The notion of Joker's biggest nightmare being that he's stuck in a call center is brilliant.

If only they had stuck with that, it could have been fantastic. But alas, the character reverted to form.

Art was fine.

I don't give 10s lightly, for a perfect score means nothing can be better.

Barry Windsor-Smith, with his words and artwork, has made such a book. It is brilliantly crafted. I don't want to say much more than to urge you to get your hands on the book and aavor every page.

NOW we're cooking! Miriam's strange powers explained. Mole agents exposed, and the FBI agents orginally on the case are sidelined. Even a nice little action sequence.

The art isn't my favorite, but it's good enough to tell the story.

At this point, I'd suggest trade waiting on this "kinda sorta rooted in reality" spy thriller if such things interest you.

Wow. WOW. So much to process. Okay, basic premise is what if, in the American world of Mad Max, a society of "Ranger Scouts" organized as a quasi-religious cult based around the 7 Laws of their founder? As insane as this sounds, it works really well. (But all is not what it seems...)

Art and coloring are excellent complements to the script, too.

That said, and I appreciate it as fiction, this book presents probably the worst extreme of how one conveys Scouting. I am VERY familiar with this subculture, being an active Scout leader, and this is the logical extension of the hyper-conservative Scouting movement. Pepose knows what he's doing, and he capitalizes on the nuttiness to make a very compelling opening chapter. I'm reading it through gritted (Is that a word?) teeth, and it's on point.

Highly recommended. more

Extinction Day....the kids rush to the train that will take them to the evacuation ship, but (of course) there's interference. Chaos ensues. The train scene has the same overtones as the beginning of Snowpiercer. Well told, very well drawn. And I enjoy the coloring...very bright and almost cheerful, which is odd for an end of the world book.

One thing I did not indulge on past issues is the QR codes inserted in each issue offering a musical soundtrack to key scenes in the books. I scanned a code for this book, and the combination of scene (art and story) and audio was really neat. The codes link to YouTube videos, so they should be out there for a while if you get in late. Fun to check out. more

The creature is in the house and spends the issue getting acclimated. He reads some robot comic and figures that to be the template, so he cannibalizes the electronics and machinery in the house. Fun reveal at the end!

Cute piece, but we're halfway through this miniseries without much happening.

Art has a cartoony flair.

The "10 minutes of powers per day" leaves a lot of tine to fill. It's a lot of young high school stuff, and that's not appealing to this reader. Think an old school Peter Parker book with only sporadic Spider-Man.

Art is manga-inspired.

In this sci-fi book, four buddies take an adventure vacation to a resort on a wild planet. They run afoul of the locals and lost control of their craft a few hundred miles away from home base. They're left to their own skills to get back but have to contend with po'd locals, wild creatures and unforgiving terrain/climate.

Story is ok, art is never better than "could be better" and occasionally drifts into distractingly bad.
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What appears to be an oversized book (but still 3.99) with 5 vignettes featuring origin stories of characters who survived the pandemic that killed millions and left a very few with extraordinary powers.

Straczynski writes with a detached style, and that made the initial miniseries a bit of a slog. Promising concept, just muddled execution. Well this is different as JMS has maybe 8 pages per character to establish the origin and the environment going forward. It's still written at a higher level than your run of the mill Big 2 book, but that makes the book that much more engaging of a read.

The story alone was satisfying enough, but the art was unique and REALLY good. Truthfully, it looks like heavily processed photography. Realistic lines, amazing color usage, fascinating duotone effects. Not sure I've seen a book like it. Maybe Bendis' Pearl from his JinxWorld line. Panels are big and few per page, making me wonder if this is a print reproduction of their web comics that they post on their site.

Regardless, the art and story together makes this a must-get book for the AWA/Upshot-verse curious. Just when I was getting ready to bail over the lightweight E-Ratic, they pull me back in... more

The colors muted a bit with this issue, but the story blossomed.

The Big Reveal happened, and it was done with a calm that would make this issue a talker if it wasn't so interesting and, dare I say, fun. The stakes are laid out, and the last 3 issues look to be exciting. That said, there's a question of "Why push forward?" that this issue suggests. I'm interested in seeing if the creators decide to address it.

The art is still good, perhaps not as eye-opening as the first issues but so much more visually appealing than the stock crap of so many other titles. Experimentation is good! more

The assault on the Secrets is in full swing, with plenty of action and craziness. Two of the Secrets' cases are opened, which is good to see as I was well on my way to thinking that Taylor was screwing with everyone ("There's nothing in the cases!"). The character moments were traditionally Taylor strong. The supernatural elements...well, we'll have to see how this plays out.

Art is the manga-inspired stuff that the kids love, very dynamic.

This is the strangest title. I kinda like it, kinda love elements (It was on my honorable mention list for 2020's best books), kinda want to drop it. But I keep coming back. more

Book One of the second story arc. Ewing's writing on a couple of levels, and I'm afraid that he's entirely lost me on the deeper one. The "gotta repair the ship and GTF outta there" theme is pretty easy, but the crew is trying to work out some backstory that suggests Georges, the ship's captain and protagonist, has a very cloudy history.

Then we cut to a different ship, different crew...and what appears to be an angry, >>very alive<< God.

Art by Simone Di Mio continues to be stunning. The combination of layouts and lens flares all over the place on coloring make for a wild visual ride. I won't lie and say that I'm not buying this book for the art. It's that good. more

Donny Cates opens with a discussion of the ending of Watchmen and how it was a catalyst for peace and cooperation. He then says when we had our real catalyst (9/11), all we did was "[build] bigger bombs." Damn, that's fine writing.

While I could sit and ponder the opening pages for an hour, I'll try to write the rest. Cates again proves an insightful and easy read. No obtuse Al Ewing. No novellas de Tynion. Just a straightforward book with wry asides and observations.

The book revolves around Ellie and Ava trying to return to the dome to reunite with their respective parents. The subplot of the evil peacher's son merges (literally) on the road. But a Godzilla/Shogun Warrior battle breaks out of the dome, panic ensues and Cates' The Paybacks swoop in to save the day.

Geoff Shaw's art largely is basic Big 2 house style, but it fits the title like a glove. more

Apparently the start of the third arc. Let no grass grow, eh?

Anyway, the lesson I took from this issue is that nobody is dead for long in FP-verse. But there are lots of good moments - Owen and...his wife...getting right with each other, then with the kids. The grandparents are supportive and add levity. And it looks like the bad guys are revving up again once they realize that their attack didn't yield the desired result.

As for art, Chris Samnee is great. One of my favorites right now. more

As we venture far astray from the top tier of indie books, we have Post Americana. I bought in because I loved Steve Skroce's art from We Stand On Guard by Brian K Vaughan. Lesson learned? As a writer, Skroce is...a great artist for Brian K Vaughan.

The story this issue involves our protagonists escaping from a cannibal cult camp and the President and his bunkerized government getting ready to attack the terrorists...errrr....resistance.

Skroce's art is OK...a couple whiffs on plastic-looking faces, but largely he's held back visually by the subject matter he wrote.
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Ash is back on the beat, but not quite as orthodox as before. She'll let a replicant slide here and there. And that gets her access that she wouldn't otherwise have. Now, she's tracking down a death at the under-construction seawall, and it doesn't look like the death is a replicant. This issue represents a ton of gumshoe sleuthing, and that means world building as we see even more of the Blade Runner world.

Andres Guinaldo's art is really strong in this issue; in fact, I'd suggest the Peach Momoko cover is the least impressive art in the book. Guinaldo's coming into his own, and that's exciting on a book that can be as visually wild as this.

Not my favorite issue ever, but one that I can appreciate as a means to get through the story. Keep it coming! more

One of the downsides of these awesome looking covers is that you then have to open the book and see that the interior art sometimes doesn't live up to the excitement. This is totally the case here, where a great looking Frank Cho cover obscures what is run-of-the-mill, cartoony character work inside.

The story is a down-on-his-luck writer who has to move back into his parents' house because he's loaded up on debt and out of options. He goes out drinking with his hometown buddy and...well...the superhero origin stuff happens. The plot is simplistic and predictable. The scripting is adequate.

Truthfully, I'm surprised Image ran it because it's so Big 2-derivative. There's nothing special about it. more

The protagonists and their hunter have indeed found a live God. But the hunter doesn't care. How do Malik and the small crew of the Vihaan II get out of it? Gotta read the book!

Ewing's story is dense, which is interesting as it's anything but over-written. Every word has meaning, and it takes a study of the page to get where it's headed (and I'm not sure that I do).

But Simone DiMio's art and colors are the star of the book once again. Lavish work, just gorgeous. more

Another "after the fall" story, this time where a guy holed up in the safe bunker meets up with a girl from the insane wastelands that used to be America. With lots of cannibalism. Lots. There's lots of world-building, but it's largely Mad Max-style screwball stuff.

Art by Steve Skroce (who also writes) is reasonable if a touch fanzine-ish.

In all, this is perhaps the cheesiest of the dystopian batch of books to have arrived since covid-19 hit. But a little corny fun isn't all bad. more

This book lost me. Not regretting dropping it.

Ash is back as a Blade Runner, but she has a heart and only retires the ones who need to be. She lets others go free. And Ash appears to have a replicant girlfriend. Anyway, she's off to track down replicants working on a massive seawall project. She finds one, but he commits suicide after giving a cryptic statement. And the story begins.

Art is very good. Andres Guinaldo has a way with big spaces, big scenes. And he does the Blade Runner world quite well.

Fun book. more

I have a sneaking suspicion that I am missing a layer or three in this one, but the part that stuck with me was the aftermath of the trauma of Ozymandias' squid disaster - even as far away as Wyoming. The ensuing craziness has so many parallels to how America reeled after 9/11. It's profound and really quite sad, showing us how we often internalize the wrong lessons.

Not really sure where this title is going - if fan observations about Tom King are true, I bet neither he nor DC know either - but the vignette presented was worth the read.

Fornes' art is fine in service to the story, offering homages to Gibbons without doing so slavishly. There's a "Watchmen style", and he does it well. more

A worthy read.

I love using Ordway's art on the actual Earth Prime sections.

The story is BY AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE the best in the Death Metal collection...which is more a statement about the terrible weakness of Death Metal, because the the story is good but not great.

Small nitpick: If Superboy-Prime was returned to 1985, why would Laurie be joking about comics coming out on Tuesdays instead of Wednesdays? Methinks Johns was being snarky. more

Same silliness. Same stupid plot. Different issue.

Capullo clearly was trying, but his work seems so much looser and lighter than his first issues.

On the bright side, it's almost over.

Cates slaughters his writer buddies off camera. The relationship between those outside of the bubble ("real life") and in the bubble ("comics life") is explored. Those outside are rough on the comics folk who get out. Wonder is it's the same vice versa. The preacher's kid is being compelled to go to the bubble. The comic shop girl in the domino mask wants to take the refugee comic girl to the bubble. I think we can see how this first arc is setting up.

Art is unremarkable, which in this case means it doesn't detract from the story. I love the coloring effect of using pre-digital color separation dots on the comic world refugees. The gimmick works both for the purpose intended and to quickly identify the different states of being.

Anyway, Cates is an easy, enjoyable read. No slogging here, but the story is plenty interesting enough to continue. more

There was this whole arc of the Seinfeld TV show about making a show that literally was about nothing. And Jerry and George delivered the pitch, wowing the execs with this notion that they could deliver a terrific show about absolutely nothing.

Not to make light of Seven Secrets, but I wonder if Tom Taylor made a similar pitch for this book.

Five issues in, and we have a core group of characters (keepers and holders on one side, seekers on the other). We have genuine plot movement -- the seven bases under attack, forcing consolidation of the bases to one mountainous site...and that causes other big issues. Lots of action, lots of Tom Taylor Moments™. It's good stuff.

But we still have no idea what the secrets themselves are all about. It's a tribute to Taylor's writing that he can go for five rather interesting issues without divulging the macguffin. It's also a profound statement that the most intriguing part of the book is the teaser to end the opening 6-issue arc: "Next issue: The secrets revealed!" Just saying.

Art is fine - strong layouts, expressive anime/cartoony-inspired characters. While not my thing, it works for the story....which goes to show how good the story is. more

A frustrating part of the recent flood of dystopian comics and the modern move to write for trades and thus skip the "story thus far" recap at the top of each issue is that it takes a few pages to reorient oneself to "this" story. Fortunately, the Big Backstory happened in the front of this issue, and it is awesome. So well conceived, so well executed. You come out feeling for the main character, understanding the stakes.

And the art! The only thing "comic-y" about it is that they use sequential panels. The characters, the coloring (especially the coloring!) more resembles miniature modernist paintings.

This book is great. Go treat yourself to it, grab the first 2 issues at your LCS today. more

Presumably cute robots escape from a lab and wind up at a home in the suburbs. Nothing really past that in issue 1, in fact a book so short on content that they had room for 3 pages of writer/creator reflections (in really big, poorly-laid out type) and 5 pages of an E-Ratic preview.

Cullen Bunn's story isn't much - introduces the lab, introduces the family, introduces the still largely-shrouded robots...and that's it. And only 3 more issues in this miniseries...gotta pick up the pace!

Nelson Blake II's art is straight out of Disney animation, so much so that I'd be surprised if some streamer doesn't pick this one up sooner than later.

Snakebite Cortez's coloring, considering the simple artwork, is terribly overwrought...shadings and smudges where a clean, flat color scheme would be more than sufficient (and perhaps would lend even more to the kids' animation style).

Not sure I would recommend this one unless what I've described totally is your thing. The sub-par rating is purely a function of the fact that Bunn had pages to tell the story and chose note to do so. When you only start with 25-ish pages of sequential art, that's unforgiveable and leaves the customer feeling taken. more

A highly professional, slickly produced re-production of the Spider-Man character for the 2020's. The hero gets his powers for only 10 minutes a day, so - as the book says - that leaves a crap-ton of time for everything else related to life....like starting a new high school, meeting teachers and future friends/enemies/romantic interests, learning about his Mom's questionable life choices, growing envy of his brother, etc.

AWA's creative guy is Axel Alonzo, who comes from Marvel, and the author/artist is Kaare Andrews, who has experience on Spider-Man. It shows. That's not in a bad way, because they do it quite well. The book follows through on larger AWA-verse trends started in The Resistance, with a worldwide plague knocking off a sizable portion of the global population but leaving a minute group with new powers. I won't give it all away, but it looks like our protagonist isn't the only person so endowed in this title.

For what it is, it's quite good. Andrews offers up a traditional high school soap opera script and art that resembles the character work on Super Sons. It's not my cup of tea, and it's apparent age target is outside of AWA's (thus far) more adult wheelhouse, but I'll go with it through this 5-issue miniseries arc to see what happens. more

It took me a few years after the NFL's Detroit Lions hired Matt Millen for me to completely tune out the team, and I've never come back the same way. Don't get me wrong, I'll watch them when they're on TV, and I guess I'm happy when they win, but I don't set my clocks by the Lions like I used to....and it all started with Millen.

Death Metal is my Matt Millen with DC, I fear. It's working tirelessly to make me not care about their product any more. Here's hoping that Future State relights the fire, because Death Metal has all but snuffed it. more