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

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

Last week's adventures in comics.

Ablaze Artist Spotlight: Maria Llovet ★★
If you enjoy pretty pictures but crap storytelling you may enjoy this collection of two of Maria Llovet's comics. This collects Eros/Psyche and Porcelain.

Eros/Psyche is about a boarding school for girls where girls fall for each other while vaguely studying magic I guess. The storytelling is just awful and gives you almost nothing more than smoldering glances.

Porcelain is about a girl and her cat who go to town and get waylaid in this mystery house where this woman will turn you into a porcelain doll if she catches you. It's more art pages than an actual story though.

Damn Them All, Volume 1 ★★★
What to do when DC cancels your Hellblazer run? Create your own female John Constantine. In a world where magic is supposed to be hard, it just got a lot easier. 72 demons have been freed from Hell and can be controlled by a coin. Enter this world's version of Gemina, Constantine's niece as she knows at some point the other shoe will drop with these demons and she's out to exorcise them all.

Damn Them All, Volume 2 ★★★
One of Spurrier's better books. It's still overly wordy and convoluted, but actually manageable to stick with it.

Gun Honey: Collision Course ★★★
The writing's not as tight in this volume and somehow Ardai comes up with even more ridiculous ways to have the women naked. Still it's a fun series.

Breaking the Dark (Marvel Crime, #1) ★★★
The first prose book in the Marvel Crime line of novels. It's fitting to use Jessica Jones in this first book. She's a P.I. and a former superhero in the comics as well. If you were to set this into her comics continuity, it'd be in her original Alias era when she was drinking hard and fooling around while completing investigations.

The story itself is about a well to do mother who comes in. Her twin teenagers spent a month with their father in England and now have come home different, not acting like themselves. So Jessica gets involved, eventually heading to England to investigate after she determines this woman isn't crazy, there is something up with these two.

The Goon, Volume 4: Virtue and the Grim Consequences Thereof ★★★★
Another fun and crazy volume of The Goon. Goon's gangster friends start up an old timey football team. A great Christmas Carol spoof and then the return of Dr. Alloy. These stories do such a great job of taking a bunch of different genres and swirling them up in a blender into their own thing.

The Goon, Volume 5: Wicked Inclinations ★★★★★
The Goon gets a horror edge to it as the war with the zombie priest heats up. Lots of action in this one.

The Goon, Volume 6: Chinatown and The Mystery of Mr. Wicker ★★★★
The Goon gets serious in his first OGN. Powell's been waiting to do this story for awhile. It's about why he's something of a curmudgeon and how he got those scars on his face. Not much humor to be found in this installment which is atypical. Powell somehow managed to step up his artistic game. (His art was already fantastic.) He uses some different techniques to show you when the story is taking place and it all looks so deliciously good.

Criminal, Vol. 1: Coward ★★★★★
Brubaker and Phillips give us a story we've all read before, but they tell it so well it kept me hooked.

Leo is the best thief in town, but he has a reputation for rabbiting at the first sign of trouble. A crooked cop comes to him with a big score, to rob the evidence track as it's shipping diamonds to a trial. Of course, things don't go as planned.

Criminal, Vol. 2: Lawless ★★★★★
Tracy Lawless breaks out of military prison once discovering his little brother was murdered during his incarceration. Now he's going to infiltrate Ricky's gang to find out what happened to him. Brubaker and Phillips introduce the Lawless family here who will keep popping up throughout this book. I really like what they are doing here with this book. Crime fiction at its finest.

Criminal, Vol. 3: The Dead and the Dying ★★★★
Three individual stories set in 1972, all with different motives and perspectives. I like how Brubaker weaved these stories together and how they overlap one another.

Criminal, Vol. 4: Bad Night ★★★★★
Best volume of the series yet. Brubaker and Phillips really knock it out of the park with this twisty-turvy and just plain twisted gut-punch of a story.

Jacob, the counterfeiter from book 2, is back and stars in this tale of deception, kidnapping, murder and lies. Jacob now lives a quiet life drawing a Dick Tracy type comic strip. One night he helps a girl with a douche of a boyfriend out, giving her a ride home. His life descends into hell from there, a hell he can't quite manage to escape.

Criminal, Vol. 5: The Sinners ★★★★★
Tracy Lawless from volume 2 returns. He's now under the thumb of Mr. Hyde just like his father was and is looking to pay off his debt. Hyde has ordered him to find out who is behind the murders of several large criminals in town. They've all been gotten to within their strongholds with no evidence left at the scene. Lawless is no detective and goes through the same M.O. of a lot of traditional gumshoes. Stir up a bunch of shit and see what pans out. To add fuel to the fire, the military police have been sent to track down Lawless and bring him back for going AWOL.

Pine & Merrimac ★★★★
A comic about husband and wife detectives. She was a homicide detective who couldn't abide murder. He is an ex MMA fighter. Now they run their own detective agency in a small town. These two are adorable. They're full of witty banter and love for one another. The mystery they get embroiled in could be stronger. It relies on a lot of tropes more than anything else.

Travelling to Mars ★★
Russell has seemed to move past satire into full on hopelessness. Travelling to Mars is the story of a man dying of cancer who has accomplished nothing in his life. He's been sent on a one way trip to Mars to claim it for a fake meat corporation. The issues are mostly rambling self reflecting on a wasted life as we see glimpses of humans fighting over a dying earth.

Smooth Criminals Vol. 1 ★★★
A hacker in 1999 and a time displaced cat burglar from 1969 plan a big score. It's fun, light and airy.

Smooth Criminals Vol. 2 ★★
This falls apart in the 2nd half by trying to stuff too many subplots in 4 issues. There's not enough time to give any of them enough service and it just feels half-assed.

Eve: Children of the Moon ★★
I really enjoyed the original Eve comic. It was a very compelling story about trying to fix the end of the world. This sequel, not so much. It feels like a tacked on cash grab more than furthering the story and worldbuilding of the first one.

Dead by Daylight: The Legion ★
This was terrible. If you haven't played the video game then you'll have little idea what's going on. A comic should be able to stand on its own. It seems to dodge in between scenes from the game, either that or it's just bad storytelling that doesn't line up and tell a story properly.

Today's trip to my LCS.

X-Men #2
X-Factor #1
Geiger #5
Immortal Thor #14
Outsiders #10
Transformers #11
Defenders of the Earth #1
Jonny Quest #1
Death in the Family: Robin Lives #2
Ultimates #3

Last week's adventures in comics.

House of Slaughter, Vol. 5: The Butcher's War ★★★
Jace is back and this is the story I'm here for. The House of Slaughter heads south to team up with the House of Butcher to hunt Jace down. There's some cool twists. The ending was kind of unclear to me though. Partly due to Fuso's art, partly due to muddled storytelling at the end.

Hallows' Eve ★★★★
A very pleasant surprise these days. A Spider-Man comic I actually like. It spins out of Dark Web so you will want to have brushed up on that dumpster fire. But it's a simple self contained little miniseries. Janine is robbing banks to get enough funds to skip town with Ben Reilly. Her endless bag of Halloween masks are cool, giving her various powers.

Appleseed, Vol. 1: The Promethean Challenge ★★★
First off, I'll just say that the art is terrific. The story though is often unclear. I have a feeling that this may not be the best translation to English. The story is about a woman and a cyborg who have been hiding out in the ruins of a city after World War III. They find a city, Olympus, that is still thriving. They decide to become police to earn their keep and the woman gets a mech suit. There's a bunch of other stuff going on but I missed a lot of it. The constant footnotes for special effects was really distracting. I don't need those translated and they kept shifting my attention away from the panels.

Ranger Academy Vol. 2 ★★
Way too much time fretting over secrets. It drove me nuts. Most of the time, they don't even mention what they even are. It's just nonstop hand wringing and not much storytelling.

Moon Knight: City of the Dead ★★★
Marc Spector has to head to the Egyptian Land of the Dead to save a boy's life. There in the Duat he has to fight all the former enemies he's killed along with meeting the lost love of his life who was only introduced recently in the MCU show. It's not bad actually.

Search and Destroy Vol. 1 ★★★★
This was really cool. Kaneko's reimagining of Osamu Tezuka's Dororo takes the classic tale giving it a cyberpunk bent. This girl with deadly robotic limbs is seeking out the 48 people who stole body parts from her. It's very graphic and violent and I'm here for it.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 1 ★★★
Solid story about a police squad that tackles difficult cases in the Ghost in the Shell world full of cyborgs and the like. The opening story is a hostage situation with one of the countries ministers.

The Sons of El Topo Omnibus ★★
A really weird Western filled with all kinds of odd magic elements that kind of just come out of no where. There's some wild elements in this. Women don't ever seem to fare well in these European comics from these old guys. There's a lot of rape and then a ton of nonstop female nudity for no real purpose other than to make it "adult".
Ladronn's art is exceptional. I wondered where that guy was hiding out. A strange sequel to a 50 year old movie.

Coda, Vol. 3 ★★★
A fitting ending to this series where magic is dying and the fantasy creatures left are fighting over the scraps. Bergara's art worked for me better in this last volume. Maybe it was just stepping away from it for awhile. He's a talented artist and the art is super detailed. It's just so much sometimes that it's difficult to tell what's happening.

Coda: False Dawns ★★
Spurrier and Bergara missed a real opportunity by not calling this A Coda for Coda. This is OK. It's long winded like most Spurrier stuff is. Our husband and wife team try to talk two groups that are the complete opposite of what they say they stand for are on a collision course for disaster with one another.

Life Zero ★★★
A solid zombie comic with some terrific art by Marco Checchetto. The third act goes off the rails some and I wasn't for sure at all what happened with the tacked on ending. That's why I took off a star.

Doctor Strange by Jed MacKay Vol. 3: Blood Hunt ★★★★
And so ends Jed MacKay's run on Doctor Strange. He's killed him off and brought him back. Turned Clea into my favorite character in the book and an utter badass. After a couple of single issues, this is all about Blood Hunt. It does spoil some things in Blood Hunt so I'd read that first if you plan on reading it. It ends with setting up things for a new status quo for Strange and Clea in the future.

Children of the Black Sun Vol 1 ★★
There's some decent horror elements here but it moved so damn slowly. It's kind of a variation on Village of the Damned. Twice in the past this black sun rose and drove everyone crazy. Children conceived on those 2 days were born a little different. Most of the people in this town are slowly going crazy plagued with paranoia of what is wrong with these kids who are albinos and strange. The end was very much, "OK, what the Hell is going on now?" I didn't think the art was all that great.

Animal Castle Vol 1 ★★★
A slightly different take on Animal Farm. The main characters are a new mother cat, a gigolo rabbit and a travelling rat as they begin their acts of civil disobedience against the dogs and bull forcing them into forced labor at the animal castle. It's a solid story but a long winded one. There is so much text. Where this truly shines is the artwork.

Promethee 13:13 ★★★★
This was pretty cool. It's about a woman who was abducted by aliens when she was a child. She's had visions ever since about the Apocalypse which turn out to be real. Turns out this is a prequel to a French comic which I'm going to need to track down now.

The Library Mule of Cordoba ★★★★
When I heard there was a comic taking place in Cordoba, I knew I had to read it. Cordoba is a ancient city in Spain and is the home of a gorgeous mosque that has been there for over a 1,000 years. At one point the Moors controlled the Southern half of Spain for generations.

When their leader dies, his son is only 11 and his vizier seizes power. The vizier burns most of the books in its library which is a great loss to history. The comic is about a eunuch, a learned slave and a thief who escape with a donkey full of books before they can be burned. It's their trek as they try and escape with this donkey greatly overburdened by so many books that will otherwise be lost to history. I will say that this is a fictional tale and most of these books were lost to history. I really liked the story though. You learn quite a bit about the history of the time along with getting a compelling story.

Kingsman: The Big Exit ★★★
A short 6 page story written for Playboy before it was sold off for parts. It's fine.

Porcelain ★★
A girl and her cat get sucked into a strange house she must escape from. It gives off faux Alice in Wonderland vibes at times. In reality most of it is just random panels going through this funhouse with zero story. Llovet is a gifted artist. These pages would look great on a wall as artwork. They don't function as much of a story though.

Eros/Psyche ★★
I reread this as part of this Ablaze collection for Maria Llovet and I thought it was even dumber this go around. Just a really crap story.

Today's trip to my LCS.

Cheetara #2
The Goon: Them That Don't Stay Dead #2
Absolute Power #2
Avengers #17
Birds of Prey #12
Doctor Strange #18
Incredible Hulk #15
Scarlett #3
Space Ghost #4
Ultimate Black Panther #7
Gatchaman #2
Uncanny X-Men #1

Last week's adventures in comics.

The Forever People ★★★★
I've always heard this was the worst of Kirby's Fourth World books but I quite liked it. Well except for the Deadman issues. Those stunk. The Forever People are the hippies of New Genesis. They're running around, getting in random trouble with everyone they meet. The villains are fun and inventive which is what matters most in a 50 year old comic.

Mister Miracle ★★★★
This turned out to be my favorite of Jack Kirby's Fourth World books. Probably because it was the simplest premise. Scott Free becomes this crazy escape artist while Darkseid's minions show up to threaten him. Once Big Barda shows up it gets even better. I love how she's the physical powerhouse of the book. This was written at the start of the seventies and to see such a powerful woman mentally and physically is a sight to behold. The back half of the book comes after the rest of the Fourth World books were cancelled. There's a shift in focus back to crazy escapes and Earth villains with the Female Furies following Big Barda to Earth almost as sidekicks.

DC Graphic Novel #4: The Hunger Dogs ★★
I just finished reading all of Kirby's Fourth World comics from the early 70's, which are great. This is not. It's an indecipherable mess. The story is just all over the place. I don't know if Kirby forgot about what he did originally or if it was a DC editorial thing but I couldn't tell what was going on at all. The dialogue is so bad. The story is difficult to follow. Even though the term 'micromark' is used dozens of times, I still don't know what it is.

Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 4 ★★★
In volume 4, Jimmy Olsen had finished and both New Gods and Forever People were winding down. This is really the back half of the Mister Miracle run. You can see the book clearly start to move away from the Fourth World stuff and embrace Mister Miracle as an escape artist. Each issue had at least one crazy set up and miraculous escape. It also introduces Shilo Norman as Scott's apprentice. Then we hand wave it all away in the last issue as everyone heads back to New Genesis after a hurried wedding of Scott and Big Barda.

Then there's a new story from a reprint run and the Hunger Dogs graphic novel from 85 that was supposed to tie everything up. It's a complete mess. Trying to fit about 200 issues of comics into a short graphic novel just doesn't work. Plus, DC made him rework the pages from standard comic book size to the graphic novel size of the time which is more square bound. There's all this wasted space at the top and bottom.

Superman: House of Brainiac ★★★
This was fine. Glad I waited to read it on DCIU though. Superman and the House of El fight Brainiac and some Czarians. That's about it. The Brainiac Queen seems to just be a stand in for the queen from Aliens. I bit of a lackluster lead in to Absolute Power.

Captain Marvel: Dark Tempest ★★
Five issues of a nice big bowl of Ann Nocenti's word salad. This is terrible. None of it really makes any sense. Nitro, the guy who killed off the original Captain Marvel, returns to do absolutely nothing. There's subplots of dumping garbage on other worlds and kids whining about how the older generation have ruined everything and they should just die now. None of it has anything to do with anything. The new villain, Nada, has a lot to say but also says nada. She just spouts whatever story comes to her head to later contradict it with another one. I really don't understand what she must have on those in the comic book industry that people keep giving Nocenti work.

The Sixth Gun Omnibus Vol. 3 ★★★★
A fitting ending to a terrific series. You can see that the fighting was stretched out a bit to get this series to 50 issues but that didn't lessen my enjoyment at all. Hurtt is so good at crafting action sequences that I was fine with it. Not too many surprises as this wound up and in this case I think it works. It was already a great premise with these 6 guns with supernatural powers in the Old West that you didn't really need anything else.

Godzilla: Awakening ★★
A ho hum prequel to the 2014 movie of Godzilla that started the monsterverse. There really isn't a story here. Just a series of check-ins from 1945 to 1980 on this one man who believes in Godzilla when no one else does. You'd think this would be better considering the screenwriter of the movie wrote it.

Talli, Daughter of the Moon Vol. 1 ★★★
A solid but standard fantasy story about a princess fleeing her keep after it has been invaded. She's part of some mysterious faction that is persecuted and explained as the story goes along. The art is straight up manga house style.

The Vampire Huntress Legends: Dawn and Darkness ★
This was terrible. It takes place after 12 previous novels and there's no introduction at all to any of these characters even though this is the first comic book based in this world. All of the women in this group of vampire hunters are pregnant but maintain 3 inch waists. They mention it multiple times that they are pregnant. I guess they just found out yesterday. They don't fight vampires either, but demons even though the title says she's a vampire huntress. This was like reading a book in a foreign language or I no longer understood English.

The Avengers, Vol. 3 ★★★
It's an all tie-in volume for this volume of Avengers. First up is a Fall of the House of X 2 parter where the Avengers wipe out Orchis in a day. The X-Men should have gotten them involved much sooner because they just cleaned house. Then Captain America gathers a bunch of former Avengers to protect a SHIELD helicarrier full of people being gathered like cattle by Nazi vampires.

Hexes Vol. 1 ★★
I wasn't really sure what was going on with this. It's four one issue stories with a supernatural bent. The storytelling was obtuse though and I wasn't very sure about what was going on in any of it.

Today's trip to my LCS.

X-Force #1 (with another one of those QR codes for the last page. Grr.)
Blood Hunt #5
House of Slaughter #25
Immortal Thor #13
Ultimate Spider-Man #7

Last week's adventures in comics.

The Sixth Gun, Vol. 7: Not the Bullet, But the Fall ★★★★★
Our band of heroes return to Brimstone, the town where this all began. Soon they are in for the fight of their lives as the Grey Witch, Jesup and hordes of snake men come for them and not everyone makes it out alive.

The Sixth Gun, Vol. 8: Hell and High Water ★★★★
It's down to Becky, Drake and Screaming Crow to stop the Griselda from remaking the world. So this volume mainly becomes one big battle and one without their magical weapons. There's still some great moments and Hurtt is really good at crafting action sequences.

The Sixth Gun, Vol. 9: Boot Hill ★★★★★
A fitting ending to a terrific series. This trade is the last 3 issues as everyone is in the land of the Dead trying to complete the ritual that will change the world. One side is trying to remake the world in the Grey Witch's image, a world of hate and suffering. The other side just wants to end the cycle of unnatural rebirth that keeps happening every time the weapons are used in concert.

The Sixth Gun: Dust to Death ★★★
While I love this series, these two miniseries are completely skippable. Brian Hurtt writes instead of draws Valley of Death and as a writer he makes a great artist. There are so many words and they say nothing. It's all just kind of a mess and a waste of time. Something about some Native American tribes that are trying to close a Crossroads and they are stuck on Death's side of the divide.

Dust to Dust was better. It gives Billjohn's backstory before the main series started. He's struggling to find a way to save his sick daughter.

Justice League, Volume 2: The Villain's Journey ★★★★
I liked this set of stories quite a bit better than volume 1 that was set 5 years ago. The characterizations seemed more spot on. Wonder Woman didn't seem like a dummy for one thing. Aquaman is being taken seriously which I love. Johns's writing is good. I wish Lee could get a consistent inker. Each of his issues has at least 4 inkers on it. I like that Johns paralleled the original Justice League run by having Green Arrow trying to join the team again in issue #8.

Justice League, Volume 3: Throne of Atlantis ★★★★
First up is a 2 part story with Cheetah. I like how they made her more of a threat and left time for some character moments while laying groundwork for future stories. Then we have the epic crossover with Aquaman. Aquaman's brother, Ocean Master, sits on the throne of Atlantis and attacks after a malfunction causes the Navy to fire on Atlantis. An unseen hand is behind it all. It's terrific stuff and looks fantastic behind the pens of Ivan Reis and Paul Pelletier.

Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 1 ★★★
This is an interesting way to release Jack Kirby's Fourth World comics. Kirby was working on four comics at the time, writing and drawing all four with Vince Colletta inking them. He was putting out a new comic every 3 weeks. He was a beast. These collections are printing the books in the order they were released so this first volume has a lot of Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen and then 3 issues each of Forever People, New Gods and Mister Miracle. I thought this was a dumb idea until I read it and it works pretty damn well. You get a lot more exposure to all the Fourth World characters this way (because the New Gods is really just an Orion book.)

Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 2 ★★★★
These are pretty great. Mister Miracle is the stand out for me. I love all the crazy deathtraps Kirby comes up with for Mister Miracle to escape from. The fun part is they are all designed by Mister Miracle himself as part of his act. This volume sees the introduction of Big Barda. Right from the get go, she's the same character you've seen for years with her full battle suit and mega rod. When she's out of costume though, she runs around like a female bodybuilder in a bikini. This volume also has a two parter in Jimmy Olson where Don Rickles visits Metropolis along with his doppelganger Goody Rickles. The afterward by Mark Evanier details how that came about. Those afterwards are great. Evanier was Kirby's assistant at this time and provides a lot of behind the scenes info.

Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 3 ★★★★
All of Kirby's Fourth World comics in chronological order. This is the third of four volumes and you can begin to feel things wind down. Kirby's phoning in the last few issues of Jimmie Olson, probably because he got tired of DC retouching his Superman. I like the Forever People and Mister Miracle issues though. Himon's story and how he helps Scott Free was good. The stuff with New Gods was just OK. Still it's Jack Kirby. Plus the Demon gets announced at the end of this. I also enjoyed the afterword by Mark Evanier. He talked about how Himon's appearance was based on the founder of San Diego Comic Con and how DC raising comics from 15 to 25 cents just about killed DC and signaled the death knell of the Fourth World at the time.

Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII ★★
I just went and saw Deadpool and Wolverine so I thought I'd come home and read this. Wow, this was surprisingly not good at all. The story contains a lot of Logan's internal monologue. The story is hard to follow and it took reading the recaps to pick up everything that was supposedly in the previous issue. Deadpool is not himself through most of this making it pretty boring.

Kubert's art isn't bad. It is filled with a bunch of two page turned 90 degrees spreads. It drove me nuts. It was like reading a crappy 90's Image book, flipping it back and forth.

Green Arrow, Vol. 1: Reunion ★★★
Ollie is back after disappearing during Dark Crisis. Time for his family to get flung across time. Given that things like Lian happened in other books, some flashbacks are really warranted. I don't think this is new reader friendly at all. But if you're a long term GA fan, you're probably going to like this quite a bit.

Green Arrow Vol. 2: Family First ★★★★
Boy, Ollie has a large extended family of arrow vigilantes, more than I even realized. Ollie's back after Dark Crisis and he's upset there's no longer a Justice League. Enter Amanda Waller to make things even worse in this leadup to Absolute Power.

X-Men (2024-) #1 ★★
This first issue of this new era was fine. It establishes that Cyclops's team is operating out of a decommissioned Sentinel factory in Alaska. The villains weren't at all interesting or well explained. Stegman's art is very different for an X-Men book.

My biggest annoyance was getting to the final page which is just a big QR code with no explanation that it's actually the last art page of the issue. I had to scan it with my phone and then try and read it by blowing it up and scrolling around from panel to panel. What an awful reading experience. That right there is enough to get me to just drop all the X-books. This will in no way stop pirating. It's just going to annoy the hell out of what readers they have left.

Amazing Fantasy #1000 ★★★★
Some stellar short stories by some really good creative teams for Spidey's 60th anniversary. Standouts were the ones by Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checcheto and Dan Slott and Jim Cheung. You're better off going into the Hickman story cold turkey. In the Slott story, Spider-Man is actually turning 60 and the story spirals out from there. Very nicely done.

X-Men Annual #1 ★★★
Firestar gets her moment in the X-Men spotlight. It's pretty solid. Trying to get through my odds and ends from the Krakoan era.

Today's trip to my LCS.

Deadpool / Wolverine WWIII #3
Batman: Dark Age #4
Captain America #11
Feral 35
Rook Exodus #4
Something Is Killing the Children #39
Ultimate Black Panther #6
Void Rivals #11
Flash Gordon #1
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (Jason Aaron's new run)

Last week's adventures in comics.

Suicide Squad: Dream Team ★★★
Dreamer hooked up with the Suicide Squad but is trying to stop Amanda Waller because she sees what's going to happen with Absolute Power. Waller's even more out of control than usual.

Superman: Action Comics, Vol 1: Rise of Metallo ★★★
Not bad, but not as good as previous PKJ stories either. The Superman family is just too big and unwieldy. I hope once these characters get their own books some of them will go away from this. It's just too much to give anyone enough to do. The story is a bit generic. It's kind of your standard Metallo's back story. He doesn't even have that he's working for the government going for him now. The big reveal gets a big blah too as it seems like he shows up in the book nonstop over the last 20 years and he's so one note.

Wonder Woman, Vol. 1: Outlaw ★★★★★
This is the wonder of what you can do with Wonder Woman when you put her in the hands of a good writer. It's been a while since I felt that way, maybe the Greg Rucka days. Daniel Sampere's art is sublime. This book looks gorgeous. The setup is some unknown Amazon killed 19 men in a bar in Montana and now all Amazons are persona non grata in the U.S.

Trinity Special (2024) #1 ★★★★
I don't suggest buying this because it's only 6 pages of new material. It's on DC Universe and I'm sure it'll be in a trade. The rest of it is backups that have already appeared in the back of King's Wonder Woman series and Wonder Woman #800. That said, this is pretty good. It's little snippets of Trinity with the Super Sons in the future as she grows up.

The Goon, Volume 1: Nothin' but Misery ★★★★★
Part horror, part dark comedy. The Goon channels the humor of Ren and Stimpy and Looney Tunes in a 1940's setting. The Goon and Franky fight rival zombie gangs and fish people while saving children from being eaten by Santa's elves. I'd love to peer inside Eric Powell's head. There's some strange, dark thoughts in there.

The Goon, Volume 2: My Murderous Childhood (and Other Grievous Yarns) ★★★★★
How the Goon met Franky along with randy sea hags, pie-loving skunk apes, and gold-plated mad scientists. The Goon is kind of the bad guy yet, he also looks out for everyone in the neighborhood.

The Goon, Volume 3: Heaps of Ruination ★★★★★
I like that Powell keeps the stories down to one issue but then has returning characters. It's kind of the best of both worlds. Any new reader can jump on at any point and long term readers are rewarded. The Goon gets the gang together to rescue the Buzzard. A giant kaiju battle, a Hellboy crossover, and a vampire story. I loved the Hellboy crossover. I liked how Powell and Mignola worked it out so they both got to pencil some pages. The two characters have a lot of similarities and work great together.

The Sixth Gun, Vol. 1: Cold Dead Fingers ★★★★★
Supernatural Westerns are one of my favorite genres and this is one of the best. The book put Cullen Bunn on the map and you can see why. Mrs. Hume has the Pinkertons searching for a special gun, the sixth gun, a gun that used to belong to her dead husband General Hume. At the same time, Gen Hume's horsemen are searching for his body because Gen. Hum is too mean and ornery to stay dead.
It turns out there are 6 guns each with a different power.

Bunn weaves a compelling story, one that I couldn't wait to get more of. Brian Hurt's art seems a little cartoony at first, but it turns out to be a perfect complement to the story.

The Sixth Gun, Vol. 2: Crossroads ★★★★★
Bunn and Hurtt continue to impress. Our heroes are hiding out in New Orleans trying to figure out what to do next now that they have defeated Gen. Hume.

The Sixth Gun, Vol. 3: Bound ★★★★★
In this volume we get the supernatural version of a train robbery as the undead come after Drake and Becky before their train can reach the Sword of Abraham stronghold. We also see Gord's backstory and how he's tied into the General.

The Sixth Gun, Vol. 4: A Town Called Penance ★★★★★
Drake has been captured by the Knights of Solomon and Becky is looking to rescue him. She travels to Penance (a fantastic name for a town in the Old West, right?) where she encounters a settlement full of misshapen townfolk. Feels like we're mixing in some Lovecraftian horror in this volume. After dealing with the townfolk, Becky discovers the Knights underground lair. Bunn and Hurtt go completely wordless for the issue where Becky infiltrates the lair on the hunt for Drake and it is amazing. It's by far the best wordless comic I've read. Hurtt does a magical job of conveying everything on the page we need to know as Becky and Drake make their escape.

The Sixth Gun, Vol. 5: Winter Wolves ★★★★★
Becky and Drake get trapped in a Winter realm when going through a crossroads. Now they must defeat a Wendigo to return. Meanwhile, Gord is gathering the troops and headed their way while being hounded by the Sword of Abraham. And our 9 foot mummy returns. Woohoo for more Asher Cobb! Becky brings down the thunder on Missy Hume in the final issue and Hell's coming with her.

The Sixth Gun, Vol. 6: Ghost Dance ★★★★★
Becky falls sick after using the gun to attack Missy Hume. Now she must take a spirit quest to heal herself. Meanwhile, Missy Hume is sending Skinwalkers to attack Becky in the spirit realm. Becky sees many possible futures of using the gun to recreate the world and some of the past times the world was remade. There are a lot fantastic moments in these worlds, Bunn did a bang-up job fleshing these out. Gord and some of the rest of the crew go after the Skinwalkers and we get some killer action sequences, fighting in the midst of a storm.

The Sixth Gun: Sons of the Gun ★★★★
This is a prequel that shows what General Hume's four horsemen were up to after he'd been trapped and they each received their guns.

The Sixth Gun: Days of the Dead ★★★★
Another prequel Sixth Gun miniseries. This one about a member of the Sword of Abraham and a member of the Knights of Solomon have to work together to stop a Death God from coming fully to the Earth. It also shows why Jesup has such a hate for Drake Sinclair.

Moon Knight, Vol. 4: Road to Ruin ★★★★
A bunch of one and done stories that lead to a larger story. I like how Mackay delves into Moon Knight's history while still keeping things fresh. There's some excellent moments in this with the Tigra issue being the stand out.

Moon Knight, Vol. 5: The Last Days of Moon Knight ★★★★
A good end to what has been a great series. Even if it really isn't the end since this heads right into Vengeance of Moon Knight also by MacKay. MacKay has done a terrific job of mixing in new villains and plenty of Moon Knight's past from his gazillion different runs.

ThunderCats Vol. 1: Omens ★★★
A really decompressed opening arc. Most things are the same as the cartoon except Wilykit and Wilykat are there from the beginning this go around. That makes things slightly different as Lion-O was their age when they left Thundera.

Jane Jet: Book One - Nuclear Shadows ★★★★
This was actually pretty good. It's based on some public domain characters, Rocket Man and Rocket Girl. After WWII, Jane Jet as she's known now has finally had enough of her abusive husband. She goes on the run after their confrontation and is pursued by other science heroes of the fifties.

The Invincible Iron Man, Vol. 3: Iron & Diamonds ★★
Man, it's amazing how blah this gets when it stops being about Tony and Emma Frost and instead is just about the Fall of the House of X dumpster fire.

THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MEN VOL. 1: ARACHNOBATICS ★★★★
Pretty, pretty good. Peter and Miles decide to get together on Wednesdays for coffee at Empire State University. They eventually stumble into some villains testing some fully immersive A.I. in a "You shall not escape" way. It's nice to see Humberto Ramos back in the Spider-Man fold.

Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby ★★★
I knew a lot of this returned during the 90's, mostly in the Superboy run when he became based out of Project Cadmus. It was still pretty surprising to see just how much it reused. There's some pretty out there stuff, especially at the beginning of this run. I get a kick out of the dialog. I guess Kirby was trying to use the lingo of the time for all the young people and they all talk like they are in a Scooby Doo episode and everyone is Shaggy. The Don Rickles two part appearance was pretty wacky. Rickles plays himself in it but also has a doppelganger named Goody Rickles working for WGBS alongside Jimmy and Clark. The Fourth World characters are in this a lot less than I expected.

I thought it was pretty good Amal. My review is below. Good luck!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I just downloaded it. Thanks Amal! I'll review it when I finish.

Today's trip to my LCS.

Immortal Thor Annual #1
World's Finest #29
Destro #2
Incredible Hulk #14
Invincible Iron Man #20
Nightwing #116
Redcoat #4
Titans #13
Thundercats #6
Ultimate X-Men #5
Spectacular Spider-Men #5

Last week's adventures in comics.

Sparks Volume 1: Portals ★★
A fluffy webcomic about two satyrs in training who may fall for one another in this LGBTQIA+ story.

Beyond Mortal ★★★
This world's version of the Justice League fights some Elder Gods as they begin to destroy the Earth. Nothing new here but well done. Luckert is an underrated artist.

Skinner ★★★
A sci-fi channel level horror story about some influencers who crash land in Canada and come across a killer. I almost immediately wanted them all to die. There's nothing special to this. It's all sizzle at three issues. I'm also not sure why one of the influencers brought their dog. That just seemed like the dumbest thing ever.

Moebius Library: The Major ★
The art is fine but this story is just gibberish. I couldn't follow it at all. Maybe it's a translation thing. Maybe it's just too existential for me to pay enough attention.

Silk Cotton ★★★
This wasn't bad. It does rely on the reader knowing an awful lot about African and Caribbean mythology and horror. The art's technically pretty good. It doesn't always tell the story well though. Still, if you're looking for something different, this just may be it.

X-Men: Inferno, Vol. 2 ★★★★★
Inferno comes to a head and a bunch of demons and Mr. Sinister get their asses kicked. I really like that Marvel has went back and collected all the Inferno related issues. Previous collections only collected the main X-Men / X-Factor / New Mutants issues.

Navigating With You ★★★★
A queer romance between the two new girls at a high school in the South. Whitley handles this so well. But that shouldn't be any surprise. He's written a ton of great comics. Neesha has CP and stands up for herself like most New Yorkers. Gabby is a surfer girl from Florida. They bond over a manga they both never finished.

Ablaze Artist Spotlight Collected Set – Werther Dell‘Edera ★★
He Who Fights with Monsters is pretty good. It's about a golem that is raised in World War II to help the Jews. It's kind of your standard stuff for this kind of story. It has an interesting ending that felt like it would set up more to come but it never has.

The Voices of Water made very little sense to me. It's about voices people here when it rains. There's not really a story here though.

Conan the Barbarian Vol. 2: Thrice Marked for Death ★★★
I thought this was better than volume 1. Zub has toned down the narration some, although I'd like to see more go to the wayside. Doug Braithwaite was made to draw Conan comics.

Storm: Blowback ★
Good lord, this was terrible. You'd think Nocenti had never read an Uncanny X-Men comic, let alone actually written some of them and was an editor at Marvel in the 80's. Everyone's written completely out of character.

Gargoyles: Here in Manhattan ★★★★
I was too old for Gargoyles when it came out so I never watched the show. That didn't lessen my enjoyment of this though. It's a simple concept to get and it's well written. The art's good too, although the lack of background does bug the heck out of me.

Tales of Suspense ★★★
Marvel did a series of these one-shots with painted art back in the 90s. This one has Captain America and Iron Man teaming up while they were on the outs (way before Civil War). They have to switch places in a contrived way with Cap armoring up while Iron Man loses his armor.

Spider-Man: The Assassin Nation Plot ★★★★
A fun story where Spider-Man teams up with Silver Sable, Paladin, Solo and Captain America to stop an assassination attempt on the leader of Sable's government. McFarlane has been more influential on Spider-Man than any other artist since John Romita Sr.

Eden ★★
Well I can certainly see why this screenplay was unproduced. If you think about it at all, none of it makes any sense. It's about a family of criminals in the near future where the world is severely overpopulated and dying. They trick their way onto a generational ship where they find out things aren't what they seem to be. It took me as long as it took to read the blurb about the comic to figure out what this would actually be about. Then it just gets worse and worse as Sebela keeps trying to put artificial twists in this.

Domovoi ★★★★★
I really enjoyed this one. It's off-kilter, beginning with little explanation as these two thugs beat up the main character's uncle looking for some bones her grandmother stole. There's lots of magic and a talking cat in this story that feels like European folklore.

Daredevil: Black Armor ★★★★
This was good. It fits right in to Chichester's original run. In fact it has me wanting to go back and read it all over again. It could have even been a little longer. During the black armor era, Matt had faked his death and was living under an alias where no one knew he was blind. Yet, he was still terrible at keeping his identity a secret. This story has him looking into a bunch of missing people and ultimately going up against a whole bunch of villains.

Captain America Epic Collection, Vol. 21: Twilight’s Last Gleaming ★★★
The end of Mark Gruenwald's 137 issue run on Cap. Like most of it, it's fine. You can tell he's influenced by the 90's trend of kicking off the characters as this mainly deals with Steve Rogers failing super soldier serum. He gets stuck in this ridiculous looking armor as he becomes paralyzed without it. The armor basically turns him into Iron Man lite instead of the swashbuckling Cap. I do like the introductions of proteges Free Spirit and Jack Free. I'm not a fan of how long time love interest Diamondback gets kicked to the curb and Steve almost instantly forgets about her. She was one of the best parts of Gruenwald's run.

Shadow Roads Vol. 2 ★★★★
While not more Sixth Gun, this is probably as close as we're going to get as it's set in the same world. Unfortunately, just as we get some more world building that explains what the knife is, the story ends and it looks like that's it. They could have extended this series on forever and I would have read it.

The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains ★★★★
This has appeared in many different versions, originally a Neil Gaiman short story, Eddie Campbell kept doing illustrations for it that would appear behind Gaiman at readings and it eventually become its own book. It's mainly illustrated prose with some short comic book panels. I like Campbell's art but it's certainly not everyone's taste. The comic book panels do have atrocious lettering. It looks like a five year old lettered those passages.

The Goon, Volume 0: Rough Stuff ★★★★
The original 3 issues of The Goon before the title was picked up by Dark Horse and became the sensation it is today. Powell complains about the art but it looks as great here as later issues. I like the black and white version of Powell's art unobscured by color. All of the Goon's world building begins in these self-published issues. The Zombie Priest, Lobrazio, Fishy Pete, Merle the Werewolf, Franky's "Knife to the Eye", it all begins here. I love the deranged, off-kilter feel to Powell's world building.

Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War ★
This was a train wreck. It starts out being about Catwoman and Batman being at odds because Catwoman has reduced crime in Gotham by starting up a thieves guild aimed at the rich. Batman is against it and all the sidekicks are trapped in the middle. Then Vandal Savage shows up and we get a rehash of Superman: Savage Dawn from the New 52. It's the exact same plot and it's still dumb. I'm still a little shocked about how shitty this was.

Batman Vol. 3: The Joker Year One ★★
I am very much over the Zen-En-Argh thing (or whatever the hell he's called). None of it makes any sense. This entire volume was pretty much a waste of time.

Husk: A Tale From the Weedkiller Wastewoods ★★★
I found this on DC Infinite. It's some tie-in comic for a concept album by this Ashnikko person. It's something to do with fairies. I only checked it out because Tom Mandrake drew it and his stuff is great.

I just read Navigating with You last night. It's a queer romance about the 2 new girls at a high school, one of which has cerebral palsy and uses leg braces. It's by Jeremy Whitley who did Princess and the Unstoppable Wasp. I saw Erin also read it.

Here's my review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Today's trip to the LCS.

Crocodile Black #3
The Hunger and the Dusk: Book Two #1
Avengers #16
Outsiders #9
Transformers #10
Geiger #4
X-Men #1
Death in the Family: Robin Lives #1
Get Fury #3
Galactor #1 (Gatchaman miniseries)
Ultimates #2
Incredible Hulk: Blood Hunt

Last week's adventures in comics.

Banshees ★★
An OK story about a freshman on campus investigating some murders that occurred 30 years ago. The series takes a turn toward revenge as it goes along. The pacing was really uneven and the person behind the murders felt phoned in as there was no investigation.

Shadow Roads, Vol. 1 ★★★★
The successor to The Sixth Gun. Picking up the pieces after the end of that, a new group of supernaturalists go after a monster stealing and eating the power of any powerful being it can find, not just in the Old West but anywhere in the world.

Space Usagi: Death and Honor ★★★★
The rare in color Usagi even if it is about his descendant instead of himself. It's got everything you expect in a Usagi Yojimbo comic, just set in space and in full color.

Canto Volume 3: Tales of the Unnamed World ★★★★
Two smaller stories. More of a volume 2.5 than a volume 3. I will just say that I love this series. Canto is just full of so much heart. It gives off strong Wizard of Oz vibes. This is the series that made me follow anything Booher does.

X-Men: Inferno, Vol. 1 ★★★★★
A mega-crossover from the '80's when Marvel knew how to do these properly. Marvel dropped little tidbits for over a year leading up to Inferno. All of the tie-in issues make sense. They all feature characters based in New York. And I didn't have to buy a 9 issue miniseries on top of everything else. It was just, "Demons are coming to NYC, how will our heroes deal with it?"

X-Men: Inferno Crossovers ★★★
I liked when Marvel used to do this, where they only had crossovers that made sense. Since Inferno affected all of Manhattan, all of the books taking place in NYC had crossover issues.

Ultimate X-Men, Vol. 1: Fears and Hates ★★★
We'll see how this goes. Momoko seems to be doing her own thing rather than setting this in the same universe as the other Ultimate books. But I'm sure it's just that this is the only one set in Asia. It's about Armor as she finds out she is a mutant. Then other girls start appearing as mutants as well. I'm not really sure where this is headed.

Ultimate Black Panther, Vol. 1: Peace and War ★★★
This is actually pretty well done. The plot just doesn't advance very fast. 4 issues in and we're still in first gear. The villains are Khonshu and Ra which I find interesting. This Wakanda is pretty much like the one from 616 except T'Challa is married to Okoye. Caselli's art is really strong.

New Gods ★★★
You may see a lot of Kirby books this month as it's "Kirb Your Enthusiasm" buddy read month with some comic book friends. I gotta say I expected something larger for this original New Gods series. Yes, the seeds are there with a lot of the Fourth World characters introduced. But it's mainly Orion fighting Darkseid's minions in Metropolis.

The Deviant Vol. 1 ★★★
The first half of Tynion's story about a Christmas serial killer who strings people up on Christmas trees. It happened 50 years ago and a writer is investigating the killings for a story. It's a bit of a slow burn and ends on a cliffhanger. Thankfully it's only 9 issues so there's just one other volume to wait on and see if Tynion sticks the landing.

Warhammer 40,000: Sisters of Battle ★★★
These warrior women try and put down a revolt on a remote planet. Not a lot is explained if you aren't familiar with Warhammer 40K roleplaying game. There's some strange Cult aspect that isn't really satisfactorily explained. Still, it's some decent sci-fi.

Lore Olympus: Volume Six ★★★
Finally the plot begins to progress in this book. A lot of it is Persephone and Hades hiding out in the Underworld from Zeus. Then we get to the end where Minthe and Persephone FINALLY have a confrontation. I've considered dropping this for awhile due to the spinning wheels but finally some things happen. Smythe's art seems to be growing beyond triangles and circles too.

Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection, Vol. 19: Assassin Nation ★★★★
A year's worth of Todd McFarlane drawn Spider-Man stories. Turns out at one point Todd McFarlane could actually meet a deadline. He draws 14 of the 15 regular issues in the book, with Erik Larsen filling in in the remaining issue. McFarlane has been more influential on Spider-Man than any other artist since John Romita Sr. He was the first to draw Spidey as the bendy acrobat that is now the norm for the character. He does draw MJ as a pinup queen though, always showing her in skimpy underwear or workout outfits. Michelinie brings in a lot of classic Spider-Man villains during this run such as Scorpion, Venom, Mysterio, Hobgoblin, and the Green Goblin. Also included is a surprisingly good annual drawn by Rob Liefeld as part of the Atlantis Attacks crossover and a one shot by Gerry Conway recapping Peter and Mary Jane's history.

Space-Mullet Volume 1: One Gamble at a Time ★★★
If you think you may have read this before, well you may actually have. This started off as a web comic back in 2017 and probably finally made it to print because of Johnson's popularity these days. This is your kind of by the numbers, down on your luck, space comic. The two main characters are space truckers. One is hiding out from a military he went AWOL from. The other is an alien that certain planets look down upon.

Shane wrote: "Yeah, I’m definitely considering an Oracle read, and Tank Chair does sound fun. How are the Echo stories? I haven’t read any of her."

Echo's a good choice too. I'd forgotten about her. She shows up in a lot of Bendis books. Her intro in his Daredevil run with art by David Mack is excellent. She also appears in Bendis's Moon Knight series and during his New Avengers run. All three are very good.

Today's trip to my LCS.

Birds of Prey #11
Scarlett #2
Space Ghost #3
Doctor Strange #17
Cheetara #1
Free Agents #1
Absolute Power #1

If you wanted to go the super hero route, anything Daredevil or Barbara Gordon related would apply. So would any JSA stuff with Dr. Midnite or Hawkeye when he's dealing with going deaf.

Mike wrote: "Well the Synder cut does have Martian Manhunter, and Superman appears towards the end!."

But does J'onn eat Oreos? I haven't gotten around to the Snyder cut. By the time Superman shows up in the Justice League, it's basically a different title. Dan Jurgens took over and turned it into a precursor to Death of Superman. All of the humor and fun is gone.

I suggest reading Justice League Europe as well. It's by Giffen and DeMatteis too. Plus the two books cross over twice I think. Once they leave, the issues may be difficult to find. Gerard Jones took over and he's a convicted pedophile these days so DC pulled anything he ever wrote off their platforms so he couldn't get residuals and he wrote a lot for them.