I Read Comic Books discussion

Happy March! What are you reading this month? Any new series dropping you're planning to check out?

Tell us all about it in the thread below!

In case you missed it, the IRCB anthology art zine TOTALLY NOT A CULT is launching on March 3rd! You can check it out at https://ircb.fyi/zine

If you'd like to see what the IRCB crew is reading, take a peek at the Top of My Pile posts over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ircbpodcast

Last week's adventures in comics. (Belated edition due to just returning from Mexico.)

Daredevil Epic Collection, Vol. 18: Fall From GraceAnimal Pound ★★
Good lord, these D.G. Chichester comics are bad. The plots are so muddy I was lost as to motivations of why things were happening. The Fall from Grace storyline is particularly dumb even though it leads to lots of changes. Everyone's after some lost virus that can change the physical abilities of whoever gets it. It's all real murky. Elektra returns for the first time since the Frank Miller days. Matt fakes his death and takes on a new identity as a con man. Karen Page is both fighting and "lost" in the world of porn. I don't really get this subplot at all especially once Matt is "dead". They basically dropped Foggy from the book so why not Karen as well. The second story is a team of cybercriminals working for Hydra called System Crash. I couldn't even tell you what they were up to. Cyber characters never make for interesting stories, especially not ones written in 1994.

I am one of the minority that really likes Scott McDaniel's art. It's the only reason for hard core DD fans to read this.

Star Wars: Darth Maul - Death Sentence ★★★★
It turns out Nightwing was not the first book that Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo worked their magic on. This hidden gem features the return of Darth Maul and his brother Savage Opress to the Clone Wars era. They are on a planet where the natives are about to be burned alive by the conjunction of three suns and think Darth Maul will be their savior. Yeah this is good stuff, especially for this era.

Star Wars: Clone Wars, Volume 3: Last Stand on Jabiim ★★★
A bunch of Jedi die in a hopeless cause while Obi-Wan is thought dead and Anakin is on his own. It's alright.

Raymond Chandler's Marlowe: The Authorized Philip Marlowe Graphic Novel ★★★
Adaptations of three Chandler short stories. I think something was a bit lost in these adaptations as the motivations can get a bit clunky in places. I'd say read the originals first, then the adaptations if you hunger for more.

Latina Superheroes: Jalisco & Santa ★★
I found the first story about Jalisco to be much better than the 2nd story about Santa (not to be confused with Santa Claus). Jalisco's story is about women in this town going missing. Jalisco meets some other women who help her train to fight back against the people that took her mother.

I didn't know what was going on in the 2nd story. It was about a border town and an election. There were a bunch of people who wore luchador masks and they were some kind of stand in for white people I guess? They thought they were superior and those who didn't wear them were some kind of mongrels. None of it really made any kind of sense and I was completely lost. Kudos though for making diverse comics about women with an all female creative team.

Orisha, Volume 1: With Great Power ★★★
A West African influenced manga. A boy gets the power of an Orisha buried in his chest and is pursued by the rest of the Orisha because of some vague prophecy. It's not bad. Bit underdeveloped maybe.

Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker ★★★★
This is a simple concept that's been done several times before but when it's done well? Well go ahead and do it again. Anyone that's ever played a role playing game has fantasized about actually getting sucked into the world and living that life out. It's just the nature of the beast when you're having that much fun. In this case though, these teenagers lose 2 years of their life and not all of them make it back. Then, 25 years later, after living in the real world, they get sucked back in. Like I said, it's a simple concept. I mean, this is basically a darker version of Narnia. The story is dark. Stephanie Hans illustrations are of course, gorgeous. I don't think you need to have played RPG's to enjoy this. Maybe you just get some additional Easter eggs. But I could be wrong. The reviews are divided among my friends, but I loved it.

Die, Vol. 2: Split the Party ★★★★
Everyone gets a chance to show they are flawed characters in volume 2. Then there's a bombshell about how the world of Die came about and I thought it was pretty clever. The series itself is dense. It's not a flip through this quickly and watch the fights type of book. It takes work and there's a lot to pay attention to, but I'm up for the challenge.

Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Clone Wars, Vol. 2 ★★★
I never found many of the Clone Wars comics all that interesting. The cartoon? Sure. These comics not so much. It's mostly just random Jedi getting killed off while Palpatine tightens his grip on the Republic. The shining star in this collection is the Darth Maul miniseries by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo. Yes, long before their terrific Nightwing run, they made this nifty little miniseries that brought Darth Maul back with these cool robotic legs and his brother, Savage Opress, in tow as well. I thought this was really good and it makes the Clone Wars comics look even worse in comparison.

Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures Phase III--Crash Zone ★★
A big nothingburger of a volume. Crash and her team have been killing off Nihil who were involved with starting the war on Corellia. They find a joke of a Nihil who says he can kill Marchion Ro. It's all just pretty poorly done and the art is poor. These High Republic books have just turned into a big disappointment.

Survival Street Volume 2: The Radical Left ★★★
The adult version of the muppets from Sesame Street are back. They're fighting corporate greed as freedom fighters in the near future of America. There's not really a central story that keeps it from being great. It's still solid though.

What If... Marc Spector Was A Host To Venom? ★★★
This is actually a prose novel. I'm just not a fan of how Marvel has changed the What If concept. It used to be how a small change like if Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four would diverge the Marvel time line. Now it's just any story not taking place in the 616 universe. This starts off pretty confusing. There's multiple Moon Knights running around from different universes. Then Venom from yet another dimension is put up to find the psy-fon by some big bad and takes over one of the Moon Knights. I do like how each chapter is from one of Moon Knight's multiple personalities or Venom. The story is just OK though. Really kind of only for Marvel diehards like me.

Sisters of Sorcery: A Marvel: Untold Novel ★★★
Another prose novel taking place in the Marvel universe. The obscure magical women of the Marvel universe band together to take on Clea’s mom Umar after she takes over the Dark Dimension. Clea, Margali Szardos, Holly LaDonna and Talisman must make their way through a bunch of magical realms to overthrow Umar the Unrelenting. It’s not bad.

There's No Time Like the Present ★★★
This was one very strange book. It’s about a couple of British introverts obsessed with nerd culture. It’s a slice of life story with the addition of the Ultranet, an internet that allows you to access media from the future. At a certain point people from the future start traveling back in time. We jump to when these nerds are old men. I really liked this part of the story. Then we jump ahead to the far future where things get pretty weird. It’s pretty solid stuff overall though.

7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga ★★★★
The story takes place across 7 generations of this family but we don't visit every generation in the story. It's about some indigenous people in Canada. A young man has tried to take his own life and his parents tell him stories of their ancestors' hardships coming from the perspective of the Indigenous. The father's story about he and his brother was the most heartbreaking and something that used to be very common then with whites forcing the Indigenous children to go off to schools where they were forced to forget their heritage and live as white people while doing all of the manual labor. The stories are just heartrending.

This week's trip to my LCS.

Blade Forger #1
Secret Six #1
Herculoids #1
West Coast Avengers #4
Absolute Wonder Woman #5
Detective Comics #1094
Gatchaman #7
Hornsby and Halo #4
House of Slaughter #30
Justice League Unlimited #4
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #7
Ultimate Spider-Man #14
X-Men #12
Birds of Prey #19
Hyde Street #4
Immortal Thor #21
Spectacular Spider-Men #13
Ultimates #10
Uncanny X-Men #11
Space Ghost #10
Thundercats #13
Captain America and Volstagg #1

Last week's adventures in comics.

Yucatan 1512 ★★★
Not bad. It's about some conquistadors attacking Mayans for their gold. Somehow some big mechs get involved. It's cool even without things being explained. The Mayans talked in pictograms which I thought was interesting. Strangely enough, I was in the Yukatan today when I read this.

Sparks Volume 2: Royalty ★
An LGBTQ+ story where almost nothing ever happens. It's all lurid glances and kissing but no story to speak of. In this one the main character goes to the palace where he meets another wastrel satyr and the two of them live a life of leisure while his ex occasionally trains to be the next arch mage. It's all so tedious, LGBTQ+ or not. I can't believe it took a year to make this drivel.

Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures Phase III--Echoes of Fear ★★★
This was OK. It's about these Echo Stones that can amplify a Jedi's abilities but also uses their life force. I really hate how piece meal this high republic era of storytelling is with no road map on proper reading orders and across multiple reading levels and media. It's a real shoddy way to put this all together and leads to needless confusion to the point of not even making me want to bother. Just number the damn books so I can easily figure out what I need to read.

Space Usagi: White Star Rising ★★★★
You could consider Space Usagi, Usagi Yojimbo with a Star Wars skin on it. Star Wars already had a lot of Japanese influences in both the character designs and even the story itself, so these mesh together very well. The second Space Usagi arc takes place directly after Death and Honor and is really a continuation of that story. Gen makes his first appearance in this universe as Usagi and his small team need to infiltrate his ancestral home. There's also a new story with Akemi but that's a bit goofy. If you like Usagi Yojimbo, you're almost certainly going to like this as well. And it's in full color.

Canto Volume 5: A Place Like Home ★★★★
I love this story of the little clockwork man with the huge heart. He never gives up, even against the powerful Shroudless Man who has enslaved the countryside. It all comes down to this as Canto's rebels have a final confrontation with the Shroudless Man and his minions who are too scared to fight back.

Dr. Werthless: The Man Who Studied Murder [And Nearly Killed the Comics Industry] ★★★★
A really well-balanced account of the life of Dr. Wertham, the man who nearly killed the comic book industry in the 50s with his vendetta against them, even testifying before congress on their evils. I think it's ironic that this is a comic book. But this is played straight. It shows the good he did like the fact that he was instrumental in ending segregation in schools. There are also some gruesome stories of insane people that he testified for, so be forewarned. He was a very complicated individual who thought he was never wrong and rarely got along with people.

Eric Powell adopted a bit of a different style for this comic. It's full black and white and he was trying to emulate the pop art style of the time. I think Powell can do no wrong with his pencils. They always look fantastic.

Fierce: The F*cked-Up Fairy Tale of a Fed-Up Princess ★★★
As a King Arthur story, this is a misnomer. If you changed the name of King Arthur to something else in this story, I'd have no idea this had anything to do with that story. There's no Round Table or other nights, Excalibur is never named. Mordred is not in the picture, instead Arthur has two girls and is just a terrible father. It really has nothing to do with that. Once you get past that, this is a decent story on its own though.

The character designs are sometimes weird and offputting. I honestly had a hard time who was supposed to be human and who wasn't because of it. Everyone just looks kind of Muppety. The story itself is about a princess who runs away because her shitty drunk of a father is determined to marry her off to a disgusting old baron and she runs off with her dad's magic, talking sword.

Nullhunter Volume 1: An Olympos Saga ★★★
Some decent sci-fi opera. I think I'd rather Walsh drew this as well as write it though.

Where Monsters Lie Volume 2: CULL-DE-SAC ★★★★
I actually liked this more than volume 1. Maybe because it focused on fewer characters. Anyway the story of this secret society of serial killers continues with a mix of dark humor and ultraviolence.

The Liminal Zone, Vol. 2 ★★★★
Four more twisted, short stories from Japan's master of horror. I liked the one about the clockwork quite a bit but they are all solid.

The InSpectres Volume One ★★★
A bunch of real historical figures like Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle start up their own Scooby Gang to investigate some murders. It's actually pretty cool. It does end on a cliffhanger but there is a volume two.

Incredible Hulk Epic Collection, Vol. 24: The Lone and Level Sands ★★★
The last volume in Peter David's epic Hulk run is pretty lackluster. It was all messed up from the return of all the characters who disappeared during Heroes Reborn. And then David soon left over creative differences. Adam Kubert's art in this first half is good. After David left, Joe Casey and Javier Pulido try and pick up the pieces. It's kind of terrible. Casey does a really poor job of characterizing the Hulk. First he's completely silent when it's established that he has his own distinct personality. Then he suddenly is just an extension of Banner with no differences in personality at all. It's poorly done. And speaking of poorly done, Javier Pulido's art isn't very good either, especially his faces. It's all bad enough that the book gets cancelled 474 issues in and then handed off to John Byrne and Ron Garney for a fresh start with a new #1 after this ends.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Song of Glory ★★★
Some solid Viking comics that also serve as a prequel to Assassin's Creed Valhalla.

Championess ★★★★
A made up story about the first female boxer. Almost nothing is known about her other than she existed. Here she's mixed race in London. Her half sister is in severe debt from their mother getting sick and in danger of being sent to debtors prison. Because the main character is half Indian, no one will give her a job so she takes up boxing to make ends meet and get her and her sister out of poverty. It's a compelling story. The art's solid. The lack of backgrounds can be distracting at times but otherwise pretty good. I really liked the story even if we don't really know how much of it is true.

Door to Door, Night by Night Vol. 1: A World Full of Monsters ★★★
Every once in a while Cullen Bunn makes some solid horror comics. This is one of those times. It's about a group of door to door salespeople who rove from town to town. One day they pick up a woman to go with them who is an honest to goodness monster hunter and once seen they can't be unseen. Now they come across the supernatural in most of the towns they visit and can't turn a blind eye.

Die, Vol. 3: The Great Game ★★★★
Good lord, this series is dense. Most of it is spit out through lots of exposition disguised as dialogue. And yet, I'm still digging it. I do feel like it's going to take multiple reads to digest it all. Stephanie Hans's art is still fantastic.

Today's trip to my LCS.

West Coast Avengers #5
Gatchaman: Only One Earth #2
Absolute Superman #5
Nick Fury Vs Fin Fang Doom #1
Flash Gordon #7
Geiger #12
Redcoat #10
Transformers #18
Void Rivals #17
X-Factor #8
X-Men #13
Aquaman #3

Last week's adventures in comics.

The Rush: This Hungry Earth Reddens Under Snowclad Hills ★★
Months ago a teenager went to the Yukon to stake his claim in the gold rush. Now his mother follows in his wake, tracking him to this remote outpost where strange things happen and people disappear. I've tried again and again with Spurrier's writing and he always comes at things at such an obtuse angle that I can never follow it. It's further compounded by how much Spurrier loves the written word. I think he secretly wants to write prose. I'm honestly surprised there's any room for Gooden's art with the sheer amounts of journal entries on each page.

The Incal: Dying Star ★★★
An offshoot of the Incal universe about the pirate captain Caimann. He's devolving into a reptilian mutant and the only thing that can hold it back is a rare flower. Meanwhile his crew have all died and live on only as electronic ghosts on his ship. Then there's this weird subplot about a nun that's part of a nihilistic cult at the end of time. This is all fine. I am a fan of Jon Davis-Hunt's art so it all loos very good.

The Blue Flame: The Complete Series ★★★★
A story told in two parts. The Blue Flame has been chosen to defend humanity in a galactic trial to determine if humanity should continue to live or not. At the same time, he's in Wisconsin recovering from a horrible tragedy that happened to his superhero team. It was really good. I do with the ending was a little less ambiguous but I get it.

Money Shot Vol. 4: Money Shot Comes Again ★★★
For the fourth installment of this series, we take on the tech bros. It's not terribly interesting. What was more interesting is that they somehow got permission to use the character of Cherry, an obscure underground character from the 80's who was basically from a sexy Riverdale. What is even more interesting is that Patton Oswalt is working on the next story.

Daredevil Epic Collection, Vol. 12: It Comes With The Claws ★★
It's pretty clear reading these issues that Marvel had no idea what to do once Frank Miller left Daredevil. It's a bunch of terrible one-off stories like Madcap (who may be one of Marvel's dumbest characters.) Matt is working as a cook at a diner and there are zero subplots. Then Ann Nocenti comes on board who I have a love, hate relationship with. She has some decent ideas. They are just presented so clunkily that I can't take it. She's definitely at the forefront of a lot of social issues but then she beats you over the head with them with a sledgehammer and awful dialogue. She also keeps putting these dumb skater kids, the Flyboys, in her stories that add nothing. The art is often clunky too. It finally stabilizes at the end with a couple of issues by Rick Leonardi and then John Romita Jr. coming on board with issue #250. Romita's art is really good except for when he draws children. He's never been able to draw kids, even back in the 80s. It's all giant heads on tiny necks.

Barbaric Vol. 3: Hell to Pay ★★★★★
The third volume of Barbaric continues to be badass. Owen is trapped in Hell with an old friend while his friends try and figure out how to get him out. I love that Owen thinks that Hell is just a good time. This series is so much fun and super funny. The Hell to Pay one shot with Nicholas Eames is dementedly hilarious.

Die, Vol. 4: Bleed ★★★★
And so Die ends with the party descending into the Mines of Moria. Seems appropriate. I like how it all gets into why we play games and the like. Good stuff. I like how Gillen pivoted with the ending too to include what was all happening in the real world at the end of this.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi ★★★
A pretty faithful adaptation of the movie for only 4 issues. Some little things may be left out. I'd never suggest reading this first, but once you've already seen Jedi, this is a good refresher.

Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years, Vol. 5 ★★★
Given how this was for the most part written before Return of the Jedi came out it's pretty solid. The regular cast of characters are hunting for a rebel spy who has disappeared and has intel they need. Then we get an actual adaptation of Jedi. After that the stories aren't as good as they try and find their footing in a post Jedi setting. It's mostly going to different worlds and trying to talk them into joining the new republic they hope to set up.

Life Sucks ★★★
This is actually a comic that came out about 15 years ago, originally from First Second. Now Fantagraphics is giving it a new lease on unlife. It's about a college age kid working at a deadend job at a convenience job, the twist is that he's actually undead, a vampire. It turns out becoming a vampire isn't all touring from castle to castle, seeming all mysterious and sensual. It's a grind, especially when you don't want to kill anyone. Anyway Dave is trapped working all night in this convenience store and meets this hot Goth girl who longs to be an Anne Rice type vampire and has no idea they really exist. Then there's this piece of crap surfer vampire who is the bane of Dave's existence who just wants to get in her pants. That's the crux of the book. There are some smaller trigger warnings for language and attitudes that have changed since this was originally released.

Blow Away ★★
A good story premise about a nature documentarian in Canada maybe accidentally filming a murder. There's way too much focus in throwing a gazillion twists and turns into the last two issues. I completely lost the thread by the time it was over on who the actual bad guys were. Just too much focus on shock and awe and not enough on good storytelling.

Door to Door, Night by Night Vol. 2: Knocking On Heaven's Door ★★★
Not the most original story, I mean monster hunters have been done plenty of times. There's something about these inept door to door salesmen fighting monsters though that's quite fun. BTW, these takes place during the 80's when door to door salesmen still existed.

This week's belated trip to my LCS. Stupid work!

Lunar Room #1-4
Defenders of the Earth #5
Storm #6
Rocketfellers #4
Deadpool / Wolverine #3
One World Under Doom #2
Ultimate X-Men #13
Absolute Flash #1
GI Joe #5
X-Force #9
Exceptional X-Men #7
NYX #9
Avengers #24
Ultime Black Panther #14
World's Finest #37
Detective Comics #1090
Detective Comics #1095
Absolute Batman #6
Space Ghost #11

Last week's adventures in comics. Work gets in the way edition.

Farewell, My Odin ★★★
It's the Viking versus a wolf boy in this story about the Vikings invading England. It's not bad. I was getting confused about some things until contextual clues helped. Like I thought the bad guy was a bad woman for half the book because he's drawn androgynously. (This happens more than you'd think with manga.) I also would get confused about who the white haired man was because it's in black and white and at some point I guess they die their hair because it's darker. It turns out it's the same person I thought was a woman.

Wrassle Castle Book 1: Learning the Ropes ★★★
A fun all-ages read about a girl who longs to be a wrassler but her parents are trying to force her into politics. Her brother is one of the top wrassler's in the land. When he gets into trouble for an unknown reason, she enters the wrassling tournament to try and save him. I didn't use wrassling nearly as much as it's used in this comic. Still it's a lot of fun.

Trench Dogs ★
An anthropomorphic and almost wordless retelling of World War I. I couldn't follow this at all. It's almost all just random violence set in World War I. The art had all of this same muted color too and wasn't very detailed. I couldn't really follow much of a story at all. Just an all around fail unfortunately.

Palestine ★★★★
This is not an easy read. It's dense. It's packed with story. Some pages feel like walls of text. The lettering is scattered across the page like leaves in high winds. Then there's the horrible stories Sacco relates about all the things Palestinians have went through. It's awful. This book was written over 30 years ago. Yet it still remains relevant to this day as the conflict between Palestine and Israel ebbs and flows, currently reaching new heights of awfulness. This is boots on the ground writing. The kind of thing that really brings to the forefront a conflict that if you aren't living it, seems hard to imagine.

Gatchaman: Galactor ★★
Berg Katse finds out a mob family has infiltrated Galactor. This was a yawn fest. I guess I just don't enjoy Steve Orlando's writing at all.

The InSpectres Volume Two ★★★★
I really like how they took all of these real characters, Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini, Agatha Christie, Bram Stoker, etc. and mixed into this fictional story involving Spring Heeled Jack and vampires. It's good stuff.

Today's trip to my LCS.

Ultimate Wolverine #3
Batman #158 <-- DC also made this in a gigantic edition that's the size of a poster board. Why?
Free for All <-- A one-shot by Patrick Horvath of Beneath the Trees
Thundercats: Lost #1
The Herculoids #2
Absolute Wonder Woman #6
Feral #11
Incredible Hulk #23
Justice League Unlimited #5
Ultimate Spider-Man #15
Uncanny X-Men #12
Wolverine: Revenge #5
X-Manhunt: Omega #1
Godzilla Vs. Fantastic Four #1
Absolute Martian Manhunter #1
A also got an ashcan of Batman #159

I am currently reading silver eyes five nights at Freddy's book

In Perpetuity a colorful comic involving a noir-ish story of people in the afterlife committing crimes both in the afterlife and back in the real world. Nice concept. The story is OK. The art is just OK. It really suffers from having the text describe too many things that a reader can see in the image. "The car went off the road". Um, yeah, I can see that. "Jim walked to the door.", Yep, I can see that, too. etc. 2.5 stars at best.

The Unlikely Story of Felix and Macabber by Juni Ba. I really enjoy Juni Ba's art, even though I sometimes have trouble telling which characters are which. (This is made difficult by frequent switches in time period and thus ages of the characters, as well as lots of rapid-action scenes.)

I look forward to reading Juni Ba's The Boy Wonder to see how his art fits in a BatMan world.

Went to an actual comics store and got the single issues for The Sacrificers, Vol. 3: No Light Beyond. Since I haven't read Volume 2 yet (it is not in Hoopla) I guess I'll wait to read this.

Picked up the newest tale of Henry and Glenn from Tom Neely. If you've seen these before, this is more of the same. Their cat "Lemmy" dies and they get a new, hairless cat which they name "Iggy". The cat really hates Glen.

I also picked up Monkey Meat: The Summer Batch #1. Recommended if you liked the other Monkey Meat stories, or Juni Ba in general. I found it odd that this is printed on non-glossy paper that feels similar to newspaper. Is that less expensive to make?

New comic reader here! I just started reading all the Marvel series comics in reading order. Currently on Marvel Mystery Comics #2 I gotta A LOT to go

Hailey that's an admirable goal but you're never going to catch up. I've been reading Marvel comics sine the 80's and still haven't read them all. You may find a point where you may want to cherry pick some more modern stories. They are very different. Anyway welcome.

Last week's adventures in comics.

Batman and Robin and Howard: Summer Breakdown ★★★
A kids book where Damian Wayne's best friend, Howard, knows Batman and Robin's secret and helps out with monitor duty. They discover the park where they play soccer at is slated to be turned into a recycling facility and realize something fishy is going on. It's a bit of a slight mystery but it's a fun enough story even if Batman is a dope.

Spider-Man: Octo-Girl, Vol. 1 ★★★
This is much better than it has a right to be. Doc Ock getting his brain stuck in the body of a 14-year-old girl sounds dumb, but this wasn't half bad. Seeing Doc Ock at the mercy of this girl as they fight over her body was kind of funny.

Quarantined ★★
An OK zombie comic. There's some strange things in it like a bank robbery out of nowhere. I hated the ending too because it wasn't really an ending. There clearly was meant to be more and this probably wasn't successful enough for that to happen. The art is suspect. Zero backgrounds and I had difficulties telling some of the characters apart.

Daredevil Epic Collection, Vol. 19: Root of Evil ★
OMG, this was awful. This was in the era when Matt Murdock faked his death and was running around in an armored costume and living as con man, Jack Battlin. The first arc by the colorist Gregory Wright was some weird thing with Daredevil in the sewers helping homeless people with some cannibals. It's beyond dumb. Then D.G. Chichester and Scott McDaniel do the Elektra: Root of Evil miniseries and whatever good ideas Chichester had in the past were clearly gone by this point. The story with the Snakeroot is pretty terrible. Then we return to the main Daredevil book with a story so bad the writer took his name off the book using the old pseudonym, Alan Smithee, that directors used to use in Hollywood when they were embarrassed about a movie they'd directed because of interference from the studio. I'd love to know who actually wrote it and how Marvel twisted it. This is an era of Daredevil you can safely ignore.

Wonder Woman, Vol. 2: Sacrifice ★★★★
Man, that first issue where Superman and Wonder Woman head to the galaxy's largest mall to find a birthday gift for Batman is just golden. So much fun. Then we go back to the story with the Sovereign. Wonder Woman is in his clutches and he's trying to break her mentally. The issues all take place in her head and she tries to resist and it's all just terrific. Daniel Sampere's art is just >>chef's kiss<<. Then we get to the Absolute Power tie in issues with Tony Daniel on art. The first issue is just OK. Then who knew Robin and Wonder Woman was the team up I never knew I needed. The two of them are really fun together. I'm assuming with volume 3 we'll be back to our regularly scheduled story of Diana's ongoing war with the Sovereign.

Babylon Berlin ★★★★
A noir set in the Weimar Republic era of Germany. This is an adaptation of the first of the Gereon Rath novels about a police detective who transfers from Cologne to Berlin and quickly gets embroiled in a mystery involving a murdered driver and missing Russians along with missing Russian gold. It's good stuff.

X-Men: The Manga: Remastered, Vol. 1 ★★★
An X-Men manga from the 90s now getting an English translation, largely based on the cartoon. It's got a manga slant to it of course. The art is hit and miss depending on who is drawing the chapter. Not bad.

Superman Vs. Meshi 2 ★
This is dumb. Each chapter Superman heads to Japan for lunch and talks in his head about how much he loves the food. He takes various members of the Justice League with him at times. You have to really be into food to find this at all interesting.

Level Up ★★
This lacked focus to me and couldn't decide on what it wanted to be. It's about a college age kid who can't decide if he wants to make a career playing video games or following his father's dream of being a doctor. Meanwhile there's these little angels that clean his house for him. That part was even more out of place.

Wrassle Castle Book 2: Riders on the Storm ★★★★
A fun all ages story about a medieval kingdom obsessed with wrassling. Lydia has had to learn to wrassle in secret because her parents didn't approve so she trained on wrassling bears in the forest. She's in the midst of a wrassling tournament. Meanwhile her older brother has been thrown in jail and will be put to death if she can't receive a boon by winning the tournament. There's also a secret coup taking place by someone high up in the government which is somehow related to Lydia's brother's imprisonment. There's a lot going on but it's a really fun comic.

Pixies of the Sixties: You Really Got Me Now ★★★★
I gotta say, this was better than I expected. In this version of England, Pixies are known but discriminated against, treated like second citizens at best. These two stories are much darker than I expected. One involves some serial killers while the other is about some humans who disappeared. The stories also involve a lot of racism and LGBTQ themes. It's quite good with good art.

Pixies of the Sixties: We Can Work It Out ★★★
Two more stories of pixies living in the U.K. in the Sixties. The stories lean toward the heavier side, both about murders of pixies and the pixies are all treated terribly. The first is about a journalist investigating a murder and finding out she's adopted. The second is about a police detective investigating a pixie dust ring. They're both fine.

We Ride Titans ★★★★
This is a family drama about a family that operates the mech that protects a city from Kaiju. The story is in media res so you only get dropped contextual clues about the larger picture of what's going on but that's OK. It just leaves an opportunity for more stories which I'd love to see. Kit is estranged from her family because her parents are hardasses. But her brother who actually operates the mech is spirally out of control and she needs to come home. The art is really good. The story is interesting. What more can you ask for.

Batman by Grant Morrison Book One ★★★★★
Another new edition of Grant Morrison's terrific but trippy Batman run. This one collects the first 2 trades, Batman and Son and The Black Glove. The first one introduces Damion Wayne to the canon, one of the best new DC characters of the 21st century. I love how he's such a little shit. He's the character you love to hate, at least here he is. He's been toned down over the years. Then there's the issues where J.H. Williams draws. I love the Club of Heroes and how it's kind of like an Agatha Christie mystery. There's just so much fun to be had in this era of Batman.

Final Cut ★★★
I'll just start by saying I'm in the bag for Charles Burns. Black Hole is one of my favorite comics even with taking 10 years to finish. His illustrations are always so gorgeous and just a little off-kilter. This story is a little more straight forward. It's about some kids making horror movies on their Super 8. One of them has some mental health issues and is in love with the new girl. So we have him pining after the lead actress in their movie while they are all drinking in the Northwest. There's just not a whole lot going on in this. It's too many pages and not enough content. All of the illustrations are still terrific. There's just not enough story to accompany it.

The Best American Comics 2016 ★★★★
I think these anthologies are a fantastic way of sampling comics you may have not be exposed to previously and then going to seek those out. Some are great. Some are not. Some will make you really appreciate using professional letterers. My favorites were Adrian Tomine (No surprise there!) and Joe Ollman's about a down on his luck ventriloquist.