Weekly Indy Comics Review 11/19/2003 edition

[webhead817]

Welcome to the Weekly Indy Comics Review Thread!

Every week we'll put up a "sticky" thread like this one so people can review and discuss the current weeks Indy comics.

The threads will stay at the top of the Indy Comics forum from Wednesday afternoon until the next Wednesday morning, after which time they'll be "unstuck" and return to their chronological spot in the forum, to be replaced by the current week's thread. Each thread will be marked with the ! icon.

[webhead817]

Invincible

"Hey! No flying in the house! How many times do I have to tell you two?"

Not only does this book continue to deliver very nice superhero yarns, but it perfectly captures that akward time between high school and college, when you're really trying to figure everything out.

If you like Teen Titans, I highly recommend you also check out Invincible.

[Briel]

FACTION PARADOX #1 & 2:

If you lked The Invisibles, or are just a fan of conspiracy theories, this book is for you. This comic arrives from the BBC novel line for Doctor Who. The series has completely parted ways with where it first appeared, and is also self contained. This way you can read the comic withot having to buy anything else, although the other media will enhance your enjoyment.

Faction Paradox is an organisation of time travelling anarchist terrorists. Their mission is to disrupt the staus quo wherever they go. Whether this is for good or bad is irrelevant. They revel in anarchy. Obviously these peple are not our heroes, but rather others who attempt to survive and thwart them, such as the character of Sabbath.

For more on Sabbath, he still is messing with The Doctor (Who) for the moment in The 8th Doctor line. Copyright laws are different in the UK, so author Lawrence Miles retains use of his characters. The Faction were originally at war wth The Timelords, but a paradox in The Ancestor Cell may have changed that to facilitate FP as an ongoing concern. Anyhow, the initial Faction war is over, and everyone knows who we're really talking about (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

What's cool about this series is how it teaches history, while at the ame time trying to subvert it. History is either altered, or at least the Faction is shown to be a secret hand behind actual happenings. They are able to establish a bridgehead on Earth when a paradox is formed by switching from the Roman to Gregorian calender. From the missing days, FP creates a secret city called The Eleven Day Empire, from which they start to infect various eras in Earth history.

If you're looking for something different, or even just intelligent, this is the book. It's advertised as bi-monthly, but quarterly is looing more like it. I don't believe this is from laziness, but rather Miles has misjudged how much time all the novels, audio pays, and comic take. Some things are woth the wait though, and this is one of them.

For the completists: Dr. Who novlels with the Faction:

Alien Bodies
Kuursal
Interference (books 1 & 2)
The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (Sabbath)
The Ancestor Cell

I haven't got them yet, but the first novel This Town Will Never Let Us Go is also out, along with The Book of War A-Z (a timeline and primer for the FP universe)