Titan Books

With Y2K rolling around, some people are afraid that the world is about to end. But, Lex Luthor is not afraid; his corporation has set up a security service that will keep everything flowing smoothly. When the New Year arrives, and the lights go out, Lex begins to look for the culprit. The culprit is Brainiac 2.5, but there are schemes within schemes, and soon Brainiac 2.5 finds himself supplanted by Brainiac 13 - a future model who figures that Superman can only be beaten in the past, at the beginning of 2000. Perhaps he's right...

I am rather at a loss when talking about this graphic novel. The story is great, with the cast of characters changing repeatedly. The JLA appears at the beginning, and quickly disappears, while the Metal Men (old favorites of mine) become integral players. The biggest weakness of the book is the fact that each of the sections was illustrated by a different set of artists, which means that the whole appearance of the story changes, giving the story a strangely dislocated feeling. Anyone reading the graphic novel had better understand this ahead of time, or he or she will become quickly confused.

But, that said, I did find this to be a wonderful book. The graphics were generally good (though the changing of them throughout the story is a definite negative), and the story is great. I loved the book, while my ten-year-old son did not like it enough to even finish it (because of the graphics). So, I give this book a guarded recommendation.

This graphic novel begins on December 31st 1999 and takes place in great city of Metropolis. Brainiac 2.5 has crashed on Earth and is feeding himself off the energy in Metropolis. He takes all the power from Metropolis at the stroke of midnight and all this power upgrades him and he becomes Brainiac 13. So, basically, Superman has to stop Brainiac from taking all the power of the Planet.

This comic book features the metal men and many members of the JLA. It is exciting and difficult to put down.

There are a few things I found annoying about this though. As this was originally a group of different comics by different artists and writers, each time a new chapter starts, the characters look different. The worst is Ed McGuinness as I think he makes Superman too muscly and cartoon like. Another thing that I didn't like was the look of Brainiac 13. The artists used computers to make him look 3D. This doesn't work. The computer pictures look too fake and don't fit with the rest of the comic. But this doesn't mean it isn't a great book, with a great story. Superman will definitely be with us forever!

Having read this when it originally came out, and being a huge fan of both TT and X-Men at the time, I was really excited to get it. What a disappointment, story-wise! A nice little bit of angst over the return of Phoenix, but overall it rang hollow and the characters were ... well ... two-dimensional.
Still, it's worth reading if you can get your hands on a cheap copy.

This book is about the first meeting between DC's Teen Titans and Marvel's X-Men. Though I was not born in that era, I understand this comic was published at the time when both teams were the biggest money winners for their respective companies. The story tells of Darkseid's plan to conquer the universe, using one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe: the Dark Phoenix!! It is up to the Teen Titans and the X-Men to stop this diabolical plan, but how can both teams work together when each thinks the other is evil? The story unfolds quickly, and the interaction between members of the two teams are well written. Overall, I would recommend buying this only if you want to enjoy comics when they were simple, without the complicated issues and storylines of today.

The first three issues of this collection (collecting issues ggg thru hhh) concern an alternate reality where a moments delay results in the Death of Sinclair Strong so Tom Strong is never born. Instead, a new hero named Tom Stone is created. But although Stone's world is a utopia, it has its problems and a visitor comes to Tom Strong for help.

The remaining issues contain a variety of adventures. First Tom visits the Moon on a rescue mission only to discover a hidden piece of his past. Secondly, Tom's first love KKK is still alive and out of a cryogenic prison. Finally Tom must confront the chaos created by his greatest fan.

I miss the old format of multiple stories per issue but these stories are good. The almost-Elseworlds tale of Tom Stone was very well done brining in much of Tom Strong's history. The lost love story was interesting in that it is set up to continue at a later date (somewhere after volume 5). These adventures are pretty much stand-alones without the clever interweaving of Moore's earlier tales.

Ok... Alan Moore is THE BEST comic book writer ever. In fact Alan Moore is one of the all time great writers in any genre, period. His works have inspired three major motion pictures and a fourth may be in the works. Unfortunately everyone has their limits and Mr. Moore may have reached his. I was astounded by the fact that Alan Moore appeared to be writing every issue of every comic for his own new comic line-up, America's Best Comics. This seemed like a daunting workload even for someone as talented as Mr. Moore and I think that the overall quality of his work has suffered. The first two collections of Tom Strong were absolutely stellar. The third, not as much and the forth is the weakest yet.

The first story arc contains an alternate history story where Tom Strong is re-imagined as a mixed race African/Caucasian named Tom Stone. Tom Stone ends up being significantly more successful in his crime fighting career than Tom Strong and ends up rehabilitating most of Strong's science villains including the Modular Man, Pangaea and even Paul Saveen who becomes Tom Stone's partner in crime fighting. It was interesting to see the Tom Strong characters jumbled around and more of a presence by a character hinted at in earlier issues, Fingel Parallax. Unfortunately the ending telegraphs itself from a mile away and the near total lack of Tom Strong ultimately left the story unsatisfying. The story also felt less tight and coherent than Mr. Moore's usual writing. It's not bad; in fact it's quite good. It's just not up to Alan Moore's usual level of writing.

About half way through the book Mr. Moore passes the writing baton onto Peter Hogan and let me tell you Peter Hogan is no Alan Moore. Since it appears that Tom Strong 5 has no stories written by Alan Moore I'm going to pass on it. I strongly recommend getting the first two books in the Tom Strong series and maybe the third but beyond that things definitely get a little iffy.

BTW: The stars I give are for the Alan Moore material, not Peter Hogan.

liked this story back in the 80's rodimus was better in the comics thAN in the toons arcee reminisces about the time her and hot rod were an item but in the toons she was always around springer. the qyuintessons were cool villians they tripped me out how they always played the decepts for fools this time soundwave leads thwe cons but cool this is also metroplex only appearance in the comics and boy it was huge cool story you dig transformers from the old school please cop thios.

In comparison to Simon Furman's other Transformers epics, this is pretty sedate and conventional, although it serves as a bridge between the Time Wars collection and the earlier stories.
The writing is solid and well-executed, as Furman had by this point grown completely comfortable with the setting and characters, and was happily forging his own way.
The main strength of this book is the art. By this time, the UK comic had far outstripped the US comic in terms of art and this looks absolutely gorgeous.
We revisit some of the Movie's locations, and check in with some of the Movie's characters, and Furman gives us more of a look at the post-Movie Cybertron, and the state of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons now that Unicron has gone. In fact, there is one very interesting sequence as the two factions realise that they are in as much trouble with each other and decide to do something about it.
Good solid stuff, if not the most exciting Transformers story you'll ever read.

Fan note: This story contains the only comic appearance of the giant Metroplex, and boy does he make his appearance memorable!

This book, which collects the complete 6-part miniseries, is not really a big and well-built tale storywise but it IS a fun, uncomplicated road trip which has it's own take on the habits and what can and can't hurt a vampire. And unlike most of the titles in this particular genre it's NOT a T & A story.

About the story: A group of 5 female vampires decide to turn on their male leader, the man who turned them in what they are today. Having dealed with him they appear to not really have a clue where to go next so they just head west, leaving quite a bloody trial which doesn't go unnoticed by certain people. One of them seems to have sort of an agenda of her own though. She still has some unfinished business back from when she was alive which she'd like to see get settled. It turns out some parts of that business have something to settle with her too. And there is also someone in pursuit who was thought, and hoped, gone.

Like I said earlier, this is not really a must-read story. Don't think it's a bad one though, because it certainly is plenty enjoyable if you're not wanting to look too deeply into it and just go along for the ride. The art is more than worth it and the dialoguing is sufficient (it wouldn't have hurt if there were some less dialogue boxes in it though). Especially people who are into lots of blood and gore will have a ball. A comic-tale like comics where eventually meant to be: to read, enjoy and stall it on a bookshelve to reread in a while.

PS: Once you've read this book and find it to your liking you might like to know there was also a sequal called "Vamps: Hollywood & Vein". It's not collected in TPB at this moment but the issues should be easy and cheap to find. People who like this book should also try "Crimson" by Humberto Ramos which is superior to this title.

This is compliation of the comic book series of the same name. It's a refreshing look at vampires, told from the female's point of view. Great storyline, and I also recommend the sequel series, "Vamps-Hollywood and Vein"

Nice book but I would think there would be more behind the scenes stuff and I really would like to know more about how they do the stunts.
The Hour by Hour is okay. Pictures are good
The Bonus DVD is pretty much trash.. They talk about how they do stunts and they have no footage of anything hardly.. Mostly just show the same scene over and over

Very nice book but once you are done reading it.. most likely that will be it and you will sell it

Comic story beginning reprints.


This book includes reprints of several weekly British comic strips from the 60s and early 70s.

Adventurers with magic amulets fighting crazed Seminole shamans, pliable magician-thieves, secret crimefighting doll controllers, and sorcerous protectors of the world are to be found here.

Certainly an eclectic bunch of weeklies to be found in those times, none of which I had ever seen before, beyond the humour stuff and 200AD, so nice work.


3.5 out of 5

Newt's Tale is a good, solid movie adaptation of Aliens, with a few additions. The first twenty or so pages tells the story of Newt's family, and how the alien plague beset the colonists. It's interesting to get the backdrop to the story that we weren't provided in the regular edition Aliens movie. However, once the story moves to the Marines coming, it becomes a movie adaptation, strait across the board. Nothing new or original is added until the last page of the book.

It would have been strengthened if the adaptation were less literal, if it showed some of the more quiet moments the film missed.

Still, Richardson's script is good, and Somerville is a good artist for the book. The aliens are dead on accurate in the way they look, although the people don't look exactly like the actors in the movie.

If Rebecca Jorden, AKA Newt is one of your favorite characters, and you don't mind an adaptation graphic novel, this is a good addition to an Alien's collection.

Chris Achilleos is better know in Europe than in America. He is truly one of the most creative artists alive today. His most famous work is the cover for the original Heavy Metal movie. One of his older books is listed on my Listmania for science fiction art.

Cashman explores rhelms where few dare to dread. While most survey type books cover only the accomplishments of presidents, Cashman uncovers the feats by inventors, women, minorites,etc. This book would make an excellent undergraduate text to give one a broad understanding of the turn of the century.