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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2018 10:12:56 GMT -5
So what books were good this week? Which were bad? Tell us what you thought! 2/21/18 releases
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2018 15:41:36 GMT -5
 Superman #41. Written by James Robinson. Art by Ed Benes. Cover by Viktor Bogdanovic. The conclusion of Robinson's fill in story. Superman & Jon save the scientist's "children". Basically eggs that will hatch on another world that the scientist chose. The rest of the population dies when the planet explodes. The good message in the story was Jon learning that there is only so much his Dad can do even with all his powers. The bad was the underlying criticism of having religious beliefs. Benes art was beautiful. He really has matured into his own style. Robinson's script was just OK. I miss the Robinson that wrote "The Golden Age". 5/10. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2018 15:51:48 GMT -5
Super Sons #13. Written by Peter J. Tomasi. Art by Carlo Barberi. Cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli.
Another awesome issue. Focuses on Jon & Damian at school. But Damian's Mom Talia comes to visit. Why? she has been hired to kill Lois Lane Kent.
Wow. Robin's Mom is there to kill Superboy's Mom. What a plot twist!
Tomasi has really impressed me with his work on the Super titles. When Bendis takes over I hope Tomasi gets his pick of books to write. Barberi does a great job on art. The kids look like kids not little adults. So disappointed this title will be gone in a few months.
8/10. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2018 15:58:42 GMT -5
 Mighty Thor #704. Written by Jason Aaron. Art and Cover by Russell Dauterman. As Jane lies in the hospital fighting the cancer that is killing her... Mangog decimates Odin & Asgardia. Gods die. Asgardia is in ruins... and Jane grabs the hammer & appears before Mangog as Thor! The creative team tells an epic story of Jane as she fights the good fight as Jane and Thor. We know how this will end but this story is so enthralling it doesn't matter. 9/10. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2018 16:06:26 GMT -5
 The Archies #5. Written by Alex Segura and Matthew Rosenberg. Art and Cover by Joe Eisma. Tensions are high as the band struggles on tour. And Jughead quits! However everything works out by the end of the issue as Tegan & Sara help the band out & they get offered a recording contract... to be continued. Another fun issue. My only complaint was the art looked rushed & Jughead looked terrible. Only two more issues to go. Next up... Blondie. 8/10. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2018 16:13:48 GMT -5
 Aquaman #33. Written by Dan Abnett. Art by Ricardo Federici. Cover by Stjepan Sejic. Arthur brings down the magic barrier around Atlantis. Returns Mera to Amnesty Bay to recover. Mera is appointed Queen of Atlantis. To be continued in Mera #1 next week. This arc has been going on too long. It needs to be wrapped up soon. The loss of Sejic on interior art has hurt this book. The art now is decent but too murky & dark. I suspect a lot of readers have "jumped ship" with Sejic's departure.
5/10. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2018 16:21:16 GMT -5
 Nightwing #39. Written by Sam Humphries. Art Phil Jimenez, Matt Santorelli and Jamal Campbell. Cover by Phil Jimenez. This issue was pretty good. Humphries has hit his stride on this book. Too bad he is done in 2 issues. The flashback sequence by Jimenez was handled much better this issue than the one in #37. In this issue we find out the "origin" of the Judge. Definitely wasn't what I expected! The art was beautiful. The cliffhanger ending has me anticipating the next issue. Can't wait to see how this ends. 8/10. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2018 16:29:36 GMT -5
 Daredevil #599. Written by Charles Soule. Art by Ron Garney. Cover by Dan Mora. Another thrilling issue. DD tries to track down Muse but fails because he can't focus on anything but Fisk. Fisk & Matt have a confrontation in Fisk's office. Matt is on the losing end of that argument. Blindspot goes after Muse & Muse pushes Blindspot off the side of a building. Meanwhile DD gathers Spidey, Moon Knight, Echo & the Defenders to take down Kingpin.... I love this arc. Soule is telling an epic Kingpin/DD matchup. Can't wait to see how it all ends next issue. 9/10. |
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 24, 2018 16:58:57 GMT -5
Black Panther Annual #1.
This one will be also interesting for classic comics fan: it contains 3 stories, none of them by the current creative team, but all by previous Black Panther writers:
"Back In Black" Written by Christopher Priest. Art by Mike Perkins. Colours by Andy Troy.
Summary: Set in the Present, but very much steeped in Priest's run. The story revolves around Everett Ross, Black Panther's former contact with the US government. Ross has been promoted and hasn't seen T'Challa in years, but is dragged back into Wakanda-US politics. T'Challa is now the king of a constitutional monarchy and the government has decided to share a piece of technology with the US, but T'Challa fears that the technology may be abused. When the handover goes wrong, T'Challa is one of the suspects.
I'm a fan of Priest's run, so I'm always happy to see more of it. The disappearance of the technology is a side-matter, the meat of the story is the relationship between T'Challa and Ross.
"Panther's Heart" Written by Don McGregor. Art by Daniel Acuna. Dedicated to Rich Buckler and Billy Graham
Plot: Set in an alternate past, T'Challa climbs the mountains of Wakanda to find the heart-shaped herb, but it's a way to deal with the death of Monica Lynne. The story is about T'Challa's relationship with Monica and how this relationship affected those around them.
As far as I know Monica didn't die in the regular Black Panther series, so an alternate past it is. It's good to see McGregor back again and even if this is a more somber story, I enjoyed it a lot, showing T'Challa not as hero or as king, but as a human being having to deal with loss and finding comfort with friends and family.
"Black To the Future Part II" Written by Reginald Hudlin. Art by Ken Lashley. Colours by Matt Milla.
Plot: In the future, T'Challa tells his granddaughter about Wakanda's rise out of isolation and their war with various threats.
The story in the annual I didn't like. I never liked Hudlin's run of Black Panther to begin with, but the story reads like a history book "this happened, this happened, then that happened." without giving weight to any of the events.
8/10 (I really liked the first 2 stories, so those outweigh the lesser third story).
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Post by thwhtguardian on Feb 25, 2018 10:11:19 GMT -5
Mata Hari #1 Written by Emma Beeby Art by Ariela Kristantina edited by Karen Berger Summary: 100 years after her death Emma Beeby gives us a look into the life and death of perhaps the most famous spy the world has ever known: Mata Hari.
Plot: My only previous exposure to Emma Beeby was a doctor who story she did a few summer's back, and my biggest take aways were how real the people felt and how well she paced her story and those are two talents that are fully on display here. Rather than feeling like some cheap, one dimensional femme-fatale Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod, better known as Mata Hari, comes across as a fully fleshed out, strong, intelligent woman. With most of the narration being provided through what we are shown as being a self written memoir the whole story feels incredibly intimate and although no such memoir truly exists it gives it a feeling of authenticity even though Beeby freely admits that she's done her fair share of fictionalizing certain elements of this woman's life for dramatic effect. On top of that, with the use of flash backs to her earlier life mixed in frequently with the proceedings of her trial you feel like you get a lot of her life story in a very short time; making the issue feel much larger and substantial than its 26 pages. Like the memoir that suposedly provides the narration the book has a deliciously casual pace to it, revealing elements at its leisure; but although slow it's never boring. All in all this was a truly fantastic book and I can't wait for more; I have tried any of the other Berger books yet but even if all the rest are absolute rubbish the line will be a success in my eyes if only for producing this one book.
Art: Like my experience with Beeby, my exposure to the artist, Ariela Kristantina, is very limited; in this case I've only ever seen one, single story by her(Issue #8 of Brian Wood's Rebels) and what I loved there is true here as well and that is the fact that her art creates a whole world not just an image in a panel. With her unique style Ariela creates images that look incredibly life like but with out the stiffness of form, or artificial tone that always seems to come with photo-referencing. Everything from the architecture, street signs, furniture and animals down to the clothes of even the people in the back ground, art on the walls and food on the table look real; and it all feels vibrant and full of life. The clothes have signs of ware, the hair unkempt in places, people even have blemishes on their skin. It's amazingly detailed...but clear and uncluttered, nothing feels like it's just there for show. Her work is an absolute feast for the eyes.
Grade:10/10 |
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 25, 2018 12:24:04 GMT -5
Mata Hari #1Written by Emma Beeby Art by Ariela Kristantina edited by Karen Berger Summary: 100 years after her death Emma Beeby gives us a look into the life and death of perhaps the most famous spy the world has ever known: Mata Hari.
Plot: My only previous exposure to Emma Beeby was a doctor who story she did a few summer's back, and my biggest take aways were how real the people felt and how well she paced her story and those are two talents that are fully on display here. Rather than feeling like some cheap, one dimensional femme-fatale Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod, better known as Mata Hari, comes across as a fully fleshed out, strong, intelligent woman. With most of the narration being provided through what we are shown as being a self written memoir the whole story feels incredibly intimate and although no such memoir truly exists it gives it a feeling of authenticity even though Beeby freely admits that she's done her fair share of fictionalizing certain elements of this woman's life for dramatic effect. On top of that, with the use of flash backs to her earlier life mixed in frequently with the proceedings of her trial you feel like you get a lot of her life story in a very short time; making the issue feel much larger and substantial than its 26 pages. Like the memoir that suposedly provides the narration the book has a deliciously casual pace to it, revealing elements at its leisure; but although slow it's never boring. All in all this was a truly fantastic book and I can't wait for more; I have tried any of the other Berger books yet but even if all the rest are absolute rubbish the line will be a success in my eyes if only for producing this one book.
Art: Like my experience with Beeby, my exposure to the artist, Ariela Kristantina, is very limited; in this case I've only ever seen one, single story by her(Issue #8 of Brian Wood's Rebels) and what I loved there is true here as well and that is the fact that her art creates a whole world not just an image in a panel. With her unique style Ariela creates images that look incredibly life like but with out the stiffness of form, or artificial tone that always seems to come with photo-referencing. Everything from the architecture, street signs, furniture and animals down to the clothes of even the people in the back ground, art on the walls and food on the table look real; and it all feels vibrant and full of life. The clothes have signs of ware, the hair unkempt in places, people even have blemishes on their skin. It's amazingly detailed...but clear and uncluttered, nothing feels like it's just there for show. Her work is an absolute feast for the eyes.
Grade:10/10 I absolutely couldn't resist this. It's very good. Mata Hari's story is very compelling, and ripe for fictionalization. I've read a couple of books on Mata Hari (not recently) and I very much agreed with Beeby's text piece about how easy it is to be fascinated but how hard it is to get a handle on her. When I think of Mata Hari, I have a hard time remembering the facts. (I think the evidence that she was a spy for the Germans is actually pretty weak.) I'm more likely to think of the movie with Greta Garbo (which I've seen a bunch of times over the years - my favorite Garbo movie!) or the 1960s Casino Royale where Joanna Pettet plays Mata Bond, the daughter of Mata Hari and James Bond. I highly recommend the comic book Mata Hari series. The more I think about it, the more I'm surprised I am it hasn't been done before. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 25, 2018 12:27:25 GMT -5
Daredevil #599. Written by Charles Soule. Art by Ron Garney. Cover by Dan Mora. Another thrilling issue. DD tries to track down Muse but fails because he can't focus on anything but Fisk. Fisk & Matt have a confrontation in Fisk's office. Matt is on the losing end of that argument. Blindspot goes after Muse & Muse pushes Blindspot off the side of a building. Meanwhile DD gathers Spidey, Moon Knight, Echo & the Defenders to take down Kingpin.... I love this arc. Soule is telling an epic Kingpin/DD matchup. Can't wait to see how it all ends next issue. 9/10. I'm enjoying the Mayor Fisk arc as well. It's hard not to notice the similarities with the Trump presidency. But the weird thing about that is ... I can see why people would vote for Fisk a lot more easily than I can see why they would vote for Trump. For one thing, Fisk isn't a whiny, narcissistic, ignorant man-baby. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 25, 2018 13:01:42 GMT -5
Mata Hari #1Written by Emma Beeby Art by Ariela Kristantina edited by Karen Berger Summary: 100 years after her death Emma Beeby gives us a look into the life and death of perhaps the most famous spy the world has ever known: Mata Hari.
Plot: My only previous exposure to Emma Beeby was a doctor who story she did a few summer's back, and my biggest take aways were how real the people felt and how well she paced her story and those are two talents that are fully on display here. Rather than feeling like some cheap, one dimensional femme-fatale Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod, better known as Mata Hari, comes across as a fully fleshed out, strong, intelligent woman. With most of the narration being provided through what we are shown as being a self written memoir the whole story feels incredibly intimate and although no such memoir truly exists it gives it a feeling of authenticity even though Beeby freely admits that she's done her fair share of fictionalizing certain elements of this woman's life for dramatic effect. On top of that, with the use of flash backs to her earlier life mixed in frequently with the proceedings of her trial you feel like you get a lot of her life story in a very short time; making the issue feel much larger and substantial than its 26 pages. Like the memoir that suposedly provides the narration the book has a deliciously casual pace to it, revealing elements at its leisure; but although slow it's never boring. All in all this was a truly fantastic book and I can't wait for more; I have tried any of the other Berger books yet but even if all the rest are absolute rubbish the line will be a success in my eyes if only for producing this one book.
Art: Like my experience with Beeby, my exposure to the artist, Ariela Kristantina, is very limited; in this case I've only ever seen one, single story by her(Issue #8 of Brian Wood's Rebels) and what I loved there is true here as well and that is the fact that her art creates a whole world not just an image in a panel. With her unique style Ariela creates images that look incredibly life like but with out the stiffness of form, or artificial tone that always seems to come with photo-referencing. Everything from the architecture, street signs, furniture and animals down to the clothes of even the people in the back ground, art on the walls and food on the table look real; and it all feels vibrant and full of life. The clothes have signs of ware, the hair unkempt in places, people even have blemishes on their skin. It's amazingly detailed...but clear and uncluttered, nothing feels like it's just there for show. Her work is an absolute feast for the eyes.
Grade:10/10 I absolutely couldn't resist this. It's very good. Mata Hari's story is very compelling, and ripe for fictionalization. I've read a couple of books on Mata Hari (not recently) and I very much agreed with Beeby's text piece about how easy it is to be fascinated but how hard it is to get a handle on her. When I think of Mata Hari, I have a hard time remembering the facts. (I think the evidence that she was a spy for the Germans is actually pretty weak.) I'm more likely to think of the movie with Greta Garbo (which I've seen a bunch of times over the years - my favorite Garbo movie!) or the 1960s Casino Royale where Joanna Pettet plays Mata Bond, the daughter of Mata Hari and James Bond. I highly recommend the comic book Mata Hari series. The more I think about it, the more I'm surprised I am it hasn't been done before. I'll re-echo that this is an incredible book. I needed to read it twice because the bit of a fantasy overlay didn't quite work for me as well as if it had been a 100% straight up story. But it's still a great read and the art is incredible. The evidence that Mata Hari took money from the Germans to spy was rock-solid. She admitted she did, while maintaining that she didn't give them anything useful and did it to help her spy on them. Her trial was a travesty even by the standards of the day...though military trials traditionally have been travesties. As for other Berger Books I highly recommend Incognegro Renaissance even if you haven't read the original graphic novel. It stands on its own quite well so far and is a very good book. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 25, 2018 13:10:25 GMT -5
I absolutely couldn't resist this. It's very good. Mata Hari's story is very compelling, and ripe for fictionalization. I've read a couple of books on Mata Hari (not recently) and I very much agreed with Beeby's text piece about how easy it is to be fascinated but how hard it is to get a handle on her. When I think of Mata Hari, I have a hard time remembering the facts. (I think the evidence that she was a spy for the Germans is actually pretty weak.) I'm more likely to think of the movie with Greta Garbo (which I've seen a bunch of times over the years - my favorite Garbo movie!) or the 1960s Casino Royale where Joanna Pettet plays Mata Bond, the daughter of Mata Hari and James Bond. I highly recommend the comic book Mata Hari series. The more I think about it, the more I'm surprised I am it hasn't been done before. I'll re-echo that this is an incredible book. I needed to read it twice because the bit of a fantasy overlay didn't quite work for me as well as if it had been a 100% straight up story. But it's still a great read and the art is incredible. The evidence that Mata Hari took money from the Germans to spy was rock-solid. She admitted she did, while maintaining that she didn't give them anything useful and did it to help her spy on them. Her trial was a travesty even by the standards of the day...though military trials traditionally have been travesties. As for other Berger Books I highly recommend Incognegro Renaissance even if you haven't read the original graphic novel. It stands on its own quite well so far and is a very good book. Thank you for clarifying my faulty info on Mata Hari's trial. I'm remembering now just how complicated it was. A WW I-era French military trial being a disaster for justice must be pretty much assumed. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 25, 2018 18:28:37 GMT -5
This came out several weeks ago but I missed it. I've been buying Tank Girl for a few months now, but because the latest series is mostly one-shot stories, it's not that hard to miss one without realizing it. But I was looking around at the comic-book store in Rancho Cucamonga and I noticed that Tank Girl did an Oscar Wilde parody of sorts! It's HILARIOUS! Although you probably have to be acquainted with Wilde in general and "The Importance of Being Earnest" in particular to REALLY appreciate this comic fully. (And also you should probably have an appreciation for Tank Girl. I can see a lot of English majors being a bit mystified if they don't know about Tank Girl and Booga and Barney and the gang.) |
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