Rai #1

Writer – Matt Kindt
Artist – Clayton Crain

The 41st century finds Japan an idyllic place, perhaps too much so for some.  The city has had essential peace for a thousand years.  All of that has been thanks to Father who looks over all and Rai, Father’s helper and protector of the people.  An interesting scenario, made more so when that peace is shattered by a murder.  So Rai is called upon to investigate and find out what happened, and if possible, bring the perpetrators to justice.  Matt Kindt does a great job on this first issue creating some great situations and a hero who starts out the book as one rarely called upon to one who is out of his depth.  Kindt also throws in a little I, Robot/Terminator 2 plot-wise with Rai, who is supposed to give Father his all in every respect, already starting to rebel against his ‘programming.’  Lula looks like she will turn out to be a great supporting character.  She is in awe of Rai at the moment, but it looks like that sheen will wear off when she gets to know him a bit better and they will become friends at some point and will quite possibly end up being Rai’s conscience in future books.  Or not.  Crain has been doing a fantastic job for many years now and he brings his A game to the book.  It looks beautiful, it flows nicely and everything looks wonderful.

4.5 out of 5

Amazing Spider-Man #1

Writer – Dan Slott, Christos Gage, Joe Caramagna, Peter David, Chris Yost
Artist – Humberto Ramos, Javier Rodriguez, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Chris Eliopoulous, Will Sliney, David Baldeon, Ramon Perez
Inker – Victor Olazaba, Alvaro Lopez, John Dell & Cam Smith, Jordi Tarragona
Colours – Edgar Delgado, Javier Rodriguez, Antonio Fabela, Jim Charalampidis, Rachelee Rosenberg, Ian Herring

Peter is back in the land of the living and things could not be any better, or any worse than they always were.  Turns out he is the CEO of his own company which is great, but he has no idea what he was working on and the staff is afraid of him.  He has a girlfriend in Anna Maria, but has no recollection of it obviously and finds out they have been intimate as well.  To top it all off, in his first jaunt as Spidey, he ends up battling the Menagerie stark naked except for the mask and some well-placed webbing.  Good and bad, as per usual for the spectacular Spider-Man.  Great first issue by Slott and Ramos which returns our hero back to his roots and feels like we have not skipped a beat since the last time we saw him.  The characterization and the humour were dead on and the supporting cast of whom we have come to know and love over the last couple of years are still present and look to remain so. The book is padded out with extra tales featuring Electro, the Black Cat, Spider-Man 2099 and more.  All are done well with the Black Cat story standing out as the best, referring to her memorable defeat at Doc Ock’s hands and follows her during her current hardships and her promise to take it all out on the wall-crawler.  An excellent start and a return to form for one of Marvel’s flagship books.

5 out of 5