Stuart Ringwalt Comic Reviews

So ends Jason Aaron's run. Doctor Stephen Strange has depended on Wong for so long that I wonder how he will get by without his most trusted companion. Due to the assistance of his new apprentice, Zelma Stanton, however, the situation is far from Hopeless.

Tamaki's writing, along with Leon and Milla's art, does as good a job of exploring how trauma tears apart the individual's psyche as I've read a comic since David Mack's Kabuki run of the late 1990s/early 2000s. We still haven't seen Jennifer Walters Hulked out since the run began, and it will be interesting, after this issue's violent cliffhanger, to see if she turns green in the next issue. If the upcoming issues remain as strong as the first four have been, however, I'll be fine if she remains in human form through the entire run.

A few issues ago, Gert was in a rut, and it felt like I Hate Fairyland was too. In the last three issues, however, Skottie Young has rapidly moved the story forward while also taking it back to its roots. This issue is Young's first full-on homage/parody of a single author/artist. If he can find as much success paying homage to other great writers and artists, then he will be able to keep I Hate Fairyland fresh.

This was not my favorite issue of Manifest Destiny. It took me quite some time to figure out why, but I realized that the comic is at its best when it is about the unique monsters and exploring the American Wilderness. Because the issue has a limited setting, and only introduces the actual monster at the end, the issue didn't have as much of what makes the run feel different from other comics. Having said that, because the issue was character driven, I gained a deeper appreciation of several members of the supporting cast.

In the end, the second issue of Red Rising: Sons of Ares works at its best when developing Fitchner's backstory. My hope, however, is that moving forward, readers get to see more of the disturbingly beautiful systems at play in the larger Red Rising setting. In the Red Rising Trilogy, Brown did a phenomenal job of world building, and although we get a taste of that here, I want to see how the writer, Rik Hoskins, and the artists, Eli Powell and Jordan Boyd, tackle more of that world.

What has impressed me the most about Castellucci's writing is her ability to delicately and realistically navigate the life of a teenager while juxtaposing it with the level of unreality needed to properly be a Shade title. The magical realism that has been present throughout the entire story, but particularly in this issue, makes Shade one of my favorite books currently on the market. Although a stand-alone issue, this issue will, no doubt, have ripple effects on the story moving forward.

Unfollow finishes up at the end of April. Of the recent Vertigo titles, this one, along with Clean Room, feels the most like the classic titles of the 90s, ironically before the internet age that Rob Williams so deftly explores in this issue and throughout the run.

My hope is that people read the issue, and got the message, regardless of what happened, but my fear is that, after the controversy, fewer people picked the issue up with the intent of actually reading it. If you are one of the readers who was considering jumping back on to the X-Men, but got scared off by the events surrounding Syaf's art, I recommend reading it anyways.