Criminology.'s Profile

Yeah, I hated this finale. I feel like it's such a betrayal of what that first issue promised, and how it resonated with so many readers. The first issue resonated with me because it spoke to this collective sense that our lives are not our own, that there are forces outside of our control that have directly or indirectly changed the course of all our lives for the worse. In the years since, this feeling has only manifested more as the tyrants at the top continue to make it impossible for us to live our lives how we wish to live them.

This comic is fluff. It has very little to say, it is overflowing with aesthetics. It wants to appear to be a title about family. It wants to appear to be about anti-fascism. It is about neither. Nothing is given time to be reflected on. Harry at one point asks Peter why he's been so passive, and we get a flashback that doesn't really answer the question. He's passive because... he has MJ and the kids? Isn't that in direct conflict with the idea of power and responsibility, even in the butchered, meaningless, mangled version presented in this issue? But you know, Peter seems to be fine with his family being in danger, since we never see any consequences for it or him. Hell, even in this finale, there are zero stakes. Richard must save the world and die in these impossible odds, except actually he's fine.

And to get into the politics of it all, which I will grant colors me extra annoyed here, Hickman is not a stupid writer. He writes things with intent. I don't know what his intent was here, but everything about this issue is repugnant. While you have the Ultimates comic actually deconstructing fascism and showing how people overcome it, this comic insists that passivity is the best course of action. Peter has all these morals on the surface that never get directly challenged, and the comic even subverts them. Peter is anti-killing and anti-torture, on the surface. But he can only defeat Kingpin with biotech Harry and Otto tortured out of a Bullsesye, and so he does, and the day is saved. Except the day isn't saved. With Kingpin dying, he's been replaced by Mysterio, another tyrant at the top. One that gives the people the mercy of ignoring them. And the cast seems fine with it, and why wouldn't they? They get to ignore the problems because the powerful aren't targeting THEM, plus they have millions and millions of dollars now off the back of crime, so they're now unburdened by socioeconomic factors. Everything is fine as long as THEY are okay. The Maker is still in charge, the elite still rule over us, but it's really about family. Peter wasn't missing anything, he just didn't know that he should've been happy with his station in life, the fool.

This title was so many unfulfilled promises, so much fluff, and the joke is on us as the readers for buying it and expecting consequence.more

Well sure this is somewhat exciting. i'm focusing on somewhat. Philips does not really tries to overdo it. In a way i think it's by design. Ignoring the last run, which i mean, it should be mostly ignored, Daredevil is a title that haven't had the time to reset or to chill for a while, by i a while i mean in 20 plus years.

I think this issue sees this, it sees that it needs to start fr om a different place. And btw i get why some people are not exactly full with excitement. It certainly does not have the strong start that Zdarsky's run had and it does not reinvent the wheel. But at the same time i think that this issue combines elements from previous runs in a different way and shows no signs of rushing it story, which create this more laidback feeling. After the tumultuous and druglaced-like run by Ahmed this is something i crave. I create stability and a story that takes its time to build itself without changing beats. And i mean the point of this issue is in a way about Matt being somewhat content with life, even if it's changing and in comfort.

Plus there is the feeling that Matt is getting old, but not old as dramatically old, but more laidback, more secure, less impusive and intense. More like embracing his inner unc. Going for a beer and not rushing life and accepting it without being that much motivated to do something new or intese all the time. He knows his demons and garden.

I feel like this reads too positive and i mean it is, but there are things that i personally do not connect to. I think that Philips is not a bad writer at all, matter of fact i've always seen her as a very big fan of the characters she write and a very open person to the process and so on. But she could be a bit bland in her voices and i think this is an issue here. The lack of intensity can be fealt the characterizations and the aura so to say.This is an issue. It's an issue because it makes some scenes cluncky and disonant.

It makes the issue fine, but just that. Like even when the comics started to form some kind of theme, it delivers it in a very lifeless way, very expected way. I guys the weaknesses are related to this issue's strong points. Still i can say that at the end, the tone shifted well. The feeling of unsureness started to creep very well. And obviously it goes well with the idea that maybe actually Matt should not be as sure and comfortable as he is.

Another thing is Garbett. He kinda embody all my complains too. His art lack impact and fluidity, adding that his style as a whole does not really bring more to the table too. It feels rushed and does not wake much in me. Sure that are some nice compositions here and there, but the visual flavor here is not all that.more

I'm legit mindblown, this run losses me more and more. I was so excited for this big story, that was promised for like 25 issues by now. I understand what the story is saying, it establishes a link between the avengers and the court and how the impossible city is bassicly meant to be their ship, but why? what does it accomplish in the long run? They were meant to be the avengers and bassicly becam e them, which is triumphant on paper, but also it feels underdeveloped because their struggle is told in words and in fast forwarding. And it's a whole issue of it. It's both stale, not fluid and long.

So we establish this complex cycle in an issue about characters that are very underdeveloped in a story that was supposed to big and grandiose, that we've been waiting for, but it is so terribly paced that losses all its juice and momentum. This is a fail for me.

Maybe we will see the conection, maybe the avengers will win because of the city, which in turn would be because of the court, which in turn would be because of the avengers. So in turn to be a team player in defined role makes for a better society i guess? idk it feels like grasping at straws by now. This story is lost in its complexity, i hope that next issue would make things make more sense at least.more

Dumb yet glorious. I think that this is the perfect comics for early teen boys and certainly it manages to encapsulape why hulk is so popular with this demographic. North gets it very well and writes a very dumb comic,a very simple comic, but a very earnest one, that uses symbols that young boys like and find cool, without being edgy. Between all the drama and depth that hulk has, sometimes is goo d to just smash everything,to not think, but enjoy the destruction which sometimes/lately hulk forgets to do, even it is the core of the character.more

This is issue is solely based of hype, which is like Williamson's favorite genre, so to me it feels somewhat hollow. Still only somewhat.

I like that it pushes the charactezation and the struggle from the Zdarsky's run, but at the same time, it feels like it goes too much into the same direction, even after we got nearly a whole run dealing with the same issues of ''batman seeing his o bssesiveness get the better of him in a different time period and paying the price,which is something incompatible with the robin''. I feel like it's a little bit too early to go through the same arc. I mean we could get a developmnet on the theme obviously, it may push into a direction of actually bats retiring, which i would support or it could even push further into Zdarsky's ideas of him getting older and unfit.

This is like part of the issue, another part of the issue is seeing how Dick as batman, which i found nice. It feels as he has said, that he took the concept to a new hights while also embracing his past with the titans and finding ways to be more effective, while being the same person. There is a ressentment present, which gets explored a little bit too, it may be touched upon more in the future. I like this, i like when Bruce and Dick have more antagonistic relationship. It makes for a more interesting read and i like how we see they have totally different ideas of what the other wants.

Williamson manages to do all those stuff fairly quick and surgically. He gets some core ideas about the characters and what they means, without going too in depth, but present in a clear manner the themes and the ideas, which i also find fitting in a issue that is supposed to be just hype, but it also comes with some caveats.When you get deeper you would see how poorly constructed it is, how those 2 people do not have a reason to find and can resolve the issue very easily if they wanted to.Or how the whole issue is a fight with some talking and then fight again, while bruce mostly just stays there. What i mean getting into is that is doing a storytelling that would be considered nuanced, it does not tries to build its moments or anything like that. It fires right away with just enough depth to be understood immediatly but to stil keep your brain active.

So overall for what is it, is good. The voices feel natural and the characters understood. At it's core this is a spectacle issue and i think it does exactly what is expected out of an issue like it.more

I had this vibe, but i was not sure. Now i am. This is definitely inspired by norm breyfogle and alan grant.

I feel like this is a run that is deeply imperfect, but is intriguing.It's almost paradoxical. It's also weirdly scattered. One could say that this arc is a fruit of a long planning, but i would say that it is a fruit of everything flaw of this run and for me it ends up feeling somewhat hollow.It's weird comics for sure, because it is neither plot driven,the plots are simplistic and everything eve n confusing explaned, like actually not much happens, but is neither character driven, because even if it has an understading on symbolical level of the characters they do not mold the plot that much or are developed.

This is an issue after a whole issue that breaks the pace, an issue that even if i consider really good as a stand alone feels not in its right place and like it's own universe. And we are pretty much in the same place,where we've left for half an issue. What i am getting at is that we are spending too much time on useless battles and not progressing neither of the elements present here or not developing certain brushed plot points that are going to return, so this way they are not hitting. Now i like how the avengers managed to work as team, everybody filling up there role established in the first issue, that's how they made the bomb. Like look at their archetypes and you would see. This is a cool idea, Mckay gives each of them a defining role, which helps to understand and interpret the character. and they made the city, because people make the city like them, but they only modernized what it was the primary idea of the city of heroes.

Like on symbolical level is great, nearly everything here is good on symbolical level, but the way it happens is so bare bones with so much over explaning the plot, with so bloated pace etc. This comics should be better than the sum of its moments.more

I feel like concept of status quo of cloak and dagger is really nice. They are bassicly divorced parents not because of the condition they find themselfs in, not because a lack of love. They are accustoment to it already and the say is treated is mature. Where my issue is how unnispired the plot of the twins is and how untied is it to what cloak and dagger are going through. it ends up feeling lik e a comics that they are not integral part of and could be switched off with someone else.more

I feel like this is one of the best or not the best out of this event. It managed to be feel both like an issue and lay the foundations of the lore plus it presented very interesting internal conflicts and development for the characters in way that feels smooth and somewhat part of the story. It's not a small feat because a lot of books for me do not manage to do both. Dani as Cap is perfection fo r this specific moment and the potential for more personal conflict with revelation is there and is even alluded to. It does not reimangine the formula, but based on what is presented there is a lot that i am excited about. The art was also quite nice. Overall really solid work, but i would wait to see more action and development before a further judgement.more

This is a comics i don't think i get. I don't connect much to it much emotionally. to the dialogue or how certain things affect the characters. i like some ideas, on paper i appreciate some arcs but i think somewhere in the translation things got lost to me.The end i think it's a bit rushed too. Even if it's one of the main driving forces for this comics to be so beloved i don't think it was naile d.

I liked how it tries to feel nostalgia for the start of the comics, seeing how things developed tho, even if it overdoes it maybe a little bit and cramps literal decades of stories and development for the characters into an oversized issue.

The message of how powerful love is, being understanding toward your enemy and learning to rise above your biases is the best things this comics has going for and executes it quite well. more

It seems that ever since Grant Morrison and Scott Snyder finished their Batman runs, every writer starts off strong but in the end falls flat. Tom King's run started off strong with his first arcs (The I am Trilogy) but then falls flat at City of Bane. I am one of the minority who personally enjoys James Tynion IV's Batman run, but I think it is very shallow. Joshua Williamson's filler run was not that bad, but it was forgettable. Chip Zdarsky starts off really strong with Failsafe, and while I did enjoy Dark Prisons ending (as that was Chip Zdarsky's true resolution), DC forced him to pad out and it ended flat post Absolute Power. I can tell that Zdarsky told everything he wanted about Zur-En-Arrh and wrapped up everything, but didn't know what to do with Vandal Savage.

My point being is that I was nervous coming into this run, but now I'm excited, and I pray that Matt Fraction run stays consistent. Jorge Jiminez is the definitive Batman artist of the 2020s, and it's like his work keeps on getting better and better. I Love how vibrant and pop this initial issue looks compared to James Tynion IV and Chip Zdarsky. It's very bright and colorful, I like Batman's new suit, and it is so nice to have a blue and gray suit instead of the black and gray suit. This is the exception where the trunks works.

I love AI Alfred, I like how this run really emphasizes Bruce's technology. I like how Matt Fraction doesn't want to deconstruct or break down Batman, but just make him have fun adventures. I like how Bruce talks to Killer Croc and opens up his trauma. I even like how Batman uses technology to solve mystery, similar to Christian Bale's Batman. Overall, while this debut issue isn't as action packed compared to Scott Snyder, Tom King, Joshua Williamson, and Chip Zdarsky. But after seeing Batman getting beat down and question his motivations..... it's nice to see Batman be hopeful for once.more

This was a more exciting issue compared to the debut with more action. But it also has great characterization for Tim Drake, and I love the chemistry between Tim and Bruce. It seems that DC remembers Dick Grayson as Batman's greatest sidekick, Jason Todd as violent Red Hood, and Damian as Bruce's son. But they dont seem to know what to do with Tim Drake, seeing as he's normal.

But that' s what makes him special compared to the most talented gymnast, an edgy punk, and a trained assassin. That's what makes him stands out in a good way. Believe it or not, Tim Drake is the reason why Robin was popular in the general audience, not Dick Grayson. I love his fight in the comic, and the crooked cop. This is just harmless fun simple adventure that we seen before, but it's executed well.

And Jorge Jiminez's art dazzles me. While it's not as flashy as Zdarsky or James Tynion IV, he is just having fun drawing light-hearted Batman. And I'm all here for it. I also do like Matt Fraction's writing and notes on the Bat-tech. It just hits well for memore

I like how alive Gotham feels, it reminds me of Alan Grant's tec in this aspect, albeit it's done very differently.

This run for me goes contantly from being meh to being good to being meh again, it's crazy that it have been 10 issues already and my opinion shifts so much and at the same time, we are pretty much at zero point. I feel like it has a weird identity or we are just too early.

This issue for me serves as an aftermath to the sureality of last few issues, issue that personally i did not enjo y much when reading. It puts Nightwing back into the real issues that plague the city.I have some stuff with how the issue feels somewhat hollow and forgettable. Obviously not every issue needs to be a banger, but this particually i feel have some pretty big flaws and feels stiched togheter not so good. We get this fight that feels weightless and does not have much stakes and then the issue focus on it's others plot and even then it does not do a great job with them. It did not flow well with me. The whole issue feels incomplete.

Personally i would have liked to see more of nightwing primes dealing with his powers, more of a day to day life in bludhaven. I feel like we had a skip, that feels actually cutting some important stuff. At the same time this issue have a lot of things that feel obligatory and not that flesh out like how the league came, all of them felt stilted, emotionless in their voices.There is something to be said about dexter soy and how a lot of what we see here does not play with his straights, but even then the dialogue was really bleak.

Generally i know some people like Zanni and co, but personally im way more interested in how the cast of character developes and i think Watters does a good job with them. All their developments feel significant and make the city more alive, but i just can't connect zanni to all of it and i think it even takes away from it, something which imo is extra apparent here/

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this is a really interesting title, which sadly would probably be remembered as a small backdrop. around so much mediocrity.

By this point Rucka is probably seen as an old gard guy. Like he has been doing stuff since the 90s like Whiteout(a very good comics that people should check out) and he got pretty big 00s in dc. So he brings in a way this post crisis energy that i find missing i n the way he treats those characters here. Personally i find DC extremely fractured right now and it has been this way for a long time. Not a lot of those iconic old character get the limelight or if they do, they hardly feel like characters, they are very rarely tangable and mostly just there for the one big story and bam they are gone. Continuity is out of the window. I know all this has not much to do with this comics, but it also has a tons to do because it makes those characters are usually just devices breathe and it makes it so efortlessly that it makes it seem like it has always been this way.

the characters feel deep, even if the deep is not explored at the start. Rucka always had such a good way with dealing with things under the surface, with those stuff that are not said. it feels that there is so much more to them and we just see them in this light because the situation is like that, while those characters still snow their nuance and have emotional layers. It's really impressive.

The story is also really feel strictured. It's tight, every issue very clearly defined, inspired maybe even too much by all the steps a heist fictions takes. It's nice because it does not feel slow, it feels purposful, we think with the characters we act with them and follow the processes. It's testament to how well rucka has though out the proccess. we know each step we take and we have to think through them. Again it humanizes the characters and shows us different sides of them in a very nonchalant way, but it shows us all the building blocks even to how for example in this issue the characters try to establish a relationship.

Another standout is the art. I'm just stunned at how art this beatiful goes unnapreciated too. Scott's art is obvious with tons attention to detail, with a lot warmt in it, compassion, but also fluidity in the expressions and the body motions. it feels like just by looking at it you could get the hang of what the characters are feeling. Yeah they are villains, but they are way more relatable, grounded and understandable than the heroes here. Way less flashy and even more mature and the arts helps a lot with this.

Overall it's a masterful comics, a very clear, without any misteps heist comics, very wonderful time that may even grow to something more but even know it's one of the big hits for me from dc and compared to birds of prey it blows them out of the water for me.once it ends i would write another review on it.more

I found this 3 issue story to be really entertaining and in a way a perfect showcase of how a classic doom/f4 story would play out written by North.

What i want to say is that this story carry over all of north quirks that make this run so spectacular, even more so to an extent. it's definitely more consise, it's tense and it's overtop. Some decisions would not make sense in the plot, it may look like plot holes but those decisions are fruit of how animated, how ridicolous are those character. Ofc doom could get rid completely of the 4, it would be easier to do even than scheme such a master plan, but we talk about ego, of pomposity , all things that make way more sense to the character that North writes. what i am getting to is that the decisions make sense for the way North writes. All those are brilliant characters, but are also flawed in a very stupid way and this is part of the fun and this is something that Lee did too. It's a concept like Parker's luck, it does not make sense logically, but it makes the comics way more fun and it fits the atmoshpere.

That being said i do think the comics has some things to say. Yeah, those are things that may have been explored before too, but i feel the comics understands this and does not focus this much on them. For example, if we look into how exactly doom got defeated or how exactly the f4 managed to fix their situations we will see that everyone of them did their part, they all worked as a team with no ego, as a well oiled machine to defeat a seemigly undefeatable situation, sometimes having to go through horific things to do this. Even when they go purposely divided, they managed to find a way to work togheter because they knew this is the only way. They sacrificed and sacrificed to go through the obstancles. So it was a good showcase of what makes each member valuable and how togheter they are stronger and they know it, they accepted it, which obviously contrasts victor.

The way north writes Victor here builds on top on what he did in the previous series. In the title he is usually way more ''fun''', way more obviously driven by his innability to accept his mistakes and desire to prove himself. He wears his psychological issues on his sleeve, even if he has a jacket over this sleeve. My point is that it's obvious what drives him and how exactly this need to prove himself the better man, without actually doing the work of becoming the better man is his demise. He believes he is better a priori or at least he wants to believe it. In the end, which is one of those rare moments when this comics actually tells you what it means this becomes obvious, when reed says exactly this, which again shows the difference between him and the four heroes. Still there is something to be said about doom's persistent and power of will of how mindbending, how universe bending is his stuborness and it shows that reality really is in the eye of the beholder. We think he lost because of his endless stuborness that could not match the finite nature of reality, but he does not see it this way.

And for final what i mean by this being a classic tale. This story shows us why doom always losses, it shows us why he is threath, it shows us the extreme version of how every tale of the beggining of time of doom and the f4 goes. its both a simplified version, which makes it classic and both an extreme exaggerated version. Every story beat could be read as question and answer from one party to the other and vice versa, till in the end doom did not have the answer . this create a very cool push and pull to the story, moments of hope next to moments of complete disperation. It's tense, it feels big and at the same time, it never losses it tone and it's track. I think this is exactly what makes this story so masterful, because it manages to both have that timeless quality about it and this have his own voice, while being so entertaining and breathtaking throughout.

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The best Lemire book in years. This is the most I've ever cared about Wally West. I need to know what went down with him and a certain character!

The Absolute line is the best thing going in modern comics.

Unless you're Gabe Hernandez, of course.

There is something to be said of how well how comfortable i've become with those new characters. I can't say this for too many of the new additions elsewhere. It's team effort in realitity, because this comics deals so well with both the old and the new, the new characters humanize the old and the old give them legimacy. The mood of jokes and mocking is a big part for this, it puts all of them on the same plane, they all feel equal both on power dinamic level and on level of the writhing. Everybody is just so sincere with how they act, which leads to the comedy a lot of the time. Based on those dynamics, this is always the first title i pick every week(F4 also).

This issue highlighs all this really well, as every issue of the run does honestly, but this issue even more so, because it connects more literally one of the main theames of the run: how kitty sees herself in those kids.it confronts this theme, how she wants better for the kids, because how much trauma being an x-men gave her. It's a battle of hers, that followed a lot of her comics, from Wheadon's tenure to this run, so its nice that it gets a issue focused on exploring just this, in a run that actually greatly expands in a new direction for her trauma and her growth and calm, even compared to when Wheadon wrote her. She finally finds the answer, finally finds why it was truly worth it. And it is because of the kids, which legitimazed them again and humanizes kitty.

I am sad that this comics is ending, but damn it is a perfect ending.more

in a way this gave me a really big retro vibes. Not only because it looks like it connects to some immortal iron fist, but of the way we are introduced to the narative.

Sure it is fast, but it feels like what is happening is connected to the world around it, in those more random, more natural way, that it did in the 80s for examples. It is a very interesting choice on the writers part because, there is so much that is left unsaid, so many stuff that is said by riddles and is alluded more than confirmed. All this creates excitement in me, it makes me want to learn me and it does it in this fun, naive way which balances so much the potential seriousness and epicness of what this comics could become.

The art albeit it may not be everyones cup of tea, i loved so much. it is so light and dyamic, so striking in the way it moves, it bends and it twisters, it flows and this way it give a lot of expression to the pages. All makes the mood i talked about earlier so well.

Overall i am really excited in the future of this series.
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This is competentent, but to me it feels somewhat creatively bankrupt. From what the city is, to the whole thing Jason is going through. It feels like Nightwing in the 90s and even some more recent red hood comics and maybe it is an effect that the writer wants to achieve, that wants to honor, but for me this comics has a hard time justifying its existance.

There is things to like. For example Jeff Spokes art is spectacular and the visial direction that he decied to follow also. The colors create this heavy hot ambience, that weights on every page. It has this roughness, brutish and again weight, that fits jason really well and the action scenes feel more intese and unpredicable because of it. It feels like not only it has a good idea of atonomy, but also of weight distribution. The visual depiction of the mood of the characters with colors and position is very very nice. the place feel hot, but also frozen in its hotness and dryness. A minor complain would be some page compositon and paneling decision, which ended up maybe a little bit confusing or just were not at the height of some of the others, bacause of which some moments felt blander.

As for the writing, i see a lot of people disliking how jason was written and helena also for that matter. I agree in the sense, that honestly, if we exclude the visuals, both of them do not really show much of a character in the way they speak or think. It could be made the case that it fits the atmosphere of the surronding and the mood, but where the mood of the surrondings feels opressed in heat and almost sureal in its proto rinascimento alla commedia divina glory, the words do not feel as stilled. This is an issue for both the dialogue and the naration, both lack this sense of not only urgency, but realistic intesity.

The plot also fails to grab me too much. I like some of the things that it leaves open, but for some of the other stuff i feel like it rushes and at the same time, does not manage to provide a good enough hook for the next issues. I would have loved to see a more interesting approach to the whole thing, to exploring jason's situation or even developing the current plot, because now both look like half measures and the development we got do not interest me much.

I honestly with the recent news do not know if this would be the last issue of the series. i could see the other issue being better, i could see how it is maybe planned to be better but as i said i truly don't know. I dont know if what Dc decided to do is right or wrong. As a non american is not truly my place to think anything about it, but a person who liked watching debates, i personally did not respect Charlie Kirk, not even because i do not agree with him,there are plenty of people i do not agree with but i do respect, but because of the tactics he used in those debates,the attitude he had in them, the missinformation he spread and the way he presented mostly the debates he felt confident in ''winning''. more