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

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

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.

Welcome Kim.

I think the best way to dive into Marvel and DC is to get their subscription services, DC Infinite and Marvel Unlimited. Then you can read whatever interests you and you get access to most of their back catalogs.

Also, since you use the library, check out hoopla.com. It's free with a library account for must people in the U.S. They have comics from almost all publishers on there and the number of borrows you gets reset each month so you should check it out this weekend. I use it all the time. If you would like suggestions, just ask.

Today's trip to the LCS.

Avengers #13
Gods #7
Rise of the Powers of X #4
Something Is Killing the Children #36
Ultimate Spider-Man #4
Wolverine #48
X-Men Forever #2
Duke #5
Batman: Dark Age #2

Ed wrote: "Another possibility is the series starting with Fatale, Vol. 1: Death Chases Me."

Another good series. You can rarely go wrong with Brubaker and Phillips.

Abbott 1979 is done but it's not out in trade yet. It's not as good as the first 2 which are excellent. I picked up all of Abbott in single issues from my LCS. Weird Detective is also really good. I couldn't remember the name of it last night, just that it was from Fred Van Lente.

Dominik wrote: "I know Hellboy and I think that I read everything what was avalaible, but yes, I forgotten about spinoff! Thanks!"

There's a whole lot of spinoffs. BPRD is all about Lovecraftian horror. There's also another series Mignola did called Joe Golem. It's set in a different world with a flooded New York but that has Lovecraftian elements in it too.

What about Hellboy and BPRD? That should keep you busy for a while.

Last week's adventures in comics.

Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy ★★★
Faith Erin Hicks' latest graphic novel. A high school rom-com about a girl who is really good at hockey and extremely bad at everything else. She is relentlessly bullied by the team captain and it boils over to an uncontrollable rage one day and gives the girl a beating. (And yet, the girl still continues to berate and needle her throughout the book.) Wanting to control her rage, she sees a bisexual drama kid turn the tables on the school bully verbally without losing control and asks him to teach her how to do that. (It's to no one's surprise that these two bullies are the school's power couple and everything people hate about their high school years.) So begins a friendship and more. It was refreshing that this didn't fall into the miscommunication tropes that are in almost every story of this type.

Edge of Spider-Verse: Bleeding Edge ★★★
This is a weird mixture of Spider-Verse characters and Spider-Man spinoff characters. So you've got stupid stories like Spider-Rex (a T-Rex Spider-Man) mixed in the same anthology as Spider-Boy and Arana from the 616 universe. I'd say we don't really need any more of these but there's another one coming down the pipe for 2024.

The Case of the Bleeding Wall ★★★★
This was cool. It's about a woman who is a famous supernatural (or supernormal as she calls it) investigator. She and her new assistant go to Rome to help an old boyfriend. He and his fiancé bought a house that has a painting on a wall that is bleeding. Things spiral from there.

Edgeworld Vol. 2 ★★★
Not as focused as the first volume. Still you say space western and I'm in. I hate that it ends on a cliffhanger.

The Worst Ronin ★★
This was alright. It's about a female ronin in a feudal Japan that also has TVs and cell phones but no cars and still treats women like they are lesser. The art is pretty poor and the story kind of basic, especially considering it's over 300 pages long.

Codex Black (Book Two): Bird of Ill Omen ★★★
Basically a manga set in Mesoamerica by Latin creators. It can be way too wordy at times but it's not half bad. The main characters are a girl with super strength and a boy with wings who are trying to stop a secret cabal from starting a war throughout the area.

Carnage: The Court of Crimson ★★★★
This was a real surprise. It was probably the first time I've liked a Carnage story. Cletus Kassidy and the symbiote have split. The symbiote is on its own for the first time and found a serial killer groupie to pal around with and stroke its ego. It's going around absorbing the powers of D level villains. The one thing the book is missing is that this was a real chance to mess around with the look of Carnage since Cletus isn't around and in charge. The symbiote isn't human. I'd like to see it constantly take on new looks and aspects as it learns about itself.

Carnage, Vol. 2: Carnage In Hell ★★★
Starting to lose focus a bit as we prepare for the Carnage Reigns crossover. The symbiote heads to Hel to take something from Malekith. Meanwhile Cletus is still on Earth but somehow maintaining his old powers even without the symbiote. It's all a bit confusing.

DEAD X-MEN ★★★
I'm getting real tired of the X-Men being a puzzle that you have to figure out how to read (and I've been reading all the books week to week). It starts off real strong with a team of X-Men trying to go back in Moira's first timeline to stop her. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just skip the whole Krakoan era of X-Men instead of trying to understand it. By the end you'll need a map that looks like an FBI team trying to put together the pieces of a vast conspiracy on a cork board with multiple spools of yarn connecting a nest of dots all over the thing.) With a crazy Moira following the team through the various timelines screwing with every one of her past timelines. Then you begin to realize that this is all tied in to what's happening in both Rise and Fall of the Powers of X. That's when I began to get really mad, because none of these comics can stand on their own.

Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Caduceus Clay ★★★★★
This was short but terrific. I'm not all that familiar with Critical Role but that didn't really matter. A good fantasy story is a good fantasy story. This one is also filled with gorgeous art (which hasn't always been the case with these Critical Role origin stories). My only complaint about this is that I wanted more.

Youth Volume 3 ★
While the story is more focused this go around, it's also just dumb with logical errors and even spelling errors in the lettering. The kids are now living on Mars and can somehow breathe the unbreathable atmosphere there and differences in how sound or gravity work there are ignored. People on Earth are controlling this kid on Mars even though even sending just text to Mars has a latency of 6 to 40 minutes. (This took me less than 30 seconds to find out on the internet so there's really no excuse for Pires.) Science is just completely ignored, as is grammar. Apparently no one at Amazon or Dark Horse knows the difference between here or hear, to or too or even from and form.

Anyone who is struggling to make it in comics and needs some encouragement should just be handed a Curt Pires comic. Because if this person can make it, anyone can. Of course, you'll probably find out he's a nepo baby.

The Oloris: Heroes Will Unite ★★★★
A lot of the series Youneek has been building towards culminate in this series. It's basically the Justice League of this universe as all of the heroes come together to try and stop this despot from taking over most of the countries in Africa.

Hellsing, Vol. 1 ★★★
This was OK. It felt very 90's. Big on action and short on story. It's about an organization in the UK that hunts down and kills vampires with the main vampire hunter also being a vampire. There's some odd rules. If you're not a virgin and get bit by a vampire you become a ghoul instead (which in this is really just a zombie. It has no will of its own.)

Hellsing, Vol. 2 ★★★★
I thought this was better than the first volume. The characters can be very exaggerated but it works for the villains. After a major encroachment to the Hellsing Organization's home base, they finally get an inkling of who is behind all this. So we've got vampires vs. Catholic priests from the Vatican vs. Nazis. Yeah, I can work with that.

Hellsing, Vol. 3 ★★
Goofier than the first 2 volumes. Then it devolves into just nonstop extreme violence against the Brazilian police. The page after page of violent deaths was all a bit numbing.

Hellsing, Vol. 4 ★★
This volume is all setup for the future as the Nazis make themselves known to the Hellsing organization. The characters are WAY over the top and stereotypical.

Loud: Stories to Make Your Voice Heard ★★★★
Some good short stories revolving around violence towards women, slut shaming, self harm, things of that nature.

Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant ★★★
Written by Ms. Marvel herself from the MCU and one of the writers on the show. It's actually not bad. Kamala heads to the ESU campus for a summer program. She's still dealing with finding out she's a mutant while Orchis is on the prowl for mutants, having established a secret base under the campus.

Watership Down: The Graphic Novel ★★★★★
Now this is how you adapt a classic story into a graphic novel. Who would have ever thought the story of some rabbits in the English countryside could be so compelling? And so fraught with danger. This adaptation does a wonderful job of translating the story to the visual medium. The illustrations are exquisite. So is the story. This is top notch stuff, my friends. There's a very good chance this ends up as a Christmas gift for friends and family this year.

Poison Ivy, Vol. 2: Unethical Consumption ★★★
For what's supposed to be a horror story with Poison Ivy, it feel toothless and banal. Too many one note stories about taking down corporations that say they are doing things ethically when they are not. Blah blah blah.

Ant-Man: Ant-Iversary ★★★
Al Ewing writes an Ant-Man story in honor of the character's 60th anniversary. Each issue focuses on a different Ant-Man with the fourth issue culminating in the far future. It's OK. It never quite lands, though, like I expected it to given Ewing's pedigree.

Venom, Vol. 2: Deviation ★★
I'm finding the Ram V. / Dylan story way more compelling than the Al Ewing / timey-wimey bs. It's all boring as all get out. Dylan's story is way more straight forward and interesting to me. The time travel stuff is so cliche that none of it is surprising at this point. It just seems like a complete waste of time. Hitch's art is, of course, very good even with three different inkers.

Quentin by Tarantino ★★★★★
This is more of an illustrated novel than a graphic novel but I have to say that didn't lessen my enjoyment of it at all. It goes really in depth on Tarantino's early life and then each of his films. It's really interesting for any film buff in general and Tarantino fans in particular are going to be like pigs rolling around in the mud with how much they'll enjoy this. It's excellent.

Mike, since we talked about it I came across a Two Face: Year One at the library. It came out as two square bound books. I'm sure I read it before but I forgot it even existed until I saw it on the shelf.

Today's trip to my LCS:

Dead X-Men #4
Ultimate Black Panther #3
Cobra Commander #4
Giant-Size Hulk #1
Avengers: Twilight #5
World's Finest #26
Fall of the House of X #4
Nightwing #113 <--- 300th issue of Nightwing
Titans #10
Roxxon Presents Thor #1
Spectacular Spider-Men #2
Blow Away #1
Animal Pound #3

I'm sure it was just a difference in writers Mike.

There's some other Year One arcs out there if you are looking for more. The most famous one is Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli. It's OK. I think all of the Catwoman stuff has been retconned at this point. Miller made her a prostitute. He also did an awful Superman: Year One a few years ago where Superman can breathe underwater, has mental powers and has sex with a mermaid. Miller's went the way of Neil Adams in his late years, just writing complete nonsense.

There's also a Year Two that Alan Davis drew. I think Mike Barr wrote that one. There's a Robin Year One, a Batgirl Year One. Jeff Lemire did a Robin and Batman miniseries last year that was basically a Year One for the two of them together as well. Mark Waid and Barry Kitson did a cool Justice League Year One series too.

Last week's adventures in comics.

Skybound Presents: Afterschool, Volume 1 ★★
Four horror stories inspired from those afterschool specials of the Eighties. It's difficult to write a one issue horror story. That trend continues here.

The Traveler's Guide to Flogoria ★★★★
It's about a guy filled with anxiety who falls through a portal into another world. One that's a lot like ours but also different. He travels through Flogoria looking for a way back home while being pursued by a corporation who wants to use him to make new products to sell. It's a weird book with nice watercolor art.

Radium Girls ★★★★
A true story about the Radium Girls. They worked in a watch factory in New Jersey painting radium on the dials of watches so they'd glow in the dark. The women were encouraged to lick the brush tips to get a finer point, each time ingesting radium. Even after the girls started getting sick, the company's lawyers drew out the trial trying to wait out the women so that most of them would die before the case was settled. This case was part of the impetus used for getting better workplace protections for workers in place and things like OSHA. Apparently this happened in multiple locations because Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine wrote a song about this same thing happening in his hometown in Illinois.

Kolchak The Night Stalker: Terror Within ★★★
I wasn't even aware these Kolchak comics existed until I came across them at the library. For those of you who aren't aware, Kolchak: The Night Stalker was an old short-lived TV show in the 70s that inspired The X-Files. This features 3 stories from some comic book veterans. It's set in current times instead of the 70s but still maintains the same vibe.

Road Trip to Hell Vol. 1 ★★★
A kid finds out he's the new king of Hell and that his father is Satan. However, every demon and renowned killer from history has escaped from Hell and trying to stop him from taking his throne. It's a fun book actually with exaggerated art reminiscent of Humberto Ramos.

The Incredible Hulk, Vol. 2: War Devils ★★★★
The Hulk and his young friend Charley continue to hobo across the country with the mother of monsters sending creatures after them along the way. This contains 2 3 part stories. The first is in the Southwest where the Hulk comes across a Ghost Rider from World War II along with a monster. Then Danny Earls fills in as artist for a story taking place in New Orleans. Earls art isn't very good. I am digging the horrific transformations Banner goes through when he changes into the Hulk. They are pretty metal.

Stabbity Bunny Vol. 2 ★★★★
The creature behind things is finally revealed as part one of the story ends. There's some good stuff here.

Trakovi: The Slav With No Remorse ★
This couldn't decide what it wanted to be. It's a revenge fantasy wrapped around some Slovenian gangsters in Canada dressed up as superheroes. The art made it extremely difficult to follow at times. It had some Bill Sienkiewicz influences mixed with Tradd Moore and the Pander brothers. At times I quite liked it. Others I couldn't tell at all WTF was happening. There's also the abundant use of a certain curse word that begins with "C" that Americans find very offensive and Brits use all the time, so be aware.

Batman: Wayne Family Adventures, Vol. 2 ★★
Some slight and quick stories revolving around Batman's sidekicks and there's a LOT of them. None of these are very good and this seems to be directed towards a pretty young audience. I'd like to see some actual stories with villains in these. No one's reading Batman for the feel good stories.

Gutt Ghost ★★★
Gutt Ghost is a traditional ghost with a sheet over his head but also his entrails hanging out that he'll sometimes wrap around people who piss him off. The storytelling meanders a lot. It's got a stoner comics vibe to it without any drug use, just that same mundane nothingness vibe to it. This collects all of the one shots including the crossover with Stabbity Bunny which is surprisingly the worst comic included.

Outsiders Vol. 1 ★★★★★
This is easily my favorite thing that Lanzing and Kelly have done. It's not really an Outsiders comic though. It's really Planetary set in the DC universe. This time the group consists of Batwing, Batwoman, Lucius Fox, and the Drummer except the Drummer is now female. They are still doing their "Archeologists of the Impossible" thing. Robert Carey's art is really good. That 6th issue is exceptional. Love that they go to "The Place Between the Pages" where everyone has just lived through a Crisis event or cancellation. Really looking forward to the back half of this series as it looks like we'll get some explanation how this all fits together with the Wildstorm characters.

Resurrection of Magneto ★★★
Three kind of boring issues where Ororo goes to the afterlife to get Magneto back. There's a ton of exposition and the issues are kind of boring. Then one good issue where he's back that leads into Iron Man.

Dark Spaces: Good Deeds ★★★
A completely unrelated story as this Dark Spaces title Scott Snyder created is just kind of a catch all for spooky stories. This one is about a woman and her daughter who move to St. Augustine to open a diner. A disgraced journalist is also headed there for a puff piece to get her career back on track. There some weird things happen including some murders and the plot begins to thicken.

All My Bicycles ★★
A nonlinear biography where a woman talks about little snippets of her life revolving around the tons of bicycles she has owned. It's OK. My biggest takeaway is that she's lived in a lot of places in the Western Hemisphere.

Cyberpunk 2077: XOXO ★
This stunk. I could barely tell what was going on. So many pages of all red art really obscured things. Then interspersing things with that pointless cartoon nonsense. Just completely awful and not worth the paper it's printed on.

Indiginerds ★★★
As with most of these anthologies, some stories are more interesting than others. I didn't think most of these revolved around nerd culture, but just culture in general. My favorite was about a person that started up a bunch of pirate radio stations in Mexico. I didn't like the part where white people tried to take them over and push any minorities out. But it was a really cool and original story, plus it was true.

Tear Us Apart ★★★
Two kids raised in a kung fu murder cult fall for one another and decide to run away. Beset by the rest of the cult, they find some help along the way. Which means they also have something to lose. I liked the use of the limited color palette and the art was solid. This is the rare celebrity co-written comic that wasn't half bad.

Youth Season Two ★★
Not much better than volume one. The story is confused and doesn't make much sense. The art is terrible. I can only tell characters apart from their haircut. Not even the coloring helps because everyone's in shadow so I can't even tell what race a character is to help me differentiate and tell who's who. Then these clowns have the audacity to have their main characters find a comic book from Curt Pires and Alex Diotto and they compare themselves to the terrific Brubaker and Phillips. Oh, the hubris!

Birdking Volume 1 ★★★★
I quite liked this. It's about a teenage apprentice, Bianca, and her father figure smith. They are the last of a line of smiths that can forge magical weapons. Because of this they are the only two left alone in this kingdom perpetually at war. Things happen and Bianca goes on the run with an ancient undead king who has been sitting on his throne in an abandoned castle, the Birdking. This sword and sorcery book is full of dark elements, the kind of which I dig. Crom's art brings to mind if Mike Mignola and Daniel Warren Johnson had a baby.

The United States of Murder Inc. Vol. 1: Truth ★★★★
I'm a huge fan of Powers so I was ecstatic when I saw the same creators were involved in this. The mob more or less operates in the open in New York, Chicago, and Vegas and there's a detente with the government. When a Senator is killed, a newly made man and a hitwoman are blamed and go on the run to determine who actually killed him.

Cheryl ★★
This starts off fine with a woman figuring out in her forties that she's gay. She's obsessed with spiritual alignment and goes on some bad dates with New Age types. Then this thing devolves into being abducted by aliens and visited by a demon. It turned into very much of a WTF is happening?

An Outbreak of Witchcraft: A Graphic Novel of the Salem Witch Trials ★★★★
A well told story, just one that's difficult to read. Over 20 people were murdered basically on the say so of tween girls with no evidence other than the testimony of those who thought they'd be called out too if they didn't comply. People were just making up nonsense stories as "spiritual evidence" and it was taken as fact. (Kind of like stories on the internet.) The prejudices and demagoguery actually remind me of people now and that's difficult to put to paper that that many people could be so stupid and myopic.

Edgeworld Season One (Comixology Originals): A Little Chaos In Your Life ★★★
A solid space western with steady art from Pat Oliff. I gotta say, I didn't expect to like something from Chuck Austen after his terrible Marvel and DC comics but this wasn't bad.

Victory Point ★★★
A quiet and short graphic novel about a woman returning to a small seaside town to visit her dad. Not much happens but I really liked the languid and crisp illustrations.

Mike wrote: "Goodreads won't let me link anything but let me know if you can't find it!"

You can put links in Mike. You just have to fool GR into not thinking it's a link by removing the http://www. and throwing a space in the URL.

All those spammers kept linking to porn and now we can't have nice things.

Today's trip to my LCS.

House of Slaughter #22
Incredible Hulk #11
Invincible Iron Man #17
Resurrection of Magneto #4
Transformers #7
Wolverine #47
Ultimate X-Men #2
Silicon Bandits #1
Batman / Dylan Dog #2
Thundercats #3
Outsiders #6

Shane wrote: "I restarted my X reading when Destiny of X was current, so last night I *finally* started HOX/POX...

Also read 4 kids walk into a bank yesterday, which I quite enjoyed."

Those are some terrific comics Shane. Enjoy!

Mike wrote: "I've moved it and will swear off using the app and just use the website to reply."

I think even GR has sworn off the app. That thing has been plagued with bugs for years. Even when I'm traveling, I still use the website over the app.

I'm right there with you A.G.E. I've been reading the X-Men since the 80's. I finally stopped buying them when Marvel was actively trying to kill off the brand and replace them with the Inhumans because Fox had the movie rights. Most of that era was terrible. I started picking them up all again when the Krakoa age started. The initial Krakoa era comics are fantastic. Well, besides Fallen Angels and Excalibur which were terrible. Around the time of X of Swords, things take a turn. Hickman really scaled back his involvement. I think he's said it had something to do with COVID. Kieron Gillen stepped into his place and his stuff has been good. Some other writers stepped in too, Si Spurrier (who I hate, but others enjoy), Steve Orlando who is terrible. That Marauders comic he did is only good for lining the bottom of a bird cage. Leah Williams is OK. There's probably some others I'm forgetting. Here in the states we're in the last stage of the Krakoan era and all of the comics are ending in May. Then new X-Men books over the summer from Gail Simone, Jed Mackay and Eve Ewing. With the three teams scattered in different places. I'm looking forward to going back to actual team based books. Most of the Krakoan era stopped with characterization and character growth. It was more event driven with little moments with a character before they'd just disappear. Then Benjamin Percy turned Wolverine and X-Force into his personal character assassination of Beast making him worse even than Dark Beast. At this point, I can't wait for it to all be over.

Ed wrote: "I think today is a good day to read about Eclipso.

Hoopla has this one: Justice League of America, Vol. 10: The Rise of Eclipso."

I'm planning to go back and reread some of the event DC did back in the annuals in 1992. Eclipso, the Darkness Within. I'm going to assume they are on DC Infinite. There was an Eclipso series after the success of this too.

Last week's adventures in comics.

The Plastic Empire ★
Oof, this was a slog to get through. It's that old school type of sci-fi that just numbs my brain. I read this 100 page comic and could barely tell you what it was about.

Mooncop ★★★
A droll story about being the only cop on the moon. He has a 100% clearance rate because there's never been a crime. Turns out living on the moon is very quiet and lonely.

The Amazing Spider-Man, Vol 9: Gang War ★★★★
Best arc of this run so far. This is what Spider-Man should be doing, stopping city wide gang wars, not dealing with Limbo or any of that Dark Web nonsense.

Gannibal Vol 1 ★★
Eh, this one didn't thrill me. It's about a local cop in a small town in Japan. His predecessor went missing and kept talking about how members of the town were cannibals. It's kind of boring and a lot of the conflict relies on overreacting with this small town family constantly threatening the cop with guns. Also, this seems to be another manga obsessed with breasts.

Superman: Ending Battle ★★★
Someone has discovered Superman's identity and is going after everyone Clark Kent has ever known. He has to wade through tons of villains including unnamed analogues of Marvel villains. It's a nonstop never ending battle for 8 issues.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture--Echoes ★★★
Star Trek seems to be dipping into the alternate timeline well way too often. That being said, this was solid. It takes place right after Star Trek: The Motion Picture. An Uhuru and Chekov from another universe enter ours with a doomsday weapon in tow. Chekov gives it to the Romulons which , of course, causes a lot of conflict. The problem with these between the numbers stories is that you know how they are going to end because you've already seen what comes after.

The Mighty Barbarians ★★★
Not bad. It's kind of your standard sword and sorcery story. Some evil sorcerer is taking over people's minds and the mighty barbarians have to team up to stop him. They are your proto-Avengers from pulp and mythology. Morgan Le Fey, King Kull, Anansi, Nanook and two other characters I wasn't familiar with.

The Avengers, Vol. 2: Twilight Dreaming ★★★
The Avengers fight another team from another dimension that seems somewhat based on King Arthur's court. The overarching plot doesn't get advanced a whole lot. In the last issue, Jarvis comes to the Impossible City to work for the Avengers again. This run has been OK so far, but not to the level of Mackay's other work for Marvel yet.

Star Trek: Day of Blood ★★★
A solid crossover of IDW's ongoing Star Trek All-Stars comics. A faction of the Klingons are trying to take over the empire and killing everyone with everyone else stuck on Qo'noS. Not as much happens as I would have expected. It's mainly a lot of running around. Still it was fine. That Lower Decks issue was unnecessary but pretty funny.

Star-Crossed ★★
This starts off well enough, with a first contact scenario. But then one of the scientists decides to get his willy wet with an alien instead of following any kind of logical protocol with mankind's first alien encounter. He just goes all Captain Kirk and does whatever he wants, while there's all these really heavy handed references to racism, including the main character's backstory. It just turns kind of comically bad. Like a toned down, weirdo porn story you'd find on the internet somewhere.

Carnage Reigns ★★★
I'll just start by saying that I hate Carnage. He may be the least interesting villain at Marvel. So he's crazy and kills people nonstop. That's not at all interesting. Still, with Miles and the Red Goblin involved, it's not half bad. Carnage has taken over a building and that's just the start. He's gained some new powers and is living in an Iron Man suit, no longer having the symbiote. You probably need to read the previous 12 issues of Carnage's book to get all of the why. It didn't really affect the story much though. All you need to know is that Carnage is a nutjob. Miles Morales and this Cape Killer crew are trying to stop him.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man, Vol. 2: Bad Blood ★★
Eh, not great. The story is OK. The art is subpar. It starts off with a two-parter with Hobgoblin that's really bland. Meanwhile, Miles is struggling with some anxiety after everything that's happened to him lately. This Hightail character keeps popping up and making a nuisance of herself. She's kind of annoying. Then we get to two terrible issues with Blade and Bloodline. Miles gets this stupid new costume for hunting vampires that looks ridiculous. You'd think Marvel is making toys from it or something with how blatant it is.

Tolkien: Lighting Up The Darkness ★★
Unfortunately, this wasn't very good. It's about J.R.R. Tolkein's life. Well it's mostly about his teenage years at school and his time in World War I. It's overfilled with passages of reciting poetry instead of actual information about Tolkein's life. And nothing about his time after the war is in there

Cherry Blackbird ★★★
A solid story about a rock star who sold her soul to a demon. She has one year left on her deal when the demon shows up offering to let her out of her deal if she sends seven demons back to Hell before she turns 27 (It's always 27 in the rock world.). This thing is definitely for adults only. It's extremely graphic with things like (view spoiler)[the demon getting out of hell by climbing out of a guy's butt during sex. (hide spoiler)]

Mucho Mojo: A Hap and Leonard Graphic Novel ★★★
Joe Lansdale is a good writer so I was excited to see he'd adapted some of his Hap and Leonard novels into comics. In this one, Hap inherits his uncle's house and the two stumble into the hunting grounds of a serial killer.

Batman, Vol. 2: The Bat-Man of Gotham ★★★★
Batman has been sent to another universe by Failsafe. A universe with no Batman or Bruce Wayne. It's the darkest timeline as everyone's amped up on Venom and residents are being sent to Arkham for being "insane". And we get something of an answer to "Is there only a Joker because there's a Batman?" I really like that Zdarsky has a long term plan and these arcs seem to be building one atop another. Good stuff.

Four Eyes: A Graphic Novel ★★★
A true story about the author having to get glasses when he gets to sixth grade. His mom and step dad are pretty poor and his rich dad is a jerk. Of course, like every kid his age, he can be pretty terrible as well. It takes place in the 90s so kids today may find it a little dated, especially with how much nerdy stuff like comics and video games are accepted nowadays. We had to keep that stuff on the down low growing up.

Namesake ★★
The premise of this book is pretty good, it's the execution and trying to pack in 6 years of worldbuilding into a 4 issue story that's lacking. It's set on a world where a fantasy world crosses with ours for a week ever 7 years. This guy has two fathers, neither of which he grew up with. He receives a magic orb filling in what happened with his fathers when he was a baby. Then it becomes an action revenge story as he has to release their ashes on this fantasy world. This thing is packed with so much fake slang that it's distracting. I was constantly trying to figure out what was being said instead of following the story. I almost needed a translator. It would not surprise me at all to find out this was originally a much longer story that Boom then told Orlando, "Well you've got 4 issues." and that's where he biffed it.

The Nobody ★★★
Lemire's version of The Invisible Man if it was set in rural Canada. It's OK. It's basically Griffin sitting in a seedy motel room for 3 issues.

I was a huge Cerebus fan as well although I never got to meet Sim. I've got all of the phone books up to Women when I switched over to reading it monthly as it came out. I finally stopped years later when most of each issue turned into diatribes railing on people in the back and there were only a few pages of boring story that would go nowhere. Those early phone books are terrific even though I haven't reread them in years. I also have a statue kit somewhere in the basement of Cerebus that I never have finished that Sim designed with Barry Windsor-Smith.