel Clifford to be a good friend of mine. I occasionally offer him some bad advice and lackluster support, which is why he felt it necessary to give me a mention in the special thanks section at the front of the second issue of Sugar Glider. This will in no way affect the way I write my review, you can try to bribe me with your 'special thanks' Clifford but we both know this book is all you and artist Gary Bainbridge and I'll judge it as so ;-)

Sugar Glider #2 starts with our hero, Susie Sullivan, still reeling from her first foray into super-heroics, battered and bruised with her family now aware of and condemning her desire to become Newcastle's finest vigilante. On the delicately, well designed cover there is a pull quote that top's the page "The Empire Strikes Back of Comics has arrived", this comment is so acutely accurate, with issue one things ended on such a downer with everything falling down around our heroine. So, does this mean this next installment should be 'Return of the Jedi'? I can't even decide whether that would be a good thing or not?

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Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a 90lb weakling from Brooklyn who wants nothing more that to fight for his country in WW2. Unfortunately, he’s a 90lb weakling, which is not exactly a quality high on the list of your average Army recruiter. However, what he lacks in brawn, he more than makes up for in fight and spirit, which is what catches the eye of Emile Erskine (Stanley Tucci), an enigmatic German scientist with a Super-Soldier serum that should be right up Steve’s alley. It is a resounding success, but while Steve is put to work as a USO sideshow, selling war bonds and socking “Hitler” in the jaw up and down the Eastern seaboard, Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) and his ultra-Nazi offshoot Hydra are harnessing the power of an ancient artefact with an aim to make Hitler’s plans for world domination look positively anaemic. A punch-up between the two seems more than inevitable.

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Expectation seems to be everything with the new Thor movie. Whether it be the expectation of what has come before (Iron Man, Hulk) or what's next (Captain America or the Avengers Uber-movie). That being said, although Thor can be seen as bridging some gaps in the cannon continuity of the new Marvel-Film Universe(lets ignore Hulk for now), it comes alive by just being it's own thing.

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Link: http://www.boom-studios.net/

CLICK IMAGE TO EMBIGGEN

What a striking image (see above), who wouldn't buy a comic book with a cover like that? The image in question is by Tim Bradstreet (The Punisher, HellBlazer, Criminal Macabre) who does one of two covers for the 28 Days Later series from Boom! Studios the other cover artist is no slouch either as it's on Mr Sean Phillips of Criminal fame. You can't help but be drawn to this book as it stands out from everything else on the stands but of course we can't just judge a book by it's cover even if the cover on it's own is probably worth the price of addmission alone.

Luckily the quality doesn't end with the cover, we reviewed issue #1 of this series on the last episode of the Sidekickcast and it got four stars, it was really well handled but alot of setup. This issue feels like it moves at breakneck pace right from the offing, we've dealt with the setup now it's time to get into the nitty gritty of the 28 Days Later world; namely zombie killing and running for your life. The series bridges the gap between the first and second movies, focusing on Selena's return to the zombie infested mainland Britain and it's here that the book really succeeds. I believe this is the same world, it feels right. The pacing and momentum are just like the movies and the one character we recognise feels spot on; talking down to soldiers who are way out of their depth. Even the new characters we're introduced to feel right, they talk like Alex Garland wrote them, no mean feat and writer Michael Alan Nelson should be applauded for this.

The art very much does the job it needs to, ably telling the story and artist Declan Shalvey has a suitably dark and murky style that leaves you feeling a little dirty with each flip of the page. There's a great scene down a lift shaft that I don't want to give away but it had me genuinely terrified, playing on primal fears of the dark and enclosed spaces, add zombies to that mix and you have some shit your pants style anticts that won't won't leave your mind for some time. This is a prime example of the work Boom! Studios have been doing for a while now, good solid art and writing focusing on telling good stories no matter if it's an original concept or a tried and trusted franchise.

If you want to return to the 28 Days Later world you can't do any better than taking a look at this series and whilst you're at it you may aswell take a look at some of the other awesome Boom! Studios product out there. Oh and if anyone knows where I can get a full on poster of the Tim Bradstreet covers I'd be very appreciative.

Gonna spoil the shit outta this and by extension the end of Battle for the Cowl. Cool? Ok then

Lets start with the stick I have up my arse over Grant Morrison.
Been a fan of his writing for years, but his major output in 2008 namely Batman RIP and Final Crisis really put me off him. Both works divided the nerd community and I fell squarely in the "pretentious wank" category as both seemed more about showing how clever the writer was than delivering an entertaining story. I like books with levels you can go into, like Watchmen for example, but you can just read Watchmen as a cool whodunnit if you want to. Morrisons stuff didnt have that entertaining surface level to it, it was just confusing for the sake of it. Batman RIP especially annoyed me in particular the ending which seemed tagged on and pointless.

Why am I telling you all this? So you know how hard a sell I was on this book.

This was Morrison coming back to Batman after, in my opinion, fucking it up. If it had been my call they wouldnt have let him back on and definately wouldnt have been making a big deal about it. That said, I love the character, I wanted to be proven wrong.

Issue one seems to have done that.

This book basically is the first outing of the new Batman and Robin, these being Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne. Grayson obviously being the original Robin who has reluctantly taken on the role of Batman and Damian being Bruce's son.
The dynamic between them is played very well and reminiscent of when Bruce Wayne first took on Jason Todd who was also a bit of a shit and who I have to admit was probably my fave of the Robins, though I am in the minority with that. They were both characterised really well and I really enjoyed both their interactions with Alfred who as always is the rock in the Batman books. Looking forward to seeing how Gordon takes it and if they will pretend he is too dumb to notice a new guy under the cowl. Would hope Grayson admits who he is to him from the off.
A new villain is introduced called Pyg who is genuinely disturbing and will be a good warm up for the Joker confrontation we know they are counting down to.
Art by Frank Quitely is excellent as always and I gotta admit I was totally won over by this book and am eagerly waiting for issue 2.

Nice work Mr Morrison, it was a pleasure to be proven wrong.