I’m finally back with more robust comic reviews! Just been busy, is all. In fact, if you’re reading this, I’m once again out of town! Such is life, I suppose. At least we’ve got comics like Green Lantern Corps and Void Rivals to enjoy.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Absolute Superman #5 because I’m a sucker for these comics! Jason Aaron will also be guesting in Scott Snyder’s Comics Writing Class this week, so I’m very excited about that!

Meanwhile, I beat Dragon Age: Veilguard and very much enjoyed the game! Solid 8/10 for me. Great character creator, solid and enjoyable gameplay, and very good characters/story/ending. All around solid RPG. I’ll finally be picking up Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 this week and can’t wait to dive into that!

Comic Reviews: Absolute Superman #5, Green Lantern Corps #2 and Void Rivals #17.

Absolute Superman #5
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Rafa Sandoval
Colorist: Ulises Arreola
Letterer: Becca Carey

This first storyline is wrapping up or starting to wrap up, and I definitely think we’re going to end strong!

Most of the issue is about the final days of Krypton, which has broken out into class warfare now that Kal-El has exposed the dirty secrets of the planetary leaders/elites. The hoi polloi destroy all the ruling class ships, and only the locals aided by the Els are able to make it off-planet, but their big ship is destroyed and they’re all forced to get out in escape pods, with Kal losing track of his family.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

I enjoyed this issue like I have the others. It’s down a grade solely because this issue doesn’t have anything especially clever or revealing or neat to go with it. Just a solid telling of this part of the origin story, with continually mind-blowing artwork. There’s a whole lot of potential in having more than just Kal-El escaping Krypton, and that part of the story is well done. I’m a little surprised at how wildly advanced the escape ship/techno-suits are, capable of turning into individual ship/escape pods. But whatever, it’s science fiction. Let it happen.

The artwork remains gorgeous. The clash of red and black is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in comics before. It’s just magnificent. And while there is a lot of chaos in this issue, Sandoval and his art team keep expert control of the details of the glory and tragic majesty of it all. Absolute Superman showcases the best of the industry with every issue. The writing is sharp and is providing a retold origin with a great mix of new ideas and classic points. And the artwork is stunning on every single page!

TL;DR: Absolute Superman showcases the best of the industry with every issue. This particular issue covers a lot of interesting ground on the last days of Krypton, and that exploding planet has never looked better or more intense.

Green Lantern Corps #2
Writers: Morgan Hampton and Jeremy Adams
Artist: Fernando Pasarin
Inker: Oclair Albert
Colorist: Arif Prianto
Letterer: Dave Sharpe

I’m going to stick with this series for the time being. It’s a solid, enjoyable take on the GLC as the space cops I want them to be.

John Stewart, Hawkgirl, Kilowog and Razer head to Thanagar to investigate an attack. The planet was recently decimated in a previous GL storyline, and now it’s under attack by Atrocitus and his Red Lantern Corp, who are mostly depowered. There’s some sneaking around, there’s some fighting, and The Sorrow shows up, a new character. Solid space adventuring all around.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

This is a good, quality issue that continues John Stewart’s adventure, while providing plenty of Green Lantern stuff. For now, it’s more plot and story focused, and that’s fine. The creative team is making really good use of the expansive space cast, from bringing in the likes of Hawkgirl to using the likes of Razer (from the animated series), the Red Lanterns and this Sorrow cat, who I had to Google. I’m disappointed that all these former colored Lanterns are largely depowered, but perhaps the comic is working to fix that. Dex-Starr needs his ring, gosh darnit! But yeah, a good, story focused adventure for the Green Lantern Corps, which makes good use of all the characters you would hope they’d use.

And, personally, I hope they find a spot for Rankorr. What ever happened to Rankorr, dammit?! We need more human members of the other Lantern corps.

TL;DR: A good, solid continuation of the new comic, with a fun use of the wide and varied supporting cast.

Void Rivals #17
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Lorenzo De Felici
Colorist: Patricio Delpeche
Letterer: Rus Wooton

It’s been a long while since I last checked it with Void Rivals, though I’ve been reading it issue-by-issue all along. I just felt it had settled into a calm, enjoyable storytelling mode and didn’t require being remarked upon. But this new issue delivers some much needed exposition, so I thought I’d dive back in!

In her solo wanderings, Solila has found Zerta Trion deep in the heart of the ringworld. Zerta then delivers some exposition for what this has all been about: She fled ancient Cybertron to learn the evil Goliant away from the planet, Goliant being an evil cosmic monster unleashed by the Quintessons in that ancient war. She lured Goliant to a sun to feed, then convinced the inhabitants of a nearby dying planet to build The Sacred Ring as a prison for Goliant, who ultimately became trapped in the resulting Black Hole at the center of The Sacred Ring.

Zerta was injured and hid herself within the ring, while the two peoples split and went their separate ways, one worshipping Zerta and the other quietly harboring the essence of Goliant. Well now the time has come to unite the two people so that they can work together to draw out the weakened Goliant and destroy him once and for all, lest he eventually settle down and start regaining strength. And this must be Solila’s task!

Meanwhile, Darak is in hot water, Rodimus Prime and Springer are chillin’, there are some Cobra-La goons up in this mix, Proximus is teamed up with one of those kids in a fight to (I think) rescue the kid’s mom, and Premier Zalilak is off fighting through some barbarian trials to become the True First Chosen of Zerta’s light.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

To be entirely honest, I’ve lost a lot of interest in the Energon Universe as a whole. I know people are still enjoying Transformers, but I feel that comic has taken a deep nosedive in quality. There’s just too much chaos and random characters and insane escalation that I’ve lost all track of what’s going on in any given issue. And then I just didn’t take to the first few issues of G.I.Joe (though I hope to pick back up next week). But Void Rivals has been plugging along as a fun little sci-fi story, telling its own little tale with nifty cameos from other franchises. And this issue does a fine job in summarizing all the various stories that are going on, which is definitely needed.

Look, we’re 17 issues in and I still need to look up how to spell each character’s name. This comic could do with a character guide at the front of each issue.

I also very much appreciated the info dump on all the Sacred Ring details. Again, this is a brand new sci-fi universe with brand new lore, and finally having it all just laid out and explained is a boon at this point in the story. I finally understand the stakes and the backstory, how it ties into the Transformers, and where we go from here. Lines are drawn in a way that is very, very helpful. Especially considering how easy it is to forget what everybody’s been up to between issues. There’s just so much content to consume in the world that I definitely lose track of all the various pieces in play in Void Rivals. So this issue was a solid, still entertaining attempt to get everybody back on track.

TL;DR: At long last, we get a nice info dump on what this has all been about, and it’s a pretty good one. Then we check in with all the existing characters on their little adventures, and that’s fun too.

The comics I review in my Hench-Sized reviews are just the usual comics I grab from Comixology any given week, along with a few impulse buys I might try on a whim. So if there are any comics or series you’d like me to review each week, let me know in the comments.

————————–