New X-Men Omnibus
(Marvel) G Morrison w. / Quitely, Silvestri, Bachalo, et al. a.
A massive collection of Morrison's seminal run on the title, full of lots of big concepts and character shifts, some of which fly, others of which crash and burn.
●●●○○
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1202377802

The Movement – Vol. 1 "Class Warfare"
(DC) Gail Simone w. / Freddie E. Williams II a.
A #Occupy Super Hero team, fighting back against the Man and Big Money and the Cops? Neat idea, overwhelmed by cloying polemic.
●●○○○
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1225183869

Wolverine & the X-Men – Vol. 4 "AvX"
(Marvel) Jason Aaron w. / Jorge Molina a.
Another event tie-in book that's better than the core material. Good writing, as usual, by Aaron.
●●●●○
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1247619301

EGOs – Vol. 1 "Quintessence"
(Image) Stuart Moore w. / Gus Storms a.
The Legion of Super-Heroes with the quirk factor and egos turned up to 11. A fun read with some good twists.
●●●●○
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1247622475

Ten Grand – Vol. 1
(Image) J. Michael Straczynski w. / Ben Templesmith a.
Crime noir meets religious horror. John Constantine, but more bitter and bloody. Beautifully crafted in writing and art.
●●●●●
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1247494331

Avengers: Rage of Ultron
(Marvel) Rick Remender w. / Jerome Opeña a.
Fair art but bad characterizations drag down a decent story concept, making this thin volume an overall waste of money.
●●○○○
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1255448741

Lazarus – Vol. 3 "Conclave"
(Image) Greg Rucka w. / Michael Lark a.
The story gets a little muddled by an increased cast of characters and worldbuilding, but it's all still wonderful dystopian / one-percent / military / diplomatic adventure.
●●●●○
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1258039218

Ultimate Comics Thor
(Marvel) Jonathan Hickman w. / Carlos Pacheco a.
A reminder of what made the early Ultimate Marvel universe exciting: intelligent, interesting revisioning of the Marvel myths.
●●●●○
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1259664254

Girl Genius – Vol. 13 "Agatha Heterodyne and the Sleeping City"
(Studio Foglio) Phil & Kaja Foglio
Wraps up by comedic and imaginative fits and starts a lot of plot lines — and throws in some great new ones. Triffic fun, as always.
●●●●●
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21814336-girl-genius-volume-13

Wayward – Vol. 1 "String Theory"
(Image) Jim Zub w. / Steven Cummings a.
Fresh, modern remix of Japanese mythology in a current urban fish-out-of-water setting. Brilliant stuff.
●●●●●
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1267106823

Stumptown – Vol. 3 "The Case of the King of Clubs"
(Oni) Greg Rucka w. / Justin Greenwood a.
Portland, soccer, and a troubled private detective. A quick read, but a good one.
●●●○○
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1267103567

#comics #comicbooks

In Album 2015-04-29

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#comics #comicbooks

In Album Dave Does the Comics – 2014 Recommendations (DC)

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—

DC

Astro City, Vol. 9: Through Open Doors (Vertigo) Standard Kurt Busiek / Brent Anderson goodness, episode tales with a broad thematic and framing sequence; good super-hero stuff without Big Two editorial to screw up the vision. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090501300]

Astro City, Vol. 10: Victory (Vertigo) More of the same, here focusing on Winged Victory, Astro City's Wonder Woman analog. (5/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090538865]

Secret Six, Vol. 4: Cats in the Cradle – Man, I miss this series, in its pre-New52 glory, so freaking badly. Making second-tier villains the protagonists, and having them still be bad people but sympathetic characters, without glorifying their evil, is a tricky task, but Gail Simone pulls it off. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088428795]

Secret Six, Vol. 5: The Reptile Brain – Not one, but two villain teams clashing, with subtle gradations between the protagonists and the monsters. More Gail Simone and John Ostrander goodness. (5/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088465104]

Marvel

All-New X-Factor, Vol. 1: Not Brand X – Peter David (with spiffy Carmine Di Giandomenico art) plays with a new group of legacy X-characters, this time in a corporate-sponsored team. Fun. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090550411]

All-New X-Men, Vol. 3: Out of Their Depth – Good Bendis dialog, good Immonen art (for most of the collection), and a wildly complex mix of characters that are still identifiable and relatable to. X-Menny goodness. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088420698]

Image

Alex + Ada, Vol. 1 – A robot love story (sort of) should be too cliched for words, but Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn are doing something really spiffy here. (5/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088469122]

Brilliant, Vol. 1: Brilliant – Decent Brian Bendis story and Mark Bagley art, but the downward spiral of college genius creating superheroes descending into tragedy and madness and betrayal seems all too predictable. (3/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088425643]

FBP: Federal Bureau of Physics, Vol. 1: The Paradigm Shift (Image) When the laws of physics become flexible, the Feds step in. Sort of. Crazy writing by Simon Oliver, expressive but difficult art by Robbi Rodiguez. (3/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/995058495]

The Fuse, Vol. 1: The Russia Shift – This police procedural on a massive space station is good worldbuilding and storytelling. Stor by Antony Johnston, art by Justin Greenwood. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088487568]

Lazarus, Vol. 2: Lift – Fine dystopian intrigue and action by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark, in a thoughfully-crafted world. (5/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090558736]

Rocket Girl – Fun concept by Brandon Montclare, lovely art by Amy Reeder, with timebending dramedy, but it goes from something truly wonderful over the first few issues to something that gets a bit too complicated for its own good. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088443282]

Sheltered, Vol. 2 – "Lord of the Flies" in a pre-apocalypse survivalist compound continues. Good story by Ed Brisson and Johnny Christmas. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090623965]

Thief of Thieves, Vol. 3: Venice – I should like Andy Diggle's art thief / mobster / caper writing here than I do, but I found it something of a slog (though better collected than by individual issues). (2/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088456883]

Umbral, Book 1: Out of the Shadows – Passable but pedestrian fantasy realm, focused on a young thief who inadvertently nabs a valuable artifact, ho-hum. Story Antony Johnston, art Chrstopher Mitten. (2/5)[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090566374]

Velvet, Vol. 1: Before the Living End – Gritty Bondsian spy drama with a gender twist. Typically glorious stuff from Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting. (5/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088449551]

Other

Courtney Crumrin, Book 6: The Final Spell (Oni) Ted Naifeh give us the final chapter in the tale of young witch Courtney Crumrin, wrapping up plot threads from across her series. Sorry to see her go … (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088490850]

Earthward, Book One (Kickstarter/Regent) Bryan Q Miller pens a fun but mostly-by-the-numbers SF tale with kids, a cute robot, imperial conspiracies, vanished parents, and the mystery of the stolen Earth. I'd read another volume. (3/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088423082]

Questionable Content, Vol. 4 (Topataco) The next chunk of Jeph Jacques' twenty-something web comic is just as fun as the others, in a convenient new size. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090635824]

Revelations (Dark Horse) Politics, murder, and evil stalk the Vatican, and a atheist London detective has to figure it out. Paul Jenkins' story takes a lurch at the end, but Humberto Ramos' art is surprisingly fitting here. (3/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090541536]

Rover Red Charlie (Avatar) Garth Ennis pens a post-apocalyptic story starring three dogs. And, if you like Ennis, it's triffic stuff. Some violence, a bit of sex, shockingly little profanity, and strange, tragic, funny drama. (5/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088479633]

The Sakai Project: 30 Years of Usagi Yojimbo (Dark Horse) A well-deserved benefit book to help with Stan Sakai's wife's medical issues. Yeah, it's a lot of UY pin-ups, but a lot of them are excellent. (4/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088473622]

Wasteland, Book 1: Cities in Dust (Oni) Antony Johnston's post-apocalypse latter-day Earth has too many cliches (and too sketchy art by Christopher Mitten) to really make me come back for Book 2. (2/5) [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090544935]

—

It's interesting, looking at the above, the proportion of Image (and other) published works, vs the Big Two. In part, that's because I buy a lot of monthlies from Marvel (though little has risen to the level of wanting a permanent collection, esp. since I can pull up copies from ComiXology to reread whenever I want), and I buy very little these days from DC. A number of the Image and Other books I bought as colletions, rather than as monthlies first. That does lead to some misses along with the hits, but that's the nature of the publishing world.

#comics #comicbooks

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The covers below are for the issues I gave individual reviews of; hover over the covers to see the ratings out of 5 stars (with an occasional added comment), and click to embiggen. (I had a heck of a time with some of the covers this outing, with only the underlying art available online.)

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The covers below are for the issues I gave individual reviews of; hover over the covers to see the ratings out of 5 stars (with an occasional added comment), and click to embiggen.

Subscription info for this podcast can be found here. See you back on (if all goes well) the weekend of September 28th!

Star ratings are from 1 (Do Not Like) to 5 (Faboo).

RACHEL RISING #18 (Abstract – Terry Moore w/a) – Yumpin yimminies, I have no idea what's going on in this book (RR is, like much of Moore's work, best read in collections), but there's about five great comics all rattling around in, with a huge dollop of "freaking crazy" on top.  The dead are rising, the risen dead are falling, the living are in big trouble, and the immortal are not terribly thrilled about things.  Remarkable stuff, even with the too much going on. ***

THE SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN #1 (Marvel – NIck Spencer w / Steve Lieber a) — This has a vibe (visual and storytelling) much like Hawkeye, introducing us to the new Sinister Six, from the perspective of Boomerang.  There's a tragic light-heartedness to this tale of super-villainous losers (well, losers so far), that had me both chuckling and feeling sorry for them.  A nice first issue, enough to make me want more. *

AVENGERS ARENA #12 (Marvel – Dennis Hopeless w / Kev Walker a) "Game On, Part 5" — Hopeless burns a tiny amount of his brutality cred by saving someone everyone thought dead … but wins it back by beginning to break the logjam of hopelessness and despair amongst Murder World victims and readers alike.  I keep hating this coming book, and enjoying it more.  Though this was, on some level, the most "conventional" issue to date, it was still kicking ass and engraving names. **

YOUNG AVENGERS #7 (Marvel – Kieron Gillen w / Jamie McKelvie a) — Some period of time later, the YA are still on the run from the creatures that have taken over their parents, Loki is still both magic teacher and deeply mistrusted, and there's lots of smooching going on. Throw in a mysterious disappearance and some mysterious character bits, and this isn't the greatest of YA issues, but certainly in keeping with the offbeat weirdness that is this title.  Triffic stuff. **

HAWKEYE #12 (Marvel – Matt Fraction w / Francesco Francavilla a) — Barney Barton, Hawkeye's older brother and also the villain known as Trickshot (of late a Dark Avenger) comes a-calling on Clint.  But it might be an adventure just meeting up with him.  Typically understated but deeply personal adventure-drama for this title, which always feels like a movie should be made of it. **

DAREDEVIL #28 (Marvel – Mark Waid w / Javier Rodriguez a) — Like Hawkeye, there's a ton of illuminating flashbacks here, as Waid introduces a character from Matt's early life, and the challenge Daredevil faces in what to do about him. A very personal story, glibly written by Waid (as usual), with a nice comic book twist at the very end. **

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER (Nickelodeon – Gene Luen Yang w / Gurihiru a) "The Search, Part 2" — The search for Zuko's mother continues, with an oddly ever-growing cast of characters, some Azula craziness, some Aang/Zuko verbal sparring, and a deepening mystery that explains a lot about Ozai, the missing Ursa, and their two very different children.  These were the most outstanding questions from the original Last Airbender saga, and Yang (in close collaboration with the series creators) is coming up with a very believable story that looks and feels like the actual cartoon.  Good stuff. **

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Star ratings are from 1 (Do Not Like) to 5 (Faboo).

BATGIRL #22 (DC – Gail Simone w / Fernando Pasarin p)  "A Day in a Life of Endless Velocity" — One of the few positive lights in the DC New 52, this in-between issue features both a date for Babs as well as a singularly unpleasant conversation between Jim Gordon and Batman.  Batgirl can be both dramatic and also light-hearted, as this issue shows. I'm not quite sure why it's been unrelentingly darky-dark-dark of late, but this ish strikes a good balance. **

JUSTICE LEAGUE #22 (DC – Geoff Johns w / Ivan Reis p) "Trinity War, Part 1: The Death Card" – Super-hero teams fighting each other is massively cliche.  But I will say this: the long JL/JLA setup in the New 52 has actually provided a plausible basis for it to happen, esp. when Captain Marvel is thrown into the mix (and the "well, are they really heroes" aspect for both teams is considered). I won't say I was agog at the first installment of the Trinity War, but the eyerolling was kept to a pleasing minimum. *

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #13 (Marvel – Dan Slott, Christos Gage w / Giuseppe Camuncoli p) "No Escape, Part 3: The Slayers & the Slain" — I continue to be surprisingly pleased by the whole "Spider-Man's body is now occupied by Doc Ock's mind" loooooong story arc going on, and this battle between Spidey/Ock and the Spider-Slayer — with side conflicts with some other classic Spidey villains and J Jonah Jameson playing wild cards — is really quite a lot of fun. It can't go on forever (Marvel doesn't carry the Comic Code any more, but "heroes don't kill" is still true for most of their line, except for the Punisher), but I'm really liking where they are taking the character. **

WOLVERINE #6 (Marvel – Paul Cornell w / Mirco Pierfederici p) "Drowning Logan, Part 2" — The world really doesn't need another Wolverine title, and the story here (infectious group mind from the Microverse has taken over SHIELD and is bent on taking over the world) is damned silly on the face of it …, but I'm enjoying Cornell's take on Wolverine — something other than "Bub" this and "snikt" that, and a bit more interior and human. Good stuff. * 

INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK (Marvel – Mark Waid w / Matteo Scalera a) "Blind Rage, Part 2" — The storyline here (DD and Hulk tangle with Baron Zemo, Hydra, and a lot of bad weapons) is no great shakes, but what's remarkable is how easily, almost effortlessly, Waid appears as he writes both the protagonists and their relationship.  The dialog is smooth, the personal interactions are solid, and it's just a joy to watch. **

UNCANNY X-MEN #8 (Marvel – Brian Bendis w / Chris Bachalo p) — I usually enjoy Bendis' dialog, at least, and this issue neither disappoints nor excels.  Cyclops and Magneto have a war of wills over trust and leadership and how broken they all are post-Phoenix-Force-yada-yada, while one of their students quits and goes home, but not without repercussions.  The repartee is sharp, as always, and Bachalo's art is both approachable and rough enough to match the emotional turmoil of the whole really-truly-rogue X-Men (though the blond women in the book are beginning to look awfully similar). There's enough here to make me want to read next month, even if Magneto looks ridiculous and Cyclops hasn't been acting believably for the last decade. *

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The covers below are for the issues I gave an individual review of; hover over the covers below to see the ratings out of 5 stars (with an occasional added comment), and click to embiggen.

Subscription info for this podcast can be found here. I’m taking August as a skip month due to travel, though I may do some written reviews in the interim. See you back on (if all goes well) the weekend of September 7th!

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The covers below are for the issues I gave an individual review of; hover over the covers below to see the ratings out of 5 stars (with an occasional added comment), and click to embiggen.

Subscription info for this podcast can be found here. See you back on (if all goes well) the weekend of July 6th!

On the other hand, it’s also been two months since my last installment, rather than the normal one month. Mea culpas all around — I’ll try to do better.

The problem is … however will I cover all the great comics that have come out over the past two months, even if I narrow it down to just the books I’ve read? Let’s find out …

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The covers below are for the issues I gave an individual review of; hover over the covers below to see the ratings out of 5 stars (with an occasional added comment), and click to embiggen.

Subscription info for this podcast can be found here. See you back on (if all goes well) the weekend of June 8th!

Anyway, lots of comics this month, and a large number of them from Marvel.

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The covers below are for the issues I gave an individual review of; hover over the covers below to see the ratings out of 5 stars (with an occasional added comment), and click to embiggen.

Subscription info for this podcast can be found here. See you back on (if all goes well) the weekend of April 6th!

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The covers below are for the issues I gave an individual review of; hover over the covers below to see the ratings out of 5 stars (with an occasional added comment), and click to embiggen.

Subscription info for this podcast can be found here. See you back on (if all goes well) March 2nd!

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The covers below are for the issues I gave an individual review of; hover over the covers below to see the ratings out of 5 stars (with an occasional added comment), and click to embiggen.

Subscription info for this podcast can be found here. See you on (if all goes well) February 9!

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The covers below are for the issues I gave an individual review of; hover over the covers below to see the ratings out of 5 stars (with an occasional added comment), and click to embiggen.

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

All Ages:

Non-Traditional Comics:

Traditional Super-Heroes:

Have a great holiday season, and we’ll see you in 2013 with the next podcast!

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The covers below are for the issues I gave an individual review of; hover over the covers below to see the ratings out of 5 stars (with an occasional added comment), and click to embiggen.

Next month, in time for the holidays, I’ll be including a buying guide on what to get for your comic-book-devouring friend or loved one. See you then!

[powerpress]
The covers below are for the issues I gave an individual review of; hover over the covers below to see the ratings out of 5 stars (with an occasional added comment).

Or maybe not, since it took a lot longer to set up this podcast, and, obviously, it ran 30 minutes.  Hopefully that works for everyone, though.

The podcast playback button is at the bottom of the post. The covers below are for the issues I gave an individual review of; hover over the covers below to see the ratings out of 5 stars (with an occasional added comment).

See you next week month!

Some more serious thoughts on the podcast and its future can be found at the end.  Please comment on my blog if you have any feedback.

The podcast playback button is at the bottom of the post. The covers below are for the issues I gave an individual review of; hover over the covers below to see the ratings out of 5 stars (with an occasional added comment).

Again, be sure to listen to the end of the podcast, and give me your feedback, unless you have none (which, in and of itself, would be feedback).

The podcast playback button is at the bottom of the post. The covers below are for the issues I gave an individual review of; hover over the covers below to see the ratings out of 5 stars (with an occasional added comment).

Next week: a bit more variety. Maybe even some trade paperbacks to review. Who knows? Stay tuned!

The podcast playback button is at the bottom of the post. The covers below are for the issues I gave an individual review of; hover over the covers below to see the ratings out of 5 stars (with an occasional added comment).

Yeah, that was a lot of comics. And I didn’t even bother to review a lot of others I read, for purposes of time. Yeesh!

See you next week.