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

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

Ed wrote: "My real-life (well, zoom call life) group read volume 1 this month. Most of us found the art pretty except for the faces. Characters were sometimes hard to tell apart. And that child character didn't look like a child. Looked more like an Oompa-Loompa.

Anyhow, I look forward to volume 2."

Ward's art certainly isn't perfect. I think he often uses colors that are too similar next to one another that makes it difficult to pull out details.

Empyre (2020) #0: Avengers ★★★★
I liked how much of the Avengers canon (Kree / Skrull War and Celestial Madonna) Al Ewing used.

The Joker 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular ★★★★
Some pretty cool Joker stories.

Kabuki Library Volume 3 ★★
Mack pretty much abandoned panel layouts, turning this into prose mixed media presentation where nothing much happens.

The Fox: Freak Magnet ★★
An ode to old school comics from Mark Waid and Dean Haspiel that fell flat..

Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 2: Edge of Everything ★★★★★
Christian Ward's art in this space opera is something special.

Justice League, Volume 5: The Doom War ★★★
I'm glad this is finally done. I don't think this whole thing with Apex Lex makes any sense. His ego would never allow him to follow anyone else, including a god.

Heathen Vol. 2 ★★★★★
I love everything about this lesbian viking saga.

Year of the Villain: The Infected ★★★
A bunch of tie ins to the Secret Six introduced in Batman/Superman Volume 1: Who are the Secret Six?.

Empyre (2020) #0: Fantastic Four ★★★
Felt like a normal issue of Slott's FF without any tie in to Empyre.

Batman: The Smile Killer #1 ★★
Jeff Lemire needs to stick to his creator owned stuff. His super hero work is not good.

Negan Lives ★★★★
You got to give props to Kirkman and Adlard for creating this just to draw people into comic shops. They paid for all the production costs and gave the book to LCS. The story is typical Negan.

Ghost Rider, Vol. 2: Hearts of Darkness II ★★★
Wolverine and Punisher return while the villain of the first Hearts of Darkness, Blackheart, operates in the background.

Black Kiss ★★★
Howard Chaykin's weird as hell noir comic from the 80's, chock full of ultraviolence and X-rated moments, plus vampires.

Cuisine Chinoise: Five Tales of Food and Life ★
Some weird translated stories I couldn't follow at all.

The Flower of the Witch ★★★
A coming of age fantasy story.

Unfinished Business ★★
A priest, a minister and a rabbi walk into a bar... in the afterlife.

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise ★★★★
A very solid continuation of the cartoon.

Moonstruck, Vol. 1: Magic to Brew ★★
I really want to like this LGBTQ+ series. It has great world building, but the stories go off the rails and are just frustrating.

Moonstruck, Vol. 2: Some Enchanted Evening ★★
A LGBTQ+ comic with great premises that should be good but isn't.

Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Beast of Vargu and Others ★★★★
More Hellboy stories are always a good thing.

This week's comic run.

Join the Future #3
Adventureman #2
Empyre: Fantastic Four #0
Lois Lane #12
Strange Academy #2
Finger Guns #3
Ghost Rider #7
Quantum & Woody #4
Something Is Killing the Children #8
X-Force #10
Superman #23
Batman's Grave #8

Finder: Chase the Lady ★★
Some interesting world building but no way in for new readers. You need to know what happened in the last 10 books to have any clue what's happening.

Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen ★★★★
Apex Lex vs. The Batman Who Laughs.

Catwoman, Vol. 3: Friend or Foe? ★★★
Joelle Jones closes out Selina's time in Villa Hermosa in this Year of the Villain tie in..

The Flash, Vol. 12: Death and the Speed Force ★★★
The Black Flash returns to try and kill off these new force users. It's about time to bring a new writer into Flash.

Doomsday Clock Part 2 ★★★★★
Johns and Frank knock it out of the park.

Marvel's Voices (2020) #1 ★★★
A bunch of creators from Marvel's Voices podcast give us some very short stories..

Ghost Rider, Vol. 1: The King Of Hell ★★★
I'm excited to see the real Ghost Riders come back, but this series is just OK.

Dial H for Hero Vol. 2: New Heroes of Metropolis ★★★★★
This was tremendous. It's wacky. It's meta. It's retro. It's incredibly inventive.

Batgirl, Volume 7: Oracle Rising ★★★★
A new creative team comes aboard and instantly makes their mark with a great Year of the Villain tie in story.

Faith: Taking Flight ★★★
Valiant gets in on the YA prose book craze with one of their best characters, Faith, a plus size fangirl with a bubbly personality who gains the ability to fly.

Jackie Robinson: Athletes Who Made a Difference ★★★★★
A graphic novel for kids about a true American hero, Jackie Robinson.

Legion of Super-Heroes, Vol. 1 ★★★★
Some people aren't going to be happy with this Legion reboot, but I dug it. The characters have rightly been majorly diversified and redesigned which is what you would expect a thousand years in the future.

Archie: 1955 ★★★
It's pretty much Archie filling in for Elvis.

Avengers: No Road Home ★★★
A bunch of random Avengers fight Nyx, the Greek goddess of Night. Conan returns to the Marvel universe in this as it's the best issue of the story.

Promethea, Vol. 1 ★★★★
I've read this several times before. It reminds me of Sandman quite a bit. The real star is JH Williams's art though. I love the unique panel structures.

Crowded, Vol. 1 ★★
Some cool world building but the main character is a nightmare who grated on my nerves.

Bolivar ★★★★★
A delightful combination of graphic novel and picture book about a little girl who is the only one who notices that a dinosaur lives next door. The art in this is fantastic and pays homage to New York.

Small week this week with no new Marvel or DC books. Yet, I still managed to spend 3 hours in the LCS and got yelled at by my wife. It's not like I left her in the car. She stayed home.

Firepower #1
Goon #11
Negan Lives
Plot #5
Kids #4

And I picked up Jeff Lemire's Sentient since it was a small week.

Nancy wrote: "Chad wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Chad- I had not heard of Dying is Easy by Joe Hill. I like his work and am looking forward to his new series/collection, Hill House Comics."

The last issue of Dying Is E..."

If you use Edelweiss, Dying Is Easy is available to request there.

Nancy wrote: "Chad- I had not heard of Dying is Easy by Joe Hill. I like his work and am looking forward to his new series/collection, Hill House Comics."

The last issue of Dying Is Easy just came out from IDW a couple of weeks ago. I don't think the collection comes out until the fall.
It's just OK.

I've bought all of the Hill House comics but haven't had a chance to read them yet. The Hill House comics aren't all written by Hill.

Last week's reading. Caught up on a couple of prose books, so a little lighter this week.

Streamliner Vo. 1: Bye Bye Lisa Dora ★★★★★
A story about racing hot rods in the desert.

Dying is Easy ★★★
Crime noir from Joe Hill.

Martian Manhunter: Identity ★★
A retelling of the Martian Manhunter's origin with awful art from Riley Rossmo. Steve Orlando tries real hard to be Tom King.

Young Justice, Vol. 2: Lost in the Multiverse ★★★★
Young Justice gallivants across the multiverse.

Thor by Donny Cates Vol. 1: The Devourer King ★★★★★
Donny Cates does it again. Thor teams up with Galactus to stop the Black Winter that killed Galactus's universe.

You Brought Me the Ocean ★★★
A YA retelling of Geoff John's Aqualad story from Brightest Day adding in an LGBTQ love triangle.

Summer Spirit ★★
A preteen hangs out with her cousins and a ghost for the summer.

Green Lantern 80th Anniversary ★★★★
This was great. DC brought back a lot of the GL creative teams to write stories, including the last Denny O'Neill story.

Stig & Tilde #3: The Losers Club ★★
A lesser Lord of the Flies type story with poor, rudimentary art.

Primer ★★★★★
A fun kid's book with DC's newest superhero.

Batman and the Justice League Vol. 3 ★
An absolutely terrible manga. The lack of backgrounds turn this into a book of pinups.

Cuphead Volume 1: Comic Capers & Curios ★★★
So, yeah, they turned this video game into an old-timey comic.

Dragon Age: Blue Wraith ★★
This should have been much better than it actually was. It's a cool world and characters but poor storytelling and art.

Raiders ★★
A nihilistic and brutal Dungeons & Dragons derivative of Head Lopper.

Huge week at the comic book store. My wife is going to kill me.

Thor #5
Jimmy Olson #11
Suicide Squad #6
Plunge #4
Low Low Woods #6
Hellblazer #7
Five Years #10
Doctor Tomorrow #3
X-Ray Robot #1
Empire #0
S.O.S. Support Our Shops
Star Wars Bounty Hunters #3
Once & Future #7-8
Rescue 2020 #2
Iron Man 2020 #2
Year Zero #2
The Cimmarian Red Nails #1
Green Lantern 80th Anniversary
Batman The Smile Killer

Last week's graphic novel reading:

New Teen Titans Vol. 11 ★★★★
Night Owl Society ★★★★
Star Wars: Age of Rebellion - Villains ★★★
The Flash, by Grant Morrison & Mark Millar ★★★★
The Flash by Mark Waid Book Seven ★★★★
Ghost Omnibus Volume 4 ★★★
Ghost Omnibus Volume 5 ★★★
Ghost Volume 1: In the Smoke and Din ★★★
Ghost Volume 2: The White City Butcher ★★★★
Ghost Volume 3: Against the Wilderness ★★★
Ghost Volume 4: A Death in the Family ★★
Brain Boy Volume 1: Psy vs. Psy ★★★★
Brain Boy Volume 2: The Men from G.E.S.T.A.L.T. ★★★
Milo's World Book 3: The Cloud Girl ★★★
The Terrifics, Vol. 3: The God Game ★★★
Batman Arkham: Black Mask ★★★★
Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed ★★★★
Klaw Vol.3: The Cycle Renewed ★★★

Brandon wrote: "Managed to get through a few books this past week, not as much as I usually do but I managed to make a dent in a bunch of larger Epic/Complete collections! Going to copy Chad and just list mine her..."

Boy, you really didn't like Doomsday Clock, huh. I still need to read the second arc this week.

Marvel just put up a new prose Ms. Marvel short story by G. Willow Wilson. It's about Kamala living through the lockdown of the last three months.

https://www.marvel.com/articles/cultu...

This was a light week so I also bought all the Superman books that have come out since the last trades. I like most of what Bendis has done with Superman other than age up Jon.

Daphne Byrne #5
Dark Nights Death Metal #1
Dying Is Easy #5
The Man Who Effed Up Time #3
Superman #22
Frankenstein Undone #1

Ed wrote: "Oh dear. I personally found it only so-so. It describes a riot in Cincinnati that I either didn't know about or had forgotten, so it is interesting in that respect. Doesn't seem to be available digitally."

I was there for work when it happened. The news made it look pretty scary. Yet, I still went downtown for a baseball game and was just fine.

Since we've already read, March: Book One, let's go with March: Book Two given our current times.

Whitney wrote: "OOo there's a prequel? Awesome, thanks!"

There's a sidequel as well, but it's clearly a cash grab.

Brandon wrote: "Quite a few books, Chad! Which ones were your favourites worth recommending and which ones were the biggest disappointments?"

Superman, Vol. 3: The Truth Revealed was the best thing I read last week. Bendis drops a huge bombshell in that one.

Eclipse was a nice surprise. I like the world building. It's a murder mystery in a world where a solar flare caused the sun to burn you to a crisp so everyone in NYC lives underground coming above ground at night.

I ripped through all of The October Faction. It's the Addams Family if they were also monster hunters.



Haunt Vol. 4 and 2099 Companion were the biggest disappointments. Joe Casey and Nathan Fox came on board Haunt and burned that title to the ground within a couple of issues.

The 2099 Companion I was looking forward too. I liked the 2099 books from the 90s and thought these one shots were an extension of that. Instead Nick Spencer rebooted the 2099 universe and made these all origin stories where no one even shows up in costume until the final pages of each issue. They were horrible.

Last week's graphic novel reading:

Eclipse, Vol. 1 ★★★★
You Are Deadpool ★★★
Weapon H, Vol. 1: AWOL ★★★★
Weapon H, Vol. 2: War for Weirdworld ★★★
Hulkverines ★★★
Howling Commandos of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Monster Squad ★★
Seeking the Truth (Through Lya's Eyes, Vol.1) ★★★★
The October Faction, Vol. 1 ★★★
The October Faction, Vol. 2 ★★★
The October Faction, Vol. 3 ★★★★
The October Faction, Vol. 4: Deadly Season ★★★★
The October Faction, Vol. 5: Supernatural Dreams ★★★★
Haunt, Vol. 4 ★
War of the Realms: Spider-Man/Daredevil ★★★
Planetoid, Vol. 1 ★★★
Year One: Batman/Ra's al Ghul ★★
Mae, Vol. 2 ★★★
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Vol. 6: Save Our School ★★
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Vol. 7: Bad Dream ★★★
Black Canary: Ignite ★★
2099 Companion ★★
Bix ★★★
Great Pacific Volume 1: Trashed! ★★★
Zero Girl ★★
Superman, Vol. 3: The Truth Revealed ★★★★★
Star Wars: Age of Republic - Heroes ★★★
Star Wars: Age of Republic - Villains ★★★★
Batman: The Caped Crusader Vol. 4 ★★★★
House Amok ★★

Lenny wrote: "Is there any required reading before the new Valkyrie? I'm still filling in some gaps on Jason Aaron's many Thor stories. (As you can see I'm catching up on Marvel in general w/the Unlimited subscription)"

I'd definitely read Aaron's Thor run first. Valkyrie spins out of War of the Realms.

This week's comic shop run:

Joker 80th Anniversary
Lois Lane #11
Killadelphia #6
Something Is Killing the Children #7
Artemis and the Assassin #2
Adventureman #1
The Batman's Grave #7
Excalibur #10
New Mutants #10
Legion of Super-Heroes #6