While I loved Jason Aaron's extended, mostly awesome run on Thor, my biggest overall complaint had to do with all the "WORLD ENDING THREATS" that piled up. Every arc had to keep upping the stakes by proclaiming: "Well, I know I said the last universe crashing event thingy was the biggest thing to ever happen--but that's over now--and now there's an EVEN BIGGER BADDY that won't just destroy our universe, or ten universes, but A BILLION!" The stakes kept getting raised to such ridiculous, absurd points that nothing mattered anymore.

That's also happening here.

But it's even more obnoxious because Donny Cates is shoe-horning his own characters (or versions of characters) from previous books in.

Oh, and brooding Thor is boring and giving him glowy eyes doesn't help matters (and maybe makes them worse). more

Wants you to simultaneously see Constantine in a new, hipstery, "cleaned up" world--and still in the disgusting cesspool of the 80s/90s urban environment he began in.

Art fits very well, but it's stiff and the colors don't differentiate the foreground and backgrounds very well.

Trying overly hard to be progressive to the point of parody. Paying liberal lip service is fine, but Spurrier doesn't say anything profound and actively undermines any progressive message because the tone is so comically absurd.

Worse of all, the mind-reading element isn't very original nor is it done in a particularly interesting way. It's such a huge development that it distracts from the core concept of the series (ALIENS!). So in that regard, this first issue is badly paced.

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Hickman's pompous, pretentious, overly-serious attempts to take the inherently goofy X-Men to self-serious levels is fairly grating. But there have been countless writers across the history of comics who've been able to wrench pathos from silliness--so what's the real problem?

Exposition.

And the fact that our heroes--the X-Men--are continually on a god trip and therefore immensely unlikable and dull.

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While the first issue sets up Doom as more of a very stable genius, this issue abandons that for cliche: "villain on the run" beats. This could have been so much more unique.

Also--yes, Christopher Cantwell--we see you are very smarty pants with your Shakespeare references. Very clever and subtle.

It's cute.

It's not nearly as funny as it thinks it is. Well, except for the Clark wink gag. That's hysterical and almost makes the book worth it.

But it's cute. Eh. Glad to have Matt Fraction back, I guess.

Sigh. Oh, joy.

Yet another '80s style Millarworld story with foul language, mild violence, mild sex, criminals, and cliches up the wazoo.

If this is supposed to be a feminist piece about getting screwed over by men, it doesn't have any emotional punch to back it up. But by all means, let's keep highly rating Miller's generic stories that are only readable because of his A-list artists.

A 12 year old could write these, in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Millar has a sweatshop of 12 year olds churning these out. more

Hickman's reserved, pompous style doesn't fit X-Men very well. I'm no X-Men fanatic, but encasing them in an exposition and world-building heavy plot comes across as, ironically, life-less. Where's the #drama? The soap opera shenanigans? Instead this feels like a wannabe Dune, with equally distant characters.

Despite my resistance to Donny Cates's obsession with bringing back the '90s...this is a scrappy horror-show with some surprisingly good dialog and a helluva lot of story.

Can't believe I'm saying this, but this is worth the $8.

Well, it's a surprise to nobody that the newest Snyder/Capullo Batman story is pretentious and sweeping up praise.

The post-apocalyptic story is a ripoff of Old Man Logan, the creative team's earlier work on Dark Knights Metal, and even Morrison's Final Crisis (the nihilism and all that).

It has an irritating fake-out beginning that doesn't fit Alfred's character in the slightest (but even if it did, it's still a grating fake-out) and Joker is underwhelming. I thought the whole point of this series was to have a unique spin on Batman and the Joker's dynamic, but all Snyder does with it is tell cringe-worthy attempts at mature jokes. This is a big boy comic! Wonder Woman says "shit!" Oh, the horror! more

The attempts to convey emotions and exposition at the beginning are eye-roll inducing. However...it picks up once the Inciting Incident kicks in. The art is pretty decent and the colors are fetching. I'd read more to see where this goes.

Reminds me more of Jason Aaron's Avengers work than Thor. WOTR mainly consists of apocalyptic action interspersed with humor--which is fine--but most of the war has already been told in previous Thor issues and there's no pathos or cleverness to make-up for all the boring carnage.

Nobody acts like a real human being in Frank Miller's cliche, fractured monologue filled world. I have no idea why Miller or DC thought JRJR would be a good fit for this rustic story with his ever declining art. Cringe worthy dialog and monologues. Dreadfully dull pacing and story. Clark is constantly told not to show off, but that's all this issue does.

Also--this isn't a technical Year One story. It starts when Clark is a Krypton Kal baby up to when he's a teenager. If you want to read an actual Year One take on Superman, read Superman: Birthright. That's everything this wishes it was. more

It's weird, but maybe not enough? The central concept of an evil fitness planet is mediocre at best. However, it's even blander done in the most cliche way possible. Granted, it's likely self-aware...but it's not funny or a subversion. So who cares?

Interesting change up of art. Took me a while to get used to all the small panels, but it works.

Too many characters now. Casey is all but forgotten.

Also, the little editor's notes annoyed me. If you're trying to catch up new readers...you need to do a lot more than that. more

Didn't have to be oversized. Intentionally harkens back to simpler, slightly less epic Silver Age Superman stories, complete with Jimmy Olsen slapstick. Wish they milked Clark's kidnapping more and spent less time on people trying to find him. Did not care for Supergirl segment, so it was annoying they forced us to try and catch up with all her mediocre adventures. We don't even really need her here tbh and her segment doesn't make a strong case for her inclusion. more

I usually love Brian Michael Bendis. He's usually a master of dialogue, pacing, and all around storytelling. Usually I defend him against complaints about his comics being too talky or the characters being interchangeable.

But for Event Leviathan...

I have to agree with his critics. This is like a parody of a BMB comic. The dialog is suffocating. Unnecessarily long and dry, the dialog makes this a chore to get through. I was relieved beyond belief when a corny action scene was roughly inserted in the middle.


There's a handful of characters incessantly blabbing, yet, their dialog isn't different enough to truly showcase their personalities.

There a lack of scope, and Maleev's claustrophobic style doesn't help. The intrigue/mystery aspect is barely effective because everybody just wonders aloud about the blandest, most obvious of clues. This is a sad, sad excuse for an action thriller, noir, event, and comic in general. You finally get a chance to do a DC event and you do THIS, Brian? I'm getting CIVIL WAR II vibes already...


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Only until the end do we get a real dose of mystical Morrison. But before that it's a perfectly serviceable, blunt fairy-tale.

Hmmmmmmmm...

It's extremely blunt. I mean, the first scene literally spells out the themes for us. Oh, and the villains are radical, ruling Catholics who openly espouse any science. Uh-huh. The dialogue is straining to be Morrison, yet it lacks the same flourish. Got DUNE vibes.

But Ian Bertram's art is hard to shake. It's very textured, like Frank Quitely or Chris Burnham but has its own flavor. Needless to say, the art makes the book. No matter how silly or obvious the ideas are, they're brought to disturbing life.

Did not expect the ending. Not sure it's the best direction but it, shall we say, subverted my expectations (DUN DUN DUNNNN!).

Even with its problems, I'll check out the next issues.

PS: the afterword says they won't be making it into a TP, so it's best to buy the individual issues. Uh...yeah right. Don't BS us. But hey, if it gets up sales... more

Like much of Clowes's work, Wilson starts out slow but sure enough rolls into a trudging ball of existential dread.

What's it about? The specific details are impossible to exactly pin down, but overall, Clowes wants us to see himself as a mediocre white man who's only saved by the compassionate "others" he shunned at first.

Scott Snyder is still writing corny dialog, bland characters/plots, and scripts that stifle Jim Cheung.

Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev are so perfect together, I'd be fine if they took over every DC character on the shelves today.

James Tynion IV is pretty much the good version of Scott Snyder (and Francis Manapul doesn't hurt).

Overall, a mixed bag (as these specials always are).



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I'm catching up on my Matt Rosenberg "Punisher" for an upcoming review on AiPT! and I just had to talk about this one in particular.

When I read this title, I definitely do not expect a twee, cutesy prison escape story like something out of "4 Kids Walk Into A Bank." Might work on a different title, but it doesn't work for Punisher and it's a waste of time that's self-satisfied in how quirky its plan is.

I appreciate Rosenberg's indie, non-traditional sensibilities--I do. That being said, this goofy prison plan is tedious.





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The fact that people are eating this up and not rioting spells the end of artistic legacy and integrity.

Here are your effective options for this already bad idea for a series:

1. A madcap, wild romp that excessively melds the worlds/characters of Watchmen with the mainstream earth whatevernumber. Balls-to-the-walls Final Crisis levels of insanity. That'd be fun; maybe include some meta themes.

2. A serious attempt to continue the airtight storytelling and postmodern themes of the original Watchmen.

This does neither and it's trying to be both (very unsuccessfully).
The drab, ugly art from Gary Frank doesn't help.

Like...at the very least you could continue the subversive color scheme of Watchmen or try to go for something different. But no, Doomsday Clock is as colorfully inventive as a cement block.

This series has no clear drive or hook or resonance. As bad, if not worse, than Before Watchmen. more

NOTE: My first issue of this series. Found it for half-price and thought I'd give it a go.

The dialog and world-building isn't exceptional. However, the art is beautiful (even if the storytelling can be clumsy and confusing) and there's some palpable tension.

Why Scott Snyder is so popular astounds me. In what universe are people entertained by a Justice League comic that's suffocated by dialogue that's either embarrassingly corny or endless exposition?

Snyder distances us from the League by desperately trying to make them gods above us. That self-satisfied, overwritten introduction to the League's Hall is insufferable. Yet, that unnecessary, overwritten voice-over lingers through the whole thing.

Capullo has said many times he struggled at first to work on Batman with Snyder's novelistic scripts. Without push-back from artists, Snyder gives us an incredibly stale, text-heavy comic crippled under its own self-imposed ponderousness. To Snyder, intelligence comes from coming up with technobabble (or using Wikipedia to look up calcite facts) and blandly listing them like history tidbits in a GA Henty novel.

I'm not trying to be anti-intellectual and say comics have to be stupid and all action and no literary ambitions. Quite the contrary. But Snyder isn't saying anything important here. This is a Justice League comic trying to be fun. Unfortunately, nobody realizes Snyder's comics are a chore and the farthest thing from entertaining.

The fight scenes are a slog. Every character has to always be talking about what's happening ("The Neanderthals are semi-aquatic. They seek to merge the toxic subterranean oceans with the seven seas. Transform earth's waters."). Many panels are tiny, not given any room from the restricting script. Jim Cheung is a solid artist, but just skim through the comic and try to pick out a scene that flows well and has dynamism. Hard, isn't it? Why? Lots and lots and lots of text. None of it clever or smart or funny. And most of the text is delivered with the heroes sitting down. It's LITERAL talking heads.

#1 takes no risks and has a lot in common with the saccharine safety of The Force Awakens. Why come up with new, interesting villains? It'd be a lot easier to just recycle Lex Luthor and the Injustice Gang. People like them, right? Will they do anything interesting? Not really--they'll just talk. Talk and talk and talk and talk about what they're gonna do with "dammit" thrown in a dozen times because that sounds mature.

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Far too much of Tom King's Batman work lets gimmicks and experimentation get in the way. Too often King tries to tie Batman to over-obvious themes. But somehow, with this arc, he examines the grief associated with a fallible Batman in a harrowing, introspective way.

$1 BINVENTURES: I own the entire Multiversity in TP, but getting this individually is rewarding in and of itself. Just as I remembered, it's oh-so meta one minute then head-scratching the next. Who could ask for anything more?

$1 BINVENTURES: Despite the large cast, all the players are distinct. Hickman has a real knack for writing smart kid characters and devious maybe-villains.
Bobillo's art is unconventional but fetching. Would love to explore his work.