Every comic you've read in 2014


Missy

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Midnighter Armageddon: a oneshot from the Armageddon crossover. It's not great on its own.

Midnighter #1-20: this one is bookended by two runs (Garth Ennis' five issue run and Keith Giffen's 8 issue - I think - run). Ironically, Giffen's is the political one. Ennis' story is the old chestnut about going back in time to kill Hitler. A time traveler kidnaps Midnighter and puts a bomb in his chest that will explode if he returns having not killed Hitler. There are plot holes in this one so large that the entire framework of the story falls completely apart. However, Midnighter returns in a spectacular fashion. Giffen's run concerns a small town that has been brainwashed and oppressed by a Roght Wing literally flag-faced organization called Anthem. It's quite good, if a little long. The spectacular part has mroe to do with the oneshots in between. One, in particular, written by Christos Gage is spectacular. Hawksmoor forces Midnighter to help someone normal in a way that doesn't involve a mass amount of carnage. This Wildstorm series takes place after the Authority had taken over the United States and then turned it back over, mind you. So Midnighter is bored and looking for action. Midnighter then has to help a little girl find her missing dog. My favorite moment in the entire series is the exchange between him and the girl's mother.

MN: I'll help you find your dog.

GM: Hey, weren't you the President?

MN: No ma'am, I was a member of a Junta. There's a difference.

Plain and brilliant. Love it.

Hack/Slash: My First Maniac #1-4: Basically a Year One story for Cassie Hack. Pretty much on point for the rest of the H/S run, only without Vlad.

Trades: 28

Comics: 426
Omnibus: 5
Graphic Novels: 12
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Wicked and the Divine #1: You've probably seen me gushing about this on Twitter and Facebook. That is going to continue for the near future. McKelvie gets to experiment even more with his art here, and it's rare that I mention a colorist, but the work that Matt Wilson does on this is stunning. Gillen has given us a good hook and good initial world setup (basically, premise is every 90 years 12 gods reincarnate into teenagers), and I'm quite interested to see where this goes next month.

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Grifter #0-16: I won't go all out and say that this is terrible. It starts promisingly, but the story fails to make you care about all this wild shit. Later on, when Liefeld comes on as plotter, it gets way worse. It tears by in a horrible pace so that there is even less care given to the characters. Awful overall.

Razor's Edge Warblade #1-5: GRIM DARK....GRRRRR!!!!

Trades: 28

Comics: 448
Omnibus: 5
Graphic Novels: 12
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Morning Glories vol 7 Honors: This series continually gets more and more incomprehensible, and yet manages to keep me roped in. Even when I'm aware of it. That's the thing that makes me buy this still. Weird.

Trees #1: This is the firstWarren Ellis-penned thing I've read in ages. For good reason. For a long time he turned into a crank who seemingly forgot to make his writing interesting as opposed to "witty" and "acerbic" (a.k.a. "pretentious" and "assholish"). This is better than that stuff. Not sure if I really liked it very much, but I ,ay be enticed to buy the trade if the price is right. The art is gorgeous at least.

Wonder Woman #31: Still, the best thing DC's doing. Azzarello's building to something here. Something powerful and potent. I can't wait.

Trades: 29

Comics: 450
Omnibus: 5
Graphic Novels: 12
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2 Past Midnight: Dark Horse's first crossover in their new Comics' Greatest World launch just released in TP features a crossover between Ghost, X and Captain Midnight. Kind of like if Phantom Lady, Captain America and The Shadow met up. Fantastic.

Cavewoman Journey #1: Not great. Kind of fun. A food fight between a jungle girl and a giant ape is pretty fun. Not great though.

C.O.W.L. #1: Seeing as I'm on strike, this isn't as fun as it should be. Take a bunch of superheroes in Madmen-era Chicago and make them a union and you have the premise behind this series. This first issue is really fucking strong. I will officially be buying the trade.

Big Trouble in Little China #1: Sadly horrible. Nowhere in the vicinity of good. Yikes. 10 foot pole this one and just go watch the movie again.

Trades: 30

Comics: 453
Omnibus: 5
Graphic Novels: 12
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True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #1-6: Gerard Way had a lot to live up to after the transcendent Umbrella Academy. It didn't really work. Perhaps it's because it's a sequel to a concept album I haven't listened to, but it doesn't stand on its own. It is unique, interesting and beautiful, though. Coover's art is a revelation. More Allred-y than in the past. Nice stuff.

Satellite Sam vol 1: This one is a toned down Chaykin. The Black and White helps, I think. Maybe it's the colors that add the Cabbage Patch thing to his figures, but this works as a story and visually. It borders on erotica at times. I enjoyed the world they built. Sort of a Hollywood Babylon for the pulp serial scene. Nice.

Black Kiss tpb: I'm not sure what the fucking story was. It walks over the border of erotica and burns the country down behind it. This is crazy. Kind of great too.

Trades: 32

Comics: 459
Omnibus: 5
Graphic Novels: 12
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Detective Comics 854-863: Came for the Elegy reread, stayed for the Pipeline backup (which isn't quite completed here, but meh, I'll find it somewhere).

Phonogram: The Singles Club 1-5: Came for the reread of the main story, stayed for the backup stories I didn't know existed.

Saga 1-19: Oh hey, another series I'm going to be investing in monthly. BKV managed to send me from laughing on one page to sobbing on the next. Well done, and I'm officially incredibly invested.

Three 1-5: A Gillen miniseries that I didn't know existed until last night. Three slaves vs 300 Spartans. It ends about as well as you'd think it does. It's a good ride, though.

Pretty Deadly 1-5: Stocking to the trade for this, but daaaamn. Mythological Western, very pretty, still don't entirely know what's going on, but DeConick, I'm interested.

Sex Criminals 1-6: Possibly one of the most ridiculous and interesting stories I've ever read, but I'm loving every minute of it. Highlights: Sex Batman, dildo to the face, and a Queen singalong with all the lyrics hidden by commentary. Another probably monthly pickup.

Miss Marvel 1-2: I'm loving Kamala so far, and the balance they're drawing on all levels is really interesting. Not quite sold on a monthly yet, but I'm definitely interested.

FrankenCastle Hardcover: There are two sequences from this collection that tell you everything you need to know about this storyline. One: FrankenCastle riding in a dragon with an automatic gun strapped to it. Two: FrankenCastle and Daken attacking each other with, in order: spike pit, bombs, automatic gun, a car, electrified train tracks, a train, a construction site, a truck. Absolutely over the top and ridiculous, and isn't shy about it.

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Afterlife With Archie vol 1: Okay...I expected to enjoy it because of Francavilla's art, but I was not ready to be blown away by the story. This takes familiar characters, puts them in familiar genre circumstances alien to them and just lets the ideas run wild. It is hardcore. More shit goes down in this than in a regular volume of The Walking Dead. It looks better and is plenty smarter too. There is more to love in the first issue of this series than there is in 99% of comics right now. Buy this.

Clive Barker's Next Testament vol 1: His name is Wick. He's the God of the Old Testament. He's back. And he doesn't like what we've done with the place. Holy shit. This is amazing.

The Simon & Kirby Library Horror: read this over the past 2 weeks. Golden Age goodness.

Trades: 34

Comics: 459
Omnibus: 6
Graphic Novels: 12
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iZombie TPB 1-4: So I accidentally read the final volume first, and frankly, it made up for some of the more middling moments of the earlier story. Honestly, I think that the CW is gonna try and make this supernatural Veronica Mars, but have no clue how they're gonna approach end game on this, as it's straight up Lovecraftian. Read it through in trades if a friend has it.

The Unwritten TPBs 1-8 (and the GN Tommy Taylor and the Ship that Sank Twice): I went into this skeptical bc of the blatant Harry Potterness of it, but the story as it's resulted is really interesting. I'm not invested in following it, but if you have a friend with the trades, read it for fucking Pauly Bruckner the Rabbit and one of the more interesting Devils I've ever read.

New XMen 1-5 and 7: Yeah, this is definitely not what I read back in middle school, but it seems familiar. Morrison and Quietly in early days is interesting to read, and most of what happens is interesting, or at least fun. But man, Angel and her babies: what even. I missed volume 6 as the person I'm staying with doesn't have it, so reading vol 7 leaves me wondering what in the actual fuck happened there.

Florescent Black: A Heavy Metal comic from a while back that's not normally my speed, but definitely interesting. Some pretty standard future dystopia tropes, but some really good art and storytelling to back it up.

Absolute All Star Superman: If there is a way to read AllStar Supes, this is it. Not all of it pings with me, but when it does, man,this is pretty amazing.

Absolute New Frontier: Seriously, get the absolute edition. The hardcover lets you see every tiny detail that Cooke out in, and man, there is some pretty amazing stuff there. Good look at how these characters actually played out in this time period, too. One of those comics you have to read at least once in your life.

The Chaos Effect: Collects Enki Bilal's Black Order Brigade and Hunting Party. The first is a period of Spanish history I'm not familiar with, but surrounds an old Communist/anarchist group of seniors getting back together for a final job to deal with the fallout of the Spanish Civil War. It's fun, but the one that spoke to me more was the Hunting Party, which focused on a diplomatic hunting outing towards the end of Eastern Bloc Russia, and the ghosts of one of the bigwigs. If you can find a copy of this, read it. The pencils are amazing, as is the storytelling.

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Magic Flute: Art by P Craig Russel. Holy shit this is so goddamn pretty. Would probably be enhanced by having the opera on in the background.

Astonishing XMen: Kitty Fucking Pryde, for life. Also interesting to see where the Rao storyline for X3 came from. Fun, beautiful, and just the right amount of WHEDOOOOOOOOON.

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Doctor 13 - Architecture and Mortality: Possibly some of the best meta I've read, and fun besides. Seriously, has anyone shown the DC team this recently? They seem like they need reminding.

Queen and Country TPB 1-3: My friend has described this series as unfuckwithable by mortal men. I can agree with them so far. Given that Rucka wrote about the vast majority of this prior to the events they end up echoing in the real world, I'm wondering how he didn't wind up on all the watchlists. I'm loving our anchor character, and the little political infights and how they end up affecting things on the larger stage. The problem is, now I need more. And I don't know if I can immediately get more.

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The First X-Men #1-5: This five issue series by Neal Adams (because, let's face it, Gage didn't have much to do with this) was interesting, but done a disservice by needing to introduce Xavier, Magneto and Namor in the first 3 issues. Other than that, it's a neat little miniseries about Wolverine trying to save a very young mutantkind. It falters and is plainly weird and off-kilter at time, but it is overall enjoyable. I liked the new characters and some set-up between Logan and Creed early on.

Chaos #1: Dynamite's reboot of Pulido's stuff from the 90s. Way all over the place. So much so, it;s hard to keep track of what's going on. And I didn't have much interest in reading more carefully.

Clive Barker's Nightbreed #1: The major failing of this issue is that it tries to do too much. I want a focus on one small sliver of the story, but this fails a little bit thanks to Pilot syndrome. I love the art and the story, however, I just wish that it covered either more or less of the feel of the series. Hard to explain. I will be buying this in trade though. That's for sure.

Cyclops #1: downright awful. Why did I read this? Why would anyone? Terrible.

Doctor Spektor: Master of the Occult #1: interestingly tied into the other Dynamite Gold Key reboots. Not the best Waid's done lately, but he's kind of been on a roll, so I'll forgive. This gets a trade buy.

Entropy FCBD issue: I honestly don't even remember what this is about. So, I suppose it did not work. Or, in a clever way, my memory has eroded in a way that makes it work perfectly.

Trades: 34

Comics: 469
Omnibus: 6
Graphic Novels: 12
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Frankenstein Agent of SHADE vol 1: I was kind of ho-hum about the first isssue when I read it, but it turns out my local library is pretty-well-stocked. This is a pretty good first volume. The issues of the series anyway. It is quirky for quirky's sake, but the action is fun and the threat is big and epic. The Frankenstein vs OMAC oneshot included written by DiDio is less good, but still fun. Not a bad little book.

Team 7 #0-8: I really think they made a mistake setting this 5 years ago and not 10 or 15 years ago. The creative teams are unstable, never being the same for more than 2 issues. Really inconsistent as a result. Some interesting stuff with Deathstroke, but Waller, Black Canary and Lynch are wasted. Why not populate the team with 7 characters who actually matter to the DCU? Weird.

Trades: 35

Comics: 478
Omnibus: 6
Graphic Novels: 12
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MPH #1: This is the best thing I've seen from Millar in fucking ages. I really like the idea, which isn't new, of an inmate getting superpowers, and it does an amazing job of portraying super speed in the comic book format. Funny how I've never seen that in a Flash comic. The only thing I've seen that rivals it is the time Peter David had Quicksilver on the psychologist's couch. I'll be grabbing this in trade.

Murky World: One of the Richard Corben Dark Horse oneshots. Leaves something to be desired seeing as it just ends. Love the art though.

Nailbiter #1: Wow. Contender for horror book of the year, right here. Definitely grabbing the trade for this. Art is a little too manga influenced for my liking but the story makes up for it.

Ordinary #1: a story about the one guy without superpowers. Not very good.

Trades: 35

Comics: 482
Omnibus: 6
Graphic Novels: 12
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Desolation Jones: Warren Ellis and JH Williams III does noir, by way of modern day LA. It's all collected in one trade, go read it. Includes one moment where JH deliberately goes into several different styles during Jones' trip.

Wonder Woman 198-226 (appx): The Rucka run. Includes some of Diana's more badass moments, such as her blinding herself with the Gorgon's poison. Missing a few issues, but still mostly complete. A great run, despite the crossover with Amazons Attack. Also a great source of Comics Archaeology: aka, holy shit ads for the Game Boy Advance, Smallville, the premiere of Supernatural, Psychonauts, and a house ad for All Star Supes.

Batman Year 100: a GN by Paul Pope, never heard of him. Not my favorite Batman run ever, but interesting enough.

Knight and Squire: This, though? This is where it's at. Paul Cornell does an absolutely amazing short run on these two, definitely mired in Britishisms but contains a handy glossary at the back. The Five Kings, all the superheroes and villains, and Jarvis Poker are definite highlights.

Casanova vol 1: Absolutely fucking ridiculous, not quite on the level of Nextwave, but definitely inspired by it. I don't think I have a way of accurately describing it without giving away too much. Ba does amazing work on the art, too.

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Captain America: Winter Soldier (2005): Hardcover, collects #1-9, 11-14 of the 2005 series. Terrific stuff. Cap's a little grimmer and grittier than I normally like him here, but Ed Brubaker writes a hell of a war story, and he and Steve Epting do a spectacular job of capturing Cap's physicality in a way that's hard to get across in comics. The actual Winter Soldier story only takes four issues, which is not nearly enough, but overall this is a great collection.

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X-Tinction Agenda Omnibus: one of the things i wanted to reread after reading Sean Howe's Marvel book. Weirdly, there is an intense dichotomy between the gorgeous pencils of Jim Lee set against Rob Liefeld, Guang Yap (Rob's fill-in artist) and Jon Bogdanove. I still like the story a lot. It helps a lot that they include the earlier issues of Uncanny that have the X-Men first encountering Genosha. It's funny to see how much the X-world had changed in the short time between those issues and the crossover. Also, it includes the art of my personal favorite X artist, Marc Silvestri.

Absolution Rubicon #1-5: Not as enjoyable as the original series, but a worthy sequel. Kind of riffs on Daredevil's claiming of Hell's Kitchen several years ago. Good comics.

King's Watch #1-5: AMAZING! Parker's remake of Defenders of the Earth combining Flash Gordon, Mandrake, Phantom and other nuggets of fun from those heroes' stories and the cartoon. Great shit. HIGHLY recommended.

Perverts of the Unknown: Before he relaunched Prophet with a radical look, he did this pervy graphic novel that isn't very good.

Rise of the Magi #0, 1: Ufff...also not very good. Difficult to get through.

Trades: 35

Comics: 494
Omnibus: 7
Graphic Novels: 13
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King's Watch #1-5: AMAZING! Parker's remake of Defenders of the Earth combining Flash Gordon, Mandrake, Phantom and other nuggets of fun from those heroes' stories and the cartoon. Great shit. HIGHLY recommended.

Jeff Parker doesn't know how to write comics that aren't insanely fun. This is terrific.

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