The Lone Ranger 1-2; MoonKnight 6; White Tiger 1

The Lone Ranger
Brett Matthews-Sergio Cariello

I have to cop to it up front, when I was really little, I used to wake up at 5:30am every saturday morning, just to watch the latest rerun(which for me was brand new) of the old Lone Ranger series. And in addition to that, the actual movie of the series, was pretty much completely awe inspiring to me.

So why it took me two issues to bother with this title I've never fully understand. Maybe I was afraid they would make a childhood fave into something really cheesy. I don't know.

But what we've got here is Lone Ranger: Year One. And it is pretty darn fantastic. The first two issues fly by really quick, but you get the ambush, and the mysterious set up of a larger conspiracy against the Lone Ranger headed by one really evil Black Bart. We even have a very tortured and troubled Tonto on board already. It's a lot of fun. You really don't need to know anything about the Lone Ranger to appreciate the book. I can't really imagine what it would be like to read this book with no knowledge of the series, but it must be nice. Basically what you've got here is the making of a legend.

This is a good western comic, and that makes it a good change of pace if you're looking to branch out of the tighted wonders. Though again, there are a lot of similarities to Batman here, so you won't feel totally adrift. The art is excellent, the story telling is good--just a very solid book to be reading. One minor quibble I had was that the transitions between time periods were needlessly jarring. But I look forward to spending more time in all of these diffrent time periods of the character.

MoonKnight # 6
Charlie Huston-David Finch

Another childhood fave. I have always thought MoonKnight was really cool, and as I've said in my earlier reviews of this book, I am really happy with what Huston is doing here. This book just gets grittier and grittier. With seemingly no end in sight. It almost functions as a horror movie with Marc Spector against himself.

The gore level of this book is amazing, and the art is just flat out grimy. My only complaint is that the issues just won't come fast enough. Basically MoonKnight is becoming a face skinning nutcase who can't distinguish between reality and delusion anymore.

The interior monologue is once again very good and very clever. The dialouge is needlessly complicated and difficult sometimes to process. It's hard sometimes to remember who is related to what, and what they are going on about. But I get the sense that Huston is really feeling the medium out right now with this book. He's trying really hard and really pushing to see just what he can do with the medium, and for the most part it's been a raving success.

This is a great book if you are into delusional gritty gore happy brooding hero types. Dark stuff indeed. But it's good to see MoonKnight back on his feet.

White Tiger # 1
Tamora Pierce, Timothy Liebe-Phil Briones

Well....the cover looks nice. The cover is by David Mack. It's very pretty. I like it a lot. I bought the book because of the cover. Good job David Mack. In fact I had this book lying around and a co-worker saw it and was really interested because the cover was that good. So good job David Mack.

I mean. I like Tigers. And BAM. There's a White Tiger, right there on the cover. Behind a pretty ass kicking lady with dark hair, I'm thinking about getting my hair darkened, so jealous of brunettes. It's really cool how the utility belt on the cover is kind of done in a diffrent style than everything else. Almost cartoony next to the painting water colors of the rest. Just all in all a job well done.

Oh. How's the actual book you ask?

Oh the book? It's a pile of steaming crap. I'd say you might enjoy it if you are a fan of White Tiger, but how many fans of White Tiger are there really out there? Probably less than there were before. The book where it tries to be funny is appallingly not. Where it tries to be serious, it comes off awkward. The art is par the course for anything. The whole trip to the superhero costume store felt entirely out of place(yes I know it exists in the "616", but still...). This book just howls lame. Actually the thing is, it's bad, but it's not really bad enough to get a kick out of as being bad.

That said, I'll give the book a chance. Maybe it will find it's footing a few issues in? It is written by a women, and I like to see more women writing in the business. But really....acck. Instead of buying this book, buy an extra copy of Phonogram and give it to a needy child for this christmas.