Bendis and Gaydos Are Reuniting for, "Alias," This December

I was just posting on Friday about an older Marvel MAX comic I enjoyed, and now we get news about one of the other best ones from that era! Yes, "Alias," which was written by Brian Michael Bendis and had art by Michael Gaydos, it told the story of Jessica Jones, a detective with powers, but who isn't much of a hero or big shot in the Marvel Universe. It was superb and followed by the decent "The Pulse," before she was folded into, "New Avengers," with her eventual husband (they got married in a, "New Avengers," special), Luke Cage. Since then we've gotten some occasional mini-series with Jones, including a recent, "Red Band," series which featured a different creative team and was fine, but lacked something. Now, however, Bendis and Gaydos are back for a five-issue mini-series, "Jessica Jones: Alias," debuting this December. That will mark 25 years since Jones first appeared and went on to be a pretty popular character and even get a Netflix show with Kristen Ritter as Jones (she popped up in the recent Daredevil show's return, too).

I'm pleased to see Bendis and Gaydos back on the character they co-created and did a chunk of stellar stories with. That said, will it be a good story or feel more like Marvel returning to a well that has run dry? Plus, I'm pretty sure Marvel isn't going to let them go as far as they did back in the MAX days, so any use of the word, "Fuck" going uncensored seems unlikely. That's a little disappointing, with Jones' love of F-bombs almost being a running gag in the original comic, but by no means a huge deal if we can get some of that classic magic back via the OG creative team. We'll see this December.

Jessica Jones' Comic, "Alias," is Coming Back! Oh, But Not How I'd Like

"Alias," was a comic by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos that was superb. The first Marvel Max comic, it showed a side of the Marvel Universe that was adult but not just swearing and sex--although it had that too! The series focused on Jessica Jones and what it was like being a C-list hero who quit the biz to be a private detective. She has super strength, but can get hurt with skin as easy to cut as anyone else's. She can fly, but sucks at landing. So yeah, she quit being a hero some time ago yet finds herself ending up doing hero-stuff often. The series ended with her pregnant by Luke Cage and a follow-up series, "The Pulse," was decent and featured the birth of their kiddo, Danielle. Then she was in, "New Avengers," where she and Cage got married in a fun special, but Jessica Jones definitely fell to the wayside some after that and was more of a supporting character outside of some decent mini-series. But wait, "Alias," is back...although not really?

"Alias: Red Band," is a five-issue series that will be a part of Marvel's new-ish Red Band line, where the comics can be full of violence, and they come in a polybag...but swearing is still a no-go or any nudity. We can have Tombstone skinning people alive as he hunts down the Punisher, but someone saying, "Fuck," somehow is worse, I suppose. That's okay, though, it isn't like the original, "Alias," series was only good due to swearing, I'm sure getting Bendis and Gaydos back will...wait, they aren't even doing the series? For real? I ask because anyone writing Jessica Jones besides Bendis usually falls flat.

Yes, the creative team for, "Alias: Red Band," is Sam Humphries and Geraldo Borges. They are both great, with Humphries especially having written some stellar comics, and Borges is a superb artist as well. That said, it feels weird to have an, "Alias," comic with no Bendis involvement, especially as he is even back doing some new work with Marvel! Still, this could be fun, as the series follows Jones teaming up with Typhoid Mary to investigate some strange murders. I'm bummed we have no involvement from Bendis or Gaydos, but at least David Mack is back providing covers, as he did for the OG series. That's snazzy, and I'm hoping the, "Alias: Red Band," issues are great even with a new team involved. We will see in March 2026.

Flashback Friday: "Secret Invasion," Had an Amazing Build Up, but the Event Itself Was a Letdown

Sometimes a comic-book event will be announced, have a handful of issues lead up to it, happen and make some changes, and then we get back to business as usual after a bit. That's how it is with Marvel and DC. One event that happened back in the 2000s had a clever hook, however. "Secret Invasion," came a bit after the critically divisive, "Civil War," which was the first big Marvel event I read as it came out and relatively enjoyed. The cool idea of, "Secret Invasion," was the idea was that it had, in essence, been in the works for decades. Through some continuity tweaks (sometimes referred to as a retcon) it was hinted that the seeds were planted way back during the first Kree-Skrull war event in, "Avengers," comics long ago. A ton of tie-in comics showed how the Skrulls had been infiltrating every facet of our planet--including superheroes--and planned to conquer Earth. That was a Hell of a hook but then the, "Secret Invasion," comic itself (written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Leinil Francis Yu) happened, and over eight issues led up to little more than a big brawl and the Skrull Queen getting shot by Norman Osborn with a special bullet. Yep.

The Skrulls used all their skills, knowledge, and so forth to end up just getting in fisticuffs with all the heroes and villains who teamed up to defend Earth--quite an anticlimax. While this did lead into the interesting Dark Reign era of Norman Osborn running his own team of Dark Avengers (that had some cool stories), "Secret Invasion," itself was like an epic song building up to a sonic zenith and once you hit what seems to be the big peak you get a big and wet fart sound. It is a fitting metaphor as, "Secret Invasion," shit the bed even if the fallout of, "Dark Reign," was cool. Even if the preceeding, "Civil War," wasn't the best Marvel event, it wrapped up in a wild way with Captain America surrendering to the United States after rebelling and seeming to be assassinated in the epilogue tie-ins.

"Secret Invasion," beautifully set up a big event but failed at the most important aspect--the event itself. Since then there have been better Marvel event comics ("Avengers Vs. X-Men," had its moments and I dug the 2015, "Secret Wars,") and even worse ones ("Fear Itself," "Civil War II," and, "Secret Empire," were wretched). Still, nothing seemed to squander as much potential as, "Secret Invasion," did. The Disney+ show which loosely adapted the series was universally panned too so perhaps the whole, "Secret Invasion," works better in theory than in practice.

Flashback Friday: "Hellspawn," Was a Horrifyingly Good Read

D. Emerson Eddy of The Comics Beat reminded me of a great little series the other day with one of their, "Classic Comic Compendium," articles. It was, "Hellspawn." Published by Image, it was an out-of-continuity series that hard Brian Michael Bendis writing and Ashely Wood providing art before Steve Niles took over writing and Ben Templesmith provided illustrations to close the 16 issue run out. It's creepy, ominous, and while I'm a big fan of Niles and Templesmith, I'm a huge fan of Wood's art and when Bendis' writing is on, it is good. This is an example of some quality Bendis storytelling.

I've always said I enjoy, "Spawn," comics the most when Todd McFarlane isn't writing them. This isn't meant as an outright insult to McFarlane either. McFaralne is an incredible artist and has some stellar ideas. I just don't think his writing/scripting is the absolute best. When other people take his ideas and run with them, however, the result is generally awesome. Whether it is how David Michelinie and McFarlane gave us Venom or that the, "Toddfather," and his Spawn helped create some cool stories when other folks wrote the character--such as, "Hellspawn," and other works (Alan Moore of all people kind of was slumming but gave us some interesting yarns). 

When McFarlane is mainly doing the art and contributing ideas as opposed to full-on scripting, the results can be pretty snazzy. Hence, I enjoy the character of Spawn the most somewhat paradoxically when McFarlane isn't writing him. "Hellspawn," with its demonic creatures, scary tone, and great dialogue stands as a prime example of that assertion. "Hellspawn," is going to have a new collected edition coming out in March of 2025. I look forward to it and hope that this new printing helps other folks discover a fantastic piece of work.

The Hood to Become the New Ghost Rider

The Hood AKA Parker Robbins is a character with an interesting history. First introduced in a Marvel Max comic by Brian K Vaughn and Kyle Hotz, he went on to become a bit of a favorite character to write for Brian Bendis and popped up a bunch in New Avengers. Then depending on who was writing the character he was a bit of a Kingpin, almost heroic, straight-up terrible, insanely overpowered, or mostly powerless. He's bounced around Marvel and now it seems he will be taking up the mantle of the Ghost Rider, of all things. I don't love this and I don't hate it.

The Ghost Rider is not really a hero, but not a villain either. He does heroic things sometimes but he's kind of terrifying and his M.O. is punishing the wicked no matter what. He's one of the older-school anti-heroes like the Punisher. The Hood becoming a Ghost Rider seems like a way to make him a little less of a baddie and move him in the direction of being an anti-hero. We've seen that with a lot of characters who started out evil and now are vaguely good guys (Harley Quinn and Venom come to mind right away). The Hood will be appearing in, "Ghost Rider: Final Vengeance," and the current series' writer, Benjamin Percy, will pen this tale too ( Juan Ferreyra will draw the debut two issues). I'm curious how this will go as I've generally enjoyed reading The Hood's stories when he appears. We shall see when the first issue drops this March!

Thanos and a New Illuminati Will be Fighting in a Mini-Series Titled, "Thanos," So That's Fun

I enjoy well-written stories with Thanos. The group of various heroes known as the Illuminati has been an exciting team over at Marvel too. Created under the pen of Brian Bendis, Jonathan Hickman had them basically become a bit evil and destroy other Worlds in an effort to avoid what became the last Secret Wars. Now Thanos will be going up against the Illuminati in, "Thanos," with the talented Christopher Cantwell writing the four-issue mini-series and Luca Pizzari illustrating. That's a great team working on some cool characters! 

The Illuminati has had various members and this latest iteration will include Emma Frost and the Blue Marvel (a fan-favorite character who is criminally underused by Marvel most of the time). The exact plot of this mini-series is a bit of a mystery, with it only written how Thanos is coming to Earth to try to reclaim something that will reveal a shocking secret to the Illuminati. That sounds fun and Cantwell is a great writer so I bet it'll be a good tale. Plus, Pizzari's artwork is always a treat too so a nice concise four-issue series should be a good time. The first issue is set to come out in November of this year so we don't have to wait too long to read about Thanos and the latest Illuminati in, "Thanos."

There Are a Lot of, "Spawn," Variant Covers Coming for December

Next month we will get a ton of, "Spawn," variant covers to celebrate the character's 30th anniversary this year of 2022 (yep, 1992 was 30 years ago, which makes me feel old). There will be a lot of variant covers from Image--where Todd McFarlane created Spawn--and a whole bunch from DC. The ones at DC are because there is that big new crossover coming up between Spawn and Batman, so why not have a bunch of covers featuring Spawn with other DC heroes/villains? It is kind of fun, but man, that is a lot of Spawn.

I recently was in a discussion on Reddit with folks when someone posted how they loved the artwork in Spawn comics but found the writing to be painful. I commented that I weirdly enough really like Spawn stories not written by McFarlane. That sounds odd, but I have a fondness for the, "Hellspawn," series Brian Michael Bendis and Steve Niles wrote with Ashley Wood and Ben Templesmith doing the artwork. I also liked the crossover with WildC.A.T.S. that was written by Alan Moore of all people and considered hokey and dumb by some, but I feel it has a silly charm. Again though, when McFarlane himself writes his creation, I tune out any text and simply enjoy the artwork.

Do we need so many, "Spawn," covers? Probably not. Are some clever and do many of them look quite pretty? Yes, yes they do. These covers are like a lot of, "Spawn," content, frankly. A ton of style and minimal examples of substance. Just enjoy the pretty pictures and move along, in other words.

Gail Simon and Phil Noto's New Comic, "The Variants," is a Fantastic Debut of a Jessica Jones Story

One of my favorite comic runs is when Brian Michael Bendis wrote, "Alias." It served as a bedrock of sorts for the Netflix show about Jessica Jones and she has since appeared in other comics ("The Pulse," various, "Avengers," titles where she and Luke Cage got married, some sequel-ish series penned by Bendis and others). Nothing has quite scratched my itch for that classic, "Alias," vibe (although when Bendis revisited Jones for a chunk of issues in her self-titled series it felt close thanks to Michael Gaydos doing art on that one like he did on, "Alias," back in the day) until I read this new debut issue of, "The Variants." 

Written by the immensely talented Gail Simone with great art by Phil Noto, this issue excels at marrying the grounded detective story vibe I love with Jessica Jones while throwing in a unique wrench in the form of some possible multiversial shenanigans. Even though Jones and Cage have a lot going on in their lives in Marvel's comics (Luke actually was elected mayor in the, "Devil's Reign," event), this comic avoids touching upon any of that beyond mentioning how Jessica's old foe, the Purple Man, is currently in a coma (as also happened during, "Devil's Reign," but that is unnecessary to know). It seems there may be a trap in Jessica's brain, but before she can really worry about it other versions of her seem to be appearing, variants, if you will (the term recently used in the, "Loki," show and now popping-up in the comics). The issue ends on a cliffhanger with it unclear what exactly the deal is with these variants, but I'm eager to learn more. Between Simone's stellar writing and Noto's amazing art this is a great read!

5 out of 5 stars.

A Possible, "Echo," Show on Disney+ Sounds Great!

Echo is the superhero name of Maya Lopez. She was first introduced in the, "Daredevil," comic series back in the 2000s. She is a Native American and deaf. She also is great at kicking ass and is apparently going to appear in the upcoming Disney+ show about, "Hawkeye," before getting her own spin-off show. This sounds cool as while Daredevil isn't in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet, this means he may appear. Plus, Echo has hung-out with Hawkeye some and my favorite character, Moon Knight. Moon Knight has his own show coming, of course, so I wonder if she'll appear in that too? 

A lot of this pure speculation at this point, but it seems quite likely she is actually getting a show. This makes me excited as she's always been a neat character and one of her co-creators, David Mack (he created her with Brian Michael Bendis), is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet in comics. I'm glad a character he was involved in making is getting some MCU-spotlight. It'll be a while before we get these shows, but it is fun to hear what's in the works already!

Superman Revealing His Identity Again Seems Like Such Lazy Writing

I am a fan of the comic writer known as Brian Michael Bendis. I am realistic tho, loving some of his work and admittedly thinking parts of it are not as good (his team-books oftentimes were lackluster compared to titles focused on a singular hero). Some time ago he went to work for DC Comics after years at Marvel and his big thing right now is having Superman reveal his identity as Clark Kent...which yes, happened like a couple years ago when Lois Lane spilled the beans.

This seems so lazy because as I said, it happened some years ago and nobody really cared, so why are we treading the same/really similar ground? I would argue the fact Clark Kent and Superman are the same person is the least interesting thing about both identities, the whole point is that Superman represents goodness and doing the best you can while Clark Kent is a way for Superman to live a normal and human life...so by revealing they are the one person that erases the point of Clark Kent, arguably. Heck, having Clark Kent as an identity helps humanize Superman as well, keeping him grounded despite being so almighty--there is a big monologue in, "Kill Bill: Volume 2," about this actually:



Bendis does not seem to care about any of the reasons I and the late David Carradine list as the upcoming, "Superman," #18 will apparently have the big reveal (unless this is all some clever trick to hide a more wild twist, in which case that would be pretty impressive). I have not seen any excitement about this, just people shrugging and thinking this is a redundant idea from Bendis at best or, "Chasing headlines," at worst, as my friend Agent Poyo at Comics Heating Up describes it. Perhaps this will be a great story somehow, for now I'm not that enthusiastic.

Tales From the Dollar Bin: X-Men #1 AKA That Time the X-Men Relaunched and Fought Vampires

There are comics which are worth incredible sums of money, but so many of the most interesting, tragic, or just downright weird can be found for a simple dollar or less in a  store's "dollar bin". There, comics that never gained much popularity can be found alongside those that sold so much as for a copy to be worthless. "Tales From the Dollar Bin" aims to explore these comics, be they a single issue or an entire run of a series. From the great to the miserable, some of the best treasures and worst nightmares can be found in those infamous boxes. Let's have a "tale" now...

X-Men #1...No, The Other One.

The whole X-Men line is heading towards a big relaunch in these coming months and that makes me think back on all the times it has happened before. I was checking the dollar bin at V-Stock and came across one such example--,"X-Men," #1 and #2 of the, "Curse of the Mutants," story-line. After all, the comic, "X-Men," has been relaunched a number of times and in mid-2010 it started-over yet again. They were still living by San Francisco on their own little island called Utopia but they'd bested Norman Osborn during his, "Dark Reign," that occurred after, "Secret Invasion," and everything seemed relatively peachy-keen. However, the X-Men can never be allowed to have happiness so vampires started attacking them, because why not? The first arc of the new, "X-Men," series featured Mutant-on-Vampire action (not in a dirty way like that sounds though) and Blade drops-in too because his whole thing is killing vampires. This story-line is most notable for how fan-favorite mutant Jubilee was turned into a vampire (that doesn't happen in the two debut issues I picked-up for a dollar, but I recall that occurred). That was eventually quietly done away with, but it was kind of wild at the time.

Vampire Jubilee was a thing for a bit.

This re-launch of the X-Men was designed with the intention of having them interact with the rest of the Marvel Universe a great deal so after the shenanigans with vampires there were some other plot-lines with folk like Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four stopping by. Eventually this all led into that big, "Avengers VS X-Men," event that was honestly a bit of a mess and then Brian Michael Bendis (this is before his current gig at DC) re-launched the X-Men yet again in 2012 with his big story where the X-Men from the past are brought to present by Beast because time-travel never causes problems, right? You can't tell as this is text, but that last sentence was dripping with sarcasm.

I kinda read a bit of the time-displaced X-Men arc, but then the X-books in general fell to the wayside for me as Marvel tried as hard as it could to ignore mutants and instead make us care about the Inhumans (even going so far as to have Inhuman and Mutants fighting for unclear reasons beyond a magic cloud) before realizing nobody would ever care about the Inhumans beyond their role as supporting characters (a few individual characters who happen to be Inhumans and beloved like Ms. Marvel aside) and they were mostly killed-off in 2018.

The latest re-launch will be on stands soon!

Now we are at the latest re-launch of the X-Men however with Jonathan Hickman steering the ship and it looks really promising so far. I am actually very interested in comics related to the X-Men again and will be reading them with much enthusiasm. I don't know if these new X-Men comics will become popular and hard-to-find years from now like some of the older stories, or thought of as mostly unremarkable and easy to find for cheap. However, that uncertainty is one thing that always makes it fun to tell...a tale from the dollar bin!

Stuff from NYCC 2018 I Found Noteworthy

The Day After the Con
It is the Monday after New York Comic-Con. It also is Columbus' Day, but fuck him, I'm calling it Indigenous People's Day because there were people here before he, "Discovered," America in 1492. Anyways, NYCC 2018 had a variety of things that occurred or were announced. I by no means have a detailed list of all of them, just the things that I felt were noteworthy enough to discuss or I at least had a snarky comment to share about. Shall we?

News and Such

I really feel bad for Dark Horse. They lost the, "Star Wars," license shortly after Disney bought Marvel, they also had, "Conan the Barbarian," snatched-up by Marvel, and now they don't even have Buffy, with BOOM! getting the rights and planning to reboot the series for the modern day. I enjoy the stuff that comes out of BOOM! and am sure it'll be great with a creative team including the stellar Jordie Bellaire, but ouch.

Speaking of Conan and Marvel, apparently he will be getting a second ongoing comic from the publisher. Oh, and the, "Avengers," book is going to be weekly again. That is seriously the only thing regarding Marvel I found interesting--I think some other stuff was announced like a, "Cloak and Dagger," digital series, but I don't even care enough to look for a link. Okay fine, here, don't say I never gave you anything.

Lobo is going to be appearing on the second season of the television show, "Krypton." Also, apparently, "Krypton," had a first season?

I said above how I felt bad for Dark Horse, but things are still going relatively okay for them. They've got that, "Umbrella Academy," show coming to Netflix based on the beloved comic and the newest cinematic version of, "Hellboy," is getting some positive early buzz.

That DC streaming service is chugging along, with some talented folk involved in their, "Doom Patrol," show that I quite like, such as Brendan Fraser along with Matt Bomer. Also, their animated Harley Quinn show will star that Kaley Cuoco lady from, “The Big Bang,” theory show as Harley's voice. In case you aren't sure what, "The Big Bang," theory is, its that show that seems to always be on in the background at your relative's house. Oh, and it isn't coming-out on the streaming service until well after its theatrical run, but  DC released a whole five minutes of new footage from the upcoming, “Aquaman,” film, which I think means they are relatively confident to give people that big of a, “Taste,” of the flick.

Image had a great show, with plenty of goodies for sale, creator signings, and a panel about horror in comics that sounds like it was a treat for all in attendance.

Brian Michael Bendis will be continuing his many, many tasks at DC with the launch of yet another imprint from the company, "Wonder Comics." As this line isn't geared specifically toward mature readers the odds of us getting to see Batman's wang again are sadly quite minimal.

European publisher Humanoids had been gathering an assortment of talented creators for awhile in regards to some kind of unannounced project, with the exact reason just as unclear. At NYCC they declared they are actually going to be doing their own unique super-hero universe. I wish them luck, as it is possible, but surely going to be hard to do in a market already full of this content. At least, as I said, they've got some great creators on-board.

Lastly, here is something not at all shocking, we will be getting another war comic from writer Garth Ennis. It will probably be very well-written as most things by Ennis are, I just find it interesting how much this guy loves to make war comics.

That Does it for Now

That's everything from NYCC 2018 I can recall as being worth posting about. There may have been something else, but if I can't recall it right now perhaps that illustrates how actually interesting it was. I'd love to get out to NYCC someday and visit the vendor booths, artist alley, and perhaps take in a panel where stuff like the above news gets announced, but for now I'm content to just read about what occurred.

DC Nation #0 and Avengers #1 Are Exercises in Mediocrity

I picked up the two big releases out today from DC and Marvel, "DC Nation #0," and, "Avengers #1." Both horrifically underwhelming and besides one aspect of, "DC Nation #0," I liked, incredibly bland/mediocre/etc. It's unfortunate because I was hopeful I'd at least somewhat enjoy reading them, as I quite like a number of DC books these days and at Marvel am a fan of...um...the new, "Exiles," is fun and, "Runaways," is pretty good, I guess I can say?

"DC Nation #0," has three different stories all covering quite different thematic territory. The initial one is about the Joker breaking-in to a random person's house in the hopes he gets an invitation to Batman's wedding sent there, somehow. It is actually pretty enjoyable to read as it is weird, twisted, and darkly funny. It still seems like a random way to cover how Batman and Catwoman are getting married in the Tom King-written series (he writes this too), however, as someone just randomly picking this comic up who hasn't been following that comic--like me!--would maybe just be befuddled and want more info on the wedding. Still, at least the Joker bit was good. The next segment features Clark Kent as Superman and focuses on the Daily Planet, and that's about it.

Things are mentioned about Clark and Lois having an issue, some new lady is introduced who seems a bit evil, and the whole piece otherwise just kind of meanders around. If this is what a Brian Michael Bendis-written Superman reads like that makes me a bit worried. The last part is a mish-mash of a ton of characters and some new cosmic threat introduced at the last second that wasn't terrible, but failed to really grasp me either--it just felt like a series of splash pages and set-up for a new, "Justice League," comic...which is what it is, but yeah.

"Avengers #1," continues the competent-yet-boring vibe with the usually stellar Jason Aaron as writer and artist Ed McGuinness both seeming to be putting forth a bare minimum of effort. There is an opening set long ago in the past with the Avenger's of a million years ago which Aaron has written about previously, then we jump to the present where Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and Thor all address the fact that their respective lives have been pretty weird lately. I guess by acknowledging that Iron Man was in a coma due to, "Civil War II," Captain America become a Hyrda-agent in the atrocious, "Secret Empire," and Thor lost his hammer in the meh, "Original Sin," they can now just forget those things occurred with a, "See? We talked about it once!"-styled hand-wave.

After the three heroes chatting we jump around a bunch to show-off a random variety of heroes worried about a mysterious looming threat and then at the climax see what looks like a lot of trouble from the space-bound Celestials coming our way (yes, both comics involve threats from space, its a funny coincidence). It reads like a boring first-draft of an Avenger's comic and McGuinness seems like he barely cared and just tried to draw the damn book as fast as possible. It just feels like a slog to read-through, which is sad as these are some talented creators giving us such forgettable comics.

"DC Nation #0," and, "Avengers #1," are not bad comics. They just aren't especially good ones outside of a brief solid segment with the Joker. I guess in defense of, "DC Nation #0," it did just cost a quarter, so I got my money's worth out the Joker alone, but judging it with the cost aside, it ain't that stellar. "Avengers #1," is so meandering it hurts, and I just expect better from the creators behind it. These books are the epitome of 2 out of 5 stars, just below-average, but not terrible. As my title said, they are exercises in mediocrity. It's a bummer these comics supposed to be big launch-pads for huge-deal titles and events are so weak, but that's what happens sometimes, I guess--you go big but end up just going home, so to speak (with, "Going home," in this case being making something passable-yet-lacking).

April 2018 News and Links to Accompany the Insane Weather

Cold, Hot, Rainy, Snowy, Etc.

If only April could be so serene.

They say April showers bring May flowers, but based on the absurd weather out here in Saint Louis I have to ask what April flurries bring? Seriously, I feel like we've had more snow, ice, and hail in this month than any other of what was our past Winter, and then after night where its freezing cold suddenly we flirt with an 80-degree day! The rest of America is dealing with sporadic bouts of heat, cold, and storms as well, oh and the rest of Earth continues to have the climate warm in dangerous ways too, short-term weather aside. Let's try to forget about all that for at least a short bit however and enjoy some quality news and links, shall we?

Interesting Stuff To Examine

Let's start with some wonderful news: Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize for his musical talent. He's the first non-classical or jazz artist to do so. My many posts about the man show I feel he is a genius, so it is always nice to see that recognized by others as well!

Check-out this guide about the best way to introduce your kid to horror movies if they're into scary stuff. I myself enjoy fright-flicks but my wife mostly hates them. Time will tell how Clarkson feels!

This huge piece by Vulture about, 'The 100 Pages That Shaped Comics," is fascinating. It's of course subjective and countless people will go, "What about such-and-such a page?" but it still is interesting in that it takes a single page from various comic-works and elaborates on the importance or impact of those comics.

The first, "Iron Man," continues to be a modern classic.

Rewatching the original MCU flicks sounds like it could be fun just to see where it all started. Heidi McDonald has been doing so, finding she quite enjoyed, "Iron Man," remembered just how forgettable, "Incredible Hulk," was and loved, "Captain America."

The, "Far Cry," series needs to let things break again, in more ways than one, as this article argues.

"Cathy," as a comic-strip was something I would skim as a kid between reading the other strips in the newspaper I liked more. I think I, "Got," it even as a kid--"Oh, she really like chocolate and is stressed?"--but just was never that impressed by the strip. I didn't hate it however as many seemed to, and now decades after it began and 8 years after its end The Comics Journal has an interesting essay, "On Hating Cathy."

"Alias," was a favorite comic of mine and its years-later follow-up, "Jessica Jones," was solid too. The character's creator, Brian Michael Bendis, is leaving Marvel for DC and Michael Gayados has  almost always illustrated the character's best stories (by Bendis) and even if Gayados sticks around for the inevitable re-launch it won't be the same. This piece about the conclusion of Bendis' time with the character is a solid read.

So many video-games involve killing stuff, which can get old. What is this though? An open-world game where your protagonist paints instead of killing countless stuff? Sounds interesting and like something I'll keep an eye on for its release in the hopefully-near future!

The stellar CW show, "Black Lightning," just wrapped its first season. I am extremely pleased it is getting a second and only expect more good things!

Someone who hates Tom Brady and despises meal kits as well tried the Tom Brady meal kit to hilarious results. I personally think meal kits are cool but also hate Tom Brady for many of the reasons the article discusses (he's a cheater, he's entitled, he just is a jerk) so I enjoyed reading it,

So-called reporter and known moron Sean Hannity had relentlessly been defending Donald Trump and Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, without revealing he actually had Cohen as his lawyer too. This is the kind of conflict of interest you see at a level I couldn't imagine, but its a reporter at Fox News so who expects any ethics from the people there (besides Shepard Smith, the one decent human being on the Fox News payroll)?

To conclude, this article has a clever headline ("I Blame Chris Brown,") and is a great exploration of the complexities of race, music, and the audiences of that music via a lame song titled, "Freaky Friday," that has a rapper I've generally found mediocre--Lil' Dickey, and a singer with quite a lot of baggage--Chris Brown--engaging in a body-swap to supposedly hilarious results. The punchline to the song is Kendall Jenner talking about her vagina, so yeah.

Stay Dry

I'm never this happy to get rained on

No matter what kind of precipitation you are dealing with where you live, I hope you can stay dry and comfortable.

Rant-Reviews--Stuff I Wanted to Write About

Spurred Some Writing
Sometimes I will read a comic and not have much to say besides if I enjoyed it or not. Other times I have a number of thoughts I feel like sharing. I recently read these books and found they all made me want to at least say a chunk of something about them, so let's roll with it and do a batch of reviews!

The New Stuff
Michael Cray #4
Spinning-out of the first arc of "The Wild Storm," I have been really enjoying, "Michael Cray," so far. It seems to be following a bit of a routine of taking popular DC heroes and presenting them in a more twisted and evil version that Cray and his team have to confront. It's been clever and fascinating to see such wild designs of folk like Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, and Arthur Curry, with the book taking full advantage of how this is based in the new Wildstorm-verse and is of course removed from the main DCU (the whole merging of the worlds basically fell apart, didn't it?), allowing weird stuff like what we've witnessed.

It hasn't been too clear how some of these plot elements will relate back into, "The Wild Storm," but I don't mind as since this split-off from the main title it has been its own stellar little story. Michael Cray is a fascinating fellow who isn't just a skilled agent, but very sad and empathetic. He carries a solo title well and I'm eager to see what other murderous and imposing versions of DC heroes he comes up against in future issues!
5 out of 5 stars.

Motherlands #1
Look, I usually love Si Spurrier as a writer, but this new title from Vertigo (yes, that line does still exist) is a confusing mess. It has something to do with alternate universes, bounty-hunters, the entertainment industry, long-lost brothers, and I was just completely lost. I imagine Spurrier has some idea of where he's taking this, but I was just left scratching my head at the majority of this book. It still had some decent jokes and I understood a tiny bit, so it wasn't all bad. Still, talk about a really underwhelming start.
2 out of 5 stars.

Blind Justice #2
I feel like this book was delayed forever, as it is the last of the first, "Season," of the All-Time Comics that Fantagraphics put out. That said, it is a well-written and gorgeous book. I know some people didn't really like the whole throwback theme Fantagraphics had going with these books but I loved them and personally am immensely excited for when more issues come out in, "Late 2018," as the back of the book promises. This issue follows the titular, "Blind Justice," as he dons his heavy protective equipment to go fight a serial killer. It also furthers the overall, "All-Time Comics," plot with this being I believe the sixth issue released under that banner. It's more pulpy fun, which sums-up what these comics have been overall too.
3.5 out of 5 stars,

Twisted Romance #1
A four-part weekly anthology from Image Comics coming out in honor of how February is a month of love in all kinds of wild forms, this series of, "Twisted Romance," lives up to its name in the contents of the first issue already. Alex de Campi writes and Katie Skelly illustrates a stellar short piece about literally heartless people who basically make a business out of their ability to siphon life from people. It's delightfully strange and Skelly's stellar art abilities mesh perfectly with de Campi's darkly humorous writing. There also is a solid prose piece about supernatural creatures and a super-abstract comic on the opposite side of the book (you flip it around and upside-down). Alex and Katie's story is for sure the main attraction here, however, and boy is it a great star for the first issue to get people interested in future ones!
4.5 out of 5 stars.

Jessica Jones #16
Brian Michael Bendis is of course leaving Marvel for DC, but has to wrap-up some stories he's been doing before some of the books end and others are handed-over to other writers. Jessica Jones has always arguably been his baby (besides his, "Ultimate Spider-Man," works), a character he created for the first-ever comic under Marvel's line of, "MAX," comics with the title, "Alias." It was an amazing comic and Jones popped-up in other books afterwards, getting married to Luke Cage and having a child with him named Danielle, but the book truly recently returned when Bendis did this series with original,"Alias," artist Michael Gaydos. The title was of course changed as since the, "Alias," comic existed there was that television show with Jessica Garner of the same name, and the Netflix show which drew from the comics was simply titled, "Jessica Jones," as well. Anyways, all this lead-up is basically to establish that I'm sad to see Bendis leaving this character, but boy is he doing it with a bang.

Jessica Jones biggest archenemy is arguably The Purple Man. A sociopathic villain with the ability to make people do whatever he says, the original, "Alias," comic established why Jones hates him so much (he basically abducted her when she was an active super-hero and nobody noticed) and he's returned for what seems to be the climax of Bendis' run on this book. What at first seemed like it would be a standard, "Beat-up the bad guy," story has spiraled into something much weirder, with Purple Man not exactly wanting to be a good guy, but basically so exhausted of being evil he's willing to try the opposite. It's a bizarre twist and could very well be a ploy, but I'm genuinely off-put by it (in a good way) and curious where this could be going. We're about at the end of Bendis' time on the book so I hope he sticks the landing--this is one of his shining jewels of his time at Marvel so I imagine he will.
4 out 5 stars.

Check Your Local Comic-Shop!
As these books all just recently came-out (besides, "Michael Cray #4," which is a few weeks old) and you can most likely buy them at your comic shop without much of any trouble. Therefore, I encourage you to visit your local comic store and buy whatever of these titles appeal to you, or anything else there you want, I'm not trying to boss you around or anything!

More Disconcerting News About Marvel as Well as Wizard

A Phrase I Normally Hate

I have a confession: I hate the phrase that involves, "Waiting for the other shoe to drop," or, "There's the other shoe dropping," etc. Sometimes stuff just happens in isolation and there are no other shoes to drop, and sometimes a bunch of events happen at once--more than a pair--so the expression doesn't work then either unless you say something dumb like,"All the shoes are dropping." Well, I guess I can eat crow today as there are two situations where the other shoe did indeed drop.

The "Shoes"

Axel Alonso

I recently talked about how Brian Michael Bendis was leaving Marvel for DC and other people wondered if this could signal other folk leaving Marvel--especially individuals who used to work closely with Bendis. There had been rumors for awhile about Axel Alonso, Marvel's Editor-in-Chief, leaving, but they had been simply hearsay. Well, after having been involved at Marvel as EIC for a number of years and in general in some capacity since all the way back in 2000, Alonso has announced his departure from the company. The other shoe just dropped.

Also, I just posted about how Wizard was disclosing a lot of financial problems that made it apparent that while we may get shows in 2018 from them, the future was looking a little bleak. I and others wondered how in the dickens they would re-launch their magazine in this publishing climate considering they are hemorrhaging cash. Well, that other shoe dropped  in that scenario too and they aren't going to be doing a magazine anytime soon.

C.B. Cebulski

Marvel has announced another long-time employee, C.B. Cebulski, will assume the role Alonso filled. With all his years at Marvel it is easy to point out how Alonso had at times made controversial decisions or said questionable things, but overall it seems he was well-liked and respected at Marvel, making me wonder what caused his quitting (or if it was secretly a firing).

Wizard has discussed how they still intend to do their shows in 2018 and to never-mind all that talk of publishing a magazine, but if their are doing as badly economically as I heard I wonder what else might get cut or who else could be let-go to stem the metaphorical bleeding of funds. I hope the quality of the shows doesn't suffer as plenty of past news stories have shown that when corners are cut in the production of convention things can really fall apart (remember Dashcon? You don't? Exactly).

We shall see how things go for Marvel and if we are on the cusp of some big editorial shake-up just as before too long it will become apparent what the long-term outlook (e.g. surviving into 2019) is for Wizard World. For now though, it seems despite how much I hate the term, the other shoe has dropped for both these companies and the news is quite disconcerting. Who would think DC would be having such a good month in comparison to Marvel considering they had to own-up to keeping a sex-monster gainfully employed for way too many years?

How Clarkson and I Reacted to the News of Brian Michael Bendis Leaving Marvel for DC

The above video of Clarkson responding to me telling him the news--Brian Michael Bendis is leaving Marvel for DC--sums up my feelings pretty well too. I wanted a snack and let out an exhausted sigh. Bendis has for over a decade been associated with Marvel ever since he did some indie and Image stuff before the company scooped him up. He's written almost all the most popular characters at the company (Daredevil, The Avengers) and created a few popular individuals himself too (Jessica Jones, Miles Morales). The man's love for Luke Cage helped the lesser-known character become a household name and lot of the Marvel stuff that made it to Netflix is based on his character work with Cage, Jones, and Daredevil (not so much Iron Fist, that was more Ed Brubaker who revitalized that character) and even if his most recent stuff has been weak (anything X-Men related) he created some stellar stuff and still was masterful at writing solo-books although I personally feel outside of his first, "New Avengers," stuff that he struggles horribly to do team-focused books.

Well, after all these years it was announced today that Brian Michael Bendis of all people has signed a big, "Multiyear, Multi-faceted deal," with Marvel's biggest competitor. I at first thought it was a joke when I saw some comments about this on Twitter, but then a number of creators along with Bendis himself were confirming it. The official DC tweet is as such:

I'm no really upset or happy about this. It just is if anything stressful (making me want a relaxing snack) to wonder how this will impact books at both companies as Bendis is a writer who either makes awesome stuff or really underwhelming-to-awful books--it is hard to recall a purely mediocre title by him, they just fit into extremes. All I can do is what my son does at the video's conclusion, let out a big sigh and see how things turn out. Perhaps we will get more of, "Awesome Bendis," and a lot less of, "Terrible Bendis."

Rant-Reviews: Beginnings and Conclusions

The Start and End
I like to read the first issue of comics and also enjoy the satisfaction of following a story to its conclusion. With that in mind I shall review three books that are just starting and three that have recently wrapped.

Let's Begin (and Finish)
Batman: White Knight #1
Sean Murphy both writes and illustrates this interesting start to his take on the whole Batman Versus Joker mythos. The twist here is that he plays-up the aspects of Batman as a dangerous vigilante the police basically condone and support and argues, "Well, what if the Joker seemingly was cured and used his amazing intellect for good instead of mayhem?" That leads us to a fascinating comic that with Murhpy's stellar artwork shows Batman as something akin to a hulking and scary monster and the Joker--or Mr. Napier as he prefers once cured with some mysterious pills--as a man who is possibly more dangerous to Batman when he's helping Gotham than when he's harming it. After all, if the Joker can, "Fix," Gotham doesn't he arguably end any need for Batman?

Murphy's writing is strong but dear God is his artwork amazing. Whether presenting gorgeous splash-pages of the Batmoblie darting about the city, giving us a montage-image of times from the characters' lives, or simply showing Batman as a large and intimidating creature, Murphy is an illustrator who continues to be at the top of his game and always impresses. The story has piqued my interest and Murphy's art will always keep me paying close attention. This is stellar start and I am excited to see what comes next. You can buy, "Batman: White Knight," at Things From Another World, MyComicShop, or on eBay.
5 out of 5 stars.

4 Kids Walk Into a Bank #5
This book was delayed to high-heavens for months upon months as issues trickled out and with its conclusion we finally get to the part where the kids rob the bank only for it to basically fizzle-out into a huge anticlimax. A part of me gets an anticlimax is kind of the point, but another bit of me felt like going, "Wait, that's it?" This was a fun comic but after all the delays and how much the story seemed to stretch things out and build the excitement up only to just kind of shrug at the end just left a super-bitter taste in my mouth and resulted in my making a huge sigh at its end. Oh well. Should you want a copy you can alway use MyComicShop and eBay, or you can pre-order the trade paperback at Things From Another World.
2.5 out of 5 stars.

Black Hammer #13
This comic has garnered more and more buzz whilst winning awards and all for good reason--this is one of the best books with a super-hero theme around. Whether being a bit meta with its riffing on changes in trends, or taking the time to make us truly care about this assortment of heroes stuck in a strange otherworldly place, "Black Hammer," has been a delight to read. This issue is kinda the end of the series, but it ends on a huge cliff-hanger and it has already been announced that a follow-up series is coming before too long and a spin-off series is beginning as well, so clearly these characters aren't going anywhere. It is weird to read a conclusion that isn't really the end, but, "Black Hammer," has been fantastic enough that won't be protesting us getting more of it. Grab yourself this issue at Things From Another World, eBay, or MyComicShop.
4.5 out of 5 stars.

Graveland #1
I mentioned this in The Hot Comics Revue and was finally able to read it as well! Anways, in the past I've complained in the past about comics that seem to move too slowly, and this comic is as far away from that concern as possible. This book throws-out ideas and story-elements almost too fast, but the assortment of concepts somehow manage to mesh together in a way that results in something pretty cool. Basically, giants exist and have been wrecking the planet recently. The Government has a secret program to make super-humans and sends them to fight the giants. That happens and all kinds of stuff blows-up. As I said and you can see, there are some ideas that could stand alone as their own story but this comic laughs at the idea of taking things slow. I was entertained a good deal by this book and its desire to throw things at the wall and see what sticks. I'll be checking out the next issue for sure which I believe comes out soon. You can purchase, "Graveland," at Things From Another World, on eBay or at MyComicshop.
3.5 out of 5 stars.

Punisher: The Platoon #1
I would say this book shows a lot of potential. I'd read in interview that Garth Ennis joked he tricked Marvel into letting him write one of his usual war-comics by making it about Frank Castle in Vietnam before he became the Punisher. It's funny, but also arguably quite true as outside of a framing sequence where an unseen person talks to the men who went to war with Castle this is basically the story about a Platoon of men struggling to survive in the Hell of war. That isn't to say this lacks quality however, because Ennis is one of the best writers around and his oft-collaborator Goran Parlov is an artist who excels at portraying the grit and grime of war, with the restrictive heat of the jungle practically steaming off the page. This isn't an amazing first issue, but it without a doubt was a good read and Ennis has all kinds of story-telling tricks up his sleeve for this mini-series, I would bet. You can buy a copy on eBay, at MyComicShop, or via Things From Another World.
4 out of 5 stars.

Infamous Iron Man #12
Well that was a huge let-down. I just said how the new, "Punisher: The Platoon," comic shows a lot of potential, and I kind-of recall saying that about, "Infamous Iron Man," when it first started. I perhaps should be careful when I use those words as this has turned out to be basically be 12-issues of time wasted as a Mephisto talks to us readers for a bunch of pages about how he just wanted to fuck with Dr. Doom because he thinks Doom acting like a hero is stupid. Therefore, writer Brian Michael Bendis is saying, "Oh the devil did it," to close the series. The seeming alternate-reality Reed Richard kicking-around from the Ultimate Universe? The Devil was faking that. Doom's Mother apparently coming back to life? That was the devil as well.

We basically end the series with a few cliffhangers indicating that Doom might have a child on the way and that a bunch of villians are mad at him before being told we can see what happens next with Doom apparently as a supporting character in the re-launching and re-numbered, "Invincible Iron Man #593." Were it not for the fact I really like Alex Maleev's artwork I would call this issue a complete failure, but at least it looks good. I feel like this clunker of an ending just makes the whole series feel like a big, "Gotcha," to readers, and as I just said, this was a massive let-down. You can buy a copy and see for yourself with MyComicShop, Things From Another World, or eBay.
2 out of 5 stars (thanks to the artwork).

We Learned Something
I think from these reviews we can see we maybe learned something. Namely, it is often easier to start a story than end it. There are good conclusions out there, but sometimes we get endings that feel like more of an anti-climax than anything else ("5 Kids Walk Into a Bank,") horribly disappoint us ("Infamous Iron Man #12,") or are good, but not even really endings as follow-up stories are coming soon after ("Black Hammer #13"). Oh well, perhaps the point is that sometimes its about the journey of a story than it is how it finishes? That, or just that endings are hard.

Rant-Reviews: Checking-In

Time To Check-In

There are a number of comics I read and enjoy whenever they come out, but don't necessarily always post reviews of. I thought it might be good to check-in on these titles and see how good a job they are doing of continuing to hopefully entertain me!

How's It Been Going?

Redneck #4
Donny Cates has been blowing-up lately, with superb books like, "God Country," and the recent news he will be writing titles for Marvel. I've of course been a fan of his since the amazing, "Buzzkill," and continue to enjoy his work on titles such as, "Redneck." A comic about a family of Vampires who mostly keep to themselves in Texas until all kinds of fighting breaks-out, this book in some ways reminds me of the stellar, "Southern Bastards," which also comes out from Image in its focus on the South and how it has horribly broken people as main characters. That isn't to say, "Redneck," is at all a copy of that book, as this baby is its own unique weird mixture of Western, Horror, and a bit of a Supernatural-yarn too, what with the Vampiric element. Still, Cates himself has said to simply call this a book about vampires would be highly reductive as it is about a lot more.

This is a book about family, and the terrible lengths we will go to for the people we love and care about. A lot of this issue involves one vampire as she uses her psychic powers to go into another's memories and provides us readers with some more back-story. This background helps give the current-day events a lot more context and also helps to illustrate how whether we are humans or vampires that escaping the constant cycle of bloodshed within life can be quite hard. Violence begets violence and no matter what era we live in people seem to find an excuse to fight. It's tragic and fascinating to read, making, "Redneck," one of those books you've probably heard a lot of hype about and might be surprised to learn actually lives-up to all the accolades!
5 out of 5 stars.

Deathstroke #21

21 issues in (well, a bit more counting the, "Rebirth," one-shot and a recent cross-over) and Christopher Priest continues to make a character I had never cared about a fascinating lead in a really good book. Slade Wilson AKA Deathstroke has always been a horribly flawed person and a villain, but what if he tries to be a hero? Is such a thing even possible? Well, as of this issue Priest is starting to explore that concept and making it clear even a, "Heroic," Deathstroke is pretty dangerous. This was one of my favorite comics of 2016 with Priest being one of my favorite writers last year too, and, "Deathstroke," continues to impress.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Black Hammer #11

Jeff Lemire's comic, "Black Hammer," has slowly grown from an intriguing little title to something really special and fascinating. A super-hero book that isn't in fact a hero-comic in most definitions of the word, we follow some heroes who were able to stop a great evil, but then ended up trapped in some weird normal-ish town removed from the rest of reality. The book works so well because it isn't just a nostalgic look at Golden-age heroes or a dark post-modern take on the concept of heroism it is just an earnest exploration of people who have powers and are stuck in a weird situation and trying their hardest to make the best of it.

In this issue a recent joiner of the heroes from the, "Real-world," continues to investigate how odd this town is, a character I adore almost (but thankfully doesn't) die, and things just get more and more mysterious and ominous. In other words, more stellar comic-making. I personally feel this is one of the best books coming out currently from Dark Horse, and one of the best books in comics in general!
5 out of 5 stars.

Jessica Jones #10

I was a huge fan of, "Alias," back when Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos were doing that O.G. Marvel Max title. Later Jones of course popped-up in various titles but we didn't get any more, "Alias." This is the closet to that as it isn't a Max title, but still slips in some stronger language than most Marvel books and features that original creative team. Some of the old magic is for sure there, but instead of being a mostly self-contained kind of book this draws heavily from recent Marvel events and whereas, "Alias," could have been read mostly independently of other Marvel stuff this will leave you scratching your head should you not have at least Googled what Marvel's been up to (two major plot points in the first arc came from the recent, "Secret Wars," and had a minor character from, "Civil War II," involved as hiring Jones. In other words, this is good, but different from the classic, "Alias."

I should be annoyed with how reliant this book is on the rest of Marvel's events that are going on as opposed to being more self-contained, but Bendis' still gives us such a compelling character in the form of Jones and Gaydos is an artist whose work I always enjoy. Gaydos splotchy and borderline-abstract style just really appeals to me, I guess. This book isn't perfect, but it is still good fun.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

I Hate Fairyland #14

Skottie Young continues to use his ability to make cute child-friendly images to take those adorable drawings and draw them swearing and being violent. The saga of Gertrude AKA Gert as she has struggled to escape Fairyland has been hilarious to witness, with this issue continuing a recent them of Gert trying to be a good person in the hopes that will assist in her actually getting-out. In this issue that involves her working through a confusing labyrinth full of random and creepy dudes who in a hilarious running-gag want Gert to marry them, with her observing it is a strange cliché how in magical realms all these older dudes want to hook-up with young chicks. Young's combination of writing and fantastic artwork makes everything delightful in its twisted-humor and the shocking last page that shows Gert might actually--gasp--become a good person has me eagerly awaiting the next issue to see how it all goes humorously wrong (which I would bet it will).
4 out of 5 stars. 

All Caught-Up!
It is good to see a lot of the books I've been liking have continued to be at least good and sometimes great reads.

Rant-Reviews: Comics I Recently Enjoyed

Shall We Begin?
I have no particular theme this time other than these are all comics I read recently and enjoyed. Sometimes my doing a simple concept is the best one, I feel.

Review-Time!
Saga #43
After the heartbreaking conclusion of issue #42 where a world ends and the remaining pages of the comic are literally just pure black nothingness, we arrive at the start of a new arc featuring an issue that can be purchased for just a 25 cents. That's right, a single quarter can get you this amazing book that has continuously brought me immense joy and sorrow. I imagine that quarter-price is also meant to encourage new readers as we get a significant chunk of reviewing what's happened previously within the series during this issue, but plenty of immense interest to us current readers happens too, so I'm still very pleased.

Essentially everyone has gotten themselves into yet another mess, with a devastating miscarriage resulting in a surprising amount of humor (laughter in tragedy, as they say) as the members of two warring races who fell in love--Alana and Marko--have to figure out what to do considering the unborn 2nd-child they were going to have would raise a lot of questions if either of them went to their home-planets. Also, there are monsters made out of literal shit, so yeah, "Saga," continues to be one of the best books on the stands and at a price this good to start reading it, you don't really have an excuse for missing-out on this series.
5 out of 5 stars.

Infamous Iron Man #8
Brian Michael Bendis, you can be as enjoyable a writer as an infuriating one. Whether turning in amazing work on books such as, "Daredevil," and, "Alias," or the recent kinda-continuation of Alias, "Jessica Jones," you can tell some great solo-character tales (and mess-up sometimes too), but you honestly struggle at times with team books, either turning-in decent stuff like, "New Avengers," or absolute garbage such as...your other Avengers stuff. Also, you can't write events. In other words, you can be amazing or really suck, and, "Infamous Iron Man," has actually been...really good?

I picked-up this book as I still hold fond memories of when Bendis and illustrator Alex Maleev worked on the aforementioned, "Daredevil," so seeing he was doing the artwork made me pick-up this book that spins-out of the atrocious, "Civil War II," where Tony Stark apparently was beaten into a coma by Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel for...reasons? Anyways, it follows Dr. Doom who has a repaired face thanks to, "Secret Wars," and now wants to be a hero. The book has been enjoyable in its studying of both good guys and bad guys who just can't believe that of all people Victor Von Doom is trying to be heroic. It seems like he might actually be trying though, and its been a fun read (with awesome art) as he tries. So, of course we need to muddy things further with an evil version of Reed Richards from the now-dead Ultimate Universe. That aside, this issue was more good stuff of Dr. Doom (and an appearance by fellow Ironman-suit-utilizer Riri Williams). Now we just have to hope this book continues to be good and doesn't fall apart or get sucked into some event (I have really been hating the Marvel events lately).
4 out of 5 stars.

Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose #104
I continue to read and enjoy, "Tarot," thanks to its delightful writing, and artwork brought to us by the talented Jim Balent and Holly Golightly. Ever since the big wedding issue a variety of challenges have come Tarot's way, as well as her sister, Raven Hex. That makes this issue where everyone goes to a big Pagan High-Ritual known as, "Beltane," more of a relaxed pause in the series as opposed to some of the more action-packed or plot-filled issues. It still is good fun however, and develops some ongoing stories, such as how the happy-go-lucky character of Jon/Skeleton Man may have actually kept a lot of darkness from his past hidden.

Balent continues to illustrate mystical creatures, scenes of fighting, and the female form beautifully, and colorist and letterer Holly Golightly expertly ties everything together as per usual. I can't brag and say I've read, "Tarot," from the start, but I have been reading it for a good deal of time now and always find it to be a highly enjoyable time. Over the years these characters have really grown on me and I look forward to hopefully many more years with them.
5 out of 5 stars.

'Namwolf #2
When I first saw the solicit for this series, I was basically sold on the idea of a Werewolf in Vietnam. I figured as long as this comic gave me that I would be happy. The first issue supplied that and then in this issue we get to watch our werewolf fight a weird green bat-monster too, so yes, I'm pleased! Fabian Rangel Jr. (who also was a part of the, "Tarantula," graphic novel I loved and recently reviewed) writes and Logan Faerber masterfully illustrates this tale of a young man going to Vietnam and discovering a monster lives inside him, eager to get out.

The whole concept (a werewolf in Vietnam) is itself silly, so the book thankfully doesn't play things completely serious, but it also manages to avoid seeming utterly silly. It is like those old 1980's action flicks with a dash of horror that were just self-aware enough to avoid seeming dumb (which the creators have said is in fact the intention). I wish we would get a little more characterization of everyone besides the titular 'Namwolf as outside of learning their names in the previous issue the rest of the platoon has been pretty undefined and just kind of, there. That slight aside, the second issue of "'Namwolf," is a fun read and one I look forward to reading the next issue of!
4 out of 5 stars.

The Divided States of Hysteria #1
Howard Chaykin is an interesting person in the field of comics. He's been making them for decades and almost everyone loves his, "Early," stuff but the material he puts out now later in his career gets him regarded as either a genius or utterly insane. I personally feel he maybe is a bit of both. As he says in an essay in the back of this first issue, when this comic was first announced and being made he and everyone else thought Hillary Clinton would be President and this book imaging a world full of terrorism, racism, homophobia, and people acting violent towards each other would be more of a tale saying, "Here's the worst-case scenario that could have happened," as opposed to being more of a reflection of current events with just a little bit of hyperbole (in ""The Divided States of Hysteria," there have already been more terror attacks on the nation and our President was assassinated in a failed coup of sorts, so thing aren't yet quite this awful).

Chaykin is both the writer and illustrator here, giving us some bloody violence and sex while presenting a narrative of a nation creeping close a tipping-point of utter chaos now that the myths everyone believed of American exceptionalism have clearly been destroyed and everyone seems to hate each other...God, it really is like a fun-house mirror of today, ain't it? At the issues' conclusion it is clear yet another terrorist attack has begun on America and things will only get worse. It is a brutally bleak comic considering how right now terrorist attacks are actively happening in other parts of the world and our whole country is holding its breath in hopes we aren't attacked and our horrifically incompetent President (seriously, fuck Trump) has to try and be effective. It is depressing to think a comic that was supposed to seem over-the-top now reads as uncomfortably plausible, but I would say no matter how horrific, "The Divided States of Hysteria," seems, it is a wholly necessary hard look in the mirror of the path our nation is on and desperately needs to get off of. Yeah, Chaykin is definitely both a bit of a genius and crazy.
5 out of 5 stars.

All Quality Reads
I like when I can just kick-back on the couch (or a smaller-but-comfy chair, whatever works), relax, and read a good comic. I'm happy these books helped me achieve that goal.