Every comic you've read in 2016

[Donomark]

The Batman Adventures vol.4

Wrapping up the first Batman Adventures line-up before getting into the next tile (The Batman and Robin Adventures), the stories are not as consistently sharp as previous volumes in the declining issues, but they're still good. The best villains you've never known (The Perfesser, Mastermind and Mr. Nice) are back in a great heist story where Batman doesn't appear until the very last panel. Half of this volume I've read/owned before with the Holiday Special written by Paul Dini and illustrated by the B:TAS storyboard artists Bruce Timm, Dan Riba, Ronnie Del Carmen, Glen Murakami, Kevin Altieri and Butch Lukic, and the second annual with Etrigan and Ra's Al Ghul. The Mr. Freeze short, omitted from the animated adaptation, was quite good in how succinct it was.

The title actually ends in a weird, three part Silver-Age type of story. Batman loses his memory and Catwoman dresses him up as her jewel thieving partner Catman. Hugo Strange is after Rupert Thorne for the murder of his son. It involves Batman thinking he's seven years old and reacting to everything like a kid. It's odd hearing Kevin Conroy in your head say all of the dialogue, and it's a plot the writers of the show would have rejected, but it's interesting nevertheless. Not as good as the previous volumes but still a must-read. Alan Grant also pens an issue pitting Robin against Anarky.

 

[Missy]

When's he leaving, Hannah?

[Dread]

Toxic Avenger #1-11

Toxic Crusaders #1-8

Superman Lois and Clark #6: kind of a weird issue. Not the best, but still important for the story overall. Really happy that this character seems to be taking centre-stage after Rebirth.

Superman:Coming of the Supermen #1,2: not really sure what happened here.

Superman American Alien #5: Amazing. How Luthor deals with Superman is so goddamned cool here.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #56: Leatherhead is here.

Comics: 402
Trades: 17

Graphic Novels: 12

Omnibuses: 4

[Missy]

Superman American Alien #5: Amazing. How Luthor deals with Superman is so goddamned cool here.

Right? And I loved how the shadow of Superman's S -- when turned upside down and broken up by Luthor's legs -- turns into a $.

[Venneh]

When's he leaving, Hannah?

Issue 12.

[Davedevil]

Superman American Alien #5: Amazing. How Luthor deals with Superman is so goddamned cool here.

Right? And I loved how the shadow of Superman's S -- when turned upside down and broken up by Luthor's legs -- turns into a $.

...I did not notice that. God, I love Manapul's art.

[Dread]

Superman American Alien #5: Amazing. How Luthor deals with Superman is so goddamned cool here.

Right? And I loved how the shadow of Superman's S -- when turned upside down and broken up by Luthor's legs -- turns into a $.

...I did not notice that. God, I love Manapul's art.

Yeah, that issue all around was super impressive.

 

[Missy]

When's he leaving, Hannah?

Issue 12.

Is it continuing beyond #12?

Superman American Alien #5: Amazing. How Luthor deals with Superman is so goddamned cool here.

Right? And I loved how the shadow of Superman's S -- when turned upside down and broken up by Luthor's legs -- turns into a $.

...I did not notice that. God, I love Manapul's art.

Francis Manapul is truly a modern master of the medium.

Superman American Alien #5: Amazing. How Luthor deals with Superman is so goddamned cool here.

Right? And I loved how the shadow of Superman's S -- when turned upside down and broken up by Luthor's legs -- turns into a $.

...I did not notice that. God, I love Manapul's art.

Yeah, that issue all around was super impressive.

 

The Dick Grayson scene alone sold me, but the Luthor part put it into the reread category.

[Venneh]

Beyond that, we don't know, as it hasn't gotten that far in the solicits. King promised he'd be on till issue 12.

[Donomark]

Wonder Woman Earth One (Volume One) by Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette

I loved this. I thought this was the best Wonder Woman story I've ever read (granted I've only read a few). It's a modernization of the Golden Age Diana story taking place in modern day that includes traditional elements like Steve Trevor and Etta Candy. The Amazons are pure William Moulton Marston. "Loving Submission" is a phrase used with regularity, and there are some out-there imagery such as during a party women are dressed as deer and hung upside down which never gets explained. The artwork is terrific. Paradise Island looks exactly that without relying on any sort of cheesecake to get the idea of such a place across to male readers. The women are all beautiful but incredibly dignified, especially Hyppolita. Diana herself looks great, and for a while I was wondering if Paquette was complacently giving her constant bedroom eyes before I realized that he's doing Lucy Lawless the entire time. She's both young yet powerful. Her personality is as free spirited and outgoing yet she's still brought up in the Amazon tradition. By far and away this is the best retelling of her origin I've ever read and I cannot wait for the next volume. Highly recommended.

[Dread]

Astonishing Ant-Man #6: Interesting side jaunt into Cassie's life.

Baker Street Peculiars #1: I like the idea of more kid gang comics, but this was too kid for me.

The Man-Thing by Steve Gerber Complete Collection vol 1: Really glad I got this as with Howard the Duck. These are so much better in color. Beautiful and bizarre comics. Gerber is truly one of the all-time greats.

Comics: 404
Trades: 17

Graphic Novels: 12

Omnibuses: 5

[Venneh]

Heartthrob 1-2: Nick Filardi had issue 1 and a copy of issue 2 that he literally printed on normal copy paper at his booth, I decided to page through. The concept and execution feels like a 70s weird science movie? And like it's been done. Idk. I'll at least page through the inevitable trade, but I don't need it.

Faith 1-3: Paged through 2 and 3 at the Valiant booth, and got #1 for free for going to a Valiant panel. They're moving her away from the lol fat fangirl characterization to being a complex person, I like it. (More to come, passing out rn)

[Dread]

Faith 1-3: Paged through 2 and 3 at the Valiant booth, and got #1 for free for going to a Valiant panel. They're moving her away from the lol fat fangirl characterization to being a complex person, I like it. (More to come, passing out rn)

I don't think modern Faith has been lol fat fangirl at all. She's probably the deepest character that Harbinger has had since the get-go. Yes, she's a fangil, but they don't hit that characterization over the head. In fact, I hate those types of characters, and I love Faith. I want to hunt those people on Twitter down and slap them with a sock full of marbles. Faith, I want to see what she does next.

[Venneh]

Mind you: I've only read the first three volumes of Harbinger, and she just now got her first big character development issue where I was at in that read through.  She was one of my favorites in Harbinger, and I'm happy to see her get a solo.  Where I was going next in that was that there's clearly been some stuff I haven't seen yet over in Harbinger that's happened, but I love who she is, and what she's doing these first few issues. It's not strong enough for me to pick it up month to month, but I'll definitely be following it on the trade.  (I'm a little eh on the main artist, whose name I forget, and like Sauvauge on the fantasy sequences.

Another Castle 1: Pretty typical set up - Princess is kidnapped by a Dark King, a Hero is sent to save her - except the princess wants to fight for herself, tries to get out, and realizes that by trying to do so, she will actually cause more harm, and decides to work within the kingdom to weaken the dark king and when her hero gets there, destroy him using the sword herself. A great take on a pretty genre story with interesting characters, good humor and some real gorgeous art from Paulina. (Look closely at the legendary sword.) haven't been able to find it anywhere around me, might need to add it to my pull.

 

Edited April 12, 2016 by Venneh

[Dread]

Mind you: I've only read the first three volumes of Harbinger, and she just now got her first big character development issue where I was at in that read through.  She was one of my favorites in Harbinger, and I'm happy to see her get a solo.  Where I was going next in that was that there's clearly been some stuff I haven't seen yet over in Harbinger that's happened, but I love who she is, and what she's doing these first few issues. It's not strong enough for me to pick it up month to month, but I'll definitely be following it on the trade.  (I'm a little eh on the main artist, whose name I forget, and like Sauvauge on the fantasy sequences.

Ha! It's the fantasy sequences that I can't stand in that series.

[Venneh]

Art wise, or just concept wise?

Image Expo Previews: of the ~20ish books that they announced at the Expo, they had previews ready to go for about six of them. First one is the Azzarello/Risso moonshine gangsters werewolves book - looks intriguing, I don't want to add it to my pull just yet, but yeah, I'm definitely interested. The book that they're bringing Berger back on as editor looks like a brilliant merge of Black Jack and Repo the Genetic Opera, so I'm definitely interested. The Remender/Opena fantasy thing looks fucking gorgeous, will probably pick that up on the trade. The Esad Ribic and Ivan Brandon do gladiatorial robots thing looks gorgeous as you'd expect, Lake of Fire looks like good dumb fun (Christians and Muslims in the middle of the crusades have to fight alien invaders). Hickman is doing some crazy thing with Wall Street murders and magic and shit, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. 

Saga 35: The stakes continue to be raised as the issue moves toward the arc finale. *shrugs* Like I said, still like this, but I'll let the boy buy it rather than me. 

Survivors Club 7: I think right about here is when they got the notice that they were getting cancelled, as they're starting to kick it straight to endgame. TBH, I might just drop this and pick up the eventual trade, as I'm starting to suspect it's going to work better that way. 

Ninjak vol 1: What if Batman was raised by an abusive Alfred, was PTSDed all to hell, became James Bond for a bit, and then, after tragedy, attempted to infiltrate and take down an evil corporation? The more I think about this, the more I like it. The artist isn't exactly fantastic, but he doesn't fuck up what Kindt is giving him, so I'll take it. (Also, calling it now: Angelina is going to turn out to be Roku, isn't she.)

XO-Manowar vol 1: This is just straight the fuck up ridiculous, in a fun way. Celtic soldier fighting the Romans gets kidnapped by aliens, leads a slave revolt, gets their sacred armor, and goes back to Earth - which is now in the 21st century. It's fun, it's dumb, the art doesn't do it any favors, but if you're choosing a book to relaunch your line with, you could do worse. 

Single Issues: 100
TPBs/Collections: 45
Digital First Issues: 10

[Dread]

Art wise, or just concept wise?

Mostly the art. I don't dig the tone of the sequences, but I understand why they're important to the character. I despise the art. 

[Dread]

 

XO-Manowar vol 1: This is just straight the fuck up ridiculous, in a fun way. Celtic soldier fighting the Romans gets kidnapped by aliens, leads a slave revolt, gets their sacred armor, and goes back to Earth - which is now in the 21st century. It's fun, it's dumb, the art doesn't do it any favors, but if you're choosing a book to relaunch your line with, you could do worse. 

Probably the weirdest flagship character in comics publishing history. He was the line launcher in the original Valiant run AND the Acclaim run too. But it makes sense as it can tie the ancient world of the Anni-Padda brothers together as well as the modern world of superpowers and spies.

[Missy]

Scarlet Witch #2-3: Everything I said about the writing stands with the second and third issues. Stiff, "I read this about witchcraft fifteen minutes ago" dialog fills every page, and it's all Wanda talks about. Even I talk about more than comics, Star Trek, and IT issues. Where's talk of her family, concerns about old friends, hopes and dreams, and life in general?

While issue three has solid-yet-familiar work by Steve Dillon, issue two features awe-inspiring art by Marco Rudy. Recently, Hannah told me to grab Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier if, for nothing else, Rudy's talents. And yup, that's being read soon. It's perfectly realistic yet trippy as hell.

Comics: 124

[Dread]

The Infinity Entity #1-3: super pretty, but complete nonsense.

Totally Awesome Hulk #4: the only reason to give this your time is Frank Cho. I am no longer going to be doing that.

Turncoat #1: Put a gun to my head and ask me to explain the plot or even the elevator pitch of this comic I read last night and you'd better just pull the trigger. Has a pretty Paul Pope vibe to it, though.

Comics: 409
Trades: 17

Graphic Novels: 12

Omnibuses: 5

[Venneh]

XO-Manowar vols 2 and 3: Best described as big, dumb fun. It's not gonna be winning any Eisners anytime soon, especially on the art front (early Lee Garbett, and some godawful stuff on the third trade), but we've got your alien conspiracies, Aric taking the fight to the aliens, and him also freeing the slaves in what I now realize is a horridly done Moses metaphor. Something I'd pick up if it were for free or cheap (like in the Humble Bundle it came in).

Single Issues: 100
TPBs/Collections: 47
Digital First Issues: 10

[Venneh]

Scarlet Witch #2-3: 

While issue three has solid-yet-familiar work by Steve Dillon, issue two features awe-inspiring art by Marco Rudy. Recently, Hannah told me to grab Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier if, for nothing else, Rudy's talents. And yup, that's being read soon. It's perfectly realistic yet trippy as hell.

Comics: 124

Damn right you should. Fuck the plot of Scarlet Witch, just go for the rotating artists, especially when they're real good. 

[Missy]

Moon Knight #1: Because this is a Jeff Lemire-written comic, I'll follow along with the "Is Moon Knight real?" mystery, but how many times can one character be reinvented?

Greg Smallwood is going to be a star. His attention to detail forces you to study pages, and the changes he makes from scene to scene are subtle yet appreciated when seen. 

Comics: 125

[Venneh]

Quantum and Woody vols 1-3: Best fucking book I've read from Valiant so far, second only to Rai in terms of quality. Actually had me and the boy almost falling off the couch laughing at some points. 

Deadly Class 20: Well fuck me, I didn't think it could get worse. I was wrong. Some great stuff from Wes this issue, art-wise. Writing here is absolutely brutal, and I'm looking forward to seeing the climax. 

Pretty Deadly 9: Yeah, long term, this will probably work better as a trade series than a month to month series, I keep losing the thread of what's going on. But by fucking god it's gorgeous. 

Monstress 5: Again, the recap page helps immensely. Things come together nicely for the end of the arc, and they leave it at a pretty damn solid cliffhanger, all things considered. Also, still one of the prettiest goddamn books I'm reading. 

Single Issues: 103
TPBs/Collections: 50
Digital First Issues: 10

Edited April 14, 2016 by Venneh

[Missy]

Here's a sample of Greg Smallwood's work. I would read the hell out of that.