1. Burn The Orphanage: Nothing To Lose #2 by Sina Grace and Daniel Freedman (Image)
Burn the Orphanage #1 was basically Streets of Rage: The Comic. Rock is the Axel character, beating people up on the streets to find out who torched the orphanage he grew up in, killing numerous kids. He fights his way to the truth and takes on the emotionally dead businessman, Mann, and avenges the innocents' deaths. Game over? Nope! Round 2 - fight! The second issue opens with Rock who's direction-less and drinking himself into a stupor when he meets Maleficent-lookalike Elyse who seduces him. Afterwards she reveals that she's holding a fighting tournament on her private island and that Rock, having killed Mann, must now take his place. Before he knows it, Rock is on a boat headed to the Bermuda Triangle to fight the world's greatest warriors. And if he wants to survive - he must kill them all! One of the many things I love about this issue is that it takes the fighting game idea to the next level, because what follows a successful fighting game? That's right, the movie adaptation! So the first issue was the game, the second issue is the movie version of the game where you've got the plot of movies like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat (which originated from the similarly structured Bruce Lee epic, Enter The Dragon). There's even a Goro-esque character called Morgo! This kind of plot is cheesy as hell but works really well in this comic because you have two enormously talented creators telling the story, Sina Grace and Daniel Freedman. They're wearing their influences on their sleeve but the effect is neither derivative or tacky, but surprisingly original. So you've got the rickety bridge scene from Temple of Doom, a reverse spinning pile-driver (Zangief from Street Fighter 2's special move) and a brilliant mix of fantasy and sci-fi, along with the aforementioned Sleepy Beauty reference and bad/great fight movies - bring them together and you've got one hell of a comic! Any comic that has a sentence that begins with "After I flash kicked Mann's head off..." is doing something right. And Burn the Orphanage #2 is doing a lot of things perfectly - it has great writing and art, wonderfully over-the-top characters and an absolutely compelling story. You don't need to have read #1 to enjoy #2 so definitely check this one out this week (though I'd recommend picking up both) - it's too much fun not to! * Those are my picks for the week - any great comics I missed? What're your favourite comics of the week? Let me know in the comments below. See you guys next week!