Chad’s Comments (group member since Mar 22, 2018)

Chad’s comments from the I Read Comic Books group.

Today's trip to the comic book store.

Space Ghost #4
Speed Racer: Tales from the Road #1 <--- A new quarterly Speed Racer book.
TMNT #12
Thundercats: Lost #7
Ultimate Spider-Man #22
Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #5
Ultimates #17
X-Men: Book of Revelation #1
Sisterhood #4
Predator Kills the Marvel Universe #3
Justice League Unlimited #12
Hornsby and Halo #11
Detective Comics #1102
Absolute Wonder Woman #13
Nocturnals: The Sinister Path #2

David wrote: "just finished Blood Hunt. It was great."

That's the beauty of comics. We don't have to all like the same ones. I had high hopes for Blood Hunt because of Jed MacKay and thought it was a disappointment.

Erin wrote: That sounds amazing! Did you check out any comic shops while you were there?"

I did. I went to one in Belgium and one in the Netherlands. They were both virtually the same. It was just stacks of long boxes full of graphic novels everywhere. So much white. No new releases or weekly comics. Very little memorabilia other than Smurf dolls. (This is where the Smurfs come from.) I was surprised about how most of the Franco-Belgian comics had already been translated into English and I'd already read them. Things like Lucky Luke, TinTin, XIII, etc. They had a section of English comics and English comics translated into French so if you wanted a French trade of Batman or Justice League you were good. I was disappointed that I couldn't find anything to buy. I also went to this cathedral that had been converted into a church. I had much more luck there (not with comics but with a couple of CDs and a new book nook.) That place was amazing just to walk around in. My wife couldn't get me to leave.

A new Humble Bundle and a bunch of new bundles from Fanatical while I was on vacation.

All of Kieron Gillen's Image books for $18
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/ro...

All of BPRD and some other Hellboy comics for $15
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and...

A collection of spooky Ablaze books for $7.
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and...

Spooky Dynamite comics for $15.
https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/d...

Halloweeny Dynamite comics for $15.
https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/d...

And finally dark comics from Dark Horse for $10.
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and...

The nice thing about those Fanatical bundles is you can pick and choose and just buy the ones you don't already have.

This weekend's trip to the comic book store.

Fantastic Four x Gargoyles #1
Absolute Batman #13
Amazing X-Men #1
Aquaman #10
Avengers #31
Captain Planet and the Planeteers #6
The World to Come #3
Transformers #25
Ultimate Black Panther #21
Thundercats / Powerpuff Girls #4
Something Is Killing the Children: A Monster Walks into a Bar #1
Absolute Flash #8
World's Finest #44
Fire and Ice #4 <--- Only 2+ years late
Flash Gordon #12
GI Joe #12
Gatchaman #13
Herculoids #9
Racer X #2
Thundercats #19
Unbreakable X-Men #1
Captain America #4
Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe #4
Incredible Hulk #30
One World Under Doom #8
Rogue Storm #1
Blue Falcon and Dynomutt #2

Ed wrote: "Chad wrote: "... The famine's got to so so bad that people resorted to communism in places ..."

I think you intended a different word there. ;)"

That's what I get for being in a hurry and not proofreading.

I've been in Europe for the last few weeks. Here's what I was reading while I was gone.

Batman and Robin Vol. 1: Memento ★★★★
This was great. It's a continuation of Batman and Robin even though DC labeled it as a volume 1 due to the new creative team. There's a new villain in town, Memento, and he may be the same villain Bruce was investigating in his abroad days in London when he was learning to become Batman.

Meanwhile, Damian is becoming more than a snot-nosed brat. He's having some second thoughts about being Robin after a little girl is hurt under his care. It's interesting to see Damian questioning what he's trained all his life for. Javi Fernandez's art is very good although I'd like to see him be able to complete full issues. He didn't even make it 2 issues before Carmine Di Giandomenico and Miguel Mendonca had to step in and draw pages each issue.

Meat Eaters ★★★
Growing up is hard, especially when you wake up one day in the woods with your mouth covered in blood. Our main character here is a girl who has become a ghoul and has to learn how to deal with that while going to community college and also befriending 2 dipshit werewolves who can barely take care of themselves. I do wish the story was tighter. This has some real potential but some things were unclear as to why they were happening.

Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir ★★★★
Just an incredibly dense read, but one I found that's worth it. It's about generational trauma in the author's family, from her grandmother to her mother to her. Her grandmother was in China when the communists took over. It goes into specific and harrowing details about the atrocities that happened over the era and even later after her grandmother and mother fled to Hong Cong. (The famine got so bad that people resorted to cannibalism in places.) While in Hong Kong, her grandmother suffered with mental illness and was in and out of hospitals for over a decade leaving her mother to raise herself at a boarding school in the city. The book does move on to her mother coming here for college, eventually getting married and having her and her brother. Then the book shifts to how the two of them were in conflict from the time she was teenager on. One of the parts I really wanted to know more about was the free existence Hulls has lived as an adult, taking temporary jobs as a chef in Antarctica and Alaska. And also travelling the world on her bicycle. It's all very interesting. But like I said it's also really dense and just a LOT at times. I often had to read it in chunks as it could just be too much.

The Night Mother, Vol. 1 ★★★
Something of a dark fairy tale that leaves you some in the dark. It's about a world where it's always night and a girl who was raised by her stepfather. She can hear the dead and now the Night Mother is out to bring her home. It's not bad as long as you just go with it and aren't expecting more answers.

The New 52: Futures End, Volume 2 ★★★★
Set 5 years into the future, the main story revolves around stopping Brother Eye before he enslaves the world and turns everyone into cyborgs. Pretty solid book for one of these weekly books that DC likes to put out. They can be difficult to get into because of the multiple ongoing storylines. They used a rotating group of top notch artists for each issue. Aaron Lopresti, Patrick Zircher and Scott Eaton all contribute multiple issues.

The Pale Knight ★
I'm like Charlie Brown kicking the football when it comes to Peter Milligan. I keep coming back expecting to actually get something worth reading like say Enigma and then Milligan pulls the football away again. This was all kinds of boring. It's about a knight who Death tasks with killing another noble in order to save his son from the plague. Then the story proceeds to meander the countryside for 6 issues. I suggest you not waste your time on this book. There is little point to it and the "twist" at the end is telegraphed to anyone who has ever read a story before.

Rogue Touch ★★
If you're expecting Rogue's origin story, that's not really what this is. At least not the one with the X-Men or any other character you may be familiar with. It's more the movie Starman with Anna Marie being a girl who absorbs the memories of anyone she touches. She goes on the run with Touch. (Yeah, I know, that name is really on the nose!) They proceed to steal everything left and right. First only from corporations and banks or bad people but eventually anyone that crosses their paths. And that ending? That was just terrible. If you want to read about Rogue, do yourself a favor and buy some trades of old X-Men comics instead of this nonsense.

Muted, Vol. 1 ★★★★
Muted is the story of Camille, a witch "raised" by her aunt after her family was killed in a fire. Her aunt treats her horribly and after a ritual goes wrong leaves her behind in the bayou to try again. There she meets a bunch of other covens and begins to find out about her hidden past and why her powers are different from the other witches in her coven. I like the world building here and how each coven specializes in different areas of magic. I'm interested in reading the next one when it's released.

I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together ★★★★
A very long memoir of a gay Canadian man who grew up in the 70s. The majority of the book is about his failed romantic relationships (or lack thereof) and how after decades therapy helped him get through his issues. It can get repetitive in places and the therapy bits may have gone on a tad long. Still overall, it was a good read. As a warning, there's enough sexual moments in here to get conservatives in an uproar.

Black Ice Vol. 2 ★★
I really wanted to like this more than I did but it was just constantly confusing. The kid from the first volume is trapped in a big ice block and can't get out. We shift to a completely brand new set of characters and this new girl is black and trying to make it as an actress but struggles with image issues because of how dark she is. Her white boyfriend seems supportive but then randomly starts to forget who she is. It's all really odd. It doesn't end so much as just stop after 300 pages and I still have little idea of what's going on even with 2 volumes under my belt.

Up to No Ghoul ★★★
A fun middle grade graphic novel perfect for Halloween. Grey and his ghoul friend Livinia are back. The town gets into trouble when a strange blood drive starts up in town and people start acting strange. I do like how it takes a turn from what you expect part way through. A fun, quick read.

Bright World (The Hazards of Love #1) ★★★★
This was completely different than I expected. From the title and cover, I expected some kind of YA queer love story but it's not really that. Of the two of them, Amparo quickly gets caught up in this crazy and deadly Bright World. Kind of a dark Alice in Wonderland world where you are slowly changed by being stuck there over time and how you change as you lose more and more of yourself. Good stuff.

Poison Ivy Vol. 5: Human Botany ★★★
Issue #25 is mostly by other creative teams, I guess as an anniversary issue, and it feels like filler. Then Ivy gets unwittingly sucked into this ecoterrorist group, The Order of the Green Knight, and that story is still ongoing. She also is being visited by both the Green and the Grey as we delve into some Swamp Thing type things. Not bad.

Prokaryote Season ★★
I didn’t care for the squiggly art nor did I care for the self-absorbed characters.

The Carlyle School for Kings ★★
Needed to be fleshed out more. It’s about a contest to choose the next king and some of the contestants are truly awful. The problem is that nothing is fleshed out and the characters are paper thin.

A Silent Voice, Vol. 1 ★★★
This is about a deaf girl going to a regular school for 6th grade. Everyone in her class including her teacher are really mean to her. When the class bully fesses up to it, the other kids shun him mercilessly. It’s exhausting to see preteens be assholes for 200 pages and not be able to discipline a single one of them. I think further volumes may be more my thing as they hopefully become more understanding of those different from themselves.

Gunsmith Cats, Vol. 1 ★★★
Found this as a bonus borrow on hoopla. It feels dated but it also came out in the 90s. It’s about 2 women bounty hunters in Chicago. There’s some weird stuff in here like one of the girls is only 17 and very sexually active with older men. If you can get past that there’s some decent action based stories.

Harpy ★★★★★
I quite liked this. It's set about 40 years in the future. It's about a lesbian Chinese cop in South Africa who catches a murder case of a series of Chinese people who have been murdered over 3 decades. Gunnie is a very interesting character. The art is really good. Somewhat stylized but very detailed. My one complaint if I had one is that the ending is abrupt. But overall this was a cool but long read.

Quincredible: A Better World ★★★
This is a pretty complicated plot for this short of a story. It's about a scientist who is poisoning the water supply of the poor areas of New Orleans, trying to mutate the people to generate sympathy to fix the situation. What could possibly go wrong with that scenario?

Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures Phase III Volume 4 ★★
This was alright. It was hard to get into because it's one big battle full of an ensemble cast. It's really difficult to get into any of the characters because they get such little screen time. Most of it is just random fighting.

Brawlhalla Tales: Nix ★★
About what you'd expect from a video game comic. Nix is a grim reaper trying to get out of the deal she made with a demon and teams up with a Valkyrie to fight in a tournament.

The Serpent in the Garden: Ed Grey and the Last Battle for England ★★★★
Gruagach from Hellboy is back, basically so Mignola can give him a proper sendoff. He also comes up with a way for Sir Edward Grey to return to the comics as well. These comics are so much better when Mignola is personally involved.

Aurora: Vol 1 ★★
There are so many infodumps into the world building here and 90% of it is completely unnecessary. the gist is that a magician is able to defeat one of the many gods of this world and this spawns off a piece of his avatar into a new being that's trying to ultimately defeat this woman. I'm not sure why that story itself is so much more convoluted than it needs to be. Overall this is OK, but it's long at 400 pages.

The recent Nightwing run by Tom Taylor is my favorite run of Nightwing ever if you want to try out a former Robin. Chuck Dixon's long run is good too.

As far as Batman goes, I liked the recent Tom King iteration. Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason over on Batman and Robin. Grant Morrison's run is really good but it does delve into some obscure Batman characters. Of course, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's New 52 era run is excellent and introduces the Court of Owls. All of the Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale stuff is very good with a retro feel to it. Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli is kind of a must read along with The Dark Knight Returns also by Miller. Those are off the top of my head. Feel free to ask questions. I've read most Batman comics published since at least the 80s.

Yesterday's trip to my LCS.

Cold Slither #1 <-- Yes, this is a mockumentary about the rock group from G.I. Joe.
Absolute Evil #1
Absolute Green Lantern #7
Absolute Superman #12
Batman #2
Birds of Prey #26
Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #3
Deadpool / Wolverine #10
Rocketfellers #9
Rook Exodus #7
Something Is Killing the Children #44
Speed Racer #3
Ultimate Wolverine #10
Justice League: The Omega Act Special <-- Prelude to DC KO
X-Men Age of Revelation: Overture
Herobear and the Kid - Local Comic Book Day

I also got an ashcan of a new comic from the Miranda Brothers called Arcadia from the new company Ignition Press.

Last week's adventures in comics.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man By Cody Ziglar Vol. 6 - Webs Of Wakanda ★★★
Miles heads to Wakanda to get rid of his vampirism. He does but he catches the eye of Anansi along the way so we'll see where that leads. I hate the art in these three issues. Danielle di Nicuolo's art is the worst trends of manga. It's chaotic to the point where you can't tell what's happening. There are zero backgrounds and the faces are so overexaggerated. There's also a bunch of smaller stories from issue #25 and the annual with couple of them being set in Puerto Rico where Miles's mother is from. Those were quite nice. Be forewarned, the next volume is yet another crossover, this time with Deadpool. I guess every 4 or 5 issues this book is going to get derailed with a crossover or event. C'est la vie. Such is life over at Marvel these days.

Doctor Fate by J.M. DeMatteis ★★★
I really liked the miniseries from 1987. It's all about setting up a new status quo for Dr. Fate with two different people merging to become Fate. Keith Giffen's art is terrific. I'd forgotten how much I liked his style in the 80s. The series should be great. It's more of the same plus they have a demon that talks with a German accent as the family dog. It should be fun. Instead it's really esoteric. It's all about reincarnation, which would be fine if the original premise wasn't that these two people who are fated to be together is a stepmom and her 10 year old son who Nabu has aged up. It's just weird with a certain ick factor behind it. It's like this mystical story that has the main character marrying his cousin. No thank you. Shawn McManus's art is good at first. It start's getting really cartoony as it goes along though. Some of those faces in the last few issues? Yikes. I am very curious what William Messner-Loebs brings in the back half of this series.

Doctor Fate, Vol. 2 ★★★★
I actually liked this better than the J.M. DeMatteis era. It's a whole new status quo. Kent and Inza have returned and it's basically Inza who is Dr. Fate now. Nabu has become a crotchety old man who does nothing but complain. I really like how Inza uses her powers as Dr. Fate to help the people in her neighborhood. It's a completely new look at how to be a super hero. It's really surprising to me how relevant most of Messner-Loeb's run is today, 30 years later. There's an issue where Inza is dragged before Congress and she talks about how politicians are supposed to represent us, not take kick backs and just look out for themselves. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Poison Flowers & Pandemonium ★★★
This collection contains 4 separate stories, The Bloody Cardinal 2: House of the Blue Dwarf, Monsters Illustrated, Cave Girls of the Lost World, and Fantomella. Bloody Cardinal 2 was my favorite. It's the most Richard Sala like with a girl with psychic powers infiltrating a cabal of killers that are being murdered by the Cardinal who use to be a hero. Monsters Illustrated is all pinups of teenage girls fighting vintage monsters. Cave Girls of the Lost World is illustrated prose and it sucks. The girl reading this found journal even jokes about how this seemed to be written by a 13 year-old boy. It's images of topless girls fighting dinosaurs and the writing is really poor. Fantamella is a straight up, bare bones revenge story.

Vengeance of the Moon Knight, Vol. 1: New Moon ★★★★
Moon Knight is dead, so long live Moon Knight? There's a new Moon Knight out there and he's not a fan of what Moon Knight was doing over at the Midnight Mission. All of MK's cohorts over there get an issue to talk to the shrink about what happened to Marc Specter. I especially liked the Thing appearance in the first issue as he and Marc are both Jewish so I thought that was pretty neat. The new Moon Knight is revealed on the last page of issue #4 and it makes sense if you know MK's history. Otherwise, you'll probably say "Who?"

Vengeance of the Moon Knight, Vol. 2: It's Alive ★★★★
This volume is all about Blood Hunt. And it turns out, that's actually a good thing. I didn't really care for Blood Hunt but this makes it work better, showing you what has happened with Khonshu and ultimately Moon Knight. I really like the direction 8-Ball has headed. I like when they take goofball clowns like him and turn them into decent characters.

Coin-Op Comics Anthology: 1997-2017 ★★
I like the Hoey's longer form comics. These comics pulled from Blab and Coin-Op though didn't make a whole lot of sense most of the time. The art is cool, with this art deco aesthetic to it. The stories though? Nope.

Planetes Omnibus, Volume 1 ★★★★
Even though this was written a quarter century ago, it holds up quite nicely. It's about humanity in space 50 years from now. Humanity still hasn't learned any lessons about taking care of the Earth. They've just moved on to strip mining space for its resources. Our main characters are basically space janitors operating off the moon, cleaning the debris that litters the spaceways before it can damage ships. The art is terrific. So detailed, so much the opposite of most manga today. The story has a lot to say in the backgrounds about society and about humanity in general. Looking forward to reading the second half of this.

Welcome to the Maynard ★★★★
This feels like a screwball comedy from the 1940s with a magic twist. Pip is the newest bellhop at San Francisco's hotel for magicians. She's secretly also in training to be a hotel detective and investigating a thief that is targeting the hotel. I had a lot of fun with this. It's kitschy and timeless, as is J. Bone's artwork. I hope we'll get welcomed to the Maynard again in the future.

Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures Phase III--Dispatches from the Occlusion Zone ★★★
Four one off stories that set up this last batch of stories set in the High Republic. We revisit everyone trapped in the Occlusion Zone by the Nihil. It's not bad.

Batman and Robin 2: Growing Pains ★★★
The Man-Bat / Shush story comes to a close. It draws a lot of things from Robin's Lazarus tournament days into it and it's fine. That's what I have to say about the art as well. Then the last 3 issues take place on Dinosaur Island where Bane has set up shop and Damian has to face Alfred's death all over again. There are parts that are quite good and parts that are just meh. Juan Ferreyra's art is always a treat though.

The Boy Wonder ★★★
A retelling of Damian Wayne's beginnings as Robin but excising how much of a little shit he was back then. He's distraught after killing a criminal at how disappointed Batman is in him. Each of the first 3 issues has him palling around with another Robin as they show them their slant of being part of the Bat family. The last 2 issues feel a bit disjointed after the first 3 set a definite pattern. The art is great. Juni Ba has such a unique style of his own.

Fitting Indian ★★★★
This was very interesting. It's about an Indian girl in high school in California. She's struggling with straddling both American and Indian cultures. Her family is still very traditional while she wants to fit in at school and be a typical American teenager. In secret, she's drinking and cutting herself. It delves into a lot of darker trigger issues including suicide and how people in Indian culture are looked down on for ever talking about their issues. I really liked how this was dealt with, even with the pat ending to it all.

Living Hell ★★
This was alright but didn't feel fleshed out enough. It's about a bunch of demons and gods that escaped from Hell years ago and there's a Shepherd tasked with sending them back. The main character kills the shepherd and is forced to take over because "reasons". This would have been much better as a longer story that could better explain the setup. It's a lot to pack into 4 issues and the story suffers for it.

Hi Paul,

The Absolute books are really good, especially Wonder Woman.

There's one for IRCB.

There's a new Humble Bundle for the entire original IDW Turtles run of 150 issues plus most of the miniseries and what's out so far from the relaunch. Most of these are from the TMNT: IDW collection which puts it all in chronological order which is nice because there's a gazillion minis. $30 is a great deal if you haven't read it yet. They are much better comics than I ever expected.

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/te...

Today's trip to my LCS.

Ultimate Hawkeye #1
Skinbreaker #1 <-- New Image book from Robert Kirkman and David Finch
Absolute Wonder Woman #12
Beneath the Trees Where No One Sees: Rite of Spring #3
Detective Comics #1101
Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe #3
Hornsby and Halo #10
Hyde Street #9
Justice League Unlimited #11
Space Ghost #3
Storm #12
Ultimate Spider-Man #21
Void Rivals #23
The Mortal Thor #2
X-Men #22

That's what I liked about it too. Typically it's all about Henry VIII or maybe Queen Elizabeth when she enters the picture.

Last week's adventures in comics.

PeePee PooPoo #1 ★★★
When I saw this pop up as a bonus borrow, I knew I needed to check this out based on the name alone. It's another alt-comix from Caroline Cash. She has moved from Chicago to Philadelphia in this one. It feels a bit slight. It's about her living as a lesbian in the city. She does have a story in this one where she's lost and without a phone in her new city of Philly, but it's also self-inflicted in the way that you make repeated poor decisions in your twenties.

Seven Sons ★★★
An alternate Earth where 7 sons were born in 1977, one of which is slated to be the return of Jesus. This religion of the Seven Sons seem to have overtaken the U.S. government. Meanwhile an extremist Islamic group is continuously attempting to kill the Sons. Of course, things on both sides are shady and not what they seem. I think part of my problem with the book is that absolutely no one is interesting and worth rooting for. I'd rather they all lose. The big draw here really is the return of Jae Lee on interior art.

Oneira - Chapter 1 - Crimson Moon ★★★
This is almost one big fight scene as we begin in media res. The main character has just vanquished a monster for the town and they are now refusing to pay. Pretty simple set up so far.

The Closet ★★★
A story about a family moving across the country to get a "fresh" start. The dad's a piece of work and doesn't realize he's nothing but a whining asshole who no longer really wants to have a family. His 4 year old son is being visited by a "monster" in the closet (or just having issues because his dad is a piece of crap). The story is repetitive. Each issue has the dad complaining to a new person while his son is in the background being terrorized by this creature. It's only 3 issues but probably could have had better effect as a shorter one-shot.

Sunburn ★★
This can be pretty much summed up with "Eh. it's fine." A coming of age story is left out to breathe for a very long time. I teenage English girl is invited to spend the summer with a childless couple who knows her parents. There, they let her drink. She goes to parties and meets a boy. That's the majority of the story. I kept expecting there to be more and there is a subtle other story but I no longer cared by the time it came about.

Lazarus, Vol. 1: Family ★★★★★
Hoopla had this as a bonus borrow so I decided to go back and give this a re-read and 10 years later, it's still fantastic. It's a glimpse into where our future could be headed with a few powerful families running their fiefdoms and everyone on their lands living as serfs. Forever Carlyle is the Carlyle's Lazarus, a genetically modified human that is close to being a terminator as far as her destructive ability goes. She's not aware though that she's not truly a member of the family. There's a lot hinted at to come in the future, these initial four issues are a lot of setup and world building while still giving you a view of the larger scope. It's terrific stuff. I really like Michael Lark's art, especially the fight sequences. The coloring is a bit drab but I think that's intentional.

Inferno Girl Red, Vol. 1 ★★★
A teenage girl and her mom return to Apex City so she can go to one of the top schools out there. They left years ago after her mother's connection to Inferno Girl Red made her lost everything as a journalist. When the city is transported away by some unknown bad guys, the girl becomes the new Inferno Girl Red. This has some real potential. But at this point, it feels more like a framework than a killer story. The art is very good too.

Dr. Fate ★★★
This Dr. Fate miniseries is basically setting up the ongoing series that started in 1988. Kent Nelson is still Dr. Fate at the beginning while Dr. Stoner has been possessed by a Lord of Chaos. The storytelling is a bit obtuse at times but it ends with a new status quo that seems interesting. Keith Giffen's art at this time is terrific. I really like it and it's perfect for a mystical series like this.

DC Premiere: Dr. Fate ★★★
The first 6 issues of the ongoing Dr. Fate series are odd in that I, Vampire is the villain trying to bring about the end of the world so he can finally die. The new Dr. Fate is learning their powers while Nabu is enjoying riding Kent Nelson's body and being human. There's also a demon dog and Typhon who possesses the next door neighbor in tow. It's not bad, but it's not great either.

Bloody Mary: A Graphic Biography of Mary Tudor ★★★
Mary Tudor's complicated life retold in comic book form. Mary was the oldest child of Henry VIII but because she was a woman was not allowed to be his heir. If you know anything about her dad, you know he was a piece of crap. He has the marriage to her mother annulled because she hadn't given him a male heir. This caused a riff with Rome and he started the Church of England so he could keep annulling marriages when a new woman caught his fancy. Because Mary was declared a bastard after the annulment, she was made governess to her younger half siblings, Elizabeth and James. All along Mary remained a devout Catholic even though it was outlawed. There are a ton of beheadings in this as people fall in and out of favor and Mary's nickname comes from when she came to power and started persecuting Protestants, burning them at the stake. (Yeah, history is complicated.) Anyway, I thought this was a pretty simple way to learn about some major parts of English history if you are so inclined.

DC Finest: Justice League of America: The Bridge Between Earths ★★
Apparently, DC Finest is a misnomer because most of this is just awful. I know Gardner Fox was a popular writer at DC but these are terrible and formulaic. Each issue has some Justice League members show up, there's a threat and they all split into small teams so Fox can divvy the story up into 3 chapters. They are all dumb as hell and filled with leaps of logic. There are 3 crossovers with Earth-2's Justice Society but those stories aren't any better.

Denny O'Neil takes over for the last 6 issues and saves this. His stories don't always work but at least he is trying. There's some good stuff in there too, like the creature Neverwas which has a nice little twist at the end. The end of the book starts falling in line with the other DC books of the time with Wonder Woman leaving because she lost her powers.

A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel ★★★★
An excellent adaptation of one of the classic Earthsea novels. Fordham does a great job of not changing many of Le Guin's words and just adding some very good artwork to the equation. Those are the kinds of adaptations I want to see when classic novels are adapted into graphic novels.

Justice League of America: The Return ★★★★
Now, this DC Finest volume was actually worth reading. It's the end of the original run of Justice League of America. It catches the tail end of the JLA's time in Detroit before they head to New York. I did find it ironic that Aquaman was on the team when Detroit is hundreds of miles from the ocean. Despero gets turned into a cool villain with a brand new look. There's a bunch of issues tieing in with Crisis and then finishing up with the crossovers with Legends. It's all pretty good and I do like Gerry Conway's writing and Luke MnDonnell's art. Plus, I don't think this era has ever been collected before.

Machiavelli wrote: "I can’t find Deadpool/Batman #1 in here… is that just me?"

It just came out yesterday. Maybe it hasn't been ingested from Amazon yet. I'm too busy at the moment to go hunt it down but if it's still not here by later today, remind me and I'll add it with my minor librarian powers. It probably is in here already and it just takes a while to get indexed and show up in search. That happens frequently.

There's a new Humble Bundle for all of Garth Ennis's The Boys plus a bunch of other random Dynamite comics mostly from Project Super Powers which is their public domain superhero universe.

$24 for all of it. If you haven't read The Boys yet, it's worth it just for that.

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/bo...

Today's trip to my LCS.

Absolute Flash #7
World's Finest #43
Captain Planet #5
Deadpool / Wolverine #9
GI Joe #11
Herculoids #8
Incredible Hulk #29
Predator Kills the Marvel Universe #2
Ultimate Black Panther #20
Ultimates #16
Uncanny X-Men #21
Deadpool / Batman #1

I only use the website. The app is trash. The website is honestly not that far away from being the same. I think it's just another instance where even though GR is owned by Amazon, they are determined to put little resources into maintaining it.

For instance, the only way I know that your new post is on here Ed is because on the "My Group Discussions" page, I can look at my groups and see if there are any new posts. The only notifications I see though are likes for my reviews. And yes, the "Notify me when people comment" flag is checked for this thread.