PAINKILLER MERCENARIES: ORIGINS

All books from Dynamite Entertainment

PAINKILLER JANE #4
Written by Jimmy Palmiotti
Drawn by Nigel Raynor

Thus begins one of the stranger crossovers in recent memory: Painkiller Jane versus The Terminator. In the present, our indestructible heroine takes out a helicopter in a gun battle, decides not to start a gunfight with 100 armed men, and chooses instead to drink herself silly with her best friend. In the future, John Connor and his resistance fighters alter one Terminator’s trip through time and send it further down the line and into the restroom at Jane’s favorite watering hole.

Much to my surprise, this actually works pretty well, maybe because of the slow pace. It isn’t until the end of the issue that both plots dovetail. Therefore, both tracks read exactly like their regular books, and since PAINKILLER JANE is always a ludicrously violent and hilarious treat… score. And Palmiotti has a solid grip on writing the TERMINATOR world as well, offering up strong material in the short scenes here that we got out of the complete recent series that DE put out.

Kudos are also in order to Nigel Raynor, who has moved from being one of the shakier artists in the DE stable to one who really seems to be growing and learning at a quickening pace. This looks like the best stuff I’ve seen from him; maybe getting him away from GALACTICA was just what he needed.

Good fun all the way around.

MERCENARIES #1
Written by Brian Reed
Drawn by Edgar Salazar

Typically, one of the quickest ways to turn me off to a comic book or film is to have the sentence “based on a videogame” play a part in it. The second quickest way to make me ignore a comic is to have the words “cover by Michael Turner” in the solicitation copy. So MERCENARIES started out buried in a pretty deep hole. But…

…This is one of those rare times when I turn out to be wrong. Because MERCENARIES is a skillfully executed comic.

Three mercenaries, along with their “home” operative, set themselves up for hire and take on all the tough jobs. Their current assignment pits them against a faction of the Chinese army, always a tough one, and when one member of the group falls into the hands of the bad guys, it begins to get complicated. After all… even though they’re doing the job for money, they don’t have to agree on how to execute their objectives. That’s why they aren’t exactly a true “team.”

Brian Reed has come to prominence as a writer at Marvel, but it’s his recent Image book THE CIRCLE that’s sort of made him worth watching in my book. He has a real good grasp of how to put together an action sequence, and for a book based on a videogame, he manages to string together some characters worth reading about. It helps that Salazar has serious chops as an artist. His work is dynamic and has some grace to it, but he also knows his way around the use of shadow and perspective.

And that Turner cover? It isn’t of a woman with balloon breasts that dwarf her head, allowing Mike to keep his fly zipped and concentrate on things like composition and anatomy. So it’s pretty sharp. Just like the interiors.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: ORIGINS #1
Written by Kevin Fahey
Drawn by Jonathan Lau

The best BATTLESTAR book from DE so far was ZAREK, which told the origin of the infamous terrorist turned political prisoner. The reason it worked so well was because it fit into the framework of the show, but didn’t feel slavish to it. Using that template, this series follows in its footsteps, beginning with a look at the background of everyone’s favorite narcissist villain, Baltar.

We open with scenes of the childhood on Aerilon reference in the show. Baltar is the son of farmers, his quest to better himself and rise above his station, yet held back by the failures of his imagination and the equipment he repairs and tries to make more efficient. We also jump forward, to two years before the Cylon armageddon, and see his first meeting with Caprica Six and the early developments in their relationship. And it works; it works within the framework of what we know about Gaius, but it also is a strong enough story that it would work without the trappings of the show.

A big part of that must be credited to Fahey, who writes for the show itself. His Baltar sounds exactly right, and you can easily imagine James Callas uttering every single word that appears on the page here. He also gets strong support from Lau, who turns in much sharper work here than what he did on the recent PEGASUS one-shot.

The original GALACTICA’s Baltar was a one-note caricature, as John Colicos ate enough scenery to keep him going to Weight Watchers for life. But Ron Moore’s Baltar is a much more complex and fascinating character, vain and self-serving, yet with a spark of inner strength and vulnerability. Week in and week out, he’s been the most riveting piece of the show. Starting off this series by putting him in the spotlight was the best possible move, and the book delivers on that promise.

/Mason