Brendan M. Allen Comic Reviews

Life lessons, grease paint, and a pretty decent cauliflower casserole recipe. Haha has been consistently brilliant, especially given that it's an anthology. Chapter five is in strong contention for best installment in an amazing mini. I'm a fan.

Business is about to pick up in Stokoe's Kung-Fu epic hero's journey. A violent, graphic feast for the eyes. This is exactly what I signed up for.

It's Christmas time, there's no need to be afraid" Unless you've disturbed an ancient entity, your sanity is in tatters, your child is at risk, and your friends don't believe a word you say.

This is it. The turn. Kit's had enough. She's standing taller and striding longer. Hancock help whoever stands in her way. The best chapter thus far in an excellent series, and a perfect setup for the king hit next month.

Your anything-but-standard hero's journey comes to an explosive conclusion in Scout's Honor #5. I'm really going to miss this series, but this is just about a perfect send-off. Giant spiders and flaming swords and a mob of angry Highwaymen. Everything you need, right there.

This has been kind of a disappointing week on the horror front, and Sea of Sorrows is thankfully here to break up that pattern. I love the way Richard Douek is tightening the screws, layering on the tension as alliances break down and crew members' sanity is tested.

Alliances break down, and the crew's sanity is tested. Bullets and fists and gaff hooks are flying before the monster even arrives. Solid, genuine scares. Easily one of the best series of 2021.

It's the TMNT event of 2020! Springing from the minds of TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird comes an epic like you've never seen before!

Earth has been sent a message from the deepest reaches of space " a dark countdown to the extinction of all humanity. But there is hope! Five thousand children will be rescued.

An oversized (80 page!) giant of a story where all the universes of "Gideon Falls" finally converge. Can the combined forces of this rag-tag band of adventurers be enough to stop the Laughing Man and his limitless legions of evil?!

Lucky Devil #1 is dark, gritty, and punched up with sardonic humor. Demonic possession and a bargain basement exorcism gone wrong. Superpowers from Hell. Lots of moving pieces in this thing, and I'm really excited to see where it goes next.

The penultimate issue of Nottingham is just as twisted and beautiful as you'd expect. Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow, but not as you've ever seen it.

I picked this book up for two reasons, Stokoe's art and my love of classic kung-fu films/Spaghetti Westerns. Orphan and The Five Beasts delivers on both points. It's everything it needs to be.

A slick commentary on flawed and corrupt institutions mashed up with gritty post-apocalyptic action, Scout's Honor is off to an amazing start.

Scout's Honor #2 carries every bit of momentum from the first chapter, and builds on it. The hits just keep coming, and the way this one leaves off, it doesn't look like the tension will let up any time soon.

Each chapter of Scout's Honor dials up the tension from the previous. The turn at the end of this one completely turns the thing inside out. Again. Three chapters in, I'm fully invested in this thing for as long as it runs. Three more chapters? Seventeen? A Hundred? I'm in. Let's do this.

In the aftermath of the Great War, the North Atlantic is ripe for plunder by independent salvage crews. When a former naval officer hires the SS Vagabond, he leads the ship to a sunken U-boat, and a fortune in gold. Tensions mount as the crew prepares to double cross each other, but the darkness of the ocean floor holds deeper terrors than any of them have bargained for!

Sweet Downfall is exactly the kind of weird little indie I'm always looking out for. Robots, mafia dons, edible mythical creatures, and blood spatter all over the pages. I'm here for it. Let's kick this pig.

The Miranda Brothers have worked really hard throughout this five piece mini (which, turns out, isn't actually a mini) to rip our hearts out repeatedly. There's a twist, and another twist, and by the time this thing blows off, it's a completely different story, in a different genre. It's brilliant, in its way. I picked this one up for the first thing, and it was so good, I'm in for the next thing.

The further we get into this thing, the more I find myself loving it. Gorgeous and delightfully bizarre.

In the beginning, there was one. In the end, there will be one. And that one will be Gideon Falls.

Arc Finale! As the Gideon Falls multiverse is beset by even greater peril, Molly and Fred meet a familiar face with a malevolent new expression.

In the summer of 1994, a haunted house walks across California. Inside is Ami, lead singer of a high school punk band"who's been missing for weeks.

The pressures of show business are enough on their own to drive anyone to their breaking point. Add in the dark family history, PTSD, and the paranormal horror twist, and Pryor Brice is a powder keg. Knock 'Em Dead is shaping up to be some of Eliot Rahal's finest work.

Amara Bishop hasn't killed anyone since she was thirteen. When her aging mentor is murdered, and her daughter is threatened, that will soon change"

Two of the things I nerd out to are horror and history, and I absolutely love how Nottingham views the latter through the lens of the former. This is a very smart, very gory take on Sherwood's favorite son, and I'm absolutely here for it.

Nuclear Family takes a hard left in chapter two. Things get delightfully weird, as advertised. Blast From The Past meets The Red Menacein this funky little Breakfast At Twilight adaptation.

After the unmitigated disaster that was Marvel's first attempt at Alien, I had reservations going into Predator #1. Not to worry, though. Just one chapter in, I can tell that the Predator franchise is in good hands.

Cormac is trying to learn more about the thing he disturbed underneath the village hall, why it's dogging him, and whether it's connected to the disappearance of a child four decades earlier: and while her dad's been so busy and her mum is" not at home" Scooper has found a new friend to take special care of her.

We Only Find Them When They're Dead continues tightening the screws. Just when you think there's some resolution in this issue, there's a huge cowboy cliffhanger that sets up a whole new level of intense drama moving forward. Couldn't put this thing down if you wanted to. It's excruciatingly addictive.

This has got to be the single weirdest title in my pull list right now, and I love it for that. Tyler Boss set the hook good and deep, but instead of reeling the reader straight in, he's dragging them all over the pond first.

Cullen Bunn came out swinging in this 'One-Shock' format with Piecemeal. Eden proves that first success was no fluke. Creepy as hell. Loss and pain, betrayal and atonement. Also tattoos.

Not at all what I expected, in all the best possible ways. Deep and pointed commentary on mental health and human interaction, hidden under layers of grease paint.

There are a couple little hiccups in the book, which, whatever, the thing can't be perfect, but this is an incredibly strong relaunch. I have honestly never been more interested in getting my hands on the next chapter of any Iron Man series, ever.

Sometimes you kill. Sometimes you get killed. But no matter what, everyone dies the first time they go on stage.

My biggest complaint about this series to date has been the pacing. Knock 'Em Dead is scheduled to blow off next month, in the fifth installment. One more chapter would have been nice. Chapter three felt rushed. I could have done with a little more work on the exorcism before the re-possession. That being said, everything seems to have leveled back out in the fourth, and this is still my favorite Eliot Rahal joint yet.

This is obviously not one for the kiddies, and it's probably going to piss some folks off, but I liked it. Nottingham #1 challenges idol worship and the long held practice of canonizing atrocious human beings in stories and song. It's well written, beautifully drawn, and engages the reader from the very first sequence. Well worth the price of admission.

Cold War era sci-fi is obviously a well worn trope, but it's executed so well here, it doesn't really matter. After this brilliant setup, that final pop promises this sucker's going to get delightfully weird in the second chapter.

This book is dark, man. Cullen Bunn and Mark Torres team up to kick you good and hard, right in the gut. It's a whole twisted ball of heavy, ominous, and bloody. That's about where it leaves off.

Five high school kids, soon to say goodbye to each other and to the lives they have known, enter the Nightmare House, the source of local legend and superstition. Soon, the teens find themselves stalked by a vicious killer, a murderer intent on building itself a new body. Piece by piece

With their kids away on a field trip, a group of parents disturbs an ancient evil buried beneath the old Church Hall, unearthing a decades-old mystery about a missing child, and inviting something" hungry into their lives. Suddenly, their mornings go from playdates and peanut allergies, to a battle for the souls of one broken family"and one child in particular.

Well thought and hilariously dark, Space Job #1 turns the Space Western genre on its ear, subverting readers' expectations in the best ways possible.This funky little sci-fi nugget is going places.

The Scumbag is the story of Ernie Ray Clementine, a profane, illiterate, drug-addicted biker with a fifth-grade education. He's also the only thing standing between us and total Armageddon.

The Silver Coin is a fantastic modern horror anthology. This first installment is sort of an updated version of Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes, by way of Tenacious D's The Pick of Destiny,but way better than that sounds. Guitars and rock and roll and… death.

A blood bank is held up, but no cash is taken"only blood. It's the latest in a string of similar crimes and FBI Agent Felix Franklin is certain it's part of a wider plot. But the truth is much more sinister than he could imagine.The four robbers"who call themselves The Vain"are vampires: immortal, physically powerful, and after decades of honing their skills, practically untraceable.

I was really hoping we'd get back on track this month, and we have. We Live #4 is an intense ride, from start to finish, and there's an impossibly ugly twist in the last sequence that really twists the knife.

Captain Malik has two choices " drop out of warp speed and risk being destroyed by Richter, or stay in warp until his engines explode from overheating.

The final showdown between Malik and Richter has begun on the surface of the God they've discovered.

The opening installment in W. Maxwell Prince's clown themed anthology kicks off with the ridiculously dark story of an amusement park clown whose marriage is falling apart. Prince is able to squeeze an amazing amount of emotional depth into these 24 pages. Absolutely brutal, shamelessly funny. I'm here for it. 

Knock 'Em Dead is fantastic. I love the concept. I love the twist. I love how the whole thing comes crashing down here in the bottom of the ninth. I do wish it was stretched out a few more chapters.

I am still of two minds when it comes to Maniac of New York as a whole. As much as I disliked the first chapter, chapter two is much, much better. Night and day. If the story continues this way, I'm in for the long haul.  

This is the slowest paced and least gory chapter thus far, but it's a necessary break in the action, setting up the Sheriff as a potential babyface, and Hood for his heel turn. Everything's set to crack off again in the next chapter.

Lonely Orphan seemed like an easy paycheck to the crew of the Cortes when they landed there looking for salvage. Hours later, almost everyone is dead.

Dustin arrives at Camp Know Where to navigate the new social hierarchy without the support of his Hawkins adventuring party. While also faced with nerdy bullies, a mysterious figure with sinister intent arrives to disrupt the serene woodland scene.

A camp counselor has disappeared in the night with no clue but a distant scream. Suspicions arise, and as Dustin inadvertently passes the acid test to become the cool kid at camp, he must balance his newfound popularity with the rising tensions.

When the 'Red Devil' Lord Aragami succumbs to illness, his daughter, the fierce Ketsuko, hatches a plot to save her people, no matter the cost"

Ketsuko and Fubei have agreed to lead the arrogant ronin through the woods and over the mountain. But death walks freely in the night, as the dishonored samurai are stalked by shadows of the Black Tongue ninja"and a devil who walks among them.

The Vain are waging their own war after they make a deal with the FBI to form a spec ops team with one mission: They're out for Nazi blood.

A clever twist on post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland warring tribes. A few things fell together just a little too neatly for my taste, but this thing has a hell of a lot of potential moving forward.

As with any anthology, there are going to be chapters that are stronger than others. Haha #2 isn't quite as good as the first installment, but it's still very solid. Prince and Thorogood pack a shocking amount of emotion and depth into 24 short pages. Super dark, and well worth the price of admission.

W. Maxwell Prince and Roger Langridge team up to bring a (nearly) silent take on the sad clown paradox. Dark, lonely, tragic, and sort of funny, even though you get the feeling you aren't really supposed to laugh. 

This first chapter is a dead slow burn, thick with ambiance. I'm not really sure what the hell just happened, but there is definitely enough here to bring me back for a second round to try to figure it out

The inherent challenge with mashing well worn tropes together is that each really has to elevate the other to break away from boilerplate and head into new, uncharted territory. Deep Beyond just doesn't get there. It feels overly familiar, especially since there are a couple titles on the market currently telling very similar stories.

Blake was worried that summer break with her weird aunt in Fever Swamp would be b-o-r-i-n-g, but it's quickly become more intense than she ever could have imagined.

Heavy is The Punisher for neurotics; Inception for the impatient; Preacher for" well, it's a lot like Preacher.

Tony Stark isn't the only one who's been reborn" and a familiar cosmic force has its sights set on Iron Man!

Not the strongest chapter in the series to date, but despite a couple hiccups in pacing, it's still a solid entry. It probably could have been drawn out into two installments with a slower build to Pryor's breaking point, but it gets the job done, and opens up some really interesting possibilities moving forward.

Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell breathe new life into the ancient Norse stories by taking readers through the creation of the Nine Worlds to the epic origin and adventures of Thor, Odin, and Loki all the way to the end of life - Ragnarok.

The art is honestly the strongest part of Rabid World so far, and it's what will bring me back next month. There are those floating heads, but there are enough good points, those are almost forgiven. Almost.

Following the destruction of the Death Star at the battle of Yavin, Han and Chewie are commissioned by Princess Leia to fly the Millennium Falcon on a top-secret mission for the Rebellion, while evading ruthless bounty hunters and a relentless Imperial agent.

Star Wars: Smuggler's Run #2 caps off a decent little story. Nothing terribly new or original, but definitely entertaining, and chock full of that Star Wars goodness that fans clamor for.

While Dustin continues to prove his mettle as a Dungeons and Dragons DM to prove a point to new-found camp bullies, the counselors of Camp Know Where have been disappearing one by one.

Mother F. Goose treads a fine line between dark humor and bad taste. It's clever, but hangs out in a safe space that isn't overly inventive. Might have benefited from being stretched into a three or four chapter mini.

Luck has abandoned the group. Humbo and Alice have lost track of their newfound friends, Tala and Hototo. The siblings are being held prisoner and will soon discover that the world hides dark corners, where screams of help are no more than fallen spirits.

Marvel's latest foray into the Xenoverse is much better than their previous attempt, but it's still an uphill climb from mediocrity.

Unaware of the danger they have brought aboard, the Snark departs the alien planet"and within secure confines of the ship, a horror unknown to man will be unleashed.

The alien is loose aboard the ship, with every attempt at eradicating it proving more deadly. As the creature reveals its true form, the crew discovers a horrifying new development.

Bill and Ted manage to escape a rioting death metal festival only to be marked for death by the insane leader of an evil metal band.

If Batman and Dead Rabbit had a baby, it would be Cloaked. Not exactly Batman, but not far enough removed to be considered satire. Artwork by Jordi Armengol is fantastic, but again, heavily reminiscent of" Batman.

The Rolex wearing, diamond ring wearing, wheelin', dealin', limousine ridin', jet flyin' son of a gun takes the Chuck Barris approach with his new comic. After a bit of a rough take-off, there's a hell lot of potential moving forward.

Still a great concept, with a ton of potential, but I just can't get into it. Things fall together just a little too neatly for a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

The second chapter of Home Sick Pilots doesn't quite live up to last month's installment. It is a pretty book, but I'm not sure I'm looking for 'pretty' in a hardcore punk horror book.

Maniac of New York is fine, as long as you can suspend disbelief long enough to believe Jason Voorhees could wander around New York in broad daylight hacking people to bits, without being stopped by NYPD, the National Guard, or the crowd itself. Doesn't quite land for me.

Maniac of New York is all over the place with its pacing. As excited as I got with the injection of adrenaline in the second chapter, chapter three slams on the brakes and crawls to a pace even slower than chapter one. I really want to like this book, but every time I get interested, I get yanked back out of it.

The third installment of Nuclear Family doesn't quite live up to the first two. A lot of slight misses add up to a very average chapter.

I've been really optimistic with Marvel's acquisition of the Aliens and Predator franchises. The publisher has unlimited resources to make these things grow legs and walk, but somehow they just can't make them move. Not in a really impactful way, anyway. The creative team could swap in almost any generic monster for the Yautja, and you'd hardly notice.

Welcome to the new world. Will a fledgling America be able to survive the Council of Vampires?

The fight for survival! Sheer terror befalls the remaining crew members as the Alien claims the ship as its feeding ground. With retaliation proving futile, the only way out is to run.

Things take a turn on the European leg of the Wyld Stallyns' World Tour.

Saddled with the worst possible partner (for potentially all of eternity), Bill must decide whether he can give his greatest enemy a clean slate.

Matteo Scalera's gritty and frenetic action scenes aren't enough to salvage King of Spies. There are only four chapters in this mini, and I just don't see how Millar is going to have enough space to pull this thing around and make it work.

Nuclear Family came out of the gates strong, but broke down somewhere between the first chapter and the fourth. It's hard to believe there's just the one issue left. Not really seeing how everything's going to come together from this point.

Bartlett and JV settle into Asilo Del Muerto as Greg prepares to wage war on humanity.

Stranger Things: Science Camp #4 ties up most of the loose ends in this mini-series finale, even if the big mystery falls a little flat in the end.

WWE The New Day: Power of Positivity #1 is serviceable, but doesn't really do much to add to previously televised storylines. There's a whole lot to this saga that didn't make it into this book, and the story suffers for it.

This first Marvel foray into the Xenoverse is underwhelming, to say the least. The script isn't terribly original, and the art is very strange. Trying to find something redeemable about this book, and so far I'm not finding much.

Vile Empire unleashes a horde of chaotic trolls to destroy Bill and Ted. Back in San Dimas, the Stations and robots form a plan to try to save their friends.

I really wanted to like this book. It just doesn't land. So much of the actual work these guys put in is glossed over, completely re-written, or left out completely. I don't get it.

This could have been the best Alien script ever conceived, and the art would still drag it down. The images are so distractingly awful, I can't get past it to connect with the story at all.