May
13 Shark Attack

Sharknife, Vol.1

Creators: Corey Lewis

Oni Press, 136 pages, black and white, $9.95

So? Every so often there comes along a piece of pop culture, whether it's a song, a book or a film, that exudes an infectiously wild ride that's way more fun than it has any right to be. That's "Sharknife." It's almost impossible to describe the story and do it justice because the joy in this book is the strange experience of reading it. Nominally it's about a busboy named Caesar who works in a Chinese restaurant where monsters live in the walls and come out to attack just about every day. But when Caesar eats a fortune cookie, he becomes Sharknife, a huge dude who can put the beat down on these nasties. Reading this book is closer to the visceral experience of playing a really cool videogame (and there's lots of gaming connections in the story). And while this shouldn't be as much fun as it is, the insane enthusiasm Lewis throws into the book means it really doesn't matter if you can't really understand what you're looking at in every little panel during the fight scenes — you're still having a ball. Grade: A

Green Lantern: Rebirth #6

Creators: Geoff Johns, writer; Ethan Van Sciver, pencils; Prentis Rollins, inks

DC Comics, 32 pages, color, $2.99

So? Just when you thought that, with the last "Star Wars" movie and the end of "Star Trek: Enterprise," that nerdom's collective orgasm couldn't get any more intense, along comes the final resurrection of Hal Jordan, Green Lantern. This is an event Hal's die-hard fans have been awaiting for at least 12 years. It was the early 1990s when slumping sales on Green Lantern prompted DC to have Hal lose his marbles and slaughter a city, allowing a new GL named Kyle Rayner to slip on the ring. Hal was later half-way redeemed by being turned into the Spectre, but that never satisfied the die-hard Hal fans who formed a message-board trolling group called H.E.A.T. (Hal's Emerald Attack Team). That's the kind of baggage this series has to resolve and Johns handles it pretty well. It all ends up the way you'd expect, with Hal back in the saddle reciting his oath after having earned the respect of his fellow Green Lanterns and the rest of the DC Universe. He even gets to deck Batman, almost as if to show how worthy he is of rejoining the pantheon. The real test will be whether Johns and artist Carlos Pacheco will have any luck keeping the character exciting in the upcoming ongoing series once the excitement around Hal's return dies down. Hal fans will certainly be ecstatic over his return; anyone else will find it hard to get too excited about. Grade: C+

Comic Festival!

Creators: Darwyn Cooke, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Set, Dave Sim, Chester Brown, Jim Rugg & Brian Maruca, Dave Roman, Ray Fawkes & Cameron Stewart, Ramon Perez, Steve Manale, Kean Soo, chip Zdarsky, Salgood Sam, Attila Adorjany & Chris Weaver, Ben Sahnnon, Leslie Stein, Jason Azzopardi & Hope Larson, Brian McLachlan, Michael Cho, Ryan Carriere, Eric Kim & J. Torres, J. Bone, James Jean.

Legion of Evil Press/Toronto Comics Arts Festival, 40 pages, black and white, free

So? This anthology of comics from Canadian artists was one of the best contributions fo last weekend's Free Comic Book Day — so good, in fact, that it's worth paying money for. Highlights include a preview of Seth's upcoming "Wimbledon Green," a strange untitled story of a monster who loses his pants by Dave Sim and Chester Brown, a couple pages of "Street Angel," and Kagan McLeod's really cool "When I Wanted to Fight Bruce Lee." Wrapped up with flip covers by Darwyn Cooke and James Jean and you've got a worthy title at any price. Grade: A