Weak end to Hickman ternure on X-men books

Wow. Not surprising that yet again, Hickman nails the ending of his run but also keeps it open for the other writers to expand and explore new concepts with the groundwork he established. His goal was simple: fix the X-Men. And I believe he has done that. Hopefully post-Hickman is still compelling but I just have to applaud him for making the X family of books a talking point again.

Hickman does it yet again.

Can't believe that the end of this series is almost here. Hickman's time on the X-Men has been nothing short of revolutionary and this issue is a perfect exhibit of why. He masterfully juggles multiple converging plots as Moira's best laid plans begin to quickly unravel. Her need for every mutant to stick to her well-lived script has ultimately been her undoing.

With so many mutants pulling in opposite directions, Moira has been unable to stay one step ahead. Mystique, Emma Frost, Magneto, Charles, and even Cypher are all doing what they believe is best to protect their new nation. The Karima plot this issue was enlightening and provided a great twist not only on Hickman's HoXPoX, but on Days of Future Past as well.

I'm incredibly excited to see how Hickman wraps this all up. The fuse has now been lit and all that's left is to watch the fireworks. more

This book is a meme at this point, a bad meme, Zac Thompson has some mental issues.

Possibly the best comic DC is putting out right now, now that Hellblazer is over.

"Supes." That's what Gene Luen Yang thinks The Batman calls Superman.
That is how much Mr. Yang understands the Batman character. "Supes."
How many times in past 80+ years has The Batman called Superman "Supes"? That's right.

The Magistrate regime just happens to have a facility to develop artificial Kryptonite, with all types of Kryptonite weapons on hand. And schizophrenic Professor Pyg is supposed to have the capability to readily and instantly (?) clone parts of Superman, and monster versions of Superman. Because.... yes, Mr. Yang never explains any of that.... because after all, then you would need a plot.

The good news: thank goodness it was ONLY two issues and just $8 that you will never see again. Not like $32 for four issues of The New Batman, for example.

Batman of Zur-En-Arrh and Batmite were infinitely more credible, and less grim. But the goal of rationalizing the all powerful nature of The Magistrate regime in Gotham is the propaganda that is the only priority in the Future State bat stories.
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Alright so Zdarsky is officially a top 3 Daredevil writer

god the dialogue

Just bad. None of it makes any sense. Clownhunter is just a poor retread of Damian. Ghost Maker goes from being violently against the very concept of Batman to being his partner in 5 pages. Made worse by the “I don’t have a butler anymore” line

This issue is just dumb. Nothing happens. Bao, I mean Clownhunter tries to kill Harley but can't because of the power of love. Harley says sure I killed a lot of people and destroyed your life, but oppsie and I absolutely deserve to walk free because I'm a victim, and you're a victim and those dozens of people you brutally killed using psychotic methods totally had it coming.

Shadowkiller or Ghostslaughter or whatever, maintains caring about people will get Bruce killed. He says it hasn't so far. But caring about people Bruce's way sure has gotten a lot of other people killed. I am talking about thousands. Thanks to DC's love of body counts, letting the Joker live means thousands of innoncent people die every year because of Batman. I don't think that's the message DC wants to give, but that's what they're doing.

The action is stupid. I mean just stupid. Clownkiller, who hasn't hestitated to kill nameless victims, has a sword over Harley's neck. He just holds it there giving Bruce time to literally break his bonds, grab a batarang from his belt that Ghoststabber left on his body while tying him up. Bruce is able to throw the batarang to Harley, she catches it and then gets into a defensive position and talks about the healing power of forgiveness. Clownpiethrower breaks down and everybody hugs and it's cake for everyone.

All this action has to take time, yet Clownboy just holds the the sword over Harley's neck.

Even Ghost boy says he did everything he did to prove a point to Bruce. Which is what the Joker did in The Dark Knight. Bruce says I need help, I am getting older and don't have billions and Alfred is gone and Catwoman left me and my pickup truck has a flat and my dog died. So I could use help just don't kill anyone. Apparently, torture and planting evidence and crippling people is OK, just don't kill.

This issue is bad for so many reasons. Pacing is SOOO SSLLOOWW. Characters act out of character. A kid who has KILLED dozens brutally just changes. That's not the way things work. Harley is not nuts. She just shrugs off stuff and is sane. That's not Harley. Ghostkisser really just wants something and agrees to work with Bruce. Bruce really lets mass murderers off the hook with a hug. He says he needs help despite the fact that he's got more allies than ever. What with Spoiler and Cass as Batgirls (an ideal I really like - see I can be positive and enthusiastic), a couple of Robins, Nightwing, Huntress, Oracle and maybe Catwoman and her crew.

Why does Bruce need one more ally. He talks about reduced resources, but I don't see it. He says he doesn't have allies in government, but the Commish is still his fried.

This issue is saying things that aren't true and I really dislike all these mass murderers getting left off the hook. I am for rehabilitation, but murder is something else. Prison is also for punishment and these killers have been left off the hook.

The art was nice, but the action was nothing.

Or I could be wrong. more

This whole thing feels unearned and inconsequential with its over-the-top story. It's a discombobulated mess! It leaves one both underwhelmed and unfulfilled by the end :/ Honestly, is Snyder 5 years old? Because the script certainly feels that way. Juvenile and callow. It's a rushed and crammed filled event with no clear goal except to kill off DC, I think. If you're into that kind of thing, great. But if you're a fan of superhero storytelling, yeah, this ain't it chief...

Art is fine. The colors and inks are stellar tho ngl. more

Yeah, I think by now we've had enough of Snyder's lunacy, we've indulged him for far too long.

This does the whole radicalization thing that Punchline tried to do, but better. But I guess Punchline was going for a newer, internet addled sort of indoctrination, versus this more classic form of it. But still this did it better. Again, I try not to think of this comic as something related to Watchmen, and I find myself enjoying it. I feel like that's how this book should be read.

Yeah, this is really not good. It's something but it's not Hellblazer. I don't enjoy what I'm reading. If DC wants to do these miniseries, just get Spurrier to write them.

Not interest in Nobody 3.0

Spurrier's take on Constantine continues to be legendary. This whole issue drips with dark political relevance without feeling on the nose or preachy. The page showing John's reaction to what he finds below Parliament is absolutely beautiful, too. This run stands with ease next to Delano's old Vertigo stuff, and is, in my opinion, head and shoulders above Ennis'.

Another terrific issue with solid writing and excellent, atmospheric art. This whole series has been of the highest quality right from the start. With the sad news of its cancellation still ringing in fans' ears, we can only hope next month's final issue goes out with a satisfying bang.

Once again we see nothing happen. We are told that Catwoman has to deal with her enemies, that Lucius has Bruce's money and Bruce will have it back if he wants, but eyes will be on him so he can't spend it.

Bruce never asks for the money back and says he'll move into a brownstone in the city that he didn't even know he owned. We're told that the city changed and all the Joker goons just took off their masks so no one knows who they are but apparently Clownkiller is tracking them down.

Again, that's not how money works. If Joker paid the goons, then there is a money trail. The Board pays off Bruce, but he owns the stock. Stock deals can be nullified when fraud is proven. Lucius says he has tens of billions of dollars in cash, but Bruce didn't have a Scrooge McDuck money bin. His assets were stock, real estate, etc. These aren't liquid assets. Converting them to cash would be impossible even if a whiff of fraud were suspected.

So what assets does Bruce have? We don't know. We are told that he can't spend what money he has without receiving attention, so if he breaks the batmobile, he'll have to fix it without using Wayne Enterprises resources. I don't think he ever did that because employees would have had to do the work and why would they keep their mouths shut?

Bruce living in the city. Already been done. This whole slimmed down Batman goes back to the VIP concept launched when Robin went to college. There is nothing new under the sun with Tynion. Keeping Catwoman and Batman apart is just annoying. We still really haven't dealt with Alfred's death.

All this is a rehash of stuff that's been done before and the fear of actually going forward with the character development that people actually like - Bat/Cat - built on a foundation of unbelievable financial structure. What will happen to all the charities Bruce supports? We don't know. He used his fortune to help a lot of people, is that money gone. The way foundations work doesn't even seem to have a play in this world.

I am not impressed, but I could be wrong. more

Tom Taylor makes a decent attempt at John Constantine but it’s just not authentic. The art, dialogue and general feel of this book is very much reminiscent of the dark days of New 52. It’s genuinely hard to understand how the recent Si Spurrier series wasn’t renewed or which John Constantine DC actually want

#Savehellblazer. This comic was good but Spurrier's hellblazer was MASTERPIECE.

there's nothing good about this issue, other than a couple jabs at rich people here and there. the art is terrible, the characterization of John feels (unfortunately) more New 52 than Vertigo, with a flaming hand at one point, and glowing sigils on his walls, Lucifer is bastardized once more, disrespecting the fantastic character masterfully written by Neil Gaiman and Mike Carey, and worst of all, this issue presents cops as decent people, and even has John refer to one of them as "a good'n." gross.

DC should cancel this thoroughly disappointing title immediately, and renew the masterpiece Si Spurrier's been writing. that's the Hellblazer we need. more