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

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

It's incredibly difficult to pick just one. There are so many great comics out there.

Locke and Key and The Sixth Gun are both fantastic. So are Sandman and Preacher and Watchmen and Harrow County and The Dark Knight Returns and Sin City and Ultimate Spider-Man and Justice League International and.... The list is endless.

Today's trip to the LCS.

Ultimate X-Men #3
Batman / Dylan Dog #3
Redcoat #2
House of Slaughter #23
X-Men Forever #4
Outsiders #7
Barbaric: Born in Blood #1

I think you read that wrong A.G.E., Brubaker's run is easily the best run on Cap ever. It's also where Brubaker first worked with Steve Epting and those issues look so terrific. It laid the groundwork for their collaboration on Velvet which I'd also recommend if you want to step outside of Marvel.

I thought Coates run was just OK but I can get behind the rest.

I'll throw out Chris Claremont's 17 year run on Uncanny X-Men.
Anything by Ed Brubaker but his Captain America, Daredevil and Uncanny X-Men stand out.
Anything Brian Michael Bendis did in his first decade at Marvel, (Ultimate Spider-Man, Alias, Avengers, Daredevil)
Frank Miller's Daredevil
Chip Zdarsky's Daredevil
anything by Mark Waid (Captain America, Dr. Strange, Fantastic Four, Daredevil),
Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four
Matt Fraction's Iron Man and X-Men,
J. Michael Stracynski's Thor
Walt Simonson for classic Thor
Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross's Marvels miniseries,
Donny Cates's recent Venom run
Peter David's Incredible Hulk,
John Byrne's Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight and She Hulk,
Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn's Deadpool run
Mark Millar's Wolverine
Chris Claremont's Wolverine and New Mutants

These could keep you busy for years.

Current or older stuff that you're looking to read on something like Marvel Unlimited?

Last week's adventures in comics.

Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies: The Collected Conceits, Delusions, and Hijinks of New Yorkers from 1974 to 1995 ★★
This is a neat idea and works well once a week. Mack takes odd things he hears people around New York say and puts them in comic strip panels. Each panel is its own thing though so each two line strip is sometimes 14 different conversations. Multiply this by 300 pages and it's an exhausting read.

Zawa + The Belly of the Beast ★★★★
I found this delightful. It's about an island nation that is much like the modern world. It's homogenized the food into garbage while abusing its natural resources. A brother and sister come across Zawa chained in a basement and free her. Zawa is the island's connection to the earth. Setting her free sets off a chain of events that will forever change it all. I thought it was a great all-ages story.

Potions Inc Vol. 1 ★★★
Not bad. The art can be suspect at times. It's about some siblings from a magical world who come to Earth in search of a magical stone. There's also an evil sorcerer looking for it. Kind of your standard tropes apply.

Alfred Hitchcock: The Master of Suspense ★★★
A pretty extensive biography of the Master of Suspense. All of the jumping around in time made it really difficult to follow though. And it pretty much ignores all of his obsessive behavior with his leading ladies or at the very least plays it down to the point where it seems overblown which it really wasn't. If you're going to do a biography, it should tell the good and the bad.

The Devil That Wears My Face ★★★★★
This series was badass. It's The Exorcist crossed with Freaky Friday. It's the 1700's and a priest is dispatched to Spain from the Vatican to exorcise Legion from a noble. That's when things go horribly wrong and a game of cat and mouse throughout the Vatican begins. This was just terrific. David Pepose shows again why he's one of my favorite writers these days.

Over The Ropes Vol. 2: Broken Kayfabe ★★★
If you're really into wrestling, you'll probably love this. My great grandma would have loved this. She watched wrestling all the time and would tape matches on her VCR. To me, it's all just an over the top script. Still, this isn't bad.

Dahlia in the Dark Vol. 1 ★★★★
I had fun with this. It's set in a world where the fey can visit Earth. Two enforcers are sent to take a package across country but have no idea what's in the package. Turns out it's something that could start a war between fey and humanity. So you've got one of those stories where everyone is on the lookout for this car, both fey and human.

John Tiffany GN ★★
This didn't work for me. It's about a bounty hunter that has a bounty put out on him and it has to be one of four close confidants who ratted him out. The storytelling though is so disjointed with nonstop time jumps that I couldn't keep the timeline straight at all. Plus, the main character is so unlikable that I kind of wanted him to get tagged.

Giant-Size X-Men (2024) #1 ★★
What a boring story. Not sure why it's called Giant-Size X-Men and not Regular Size Angel. Angel is the only one in this story and nothing happens in it. It's terrible. It's only Giant Size because there's a reprint of Marvel Two-In-One #68 in the back half. It's a real poor excuse to change an extra $3 for. These Giant-Size books are a ripoff.

Taka ★★
You can tell this was written by someone that writes children's comics. It's got that same kind of hand waving over nonsense like "hard lightness" and "hero metal". This thing is filled with all this gibberish that means nothing when it all just comes down to an excuse to fight robot animals.

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees ★★★★★
This is one little messed up puppy of a story. It's set in an anthropomorphic world like something Richard Scarry would do. It's about a person in a small town who has been secretly murdering people off in the city for years. But now another killer has appeared in her town, one that's leaving bodies on display. Now she has to find the killer before it leads the police to what she's been doing. The art is interesting because it's got this fluffy look to it and then all of a sudden there will be a graphic murder. Looking forward to seeing what Horvath does next.

Once Upon a Time at the End of the World, Vol. 2 ★★★
This was alright. The two finally find their oasis and go through a bunch of free love stuff that drags on and on. Then things begin to turn seemingly just because. There is no reasoning behind it. Hopefully that gets explained in volume 3 or this is going down another star.

Exorcists Never Die ★★★
This wasn't bad. It's distilled down so there's not much world building. It's about two warrior priests who find a soul auction occurring and have to fight the seven deadly sins to stop it from happening. They fight the demons with martial arts with some help from a side of angel based warrior forms. The two warriors used to be a couple and bicker throughout. It's actually pretty wordy for something that's nonstop fighting.

Lower Your Sights: A Benefit Anthology for Ukraine ★★★★★
Some really powerful stories pertaining to the war in Ukraine. Most of the stories are heartbreaking. Some are about keeping your spirits up. What really bowled me over though was the artwork from Ukrainian artists in the back. They were all given a page to talk about the war in addition to displaying their artwork. That kind of just wrecked me.

Speed Republic Vol. 1 ★★
This just wasn't fleshed out enough to be good. It's a really basic story about a car race through Europe where the winner gets rich and apparently resources are running out. Too much is left unexplained. There's all kinds of missing connective tissue where a few different panels could have made a big change in furthering the plot. Instead you're left with "Wait! Why is this happening now?"

Manix Abrera's 12 ★★
Twelve perfectly serviceable silent comics but also twelve unremarkable ones.

Manix Abrera's 14 ★★★
These silent stories are more coherent and interesting than Abrera's first collection of silent stories, 12. Each of the stories is about a creature from Filipino mythology. Still these silent stories still had a difficult time holding my interest.

Ghostlore Vol. 2 ★★★★
You never know what you are going to get with Cullen Bunn but I quite liked this. Each issue alternates between Harmony and her father. Both of them can talk to ghosts and help them move on. Both are being hunted by a faction of others who can talk to ghosts but force you to join them or be killed.

Radiant Black, Vol. 1: (Not So) Secret Origin ★★★★
This falls into the normal schlub gets superpowers genre. Nathan is a failed writer who has to move back in with his parents. He comes across a floating black sphere one night while drinking with his buddy and BAM! he's got superpowers. Then he starts having dreams where he's talking to this being about an alien that is coming to Earth to destroy it. And then he finds out he's not the only person who received a suit. A lot of this is reminiscent of X-O Manowar mixed in with some Invincible. The art is solid, very Ryan Ottley like.

Rivers of London Vol. 2: Night Witch ★★★★
It's a cool idea to make the Night Witches from World War II actual witches. The story is this. The little girl of two rich Russians is abducted apparently by a supernatural creature. The Russian mob is trying to force Peter Grant and his boss to help get her back. There's a ton of characters and factions to juggle. This is something where you probably want to read the books first and then mix these stories in as they come up.

The Boys, Volume 1: The Name of the Game ★★★★★
Garth Ennis writes Preacher with superheroes. The dialogue is still spot on for the most point. The heroes are all vile, doing terrible things that are covered up. With the Boys put back together as a group of spies watching those who are supposed to be watching out for us. Robertson's art is terrific. This series in not for the faint of heart. It's over the top in how graphic and gross it can be both with its dialogue and artwork. It certainly pulls no punches.

The Boys, Volume 2: Get Some ★★★★
Some of that first story was hard to get through. It's about a Batman / Iron Man wannabe who starts screwing anything, not just people but inanimate objects and the like too. It got even too juvenile for me. Then there's this story about a young gay man who died after seeing a wannabe Nightwing that night. It's a strange dichotomy because there's a lot of slurs in this but there's also a lot of actions where they are completely comfortable around gay men. It may be that it was just that Irish look at things with a different perspective, just like the nonstop use of the "C" word in this that Americans find so offensive. But I do think if it was written now a lot of the dialogue would be changed.

The second story takes place in Russia and lays some of the ground work for the series to come. I liked it quite a bit better and you start to get a sense of how Vought-American operates. Plus, Love Sausage is hilarious.

Today's trip to the LCS.

The Devil That Wears My Face #6
Beneath the Trees #5
Beneath the Trees #6
Avengers #14
Birds of Prey #9
Captain America #9
Doctor Strange #15
Geiger #2
Wolverine #49
X-Men Forever #3
Transformers #8
Giant-Size X-Men #1
Faith Returns #1

Short thoughts on all of the FCBD books I read. In general, this was a banner year. So much good stuff coming out this year.

Gatchaman #0 ★★★
I was really excited to see this on FCBD. Battle of the Planets was one of my favorite cartoons when I was a kid. This was OK. I hope it expands on things more than these 3 short stories did.

Dying Inside (FCBD 2024 Preview) by Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz ★★★★
There's trigger warnings all over this thing. It's about a sixteen year old girl who is planning on killing herself on the same day and in the same way as her idol, Elliot Smith.

Free Comic Book Day 2024: Star Wars #1 ★★★★
I enjoyed the Star Wars story more than the Darth Vader story, mainly because the Star Wars one stands on its own while the Darth Vader story takes place between issues #45 and #46 of Darth Vader.

Jonny Quest FCBD 2024 ★★★★
These revivals of my favorite cartoons in comic book form is going to kill me. Or at least my wife is when I buy them all. A new story set in the classic era of the show. I gotta admit I was a little worried when I saw Casey's name attached just because he sometimes likes to change things but it's what you'd expect. There's also teases in here for the Thundercats and Space Ghost series coming out now which I have already been picking up.

Hellboy: The Fortune Teller / Stranger Things: Deliver Me From Evil ★★★
The Hellboy story is solid. It takes place in 1983. Hellboy is investigating a fortune teller because one of her clients who was 22 turned up dead of old age.

The Stranger Things story is your typical Dark Horse Stranger Things story where nothing is really allowed to happen. It's about Argyle and Jonathan delivering a pizza while he tells anachronistic stories.

The Worlds of James Tynion IV ★★
Zero new content here. All three are terrific series. If I knew it was a reprint though, I would have left it for someone else who hasn't read Something Is Killing the Children, Memetic, and The Woods.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles FCBD 2024 ★★★
This whole Nightwatcher thing is kind of dumb. There's one turtle missing. Who do you think Nightwatcher is going to be? The classic story from Paul Allor is kind of fun fluff. Not a fan of Andy Kuhn's art though.

Free Comic Book Day 2024: Ultimate Universe / Spider-Man #1 ★★★
The Ultimates is the big winner here. It looks like this series will be terrific with the Ultimates operating as freedom fighters in a world under The Maker's control. The Spider-Man story was a bit fluffy with Pete fighting some knock off Chucky Cheese robots. The Venom story has been incomprehensible from the getgo. Not sure what Al Ewing is doing over there but it's over my head.

Free Comic Book Day 2024: Blood Hunt / X-Men #1 ★★★★
Pretty good lead ins to both the Blood Hunt event and the new X-Men comics coming out this summer. You've suckered me into picking up Blood Hunt and I was in the bag for X-Men already but this seems interesting. Plus, I dig the great Gail Simone. Plus the rock devil horns is now the mutant symbol upside down. Rock on!


Flash Gordon #0 FCBD 2024 ★★★★★
This was really good. It's going to wind up on my pull list. It's traditional Flash Gordon but one where something goes horribly wrong and I presume the miniseries will be dealing with it.

Romeo vs Juliet: A Kill Shakespeare Adventure Free Comic Book Day 2024 ★★★
A new story set in the Kill Skakespeare universe. This one has Romeo and Juliet recovered from that famous play but at odds in this war.

Archie Horror Presents The Cursed Library Prelude FCBD #0 ★★★
The editors are promising more than just the short horror stories in the one shots Archie has been putting out the last few years. Apparently there will be some kind of miniseries with Jinx. We'll see. Archie Horror has lost the credibility it used to have with me.

CursedVerse FCBD 2024 ★★
A new shared universe taking place right before World War II. Doesn't seem like anything we haven't seen before though and the women have quite a bit of cleavage showing for the thirties.

The Valiants FCBD 2024 ★★
I don't know man. I used to be the biggest proponent of Valiant comics. Their comics were consistently great until they weren't the last several years. This new relaunch by Alien Books seems to be a continuation of the same universe. It's just one that is no longer interesting and epic like it used to be.

Energon Universe FCBD 2024 Special ★★★★★
Teasers for Year 2 of the Energon Universe. I've loved everything released so far. This was no exception. Great stuff.

Doctor Who FCBD 2024 ★★★
A solid lead in to a new story featuring the newest incarnation of the Doctor and his companion. This is one I may check out when it comes out.

Absolute Power 2024 FCBD Special Edition #1 ★★★★
DC's been leading up to this event since Dark Crisis. It looks pretty good. Amanda Waller has went off the deep end and plans on putting all supers in chains or working for her. It's Mark Waid and Dan Mora. Can you really go wrong there? Yes, I know Mikel Janin drew this prelude.

Ed wrote: "I had to give "The Strange Death of Alex Raymond" one extra star, for a total of two, because the art in the early part is so well done, and the investigation and description of how the art was don..."

The art is fantastic, Ed. I agree. Some of Sim's best. I was just so angry by the time it ended at how poorly he behaved and it's so typically Sim trying to blame it on how no one wants to read what turns out to be a garbage story with no end and nonstop rabbit holes. Woe is me. Yeah, of course no one wants to read the random gibberish from a madman. Come out of your hobbit hole and join the human race again. Maybe then you'll get back to the creator I used to put at the top of my pile of comics each month.

Last week's adventures in comics.

Invasion! ★★★
I started off the week with a buddy read of the old DC event Invasion! All of the major alien races decide that Earth's metahumans are becoming a problem and form an alliance and attack. There's lots of tie-ins with DC superheroes fighting different aliens. I won't go into too many details but it's solid stuff.

Just Another Story: A Graphic Migration Account ★★★★
The story of a man living in the U.S. who reflects back when he came here from El Salvador a decade before with his mother. It goes into great detail how they worked with coyotes to travel here over a vast distance all the way through Guatemala and Mexico. You also get a sense of their fears and worries as the whole time they were at the mercy of these shady people. Really interesting to see other people's perspectives and makes you very thankful that we have so much here.

The Strange Death of Alex Raymond ★
This is what happens when you sit alone in an echo chamber for the last 20 years. When you are your only sounding board, everyone involved agrees. It starts off as an examination of art styles. By the end, it's 6,000 notebooks of gibberish that Dave Sim couldn't even be bothered to finish. After 250 pages are so, he just up and ended it, leaving Carson Grubaugh holding the bag with no idea how to finish it.

Hellsing, Vol. 6 ★★★
London has been overrun with vampires and Alucard is out of commission. Should make for some tense action. The terrible accents lose all sense of drama for me. They're all real bad caricatures. Then you have Catholic priests show up in Klan hoods. WTF?

Duke Volume 1: Knowing is Half the Battle ★★★★
This was nicely done. Duke is a top notch soldier. People also think he's crazy after he was attacked by Starscream since no one knows the Transformers exist. So we get G.I. Joe characters introduced organically as the story calls for them.

Salt Magic ★★★
If you are the kind of person that likes answers posed by the story, this is not the book for you. Multiple things are just sprung out of nowhere and you are expected to go with it. The story begins with a little girl in Oklahoma in the 1920s. Her older brother has just returned from World War I a changed man with the scars, physical and mental, to prove it. But things are different now and she misses the closeness they once shared. Then out of nowhere a witch appears and turns the farm's water to salt water and she goes on a quest to save her family.

Blade, Vol. 1 ★★★★
Blade gets his first ongoing series in decades. This reminds me a lot of the TV show Angel. It's not just Blade fighting vampires. All kinds of supernatural creatures and demons appear. He unwittingly unleashes something real bad on the world and is on his back foot trying to make up for it from there on out.

Zorro: Man of the Dead ★★★★
Another great comic from Sean Gordon Murphey. This is about a town in Mexico that is run by the cartels. 20 years ago, a drug lord killed the father of a boy and a girl while they celebrated the anniversary of Zorro. Now they are out to finally take their town back.

Immortal Thor Vol. 2 ★★★
First up is a flashback story where Loki and Thor relive the Marvel version of some traditional Norse myths centered around Utgard-Loki. Then Dario Agger, Enchantress and the Executioner return to mess with Thor's History. The Roxxon Presents: Thor issue is genius. The rest just OK.

Captain America, Vol. 1: Stand ★★★★
This new Captain America series features the return of J. Michael Straczynki to Marvel. It takes place now and when Steve Rogers was a teenager, trying to get by before he became Captain America. In the past, he's standing up to the German American Bund in 1938 before the U.S. entered World War II. In the now, a new threat is rising. A human powered by a demon.

Petar & Liza ★★
Just a real nothing burger of a story. One that goes on for 175 pages. It's about a guy who returns from military service and then drifts through this city for 100 pages before he meets a girl and they drift through life together for awhile.

Today's FCBD haul.

Energon Universe #1
Flash Gordon #0
Spider-Man / Ultimate Universe #1
Romeo Vs. Juliet
Cursedverse #1
Archie Horror Presents The Cursed Library Prelude #0
Blood Hunt / Uncanny X-Men #1
Doctor Who #0
The Worlds of James Tynion IV
The Valiants
Absolute Power #1
Jonny Quest
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles FCBD 2024
Gatchaman #0
Hellboy FCBD
Dying Inside FCBD <--- Written by Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy
Star Wars FCBD

Also I asked about the promotion Marvel is doing with Marvel Insider points and a chance to be drawn into a comic book. He said they threw them all out because it was promoting Marvel Unlimited instead of comic book stores and that all of the other retailers in New York were doing the same. I thought that was strange but whatever.

a.g.e. montagner wrote: "Didn't someone comment on the Night Eaters in an earlier thread?"

Yeah, it's been mentioned before. The first 2 graphic novels in the trilogy have been released.

Earth One is a completely different setup and origin. If you want to dig in to GL, Geoff Johns long run is a great place to start. All you really need to know is that they are space cops. Sometimes they follow around one or two of them. Sometimes it's more of an anthology type series. Hal Jordan is historically Earth's GL but there have been many just from Earth over the years.

Ed wrote: "I also enjoyed Far Sector, despite knowing nothing about Green Lantern going in."

You don't really need to. It's a new Green Lantern on a new planet.

Hey, no one wants to read crappy comics.

Peach is also working on Ultimate X-Men now. There's 2 issues out so far.

Today's trip to my LCS.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #150
Nightwing Annual 2024
Get Fury #1 <--- Marvel's MAX line returns, probably just for Garth Ennis
Immortal Thor #10
Incredible Hulk #12
Invincible Iron Man #18
X-Men #34
Zorro: Man of the Dead #4
Deadpool Wolverine: WWIII #1
Space Ghost #1
Blood Hunt #1: Redband Edition <--- It's polybagged with an additional 8 pages of gory violence


I also wanted to remind everyone that Saturday is Free Comic Book Day.

https://www.freecomicbookday.com/catalog

I'm not familiar with Family Style but American Born Chinese, Earthdivers, Killadelphia, Far Sector and Monstress are all very good.

Last week's adventures in comics.

Jean Grey: Flames of Fear ★★★
It was nice to see Louise Simonson return to writing comics. Unfortunately, she was given a nothing burger to write. Jean Grey is in the White Hot Room performing What Ifs? on her life, with each issue being a different spot where something changed.

Realm of X ★★
Oof, this was real bad. Magik, Marrow, Mirage, Typhoid Mary and Dust get shunted off to Vanaheim along with Curse after Fall of X begins. Curse may be the most annoying mutant ever created, with powers that are little defined and allow her to do almost anything by wishing it. While in Vanaheim they fight Saturnyne. Anything even tangentially related to Otherworld in the Krakoa era has been utter crap.

I haven't even mentioned how it took 3 artists and 2 color artists to complete 4 issues. What the hell Marvel! You can't even get your creatives in line for 4 issues? Parts of this book look like a tryout book that should have never left an assistant editor's bottom desk drawer.

Hellsing Deluxe Volume 1 ★★★
This deluxe version collects the first 4 volumes of this 90s manga about the Hellsing organization fighting vampires in Great Britain. The main hunter is a badass vampire named Alucard (Yeah, it's not all that original.) However, they spend as much if not more time fighting a militant Catholic church and Nazis from South America as they do vampires. It's a lot of over the top action and craziness.

Teen Titans: Year One ★★★
Karl Kerschl's art is just terrific. He draws tweens that look like actual tweens. The story on the other hand could use a tighter focus and just one story instead of the smaller 3 stories in this.

Alpha Flight: Divided We Stand ★★★
Actually one of the better Fall of X titles. It makes sense to make Alpha Flight part of this since they got their start in the X-Men and half their members have been mutants. And at least this story has a coherent story and solid art, unlike some of the others.

Astonishing Iceman: Out Cold ★★★
This was fine. It's very one note though. Iceman shows up somewhere to save people and it's all an Orchis trap. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. each issue.

Children of the Vault ★★★★
Huh. Turns out this was easily the best of the Fall of X miniseries. Cable and Bishop team up to get down and dirty to defeat the Children of the Vault. After the Hellfire Gala, the Children woke up and planted a virus in their message to humanity. Now it's up to two men who hate one another (See the Duane Swierczynski Cable series to see them fight across millennia.) to stop them. This was excellent. It's got me excited now to see what Camp can do with the Ultimates this summer.

Strangers In Paradise Volume Two ★★★★
Another terrific volume of SIP. The way this one is broken up can be a little confusing at times. We start with Katchoo back working with the Parker Girls. Then after a change we flash back to high school. After those issues we flash forward 10 years into the future where things are drastically different before heading back to the current time and begin to see why things have changed. That's my only criticism, that it may be a little more difficult to piece together the storyline for first time readers. Otherwise it's a perfect combination of a terrific story with fantastic artwork. Terry Moore is in my short list of favorite comic creators.

United States vs. Murder, Inc. Vol. 1 ★★★
Jagger Rose gets a backstory while things ratchet up between what's left of the United States and Murder Inc. There's some great stuff in this but there's also some jedi handwaving moments where things are just glossed over, especially towards the end. It's almost like there's a couple of different stories mashed together.

Dark Horse has made a mess of naming this series. It's actually volume 2. DH rebranded it this go around as Murder Inc.

Django, Hand On Fire: The Great Django Reinhardt ★★★★
Django Reinhardt's early life told in graphic novel form. If you aren't familiar with Django, he's one of the first guitar greats. He was a child prodigy, playing professionally with adults by the time he was 10 or 11. He originally played banjo until a fire badly burned his hand leaving him without the use of a couple of his fingers. At that point he had to teach himself how to play again, this time on guitar.

Hellsing, Vol. 5 ★★★
Hellsing goes after the British carrier the Nazi vampires captured. Then things get even crazier. The way this Nazi leader talks though is just ridiculous.

Murder Inc. Volume 3: Jagger Rose ★★★
Now that the five families have finished their war with the United States, the Pope wants to see them so the heads of the New York mob head to Rome. Then things get really crazy. It's starts off pretty strong. The second half is really compressed though. There's lots of hand waving and then finishing up with a new status quo. It feels like multiple arcs condensed down into one. I'm still not a fan of the coloring on this book either. Too many reds and purples instead of actual coloring.

I'm also in the middle of doing an Invasion! buddy read, but DC never collected anything but the three main issues so it's a ton of individual reviews.

I never once picked up on the Dominators thing as a teenager, they were just cool villains. Now it's been mentioned to me twice in a week.

Kim wrote: "
I love Hoopla. I just wish I could borrow more than 4 a month. I’ll check out the Marvel and DC subscriptions though I’ll probably alternate between the two."

Wow, you only get 4. I get 15 from our library. Pro tip. If other family members don't use their hoopla borrows you can log in as them and use theirs too. That's what I do with my wife's.

A lot of people switch back and forth. If you go with DC, know that their are 2 levels, regular and Ultra. Ultra is worth the extra dough. Comics show up after only a month, all of the Vertigo titles are only on Ultra and it also has trades on there. The regular one you have to wait about 8 months for new content and no Vertigo titles or trades. A year subscription to either service is a lot cheaper than monthly so maybe get a year of one of them, read everything you want to read and then switch. MU has a 3 month wait for new comics. I think the DC one is a lot more user friendly.

I'm actually doing a buddy read on DCI with 2 friends now. We're reading the old Invasion! event.