Hearts in Atlantis Review

And now we come to an odd chapter in our little journey though the plethora of Stephen King material: Hearts in Atlantis.

Not to be confused with the Anthony Hopkins movie which only adapts the first novella in this anthology, Hearts in Atlantis attempts to capture the lives of several people in the sixties and seventies during (and surrounding) the Vietnam war.

The story is good, with extremes of good and bad. The weakest point is the inclusion of the Dark Tower plot that was left out of the movie (and for good reason). It makes the story needlessly complicated and confusing. Worse, it’s the first story in a series if stories that are, by and large, a set of down-to-earth vinettes about SKs generation.

Good, solid effort. 4/5.

The Almost Coup more than almost wins

Ah, see this is more like it. The Almost Coup (pronounced COO fools) is the second book in Kenneth Tams Defense Command series, and it tops the first by a great margin.

The story features Ken and Karen making a race home to Earth after the events of The Rouge Commodore to warn them of the coming Martian assault. But unbenounced to them a political force back home (lead by all-around asshole Caddlecott) has sprung up to try and put the DC out of commission right when they need it most.

The tension keeps mounting through the brunt of the book and does a great job of keeping the reader in a state of constant climax. The action rises on two fronts, both on the battle lines and at home, and shows great characterization and well-thoughout plot development. It also features great humor. I’ve become enamored to Tam’s wry, dry style; but sometimes I get the feeling that he’s making a joke that I just don’t get. It makes me wonder if I’d appreciate a rereading of the first novel in the series.

Upon a careful search on wikipedia, I’ve discovered that The Rouge Commodore and The Almost Coup were released on the same day, as seems to be practice with the DC books. It kind of makes me wonder if that explains the difference between the books: if Tam was editing them at once as one big story, he may have been less inclined to notice the pacing flaws in the first novel. On a similar note, many readers may never notice, because if they bought both books at once and read it as one large story it might be better received: a slow start with an epic finish. A search on Amazon discovers that the series is now collected into a volume of four books. This is likely the way it is best to be read, as the remaining year came out later the following year.

Still, I have to judge each book individually… And this one gets high grades. 5/5. The Almost Coup is definitely a coup for great literature.

In want of a Cliffhanger

Well, the Midnight Massacre storyline is over, so we’re back to the regular Darkhold reviews. As I mentioned in the closing paragraphs for the Spirits of Vengeance #13 review, this marks the first time a Darkhold story did not end on a cliffhanger… lets see what we get now!

The issue starts with something of a recap / tease. It’s Diabolique (a little girl mastermind brought in during the Betrayal arc) performing a sacrifice to learn Vikki Montesi’s origin. And we get that origin told to us… then we get told it’s all lies, and that the Redeemers won’t find out the truth until it’s too late.

This scene is just annoting. The dialogue is bad, and I resent being given information I’ve had before in a non-creative way. I would like to take this moment to correct an error in an earlier review though: Vikki and Nash are stated as girlfriend’s several times throughout this series, and this is one of those occasions.

We switch to Modred, recently returned from the grave after the end of the Midnight Massacre. He’s fairly upset that he’d been killed even though he has all the Darkhold spells at his command… and he’s in this mood when the Darkhold Dwarf confronts him directly, giving him a black envelope. This is a bit of a big deal, and it’s handled well. The page brings about the Other, who takes the form of the lover Modred once knew as a man. This pisses him off, and the Other offers him a chance to save his soul after an eternity… by capturing another soul in his place. He travels to England to accomplish this task. He finds an old blind woman, and proceeds to trick her into giving up her soul.

Cut to Pennsylvania. Louise Hastings has secluded herself in her room after having to use a Darkhold page to stop the Midnight Massacre. Buchannan tries to explain why this is such a big deal to Jinx, but the kid doesn’t seem to get it. Also, we learn that apparently Vicki has been going off at all hours after her resurrection. AND that Sam is now in love with Vicki, and wonders if she’ll love him back.

Apparently he has no clue what a lesbian is. Huh. Someone should probably explain it to him.

Back to Modred, he performs the spell and transferrs his curse to the old woman. Upon doing so he immediately feels guilt… now that he is rid of the Darkhold’s evil influence and his human soul is restored, he can tell that he’s done wrong… he goes to the old woman to try and help her, only to find that it was Janice, his former love, kept alive by the Darkhold magics and left waiting in exile for Modred all these years! Souless now, she attacks Modred. In the end, Modred has to again sacrifice his soul in order to save Janice, who dies at the end of her long wait for him. Modred vows revenge, and the Dwarf makes plans to target the Redeemers next.

This is a fill-in issue. Montesi doesn’t speak. I’m okat with Modred getting a key role in an issue, what I’m not okay is the mindless padding and retelling of origins. The Modred parts are okay, the rest is forgetable. Seems like they’re now saying that Louise’s sacrifice in the Midnight Massacre is all in her mind and morals, and that she didn’t actually lose anything. We’ll see how this plays, but if so it’s a disapointing twist.

2/5. What’s good is good, but there’s too much junk to wade through to get there.

And it ends.

This is it folks, the final issue of the Midnight Massacre. So far it’s faired miles better than the first Midnight Sons crossover, lets see how it finishes up.

**Note: this is my first review of a Spirits of Vengeance book… but it’s just basically a second Ghost Rider title a month, so I don’t really care to put the usual disclaimer on.**

The issue opens with a kickass shot of all the dead Midnight Sons. Once again I get to see what my favorite Darkhold characters would look like in the hands of a mainstream comicbook artist, and am jealous. Anyway, we basically start the same place we left off in Morbius #12, which SwitchBlade taking on all the remaining Midnight Sons… which is essentially Ghost Rider and a bunch of mostly powerless people.

SwitchBlade breaks into the Sanctum Santorium but GR cannot follow… there are mystical barriers that only the Demogorge was powerful enough to bypass, thanks to Modred’s magic. He reaches the darkhold, but Strange has safeguards in place that blast the book outside and is about to transport it to another dimension, Louise Hastings and Ghost Rider hatch a plan where GR will distract SwitchBlade while Louise finds the correct spell and uses it. In a particularly brutal scene, SwitchBlade actually succeeds in killing Ghost Rider and absorbs his power… including the Penance Stare. This makes SwitchBlade feel all the pain he himself has caused, which as you can imagine is a fair bit. He’s in agony.

Nice plot twist. I feel like maybe I should have seen it coming, but I honestly didn’t. Either way, it gives Louise enough time to use the darkhold to reverse Blade’s transformation and bring back all the people he killed… but at a great personal cost, which is not revealed to us here. Interesting.

This basically wraps it up. Everyone goes their seperate ways. My only issue is that there was no reprecussions for Blade. I mean, I’m sure there will be in the next issue of Nightstalkers (we’ll get there guys, you just wait), but all the other Midnight Sons act with reversing the spell fixes the whole issue. He wasn’t under the spell when he started on this rampage, he sought the spell out! And there’s been no evidence to suggest that his will was in any way affected by the spell! Big plot hole guys. BIG.

Mostly good. Satisfying conclusion to the story… and, oddly, this would technically be the first time an issue of Darkhold hasn’t ended with a cliffhanger. I mean, if we could this as Darkhold. Darkhold #11 ended with the cliffhanger to the next chapter in the saga… and this one gives us a fairly concrete ending. Huh. It’s almost refreshing. Anyway, that’s a side issue. This one gets 4/5, with points removed for weird bullshit treatment of Blade at the end.

Editorial Bullshit!

Alright, skipping again. For those reading the Morbius reviews in order at a later date, I have not read issues 3-11 of this series yet. I’m reading this as part of the Midnight Massacre crossover, which I am doing in order as part of my Darkhold line of reviews.

The issue opens with Morbius heading home to escape the sun’s rays. He’s been out again tonight, but the captions let us know that thanks to the lillan blood that he was exposed to in issue #1, he doesn’t remember the nights escapades… making his situation a Jekyll-Hyde type one. Morbius is being watch by someone though, but not a villain. It’s Jack Russell (ugh, that name), the Werewolf of the Marvel Universe, and he thinks he can help his former friend Morbius control the vampire within just as he’s learned to control the werewolf within.

We cut to the remainder of the surviving Midnight Sons: Ghost Rider, Frank Drake, Louise Hastings and Sam Buchannan… and my God does the art on the Redeemers look amazing. This is what they’d look like with regular art and not the weird stuff going on in their own book? Wow. Seriously, wow. Anyway, they (thankfully) are not actually on their way to Morbius. They’re making a b-line for Dr. Strange’s place to try and protect the Darkhold, which contains a spell to reverse Blade’s transformation into the Demogorge SwitchBlade.

I must say I enjoy this. One of my issues with the “Rise of the Midnight Sons” was it’s tendancy to bend the plot unnaturally just to accomodate the new characters. This doesn’t happen here. Both plots move along well within their own places in the book, and compliment each other in pacing and tone. It’s nice.

Meanwhile, SwitchBlade has killed a psychic… not sure why, he doesn’t seem to get her powers. Odd. Also, he’s supposed to be in incredible agony because of Modred’s tampering in Darkhold #11. Why is he perfectly fine? I smell editorial bullshit. Anyway, SwitchBlade attacks Morbius and Werewolf, killing Werewolf. Morbius puts up a bit more of a fight (succumbing to his vampire nature in the process), but gets killed as well. There’s a one-off mantion here about how Blade is only in pain when he uses Mordred’s powers…. bullshit! That’s not what you said! That defeats the whole purpose. Ugh. This was not for loss, because it’s distracted SwitchBlade just long enough for the rest of the team to make it to Strange’s… where SwitchBlade now waits.

Speaking of, where the hell is Strange? Maybe I’d know if I read his book.

Solid issue, both as an issue of Morbius and as a chapter of this crossover. One point removed for editorial bullshit. 4/5.

The Darkhold crossover comes home…

We’re into part three of the Midnight Massacre. As promised in Ghost Rider #40, a damaged Ghost Rider has found The Redeemers just as they arrive in New York, along with Frank Drake? Huh? I thought he was staying behind? Oh well.

They recap the previous two installments to the Redeemers right before SwitchBlade shows up and attacks them! While all the non-supernatural people try to protect the supernatural who would become victims of SwitchBlade, SwitchBlade informs them that there are two supernatural forces present… Ghost Rider and one other. It’s implied that the other is Modred, who appears finally after several months away and blasts SwitchBlade away with glass and hurricaine-force winds!

Modred explains that he’s able to leave Miami because he took some of Miami’s soil with him… really? Okay, that’s actually pretty clever, but I never got the curse anyway. Dr. Strange cursed Modred in Darkhold #7 so that Modred could not leave Miami’s soil unless driven forth in defeat. Modred hasn’t been able to be defeated since and has been trapped there… doesn’t that count as a defeat? Doesn’t this curse instantly reverse itself? Whatever. Modred explains the origin of the Demogorge page that’s powering SwitchBlade… that it was a supernatural doomsday device set in by Chthon.

SwitchBlade then returns and engaging Modred again. The battle is long, taking up the majority of the issue, but it’s also brutal and good. Better than most battles this book has seen. There’s a real sense of tension because Blade has become ridiculously powerful. He has the hellfire of Johnny Blade, can turn into mist and transform into animals (avoiding hits), can heal from any blow that is landed on him thanks to the healer he killed, and has the power of the DemoGoblin at his command. Modred manages to hold his own, but is blasted by hellfire and loses an eye (ouch!) and the table turn in SwitchBlade’s favor.

Here the great twist of the issue comes in, when Vikki throws herself between SwitchBlade and Modred, reminding him that he cannot hurt non-supernatural people… and Blade proceeds to gut her. This is a major Darkhold turning point, as Vikki is revealed to be something more than human herself.

SwitchBlade kills Modred, absorbing all his great power… and with Modred’s last breath he scatters the soil of Miami he brought with him, causing SwitchBlade incredible pain that he cannot heal from as Dr. Strange’s spell tries to rip him back to Miami!

This gives our heroes their first edge against SwitchBlade, and is how we end our issue… next stop, Morbius #12!

This issue is one of the better of Darkhold so far. It ranks a strong 5/5. Artwork and story are both great, and the pacing issues of before are gone. Hope the trend continues.

For more reviews, please visit The Book Closet

A good Midnight Sons crossover?

This is Ghost Rider #40, the second chapter in the Darkhold-themed “Midnight Massacre” crossover that swept through the Midnight Sons titles at around their midway point. This issue picks up right from where Nightstalkers #10 left off, with Johnny Blaze and Hannibal King both dead, killed by SwitchBlade. Ghost Rider and Frank Drake have vowed to avenge their fallen comrades, and that’s where we pick up…

And right away, all sympathy I had for SwitchBlade last issue goes out the window as he kills a woman who has the supernatural gift to heal people, and uses it for good. The fact that I’ve lost sympathy isn’t a detrament… as long as it goes somewhere good.

We cut then to DemoGoblin… okay, pause button. DemoGoblin is a bit of a story. Ahem. During the Inferno X-Men crossover in which demon’s invaded our world with the help of Cyclops’s first wife and Jean Grey clone Madeline Pryor, many Marvel characters were possessed by demons. One of these characters was the Jason Macendale version of the Hobogoblin, who agreed to be possessed in a bid to gain power. The demon drove him mad though, and he began to believe that it was in fact God that had granted him his powers and went about cleansing the world of “sin”. This put him at odds with both Spider-Man and Ghost Rider, who fought many times over what to do with him. Eventually the demon was released from Macendale, becoming his own character, DemoGoblin. DemoGoblin believes it is his duty to rid the world of supernatural forces… just like SwitchBlade. And that’s where we pickup, with DemoGoblin learning of SwitchBlade’s presence and seeking him out in an attempt to team up with him. SwitchBlade wants non of it though, and the two get into a scuffle just as Ghost Rider and Drake show up to put SwitchBlade down. A four-way battle ensues, but in the end SwitchBlade kills DemoGoblin and absorbs his power. Now he is too powerful for our heroes, almost killing GR with the hellfire ability he lifted from Blaze.

Drake elects to stay and try to stall SwitchBlade, which Ghost Rider finally admits that they cannot defeat him alone and goes in search of Louise Hastings and the rest of the Darkhold Redeemers for help. I applaud this reasoning for bringing in the Redeemers. One of my complaints with the “Rise of the Midnight Sons” arc was the episodic nature of it, where Ghost Rider and Blaze simply bounced from place to place starting series’. This seems more focussed, and there is a solid storyline here.

Great book, solid second part to the Midnight Massacre storyline. A well earned 4/5.

For more reviews, please visit The Book Closet