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

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

Last week's light comic book reads.

Ms Tree: Heroine Withdrawal ★★★★
More terrific noir from Max Allen Collins and Terry Beatty. Ms. Tree is a private eye who tends to shoot first, meting out her own form of justice. If this one, Dan gets framed for the murder of the head of the Muerta mob. Then there's a case involving an abortion clinic.

Captain America: Cold War Aftermath ★★
For an ending that felt very rushed in the final issue, the preceding issues felt bloated. You could honestly not even read this and it wouldn't make much difference to what's came so far and where it's probably headed in J. Michael Straczynski's new run. This whole century game deal just wasn't very interesting to me.

Zatanna & The Ripper Volume One ★★
Zatanna gets transported back in time to the days of Jack the Ripper in this Webtoon book. Given the subject this was surprisingly boring.

Strangers In Paradise Volume One ★★★★★
It's been a few years so it's time for another edition of Strangers in Paradise. This time in 4 volumes collecting the entire 107 issues across a gazillion publishers. Terry Moore is one of my favorite comic book creators, specifically because of this series. While everyone else was drawing over muscled superheroes, Moore created this unique and hilarious series with a darker side to it. Moore is a gifted storyteller. He makes being an artist look so easy. These characters express so much emotion but never overdoing it. It's just chef's kiss. His writing is often hilarious. But sometimes the story turns darker as we delve into the Parker Girls. This still remains at the top of the pile when it comes to my all time favorite comics.

When I Arrived at the Castle ★★
While the art is beautiful, the story didn't make any sense. It's some lesbian horror thing with a werecat arriving at a castle to kill a vampire and then this dreamlike, sensual dance of nonsense occurs on the rest of the pages.

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. The Bund was a bunch of Nazi sympathizers. In the now, a new threat is rising. A human powered by a demon. It's good stuff. So is Jesus Saiz's art.

Red Sonja Vol. 3: Children's Crusade ★★★
Even though Red Sonja won her war, the people have no food. She heads to another nation to beg for food and the tyrant prince puts her in charge of his armies in exchange for food for her people. The only problem is that all the able bodied men have already died leaving her with boys for soldiers. It's a unique take on the nature of war and if it's worth it.

Red Sonja Vol. 4: Angel of Death ★★★
Mark Russell's time on Red Sonja ends with her abdicating her throne in order to go after a tyrant she had a hand in making.

After Eden ★
I liked some of Chitwood's other comics but this was not good. It's about what happened to Adam and Eve after they were forced out of Eden. Most of it if from the perspective of their two guardian angels as they protect them from two demons. It felt like it was written by 10-year-olds in bible school.

Afterburn ★★★
A massive solar flare destroyed one side of the world. Now this group of survivors rescues treasures from that side of the world for the rich. It's a decent B movie plot going on here.

Download ★★★★
This was good. Chitwood's comics tend to be better when he works with Luckert. The art is certainly better as well. This is about 3 kids, one of who is hit by a beam of light and then starts receiving visions of machines to build. So he starts building them even though they don't know what they do, some of which are incredibly powerful. They try them out by trial and error until they start getting scared by burning holes through multiple walls and the like. Things escalate from there until we get an explanation and a good time.

Vampirella: Feary Tales ★★★
A horror anthology in honor of Vampirella's 45th anniversary. It's an ode to all the old Warren comics. Vampirella gets sucked into a book of fairy tales and has to get through all of them to escape. She plagued by a narrator who makes awful puns along the way. It was actually quite fun.

Vampirella Bites ★★
Four one shots spoofing other horror TV shows and movies. We have stories about Twilight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, True Blood and Dexter. All slightly changed so Dynamite doesn't get into trouble and none of them done very well.

Through the Woods ★★★★★
Five dark short stories fit for middle schoolers into the macabre and those older as well. The artwork is fantastic. Carroll often switches away from traditional paneling letting the art define the panels. She also steers clear of traditional exposition lettering, putting it directly on the page but in a way that is still easy to read. The difference give the stories more of a dark fairy tale feel to them. This is a terrific read for tales that are sinister but not too graphic.

Shane wrote: "I’m re-reading Sandman this month. It’s the first time in a couple decades, and brings back a lot of memories. There’s also a lot I appreciate differently as a grown up. I put this off for a while ..."

I did a re-read of Sandman a year or so ago and thought it was just as good as when I was reading it monthly as it was released.

Dingleberg wrote: "Just got done reading The Riddler: Year One HC. Wasn’t a huge fan of the movie, but someone suggested this to me and I enjoyed it. I felt like it did great laying out why the Riddler is the way he ..."

I'm glad to hear it's good. I've been curious about it but Paul Dano writing it had steered me away from it so far. I didn't care for the movie either. Incels as the villain didn't do it for me. That's a little too much like real life.

Michael wrote: "This is the selection for January 2024, correct? - - - even though the sub-heading says January 2023."

Yep. That's just a typo no one else even caught.

Last week's light comic book reads.

Harlem ★★★
The story of Queenie, a self made woman during the Harlem renaissance who runs a numbers game in Harlem. She refuses to back down to anyone including Dutch Schultz or the police who are both looking to end her rule of the area.

Heart Attack ★★
An OK update of the X-Men in a post COVID world. 30 years in the future variants were created due to some gene therapy or the like. It's only vaguely explained. The powers don't really matter either. It's about the disenfranchised in Austin and some wall that was built around a section of it. None of the setup makes a lot of sense. The storytelling gets better after the initial setup is forced to tell the story the creators want to tell. The main two characters fall in love out of nowhere after one night together. It mainly an extension of the politics that have taken place since Trump came on the political scene, just expanded and extrapolated for vague superpowers.

The Werewolf at Dusk: And Other Stories ★★★
A collection of three stories, two of which are adapted from other authors. The title story is about a werewolf that has grown old, both in his human and werewolf form and is no longer as dangerous as he used to be.

Monomyth ★★★
A story about 7 people who arrive at a haunted castle where they are told the last one standing will gain magic. It's alright. Much isn't explained. You're just supposed to accept what you are given with little backstory or worldbuilding to support it.

Ink Girls ★★★★
A middle school graphic novel about the power of the press. It's set in the Italian Renaissance. It's about a girl who is learning to be a printer. Her Mestro is arrested for printing papers that implicate the city's magistrate for extortion. Her apprentice, Cincia, escapes meeting the Principesca along the way. The two sneak out of the palace in order to gather evidence to save Cincia's Mestro. From there it's all about tracking down sources and getting them to vet things while hiding from the palace guard in order to save the day. It's a great story of people rising up to take back the power from those exploiting them. The art is detailed and bright, propelling the story. This is an all out terrific read for kids.

Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham ★★★★
One of those Elseworld books where everything just clicks. Batman's world easily mashes up with Lovecraftian horror. Mignola has a long history with C'thulhu and it shows. I would have liked to see the Wayne family's backstory expanded and the Robins be more than cannon fodder but all in all a well crafted story with great coloring and pretty good art from Troy Nixey.

Batman - Santa Claus: Silent Knight ★★★★
This is way better than it has a right to be. Batman and most of the Justice League team up with Santa Claus. I like how they lean into the Norse version of Santa making him part of the Wild Hunt. If anyone has ever read any of The Dresden Files, it uses some similar mythology. There's a good chance I'll be digging this back out in future Yuletide seasons.

Predator versus Wolverine ★★
This was fine. A Predator keeps hunting Wolverine through his various eras, Alaska wilderness, the Team X days, Weapon X, Japan, early days of the X-Men, etc. I mean, you knew how it was going to end.

How War Begins: Dispatches from the Ukrainian Invasion ★★★★
Terrible reports of what is happening in Ukraine from the earliest days of the war. Some of these are harrowing. This will really make you feel for the people of Ukraine who just want to go on with their lives while Russia is bombing entire cities down to rubble.

Conquest: Julius Caesar's Gallic War: A Historical Memoir & Graphic Novel ★★
This was like reading a dusty text book. It's filled with a gazillion different European tribes and characters as Caesar conquers most of Europe.

Timeless (2023) #1 ★★★★
Marvel's comic that they put out each year to tease the year's upcoming stories. This one is about an Old Man Luke Cage fighting Old Man Moon Knight for the fate of the Earth. I quite liked it and I can't always say that about Lanzing's and Kelly's writing.

From the World of Minor Threats: The Alternates ★★★
This was alright. It felt like something that would have popped up at Vertigo back in the day. Don't expect Patton Oswalt's humor in this. This is a straight up take on minor superheroes that have saved the world. They spent years in another dimension where they reached their full potential. Now they are back in the real world and have formed a support group now that they are back to their normal minor selves.

Immortal X-Men, Vol. 4 ★★★★
The only Fall of X book that truly matters. This explains what's going on and sets up the future. A lot of the other Fall of X titles are little more than filler.

X-Force, Vol. 8 ★★★
It FINALLY comes to a head that Colossus is being controlled by his brother. For once, this arc was pretty solid. Maybe, because for once it wasn't about the Beast turning evil. I am curious about this new direction although I'd be more excited about a new writer on this book.

Life Is Strange Vol. 6: Settling Dust ★★
This is the epilogue to the game that makes the game pointless. And it is boring. It's the happy ending to every movie that doesn't have one.

Dungeon: Twilight - Vol. 1: Dragon Cemetery ★★
I had no idea what was going on here. There may have been some things lost in the translation to English. This is set on some fantasy world where the main character is walking somewhere to die. There's lots of absurdity and very little of it makes any sense.

Book of Butcher ★★★★
Like last year's Book of Slaughter, this was some good stuff in a thick square-bound format. It's set in the Something Is Killing the Children universe. It follows Maxine Slaughter in her training to be a black mask. She's training down in New Orleans and the story is interspersed with illustrated pages from the Book of Boucher. It documents all of the known monster types out there including several never seen before along with traditional monsters like vampires, werewolves and zombies. I'm very curious how soon Maxine's story is going to collide with Erica's.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles x Stranger Things ★★★
This worked better than I thought it would. It takes place right before season 3 of Stranger Things and uses the original 80's version of the Turtles. The kids are in New York on a field trip when they are attacked by demodogs. Someone has opened a portal in the subways under NYC. Things escalate from there.

Scum and Villainy ★★★
Some fluffy stories featuring characters on the skeevier side of Star Wars. The stories are all one and done and don't pack much of a punch. This is really only for the completists out there.

Rosa Parks ★★★★
A story that needs to be retold every few years because people keep forgetting things like this happened only 60 years ago and keep rising back up.

Magical History Tour Vol. 7: Ghandi ★★★
A good primer for kids on Gandhi's life. It's not going to get super into details but what do you expect for a book for children.

Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons ★★
Setting Godzilla's monsters back in the time of settling the New World is actually pretty smart if done well. Seaman talked of sea monsters all the time back then and they would appear on maps. This only worked OK though.

Hound ★★
An extremely dark story about a new soldier arriving to the front during World War I. Due to his experience working in sewers, he's assigned to the Hounds, a group that goes off on its own, always wearing gas masks. He's given an initiation that he must pass in order to stay alive. Things continue to head south from there.

I Run to Make My Heart Beat ★★
This story was all over the place. It's adapted from a book but not all that well. It's about a girl in Paris who is part Jewish, part Senegalese. It starts off with her getting kicked out of ballet at 14 for having darker skin. Then the story jumps ahead to college without telling you. It took me about half the book to pick that up. For some reason, she's recruited to run track but it seems like it's outside of school. (Maybe that works differently in France.) There she's sexually assaulted by the hammer throwers but she tells no one and is told the track program will be shut down if she tells anyone. The focus doesn't seem to be about that though even though she went through a violent assault by three men. Instead it becomes about a boy on the track team that Nina likes. This plot is so scattered it makes my head hurt.

Stray Dogs: Dog Days ★★
Trying to milk what was a fantastic series for a few more dollars. The original miniseries was terrific. This was almost all little vignettes about each dog before they came to live on the Farm. Some of them even showing the master attacking his victims while the dogs are oblivious to what's happening.

Janus Silang and the Struggle for Kalibutan: Volume Two in the Janus Silang Saga ★★
I know these books are super popular in the Philippines but I had no idea what was happening in this adaptation reading it in America. There needs to be a glossary to look up all of these terms that are only found in Filipino folklore. It's a frustrating read of nonstop exposition.

Vixen NYC Volume One ★★★
This was originally on Webtoon and it sometimes shows in the paneling. Webtoon comics are out of continuity. In this Vixen comes to NYC to attend college. She has just inherited the totem from her grandmother and has no idea

Zombillenium, Vols. 5-6: Black Friday/Sabbath Grand Derby ★★★★
Vol. 5 is a fight to save the guests in the park from being sacrificed to Hell while Vol. 6 is a combination of quidditch and roller derby between witches.

Gold Goblin ★
I'm not sure how this even became a comic book. It's almost incoherent. Then dumping it in the Dark Web event in issue #2 made it even more confusing. This feels like Joe Quesada's kid was given the greenlight to make a comic book.

Edge of Spider-Verse ★★
More Spider-People variants. Are we done with this yet?

Today's trip to the LCS.

Doctor Strange #11
Shazam #7
Fall of the House of X #1
Birds of Prey #5
Captain America #5

I read it last year when it came out. It was a lot of fun and Chiang's art is terrific.

I set the same reading goal I've set for the last 5+ years. A thousand graphic novels and books for the year. (Uh, I read a lot!)

Red wrote: "just got my hands on Postal the Complete Collection. got through the first story arc, a shit load more to go"

Read that a few years ago. I thought it was pretty good.

Red wrote: "I've been using the Libby app for all my comic checkouts."

Check out hoopla too if you have access from your library. Ours has both. With hoopla you get a set number of downloads every month, for my library it's 15. But it has trades from almost every comic book company so there are literally thousands of graphic novels there including a lot of small press stuff. Each publisher has its own agreement but a lot of them have the trades same day they are released. All you need is your library card number to access it, www.hoopla.com.

Red wrote: "I've been using the Libby app for all my comic checkouts. I haven't picked up lock and key I tried watching the show and couldn't get through first couple episodes so that was kind of a deterrent f..."

I've only made it through the first season of the show. The comic is way better. There's a cool crossover with Sandman from a couple of years ago too.

Welcome Red. Have you checked out Hoopla? It's a great way to get access to thousands of comics. Also, have you read Locke and Key? It's one of my favorite horror comics.

Last week's adventures in comics.

The Fox Maidens ★★★
Based on some of the Korean folklore about fox demons. This could almost be split up into three books. The first third is about a girl in Korea's past who's father lets her train in the martial arts with the other men and her brothers in the household. Then it shifts gears completely into the fox demon's story after not having any supernatural elements at all. The last third is a love story of redemption. It's fine but probably should have been edited down some.

Superman Vol. 1: Supercorp ★★★★
Joshua Williamson takes over Superman. The book has more of an irreverent tone that Williamson and Campbell make work. Actually Campbell is a great choice for this kind of storytelling. Luthor is in jail but wants to help Superman for some reason. He's even given LexCorp over to Superman, hence SuperCorp. Perry White is on sabbatical leaving Lois as the new Editor-in-Chief while Jimmy is in love, with someone very surprising. It's all a whole lot of fun which I believe we can never have enough of in comics. The only thing I can say I don't like so far is the character designs for the new main bad guys, Dr. Pharm and Graft. Shirtless but with shoulder length gloves is quite the fashion statement, just not a good one.

The Great British Bump-Off ★★
The creative team behind Giant Days reteams for this combination of Agatha Christie and The Great British Bake Off. This is so over the top as to be a farce.

Hawkeye: Bishop Takes King ★★★★
Set in the comic Marvel universe, not the movie one. The story is about Kate Bishop getting in the middle of a search against the Kingpin for some books that can provide untold power. America Chavez is also in it as Kate's best friend. Poston writes Hawkeye in a way that fits in perfectly with her comics. It's got the mentor / mentee thing going on with the other Hawkeye, Clint Barton. There's a few other cameos. This is much better than a novel set in the Marvel universe has a right to be.

Stranger Things: Tales from Hawkins ★★★
These are some pretty inconsequential little side stories. They are made better by Jody Houser writing them. However, it doesn't remove the fact that Dark Horse has picked the Stranger Things carcass clean.

Young Hellboy: Assault on Castle Death ★★★
Kid Hellboy is hallucinating from a fever. He's jetting around the BPRD, thinking he's fighting monsters with Lobster Johnson while in reality he really is being pursued by a monk who is trying to kill him.

After: The Graphic Novel ★
Oh my god, this was terrible. This may be the most unrealistic version of college life I've ever read. This girl breaks up with her long term boyfriend for a severely toxic guy covered in tattoos and piercings. She goes from a virgin to living with this guy in less than two months. It's all so terribly stupid. Then the big ending made me want to throw my tablet across the room. Give me a goddamn break. How is this so popular that they turned this series of novels into graphic novels? It's like bad fan fiction. Who knows, maybe it'll be the next Fifty Shades of Gray except even worse.

Avengers: Unleashed, Vol. 1: Kang War One ★★★★
Spider-Man is a welcome addition to the book. When good writers get a hold of Spidey, he works wonderfully in the Avengers. His quips keep the book fun, his leaping and bounding gives the book a real sense of motion, and he can fill the Iron Man role of science whiz. The dialogue on the book is snappy and witty and the book is just fun.

Call Me Iggy ★★★★★
Iggy (Ignacio) is entering his Freshman year of high school in Columbus, OH. He's the child of first generation immigrants from Columbia. He's what they call a Gringo Latino as he doesn't speak Spanish and knows little of his parents' culture. He takes Spanish in order to meet a girl and is having difficulty until one day he knocks over his Abuelito's urn in the basement. From that moment on, he can talk with his grandfather's ghost. The book is really well done. You really get a look at different view points from different families and how they think of themselves. I had a very interesting time with this.

Uncanny Avengers (2023): The Resistance. ★★★
Captain America creates a new Avengers Unity squad to track down Captain Krakoa and find out who this guy posing as Cyclops really is. It's exactly who you expect unfortunately. I think that character is dumb. For some reason, issue #5 ends with Rogue back in her evil Rogue costume she first appeared in in Avengers Annual #10 with that awful haircut. Hope that doesn't stick.

Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures, Vol. 2 ★★★
I was excited to see Maz Tanaka and Dexter Jettster in this, even if it's just barely. I guess both species live for an extremely long time. It's about a new Padawan who has went undercover with a pirate gang that Maz is running. She's been captured and these guys are trying to get her back. It's mostly fighting across Jedha and Takodana but has a lighter tone for younger readers with the main character having some self doubt. It's honestly better than any of the Phase II novels I've read.

Hunt. Kill. Repeat. Vol. 1 ★★★
The Greek gods return taking over the Earth and ruling through fear. Artemis has found love and secretly pregnant. But Zeus will have none of it when he finds out. Ten years later Artemis returns out for revenge and starts taking out the other Gods.

Kang: The Saga of the Once and Future Conqueror ★★★★
As random collections of Kang comics go, this had some pretty good stories in it.

Timeless (2021) #1 ★★★★
Kang gathers a travelling companion to show how great he is. A pirate timeline tries to hijack the main timeline leaving Kang to fight a version of Doom.

Symbiote Spider-Man: King in Black ★★★
Set back in the day when Peter Parker was wearing the black suit after Secret Wars. Because it's set so long ago, the King in Black tie in seems nebulous, but Peter David makes it work. Still it's Spider-Man teaming up with a ton of characters (The Black Knight, Rocket Raccoon, Kang, Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau edition), the Watcher, Ulik and more) to fight symbiotes so it's entertaining.

Order and Outrage Volume 1 ★★
This was alright. It's got that old school sci-fi comic vibe you'd expect from Jim Starlin. It's just that very little is explained. A woman walks into a temple, it blows up and she gets powers and starts taking down the Order. The back and forth between two different time periods every time you flipped the page got old real quick as well.

Wolverine, Vol. 7 ★★★
Wolverine tours the planet going on little missions against Orchis while hiding in the shadows. He teams up with the Hulk, Captain America, Black Panther and Spider-Man along the way.

Death Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake: Book 2 ★★★★
A fun comic for kids. The art is soft and sweet like ice cream. Sparkles the unicorn and Death are best friends. Sparkles is the only unicorn left but in the past, unicorns were awful to some moles and now the moles are out for revenge. They are all after the Sacred Golden Cupcake. The moles in order to remove a curse, Sparkles because he thinks it has magical powers. The story is irreverent and fun.

Panya: The Mummy's Curse ★★
Panya's history centuries ago in Egypt. It's all very lackluster. I think Mignola needs someone else to partner up with besides Chris Roberson. He's been phoning these Hellboy related stories in for years now.

Uncanny Spider-Man: Fall of X ★★★
This was alright but I feel like it could have been better in other hands than Spurrier's. The through story's not that coherent. Nightcrawler has returned to some of his fun roots but still seems out of character given he was a priest. He curses and leaps into bed at the drop of a hat. There is a difference between character growth and ignoring the past.

Hide: The Graphic Novel ★★★★
I haven't read the novel this is adapted from yet, but I think this stands well on its own. It follows some tropes but is done well. It's part Hunger Games, part And Then There Were None. It's about 14 twenty somethings invited to a defunct amusement park. They are playing Hide and Seek and then the winner collects 50 grand. Of course, that's not the real story at all.

A Visit to Moscow ★★★★
In 1965, a rabbi went with a group of rabbis to Russia on a speaking tour and to see if they could learn if reports they'd heard about conditions for the Jews there were true. What he told no one is that he'd been contacted by the sister of a Jewish man who lived in Russia. She hadn't heard from him in over 10 years and wanted to make sure he was OK. So one day of the trip in Leningrad, he pretends to be sick and wanders off to find this man. He finds more than he could have imagined.

X-Men Blue: Origins (2023) #1 ★★
This was packed with stupid retconning along with one of the dumbest panels I've ever seen of a woman giving birth.


The Plot Holes ★★★★
This is a real high concept book. It's about characters from different books that are entering other books before they are published and editing them to make them better in order to keep them from getting trashed. Yeah, I know it doesn't sound like it would work, but Murphy gives it his all and it does. Sean Murphy's art is just as terrific as it always is.

Takio ★★★
Bendis and Oeming make a comic for their kids. There's not a whole lot to this. It's a real basic story about two sisters who get super powers and have to fight off the mad scientist who accidentally gave them to them and his daughter who happens to be Taki's best friend. This is a Bendis book you can safely let your kids read.

Doctor Strange by Jed MacKay Vol.. 2: the War-Hound of Vishanti ★★★★
The Vishanti forced Doctor Strange to fight in a war for 5,000 years and then split off his General self leaving him with no memory of those events. General Strange was warped after 5,000 years of fighting losing his humanity. Now he's broke free of his prison and plans on taking control. It's a heady idea, one that MacKay makes work. I really like what he's doing here. Ferry's work on the series is really good too. He's giving the book a classic Steve Ditko look that I think looks really cool for these alien dimensions.

Today's trip to the LCS.

Duke #1 <--- G.I. Joe's return to Image
Timeless #1 <--- This year's Marvel one-shot to setup 2024
The Penguin #5
Book of Butcher <--- A Something Is Killing the Children squarebound one shot
Predator Versus Wolverine #3
Predator Versus Wolverine #4
Titans #6
Titans: Beast World #3
Batman - Santa: Silent Knight #4
Immortal X-Men #18
X-Force #47

Today's trip to the LCS. It was a big week.

Incredible Hulk #7
Original X-Men #1
Batman - Superman / World's Finest #22
Doctor Strange #10
Uncanny Avengers #5
Nightwing #109
The Plot Holes #5
Wolverine #40
Geiger: Ground Zero #2
The Deviant #2
Justice League Vs Godzilla Vs Kong #3
Snow White Zombie Apocalypse #5
Batman - Santa Claus: Silent Knight #3
Uncanny Spider-Man #5
Animal Pound #1 <--- New Boom mini from Tom King and Peter Gross
G.O.D.S. #3
The Devil That Wears My Face #3

Mike wrote: "I have never even thought of looking into digital comics, thank you! I do like my physical volumes although an arthritic thumb on one hand and carpel tunnel on the other make reading the omnibuses quite uncomfortable. This could be a great way of reading some of the lesser issues and just getting the key graphic novels instead."

That's pretty much what I do. I only buy the graphic novels that I know I'll read again and again. If I know I'm only going to read it once, I'll read it digitally if it's Marvel or DC. Comixology Unlimited is an abomination that makes reading a series almost impossible. Plus Amazon fired the entire Comixology staff and I'd rather not promote that business model.

Last week's adventures in comics.

H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth ★★★
Tanabe continues his Lovecraft adaptations with the only full length book of Lovecraft's that was published in his lifetime. This is long, really long. 450 pages long which is extremely long for a graphic novel. Lovecraft wasn't the best writer and this is a faithful adaptation so it takes a LONG time to get going. It's about a man travelling through Massachusetts. He hears word of a town, that is turning into a ghost town. The only way to reach it is by a daily bus. Many of the inhabitants there are mutating. When he finally finds out what happened there, he learns he has to spend the night and that's where the book really picks up.

The World After the Fall, Vol. 1 ★★
In the near future these towers spring up around the Earth killing off much of the population and challenging people to get to the top. This whole thing uses a lot of video game logic instead of common sense so a lot of this won't make sense. As people climb the tower, items pop up like video games and about half way through the crux of the story changes. That's when it really lost me. At that point, I was thinking "Well, this is kind of stupid." It did not get better after that.

Villains Are Destined to Die, Vol. 1 ★
This was so stupid. It's about a girl who is basically a modern day Cinderella who then gets sucked into a video game where she has to try and get the best catch in the Victorian age while being labeled a villain. You know what's not interesting? Comics about video games. You know how to make them even less interesting. Set them 150 years ago and make them about trying to get boys to like you.

Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 7 ★★★★
This series continues to be excellent even with these larger 15 issue arcs. The 2nd major story winds up as Erica, Cutter and the Duplicyte are on a collision course.

Captain America: Cold War ★★★
This was fine. Kind of lackluster though for an event. Both Captains and the gang head to Dimension Z to fight the White Wolf and Bucky. The White Wolf is especially lame in this and lacking all of his smarts he had in the Christopher Priest Black Panther series.

Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings ★★★
Gene Luen Yang finishes up his Shang-Chi run with this last miniseries. Shang-Chi is reluctant to use the Ten Rings now that he has them because of their corrupting influence. Everyone else wants them though.

Dead Company, Volume 1 ★★
This was very flat and uninteresting. It's about a guy who is completely unqualified to join a video game company but gets the job because he survived a real life battle royale three years ago where he was the only survivor. The company makes survival horror games and would like his input. I bet you can instantly guess where this is headed. The dialogue is stilted and feels like it was written by AI. The art is manga standard. I couldn't pick it out of a lineup.

Weeaboo ★
This was a complete dud. It's about 3 friends in their senior year in high school. They are all in their own stories as they prepare to go to a comicon at the end of the year. The story is all over the place. I often had no idea what was going on. There were long passages of an anime show in this and a play, neither of which added anything to the story and completely take you out of what is going on.

Elfquest: Stargazer's Hunt Volume 1 ★★
Elfquest is apparently not a series for the uninitiated. I've always heard about it and decided to check this out when it popped up as a bonus borrow on Hoopla. I felt like I was reading a comic in a foreign language. I had no idea what was going on or even what some of the words meant as they have their own words for certain things. Apparently, you need to be undaunted enough to start at the beginning if you have interest in this series even if this is a number one. For me, I'll go back to being oblivious of this series.

X-Men Red, Vol. 4 ★★★★
Apocalypse's wife, Genesis, has returned to Arrako bringing Civil War with her with Storm's forces in opposition. There's some cool stuff here as we close out X-Men Red. Storm shows just why she may be the most powerful mutant of them all. If a perfect world, this title would go one for several more years but Marvel has other plans.

Deadbox: The Complete Series ★★★
An anthology of weird stories taking place in this small town. They revolve around a Redbox filled with unreleased movies. This was OK. But Mark Russell has done far better.

Star Wars: The High Republic, Vol. 1: There Is No Fear ★★★
After sticking to the prose side of the High Republic, I finally decided to venture into the graphic novel side. It's fine, which is what you can mostly say about the High Republic era in general. It's written from the perspective of a new jedi knight. She goes to help a remote colony where they meet the Drengir. I believe this is their first appearance.

Dark X-Men ★★
After the Fall of X, Some random X-Men go to Madelaine Pryor, now that there is a Limbo Embassy in NYC after the events of Dark Web. There's not a lot of story here and most of the characters other than Madelaine don't get much screen time. I'm honestly not sure why they made this series given the lack of direction here. This could have been much more interesting. I do like Jonas Scharf's art.

World's Finest: Teen Titans ★★★★
Mark Waid extends his little jaunts to DC's past with this World's Finest spin off mini series. It's mainly one and done stories set when the Titans were all sidekicks to DC's superheroes.

House of Slaughter, Vol. 4: Alabaster ★★★
Boy, I don't know how some of these characters can talk so much without saying anything. This is about a mute boy who is missing his arms called Bait. He has a penchant for getting through impossible situations. He's sent undercover to a group home in a small town that has had an inordinate amount of deaths in it. At this point, I just think Sam Johns isn't a very good writer. It may be time to drop this companion series if it's not going to be more consistent.

Book of Slaughter #1 ★★★★
This square bound one shot contextualizes a lot of the worldbuilding in the Something Is Killing the Children / House of Slaughter universe. The middle of it is text explaining how the Houses work and the like. The story surrounding it introduces a couple of new characters which will probably show up in the main books in the future.

IMMORTAL THOR VOL. 1: ALL WEATHER TURNS TO STORM ★★★★
Al Ewing takes over Thor and brings him back to his Kirbyian roots (at least in appearance) while maintaining that Thor is the ruler of Asgard. There's a new threat out there, with some Elder Gods in the vein of the Titans versus the Greek Gods. I really like what Ewing is doing with Loki, reminding us again that Loki should be androgynous shifting back and forth between his male and female versions while having their own agenda which will ultimately probably end up helping Thor. I also like that this version of Thor has learned to use his brain instead of just throwing a punch (or in Thor's case, a hammer.)

Mike wrote: "Spawn, Compendium 1 I'm enjoying my romp through Spawn, but know I didn't get past issue 98 before so we'll see how far I get."

I just did a read through of Spawn of the first 300+ issues the last 2 months, plus all of the ancillary spinoffs I could find at the library. Overall, it's alright. It certainly has its highs and lows, with a real low coming after issue #100. Angel Medina's art is so freaking bad and it lasts for 50 issues.

I am surprised you'd say George Perez's art is mediocre. I can get not liking the story. It was written almost 40 years ago and comics were written a lot differently then. But George Perez is one of the greatest artists of the era. But to each their own.

If you at all read digital comics, check out www.humblebundle.com. I got all of Spawn through 2 Humble Bundles digitally for $30. I'd never pay full price for Spawn, but $30 was about the right price for all of Spawn and Savage Dragon. Get on their mailing list and they'll notify you when they have a new comic book bundle available. It's usually every couple of weeks.

Welcome Mike,

If you're into reading comics digitally, DC Universe and Marvel Unlimited are fantastic ways to catch up on back issues without breaking the bank or having to worry about storage (which takes up a large portion of my basement). They are probably running specials for the holidays as well. DC's Ultra tier even has full trades on there.

I buy comics every week at my LCS and then supplement with digital comics since a yearly subscription to the whole shebang is the price of 1 or 2 monthly comics over the course of a year.

Canavan wrote: "A ton of things still remain on my to-be-read pile. For example, someone here (sorry, I don’t remember who) recommended Joe Hill’s Locke & Key. I fully intended to read the series during the month of October, but simply failed to carve out sufficient time. Maybe next October!."

That could have been me. It's one of my favorite comics of the last 15 years. I've read through all of it a few times. The good thing is by waiting there's a couple more things you can read. These days Hill and Rodriguez just return occasionally for one-shots and miniseries featuring ancestors of the Locke's. Now there's another miniseries and a crossover with Sandman you can add to the pile. The Sandman crossover is done exceptionally well, without messing up the existing mythos of Sandman. Every time Locke and Key releases a new one shot, IDW rereleases the same collection of one-shots with the new one added. It's a case where buying the one-shots is ultimately cheaper than buying yet another collection of mostly the same stuff.