Another anthology, another book with mixed results. I liked Stephanie Phillips' story, she remembered Arion and I respect that, plus it really was a good story. Dan Watters' story was great, he wrote the YOTV one-shot for Orm too, he's the only writer who respects and understands Johns' version of the character. And Jurgens did a great job with his story, plus Epting on art is always a huge plus. The huge disappointment were Johns' story and Chuck Brown's. Since when is Manta an upstanding dad (Johns) or a guy who "fights for the people" (Brown)? Are you kidding me? Manta is a selfish douchebag, a horrible father and he fights only for himself, certainly he doesn't fight for "the people", even if they're black. He would slit the throat of anyone, regardless of the color of their skin, if it's in his best interest. I get that they're making a solo book for him but let's not change the character just because a writer wants him now to be a "man of the people". Overall not bad but not great either, I would certainly have liked more stories to focus on Arthur, rather than other characters, and the stuff they're trying to pull with Manta is pretty stupid.

Other than Stephanie Phillips' story, which is good, most are ranging from mediocre to bad with Willow Wilson's and Jordie Bellaire's being as bad as usual, as in very bad.

I remember reading the first stories from PKJ on Superman in Future State and even though it was obvious to anyone with eyes and half a brain that the guy couldn't give a flying crap about the character and can't wait to get him off his hands, people were saying "oh let's just wait a bit, don't judge too early". Yeah, no, I can see when someone doesn't care about a character and PKJ is not in it for him, he's just obsessed to see Jonathan in that role as soon as possible. And the thing is, I like Jonathan, I actually maybe like teenage Jonathan even more than kid Jonathan, which is a very unpopular choice. But there's so much potential for him as Superboy that he doesn't need to be thrown in the Superman role yet, Clark Kent has that role covered. But no, since PKJ doesn't know what to do with the character, it's much easier to just push him aside so he can be the guy that made Jonathan Kent Superman.

This was a good story, AC was constantly good later but I don't like where this is heading. Superman's behavior here, while justified by how tense he's been after the last issues, leads to his alliance with the Authority and, in conclusion, to Jon being Superman. I really, really don't like the way DC chooses to sneak all the 5G ideas down our throat. The Flash is the only one who isn't replaced so far. I would have preferred Sampere on art but overall I liked the story and how it was written. I just don't like the direction and the way it's done.

For the last 4 issues I have rated AC pretty high because despite seeing where it was leading to, I enjoyed it. This time, I didn't. Sure, Sampere's art continues to be great. But Superman thrown out of the League after last issue? Yeah, sure, I don't buy that, not for one second. You can tell that editorial just wanted Clark out of the way for Taylor's stupid Jon Superman miniseries and PKJ came up with the flimsiest of reasons why Clark would be thrown out of the League. This isn't a story that flows naturally, this is a story mandated by DC editorial, aka Clark must be replaced with Jon because 5G and it shows. For the people that hate the past and love replacing all our heroes this will be great, for most people it won't.

Perhaps I would like this more if I didn't know what DC is going for on the long run, so even though this isn't a bad story and the art is great, it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I didn't like how they made the connection with the Superman from Morrison's series, it was very lazy. I did somewhat like the backup, as in even though it wasn't great, it was a step up from that Midnighter bore.

Yeah, I didn't enjoy this, sorry. The logic of it just isn't there. The council dude who argues against intervention just doesn't make sense. I get it, he was trying to delay offering help to Supes so he doesn't save the Phaelosians he was afraid of but his reasoning is flawed. I mean, whether they intervene in conjunction with Superman or after he was supposed to liberate Warworld, according to his logic, they would have to receive refugees either way, it makes no difference when they helped. And I find hard to believe that the whole UP armada wouldn't have ticked the scale against Warworld. So yeah, it makes zero sense. Other than that, the fights were boring, a lot of the dialogue was weird and I really missed Sampere on art. The backup is not very good, either, Shawn Aldridge is not a good writer, though I like that Martian Manhunter is in the spotlight. Tldr, PKJ should do better.

Pretty mediocre story that always backs down whenever a serious choice with real consequences is to be made.

Truth, Justice and the American Way. Come on, PKJ, you're not a lefty who hates America but pretends he doesn't, I know that, say it after me: Truth, Justice and the American Way. Nothing to be ashamed of, believe me. Putting that aside, this is an ok issue, as is this run so far. Ok, but nothing especially great. I usually like Federici's art but here I feel like he didn't have the chance to really shine. Also, how does Superman know the writing similar to the one on the Genesis Fragment runs upward? He just... knows that but has no idea what it says or just anything about it, kind of a weird thing, if you ask me. Also, you can let some pages just with Federici's art instead of writing dialogue in mongulese or whatever that stupid "language" is that doesn't actually translate into anything, that's just lazy writing there. The backup is slightly better but I'm still not impressed.

Didn't care about these characters the first time around, don't care this time either, there's nothing interesting about them and if Pyrrhos is who I think it is, it's pretty shitty, too.

Knowing I wasn't a fan of Strange Adventures, someone recommended this series to me as THE Adam Strange series. Suffice to say, it wasn't, at least for me. It's interesting for sure but it was really weird. There are some interesting themes about politics, religion, technology and the environment but the storytelling is just so... random and all over the place.

Now this Cap I like, Cantwell, take notes, this is how you write Steve Rogers!

I continue to enjoy this book pretty much, even though it's a little weird at times.

What I like about Spencer's writing on Spider-Man is that his writing is very retro, if you would have some art from the 60s in the background this would totally fit in that era.

Man, I've missed Octavius for a while now!

So this is a weird one. A lot happens here but I feel like this is a issue that only massive, massive Spider-Man fans, the kind of people who have read all issues, can totally grasp all the implications here. I like that he didn't pull back on Harry being Kindred, though. My biggest issue is another one, though. Spencer's run has been very wordy and while some people complained about this, I actually enjoyed that, it was very reminiscent of old comics but in a pretty modern way, it wasn't dated. So when he writes an issue like this, with so many lore and history I feel like he could've used that sort of storytelling to clue in people who haven't read all the issues of Spider-Man starting with Amazing Fantasy #15. It just feels very lazy on his part and this coming right after Sinister Six is a problem.

I'm sorry but after all the hype Spencer built all these years, after all the convoluted storytelling he went after at times... this is the best he could come up with? No. I'm sorry, but no. He put all his eggs in this one basket and the omelette we got was terrible, nothing he did here helped any character in a useful way, maybe Norman because he's less of an ass but that's it. Art didn't help either. Hell, the other stories were actually better than the main one!

Pretty good first issue, it washed the bad taste in my mouth after Spencer's bad ending.

Zeb Wells is doing a great job so far, I hope he can keep this up, that ending was badass!

This is a step back in quality in both writing and art. I knew ever since I've heard this is a Kelly Thompson issue she'll take the chance to throw a little bit of vitriol towards men and of course she didn't miss the chance. Just think of the line about "the men parts being the problem, we should get rid of them", replace that with "women" and imagine that writer not getting immediately cancelled and probably fired. But since it's against men it's all good, no problem there. The art was not very good either, I really missed Gleason. I don't know how long Thompson will be on this book but I can't wait to move past her, this is not a book for her.

Please get Thompson off the book as fast as possible, she couldn't care less about Spider-Man and it's pretty visible. There's such a stark difference between Zeb's writing and hers. The only thing she did here that I liked is that Peter reacted to Black Cat even though MJ was at his side all this time, which makes it super weird.

I liked the bits with Ben, they were fun, couldn't care less about the rest of it except that last page with Monica Rambeau, I'm curious where they go with that.

Better than what Thompson did for sure, this book was actually about Spider-Man.

Pretty good issue, it sets up an interesting confrontation down the road.

I'm sorry but Miles' costume is plain garbage, it hurts my eyes when I look at it. And the story was mediocre at best. I feel like other than Zeb Wells' issues, Spider-Man has been very hit-and-miss with a lot more misses than hits.

Pretty simple story but the art elevates it a lot, it worked to Fornes' strengths.

I didn't expect it to be so good from Gleason, but I really enjoyed this.

Pretty decent issue, nothing special.

That's it? I don't know, I expected some more spectacular revelations. Also, those first pages were pretty cringey. I look forward to Zeb Wells' next issue, his issues were the best in this Beyond era.

Very good issue with very good art, Zeb Wells has yet to disappoint on ASM so far.

Meh, pretty mediocre issue.

Some bits I liked, some bits I didn't but overall it was a good issue.

I expected to hate this given that Geoffrey Thorne is the guy who made me drop Green Lantern, one of my favorite DC franchises, but I didn't. It wasn't great but it was more than decent. I still liked Hobie as the Prowler more but this works too. The design is strikingly alike to Dragonfly and Dragonflyman though, I feel like that's a problem.

Very good issue, this is the second time during the Beyond saga when Gleason surprises me in a good way.

Just absolutely awful, Star wasn't this way until Karla Pacheco came along. The second story is okay, though.

Classic Spencer, building something for 50 issues, then changing it at the last moment for the shock of it.

Another "mystery" that isn't solved by Spencer by the end of the issue, nothing new here. He's actually a pretty good writer but he just loves going in circles a bit too much for my taste. This trick was cool once, twice but when you do it on and on at some point it gets tedious. And it got tedious some while ago, now it's just annoying. Still, like I said, he's a good writer and I'm looking forward to Sinister War.

It's incredibly ironic to hear Brandon Thomas have the real Aquaman, Arthur Curry, talk about Atlantis as what "belongs rightfully to him". To come up with that line while he's just as he's busy replacing him in Aquaman: Becoming shows a terrible lack of self-awareness. It's laughable but I can't say I'm surprised. The story is as dumb as most stories from this guy. Sure, Ollie may have Arthur's powers but arrow-shooting accuracy isn't a super-power so no, it doesn't work like that. Then again, logic was never this guy's strongest suit as we've established. It's fairly obvious what is happening here in terms of the plot. I would've rated it lower but I liked the art and I like the two main characters, both have been treated pretty badly these last few years. Unfortunately, this book doesn't help them very much.

Yeah, sorry, Brandon Thomas doesn't really get what being a hero means. There's a panel where Arthur chooses to save only one of the two pilots. It's true, it's implied the other was a traitor, but at that point Arthur had no idea that was the case. This being Brandon Thomas, a writer absolutely obsessed with race, I do think that in his disgusting mind, he thought a hero would prioritize saving a black guy over a white one. I really hope that's not the case.

What an utter mess, these two characters deserve better than this crap.

I still find the voices for the characters completely wrong but the art is still very good and there were at least two pages of dialogue that I liked. Brandon Thomas is still not a good writer and I don't think that will change very soon.

I really don't get the fuss about this, the art was good, very Capullo-like but the story was disappointing. There's nothing compelling about Jackson and the way Arthur is pushed aside for a character that hasn't been turning any heads in the comics (unlike his counterpart in YJ) is just unnecessary. Especially at a time when Aquaman is more popular than ever thanks to the movies. Arthur is such a simp here, he has the aesthetics of the Peter David character but his personality is that of the Super Friends version. A lot of dialogue goes nowhere, a very uninteresting last page, the signs are not good. Just another Brandon Thomas story, after all.

Too much race-baiting from Brandon (it's par for the course by now) with the Xebel stuff but this is fairly decent.

The art was not as great as the last two issues but overall I really enjoyed it. Up until those last pages where Thomas went with the most classic possible comic trope ever. We really, really didn't need it, I was hoping the comic would take a more fresh approach but apparently that's too much to ask from Thomas. In an unrelated note, that Batgirls preview is ten levels of cringe, that book is going to be a dumpster fire for sure.

Wow, what a bore, I guess three decent issues was the best Brandon Thomas could do, this was awful and I feel like we're only going downhill from here.

Pretty boring and there was literally nothing even remotely scary here.

Sometimes Dan Watters is very good and sometimes he's just not. This is the latter. The main character is just annoying and idiotic and Watters' narration is just not interesting. I had some hopes for this but this started pretty bad.

Better than the first one though Jocasta Joy continues to be a very annoying character and I would like it if Azrael could say something more than "BLASHPEMER! DEMONS!" all over, Watters could try using some subtlety a little more.

I want to like this, but I can't. It's not bad or anything, but I cringed every time Ten-Eyed Man spoke here. And Watters dialogue for Azrael resumes to "blashemer", "dephiler" and other stupid stuff, it's so boring. Also, Jocasta Joy is dumb af. Maybe next issue will be better, this one wasn't.

This is a huge disappointment for me, I usually like Watters' writing but nothing here works, it's just terrible.

First half was decent, then it all went down into try-hard territory, Dan Watters is all over the place in this run, thank God there is only one issue left of this.

Who knew this would lead to everything we have today?

I dropped this book a long time ago because it was unreadable but I wanted to get back for the anniversary at least. And I had some fun. One of the reasons I had fun is that I could feel Aaron's pain for having to turn She-Hulk back to her sexy self, probably because of the tv show. Dude still carries a grudge for fans hating his version of She-Hulk and he peppered the book with hints at that, just as he insulted the fans for not liking his JaneThor. Imagine being a 50 year old man and crying because fans don't accept your stupid bullshit. I also had some fun because the whole multiversal stuff is fun. Dumb fun, but fun nonetheless. It's not great or anything but at least I didn't feel the need to constantly just roll my eyes in the back of my head. I still think that the Avengers desperately need a new writer and to go back to Avengers Mansion but for now this was ok. P.S.: It's super sad when what should be the main Marvel book, and its anniversary, is only reviewed by 3 users. It speaks just to how much Aaron has tarnished the brand with his idiocies.

I was joking these days about Jason Aaron saying that basically lately all he's doing is just picking up successful Marvel events from the past to catch people's eyes and trying to prop up his pet characters. Heroes Reborn? Sure, let's do Heroes Reborn even though his version was awful. Avengers Forever by Busier? Sure, let's do Avengers Forever. And I was joking that one of these days he's going to copy the Infinity Gauntlet with Robbie Reyes wielding it. Well, I was close. The first issue here is basically about Tony Stark as Ant-Man and Robbie Reyes being this awesome force of nature. Now I should add I like Robbie Reyes, I liked him in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., I like his car, it's just funny that Aaron is so predictable these days. And bonus points, he brought those boring Daughters of the Hammer too at the end, like anyone ever cared about them. Overall though, this isn't bad, it's ok, I guess.

I rate it this high solely for Carlos Magno's art that just keeps getting better and better, the guy should draw an Avengers book (CAFU is my first choice, he's second) but Kang here is an idiot who wouldn't be capable to outwit even Jar Jar Binks to save his life, the writer is too dumb for such a character.

Utter crap but it's to be expected from Cloonan and Conrad.

This was interesting and the art really is splendid but some things threw me off a little. For one, Batman being sloppy and getting people killed in situations he usually avoids just for the sake of the plot felt wrong. And regarding the race stuff, some lines there from Harvey felt very odd and morally questionable, I hope we get less of that in the future. Still I'm looking forward to this, it's a pretty tense situation.

I've heard that Sam Hamm had a different vision for the Batman '89 movie and that he couldn't get through with it because of all the people that were working on the movie then. Well I say to those people "congrats, you've done a great job". If this guy were to go all the way with it those movies wouldn't have got the cult following they did. I feel like he suffers from a severe case of white guilt, all the story is basically about race. Two-Face as a character is seen through those lenses, the DA job matters very little. Oh, and if you want to read YET ANOTHER comic where Bruce is trying to lose all his money, you've got it here. Seriously, this is a pattern. First, he loses his fortune in the main DCU. Then, his son Nightwing throws away all his money at problems, literally. And now here, Bruce is willing to do the same thing. Once it's no problem, twice it may be something there, but when it's the third time in these last months when a Batman character is having the same rhetoric, I can't pretend it's a coincidence and it's not ideological rhetoric.

If Sam Hamm could just stop with his insane racial innuendos this would be a much better book especially when the art is so good but the man doesn't seem like he can help himself in that regard.

There's a disgusting bit in the first panel of the first page where Quinones draws a panel in which a guy holds a banner with the very hidden message "cops are pigs", that's very stupid and immature and I didn't expect this bullshit even in a book that has pulled some weird ideas from the very beginning. In case you were wondering, it doesn't get any better because we get even more race bullshit when we find out that the evil Waynes oppressed Robin's ancestor and basically stole their company from them. This isn't the first time when comic history is being rewritten to the point of making the Waynes bad just so the "past is bad" narrative can be pulled forward. Here we just have it combined with race because Sam Hamm suffers from a last stage white guilt syndrome and he needs to punish us for it. Also, we have a very weird scene with Harvey in a subway underground that is filled with racial undertones. I again feel the need to thank the guys at DC that took the decision to rein in this guy, he would have killed the Batman movie franchise before it even began. And without the Keaton movies being so successful, I don't know if we would have gotten Nolan's masterpieces. So yeah, the guys that realized that Sam Hamm is cuckoo crazy and cut his bullshit out from the movie basically saved Batman in the cinematic medium, they're fucking heroes. To end on an optimistic note, the humor was cringe here and the way Robin cucks Batman all around makes me think the next issues could somehow be even worse.

The art is wonderful and I'm probably giving it this rating because I missed Batman as Batman in Gotham as it should always be.

Wow, Tynion really must think himself so smart with the "strawman" metaphor that wasn't AT ALL super obvious to anyone. The Harley bits were cringe, even though I'm not against her role as sidekick to Batman, it's just that the writing was painfully bad. And again with the parallels to covid quarantine. What is it with these sadist writers that instead of helping us escape this nightmare we're living in, they're bombarding us with that stuff even in our comics? Also, the "unsanity" collective is another cringey idea, classic Tynion. I don't even want to think about what stupid idea he'll come up with for his next Punchline, Miracle Molly. The second story is bad too and I'm tired of him hyping Ghost-Maker just because he created him, there's no other reason to. The art from Jimenez is wonderful but I've seen this before, all setting up for future prospects, all to inevitably fail just as with the Joker War. Batman deserves a better writer or at least someone who's interested in the character, Tynion seems more preoccupied with the Joker book and Punchline, Clownhunter, Ghost-Maker, Holy Moley, basically his new Gotham.

Called it a long time ago, that the guy who saved the Arkham stuff was Peacekeeper-01. Other than that, Miracle Molly has a pretty shitty sell but apparently under Tynion Batman has two functional neurons and actually buys it. Whoever thought the main Batman book should be given to this guy needs to be charged for crimes against humanity. Sure, some of her ideas have merit regarding the social conditions in Gotham but the whole "unsane" thing it's still cringe and fucking stupid and her "solution" to the whole thing is really dumb. The second story is pretty bad, too.

3 just for the art, Jimenez really knows how to draw a fight, Tynion is as boring as ever.

Another issue where Jimenez can't save Tynion despite his great dynamic art.

Another boring issue from Tynion, I feel like fanfic would be better at this point. At least in fanfic most people use the characters from Gotham that people know and love, not the Unsanity Collective (still an idiotic name, btw) and Ghost-Maker, who is the lite and boring version of Red Hood. The whole issue is pretty bad with Molly escaping ridiculously from situations Batman would have trouble with. If his objective is to create an even more annoying character than Punchline or to make PK-01 sympathetic, he's doing a great job with Molly. Btw, Tynion, we get it, the whole "they" thing, no need to repeat that pronoun five times until we get you're woke. Even the art wasn't that great this issue and the second story is as bad as it's been so far.

I thought the first story was ok, again very great art from Jimenez, the second was just unnecessary and bad.

I felt like the writing was pretty inconsistent and the backup just doesn't add anything at all.

I'm so sad for Jimenez that he has to work with such a bad "script". No one cares about your stupid Molly, dude, she's boring. The fact that she's supposed to be a hero yet she thinks that she'll save people by brainwashing them is just crazy on Tynion's behalf. Batman is, as always in Tynion's run, a side character that has no control over anything that happens here. P.S.: Ten bucks that Clownhunter and Tim are going to be a couple if that kook Fitzmartin gets to write them.

This book should honestly be called "Miracle Molly" since Batman is just a sideshow for Tynion's pet character. Not even the art could save this because the art was also shitty. As was the backup. As is this whole event, Tynion can't go away to Substack faster.

I don't even have the energy to care anymore about this crap, Tynion just drew a straight line from Fear State to Future State, making PK-01 a power hungry maniac out of nowhere, since up until that now never seemed to be his shtick, Ivy is angry at men and wants to destroy Gotham but of course Harley will stop her and that backup is utterly boring. Williamson's run can't come up soon enough even though the premise with Batman kicked out of Gotham for the pretender to step in his place really annoys me. At least it won't be... this.

Tynion hates Batman and everything about Gotham, I have no doubts about it anymore. I think he may actually hate superheroes, overall. Or he just can't take the fact that people are not liking his stupid copies of characters. All the same, this wasn't a Batman story, it was a story delivered for the Harley-Ivy fanbase and a Miracle Molly story. The backup is cringey as well. The only good news here is we have only Fear State Omega and this nightmare will actually be over.

I am a bit conflicted about this. I don't enjoy seeing Batman kicked out of Gotham for nothing, so that kills a lot of the joy I should get from a Batman book from the start. On the other hand, at least Tynion's out so that's a huge plus. So was this good? It was good. It was good seeing Batman being Batman again, and not just a tool to make stupid "original" characters look better so the writer gets some sweet money in the future in case they end up in a tv show. Also, I liked how Williamson showed Bruce's vulnerability without slapping you in the face with it. The art is very good, and the last two pages are electric. It did have some faults however. For one, I have no idea how Batman puts on a Killer Croc suit so fast and Josh doesn't bother to explain us. I really didn't need another stupid billionaire line which was also a lie, as in Bruce definitely attended to many such galas, usually to HELP PEOPLE. Because that's who Bruce Wayne is. And I would have liked to know more about Abyss, to see if there's something there with his character. All in all, normally I would have given this 7.5 but I missed Batman so much that I was much more lenient with the rating. Let's hope this gets even better from here! P.S.: I also urge anyone to go to George Perez' facebook page and wish him whatever you feel you have to wish, awful news indeed, the man is a treasure to the comic book community!

A pretty good second issue, I especially liked the very good art and the interactions between Lex and Bruce, I've always seen them as Sherlock and Moriarty. Bruce was pretty patient here, I would've punched Lex just for spilling that wine, very weird flex there. But in his defense he's right about Nightwing, he is an idiot for throwing all the money away without any real plan. I have to say though, not impressed with Abyss so far, we've seen very little of him in two issues now. And that backup was pretty bad. All in all, I'm happy I can enjoy Batman yet again and hope the next issues will start to provide more answers, so far we've got some interesting hints.

I'm sorry but I don't feel this. The dialogue is all over the place, I'm not sure if the twist at the end will make any sort of sense, at this point it doesn't. I wasn't impressed by this, to say the least. The backup is also very boring. I liked the way he writes Luthor and what he's trying to do with him and I also liked the art, that's about it in terms of strengths. And Cayha, coming right after Wong from the Imposter, comes across as a shallow copy of that. I really hope next issue will explain some stuff and we'll see some team-up between Batman and Luthor because the book needs a big win at this point. It's better than Tynion's run but that's not very hard, to be honest.

The issues with Fabok on art are gorgeous and honestly very good, too bad after this King proceeds to ruin Thomas Wayne as a character and now Williamson has to pick up the pieces.

A very good first arc that answers the question how would Batman react if Superman would activate in Gotham. Not very nicely, but in his defense he was right about Gotham. An interesting character that King kills in order to prop up Gotham Girl. Unfortunately, he fails on that front too, so ultimately he is the architect of his own undoing.

Very good arc, even though a full-scale Gotham war should be much more enticing that this but at least Batman and Riddler were given a decent treatment here.

This is the last time King was actually good on Batman. His decision to ruin the wedding is, of course, just awful, but the road there is very interesting. Unfortunately after this it all goes to shit and King loses his mind. What comes next can easily go into character(s) assassination territory.

With Tynion as a writer, Ghost-Maker can beat Thanos, Darkseid, Darth Vader and The Beyonder all at once without even breaking a sweat.

Maybe I'm generous today or maybe Tynion has managed to drop my expectations so low that even a half-decent issue makes me somewhat interested but this was better than his last issues of Batman. I liked Federici's art, he's a great artist. Unfortunately for him the book is set up in such a way that he couldn't shine at his brightest. Office scenes or Oracle's lair won't help him much. But still, it was nice seeing his art again. I enjoyed the first pages of Scarecrow's dialogue with Saint and Batman, it does feel like Tynion is putting some effort to elevate Scarecrow and it kinda works. I still couldn't give one damn about the Unsanity Collective, cringiest name/concept ever, the Harley, Ivy and Gardener (another annoying Tynion character that doesn't add anything to the Batman mythos) bit, the Alleytown bit or Tim Fox but Scarecrow, PK-01 and even Oracle's bits were decent. I'm sure down the line Tynion will make me regret hoping something good will come out from this because he is the type of writer who's not capable of developing a good concept but for now this was ok.

This was better than I expected, I particularly enjoyed the Two-Face story and the main story, Gotham was presented in a very fun way by Jack Ryder.

This rating is so high just because I like Federici's art, otherwise the story suffers from the same idiotic tropes Tynion used us to by now. For example, his Batman says he let the Unsanity Collective roam free because they aren't a threat. Sure, dude, a bunch of anarchists who brainwash people aren't a threat to anyone for sure. I can't wait to live in that ideal society of Tynion where whackos brainwash me for my own good lol. This whole issue is just Batman simping to try to show us how great Tynion's characters are, how "dangerous" and "heroic" they are. They're really not, dude, they're just boring and no one cares about them. And all that dialogue at the end between Batman and Crane makes no sense. All this time Tynion rallied on how Crane wanted to change Gotham only to make an 180 at the very end and tell us how Crane was actually afraid of change. Would you fucking make up your mind? It seemed more to me like it was a breaking of the 4th wall to complain to us readers how we don't like his creations, how we're "afraid of change". Yeah we don't , they're dumb. And change doesn't always equate with "better". Change for the sake of change a lot of times does more harm than good. Case in point, Tynion's Batman run. It was a change for sure, but it was a shitty change. Let's hope Williamson and future writers just pretends this whole stupid thing never happened.

My main issue is that this is not a book about Batman at all, DC just inserted him in the title for sales, it's a Catwoman book. And Catwoman just owns the Bat, King continues the trope of the submissive man and the dominating woman, I guess he really is into that. The art is splendid, Mann is just great. It would also be really great if King would stop inserting songs into every single comic he writes, I know he thinks it's clever but it's really not.

I give it a 3 solely for Mann's art which is as great as ever, but the story was pure horseshit. Yes, the usual King fanboys will rate it with 10, 9.5 or 9 but don't believe that, they would rate it the same way if King would fill the book with "Bat", "Cat" and "Mreeeow", they're just brainwashed and want so badly to feel smart. And I've said this before, the title of the book is pure bait, Batman is barely in the book, this is not about him at all. Also while reading it I was wondering if King suffered an aneurysm or something because for several pages he kept having Selina just "mrrow"-ing. But like I said, for some people, that's just great writing lol. :))

I rate this so high (lol) for two reasons: Clay Mann's art which is as gorgeous as ever and the fact that for all his MANY faults, King did try to pay homage to Mask of the Phantasm and I enjoyed that. Now the bad stuff...oh boy, there's a lot to unpack there. Up until the last 6-7 pages the book was bearable, not good, just bearable. And then he went full Tom King. Those last pages were sooo dumb, The Room-level-dumb. But I'm sure King fanboys will extract something "deep" even from those retarded pages. :)) And of course he continues with the already classic King tropes, Batman being submissive and weak, the female is the strong character, "gOtHaM wAs aLwAyS hErS". Also the "relationship" between Catwoman and Joker is gross, it was never there to begin with and it makes Selina look really bad.

I congratulate DC for cancelling King's run, even knowing Tynion's mediocrity came after him, this is the cringest of the cringe.

People who like King (and hate that I don't) always ask me why do I keep reading his books. It's simple: I don't know how but he always manages to convince the best artists to work with him. Case in point: Clay Mann. Guy is a great artist but both of his books with King are just atrocious: HiC and this one. Again, Batman is just really pathetic here, it's like King revels in constantly humiliating him and Selina's dialogue is ten levels of cringe. Also, her fighting at an old age in a costume is just ridiculous. I want to rate this higher for Mann but I just can't.

"The Joker is sent by the Lord to punish us for our sins" Man, that doesn't sound like Gordon at all and it comes in a stark contrast with Gordon from The Joker series, this sounds more like the wimp Gordon from Batman/Superman series from the World of Tomorrow.

Yet another issue where Catwoman bitchslaps Batman and treats him like he's an idiot, where King fills half the issue with Christmas songs and just with awkward nonsense.

You could tell King was losing it big time when he wrote this, this is giving Bendis a run for his money at writing incoherent bullshit. Honestly, as a parody, this works. It's like a superhero porn parody and there is a scene where if you read it, you certainly can't contradict me. Unfortunately, that's not at all what this book wants to be, this actually takes itself very seriously, so the end result is a nightmare. Oh, and inside the book King refers twice to the couple as Cat/Bat, because like I already said so many times, this isn't actually a Batman book, he's just in the title for helping sales. And in case anyone was hoping that after his awful second half of the run and this disaster, DC learned anything and will stop giving Tom King Batman books, well, you'd be wrong. DC just gave him another Batman mini. Let's just hope that when he writes that, his therapist will be in the best possible shape.

I've kind of run out of metaphors to say how bad this is. Just stupid ramblings on and on, Catwoman's voice is still just awful, nothing here works. There's the beginning of a revelation here, like that's all that matters, but I just cringe at everything else.

Tom King seems like the type of man unable to admit his mistakes. He screwed up the wedding between Batman and Catwoman, he continues to screw it up in the Batman/Catwoman book but somehow he still seems to insist "I got this, guys, I know how to write these two characters as a couple". We should all tell him "No, dude, you absolutely don't, let it fucking go!". And the saddest thing is he really has the most terrible voice for Catwoman. I'm sure in his head he thinks he is eMpOwErInG her but all he makes her is an imbecile character. And it seems like he has a weird fetish with old superheroes, I really don't get that. Honestly I would've rated this lower if not for the fact that this was the last DC work of John Paul Leon, God bless his soul.

Good concept for the story, very good action but it was ruined by Batman Who Laughs (I could actually tell which were Snyder's lines because they're childishly stupid) and by the fact that the narration makes no sense at the end of the issue.

Truth, Justice and the American Way, Yang, it's not forbidden to say "the American way", not yet, anyway.

The first one was better, but still pretty entertaining.

Still fun but I feel like the concept is wearing off a little. A lot of twists come out of nowhere which doesn't help the book. Reis' art is great, it really pays great homage to the early comics. I think one more issue of this would be enough, I'm getting a little bored by it.

I totally understand now why DC is cancelling this book. What started as something fun became more and more of a chore. You can only keep doing the same thing for so long until it becomes too boring.

I grew bored of this issues go but given it's the end of the arc and of the run I feel generous for a book that was consistently decent. P.S.: There's an annual after this so I've downgraded it to 6.

I loved this, Yang came up with yet another crazy issue and ended the run on a high and fun note, this was really great!

I liked this but I feel cheated by it. The last page from the last issue proposed an encounter with Darkseid. No such thing happened here. Both stories are good but I hate it when writers bait people to buy their books. I'm giving it 7.5 not just for this issue but overall because this series was pretty good from the beginning and who knows when the next Batman/Superman book will come out given DC's plans.

Decent book, in the spirit of continuing the Batman/Superman comic I would have wanted Yang on this because he was pretty good, but PKJ does the job here too. It's not perfect, I have some qualms with it but it's definitely better than Morrison's cringy shit.

This was pretty good.

This isn't a bad book but... that's not Dick Grayson. I though he was Damian or maybe Jason Todd but Willingham clearly doesn't care about the personality here because that's not Dick.

Not very good, Batman seems like an idiot here.

J.H. Williams's art was glorious.

I was already cringing from Tom King's story with the singing, if he could only write just one issue without poetry or singing he would probably have a seizure. But no, his pretentiousness always gets the better of him.

The first story is pretty racist, something I've come to expect from Ridley. Sure, the usual crowd will go "hOw iS iT rAcIsT?" because for some racism only goes one way. Which, of course, it doesn't. The second is just bad, the third is okay. The fourth and the fifth are pretty good, I was impressed by the art in both.

4 out of 5 writers here are actually artists and it shows, I think the book is treading water by now.

As soon as I read the name of the writer of the first story I knew what it would be about and the message of the book. Brandon Thomas is a race-baiter if I've ever seen one, there's not a single story of his that doesn't revolve around race. 1 for the story, the guy gets a job for one reason only and he didn't do anything so far to show he deserves it. 8.5 for the second, I really enjoyed it even though the art was unintelligible at some point. 5 for the third, 4.5 for the fourth, 5 for the last one. Again, artists don't usually make for good writers.

I've been awaiting this book with some anticipation, given that lately Batman seems to have much better luck in Black Label books than in in-continuity books and that seems by design. On the other hand, I've never been a fan of artists trying their hand at writing, so I was a tiny bit skeptical all the same. Unfortunately, the latter instinct seemed more right. Sure, it's not bad and for a first issue you could say it's even good as an introduction but the story seemed all over the place to me and it makes even less sense in the grander scheme at DC right now. These days, DC seems to try and tell us that Arkham Asylum is useless and needs to be done with. What will it be replaced with, no one seems to know, just something a bit more soft for the insane criminals seems to be the answer for the writers who aren't right in their heads either, btw. This book seems to tell us that Arkham kinda works, at least partially until a better solution comes along, because Vasquez here actually has a decent idea: stop letting criminals thrive in a revolving door institution and try to actually lock them up. Yeah, I know it's Black Label but DC really seems to make no sense at this point about what security means for Gotham. The narrative gets even weirder when Jock tries to paint Vasquez the villain because while the transfer is done, the truck is getting ambushed by criminals with guns. Vasquez just complained that Gordon isn't doing his job apprehending criminals off the streets but somehow she's the villain here. And why is the transfer done during a hot weather when apparently that plays to E.M.P.'s advantage? Honestly, there are so many plotholes here I was scratching my head half the time. The art was good, but the story, while setting up an interesting premise, really suffers in the coherence department.

I rate it this high solely for Sharp's art, the story is pretty bad, this version of Batman is a parody, Ennis disrespects the character here.

If you enjoy a parody of Batman, then this is for you. Otherwise it might leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. Even Sharp's art wasn't that great this issue.

First half it's pretty cringe but it really gets better after that. This is a series where if instead of Sharp it would've been someone like, say Rossmo, on art I would have dropped it but Sharp got me through and at times it does get better. This Batman is definitely more like a parody but still retains a heroic side to him.

Yeah, Batman letting that guy get killed it's totally not in character. It seems to be a theme this week, writers not getting what heroes are. Ennis was always this way so I get that, but Batman is bigger than his edginess.

Too much verbal diarrhea without any real meaning and I always hate it when writers use all that slang in a "how do you do fellow kids" kind of way. Another bad sign is the way all writers keep giving Duke new powers, thinking that that will somehow make him an interesting character. Spoiler: it won't, it just makes him a Mary Sue who at this point is giving Superman a run for his money with the multitude of powers. Still, I appreciated the overall idea of the book and that saves it a little.

Mariko Tamaki has that "magic touch" that can make any character feel dull and uninteresting, even though Huntress really isn't that way.

Honestly, better than I expected, pretty good surprise especially since Clownhunter is very boring as a character. But I enjoyed how Punchline explains that the clowns want to bait young people into violence. Very similar to what happens these days online with the radicalization of young people who can't take people disagreeing with them and think that violence is the solution. Also, yeah, if anyone should understand about a kid getting in over his head, it's Jason.

How is it that Tynion's origin stories for his characters are always so, so predictable? Of course his most boring creation is yet another sum of cliches. Of course she is an apathetic girl who didn't fit in and she was disrespected at work and wanted kids instead of career blah blah blah. I can't wait for him to move to Substack and the likes of Punchline, Clownhunter, Miracle Molly, the Gardener and Ghost-Maker to be forgotten and never used again in a Batman story. Art was bad, too, there's nothing redeeming this story.

I liked this. Even though PK-01 reminds me a lot of Lock-Up (Tynion isn't exactly known for his originality) he's an interesting character. I'm not a fan of Tynion's decision to make it so that Sean actually put those barrels there to cover up his previous mistakes, I actually liked that even though he's obviously fucked up in the head, he displayed a decent feat of heroism saving those nurses, this retcon doesn't help the character much. Still, I've enjoyed this and this is the only character from Tynion that I hope doesn't go away. Unlike Miracle Molly, Clownhunter, Punchline, Gardener and Ghost-Maker, this guy has a hero complex but is obviously disturbed and that makes him pretty interesting in the Gotham ecosystem.

Not as awful as I would have expected but I'm getting sick and tired of this environmentalism wave in comics that tries to present mass murderers as victims of society, so yeah, Tynion "does it again". Ivy is not a victim of "other men". She is an insane supervillain who thinks killing innocent people will make the world better. Anyone who tries to justify this needs a visit to a psychiatrist.

The main idea for the book isn't bad, it's pretty interesting actually but until the last page the book felt like a bore. It's probably Tom Taylor's storytelling that I always find very cliche and the fact that his characters sound the same in all his books. I'm not a huge fan of Kubert's art but here he was really good.

Oh look, the most predictable "plot twist" that we totally didn't see coming from the very first issue. How this guy manages to trick people into believing him an actual good writer is baffling to me. He's the best writer for people who really don't need to put any thought into it while reading comics.

This is Tom Taylor so of course we get another good dose of propaganda, this time against the U.S. military. It's par for the course with this guy at this point. And of course Batman gets preached about the system and how everything is his fault because in Tom Taylor's mind it's always the fault of the straight white male for everything. And in case the classic idiot will come here to cry "you're a conspiracy theorist, Taylor has nothing against straight white males", he literally just said on CNN that he turned Jon bi because he didn't want "yet another straight white male savior". Which, of course, isn't racist or sexist or anything, everybody knows those straight white males are just awful and it's ok to characterize an entire group of people just based on aspects of themselves they have no control over. The dude has issues, to say the least. I do have a question, though: how is it Batman's fault that a smuggler who saved a guy ended up in prison after a crime scene he wasn't even involved in? The guy really, really does some twisted mental gymnastics just to satisfy his insane hate.

Decent first issue, I didn't know Leslie Thompkins is supposed to be black nowadays but oh well, this is the trend, I guess. I'm not very interested in the psychiatrist angle but I am interested in the rest of the story, let's see how this develops.

The first half of this was boring and pretty nonsensical at times in terms of the characters. There's nothing new or insightful coming out of Leslie's therapy, same old stuff with some stupid exceptions, as in Bruce lacks empathy now. I know the trope, Bruce beats criminals hence he's the worst blahblahblah. Except, Bruce shows empathy even to supervillains a lot of the times. It's not his fault that most of them are beyond redemption mass murderers. Also, I don't see why this version of Alfred just leaves just so we can have Leslie fulfill his supporting role. It's bad enough he got killed needlessly by King in main continuity, we don't need him to be an asshole here too. And of course we get a sneaky remark about Thomas Wayne too because the whole "philanthropists, good parents" doesn't work anymore in the new paradigm. The second half gets better though and it coincides, just as last issue, with the Wong part of the comic. There we get a little bit of story with some interesting interactions and very good plot. I just wish we'd focus more on that because two out of two issues I'm not having fun at the Leslie parts.

Yeah, this was good but it's really not that good as most people make it up to be. I get that it's not a good time for Batman with Tynion, Tamaki and depressed King these last years but just because the quality was low in recent history doesn't mean we should pretend decent stories are groundbreaking. There are some very blatant flaws that people tend to overlook. For example, we get a big dose of bullshit of "Bruce Wayne doesn't help". This is a theme lately at DC Comics, it's like these writers haven't actually read any Batman comics. Bruce Wayne is a philanthropist, he has poured tons of money into Gotham, but like in real life, just throwing money at problems without actually having a good plan doesn't help. I get that marxist rhetoric is very trendy for these guys but some of us see through this crap. All the "therapy" with Leslie was super boring and didn't do shit during these 3 issues, it was filler and totally uninteresting. And I swear there are panels when Batman legit looks like a woman, those are not the lips of a man, Sorrentino did an awesome job with the fights, those looked great, but some panels looked really, really weird. On the plus side, I actually liked the ending, it was a very sound resolution for this story and I enjoyed Wong's character. The mystery was a decent one, too and like I said, the fights looked great. All in all, this is a good Batman comic but a lot of people are overpraising it because the Batman books have been lacking quality lately.

I loved it up until the half of it when Zdarsky started to put his usual rants about cops and rich people, I don't get why one would insist on beating us over the head with the same ideas over and over and over. At this point he should know his audience and stop with it, not continue propagandizing. Other than that, this was decent for a first issue if you get over Chip's usual problems.

Yeah, this was better than the first one, there are still some lines that I didn't like but overall it was really interesting. Lucie is like a combination of Magpie, Ducard and Catwoman.

Very good story, obviously not as good as the original, the years have passed over both Loeb and Sale but it's still better than most of the comics today.

I was interested in this even though I'm not a big fan of anthologies but, man, was I surprised of this. This is the first DC enterprise in the last months I actually think has served them pretty well. They should try to search for writers in other parts because American writers are lately very one-note and the likes of Ridley or Tynion didn't help the character. European writers were very good, I have to say, I really, really liked their stories in particular. So I'm going to take every story and make a short review for each: 1.USA 9.5. Azzarello did a good job here introducing the book and the art from Bermejo was great, very good voice for Batman 2.France 9.5 Not a fan of the art but the story was a nice one and it played very funny on French stereotypes. 3.Spain 10 I'm not usually one who likes a story where there's very little dialogue but the art here was very good in its storytelling, I was really surprised of this one. 4.Italy 9.5 This one has a weird structure and I lost my interest halfway but at the end you get a sense of satisfaction. 5.Germany 6.5 This one I didn't like that much, I didn't want (yet) another cheap story about environmentalism but at least one of the characters is pretty crazy so that's in line with the Gretas of the world lol 6.Czech Republic 10 This one was awesome. Americans lately have been shying away from condemning communism with stupid people actually embracing an ideology responsible for the murder of tens of millions of people. That won't fly in Central and Eastern Europe where people have actually lived under such regimes and where they have experimented what that was like. Spoiler: It's fucking horrible. And this is shown here in spades. Anyone who embraces Communism or thinks "it wasn't that bad", read this story. It may have a Batman setup but the writer definitely tries to speak of what a total nightmare it was. 7.Russia 10 This was honestly awesome, as well. It was such a sweet story and it embraced a lot of the history of the times and comics and Batman and it ended on a very great note. 8.Turkey 6.5 This would've been better if the writer didn't try every page to tell us how great Turkey is and how it is the cradle of civilizations at least 10 times, if Erdogan would've written this he would've shut up about it but not this guy, no. 9.Poland 7 Another good story but the art didn't help at all, it was pretty bad. 10.Mexico 6 Ok story, good art 11.Brazil 3 This one bored me out of my mind, it embraced a lot of weird tropes and I wanted it to end a lot sooner. I expected better. 12.South Korea 8 Pretty good story with nice twists and decent art 13.China 2 Childish art, boring story and a little bit of Chinese propaganda that wasn't really necessary 14.Japan 4 By far the biggest disappointment, I expected from a manga story a much better quality level, not this. So overall I loved this, I wouldn't mind seeing DC giving more chances to writers around the world, especially Europeans because they did a great job here, maybe go a little bit to the East, see what those people can say about the character. Either way, congratulations, this was a good effort.

Great first issue, the second was very good too but Johns ended it pretty badly. Absolutely gorgeous art from Fabok, the guy is amazing! I would've rated it lower if not for his art.

The Red Hood story is clearly the star of the show here, the art is perfect for this type of story and the characterization of Red Hood is really great and spot on, with a tiny thing that irked me as a Red Hood fan. I know Chip Zdarsky is pro-drugs in a very upfront way but hearing Red Hood, a guy whose mother overdosed (and I think his dad also was a pusher and eventually got to jail), that drugs "sound great" really didn't sound very in character. But that's just one complaint in an otherwise excellent story and I can't wait to see more of it. The Harley and Outsiders stories were okay at best and the Grifter one was good if I'm being generous. Stil, overall, I can't say any story here was bad and if I add the Red Hood part, I'm more than happy about this one.

I'm glad to see that this book gets so many good reviews and this is for sure one of the best books DC puts out at the moment. That being said, as a Red Hood fan, I do have some problems with it. First of all, if Zdarsky read any earlier comics with Jason, he would not put that scene in this book. Sure, Jason had some rough edges and he was a bit of a troublemaker as a little kid but not in that dark way, to push a dude downstairs. It seems to me like Zdarsky took inspiration more from Jason Todd from the Titans show, I do see that Jason doing that. But comic Jason? Neah, as a kid he knew right from wrong, he reached out to Batman when he knew Ma Gunn was up to no good with those kids. Yes, he did kill a dude who got away with stuff he shouldn't have but that was when he grew up (he was a teenager at that point) and the anger kept bubbling up. So, that's strike one for Zdarsky. Strike two is Jason's anger at Batman for the fact that "his moral code stops at the border". That just doesn't make sense, the other option for Batman would be to chase Red Hood across the country to bring him in and he doesn't want to do that. So if anything Jason should be grateful or at least understanding that Batman allows him to operate in Gotham under these conditions and doesn't chase him when Jason's killing people outside Gotham. All in all, I loved the scenes with Batman chasing those criminals, he's never been this menacing in comics for a long time. Castellucci's story is pretty weird, the Outsiders is okay as long as you're cool with Jefferson and Katana's thing and the last one is good too, though Grifter would never win one in one against Jason.

Eh, I'm going to "break ranks" with my fellow Red Hood fans here and say this issue seemed like it was stalling. Not a lot going on and the fact that half-way in they switched Barrows' great art with an uglier one cements my belief that this issue was treading water. Also, Zdarsky's pro-drugs approach to the point of Batman saying they're not going to attack "addicts" who otherwise were selling that stuff to other people, making their lives miserable, seemed really silly and even though this issue tries to make Batman the reasonable one and Red Hood the reckless one, it's stuff like that makes me agree with Jason, despite the writers' intention. Really hope that the next issue goes somewhere because it looks like the story is not moving forward very much. The Shiva story was surprisingly good, I couldn't give two flying shits about Brandon Thomas' Outsiders and his weird "will they, won't they, oh no they're just friends but actually not" with Jefferson and Tatsu and the Grifter one would be a lot better if not for the classic cringey Rosenberg dialogue but it's still a decent enough story.

So this one was better than the one before. Revisiting Jason's fall is always going to get me in the feels but there's one thing I didn't like here. Jason shouldn't fall that easily for a drugged-up Mr. Freeze. If Lobdell did one thing right, he made Jason a competent vigilante, someone like Mr. Freeze was easy-peasy for him. Now Zdarsky just put him back in that "helpless, reckless" territory, something the character has outgrown a looong time ago. But I have to say, I did enjoy seeing an angry, effective Batman, unlike the pussy he's in Tynion's book where he's second-guessing himself just because a no-one like Miracle Molly sells her shit to him. The Batwing story was pretty good too, I liked it. The third story is a really weird one, I didn't enjoy at all what Fitzpatrick tried to do with Tim, he's never "swinged that way" at all. And I'm getting tired of Rosenberg's Grifter, get to the point already, dude.

Again, the three other stories drag this issue down. If this book was just Zdarsky's story, I think it's pretty safe to say this would be the best book at DC right now. But the other stories always manage to dilute this book. The Red Hood story was great, I'm really curious how it's going to end. The Batgirls stories was cringe, the Tim one was sooo boring and uninspired to say the least, while Rosenberg's was good, not great, just good. It's a shame this is DC's strategy and even when they manage to create a good book, they choose to bury it in more rubbish for extra money.

So as much as I wanted to like this, it ended on such a sour note. The Jason story had a lot of potential and while some things in it worked, especially when it comes to the relation between Jason and Bruce, some really, really didn't. The two biggest faults being that this whole comic revolved around Red Hood and Batman, 5 issues of 6 it was just the two of them assisted by Oracle from her chair. I really didn't think including the Bat-family was necessary at this point. And the second one is even worse. Jason dropping his guns isn't necessary at all and it was probably made because of Zdarsky and DC's political views regarding guns. The biggest differences between Jason and Batman were that he killed and used guns. It's the whole reason for why they're antagonistic, he is the only member of the family that doesn't bend his views for Bruce's ideology. I get that Zdarsky is saying that he put the guns away supposedly because he killed the kid's father but, you know, there are other ways of killing people and guns or no guns really doesn't make any difference in that regard. The real reason I think this happened is because DC has shied away from Red Hood's guns, they even cut them off from the cover of RHATO #50 and nowadays they always replace the guns with swords on covers. And Zdarsky agrees with this. Same thing at Marvel with Punisher, he's been sidelined for some time now because of the police controversy. So a huge piece of the character is ripped away for political motivations. Yeah, I don't like that, I don't like it one bit. Barrows' art was great and the story overall was good too but, as was always the case along this run, some bits of Zdarsky's Red Hood just don't fit. At least he got his old suit back, that's a good thing. Regarding the rest of the stories, Rosenberg's was pretty mediocre but the Tim Drake one is downright shameless. A shameless self-insert for the Tim Drake character, a character that never in 30 years has shown any sign of attraction to males but because it's 2021 and progressives are hell-bent on pushing their ideology into every little thing and corner of our lives, they completely change a character and now we're supposed to pretend this was always the case. No, it wasn't, it still isn't and DC should completely ignore this piece of fanfic. Tim Drake is straight. The fourth one was pretty uninteresting too and I loled at Williamson's wokeness: "my hope is to take the evilest force in the world and make it work for us... MONEY". Yeah, dude, there's literally nothing worse than money on this world, so disgusting and vile, totally. :)) Overall, this issue deserves less than 5.5 but because the Red Hood story was decent overall, I'm a little lenient towards it.

I didn't expect to like this, but I did. 7.5 for the Batman Beyond story, 6.5 for the Damian story (that last page killed it for me, it was better until then), 6.5 for the the third one and 7.5 for the last one.

This would've been rated much lower if not for the Azrael story, the first two were pretty meh and as always Brandon Thomas's story is just bad.

Just awful all around.

Most of the stories are mediocre but the Tim Drake one is just cringey on all levels. Never mind that Tim being bi still sounds like fanfic and makes zero sense, the way Batman acted, the way the characters talked, the horrendous art, all was just so awful on a level a comic company like DC shouldn't ever produce. Seriously, it was just horrible.

I like the fact that Ben Reilly is given this much attention these days and while this was indeed wordy, most of the narration had purpose. I totally dislike the art, though, it's just not my cup of tea at all. I cringed a little at the "supervillain is an offensive and toxic term" but that's a minor complaint. I'm curios to see what comes next but that artwork really kills a lot of the joy for me.

This was nice in the end and I'm getting used to this guy's art.

It was ok, I liked the interaction at the end between Black Cat and MJ.

So all the annuals so far were leading up to this? I guess Marvel is pretty desperate to get people to buy this book, I remember also having a preview of Black Cat in a Spider-Man book not so long ago, for all their efforts it doesn't seem to work. I feel like the Infinity Gauntlet is a bit too much for a character like Black Cat, she's more street level. The dialogue was a bit over the top.

Meh.

There are some good ideas here but they all pale in the face of all the cringey dialogue from Spurrier, I want to like this book but to me it seems too much like a parody.

Spurrier took a big shit on every single element of the Black Knight's history, such disrespect for the work of the writers before him, if I could rate this under 1, I would.

"oH sO vEry mAlE" lol, Spurries has some issues. And Black Knight was a Nazi, too? Come on, how does Marvel let this go on? Especially now that the character is up for an appearance in MCU, he deserves far better than this crap.

I hope whoever takes the reigns after this just forgets all this mess and pretends this abomination didn't happen. Spurrier's hate for Brexit and the crown shouldn't have to ruin a character with such a rich history, shame on you Marvel. All this was very stupid, from a character in a world of magic and history Spurrier made it about technology, that was so boring and predictable. Also, his daughter's personality is annoying but I guess that's how modern female characters have to be written to be considered "strong".

Ok so this is clearly a Milestone book since all of the action revolves around black people (the only white people are the villains, of course) and DC should label it as such. I've seen this in the Aquaman anniversary, all of a sudden Black Manta grows a conscience and starts to fight for the people because of course the ruthless mass murderer is now a man of the people since he's black. Race-baiting comic by race-baiting writer, nothing to see here. And of course this review will make me racist from the usual crowd since thought-process isn't something they engage in.

Yet another "lost tribe" plotline from DC, all too very similar with Thao-La and her group of Kryptonians. I understand DC is looking to ride that diversity train but could we get just a tiiiny bit of originality, is that too much to ask for? It gets points though for using one of the most ridiculous-but-in-a-good-way villains from DC, Gentleman Ghost. I've been criticized by some idiots here for saying this book is basically a Milestone one. There's a page in this issue that I think showcases exactly that so I guess I can say I'm happy I'm being proved right. But what got my attention was that Malcolm X was presented as a victim of racism and his death a casualty of that. Now I have no doubts Malcolm WAS a victim of racism during his life but his death was decidedly NOT a casualty of that. He got killed by Nation of Islam which, you know, wasn't a very friendly organization towards whites. So we have here yet another attempt from a comic writer to rewrite history to suit his cause. It's a disturbing pattern in the industry lately. Also, while Marcus Garvey was indeed a key figure in black history, he was a self-described fascist, he even went so far to say he was the first fascist before Mussolini, which of course was crazy talk (in his defense, he did realize his mistake after Italy's invasion of Abyssinia and condemned fascism), and he even collaborated with KKK in an effort to push his black separatist views. If you want to change the future and make it a better one, start by presenting the past how it was, not how you would have liked it to be, Chuck Brown.

This unofficial Milestone book (you have to be an idiot to pretend by now this isn't a Milestone book) bored me and the art was pretty bad.

Not a fan of Ridley at all but I really enjoyed this. Black Panther desperately needed a new writer, Coates was slowly killing the character. I like the way Wakanda is slowly changing, I like the way Panther was written and Cabal's art was excellent. Really hope that Ridley will refrain himself for the race-baiting he's doing in the fake Batman book and we get more of this because I really liked this.

This one took a big dip in quality from the last one. I liked what Ridley was doing there with T'Challa, him being distrustful, suspicious of everyone and having trouble adapting to democracy. But believing the Avengers would try to kill his sleeper agents is just a bit too much to swallow. And so is his line that as a king, there's no point in regretting his decisions. The idea Ridley goes for is interesting but he needs to tone it down a notch, he goes too far with it. There were also other lines that annoyed me and were more in line with what Ridley is currently doing in his abysmal not-Batman run. I hope the next issue will get better, the potential is there.

Very good first story, the second one was very stupid, Juni Ba shouldn't receive more chances to write stupid comics and the third one was pretty meh.

Maybe I would have liked this more if not for the historical revisionism that Onyebuchi tries to apply here regarding Liberia, a country that doesn't give citizenship to white people (guess that's racist but whatever) and that was supposed to be a real life Wakanda but failed, even though white people didn't interfere as they did in the rest of the African continent. But for extremists the truth doesn't really matter, it's all about ideology. It's a shame that this book is targeted for YA and young people are impressionable so they would believe these lies. P.S.: I love it when losers screech at stuff they don't want to hear and try to cover that up by deliberately misinterpreting what I say and ramble on to try to "win", my job here was done. Please don't trust their lies and just inform yourselves on the matters discussed here.

Of course Hunter is the bad guy, I should have seen it coming, what else can someone like Onyebuchi write?

This is atrocious, just bad all around. Hunter comes across a douchebag, T'Challa comes across as a douchebag, the "fights" are boring. Why did they gave this guy a Captain America book? I mean, we all know why they gave it to him but he just doesn't deserve it.

I usually don't like when a writer decides to throw in tweets and cringy stuff like that but here it was fun all around. This isn't a groundbreaking book or anything but it's comedy at its best. I've missed these guys and this is a welcome return!

I still love this and I'm having fun, something most comics these days don't manage to do.

I didn't like this and Sook wasn't actually on the art, which sucked because the art was pretty ugly.

This was at times boring, at times fun, but that special appearance was awesome as fuck, I absolutely loved it!

Yeah, this is getting boring, nothing here was funny or interesting, I'm pretty disappointed.

I'm no fan of Gerry Duggan but I have to give him some credit, he finished this exactly as I wanted. I like Old Cable but I also found Kid Cable pretty entertaining and I was afraid one of them would have to go. Luckily that's not the case. I also liked how Stryfe begged amnesty because imo the mutants are pretty shitty regarding clones. They're people too and deserve the same grace monsters like Sinister or Apocalypse got.

I like Cable but as with Ewing's Defenders, this was such a slog to get through, at some point I wanted to drop it without finishing reading it. Another miss by Ewing who sometimes just thinks he's smarter and cheekier than he actually is. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who's not a Cable fan.

This is the beginning of "The Captain" storyline, the second time when Steve Rogers drops the Cap identity. Unfortunately, while this may be slightly better than the first time, it's still a very unrefined and rushed issue. Rogers drops the mantle while not being very sure of how the whole Commission thing would go and it's more than evident that the writers' political feelings towards the Reagan administration are the real reason Rogers stops being Cap. Just as Englehart didn't like Nixon and poured his dislike towards Tricky Dick in his book and the transformation into Nomad, the same happens here. By adding that to Spencer's whole Secret Empire thing, a clear (and forced) parallel to Trump (although I liked Secret Empire!), you may start to see a pattern. Steve Rogers is a great character but unfortunately a lot of the times the frustrations the writers (advice: never read Ann Nocenti's Cap, it's just cringe) have towards US presidents (and somehow, it's almost always Republicans) are being poured through his mouth and that makes him a propaganda tool. And yes, I know, he was created specifically for that, against the Nazis, but that seemed fair game, this doesn't, not to me at least. Not when only one side gets the short stick every time. To the very least, if anyone ever gives Millar crap for portraying Cap as a libertarian and saying he "doesn't get" the character, read this. Cap throwing away his uniform, considering he alone, not the government, represents the American ideals, is the most libertarian thing one could do. And no, I'm not a libertarian, it's just that I find it funny how some people blame Millar for stuff other writers have done in the past with Cap.

Great second issue, great characterization for Walker, you can tell how he's exactly the opposite of Steve at this point. I like how at the end while some stuff doesn't sit well with him, he sucks it up because he probably thinks it's un-American not to lol. He's also pretty loyal to his buddies, even though that will come back to bite him in the ass later.

Walker sure has some distorted views and sees Cap through totally different lenses than Steve would but I like that he genuinely wants to be Cap and he takes it seriously. He may have started by phoning it in and looking for glory but he's in it now and he knows he has big shoes to fill. I also liked that at the end he chose to take responsibility for his idiotic decision, at the very least that is Cap-like.

I laughed at this one, Walker sure has a rich imagination but he somehow ended up on the right conclusion. In this issue, though, he's a major douche by gambling with Lemar's life like that. Though I suppose his bet that Lemar will handle those Watchdogs isn't crazier than say, a vigilante who drags kids in bright-colored tights in a crime war, so if you look at it that way, Walker is no douchier than Batman is. Still, it's a risky decision on his part but he's lucky here.

"You shouldn't take the law into your own hands", says the guy who literally gave up the shield to take the law into his own hands. Gruenwald's Cap is a good man, but very inconsistent in his reasoning. And man, Gruenwald could not make his peace with Reagan's presidency. Yes, Reagan was popular because he also upheld those ideals that Cap did. It's why I think Steve/Gruenwald doesn't know what he says. But at least Cap admits he isn't against Reagan, so that's something. What I really liked here is how Steve ends up setting some limits eventually on the whole "taking the law into your own hands". I've seen a lot of people laughing at Cap's moral dilemmas in this run but I think they're interesting. How far should one go when he decided he is above the law? If you don't set some clear boundaries, you may find yourself on slippery ground. Thankfully, Cap puts some limits on himself. Other than that, Brother Nature is so cringe it hurt.

"Should work as long as no one asks me what I'm Captain of", I swear Gruenwald seems genius at times in his unending well of creativity, and sometimes he seems a little kid whose logic is slightly schizophrenic.

People say Walker's crazy but Lemar is pretty fucked up as well, John always seems to keep him in line when Lemar is all too eager to go for the kill. And Jack Monroe sure is a piece of work, never heard someone talk about sex in the term of "creature contact" lol. At the end of the issue, though, we have a complete U-turn that I don't buy, Walker loses it completely all of a sudden and kills the villain in a fit of rage that wasn't at all indicated up until then. It's not that I don't see John Walker doing that, he's certainly not opposed to killing, it's just that up until then he was very composed, he even kept Lemar in check. Yeah, that's not great writing here. But hey, at least he feels bad about it? It's a pattern in Gruenwald's run, in the last panel of the last page Walker always has a Cap-like moment.

It's funny that Gruenwald ties the red tape and bureaucracy to Reagan when the man hated both from his guts, shows how much he knows about Reagan and how irrational his hate towards him is. Other than that, this is another issue centered on The Captain, Nomad, D-Man and Falcon and those are always a bit less interesting than the new Cap, especially because D-Man and Falcon are pretty boring here while Nomad is a major douche.

Armadillo is so sad here, I really felt bad for him. He even was nice enough to turn himself in voluntarily at the end of the issue, what a lad! The interactions between D-Man and Nomad are genuinely funny, I guess Jack wasn't entirely wrong when he accused D-Man of wanting to steal Vagabond (great superhero codename there, though I guess you can't be picky when your boyfriend calls himself Nomad lol) from him. I love the justification D-Man came up with, he just wanted to "show her some wrestling moves". Yeah, wrestling moves... if you know what I mean. The funny thing is in his childish mind D-Man may actually not do any of that on purpose but you can hardly blame Jack for suspecting him and Jack definitely is prone to rush and angry judgment. Cap got dark for a second there but he pulled himself back at the last moment, and just as Nomad was calling him a wimp, shows what he knows. I really liked that moment.

Really good issue, we have the conclusion of the conflict between Cap and Iron Man, we have the (re)introduction of Right-Winger and Left-Winger and the beginning of "Snake War". Walker's identity is made public knowledge and that will come back to bite him in the ass in the worst way possible. What's worse is those are his buddies and he genuinely cared about them.

Not much happens here, I'm sure D-Man will eventually show Vagabond his "wrestling moves". Diamondback is really into Cap and Nomad is really the chaddest of the chads, he complains about D-Man making moves on his girl, while he's eyeing Diamondback, gotta love the guy.

I continue to laugh at Gruenwald's sexual innuendos, if he was alive today, he would get cancelled pretty quick. The part with Cap's group is still not very great, turns out Diamondback is into Nomad too (not as much as she's into Steve, he's a "hunk"), but still no love for D-Man, poor guy. I don't know if Gruenwald hates Nomad or something, but the dude is terrible at anything else than throwing his discs, he puts Cap in danger here big time. On Walker's story, we see again his idea that "the law is the law", it's not his job to think about it, the government knows better, something completely antagonistic to Steve's view and, frankly, quite wrong. But hey, at least he's nice enough to not want to report that Quill resisted arrest, that's got to count to something? I wonder if we'll see more of the Resistants in the future.

Worst issue by far from what I've read in Gruenwald's run, other than Diamondback who was great here, most everything was bad, the plot was very stupid, it got pretty cringe at times, this is where I'd say Gruenwald went full lunatic, I hope he got it out of his system here. Also, I wonder what presidents Gruenwald doesn't consider "honorable", you can't just throw that shade without nominating anyone but if his opinion of Reagan is any indication, I'm not sure I really want to know his thoughts on any other US president.

So it turns out Nomad wasn't crazy after all, Vagabond wanted the d from D-Man all along. But seriously Gruenwald goes out of his way almost every issue to make Nomad look bad, he almost hates him as much as he does Reagan. He definitely likes D-Man a lot while also disliking Jack Monroe with the same passion. By far though, Walker's drama is the best part here, he brutally murders the Watchdogs who kidnap his parents. And that last panel with him holding them and pretending they were still alive is haunting, here is when John starts to lose it, though you can hardly blame the guy. He basically experienced the same thing Batman did, only Bruce was a child who could virtually do nothing to stop Joe Chill, Walker is a super-powered dude who thinks he could have saved them and will blame himself for it, what happens here is actually in some ways even worse than what happened to Bats.

I just loved the art here, Kieron Dwyer did a great job both in conveying a range of powerful emotions from Walker and the mutants who were made to fight their own and in drawing some awesome action, Walker fought like a powerhouse, here is where we start to see US Agent's birth and where he develops his own fighting-style. And again that last panel hits all the right notes.

The issue starts symbolically with Walker getting dark there in those first panels when he (again) goes too far for Captain America and it's only the beginning. The fight against Left-Winger and Right-Winger is really great, he goes full berserk and the fighting is really imaginative, something you don't see very often in comics these days. John totally loses it there badly, BUT in his defense he does give them a chance, albeit a veeery tiny one and he calls it "mercy". That last page is iconic for Walker, at this point he is no longer Captain America by any means, he is U.S. Agent, who he was always meant to be. Can't wait for the next issue when he clashes with Flag-Smasher, they should be arch-enemies, since Walker is the ultimate nationalist, you could even call him a jingoist, and the other hates nationalism from his guts, he's basically the ultimate globalist. P.S.: In his defense, John was unbiased, he killed both Left-Winger and Right-Winger and he massacred the Watchdogs even though he agreed with their basic principles, people don't give him enough credit in terms of ideological flexibility.

Here Walker gambles with a man's life in the most un-Cap possible way, dude is not ok at this point but, curiously, his "negotiation" works even though unfortunately he loses to Flag-Smasher. And hey, turns out Reagan was not ok with Steve deposed as Cap, Gruenwald probably decided to show some "leniency" towards him given that this is written near the end of his presidency.

An ok issue that ends with D-Man trying to do the right thing and possibly (but unlikely) getting himself killed.

So it turns out Rogers was slightly jealous on Walker for beating him and wanted to prove himself, I have to say he has some ego there for a boy scout. What bothered me is there's a line where Gruenwald says that Cap never killed and I remembered he used to have this stupid notion Cap got through WWII not killing anyone. Yeah, sorry, that's some major bullshit there, he would've endangered all his fellow soldiers if he went around tip-toeing against Nazis. Great fight between Walker and Rogers, Rogers beats John, then Walker saves him from Red Skull and he finally does the right thing and gives Rogers back his shield. And man, is Steve jolly about it! Btw, there is an interesting panel in the Red Skull's origin story at the end where the Red Skull is shown embracing a militant persona to agitate black people in Harlem to riot. Remember when riots were considered bad and not something good that should be done even during a pandemic (and all the subsequent deaths hidden in order to stick to the "peaceful protest" narrative)? Those were the times, weren't they? All in all, this was a good run, second only to Brubaker's run, in my book.

This is the start of an amazing run from Brubaker, I do miss Captain America being written by a competent writer, not hacks like Coates or Cantwell.

Bucky feels like a real threat here and the ending is devastating for him.

Bucky Barnes as Cap is how you replace a hero, this is how it's handled, not like they do it today!

Captain America #50 was amazing, the others not so much.

An amazing issue, if someone were to ask me what Cap issue will best define what kind of man Steve Rogers is, this is the one I would recommend. Absolutely perfect characterization! Read this to wash your mouth from the last years of Cap comics, it's a breath of fresh air. And the art from Epting is absolutely gorgeous!

Finally this nightmare run is over. Maybe now Coates can go cry somewhere else that Peterson is more appreciated than him, not in our comics. If there was one guy I never would've put on Captain America, it was this guy. He hates everything about America and his entire run might as well have been called Daughters of Liberty, he never gave a damn about Steve Rogers. Good riddance!

Pretty decent first issue and very good art, the story was kinda wacky but in a good way.

Really like the voices for Tony and Cap, especially for Cap, much better than what Cantwell or Coates did with him recently. I could do with less Veronica Eden, who I still have a hard time caring about. And yes, enough with the self-hate from Tony, if only Cantwell would get the message. I really liked how Cap got super mad when he saw the Hydra Supreme suit (yet another shitty thing Coates did, killing "Captain Hydra" for nothing). I'm excited for what comes next, I really hope this book maintains this level of quality, these characters deserve better than what Marvel does with them these days.

Yeah, this was pretty boring and I just don't find Veronica Eden such an interesting character as Landy insists she is, I find her pretty juvenile.

This is a 4 issues limited series but I'll put here the review for the whole book. Jeffrey Mace really is an interesting character. Forced to take up the mantle after William Naslund dies, here we explore a little bit who really is the Patriot. Kesel does a fine job of creating a unique personality for the character, as well as interesting supporting characters all around him. I enjoyed exploring his insecurities throughout this book and how difficult it was for him adjusting to the Captain America role. The way he gives up his Patriot identity is crushingly sad and I liked the subtlety with which Kesel approached a very touching subject, something we don't see a lot of these days. I really didn't expect this to be so good.

Marvel baited me with the comeback of the true Captain Marvel, Mar-Vell, so I'm in for this. Though I expect to be highly disappointed since they've tried for years to prop up Carol Danvers and surely they won't give up on that given their social stances. This was decent, Kelly Thompson is a decent writer (and the best female writer, probably the only good one right now) when she's not man-hating. I would've rated it higher, were it not for the ugly art.

Interesting use of her powers but I care more about seeing the other Marvels, so far we've seen little of them.

Meh, if next issue Mar-Vell isn't coming back I'm going to be pissed off, they keep teasing him.

This is a review for #1-13 plus the special. So I wanted to see how Kirby's doing when he was basically given free hand at doing whatever crossed his mind and... it's kinda bizarre? The art is still good but the storytelling suffers. A lot. Captain Victory seems to be Orion's son, "Darkseid" even makes a brief appearance here as a shadow or something like that. Honestly the stories are not very good, I'm generous with the rating because of the art. I would recommend the last three issues which serve as backstory for Captain Victory and the special, everything else is tediously weird, not my cup of tea.

Getting worse from issue to issue.

Boring ending to a boring run, not that putting Tini Howard on the book will make it better lol.

Not bad, though I feel like the main premise is not very great but I enjoyed it for a first issue.

This book took a major u-turn with this issue and not for the best. First issue was good and seemed interested in telling a good story. Here we just get big doses of weird lefty ideas and I can't say I enjoyed that. Plus I just burst in laughter when I saw how Ivy looks here. She's fat because lefties think being fat equals "eMpOwErMeNt" but she just looks ridiculous, especially because being a femme fatale was always a major part of her character. Kinda hard being a sexy femme fatale when you look like you're stuffing your mouth with fast food 4 times a day. There still are some decent ideas but the quality took a serious blow here, especially during the second half of the issue which was horrible and I am starting to worry about what kind of book this will turn out to be.

DC really had a chance to let this one go with the pandemic but nope, they still chose to indulge Bendis.

Man, this is a mess. Claremont doesn't know when to quit, the guy was probably the best X-Men writer ever but nowadays he's just incoherent. Brett Booth's art was really great though, can't wait to see him on X-Men with Hickman.

Better than the first one, kinda dumb fun sort of book but it still doesn't reach very high. I like that he borrowed the Owlman philosophy from the movie but it was very poorly executed in the backup story.

I liked this one, the story seems like it needs to breathe more but I like what the writer is going for here.

So overall this book was... so-so. It tried to revolutionize the Crime Syndicate and it came with some nice ideas but overall parts of the story felt nonsensical, especially in this issue. I liked that it embraced the characterization of Owlman from the movie, the nihilist persona. Ultraman was a caricature, I don't see the point of changing Superwoman from Lois to Donna Troy, John Stewart was an interesting character and the others I just didn't care for. Ultimately it's not a bad series but it's not a good one either, if you're a Crime Syndicate fan this can be for you, if you're not you probably won't like this.

Cates needs to stop smelling his own farts so much, he really thinks he's smarter than he actually is.

I'm really tired of Zdarsky shitting on Matt 24/7.

Another issue where Matt acts like a dumbass because Zdarsky wants to shit on him constantly.

Another sadistic writer who feels the need to capitalize on the pandemic with a very in-your-face similar lockdown and a Bullseye that at this point is a parody, he's a very thinly-veiled parallel to a virus.

Whenever Checchetto is on the art you can be sure the action fights are going to be great but Zdarsky continues with the same tired beats. The drug that makes the inmates violent is "Re-Cid". Get it? The inmates are violent because the warden of the prison deliberately makes them so, that's why they're recidivists. And of course, AGAIN Daredevil will get schooled by North, just as he was schooled by him in the beginning and by the black inmate that helped him during KiB. Honestly if only once Matt would be the conscience of this book and not be presented as a hypocrite and a madman I would probably like this a lot more. Still, this was a good issue overall mostly because of the very smart fights.

This was awful from start to finish, at least the Daredevil parts. The whole "re-cid" (recidivist) drug that makes the prisoners antisocial and violent just so they can come back is cringey and very, very idiotic. It's not like the people ending up there were the most responsible citizens in the first place. This victim mentality is nauseously obnoxious. Then there's Cole North who blatantly says the "only way to do good" is by busting cops. Are you freaking kidding me? It's not like the criminality rate is up to the sky and you'd have work to do, so busting cops is definitely NOT the only way to do good. We get it, Chip, you're with the "defund/abolish the police" crowd, just tone it down a notch, will you? Seriously, get help, you need it. And of course yet again the teacher's pet, Cole, is the moral voice for DD. The Bullseye-covid lockdown parallel is getting even more obvious with Bullseye being so "random and unpredictable". Seriously, this is bad all around.

Bad art, stupid plot, idiotic propaganda. Thank God this run is nearly over, maybe after this Zdarsky can actually focus on a story and not just infecting us with his stupid ideas about how prison turns people violent, because otherwise those people were obviously very decent citizens who got there just by crossing a red light. I'm really not one to wish other people harm, regardless of their stupid and moronic beliefs, but I would wish one of these stupid writers who are so detached from the world to just meet one of these "innocent victims of the system" in an alley, see if their stupid theories would work. These people are what Lenin called "useful idiots" as in people who in their stupidity are sabotaging their own country. They're like the idiots who at riots protest the police and then when an incident happens, they're all "call the police". Dude, are you crazy? Weren't you just asking a second ago for police to be abolished, why would you ask for their help? Then again, logic and sanity are not the strong suits of these people.

I reiterate my wish that Chip will be in a situation in which he will need the police's help, yet will have to stay true to his "principles" lol. He's like those idiots at protests that yell "abolish the police" and when shit hits the fan they go to the cops to ask for help. That being said, I like the dynamics surrounding Kingpin. I have very low expectations for Devil's Reign based on this run and on the solicits.

Decent first issue, but nothing special.

Yeah, so the whole "OMG Matthew will find out" turns out it's bullshit, he already knew, and I always hate it when writers do that sort of stuff. Plus the story really isn't good. There's only one issue left but honestly, Elektra deserves better than this, Zdarsky really doesn't have a good voice for her, at least not in this book.

Meh, the pacing is pretty off and the fact that Marvel planned this book a looong time ago and released it just now makes me think this won't be anything groundbreaking. So far it's true. But it was a decent, classic by now, apocalyptic Tom Taylor story. Coello is the big sell here for me.

Another dumb issue that has no ground to stand on at any level.

WTF was this? Does that sound like Dr. Doom? "Tick Tick"? Is Doom the jokester type? This is a parody of Doom. This whole series is a bad parody of Injustice. And Johnny dying was as predictable as it could have been, we knew it from page 1. Coello did a great job on art but story wise, this is just really bad.

I see Tom Taylor continues with his hate of the Western world, but this time instead of shitting on America, he chooses Europe as his target, with hints that Wakanda is "far nicer than Europe" and, honestly, the idea of immigration from Europe to Africa is laughable considering the actual reality right now where Europe doesn't know how to stop the immigration from Africa and ended up paying a dictator like Erdogan for it or being played by another dictator, Lukashenko, for the same reason. Yeah, I know, I know, this is comics, not real world, but the fact that that's what Taylor imagines just shows where his mind is at. What I don't get about these writers that hate America, Europe and, in general, the Western world, is why are they still living in it. If it's so bad you feel the need to always shit on these parts, just move to Africa or the Middle East or wherever you think the good life is, see how that works out for you. And I still hate his literal self-inserts (if anyone's wondering he's on the bottom of the 2nd page).

I really don't get the people who feel the need to attack others preemptively just because they simp for some writers but oh well, crazies everywhere these days, right? The art from Putri is great and the premise for the story is interesting enough. Was it perfect? No, there are still some lines from Taylor that make me cringe all over, where his ideological obsessions still come through, but I liked so far what he did with the characters at play so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. Much, much better than Dark Ages at Marvel, that's for sure.

It is clear to me, clear as day, that Tom Taylor hates Batman from the bottom of his heart, given how many times he has characters scorn him. Yes, he does "cool" things with him here and there, but that's just for the fanbase because he is the type of writer who knows his skills are limited and relies a lot on pleasing the fanbase, it's his modus operandi, hence also the "Jon is bi thing". I didn't like how Superman acted here either, he's way too douchy. Yes, he's in pain and yes, this is an elsewhere story but I still felt that some lines, particularly towards Bruce were totally uncalled for. And I have to say, I burst in laughter at the Wonder Woman and Zala kiss page. Taylor really doesn't know how to present a LGBT story, does he? He just slaps a page where two men/women kiss and waits for the applause, "hey, look at me, I'm so very progressive, aren't I the best?" But at least he pandered to his fanbase, that's what matters after all, isn't it? I also cringed at Harley pretty hard, I know Taylor likes her and in Injustice he wrote her pretty decently, but here it was just cringy. All in all, it turns out one good issue was all Taylor could do before he went back to his old, cringy and stupid ways.

I'm really getting tired of Taylor's "style" of introducing characters only for them to be killed several panels later, it got boring a long time ago. Also notice how almost always those characters are men. If they were women, we'd talk about "fridging" but since they're men, who cares, right? Only in this book he did it 4 times already, he did it with Jor-el, he did with the Metal Men, he did it with Jefferson's son and with Jefferson. I know the classic morons will pretend, as always, that it's not a pattern here, but the rest of us don't have to do that, not all of us have the ideological blinders put on. Also he writes both Zara and Diana as the classic angry lesbians and that's not a good look for Wonder Woman or for lesbians, in general. So again Taylor does more harm than good to the people he's trying to pander to. But I'm sure he can't see that, he probably thinks he's a good progressive boi. Another bad and uninteresting issue where Jasmine Putri can only do so much to save Taylor's ass. I guess Taylor can ruin even fantasy now.

Only Tom Taylor could portray Luthor as a dumb idiot and think it's "interesting". Also I call a lot of bullshit on the "Bruce's birth healed all the wounds". Yeah, I'm pretty sure they couldn't be best buddies after Jor-El screwed Martha but hey, it's Tom Taylor, just smile and don't think too much about it, all is good if he says so, it's not supposed to make a lot of sense. And he did a mix of Luthor and Joker, wow, so interesting and original. If you overlook these big, obvious flaws, the story isn't that bad. But the art kind of is, Putri was a big sell on the book and the fact that after three issues there is already some other artist on the book is a bad sign for the future.

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

I'm being very generous and that's only because this is FINALLY over and I'm just real glad that this whole mess is behind us now.

Decent start but I guess we still need some time to see where this is going, so far it wasn't bad but not great either.

This is what I like to call "utter shit". It played into all of Hank's worst traits while adding the classic feminist male-hating. But of course it's all ok when it's being done against men. We've stopped "fridging" female characters (and rightly so) because it was a shitty thing but we don't apply the same standards to shitty stuff writers did to male characters. No, instead we double-down on them so that crazies like Jordie Bellaire who get jobs they don't deserve can complain how they're being "oppressed". Yeah, if getting to write comics when you're a shitty writer means you're oppressed, sure, that tracks.

Rubbish, as most Mark Russell comics are.

I just felt so bad seeing Peter literally trying to hold people together with his webbing, that was so him.

Horrible, as in classic Orlando.

Tamaki's Cassandra Cain story and Pak's Green Arrow story were both pretty good. Yang's Monkey Prince tale tried too much for my taste, it wasn't bad or anything but it didn't convince me that this is a character I want to see more of. The other stories ranged from bad to atrocious, regardless of the generous reviews they will surely get. I'm sorry but if DC is going to try to celebrate Asian characters, it really needs to do better than just a lazy attempt for a pat on the shoulder.

Other than Batwoman's story which was pretty good and Dreamer's which was just okay, all the others were atrociously bad with a special mention for Sina Grace who shouldn't EVER write a comic book. The art wasn't very good either. I do have a question: why does the DC logo on this book have all those extra-colors? The LGBT flag is obvious, the trans flag I can get too (even though the "T" in LGBT already covers that), but what are the black and brown for? Wasn't this about sexuality, it's also about race too? If so, intersectionality is a dangerous type of thinking and DC does no one good with supporting this ideological stance. P.S.: It's kind of ridiculous how in a week with good DC comics the best user reviews are for this book, I guess the content of the book doesn't matter anymore as long as we're woke enough. Too bad the stories are weak. Oh, and I can already see the usual actors throwing insults at me and spewing their hate. Couldn't care less.

It's a good book for the concept but I can't pretend that I don't realize the reason this book was created for right now: to promote vaccination. The panels from Schmidt weren't subtle at all. Now, I should add, so that I'm not misunderstood, that I am vaccinated and I think people should get the vaccine so that this whole nightmare can be over as soon as possible, though I don't think it should be forced upon anyone. I felt the need to add that because I'm sure the usual crazies here would have come to attack and pretend they understand I said something else. Now the problem for me here is that the way Luthor creates the shot here is... just stupid. He just takes the syringe, injects himself in the neck gets the blood out and... that's it. Like, that just makes no sense. If this is DC's way to support vaccination I have to say, it's pretty uninspired. That's not how vaccines work, there is research and testing done, this was just very, very dumb.

Unless Batman is a vamp here, this is the third time this week a DC writer doesn't understand how a hero acts. I'm starting to sense a pattern here. Other than that, this was enjoyable.

First issue I didn't like here, this was a jumbled mess that makes no sense.

Pretty good issue, I liked this, it's getting back on track.

The stories are decent, the only ones that are bad are Frasier's, Ridley's and Sina Grace's (which was atrocious).

Ugh...glad that this is finally over, the most overrated series ever, I just don't get why people like so much Taylor's juvenile writing.

Two very boring stories from Taylor and Brisson that tried to be fun but were actually very dull, a third one that was ridiculously dumb but actually pretty fun.

Maybe I'm not being totally fair since Priest's run has set the bar pretty high regarding what I expect from a Deathstroke comic (it was one of the best, if not the best, Rebirth comics) but this was slightly disappointing. It's called "Deathstroke Inc." so I was expecting something different and special from Slade. Instead he's just stealing Batman's weaponry and paints it orange, that's kind of the gist of the "Inc." part. Art doesn't help either. I hope Williamson will do a better job in the future, he's earned some leniency from me with his work but this first issue didn't feed me with a lot of confidence.

Williamson has so many books at DC on his hands that I knew he was bound to slip somewhere and I think this book is that. This is just Porter's book basically, he's playing with all sorts of crazy stuff. It's not bad but it's not very good either. Still I appreciate the fun element to it but I can't help but compare it to Priest's book and the comparison doesn't help this book at all.

The whole "Cheetah was wronged by the Legion" was pretty cringe but this book remains as it was until now, mediocre towards good.

Pretty decent story, best one yet.

I don't know, I liked this. I recognize its faults, I feel the parallels between Slade and Dinah are flimsy at best but it's a decent characterization for Slade. I kinda feel sorry the Calculator got killed, he had a pretty wild plan, though it was not very sound in the long run, if you ask me.

The first solo series of DC's best mercenary. Up until Priest's Rebirth run I would have said it's also the best but that run was something else, especially in the first half. Not that I'd rate this very far behind it, it just had some arcs that weren't as great as others. All the same, it's an awesome series, a great character analysis of who Slade Wilson is when he's not fighting kids in tights. It's got tons of action, intrigue, family drama, everything you'd want from a solo series. Plus it has probably the best Batman-Deathstroke fight ever in comics. I really recommend this to anyone who likes solo series and is a fan of this character, you get to see what makes Slade tick, great job (again) by Marv Wolfman. P.S.: This is a review for the whole run, not just this volume.

This bored me out of my mind, I don't think I've read in a long time a book that made me fell asleep while reading it, it really was an effort to get through it, this is Ewing indulging himself in his worst reflexes.

I have mixed feelings about this. It still has all the wrong signs of a bad Ewing book but on the other hand I appreciated that he keeps reminding us of his work with Galactus that Marvel threw away needlessly. I also liked Surfer's inner thoughts and the art. But everything else? Didn't really make a lot of sense and it's just cheap mumbo jumbo. Btw, pride is supposed to be a sin, a capital sin, so I wouldn't put it on the same level as love and joy, both being overwhelmingly positive emotions. I got that it was supposed to be pride as in "Pride" (it was not subtle with all the chromatic) but if we're going to dabble in the philosophical and esoteric, let's not reinvent history and religion.

Great art, silly story.

This is Ewing at his worst, all nonsense and the art can't save him.

Decent ending for a pretty bad book overall.

6 only because of Brad Walker's art, otherwise I'm really tired of Tomasi's favouritism regarding Damian as if anyone but him in the Bat-family just doesn't matter.

In classic Tamaki fashion, both stories are all over the place. I still have a glimmer of hope that the main story can be good but I've read too much Tamaki stories to really believe in it.

In usual Tamaki fashion the story is all over the place, the "mystery" is getting dumber and dumber, I could also do without the second story that doesn't add much.

Absolute shit, I couldn't care less about Tamaki's ramblings, just get her off the book and put Tomasi back, he was at least decent, Tamaki is ridiculously bad.

Get Tamaki off the book, this ship is sinking fast! Second story was decent.

Tamaki's awful story is finally over, the second one is ok.

I like that Penguin is back as a major threat, DC has forgotten about him.

I really, really hope that bandana over Red Hood's head will NOT be a thing in the future because it looks awful and ridiculous. Just no. Other than that, Tamaki's story is still utterly boring. At least we got to see the old costume and some good action drawn by Mora.

5 for the Red Hood story, get Tamaki off the book already.

I really liked the first story mostly because Dan Mora draws a kick-ass Batman but Tamaki was doing pretty good too... up until that freaking last page where she drew Hue Vile back in when no one wanted that. Still, it was a decent story, something we didn't have for a long time in Tec. The second story I'm not fully buying. I like the direction the story goes in but in order to make Jason go at it alone Rosenberg burned a lot of bridges that could have been avoided. I see no reason why Bruce "couldn't protect him from this" and the line about him having no friends couldn't have been more further from the truth at this moment for Jason. I don't think he's been so sociable within the superhero community ever since he was on the Titans as a child. So while I am interested in the Task Force Z story, the road there was not a very good one.

Tamaki's story is decent but the second one is stupid beyond reason. Why would Batman want to prevent another Arkham Asylum from rising? He has NEVER been against the idea of Arkham Asylum and common sense tells you if those lunatics won't be killed because of his code and they won't be locked up in Blackgate becaue they're insane they have to be caught in a MENTAL HOSPITAL. Why would he be against it? I have the sense that this is another one of those woke concepts that the villains are not insane, tHeY'rE jUsT mIsUnDeRsToOd. And yes, I know Arkham Asylum has not been doing a great job since they always escape but the alternative to not having a mental asylum, not locking them in prison and not killing them is just... leaving them on the streets to kill people. Oh wait, that's better, right?

I mean, Tamaki couldn't be more obvious to what she alluded here if she actually tried (she really didn't) but the story is not that bad. I still couldn't care less about the backup.

Both stories are just awful.

I mean, yeah, putting a mental asylum downright in the middle of the most dangerous city is a fucking great idea, surely no one will escape and kill a lot of people, plus it's great for the tourists. The whole story sits on a dumb premise, whoever came up with it needs to be fired. The art was good but the stories were very meh.

For a second there, I almost thought there's a good story here, that Wear might be an interesting character who takes his revenge on Gotham because his mother wasn't taken care of. Nope, turns out he hated his mother and he's an average crook. I guess expecting a good story from Tamaki was foolish on my part. The backup is even more bland.

Decent first story but I really liked the backup here, it got interesting.

I wasn't a huge fan of this issue. The first story is mediocre at best, I still don't get what's Tamaki idea of dealing with mental illness. She seems to think locking violent criminals up is bad, but so is treating them. That only leaves as a solution... them roaming free? That wouldn' work, to say the least. Unless this arc returns to the status quo with Arkam Asylum rebuilt on its proper place, this is a stupid event from DC. I did like Rosenberg's story, it was decent. And even though I saw a lot of people excited for Waid's return to DC, sorry to say, I'm not one of them. The man has lost the plot for a long time now and I have little faith in him these days. He's definitely a legend as a comic writer, no doubt about that, but so are Miller, Bendis and Claremont and whenever they get into writing these days I kind of want them not to.

I liked this, I kinda felt sorry for Psycho-Pirate there, I liked that it was linked to what happened in Infinite Frontier. Also, the kid from the backup really doesn't have a lot of luck, he escapes Scarecrow only to fall in Penguin's hands, that dude is surely bound to be majorly screwed up later on.

To all the people complaining that Nightwing isn't having a bigger role: you're reading a book written by a declared feminist, if you thought Nightwing was going to be the main character, it's honestly just your fault. Just demand better in the future from the writers if you're bothered by it. The first story is bad. The second one is very good. That kid is just having one bad luck after another. Jason really screwed him up here just by listening to Elliot's lies. Now I have one problem with the story: Hush is the same age as Batman, so Elliot being the same age as Jason just can't be possible. I really like the story, it's very good but I just can't ignore that continuity error.

Nightwing gets a glimpse of attention here but he'll probably need rescuing the next issue from Huntress or Batwoman, don't worry about it, he's not supposed to be important. The first story is decent but the second one shines again. If that kid is Nero, as some fans have started guessing, I do understand how he could have lost his mind like that. The concept is interesting, let's see what happens if a kid just has the bad luck to spend some time with every lunatic in Gotham, he'll probably grow up to be an upstanding citizen.

Another dumb book where we have the same faux narrative that Arkham punished the poor mass-murderers who actually don't need punishing because they're innocent victims of the system, they just need help. It's a concerning thread through DC writers minds' where villains are being portrayed as victims of the system and it's a trend we see in real life, too, unfortunately. Nightwing is such an idiot here and someone like him, someone whose girlfriend paid the price for what these crazies do, someone who tried at some point to kill the Joker, wouldn't say stupid shit like this. Enough with the ideological bullshit, mass murderers aren't victims who deserve a pillow under their heads or to roam free. Also, is there a single DC comic where cops aren't absolute assholes? And wtf was that? A bunch of hobos who take in a murderer so he can keep killing because he needs to "show the world who he is"? And I'm supposed to care for them, to feel sorry for them? Does Mariko Tamaki forgot to take her pills or something?

Yeah, this was very boring and pretty bad. I haven't been the biggest fan of Zdarsky's run but at least he managed here and there to create an entertaining story even if the basis for it was a stupid one. This, right here, is just a lame copy of the Civil War. Say what you want about Millar, at least he was original. Zdarsky just plagiarizes him with a very low-effort comic. Also, some of the lines were very, very stupid. For example, Fisk's line that "nobody else knows your true Achille's heel: your guilt". Lol, EVERYBODY knows Daredevil's weakness is his guilt, it's basically his signature at this point, that was such a dumb line. And of course, the cringiest line is, not at all surprisingly, about cops because Zdarsky really has an obsession with that: "yOu GoT a BaDgE nOw, ShOcKeR, yOu JuSt GrAdUaTeD fRoM tRaSh To OfFiCiAl TrAsH". That Chip is insane I already knew, I blame the editors for this, too. There are so many wrong things here. For example, why does U.S. Agent fight on Fisk's side? Yeah, he's a hothead, but he's always been on the heroes' side, there's no fucking way he would side with the villains. I'm pretty sure Zdarsky just doesn't understand the character and he's using him like this for political reasons. And man, that Miles Morales costume is garbage. Honestly, what was wrong with his previous costume? It looked very nice, it suited him. This one is just plain awful. Just a prediction: Tony Stark as mayor is a red herring, Luke Cage will get the job. A guy like Zdarsky wouldn't dare put a billionaire as mayor, he hates them too much for that. The only thing I liked is how he writes Fisk. I don't buy that he resists Kilgrave, but everything else with him was decent. Too little, too late.

Fucking called it last issue, Zdarsky can't handle letting a "rich guy" being mayor, dude is so predictable with his ideological fixations. Imagine being so disturbed and petty as a human being to hate people richer than you that you need to "get your revenge" on a fictional character. I'm making another prediction: Tony will turn out villainous here, he won't handle letting Cage run as mayor. Because when you're so blinded by ideology, you're eager to destroy beloved characters without hesitation, that hate is just pouring out of Chip. I did like the Spider-Man parts, those were really good. And the part with Elektra is interesting, too. Everything else is just garbage.

While I'll admit this was better than previous issues, I still don't like Zdarsky's voice for Daredevil. I just don't think he likes the character. And still, Marvel managed to get him another DD series after Devil's Reign. I'm wondering if that is Cameleon, where the hell is Tony Stark during all of this?

I liked this issue, Zdarsky is good when he focuses on story and characters and not social issues, he did a great job here with the voices for the characters, he captured Matt, Fisk, Butch and Mike pretty well. I like that it's shown that U.S. Agent is being controlled by Fisk but I still think that unless he's a double agent, he wouldn't have joined willingly. And hey, Rhino is still a good guy. He has some odd voices for the FF and I'm still not into Otto's plan with his Superior Four but these are minor complaints. Overall this was a pretty good issue.

Not sure how I feel about this. This is written by the same guys who will write Captain America #0 and proceed with the Sentinel of Liberty book, Steve's book. On one hand, I appreciate that they seem to have a plan with Bucky who's been generally ignored these last few years at Marvel. On the other hand, the tease in Timeless where Bucky is shown pitted against Steve, coupled with this, doesn't fill me with confidence. I also had some problems with the inner narration from Bucky, I always feel like Lanzing & Kelly want to punch above their weight with pretentious dialogue that ultimately doesn't mean anything. But I still managed to enjoy this somehow, overall. So, I don't know, maybe I am a bit generous with the rating here as I missed anything focused on Bucky really, but this was interesting, at least. P.S.: I liked the fact they acknowledged Bucky killing Nomad and that that's haunting him.

Classic Zac Thompson, as in random, pretentious yet with no substance, nonsense.

This issue is just Thunderbolts killing people left and right, fighting amongst themselves and Fisk putting them in their place. Only on the last page does U.S. Agent join them and we still don't know the reason why. If he's either doing it to try to keep these crazies in line or he's somehow undercover for Steve, that's something I can buy. Any other reason, I don't see it in character.

I liked Emma's way of dealing with the Treehouse situation but I'm not buying that last page reveal at all.

Cantwell just doesn't get Doom, he never did, and Larroca can only do so much to save him.

Decent first story, the rest were bad, I'd like to see a bit more than just Elektra killing people left and right, there is more to the character than that.

I only give it a 9.5 because of Gillen's humour that doesn't land but otherwise it's a great book with great art.

This continues to be one of the best books today but unfortunately it doesn't get the attention that it deserves.

The worst issue so far but still much better than 90% of comic issues these days, that's saying something.

I thought this was supposed to be a limited series but I guess now it's ongoing? Anyhow, I like the writing, I liked the twist and the world-building. But I guess there's just something missing, I can't quite put my finger on it. Humor needs some work too and Ribic's art was better in Secret Wars but all in all this is an entertaining comic and I'm curious what direction it will take with Thanos.

Amazing, Gillen does it again, I really hope the movie's failure won't diminish the comic's success, Eternals are not very popular as it is.

Not as good as last issue, but still pretty good. I just worry about the quality of the book when Gillen will take over Immortal X-Men. It will be really hard to maintain this level of quality while concentrating also on the biggest X-Men book of the new line. Until then, I can only hope this will draw more people in because I think it's safe to say it's the best Marvel book right now, by far.

Another great issue and we're heading towards Judgment Day, the confrontation with the Avengers, that was teased already in the one-shot with Ajak and Makkari.

I liked the art more than I thought I would, I didn't like that they changed the Eternals personas to fit the current day era and that Thanos was not in this issue at all.

This is the first Eternals issue from Gillen I don't like, I loved the art otherwise I would've rated it much lower.

Every time Tini Howard writes Gambit she diminishes him a little bit more with every word he says, let the dude get away from this torture.

This was decent but I guess the overall question of it is why would a serial killer like Carnage want to unnecessarily draw attention to himself and antagonize humans and symbiotes? If the main idea is Carnage running for president, it's a joke of a book. The issue felt kinda confusing at times even for someone who likes his symbiotes. Also, if Marvel tries to make an analogy between mutants and symbiotes... yeah, that doesn't fly, mutants were people BORN with abilites they didn't necessarily want and are feared for it, symbiotes usually work in collaboration with their hosts WILLINGLY, so humans have a pretty big reason to fear and act against them.

Chapman always manages to ruin the symbiotes when he keeps scrambling them and tries to go "deep" with the metaphors and always, always fails, but I like that the pieces are starting to fall in place. This is a pure action book and that makes it just okay, nothing more.

The art is sometimes so unintelligible, they really should pick better artists for symbiotes.

I don't think the twist is very solid if I check previous issues.

Great art for the symbiotes, shitty story, PKJ didn't even try.

I loved this! Both stories are great. Slott's dialogue still suffers but I still liked it even if I'm not a fan of Romita's art. Waid's was somehow even better.

This was pretty good. The art is good, the story is told in an old-school kind of way but doesn't feel dated. I had zero trust in Slott but this gives me a bit of hope. I loved the fact that Fury is back, Marvel did him dirty all these last years. I like Jr. too but original Fury is always going to be better. Bring him back, Marvel, and bring S.H.I.E.L.D. back while you're at it, bring Maria Hill back too. So in conclusion, yeah, I'm interested in this.

The fact that Marvel allowed this character assassination, even in a non-canon book, is disgraceful but I suppose I should have seen it coming, it's Mark Russell, he has his obsessions and he just can't get over them.

Every time I read a Mark Russell comic I set my expectations very low because I know everything he's written is ideologically-driven and he's also very stupid. But none of those things bother me as much as when he applies historical revisionism to fit his narrative. That is just disgusting. So to the point: yeah, Reagan's Star Wars program was pretty bonkers and it probably wouldn't have worked but it scared the Soviets enough to lose some sleep and, more importantly, money over it. Oddly enough, it contributed to the Soviet Union's fall because in the desperate arms race whatever insane shit one side did, the other would try to follow soon after. Another stupid complaint and a lie is that the pressure from Reagan was a bad thing. It was that particular pressure that helped make the Soviet Union fall. The appeasement strategy didn't work long term and yes, it was a risky gamble from Reagan but, again, it accelerated the USSR's fall, it worked. But I guess in Russell's idiotic mind America should've just given up and let the Soviets win. Thank God the people in charge were not as moronic as him. Because fortunately America won, freedom won and the fact that we live in a free world (though I'd argue that very freedom has been eroded since the pandemic) is owed in a pretty big part to Reagan. You believe otherwise, ask the people from former USSR countries or the countries from the Warsaw Pact (or any other country under heavy Soviet influence) about that. So yeah, dude has a hate-boner for Reagan and is willing to lie to justify it, shame on Marvel for allowing this to be published.

Ok, this was really good (and very sad at the same time), less stupid ranting from Russell and more decent storytelling, I liked this!

The ending is bad, not horrible, I've read much worse from Russell, just bad. 5 out of 6 issues were really bad, #5 was the only good one. This could have been a much better book if it was written by someone other than Mark Russell who thinks being overly grim and pessimistic is cool and smart. Also, I didn't like that line that "In reality, there's no such thing as a hero", agree to disagree very much there.

The Avengers story MAY be interesting but given it's Aaron I am very wary about it. The Hulk one is just uninteresting, maybe it's not fair that it comes after Immortal Hulk but I wouldn't have like this even if didn't come after a very good run.

The Ben Reilly one was too short, but good, I'm interested in it. The Venom one got me a little bit excited even though I'm not a big fan of Dylan as a character. And, predictably, now that Trump is no longer president, Marvel will finally end the stupid mayor thing and they'll make him a gangster again.

Best Eobard Thawne origin story ever!

Nothing I've read so far from Jeremy Adams satisfied me, his writing is too childish.

This was pretty fun.

Just pure fun.

As always, a fun book.

Pretty fun issue, as nearly always on this title!

A little less fun than usual.

An issue with a very powerful message and a very interesting last page, I really liked this.

I have to congratulate Adams for cleaning up one of Tom King's worst mistakes ever and making a fun and meaningful moment out of it. I have to confess I didn't like his beginning of the run but the last issues were better and better. I'm more of a Barry Allen fan but seeing Wally happy again put a smile on my face.

Excellent work from Johns and Van Sciver, I recommend everyone who liked this to also read The Flash #8 from 2010 by Johns and Kolins, that's the best Thawne origin story, period!

Best work on Lex Luthor in a long time, too bad Snyder's ego ruined it after Rebirth.

Better then the Humphries crap DC put up in the last years. The art was difficult to follow.

The first and second story were ok, the third one got off the rails. I really don't get the hate for Jonathan as Superman. So it's okay for Yara Flor to be Wonder Woman, it's okay for Tim Fox to be Batman, two characters that have absolutely nothing in common with the main characters but it's not okay for HIS SON to wear the mantle of Superman? That makes zero sense.

I just can't get into anything Ram V writes, the guy has a pretentious writing-style with very little substance at the core of it and very few ideas that he repeats throughout everything he writes.

9 for the first story, 7 for the second, I look forward to Bruce's story, so far it's interesting and Mora is really great.

This was abysmal, both the story and the art, poor Supergirl just can't catch a break.

The story needed just a little more substance, Barrows did the best he could.

I expected better from Watters, he's a good writer, this isn't the best he's capable of.

Sandoval is great as usual, Sheridan has to work more on his storytelling.

7 for the first (mostly for the art, the story could use some work), 3 for the second.

The first story is pretty uninteresting, we've seen this type of story a thousand times over, if this is the best that PKJ can come up with I don't have a lot of faith in his Superman for the future. Janin's art is good, though. The surprise was the Mister Miracle bit, I loved it. The last two stories were okay.

Great art, okay story.

If I could give it less than one, I really would, Bendis+Rossmo, it doesn't get worse than this.

I don't get how people get to claim that "Superman is in good hands" when this is the third story from PKJ when SUPERMAN IS BARELY IN IT. How can he be in good hands when he's not in the story? It looks like PKJ got a note from Bendis and he's applying the same system: doesn't care about Superman at all, he just tries to build other characters that maybe will pay off one day and he'll get the money for it.

4 for the first story, Tamaki (as always, I should add) comes with the most stupid explanation for the mystery set up in the first issue and the dialogue is all cringey. Red Hood's story needed more context given that it's over in two issues but still, it was interesting.

This is such a huge mess, I'm sure the story didn't make sense even in Sheridan's head.

Trash would be a compliment for this.

I'm only giving it a 3 because of Hal's story and Dexter Soy's art.

I'm not a fan of Ram V at all but this was one of the best Future State titles. I would rate it even higher if Schimdt's art wouldn't be so mediocre.

It's a shame Scott's art was wasted on this comic.

Yeah, for a Superman book the most you'll get of him is on the cover. Again, PKJ chooses to make even the second issue about someone else than Superman. Janin's art suffered too from this type of story. The Mister Miracle was somewhat fun but ultimately the story goes nowhere. The Midnigher one and the Black Racer are just awful. Overall, given the expectations for this book it is a disappointment.

I think I've read enough of Ridley to kinda see for myself what he's capable of and what his priorities are in terms of writing. Suffice to say, he's not a good addition to DC's roster of writers.

Aaand eventually the story goes into classic Tamaki territory with cringy dialogue, super boring exposition and huge plotholes. It was a matter of time, as always when it comes to her. Rosenberg's story is not good either.

This was probably the best "Next Batman" story so far. Not that Tim is a compelling character or anything but the interactions between characters were pretty good and the art was very dynamic. Unfortunately, the backup stories were pure shit, especially Vita Ayala's. She's just not a good writer, I don't think I've read anything from her that I liked. I'd say I don't know why she keeps getting these gigs but I do know, unfortunately. Overall I can't say I'm looking forward to the Next Batman's story but it's not as bad as other Future State stories. He still isn't Batman for me but at least he acts in character close enough that I'm not feeling a huge difference in attitude between him and Bruce. Whether that's a flaw or a good thing is debatable.

Tamaki brings this whole issue down with her writing. Mora's art is still pretty good, but her writing is as chaotic as ever. The Red Hood story was pretty good and it turns out there's more to Jason's role in FS than what seemed to be, looking forward to that one.

The first story is really interesting though if my suspicion of who Jason is working with turns out to be true they'll have to really sell me on that one otherwise he's pretty gullible. The second story drags the issue down, there was really no need for it.

I have to say, I expected better from Williamson, I didn't like this as much as I was expecting. Also, shame on DC for rewriting a story from Batman Black and White from a few months ago just to get those sweet extra-bucks, that's just totally disgraceful. And it wasn't even a good story at that.

I guess the only question is: was this necessary? It interrupted the story in a pretty important moment for what, a Harley vs Punchline fight? I guess there's that last page thing but I don't think anyone's excited about that.

I've liked both stories, Red Hood here is pretty competent and the second one is not bad either if you don't think too much about it.

Why does DC reprint a story that was released a few months ago in Batman Black and White? Just to milk some more money? I wasn't very impressed with the main story either.

This was pretty good, seeing Jason achieving peace in a different way than usual was interesting. Though Warmonger is a shitty villain for sure, he's not Gotham material. Even the usurper Batman is tolerable here and I liked that Williamson made Jason the equivalent of Gordon in this Future State. Overall a pretty decent book though I'm not a fan of the manga style, not here at least. Still gets 0.5 in minus because again the second story was just released in a Batman Black and White earlier this year and on top of that it has Rossmo on art which is a sin in itself.

Surprisingly, I've enjoyed the comic up until the new Joker bits, which were pretty lame.

I actually liked this, as much as Future State was annoying and I'm glad DC is letting all of that go away. It's kind of my guilty pleasure, I guess.

Not as good as last issue but I still liked this.

A lesson in comic book visual storytelling.

Yeaaah, this is Ewing at his worst, without oversight, he always misses out when someone doesn't reign him in.

As much as I want to like this, it doesn't feel right, without Bennett the magic isn't there and the comic resembles more of Ewing's failed projects, the dialogue is not good. Still, he baited me with that last page, not gonna lie.

Kind of confusing at times but this was the first issue on the level of Immortal Hulk.

I could do without the political messages from Ewing, especially since he seems so upset about them when they don't align with his particular views, but it's still a good read.

Expected better from the last issue, decent run overall but it doesn't add much to the gamma lore.

I would have given it more if Reis would have drawn more of it, his art was splendid.

Yeah, this was a weird one. 3 for the Penguin story, biggest wtf from this book, 5 for the Scarecrow one. I have to take the time though to talk about G Willow Wilson's story which is truly horrendous. I liked that she at least admitted, unintentionally though, that Ivy is an extremist and a terrorist, that's something a lot of people have forgotten these days, they just consider her heroic because she kills people who are polluting. Also, I laughed out loud at the cringy dialogue between Ivy and Janet. "You look gorgeous in a non-harassment kind of way"??? Who the hell talks like that? I'm pretty sure no real person has ever uttered those words. Yeah, it's a 1 for this story, is just wrong on so many levels. 7 for the Red Hood story, 6.5 for the Mad Hatter one, 7.5 for the Killer Moth one, 8 for the Ra's one and 6 for Talia's story. All in all, pretty disappointing one-shot, I expected a lot better, though it's par for the course for DC in the last years, they don't put good talent on these books.

Rating for the whole run up until King left the book.

I'm really glad that after such a long time DC decided to give Green Arrow the spotlight, even if briefly. That being said, as usual, these anthologies seem like they prioritize the number of stories over the quality and here it shows. There were three stories here that I really liked: Tom Taylor's with great art from Nicola Scott, Phil Hester's with 2000s Green Arrow who was the best Green Arrow ever (not to speak ill of the dead but O'Neill's version was too obnoxious at times even if that was the point) and Larry O'Neill's, which besides being an emotional story, made great use of Fornes' art, something the Rorschach book isn't capable of. The rest, unfortunately, were pretty mediocre and forgettable, especially Percy's (no, Ben, socialism isn't an utopia, it's a nightmare, stop trying to indoctrinate people) which I expected the most from given his very good run. Again, I'm glad Arrow is back and I hope that DC brings him back for good in his own book but they should do better than this.

I've had about enough of Grant's rambling and it only gets worse and worse, Liam Sharp can't keep saving his ass.

Thorne is still a douchebag but for a first issue it was fine, some bits were actually good, some were very bad.

Yeah, this is going downhill pretty fast. It's not all bad but it's like Thorne has ADHD or something, he can't hold the story in one direction more than two-three pages, after which he goes in a completely different one and overall it just comes across as a mess, nothing seems to be satisfying by the end of the issue. Add to that his visceral hate towards Hal Jordan which is more and more visible in a stark contrast with his fawning over Stewart. And I like John Stewart, every kid who grew up with the JL cartoon can't not like Stewart but diminishing Hal who is probably the quintessential Lantern, especially for comic fans, is a wrong move. I'd say that normally this will be one of the first books DC will cancel but given the way they've treated the Lanterns these last few years I'm expecting they'll let Thorne sink this ship for however long he wants to.

...Of course Hal is Parallax again, the move literally no one asked for but Thorne needed to put in the book to satisfy his Hal Jordan hate boner. A mess overall, I'm giving up on this book. I'll give him something, though, he managed to make Teen Lantern even more annoying than in the Bendis era, something I thought would be difficult to do.

Jessica Cruz is one of the few characters from recent years at DC I've grown to love. So seeing her as a Yellow Lantern definitely felt cheap. Now the story isn't bad but once you read the whole story Sinestro's sell sounds pretty weak and stupid.

This is peak Geoff Johns with great character work and great art from He Who Must Not Be Named, Hal Jordan's redemption starts here.

At the end of the day after all the hype, Ewing achieved absolutely nothing with his run so far, we're back to square one.

Loved the entrance from Doom, best one in a while!

Underwhelming.

The first half was super boring but the second half was pretty good. Still, I'd lie if I'd say I'll miss this. Until #12 it was pretty bad, it picked up some steam in the last 6 issues but still wasn't enough to wow me. The Guardians need some fresh ideas and no writer in the last runs managed to bring that up. Also, I could have done without the constant winks from Ewing with all his polyamorous bullshit. So, again, decent ending, the stuff with Doom was exciting but it's better to end this way than dragging on and on without actually having something to say.

See, I read Immortal Hulk and I'm in awe of Ewing. I read this and I'm ashamed for him. That's the problem with Ewing, he can write some great stories and he can indulge himself in some pretty weird and stupid stories. This is the latter. Just atrocious.

Harley Quinn complaining about people getting second chances when she's the champion of people closing their eyes at her history is pretty stupid on the writer's part and just ignores years of storytelling so yeah, it's a 1.

Yeah, sure, if you're fat and can't deal with it just join a Joker gang and start killing people, it's perfectly reasonable and totally understandable. Also, a civilian single-handedly beats magistrate goons like they're nothing even though the whole Bat-family is having trouble with them because if we're not going to make sense, why the hell not?

One of the best Hawkman runs in years, definitely Venditti's best DC work!

This one was not as good as those before, but still pretty fun.

I have a hard and quite unpleasant time with the dialogue of the Arakko characters but other than that I continue to like this. I also appreciate that unlike most of the X-Men books the infographics page actually adds to the story instead of just adding nonsense. Still, I miss Segovia, the book is always better with him.

The first two-thirds of the book are really not that great and the art is pretty bad. One thing I didn't like is how Nightcrawler asked for leniency for Orphan Maker, totally forgetting that he had no problem when Sabretooth got thrown into the pit for the same thing (if anything, Sabretooth was on a mission for Krakoa when he killed people, unlike Orphan Maker; yeah, I know it's Sabretooth but it's a clean slate and all that). It's the last third that gives all the characters a meaningful resolution. Honestly, this issue really wasn't that great but I give it a higher rating solely because this book has been, in my opinion, the best book after HoX-PoX. So while this issue was one of the weaker ones, overall I really liked Hellions and I'm glad it's over before the writer got bored with it. I hope to see more of these characters later on.

Pure horseshit.

God forgive me for I have liked this comic from the king of ridiculousness, Jason Aaron.

Just pure cringe.

Just pure anti-American crap from Aaron who probably needs medical help at this point. Or some way to deal with his hate. Or just move to another country, it's not like anyone is holding him in America by force. Just move away, dude, if you hate it that badly.

I'm really, really conflicted about this and for many reasons. One, we just got an entire awesome run where Banner and Hulk reach some kind of understanding of each other. Now here comes Cates totally shitting on that and just pretending that didn't happen, taking us back to the usual Banner-Hulk dynamic. Two, the way he writes Banner is just in bad taste. Banner has always had issues, sure, but he wasn't a full maniac like he is here. I really don't like this. Three, I get it, Hulk is dangerous, he always has been. But I worry that Marvel is really pushing him in villain territory and doing to him what they did to Hank Pym. Sure, it's ok to see our heroes going through more "extreme" phases but at some point you have to take a step back and see if that character is at all heroic or not anymore. I'm starting to feel that this is happening to Hulk and it's a shame to do that to one of the original Avengers. Now that being said, if you get through that and just enjoy the book for what it is, this is entertaining for sure. Ottley's art is good, Cates is very inventive here even though at times it gets pretty ridiculous. I have to give him credit for that. For a first issue it's good. I'm just not sure how I feel about it in the overall context for the character.

Yeah, this is garbage. Not even the fun type of garbage, it's just... dull. Ottley's art is decent, but the story is pure nonsense and Banner continues to act like a douchebag, killing people with absolutely no qualms whatsoever. I don't know what happened to Donny Cates but lately he's been in a downward spiral, the Thor book is bad, King in Black was mediocre at best and this was very bad. Long gone are the days when he revolutionized Venom.

Better than that dumb last issue and Ottley is indeed the star here.

Pretty lazy script, if you ask me.

Again, I have to reiterate what I said on the Dark Knights of Steel review: why are some people so defensive of the writers they like? And why does that ALWAYS, always happen just with the Two Toms: King and Taylor? Bendis is getting all types of awful reactions (and deservedly so!), people don't jump to his defense though I'm pretty sure Bendis also has a lot of fans from his better days. I don't jump to the defense of Hickman even though I think he's probably the best writer in the industry. But whenever someone dares to not like something King or Taylor, people are screeching like hell. My theory is twitter plays a big part on that, the way these two radicalize their fans there is insane. Anyway, back to the issue at hand, I can say that I liked the art, though I think this type of story doesn't suit Smallwood very much, it's the same as with the Rorschach book and Fornes. I feel like this type of story isn't playing to Smallwood's best attributes. And I liked the story, too, up until that penultimate page. If there was ONE team that didn't deserve the classic Tom King treatment, it was Justice League International. At this point I'm starting to think King does this on purpose, he deliberately tries to stain all the bright spots of the DCU to turn it into the Depresoverse. I hope it's a false lead, though, and it turns out one of the JLI didn't try to kill Luthor. So overall for a first issue it's good. Problem is, with King the first issue is good a lot of the times. It's what comes after that it's horrifying. I have no doubt it's going to happen here, too, but for now I liked this.

This issue is very conflicting. On the one hand we have a good story here and a decent mystery so far. I like the way these two flirt with each other, I like how they're trying to read each other and this issue definitely was better for Smallwood's art. And he's found good voices for both characters, I can appreciate that. On the other hand, this is another King story where he fucks up another superhero and he tries to paint one of the funniest and light-hearted JL runs in a much darker color and people can't stop kissing his ass for it. What is it with this guy and his thorough obsession of darkening every superhero he can get his hands on? I get that he's CIA and those guys aren't the nicest, but does he need to infect all of us with his dirty soul? Overall, if you're a fan of the Depresoverse, you'll love this. Still, even for someone who's not a fan of King's approach to superheroes you can enjoy this one. And maybe calm down while you enjoy it, without screeching at others, that would help your mental health a lot.

I'm no fan of Tom King, everyone here knows that by now. Still, I thought the first two issues were really good and I've rated them as such, despite my dislike of him. This, right here, is pure garbage. Ignore the human bots who rate this with 10 or 9.5 without even reading it, this was a very, very bad issue. He doesn't get Guy Gardner and he still doesn't get Booster Gold, no matter how much effort he puts in to trick us that he does. And he's destroying Ice, I swear this guy has a hard-on for turning heroes into murderers, it probably helps him sleep better at night after the shit he pulled as CIA, at least superheroes are murderers, too, right? And the twist at the end... yeah, if you have some functioning neurons you can see that it makes no sense at all.

Is there an Eisner for writing the strongest female character or something like that? Because I would really like it if King won it. Dude is trying sooo hard and for so long to show he knows how to write female character and he always overpowers them to do that. Remember Catwoman beating up 3 Flashes like it was nothing? Remember Alanna Strange owning Adam Strange most of the time? Well, this is the same here, Ice is OP because King wants to be acknowledged he is the best female writer ever, so just give him a prize for it so he can cross that off his list. To his credit, he makes Ice intriguing but not because of the "oh look at her how strong she is" but through the seduction game she's playing. A lot of this comes from Smallwood's art that truly shines here, I wouldn't have rated this so high if not for the man's art. It was better than that horrendous last issue but it's still pretty stale and repetitive, the art makes all the difference in the world. P.S.: Just re-reading this I realized King basically ignored Forever Evil where at the end Luthor actually lets Kord keep his company after wanting to overtake it, that was a huge step for him towards turning into an antihero at the end of the book. Kinda disrespectful to Johns.

I guess the short review for this should be "No, you're NOT Batman". Anyway, I really, really hope that DC doesn't plan to give this guy the Batman book now that Tynion is finally leaving it. Because this was bad, as was Future State The Next Batman and the digital series. Honestly, no one in their right mind wants to read about pRiViLeGe and trolls online in a Batman book, Ridley is focusing on all the wrong things.

Wow, this one was bad. I mean, I expected that but I thought since they brought Coipel, Ridley would try something better but nope. Let's just see some lines here. "He can't see behind my mask. Or that I've appropriated a mask he helped create" YES, Ridley, thank you. This coming just after talking about sincerity is incredibly ironic but I loved it. At least deep down he knows he's doing it, he finally he admits this guy is a usurper and he's appropriating the Batman role that isn't his. I loved this. "And I'm planning to be around for a while" This one was for all the people who think the real Batman will come back soon, he won't and Ridley is making fun of all the fans that love Bruce. "Batman's dead it's like he never really existed" "Batman wasn't real" "Batman wasn't there for the people" These are just several of his shitty takes on Batman. He also claims the police is no better than an occupying force. I mean, I can do this all day, to quote Cap. Honestly, Coipel deserves better but the writing was just too abysmal. I just can't understand why DC would take such a huge dump on their best character.

I'm really tired of Ridley's constant obvious breaking of the 4th wall to shout at us that Jace is Batman. No he's not and he never will be. It's like Ridley is trying to force us to like his character, which won't happen. And at times it actually seems like he is trying to convince himself of it. Also, we continue Ridley's stupid war on wHiTe PrIvIlEgE because we all know that's what always attracted people in a Batman book. "It's easy to have a belief. It's another thing to make those beliefs function in the real world". This is a line that I really, really liked because it's true. Unfortunately it's ironic that Ridley can't listen to himself because all of his wild ideas about defunding the police and all his race theories suffer exactly of this, they don't work in real life. I really liked Montoya here, I liked her voice, her actions, and even though Segovia replaced Coipel, the art was still pretty good. I actually think it helped that Fear State interfered with Ridley's run, this issue was less bad, I'm sure when this is over Ridley will continue with his miserable ideas.

Segovia is great on art and Fear State gets in the way of Ridley's stupid usual messages but it's still a pretty dull story overall.

Yeah, you have to be extremely dumb to buy the bullshit Ridley's selling here. Never mind the constant race-baiting and laughable attempts at hyping the faux Batman. To think that after FS and the Magistrate, the same strategy would work, just on a bigger level is downright retarded. This book is garbage.

Based on the Milestone Returns issue, I had very low hopes for this but for a first issue it has grabbed my interest.

I always find it very funny when writers who are cashing checks from big corporations complain that "capitalism sucks". Like, no one is forcing you to work for them, dude. Go do your indie thing. Oh, you're not actually that good and just love that sweet money? Maybe ease up on the preaching, in that case. Also, "money" is decidedly NOT a primitive concept, in fact it may be one of the best concepts humanity has ever come up with. That's why exchange of goods is being done peacefully and not in violent ways, because we all agree that these piece of papers have a certain value. Now, beyond these dumb lines that I just had to mention because I'm tired of stupid preaching, the book is actually good. Icon continues to be a powerful character not because of his plethora of superpowers but because of how a mature and wise character he is. Wish I could say the same about Rocket. There are some social messages I agree with here, others I do not but overall this is an engaging read and probably the best Milestone book by far.

I've really liked this up until now, never rated it under 7 but this one was a miss for me. While it isn't necessarily bad, the whole "your neighborhood got wrecked so you're to blame" just to create an unnecessary conflict between the police and the people is really stupid. You're going to have to try harder than this if you really want me to buy that. Also, we didn't need a whole page about which black athlete is the best but if we're on that I'd say Reginald forgot some certain great ones like Usain Bolt or Kobe Bryant, God rest his soul.

The first three issues were great, and while this issue wasn't bad, it had some problems. I particularly don't like Icon's voice here, he is justified in his actions, however he doesn't sound as the old Icon. I'm sure Dwayne McDuffie, God bless his soul, wouldn't have approved of this voice for the character. I still think Hudlin vastly overestimates the economy's reliance on drugs but the discussion in class was pretty interesting. And hey, "stay off reddit" is indeed great advice, reddit is a cesspool for some very insane people, as is twitter.

This was awesome, I loved how Ewing juxtaposed the Hulk, FF and the Avengers (even though the Avengers seem kinda like bullies here but I guess they're not 100% in their right minds). And Bennett... I have no words for it, massive congratulations. The only fear I have for #50 is that Ewing will repeat the failed experiment from #25. I honestly hope he doesn't and he ends this run on a high note, I look forward to it. Also, that cover from Alex Ross for #50 is absolutely gorgeous.

A really great run with a very good last issue. While I liked this I felt like the One Below All was handwaved like he was nothing so that was a slight disappointment. Bennett was absolutely stellar here, say what you want about him, without his gorgeous art Ewing wouldn't have created this masterpiece (the same can be said about Al), there were times when the writing wasn't that great but Joe saved him. From now on in my mind the characters in Hulk's world will always be represented in this artstyle.