Every comic you've read in 2015


Missy

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Captain Marvel 15: Every once in a while Kelly Sue gets the opportunity to get away from the editorial mandated story and do a story you can tell she really wanted to do.

Marvel is amazing to me. They really believe that the huge upswing in popularity and readership and the Carol Corps in general is entirely down to Captain Marvel's inherent awesomeness as a character. She is pretty awesome, but what all these new readers are responding to is Kelly Sue, and Marvel's going to have no idea what the hell happened when Kelly Sue moves on to something else and all the new readers drift away. Just let her tell the stories she feels passionate about, FFS.

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Speaking of, I read the 2012 series after listening to Will and Hannah's primer and it's...odd. There are definitely strong elements to it. Carol's relationships, from Kit to Tracy, are varied and well-written, and Kelly Sue's emphasis on Carol's stubbornness giver her a flaw that makes her feel like a fleshed out person. But as a whole, I don't think the title comes together. After a first issue with Carol determined to be Captain Marvel and a course set for a new start, most of the title is taken up with Carol confronting her past. I can understand the reasoning behind that having heard the primer, but it goes on for way too long. When it's pointed out in the book that she's fighting a metaphor for her past, it just gets grating. I did think the "tumor" reveal was a good bit of drama and inner conflict for Carol, building on her inner thoughts from the first arc. As for where it ultimately ends up, I can understand longtime fans getting emotional over the sacrifice Carol makes, but as someone reading a Carol comic for the first time, I didn't have that level of reaction to it. I do give Kelly Sue credit for doing something ambitious, even if it wasn't completely satisfying to me as a new reader.

The comic isn't helped by the wildly disparate art teams. Dexter Soy may become an interesting digital artist, but he isn't there yet, especially when it comes to faces. I think Emma Rios' style would be perfect on a book set in the 1920s, so it makes a sort of sense that she drew the issues set in the past, but her style is the opposite of Soy's. I love Filipe Andrade's whimsical line, but I didn't think it was a good fit for the character. I'm glad Marvel is hiring artists that don't fit into the mainstream superhero model, but Captain Marvel didn't have the best tone to match that and it never really got a consistent visual identity. Joe Quinones would have been a great choice for the series; I felt more emotion from his phenomenal cover to issue 10 than I did the art across the "tumor" arc. Since I have Marvel Unlimited, I'll probably read the 2014 series, but I'm not in as much of a hurry to check it out as I would have hoped. If anything, I'm more interested in getting that trade of Pretty Deadly.

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Zorro Matanzas: Don McGregor crafting a pretty masterful and personal story for Zorro and Mike Mayhew channeling Toth in the best way. Beautiful.

Batman In Darkest Knight: Bruce Wayne receives the GL ring. Good idea. Not good.

Angels and Demons book 2: Fun and sexy.

Marvel Zombies 4 #1-4: Ooh...this was not good. I was really looking forward to it because of the Midnight Sons thing. I just can't get behind Morbius.

Comics: 535

Graphic Novels: 29

Trade Paperbacks: 67

Omnibus: 3

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I love the 2012 Captain Marvel series as my introduction to Carol, but yeah the stories were never as interesting to me as she was. Dug Dexter Soy, his art evolved as he went along and I wish he got to do the whole 17 issue volume. (Plus he's Filipino so yeah) Emma Rios wasn't bad, but having the two of them on the same arc hurt it. And I couldn't stand Filipe Andrade's art, it was so out of place from everything else. Although he is responsible for Carol's awesome hat.

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The 2014 volume is at least a little more consistent because it had something of a direction and a more consistent team. I don't really like heroes leaving their regular cast but it worked alright.

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The 2012 series was pretty good, but it was pretty much Kelly Sue's first regular writing gig (she had been translating manga for ages before that) and she was still learning. The current series has her firing on all cylinders.

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Daredevil: Parts of a Hole - Uhm...okay. I liked the basic story. Kingpin convinced Echo that Daredevil murdered her father, she wants revenge, fight happens. Echo was cool as hell. Felt a bit like David Mack trying to recapture Elektra, from an indie comics filter, but whatever. The Kingpin backstory was interesting, you can see where they took inspiration for that episode of Netflix's Daredevil. Art was really good, I think Quesada has earned his place in the pantheon of iconic Daredevil artists. Nowhere near the top, but he's definitely up there. David Ross did pretty well in his few pages and in the conclusion, going along the same look. He's helped by Richard Isanove, who's a great color artist, especially paired with the right people. A couple of the images here, like Echo and Daredevil fighting in the park and the Daredevil logo in flames, were clearly taken by the movie to lesser effect.

But the details of this story...Okay, what's with the Kevin Smith references? Why was Matt suddenly playing piano, something I've never seen before or since? Why did people seem incapable of shutting up? Why did Black Widow show up out of nowhere for half an issue? Would the story work better or not if this was told in a straightforward way? I don't know.

In short, it was an engrossing read, but what the hell was that?

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Voodoo Child: The Illustrated Legend of Jimi Hendrix - I liked this. I cannot say I knew much about the man outside of his music. And while this surface level accounting of events it worked for me, I feel that if I had more prior knowledge then I would have similar feelings I had toward the Johnny Cash book a few a few months back.

The art is done by Sienkiewicz. Now, I love and hate his work. I think my opinions on this book changes every few pages. Overall I think it fits the book. Sometimes, like Jimi lighting a guitar on fire, it really works.

Oh, and it comes with a CD of home recordings. Nothing special, but serves as choice background music while reading this.

Ka-Zar: The Burning Season - I picked this at the library for one reason. I needed a quick, dumb read to kill time in a waiting room. It's Ka-Zar. Jungle action with dinosaurs and monkeys. Nope. Politics. Jungle politics. Interrupted for UN politics. More jungle politics. And then issue one ends. And in something I never do, I stopped reading. Fuck this book. I flipped thru the rest and man this thing is too wordy. Just fuck this book.

Comics: 167
Digital First Comics: 58
Graphic Novels: 15

Trades: 88 (468)(4)(144)

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I'm a supporting member of Worldcon this year, and as such am able to vote on this year's Hugo awards. As such, I'm reading (in some cases re-reading) the nominees for Best Graphic Story.

Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal, reprinting issues 1-5 of the G. Willow Wilson/Adrian Alphona series. Terrific fun, wonderful main character, easily the best Peter Parkeresque character of the past thirty years. Deserves every shred of praise it gets.

Rat Queens Vol. 1: Sass and Sorcery, reprinting issues 1-5 of the series from Kurtis Wiebe and Roc Upchuch. Again, hilarious, violent, really well told, terrific characterization, and just a crapton of fun.

Saga Vol. 3, collecting issues #13-18, by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples. I'm not a regular reader, and this made precisely zero attempt to catch me up. I can tell this is really well done, but after twenty pages of "Wait, who's this? What's happening right now? Where are the going? Oh, 'Fuck you, new reader.' It says so right here." I gave up. Not for me.

Sex Criminals Vol. 1: One Weird Trick, collects issues #1-5, Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky. The story is interesting enough, but really this is just a very funny book. The overarching plot isnt hooking me, but Fraction and Zdarsky throw enough goofy at the reader that is still entertains.

The Zombie Nation Book 2: Reduce Reuse Reanimate by Carter Reid. A webcomic, the only entry here which was on the Puppies slates, and a tedious, unfunny collection of one page strips with decent enough artwork but nothing that should ever have made it this far.

After a lot of deliberation, my pick for the top spot is going to be Ms. Marvel. It was either going to be that or Rat Queens, and it was very difficult as they're two excellent books doing two very different things. They're really 1 and 1A, but at the end of the day, Ms. Marvel spoke to me a little more.

My rankings overall:

1) Ms. Marvel

2) Rat Queens

3) Sex Criminals

4) Saga

5) NO AWARD

6) The Zombie Nation

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Daredevil: Parts of a Hole - Uhm...okay. I liked the basic story. Kingpin convinced Echo that Daredevil murdered her father, she wants revenge, fight happens. Echo was cool as hell. Felt a bit like David Mack trying to recapture Elektra, from an indie comics filter, but whatever. The Kingpin backstory was interesting, you can see where they took inspiration for that episode of Netflix's Daredevil. Art was really good, I think Quesada has earned his place in the pantheon of iconic Daredevil artists. Nowhere near the top, but he's definitely up there. David Ross did pretty well in his few pages and in the conclusion, going along the same look. He's helped by Richard Isanove, who's a great color artist, especially paired with the right people. A couple of the images here, like Echo and Daredevil fighting in the park and the Daredevil logo in flames, were clearly taken by the movie to lesser effect.

But the details of this story...Okay, what's with the Kevin Smith references? Why was Matt suddenly playing piano, something I've never seen before or since? Why did people seem incapable of shutting up? Why did Black Widow show up out of nowhere for half an issue? Would the story work better or not if this was told in a straightforward way? I don't know.

In short, it was an engrossing read, but what the hell was that?

I really like that story and Echo as a character. I'm pissed off that she was killed in whatever story she died in.

Can't excuse the Clerks references and all that tho...

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A-Force #1 - Enjoyed it. Art is a bit samefacey.

Daredevil #15.1 - Light. The Marc Guggenheim story is entertaining enough, while the one Samnee wrote was...interesting. Not worth the $4.99.

Secret Wars Spider-Verse #1 - Interesting. Like the cast. Ehh on the art.

Star Wars #5 - Ooohhooh boy. Boba Fett is IN CHARGE and I love it. Not the biggest Cassaday fan but he does some good work on Fett here.

Convergence Adventures of Superman #2 and Convergence Flash #2 - Huh. So those happened.

Sensation Comics Wonder Woman #10 - Didn't get the first story, with the pop star. Art was great though. The Lopresti-drawn and penned story with the dragon was pretty good.

Man of Steel Volume 2 - The three regular series after MOS. Action Comics and Superman by Byrne and Giordano with Adventures by Wolfman and Ordway. Good stuff here. I'm not usually a fan of cosmic stuff but I really enjoyed the Legends tie-ins with him going to Apokolips. Dig this version of Lex Luthor too.

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Banzai Girls (Vol. 2) - On the plus side, I didn't feel like I was missing much having not read Vol. 1. Other than that, this was cheesecake.

Yin Yang: Bounty Hunters - Story went to an unexpected place. But that doesn't mean it was good.

Femme Noir: The Dark City Dairies - Two complaints. The first being that as a four issue mini, this didn't feel like one. Nothing really connects the issues and nothing overarching happens. I could deal with that. But when you spend the entire first issue setting up the mystery "who is Blonde Justice?" I bloody well better know the answer by the end of the series.

Comics: 176
Digital First Comics: 58
Graphic Novels: 16

Trades: 88 (468)(4)(144)

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Neonomicon #1-4: With Providence coming out, I wanted to give this series a second shot. Read the first issue and hated it. It's not a good first issue. It's a better series than the first issue sets up. But it's still a pretty mediocre Lovecraftian horror story.

Sensation Comics #33-35: Fun three issue arc.

A-Force #1: Nope. No thank you.

Aquila #2: Wasn't sure about the first issue. Now I'm sure. No thanks.

Archie vs Predator #2: Wow. So. Much. Fun.

Bloodshot Reborn #2: A better issue than the first. Still not entirely sold.

Captain Canuck #0: Fun zero issue of this modern reboot. Interesting take.

Chosen #1: Marcus Nispel's first comic. Pretty fun. A whole shitload of stuff happens in this issue. Almost a whole 6 issue arc, actually. Solid.

Convergence Infinity inc #2: Oof. Nope.

Comics: 570

Graphic Novels: 29

Trade Paperbacks: 67

Omnibus: 3

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And amazingly genre savvy. Alex DeCampi is pretty goddamn fantastic that way.

Fresh Romance #1: The new romance comics anthology being launched by Janelle Asselin. The last story in the volume is probably the weakest of the three, but it's cute and has a chance to go somewhere. The middle story is a real interesting Regency romance that has a real good hook going on, hopefully it can keep it up. The first story, by Kate Leth, is pretty fantastic. High school romance, two lesbians using a guy as their cover, and the guy has something else going on too, but we're not sure what it is. Favorite artist of the three is on this story, though the other two are also good.

DC Sneak Peeks: Gotham Academy: A cute summary of everything that's gone so far, and previews for what's to come. It's definitely a series I need to catch up on (I read the first four issues earlier in the year).

DC Sneak Peek: Black Canary: Annie Wu on Black Canary. That should be all I need to say to get you interested in this. Good excerpt, or prelude, not sure which it is, to the first issue. It's got my attention.

New Avengers 26: Things continue to get fucked. And pretty sure this is the start of Tony as Superior Iron Man?

Loki: Agent of Asgard #8: Basically suffers from getting roped into yet another crossover event (does anyone even remember what the point of AXIS was?).

Southern Bastards vol 2: ....Well shit, I was not expecting that shift in focus for this arc. It's entirely a flashback, essentially, by the end of the volume, we're where we were in terms of moving the storyline forward, except with more knowledge about a character, and a few other events.

Secret Avengers vols 1 and 2: Basically reread what I'd already read to catch myself up, and the one issue of new material. Kot's bringing in a Borgesian angle on whatever is going on, and I'm definitely interested. Vol 3 comes out last month, can't wait to see where it winds up.

Secret Wars Journal #1: Two stories: Young Avengers 1602 (which is basically Kate, Teddy, and Billy, and sets up Siege, and what I suspect may be an angle over in Angela 1602), and an XMen/Moon Knight story set over in what appears to be ancient Egypt world? Not really sure, kind of disjointed, no idea what really happened. Maybe they'll explain what's going on in whatever comic they're attempting to set up?? I don't know.

Inferno #1: Basically takes the Colossus going into hell to save Ilyana and stretches it into an AU. Neat setup, neat story threads, good art, and I'll keep my eyes on it. There's one real big confusion I'm getting with the Secret Wars stuff, and I'll go into it in one of the other comics.

All New Hawkeye 3: Katie Kate gets to kick all the ass, and there's some neat stuff being set up with the kids. There's some stuff with Kate and Clint's relationship that doesn't feel like Lemire read what went before this? As a follow up to the Fraction Hawkeye, it feels a bit weird. Ramon Perez does a neat watercolor flashback at the bottom of each page. It's got my attention.

Inhumans: Attilan Rising #1: Okay, so, here's the big thing I'm having trouble following with Secret Wars. We have a Medusa over in A Force that's clearly subservient to She Hulk, and then one over here that's the ruler of Attilan (which also includes what's left of the Manhattans). Are they two different people? Some clarification overall there would be real nice, just saying. Anyways, there's some neat stuff going on here: insurgency, one of the Ghost Riders (a 20s gangster), and a bar that appears to act as neutral ground for several worlds (that I would just read on its own).

Material #1: Kot does a new comic that appears to be following four stories so far: a philosophy professor interacting with the first AI, an actress who's sliding into addiction getting a new movie that might turn her career around, a kid from a black lives matter protest who gets detained at Homan Square (google it if you haven't heard of it and have a drink handy when you do), and an ex guantanamo detainee who has sessions with a dominatrix to deal with his PTSD. This is heavy shit. The footnotes are either quotes, a reading list (that is pretty substantial), lists of the names of black people killed by police, or, in only one case, just the normal panel system. I'm not really sure where it's going, but I'll be following at least tangentally. Intimidating as fuck mostly.

/

And read this afternoon on MU:

Marvels 1-5: Alex Ross and Kurt Busiek do a recap of early Marvel 616 history using a young photojournalist. Real fucking pretty, not anything special story wise, but definitely worth a read. Last issue (aka the Spiderman one) is the standout to me.

Marvels: Eye of the Camera 1-5: 6 wasn't loading, I'll get to it later. Busiek makes it a lot more about the photojournalist and legacy this time around, the 616 history is a bit more incidental. They couldn't get Ross back for the sequel, and honestly, it hurts a bit for it.

Storm 1-4: Storm finally gets a solo series! Art's good, story's mostly one offs, some tying heavily into Wolverine's death given when this started coming out. Worth a peek on the trade, I think.

Hawkeye vs Deadpool 1-2: The Hawkeyes and Deadpool team up to protect his kid, and a larger conspiracy. Cute, good art, worth a page through.

Silver Surfer 10: Real pretty, and also a real cute issue.

Black Widow 12: Anderson Cooper and the Howling Commandos show up, things get real fucked. Noto continues to be real pretty on the art.

XForce 12: This shit is bananas. I kind of love it.

Wolverine and the XMen 12: How do you know your title isn't doing that well? It's constantly coopted into whatever major crossover is happening currently. See: Axis.

Spider Woman 1: Starts during the big multiverse Spiderman crossover that just happened. No idea what the hell is going on for the framing, or who most of these people are, but hey, it works? And Land mostly looks like he's stopped tracing porn?

Superior Foes of Spidey 17: Manages to wrap everything up neatly and hilariously. Good cap to the series.

Elektra 8: Del Mundo is back on art and it's fucking gorgeous.

Superior Iron Man 1: ....Huh. That's certainly a thing. Especially interesting in light of reading Fraction's Invincible run later in the afternoon. Guessing this ties into New Avengers somehow.

She Hulk 10: Great topper to this arc, and especially fun to see Murdock and Jennifer lawyering at each other.

Invincible Iron Man 1-527 (renumbering happens after issue 33): Fraction and Larocca take on Iron Man, takes us starting at about the end of Civil War. This run is absolutely insane, and at times, incredibly beautiful. There's a bit of autobiography I suspect in Tony's struggles with sobriety this run, but it manages to be really well done without getting preachy. The last major tie in that happens is Dark Reign (for obvious reasons), but once that's done the title gets to stand on its own with minimal interference (though Fear Itself does play a major role). Larocca has some real points where he gets to show off, especially in the Fear Itself tie ins and the post Dark Reign stuff with Dr. Strange. Rescue is probably one of my favorite parts of this (even if the stuff with JARVIS gets a bit weird). This is also when I suspect that they were trying to model Iron Man after his movie counterpart?.

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Convergence Plastic Man and the Freedom Fighters #2: The story was pretty good. Not as bad as I expected with the giant robots from Future's End showing up. The art took a dive for the worse though. God. Convergence has rarely gotten anything right.

Convergence Shazam #2: Cue this one. Goddam. It's beautiful. The Gaslight Batman rogues gallery is shockingly not much different than their regular modern day appearances. I want a Gaslight Batman series if not a Shazam series by Parker and Shaner. This is the best Convergence has provided. It's also, almost the only example of good.

Convergence New Teen Titans #2: Nope. Terrible.

Convergence Blue Beetle #2: This is the other thing that's really good about Convergence, Fun stuff.

Convergence World's Finest #2: A pretty steep slide into crap from the enjoyable first issue.

Dark Gods #6: CRazy. Good. Crazy good.

Deadpool's Secret Wars #1: it's funny and cute at times, but is there a point to this series other than implanting Deadpool, into the events of Marvel's past? Probably not.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency #1: Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Awful.

Fight Club 2 #1: Weirdly enough, I actually thought this was pretty good. Interesting take. I like the premise. There's a reason for the sequel. I'll check the next one out too.

Comics: 579

Graphic Novels: 29

Trade Paperbacks: 67

Omnibus: 3

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Orion Omnibus: This collects every Orion/New Gods story Walt Simonson wrote for DC. Everything from Jack Kirby's Fourth World, the Orion series that sprung from it and the Tales of the New Gods tpb. Allin all, 700-ish pages of Kirby goodness. This might be the pinnacle of comics storytelling right here. Fucking beautiful, man. Holy shit.

Frankenstein Underground #3: This is really fun.

God is Dead #36: Holy shit. Boldest "next issue: blurb ever: To Be Reimagined. Insane.

Inferno #1: Elements of this are good, like the idea of Colossus leading a campaign into demon infested New York to rescue his sister each year. Other than that? Not very good.

Infinity Gauntlet #1: Weird, but really good. Not at all what I expected. The best from Secret Wars thus far.

Inhumans-Attilan Rising #1: Weird. I don't know any of these Inhumans.

Invisible Republic #3: Good. Not great.

Ivar, Timewalker #5: Still very fun. LOVE to see the Anni-Padda brothers all together!

Lady Death Chaos Rules #1: Holy crap. This is terrible.

Comics: 587

Graphic Novels: 29

Trade Paperbacks: 67

Omnibus: 4

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Lola XOXO - I liked this. Felt rushed at the end. Like the writer forgot it was a six issue mini until issue six. I wouldn't mind exploring this world some more.

Batman '66 #59 - I don't think Clayface fits this universe. Boo.

Starpunch Girl #1 - I have no idea what this is. Drugs are bad, m'kay.

Random High Impact Comics - Getting back to my $5 long box of randomness. Read everything in said box from High Impact. I lost brain cells. Normally I have fun with these shit comics from the mid 90s. Normally. In other news, I started a pile of comics to get rid of.

Comics: 192
Digital First Comics: 59
Graphic Novels: 16

Trades: 88 (468)(4)(144)

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M.O.D.O.K. Assassin #1: Ridonkulous. Fun. Not sure if I like it though. It's weird.

Mad Max Fury Road Nux & Immortan Joe #1: origin stories for those characters. Not great. Looks good though.

Master of Kung Fu #1: Nothing really happens, but it looks good and is fun. I'll check out issue 2.

Mother Russia #1: Battle of Stalingrad with zombies. Kind of fun and gory.

Ninjak #3: Crazy fun. Love this. Never liked the original run, but this is excellent.

Oh, Killstrike #1: Oh man...no thanks.

Old Man Logan #1: Interesting. That's about it.

Comics: 594

Graphic Novels: 29

Trade Paperbacks: 67

Omnibus: 4

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