Customer Reviews

Battle Of The Planets Volume 2: Blood Red Sky

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...the story totally misses the mark when it comes to dealing with the characters and universe from the original series. If you remember watching Battle of the Planets as a kid, or just now got the Rhino DVDs, don't read this comic looking for new and exciting situations and missions. The characters are so cardboard you wonder where the little paper-doll cut-out lines are. New characters are thin and stereotypical to the point of being annoying. Worst of all, the continuity jumps all over the place, leaving the reader wondering what the heck happened to get to a certain point, and then flashing back to explain it all. If this is supposed to be cool and edgy writing, then someone give this guy a copy of Loeb and Lee's Batman "Hush" series to show him how it's correctly done. The only saving grace this comic has is the art. Wilson Tortosa does a beautiful job, and proves that at least he watched the DVDs before getting started on this project. Unfortunately, the rest of it staggers along so poorly it really doesn't deserve anything more than a cursory glance from the shelf of your local bookstore, and then only to enjoy Tortosa's pencils. Too bad Top Cow isn't planning on publishing a coffee-table book of his panels alone. Bottom line: if it's Battle of the Planets you're looking for, save your money and order the Rhino DVDs instead.

I liked Blood Red Sky. A lot. Firstly, it takes a universe I became enamoured with as a toddler and brings it back to life. Tortosa, Sharrieff, and company have done an outstanding job pulling the Battle of the Planets in a more mature and realistic direction, replacing the one dimensional caricatures of the animated series with highly trained but flawed individuals, each with their own deeper pasts and agendas. The artwork is definitely above average, combining with excellent coloring and layout to give the story an epic, movie-like feel. The characters are all rendered perfectly. Having said that, the action is sometimes hard to follow, jumping around on multi-panelled pages, and fast forwarding unexpectedly. As a comic book/graphic novel, the books feel is such that it never takes itself too seriously, while presenting a complex and intense plot to immerse the reader. This is an excellent journey to take for all Battle of the Planets fans, while giving new readers an engaging work that shows just how good the concept of Battle of the Planets can be, and how it should have been done in the first place.

I remember Battle of the Planets from when I was a kid, and boy, was I disappointed by this story. The artwork was terrific, right in the spirit of the original show (which is now available on DVD). But the story made me wonder if the writer had ever seen an episode. The characters aren't themselves--they aren't really characters. There's no real sense to what they do and why they do it. The plot has no real twists. It's just kind of there. I kept getting bored. There's a scene in the middle where Keyop goes nuts and stabs a scientist a dozen times in the chest. There's a mutillated cat. Jason is a foul-mouthed, trite womanizer who insults his teammates. Princess is just a girly-girl. And there's an irritating general named Tomak who stomps all over the team and belittles them and is generally unappealing.

Save your time and money and buy the DVDs of the original cartoon. This may have tried to update the story, but it only succeded in diminishing it. Not once while reading did I think to myself, "THIS is why I used to love this show!" It's sad because I had such high hopes for it, too. I really wanted to like it a lot.

I liked this publication very much, not just because of its high production values, but because it continues and fleshes out a universe that captured my imagination in my toddler days. Tortosa, Sharrieff, and company bring to Battle of the Planets a maturity and realism that was totally lacking in the original animated series. Not only do they eliminate the annoying and incongrous 7-Zark-7, they imbue the main characters with skills and personality that raise them from the status of one dimensional caricatures, to highly trained but flawed people, each with his/her own deeper past. All the favorite and integral characters are here and fully realised-the G-Force team themselves, Zoltar , Chief Anderson, and Colonel Cronus. The art is definitely above average, capturing the look of the characters perfectly, while combining with excellent coloring and layout to give the story an epic, movie-like feel. Having said that, the action is sometimes hard to follow, as it jumps around on multi-panelled pages, and fast forwards unexpectdedly at times. As a comic or graphic novel, the book's feel is perfect, never taking itself too seriously, while having fun with a complex and intense plotline. This is an excellent journey to take for all the Battle of the Planets fans out there, but at the same time provides potential new readers with a glimpse at how good the concept of Battle of the Planets can be, and how it should have been done in the first place.