Star Wars #20
Written by Charles Soule; Art by Marco Castiello
Published by Marvel Comics
The current Star Wars storyline is navigating an impossibly heavy task and isn’t rising to the occasion.
This issue starts on very shaky ground and only marginally improves. It begins with one of the most famous speeches in cinematic history, Yoda’s spiritual lesson on the force, told in a different, more convoluted way via a recording from Master Yoda himself. Not only does this mess with a philosophy sacred to all of us, it’s a complete waste of storytelling time, especially after Luke Skywalker acknowledges he’s already learned the same exact lesson. Teach us something new.
I get what’s trying to be accomplished here; discovering how Luke has “learned so much since then” (between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi). This take on that mystery just isn’t working for me. ( – Anthony Sword )
Grade: C
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #20
Written by Ethan Sacks; Art by: Paolo Villanelli
Published by Marvel Comics
Storylines gear up to converge as War of the Bounty Hunters shifts from acquiring Han Solo’s carbonite frozen block to locating a young woman who is the unknowing heir to two of the oldest crime syndicates in the Galaxy.
I’m truly enjoying the classic Star Wars characters, Bossk, 4-LOM and Zuckuss, oozing with life. Teaming up with the new kids on the block, T’Onga, Losha and Tasu, the plot is more than engaging with a clever turn that gives Zuckuss his day in the spotlight. This more than makes up for some of the cringeworthy dialogue and interplay between 4-LOM and Zuckuss.
Knowing that Cadeliah, the young woman everyone seeks, is fighting with the rebellion portents exciting missions to come with the possibility of encountering some old friends. ( – Anthony Sword )
Grade: B+
The Department of Truth #15
Written by James Tynion IV; Art by David Romero
Published by Image Comics
This book has been truly a fun and fantastic ride. I have to say James Tynion IV does a really amazing job with this title and this issue is no exception. I love the direction that the book is headed into and he seems to have a sure hand in what he is doing. I am loving it.
This issue takes place in the year 1967. The Department of Truth heads over to West Virginia to create a tulpa. This would be a tulpa that they would create. Then, 46 people die. This issue is the aftermath. It is a strong story with great artwork by David Romero. ( – Lenny Schwartz )
Grade: A
Stillwater by Zdarsky & Pérez #12
Written by Chip Zdarsky; Art by Ramon K. Perez
Published by Image Comics
This issue is very exciting. I love the direction that the creative team has been taking us. Chip Zdarsky always writes some really interesting scripts. This issue may be one of his best. He really pulls out all of the stops here and it is a strong and emotional issue for sure.
A lot of things come to a head here. Daniel gets caught in the middle of a bug incident. He seemingly has nowhere to go. Can he possibly survive this? All of this, and there seems to be something bigger happening in the town.
This is a great story and Perez does of his best artwork yet here. Well done. ( – Lenny Schwartz )
Grade: A
Batgirls #2
Written by Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad; Art by Jorge Corona
Published by DC Comics
The first issue of this series was an unexpected delight. I really enjoyed it although some of it was a little dense. Nevertheless, it is a lot of fun and the characters are well developed. I never knew that I needed to read a series like this but I am enjoying it very much.
The Batgirls move to their new neighborhood in this issue and it is fun to see. Of course, they immediately get into some trouble in the neighborhood and they have to sort it out. I have to say that I love the turn that this took and the direction that the ending of the issue went with. It’s a good story and the artwork by Jorge Corona is fantastic. ( – Lenny Schwartz )
Grade: A
Robin and Batman #3
Written by Jeff Lemire; Art by Dustin Nguyen
Published by DC Comics
This is the final issue of this series and it really does end on a high note. The story really goes into some interesting directions and I really appreciate the script by Jeff Lemire here. It is a different look at Dick Grayson and his first year being Robin and I really appreciated the care that he put into it.
Dick has to confront his past here and it is quite amazing the way that this is handled. I enjoyed the little details that they came up with. I also love that he went up against Killer Croc in this issue and it is awesome to see it so well handled. The artwork by Dustin Nguyen is great as well and this is an excellent ending to this series. ( – Lenny Schwartz )
Grade: A
My Bad #3
Written by Mark Russell and Bryce Ingman; Art by Peter Krause
Published by Ahoy Comics
The first two issues of this book have been nothing but joyous fun. The whole thing is really a different take on superheroes. That isn’t too much of a surprise considering that one of the writers is Mark Russell who loves to take the genre and skew it. This is no different and the two stories that are in this book are very good.
The first story has our hero the Chandelier looking at his social media feed and comparing it to the other heroes that are out there. It is funny watching him be so neurotic about something so stupid. Then we get a flashback story with the vigilante known as Rush Hour. Both stories are funny and well written and the artwork is solid. This is a good book overall. ( – Lenny Schwartz )
Grade: A
Justice League vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes #1
Written by Brian Michael Bendis; Art by Scott Godlewski
Published by DC Comics
What happens when you have Brian Michael Bendis write a crossover between two teams that he had a mediocre run on each? You get this book, which feels like the start of another mediocre run. The first issue is seriously not that exciting and feels like it is more out of control than anything else. Maybe because it is.
The story starts out one thousand years in the future. The Legion of Super-Heroes discover that a great darkness is coming. They then have to team up with the Justice League to stop it and try to save the universe. The writing is pretty basic but at least the artwork is decent. It feels like the start of a long chore you can’t wait to be over though. ( – Lenny Schwartz )
Grade: C+
The Joker #11
Written by James Tynion IV and Sam Johns
Art by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Belen Ortega
Published by DC Comics
This book had generally tiptoed between super villain action and a noir detective story, with the detective being the grizzled veteran type, here filled in by James Gordon. This issue is more noir. With just a small dash of Joker.
This issue features James Gordon recuperating from a knife attack, with a bit of back story on the Sampson family that has set the gears in motion. A Tynion script that sets up and is building tension along with art that creates a garish mode makes for a solid issue.
We also have the Punchline back up. Punchline is just a character that has not grown on me. The back up story feels a bit tedious. ( – Alex Vaello )
Grade: B-
I Am Batman #5
Written by John Ridley; Art by Christian Duce, Juan Ferrerya, and Laura Braga
Published by DC Comics
With issue #5, we conclude an arc that has given us a clear vision for Jace Fox. This issue is full of action. But the action clearly serves the character. By the end, Jace Fox both puts his imprint on the Bat Mantle and shows how his heroes journey will be different than Bruce Wayne’s.
John Ridley’s script charges ahead, and the art gives us both harsh violence and character moments in a way that brings the reader in. ( – Alex Vaello )
Grade: A
Detective Comics #1048
Written By Mariko Tamaki and Matthew Rosenberg
Art by Ivan Reis and Fernando Blanco
Published by DC Comics
The positive of having Batman not be part of Detective Comics and putting the focus on the Bat family is seeing the strong supporting cast. But two issues in and the happenings at Arkham Tower feel a little bloated.
As always, Ivan Reis is great with detailed expressions and action sequences. But having a tower full of Arkham inmates never seemed like a good idea, even by Gotham City standards.
The back up has great art from Fernando Blanco, and it’s a solid story of a little boy lost in the Gotham system. The execution is sound, but it’s a decent back up. ( – Alex Vaello )
Grade: B-
Batman: Urban Legends #11
Written by Vita Ayala, Ram V, Mohale Mashigo, and Mark Russell
Art by Nikola Cizmesija, Ahand Radhakrishnan, Arist Deyn, and Karl Mostert
Published by DC Comics
This particular issue of this anthology here has two standout stories, and two stories that feel like filler.
The best of the bunch features Batman and Zatanna trying to fix a problem that they created a lifetime ago. It includes a carefree, young, romantic Bruce Wayne and Zatanna.
Mark Russell has written a story starring Ace the Bathound that has me anxious for the next chapter. It might be the best use of Ace in recent memory.
I love that this book, even with the hit and miss factor, still includes fun stories with different aspects of Gotham. ( – Alex Vaello )
Grade: B+
Mazebook #5
Written and Illustrated by Jeff Lemire
Published by Dark Horse Comics
Will comes face to face with the Minotaur in the maze. He’s giant, imposing, drawn in thick swatches of ink. He doesn’t speak, only a snarl on his wide mouth, white pupil-less eyes, a thick mane, and curled claws. Lemire masterfully brings the literal and metaphysical together in this final issue, as we get a true idea of what Twilight Zone entity the maze is – a palace built of grief and never letting go.
Lemire uses color to strong effect as well as we finally see Wendy’s true face as Will at last confronts his grief. Lemire wraps up this tale by depicting a drama of how we let go, how we let love heal us, how we let memory sustain us in order to keep living. And when we go on living, life returns to us as well.
Snap this one up, or wait for the TPB and hope for some good extras along with it. ( – Marvin Pittman)
The Sword of Hyperborea #1
Written by Mike Mignola & Rob Williams; Art by Laurence Campbell
Published by Dark Horse Comics
Who doesn’t love a story about a magic sword?
Hellboy fans are well aware of this fabled weapon with a forked tip, wielded by ancient warrior Gall Denner, Sir Edward Grey and the B.P.R.D.’s Agent Howards.
Now Mike Mignola and company are presenting the definitive story of the sword’s path through the ages, from prehistory to the end of the world. Jumping between time frames, we see the sword’s effect on its heroes and foes alike, plus bitter rivals and grateful tribesmen. Question where the sword ends and the warrior begins, in a trippy display of end-times monsters and mythic warriors. Campbell’s art lives up to the fantastical material as expected, but injects gritty realism into it nonetheless.
Enjoyable read! ( – Marvin Pittman)
What’s the Furthest Place From Here? #3
Written by Matthew Rosenburg; Art by Tyler Boss
Published by Image Comics
A key factor in post-apocalyptic fiction is feeding that lizard-brain part of us that says, “How depraved will they get now that society has fallen?” Think about the Governor in The Walking Dead putting people in cage fights against zombies, or the baby roasted on a spit in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. (I never saw the film adaptation, but I wouldn’t blame them if they cut that out – picturing it in my mind was scarring enough.)
Rosenburg and Boss fill What’s The Furthest Place From Here with terror and dreadful things always ready to attack from just beyond the Academy gang’s field of vision. As their quest to find the missing Sid continues, we get to see more of this fallen world and an increasing set of horrors. We meet the children running the Bold Folks Home – kids in dress-up as senior citizens, which comes off as silly at first but turns horrifying later.
My only criticisms are that it’s the third issue and I’m still adrift in what’s really happening, though the interactions with the Strangers in this issue add new intriguing questions.
Also, it’s a difficult tightrope to walk between the ignorance (i.e. the simple “not knowing things”) of the teens and it feeling like outright stupidity – but try showing a Gen Z kid a VCR and see if they have any idea how it might work, I guess! ( – Marvin Pittman)
Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer #2
Written by Casey Gilly; Art by Joe Jaro
Published by BOOM! Studios
So I joked in my review of the first issue that this is Old Lady Buffy, but this issue carries it one step further by digging deeper into the character Thessaly, the teen daughter of Willow and Tara.
Thessaly’s presence both underscores the many losses Buffy has suffered and the isolation/loneliness Buffy has endured and can’t step away from. The Old Lady Buffy story ratchets up because not only does Thessaly have her mothers’ instruction in magic, but it is revealed that she is a chosen slayer, just like Buffy was. In this kind of story, the hardened, wounded old warrior who’s not what they used to be can only evolve by finding proof of a better tomorrow. Perhaps things can turn for the better – if they make it through alive. Gilly follows the conventions to a T here, and Jaro’s art is fine even though I’d prefer something less stylized given how I can’t escape the live action version in my mind’s eye.
Cover artist Ario Anindito, for example, pitches his Buffy Summers so on-the-nose to Sarah Michelle Gellar. She’s 45 now, and it wouldn’t take much imagination to age her 20 more years, right? ( – Marvin Pittman)
Hawkeye: Kate Bishop #3
Written by Marieke Nijkamp; Art by Enid Balám
Published by Marvel Comics
No good deed goes unpunished for Kate Bishop.
Sure, she rescued a kidnapped little girl, but only to then be surrounded by mind-controlled resort guests trying to attack her. Filled with banging action and family drama, this issue both shows Kate at her physical mightiest while also allowing room for Kate and her estranged sister Susan to commiserate over their criminal father who drove a wedge between them. Susan is still looking for a missing ring, but of course there’s more than she let on.
And that ring – well, what the ring really is – would be a disaster in the hands of the criminal circus-themed bad guys running this resort. Balám delivers engaging, expressive art, though I wish the action sequences were more, well, sequential in following the action from one punch and kick to the next.
But this is a fun series of zip-along superhero action with a beating heart underneath.
Very Hawkeye, right? ( – Marvin Pittman)
Titans United #5
Written by Cavan Scott; Art by Jose Luis
Published by DC Comics
Titans United seems to use every trope in team comics. The hero who is manipulated and turns against his friends is this issue’s trope.
The problem is that it comes off generic. There isn’t anything that makes this stand out from team books that have been published for ages. You could substitute various X-Men and it would have the same effect.
Jose Luis’ art is a standout, with certain moments that almost life the story. but it’s in service to a tale I feel I’ve read before. ( – Alex Vaello )
Grade: C+
Future State: Gotham #9
Written by Dennis Culver; Art by Giannis Milonogiannis
Published by DC Comics
Peacekeeper Red aka Red Hood is called to a particular brutal crime scene. But this is only the start of a tale that will take him in pursuit of crime bosses who are the target of The Next Joker.
Future State Gotham feels as if it’s created to feel out ideas in an environment free of continuity. Away from the ongoing Bat titles.
Does it take a great story? Not particularly. The various arcs have been hit and miss. This specific issue is setting up for an interesting confrontation between the Batman and this Joker. But other than set up, it’s not particularly exciting. ( – Alex Vaello )
Grade: C-
