Story is boring, art is worse than the first issue by far. Time to hop off this series.

The story by Joshua Williamson is surprisingly very good! It feels like a great dynamic between the team, a lot of them dont trust each other and there's actual character building. I did find the hypocrisy hilarious with DC though. There were great character moments, and I loved the twist and callback to Morrison JLA. That's the monkey's paw though for me is that I enjoyed it because it reminded me of Morrison JLA, literally pulling a plot point from the first story arc of that run. No originality is found in terms of plot here, it feels very by the numbers plot wise. But I'm fine with it as long as the characters are enjoyable to read. The Ram V story was surprisingly very boring and not good. more

Now this is what I'm talking about. The Batman story in this is awesome, probably the best Batman I've read since Batman Universe (not that big of an achievement since the two main titles since have been boring, but still). Dan Mora continues his streak of amazing art here, I really love his art and the vibrant colors from Jordie Bellaire. It's definitely a different feel from the normal Batman book, which usually is filled with muted colors. What I really liked is the setting for Bruce Wayne. It feels very different, and it finally brings Batman back down to his low point. He gets shot and hurt multiple times, so there's tension when you're reading the book. The mystery of the Magistrate is also very cool, I want to see how it plays out. A lot of people will probably notice how this is much more well received than the New Batman Future State book. In my opinion, the Batman story in that book feels very by the numbers, like nothing's changed. This feels like a big change of pace in setting, story, character, art style, and I can't wait to read the next issue. The Grifter story is also pretty cool, I just think this entire book takes advantage of the Magistrate vs Capes environment much better than the other Batman book did, which still just seemed like Batman is some god that the government can't contain or control. more

Enjoyed this a lot, and I don't really like the Eternals as characters. Different twist than I was expecting, and I'm excited to read the next issue. Of course, Ribic is amazing, and here it feels like he's back to Thor God of Thunder levels of epic.

Eh? The Batman story by Ridley was semi-enjoyable but it doesn't bring anything really new to the table in my opinion. A lot of this comes from the fact I don't really care about Luke Fox. They should have just introduced a brand new character in my opinion, similar to Wonder Woman. Luke Fox carries a lot of baggage already, even though he is an unknown character. It also doesn't help that it feels very generic dystopia stuff, i.e. one state police vs crime fighter. Think V for Vendetta, Batman the Animated Series, Flash Gordon, Judge Dredd, etc. It feels very one note and generic in what was supposed to be a brand new start for DC. The only intrigue I got from it is how the world got this way, but even then I know it doesn't matter because they already revealed the creative team for Post Future State and it won't be Ridley and Derington. Treat this more like an elseworlds book rather than main continuity. Art is god damn great though from Nick Derington, I was hoping that he would stay for the main book post future state, but it is what it is. As for the other anthology stories, Katana one was ok, the villains one was not good at all, didn't care for it one bit. I'll read the next one because I love Batman, but wouldn't recommend for those hoping this would be a welcome change of pace from Tynion's run.

EDIT: it's tim fox, not luke fox. still boring don't care at all more

My relationship with DC is starting to decay I think. Future State as a whole now seems like such a corporate push. Feels even more corporate than New 52 was. This Superman book was as generic as Superman books go. Jon doesn't feel like his own character at all in this book, you could have replaced him with Clark and it would have been the exact same book. Also, with the amount of times Braniac has attacked Metropolis, you'd think it would have been incinerated to the ground by now, but here he is again to attack Metropolis once more! And guess what, Metropolis is gonna be shrunken down, oh wow! All of these ideas are so cookie cutter and boiler plate. The only Future State book that should be taken seriously so far is Wonder Woman, which truly feels like a different direction in tone, character, and story. I hope that the upcoming future state books will change my mind, but if these were the big guns that DC decided to start Future State with, I may have to switch to Marvel full time only on my pull list. more

For some dumb reason, I thought since Dan Didio left that Wally would start getting better treatment. Nope because guess what? Wally's evil again, wow haven't seen that before. It's such a fall from grace for a character who literally carried the name and mantle for over 2 decades with some of the best runs in comic book history to just get shafted by the company due to one writer's love for Barry Allen. Many people, myself included, grew up on Wally West Flash not only in comics, but in the animated series. That Flash was Wally West! It's just frustrating to see. more

I read all the Future State books this week, this is by far the best one. It has a perfect tone of the Wonder Woman epic adventure while also maintaining a healthy sense of humor that comes with a new character. I actually care about Yara Flor since she's a charming character and has a well defined goal and purpose. In Batman and Superman Future State Books, it just feels like more of the same, plus the anthology stories were hit or miss. I enjoyed that this was just one story throughout the entire book and was well focused. The art is spectacular, I expect nothing less from Joelle Jones. Yara also has the best character design I've seen in a while, it just looks great for a Wonder Woman revamp with a different twist. This is the Future State book to pick up this week if people need a recommendation more

Weak ending. It wasn't as epic as it was trying to be nor did it achieve any sort of emotional impact. It was just Batman beating up the bad guy for most of the book. Also Hitch's art looks incredibly rushed and not good at all. It's hard to make out a lot of the action in some pages and panels.

I really enjoyed this issue, with one slight negative. They bring in the Hand and start talking about them and how they're important. Enough of the Hand, they've plagued Daredevil long enough, why are they always in every story? I get that they are important to the mythos ever since Frank Miller introduced them, but I was so looking forward to a run that didn't have them as an antagonist. Bendis did this perfectly where the antagonist were street level thugs mostly and Matt's internal problems. Soule's run, which was the run before this, also had the hand as a major player. I just think they're overused and I hope that they don't pop up again. But besides that, I love the tone of this issue and the characterization for Elektra. They make her likable and someone you can cheer for rather than a femme fatale character. She works as that, but it is nice to see a change of pace. more

Fantastic. Don't really have much to see outside of that. It's just an epic event and epic start, which is what I want events to be, not a slog like Empyre. READ READ READ

It's been so long since issue #1, but I love me some X-O. as stated in my review of issue 1, this new relaunch feels much more like a traditional super hero book rather than the epic space opera that the previous Kindt run was. I wasn't fully on board before, but I really liked this issue. X-O feels a lot more in his element and used to modern day, and it's a fun welcome change of pace.

Strong strong ending. This event is definitely one of the best X-Men events I've read since I started in the early 2000s. It was epic, fun, and ranged in nearly every type of story to satisfy everyone. And even though I usually hate endings that just tease the future of another story, this tease was so awesome, it has hyped me up for the next phase of X-Men (Reign of X). Loved seeing the X-Men all finally reunite as a team. I don't remember the last time I saw a splash page with all the mutants going into a fight like that. Loved the story of Apocalypse and how Howard/Hickman gave him so much likability and badass moments in this story. And the art for this event, especially by Larraz, has just been stellar. All the imaginative panels and sequences were so amazing to see. The future of X-Men is bright and the hype is still going. Ever since Hox/Pox and Dawn of X, the entire X-Line has been the only books I've consistently liked and looked forward to reading. more

recent read for me. I really love Jeff Lemire's independent works because they feel a lot more personal than any of his main big two stuff, even his Black Hammer works to an extent. Those always feel like they service a larger narrative that has good writing, but feels controlled by editorial and other forces that come from writing within a shared universe. This story feels so personal to Lemire and provides a very human and relatable story of trauma, grief, and getting over said trauma. The story is gripping for the first half. I love the transitions that Lemire puts from past to present to past again using the recurring theme of water and drowning, since it plays such a main role in the story. The first half also has a lot of twists that I didn't expect, which kept it very interesting. However, the second half is when the story gets very predictable and starts to resolve itself rather unevenly and too quickly. It's a rather standard ending to a very unstandard story, which is disappointing because it set itself up as a unique plot. Another small gripe for me was the art, it's black and white. Black and white works in a lot of stories, mainly crime and noir books, but I don't think it works here. It doesn't really service the story in any meaningful way except to portray the dark tone the story has, which was already obvious without the lack of color. Also the art looks very rushed compared to his other books where he's pencilled such as Sweet Tooth or Essex County, a lot of panels feel unfinished. Not sure if it was intentional. I'd recommend this since it was still a lot better than any of the stuff that comes out fromt he big two these days, but compared to Lemire's other work, this is one of the weaker titles. more

It'll probably be changed back, but man, the Franklin retcon might have killed this series for me. I was ok with him being depowered because Franklin is too OP and especially with his age growth, he should have the awareness of how to use his powers. And him being too aware with those powers presents a problem in storytelling. What I hate is the fact they said he's not a mutant. It changes nearly his entire history since a lot of his character revolves around the X-Men, in alternate timelines as well as in the current continuity. Like I said, I wouldn't be surprised if this is just a gotcha moment or something that'll be changed back later in this run, but if that is the case, it is just lazy and predictable and seems to exist just for cheap shock value. It's a shame because last issue seemed like a huge step up in Slott's storytelling for the Fantastic Four and this seems like he's going back to what made his later parts of the Spider-Man run so bad, which is just shock value storytelling rather than crafting a complex or interesting narrative. The art is top notch still, Silva is a top artist at Marvel as far as I'm concerned. more

Didn't like this one as much as the past 2. I don't like this direction for the Donald Blake character because in my opinion, Donald Blake should serve as a foil to Thor, not as an antagonist like the Hulk/Banner dynamic, where they hate each other or are at odds. I've always liked the idea that Donald Blake is a humble doctor who helps people and that's what grounds the Thor personality, and here he is beating up Loki. Granted, this is just the first issue of a new story arc, and it could go in a different direction, but it was still weird reading him in this way. Art remains fantastic though more

Underwhelming ending for an overhyped series.

-SPOILERS-

Art was great, but the whole story was absolutely useless and added nothing to the mythos besides the Joe Chill redemption and wife & child twist which invalidates the whole point of the Killing Joke. If Joker was always an asshole before his transformation, then the "one bad day" perspective threaded through the book means jack shit.

If you want a good Joker metamorphosis inclusive-continuity story, go read Morrison's Batman #663 ("The Clown at Midnight") and his role in both RIP + Batman & Robin. more

This was a massive disappointment for me. The story itself fails to show why there was even a need for 3 jokers and it really shows how DC, more specifically Geoff Johns, never really had a plan for DC Rebirth. What was the point of the 3 Jokers? Turns out oh it doesn't really matter since only one does. Why have this mystery then? And why make Joe Chill the target to be the new joker? In my opinion, Joe Chill shouldn't matter in the Batman mythos. The only thing he represents is crime and it could have been any criminal that killed the Waynes. He serves more as a plot point than an actual character. It's cool that Bruce makes peace with his inner demons, but we've seen that so many times before, not just in comics, but in the animated series and in video games. Also I know I complained about Jason and Barbara getting a huge spotlight in the last issue, but here they're not really given much to do at all except punch bad guys. What happened to all the development from last issue? And that leads me to the ending is who cares? This book doesn't change the status quo, it doesn't really have a message, and worst of all it baits the reader into thinking that 3 Jokers would affect Bruce's character. Even at the end, Bruce says himself he doesn't care about the real Joker's name because it doesn't matter. And he's right, none of this matters, which is what I felt at the end of the book. Look I get that in comics the toys have to be put back in the toy box, but there are ways to tell an entertaining and interesting story before doing so. Look at Hickman and his Marvel work, he changed the Fantastic Four and the Avengers before Secret Wars, which was awesome. And then he put the toys back in the playbox, in a satisfying way. This just feels like ok The three jokers idea will mess too much with continuity, so let's just kill the two that we think are the least popular and keep the real one. That's not good storytelling, and it makes the book really predictable to read.
The only twists the book offered in its entirety happened in the first issue. The only redeeming factor of the series is Fabok's art. Amazing details and great coloring from Brad Anderson. It's really such a shame that the story is so lackluster more

Liked the first issue a lot more. This one seems to not have a lot of focus, it jumps around a lot in terms of tone and plot. One part seems to be Iron Man talking about his problems, then boom, he's off to save a group of scientists, literally in the next panel without any real sort of transition. While it is cool to see Hellcat here, I'm not sure why she's here yet. It was cool to see Korvac return though, and I hope this book does something interesting with him. more

Enjoyed this quite a bit. The ending did feel a little rushed though, but that's to be expected when each of these issues needs to progress so much of the story forward. I love the design of the swords, it's so awesome. Art was also great. Onwards X of Swords

This was really good! I don't know if it was just Silva's art that elevated much of the issue, but this was a perfect Fantastic Four issue in my opinion. It has the themes of family, sci-fi adventure, and team ups that make up everything I could want in an FF issue. And it was all contained in one issue! I really love that, since it doesn't drag out storylines over multiple issues, which makes some stories a slog to read. As I mentioned earlier, the art is amazing. Silva brings the cinematic feel that this story needed. It feels grand and adventurous, the colors pop off the page, making it even more vibrant. I'm looking forward to more Fantastic Four if this is par for the course. more

HE DOESN'T MISS

Zdarsky continues with just another hit. Setting up so much awesome stuff for the future. Seeing Mike (at least I believe that's Mike, it's the only way that makes sense) at the end was such a cool twist. A new Kingpin and another epic story are teased as well. Despite it being a grounded book, Zdarsky manages to tell a complex and interesting narrative. Daredevil continues to be one of the best books on sale. more

Solid solid. Provides a lot of backstory for Apocalypse and his motivations for this entire event. I'm liking these stories of how the characters get the swords more than looking forward to the actual fight itself. The art in this issue is also great, Asrar succeeds in the unenviable task of following up Leinil Yu.

Weakest issue of X of Swords so far, but still fun adventure. Hey, they can't be all home runs. It doesn't really provide any more info than what we already know. We know that Cable had the sword he is gonna use already, this kind of just had an adventure with the Summers Family on the Peak, which itself was cool, but doesn't seem to tie into the event really. Still, I'm very interested with how that ties into either this series or the new SWORD series Al Ewing is writing. more

This series has been good even before this event. But this issue was awesome. It's a unique take on what the Hellions will do for this event. And it's just fun! the dialogue, the interactions, the premise, it's all just comic book hijinks that feels fun and doesn't distract from the overall point to the event. Love to see what happens next with the Hellions. The art is also fantastic. It feels good to have the X-Men books back on top of their game after so many years more

First things first, you should most definitely read those tie-in issues that came out before this. I don't know why they didn't just call those #4-6 and make this event longer. Those issues are crucial to understand what has happened in between #3 and this one. Now that that is out of the way, this issue was alright. Nothing amazing, nothing horrible. Oddly enough it feels like Final Crisis in the way that it jumps around not just cities and locations, but universes without really warning the reader or gradually transitioning to it. The pacing of the story itself was also very strange, there's one page where it cuts from Superboy Prime punch into him just with Batman, WW, and Superman all together. It felt like a couple pages were missing in between those two pages. And this story also requires extensive knowledge of the multiverse, similar to Final Crisis as well. But luckily, this series is not as confusing or jumbled as Final Crisis was. The art is amazing, I'll miss Greg Capullo drawing Batman. I'd only recommend this to people who are already on the train. Those who are not into Snyder's Justice League or his writing would definitely not like this at all. more

More more more more x of swords please. Loved seeing storm take center stage. She hasn't done much really except in the Giant Size X-Men book and this one. Awesome to see her be able to hold her own and really show how powerful she is by just hammering through Wakanda. People think the Black Panther Storm relationship is weird, but I personally really like it, and I liked that Black Panther is written well here (something lacking in his own book, which is MIA). All the characters are well written as well. The art is fine, I'm not a big fan of Matteo Lolli, I feel like his faces look a little off. His art also lacks a lot of detail, it feels like the colorist and inker really carry the art. It's still fine though, and it's much better than a lot of art I've seen in mainstream books. Great week for X of Swords more

Just more of the same from my review of Wolverine. Cool ending that leaves some ambiguity, possibly teasing something after X of Swords. Nevertheless, still so hyped to read this event