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Well - uh -
Boy, do I hate to say it. Maybe I can make this a little kinder.
It could have been better.
The writer starts from the assumption that every reader knows who these characters are. An incorrect assumption, as this is an issue that most people will pick up even if they don't know any character but Dracula. Let's face it: Hardly anything with "Dracula" in the title is going to lose money.
But how many people know who the Black Bat is/was? And who's this Rachel dressed as an even-more badly designed Azrael-Batman? Why is Dracula in this particular city at this time, and why is Rachel hunting him? What's her relation, if any, to Black Bat? (They seem to know each other.) The story seems to be chase, chase, chase, fight, chase some more, fight, stop the story before it ends.
It's really hard to tell what's going on sometimes. The art is very pretty, and filled with lots of extra lines which aren't needed. (Alex Toth would have a fit!) But the artist seems to want to fill up space and show off his/her art - not tell a story.
SPOILER WARNINGS!!!
The plot is: Dracula is killing prostitutes. Rachel hunts Dracula. He almost successfully seduces her but Black Bat saves her. (Surprised?) Dracula is driven away by a Really Badly Drawn Schtick. (The items used to drive him away are not the items which would drive him away, nor do they look like them.)
We don't get to know the Bat. We don't get to know Dracula. (We just assume he's like the most cliched movie version.) And we don't get to know Rachel, other than - like a stereotyped woman hero, she comes from an abusive background. Look, it worked well enough with Red Sonja, but does EVERY abused person put on a costume and go hunting bad guys and monsters? In far too many comics, they do -- and that's all we ever see into their character.
Every person seeing this title, especially if they know who Black Bat was, really wants to read this book and hungrily wants to like it. We were ready to forgive a lot, and we have to if we want to finish the story. (Which doesn't finish, using the stereotyped "The End?" blurb.) We have come to expect so much from Moonstone.
It could've been a contender. The best I can say is "It's not as bad as it could have been."
I really - REALLY - wanted to like this.
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I was pleasantly surprised by this comic. I'd watched a bit of the original TV series, and this does a good job of keeping that general atmosphere.
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Gorgeous art accompanies fun, believable, and likeable characters!
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A fun and thrilling adventure and the only reason why I didn't give it 5 stars is because it was a little too sexy for me.
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I think these are the best of the vampire comics. The other ones are a bit iffy, but these really focus on the heavy hitters of the classic world of darkness world and I enjoyed reading about them. Sometimes the plot is a bit complicated and you need some backstory, so 3/5 for that, but other than that, it was a good deal for the amount of pages gotten. :)
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The art is good, the stories are pretty interesting and it definitely sticks to the werewolf genre. I enjoyed it. Its cheap compared to the fact that you get multiple comics and in general it's just a pretty nice book. I enjoyed it in the end and felt that it was worth it to support the people who made it to actually buy it.
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I enjoyed this product. The scanning was well done, it was a fun read and it was very cheap for over 100 pages of some really good comics. I enjoyed it, and if you like the werewolf genre, you'll probably like it too. It's nothing stunning but it's still good.
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I was a huge fan of the "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" series on TV when I was a kid back in the 70's. So when I found this book, I was, of course intrigued. Add to that the fact that it brings in HP Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos" -- my favorite RPG -- and I was sold. Originally, I thought I was getting a role-playing supplement, and after that first flash of disappointment (what could be better than roleplaying Kolchak up against mighty Cthulhu?), I continued to read -- I could almost hear Darren McGavin's and Simon Oakland's ("Tony Vicenzo") voices during much of the early part of the book. It was an awesome tour de force, and very much in keeping with the spirit of the movies Night Stalker and Night Strangler, and the best of the Night Stalker shows. I'd cheerfully buy any more of these if they exist or are being written. This was one of the best $4.00 buys I've made in years! My only regret is that it wasn't substantially longer!
Doing a little research, I discovered that Moonstone has been working this stuff since 2007. Well good for them! It's a great franchise, and it's a terrible pity we'll never see another new Night Stalker episode from Darren and Simon and the gang.
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Set in a grim modern day, this Comic grips you from the beginning. It has an interesting spin on the battle between Heaven and Hell, adding a third group into the mix. I liked it, as you aren't sure where it's headed. The graphics are well done and some of the thought into the story is definitely intriguing. If you enjoy an action/puzzler based comic then this one should satisfy you. If you don't like theological questions of good vs evil in gray terms then don't read this book. With a price tag of free, and readers deciding whether it will continue, I'd encourage people to give it a read and then decide for yourself.
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Mysterious enough and the premise is extremely interesting. However, I don't have a lot of buy-in with the characters yet. So far it is just your typical guns-blazing heroine. It almost feels like they were trying to write a script where the actors would fill in a lot of these blanks. I would be interested in reading the others but, truthfully, not for $3.99 a digital download--maybe 99 cents.
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The dialogue feels like it was written by Tommy Wiseu (who coincidentally bears a strong physical resemblance to the protatonist in this instance), and the pacing is no less jarring and awkward. The dialogue in the fight scene with the two goons, oh my god don't get me started. The ending seemed to imagine itself as climactic, but the twist (I guess?) wasn't impactful and it was all very rushed.
The scan is fine, the service was (as always) great, but the story was certainly not the best.
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All ok. I just need to re download since my laptop was stolen.
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Moonstone’s run of Vampire and Werewolf comics were a well-realised project, focusing on either a single Clan/Tribe, or on a signature character. In Giovanni, the plot revolves around an art auction, for a ‘lost’ piece of art created by a Kindred painter. Pietro, Madeleine and Isabel take centre stage and those familiar with the Giovanni will already know these names. There is room for character development and there are some very nice insights into how these individuals work on a very personal level. The plot is simple on the surface but makes use of a number of threads that are all woven into the main story. The artwork, whilst not on par with heavy-hitters like Marvel or DC, is still pleasing (and on the same level as most Vertigo titles) and presented in colour. The authors obviously have a good grasp of the medium and write well for this format.
I’ve collected together the print copies of most of the Moonstone comics and they are uniformly good. At this price, there is no reason to skip over them. They are also reusable in terms of giving you some plot ideas, or even a spark for a new character, so they are just as useful as anything else on your gaming shelf. Lastly, you might even consider buying a few for new gamers to give them a taste of the respective games as they are quite faithful to the oWoD.
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In W:tA, the Black Furies have always had a strong theme of protecting women. This publication dives right into this theme, latches on, and never lets go even at the very end. It is a tired story with heavy stereotypes and a contrived turn of events.
However, as with all W:tA books, the artwork is fantastic and inspiring. Because of the art I do not regret my purchase.
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“Raining Fire” is the first in the TWILIGHT CRUSADE: GABRIEL series from Moonstone and introduces us to a female embodiment of the archangel Gabriel. She’s fed up with her job, has a jaded outlook and some high powered, kick-ass weapons. I’m all for tough heroines and heroes ready to take down the bad guys, and I enjoy a complex good vs. evil story. Unfortunately, I didn’t think there was enough in the first issue to fully deliver the hard-edge and gripping storyline that it initially promises—but there is great potential here for any future issues.
An introductory page gives us some background. It lays out the story of Lucifer and the fallen angels, Michael the other archangels, and the ones that couldn’t choose a side. The latter are called the Hollow because “they were so empty of passion they couldn’t choose a side.” Being banished to earth, many of the Hollow bore children with humans. The offspring were called the Nephilim. Throughout the comic details are added about the rest of the divine hierarchy as well.
All of this is pretty familiar territory, and the basic plot will be recognizable to anyone that has at least some passing knowledge of religion, has watched Supernatural or Constantine, or has read the graphic novels. This isn’t a bad thing, per say; there’s a huge audience for the material, and it’s as good of a start as any.
After the intro, the story begins with a high octane fight sequence between Gabe and a few demons. After the initial showdown with the bad guys, Gabriel meets up with “Lou” (three guesses who that is). Things start to slow down from this point in order to fill in some important details on the relationships between the denizens of heaven, hell, and the divine on earth.
Overall, there’s nothing wrong with the basic idea itself. It’s been proven and it works because people are interested in the classic good vs. evil struggle. But with the number of stories, books, movies, television shows, graphic novels and comics that deal with this type of plot, each creative work that tries to tread that path needs something unique to itself so that readers aren’t saying “hey, this is exactly like this thing over here.” Again, there’s obvious potential present in GABRIEL. I wouldn’t disregard it, and if the trouble spots can be strengthened in future issues then it may develop into a truly riveting comic series.
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