Titans United #3
Written by Cavan Scott; Art by Jose Luis
Published by DC Comics
Issue 3 of Titans United features the Titans working separately, ironically enough. Red Hood, Donna Troy, and Raven are chasing after the assassin Lady Vic. Conner Kent is captured by Blackfire, who is toying with him. All as Nightwing and Beast Boy face complications of their own back at headquarters.
This issue is fast paced. Every single page has some sort of action. Shooting, punching, flying. It is non stop. It has to keep moving, because if it stops you’ll realize how generic it is.
A product of this book being generic, the Jason Todd featured here is deeply sarcastic but does not come across as complicated in his motives. It may be a feature that the generic Titans tale being told here flattens him out a bit. But every character is flattened to their most basic tones.
The art is snappy and keeps things breezy. The action is fun. If you want something to pass the time, Titans United fits the bill. ( – Alex Vaello)
Grade: B-
Justice League: Last Ride #7
Written by Chip Zdarsky; Art by Miguel Mendonca
Published by DC Comics
This series has been a thrill ride, beginning to end. Each issue as bold as the one before.
The seventh issue features a final confrontation between Darkseid and the League. Will the real Hal Jordan and Martian Manhunter be enough to turn the tide? Will Batman and Superman mend their fences to work together? Will Lobo get what he deserves?
This final issue features an epic battle. Each character gets a moment to step up, and each moment feels well earned. Zdarsky and Mendonca worked well together in pacing this story and juggling the characters. No moment, no page, no panel, feels wasted.
Justice League: Last Ride has been a blast and the concluding issue is a fitting climax. ( – Alex Vaello)
Grade: A+
Future State: Gotham #7
Written by Joshua Williamson and Dennis Culver; Art by Giannis Milonogiannis
Published by DC Comics
This series has elements that make it almost work, but it never comes quite together. As Warmonger is beating Jason Todd to a pulp, Batman is trying to stop the Hattertech from descending Gotham into chaos. He gets the attention of a battling Robin and Nightwing. Can he stop the madness in time to rescue Jason Todd?
The art is fine here. The pages are clean and everything feels smooth. The dialogue can be real cringe at times. Particularly the exchange between Jason Todd and Batman near the end of the book. It’s kind of jarring in that it takes you away from the action and reminds you how silly superheroes can be.
I will say the last two pages setting up the next arc have my attention. If they can tighten up some dialogue, and give the characters just a little dimension, this book has a chance to improve. ( – Alex Vaello)
Grade: C+
The Joker #9
Written by James Tynion IV; Art by Stefano Raffaele
Published by DC Comics
This issue features a lot of exposition. Yet it features some character moments that open up possibilities for Jim Gordon. It also introduces a creepy character.
As Vengeance and James Gordon go to meet The Joker, Julia Pennyworth is uncovering a vast conspiracy. We get to meet the disturbing Dr Frederick Baum. His gruesome creations open the lid on the machinations of The Network.
A nitpick from me. Tynion has created a visually distinctive, powerful villain. She has all the viciousness of Bane, yet can stand on her own. And she’s called Vengeance. I think we can do better. I can guarantee no one will remember her name and resort to calling her Lady Bane. I hope this gets fixed.
But seriously, this issue was stomach turning and fitting for The Joker. He definitely has more to do here, but the title character still is the straw stirring the proverbial drink.
A book that is fun and dark ups things up a notch in this issue. ( – Alex Vaello)
Grade B+
Deadpool: Black, White, and Blood #4
Written by Christopher Yost, Sanshiro Kasama, Michael Allred;
Art by Martin Coccolo, Hikaru Uesugi, Michael Allred
Published by Marvel Comics
The bloody anthology series continues with violent flair and hilarious fourth wall breaking. Usually you can pick one story in an anthology as the weakest of the bunch, but this issue features a solid line up.
The best of the bunch is Michael Allred’s story in the concluding chapter. A hilarious tale, especially if you enjoyed Allred’s work on X-Statix.
I understand how characters that break the fourth wall can go out of style, so your mileage may vary. But if you have enjoyed this series, there’s nothing stopping you from enjoying this issue. ( – Alex Vaello)
Grade: B+
Batman: Urban Legends #9
Written by Alyssa Wong, Sam Johns, Dan Watters, Brandon Thomas;
Art by Vasco Georgiev, Karl Mostert,Nikola Cizmesija, Cian Tormey
Published by DC Comics
Batman: Urban Legends is an anthology that can be real hit and miss. This issue unfortunately feels more miss than hit.
A solid Batwoman tale is the highlight here. Alyssa Wong has an excellent feel for the characters. The art really delivers the action while taking you deep into one of our characters. A solid opening for this issue.
But a solo story for two henchmen that just isn’t moving the meter, and forgettable stories for Azrael and the Outsiders just hold things back. ( – Alex Vaello)
Grade: C+
I Am Batman #3
Written by John Ridley; Art by Stephen Segovia and Christian Duce
Published by DC Comics
A story that uses Gotham as a way of reflecting our world in such a direct way could easily come off clumsy. I’ve seen many superhero stories try to be up to date and by the time the book hits the streets they could be dated. In the hands of this creative team, I Am Batman manages to avoid those pratfalls to deliver a tight, tension filled tale.
As things escalate, Jace Fox is drained by the need to live up to his father’s expectations and to be the Batman Gotham needs. As his mother elects to defend a Kyle Rittenhouse type murderer, and violent extremists try to free him, Jace Fox as Batman steps up to the mantle.
This book shares a setting and a villain in Seer and the Magistrate, but it still is given its own room to grow away from the main Batman title. Instead of being just one part of an overstuffed arc, it’s developing Jace Fox. ( – Alex Vaello)
Grade: A
Batman: The Impostor #2
Written by Mattson Tomlin; Art by Andrea Sorrentino
Published by DC Comics
It’s a good sign that within this super-dark, super-gritty portrayal of a deeply disturbed Bruce Wayne beneath the cape and cowl finds so much humanity to rustle around in by the second super-sized issue. As the Batman killings continue, Dr. Leslie Thompkins stays committed to her deal with Bruce: that he arrives by dawn for psychological treatment, or she will call the police and reveal Batman’s identity. Bruce insists it’s an impostor killing these career criminals, and he’s out there working the case, trying to solve the mystery.
It’s tough: Batman sure has made a lot of enemies in his brief career. But Tomlin weaves a mystery that also gives the reader greater insight into Bruce as a character plus the lore and continuity of this version of Batman. Bruce speaks with a deep emotional intelligence that is also clinically removed. Sociopathic, some might say. And Leslie shuffles between fear, concern, empathy and sharp skepticism that comes through in Sorrentino’s masterfully expressive art.
Readers may come for the big mystery and Batman’s near-unhinged methods. But they should stay for sequences such as a flashback between Thompkins and an Alfred Pennyworth at his wits’ end over his terrifying young ward. ( – Marvin Pittman)
Mazebook #2
Written and Illustrated by Jeff Lemire
Published by Dark Horse Comics
There’s always more under the surface. As long as you can line up the right pieces of information and let it all in – then perhaps you can find your way in the maze. Will learns that lesson in this issue, as he solves his daughter Wendy’s last unfinished maze and then grabs city maps to look for clues. However, the middle part of this issue, featuring the next-door neighbor who lends a sympathetic ear, falls flat for me.
The dynamic of a pretty Black woman next door who comforts the white guy in crisis by telling him he’s not crazy – didn’t we just see this in Joker? (Yes, that turned out to be a delusion, but still.) I mean, Will tells Lisa that his long-lost daughter is still alive in a maze hidden in the city’s streets, and her response is, “Yeah. It is strange. But I don’t think you’re crazy,” and “If you believe it, isn’t that all that matters?” Sigh. Plus we lose some of the narrative momentum, even if it’s good to see Will have actual human connection.
When the story gets back on track, Will learns the next level of that lesson about under the surface, to devastating effect. ( – Marvin Pittman)
A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance #2
Written by Rick Remender; Art by André Lima Araújo
Published by Image Comics
We still know very little about our unassuming Mr. Wen in this story. The man who stumbled upon a contract killing. Why was he going to that house? What’s his own angle? Is it connected to that sex trafficking case mentioned in the first issue? It’s all up in the air.
But when we see Mr. Wen pull up the dark web and an apparent target for a contract killing, everything gets murkier. But he appears to be on the hunt for some kind of justice, getting affairs in order for his mother in nursing care. He must be a contract killer himself, right? How else does he have a paper grocery-store bag full of cash to throw at the nursing home’s front desk? But before he finds the next target for a job, he runs into another killer. This one likes to pop a Viagra pill before he does the job. Is Wen here to stop him and find out more about the mysterious “Mayor Oak” who is writing the checks on this hit?
Remender and Araújo create a tense work built around how in the dark we are. So far, so good. ( – Marvin Pittman)
Wonder Woman #781
Written by Michael W. Conrad & Becky Cloonan; Art by Marcio Takara
Published by DC Comics
Diana has returned from the dead!
The previous issue did a lot of table setting with homecomings with the Justice League, Queen Hippolyta, and the Amazons. Diana is still easing her way back into getting back to the business of her life. If only she could bring herself to see Steve Trevor again. For whatever reason, she just isn’t ready, she tells Etta Candy over dinner. Perhaps part of her delay in seeing Steve is that she is still processing her feelings in the afterlife for Siegfried? She still carries his sword – a bit of unfinished business she seeks out Deadman to handle.
Before she and Deadman head to Scandinavia to place the sword with Siegfried’s remains, Doctor Psycho pops up on her radar again after his machinations in the godsphere. We still don’t know who Psycho is working for, or with, but his newest scheme as a best-selling author and charlatan freethinker is already under way. All that, and a sinister reflection that we saw in a Themysciran pool last issue bears some terrible fruit.
Check this one out for a good mix of talk and action, and a strong backmatter story on the Bana-Mighdall Amazons from Vita Ayala and Skyler Patridge that builds on roots of Amazons as survivors of misogyny and social evils of man’s world. ( – Marvin Pittman)
Alien #8
Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson; Art by Salvador Larroca
Published by Marvel Comics
Only death and destruction follow the Xenomorph, so there’s not much else you can do in a story about them.
Instead, the best stories in Alien keep building out the worlds around them. They get you invested in the human characters as the Xenos descend and wreck everything, putting you in the survival gauntlet along with them. This latest story arc, “Revival,” got us invested in the anti-technology religious sect known as Spinners, and their precarious position with the government while terraforming a distant moon.
Into this world the Xenomorphs descend, and after the danger fell from the sky, now the hell is breaking loose! The fractures in the Spinner community that we saw before keep widening, as no one believes sect leader Jane saw a monster on the crashed ship. It doesn’t take a day before some brutal kills reveal the Xeno in their midst. Johnson writes these stories with horror-movie conviction, and Larroca’s art continues to improve regarding panels and perspectives, in addition to his first-in-classic renditions of the Xenomorphs in all their forms. ( – Marvin Pittman)
Regarding the Matter of Oswald’s Body #1
Written by Christopher Cantwell; Art by Luca Casalanguida
Published by BOOM! Studios
If a Coen brothers film were made into a comic book, I bet it would be something like this.
Take the Kennedy assassination, a rat’s nest of conspiracy theories, as a backdrop. And then add to it a conspiracy theory about whether the body buried in Lee Harvey Oswald’s grave is the man himself. Travel back to Dallas and the surrounding area in November 1963, weeks before the fateful day, and we are introduced to a ragtag crew of small-time losers brought together by an FBI man – or is he? – to find a body double for Oswald. But this one lives in the details of meeting these characters, starting with a bank robber who picks exactly the wrong time and day to hold up a small-town bank and walks away with $81.19.
The humor is wry and profane, such as when a wannabe Buddy Holly can’t even get a free beer after bombing at his gig, beer bottles thrown at the chain-link fence in front of the stage of a country-western bar like in The Blues Brothers. Enjoy this one for the crackly dialog and easy juggling of characters as expected by an experienced TV writer such as Cantwell, and distinct people drawn in life-like fashion from Casalanguida. ( – Marvin Pittman)
Superman Vs Lobo #2
Written by Tim Seeley and Sarah Beattie; Art by Mirka Andolfo
Published by DC Comics
Lobo’s appearances in Justice League Last Ride and Crush and Lobo are prime examples of enjoyable Lobo tales. A little Lobo goes a long way. I’ve rarely enjoyed a solo Lobo tale since they seem to make him one dimensional. Superman vs Lobo does not dispel that notion.
Superman is in a newly recreated Czarnia, Lobo is stuck on Krypton. Predictable hijinks ensue.
Mirka Andolfo’s art does have an expressive and humorous tone that I would like to see in a better story ( – Alex Vaello)
Grade: C
Black Manta #3
Written By Chuck Brown; Art by Matthew Dow Smith
Published by DC Comics
Three issues into a six issue series, the book has been enjoyable but it still feels a little slow. There are secrets and motives for characters that are opening up, but at this mark it should feel as if it’s picking up pace.
I enjoy the take on Black Manta, particularly the scene with the Gentleman Ghost. The Alex Maleev style of art seems a bit of a mismatch with the story being told.
Overall, I would recommend this book. Even though it’s pacing is giving it the “wait for the trade” feel to the series. ( – Alex Vaello)
Grade: B
Action Comics #1036
Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson; Art by Daniel Sampere
Published by DC Comics
This has been a great run of books by writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson and artist Daniel Sampere. They have done an amazing job of making Superman feel fresh. Now everything that they have been building towards is about to pay off in quite a large way.
This issue is the beginning of the Warworld Saga and let me just say that it is something else. Superman and his crew are off to confront Mongul and they are in for the fight of their lives. The stage is set! The action and drama is perfect! The artwork is out of this world. This is a hell of an issue and I can’t get enough of this comic. ( – Lenny Schwartz)
Grade: A
Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton #6
Written by Kyle Starks; Art by Chris Schweizer
Published by Image Comics
This has been a great miniseries. Everything that Kyle Starks touches, I am a fan of. This series has been great and he has written some truly unique scripts. The artwork by Chris Schweizer has been great, too. It really has been a different type of comic book than we have normally seen up until now.
This final issue shows us the six sidekicks closing in on the killer. But the six of them are so incredibly stupid that they are likely to bungle the whole thing up. Can they get past their own worst instincts and put an end to the whole thing? Or are they destined to fail. This final issue answers all those questions in one heck of an interesting way for sure! ( – Lenny Schwartz)
Grade: A
Stillwater by Zdarsky & Pérez #11
Written by Chip Zdarsky; Art by Ramon K. Perez
Published by Image Comics
I have been enjoying this series from the very beginning. It is part Twin Peaks and part Twilight Zone but manages to be it’s own thing. The writing and the artwork are consistently strong. We are now headed into some truly dark territory with this issue and the creators certainly do not shy away.
This is the issue that we get to see just who was responsible for the court house blowing up. We get to learn their plans for the town and what their motivation happens to be. It is a truly dark motivation that sets this series going in a new direction. This was a great issue and I am truly enjoying the ride thus far! ( – Lenny Schwartz)
Grade: A
Robin and Batman #1
Written by Jeff Lemire; Art by Dustin Nguyen
Published by DC Comics
It is great to see these two top notch creators working on this limited series. They are certainly looking at the world of Batman with a different lens here and it is truly exciting to see. This book gets to show us the perspective of a young Dick Grayson and at the beginning of his career as the sidekick known as Robin.
We get to see Dick angry at the world. His parents have just been killed. He is unsure where to place himself. This leads to a dark place for the young man. It is very well done. The story by Lemire is taut is character driven. The artwork by Dustin Nguyen is well handled. All in all it is a great book with a lot going on. ( – Lenny Schwartz)
Grade: A
Phenom X #1
Written by John Leguizamo, Aram Rappaport and Joe Miciak; Art by Chris Batista
Published by Image Comics
Actor and writer John Leguizamo decides to try his hand at another comic book character with this book. This story isn’t too bad, but it could be better. It feels a little too familiar and I wish it took bigger changes. Still, there are some nice things that this book does story wise.’
The comic focuses on a man named Max Gomez. Max was wrongfully imprisoned for a crime that he did not commit. He does find another way out with an underground experiment. This experiment gives him shape shifting abilities that help him become a superhero. It’s pretty standard stuff but the artwork is pretty nice at least. ( – Lenny Schwartz)
Grade: B-
King of Spies #1
Written by Mark Millar; Art by Matteo Scalera
Published by Image Comics
Mark Millar is a writer who always comes up with some truly interesting concepts. This book is no different and it is a hell of a lot of fun. Basically the book focuses on a secret agent. While we have seen secret agents in Millar’s work before, this book has quite a twist on the usual fare.
This secret agent only has six months to live. What is he to do with his time? We find out quite quickly what that is. We get to see him go about the world taking care of some of the “wrongs” that he sees going on. It is a fast and funny script. The artwork is pretty awesome too. Well done. ( – Lenny Schwartz)
Grade: B
What’s The Furthest Place From Here? #1
Written by Matthew Rosenberg and Art by Tyler Boss
Published by Image Comics
I love this creative team and the worth they have created together up until now. They have a great way of collaborating that feels new and fresh. This time they are starting us all in a new place and it is really a lot of fun. To top it all off, this first issue is a triple size issue and there is a lot of value to this comic.
The creative team has taken us to a place where the world has ended. There are gangs of children that live amongst the ruins. We meet our main character named Sid who believes that there is more out there. She decides to embark on a journey into the wastelands. The story is very well handled and the artwork is amazing. I can’t wait to se where this goes. ( – Lenny Schwartz)
Grade: A
Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Death #2
Written by Dean Motter and Hollly Interlandi; Art by Dean Motter and Greg Scott
Published by Ahoy Comics
This book is generally an entertaining ride for the most part. We start off with a story about an automation that becomes a chess player. The results of this are both funny and horrifying. This short story leads to a really wild ending that has to be seen to be believed.
Next up, we get a story about a writer. This writer is dealing with a piece of software that is threatening to take over control of his writing. A huge conflict then emerges. The story is fun and the art is excellent. This is a decent issue overall and I enjoyed it very much. ( – Lenny Schwartz)
Grade: B+
We Have Demons #2
Written by Scott Snyder; Art by Greg Capullo
Published by ComiXology
The creative team of writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo are bringing us one of the best comic books in the marketplace currently. The first issue was excellent. This one is equally so. We learn about Gus and his backstory. It is very intriguing yet it still manages to move the story forward.
We also learn about Lam’s connection to Gus. We learn about how Gus went from a monstrous demon to the helper of the angels that he is now. We also get to learn what else might be coming Gus’s way. It may in fact be bigger than he can handle.
The story is sharp and the artwork is really great. This is a well done book. ( – Lenny Schwartz)
Grade: A
