Cassandra Clarke Comic Reviews

Well done; Black Widow offers nothing but an issue to run through full throttle without your permission and leaves you wondering why all the pretty pictures went away with your heart and ammunition.

In this issue we gather thatthisis the study of atonement. Soon we will see who she will solicit to join her team against her old friend, how "angry" this person might be, how "off-the-grid" and whether or not they are a certain someone who doesn't play well on a team with other steel-clawed friends.

A cult-classic favorite reawakened to stir up more trouble without anyone's permission; full-throttle fun with just the right amount of exhaust fumes and bullet shells to play in while smiling like yes, indeed, you do not have any idea of what kind of payback is coming, and no, you probably cannot afford it, but probably do deserve it

While I hope that the later issues do provide more of a background to this "beginning of time" family of protectors, it is not a poor start. If anything, it is a loud, and engaging start to a tale, raising an important question: how can families stick together when and if they are really the only family that's ever kept the rest of the world together and therefore the only people capable of fixing our hellbent world? It's one that has me dying to know how the creators will tackle it its upcoming issues.

Barney Barton tells us, "Fightin's easy. Fightin's just a thing you do. You hit and you get hit and the one that can hurt the most the longest wins"but to actually do good, y'see to do good"ya gotta begood." Clint's response is something that we've wanted to hear from him from so long that actually hearing him say it will make your eyes water. If only Kate was there to hear it.Barton, you dummy.

A gritty and grand farewell to Marvel's first self-declared female private eye detective/Avenger; a must-have uproarious adventure

"The Mask of Night: #2″ comes in at an all around adventure for the faint of heart. Any Kill Shakespeare fans that are looking to soak in the revelry of a few punches and more party lines will happily welcome Viola and Cesario into the Prodigal's mission.

A storybook of loss and desire; an introspective tale of hope at the end of the world; a patient tale rearing up for an inter-planetary battle soon to come

Maarta Laiho continues to fill in the color with the heart of our characters. In her low-detail, full-color style thereader knows the details shown on each Lumberjane's face will be done so with attitude and control. From April's bulging red eyes, to the dreamy-like POOFS appearing on-panel when a moment of action is thwarted, Laiho continues to bring the warmth to one more tale on the true power of friendship and all of its weirdness.

A tale bursting at the seam, waiting to reveal its intricate, colorful tapestry; a read for the curious, and patient reader, who likes to be teased, and questioned in what they think will happen

An adventurous tale that reinvents our favorite ass-kicking warriors, button-smashing kinda reading that will propel you from fist to face to looking over your shoulder at next opponent/tale readied to hit

What makes this issue surpass the others in the run is its central focus to what makes all X-Men stories great: the necessity of friendship. Kurt reminds us that it's this love that allows us to be brave, to let go of who we aren't anymore, and challenges us to be better, and shape a better world for who is left.

It seems like there could be more to leave us readers with after the death of Logan, but in not doing so, Claremont and Bennett's writing suggests that it is time to move on now, or, as Kurt says better, "You toast the man and tell stories about him that make you laugh. You do honor to his life by vowing to make yours better." This reader is looking ahead excited to see how Kurt will prove that to us readers at a loss.

If the answer is yes, then the pacing between the two's work and their working relationship needs to be slowed down, and focused in-action, in-case. The solutions to the crimes committed by ghastly things can't be as convenient as they are now, or all action and thrill, immediately dissolved into happenstance.

A clever twist of old Storm myth, "Storm" #3 is a tale to read in a sitting and then leaf through old "Uncanny" volumes in the back of your dusty basement (or I guess online account because that is a thing these days).

My only critique is the guide's treatment of interviews. Throughout the guide, dispersed between sections, there are interviews with awesome ladies in the field, like, Kate Leth or Kate Beaton (basically all the awesome Kate's in the world). And they were a pleasure to read, but seemed to be cut short. Each interview had the same format, asking industry professionals their opinion about being a "fangirl" and what that meant to them, and I wanted a little bit more from the interviews. I wanted to know more about why these super awesome ladies still stay in our geeky world, and what, specifically they do there, and with who, and how. I think that the guide is such a pump-up of spirits, calling on us ladies to connect and to create, that I felt a bit cheated that I didn't get a little more insight into some ladies' minds that are already doing that work, and how it feels to be a leader in that field. If the book is all about creating joy in discovering geekdom, then I want to

J.H. Williams III continues to pump life into Dream's world through his ability to adapt each page to the scene so that the reader can read a part of the story in the style of the world they are in, and in the style of the moment. Talking with the star people was as cosmic and fluorescent as one can imagine that particular conversation to be, while still acutely balanced with enough shadows and one-shot-like panels of Dream and Hope to root us in the characters we know even when the panels around us insist us to feel uncomfortable, unfamiliar, and misplaced (as humans reading a story set in the skies beyond our understanding probably should feel).

The Wicked + The Divine is brash. It punches without saying why because it knows it can show it. The heads will roll. Gillen, McKelvie, and Wilson tell us that we can't possibly begin to expect to automatically understand how it all works and how we fit in here. And we won't. Not yet. But Laura might learn what it takes, even if takes her soul.

It is about to get real. Bloody. Permanent. It is clear the series is shifting gears and that soon we will not only have answers but be forced, like Laura, to make some impossible choices based on the information we are now privileged to hear.

At the end of the issue, we see the return of a certain agent wrapped in a straitjacket. He, too, is older, and we are left wondering if someone as experienced as Velvet could become a formidable foe, or another ally we've yet to meet, in her mission to revenge Jefferson's death. One thing is for certain: now thatVelvet has infiltrated her organization so easily, her credibility of an agent is even more questionable. The main question I have for Velvet is: If you burn every bridge down, where the hell do you go after you get out of dodge? If you've been everywhere, is anywhere still an option?