Avengers/Invaders Sketchbook

From the random stack of unread comics. This was not a designated Free Comic Book Day promotional book, but it was a promotional freebie, and I believe I did get it as part of that 2008 Free Comic Book Day haul.

Title: Avengers/Invaders Sketchbook
Publisher: Marvel Comics / Dynamite
Date: 2008
Writer: Arune Singh
Artist: Alex Ross, Steve Sandowski
Editor: Jeff Youngquist, John Denning, Cory Levine

This is a promotional book hyping the Avengers/Invaders crossover event, which feature's Marvel's World War II super-team, the Invaders, traveling to the present post-Civil War Marvel Universe. It contains a set of character and concept sketches by Alex Ross, and some sample penciled pages by Steve Sandowski, along with commentary about the making of the crossover event.

The Ross artwork is gorgeous. Sandowski's work here is very busy, and I'd probably appreciate the full-color finished work more, but I can tell that he has put a ton of detail work into these panels. The battle scenes look creatively chaotic.

The text does a nice job of selling the story, and as someone who has not read the original Civil War, it gave enough to bring me up to speed on who is who without getting bogged down in Marvel continuity.

In short, this book does the job of selling the series that it was intended to do, and it's a nice collectible in and of itself, especially for the Alex Ross sketches of classic Marvel characters.

Rating: 7/10

Project Superpowers: The Death-Defying Devil: Free Comic Book Day Special Edition

From the random stack of unread comics.

Title: Project Superpowers: The Death-Defying Devil: Free Comic Book Day Special Edition
Publisher: Dynamite
Date: 2008
Writer: Alex Ross, Jim Krueger
Artist: Andy Smith
Colorist: Debora Carita
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Cover: Alex Ross

The Project Superpowers team goes over the origins and history of the Claw with some flashbacks to the Devil's battles against the Claw in World War II.

And... That's about it. There is some nice artwork in places, but the Claw's overall look is a bit too goofy for the threat that the Claw is supposed to represent. The whole issue is a big infodump that is not terribly interesting.

The fact that there are 12 pages of story and 18 pages of ads does not exactly help matters. Yes, I realize this is a freebie, but I was still left going "Wait? That's it?" when I got to the end of the actual content with half of the book still to go. Particularly since nothing had actually happened in the story aside from some background getting filled in.

There is obviously a well thought out world behind this story, and a large cast of characters. But the purpose of a promotional book like this is to get me wanting to explore that world and meet those characters. This had the opposite effect on me.

Rating: 2.5/10

Pacific Rim: Tales From Year Zero

Title: Pacific Rim: Tales From Year Zero
Publisher: Legendary Comics
Date: 2013
Writer Travis Beacham
Penciler: Sean Chen, Yvel Guichet, Pericles Junior, Chris Batista, Geoff Shaw
Inker: Mark McKenna, Steven Bird, Pericles Junior, Matt Banning
Colorist: Guy Major, Tom Chu, Dom Regan
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Cover: Alex Ross
Editor: Greg Tumbarello, Bob Shreck, Guillermo del Toro

This is a prequel to the film Pacific Rim. It does a great job of expanding on the backgrounds of the characters, particularly focusing on Marshal Stacker Pentecost.

We get to meet Pentecost's sister, a RAF fighter pilot on training in the US on K-Day, the date of the first kaiju attack on San Francisco. And we get to meet her wingmate, Tamsin Sevier, who goes on to become Pentecost's jaeger co-pilot.

The book covers Tendo Choi's experiences in San Francisco on K-Day, and introduces the woman who developed the two-pilot drift system and went on to become co-pilot of the first jaeger to see combat.

For fans of the film, this is a treasure trove of background, and it's got some great character development and a lot of tragedy and triumph. It is deeply sad in places, and the right kind of fun in others.

I also loved the diversity of the cast of characters. Many writers would have felt like they had gender diversity covered with one female pilot (Pentecost's sister, Luna). It was awesome to see Tamsin introduced as well, and then given a powerful role in the story.

There were a couple of inconsistencies with the story presented in the film, most notably the fact that nuclear weapons were used on kaiju in the early years, which appears to be a contradiction with the background as presented in the film. This may have been an issue of final editing to the film.

I do feel like you need to have seen the film to get the most out of this, but for fans of Pacific Rim, this is a great collection of backstory that adds dimension to several key characters.

Rating: 8/10