Review: Z-Men #5

I’ve done it again. I’ve saved Z-Men for last. I do read the books alphabetically for the most part. My favs like Remote and Rise make it to the top quickly, but I always end up for last. Probably because it was the first book I read initially and proved that it was consistently good. I don’t worry about Z-Men being bad, just how much it will entertain me. The fifth issue does just that. Our odd couple buddy cops of Agent Clancy and Agent Stuart continue to fight the zombies all on their own. After accidentally killing their police escort, they now have him in the backseat. He’s not quite a gamma, more of a beta I guess, and he’s hilarious. I sincerely hope they keep him.

Tills, the dead officer zombie, tells the other zombies to raise the drawbridge as Clancy and Stuart head towards the power plant. Clancy responds by jumping the mother fucking bridge. To calm Tills down, Stuart gives him weed. Since Clancy is “going through it” at the moment, he says they’ll leave that part off the official report. As we saw in the fourth issue, the power plant has been taken over, so the question becomes what can Clancy and Stuart do about all the assholes?

This book makes me laugh. The gags and their setups are pretty simple and straightforward, but the characters that have developed make them work. Clancy starts calling everyone an asshole and it’s a joke that should wear thin by the end of the issue, but it doesn’t. It gets better each time he does it. The characters are some of the richest in the Double Take universe.

There was a part where the lettering could have been better. I believe it was Stuart talking about Clancy, but the narration was the same color as the dialogue on the page as well. It just want’s very clear as to who was talking. That and I don’t know why they didn’t turn Stuart when they had the chance other than he’s the main character and it would ruin the book.

The art is consistent, but not as good as previous issues. There were still some great scenes of action, but several pages were much too plain in comparison. This series previously was very consistent, but stumbles here with the art. The coloring was on point though and had some great uses of lighting.

The issue isn’t perfect, but it’s good. It’s above average, making mom and dad proud because it’s getting into a good school, great. I never review this one last because I’m scared to tackle it, but rather because I always enjoy it and want to save one of the best Double Take books for last.

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Z-Men #5 Story: Bill Jemas Script: Jeff McComsey, Bill Jemas Layouts: Jeff McComsey, Stan Chou Pencils: Kurt Tiede, Jaime Salangsang, Alisson Rodgrigues Publisher: Double Take Comics Price: $2.50 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital

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Review: Spring #5

Spring has been a weird series from the start. It was also one of the brightest and most inviting books from Double Take’s line. At times it was confusing, but in a way that made me want to read more, but it still had its fair share of struggles. The fourth issue cleared up the story and plot a lot. Unfortunately, the fifth issue seems to be dealing with a lot of the same things. There’s a bit of action, there’s an intense cliffhanger, but the series moves away from some of what made it charming in the beginning. We find our main character of the book, Holli, sitting behind a flight simulator practicing for when she’ll need to fly the spaceship that’s crashed under the lake. The cops show up as the people are released from their simulation in which they helped dig the spaceship out and confrontation ensues.

My problem is that the situation feels forced. The advanced aliens are in the med bay of the ship that’s crashed, but Holli is fine and wearing the protective suit and all that. That’s okay I guess. I can buy that the women are injured and can’t do it themselves, but would this ship really be that easily pinned and still work later? I have a problem with that, but I’m trying not to focus on it because it's not the point of the story, just a deus ex machina of sorts.

The real issue is that we’re no longer in that simulation and it’s a shame. It made the story charming and while we couldn’t stay there forever, it would have been nice to maybe see it malfunctioning and one person still experiencing it or something. That and too much time is spent with Holli talking to her mom and watching what’s going on outside. It was a strange POV for the story. I did like the cops and the lifeguards having a showdown. It’s nice to see two branches of authority squaring off like that. Seriously though, it was believable and I’m curious to see what will happen next time.

The art is good, but again too much of the strange behind the head shot of Holli. There’s a few really shaky panels which was a shame because it was during the action scenes. The coloring makes it consistent looking, but for something that’s as funny as cops versus lifeguards, the art really needed to shine and it didn’t.

I had my share of problems with this issue, but I don’t think it’s indicative of the series thus far. It feels more like growing pains as it moves out of its comfort zone and that’s actually a good thing. It can’t be stale and familiar or it won’t be around for long. It still worth picking up and provides some great entertainment, but just know that it’s not perfect, but working on it.

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Spring #5 Story: Bill Jemas, Stan Chou Script: Bill Jemas Layouts: Stan Chou, Jonathan Ashley, Allen Watson Pencils: Derlis Santacruz, Jethro Morales Publisher: Double Take Comics Price: $2.50 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital

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Review: Slab #5

[su_quote]“Carol, Jane, how long have you known your father is a heartless bastard?”[/su_quote] Knees were slapped when I read that line. Slab #5 is a little all over the place, but in the way “all of the place” should be done. The story is frantic. The importance of what Dr. Kifo and Dr. Grimes are trying to do has never been clearer. We see that this virus or whatever you want to call it, is extremely dangerous and that all of their precautions might not mean a thing. But they had it under control until Alien Dr. Kifo and Dr. Grimes’ daughters decided they wanted to rescue animals in the middle of the goddamn zombie apocalypse. Oh man, was I annoyed by them and their friends.

“What are you guys working on the cure for humanity's survival? Well you killed too many puppies so now we all have to die!”

Not saying that we need to kill puppies, but I hate when logic is completely removed from a situation. I didn’t hate the story though. In fact, it made me want to read more. Enter this issue in which we see the aftermath of the events and Dr. Kifo and Dr. Grimes just continue to be cool as ice. Alien Dr. Kifo also gives Human Dr. Kifo a bit of inspiration which will have huge effects on the universe. Not just this series, but the universe. It’s also really gross which was great.

I will admit that I’m starting to get a little confused by who is an alien, a venus probe mutation (aka zombie), and human. Sure Dr. Kifo is easy to figure out since one is wearing one color and the other is wearing another color. Though it does irk me that no one has pointed this out. Like, “Hey, you found your clothes” and then suspicion is cast upon her.

The art is really consistent and overall great for the story. There were some more traditional panels in this issue, but also some adventurous panels. For instance, seeing through the mask of one of the characters, but then also seeing the reflection of her face in the mask. It was visually interesting and clever. The coloring is spot on. It really captures the era in my opinion, but overall its just good solid coloring which is nice to see.

How does that first line fit in with the rest of the story? You’ll see. It’s pretty much the line of the book, but while it’s important to the character development, the real reason to show up is for Dr. Kifo’s discovery. That alone is enough reason to read this issue, but the rest is no slouch and makes this one hell of an issue.

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Slab #5 Story: Bill Jemas, Michael Coast Script: Michael Coast, Brian Finkelstein Layouts: Stan Chou, Allen Watson, Dean Kotz Pencils: Joel Carpenter, Marco Cosentino, Ricardo Sanchez Publisher: Double Take Comics Price: $2.50 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital

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Review: Honor #5

I really came around on this series, but this issue takes me right back to the first couple issues in the series again. There’s a lot of action. Some humor. Officer Long is a dark, dark individual but ultimately that’s all I took from this issue. There’s a decent cliffhanger, but that’s really it. It did seem to be trying to include new readers, but whereas other Double Take titles have done this successfully, this one didn’t. What little has happened in this series is just thrown at you with very little context. The cops also kill a lot of old people which was funny, but I don’t know what it did for the story.

I suppose you could view this series as falling the fall or loss of control of the police, but they’re not falling fast enough. In fact, I feel like the police have been given a lot of freebies in how easily they’ve maintained control. There’s a lot of cops for this area and sure some have been deputized, but it still seems like a lot.

Overall, it’s the pacing of the story that really fails. We’re all over the place following this character and then this character and really all I care about are Long and Chief McClelland. For as much time as they’re in the book, their presence feels really forced. It’s almost as if there’s so much the police in this universe could be doing that they’re at a loss as to what to actually do. Again, the story was just underwhelming even for all the action and consequences of that action. It wasn’t enough to really hold my attention.

The art is definitely the roughest of the newest issue from Double Take. Particularly during the action sequence things fall apart and details in faces and backgrounds get lost. Everything looks extremely unfinished and it kills the impact of this scene. It’s all very inconsistent in general as you can see the hard shifts in art styles from the different pencillers. Usually you can tell a little and it’s not so bad or even noticeable, but here it’s a hard shift.

I’ve got one more in me for this series, but I’m really hoping it finds its focus. It has an interesting cast, some of which isn’t even mentioned here, but that’s not enough to keep my interest when the rest of the imprint’s books are hitting their stride. I said in other reviews that these fifth issues from Double Take feel like first issues. That’s previously been a compliment, but here it’s unfortunately not. This issue takes a huge step back from the progress it made in the past four and that’s a damn shame.

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Honor #5 Story: Bill Jemas, Michael Coast, Jonathan Ashley Script: Frank Ortega, Ian Deming, Bill Jemas Layouts: Jonathan Ashley, Stan Chou Pencils: Raphael Sam, Dennis Crisostomo, Jethro Morales, Novo Malgapo Publisher: Double Take Comics Price: $2.50 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital

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Review: Remote #5

Don’t let the little smoking guy fool you, I loved this issue. It’s like dangerous and rough sex. It’s also probably the only 5 out of 5 I’ll be giving this round of Double Take books (we’ll see. I have a few more to go) and that’s weird considering this issue completely backs up after the last issue. By that I mean we rewind time so that new readers can jump on board and understand what’s going on. I’m not going to lie… it’s better for it. The reason it works for this particular books is because it’s concept and story has gotten bigger and bigger. The cast has grown and unlike titles like Medic, you really have gotten to know the other players in the story. And so much like how other issues in the shared universe will go back over details that another series has covered, Remote did that to itself out of necessity. To show everything that it couldn’t show in the fourth issue.

If any other series did this, you’d probably be pissed. Admittedly I was a little confused, but then the writing and idea behind everything is so interesting and well told that I honestly forgot by the end of it. I was just happy to be reading something so interesting. To think, that this started off as just a women trying to survive in a radio station during the Night of the Living Dead. That idea was interesting, but as I said in my review for the first issue, what more can you do with it?

A lot apparently. Because, and I’ve said this before in another review, there’s a sense of change between issues. Almost as if the creative team comes together and discusses what worked and didn’t about the last issue and how the readers responded. Then they change things. They adapt. They change story paths at a drop of a hat and all of it keeps me interested. It keeps me entertained. Double Take’s books are one of the most interesting experiments in comics and its working. That’s the great thing. It’s working.

The art maintains the overall style that’s been developed on the series. It has a little of the first issue vibe and a lot of the fourth issue. Some panels struggle but overall the coloring makes it an extremely consistent book. There’s a lot of personality to the characters visually that some of the books are missing currently, but we’re only on issue five. Sure that’s fifty issues total, but the series and line are still growing and changing.

Remote always had my eye, but I think it’s safe to say that thanks to Samantha Stanton that this is my favorite title in the Double Take line of books. She, as a character, continues to grow (another pun, really?) with each issue and it’s been great to see. Maybe too quickly at times, but I can’t wait to see where this story goes. What happens to Samantha and who will the shared universe respond? It’s going to be good.

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Remote #5 Story: Bill Jamas, Charlotte Greenbaum Script: Stephanie Long, Michaela Murphy, Bill Jamas, Michael Coast Layouts: Young Heller, Ben Silberstein Pencils: Ario Murti, Andres Esparza, Jonathan Ashley Publisher: Double Take Comics Price: $2.50 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital

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Review: Medic #5

Medic is a strange series. It’s not my favorite, but I don’t dislike it. It always manages to have these little nuggets of information that are important to the universe and so I’m left with half like and disliking the issue. I’m going to do my best not to talk about the other fifth issues (outside of this mention) because I do think these books stand on their own, but as a whole they’re an interesting experiment and almost work better when talked about as a whole. We’ll see how I do. The bulk of this issue is spent in the ER patching people up and waiting to see who gets infected. That’s really what I was waiting for and someone does. The results of that are pretty interesting but not the most interesting thing that happens in the book. That would be what the aliens are doing. The copy of Dr. Angela Kifo makes an appearance and her bosses… co-workers? Whichever, it doesn’t particularly matter, continues to criticize her efforts.

Alien Dr. Kifo does something but it’s not really clear what her goal was. Unfortunately, the rest of the characters in the book still seem really hollow. Nurse Fran barely makes an appearance and once again does what Nurse Fran does and sticks people with needles. The guy that grew his toes back bickers some more, but he’s otherwise unrecognizable and a bit performer. Dr. Bricker still doesn’t have much personality. He’s also not doing much other than actual surgeries and reading that in a comic isn’t as exciting as you’d think. I don’t know his role in the world yet and that bothers me. Perhaps in the next issue.

What is successful about the writing in this issue is that it comes across as a first issue. You don’t need to know anything about the first four issues to understand the story and be caught up on events. That and a new character/narrator named Kevin will catch you up at the front of the issue. He, along with several panels explaining events of the series, gives you all the backstory you need. It’s clever and useful, but ultimately not necessary for you to read before the issue. Seriously, you can just read the issue and you’ll be fine. I know everyone says that, but it is doubly true here.

The art was very good and surprisingly consistent throughout the issue. The series has had its rough patches before, but here it’s clean looking and has some great coloring. I don’t know where Double Take found all these talented colorists, but they better lock them down before other small publishers try to steal them away.

Overall this is a good issue but there’s still problems. Not a lot happens in this issue. We spend far too much time looking at dying people getting patched up. The aliens could have used some more backstory and Dr. Kifo and Dr. Grimes definitely could have used more pages as well. Their inclusion in this series is starting to feel pointless and I don’t particularly like that. Slab seems to be their main book so why bother with Medic? As I said, though, there’s always nuggets of info in this book. There definitely needs to be richer characters going forward or at the very least just make it so that Dr. Kifo is the star of one title and Dr. Grimes the star of the other because right now I tend to get Medic and Slab confused. We’ll see, though, but the art saves this issue from a lower score.

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Medic #5 Story: Bill Jemas, Michael Coast, Stan Chou Script: Michael Coast, Bill Jemas Layouts: Stan Chou Pencils: Stan Chou, Andres Ponce Publisher: Double Take Comics Price: $2.50 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital

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