Category Archives: Reviews
Review: Saga #27
Now this is more like it! For the past several issues, Saga has been largely fine. It has never stopped being an enjoyable and entertaining comic, full of great characters, interesting twists and more emotional depth than 10 comics. But it’s also just kind of been…’business as usual’? Is that a good way to put it? I honestly don’t know, because I don’t know what I’m whining about. All I know is that Saga #27 is one of the richest, most enjoyable issues we’ve had in a good long while.
Saga #27
Writer Brian K. Vaughn focuses on just one of his many ongoing plots with this issue, and the attention to detail and to the characters raises this issue to great heights. Prince Robot IV and Ghus the Seal Boy just because the breakout stars of this volume.
Comic Review: 9/10 – Great.
Granted, Ghus has always been pretty amazing, but up until this issue, I always kind of viewed him as a tagalong. He had a great introduction back in the day, but he just seemed like a cute side character thrown in for fun. But with Marko overdosing on crazy space drugs, Ghus steps up in several big ways while he and Robot try and figure out how to save our horn-headed hero.
I’ve said in the past that I don’t really care for drug sequences in fiction. They’re just not my thing. Fortunately, Vaughn and artist Fiona Staples instead take Marko on a series of flashbacks, as if his life was flashing before his eyes. Not only do we learn a bit more about Marko’s troubled past, but these sequences also help to clarify and focus the character going forward. His marriage was falling apart, his family has been kidnapped to parts unknown, and Marko himself has been an emotional wreck. But all of that is settled now, and what comes next should be pure Saga bliss.
As if we should expect anything else.
Join me after the jump for the full synopsis and more review!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 4/11/15
I’m sorry, DC fans, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to tackle Convergence. I’d considered it, and I read a few of the issues this week, but I have even less interest in covering this beast than I do Batman Eternal Year Two. Now, I am nothing if not easily persuadable, so if there is a Convergence comic you’d like me to review, let me know in the comments. But on my own, these reviews are going to be few and far between.
Such as this week’s Question #1. Greg Rucka returning to Renee Montoya is a dream come true.
In the rest of the comic book world, we’ve got some great books! I highly recommend Kaijumax over at Oni Press, it’s a lot of fun. New issues of Ant-Man and Spider-Woman impressed. And Darth Vader #4 easily won Comic Book of the Week for being one of the most action-packed comics of the year so far. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to look at Darth Vader the same way again.
Elsewhere in the world, you can check out my review of SHIELD #4 over at Word of the Nerd. That series continues to delight.
This is also the first week in a year when I don’t have an issue of Batman Eternal clogging up my reviews! It’s a good feeling.
Comic Reviews: Ant-Man #4, Convergence: Question #1, Darth Vader #4, Kaijumax #1 and Spider-Woman #6.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 4/4/15
I come to you now at the turn of the tides. For the next two months, DC Comics is going to be doing a big Convergence crossover, taking their entire line of comics and doing a bunch of weird alternate reality things that I have simply not kept up with. I have no idea if I’m going to review any DC Comics for the next two months. I might check a few of them out individually, maybe haphazardly and randomly, but I just don’t know for sure.
(Although Greg Rucka’s Renee Montoya comic is an absolute must!)
So we’re going to spend this week saying goodbye to a few of DC’s regular releases. Not only do we (finally!) have the last issue of Batman Eternal, but Batman and Robin comes to an end with a rather amazing Annual issue. It won’t be back after Convergence. And Harley Quinn delivers a pretty fun cliffhanger in advance of the break.
Out of all of them, I’m going to have to give Comic Book of the Week to Batman and Robin Annual #3. You’re going to have to read this one to believe it!
This is a thing that happens in the comic!
Over at Word of the Nerd this week, I reviewed the prologue issue for the new Uncanny Inhumans series. Black Bolt is the star of Uncanny Inhumans #0, and the issue shows why he could easily carry a comic book all on his own.
I am also super pleased to announce the launching of www.GamerGirlandVixen.com, a new site for my own self-published comic! We bought the domain name and are gearing up for our Kickstarter coming next month! Visit the site and follow along with the production!
Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #17, Batman Eternal #52, Batman and Robin Annual #3, Doctor Who: The 9th Doctor #1, and Harley Quinn #16.
Review: Teen Titans Annual #1
Hey everybody, Superboy is back! Remember when he died? Or was…replaced by an evil impostor…who I think also died? Does anybody remember what happened to Superboy? All I remember is that it was really really dumb, and really really confusing, and that the Teen Titans were completely out of the loop. I don’t think they ever knew about the impostor. But regardless of whatever insanity happened a year or so ago, Superboy is back in Teen Titans Annual #1, and he brings with him some much needed team drama!
Teen Titans Annual #1
Unfortunately, the Annual issue is hampered by some pretty terrible art. So I finally get what I want, the Teen Titans are the actual star of their own comic, but I still can’t appreciate it because this is one ugly comic.
Comic Rating: 5/10 – Alright.
Despite this being an Annual issue, the Teen Titans story continues from right where it left off, only now with extra pages and a new co-writer in tow. Tom King pays a visit from his successful Grayson comic to lend regular writer Will Pfeifer a hand with Teen Titans Annual #1. The two are paired as co-scripters, according to the credits, with the actual plot courtesy of King. Is this a sign that he might be taking over? I have no idea.
But King brings with him a much-needed focus on the Teen Titans themselves. Pfeifer has been a pretty poor presence on the franchise, and my biggest complaint with him so far is that none of his stories really focus on the Teen Titans themselves. Pfiefer has been too obsessed with either pet characters, like Manchester Black, or whatever new super-villain plot he’s brought to the table. All of that changes, for the most part, with this Annual issue, and I’m very happy with that. But the art by the alternating team of Alisson Borges and Wes St. Claire just can’t keep up.
Superboy is back in the Teen Titans’ lives, and he’s brought a lot of baggage with him. News reports claim that he’s responsible for murdering 21 people in cold blood. Obviously, there’s a lot more to that story than what the news media is reporting, but for now, it’s got the individual Titans at each others’ throats over whether they need to help their old friend or turn him over to the authorities.
That makes for good team drama, so at the very least, Teen Titans Annual #1 is a step in the right direction. I may come to regret this later on, but I think I’m going to get my hopes up, if only just a little bit.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 3/28/15
I’m happy to report my busy week has come to an end! I was covering a murder trial in my day job as a mild-mannered newspaper reporter, and the guy ended up being found guilty. He had it coming, trust me. But all that day job stuff cut into my blogging and comic book reading, so unfortunately it’s going to be a somewhat light week. It helps that Marvel Comics didn’t really put out anything too crazy this week.
Though Marvel did put out Uncanny X-Men #32, which wins Comic Book of the Week for finally kicking off Cyclops’ final journey!
And does it vive?
DC Comics filled up the rest of my week, with new issues of Batman Eternal, Batman and Robin and Gotham Academy. It seems I really read a lot of Bat-books. That’s largely unintentional, they’re just the best that DC has to offer. That’s not a bad thing, right?
Oh, and you can check out my review of Darth Vader #3 over at Word of the Nerd. Good times in Dark Lord of the Sithing!
Comic Reviews: Batman Eternal #51, Batman and Robin #40, Gotham Academy #6 and Uncanny X-Men #32.
Henchman-4-Hire 