Looking over the final issue, all I can think of is missed opportunities.

The work of Mikel Janin has been a saving grave on this book.

Part of the charm of Black Hammer is that the stories inhabit that place between old school stories, laced with the familiar with a slice of the unorthodox thrown in for good measure. The problem for me with this book is that, with the popularity of all the different aspects, there actually isn't that much of anything that is unorthodox! Fans of those involved, may well enjoy this book, as will those who love Black Hammer.

American football has been in any number of media, some good, some bad. Blood Bowl is probably one of themore popular applications of the sport, from the UK, which isn't as ironic as you may think, being as the games origins date back to rugby. Still, despite the high calibre of the production values on show, in a similar vein to Freeway Fighter, I am not sure of the attraction of comic based on a board game where you have a sense of control.

The problem with this book is the familiarity of the story, which could have been influenced by a number of sources across comic books and movies. Harbinger Singh is a quiet revelation, whose work could quite easily find a home at any number of indie publishers such as Dark Horse. Still, this is the first issue and there is still time for the writers involved to surprise me.

This book is one of the books I look forward to reading every month. True, crime noir isn't anything new and true, this book doesn't add anything particularly to the crime noir genre. However, Lindsay and Kivela are aware of that and seem to have set their sights on creating characters that readers will come to care about. The fact this is being done in a three issue series shows the strength of their characters and of the pairing's immense story telling skills.

The ending of this book feeds into the final issue of Dark Nights Metal, which now threatens to make even less sense if you haven't read this issue; shame on you DC for making it necessary for people to buy this!

This series has been, at least in my mind, one of the most inconsistentseries I have seen in a while. Initial set ups that held the glimmer of something special are revealed to be inconvenient steps to the lure of delivering a big story, with big action, with the greatest flaw of all being a vigilante created by the murder of his parents, who had previously sworn an oath against the cowardly and superstitious lot even being aware of the grander schemes of dark demi-gods to begin with!

If I am honest,when I saw the idea for this book, my initial reaction was "Really? Haven't I seen this before?". Instead what I got was a well written book, packed with great little moments that leads to darker things that might not necessarily be as trope as they seem. Coupled with the great art, this mini series if to a fantastic start!

Overall, despite the quality that is abundant on every page, there is a sense of feet being dragged, of story compression to fill out the issue count, which in turn is starting to erode some of the good will and excitement that I felt at the start of the run. I, am of course not going to let one issue dissuade me from keeping an eye on this book, but I would appreciate a return to the urgency of the Dejah's trek.

Peter J. Tomasi finally delivers something that doesn't feel like filler material.

I didn't know what to expect with this book, not being the biggest fan of Whedon on the block. To say I quietly surprised is a bot of an understatement, leaving me far from disappointed.

Vault Comics, a relatively newer company, hit their stride early on. Unlike other companies, who may have fallen off your radar, Vault have continued to make their mark, with fantastic story telling at their core. Finger Guns, is by no means the exception as the darkness of trying to cope as a teen, flirts with the idea of a quick fix in place of a sustained improvement in the quality of their lives.

Looking at Zenescope books, I have to admire that they have stuck to their publishing model, walking a fine line between cover girls style art and gratuitous art. I only wish that they were more consistent in the actual overall quality of the product.

Christmas and horror don't usually go hand in hand, and to be honest, I am not wholly sold on the idea that they mesh that well now. Of course there are any number of scary elements or versions of Santa Claus that have waylaid the festive season. So, you are looking for a less traditional Christmas, this book may serve you well.

I like music as much as the next guy, maybe not at "muso" level. As such the correlations between the mediums are evident. This is further built upon as each issue of the series adds to a special Spotify playlist that looks to enhance the comic book experience. Whether it does, is up for debate; but it's a clever nod to show how comics and music can affect moods. However, even as "just a comic book" this issue, full of the dark things people will do to succeed, or the undertones of money being all that matters, makes for a compelling read.

Still, there will be readers out there who might love the idea of a The Matrix meet Oceans 11; if that's you then pick up this book immediately.

This book evokes memories of the Pierce Brosnan version of Bond, with an action first feel rather than the violent first idiom of Daniel Craig's Bond.This is helped, by Q being drawn to resemble John Cleese and of course the pithy humour that seems to fit hand to glove with pre-soft reboot Bond. Like any Bond fan, I have my favourite Bond and it seems that Dynamite are going out of their way to try and put books that appeal across the board.

As I am not a fan of the original cartoon show,I was pleasantly surprised by this book. True, there is a level of diversification in play, for which there seems no real rhyme or reason. But as mentioned before, the characters play second fiddle to the vehicles. It does annoy me that poor English is front and centre (you don't spell command with a "K"). Still, all things considered, this book was a mildly diverting read.

If you like extremely well written books, that are funny, smart and great to look at, go checkout the back issues for this run.

Sturges and Bak are no strangers to The Magicians; whilst it can be fun spending an extended amount of time in one particular world or genre, there comes a point when you have to question whether there is actually anything new being done. This possible malaise is not restricted to indie books; the same argument could be used with Batman where there is yet another Batman vs Bane confrontation going down. In the interest of fairness, Mrs H, as mentioned a fan of the show, had a look at this book and found it confusing. So there you have it, on this occasion The Magicians have failed to impress a comic fan and a fan of the TV show, with their almost adult like Harry Potter tricks.

Yet for a book that I only picked up for the connection to the Watchmen (go check out Rebirth #1) I have to say that I have been absolutely blown away by the quality of the book, in both the strong and humorous at times writing and some of the best art panel by panel, page by page that DC produces. It almost makes me think the DC that puts this quality of book on the rack, cannot really be the same Dc that put out Birds of Prey, can it?

I am an old school X-Men fan. Back in the day, I loved Chris Claremont's writing and I adored Marc Silvestri, probably more than I liked Jim Lee. For many X-fans, this is the quandary we find ourselves in. Whether we are Claremont fans, Kevin Smith fans, Grant Morrison fans or even Scott Lobdell (not me!) fans, the recent books fail to match what what we consider the "classic" X-Men.

Whilst I appreciate that this book isn't aimed at me, I can appreciate the need for the comic book industry to entice its next generation of readers, who may well become our next generation of artists and writers.