I Read Comic Books discussion
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What are you reading right now?
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What are you reading right now? (September 2023)
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Last week's adventures in comics.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin - Lost Years ★★★
Just not nearly as good as the original The Last Ronin miniseries. Part of it was that the story wasn't nearly as compelling. This was about what Michelangelo was doing in the many last years between the regular series and The Last Ronin.
Box of Bones: Book Two ★★★
Volume 2 feels more like Hellraiser than a look at all of the atrocities committed against black people over the last few centuries.
Azula in the Spirit Temple ★★
These new Avatar stories lately just seem like leftover crumbs you're licking your fingers in order to pick them up that leave you unsatisfied.
The Flying Ship Volume 1 ★★★
A YA queer comic about a a one legged girl putting together a crew for her flying ship in a world where magic is outlawed but not always enforced.
Not a New York Love Story ★★★★
A quick read about a man in New York who keeps seeing his dead girlfriend. They go and do things they never got around to when they were together like go to the Mermaid Parade and then he wakes up alone each day.
Earthdivers, Vol. 1: Kill Columbus ★★★★
In 2112 the world is ending. Four Native Americans find a cave where they can make a one way trip to the past so one of them goes back to kill Columbus before he can discover America and start centuries of persecution towards Native Americans.
Stranger Things: Holiday Specials ★★
More Stranger Things fluff with these Holiday Specials.
Stranger Things: The Tomb of Ybwen ★★★
Another one of these kind of fluff Stranger Things minis. This one takes place after Season 2. Will is still sad about what happened to Bob. He finds an old map to a "treasure" that Bob created as a teenager and the boys go to find it.
Shadow Hills ★★★
People in a washed up town start popping up covered in an oily substance. Sink holes are also opening up. It's interesting but enough isn't explained. Things just happen.
Night Club Volume 1 ★★★
Three dumbass teenagers become vampires and decide to get famous on Youtube doing parkour. They end up coming across a stereo-typically bad group of vampires and a fight ensues. Kudos for the $1.99 cover price of each issue. I'm not going to say no to any comic that's only $2 an issue.
Frank Lee, After Alcatraz ★★
This is a hypothetical about what happened to Frank Lee after he escaped from Alcatraz, famously played by Clint Eastwood in the movie. This suggests he only moved 14 miles away and was taken care of by a married couple. The storytelling in this is pretty dry and obtuse and the art is often fugly.
The Lost King (The Queen's Favorite Witch #2) ★★★
Not as focused on the Queen's favorite witch as the first book. This gets more into the English politics of the time when Elizabeth was queen and wouldn't marry.
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man Omnibus ★★★★★
When Marvel first decided to kill off the Ultimate version of Peter Parker, I was really upset. Bendis was writing the best Spider-Man title I'd ever read. Thankfully, the book continued to be just as good with Miles Morales taking over.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Vol. 1 ★★★★
Secret Wars has allowed Bendis to retcon some things. I hate this kind of thing, because I no longer know what part of Miles's history is still canon and what is now a figment of my imagination. Miles also appears to be a bit older now looking more like 16 than 13.
Batman/Superman World's Finest Vol. 3: Elementary ★★★★
First up Supergirl and Robin go on a date and it goes poorly to say the least. Then Simon Stagg turns up dead and it looks like Metamorpho did it.
The Lucky Poor ★★★
A kid's comic about growing up poor in Canada. This was kind of a memoir and the focus keeps on changing, keeping it average instead of terrific.
Sea Serpent's Heir Book Two: Black Wave ★★★★
Aello goes all in as the reincarnation of the sea serpent that's destined to destroy the world. She begins to pull in her powers as necessary to unite the pirate clans against the religious institution trying to destroy them.
Milky Way ★
A really off-putting sexual story about a young couple. The guy suddenly becomes obsessed with lactating breasts and his girlfriend is babysitting this grossly overweight woman's baby who he has an affair with. All of the characters are very unlikable. The art is fugly. This will put you off from having sex for awhile. It's all just gross.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Vol. 2 ★★★★
Miles reacts to all the stuff going on with him in Civil War II.
DEN Volume 2: Muvovum ★★★★
Richard Corben's tale of two humans trapped in a strange fantasy world continues. Presumably because this was originally serialized in Heavy Metal, there is a ton of nudity in it, both male and female. Most people in this world only wear cloaks and are otherwise completely naked for no apparent reason. Given that it's Corbin, there are plenty of grotesque monsters as well.
Dark Knights of Steel Vol. 2 ★★★★
DC's Elseworlds set in a fantasy world comes to a good conclusion. The true manipulators behind the war of the three kingdoms is revealed and makes complete sense.
Mother Nature ★★
This eco-horror was adapted by a screenplay. Jamie Lee Curtis is clearly meant to be one of the characters in it. This may work better as a movie because it didn't work as a comic. Honestly, this is exactly what I expect when a star's name is attached to a comic book these days. They are barely involved and the comic is terrible. Keanu Reeves, Oscar Isaacs, Emilia Clarke, now add Jamie Lee Curtis to that list.
Doctor Who: Empire of the Wolf ★★★
The Eighth and eleventh Doctors team up when the Rose from the other Earth and Bad Wolf Empress Rose start having visions of one another.
Spider-Man/Spider-Gwen: Sitting in a Tree ★★★★
Miles Morales's dad has disappeared while working for SHIELD so Miles goes looking for him on Earth-65 (or Earth-GS. Get it? As in Gwen Stacy.). He meets up with Spider-Gwen and they go look for him in a club that's owned by an evil version of his dad from Earth-65. He's hooked up with S.I.L.K. to steal more stuff from Earth-616. They end up dimension hopping while trying to stop S.I.L.K. and evil dad.
Marvel Age (2023) #1000 ★★★★
An anthology anniversary issue from some of the industry's top talent. This thing is thick.
Battlecats Vol.1 GN: The Hunt for the Dire Beast ★★★
Thundercats in a generic D&D setting.
Mod
Mike sat down with Oscar Osorio to talk comics and Oscar's experience with breaking into comics, using Zoop as a crowdfunding space, and how the comics community helped him get his start as a comic book writer. Mike and Oscar also talk about How to Talk to Girls at Parties and SP4RX.
Find Oscar online at https://oscarwins.substack.com/ and https://twitter.com/Oscarom29.
Check out the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to hear our thoughts on what we read! Or listen now at https://ircbpodcast.com/episodes/mini...
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Exquisite Corpse ★★★★A young woman looking for more in life stumbles upon a recluse author and turns his life upside down. There's a mystery and a romance involved as well. There's quite a bit of misogyny from the male characters. The end left with me some questions but overall I enjoyed all the twists in the story.
Flamer ★★★★★This book is frequently banned by the same places that ban Gender Queer: A Memoir, which makes it recommended reading to me. The protagonist in this story deals with a whole lot--bullying, thoughts of self-harm, his sexuality, racism, etc. It's a heavy story but it ends on an optimistic note. I LOVE the use of color. It's all grayscale except for all the literal and metaphorical ways flame is used.
Livingstone, Vol. 1 ★★★★This is what I'm using my KManga tickets on right now. It's similar to a reaper story and follows a small team that rescues peoples' souls. Most chapters involve a small mystery or the team rescuing people who are near death. I'm interesting in learning more about the lore of the world as the series progresses.
Today's trip to the LCS.Shazam #2
Shazam #3
Doctor Strange #7
Ghost Rider / Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance Omega
X-Men #26
Immortal X-Men #15
Birds of Prey #1 <-- Kelly Thompson's 1st DC comic
Last week's adventures in comics.Star Trek: Defiant, Vol. 1 ★★★
This spins out of Star Trek, Vol. 1: Godshock. A rogue group of Klingons are murdering anyone they consider to be Gods. Worf and Spock leave Sisko's crew and steal the Defiant to go on their own hunt for the Klingons because Worf's son, Alexander, has sided with the zealots. B'Elanna Torres of Voyager, Ro Laren, and Lore also get sucked into the crew.
The Liminal Zone ★★★
Junji Ito is back with four longer short stories written over the Pandemic. He's the first to tell you in the afterword that he feels he may be out of ideas.
Wash Day Diaries ★★★★
Four vignettes revolving around four female best friends living in the Bronx. Each story is about a different subject with the intricacy of black women's hair care being shown in detail in each story.
Pinup Girls Around the World ★★★
A bunch of pinups from around the world like the title says. There are all more recent but most have a retro feel to them. There's nothing really risque about these. It's all pretty tame especially compared to what you could find within five minutes of an internet search.
Asadora!, Vol. 1 ★★★★
A manga about a girl in the 50's looking for the doctor because her mother is about to give birth. Meanwhile she gets kidnapped by a burglar right as a typhoon moves in. The burglar is a down on his luck pilot and they both help the survivors. This ends on an odd cliffhanger.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Vol. 4 ★★★
A good but not great ending to one of the best, long-running series in comics. Bendis has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man over the last 18 years often showing up the main Spider-Man books.
Spider-Men II ★★★★
The long awaited followup to Spider-Men. This is almost more of the origin story of the Miles Morales from the prime dimension, 616. Bendis retcons some major pieces of a Spider-villain's backstory but in a way that makes sense. The end of this almost left like a end to Miles's book.
Star Trek: Resurgence ★★★
A solid story set in the Star Trek universe but not about the characters from any of the TV shows or movies. It's about the Resurgence, a completely different Star Fleet science vessel. This is the prequel to an upcoming video game but it doesn't feel like it.
Bad Medicine ★★★★
Four indigenous teenagers sit around a campfire in Canada telling ghost stories.
Stranger Things Library Edition Volume 3 ★★
This collects The Tomb of Ybwen and the holiday specials. The Tomb of Ybwen tales place after season 2 when Will is trying to process Bob's death. The holiday specials are complete fluff like the majority of these Stranger Things comics.
Everything is Fine Volume Two ★★★★
A disturbing story about people living in this town where they pretend everything is fine while they are constantly watched to make sure they comply with the rules. In volume 2, our protagonists have just killed a police officer and have to get away with his murder.
Underground, Volume 1: Fight Club ★★
A manga about fighting. There's not much else to this than lots of fighting.
Star Trek, Vol. 2: The Red Path ★★★★
I thought this volume was an improvement over volume 1. The story is much clearer. Sisko takes the Theseus to Cardassia on the hunt for some missing Bejoran artifacts. The Cardassians put him on trial for all the people who died on Cardassia during the Dominion War. The rest of the crew go looking for the artifacts before the Red Path can get to them.
Freaking Romance Volume One ★★★
A manga about a girl who is told she's rented a haunted apartment. But it seems to be something else, maybe an alternate reality type thing as she can see a boy living in her apartment sometimes but he can't see or hear her.
Totem ★★★
Two lovers go on a road trip through the Southwest. Interspersed are meetings with the dead that I'm still not sure how it's all connected. The storytelling is sparse and the artwork is really good. By the way, if the artwork looks familiar, Laura Pérez is the woman behind the cool title sequence on Only Murders in the Building.
Graveneye ★★
It's an interesting concept. A horror story told through the eyes of the house itself. The narration is from the view of the house as its owner, Ilsa, wanders the woods hunting bigger and bigger game while timid caretaker, Marie, takes care of the house itself, coming in bruised and bloody.
Clear ★★★
It's a definite possible dystopian future Snyder and Manapul have come up with. Humanity is circling the drain and doesn't want to know about it so everyone is using augmented reality to hide the truth. In the middle of this scenario is a man searching for his ex-wife's killer. Francis Manapul's art is absolutely terrific.
Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis ★★★
An unproduced opera that was never performed because the authors were killed in a concentration camp during World War II. It's a really neat idea to finally show this to the world.
Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Secret of Chesbro House & Others ★★★★
Some better than average Hellboy stories mostly set in the Eighties. He tackles haunted houses, Greek Gods, men filled with snakes and ghosts in this collection.
The Weirn Books, Vol. 1: Be Wary of the Silent Woods ★★★★
A spooky book for middle schoolers where the danger feels real. The main character is a weirn. They have these odd familiars that float around them. There's plenty of other horror types represented as well. The kids go to the Night School, which is what the normal school turns into each night. While working at their grandmother's shop, the kids find out their great uncle went missing when he was a child and never seen again. Now the headmistress from that time appears to be back to abduct more children.
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures, Vol. 1 ★★★
Takes a goofy mangaesque approach to the Batfamily. There are no stories of anyone fighting villains. It's all 5 page stories of fighting over the last cookie or deciding to join a club at school.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Armageddon Game -- The Alliance ★★★
A bunch of ancillary stories that fill out a bit of what's going on with all of the supporting characters in the TMNT universe.
Janus Silang and the Creature of Tabon ★★
There was definitely a lot lost in translation here. It has a ton to do with a lot of Filipino horror traditions. Most of it is explained very poorly though and there's subpar dialogue translations everywhere. I suggest you go and read Trese instead for your horror fix.
New Fantastic Four: Hell in a Handbasket ★★★
We flash back to the 90's when Art Adams brought us a new Fantastic Four team for 3 issues during Walt Simonson's FF run. Here the foursome of Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Hulk and Ghost Rider go to Vegas where the homeless are being taken over by demons.
Black Mass Rising ★★★
It may be better to go into this cold without any expectations. It's something of a religious horror comic. These people in medieval times are plagued by demons until a monk appears. He and another young woman go off to track down the source of these incursions.
Two Graves, Vol. 1 ★★
Death and Emilia who apparently can't die go on a road trip. They stay in cheap motels while being pursued by some of Death's contempories. The storytelling in this is very vague. Little is explained. The best I can say about it is it's a thing I read.
The Forgotten Blade ★★★
An OK but tropey filled story about a few rebels trying to stop the all powerful church in this fantasy world of the Five Rivers.
TKO Presents: Tales of Terror ★★★
A bunch of short horror comic book stories. These weren't half bad. I'd read "The Father of All Things" and "Night Train" before when TKO released their TKO shorts separately so you could have some deja vu here.
Today's trip to my LCS.Incredible Hulk #4
House of Slaughter #17
X-Men Red #15
World's Finest: Teen Titans #3
X-Force #44
Mod
Here's what folks read:
- Mike: Kill Your Darlings #1, The Cull #1
- Brian: Matchmaker
- Zach: Ito junji: Uzumaki Full Edition Junji Ito Manga
Check out the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to hear our thoughts on what we read! Or listen now at https://ircbpodcast.com/listen-now
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Re: Chad: As usual I added a few books to me to-read list thanks for your reviews! I also really enjoyed The Weirn Books even though quite a few elements were pretty common for the genre.
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Knee Deep Book One ★★★★What remains of humanity is split between an utlra-corporate highly controlled society and the refugees who have fled underground. A girl flees the society and searches for her missing parents underground. Parts of the story are predictable in the way that dystopian society stories tend to be, but it was a fun read with a likable protagonist. The story isn't finished in Book One and Book Two isn't out yet.
Danger and Other Unknown Risks ★★★★★This is also a post-apocalypse book but without a dystopian society. A girl and her dog have to cross dimensions to try to find certain items to keep the world from another apocalypse event. I thought I had the ending figured out but it still surprised me!
I Left The House Today! ★★★★★This is a collection of cute, relatable one-page comics about the struggles of daily life.
Batman: War Games, Book One ★★★★So my friend Emily tried to back into comics and picked up Dark Knights Metal, only to realize it requires so much backreading. This got me curious and I already read Hush, so I'm starting earlier than necessary.
One thing that drives me crazy is the font used for Stephanie Brown's inner thoughts is hard to read. Also, Devin Grayson's Tarantula is featured and I wish I wasn't reminded of her.
Batman: Broken City ★★
I don't think I'm going to be a Brian Azzarello guy. I tried to read 100 Bullets can could get past the dialogue. I like the art by Eduardo Risso though.
The Sandman, Vol. 4: Season of Mists ★★★★★
Dream must break into Hell to rescue the woman he damned forever. Before, I would fall off of Sandman b/c my lizard Brain needs explosions and exaggerated expressions to focus on something.
Green Arrow: Year One ★★★★
Great art from Jock.
Radiant Pink Vol. 1 ★★★
This was only okay. Eva/Radiant Pink is stretched thin between work and superheroing. She accidently teleports herself and an EMT to another planet.
Ultimate Spider-Man, Volume 1: Power and Responsibility ★★★★
Great starting book. Every other time, I’m bored to tears by Peters Origin. Ultimate brings a lot of heart and nuance to the story without wasting time getting to the costume. The artwork is wonderful, especially the colors by Steve Buccellato.
One Piece, Volume 76: Just Keep Going-Volume 78 ★★★★
Dressrosa drags a little bit, but Law and Doflamingo are some of my favorite characters. A lot could have been trimmed, like I only remember 3 of the gladiators.
Max wrote: "I don't think I'm going to be a Brian Azzarello guy. I tried to read 100 Bullets can could get past the dialogue. I like the art by Eduardo Risso though."If you didn't like 100 Bullets completely give up on Azzarello. It's easily the best thing he's ever done.
Last week's adventures in comics.Nemesis: Reloaded ★★
Psycho, evil Batman has it out for Los Angeles. These characters are so paper thin. There may be a full story but I guess we'll need to wait for the Netflix series to see more than these storyboards. The last couple of pages do lead into the Big Game crossover between all of Millar's characters.
Heart Eyes: The Complete Series ★★★
This is very violent and full of Lovecraftian monsters tearing people apart. The series was interesting. It could have used another issue or two to flesh it out more. It's about this girl who can control the monsters that have ended the world and how she's looking for someone else who isn't afraid of them.
TKO Presents: Tales of Terror ★★★
A bunch of short horror comic book stories. These weren't half bad. I'd read "The Father of All Things" and "Night Train" before when TKO released their TKO shorts separately so you could have some deja vu here.
BAGS (or a story thereof) ★★
From the creator of Over the Garden Wall. A man who looks like a giant thumb goes looking for his missing dog. Along the way he encounters creatures that don't belong in a small town like a walrus or this weird looking devil thing. The more you read, the less it makes sense.
Project ARKA: Into the Dark Unknown ★★★★
This was some cool sci-fi. It was originally a French novel that the author turned into a comic that has now been translated into English. It's about some colonists from a failing Earth. They are headed to a new world full of plenty of resources when they wake up from hibernation with no stars to locate their position and things in their greenhouse have mutated.
Behold, Behemoth ★★★
This seems like it's pretty cool and the art is great. It jumps around in time way too much though. I had a really difficult time keeping the story straight in my head. It's about a guy who looks after this little girl who can turn into a Behemoth to save people from monsters. For some reason though, everything is broken and the world is becoming post-Apocalyptic while they try and save it without really knowing what they are doing.
The Approach ★★★★
Some straight forward cosmic horror about a small airport during a severe snowstorm. A plane shows up that disappeared 27 years ago and brings in something with it.
I Am Not Okay with This ★★
A teenage girl drawn to look like Olive Oyl deals with depression, her sexual identity and telekinesis?
The Ambassadors, Vol. 1 ★★★
Millar basically steals the concept of H.A.R.D. Corps. from 90's Valiant and gives it to a billionaire. She's developed the technology to give people the ability to dial in to 3 powers at a time and is giving it to 8 altruistic people of her choosing. Meanwhile her dirt bag husband is doing something similar with tech billionaires. I hoped that this being 6 issues meant this would be fleshed out more like Millar's earlier work, but it's not.
Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor, Vol 1: Weapons of Past Destruction ★★★★
This was great. It's the Ninth Doctor with Rose and Captain Jack in tow as his companions. It slots in very well as just another episode of Eccleston's run. It's about a race that has decided to police time travel and another race that's determined to stop them.
Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor, Vol. 2: Doctormania ★★★
The Doctor Rose, and Jack take on the Slithereen. Then they head to San Francisco where Rose gains super powers and they fight some gargoyles and Mickey shows up from the future.
Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor, Vol. 3: Official Secrets ★★★★
I really enjoyed going back to the 3rd Doctor era and revisiting UNIT. It's nice to see some of the old characters show up for those of us who grew up watching Doctor Who reruns on PBS. Then we go back in time to the conquistadors that could have actually been a little longer and less rushed.
Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor, Vol. 4: Sin Eaters ★★★★
These stories have smartly revolved around the Doctor's guilt over the Time War. I know we don't see much of it until later on the show but it makes sense here in these additional stories. So first the Doctor goes to a prison to investigate the Sin Eaters and it of course, all goes to shit. This would have made a good episode. Then everything culminates with the Doctor's memories of the Time War as events from book one come back to bite the Doctor.
Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Facing Fate Vol 1: Breakfast at Tyranny's ★★★
A volume 1 that's really year 3 of the series. It would help to have read the previous volumes so labeling this vol. 1 adds needless confusion. The Doctor is still with Gabby and Cindy along with Nubis. They get sucked into a fake Tardis that contains a shopping mall that drains life energy. Then we head to old world China for a not very good story about a walled off town with hundreds of Cindys in it.
Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Facing Fate Vol 2: Vortex Butterflies ★★★
The Doctor goes off on his own to figure out why the Tardis is acting wonky. Meanwhile Gabby and Cindy spend some downtime in London with an old companion.
Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Facing Fate Vol 3: Second Chances ★★★
Definitely the best volume of year three. We bring back some old friends and tie up all the loose plot threads of this run.
Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Vol. 4: The Endless Song ★★★
The Doctor helps some aliens who are made of sound. A neat idea and the best of the stories in this volume. There's an interlude on Earth that only makes sense in context with the previous volumes. The last volume has to do with cavemen and I thought it was a dud. Due to some Marvel levels of poor numbering I read these out of order as Volume 4 comes before the volumes 1 through 3 I read.
Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor - Gaze of the Medusa ★★★★
Tom Baker was my Doctor growing up. I would come home from school and watch the reruns on PBS. I loved his sense of curiosity (and jelly babies which I finally got to try when we went into HoneyDuke's down in Universal. I'd drive my wife nuts for a month pulling the bag out and asking her "Jelly baby?" She had no idea what I was referring to.). It was so fantastic to see them do a 4th Doctor miniseries. This was great. I loved how it tied into the Medusa myth.
Doctor Who: The Seventh Doctor - Operation Volcano ★★★★
The Seventh Doctor is one of the Doctors I'm least familiar with. I thought the main story was really solid. It mainly takes place in 1967 with some events stretching to 2029. It's about some alien cops and robbers on Earth for millennia.
Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor - A Matter of Life and Death ★★★
The 8th Doctor is the one we know the least about. He had a TV movie in the nineties and a little short in the modern Who era along with some extended universe stuff (which I've never consumed). This mini doesn't add much to that.
Doctor Who: Time Lord Victorious: Defender of the Daleks ★★★★
Any time you see Jody Houser's name on a comic, that's a good thing. The Tenth Doctor has to team up with the Daleks because the Daleks have come up against a threat they themselves can't stop. It's the enemy of my enemy is my friend business. This story is self-contained while still hinting at a broader picture and their certainly is one. This Time Lord Victorious initiative has me curious but I'm not a fan of having it structured across multiple forms of media.
The Ones Volume 1 ★★
I remember when Bendis used to be one of my favorite writers who could do no wrong. These are no longer those days. This stunk. It's about a group of chosen ones who are then chosen to defeat the Antichrist. Then it's mainly standing around talking for 4 issues. Even with all this talking though, nothing is explained. The characters are still paper thin. The art isn't very good. Just an all around poopfest.
Avengers Legends, Vol. 1: Avengers Forever ★★★★★
Immortus vs. Kang with some Avengers from across time stuck in the middle. This was Busiek's attempt at fixing all of the time travel shenanigans that had occurred over the decades with Kang, Immortus and Kang's other incarnations like the Scarlet Centurion.
Mod
Here's what folks read:
- Mike: The He-Man Effect: How American Toymakers Sold You Your Childhood, Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 11 and Vol. 12
- Nick: Box of Light Vol. 1, The Enfield Gang Massacre #2, Mech Cadet Yu, Vol. 1
- Paul: Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb, Weird Work #1 through #3
Rogues: Book One, Hamilton vs Burr - A Werewolf Tale
Check out the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to hear our thoughts on what we read! Or listen now at https://ircbpodcast.simplecast.com/ep...
Check out the The Gallows Man: Tales From Town's City Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/.... Or follow Brandon @dismaycomics on Instagram and TikTok.
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Re: Chad: Wow you read a lot of Doctor Who comics! I need to catch up on the TV series. I got distracted early in the Jodie Whittaker run and haven't picked it back up. I also have a lot of the comics on my to-read list!
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The Infinity Particle ★★★★★Another great story by Wendy Xu! This time a far-future sci-fi story about ethics, consent, and AI. I love these characters so much.
Every Day: The Graphic Novel ★★★★I really enjoyed the novel version of this story when I read it years ago so I was excited for the graphic novel adaptation. It was a good adaptation and a quick read, but the story didn't grab me as much as the novel did for some reason.
kaitlphere wrote: "Re: Chad: Wow you read a lot of Doctor Who comics! I need to catch up on the TV series. I got distracted early in the Jodie Whittaker run and haven't picked it back up. I also have a lot of the comics on my to-read list!."Lots of leftover Hoopla borrows from last month. I expect that'll happen again next month with Doctors 11 and 12. I fell way behind on the Titan comics and I've picked most of the bone off the comics in Hoopla.
Today's trip to the LCS was a big one.Nightwing #106
By the Horns #12
World's Finest #19
Something Is Killing the Children #33
Wolverine #37
X-Men Annual 2023
Dark X-Men #2
Wonder Woman #1
Captain America #1
Uncanny Avengers #2
Titans #3
Predator Versus Wolverine #1
Uncanny Spider-Man #1
Chad wrote: "... Project ARKA: Into the Dark Unknown ★★★★
This was some cool sci-fi. It was originally a French novel that the author turned into a comic that has now been translated into English. ..."
Thanks for the rec. I liked that, too. Hope it continues. French SF comics can sometimes be too weird (like Incal), but this is a more traditional SF. (Though there is a weirdly powerful pyramid thing that reminds me of Incal.)
Even though the French comic is called "Arca", as far as I can tell, it is a comics version of "Pyramides", and not the novel "Arca", as I might have guessed. The novel "Arca" seems to happen earlier, before the ship in "Project Arka" was built.
Anyway, it is one of those stories where humans need to unite to survive. But, if you know anything about humans, you should know they won't do that.
Last week's adventures in comics.Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Vol. 5: Arena of Fear ★★★
There's a certian sameness to all of these stories from Nick Abadzis. I wish he'd step away some from all of the made up scientific BS and produce some more grounded stories. The stuff in the Arena of Fear picked up on the Caveman story of the last volume.
Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Vol.6: Sins of the Father ★★★★
First up the Doctor heads to New Orleans where they come across some kind of sound monster. Then we get back to the bigger story with Anubis and the Time Sentinel, Brigade, whatever.
Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Vol. 7: War of Gods ★★★★
The story line with Anubis and Sutekh finally comes to an end. It was quite good too. I liked how it built off an old arc of the TV show from the era of the 4th Doctor. I just wish we could have gotten here sooner.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian, Vol. 1: Season One, Part One ★★
An almost shot for shot adaptation of the first half of Season 1 of The Mandalorian. I'm not really sure who this is for. Just go watch the show.
Where the Body Was ★★★
An OK one off story from the team of Brubaker and Phillips. It's about some neighbors on a block somewhere in Southern California in the 80's. Everyone has their secrets. The neighbors who are having an affair, the kid who plays at being a super hero, the teenagers on drugs. To me, it lacked focus though and it's the rare story by this team that's not 5 stars.
Red Sonja: The Ballad of the Red Goddess ★★
This was originally published for Planeta Comics decades ago. It's really short, only about 30 pages long with lots of filler and sketches. Esteban Maroto comes across as a major league creep in his forward, bragging about how he was the one who stripped her down to her chainmail bikini and comparing Red Sonja to a street hooker. The story has the basics of Red Sonja's origin, but adds in a gang rape showing her tied to the ground and talking about everyone taking a turn. It's pretty awful.
Maggie the Mechanic ★★★★
This first volume is a bit difficult to digest at first. Hernandez's work is really text heavy as it starts out. Some panels barely leave room for the art. So it takes a really long time to read. The second half maintains a much better balance. Love and Rockets has been around for decades and is one of the early successes of indie comics and it's easy to see why from reading this, even with multiple reviews saying later volumes are much better.
Monster Born ★★
A really barebones story about the daughter of monster hunters fighting monsters. Nothing is setup. Nothing is explained. If it wasn't for Tom Mandrake's terrific art and monsters, there would be zero reason to read this.
Black Solstice ★★
This started out as a trend on Twitter back when Twitter wasn't owned by an awful person. This is really half a story. It's three issues of exposition and then it ends right as the real story is about to begin. It's about black people getting superpowers on the winter solstice but then they go away the next day. The next year people are planning for them to come back again and in the hopes for that, a group is planning on robbing the Federal Reserve.
Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Jester Lavorre ★★★
I haven't watched any of Critical Role but a comic should be able to stand on its own. Introductions to the characters would have helped a bit. Still it was a light and fun comic.
Noblesse Season1. 1: Awakening in the new world ★★
The art is really good. The panelling can be odd. I'm sure that's due to the reconfigure from Webtoon to print but often the panels look like they are floating on the page with little structure or arrangement. The story moves at a glacial page and doesn't make a lot of sense. There's a guy running a school in Korea who turns out to be Frankenstein except he's beautiful. His master wakes up out of a coffin one day after 800 years and starts going to his school. He makes a few friends. Meanwhile a vampire and another guy are killing people on the peripheral.
Skull and Bones: Savage Storm ★★★
A pirate adventure set in the world of the upcoming video game. Since it's pirates fighting, you didn't need any knowledge of the game to enjoy it.
Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins--Yasha Nydoorin ★
This thing dragged on much more than a 50-page comic should. The art was awful. It looked like a knock-off fantasy Rick and Morty comic.
Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Caleb Widogast ★★★
A really dark and depressing story of a young mage sent off to school where he was twisted into being a monster for the Empire before breaking free. Surprisingly erotic as well as Bren develops a throuple while in school.
Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Nott the Brave ★★★
This may be the best of these origin stories I've read so far. It's about a halfling family captured by goblins. William Kirkby's art is growing. I absolutely hated the first one of these origins he did.
Avengers vs. X-Men ★★★★★
The culmination of the whole Utopia era of the X-Men from the end of House of M when the Scarlet Witch declared "No more mutants" until the return of the Phoenix.
Shelter for Lost Dreams ★
I felt like I was being wacked over the head by moral after moral. It was to the point where the opposite of the kid had just said would be the object lesson of the next story. Oof.
Dead Seas ★★★
A B-level horror movie plot set on a ship crewed by prisoners who are collecting ectoplasm from ghosts. They of course get loose and wreak havoc.
Captain America: Symbol of Truth, Vol. 2: Pax Mohannda ★★★
Sam mixes it up in the made up country of Mohannda in Africa. The White Wolf is behind it all to create an apartheid state. Unless I missed some White Wolf stuff that doesn't make a lot of sense. The White Wolf was raised as T'Challa's brother. Doesn't make sense to me you'd be raised in that kind of environment and become a hardcore racist.
Barnstormers ★★★★
The best thing Snyder's written in quite a while. Tula Lotay's gorgeous artwork doesn't hurt either. The book is about a stunt pilot of the 20's who meets a girl looking to get away from her life. They end up flying from town to town performing stunts while making money however they can while being chased by her rich fiancee.
All Against All ★★★★
This one was pretty cool. It's about an alien race that pulls traits out of races it comes across. They've come across a long ago destroyed Earth and found one of the seed vaults that exist. From that they've grown habitats to explore what they pluck from the DNA of Earth organisms. This race is like Krang from TMNT. They are little jellyfish creatures who take over other bodies. I like how each issue approaches the story from another angle, one of the various characters. I like how this mutates into something of a horror movie as well.
Afro Samurai Vol 1 ★★★
The story isn't much more than a simple revenge fantasy. Afro Samurai's father was killed in front of him as a boy and now he's out to kill those who killed his father. If you're wondering, yes, this was turned into a anime with Samuel L. Jackson in the lead role.
Redfork ★★★★
Gives off strong Needful Things vibes. A man gets out of prison after taking the rap for his brother and returns to a failing coal mining town in West Virginia. Opioid addiction runs rampant through the town. The man's little brother is trapped in a mine collapse. He gets out but brings someone back with him. Someone who can take away your problems but nothing is free...
Today's trip to the LCS.Void Rivals #3
Void Rivals #4
Fire Power #27
Immortal Thor #2
Invincible Iron Man #10
Ultimate Invasion #4
Parker Girls #10
Flash #1
Avengers #5
Mod
Here's what folks read:
- Mike: Migrate by Shan Murphy, SAKAMOTO DAYS 1 through ch. 15
- Danny: Wonder Woman (2023-) #1, Catwoman (2018-) #57
- Brian: Starfinder: Angels of the Drift #2
- Kev: Ultimate Invasion #1, One Piece ch. 155
Check out the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to hear our thoughts on what we read! Or listen now at https://ircbpodcast.simplecast.com/ep...
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Hakim's Odyssey: Book 3: From Macedonia to France★★★★★The final volume in Hakim's journey from Syria to France. This volume makes it clear how much more difficult and stressful a migrant journey can be with a child. I appreciated the summary of the first two volumes at the beginning, and Hakim's reaction to the graphic novel in the rear matter.
Twig, Volume 1★★★★★A pretty standard hero's journey with adorable art. I really liked how every stage of "the quest" was built by the stages before it. I also liked the way it ended quite a bit.
Global★★★★★Two fantastic fictional stories showing two very real extremes for how climate change can affect people's lives. The stories manage to end on a high note. This creative team has done quite a bit together and I plan to read more by them.
Arca★★★★★A dystopian sci fi set up that was slotting into place for that genre, but then I was delightfully surprised by the ending in a way that made total sense. I feel like I want a volume 2 in order to explore more about the world of the story, but I also like the story limited just as it is.
Tokyo Ghoul, Tome 1★★★★★I'm reading this very slowly as it re-releases on the Manga Plus app. This is a pretty violent series, but I enjoy the complexity and loyalty of the main character. I feel like this first volume sets up a potentially very interesting world.
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I promise I don't rate everything I read as 5 stars, I just lucked out with this week's reading! (And I tend not to post about the things I didn't like.)
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I Read Comic Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Tokyo Ghoul, Tome 1 (other topics)Catwoman (2018-) #57 (other topics)
Wonder Woman (2023-) #1 (other topics)
Starfinder: Angels of the Drift #2 (other topics)
Ultimate Invasion #1 (other topics)
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Tell us all about what you're reading this month in the thread below!
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