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

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

Last week's adventures in comics.

The Transporter, Vol. 1: Nymph ★★★★
A dystopian future where society has collapsed after a virus destroyed all of the iron on Earth.

Yojimbot 1.1: Metal Silence, Part 1 ★★★
It takes place at an old samurai amusement park where a few of the samurai robots still function. One of them comes across a boy and his father who are being pursued by some kind of military team. The art is where this book really shines. The action sequences are fast paced and dynamic.

Sherman - Volume 1: The Promise: New York ★★★★
The story of a wealthy American man and his son who is running for president. When his son is shot, he has to look back through his history to determine who wants his entire family dead.

Money Shot Vol. 3 ★★★
Scientists film themselves having sex with aliens to fund their initiatives in a dumbed down America. Not as funny as previous volumes.

Locust Vol. 1 ★★★
Most of humanity is gone, transformed into giant locusts within the last 2 years. Max is on the trail of a wack-a-doodle religious cult who has kidnapped a girl.

Angel + Spike Vol. 2: What's Done is Denied ★
A new creative team comes on board when Boom pulls the plug in the middle of their third issue. Granted it wasn't good. And Boom tries to cram more of the Buffy multiverse into the last few pages of this. Ugh!

Broken Souls Ballad, Vol. 1 ★★★
A small group of adopted teenagers around the Boston area in the 80's gain horrific powers.

Wynonna Earp: Season Zero ★★★
Fans of the show will be happy with this. If you haven't watched the show, you may be lost.

Fantastic Four Epic Collection Vol. 21: The New Fantastic Four ★★★★
The first half is the end of Walt Simonson's terrific run. The second half is the beginning of Tom DeFalco and Paul Ryan's 50 issue run which was better than I remembered.

James Cameron's Avatar: Tsu'tey's Path ★★★
A retelling of Avatar from Tsu'tey's perspective. It was fine.

Parenthesis ★★★★
French artist Elodie Durand details her life as she began having epileptic seizures while in college in the mid 90's. It's a profound tale and she went through a lot.

X-Men by Jonathan Hickman, Vol. 3 ★★★
Hickman finishes off his X-Men run with more vignettes. It's not a storytelling device that I crave because the stories often lack characterization.

Batman by Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo Omnibus, Vol. 1 ★★★★★
One of the best Batman runs out there.

Machine Man ★★★★
Way back in 1984, Machine Man woke up in 2020, one MUCH more advanced than 2020 ended up being in actuality. Although people are addicted to their screens in both. The story is pretty standard stuff. Barry Windsor-Smith's art, however, is gorgeous.

Yesterday's trip to the LCS.

Fables #151 <--- Yes, Willingham and Buckingham are back.
World's Finest #3
House of Slaughter #6
Nightwing #92
Thor #25
New Mutants #25
Wolverine #21
The X-Cellent #3
X-Force #28
Immortal X-Men #2
X-Men Red #2

Last week's adventures in comics.

The Old Guard: Tales Through Time, Vol. 1 ★★
Being immortal and able to soak up damage may make for a very good soldier, but it's a pretty repetitive read.

Giant ★★★
A story centered around the Sky Boys, those steel workers who built the skyscrapers of New York in the 1930's.

Lore Olympus: Volume One ★★★
A CW-fied version of Greek mythology.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen Ones ★★
A Tales of the Slayers sequel. The problem is that both the art and story for most of these isn't very good.

Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld ★★★
An Amethyst comic for kids. Princess Amethyst is a royal brat who is sent to Earth as punishment.

Symbiote Spider-Man: Alien Reality ★★★★
This was a lot of fun. It takes place back before Venom was a thing and Spider-Man was running around in the black suit (and Peter David was writing Peter Parker, Spectacular Sider-Man.) Hobgoblin alters reality so that he's the Sorcerer Supreme's apprentice.

RetroActive ★★★★
James Bond does time travel. I was enthralled by this and read it in one sitting.

Acts of Vengeance: Spider-Man the X-Men ★★★★
I've always loved the idea behind Acts of Vengeance where the villains decide they can win by switching up their nemeses. All of the Spider-Man books are one big story with all of these heavyweight villains coming in to kill Spidey.

Thick Skins ★★★
A mercenary has been hired to kill a clan of "Thick Skins", genetically engineered humans who can survive in space without a spacesuit.

Captain America: The Captain ★★★★
The source material for Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+.

Batman, Volume 1: The Court of Owls ★★★★
The idea of Batman discovering a secret society that has been pulling Gotham's strings for hundreds of years is very cool.

Batman, Volume 2: The City of Owls ★★★★
The latter half of the Court of Owls story.

Batman, Volume 3: Death of the Family ★★★★★
One of the best Joker stories out there. The Joker returns after being missing for a year after Dollmaker removed his face. Snyder's and Capullo's Joker is terrifying.

Witchblood: The Hounds of Love ★★★
Near Dark meets The Craft. The married creative team of Matthew Erman and Lisa Sterle release their follow-up to Long Lost.

Today's trip to the LCS.

Crossover #13
Seven Secrets #17
Superman: Son of Kal-El #11
X-Men #11
Hulk Vs. Thor: Banner of War #Alpha
Neverlanders FCBD
Spider-Man / Venom FCBD
Carriers FCBD

Last week's adventures in comics.

Jules Verne's Lighthouse ★★★
A lesser-known Jules Verne story gets a sci-fi makeover. Pirates take over a remote outpost that maintains a wormhole for interstellar travel. One woman and her bot escape and are a consistent thorn in their side.

Made in Korea ★★
A confused mess of a story that tries to mesh too many disparate elements. There are some interesting elements of awakening A.I. and gender identity. It's completely ruined by a tactless school shooting plot that even uses the names of the Columbine shooters.

Archer & Armstrong Forever #1 ★★★★
Finally! A return to form for Valiant. This feels just like Fred Van Lente's series from the Valiant relaunch in 2012.

Future State: Gotham Vol. 1 ★
DC attempts to make a manga. This future setting feels so far removed from Gotham that it doesn't even feel like Gotham. More like Neo Tokyo.

Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder, Vol. 4: City of the Dead ★★★★
Sir Edward Grey fights the Undead in London.

Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder Volume 5: The Gates of Heaven ★★★
An engineer attempts to open up a portal into another world to release an Elder God.

Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder, Vol. 6: Reign of Darkness ★★
A missed opportunity. This is billed as the Witchfinder investigating the Jack the Ripper murders but they all happen off page and are only obliquely referenced. What really happens is Sir Grey tilts at windmills for 4 issues before the story comes to a head in the last issue. Chris Roberson's entries into the Mignolaverse seem very uninspired.

Squadron Supreme: New World Order ★★★
This is all prologue. It's about the Squadron Supreme finally returning to their Earth only to find it's become a police state.

X-Factor by Leah Williams, Vol. 1 ★★
X-Factor returns to investigate the deaths of mutants before they can be resurrected by the Five.

X-Factor by Leah Williams, Vol. 2 ★★★
Most of this volume revolves around what's the deal with Siryn? She keeps dying so X-Factor is on the case.

Captain America and the Falcon: Secret Empire ★★★★
Captain America is the victim of a smear campaign and framed for murder by The Secret Empire.

Killadelphia, Vol. 3: Home Is Where the Hatred Is ★★★
This is mainly a world building arc. It's all about helping James Jr. before he turns into a full vampire.

The Avengers: The Serpent Crown ★★★★
Half the Avengers fight Kang in the Old West while the rest of the team take on the Brand Corporation and the Squadron Supreme. Along the way, Patsy Walker becomes Hellcat.

Captain America by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Vol. 5: All Die Young Part Two ★★
Coates run on Captain America fizzles to an end as he's more concerned about making comments on today's society than an entertaining comic.

Good Luck ★
This just wasn't well thought out at all. It's about 2 luck gods who touch in Ohio and make good and bad luck real. Four teenagers with only bad luck are the supposed saviors of the world. None of this story made a lick of sense though.

Eve ★★★★
An excellent read. Eve has turned 11 and just found out she was raised in a virtual environment. In reality, the seas have risen and most of humanity has died. But her father has a plan, genetically created mangroves to filter the poisoned air. Now Eve must travel to the seed vault and distribute the seeds like a modern day Johnny Appleseed while chased by mutants and machines.

Captain America Epic Collection, Vol. 14: The Captain ★★★★
If you wanted to read up more about when Captain America was replaced, this is the source material for Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+.

Today's haul from FCBD.

25 Years of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BOOM! Studios)
Primos (AWA Studios)
The Incal Universe (Humanoids)
Avengers / X-Men / Eternals: Judgement Day #0 (Marvel Comics)
Barbaric #1 (Vault Comics)
Bone Orchard Mythos Prelude (Image Comics)
Bunny Mask Tales (AfterShock Comics)
Dark Crisis #0 (DC)
Doctor Who (Titan Comics)
Equilibrium (Lev Gleason Publications/Comichouse)
Kaiju No. 8/Sakamoto Days (VIZ Media)
Nottingham FCBD Special (Mad Cave Studios)
Stranger Things / Resident Alien (Dark Horse Comics)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles FCBD Special (IDW Publishing)
Tex: In the Land of Seminoles (Epicenter Comics)
The Electric Black: Children of Caine #0 (Scout Comics)
The Winchester Mystery House: 100 Year Curse (Source Point Press)
The Year of Valiant 2022 FCBD Special (Valiant Entertainment)
Trese (Ablaze)

Iron Fist #2 <-- Signed by Sean Chen
Wingman: Compendium of an Artist's First Writing Experience by Sean Chen
An Iron Man sketch by Sean Chen

Today's trip to the LCS.

Giant Size X-Men: Thunderbird
Fire Power #20
Marauders #2
Once & Future #25
One-Star Squadron #6
Suicide Squad #15
Task Force Z #7

Last week's adventures in comics.

Nocterra, Vol. 1: Full Throttle Dark ★★★★
An interesting Mad Max style comic where the sun is gone and everything in the dark has mutated into monsters. Combine that with a trucker theme and you have a winner.

Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder: Omnibus Volume 2 ★★★
Sir Edward Grey investigates supernatural occurrences in Victorian England. Part of the Hellboy Universe.

X-O Manowar (2020): Book 2 ★★
A complete dud. X-O Manowar's suit, Shanhara, gets a virus and fights nanites. Watching armor fight blobs of nanites isn't very exciting.

Shazam!: To Hell and Back ★★
This was fine. It just didn't feel much like Shazam. Shazam goes to Hell to try and fix his powers.

Mister Miracle: The Source of Freedom ★
Oof, this was so poorly written.

Avengers Assemble, Vol. 5 ★★★★
Busiek ends his Avengers tenure with a whopping 15-part Kang story.

1872 ★★
The Avengers of the Old West plus Red Wolf.

Falcon & Winter Soldier: Cut Off One Head ★★★★
This was a ton of fun, with a lotta Lethal Weapon type, buddy cop vibes coming out of it. It's a lot like the Disney+ series but with more quips.

Quarry's War ★★★
It's about a hitman in the 70's. The stories alternate between 1972 and 1969 when he was a sniper in Vietnam.

Emperor Doom ★★★★
A thought this was fun. Dr. Doom finally wins by brainwashing the world.

X-Factor Visionaries: Peter David, Vol. 1 ★★★★
The beginning of Peter David's irreverent, offbeat X-Team full of the characters no one else wanted. X-Factor takes the place of Freedom Force as a government super-team.

Avengers: Hawkeye ★★★★
I really liked the Hawkeye miniseries. Who knew Mark Gruenwald could draw as well as write? Hawkeye and Mockingbird meet and go on the run from gadgety hitmen for 4 issues. Fun stuff.

The Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe ★★★
Starts right after the Squadron Supreme miniseries. After a Crisis-level event, the Squadron wind up in the 616 universe for a very long time before finally making it back home.

This week's trip to my LCS. Lots of big fat anniversary issues.

Amazing Spider-Man #1
Dark Knights of Steel #6
Justice League #75
Knights of X #1
Shadow Service #11
Something is Killing the Children #22
The Swamp Thing #12
Thor #24 (#750)
TMNT: The Last Ronin #5

KaitLphere wrote: "Re: Chad: Hakim's Odyssey is on my to-read list also. I'm glad you (mostly) liked it!"

I did like it. It was just too long at 270 pages. And it's only the first volume.

Last week's adventures in comics.

Black Cat: Discord ★★★★★
Marvel's Black Cat gets a fantastic new prose novel that'll dovetails in perfectly with her current comic written by Jed MacKay.

Hakim's Odyssey: Book 1: From Syria to Turkey ★★★
The story of a Syrian refuge as he wanders around the Middle East trying to find his place in the world, a place where he can support himself after being forced to leave Syria.

Hellblazer, Vol. 16: The Wild Card ★★★★★
Mike Carey takes over Hellblazer and the book instantly feels back on track after a year and a half of Brian Azzarello just trying to shock you by making Constantine as depraved as possible.

New Teen Titans Vol. 13 ★★★★
Danny Chase's first appearance is the most notable thing in this collection. He's a 14 year old kid with telekinetic powers who joins the Titans.

Wonder Woman Book 2: Ares Rising ★★★★
The last of the missing Messner-Loebs Wonder Woman issues of the 90's. Loebs turns Wonder Woman into a street level fighter taking on the Boston mob, although a Boston mob that's full of generic super-villains and the White Magician

X Isle Vol 1 ★★
Completely cliched Mysterious Island type story with murky art and coloring that often made it difficult to tell what was happening, particularly when the monsters would show up.

The Darkhold ★★★
This is really a tale of 2 separate stories. The bookends are a story unto themselves, while the middle volumes are dark standalone What If? stories.

Contest of Champions ★★★
Marvel's first big crossover, even before Secret Wars.

Astonishing X-Men: Kitty Pryde - Shadow & Flame ★★★
A solid successor to Kitty Pryde & Wolverine.

Cable by Gerry Duggan, Vol. 2 ★★★
After getting sidetracked by X of Swords, Cable is back to hunting kidnapped mutant babies. Stryfe is, of course, involved.

Avengers/X-Men: Maximum Security ★★
This should have been good. Earth gets turned into a prison planet and all of Marvel's alien races dump their prisoners here. Alas, it is not.

Tangent Comics, Vol. 3 ★★★
DC's 2nd Tangent Comics 5th week event from 1998. It was a whole new universe with new characters using the same superhero names.

Avengers Assemble, Vol. 4 ★★★
The 6 single issues are really good. Unfortunately, this massive collection only has 6 issues and then other miniseries, annuals, etc.

This week's trip to the LCS.

Blue and Gold #8
Nightwing #91
Refrigerator Full of Heads #6
Wolverine #20
Hulk #6
World's Finest #2
We Live: Age of the Palladions #2

Lenny wrote: "Moon Knight, Vol. 1: The Midnight Mission - great first volume of the new MK series. It's not a great bridge to the Disney+ series (that isn't an insult), instead very much a continuation of Ellis/Shalvey's run."

I've went through all of the post-2000 MK comics and none of them bridge to the Disney+ series well. I think the comics were just an inspiration and Disney+ is doing its own thing centered more around Egyptian mythology. In the 80s MK run, Arthur Harrow was a mad scientist carrying on Nazi experiments before Moon Knight killed him.

Last week's adventures in comics.

1984: The Graphic Novel ★★
I finally gave up on this after several months. The combination of its bleakness, repetitiveness and hopelessness turned this into a slog.

The EC Archives: Weird Science Volume 1 ★★★★
Some atomic-powered comics of weird science.

Gun Honey ★★★★
Gun Honey can be hired to get a gun into any place asked, including prison. She doesn't kill people herself, but she'll put a gun in place, no questions asked.

Star Wars: The High Republic - The Edge of Balance, Vol. 1 ★★
Star Wars attempts a manga.

Tangent Comics, Vol. 1 ★★★
DC attempts a new universe with the same superhero names but completely new characters, similar to what they did during the Silver Age.

Tangent Comics, Vol. 2 ★★★

The Avengers: Celestial Madonna ★★★
Kang keeps returning to plague the Avengers when he learns Mantis is to be the Celestial Madonna.

Wonder Woman Book 1: The Last True Hero ★★★★
Wonder Woman gets jettisoned into space where she is cast into slavery, eventually becoming a space pirate. She returns to Earth broke and has to work in fast food. This run is odd.

Dominion ★★
A neat concept marred by poor art and coloring. It's about Chicago being exposed to an alien virus that gives people superpowers while also turning them into crazy murder machines.

Kim wrote: "I am currently reading (Identity Crisis)"

That's a REALLY good one. It affected the DC universe for a few years.

Today's trip to the LCS.

Image 30th Anniversary Anthology #1
Batman / Catwoman #11
Seven Secrets #16
Superman: Son of Kal-El #10
X-Men #10

Last week's adventures in comics sent me down a Moon Knight rabbit hole.

The Secrets of Chocolate: A Gourmand’s Trip Through a Top Chef’s Atelier ★★
A cartoonist spends a year with a French chocolate enrober.

Frank Miller's Sin City Volume 2: A Dame to Kill for ★★★★★
Some more fantastic noir comics from Frank Miller.

Good Game, Well Played ★★
Empire Records set at a video game store in the 90's.

Three Swords: A Marvel Legends of Asgard Novel ★★★
It's about time the Warriors Three got one of these Legends of Asgard novels.

Usagi Yojimbo, Vol. 15: Grasscutter II: Journey to Atsuta Shrine ★★★★★
A longer story about Usagi and his cohorts trying to protect a legendary sword as they attempt to transport it to a temple.

Usagi Yojimbo, Vol. 16: The Shrouded Moon ★★★★
Some great smaller stories including Kitsune's origins.

Avengers Assemble - Volume 3 ★★★★
George Perez leaves to draw Avengers Vs. the Justice League after his 3rd year on the Avengers.

King in Black ★★★
After all of the fantastic build up throughout Cates's Venom run while peppering Knull into Thor, Silver Surfer, and Guardians of the Galaxy, I was anxiously awaiting this. I have to say I felt somewhat let down.

Venom by Donny Cates, Vol. 6: King in Black ★★★★
This is a between the moments of King in Black volume, fleshing out that story a bit more. It's all fine.

Avengers by Jason Aaron, Vol. 8: Enter the Phoenix ★★
An unimaginative Contest of Champions for the Phoenix set.

Amala’s Blade: Spirits of Naamaron ★★★
Amala is the world's greatest assassin, haunted by all those she's killed. She lives on a world separated by those who want to modify themselves and those who want to remain "pure".

Marauders by Gerry Duggan, Vol. 3 ★★★
This is a scatter shot of content that requires readers to know what's going on with all of the other X-books to know what's happening.

Hellblazer, Vol. 15: Highwater ★★★
Brian Azzarello has one move, the shock treatment. Azzarello doesn't get Constantine's character at all. He just makes him this awful person who consistently puts himself in every depraved situation he can.

Avengers/Defenders War ★★★
One of Marvel's first true crossovers. Steve Englehart was the writer of both The Avengers and The Defenders so he talked Roy Thomas into a true back and forth crossover between the two books for the summer of 1973.

Star Wars: The High Republic - The Edge of Balance, Vol. 1 ★★
This touches on the events that are happening in the High Republic novels, but it's inconsequential to the larger story. It's about a Jedi Temple newly open on a recently colonized world.

Moon Knight, Volume 4: The Death of Marc Spector ★★★★
After Moon Knight pushed Black Specter off a roof both SHIELD and the Thunderbolts are after him. It's a fantastic game of cat and mouse. The Thunderbolts of this era are so much fun.

Moon Knight, Volume 5: Down South ★★★
Marc Spector has faked his death and is hiding out in Mexico as Jake Lockley.

Vengeance of the Moon Knight, Volume 1: Shock and Awe ★★★★
Moon Knight is back in New York after faking his death in the previous series.

Vengeance of the Moon Knight, Volume 2: Killed, Not Dead ★★
A bunch of team-ups before the book gets cancelled.

Shadowland: Moon Knight ★★
The Shadowland story gets shoehorned into a story about the return of Spector's brother.

Moon Knight, Vol. 1: From the Dead ★★★★★
Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, and Jordie Bellaire concoct a perfect group of done-in-one stories. If you read one volume of Moon Knight stories, make it this one.

Moon Knight, Vol. 2: Dead Will Rise ★★★
Brian Wood brings his typical geopolitical stories of government abuse and atrocities to Moon Knight.

Moon Knight, Vol. 3: In the Night ★★★
Cullen Bunn takes over for the last arc. We are back to done-in-one stories, but with the undercurrent that Khonshu may be way more bloodthirsty that Moon Knight realized.

Moon Knight, Vol. 1: Lunatic ★★★★
Jeff Lemire and Greg Smallwood take over. Marc Spector wakes up in an insane asylum with no memories of how he got there. The doctors there tell him he's been there since he was 12 and Moon Knight is just a hallucination.

Moon Knight, Vol. 2: Reincarnations ★★★
We flip through Marc's different personalities as they begin to collapse upon one another. There's some interesting storytelling here with a different artist drawing each personality.

Moon Knight, Vol. 3: Birth and Death ★★★★
Lemire wraps up his run by finally dealing with Khonshu and setting up the character with a great new starting point.

Moon Knight: Legacy, Vol. 1: Crazy Runs in the Family ★★
You know how to ruin Moon Knight? Give him a paper thin family that only exists to be hostages.

Moon Knight: Legacy, Vol. 2: Phases ★
So. Many. Words. If Max Bemis wrote songs for his band, Say Anything, like he writes comics, every song would be an hour long.

Moon Knight, Vol. 1: The Midnight Mission ★★★★
A nice start to this new Moon Knight book written by Jed Mackay. It's more of a return to the Warren Ellis version.

Ed wrote: "DIYDylan wrote: "... it seems like English communities rarely ever talk about [Franco/Belgian comics] ..."

Yeah, they don't usually get released in the USA. But there has been some improvement rec..."

In addition to Europe Comics, Humanoids, Ablaze, Titan and Cinemark all publish European comics in English and are on Hoopla. There's even Les Humanoïdes Associés on Hoopla that has the books in their native French.

Today's trip to the LCS.

X-Men Red #1
Black Widow #15
Fire Power #19
Marauders #1
One-Star Squadron #1
Suicide Squad #14
X-Force #27
X-Force Annual #1

KaitLphere wrote: "a copy of the Comic Book History of Comics, because it's too long for me to read as a limited time Hoopla borrow!"

I found a physical copy at my library but I had to renew it a few times to finish it. It's dense.