Li'l Sonja makes a great gift for kids of reading age and up, though it's a fun read for adults, especially if you're familiar with the adult Red Sonja. And you can always just say it's a gift when buying it at your local comics store.

This new Powers series has nothing to do with the new tv show, but is a great place to jump on with the series as a whole, though I feel like everyone who reads any kind of comic has already. Or, they should. There's fifteen years of great comics to enjoy if you haven't.

This is a great creative team. Rucka uses a similar technique here that he used in the beginning issues of Lazarus, which is to plop the reader down in a world, without explanations or exposition, and makes our curiosity, tied in with the main characters' own questions, the driving force of the story. Not many comics writers trust their readers that much. Not many creative teams are good enough to get away with it either.

Your local comic book dealer will still have Veil #1 in stock. People who have already read it won't need this review. Grab them both, and enjoy. Check out Rucka's Lazarus series, from Image, while you're at it.

How many times do I have to repeat myself? Go get this series. Veil #1 and #2 are still probably stocked at your local comic book store. Get all three issues and enjoy the most mysterious story going on right now in the comics world.

Hardcore Doctor Who fans will of course want to buy "The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who". As a self-contained issue, without the need for too much insider knowledge, this is a good buy for anyone looking to explore outside their normal interests, and I can't help think that this would make a good gift, especially for younger folks. The only danger is that it might serve as a gateway drug to the regular Doctor Who TV show. And the comic. And action figures....

Which is to say that Fatale #19 is not a good place to jump on board. It's the end of what will be Fatale Volume #4, though even then it leaves off with a huge cliffhanger. If you haven't already, I suggest going back and reading Fatale Volumes 1-3. You won't be disappointed. Four stars for the series as a whole, though.

Still the story is engaging, and I'm glad to see graphic novel folks taking on the real bad guys of the world, and not just the cops or the Mafia. Illustrator Marcus To does a good job of creating tension and energy in the otherwise seemingly bland action of typing on a keyboard, though the stakes in the story are high at points, with the two main characters, hacking into the Tunisian government, and the country's entire internet system, itself.

Still, this is an intriguing premise, and the first issue is a real story, not just an excuse to introduce characters, while at the same time building towards a longer story arc.

I'm not a fan of detective/cop stories by themselves, but I like them when mashed up with other genres, like a lot of the work of another Image writer/creator, Ed Brubaker. The buddy movie formula works here, and I really really like Klem. I also like seeing a plethora of people of color in a comic story. The world of The Fuse world is visually interesting, and the murders are intriguing: the cliffhanger at the end of issue #1 works well, leaving me curious to see what happens next, and impatient, once again, that I have to wait a month. I guess that's a good sign, but I'll say again that a lot of Image's stories lend themselves to collected volumes. I guess that's true of any good ongoing story though.

Still, in for a penny, in for a pound. If you want to enjoy this whole project, and I do, sincerely, then youll need to read AVP. Or, you could just wait for the collected Volume of all four series that I suspect is in the works for next year".

The character Black Dynamite is a kung fu master, which was my original interest in him. He's also Vietnam vet, and ex-CIA. And, he's black, (therefore?) strong, virile (of course), confident, a ladies man (of course), non-monogamous (of course) and talks rhythmic, rhyming, 70s 'jive' (or what we (white readers?) think is jive) which is ridiculous, and therefore (?) funny. I think. I laughed out loud at points, but am I laughing with the character/story? Or at it? Does writer/producer of the franchise Brian Ash care?

Still, Vampirella, the only character who gets any real action, is visually interesting-looking (meaning sexy-hot in a Victorian dress that emphasizes her bosom) and interesting in that she's an intelligent, business-savvy woman that can turn into a neck-snapping limb-tearing monster in one panel. I'm guessing that the other main characters will be at least as interesting once they get up and running, but the question is, how long will that take? And will readers wait that long?

Mostly though, I can't tell, and I don't think the story can tell, if this is supposed to be a straight-up comedy, or a serious sci-fi story with some funny bits. It's kind of...neither? Instead, it's a whole lot of exposition. And, as Inspector Leeja Clane, the main bad-gal, wearing four inch platform boots, says on page 15, "If you have to explain it, it stops being funny."

But, I just can't get past the fact that every time I see a panel with the Black Bat in costume I think, "Dude, that's Batman." If he were something like Night Owl from Watchmen"a nod to, and a commentary on, an iconic superhero myth"that might be more interesting. But, especially if you don't know the history of the character, Dynamite just seems to be trying to cash in on the Batman look. Why bother acquiring the legal rights to an old old character, when Baccellato's story would work much better with a new character?

I can't help feeling this comic is for people who are already fans of the franchise. But it left me, as a non-game-player, kind of scratching my head.

I like that comics companies are exploring other possibilities besides the super-hero genre, though maybe the problem is trying to do re-makes of classics? Attaching the Turok name gives a gua

Overall, I'm for a series like this, both just because it's The Twilight Zone in general, which I always thought was a great tv show, and because each issue is a self-contained story, with no crossovers and tie-ins, and offers the opportunity to have different writers and artists (especially beginner writers and artists!) for each issue. But, I hope further issues have stories that, while still having some kind of mystery, end up making sense"in a shocking and horrifying way, of course.