Chuck's Critiques by Charles LePage

Keeping The World Strange: A Planetary Guide
Edited by Cody Walker
Sequart Research And Literacy Organization

Keeping The World Strange: A Planetary Guide is a worthy companion to Warren Ellis's Planetary series. Planetary was a complex story, filled with large consignments of references to other comic books, popular culture and "real world" events, so a book outlining and explaining those references is definitely welcome. The appendix which lists a suggested reading order for Planetary is worth the price of admission. My only annoyances while reading the essays were the repeated negative references to the 1980s leaders of the U.S. and U.K. For instance, Julian Darias in his essay refers to the 1980s as "a dark time politically in the U.S. under Reagan but even more so in the U.K. under Thatcher." While I understand how politics of that decade influenced comic book creators in both countries, to declare Reagan as "senile" and Thatcher as "mad," only to leave the reader on their own to research the claims, in a book designed to "not only provide analysis for this historically important series but (to) spur readers to be archaeologists of their own fiction" is an error that stands out like a firefly at night. Nonetheless, I highly recommend this collection for anyone who has read Planetary or who is a fan of Warren Ellis.

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Suspended Animation Review

The Twilight Experiment, published by Wildstorm Publications, 36 pages, $2.99 cover price.

Michael is a young man who grew up on a space station, and whose primary care giver was an artificial intelligence. As if that wasn't enough to make him stand out, his mother was one of the world's most powerful superheroes. She was also murdered. Now, having inherited her powers, Michael is anxious to avenge his mother.

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Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

X-Files #6 of 6
Wildstorm Comics (DC)
Moench & Denham

The series wraps up with a very strong installment. Mulder is in trouble and ends up rescuing a missing person, but he needs help himself to escape. The issue ends in classic ambiguous fashion as we still don’t have a full explanation of what was going on in the Badlands. This issue captures an episode of X-Files very well.

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Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

X-Files #5 of 6
Wildstorm Comics (DC Comics)
Moench & Denham

A new story starts in this issue and it’s a real eye opener. Scully and Mulder are sent to the Badlands to investigate some disappearances. They interrogate a suspect but find that the guy seems to have two personalities. Mulder finds some common ground discussing the occult and other interesting mystical things while Scully just sees a suspect. It’s a good issue with a real strange ending. Strange in a good way.

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Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

The X-Files #4 of 6
Wildstorm Comics (DC Comics)
Wolfman & Denham

The two-part arc wraps up with a little mystery and lot of noise. While this series, in print and on screen, usually ends with some intrigue and a little bit of a brain stumper, this one uses some good, old-fashioned shooting. It’s still a good read but it clearly falls on the action side of the fence, which threw me for a loop.

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Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

X-Files #2
Wildstorm Comics (DC)
Spotnitz & Denham

The short arc wraps up with a bit of a letdown from the excellent first issue. Sure, this issue gives some great conspiracy and some layered covered up, but the explanation of last issue’s cliffhanger nagged at me. That, and the crew who figured out the tricks that the government was up to couldn’t produce evidence smelled a little fishy. It’s a good issue but it isn’t the ending I was expecting at all.

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Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

X-Files #1
Wildstorm Comics (DC)
Spotnitz & Denham

If you liked the TV show and are remotely interested in the comic, you won’t be disappointed at all. This comic is an excellent reminder of everything that made the show so great. Conspiracies, strange illnesses, government involvement and a little bit of a cliffhanger make for a great comic. This one has it all and then some.

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Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

World of Warcraft #10
Wildstorm Comics (DC)
Simonson, Buran & Hope

It’s time to rescue the dwarf! This issue focuses on the attempted rescue of the dwarf prisoner, named Hjalmar Anvilmar. He is the brother of one of Lo’Gosh’s buddies, Thargas. This issue gives the usual fill of action, but for the first time it feels a little unreasonable in terms of what they achieve. The artwork still delivers on every level. In all, this issue was good but nowhere near great.

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