Comic Review: The Answer! issue #2 and #3

The Answer! Issue #2 (of 4) 

Writer: Dennis Hopeless 
Artist: Mike Norton 
Colorist: Mark Englert 
Genre: Superhero, Action/Adventure 
Publication Date: February 27, 2013 
Dark Horse Comics

Format: FC, 32 Pages 
UPC: 7 61568 22480 1 00211

Preview 

On the run in Cincinnati, punctuation-faced hero The Answer must rescue the abducted librarian Devin from a sinister gang of asylum nurses and orderlies . . . but she may not WANT to be saved! More insane superhero adventure! 

* Eisner Award-winning creator of Battlepug!

* Written by Dennis Hopeless (Cable and X-Force, Avengers Arena)!

The Answer! Issue #3 (of 4) (ARC)
Writer: Mike Norton, Dennis Hopeless 
Artist: Mike Norton 
Colorist: Mark Englert 
Genre: Superhero, Action/Adventure 
Publication Date: March 27, 2013 
Dark Horse Comics
Format: FC, 32 Pages 
UPC: 7 61568 22480 1 00311 

While Devin is living out her dream, working among the greatest minds in the world, the Answer is stuck in a nuthouse nightmare! They'll both have to wake up and work together if they're going to unravel the secrets of the enigmatic BRAIN TRUST. 

* Eisner Award-winning creator of Battlepug!

* Written by Dennis Hopeless (Cable and X-Force, Avengers Arena)! 

I love this punctuation-faced superhero. He makes me laugh. The writers are having fun with this guy and it shows. He doesn't seem to have a plan and likes to wing it when it comes to rescuing but he has a snarky attitude and some awesome skills. After three issues we still don’t know anything about him, but we've seen his butt… those damn hospital gowns!

By the end of #3 we still don’t know what the Aperion organization is and why they are collecting smart people. We also don’t know much about The Answer! and his role in all of this. There is only one more issue in this series. Will we find out who The Answer is? Why he wears an exclamation point mask? What evil plot is the Aperion Corporation planning? So many questions….

I recommend this series to anyone who loves campy action comics. I hope there will be more of The Answer! when this mini-series is over.

4 "Why would I be wearing spandex?" Sheep

Sharon Stogner (edit by Kalpar)

Sheep Comic Review: The Answer! Issue #1 (of 4)

The Answer 
Writer: Dennis Hopeless 
Artist: Mike Norton 
Colorist: Mark Englert 
Genre: Superhero, Action/Adventure 
Publication Date: January 23, 2013 
Dark Horse

Format: FC, 24 pages 
Price: $3.99 
UPC: 7 61568 22480 1 00111 

Preview

Devin McKenzie is an insomniac librarian with a knack for solving puzzles. The Answer! is a masked crime fighter with a giant exclamation point on his face. Aside from a penchant for late nights, they share nothing in common . . . until both become embroiled in a deadly mystery surrounding a sinister motivational speaker!

* Eisner Award-winning creator of Battlepug! * Superhero mystery with explosive action! 
* Written by Dennis Hopeless (Cable and X-Force, Avengers Arena)! 

A superhero with an exclamation point on his face? I’ll bite! The comic starts out with Answer-man trying to convince a woman to jump from a ledge to the roof of an adjacent building as armed men fire at them and she isn't having any of it. Then we flash back to four hours earlier where the woman, a librarian named Devin, is at work doing a crossword puzzle, while mindlessly listening to and answering all the questions on Jeopardy. It's her thirtieth birthday and she opens a present from her mother which contains the hardest 3-D puzzle ball ever made. We abruptly switch to a new scene with a motivational speaker talking to a large audience about something called Aperion. We then jump to a scene of a convenience store robbery and Answer man saving the day when he gets an emergency call from someone whose face we never get to see. Answer man dispatches the bad guys and heads off to save Devin, who has solved the puzzle ball and logged onto the Aperion website. There is a kick ass action sequence as Answer man saves Devin but goes down in the fight.

This is the first issue and it has to cram enough info to make us understand the characters, dangle a bunch of hints and mysteries in front of us to get us excited about the story arc, and then hit us with an adrenaline pumping scene with lots of explosions and a surprise twist that has us thinking WTH?. Did this deliver? Yeah, it did. The last panel hooked me on this series and I am excited to see where it goes.

I feel they went a little overboard convincing us just how smart Devin is in the beginning with an exposition dump, but they do only have 32 pages. I still can’t figure out what Aperion is but I don’t think we are supposed to know that yet. Why is he called Answer man? No idea yet, but he appears very detailed-oriented knowing exactly how many minutes and seconds before things happen. 

The panel layout isn't generic looking and definitely says action comic to me with the bright colors and detailed characters. I don’t know how this story will play out just yet, but I plan on hanging around to find out. 

3.5 “Dewey Decimal Master” Sheep

Sharon Stogner (edit by Kalpar)