.Are you tired of reading comics in short, monthly instalments?
Do you yearn for nice, smart books with spines, dustjackets and no ads?
Are you willing to pay ridiculously inflated prices for hardcover reprints of comics you already own in three different editions, just because the page size in the new version is ½” bigger?
Then this is the thread for you!
About the only other 90s series DC finished the trades for I can think of is Hitman.
And it was years between them issuing volumes 1-4 then finishing off with volumes 5-7. They did finish it though.
It won’t surprise you for me to appear and point to Starman and hopefully shortly Sandman Mystery Theatre.
About the only other 90s series DC finished the trades for I can think of is Hitman.
And it was years between them issuing volumes 1-4 then finishing off with volumes 5-7. They did finish it though.
It won’t surprise you for me to appear and point to Starman and hopefully shortly Sandman Mystery Theatre.
There’s no way they’re going to finish Sandman Mystery Theatre! DC are Lucy, SMT fans are Charlie Brown and a complete trade run of SMT is the football.
How far in advance do Speedyhen have things open for pre-order these days?
I think it’s usually around two months.
Yep, it’s around the two month mark.
They often have stuff listed longer in advance though, before they open up pre-orders. So the wishlist is useful to keep track.
About the only other 90s series DC finished the trades for I can think of is Hitman.
And it was years between them issuing volumes 1-4 then finishing off with volumes 5-7. They did finish it though.
It won’t surprise you for me to appear and point to Starman and hopefully shortly Sandman Mystery Theatre.
There’s no way they’re going to finish Sandman Mystery Theatre!
DC are Lucy, SMT fans are Charlie Brown and a complete trade run of SMT is the football.
It’s why I still have my single issues.
Picked up the Millar/Hitch FF omnibus.
I’ve always liked this run and think it’s fairly underrated.
This omni also contains the full Fantastic Force and 1985 minis, as well as a FF annual that Hitch did later on, so a really comprehensive package overall.
I also think it’s a bit under-recognised in terms of how influential Hitch’s art style on this run turned out to be.
At the time, the white gutters and lack of panel borders gave the book a really fresh and unique look, really opening up the page. These days half the comics I read look like this.
Murder Inc – Volumes 1-2
Another work from Bendis and Oeming, this one sees them doing an alternate history where the Mafia successfully end up ruling select parts of the US. The central aspect being that the lead character is set up as the ultimate infiltration.
Of course, none of it goes anywhere near as neat as that. It all gets far more messy, with quite a body count amid Mafia politics.
It all makes for a very entertaining read. The one concern is this team does not have the best track record for completing their stories. However, in this case, there is reason for confidence as the next series of six issues starts in May.
Do A Powerbomb
On the face of it, it’s surprising that Daniel Warren Johnson didn’t spot what a good match to his art style pro wrestling would be sooner. Good for us that he did because this is an excellent story.
In some respects, it has similarities to the gloriously bonkers Murder Falcon, which is no bad thing. Like that one this has brilliantly designed, incredibly well drawn and thrilling action sequences. Nor is the action hollow, as DWJ ensures there’s a consistent emotional charge running through it all the way to the end.
This was absolutely superb. The only way for it to be better would be to have it in OHC format. Maybe one day.
Yeah, DWJ is the most exciting talent to hit comics in years and every new series offers something that feels fresh and new. Can’t wait to see what he does next.
Batman: Failsafe HC
This was a decent reread in collected form, after enjoying it in singles.
It’s a pretty straightforward story that has Terminator vibes to it, in the sense of Batman and his friends going up against a single-minded unstoppable machine.
But despite the simple premise, the book gets quite a lot of mileage out of the plot, in terms of cool action scenes and imaginative battle scenarios.
Plus there’s a neat return to the Zur En Arrh stuff from Morrison’s run. And Jimenez’s art is very, very good. Recommended!
I’ve quite enjoyed the latest arc and didn’t mind the switch in artist as much as I’d expected – it’s a different style but still works well for the story being told.
But it does feel like the second arc is a bit padded compared to the first, just so it can end in the big anniversary issue #900. Be interesting to see where things go after that.
Do A Powerbomb
By the way Ben, your comments on this have pushed the TPB up the pile for me for a reread (it’s another one where I bought it in singles and then double-dipped in trade).
The second read is interesting, lots of scenes play slightly differently when you know what’s coming (similar to Murder Falcon) – it’s clear that DWJ plans these stories with care and has an eye on reread value.
Yeah, DWJ is the most exciting talent to hit comics in years and every new series offers something that feels fresh and new. Can’t wait to see what he does next.
This
Also the parents in this thread may well recognise what DWJ describes in his intro to the trade for Do A Powerbomb.
Also the parents in this thread may well recognise what DWJ describes in his intro to the trade for Do A Powerbomb.
Ha, yeah definitely. Watching wrestling probably beats In The Night Garden.
I read this in singles, but probably the best place for it as the collection is due.
swamp thing – green hell
lemire & mahnke
After I heard issues 2 and 3 were delayed I held off reading 3 until they had both arrived and read all 3 together.
Overall, it was alright. There’s a lot to like about it but it felt a bit lightweight and familiar in the end.
Mahnke’s art was carrying it through, but sadly the art on issue 3 is noticeably rushed and lacks the same degree of wicked detail of the prior issues, issue 1 being the strongest
With regards the script it has a number of downsides. Whilst pleasant enough to read and by no means a badly written comic (all the basics are done right, which alright gives it a leg up over most current DC output) there’s less of a plot and more of a case of Lemire hitting all the touchstones he wanted to hit;
It feels like his goodbye to the characters (and their supporting cast) he wrote previously; Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Constantine – and is often the case with the current crop of writers, even the good ones, instead of doing something new it’s mostly a tip of the hat to previous writers of those characters. This is all fine but it’s like a compilation of old hits as opposed to a new album
Lastly, and I think this is a mistake that’s been made for the last 10-15 years on Swamp Thing and Animal Man books, Lemire dips into the whole ‘green’, ‘red’ and ‘rot’ stuff.
I find these concepts beyond tedious at this stage. They were never particularly good, actually pretty ridiculous. Something Ram V took to the nth degree with his whole ‘parliament of gears’ bullshit in the last Swamp Thing run. Talk about jumping the shark.
So whilst this is an enjoyable book and I’m glad I picked it up, I’m not sure it’s something I will keep to read again. Had Mahnke’s art maintained the high standards of the first issue throughout, I’d maybe feel differently.
Does it work better if not familiar with Swamp Thing and other previous Lemire runs?
I would say it would Ben.
it would be much fresher and more interesting, whereas for me it felt a bit like a retread.
In fact it could be very enjoyable for those who have not read this stuff previously.
There’s a great atmosphere to the book which forgot to mention.
Rom is coming!
Rom The Original Marvel Years Omnibus v1 out in Jan 2024 from Marvel. Includes that issue of Power Man and Iron Fist they couldn’t put in the recent Epic Collection (which I think got a reprint recently).
I really hope, given what happened with Shang Chi and Conan, Marvel locked this down in a long term rights deal. Or just bought him off Hasbro even.
I’d certainly be down for a Transformers U.K. Omnibus.
Astro City Omnibus coming in December!
1995-2004, so everything before The Dark Age.
I saw a Top 10 Omnibus in my LCS last week that looks to be everything – the original series, Smax, forty-niners, Beyond the Farthest Precinct and Season Two. I’ve got the trades of the original series but it might be nabbing this and selling the old ones off
I picked that up, it’s a great price for the amount of stuff that’s in it
theres a Tom strong one on the way too, in next few weeks
i wonder if they will do promethea as well, which is probably my favourite moore book – I’m still really regretting not picking up the absolutes on that
The Absolute Promethea books are lovely but they did some nice Deluxe HCs a short while ago that are pretty nice too.
On Top Ten, that’s another case where I have the Absolute – but as with the Authority and Planetary, it looks like the omnibus actually contains more material than the original Absolutes, which is a nice bonus.
Yeah, the space issue is part of what made me move a bit more over to digital a while back, but the Comixology experience has now been so comprehensively fucked that I buy everything in hardcopy again now.
What that’s meant is that I’ve had to slim down my collection quite a bit – it’s now maybe half the size it was 10 years ago.
But that has made me focus on quality and reread value, and I’ve found it surprisingly easy to let go of certain books that I thought I would care more about getting rid of.
Hmm, ordering via internet or mobile?
If mobile, do you have a banking app installed? If not, it might be it’s looking for something it can’t find.
Had an odd experience with Reed Comics where it didn’t go through on mobile but did on internet.
On desktop. Verified by Visa and my bank’s 2FA usually work no problem, which is why I assumed it was SH having an issue.
I have the regular Promethea trades and am OK holding on to them. Absolutes and OHCs take up a lot of space and a significant percentage of my house is already toy robots by volume
Have you considered letting the toys and comics completely take over the house and you move into a shed in the backyard?
Black Adam Volume 1
This was a good start to Priest’s take on the character. It also has some great little details like a Black medical student racking up the bill on a white supremacist car crash patient.
Dark Spaces: Wildfire
This was a total surprise in all the best ways. Excellent writing, really smart art and a great resolution.
Break Out
Zack Kaplan’s been doing a load of good stories for the last few years and this is another banger from him. An allegory of how the last few decades have been one generation screwing over its successors, this sci-fi prison break tale is very, very good.
Yeah I enjoyed Wildfire, it’s good to see Snyder take on these shorter form works, keeps him more focussed that the long runs he does which can be quite messy
Glad you liked Wildfire. As I said previously, easily one of the best things I read last year.
I’ve just finished reading Ant-Man/Giant-Man Epic Collection v2. It’s taken… however long it’s been since the first Ant-Man film to come out and I was a bit curious as to how they were going to fill it. The Silver Age material neatly filled two Masterworks and most of it made up Epic Collection 1. So what was going to make Epic Collection 2 big enough.
The first answer is a run of solo stories from Marvel Feature (or “Marvel Feaure” as the contents page manages to call it for every issue). After going on an adventure with Spider-Man (sort of) to save The Lizard’s son from random gangsters, Pym ends up stuck at ant-size. This is the start of a serialised run where he struggles to get home and cure himself, with the Wasp also getting stuck small along the way. I’m not sure why he takes so long to get home, as he has his cybernetic helmet initially so could have just called for a flying ant. Anyway, the stories are ok, it’s mostly interesting for giving Pym a new costume, completely different from all his others, with a sort of pirate vibe and nail for sword.
After this we get the clever choice of material to get the book to length: Black Goliath! It makes sense to collect all his original appearances in here, because they’d likely not sell well on their own. The first issues are two of Power Man, where Bill Foster turns up in costume, stuck at 15ft, working for a circus to get money for research and having reached out to his ex-wife, who happens to be Claire Temple, Cage’s girlfriend, for help. Oh and the circus of course turns out to be the Circus of Crime.
This is the first 70s Luke Cage I’ve read and it’s fine. The most memorable element is that Luke Cage’s best mate is named DW Griffith, you know after the racist early Hollywood director that made Birth of a Nation, the film that glamourised the KKK. Which for a blaxploitation comic created by a load of white guys isn’t a great choice.
Black Goliath then gets his own series, which, despite also (initially) being written by Tony Isabella, disregards most of the set-up from those Luke Cage issues. Struggling for money? Nope, he works for Tony Stark. Stuck at 15ft? Not likely, he’s perfected Pym’s growth formula, he was just trying to get sympathy from Claire. Odd.
Anyway, this series has a decent set-up, with Goliath backed up by a group of scientists that are essentially the 70s equivalent of an Arrowverse team. Chris Claremont takes over with the second issue and while it’s not vintage Claremont, it’s pretty good. Nothing that makes it into X-Men, as far as I’m aware, beyond a rough draft of Shi’Ar type stuff.
Black Goliath is cancelled with issue 5, but his dangling plot threads get picked up in three issues of Champions. Another series I’ve not read before and again, decent enough. Has early John Byrne art, which is the most interesting element.
Byrne also rounds the volume out with the first two part Scott Lang story from Marvel Premiere. He’s teamed here with Micheleine and Layton and the results are predictably great.
It does sort of leave the same question I had after volume 1 though: how are they going to fill up another volume? There’s maybe 8 issues of Lang appearances from across the 80s (which were collected in a trade recently-ish). Is there anything else to go with them? Or are they just going to not bother (as they’re guest appearances in Iron Man and Avengers)?
Overall this is an interesting read but not a great one. There’s nothing truly awful, though thr Silver Age stuff is rough going in places (I’m going to write more about that in depth soon, possibly on my blog) and Black Goliath was a pleasant surprise really, but I don’t think it’s going to win over anyone not already interested in the characters.
Near Mint Condition has announced a Zdarsky DD omnibus 1. Looks to cover the first 6 trades / 3 OHCs.
Where it gets interesting is what goes into Volume 2. As there is a Devil’s Reign omnibus due in Jan 2024 but Marvel have bundled event core series into Omnibuses – see Cates’ Venomnibus and Aaron Thor Omnibus 2.
With that precedent in mind, the smart play is to skip the upcoming Zdarsky DD OHC4 and Devil’s Reign Omnibus. Instead nab Zdarsky DD Omnibus 2 which will have far less doubling too.
How To Kill An OHC Sale
And the prize goes to DC Comics. The Nice House By The Lake is a neat horror series. Good writing, good art – OHC collecting the 12 issues out in October? Sounds good.
Except DC have hiked the price to RRP $50 / £45. In some select cases, like say Superman: Birthright, I might put up with their blatant greed but on this series? I don’t care that much about it, so have nabbed the second paperback.
Starts wonderfully. Ends pretty terribly. The hand off to a different creative team mid way through the second arc ruins the finale.
The Fallout mini-series was the follow up to The Death of Spider-man, featuring his funeral and Miles’ first appearance. It also had a series of short stories by Hickman leading into Ultimates and Spencer doing the same for Ultimate X-Men.
Didn’t they do an OHC for Hickman’s Inferno too, separate to the X-Omnibus? I suspect that’s the same pattern they’re following here.
Rogue Sun Volume 2
The tale of an arsehole superhero continues. It also goes to a very interesting and fitting conclusion that sets up the next volume neatly.
One thing that didn’t work for me at all was the choose-your-adventure #7 issue. It starts off well but then does a loop sequence where you’re somehow supposed to work out that you have to cheat by turning the page, following a very covert clue at the start. All too clever by half and it terminally wrecked the execution of a good concept.
The Jurassic League
The Justice League rendered as dinosaurs!? No way does that work, except it does.
One initial disappointment was this is only Daniel Warren Johnson writing, but that faded fast as Ghedon, who does the art for the bulk of the issues, has a similarly explosive and kinetic style.
What follows is a familar tale of superheroes but through an unfamilar world. It’s also told with a lot of verve, energy and fun.
Superman: Space Age
An ambitious tale spanning over 20 years from the early 60s up to 1985 and the day of a multiversal crisis, this recasts how that big, explosive events looks. It does so by having Superman meet Pariah in a bar, who tells him the world has 20 years left.
The genius of this set-up is it works independently of whether you do or don’t recognise Pariah or know of what he speaks. If you do, there’s an extra edge; if you don’t, the story still works.
The decision to tell it by three supersize issues gives the story a very different, more relaxed structure. It allows its ideas space and time. And they need it as Russell spins a tale of a changing world and how Superman responds to it.
The art from the Allreds is fantastic too.
Batman: Fortress
Not every story has to fit into a continuity. DC has really embraced that in recent years with the Black Label line, which this could certainly fit into.
What starts off as a blackout in Gotham grows into a heist on Superman’s fortress and revelations about Krypton’s past.
Sure, Whitta writes for the screen, but can he adapt those skills for comics? Indeed he can, with a story that zips along at a good pace. But he is also supported massively by brilliant art from Robertson.
This was a lot of fun.
BooksEtc have Night Fever (the new Brubaker/Phillips OGN) for £15.01.
Sold! Thanks for the tip off.
BooksEtc Image prices went up a while back, especially on paperbacks, so I stopped checking them, looks like they’ve gone back down a bit.
Edit – they also have The Good Asian: 1936 OHC for £22.78
Night Fever
I thought this was an interesting read and a bit of a departure for Brubaker and Phillips (and Phillips!), which shows that they aren’t stuck in a rut.
It really effectively evokes a certain mood and atmosphere – Jacob Phillips’ colours play a big part in that – and also captures nicely those feelings of regret and being adrift that can hit you as you get older.
The plot is nothing special but that’s not really the point here, it’s more about the slightly dreamlike – or maybe that should be nightmarish – journey.
Night Fever is a nice looking book, not sure when I’ll get to it though.
Frankenstein: New World HC1
Turns out this is the first Mignolaverse story to look at the new world that followed the end of BPRD. It’s also very much an opening act of new characters, places and history, save for Frankenstein.
I found it an intriguing and fun story, be interesting to see where it goes
Inferno Girl Red Volume 1
The latest addition to the Massive-verse books is a fun tale of superheroics, but with a generational aspect that makes it a bit different too.
Like the other books in the line it has a bold use of colour that really helps it. Along with a different sense of pace due to being told in three large issues.
The Nice House on the Lake Volume 2
Reading this concluding volume of this first cycle, it struck me how much of it is a very sharp commentary on the technocratic direction the US and others countries have gone in for the last 20 years.
There’s a set of controls that not only operate the house but also determine how each individual present operates, how they live, heal, even age. If you could have a set of controls for humans you could create perfection, right? Wrong.
Humans are messy things which cannot be captured and summarised into a rule structure. Everything Walter tries, up to and including memory manipulation, fails. It fails because he can only look at it mechanically – A to B to C. He attempts to understand both emotions and psychology, but cannot do it.
Of course none of the subtle and psychological horror of this book would work without Bueno’s art. Oh, and should you believe lettering doesn’t have an impact, the work here will show you exactly how mistaken you are.
Night Fever
I thought this was an interesting read and a bit of a departure for Brubaker and Phillips (and Phillips!), which shows that they aren’t stuck in a rut.
It really effectively evokes a certain mood and atmosphere – Jacob Phillips’ colours play a big part in that – and also captures nicely those feelings of regret and being adrift that can hit you as you get older.
The plot is nothing special but that’s not really the point here, it’s more about the slightly dreamlike – or maybe that should be nightmarish – journey.
Is that the same size as the Reckless HCs or an oversized HC?
Standard, same as Reckless.
Dealer Alert
Batman: Beyond the White Knight HC is now going for £14.31 at BooksEtc
DC multiversal event stories are known for involving a good amount of superhero plot bollocks. But, when executed with skill and flair and ambition? Those plot bollocks can work well and be very fun. So it proves with this set of books. And no, this isn’t every piece of an 18-month lead-up to a line-wide event, but these five collections combine neatly.
Infinite Frontier
Picking up after the end of the last big multiverse apocalypse, Death Metal, this is an effective opener. Williamson starts it running with the concept of one Darkseid amid a multiverse and chaos results.
The bigger issues for this series was a smart creative choice, as it gives the story the space it needs. The art is pretty good too.
Justice League Incarnate: Prelude to Dark Crisis
Picking up where the last one left off, this is very much a middle act. This is all about moving the pieces from A to B. It can’t really resolve anything too major, so instead Flashpoint Batman’s tale ends
I have to admit to being surprised at how well Thomas Wayne’s story works in this larger tale. I wasn’t exactly enthused at him showing up, as he was a pain in the arse across too much of the Bat-King run, but the character worked for this story.
Deathstroke Inc: King of the Supervillains
A separate strand, this is a Slade and Black Canary story that is pretty good, albeit predictable. It also uses DC continuity to its advantage by bringing in a new Libra.
Batman: Shadow War
This is a big multi-title crossover event that is pretty good. It’s also good at being self-contained, with some extras if you’ve read the three books but works fine without too.
This is the final story for setting Slade in place for the next one. I can’t say the final resolution was that good for me as I don’t know the stories it uses, but the story supplied what I needed.
Williamson also has a good line in one-liners too, with “Batman and Robin LLP” being an excellent example.
Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths
Ah, the main event. Rarely have I been so sceptical inal advance of a story, but with the title of Dark Crisis, it was not without some justification. The title is not imaginative and there has been so many of these by now, what makes this one good? Adding to my scepticism was the blatant publicity move of “killing” the Justice League.
Yet, for the actual story itself? Williamson and Sampere really know what they’re doing here. After all the multiversal road to it, this Crisis tale is pretty grounded. It boils down to one older generation who would rather burn the world down and kill their kids than admit where they went wrong and another at ease with handing over power.
And a cover-up is what motivates both Slade and Pariah. If they can reset reality and kill everyone who knows what they did, then they keep lying to themselves for all eternity.
Sampere – I did not know this artist before but I’ll be keeping an eye out now. He does a lot of excellent work here, including a brilliant panel of both Supermen taking out Doomsday. There’s also some neat art homages, with each artist mentioned in the panels, to Perez and Bisette.
Night Fever
This is an interesting one to review. Most of the time with BruPhil works, it’s characters that hook me but this one? Couldn’t care less about the central character – maybe that’s the intent – instead finding the spiralling plot to be the hook.
Outside of that it’s the usual excellence of execution from them both. With a third player covering colours, Jacob Phillips.
Junkyard Joe
I wasn’t sure this sequel to Geiger was a good buy, but it was an excellent read. Johns mixes Vietnam war movies with Spielberg-style kids films, in this story of a robot defying its creators.
The real star of the book is Frank’s art. Page after page of superb imagery that draws you into the story and keeps you reading it.
Colonel Weird and Little Andromeda
This is an odd but good book. A Black Hammer spin-off OGN that also acts as a creative boost for new writers and artists, it’s more a collection of mini stories. Each of them quirky and they’re all pretty good.
Black Hammer Library Edition 5 Visions
Collecting the eight issues of the Visiobs series, each of the stories have good writing and art. Each is entertaining and very fun to read.
Sword of Azrael
This continues Azrael’s story from the Arkham Asylum mini, also written by Watters. Who does some very good work with this neglected character. I had thought this was ongoing but it works better with a clear conclusion.
Batman: One Bad Day: Two-Face HC
DC shouldn’t really be issuing this series as hardbacks, but I am very vulnerable to quality volumes. And this is.
What attracts me to these, assuming the price is right, is the creative collaborations. This one is Tamaki and Fernandez.
Their story plunges into the fractured history of Dent / Two-Face and Batman, adding in a dysfunctional family background. And it all plays out in an intriguing fashion. Art and colours are excellent throughout.
Young Hellboy: Assault on Castle Death
Talking of production values and quality presentation, this is a good example of how to do it right. A RRP $24.99 hardback for four issues that costs me just over £16? They better be good issues on good paper – and, in this case, they are.
The story is a relatively light-hearted one, well for the world of Hellboy. Art is excellent, it uses its four issues of space effectively and is a very fun read.
Lady Killer
This is a fun tale of slaughter in the vein of tales like Jennifer Blood, set in the 1960s, with everything that entails. Cue a load of carnage and society skewering, with the Library format really showing off the art.
Snow Angels
Lemire. Jock. Those names alone sold me on this, the Library format is another pull factor. Jock’s art looks spectacular as Lemire’s story of a colony on an alien planet going off the rails being slowly revealed to the characters decades later.
Sapiens Imperium
A story of a future human galactic empire where it is demonstrated humans are total bastards, this is a well-executed tale with good art. Ends in a way that suggests there might be a continuation.
Sap Hunters
This is a story whose art and central concept of ecological collapse being better than its execution. The main characters are also off. Its the very detailed art and the wsy it depicts this very alien world and societies.
The Incal: The Dying Star
The main attraction for me on this one is seeing what Watters and Davis-Hunt do in this universe and that appears to be true for Jodorowsky too.
A tale of love and redemption across time and space sounds bonkers, but it fits very well to the Incal universe, with the final resolution being particularly good.
The Steel Claw
A collection of 60s UK comics, this is an OK trade. The problem is Crandell isn’t that good a character. Plus my interest in this kind of material is fading.
The week off work isn’t quite over but the read pile acquired over the last few months is.
The Night of the Ghoul
It’s a shame that Francavilla’s noir property, The Black Beetle, never took off. Though, if it had, we might not have this neat horror collaboration between him and Scott Snyder.
Wonder Woman: Amazons – The Historia
This series has quite the reputation, does it deserve it? Yes, it does.
It delves into how the Amazons came to be and, with Greek mythology being what it is, that’s going to involve rebellion against Zeus and his crapbag sons. And so it is.
At a time when there is arguably growing awareness of violence done by a lot of men to many women, filtering the Amazons’ history through it is a smart and very effective move.
DeConnick is aided in this by a brilliant art trio – Jimenez, Ha and Scott. Each has done amazing work but here they each step it up to deliver stunning visuals.
The Good Asian: 1936
A whole lot of recommendations for this book and yeah, it deserves them.
Pornsak spins what might be thought of a standard noir murder mystery, but he does so with an Asian lead character, with the outlook and life experience he would have acquired. In doing so he highlights the casual and sustained racism the US had to Asians across the last 150 so years.
Nor is the story limited to Edison Hark, another character Lucy Fan, takes the lead in a couple of chapters. They both show a world sort if known but also not. It doesn’t hurt that the story’s good too.
StarHenge: The Boar and the Lion
This is very much a passion project for Sharpe. It shows on every page as he mixes and matches art styles to tell a madly ambitious story across three timelines. In the process he throws Arthurian myth, time travel, Terminator and a few other things into a blender. The result is one very smart story smoothie.
The only criticism I have is the story stops just as it really gets going. Hopefully the sales are good enough for him to feel able to embark on Book Two.
The OHC format really benefits this story and its imagery. The binding is excellent too.
Blood Stain: Volume 4
This light hearted, free-wheeling story continues to be a comedy delight. True, I could read it all for free online but I want to support Linda Sejic’s work. Very fun, very good, but hopefully it won’t take as long to get the next trade.
You’re blazing through these books this week Ben!
Glad you enjoyed Wonder Woman Historia. It’s definitely one of those books that makes a great case for comics as capital-A Art.
Yep, been a good week for getting around to reading stuff.
X-Men: House of X / Powers of X
I rarely re-read books due to the amount of new material but, as the other pieces are finally assembled, it was time.
If anything the two series feel more prescient now than in 2019. Climate change is accelerating and humanity remains self destructive, with hatred is fanned by politicians towards immigrants, disabled, LGBT and anyone else deemed different.
Should smart and creative solutions be applied to saving the world? No, the priority is, again, killing mutants. Thus the appeal of someone offering a way out of the whole damn thing.
Add in a madly ambitious story spanning multiple timelines, along with past, present and future sections, all with excellent art, and it’s very clear why this had the impact it did – and continues to do so.
The X-read continues.
X-Men 1-12
The first half of the Hickman X-Men omnibus is an interesting set of issues. Hickman decided to forgo the expected arc structure and do episodic isdue stories. Where they will go is harder to say, but a lot of intetesting seeds are planted here.
On the road to X of Swords and reading the OHC / Omnibus blocks as blocks dors help the material.
Excalibur
Given the mixed reception this book has had I was expecting more of a train wreck. It’s not that but it’s certainly weaker when set against the other two books. If I knew the material it was referencing better I might see it differently, but my memory of it is not that good.
Marauders
It’s good that there’s a sense of unease over Pryde’s choice of team name. This is a good set of stories but one that highlights that it maybe wasn’t a good idea bringing Sebastian Shaw back from the dead.
X-Force
There’s been a good few incarnations of this team, especially over the last few years. Fortunately, Percy is able to make this one distinctive.
Across the three books there is a smart use of crossover and guest characters. It all works very well.
Remaining pre-X of Swords OHC reading:
Hellions
I don’t really know the convoluted Summers-Sinister-Pryor history beyond summaries, but Wells did something interesting in these four issues.
Cable
Cable gets offed by his younger self and replaced by him? Yeah, that’ll really work, except Duggan pulls it off. It doesn’t hurt that Duggan has been writing Cable for years by having him in his Deadpool run.
Even so, this plays out in all kinds of fun. Scott and Jean get to have a relationship with their son, tbe Cuckoos make a beeline for him, which in turn hacks off Frost… It’s good stuff.
Wolverine
Two stories covering how Russia is setting itself up to oppose Krakoa, linking neatly to Mikhail Rasputin’s activity in X-Force and the other is vampires. One of these also adds in Omega Red and the carnage increases as a result. Both are well done tales.
I am also roughly at this point on these Xbooks, some of which I’ve read before others I have not.
I’m reading on the app issue by issue by the order they came out, so I’m getting the benefit of reading them close together all in a pretty big chunk, but also not getting bored because I’m jumping from one book to the next.
I have to say, although there’s nothing outstanding here, it’s a really strong and cohesive line of books. The only one I’m finding a chore is Excalibur. It’s just not very well written or paced and the dialogue is flat.
X-Men, X-Force, Marauders, Hellions, Wolverine, New Mutants I am very much enjoying both in concept and delivery. Fallen Angels was one of the worst comics I’ve read in the last decade, which is odd because I like the writer. The art really was outstandingly bad though and I don’t think the script was much better.
I’m a bit on the fence about cable I don’t like the young Nathan and I really don’t like Phil Noto’s stiff art or depressing colouring
On the whole though I’ve been flying through these books and looking forward to making my way through them up to present date, although I’m aware of a few stinkers in the line up to come that I might struggle to wage thru
