By Dustin Cabeal

I’ll be honest, I’ve avoiding doing this for IDW because I don’t enjoy the majority of their titles and didn’t want to suffer through them. I figured that this was a good week to go through them all since they had so many new titles and one of those new titles is Highlander, which is where the title of this review derives.

Much like last week (see: There Can Be Only One: BOOM! Studios), I will not be including the trades that IDW is releasing. Unlike last week I won’t be including them at the end because there’s plenty here to talk about already.

Let’s begin…

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: The Salmon of Doubt #5

After reading a few issues of the first volume of this series I gave up on it hard. Reading this issue made no sense which is to be expected since it’s issue five in a series. What did make sense was that it’s trying very hard to be cute and clever like Chew and failing miserably at it. Apparently, the TV show version of the character is also in the comic… which was weird and off-putting. It was like, wow… you guys couldn’t even do your own thing for two volumes? Whatever.

Dirk Gently wasn’t unbearable to read, but it wasn’t fun. The dialogue drags and is abundant, and the idea of everything being connected is great, but poorly executed to where it doesn’t seem like it is. The writing makes it seem like convenient storytelling, not a cosmic idea being played out before us. I have no doubt that I’ll never read this story again.

CURRENT RANKING

• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: The Salmon of Doubt #5

Angry Birds: Flight School #1

Having seen the animated movie I was at least familiar with the characters which made me wonder if the other Angry Birds comics were the same… they are not, meaning they switched the comics after the movie. Smart business move, but then these comics based on video games are now a comic based on a movie based on a video game. Which means they’re about as much fun as mud to read.

Paul Tobin is apparently the guy you get to write these things. Much like PVZ over at Dark Horse, he breaks up the issue in three smaller stories. None of them were interesting, and I had a hard time pegging who he was writing for, it wasn’t kids, and it didn’t seem like it was for adults… teens? Teens don’t read four-dollar comic books based on a movie that is based on a video game. They just play the fucking game. Angry Birds 2… out now.

CURRENT RANKING

• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: The Salmon of Doubt #5
• Angry Birds: Flight School #1

Back to the Future #17

This might come as a surprise to some people, but this issue wasn’t awful. It is a solid comic and easy to follow. It’s completely unnecessary and drifting into the realm of Rick and Morty minus the vulgarity and aliens, but I can fully acknowledge that it is a competent comic book.

Rick… I mean Doc and Marty are in the future where a dude that stole the flux capacitor and now he’s making robots of them. This is where the art is super shaky because the robots rarely looked like Doc and Marty. There is one big issue with the story, but being drawn out this long the guys are making a bigger and bigger mess, and it seems illogical for them to be able to get out of it scot-free. Again, it’s not a bad issue or comic, but it does little to capture the magic of the films, and at the end of the day it’s just a licensed property selling nostalgia which is why I’ve avoided it up until now.

CURRENT RANKING

• Back to the Future #17
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: The Salmon of Doubt #5
• Angry Birds: Flight School #1

Revolutionaries #2

With so many titles to review and such limited time in my schedule, I ended up reading all of these spread across two days. When I went back on the second day, I couldn’t remember reading this issue. It was that forgettable. I don’t even want to waste my time talking about it because it was just Revolution… the ongoing series. It says something when Action Man is the best character, and he’s still annoying. The only part I liked was the dead Cobras on the moon because it was a cool concept… it didn’t have anything else to do with the story, though. Also, if you’re Britain’s number one spy how the fuck do you get kidnapped and chained to a sword on the moon Action man? Tradd Moore’s cover set up for disappointment on the interiors which were just inconsistent and overly colored which didn’t match the pencils. I’m sad that I read this.

Side note, I also forgot it for half of my rankings and had to go back and add it in... it's just that forgettable.

CURRENT RANKING

• Back to the Future #17
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: The Salmon of Doubt #5
• Angry Birds: Flight School #1
• Revolutionaries #2

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #51

I know I’m supposed to just say that this is for children and that it is what it is and not judge it too harshly because of that. Having read a lot of kids books over the last year, I don’t buy that excuse anymore, and anyone that uses it is just protecting a franchise that they like. The story is generic, the characters are stereotypes at best, and the art is fine. It’s just there to show what all the characters are saying rather than showing what they’re doing. Even if this were being written 100% for kids, it would still be boring, lacking any challenge for the reader and in general written down to the audience. If you want a big pile of generic, then go for it, but if you have any inkling of how good kids books can be and read this, you’ll be disappointed.

CURRENT RANKING

• Back to the Future #17
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: The Salmon of Doubt #5
• Angry Birds: Flight School #1
• My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #51
• Revolutionaries #2

 Transformers: Lost Light #3

Here’s the thing about Transformers… it’s probably one of IDW’s best series pre-Revolution. The people that have worked on this franchise cared, and it shows even in this series. That said, if you haven’t been reading it like I haven’t, you’ll be so lost that you won’t have a god damn clue what’s going on. Why the fuck is Rodimus a different color? What are those extra markings on Megatron? What the fuck are they looking for? I didn’t get any of those questions answered because this is the third or fourth volume in one of IDW’s Transformers series and I’m not going to go back and read them. It’s cool if others have, but it feels like this series is just for them. Which is fine by me, I think that’s fun in comics sometimes. Not every series needs to have a hundred open doors for people to come on in and climb aboard. The art was good, not great and the coloring could have been better.

CURRENT RANKING

• Transformers: Lost Light #3
• Back to the Future #17
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: The Salmon of Doubt #5
• Angry Birds: Flight School #1
• My Little Pony: Friendship #51
• Revolutionaries #2

Optimus Prime #4

Let’s just get this over with, while Transformers: Lost Light #3 had a pre-Revolution feel to it still as if it was unaffected by the bulk of the merger, Optimus Prime is neck deep in post-Revolution. I’m going to mention the art first since it attempts to be retro but fails due to the strange coloring choices. I couldn’t get into the art at all.

As for the story, it’s overloaded with shared universe material that I have to wonder why they even bothered calling it Optimus Prime. The pacing was choppy, exposition ran rampant from beginning to end, and even though this series is four issues new, it felt like an issue of a series two years in its story. All this and the coloring still was the worst thing about the issue.

CURRENT RANKING

• Transformers: Lost Light #3
• Back to the Future #17
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: The Salmon of Doubt #5
• Optimus Prime #4
• Angry Birds: Flight School #1
• My Little Pony: Friendship #51
• Revolutionaries #2

Darkness Visible #1

I’m exhausted with the demons and angel’s genre. It may not seem like the go-to genre, but it is. It’s as prevalent as superheroes; it’s just not as noticeable because it’s wrapped into everything including superheroes.

Of course, there’s a catch to this story, and it’s that the demons take over a body, but only when invited in. Our main character is on a special task force that battles them and is disgusted by them. Oh, and they’re called Shaitan, which was new to me. There is some pretty standard stuff here, but the dialogue and execution hooks you and quickly. Even the ending is predictable, but it managed to pique my interest in the next issue still.

The art is really good and added to the tone and mood of the story. My gripe with a lot of the books I’ve mentioned so far is that they didn’t feel like a part of the story rather just the visuals attached. With Darkness Visible it’s far more involved in the telling the story and feels like a true collaboration. I was very surprised by this title and look forward to reading more.

CURRENT RANKING

• Darkness Visible #1
• Transformers: Lost Light #3
• Back to the Future #17
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: The Salmon of Doubt #5
• Optimus Prime #4
• Angry Birds: Flight School #1
• My Little Pony: Friendship #51
• Revolutionaries #2

October Fraction: Deadly Season #5

Well if you’re going to read a series for the first time, why not making it the last issue of the second volume? The crazy thing is, from the recap and Niles’ writing, I wasn’t lost in the least bit. It did seem like a relatively safe and timid version of the horror series he’s done before, but then also strangely tied or similar to things like Criminal Macabre and 30 Days of Night.

The art is very reminiscent of 30 Days as well, which is the best thing that this issue has going for it. Playing on those tender feelings of that series is a good thing. What wasn’t, was how quick of a read this book was. While most IDW titles are overwritten, October Fraction was underwritten. Almost as if the artist was expected to carry the book more and they didn’t quite know what to add. This left a lot of open panels and a world that felt populated by six people. It wasn’t bad, but it was a far cry from vintage Niles.

CURRENT RANKING

• Darkness Visible #1
• Transformers: Lost Light #3
• Back to the Future #17
• October Fraction: Deadly Season #5
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: The Salmon of Doubt #5
• Optimus Prime #4
• Angry Birds: Flight School #1
• My Little Pony: Friendship #51
• Revolutionaries #2

TMNT: Universe #7

I’m still not sure what the point of TMNT: Universe is other than having a second Turtles book. It seems like a companion series to the main title or a bunch of one-off stories that fill in the blanks of the main series… which is probably the same thing as a “companion series” not that I think about that.

Donatello has regained his body… somehow. I stopped reading TMNT after Donnie was killed so seeing him back in his body at first didn’t faze me, but then I started this issue and was like, “oh yeah… how the fuck did this happen?”  The answers seem to be “go back and read all the issues you missed” because there was no shortcut answer provided in this issue.

As for what actually happens, Donnie is trying to get Shellhead back up and running, and when he does, he finds his consciousness inside again. Which would be cool it if wasn’t terribly obvious where the story was going to go from there. If you don’t get what I mean just wait for Donnie to drop not one, but four different hints about his out of body experience and how glad he was to get his body back. There’s an interesting idea here, but the story is stretched out to the point of pointless filler and longwinded conversations. This could have been a solid issue, but it ended up being dull.

CURRENT RANKING

• Darkness Visible #1
• Transformers: Lost Light #3
• Back to the Future #17
• October Fraction: Deadly Season #5
• TMNT: Universe #7
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: The Salmon of Doubt #5
• Optimus Prime #4
• Angry Birds: Flight School #1
• My Little Pony: Friendship #51
• Revolutionaries #2

Starstruck: Old Proldiers Never Die #1

When I saw “1984” next to the signature on the first page, I knew what I was in for… a reprint. Not that stories can’t be reprinted at new publishers, in some cases, it’s good and exposes current readers to titles they may have missed. It’s just that Starstruck is very dated in the way it tells the story and while the art stands the test of time, for the most part, it’s not so damn classic that it makes it worth getting through the story.

The other kickers is that there seems to be more of the story that’s happening before this series and even though I read the recap that contained this information, I was still lost when I started reading the narration which seemed to contradict the recap. It did have a bit of a Heavy Metal feel to it, but ultimately it wasn’t interesting enough to make me want to read more, nor was it classic enough for me to suffer through either.

CURRENT RANKING

• Darkness Visible #1
• Transformers: Lost Light #3
• Back to the Future #17
• Starstruck: Old Proldiers Never Die #1
• October Fraction: Deadly Season #5
• TMNT: Universe #7
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: The Salmon of Doubt #5
• Optimus Prime #4
• Angry Birds: Flight School #1
• My Little Pony: Friendship #51
• Revolutionaries #2

Star Trek/Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds #3

Having avoided this crossover the first time I found myself a bit regretful that I picked this week to read IDW’s titles. The art is really good… for the Star Trek side of the book. Characters look like their movie versions for the most part, and that made it easy to go, “Look, it’s Kahn… the crappy version.”

The story is all about low hanging fruit. Anything that would make it into a comic shop argument can be found here. Sinestro is the king of the Klingons and wearing a Manhunter suit. Kahn kills Atrocitus to wield the red ring, and everyone just lets him do that… which was weird.

Which brings me to what’s terrible about the book… the Green Lantern side of things. The Star Trek side is handcuffed by the movies, but the Lantern side is full of terrible characterizations. None of these characters act as they do in the DC universe and you may excuse that because it’s a crossover, but that’s a weak excuse given how much else they manage to shoehorn into the story. It's crystal clear when Larfleeze willing gives up his ring to Sinestro. I could nerd out and explain why this is utter bullshit, but that’s my point, the writer is just cherry picking things to acknowledge and respect from the Lantern side of things, but tramples important details like characterizations. I can see why some people think this is cool, but for me, it’s just bad fanfiction without any real story or consequences.

CURRENT RANKING

• Darkness Visible #1
• Transformers: Lost Light #3
• Back to the Future #17
• Starstruck: Old Proldiers Never Die #1
• October Fraction: Deadly Season #5
• Star Trek/Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds #3
• TMNT: Universe #7
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: The Salmon of Doubt #5
• Optimus Prime #4
• Angry Birds: Flight School #1
• My Little Pony: Friendship #51
• Revolutionaries #2

Highlander: The American Dream #1

It’s only fitting that I saved this for last. I am a nerd for Highlander having watched all the films, and I do mean all, and yes, I include the animated film as well. I expected this to be shit, I did. It wasn’t. It was pretty damn good, but that doesn’t change the fact that it had problems and is completely unnecessary.

The issue does keep the feel of the franchise in which it would bounce to the past to show how to immortals meet previously, only to not kill each other. The problem in this comic is that it felt more like the TV show and less like the movie. That is to say, filler over substance. It’s okay, and after a shaky start it comes out okay, but it could have been smoother.

The story is interesting, and I will be back to read more and see if it has something interesting to add the franchise or if it’ll be more of our modern ideas seeping backward into the 80s. You’ll have to read it to get what I mean because I’m not going to spoil such a minor aspect of the story. But, for a first issue, it was really good and manage to introduce the concept, the rules of the world and establish the characters fairly well. I just wish it wasn’t a comic book, but then that would kill about 100 plus books a month from being published so what do I know.

CURRENT RANKING

• Darkness Visible #1
• Highlander: The American Dream #1
• Transformers: Lost Light #3
• Back to the Future #17
• Starstruck: Old Proldiers Never Die #1
• October Fraction: Deadly Season #5
• Star Trek/Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds #3
• TMNT: Universe #7
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: The Salmon of Doubt #5
• Optimus Prime #4
• Angry Birds: Flight School #1
• My Little Pony: Friendship #51
• Revolutionaries #2

Well, there can be only one, and I’m sorry to say it’s not Highlander: The American Dream. Darkness Visible takes the top spot so if you’re going to buy one and only one title from IDW this week, make it Darkness Visible. You can gander at my scoring below, and if you have a different order I would love to hear it, I won’t argue with you or go back and forth on our picks, but trust me I’m curious. Thanks for reading and I’ll be back next week with There Can Be Only One.

FINAL SCORING

WINNER: Darkness Visible #1 – Score: 4/5

• Highlander: The American Dream #1 – Score: 4/5
• Transformers: Lost Light #3 – Score: 3/5
• Back to the Future #17 – Score: 3/5
• Starstruck: Old Proldiers Never Die #1 – Score: 3/5
• October Fraction: Deadly Season #5 – Score: 3/5
• Star Trek/Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds #3 – Score: 2/5
• TMNT: Universe #7 – Score: 2/5
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: The Salmon of Doubt #5 – Score: 2/5
• Optimus Prime #4 – Score: 1/5
• Angry Birds: Flight School #1 – Score: 1/5
• My Little Pony: Friendship #51 – Score: 1/5
• Revolutionaries #2 – Score: 1/5