I Read Comic Books discussion
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What are you reading right now?
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What are you reading right now? (August 2025)
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Not sure where this is going, but I'm impressed by the debut issue of THEY CHOOSE VIOLENCE and regret waiting this long to read it (June 2025 release date). With Issue #2 sold out locally, I'll have to wait for the trade paperback.Thought enough about it to leave a review of Issue #1 here on Goodreads . . . . .
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Last week's adventures in comics.John Carter of Mars ★
Just completely horrible. The story didn't make a lick of sense. The art is awful. At one point cars are floating in space with people in them and they can breathe and talk just fine. It's in a later time period because John Carter has died and been resurrected. Just downright horrible stuff. The art is all floating in space with weird camera angles that exaggerates the length of limbs.
Tragic Volume 1 ★★
An uneven, modern day updating of Hamlet with some gender swapping. Harper's father dies and she thinks he was murdered. Then she starts seeing and talking to his ghost dressed as Hamlet from an old production he was in. He was maybe murdered or maybe it'll turn out Harper has some mental issues. It could go either way at this point. I'm undecided at the moment if this is a story worth finishing out with the 2nd volume.
Violenzia and Other Deadly Amusements ★★★
Book ended short stories of Violenza, this mysterious women who shows up and kills everyone in shadowy organizations. Deeper plots are alluded to but will never be fulfilled. She seems to be unkillable so there's never any tension. In between these two stories is an incomprehensible story and an Edward Gory type A-Z book of macabre pinups.
X-Men Epic Collection, Vol. 12: The Gift ★★★★
This Epic Collection is put together a little oddly just because things in certain issues don't match up the best. The X-Men / Alpha Flight crossover happens right after Professor X is beat up and left for dead. It's such a long break that I forgot all about it by the time we got back to it. There's some cool stuff in here though. Kulan Gath, the sorcerer from Conan takes over Manhattan and reverts it to Conan times. This book and New Mutants are pretty much commingled. The X-Men have to take on Warlock's pop, Magus. Loki, Nimrod, the Hellions, the Morlocks, Arcade, Power Pack. All good stuff. The last issue features Storm in Africa by Barry Windsor-Smith and it looks gorgeous. Finally, there's the wacky Nightcrawler miniseries by Dave Cockrum.
City Of Dust: A Philip Krome Story ★★★
A cop in a world where fiction and religion has been outlawed gets involved in a case where multiple people have been ripped apart. It's pretty well thought out for a Steve Niles book which tend to be elevator pitches more than stories a lot of the time.
Dead, She Said ★★
Is it possible for a graphic novel to be too short? Because this one is. It's like half of two separate stories smooshed together and they just don't fit. The first half is about a private eye who wakes up dead and tries to figure out how it happened. The other story is about a mad scientist and some giant ants. Bernie Wrightson's art is, of course, very good. The coloring though is so dark. Make sure you have good lighting so you can tell what's happening.
Blade Forger ★★★
A future where the Emperor is determined every 5 years through a tournament of Blade Forgers, a fight to the death for the 16 entrants involved. The storytelling is pretty disjointed in this. It's also told through multiple generations of this family so there's not a main character, per se. I really liked We Live from the Miranda Brothers. This wasn't to that level though.
Peacemaker Tries Hard! ★★★★
Clearly this is an extension of the Peacemaker TV show. Pugh draws him to look just like John Cena. It reads like an unaired episode. Anyway, Peacemaker is continuing his sad sack existence, inviting everyone he meets to his birthday party only to have them turn him down. Then he rescues a dog that he names Bruce Wayne because he has a tuxedo on his chest and he's a fancy lad. This book is really funny. Peacemaker is a big buffoon with a big heart. When his dog is kidnapped, he goes all John Wick to get him back. Along the way the Red Bee tags along (the perfect character for DC to bring back for this goofball book). And the Brain and Monsieur Mallah are the perfect villains for this series. Steve Pugh does a terrific job of mixing in the humor while still making this look good.
Everything Sucks ★★★
A pretty humorous stoner comic. This one is about getting some burgers.
The Hidden ★★★
I do wish Sala would have fleshed his stories out more. This one is about some kind of apocalypse. The few survivors hide out in some remote places and we eventually get a Frankenstein type riff. It's not bad. I just wanted more.
Feral, Vol. 3: Nine Lives ★★★★
I continue to dig this comic that has no right to be this good. It's basically The Walking Dead with pets and rabies instead of zombies. This group of cats continue to be on the run from all of these animals carrying a rabies virus. In this volume, they figure out how to sneak in and hide out in a pet store like PetSmart and find some weird cats living in there. Of course, things go wrong again. The art's great. The story is great. What's not to love?
The Incal: Psychoverse ★★★
One of the comics expanding Jodorowsky's The Incal, this prequel isn't bad. It's full of wildly murderous nuns and metabarons. I was hoping Russell would maybe bring something new to the table, but that wasn't the case. Yannick Paquette does rock the artwork though.
Spider-Man Vs. The Sinister Sixteen ★★★
Peter Parker and Mary Jane go to dinner at a fancy French restaurant and half the heroes and villains in the Marvel universe come to dinner as well. It's clearly set back when Straczyncki was writing ASM and the two of them were still married. This made me smile.
George A. Romero's The Amusement Park ★
George Romero's family took a terrible film of his from the 70s and restored it, then adapted it into a comic. Unfortunately, it's terrible. It feels like experimental film. It's about an old man who goes to an amusement park and is treated more and more poorly. It doesn't make a lot of sense if the story is taken literally. It's more a metaphor on how society doesn't value old people. It just doesn't do it very well when you have dumb things like a cop show up at a bumper car ride and try and write one of the riders a ticket for rear ending another car. Then he doesn't believe her that it was the other guy's fault because he didn't use a turn signal. This whole thing was just stupid.
In Perpetuity ★★★
The afterlife here seems to be a drab 50s version of L.A. with endless amounts of traffic and it turns out is run by Hades. Gangsters still find a way to communicate with the living although it's highly policed. The main character is called a connector and can travel back and forth between both L.A.s. The art looks like something you'd see in an advertisement. I'm going to check out some more stuff from this brother and sister duo.
30 Days of Night ★★★
This book pretty much started a vampire resurgence and a little cottage industry for Steve Niles for its sequels. It's a great hook for a story. Vampires visit a town in Alaska where it stays dark for an entire month. It's completely ruined though by some of the worst art I've ever seen in a comic. Most panels are just black squiggles. If it wasn't for contextual clues from the dialogue I'd have no idea what was happening.
30 Days of Night, Vol. 2: Dark Days ★★
Stella has written a book about what happened in Barrow. I do absolutely love that the cover for it is the cover for vol. 1. She's also gotten militaristic about going after vampires. It's a really strong start. But then things start to get really dumb. (view spoiler)
Templesmith's art has gotten better since vol. 1. I can at least tell what's happening now in most of the panels. I still don't like it but it is better.
30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow ★★
These are beginning to feel like cash grabs. We return to Barrow where relatives of the original residents have moved there and fend off vampires every year now that they are prepared. The ending was the dumbest choice Niles could have made. Templesmith's art continues to be real bad. His art looks like his mom put his artwork on the fridge.
Predator Vs. Spider-Man ★★
These Predator Vs. comics just keep getting worse and worse. This one has a serial killer Predator who just goes around killing people whether they can fight back or not. He, apparently, can also just grab someone's face and just rip it right off and then puts it on his own face like the Joker during the New 52. It's just dumb. I would have thought that Percy had watched some Predator movies before writing this. I did think a Kraven appearance was fitting. I didn't care for Ferreira's art here either. Too frenetic and cartoony for a comic with skinned humans in it.
Ultimate Black Panther By Bryan Hill Vol. 3: Darkness and Light ★★★★
The mystery behind the consciousness of vibranium takes center stage in this arc. Nigeria has some dark vibranium and that's going to be a problem. Meanwhile T'Challa goes off on a mission with Storm while Killmonger stays in Wakanda with Okoye. It's good stuff with excellent art.
Fantastic Four, Vol. 4: Fortune Favors the Fantastic ★★★★
It's amazing how easily North is able to distill this comic down to its essence. These single issue stories are great. It's not even derailed by a Blood Hunt tie in. This is like the complete opposite of modern era storytelling where everything is building and building to a larger story. It's just good fun timeless stories.
Gannibal, Vol. 5 ★★★
Has there ever been a comic more drawn out than this one? It feels like we should be getting near the end and when I go to write my review I see there's at least 6 more volumes. This one has a bunch of law enforcement officers about to crack down on the town but ultimately do nothing. I like this comic but at the same time it's a frustrating read. I wish these were all in English already so I could burn through them.
Daredevil Modern Era Epic Collection, Vol. 2: Underboss ★★★★
This is a hodge-podge of stories. Bendis hadn't taken the full time gig on Daredevil yet when this started. He writes the books in fits and starts. It's all good, just not a consistent story until the end when he blows it all up.
Today's trip to my LCS.Ultimate Wolverine #8
Thundercats #17
Storm #11
Something Is Killing the Children #43
Secret Six #6
One World Under Doom #6
Justice League Vs. Godzilla Vs. Kong 2 #3
Herculoids #6
Gatchaman #11
Captain America #2
Birds of Prey #24
Absolute Superman #10
Absolute Green Lantern #5
Ultimate X-Men #18
Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #1
The Sisterhood #2
Uncanny X-Men #19
That Mister Miracle maxiseries is one of King's better comics. Really dark though.
Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #1 by Rucka art by Scott is one of the best single books I’ve read in a long time… not surprisingly bc I’m a huge fan of Rucka, but I knew nothing of Cheshire and little about Cheetah, but was a great set up…
The Treasure of the Black Swan was very nice. It tells the true story of an unscrupulous treasure hunter trying to get sole ownership of the loot from a sunken Spanish ship while pretending not to know which ship it was. The story is mostly about the legal fight over it, which could be, but was absolutely not, boring. At the end, I was upset to learn that the story was spiced-up with some fictional bits, but I guess that is OK.
My IRL group read Danger Street, Vol. 1. I read the whole thing on the day of our meeting, which was a mistake. This thing takes time to absorb.The concept of the book is to take the 12 separate stories from DC's First Issue Specials and combine them into one single story. Those original comics are not particularly good (to me), but King mixes them into something original and worthwhile.
If you've never read the originals, there are still some characters you may recognize, like Starman, Atlas, Manhunter, Dr. Fate, etc. You probably won't recognize "The Dingbats of Danger Street", "Lady Cop" or "The Green Team: Boy Millionaires", but you can pick up on their characters pretty easily. And all of those characters are much more fleshed-out as characters than they were in the originals, and are given good reasons to come together in this story.
In the end, I have to give Danger Street (all 12 issues) 4.5 stars, though I'd have rated it lower if I hadn't gone back to read the original stories and see how King has remixed them.
The missing 0.5 stars is because of annoying "voice-over" by Dr. Fate's helmet which refers to all the characters as though they are fairy-tale characters, which adds an unnecessary layer of confusion on an already confusing concept, and for the annoyingly frequent use of grawlix ("*%!&" and "%@ &!", etc.)
Last week's adventures in comics.30 Days of Night Omnibus, Vol. 1 ★★
Reading this, it's pretty clear that these aren't very good. Which is a real shame because it starts out as a great premise. But Ben Templesmith's art is horrendous. That original miniseries looks like chicken scratches. I can at least tell what's happening in volumes 2 and 4. Sometimes the story is so bad though that I wish I couldn't. There's moments in both of the latter stories where I actually said to myself WTF is happening. This is dumb. I can't believe there's 11 or 12 volumes. This edition also shrinks the art down so not only is the art harder to see but the lettering is so much harder to read.
Godzilla vs. the Marvel Universe ★★★
Some out of continuity stories set in various Marvel eras where different heroes fight Godzilla. It's all pretty innocuous but it's also not all that great. There's a lot of strange stuff like Godzilla getting a Venom suit, the Trasks combining multiple mechs from Toho into a sentinel, that kind of thing.
Weapon X-Men ★★
This was alright. A bunch of Wolverines from alternate timelines fight a version of Onslaught consisting of Magneto and Jean Grey. It's fine but I'm sick of alternate timeline stories that don't really matter.
Wow, I read this a 2nd time because I forgot all about this and found it at the library and read it again. On that note, it's going down to 2 stars.
The Woman With Fifty Faces: Maria Lani & The Greatest Art Heist That Never Was ★★
The truth about this story is interesting. The roundabout way the story takes to get there is not. I'd lost the point trying to be made at times with all these extra pages that would just show an eyeball or an exterior shot. The story is about a con artist who came to Paris in the 20s and said she was a movie star from Germany. The city was smitten with her and soon famous painters from across the area were painting her portraits which eventually all disappeared.
Monsterverse Declassified ★★★
The last story about Tiamat was pretty great. But I'd expect no less from the creative team behind Canto, a comic you should check out if you are unfamiliar with it. It's terrific. The other 3 stories here were a miss.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Nation, Vol. 1 ★★★★
This volume serves mainly as a bridge between the previous series and the current one. We see what Hob's been up to. Then Raph and Pepperoni get forced into invading Area 51 to rescue some mutants. We see what Casey has been up to since Untold Story of the Foot Clan. There's some cool stuff in this anthology series. Marvel and DC should take note on how to do these well.
Marvel Tales by J. Michael Straczynski ★★★
I bought these sight unseen just because I'm a big fan of Straczynski's and I was excited to see he was writing for Marvel again. (Yes, I know he came back for Captain America first.) These team-ups were pretty uneven. Some of them were cool and some of them made you go "Huh".
Daredevil Epic Collection, Vol. 7: The Concrete Jungle ★★★
Some OK stories from the seventies. I will say this, plots dragged on for forever. Foggy's fiancé was kidnapped for about 20 issues before she was found. Surprisingly the Marv Wolfman stories in the first half weren't as good as the 2nd half when Jim Shooter took over the writing. There's some classic artists working on this, Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino, Gene Colon, even John Byrne who drew the crossover with Ghost Rider.
Wolverine: Deep Cut ★★★
The utold story of what Wolverine was up to when he left the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #246. What he was up to was going after the Marauders on one big pointless slugfest. Some things have changed though, like Scrambler's powers and Scalphunter's name to Greycrow. Like the majority of these retro stories from Marvel, they can be skipped as they have no bite.
Batman/Elmer Fudd: The Deluxe Edition ★★★
I'm not really sure why this deluxe edition exists on its own as the original comic cost $5. This deluxe edition does have the Noir edition which is the same comic in black and white and it has the original script and notes from Lee Weeks so if you really enjoy those, spend your $20 on this instead.
I will say that the original comic is a whole lot of fun. It takes the Looney Tunes seriously, putting them in Batman's world. Elmer is out looking for revenge when he finds his girl, Silver St. Cloud, missing and only a bloody crime scene and a carrot left behind. Then he gets word that Bruce Wayne was behind it. I love how this is a straight up noir and a lot of the Looney Tune characters get "real world" versions of themselves. It's a 5 star story in this overpriced package.
Spine-Tingling Spider-Man ★★★
Scariest Spider-Man comic ever? No. The scariest part of this is the lack of backgrounds in Ferreyra's art. I really like his art but he's certainly cutting corners on the often nonexistent backgrounds. This is OK. There's no logic behind the story though. It's just random shit Pete is threatened by that taken together makes no sense. No one remembers who Peter Parker is in one issue. In the next they remember him but they are evil. Ahmed, your story still needs logic.
Animal Stories ★★★
Six loosely connected stories revolving around animals that sometimes get kind of wacky. Most of them have an Aesop's Fables or Biblical slant to them.
Cancertown: An Inconvenient Tooth ★★
More or less a John Constantine story if he had a brain tumor that kept causing him to go in and out of this Cancertown place. The story is confusing at times. There's no magic involved. Just all this metaphysical stuff. It's alright but could have used an editor to make it sharper.
Secret Six ★★★
Eh, this was OK. A new Secret Six comes together to go after Amanda Waller when she disappears from her cell. Not a fan of Stephen Segovia's new manga-ish style. His art used to be distinctive. Now it just looks like manga house style.
Superman, Vol. 3: The Dark Path ★★
At least DC put all of the skippable content into one trade. The three regular issues are part of Absolute Power. Superman is depowered and running around with Zatanna to find her some magic. Then we get the Knight Terrors miniseries from the crossover of the previous year. (Who thought it was a good idea to tack these on a year later?) It's not even one nightmare that tells a single story. It keeps flitting around to a gazillion nightmares that are just touched on. Honestly, it's a waste of paper.
Superman Vol. 4: Rise of the Superwoman ★★★★
In the aftermath of Absolute Power, Lois has gained the same powers as Superman! What! This is really good, especially with Dan Mora drawing all of the regular issues. There's some other crazy revelations here, like who the Time Trapper is now. And some good setup for where Lois's powers really came from.
Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu ★
While I enjoyed the other Minky Woodcock stories, this was a turkey. There's not a single story in these 4 issues. It's random encounters with Allister Crowley and H.P. Lovecraft. A miniseries should tell some kind of story and be more than just opportunities to see risque shots of Minky.
Superman: Action Comics, Vol. 2: To Hell and Back ★
Clearly, this is where the left over crap from the Superman family goes to die. It's a bunch of terrible backup stories, none of which Superman is even in. In one of them Conner Kent is going through something and dyes a blue streak in his hair. That should definitely help maintain your secret identity. The last 2 issues are the Knight Terrors 2 parter, again Superman isn't in it and it's very pointless.
Superman: Action Comics Vol. 3: Revenge of the Demon ★★★
The story with the racist Blue Earthers comes to a head and their origins were actually seeded at the beginning of PKJ's run right before the Warworld Saga. It's a crazy and bold choice.
Superman: Action Comics: Superstars Vol. 1 ★★
Jason Aaron wrote a Bizarro story for Superman. What a disappointment. Translating Bizarro's speech into what he actually is saying makes my head hurt. I hate it so much. Aaron's story didn't change that opinion. It still sucked even with John Timms' terrific artwork.
I did like Gail Simone's retro Silver Age story. Superman has to save the world from an alliance of planets who are forcing Superman to fight so they can bet on the outcome. It has a cool Silver Age feel to it that works very well with Eddy Barrows' artwork.
The backup story from the Gail Simone issues was by Rainbow Rowell and Cian Tormey and I quite liked it. It's about Lois being Clark's boss now that she's the editor in chief at the Daily Planet.
Poison Ivy, Vol. 4: Origin of Species ★★★
The story from the first 2 years of stories comes to its end but first we spend 3 issues rehashing Ivy's origins. We also see how The Gardener fits into those origins as well. Then we get back to the Floronic Man and the lamia that is killing Ivy. It's solid stuff. The art is getting messier than it was at the beginning of this run.
The Sunken Tower ★★★
A middle grade comic about three people who are kidnapped from a medieval world and taken underground where they will be sacrificed to a god. They have to escape from the idiot cultists and return to the surface. It's a simple story with simple art but it is also fun.
The Indifference Engine Vol. 1 ★★
This was a cool idea, these variations of the same man fighting other versions of himself across realities. It got way too confusing though. I couldn't keep any of it straight. The art didn't help either and I was constantly confused.
Ed wrote: "The Treasure of the Black Swan was very nice. It tells the true story of an unscrupulous treasure hunter trying to get sole ownership of the loot from a sunken Spanish ship while pr..."I read that recently too. Then I saw AMC turned it into a miniseries a couple years ago and watched that too, called La Fortuna. I couldn't find it streaming anywhere but my library had it. My wife and I liked it. It's half in Spanish with subtitles and half in English depending on where the conversations are taking place.
Today's trip to my LCS.Thundercats / Powerpuff Girls #2
Ultimate X-Men #17 <-- Missed this last month
Giant-Size X-Men #2
Bring on the Bad Guys: Red Skull
Aquaman #8
Captain Planet and the Planeteers #3
Predator Kills the Marvel Universe #1
Space Ghost #1
Transformers #23
Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #3
X-Men #20
The Ultimates #14
So, I googled for "superman s symbol", as one does, and this is what it tells me:"The superman emblem, also known as the Superman shield, symbol, or "S" is an eight-pointed star with two gold bars in the center."
But, .... is it, though?
Note that this happened on chrome on an
Yeah, A.I. isn't where they say it is yet. I see mistakes all the time with it. (I'm a software engineer.)
I'm also a software engineer. And I used to do academic research in neural nets, back in my youth, in an earlier period when such things were also being over-hyped. They've come a long way since then, but are still over-hyped. However, it is already able to create dangerous fictions that too many people will believe.
The reason I googled "superman s symbol" in the first place is because I was reading New Super-Man Vol. 1: Made In China with my IRL group. None of us loved it, but some of us liked it, even some of those who dislike Gene Luen Yang because of what they see as Catholic propaganda in some of his other work like "Boxers and Saints".This new superman makes a comment about the "S" on his chest and the new batman tells him it is not an "S" and that he needs to do his research. So, I "researched" the same way everyone does now: with google.
The best you can say about Yang's DC work is that it's OK. His creator owned stuff is so much better.
Last week's adventures in comics.Superman: Action Comics: Phantoms ★★★
When mutated Kryptonians start popping out of the Phantom Zone, Superman goes in to investigate. There's a lot of retconning going on with this. Some because Mon-El returns and who knows what's been retconned currently with the Legion of Super-Heroes. It's only been completely changed 4 or 5 times now and Bendis completely fubared it last I saw. (They had this all completely straightened out in the 90s when Mon-El got his own comic. Of course, DC screwed that up multiple times since then.) Krypton gets some retconning as well during this which seems to happen every time its history comes up. New Super-man has also apparently taken some language classes between the recent backup stories in Action and now because now he speaks better English than Superboy when he could barely speak English before. Still its not a bad story, just one with more inconsistencies than I typically expect from Waid. Clayton Henry's art is great and he does 80% of the 12 issues with Michael Shelfer filling in. Their art styles do not mix well.
Batman: Battle for the Cowl - The Complete Collection ★★
This collects the gazillion one-shots and 3 miniseries revolving around what happens when everyone thinks Batman's dead. (This takes place after Final Crisis when Batman got hit by Darkseid's Omega beam.) Unfortunately, a lot of these stories aren't very good and there's not much in the way of flow between any of them.
East of West, Vol. 1: The Promise ★★★★★
I liked this so much better this go around as opposed to the first time I read it. It's an alternate future where the U.S. broke off into 7 factions after the Civil War. It's now too years later and the 4 Horseman of the Apocalypse have returned. However, Death is on his own and looking for revenge while the other 3 are looking to kill him. Every time I saw Death, all I could think of is the scene in Tombstone where Wyatt Earp tells Ike Clanton "You tell 'em I'm coming... and hell's coming with me, you hear?" There's so much to like about this. The art by Nick Dragotta is just terrific. It's only supplemented by Frank Martin's perfect colors that pop off the page.
Azrael: Death's Dark Knight ★★★
There's a new Azrael out there with a different suit of armor and swords. This armor will eventually make you go crazy. Now one of the three police officers who trained to take over as Batman years ago is taking on the burden of the suit.
Oracle: The Cure ★★
This is not very good. It's the last 2 issues of the Birds of Prey series and the 3 issue miniseries Oracle: The Cure. The Oracle mini is part of the Battle for the Cowl stuff. There's all kinds of fighting in the internet nonsense with the Calculator that makes no sense. Somehow, from within this online game he can cause players' heads to explode. It's really dumb.
Sleep Terrors ★
This book makes absolutely no sense. It's about this woman who has narcolepsy after being hit by a car. She was in a coma for a long time. Now her dreams seem to be coming true. It has to do with a shadowy government organization that is creating dream monsters in people. I don't know. The whole thing is a mess. At one point, a police officer is strangled by his Asian noodles while eating in his car. Not by an entity, but by the actual noodles wrapped around his throat. If there was a Mystery Science theater 3000 for comics, this would have appeared there.
Superman: Action Comics, Vol. 1: Warworld Rising ★★★★
Phillip Kennedy Johnson really seems to get Superman and his family. Their views are point on. Superman will always do what's right, no matter the cost, even when he knows it's a trap. The story is all prologue. Warworld leaves a ship behind that contains three ancient maybe Kryptonians behind. They have been in thrall to Mongul for generations. Superman knows it's all a trap but if there could be more proto-Kryptonians there, he'll go no matter what to free all of Warworld. Sampere's art is great. So is Duce's fill in issue.
Superman: Action Comics, Vol. 2: The Arena ★★★★★
Superman and this new version of the Authority head to Warworld where they get their asses kicked. The whole world is powered by red suns that deplete Superman's powers. They are all kept as prisoners where they all behave differently. Superman, of course, stays true to himself, never giving up, but some of the others go astray. It's all buildup as we learn more about this crazy put together world that worships Mongul.
Superman: Action Comics, Vol. 3: Warworld Revolution ★★★★
Superman without his powers inspires the slaves of Warworld to revolt. Lots of interesting revolution moments. Lots of iconic Superman heroic moments. I do think the Authority characters didn't get as much room to shine in this volume. Reading this all straight through instead of each trade would probably have gotten it a full 5 stars. On its own I had a few little quibbles with some of the pacing. Although all of the art is good, there are way too many artists on this.
Red Sonja: Age of Chaos ★★★★
This was better than it has any right to be. Dynamite has gained access to all of the Chaos comics characters of the 90s other than Lady Death apparently. They all get thrown back to Red Sonja's time after Kulan Gath dies and causes the timeline to die off in our time. Then it's a free for all to gain his power or restore the proper timeline in Red Sonja's case. Red Sonja does have a weird hair cut in this one where it looks like she stuck her finger in a light socket.
The Dark ★★
A man tries to rescue his son from a virtual world he kind of created. The storytelling is kind of a mess. It was hard to keep straight.
Savage ★★★
Some solid weird West, vampire hunting action.
Nature of the Beast ★★★
This was a bunch of crazy, over the top nonsense but it was also kind of fun. It's about the world's richest man who is contacted by aliens in secret. They are going to destroy our world if we can't beat them in single combat. So enter an alligator wrestler and a contest to find the world's toughest being. That's how we get things like a gorilla vs. an alligator and a shark vs. a polar bear. It's absolutely ridiculous, but it was also entertaining. It's also by the creator of Go the F%ck to Sleep.
Space Ghost Vol. 2: The Council of Doom ★★★★
The nostalgia in this one is high while still maintaining a good story and art. If you were ever a Space Ghost fan, you're probably going to dig this. Can't wait to see what Pepose and Lau do in Season 2.
Count Crowley Vol. 2: Amateur Midnight Monster Hunter ★★★
This picks up right where volume 1 left off. Jerri is still a screw up but she's 3 days sober and going to AA. She's also hunting monsters while hosting the late night monster movies. This is very much a middle volume and there's not a whole lot new here other than different lore for killing werewolves and vampires.
Giant-Size X-Men: Second Genesis Revisited ★★
This is a pretty crappy group of one-shots in honor of the 50th anniversary of Giant-Size X-Men #1. Ms. Marvel gets sent back in time for unknown reasons to important times in the X-Men's history. Legion is trying to change the past for some reason. He's lost the David Haller personality and I guess all his other personalities as well and is just a dick now. The revelations in the back are pretty meaningless except for the last one which is a teaser to a return of the Age of Apocalypse. Ms. Marvel does finally get her mutant power and it's just the power from the TV show.
Transformers: Worst Bot Ever: Meet Ballpoint ★★★★
A really fun (and funny) story about the worst Decepticon out there. A transforming ball point pen who talks a big game but is the complete opposite. I had a LOT of fun with this.
Night Club, Vol. 2 ★★★
What happens to our teenage vampire superheroes when the popular kids become vampires too? That's the question that gets answered here. It's ultimately not bad.
All-Negro Comics 75th Anniversary Edition ★★★★
For the 75th anniversary, Image has reprinted the first comic created by black talent. It's largely been lost to history up to this point. It's quite unique for its time. In addition to reprinting the original comic, there's some essays and then a few new stories using the same characters by modern day black creators.
Flash Gordon Vol. 2: Killer of Worlds ★★★★
This series is still kicking butt. Mongo is gone and Flash is figuring out what happened after its destruction as he revisits old allies. The art's good. The story is great. I'm very happy to see this series be this good.
Future State: Superman ★★
While The War World Saga is really good, the Future State stories revolving around it are not.
Cancertown: Blasphemous Tumours ★★
A man with a brain tumor is able to enter the world of Cancertown where strange ominous creatures reside. I thought the first volume was interesting but this was really hard to follow. All of the characters from this other world all had lettering with different fonts and it was so incredibly difficult to read. That's a real pet peeve of mine that takes me out of a story every time.
Ultimate X-Men Vol. 3: The Realm Of The Mind ★★
I honestly don't know why I'm still reading this. It's terrible. There's way too many characters and when they wear full face masks you can't keep track of who's who. The story meanders. It doesn't feel like it's set on the same world as the other Ultimate titles at all. Even the art isn't very good here which is what Momoko is known for. It's often sloppy and I couldn't even tell what was happening at times.
Local Man Vol. 1: Heartland ★★★★
This is kind of a odd series. It's about a super hero that's been kicked off his team for reason unknown. He's not even allowed to rescue kittens from trees due to a noncompete agreement. He heads back to his hometown where everyone also hates him. When an old archenemy is murdered, he puts on a ski mask and walks into town to find the killer. This story also contains flashbacks to the fake Youngblood type team that he was on where we begin to find out how he screwed up.
Hunter, Hunted ★★
An alright but sometimes confusing read about some kind of government team operating out of Scotland.
Just now cracking the spine on Bendis' Daredevil vol.9 King of Hell's kitchen.13 total daredevil books this month ( I totally did that on accident!)
I've been having a great time starting with the Smith and working thing chronologically out of the early 2000's.
Today's trip to my LCS.Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe #2
Absolute Batman #11
Absolute Flash #6
Detective Comics #1100
World's Finest #42
Exceptional X-Men #12
GI Joe #10
Hyde Street #8
Imperial #3
Space Quest #4
Thundercats: Lost #5
Ultimate Black Panther #19
Arsène Schrauwen was an interesting surrealistic fever-dream of a old man who goes to a Belgian colony in the Congo to help build a crazy architect's dream city.The Seasons, Volume 1 has everything that is necessary to pull me into a new series: bright colors and an evil carnival. Hope it stays interesting.
Abbott: 1979 is not interesting me as much as the previous two "Abbott" stories. Feels like it is just spinning it's wheels.
I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the new Asterix series on NetFlick: "Asterix and the Big Fight". The animation and storytelling are much updated from the old comic books. Some of the animation gets really wild. Give it a try if it looks even a little interesting.Also, K-Pop Demon Hunter was more fun than I expected, though I don't recommend it as strongly.
Ed wrote: "Abbott: 1979 is not interesting me as much as the previous two "Abbott" stories. Feels like it is just spinning it's wheels."I felt the same way about Abbott: 1979. I loved the first 2 and felt very "Eh" about the 3rd one.
Last week's adventures in comics part 1.Catwoman: Her Sister's Keeper ★★★
Pretty much an extension of Batman: Year One. The first issue weaves in and out of it and the whole thing digs into Selina Kyle being a teenage prostitute. Then we see that paralleled with her sister being a nun. We see her morph into Catwoman although the element of her becoming a thief is completely absent. It's a real dark story with no punches pulled so be forewarned.
Big Book of Horror ★★★
This is not a graphic novel like I expected. It's 3 condensed classic prose stories with illustrations. Frankenstein, War of the Worlds and Dracula. The writing is like the Cliff Notes version for kids. The art in the Frankenstein story by Scott Morse looks like Picasso drew it. Ted McKeever's art for the War of the Worlds segment was awful as well. Richard Sala drew the Dracula segment which was the best of the three.
Wolverine: Revenge ★★★
An alt-future where Magneto's death sets off an EMP that destroys Western civilization. Wolverine is out for revenge against a bunch of old foes and one friend. It's a real simple story. I honestly expected a bit more from Hickman. The real shining star is Capullo's artwork. It looks glorious.
Local Man Volume 2: The Dry Season ★★★★
That Gold one shot was hilarious, especially if you are aware of the intercompany crossover Image had with Valiant years ago, Deathmate. This still works without knowing anything about that disastrous crossover. That cover really brought me back though. This one shot is hilarious because Crossjack meets his douche bag younger self and is constantly embarrassed about how he used to act.
The main series reveals who is behind what is going on in the small town of Farmington, WI. It's got me really interested in the 3rd arc. I really like how this adds a bunch of fake Image lore that is right in line with how the company was back in the 90s.
Local Man Volume 3: Lost Ones ★★★
A solid third and looks like maybe final volume to the series. There's a lot of the same subjects Seeley tackled in Revival. I love the wry humor and the odes to 90's Image that never actually happened.
Superman: The Warworld Saga ★★★★
All of Warworld, all in one place. The main story is terrific. PKJ gets Superman, who he is at his core, how he will never give up hope. PKJ throws Clark through a gauntlet a trial by fire and it works wonderfully. The backup stories and Future State stuff can be skipped as they add little to the story and only add confusion, especially the Future State issues if you don't know what that is.
East of West, Vol. 2: We Are All One ★★★★★
This series is just the best. An alt-history look at a future U.S., one heavily influenced by the Civil War. But now there are those trying to end the world. There's also Death searching for his son. The other three horsemen are out there as well. Everyone has their own agenda. I love how they all cross over and intersect. Dracotta's art is top notch. The best of his career. Frank Martin's colors makes everything pop off the page.
Catwoman: Defiant ★★
Peter Milligan continues to reinforce my opinion that he is not a very good writer. Mister Handsome is a mobster who likes to collect beautiful things and then destroy them. He sets his sights on Catwoman. Blah blah blah. This stinks.
DC Horror Presents: Creature Commandos ★★
Well, that was disappointing. I liked Dastmalchian's Count Crowley series. This is a new team of Creature Commandos unrelated to the cartoon or past iterations of the comics. It's real generic, boiler plate stuff. Some monsters get forced into doing Suicide Squad type stuff for the government. Braniac is the villain for some reason. The art is terrible. It has this retro but utterly messy look that makes it hard to determine what's happening.
Into the Bewilderness ★★★★
A delightful childrens graphic novel about two friends (a bear and a mole) who live in the woods and one day win a trip to a performance in the big city. Eventually they are off on an adventure. I love the discourse between the two as they mainly do nothing but sit around and talk and get the occasional visit from their friend Bigfoot who is always lost.
Black Cohosh ★★★
An interesting memoir about a kid who grew up unconventionally in the Appalachians. He has a severe speech impediment and some out there parents. You can tell this was Brosi's first work. It starts off pretty rough. You're just thrown in there and not a lot makes sense at first particularly because there are no panels. I was completely disoriented for the first 20-30 pages before I picked up on how this works. Plus some of the early work is rough. It's long at 360 pages but moves fast since it's typically a couple of word balloons on each page.
Manga Biographies: Charles M. Schulz ★★
A manga biography made for kids even though I doubt most kids know what Peanuts is these days. To be honest, this was kind of boring. But then again, so was Charles Schulz who dedicated himself to doing nothing but drawing Peanuts for over half his life. I can admire that.
DC Finest - Catwoman: Life Lines ★★★
Pretty much all of the early solo Catwoman stories from the 80s and into her own first ongoing in the 90s. The early stuff from Mindy Newell is good. It's a weekly story from Action Comics when it was an anthology title and an early hard to find Catwoman mini that's a companion series to Batman: Year One. These both lean into Year One where they establish Selina Kyle was a prostitute. In the mini the antagonist is her pimp as she attempts to break away from him and establishes her relationship with her sister the nun.
Then we get the Catwoman story from Showcase 93 which is pretty good, where she's protecting her neighborhood. Next up is a graphic novel from Peter Milligan, Catwoman: Defiant and like most things he writes, it's terrible.
Finally, there's the first year of Catwoman's ongoing by Jo Duffy and Jim Balent. It's solid. Too many tie ins to all of the Knightfall stuff though. You can see how it derails all of the Batman books of the era. Jim Balent is a really talented artist. Yes, he draws Catwoman with enormous knockers. But that's how every female character of the era was drawn and the book looks great. Plus she rarely loses her clothes. They are just really tight so I give it a pass. In the midst of this, Christopher Priest writes an Elseworlds story for that year's annual.
Buff Soul ★★
A memoir from a Swedish influencer who accompanies her best friend on a trip to the U.S. She's in a band that is recording in L.A. and then going to South by Southwest. These girls like to party hard, doing all kinds of drugs and waking up with strangers. Romanova is a talented artist. Her character designs were off putting though. She draws everyone to look like Alice the Goon from Popeye.
Hack/Slash = Body Bags ★★★
I was excited to see this was a crossover with Body Bags, Jason Pearson's old comic that I liked from the 90s. It's not bad with Tim Seeley in the driver's seat and Stefano Caselli always makes the pages sing.
Rowlf and Other Fantasy Stories ★★★
Three werewolf stories from Richard Corben plus the adaptation of a Japanese legend. The first story, Rowlf, is actually about a dog who is turned into a dog man and it's wild because in addition to the fantasy stuff are demons driving tanks. This is known as one of first masterpieces and it is interesting as are the others. This collection is short, only about 80 pages of stories and then filled with other art including a comic Corben created as a kid.
The Moon Is Following Us Volume 1 ★★★★
They say when you're a parent, you'll do anything for your kids and these two are put to the test to see if that is true. Their daughter is trapped in a dream world and they'll do whatever they need to to bring her back. I have to say this was probably the first time that I did not hate Riley Rossmo's art. Having him draw a dream world make his quirky art work. Then we get DWJ drawing the real world and there's at least one cool transition between the two.
The Deviant Vol. 2 ★★★
Volume 2 has Michael in prison, the killer still presumably on the loose and his boyfriend, Derek, left trying to figure out who is setting them up. This is a slow burn true crime story and I think it works well. I like that there's no gotcha twist either. The killer shows up and you're like, who is that, just like it would be in these cases in real life. There's a lot of subtext about how gay men are treated in the world today but I'll leave that to the fellow readers to debate.
Spider-Man: Octo-Girl, Vol. 2 ★
This 2nd volume was just trash where the first one is goofy and fun. Just a bunch of little girl drama with Doc Ock and Superior Octopus in the background. Who was this for? 6 year old girls?
The Uncanny X-Men: Days of Future Fun ★★★★★
This kids book was a delight. Jeffrey Brown hearkens back to the 70s X-Men era for a bunch of strips where the X-Men are kids again with Professor X in charge. They are really funny for kids and even funnier if you've read any X-Men comics from back then. It's full of little things like Kitty being scared of a monster in the basement and there's a n'garai demon hiding under the stairs. That was the first X-Men comic I ever bought and I remember it well where she had to fight the N'Garai alone on Christmas Eve in the mansion. Or there will be something as simple as Kitty using magnets to hang pictures on Colossus's back like he's a fridge. It's only going to take about 10 minutes to read but I do think it's something you can pull off the shelf and read again.
Blood Squad Seven Vol. 1: Perilous Relaunch ★★★★
So since Rob Liefeld has been kicked out of Image and Youngblood with him, enter Blood Squad Seven. Casey propositions the team as an alternate past where Blood Squad Seven rose to prominence at 90s Image instead. Now it's 30 years later and the government is bringing a new team into the public eye. But this isn't really a superhero team book. It's an operating behind the scenes of power type thing. It was surprisingly good. Maybe along the line of what he did with WildCATS 3.0. Paul Fry's art was quite good too. I wasn't familiar with his work previously.
The one thing I hated about the book is the team name. Blood Squad Seven is a terrible name. And there's only 6 members in this.
Last week's adventures in comics part 2.Blood Squad Seven Vol. 2: Con Season ★★★
A solid super hero soap opera. Blood Squad Seven has basically replaced Youngblood in Image history as its original super team and now it's back 30 years later with a new government sponsored team.
Punk Mambo: The Punk Witch Project ★★
Not sure why this was one big issue instead of 2 regular sized issues like the other Valiant titles of this era. Punk Mambo keeps hearing punk music and tracks it down to London. It's really boring though. Too many going ons about punk. 40 years ago that discussion would be relevant. Today? Not so much. It's a shame too because this is one of the few characters Milligan has written well in the past. Ponce's art is good but it's boring. Just figures plopped on the pages floating in the ether with a bunch of magic effects around them.
Faith Returns ★★★
It's a follow up the Faith and the Future Force that ended with Faith getting framed for murder. Now she's out to catch all of the members of the Faithless and clear her name. This isn't bad but it's more basic than Houser normally writes. The art is alright. You can see where corners were cut with the colors and lack of backgrounds.
Cat Burglar Black ★★★★
This is upper tier Sala for me. It's a more grounded story than some of his more out there, horror influenced stuff. It's about an orphaned girl who is sent to a boarding school. She used to be a thief and she and her new classmates get turned back towards that life again. It's got some of Sala's go-tos in it like his penchant for shadowy organizations. Good stuff.
Madi: Once Upon a Time in the Future ★★★★
This was cool. It's a dystopian future comic about a croup of cyborg mercenaries who get sucked into something shady when one of them does a job offbook to try and earn some extra cash to pay off the debt for their cybernetics. Nice world building in this. This is written by Duncan Janes and apparently set in the same world as his movies Moon and Muted. There are a ton of different artists on the book and some of the shifts in style can be jarring. That's my one complaint. Otherwise it's really good.
Lady Mechanika Vol 7: The Monster of the Ministry of Hell ★★★
We flash back to when Lady Mechanika was first found as a child. She is pretty much feral and is put on some kind of asylum like they used to do in England in the 1800s. My one question I'd have is if she received artificial limbs as a child, how did they grow along with her body. I'm guessing you aren't supposed to think about that. Otherwise this was interesting and we see more of her backstory than we've ever seen before.
Lady Mechanika Volume 8: The Devil in the Lake ★★★
Lady Mechanika is hired by a Russian princess to go rescue some scientists in Siberia who have disappeared. They were investigating sightings on a monster in a remote lake. It's basically the story of Nessie transported to the frozen north of Siberia. Joe Benitez doesn't draw this one but Siya Oum's art has a similar look to it.
Monolith Vol. 1 ★★
I think you need to be completely caught up on Spawn to get what's happening here. Apparently Monolith is a Spawn from the future who fights Omega Spawn a lot and moves through history. I don't know. This is confusing on its own. It feels like the cliff notes version of what was going on with Monolith over in Spawn.
The Domain ★★★
Chip Zdarsky gets a bit meta by making the comic within his comic Public Domain, the comic about bringing back on old comic that the artist worked on for the majority of his career. It's straight up super hero fare. Three friends find a crashed spaceship and find a suit that grants them powers but only one of them can use it at a time causing all kinds of problems as they yank it off each other left and right. Then there's the matter of the aliens and the government who both want those suits. It's a neat idea, but it's hard to make it more than that in only 5 issues.
Today's trip to my LCS. Big week this week.Bring on the Bad Guys: Dormammu #1
Bring on the Bad Guys: Mephisto #1
Gatchaman: Joe - Bloodline #1
Absolute Martian Manhunter #6
Absolute Wonder Woman #11
Avengers #29
Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring #2
Deadpool / Wolverine #8
Geiger #17
Herculoids #7
Hornsby & Halo #9
Incredible Hulk #28
Justice League Unlimited #10
The Sixth Gun: Battle for the Six #2
Speed Racer #2
The Mortal Thor #1
Ultimate Spider-Man #20
Void Rivals #22
West Coast Avengers #10
Uncanny X-Men #21
I'm in striking distance of finishing Bendis' entire Daredevil run this month. Just two more books. It's been a lot of fun, but it does make you wish you had more hours in the day!
I’m currently reading the New Avengers Modern Era Epic Collection: Assembled!!
Fun! I haven't done done that one yet, but I tend to have good experiences with Bendis.
The Bendis New Avengers era is really good. So is the Hickman era but that's more involved as it contains half of Marvel for several years.
I remember liking the Hickman but details are fuzzy, might be worth a re-read. I just finished Bendis' daredevil which I absolutely loved so I'll keep my eyes open for the Avengers for sure!
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Books mentioned in this topic
Arsène Schrauwen (other topics)The Seasons, Vol. 1 (other topics)
Abbott: 1979 (other topics)
New Super-Man Vol. 1: Made In China (other topics)
The Treasure of the Black Swan (other topics)
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