It's fast paced, funny and overall just good.

Extending the great power sequence and Peter falling to pieces in MJ's arms is so powerful.

My opinion on Annihilation is controversial, that's exactly why I chose to express it. Nobody should agree with me or anything, i am just explaining how i feel. I do not love these comics, I do not hate them either, I think they are fine.

I think it's commendable to fit so many characters into a comic and to rebuild so many characters with different mini-series. Not every mini was this awesome, sure, but in a way they all helped for the main event to not worry about building any foundation. Clearly, it is an ambitious story with a lot of moving peaces and it give a new life to the marvel cosmos and gives every one of those characters a new status quo, which can be explored. Like I admit it's an important moment for Marvel. But I feel that so much is so weirdly paced and so many things still slip through the cracks of this planning.

Firstly I really do not enjoy Giffen's writing this much here for exactly those reasons. He is good at balancing the characters, but he is not that great with every character, he did a very good Ronan, but Ronan is quite simple and that's the thing he is good with the simpler, more one-note characters(btw Ronan is great, him being simple do not take away from him at all). The conversations between Richard and Peter were painful to me, especially since they do not have much of a relationship and it all came from nowhere essentially like the relationship between Rich and Gamora. The whole skip between the minis and the main event was really weird for me, because why do we spend so much time on building a foundation and to everything to be clear then to then skip and introduce characters off-screen? Especially since Giffen spend half his silver surfer building and nothing else, just establishing where the characters are. He did not do a great job with Nova for me, which is a huge contrast with Abbnet. I do not connect emotionally to how he writes this has a lot to do with the art too and in turn it's kinda hard for me to understand how tired Richard is for example, how much it all took a toll on him for him to take the decision he did. Like i mean i get it, but i do not feel it. Again, this is huge contrast to Abbnet's mini, where it's both clear in the art and in the way he speaks where he comes from. A lot of information comes from just talking, of narating, of exposition so it seems static for the most part, everything Giffen wrote from the Thanos issues which are probably not collected here is like this for me. Still, he has good ideas, good ideas about how to progress the characters, how to weave them together, but this is really not for me and i feel a lot of threats just disappeared or were not explored this well, where more could have been done with them. This simplicity has merits don't get me wrong, it makes it all digestible, but again personal i would have liked more flavor.

Annihilius was a threat in some of the minis and has some moments here, but overall I really find him to be boring, i find his whole order and lackeys to be boring too. Once Thanos stepped in, his threat power even became smaller for me and he stepped into the maniacal villain-type early Ultron. Thanos did most of the stuff, Thanos actually was the one that was moving the needle for him. There really isn't much to him, even his main, secret motivation is pretty hollow given what we've seen in these comics.Also i did not like how the final battle was drawn ,sure it had a badass ending, (btw this comics uses the brutal quite good), but I felt it was missing panels, as honestly i did with a lot of this story.

i don't want to be overly long, but yeah, this is a fine comics, but it does not stand above every event marvel produced for me, it's of the better ones for sure, but that's the most i can say now. Hope that someday i get the hype. more

In Superman's very first appearance, he's introduced as a champion of the oppressed. In Action Comics #3, his third appearance, Superman intentionally traps a mine owner in his own mine, with rusted safety devices from his own neglect and carelessness for his workers failing to activate. This is directly in response to bad conditions in the mine leading to one of its workers being injured. If you think this comic is hamfisted or somehow out of left field, you've got to try reading some early Superman. I was not very excited for this one as the pitch didn't really feel like something I'd want to read. Thankfully, the pitch sort of buried the lead in what this book would be about. It's taking Superman back to some of his earliest roots, and that's something I've been wanting to see more of for years now. Glad there's a space for it. more

Hands down the best version of Uncle Ben. I wish we got more of him.

This was so funny. Peter is perfect, I love the interpretation of Uncle Ben, Harry feels like a genuinely good guy. You want to root for these characters. You want to see more from them even when you know you won't. That's good writing.

Everything feels right. The characters are amazing, the worldbuilding is slow but feels lived in. In two issues. Spider-Man can't even do that in the mainline and he's been in it for over 60 years.

Wow! Just like the past 2 issues, Issue #3 brings high energy and a whole lot of heart.

The present day story takes a pause, in order to provide more context to the last days of Krypton, and it DELIVERS.

Unapologetically for the working people, this version of the Els truly reflects the complex times we live in today.

Rafa Sandoval's art is BADASS! Lara gets a lot of time to shine in this issue. Admittedly, I haven't enjoyed reading about Kal-El's mom as much as I have here. more

This continues to be an absolute pleasure to read. The whole Absolute line is my favourite thing in comics. Haven't felt like this about DC in many moons. It makes me feel like a kid reading comics again. For me, I can give no higher compliment.

As soon as I logged on today and saw the score! for this drop to 8.7, I knew instantly it was our master of mayhem - up to his antics as always!


Gabe Hernandez! Swans in with the observational skills of a grape that's has only ever watched the Phantom Menace.

"However, readers who insist Superman be the focus of a Superman comic will come away unsatisfied with this issue. Maybe Aaron is trying to out-Hickman Jonathan Hickman on Ultimate Spider-Man."

My word! A comic having more than just Superman in it had its score reduced to a 6 for doing so.
Very judgemental to assume readers don't have the brain power to assimilate dialogue for more than one character, no?
Oh! The Absolute and Ultimate concepts are the same! Mr Gabe E Hernandez. E for Einstein.

Maybe if Superman just spoke dialogue to himself whilst sat on a Scooby Doo beanie bag, in the middle of a plain white room, whilst wearing polka dot dungarees and jacking it for a laugh - would that suit you? If we're using your logic, that is.

We love you Gabe! more

This is a weird one. It's a reinvention of the original appearance of the Joker without Robin. I like some of the liberties taken, Cousin Melvin was an interesting addition but most of it largely felt very flat. The art didn't really elevate the book either. You can take or leave this one. It's not really better or worse than what it is adapting.

A well-written issue here, in my opinion. If you're going to have, relatively, a lot of dialogue in an issue, it needs to be done well. I don't know that this had "a lot" of dialogue, but I think it feels that way with how certain pages had a lot of smaller panels. Either way, I think Snyder did a nice job here. Dragotta did a solid job on the art, as well, although I don't think he's gotten to the same level of quality with his art as he did with the first issue, unfortunately. more

It's not perfect, but it's damn close.

Another strong debut issue for the Absolute line. I don't currently know whether or not I would place this above Batman overall, although I would consider this premise to be a stronger and/or more unique one thus far. Like Batman, I think this has the potential to be great, as I did enjoy the world being built throughout this. Hopefully I'm right about that.

I was more into this than the previous issue, which currently makes me believe this is my second-favorite of the Absolute line (currently). The way Lois described Kal-El is accurate, which is something I've really liked about both issues. What I'm referring to is the notion of him being rather quiet at certain times, and being more confident at other times. Sandoval's art was nice here, as well.

I'll be honest. I liked this. A lot.

Maybe it's because of new writer who was doing something different? But damn, the writing here felt so much better.

Both Felicia and Shay were written well. I was actually invested and not just being tired of doing the same thing.

Ireland doesn't break new ground here. But she does something effective and has a great voice for Peter. Something that is more mature and not just sad miserable loser who shoots jokes from a machine gun like Kelly writes Peter.

Art was really nice too! A bit rough, but good enough.

Overall, I want Ireland to be new writer for ASM, not Kelly.
more

Reading this, I'm reminded of Gauntlet from Brand New Day. And how it would've been much worse, had each foe only gotten one issue and all issues followed the same structure.

That is the problem with 8 Deaths. As a standalone issue, this is what I call perfectly fine. Everything is in place, plot moves forward, we see some personal life of Peter and Spidey action and have pretty good art.

But forgettable villain, the same structure for each issue and bland overall plot makes this worse. I don't really care about this storyline, and while Ireland does her best to make this more interesting (much more than Kelly did), this is just eh. There aren't any unique twists, foes don't look anything special and their gimmick isn't anything to discuss about.

This is just safe and bland overall story that I can't think will be remembered after Kelly's run starts. There isn't anything special here (at least yet) to remember it by. more

Like last issue, I liked this more than Kelly's first two. The problem here is that we keep being told how important it is that Spider-Man is the champion but everyone, including Strange aren't telling Peter, much less us, WHY that matters. It doesn't feel like there is weight, purpose or tangible stakes to fighting the Scions other than it being what the story is about. It comes off as incredibly contrived. Couple that with the lack of impact from dying (hey he managed to not die!) and we're left with a story that doesn't feel much like it fits in Amazing Spider-Man and he's just going through the motions.

I called him a reactive character last time but we're not really getting anything for him to react to except for the Scions and we know what is going to happen with them. Everything is happening around him, people talk at him. One pops up, Peter fights them in an anticlimactic, truncated fight, he dies, rinse and repeat. The conflicts in these issues don't even last more than a few pages. We have to keep building up to the next Scion deciding, "Okay NOW I'm going to fight him", when having a back to back gauntlet where Peter gets continually beaten only to be pulled back at the end by the reeds, the deaths taking more of a toll on him because he has no time to breath may not solve the issue of the story being contrived but that it would have more impact and add depth to his situation. Like I said, it's better than the first few issues but I still don't really care.

So as not to be a complete downer, once again, the women here are written very well, (with the few scenes they are in), and the art is really good. Melnikov got the first issue jitters out of the way. more

This is near perfect. I think the only thing holding it back from being that perfect 10 is that I want to see a little more of Jean going too far. We've reached a point now where even some members of the X-Men are seeing her change and it's scaring them.

Fun intro for Dazzler, solid story building on Kitty's first adventure with the X-Men.

I was really close to actually liking this one but I had a hard realization at the end. This is not Peter Parker. No matter how down he gets, what is going on in his life, people dying, him struggling, whatever. He would never yell at May like he did. Add in the fact that there is still no real weight to any of his deaths and this still isn't a story worth it's time in reading yet. I am more engaged than I was previously but the fact that we still have several more issues before this arc wraps does not excite me. We're only on death three of eight. It's also incredibly derivative going back to Peter's "biggest failures" for no impact whatsoever. It didn't mean anything. That's worse than not having done it at all. Take these moments when Peter was at his lowest, have him barely react and poof they're gone. No resolution. No fallout or lasting guilt. I understand that he has long since moved on from these tragedies but to be IN them once more would wreck Peter more than any other hero. He is defined by his failures more than his successes.

There are some positives I will add to this. I really enjoyed the conversation between Peter and Felicia. It felt natural, funny when it was appropriate, real and weighty when it needed to be. I want more of that in Spider-Man. He's not just Action-Man. What makes him relatable is that he deals with things like we all do outside of being a superhero. We've been lacking that tether to Peter Parker for a while. Additionally, Gleb Melnikov really hooked me. I liked the art here a lot more than I have McGuinness'. It's like a cleaner, prettier looking though inconsistently off model John Romita Jr. more

I hope this is a Superman that kids will get to grow up with like I did with Superman the Animated Series. They aren't similar in tone or character but I got that same level of amazement and wonder out of this book that I remember having as a kid when that theme song came on. This Superman is heroic and we don't have to be told that he is. We are shown from not only our perspective as the reader but by everyone around him. Even his enemies are in awe of what he's doing. That is powerful.
I don't need them to tie all of the Absolute books together and give us an Absolute Justice League because each series so far feels so distant from one another but that distinctness, that lack of cohesion is what is making these stories much stronger as a result. It doesn't feel like everything is building towards a big MCU level event.
This is to Superman what Matt Reeves' The Batman was to Batman. This reinvention is jaw dropping. more