Corey's Comic Corner Week #10! Review of "Deadpool #1", "Behold, Behemoth #1", "Escape from Wyoming #1" and "Orc Island #1"
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Corey’s Comic Corner Week #10
What’s up folks! You know why we are here! It’s your weekly edition of Corey’s Comic Corner coming to ya live from the recliner during the Bills game. We’ve got the usual for ya. Some reviews, a little playful banter and who knows what else.(Insert extremely long pause here.) You wouldn’t know it from reading this but there was actually a 4 hour break between the last sentence and this one. Unfortunately, the Bills game forced me to take a long hard look at my life. I ended up outside blowing off some steam with a little leaf blowing and raking before the early sunset of daylight savings time gobbled up the rest of the afternoon. By the way, none of that helped. Note to self. Read more comics. Watch less sports! haha! Speaking of “gobbled up”. We have now moved past Halloween and into the three week period where we slowly come down from the sugar high of Halloween just in time to enjoy that huge feast on Thanksgiving. My second favorite holiday! We have three whole blogs before that arrives though so let’s not get carried away.
This week I had a chance to read Deadpool #1, Behold, Behemoth #1, Escape from Wyoming #1 and Orc Island #1
Deadpool #1
Published Marvel
Written by Alyssa Wong
pencils by Martin Coccolo
Rated M for Mature
Available now!
The Merc with the mouth is back! Wade Wilson AKA Deadpool is back and trying to prove his worth as a superhero yet again. Having tried to join an elite group of assassins, he is tasked with the assignment of killing one of the MCU’s biggest villains within 48 hours. However, he’s also been simultaneously kidnapped and had a symbiote specimen implanted in his body. Typical Deadpool kind of day. Can he survive? Can he escape? Will he complete his mission to earn entrance into the Atelier! Only one way to find out!
What can I say? How can you resist a little Deadpool? We’ve been super lucky to have such great writers tackle the last few volumes of this book and Alyssa Wong is no different. She does a great job of making Deadpool feel like Deadpool and it’s a super funny romp from start to finish. The plot of this first issue is great as well. It’s just all very Deadpooly! haha! Trying to prove he’s an elite merc, getting involved with a woman who’s also trying to kill him and ending up with a symbiote also growing inside of him? It’s a lot of issues at once but I can’t think of anyone handling it better than Wade Wilson. The pacing is good and the story weaves plenty of action and humor together back and forth throughout the issue. Coccolo does a great job of handling the pencils and art as well. It’s vibrant, fun and gory in all the right places and each panel blends perfectly with the dialogue. The best part of the whole issue is that with all the drama already going on it ends with Deadpool coming face to face with the very man he’s running out of time to kill. It doesn’t look like that’s going to go very well in the next issue either! Guess we’ll have to wait to find out. I know I’ll certainly be sticking with this book and I highly recommend you check it out as well. You won’t be disappointed!
Behold, Behemoth #1
Published by Boom
Written by Tate Brombal
penciled by Nick Robles
Rated M for Mature
Available now!
A new horror series from parts of the creative teams behind House of Slaughter and The Many Deaths of Laila Starr. A supernatural and mythical story about a young social worker who’s both dealing with mental illness and just lost his brother. Between lack of sleep, new meds and unrelenting nightmares he’s slowly losing his grip on reality. He’s also suddenly found a young girl, one from a family he deals with as part of his job, at the site of major murder scene. As his nightmares start to become more real and this girl becomes a bigger part of his life it would seem fate has brought them both together and they may both be tied to something that could decide the fate of the world.
Wow! There was a lot to digest here. The first thing that stuck out to me was the art and coloring. It’s a gorgeous, vibrant and yet unsettling looking comic. Moody and atmospheric. Robles does impressive work with this issue and honestly I looked at the issue a few times just to soak all the detail and nuances in. The writer uses these colors and panels to move between the past and present as well as the delicate mental state of the main character. Surprisingly, you don’t feel lost at any point and rather you can almost feel the anxiety and pressure of our protagonist as the story develops over the first issue. I also love how through some of the visions/explorations of the possible future we see our protagonist take on the role of leader and hero against the possible monsters he sees in his nightmares. There is definitely a bold and mysterious adventure that is unfolding in the background and that’s being set up in this issue. I can’t wait to read the next issue and see where this is going. There is going to be a lot more to unpack and I think this book could become very popular in the near future. From what I’ve read it’s already been rushed back to print. Definitely worth checking out. Let us know if we can get you a copy!
Escape from Wyoming #1
Published by Bad Idea
Written by Robert Venditti
Pencils by Jorge Monlongo
Rated M for Mature
Available via pre-order only at this time
Bad Idea is back with Part 2 and 7 new books that were available via pre-order. The first being this little Sci-fi/horror romp from the mind of Robert Venditti who has a long history of writing comics. Most recently Superman ‘78. The plot of this first book is about a wrongly accused police officer from another planet being sent to a maximum security prison on Earth. Apparently there are top secret prisons set up all over the solar system. When one of the other murderous inmates escapes after an elaborate setup, the former cop is asked to take up the badge and help find the escaped convicts by the intergalactic powers that be. If he fails, as a precaution, Earth is set to be annihilated as part of the prison's safeguards. This includes him, all of the guards and all of earth's inhabitants. Meanwhile, a local sheriff on earth is also investigating this event as there have been some peculiar events taking place around his small rural town in you guessed it. Wyoming!
This comic got off to a bit of a slow start for me. The art just didn’t seem to match up with the story and it served as almost a distraction. I kept finding myself going back and forth trying to decide if I was into the story enough to keep going while forgiving the art. As I continued to read the story though the art suddenly seemed to make more sense. The book is presented as an other-worldy story where Earth is the alien planet. When I began to accept this perspective everything seemed to flow better. The story itself is fun and it’s written well. The pacing, world building and character detail set the table for what looks like will be a fun event over the course of three expected issues. There’s action, humor, foul language, bodily fluids and a little gore leading into the ending of this issue. I'm excited to see how the dynamic between our two very different officers of the law will play out in the next issue. If I had to guess there will be a team up of sorts but the ending definitely leads you to believe this could go in many different directions. If you have read this issue I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave us some comments!
Orc Island #1
Published by Bad Idea
Written by Joshua Dysart
Pencils by Alberto Ponticelli
Rated M for Mature
Available for pre-order only at this time
Orc Island was the 2nd Bad Idea book to launch this past week as part of their line-up and the last new book to arrive until December I believe. The idea behind this book being a group of explorers on a heist mission who set sail for Orc Island to exploit its riches and treasures. One of them being Orc Skulls which seem to fetch a lot of money in this world and also appears to be a symbol of social stature. This book was pretty cool. The art, again, is right in the forefront but this offering hits a little differently. It’s absolutely gorgeous to look at. Mostly in part due to the coloring by Matt Hollingsworth, whom in my opinion, is probably the best in the industry.
There’s a ton of creativity and imagination at play as well. Each page and panel is teaming with little details and intricate designs which help flesh out the story and world. You can tell they put a lot of time and effort into this first issue just as they have with most previous Bad Idea books. The issue sets up our team of explorers and starts their journey to what they call the mist wall which is the barrier between their land and Orc Island. We end the issue with our crew just breaching the mist wall and the good old “To be continued” credits roll. Can you say cliffhanger??!! This book will drop each week over the next four weeks so you can expect that this story will unfold swiftly over those four total issues. I can’t wait to pick up issue #2 at POP ROC this week. Again, if you are reading any of these Bad Idea comics we’d love to hear from you! Drop us a comment or stop in today!
In pop culture news. A cool little film dropped over this past weekend I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts on. The film, “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” starring Daniel Radcliff, is a comedy biopic that is getting rave reviews and that many people are talking about right now. We all know, nobody does pop culture better than Weird Al Yankovic who’s been dropping parodies of hit songs through every decade since the mid 70’s! He basically created the parody! Definitely worth a watch and my pick of the week for streaming. It’s a Roku original available now on Roku and other streaming platforms. Check it out!
Lastly, remember you can find lots of fun comics, pop culture books, toys, collectibles, etc. right at POP ROC as well as plenty of other gift ideas for the coming holidays. We can also curate a themed gift box for whomever you want! Reach out to POP ROC today and see below for more info.
That’s it for this week folks! Thanks for riding along with us on this journey into the unknown. We’ll be back next week with more comic reviews, pop culture news and much much more!
Corey Newell
“Just a guy who loves comics”
⁃ Independent blogger, dad, dork, comic nerd and pop culture lover hailing from Spencerport, NY