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

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

Max wrote: "I liked her Longshot book a lot. In hindsight, it was a mess, but the character interactions were enduring and Mojo is still one of the most unique villains I've read"

You are right in that it's one of her few bright spots and Longshot is one of my favorite X-Men. Mojo is a tedious villain these days though. Every time he appears it's the exact same story.

Max wrote: "
Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Book Three ★★★★★
The Sinestro Corps War feels massive in scale, but is made of so many pers..."

Geoff Johns's Green Lantern run is terrific. But pretty much everything he writes is terrific. His Aquaman, Flash, Superman, Shazam and Justice League runs are all very good too. So is his Image stuff he's doing for that matter.

Ann Nocenti wrote The Seeds. She's an awful writer and has been since the 80's.

I've heard mixed things about the current Spider-Man run. I plan on checking it out soon. It can't be worse though than what Nick Spencer did before this. I love the Dan Slott stuff though. It was nice to see Peter grow beyond his sad sack roots.

In addition to Animosity and Babyteeth, I'd recommend Artemis and the Assassin, Bunny Mask, Dark Red, Dreaming Eagle, Hot Lunch Special, Join the Future, The Lollipop Kids, The Man Who F'd Up Time, Out of the Blue, Miles to Go, Scout's Honor, and We Live. I've read around half of their output. They do some really good stuff.

They did declare bankruptcy in January so I'm not sure if they will be around for the long haul. Hopefully they can make it through. There is a long list of creators who say they haven't gotten paid yet. I hope that gets worked out shortly.

I thought "A Walk Through Hell" was one of the worst things Ennis has ever produced. It made absolutely no sense.

Today's trip to the LCS.

X-treme X-Men #4
Batman - One Bad Day: Ra's al Ghul
Nightwing #102
Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants #2
World's Finest #13
Marauders #12

kaitlphere wrote: "Re: Chad: A vacation sounds great. I hope it was a good time! I added a good half dozen of your books to my to-read list!."

We had a great time. We head to Mexico every winter for a week but this was our first time on the West coast. No humidity and saw whales every day from the hotel. The only downside is the beaches are terrible unless you are a surfer. Luckily we are content with all the pools. We will probably go back next year, but maybe further South.

kaitlphere wrote: "Re: Beantown: I read Animosity vol. 1 and enjoyed it, and have since intended to read more. I can't say I'm familiar with many of Aftershock's other titles though, so I'll be interested to hear what you think of them!"

I've read a ton of Aftershock stuff and need to go through my lists to give some recs. They put out some terrific content. Babyteeth and Animosity are always at the top of that list though. They are both top notch.

Erin wrote: "How was it? Sounds interesting!"

I really dug it but it was long, almost 2 and a half hours. Lot of big time X-Men creators, Chris Claremont, Louise and Walt Simonson, Rob Liefeld, Mark Silvestri, Grant Morrison, Jonathan Hickman. And then some creators from the Fox cartoon and two of the current editors. This one was on Zoom. The one they did last year for Spider-Man was on a different platform that was more interactive, I can't remember the name. Some cool giveaways of new toys but I didn't win anything. C'est la vie.

Caught up on a lot of arcs while traveling on vacation.

Golden Rage Vol. 1 ★★
Women are sent to an island when they become barren where they form gangs and not much of import happens. This has been done much more interestingly in the past.

Gun Honey, Vol. 2: Blood for Blood ★★★
Our illustrious Gun Honey is brought out of retirement when she's framed for some murders by someone just as good as she is. There's is a ton of nudity in this so be forewarned.

There Are Too Many Milks: And Other Common Annoyances of Modern Life ★★★
A mildly humorous book that may seem funnier to those just starting out in the workforce.

The Tiger's Tongue Vol. 1 ★★
I'm not sure if this was based on African folklore, but it certainly gave off that vibe. It's about twin princesses who are told they have to compete for the throne, in a Kingdom that ignores its constituents.

Garvey's Choice: The Graphic Novel ★★
A graphic novel version of the 2016 kid's novel. It's written in verse and presented as little one page comics into Garvey's life. It's supposed to be about Garvey finding his muse and losing weight but he never looks any different in the art.

Blacula: Return of the King ★★★
Blackula returns. I honestly expected a bit more from the creators of Killadelphia, a far better vampire comic.

Black Ice ★★
A story about a boy on the run with some kind of ice powers.

The Witches of Silverlake Volume One ★★★
A modern day YA version of The Craft.

Thinking of You (but not like in a weird creepy way): A Comic Collection ★
This is like those old posters with the cat hanging from a clothes line that says "Hang in there". They aren't jokes. They're little pep talks for those with anxiety featuring a featureless blob.

Sins of the Black Flamingo ★★★★
A very queer story about a high-end thief in Florida who steals magical objects. When he tries to rob the wrong person he gets into way more than any person can handle. I will say I'm straight and I thought this was terrific.

Rogues' Gallery, Volume 1 ★★★
Some crazy fanboys plan to rob the actress from the TV superhero show they obsess over.

New Kid Vol. 3: School Trip ★★★
Our illustrious main character is now in 8th grade. Instead of focusing on the school year, this is all about a school trip to Paris.

War Birds ★★★
In the near future, two drones gain sentience and run off pursued by their makers in the Middle East.

Why Are You Like This?: An ArtbyMoga Comic Collection ★★★
Some mildly entertaining comics about a young couple from the Pacific Northwest and their two dogs. The author is an extrovert and her husband is an introvert, like so many other webcomics.

The Snowcat Prince ★★★★
An all ages tale about the Snowcats who are all greedy and lazy except for the youngest brother. He's sent by his brothers to find the long-lost crown which will name the next Erlking. I found it a story that was enjoyable for those both young and old with terrific, vibrant art.

Joe Death and the Graven Image ★
This was just an absolute mess. I lost track of what was even happening. The book kept switching to new characters that didn't seem to have anything to do with the story. Everyone droned on and on, there's so much talking but saying nothing. The art was weird too.

Survival Street ★★★
A near future where corporations have completely taken over after being declared legally the same as people. This analogue to Sesame Street was shut down and the muppets all became freedom fighters.

Batman - One Bad Day: The Riddler ★★★★★
The Riddler decides to quit playing games and loses the riddles, just randomly shooting someone. I like what King does here, showing how much more dangerous the Riddler is once he stops playing games and gets down to business. He even has the Batman scared at one point. It's great stuff, aided by Mitch Gerad's terrific art.

Batman: One Bad Day: Two-Face ★★★
A by the numbers Two-Face story. Anyone reading this knows exactly where it's headed as soon as the plot is introduced.

Batman: One Bad Day: Penguin ★★★★
The Penguin is all washed up and beat to hell. With the last of his money he buys a cheap gun and one bullet. Then he goes on a mission to get his empire back.

Batman: One Bad Day: Mr. Freeze ★★★
A flashback One Bad Day story with Batman and the original Robin going after Mr. Freeze at Christmas. It puts a different spin on the relationship between Victor and Nora Fries and I'm not sure I cared for it.

Batman: One Bad Day: Bane ★★★
This runs the gamut of Bane's history. Bane is now an actual wrestler down in Mexico. Bane had thought all traces of Venom had been destroyed until someone shows up trying to sell him some so he hits the road to put a stop to it. What I didn't get here was Batman and Bane's current relationship. Bane killed Alfred. That's not something that Batman would ever forgive so I didn't get the redemption arc. I probably missed a retcon or something though.

Last week's adventures in comics. Belated on vacation edition. (There's a lot of time to read on the plane.)

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. 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.

King of Nowhere★★★
A man enters a bar in the middle of nowhere where he feels he must be dreaming as he comes across a fish man named Jed, a deer man driving a car, and a bartender with an upside down face. As the mini goes along, your questions are answered.

Loki: Ragnarok and Roll★★★★
Loki gets exiled to Earth because Thor is a real shitty brother and god in general.. There Loki becomes a rock star and the other gods come looking for him after feeling threatened even though they aren't supposed to interfere with mortals.

The Joyners in 3D★★★
The story of a driven famous businessman in the future. While things are going very well at work, he's an awful husband and father. He basically lives a separate life from the rest of his family. This is supposed to be the story about how it all fell apart but that's really just hinted at and left to your imagination.

Insurrection v3.6★★★★
This is my problem with the 4 issue story format Boom likes to use. There's often way too much story crammed in so that you can only see the highlights of the story. That's what happened here. There's a decent story here about androids in the future gaining sentience and revolting against their programming. But this tries to fit this huge story into 4 issues and the last 2 issues become too barebones.

Key of Z★★
A zombie comic that's not really about zombies. There's 2 warring gang factions in New York after the zombie apocalypse. There's also way more people alive than I'd expect NYC to be able to support after a zombie apocalypse.

House of El Vol. 1: The Shadow Threat★★★★
A YA series about 2 Kryptonians teenagers growing up in the days before Krypton exploded. We see how each family is genetically engineered for their roles and how Krypton operates in a caste system. One of the two kids is Lara-El’s cousin.

Rivers of London: Body Work★★★
An original GN entry in the Rivers of London prose novels about a team of London police detectives who investigate supernatural crimes. Yeah nothing that hasn’t been done before but a trope I really enjoy when done well.

John Flood★★★★
John Flood has been experimented on and hasn’t slept in 11 years. The whole process has left him with unique insights that seem insane like stopping a serial killer by finding a lady’s cat. He also is left in a dreamlike state that makes it difficult for him to empathize with people. This was fun.

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Vol. 1: Revolutions of Terror★★★
The Doctor gets a new companion after the stuff with Donna goes down. Gabby Gonzalez is a Mexican American working two jobs to support her family’s businesses in New York while going to night school to be an accountant. Basically her father is controlling and she does what he tells her to. Enter the Doctor and some aliens that eat emotions.

The Secret Loves of Geeks★★★
This was fine but has probably been surpassed in recent years. There are quite a few stories devoted to nonhetero people just so you know. Of course if you read comics at all that shouldn’t really be surprising. I enjoy the various perspectives. What I don’t enjoy are prose stories in comic books and that’s probably half of the shorts.

Dark Souls: The Breath of Andolus★★★
Not a fan of the Shakespearean dialogue at all. The story is pretty basic with this amnesiac knight and a thief looking to kill a dragon.

Kill Audio★★★
This thing is weird as hell. It is by one of the guys behind Coheed and Cambria. It is about this immortal little person in a world that revolves around music. Someone is locking away the fathers of music. There’s all these weird ass characters like a chicken that’s always snorting lines. It’s the kind of out there stuff you’d expect from a rock and roller.

The Last Broadcast★★★
A failed magician gets involved with some urban explorers in San Francisco. They are being hunted by a cult. It’s all extrapolated from real world events with a magician in the 1930s who is shot and died while performing one of his stunts. The art is confounding in that sometimes I quite liked it and sometimes it’s so oft kilter, dark and sloppy that I couldn’t tell what was happening.

Last Reign: Kings of War★★★
Your typical Dystopian future comic where people have lost knowledge of past technology. The Eight have powerful battle suits that they don’t know how to use as they attack the Duke of York who uses mutants in battle.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 1: Legacy★★★★
A lot of the previous Guardians feel changed after all of the Annhilation stuff. The galaxy is also in pretty sorry shape. Weak spots are opening to other dimensions and Starlord has assembled a team to help seal them. There both a lot of conflict and a lot of fun in this.

The Rocketeer: The Great Race/a>★★★
The Rocketeer decides to hang up his rocket pack and embarks in a race from California to Paris. Of course, Nazis get involved as well which may necessitate the return of The Rocketeer.

Basilisk, Vol. 3★★
We finally get some much needed backstory of what is going on. Unfortunately it’s all obtuse and doesn’t explain anything well at all. Cullen Bunn built a cool concept that completely failed. Jonas Scharf’s art is the shining star of this story.

Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms Classics, Volume 1★★★★
If you like sword and sorcery series, this old school title is a lot of fun.

Hellraiser: Bestiary★★★
A bunch of short stories revolving around someone opening a puzzle box and the cenobites showing up to rip them apart.

Hollow★★★
A lesbian light Halloween spin on a modern day Spooky Hollow story.

Godshaper★★
I just don’t get the love for this book. I didn’t care for it much at all. It’s about a world where tech quit working in 1958 and was replaced by everyone having personal gods that don’t really act like gods. They are just familiars that float around them.

Higher Earth Vol. 1★★★
Sam Humphries does his version of a pan dimensional empire. We don’t get a lot of answers until the last issue in this volume.

Higher Earth Vol. 2★★★
Interesting but harder to follow than volume one with a gazillion analogues of the main characters. There’s a lot crammed in here too as it’s pretty clear this was given the early yank.

Don't know if anyone else is attending, that 60 Years of X-Men event is on Marvel Unlimited tonight at 7 EST. I'll be there. Not sure if you can still sign up. The one last year about Spider-Man was cool with a ton of giveaways. There's a lot of past X-Men creators that will be on this. Both Chris Claremont and Grant Morrison are involved along with several others.

Today's trip to the LCS. (two week edition due to just getting home from vacation at midnight last night.)

The Forged #1 <- Some magazine sized comic from Greg Rucka and Image I thought I'd check out.
Bishop: War College #2
Image #11
House of Slaughter #13
Wolverine #31
Immoral X-Men #2
Nightcrawlers #2
By the Horns: Dark Earth #7
Predator #1
X-Men #20
Batman & the Joker: Deadly Duo #5
The X-Cellent: Season 2 #1

Last week's adventures in comics, contains a trip into the Year of the Villain one-shots from a few years ago.

Blood Syndicate: Season One★★
The worst of the Milestone Redux books. If I hadn't read the original Blood Syndicate 20 years ago I wouldn't even be sure of what was happening in this. Thankfully, it was a shorter version of the orig.

Justice League Vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes★★
Imagine this. Another boring Legion of Super-Heroes comic from Brian Michael Bendis. It's 6 issues of the Legion and the Justice League standing around talking in multiple eras. The Great Darkness in this scenario is just a rift in the spacetime continuum. It's fitting that Bendis ends his DC tenure on the worst thing he wrote while at DC, the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Batman Beyond: Neo-Year★★
This just wasn't good. It's just 6 issues of meandering and then eventually Batman fights some holograms. There's very little story.

Robin & Batman★★★★★
You know good things are going to happen anytime Dustin Nguyen and Jeff Lemire get together. Lemire writes the story of a Robin just starting out and Batman is still unsure if he's ready. His Batman can be a Dick because he's never dealt with children before or even had a childhood himself. But his humanity does break through over the course of this. All that being said, it is a Robin book.

Strange Adventures★★★★
A tale of two Adam and Alanna Stranges. One taking place now on Earth drawn by Mitch Gerads, the other by Evan Shaner flashing back to the war on Rann. Adam seems to be hiding some things about the war, while warning that the aliens who attacked Rann will soon be coming to Earth. Mr. Terrific is tasked to look into the Stranges after an angry fan was murdered. So you have a tale moving forward on Earth while on Rann we get some old-fashioned, sci-fi pulp goodness as Adam and Alanna try to unite the races of Rann to fight back against the invaders.

Superman: Space Age★★★★
An Elseworlds story with Superman and the other heroes going public in the 60's. Each issue takes place in the next decade as we roll through events like the Cold War and Watergate while wait for this world's version of Crisis to happen. I love anytime the Allred's visit DC.

Earth-Prime★★★
Each of the CW shows, most of which have been cancelled by this point get some of the TV shows writers to write an issue, some of which play into a poor 6th issue with Magog. The larger whole never comes together even though some of the solo stories like the Legends of Tomorrow one are fun. If the Arrowverse wasn't quickly ending because of new owners at the CW and the streaming wars, this would have had a bigger impact.

DC's Year of the Villain Special #1★★★
Teasers into DC's big events of 2019 with Scott Snyder's Justice League run and Brian Michael Bendis's Event Leviathan miniseries.

Sinestro: Year of the Villain #1★★★★
Lex Luthor assigns Sinestro with eliminating a race of Celestial like beings from another universe.

Black Mask: Year of the Villain #1★★★
This one didn't tie much into the Year of the Villain event. Lex shows up briefly and offers Black Mask something he didn't even know he want. What was more interesting was Taylor's retelling of Black Mask's origin.

Riddler: Year of the Villain #1★★★
This almost feels like an Elseworlds book because nothing ever came of it. It's a Riddler at a crossroads realizing he's something of a joke, even though he's been written really well at times in the past to be really menacing. It all depends on the writer.

Lex Luthor: Year of the Villain #1★★
Even though Hitch's art is always solid, I'm just not a fan of Jason Latour's writing. Lex was jumping from universe to universe to kill other Lex Luthors but there's no context for why. I guess you're supposed to infer that Apex Lex feels "There can be only one!"

Ocean Master: Year of the Villain #1★★★★
Orm gets his mojo back after living as a homeless Atlantean. He finds some new outcasts to became king of, relating his story to his ex.

Harley Quinn: Villain of the Year #1★★★★★
Mark Russell was the perfect choice for a meta look at the villains of the DC universe. The premise is that it's the annual Doomies awards, held at the Legion of Doom for all the DC villains. It's hosted by Harley Quinn and someone has sent in a threatening letter that they are going to kill everyone there.

Black Adam: Year of the Villain #1★★★★
I really like the times when DC has made Black Adam a hero or antihero. He's at his most interesting when he's willing to do anything to protect Kahndaq as its leader. This is the case here when an Infected Shazam enters the country to try and destroy Black Adam.

Joker: Year of the Villain #1★★
Has nothing to do with the Year of the Villain stuff. It's a look at the Joker from the perspective of a mentally unbalanced henchman. Basically it's just the Joker being crazy for 30 pages. Not really my thing.

Dark Crisis: Worlds Without A Justice League★★
These issues were pretty pointless. It's two Elseworlds stories per issue featuring all of the Justice League members who are supposed to be dead. They don't advance the Dark Crisis story at all nor are they very interesting.

Tales from Dark Crisis★★★
This collects all of the one-shots from Dark Crisis. The stories do help flesh out the regular story found in Dark Crisis.

Batman: Fortress★★★
DC's really leaning into these Elseworlds stories without calling them Elseworlds these days. This one is about a planetary blackout caused by aliens and a missing Superman. Batman's left to figure out what happened to Superman while dodging aliens and breaking into the Fortress of Solitude.

DC’s Terrors Through Time (2022) #1★★★
DC puts it try out teams on its Halloween anthology.

Lazaretto★★
Starts off prescient with a new virus, the dog flu, hitting college campuses (This was in 2018 before we thought things like this could actually happen.) The kids are isolated off away in a dorm and left to fend for themselves as they get sicker.

Timeless (2022) #1★★★★
It felt like this will end up being a lead in to Mackay's Avengers run. It's about a Kang who has conquered everything but can't access one missing moment that's only open to heroes.

Tales of the Human Target (2022) #1★★★★
Three flashback stories from Fire, Guy Gardner and Booster Gold where they came across the Human Target without realizing it for a long time.

The Human Target: Volume 2★★★★★
Tom King and Greg Smallwood need to work together more often. They were able to elevate each other's game to new heights. I love how this noir look at Giffen's and DeMatteis's Justice League International from the 80's went down.

I'm Still Alive★★★
Saviano's graphic novel memoir about the 15 years he's spent in hiding after writing a very popular book about the Italian mafia is OK. It doesn't give you a lot of context about what happened with the book other than the initial death threat. A lot of the book is about how lonely it is living under armed guard. The book shines in the art dept.

Yesterday's trip to the LCS.

Phantom Road #1 <-- New Image book from Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Walta
X-Force #38
Human Target #12 <-- The last issue finally. I'm really digging Tom King's noir look at the old Justice League International.

Last week's adventures in comics.

House of Slaughter, Vol. 2: Scarlet ★★
A maybe autistic member of the House of Slaughter sits on a boat for five issues and talks to his familiar. It's incredibly boring and pointless.

New Talent Showcase 2018 #1 ★★★
While I found this to to be the weakest of the 3 New Talent Showcases I found on DC Infinite, there's still some solid stuff to be found by creators I recognize now.

Batman: Killing Time ★★★
The Riddler and Catwoman pull off a heist that goes wrong. Batman and half his Rogues get in on the action to find the Macguffin in question. There's a ton of action and David Marquez makes every panel look gorgeous. The extremely nonlinear storytelling kept pulling me out of the story though. By the end, you'll get why it was done, but it still lessened my enjoyment of the comic.

Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons ★★★★★
This was terrific. It's the origin of the Amazons through the eyes of the Greek Gods.

Sandman Presents Nightmare Country Vol. 1 ★★
At this point, this was all just prologue and setup. Some people see the Corinthian and some other fat Smiling Man with mouths for eyes. Mr. Agony and Mr Ecstasy are going around killing these people.

The Human Target: Volume 1 ★★★★★
The Human Target gets a D.O.A. style makeover. If you're not sure, this is a Black Label book even though for some reason the curse words are still bleeped out. Christopher Chance is a master of disguise. When someone is out to kill you, Chance can be hired to impersonate you and draw the killer out. The twist here is that while impersonating Lex Luthor, Chance is poisoned and will die in 12 days, giving him just enough time to track down his own killer, ala D.O.A. Signs point to a member of the old Justice League International as the killer. I think this is the best thing Tom King has written in a while.

DC Horror Presents: The Conjuring: The Lover ★★
This was a snoozefest. It just didn't make my skin crawl like the movies do. Instead I was just bored and waiting for it to be over. Gary Brown's art was kind of fugly too. The story is formulaic and short so they had all of these backup stories so they could make it 5 issues. The best part was Dave Johnson's retro ads for cursed objects.

Batman: Red Hood - The Lost Days ★★★★
Do you ever wonder how Jason Todd returned from the dead after being bludgeoned to death with a crowbar by the Joker? And how he then became way more interesting as the Red Hood? This is that story.

Fire Power by Kirkman & Samnee, Volume 4 ★★★★
Just when it looks like everything will go back to normal, the Serpents Omen rears its head. They have this whole Invasion of the Body Snatchers vibe as they take over people with each bite.

Fire Power by Kirkman & Samnee, Volume 5 ★★★★
Our family now has to fight a freaking dragon that takes over Hong Kong. This gets really epic with this huge massive dragon and these terrific battle scenes.

Multiversity: Teen Justice ★★
Just gender-swapping out the characters on Earth 11 isn't enough for a series. Plus Wonder Woman just revisited this same dimension last year and it wasn't any more interesting then.

Black Adam: The Justice Society Files ★★★
Actually better than I expected for what are typically crappy comics to "lead-in" to a movie.

Duo ★★★
Part of the Milestone universe even though it doesn't take place in Dakota City like the rest of the books. It's about two Asian scientists engaged to one another. Someone sabotages their work with nanobots causing the two of them to share a body but gain incredible powers. This is also the only new comic from the Milestone relaunch.

Book of Shadows ★★
Valiant's poor attempt to put a supernatural team together. This was bunk.

Hardware: Season One ★★★
This was fine. It's pretty much a rehash of the original Hardware series from the 90's with Hardware getting blamed for the mistakes of Alva, the founder of the company. Denys Cowan, penciller of the original series returns for this miniseries. His action sequences in this are difficult to follow. I'm not sure what happened to his penciling skills these days but it wasn't great.

Nancy wrote: " loved the satire & snark found in Not All Robots. Afterward, I read Russell's earlier Flintstones but preferred the robot graphic novel."

Be careful of how much Mark Russell you read. He's done the same thing with his satire for awhile now that it's lost some of his appeal for me. The last issue of his Superman: Space Age just came out today. It's with Mike Allred so I'd be surprised if it's satire but I'll find out this week when I check out all 3 issues. I did really like all of his early stuff though like Snagglepuss, Flintstones, etc.

Today's trip to the LCS was a big one.

Batman One Bad Day: Clayface
Superman Space Age #3
World's Finest #12
Immoral X-Men #1
Junkyard Joe #5
Nightwing #101
Savage Avengers #10
Something Is Killing the Children #29
Strange Academy Finals #4
Thor #31
Blue Book #1 <-- New James Tynion and Michael Oeming series about alien abductions from Dark Horse
Snow White Zombie Apocalypse #1 <-- I've been buying this just to support the ridiculousness of the premise.

Last week's adventures in comics. There was a lot last week.

National Comics: Rose and Thorn #1 ★★★
These are some of the only New 52 DC era comics to not be collected in a trade. They are 4 one-shots reinventing old characters. Tom Taylor reimagines DC's Rose/Thorn as a teenager with another personality.

National Comics: Eternity #1 ★★★
Jeff Lemire turns Kid Eternity into a coroner who can talk to dead people for a day in order to solve their murders.

National Comics: Looker #1 ★★
Ian Edgington turns Looker from the Outsiders into a supermodel who becomes a vampire. Vapid.

National Comics: Madame X #1 ★★★
A reimagined Madame Xanadu as a fortune teller solving crimes in New Orleans.

The Fiction ★
Wow, one of the most generic escape into a childhood fantasy stories I've read. Even David Rubin's inventive art can't save this turkey.

Feeding Ground ★
This had a lot of squandered potential. It's about a man working as a coyote transporting illegal aliens into the U.S. Somehow there are also werewolves involved but they can speak English while transformed and look kind of apelike. There's also a family that has to skip town while their little girl is turning into a werewolf. There's also some rich guy who I think is turning people into werewolves. The storytelling is terrible. I couldn't follow it well at all.

Task Force Z Vol. 2 ★★★★
I liked the 2nd half of this series better than the first half. Once the villain is revealed the series gets even better. This series shouldn't work at all. A zombie Suicide Squad full of Batman villains led by Red Hood with Two-Face in the Amanda Waller role? This way lies madness. Some of the double and triple crosses can be hard to keep straight sometimes. Still, I think this is the best thing Matthew Rosenberg has written in a while.

Once and Future, Vol. 5: The Wasteland ★★★★
All of England is trapped in Otherworld now that the Prime Minister announced the truth that myths like King Arthur are real on TV. Robin Hood gets involved too. And there's still the Green Knight to deal with at the end of the year. Through the course of the rest of the year, Rose, Brigitte and Duncan come up with a plan to save everyone while battling nonstop. Dan Mora continues to deliver eye-popping artwork while Tamra Bonvillain makes every page ooze with color.

Fiction Squad ★★
This book is going to draw a lot of comparisons to Fables and rightly so.This is a world where all of the nursery rhymes are mixed together and our main character is a noirish police detective trying to find out who pushed Humpty Dumpty off his wall. It quickly turns into a story of trying to keep the two big factions (witches and queens) from starting a gang war while trying to determine who is behind it all. Trust Me. Just go read Fables instead.

The Foundation Deluxe Edition ★★★
A secret organization tries to stop Nostradamus's predictions from occurring. The main character is an agent looking to get out after having to kill some people for the "greater good".

Shadow Service Vol. 3: Death To Spies ★★★★
The start of a new arc. Someone is killing supernatural spies around the world using local legends to do their dirty work. I'm still really digging this series about MI666 and can't wait for it to return again.

Godzilla Rivals: Round One ★★★
IDW keeps pushing these Godzilla series out without adding much to them. This one is Godzilla fighting different monsters in the background of each issue from the 1970s to the 2020s.

Time Warp #1 ★★★★
These Vertigo tales revolving around time travel were pretty damn good. It also has Damon Lindelof and Gail Simone's first Vertigo stories.

Giant Monster ★★★
Reads like a 50's monster movie. An astronaut gets taken over by some kind of alien that turns him into a giant monster that starts killing everyone.

We Only Find Them When They're Dead Vol. 3 ★★
I found this story too obtuse with way too many timelines to track and keep in my head. Maybe it'll read better if read straight through to better keep everything straight. Ewing's first creator owned book in a long time was a letdown for me. His Marvel work has been far superior.

Bonding: A Love Story About People and Their Parasites ★★
Hmm, a story of two people dating in a world that's been taken over by aliens. Everyone is forced to bond with a big slug that hangs from their chest. Other than that, Earth is pretty much the same.

Curb Stomp ★★★
A 5 member girl gang is set upon by another gang so the mayor can win an election. This felt kind of unrealistic with the gang being so small, but it was cool to see an all-girl center stage.

Dead Letters Vol. 1 ★★
A detective wakes up in Purgatory. It looks just like New York. Three different factions want him dead but every time someone catches him he's able to convince them he's on their side even though he's not a con man or smooth talker.

Dead Letters Vol. 2 ★★
The murky art makes this story really difficult to follow. It's almost like reading prose because the art is so terrible in places that I have no idea visually what is happening. Sam is now working for God and sent after a nihilistic cult in the outskirts of town.

Dead Letters Vol. 3 ★★★
I only kept reading until the end because I had already checked out the entire series from Hoopla on the last day of January.

Cyborg 009 ★★★
Cyborg 009 is a reboot of an old Manga. It's about Joe, Cyborg 009, who wakes up and finds out he's the 9th cyborg created to take over the world. All of the cyborgs have different powers (which logistically makes little sense) and look completely different but all wear the same uniform (including a baby). They all revolt against the guy in charge and try to stop him from taking over.

Burning Fields ★★★
A solid story about a disgraced investigator that goes back to Iraq when people go missing and are found in ritualistic murders. I was a bit disappointed in the supernatural angle the story took in the second half because I was already really enjoying it.

Deep State, Vol. 1 ★★★
There's not much original here but at least it's done pretty well. Think the X-Files if they were working to keep conspiracies hidden instead of exposing them.

Deep State, Vol. 2 ★★
The series falls off the cliff right as it ends. The plot is so complicated that it's really difficult to follow what actually happened. It's like peeling the layers of an onion while blindfolded.

Dominion Vol. 1: The Resurrection of Jason Ash ★★★
A cop gets involved in some kind of battle between good and evil between angels and demons while investigating the abduction of a little girl. It's still unclear at this point exactly what is going on after this first bande dessinée.

Dominion Vol. 2: The Sandman ★★
This middle volume wasn't all that great. If anything it made the story more muddled.

Dominion Vol. 3: The Fist of God ★
This is a series that just got worse and worse with each volume. It started off with promise, with a battle between rival factions of angels and a cop stuck in the middle. I couldn't even explain the 3rd volume that had some prisoner killing angels and stuff.

The New Champion of Shazam! ★★★★
This was fun. Mary Marvel takes over as the new Shazam now that Billy is stuck at the Rock of Eternity. She goes off to college when her foster parents go missing. Doc Shaner makes this book look terrific.

DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration #1 ★★★★
An anthology issue of DC's heroes of Asian ancestry. Most of the stories are good stuff. It also contains the first Monkey Prince story.

Death Valley ★★
A generic zombie comic based on the plot of Night of the Comet from the 1980's. It's about a group of dumb high school kids who are the last humans in Los Angeles after everyone else is changed into zombies.

Predator by Ed Brisson Vol. 1: Day of the Hunter ★★★
Marvel takes the Predator series 50 or so years into the future. One where humanity is out exploring the galaxy. That seems ambitious for a humanity that barely leaves the planet these days. Theta is a woman hunting Predators for killing her parents as a child.

Batman/Superman: World's Finest Vol. 1 ★★★★
This story takes place in the past when Dick Grayson was still Robin. Superman and Batman cross paths when Poison Ivy and Metallo team-up, which leads into appearances by the Doom Patrol and most of the early Justice League members. Then there's Dan Mora's art. It's just terrific. He's one of the most talented artists working in comics today.

Monkey Prince ★★★
A solid retelling of Journey to the West as part of the DC universe. Our young hero is anxiety ridden and when it gets out of control he loses his powers and reverts back to human. These first 6 issues don't go a lot into the Monkey Prince's backstory. He knows he's adopted and eventually finds out his parents work as henchman for various DC villains which is a fun twist.

Max wrote: "I didn't think of that. I wasn't going to get a Unlimited Subscription until I got a steady job. I guess I'll save my money"

MU and DC Ultimate Ultra are pretty reasonable if you buy by the year. I bought both and then have been cutting back on weekly comics from the big two. MU is $70 for the year and you get new comics after 3 months plus pretty much their entire back catalog. (I have found a few older things missing plus licensed stuff like Conan isn't there but in general I use it a lot.) DCUIU is more expensive at $100 for the year but you get comics after only a month and most of the Vertigo back catalog is only available at the Ultra level. I've been having a blast with it because DC takes forever to release trades. Now I can read all of the issues almost a year before the trades come out.

Max wrote: "J. Michael Straczynski's Spider-Man is on sale, but only the Ultimate collections.

The Amazing Spider-Man by J. Michael Straczynski: Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1
[book..."

I think you are good Max. You could probably get a years subscription to MU for the same price or less as these collections. You may want to look into that instead.

This week's trip to the LCS.

House of Slaughter #12
Image #10
Marauders #11
Nightcrawlers #1
Parker Girls #5
Wolverine #30
X-Men #19
Night Club #3
X-Treme X-Men #3