The Virtually Certain Man Takes A Level

[Steven]

#25 - Reign of X Vol. 1 by Jonathan Hickman, Al Ewing, and others
#26 - Reign of X Vol. 2 by Hickman, etc

Following X of Swords things go back to normal…sort of. Krakoa and Arakko turn out to be estranged after millennia of separation, Apocalypse is gone, and various idiots like Mr. Sinister and Nanny are hatching dangerously stupid plans.

[Steven]

#27 - Reign of X Vol. 3 by Hickman, Percy, etc

The New Mutants are falling under the sway of the Shadow King, while Wolverine’s past once again comes storming back to upset him.

The World Of X staggers onward. Forward, into the past!

Via Marvel Unlimited.

[Steven]

#28 - Laughing Gas by P.G. Wodehouse

Definitely a lesser Wodehouse, with the Reginald, Earl of Havershot, sent to Hollywood to retrieve his alcoholic cousin, Egremont. Hijinks ensue, including Reggie getting body-swapped with unpleasant child star Joey Cooley, who takes Reggie’s body on a revenge tour while Reggie catches all the abuse leveled at Joey (including an actress wielding a paper knife.) Ends on a positive note, as expected, but there’s barely more than chuckles on the way. Jonathan Cecil reads it perfectly, though.

Via Audible Plus.

[Steven]

#29 - When a Child is Born by Jodi Taylor

A further short entry in the St. Mary’s series finds the historians off to witness the coronation of William the Conqueror…only to get mysteriously sidetracked to a woodcutters hut and an imminent birth. Max eventually figures out the ramifications, to her astonshment.

Audible Plus.

[Steven]

#30 - Roman Holiday by Jodi Taylor

The St. Mary’s mob pop back to 44BCE to observe Julius Caesar, Calpurnia, and the not-as-advertised Cleopatra VII, an expedition that quickly becomes a Carry On film. Fun, though inconsequential.

[Steven]

#31 - Reign of X Vol. 4 by Jonathan Hickman, Benjamin Percy, Vita Ayala, etc
#32 - Reign of X Vol. 5 by Hickman, etc

The fragmentation of the lines continues, and another new series gets mixed in — CHILDREN OF THE ATOM focuses on a group of New York teens with familiar powers…except they’re not mutants. The mutants on Krakoa, however, don’t know this yet….

Read in singles, Marvel Unlimited.

[Steven]

#33 - Batman: Earth One, Volume 3 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank

Third entry in a series featuring an alternate version of Batman with a bit more realistic of a take on the character. That gets set aside somewhat this time, as the story bounces all over the place.

Via Hoopla.

[Steven]

#34 - Batman: Last Knight on Earth by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo

Originally intended as the end of Snyder’s run on Batman, this instead ended up as an alternate world dystopia. Batman awakens in Arkham Asylum…he’s young, he’s never been Batman, and Alfred tries hard to assure him that Batman was the delusion of a broken mind.

But then the truth emerges…Bruce Wayne is long dead, and this one is a clone with the memories of the original. It’s decades later and the world is a wasteland, the result of an appeal to the better angels of human nature turning out to bring forth the demons instead.

It’s a depressing romp, honestly. Nor does it make a whole lot of sense.

Via Hoopla.

[Steven]

#35 - Green Lantern: Earth One, Vol. 2 by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardmann

Continues the revisionist space opera take on Green Lantern, set in a dystopian future with plots afoot and mayhem galore as Yellow Lanterns show up along with the Last Guardian. As it turns out, the plots are much more complex than they seem, and the seeming bad guy Yellow Lanterns may not be (I’m interested in seeing where they go with the softer Qwardians, in fact.)

Via Hoopla.

[Steven]

#36 - World's Finest: The Guardians of Earth by Denny O’Neil, Len Wein, Steve Skeates, Elliot S! Maggin, Dick Dillin, others

From the period when WF turned into a Superman+ team-up book rather than a Superman/Batman book. Reflects the 1970s revisions of Superman as well, with Clark Kent now a one-man roving TV operation, and features a lot of O’Neil’s social networking ecological concerns. Unfortunately the stories are pretty tough at times, and the social commentary can be downright heavy-handed.

Via Hoopla

[Steven]

And with that, next mountain