Astonishingly Awful's Profile

They really let this murder slide, didn’t they? After all, it’s only a dead villain.

If not for the incredibly anticlimactic ending, I would have given this book a relatively good rating. The art is mostly fine, even beautiful, and the writing felt surprisingly consistent despite the different writers. That ending though is a huge problem, and quite symptomatic for what makes the X-book s so bad in recent years.more

I‘ll start with the good stuff: Roge Antonio‘s art is pretty good, and it looks like there‘s another solid guest artist, Jim Towe, for two pages or so. Unfortunately, the last four pages are drawn by the same artist that already ruined the last Storm series. But that isn’t even the worst part of the issue.
I really can’t wrap my head around Gail Simone‘s writing. Either it‘s relatively good ( albeit a bit too much on the woke side) or completely abysmal, as is the case with this issue. I‘m willing to overlook all the cutesy cuddly Outlier safe space bullshit, but I can’t overlook the ridiculous way Mutina defeats the aliens. I don’t want to spoil the „surprise twist“, so let me just say one thing: the technology of the aliens is not capable of differentiating a real threat from an illusion? Interesting.more

I still think the concept of Superboy Prime is silly, but what Williamson and Mora are doing with it is pure comic book magic and full of love for the medium.

Action Comics 1100 is a mixed bag, and a very frustrating one, because I enjoyed parts of this book a lot. However, it also has some really gruesome art and writing, which made it hard to even get to the good stuff.

The first story, "Mission Failure", unfortunately takes up the most pages. While Waid's writing is good as usual, Skylar Partridge's art is not. Sorry, there's no way to say this in a politer way. It just sucks. Fortunately, Ryan Sook, who also drew the amazing wraparound cover, steps in for the last third, which is a relief, but doesn't save the story.

"Superman meets Superboy" is the high point of the book, perfectly written by Joshua Williamson and masterfully illustrated by Daniel Sampere. I wish this team had created the main story, too.

"Game Night" by Sophie Campbell and Dan Mora is mostly forgettable, but solid. Probably more fun if you enjoy all the alternate Superman characters

The last chapter, "End of Reign" by Dan Slott and Lukas Meyer, is the start of something new apparently - and it's completely confusing to anyone not familiar with these characters, such as myself. Well, at least the art looks good.

All in all, it seems most anniversary issues these days are like a big bag of candy. At first you're excited about the sheer quantity you get, but after you ate it all, you realise that you really just wanted the liquorice, not the gummy bears and certainly not all the other shit that now makes your tummy feel weird.more

Another unnecessary tale from a long gone x-era, once again routinely written by the old master, Chris Claremont, and horribly drawn by, well… someone. What all those series have in common is, that there are basically no stakes - we know where the characters will end up - and that they never reach the high quality of the original books of the era they are set in.
Gambit: Wanted is badly execu ted, boring and completely forgettable, but I hope it helps Mr. Claremont supplement his retirement.more

Wonder Man ends on a high note with Phil Noto on pencils and surprisingly great writing by Gerry Duggan. The ending actually left me craving more adventures of Wonder Man, Hellcat and Killerwatt.

I know this is Marvel simply cashing in on the movie but there is such a glut of bad books coming from Marvel that I'll take anything. I just want something to enjoy reading and this really fits the bill. I dont mind a Spiderman cracking jokes and this issue has plenty of them. Frank is vintage ice cold Punisher. Peter is our friendly Neighborhood Spiderman and we get a classic story with vintage style art. it worked and I loved this issue. Great stuff. If only Marvel can translate this to its actual main line titles fans could enjoy the books again. more

X-men #33. Christ Almighty ,Why is Jed still on this book? It gets worse each time but honestly looking at the talent Marvel has right now writing.. who would take this place ? Is kid omega a wise soul now giving advice? Wasn’t he trying to attack a whole town maybe 3 issues ago? Jed lacks a voice for these characters and this series . Such a jumbled story that jumps around too much while rushi ng at lightning speed to an ending. Jeds book is all over the map in terms of tone. I can only assume hes trying new things to see what works but nothing lands.hearing reports that they are keeping the creative teams on X-men is beyond depressing and upsetting. If I have to endure Saladin, Gail or Jed anymore with crummy solo series I’ll drop all the X books. Anyone , Someone. Just please save the X-men. These books are just not the quality we deserve. more

I dare anyone to make sense of Eves writing and rules for Greymatter lane. This book is well drawn and that’s about all the positivities. Look how many reviews it’s getting. A mass exodus from this book for all the reviewers…why? Well it’s really bad. Eve lost the plot long ago in issue 2. I want good X-men books. I really do. Aside from Orlando’s X-men Outback (which was just mid) the franchi se is lost. 26 characters in this book with a rotten script. The shadow king can’t save this book. Tracking people’s scents on the astral plane was hilarious. This series was announced as canceled after just a handful of issues. So sad it took even that long. . It’s awful stuff. more

If you are a die hard X-men fan for most of your collecting life like me, You buy with the hope it'll improve and to complete runs. I'm getting to the point I may just remove it from my pull list. I'm very much hoping the rumored changes to the X office this Dec will happen and they clean house. this book is pretty terrible, lazy and awful. Last storyline was Universal Monsters garbage. Gail once again writes whatever she was streaming on tv that week. Now it's vintage Alien movies from the 50s . We dive back into the never ending dance as the students are preparing to battle giant aliens and discover why the Brood appeared... in what little you see them because last issue it was one page. The Brood were also holding guns that are now gone this issue... but hey who cares right? I mean the Vig gets his arm ripped off and no one gave a crap. So once again in Gail fashion- throw everything at the reader and try to fix it after. The way the Brood are written here, the hive mind is gone. All the work done by Claremont to make them more interesting is long gone. what little we actually see of them in this issue ( literally 2 pages) adds nothing. But Gail needs it for her lame twist at the end. Mutina ,who is used simply for exposition dumps to move the story along says - the Nur are exterminators and this high school dance is on a Brood breeding ground? awful. truly dreadful lazy writing. just like Nightcrawlers escape from the ship. literally" wait I think I see, hold your breath." and he figures it out. then we move on. wtf was that ? we also get a continuation of the convo at Graymulken Prison. Let's hope we can just drop that making Wolverines crap asap. I've tolerated Krakoa and all that pain it brought. From the Ashes has become awful and another relaunch that merits more of the same trash will be too much for even me. Fingers crossed- someone... anyone... please save the X-men! more

Contrived, but fun.

Pretty good issue that I almost didn’t read because of the mediocre cover. The inside art by Matteo Della Fonte is much better - very naturalistic and reminiscent of a classic comic style than almost nobody is able to pull off anymore. Or maybe people just don’t want this style anymore, I don’t know.
The writing is good too, although Spider-Man comes across as a little too clownish in my opin ion. Anyway, great issue that reminded me of my best times reading Marvel comics - the late eighties.more

another good issue of absolute black canary

This storyline started promising, but somehow went into filler territory.

There are glimpses of something really good, both in Phillips‘s writing and Garbett‘s art - especially in the art. But it never really gets there. For every great page, there’s another one that just feels uninspired… talking heads mostly. As another reviewer mentioned, there’s also a problem with the pacing, particularly from issue to issue. Every issue seems to end prematurely, but maybe that’s j ust me not enjoying this decompressed storytelling style very much.
I’m still interested to see where this goes, especially now that Garbett seems to get more comfortable with this book.more

Great art, but the story looks quite predictable, especially Colton’s inevitable turn to villainy.

A tedious read with lots of boring dialogue. At least we get to see some creative use of Domino‘s powers. Plus, Cyclops and Quentin Quire are better written than in their own book.

This one had me rolling my eyes hard. I found the first two parts of Anomaly moderately entertaining (as much as one can in this X-Men era of retarded storytelling and lazy art), but MacKay‘s anticlimactic kitchen sink psychology conclusion is a huge letdown.