Every comic you've read in 2017


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Lobster Johnson Mangeyko: This was the best LJ I've ever read since his first appearance in Hellboy. Lord, have I tried! Must work best in oneshot form.

Medisin #3: surprisingly good.

Nightwing #26: I literally remember nothing of this issue. I don't like Huntress, so maybe I blocked it out.

Savage Things #6: decent.

Superman #28: This "America is the greatest country on earth" bullshit this book has pushed these past two issues is so fucking dumb. It's terrible. What a fall from grace. Read the fucking room. 

Swordquest #2: still great

Robotech #1: terrible.

The Black Flame Archives #1: interesting little slice of dark fantasy comics.

New Gods Special #1: part of the Kirby 100 celebration. Terrible. Shane Davis is a passable artist, but who gave him the idea he should write? Guess I'm NOT pre-ordering the trade of this stuff.

The Unstoppable Wasp #8: what a beautiful end to a beautiful fucking book. 

Turok #1: sadly, not good. Damn, I really wish these Gold Key characters were given the respect they deserve.

Comics: 1180

Trades: 33

Graphic Novels: 26

Omnibuses: 19

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Hawkeye #12: Saw everybody talking about it on Twitter, so I thought I'd give it a-go. Yeah, this was a really fun one-off issue. While it does tie into events -- past and future -- Kelly Thompson does a superb job catching new readers up, hooking them in to stay around, and making sure the issue stands on its own. Very fine balancing act, indeed.

Michael Walsh also does a fine job balancing the action, talking heads, and comedy beats. There are two double-page spreads, in particular, that grabbed my eye. One is all talk but keeps each character in motion, while the other is an action sequence that flows beautifully thanks to the placement of word balloons.

If you see the issue, give it a chance.

Comics: 479
Manga: 2

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Weirdworld v1-I haven't cottoned to Sam Humphries' work generally, but Weirdworld got me. Mike Del Mundo and (First Name I Forget D'alphona maybe?) draws every crazy idea Humphries throws at them almost perfectly, strange but believable. If Weirdworld v0 was Conan after two fistfuls of hallucinogens, then v1 was a lesbian Red Sonja standing in for Conan after two fistfuls of hallucinogens. Pity Marvel didn't keep it around.

Hawkeye #12-Bellaire and Walsh elevate the fun one-shot they're given.

Batman/Huntress: Cry For Blood-I'm a complete stan for Greg Rucka Question, which is why I bought this. I liked the story, but you'd expect that from me. Burchett does solid work.

Unknown Soldier v2-This one's dark. It's weird to read this almost ten years later and think, man, they predated the Invisible Children/Kony thing (using Kony's name!) by a minimum of 18 months AND found an African penciller to do a two issue arc before the internet got stirred up about people who aren't white dudes making big two books. Vertigo threw a lot of things at the wall back in the day using BKV and Fables money, and this is one of the imprint's true successes.

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He-Man and the Masters of the Universe #1-6: this is an interesting way to introduce this universe. I kind of liked it. Took its time, sometimes to a fault, but still decent. Teela looks like She-Ra and that's a bit of a problem.

Comics: 1186

Trades: 33

Graphic Novels: 26

Omnibuses: 19

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Doomsday Clock #1: Not bad...but it was a lot of mysterious set-up and foreboding without much happening. More like a prologue than a first chapter IMO.

Teen Titans #14 (2016): S'alright

Detective Comics #969: Really solid. Joe Bennett's artwork can be pretty stiff, but this was great development from the last few arcs.

Batgirl #17: This was a fast-paced race to the finish line for the story arc. Too fast for my tastes. Big moments like Batgirl losing her temper and the death of a character have little impact because of the break-neck pace of Larson's storytelling. The artwork isn't the best either. It's not bad, but there's little physical difference between teenage Robin and adult Nightwing. That being said it's the best the Dick/Babs relationship has been done in ten years. DC can't stand the idea of them together, but Larson's written it more believably than any other writer in a long while. So the issue and story get a pass.

Action Comics #992: Great as always. They say the artwork is Will Conrad, but man did it look like Mike McKone. This is one of those issues where members of the JLA show up and it's welcomed instead of distracting. Dan Jurgens' Superman is still solid as ever.

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Four Kids Walk Into a Bank 5: (Holding thoughts on this until I reread 4, maybe the rest if I can find it in the apartment.)

Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow v1-2: The continuation that Tokyopop branded weirdly as part of the second edition. Some intriguing stuff comes into play here, and romance comes more to the forefront, and the queer influence definitely escalates. CLAMP continues to level up here, as well. 

Falcon 2: Less awful? Still plays into some real unfortunate/racially charged stereotypes, and I'm not so big on the art. 

Hawkeye 12: Thompson seems to be getting her feet under her, and it's a great team-up with the Wolverines. Walsh and Bellaire definitely help things along. 

Superman 775: Basically Superman vs the knockoff Authority expy, and Joe Kelly having Some Shit To Say about the state of superhero comics at the time. I like it, a lot. (There's also a point where the art goes very deliberately Frank Miller knockoff to make a point that I also really really quite like.) Also apparently they did an animated film based on this at some point? 

WicDiv 33: Well fucking hell boys, well done at keeping that twist under the wraps for the last three years. Now I have to go and reread it all to try and work out what the fuck is going on here. Also looking forward to the Christmas issue as a way to unwind from all that. 

As the Crow Flies v1: First collection of the webcomic by Melanie Gillman. Her colored pencil work on this is gorgeous. The pitch is a 13 year old queer black girl who goes to a Christian backpacking camp that's pretty much all white, and her time there. It's an atmospheric, gorgeous read. I picked this up through the Kickstarter, and can highly recommend getting it. 

East of West 35: Father/son bonding, as only Death and Babylon can do it. 

Descender 26: Gorgeous as fuck, even as it goes full horror/genocide. 

Generation Gone 5: (Holding thoughts until I read the trade.)

Angelic 3: Good escalation, just a bit of silliness to take the edge off as well. Art is gorgeous. 

(There is probably more I'm missing, Jim will probably nudge me as to what I missed.)

Zines: 15

Single Issues: 304

Trades/Graphic Novels/Anthologies: 101

Omnibuses: 4

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2 hours ago, Venneh said:

Superman 775: Basically Superman vs the knockoff Authority expy, and Joe Kelly having Some Shit To Say about the state of superhero comics at the time. I like it, a lot. (There's also a point where the art goes very deliberately Frank Miller knockoff to make a point that I also really really quite like.) Also apparently they did an animated film based on this at some point? 

Superman vs The Elite. It's pretty good. This storyline spawned Justice League Elite which is one of my favorite things DC has done in 25 years.

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Doomsday Clock 1: Part subpar Watchmen fanfiction, part jerking off over Trump, part weird setup where I'm willing to bet that

 

Manhattan is going to try and change the timeline by killing Pa Kent. Also calling it now - Malcom Long is gonna be the new Rorschach.

Zines: 15

Single Issues: 305

Trades/Graphic Novels/Anthologies: 101

Omnibuses: 4

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The Savage Dragon #228: Good lord. This book's become straight-up pornographic now.

Spoiler

First time I've ever seen a snowball depicted in an American superhero comic book

Plenty of comic book artists give in to their inner freak as they get older and stop giving a fuck, but it's quite a lot when you're averaging one hardcore sex scene an issue. I worry that this character Maxine has slid into an Asian stereotype, and how you depict sex positivity without falling into racist cliches. 

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Snotgirl 8: Leslie Hung gets to spend most of an issue drawing hot dudes. You can tell she's into it. :P Plot moves forward a bit too.

Glitterbomb: The Fame Game 3: I keep paging through the review copy hoping it's going to improve. Insexts did this better.

Underwinter: A Field of Feathers 2: Again, the horror would be way more effective if I could actually tell what the fuck was going on in the art more than half the time. The few effective splash pages really do their job when he takes the time to make it clear, but otherwise it's just frustrating.

Zines: 15

Single Issues: 308

Trades/Graphic Novels/Anthologies: 101

Omnibuses: 4

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2 hours ago, Donomark said:

The Savage Dragon #228: Good lord. This book's become straight-up pornographic now.

  Hide contents

First time I've ever seen a snowball depicted in an American superhero comic book

Plenty of comic book artists give in to their inner freak as they get older and stop giving a fuck, but it's quite a lot when you're averaging one hardcore sex scene an issue. I worry that this character Maxine has slid into an Asian stereotype, and how you depict sex positivity without falling into racist cliches. 

NSFW link: Have you seen the cover for the forthcoming #233? It's Maxine with shaving cream on her pubic area, razor in-hand, and wearing a T-shirt that reads "Bald is beautiful."

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Sherlock Frankenstein and the League of Evil 2: David Rubin continues to do gorgeous shit, news at 11. Also, bless Lemire for coming up with Cthu-Lou and Cthu-Louise.

Eternity 1-2: Kindt and Harsine get to go completely Kirby on this. It's solid? Like, not anything particularly special, but it's solid.

XO-Manowar 8-9: Crain gets to go full Dune/space opera and it's beautiful and nuts, news at 11. Kindt actually takes a shot at the white savior trope too, which I like.

Secret Weapons 1-4: Heisserer does a pretty solid job with the reject totally not mutants story, but what carries this mini for me is the visual language. Allen and Martin continue to blow their colleagues at Valiant out of the water with the art on this; perfect fit. Apparently this is going to be continuing, and I'm interested to see where it goes.

Redlands 4: The first arc of sorts seems to have ended and we appear to be moving forward somewhere new. Del Rey's art takes a bit of a slip this time, but it's still gorgeous.

Kid Lobotomy 1: Ehhhh? Fowler is good, and yup, that's some Milligan and incest alright. Doesn't feel like anything new from Milligan, which is what this collab over at IDW is supposed to be all about.

Runaways 2-3: God it's good to see these kids again. Wasn't sure how I felt about Gert's characterization, but issue 3 went out of its way to explain a lot, which I appreciate. But god did I miss Karolina. Also, Old Lace is the best.

Zines: 15

Single Issues: 321

Trades/Graphic Novels/Anthologies: 101

Omnibuses: 4

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Death Follows: a trade of a Cullen Bunn horror series that first appeared in Dark Horse Presents (?maybe). It's similar to Harrow County in its Americana, but far more suited to my tastes. It's dark, and vivid and a little extreme. Beautiful stuff.

World Reader #5: ehhhh...slipping.

X-Men Gold #9:  great issue that focuses on romantic relationships within the group and yet still manages to push the plot forward.

Action Comics #985: this was really good. 

All-New Wolverine #23: solid.

Babyteeth #3: I kind of love this.

Captain America #25: this was really good. Aligning things for the end of this event.

Defenders #4: I'm done with this book. Snooooooze.

Detective Comics #962: weird. I would prefer all Batman stories veer away from Azrael rather than focusing on him.

Harbinger Renegade #6: a weird departure into the past.

Inhumans: Once and Future Kings #1: boy they're really fumbling the Inhumans. I liked Medusa here though.

Birdland: the first (I think) of the Eros graphic novel line. These are GNs by top talent with great stories that also happen to feature porn. This is basically Thirty Something with hardcore porn, by Gilbert Hernandez. 

Young Witches: this is the second one and by Lopez and Barreiro. It's basically an Argento film...with hardcore porn.

Comics: 1196

Trades: 34

Graphic Novels: 28

Omnibuses: 19

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Bane Conquest #7: Fun

Batman Annual #2 (2017): I was expecting this to be a lot worse, but this was actually very good. Tom King is at his best when he's doing done-in-one issues IMO. And Lee Weeks is one of the industry's best, and I'm so happy he seemingly refuses to draw anything but the classic Batman costume. This book has pretty much been a romance comic about Batman and Catwoman for months, so I'm willing indulge in King's indulgence for that relationship. But on its own, this stands as a very good issue.

Batman - Creature of the Night: A very nice first that feels at home with the Elseworld one-shotsfrom the 90s and 2000s. It's honestly too good for this current era.

Motor Crush #8: Loved it

Because I'm a masochist, America #8 and #9: The book's gotten better from the first two issues, but it's still not great. Every time America's not in a scene, each character is talking about her or asking about her, as though they have no lives outside of hers. That's not going to have me give a shit about her any more than I already don't. I will say that the fill-in artist for issue #9, Falviano is no Joe Quionnes, but he was good. I liked his style.

 

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Drain 1: So apparently CB Cebulski and Sana Takeda did an image mini in 06 that is now out of print. Thank you internet fairy. Conclusions: Sana Takeda has improved immensely in the intervening ten years, this is truly a story out of the trashy Image era, complete with cliches, and the writing is... real questionable at best.

Zines: 15

Single Issues: 322

Trades/Graphic Novels/Anthologies: 101

Omnibuses: 4

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Land of the Lustrous v3: Jfc, this series keeps getting better and better. The artwork continues to be amazing, and the story takes casual dives into PTSD, body horror, and mental illness. Definitely pick this up if you haven't already. 

Zines: 15

Single Issues: 322

Trades/Graphic Novels/Anthologies: 102

Omnibuses: 4

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Jean Grey #5: ok, I liked this, but I'm getting very tired of the "go and talk to every relevant character each per issue" storyline. It gets boring.

Justice League/Power Rangers #5: fun. Dumb fun.

Mister Miracle #1: Fuck. Me. This was good. This might be my "read the issues and the trade" series of the year.

Old Man Logan #27: this was ok. Getting tired of the Hulk stuff.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #13: I've liked this series since the get-go (except for that awful Artemis storyline), but it hasn't ever hit me. This one hit me right in the heart. I've never felt so close to Jason Todd in my life. I actually shed a tear. Then was mindfucked by the cliffhanger.

Red Sonja #7: Red Sonja vs. Bikers. My body is so damned ready.

All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #8: pretty great.

Batman #29: This was awesome. I really enjoyed it.

Grass Kings #6: I'm not convinced. I'm done.

Hellboy and the BPRD Secret Nature: this was REALLY good.

Justice League of America #12'; this was ok. I've been over the whole "Search for Ray Palmer" storyline thing for a few years now.

Redlands #1: very Carpenter feel to this one. I dug it.

Rocket #4: this was really fun.

Secret Empire #8: kind of a filler issue, probably around the time they decided to expand the series. Decent.

Comics: 1210

Trades: 34

Graphic Novels: 28

Omnibuses: 19

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1 hour ago, Dread said:

Red Hood and the Outlaws #13: I've liked this series since the get-go (except for that awful Artemis storyline), but it hasn't ever hit me. This one hit me right in the heart. I've never felt so close to Jason Todd in my life. I actually shed a tear. Then was mindfucked by the cliffhanger.

Not sure you know this, but an oddity on the opening page is due to a misreading of the script. Scott Lobdell has revealed that he did not type "Krypto is painting in the corner;" he wrote "Krypto is panting in the corner." Artist Dexter Soy misread read the script, and, thus, we got that amazing page. Due to it being Bizarro's dream sequence, however, it works.

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Paper Girls v 1-2: Vaughn does what feels like his take on the 80s kids adventure movie but with girls and lots of sci fi. Not sure how I feel about this story wise (two vols in and don't really have a good idea what's going on?). Chiang and Wilson are an amazing combination, though. 

Zines: 15

Single Issues: 322

Trades/Graphic Novels/Anthologies: 104

Omnibuses: 4

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3 hours ago, The Master said:

Not sure you know this, but an oddity on the opening page is due to a misreading of the script. Scott Lobdell has revealed that he did not type "Krypto is painting in the corner;" he wrote "Krypto is panting in the corner." Artist Dexter Soy misread read the script, and, thus, we got that amazing page. Due to it being Bizarro's dream sequence, however, it works.

Hahahahah! Bonkers.

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Unknown Soldier v3-Does disassociation and multiple personalities well. Everything here feels authentic and brutal. The doctor's descent into violent madness is compelling.

Psycho-Pass v3-I'm reminded of the Mark Waid line about how it wasn't until he left Crossgen that he understood the value of comics that didn't swing for the fences, but were solid doubles. Psycho-Pass is a solid double. There's good backgrounds, a story well told that isn't something I could just watch the anime for. When compared with the "part 2 of 6" comic or Fate/Zero v1 which looks like they just redrew the storyboards, and maybe added two new pieces of dialogue, Psycho-Pass stands out. It's about sci-fi detectives investigating organ failure and lab grown food.

Land Of The Lustrous v3-This one swings for the fences and fucking connects. No one feels safe, even as characters can be recollected from their shattered, destroyed selves. The art is spectacular. On the way back from D&D, I asked Hannah (but really to myself) if there was anything she could think of that was better than Land Of The Lustrous this year. I couldn't think of anything and with one exception, it stumped her, too.

East Of West 35?-Death and his son get family bonding time. I smiled deeply.

Drain 1-C.B. Cebulski (aka Akira Yoshida) and Sana Takeda (aka Sana Takeda). An old, old Image mini from the 2000s era when you'd pray for a mediocre Image comic. Drain is reliably mediocre. Ms. Takeda's artwork improved since, but even here she's way ahead of the pack. Mr. Cebulski's Marvelisms are completely out of place and the plot is barely worth remarking on. There are pages where Cebulski's dialogue should've been cut because with Sana Takeda on art, you need a quarter of the words.

Charles Soule/Rob Garney/Goran Suduzka (there's an accent on a u somewhere i'm missing)/someone else 's Daredevil-Mainlined a bunch of it, and Mr. Garney's work is the star here. Soule turns in a good Daredevil run. I had low expectations, but the comic overcame them. A happy surprise.

Random issues of Metal and its tie ins-An above average retread of many other events ideas only by virtue of the same creative team doing it. Riley Rossomo's art regarding the Bat-family's a high point, but even then it's "what if you applied the Blackest Night template to an evil Bat-family to make the point that you can read Batman as a child predator, an idea you last saw in another DC book, Top 10"? Competent and "fun".

Though: Maybe I should be kinder to Metal given how similar I feel what I wrote about Psycho-Pass. Maybe I don't see the strings in Psycho-Pass, but I see the strings in Metal? IDEK.

Edited by jim
second, positive thoughts on metal?
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