Premature Action: Ragemoor #1 Review

Ragemoor is an ambitious book that tries to capture the feeling of a classic haunted house tale mated with an H. P. Lovecraft feeling of cosmic dread, jacked off over by a morality tale from an EC Comics book. However, in trying to introduce several characters, 3,000 years of history (evil history!) and deliver a concrete payoff, all in 24 pages, it trades dread and suspense one expects from a haunted house / elder gods story in favor of quickie violence, making the whole thing feel less like The Colour Out Of Space than Jason X. It is a misfire, but thanks to Richard Corben’s art, it is a good-looking misfire.

We are introduced to Herbert, the current owner of Ragemoor Castle who declares the property to be evil down to its core because he sometimes becomes lost in its halls, and because he believes that it has caused his father Machlan to go insane because Machlan dances around naked and pisses in hallways. Which makes Ragemoor sound less like a haunted house than it does every college dormitory in America. These are signs of substance abuse, not insanity, to which my current writing of this outside of a straitjacket will testify. But I digress.

The Man Is Back And He’s Got A Little Something For You – Review Of Stan Lee’s Mighty 7 #1

Stan Lee wants us True Believers to know he hasn’t given up on superhero stories.

In an interview with Lee in USA Today, Stan The Man discussed the inspiration behind his new book, Stan Lee’s Mighty 7, which will be released under the imprint of his new publishing brand, Stan Lee Comics. Stan Lee Comics is the result of a partnership between Lee’s POW! Entertainment, A2 Entertainment and Archie Comics.

Lee bills Mighty 7 as “the world’s first reality comic book” — it stars fictional superpowered characters, of course, but also Archie head Jon Goldwater and “Stan the Man” himself.

“I myself am very modestly a part of the story,” says Lee, adding that real-life celebrities will be making appearances as the story progresses.

The core characters of Mighty 7 are a group of aliens — five “criminals” and the two star marshals who are transporting them through the cosmos — who crash-land on Earth.

The characters are completely new — “Nothing ever kicks around in my head until I have to write it,” Lee jokes — but each one has a different superpower “and a bit of personal problems and prejudices and desires and wants, even as you and I,” says the creator, who teams with writers Tony Blake and Paul Jackson and artist Alex Saviuk.

But, just how original is this new team’s concept, and, is it worth reading?

Spoilers and other dangers, after the jump.