THE DRAGON*CON CHRONICLES 2014 - AUGUST 28,2014 - DAY 0

By. Samurai Millo's

 

It’s Dragon *Con’s time once more. An occasion when I tell my faithful readers all about my adventures known as the Dragon*Con Chronicles: a day by day account of one of the best conventions in the continental U.S. But first, for all those new to Dragon *Con, here’s a bit of history.

Dragon*Con is a U.S. based multi-genre convention. It was founded in 1987 and takes place once a year in Atlanta, Georgia, usually on Labor Day weekend. Due to the event’s growth over the years, the convention takes place in five hotels: the Hilton, the Hyatt Regency, the Marriott Marquis, Sheraton Hotel and the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel. In 2013 the dealer tables and exhibition booths were moved to The Atlanta Convention Center at AmericasMart adding yet another building to the event.

If you are a geek and you are an enthusiast of everything from comic books to cosplays, then Dragon*Con is the place for you. You will fit into a number of activities that will peak your interest. There is no doubt you will enjoy the 4 day convention. Let’s suppose you are going to Dragon*Con because you love comic books. You love them so much that you not only read them, but you also collect them, analyze their stories, and keep them in mind conditions. Wouldn’t it be nice to go to a convention that offered a series of comic book related events spread through its duration? Dragon*Con is that kind of convention.

Dragon *Con uses a system known as Fan Tracks which is used to refer to a whole set of activities with a theme in common. One of its well-known Fan Tracks is for comic books and it’s known as Comics and Pop Art Fan Track. Dragon*Con has about 42 Fan Tracks that cover the currently relevant fields of geek interest. That means hundreds of hours of different kinds of activities, all of them running simultaneously.

The same day I arrived home from Dragon*Con 2013, I bought my 4 day pass for this years. Unable to get a room at the Hyatt this year, I settled for the Omni Hotel. I also bought my plane ticket before 2013 ended. My plane ride to Atlanta was fast and without incident. Using the airline’s iPhone app to do my check-in during the day sped up everything. Once I had all my bags, I used the Airport Shuttle Service and saved myself about $70 in Taxi fare. The check-in at the Omni was quick too; I checked-in online the day before.

After getting cozy in my room, I went to the Sheraton to finish my pre-registration and get my 4 day badge. It was the fastest registration for a convention that I had ever done. The guy who gave me my badge warned me that if I lost it I had to pay full price ($150) for a replacement. I left the Sheraton hotel especially hungry seeing as I hadn’t eaten anything since 4:00 A.M., so I headed to The Mall at the Peachtree Center to grab a bite.

 At the Mall, I bumped into Meg Galacticat (whom I met last year) and her husband Christopher. Afterwards, I had my first taste of Chicken Swarma at Aviva by Kameel, a Mediterranean food restaurant. I was attended by Kameel himself. Let me just say he’s awesome.

With a pleased belly, I went on to take photos of some cosplayers and later headed to the CVS Pharmacy at the Mall to stock up on snacks for the weekend. Then I headed back to my hotel room for a shower, some rest, and quick change of clothes before heading to the  Hyatt. 

When I arrived, I ran into old and new friends; Janet Osburn and her husband Nate, the Hatcher sisters (Hailey & Anna), and JD Stretch and Jessica Paulding; they were all in “The Colonial Fleet” a Battlestar Galatica fan club. Around 7:30 P.M. we all headed to Max Lager’s Wood-Fired Grill & Brewery for dinner. The food was as great as the people with whom I shared it.

Around 9:00 P.M. I bid farewell to Max Lager’s and went back to the Hyatt and later to the Marriott where I crashed a Cosplay Playboy Bunny Party. I had loads of fun. It was great how everyone, even before Dragon *Con had officially started, was in the mood to cosplay; the main hotels were filled with people cosplaying left and right.

After taking a good amount of photos, I called it a night and headed back to my hotel room around 10: 30 P.M.. I needed a minimum of 5 hour of sleep if I wanted to be ready for Friday morning: the official beginning of Dragon*Con 2014.

TEEN TITANS #1 (2014)

Publisher: DC Comics

Classification: Teen

Language: English

Writer(s): Will Pfeifer 

Penciller: Kenneth Rocafort

Coloring: Dan Brown

Cover Price: $2.99

Page Count:  32

by Samurai Millo

Synopsis:

The following is a description of the comic taken from the official website of DC Comics:

“Red Robin, Wonder Girl, Raven, Bunker and Beast Boy step out of the shadows of the adult heroes of the DC Universe to offer bold, exciting and sometime dangerous ideas on how to protect a world full of super powered teenagers – any one of whom could be the next heroic figure or major villain!”

Review:

This is the second #1 issue of this title since the reboot of the DC Universe in 2011. Whatever motivated the editorial minds to do such a thing is unknown to me and frankly I don’t care. What matters to me is to find to out if whether or not this new first issue meets the expectations of a first issue. In other words, is this a good entry point for new readers? Let’s see.

On the positive side this story makes no reference whatsoever to plot points or any event from the previous series, which is good for that fresh start feeling that every first issue deserves. All the main characters are addressed by their superhero names at least once, which is important so the new readers can identify (code-name wise) who’s who more easily. On the negative, this story doesn’t give us any basic backstory on the team members and what their powers are. Back to the positive side, the main story is fast paced and entertaining. It succeeds in showing the Teen Titans as a very well trained and coordinated superhero team, except at the end when one of the members makes a very stupid public relations boo-boo.

Speaking of well-coordinated teams the writer/penciller duo of Will Pfeifer and Kenneth Rocafort made a very positive first impression on me with this issue. The plot didn’t drag on and the dialogue was very enjoyable. Rocafort’s art was its usual brand of awesome. His penciling has been evolving through the years and his recent work in Superman and now in Teen Titans show a pleasing improvement. Curiously I found his style of panel distribution reminiscent of Todd McFarlane’s technique during his days at “Infinity Inc.” during the 1980’s. And between Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 and Teen Titans #1 Rocafort has two first issues under his belt.

So in closing, I advise you to check out Teen Titans #1.

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #31 REVIEW

By. Samurai Millo

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Classification: Teen

Language: English

Writer(s): Dan Slott, Christos Gage

Art: Giuseppe Camuncoli, John Dell, Terry Pallot

Coloring: Fabela

Cover Price: $5.99

Page Count:  55

Synopsis:

SERIES FINALE! The end of an era! A tale of triumph and tragedy! The GREEN GOBLIN unmasked! A hero reborn! But what does this mean for OTTO OCTAVIUS?! There’s only one man who can save us from the Goblin Nation… PETER PARKER: The one, true SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN!

Review:

This issue marks the end of a magnificent saga. Superior Spider-Man has been one of the best Spider-Man storylines that I have read in a long time and it was told in a total of 31 issues. The idea of killing Peter Parker and replacing his role as the wall crawler with someone else is not new. I remember reading in the 80’s fanzines about a proposal along this lines that was shot down by Jim Shooter, Editor-in-Chief at that time. Let us go forward in time to the 21^st century, specifically Ultimate Spider-Man 133, where they killed that universe’s Peter Parker and replaced him with a brand new Spidey named Miles Morales.

But still the Peter Parker from Marvel Universe Proper (Marvel Earth-616 for the purists) remained untouched, that is until the end of the year 2012 when Dan Slott wrote the story that I thought I would never see in my life. That’s right, Peter Parker’s mind was replaced by Otto Octavius’s beginning the 1.5 year long bi-weekly saga of The Superior Spider-Man. During this storyline the readers were treated to a very different work philosophy in terms of day to day superheroing, a way of doing things that turned Peter Parker’s world upside down courtesy of Otto Octavius’s “Superior Spider-Man”.

Issue 31 was the culmination of this saga. All mayor plot points were taken care of, setting this up and paving the way for Spider-Man’s latest re-launch on April 30, 2014. As far as I’m concerned, Dan Slott has gained his place in comic book history with this masterpiece. His evenly paced style shows that this is a man who knows what makes this characters tick. I wasn’t disappointed, not for one single issue or one single page. My favorite moment was during the climatic final battle. I’m talking, of course, about Spidey’s crack about Green Goblin’s choice of accessories for his costume. The art on all 31 issues was superb thanks to the outstanding talents of people like Ryan Stegman, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Humberto Ramos.

Final Verdict:

The Superior Spider-Man #31 is a fitting end to an epic story. It has my highest recommendation.

Batman Eternal #1 (2014)

By. Samurai Millo

Publisher: DC Comics

Classification: Teen

Language: English

Writer(s): Scott Snyder & James Tynion IV

Penciller: Jason Fabok

Coloring: Brad Anderson

Cover Price: $2.99

Page Count:  32

Synopsis:

  The following is a description of the comic taken from the official website of DC Comics:

“A massive cast of Gotham City’s best (and worst) examines the relationship between Batman, his allies and his city. In this debut issue, Commissioner James Gordon is caught on the wrong side of the law!”

Review:

 

  It’s been a while since I’ve read a first issue of a Batman-related comic. This series has the particular distinction of being the first Batman related series that will be coming out on a weekly frequency for 52 weeks starting on April 9^th, 2014. Weekly comics are a different kind of animal, because they are put together for a very specific subset of fans, the ones that go to the store every week, almost religiously, barring perhaps natural disasters of the highest magnitude. Therefore, the stories in weekly comics, like Batman Eternal, are tailored taking into consideration that their reader base is comprised mostly of Batman fans that are very into the Caped Crusader’s mythology. The final product is a series that has all the things Batman fans crave for, while also being accessible to new readers.

  What sets this series apart, asides its weekly schedule, is that there will be different story arcs over the next 52 weeks written by different writers. These arcs will interconnect successively, one after another, and each will focus on different characters from Batman universe.

  So far, the first arc focuses on two characters. In the first issue, Jason Bard is introduced. Bard, Gotham City Police’s latest rookie cop, is a promising new recruit from Detroit who is destined to cross paths with the other main character of this story arc, Jim Gordon, who’ll need all the help that he can get to survive a very bad situation, courtesy of Professor Pyg.

  The storytelling in this first issue is articulated and brisk, which is what expected from its writers, Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV. The art, by Jason Fabok, is full details and sequentially impeccable from one panel to the other. Big props go to Brad Anderson for an outstanding coloring job that captures the grittiness of Gotham City.

Final Verdict:

  Batman Eternal #1 is a great start with a lot of promise. If you are new to Batman, this is a good place to start. If you’re a long time Batman enthusiast, this title is a must in your collection. Big changes are coming to Batmen’s world, and they’ll start in this comic.

Batman: Death of the Family (# 13 - #17)

 By. Samurai Millo

Publishing House: DC Comics

Rating: Teen

Language: English

Written by: Scott Snyder

Artist: Greg Capullo

Colors: FCO PLASCENCIA

Cover Price: $ 3.99

Number of pages: 40

  Synopsis: The Joker is back and wants two things: to retrieve his face and take away Batman’s family. The first one is easy, but the second one will require a meticulous and perverse plan that will put Batman and all that he holds dear to the test. 

  These days it takes a lot for a comic book or a comic book event to get my attention and Batman: Death of the Family was the kind of event that succeeded in doing so, with frightening ease. On October 10, 2012 (my birthday no less) Batman # 13 hit the shelves and that gave me another reason to continue reading DC Comics. Issue #13 marks the beginning of a twisted villainous saga told in 24 parts through key titles within the Bat-universe. It illustrates the most recent and explosive clash to date between Batman and the Joker.

The Joker is the most formidable villain the Caped Crusader ever had. He shares with Batman an epic rivalry that expands from its first appearance in 1940 in Batman # 1 (Vol. 1, 1940) to the present. As the decades passed, the sophistication and intensity of these stories has varied according to the demands of the times. From its beginnings as an eccentric master criminal to its present incarnation as a sadistic / psychopathic lover of chaos, the Joker is Batman’s most formidable enemy. The Death of the Family storyline is probably among the most vicious and decisive battles in the history of both characters.

The script by Scott Snyder is simple, direct, and crisp as an Export Soda cracker, freshly taken out of its tin can. The suspense starts to build up and grab you from page one. Little by little the pieces fall into place showing Mr. Snyder’s master craftsmanship. The characterization among the main players of this adventure is rich in depth and with the nuances that we have come to expect. Lovers of the good, old-fashioned Bat-stuff will find that the classic exchanges between Batman and Commissioner Gordon and between Batman and Alfred are still there. Snyder’s characterization of the Joker is a delightfully sordid and carefully controlled portrait of a madman. This villain has a master plan and that final page on issue #13 was hair rising. Issues #13 to #16 include a second story each that recounts the meetings the Joker has with his fellow colleagues Harley Queen, The Penguin, The Riddler, and Two Face at specific points during the main story. 

Greg Capullo's penciling is excellent. His figures have a mixture of caricature and detail that made me remember his days in the Spawn comic book. Nobody draws a rainy night in Gotham as Greg Capullo. Nobody puts that delicious attention to the smallest details that Greg puts in each panel. FCO Placencia is to be commended for doing a superb coloring through the story.

In short, Batman: Death of the Family has my highest recommendation.