I Read Comic Books discussion

Wow, wrapping up another year already! What are you reading this month? Anything wintery? Wrapping up the reading challenge? What was your best read of the year?!

Tell us all about it on the thread below!

Don't forget to check out what the IRCB crew is reading with the Top of My Pile posts over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ircbpodcast

Last week's adventures in comics.

It Killed Everyone But Me ★★★★
Sutton was the final girl from an attack 28 years ago that killed all her friends. She's turned her life around becoming a real estate agent when some attacks happen again and she has to determine if they are related. That's when the series veers into the supernatural. It's a cool book. It very much gives off Something Is Killing the Children vibes. In fact, the artist, Letizia Cadonici, worked on House of Slaughter and her art has a Werther Dell'Edera look to it.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Pink Ranger ★★★
The return of Kimberly as the Pink Ranger in Pink honestly isn't all that great. There's about 3 issues of story in Tini Howard's 6 issues. Plus the art is not very good at all. It's very manga oriented and most panels are just characters floating in space.

Where this shines is "The Return". What's most surprising to me is that it's written by the Pink Ranger herself, Amy Jo Johnson, and it's good. It's a "What If" type story where the Power Rangers retired 20 years ago after defeating Rita but at great cost with the loss of Tommy. You see what everyone if up to and of course there's Power Ranger action. Frankly, it's a lot of fun.

Spider-Society ★★
This is alright. It's really basic and you have to just take what they are telling you for granted because they sure aren't showing you that these bad guys are tougher than all of the universal Spider-Men. They just get beat more or less off screen every time they fight. The evil baddie behind all this was stupid too and didn't explain where her powers come from. Again, you just have to accept it. Lets retire all this multiversal spider stuff until there's an actual story to tell.

Avengers By Jed Mackay Vol. 5: Masters Of Evil ★★★
The "One World Under Doom" story isn't very good and it's the first 4 issues. This iteration of the Masters of Evil is more like the Losers of Evil. They try and take over the Forever City while the Avengers are on Earth dealing with Doom leaving Sam Wilson to fight them. Then we find out what the "missing moment" is and who Myrridon is behind the mask. The more this and X-Men go on, the more I think Jed MacKay is better off doing solo characters than team books because this is the first time I can recall not loving a Jed MacKay book.

Mouse Guard: Dawn of the Black Axe ★★★★★
The Mouse Guard comics are fantastic. This one does not have David Petersen's art though. It does have the extremely capable artist, Gabriel Rodriguez of Locke and Key fame, stepping in though.

It tells the story of the first wielder of the Black Axe. About how he conquered the 5 snakes that were plaguing the area making it safe for the mice of the forest. The art in this is so freaking good and I love the stories of these little mice knights keeping their citizens safe from all the things that prey upon them.

The Traveler: Complete Collection ★★
Reading this as a whole, none of it makes much sense. The three volumes don't fit together at all. The early Chad Hardin art is solid and that's about it. I expect more for something from Mark Waid.

Calamity Before Jane ★★
A short and not complete enough story about Calamity Jane's life. It's just little snippets, most of which aren't even complete. The only thing this does, is make me go find another book that is actually a biography and not this.

I might try to read that Mouse Guard one. I generally like the art of Rodriguez.

It comes out in January Ed. I got an advanced copy of it.

Yes, I noticed. So I'll probably forget it before it comes out. (And, no, I don't want to add it to my "to read" shelf. I'll just either find it later, or I won't. I like randomness.)

Today's trip to the LCS.

Absolute Green Lantern #9
Amazing X-Men #3Batman #4
Birds of Prey #28
Blue Falcon and Dynomutt #3
Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #5
GI Joe #15
Rook: Exodus #9
Something Is Killing the Children #45
Speed Racer #5
Thundercats: Lost #9
Ultimate Universe: Two Years In #1 <-- A one-shot kicking off the final year of the Ultimate universe.
Trigger Warning <-- This is a new Strangers in Paradise story from Terry Moore. It's been out for a few months but was a real pain to get a hold of because of Diamond's demise. All of the replacement distributors have minimum sales orders to get into their catalogs. Finally something got worked out and my LCS was able to order it from Luna.