I think this is the single best issue of Zdarsky's run as he spends most of the issue getting into Bruce's head by way of the Joker. The takeover of Batman's mind by Zur felt perfectly organic and Jorge Jimenez bears a lot of the responsibility for that. The way he drew Bruce's eyes in the cowl throughout the issue was on the same level as Greg Capullo during the initial Court of Owls arc. Batman comes off as a man barely holding it together, driven only by the mission and as you turn the pages you can feel Zur's influence creeping in. Just a really well put together book. If the rest of the Mindbomb arc is this good, we're in for a potentially classic Batman/Joker story. more

I thought this was the strongest issue of PKJ's run to date. The first 3 issues felt very, very Hellboy in nature, almost to the point it was distracting. And while I can't entirely shake that feeling this issue, I thought the Bruce-Betty interaction was great and pulled everything back into focus. The bargain she offered Bruce finally pulled the story in a unique direction and I think it creates some excellent tension going forward.

I could take or leave the backup, it mostly felt out of place here. more

While I can appreciate elements of Zdarsky's run, I gotta say that his take on Batman so far is not my cup of tea. Zdarsky's take is the closest thing we've ever gotten to Frank Miller's Batman in main continuity. He's a loner, a bully and completely driven by the mission. I get that Zur is in control and Bruce has been pushed past his breaking point but so much of this issue comes off as mean-spirited, particularly when it comes to Jason. Besieging him with fear is the kind of plot development that feels just a little too difficult to walk back from once this is all over.

On the positive side, I think Zdarsky handled the rest of the Batfamily really well and the issue accurately portrayed the devastation Bruce is causing his allies. A couple of scenes, one with Tim and Damian and another with Scandal and Jason at the end of the issue really hit me in the gut and pushes a sense of abandonment on the reader in a good way. But the heart of any Batman comic is Bruce and I'm just not sure I care for this interpretation. Hopefully Tini and Chip have something big up their sleeves, because this story could use a rousing finale. more

Jonathan Hickman & Valerio Schiti’s long-teased series finally hit shelves after weeks of promotion from Marvel and complaints from comic book shops frustrated with an expensive number one without the backing of any major Marvel superhero front-and-center on the cover. I’ll leave the marketing strategy debate for other sites and focus my review solely on the issue itself. And boy did this feel like a meaty Hickman story if there ever was one. Putting aside the glaring fact that these G.O.D.S. are meant to have existed four hundreds, if not thousands, of years yet have been missing in action up until now, this issue read with a level of gravitas that is hard to pull off with a cast of brand new characters and factions.

Speaking of the new characters, I found them to be instantly endearing and I was actively interested in their lives and connections by the end of the issue. Hickman did a tremendous job developing Wyn, Dmitri, and Aiko to set them up as believable main characters. That was helped by the sheer number of pages that featured dialogue exclusively between them, but selling these characters may have been THE job Hickman needed to this issue and I thought he did it in spades for these three. I was less sold on the new villain, Cubisk Core, but he was given much less of a backstory in this issue. Hopefully that will be explored more in future issues as readers need to understand, and even potentially sympathize, with some aspects of a villain’s perspective to give them credibility and complexity.

Schiti’s art matches Hickman’s elevated writing panel-for-panel. The designs for characters and scenery bring the book to life, with a sense of humanity that grounds readers in this unfamiliar world. Facial, especially those from our new main characters, evoke emotion brilliantly and set the tone for how characters are experiencing the events we’re watching unfold. The breadth of the different types of environments and scenery we see is awe-inspiring and Schiti and colorist Marte Gracia create some truly breath-taking panels that are some of the best work you’ll see this year.

Some will say this issue needed to stop readers dead in their tracks with a big WOW moment, but I think the exact opposite. I wanted to convinced why I should care about brand new characters and Hickman and Schiti surpassed any expectations I had. Was it worth the $9.99 cover price? That’s not a question I can answer for everyone. Was it a nearly perfect debut issue for what promises to be a monumental moment in the Marvel universe? Absolutely.

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Hickman and Schiti are off to a great start here as they bring readers one of the single most rare things in Big 2 comics: a prominent, centerpiece book starring brand new characters that feel fleshed out and well developed. I was really surprised at, and appreciative of, how self-contained this issue was. Hickman's a notoriously elaborate plotter, which is a big reason he's one of the best writers in comics today, and I appreciated him pulling back a bit on building in favor of really introducing us to these characters.

I thought all of the banter around Wyn was fun and I'm really looking forward to his relationship with Aiko being explored further. Wyn comes off a bit like Constantine, mixed with a little Dr Strange, with an extra dash of hard sci-fi thrown in and I am here for it. There seems to be a ton of potential here in just the new characters alone and it's pretty easy to have faith in Hickman to deliver a big time story that helps them stand out in the Marvel Universe.
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I mean this in the best possible way, what an absolute gut punch of an issue. Remender and Fuimara do not hold back whatsoever as we finally see what it means to become one of the Sacrificers. This has been one of the two or three best new books of 2023 for me and I can't recommend it enough.

Tom King in the past, has been hits or misses to me. He's like the Rain Johnson of Comic books. It takes a while for me to understand and get into Tom King's works because he often views comic books not as superhero stuff, but psychological ideas.

I heard a lot of hype for Wonder Woman, and I was skeptical. However, I'm pleased to say that I was not dissapointed with this. This had great art, and while the dialogue from Tom King feels a bit janky, it soon won me over. I hope this series ends on a strong note, and I hope this series doesnt meet the same fate as Batman. Tom King may not be one of my favorite writers, but he's objectively a good, if not great writer. I also really didnt see the parallels between police brutality like the other reviewers says, but thats just me more

People seem to have very strong feelings about Tom King.Guess I'm on the fan side. Best Wonder Woman I've read in some time.

King really knows how to piss off the right wing reactionaries, doesn't he?

I thought this was an incredible first issue on all fronts. I loved that the script pulled no punches whatsoever. Right out of the gate, King shines a bright spotlight on the xenophobia and bigotry that runs through the heart of so many Trump-supporting Americans. Even if the ICE stand-in (AXE) came off heavy-handed, I ultimately think that doesn't matter because there are still so many readers (The Band-Aid Ripper for one) that unequivocally missed the point.

When Diana finally makes an appearance in the book it does not disappoint. Sampere draws fantastic action scenes that make full use of Wonder Woman's skill, grace, and fluidity as she easily dispatches the men from AXE using non-lethal means, which I thought was a smart touch by the creative team. It's a powerful moment and one that I thought was perfectly in character.

There's so many other little details I loved about this issue but for the sake of brevity, my favorite had to be the two pages framing the conversation between Steve and Diana. Both pages centered around an image of National Mall, with particular importance placed on the Washington Monument. King's using that brilliant idea from Alan Moore's From Hell regarding phallic architecture and how it's meant to invoke a feeling of dominance, which fits like a glove when paired with the new villain, the Sovereign, that we're introduced to.

If this creative team can maintain this high level of quality in both story and art throughout the run, we're looking at an all-timer.
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A slow, but very intriguing start. Blake does a solid job of introducing his world to us without overloading on the details, which can often be a problem in sci-fi, as he chooses to splinter the narrative with multiple sections that each focus on a different character. It's a fairly smart choice that provides the reader with an easy entry into the world. Unfortunately that entry might come off a little too easy at times, as the issue tends to zoom by as you read it because the details are a little too sparse at points. more

Phenomenal start. Filipe Andrade might be the most underrated artist currently working in comics. He does a masterful job working a variety of colors into nearly every page, which creates something that looks unique while immediately placing the reader into the loud, bright streets of India. The narrative from Ram V also has the potential to be something really special. I loved the Anthony Bourdain influence on the entire book and the way he deftly works Hindu mythology into the mix was inspired. If you liked Laila Starr as much as I did, this is a must read. more

Here we are again with a bunch of people over-hating on Tini Howard for whatever reason. That's all I'll say about that. As for the issue itself, I must say that I felt as though it was the weakest issue of the Gotham War crossover so far. I might have given this a 6.5 initially, but I really enjoyed how Howard wrote Nightwing and I also liked the twist at the end of the issue. Hopefully this is just a minor bump in the road for Gotham War, as I've enjoyed it as a whole thus far. more

Holy fuck I missed this book so much. Spurrier and Adlard spend a lot of time setting up the next arc here in a perfectly enjoyable read that made me want to dig the first six issues out so I can better bridge the half-year gap between issues.

I'm super impressed with Gillen's writing here as he manages to make spinning a dozen plates at a time look easy.

I don't mind the writing here. I think the story could be better executed but whatever. The art is atrocious. Derek Landy had an unsinkable titanic, and Greg Land is the iceberg, holy shit.

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I've always appreciated the way Remender goes about building the worlds in his stories. They always feel fully fleshed out, wildly unique, and populated with characters that make you want to care about what you're reading. The Sacrificers, while very deliberately paced, does not let down in that regard in the slightest, particularly when it comes to the character designs. I loved the way Fiumara drew the people who were made out of fire and Rokos was the standout. The art immediately let you know that this is an imposing, godlike and dutiful character and the conversation between him and his mistress hinted at so much more to come. I'm really looking forward to it. more

I think the thing I'm enjoying the most from these first two issues of the Incredible Hulk is the way PKJ is building his foundation upon both Cates's brief scattershot run and Ewing's seminal take on the character. And I appreciate that he's pushing in a bit of a different, almost Mignola Hellboy influenced, direction. That being said, the pacing is a very deliberate, with a lot of buildup going on for what appears to be a minor inconvenience to the Hulk, so I'm hoping things pick up a bit in #3 next month. more

Hickman has mastered the art of the intricately plotted slow burn and he gives it to us in spades here. I love the concepts Hickman's playing with and I don't think anyone else in comics has as strong or as creative of a voice for The Maker.

I think I'm in the minority on this, but I prefer Ram's existential horror take on Gotham in Detective vs the multiversal madness that's happening over in Chip's Batman. That being said, I think Ram V struggled a bit this issue with all of the plates he has spinning. We had to touch base with Batman vs Arzen, Jim Gordon, Babs, Nightwing, and more. It made for some awkward transitions between scenes and the book definitely felt overstuffed at times. more

Lemire manages to mix two of his favorite topics here, life in a rural town in Canada and surrealist body horror, in what I thought was a very good first issue. I've always been a fan of his scratchy, imperfect watercolor art and I think it's super effective in these type of small town horror stories. Gotta love an oversized first issue at a reasonable price too.

Phantom Road has continuously picked up pace over the course of the first arc and this particular issue was the best one yet. Lemire does such a great job of keeping the reader really off-balance because I have no idea where we're going from here.

The end felt a little too abrupt for me as it felt like we were just scratching the surface on the world Lemire and Nguyen built.

The found footage portion of the issue didn't really work for me as it's a gimmick that works a little better on film than on paper.

The small peak we got of PKJ's upcoming run was really promising though. You can see some of Mignola's Hellboy influence coming through, which was one of the inspirations PKJ has mentioned in his interviews, and that was really exciting.

I believe none of y'all that have been complaining have read the issues when they were married, so stop fucking complaining like it's the end of the world, is isn't.

A really fun finish to an otherwise messy, underbaked story arc. I was on the fence coming into this issue and luckily Zdarsky pushed all the right buttons. I particularly loved the nod to Adam West's Batman and the subtle implication by Chip that he's the best Batman. Jimenez also does yeoman's work here, shifting styles seamlessly from Batman '89 to Dark Knight Returns to the Arkham video games. I was particularly impressed with his ability to nearly perfectly channel Frank Miller's scratchy pencils.

I'm curious to see where we go from here. We've gotten a couple of extremely compressed arcs and it feels like Zdarsky is in a rush to get to whatever is coming next. I'm hoping he slows down the pace just a bit so the stories have a little more room to breathe.

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Tyler Jenkins is doing some of the best work of his career on this series. The way so many of the panels are heavily framed in black, particularly the one-sided depictions of a therapy session, adds such a great, claustrophobic feeling. It really makes a strong script from Kindt sing. I'm very, very excited to see where we go from here.

Waid's ability to produce a fun mystery steeped in as much minor character lore as possible is second to none at the Big Two right now. He's able to cohesively tie so many different parts of the DC Universe together in a way that no other DC writer is doing right now. When paired with Mora's expressive characters and Bonvillain's bold colors you've got one hell of a book.

Decided to take a shot on this because I liked the creative team + the concept and boy does it deliver. Kelly and Lanzing waste zero time throwing the reader right into the action, delivering on all the promise the space western genre has to offer. Marvel's bread and butter in many of their recent #1's has been the mystery box and I think Guardian's #1 has a really intriguing one (Grootfall) that I can't wait to open. more