Every comic you've read in 2015


Missy

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Batman Black and White Volume 4 - My favorite of the lot so far. Stories may have been all over the place, but man does it look pretty.

Batgirl #1 - One shot from 1997 to ride the coattails of Batman and Robin. Not bad, Babs' characterization was strong. Joker was well-written and drawn. Batman's appearance just left me scratching my head. Worth the two bucks I paid for it.

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Batman-The Black Mirror: This is quite a hefty trade of post-Final Crisis Detective Comics featuring Dick Grayson as Batman in solo adventures (thank God, Damian's the worst). It's pretty-interesting and features art by Jock and Francavilla so that's pretty awesome. It's grim and violent and quite a story, especially the Gordon stuff. Good read.

1602 Witch Hunter Angela #1: Angela in 1602 as a hunter of mutants...or Witchbreed as they're called here. It was fun, but I'm more excited for issue two which apparently features the 1602 Guardians of the Galaxy including what looks like just a normal raccoon.

Age of Ultron vs Marvel Zombies #1: Fun as fuck.

All-Star Section Eight #1: This wasn't great, but there's an 8 or 9 page Batman sequence where he gets a parking ticket that is so fucking good, it's impossible not to love. I'll stick around for another issue.

Aquaman #41: Cullen Bunn's new take is much more like a fantasy series, whcih they did in the late 90s, but this one takes place in our world...rather our world being invaded by another. Pretty great and easily the best of the new DC runs so far.

Archie vs. Predator #3: Jesus, this is crazy fun.

Armor Wars #2: James Robinson is clearly missing writing John Henry Irons because the James Rhodes verison of Thor is exactly that, including a neice he takes care of and mentors. Fun nonetheless.

Batgirl #41: Terrible.

Batman Superman #41: also terrible.

Batman #41: Awful. Actually, of the three of these featuring Batman this is the best, but Robobatman is total bullshit.

Comics: 674

Graphic Novels: 33

Trade Paperbacks: 73

Omnibus: 4

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Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 6: Squirrel Girl gets her Tuxedo Mask, we get some awesome bonding times with her roomie, and also there's a crazy squirrel trying to steal Squirrel Girl's thunder. Ryan North's narration continues to be amazing, and the footnotes are amusing.

Secret Wars: Battleworld 2: Blade and Howard the Duck vs Duckula is the superior entry here. There's something about Thunderbolt Ross in the coliseum Arcade runs. Meh.

Darth Vader 6: Well, shit. Good battle scenes, and set up for where the rest of the arc appears to be going for now.

Secret Wars 3: A bit more explanation of how exactly we got to the world of #2, and things with the core groups of #1 coming out of stasis. Honestly you probably could've skipped #1 unless you really wanted to see everyone get dead. Ribic does great faces, continues to do great on the art. No idea where the shit this is going to go, but hell, bring it on at this stage.

Years of Future Past 1: Marguerite Bennett does a Days of Future Past AU with Kitty and Colossus' kid leading a revolution with Wolverine's kid. There are Doombot Sentinels. Fun, good set up, and I can't wait to see where it goes next.

Amazing Spiderman 1: Renew Your Vows: Ehhhhhhhh. Pretty much every Spiderman quits story, but with a kid this time!

Midnighter 1: Part of the various DCYou reboots. I'm at least mildly intrigued by what I'm seeing, don't know if it's anything I'll follow regularly, but it's worth a page through.

No Mercy 3: Shit continues to be fucked and get fucked, and the body count only gets higher. Bless, DeCampi and Speed McNeil. Bless.

Giant Size Little Marvel: A vs X: Pretty much Skottie Young getting to riff on the baby AvX world. It's pretty much what was on the tin with the other baby Marvel stuff: it's cute, it's fluff, it's not anything game changing, but it's cute.

Injection 2: The shape of this is starting to come together a bit more, Shalvey does great on art, as does Bellaire on colors, this is probably something I'll only follow on the trade.

Saga 29: Well, shit. I want to see what the hell the script direction was on that one DPS. You know the one. Everything continues to get even awfuller for our three groups, and everything hurts. Well done kids!

Inhumans: Attilan Rising 2: You know, if this only focused on the Black Box bar, I'd love this. The rebellion story... ehhh. Real pretty, though.

Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps 1: Base premise is real interesting, the art is good, one of the better tie ins Secret Wars has going on.

Inferno 2: Yeah, no idea what's going on here as I never really read the original Inferno minievent, and I have a feeling that would inform this a lot more. But man, it's wacky, it's fun, and the art continues to be good. I'll take it.

Secret Wars Journal 2: Two stories: one is Murdock (I think?) and Misty Knight in a world that's basically a 70s exploitation film, but fun to watch. The other is Murdock as a chef and Elektra as the hunter who brings the kills for Sinister's table, and definitely the better of the two.

Constantine the Hellblazer 1: Ghosts, Constantine as a power for hire, and good art by Ming Doyle. Good introduction and set up for the new status quo. It at least passingly has my attention.

Starfire 1: Conner and Palmiotti on writing, some person I've never heard of who's good at making girls look pretty but not skeevy on art. Better handled than I've seen her to this point in the DcNu? Feels a bit like the old Starfire.

Lazarus 17: War sucks, the Carlyle family is falling apart, and we get to see Forever in action on the front. This should be fun. This is getting a TV series, too, so I can't wait to see what comes of that.

Thors 1: Thors as a noir/cop drama. I'm interested. (You've probably seen the Mary Sue bitching about various Jane Fosters getting killed as the hook. I roll my eyes. This isn't intended to be a direct follow up to that run you shit stirring hacks.)

Ms. Marvel 16: Things fall apart as the last days hit New Jersey. Kamala and Carol finally meet and get to team up. YES.

Planet Hulk 2: GAY GAY GAY, GAY GAY GAY, GAY GAY GAY GAY GAAAAAAAAAAY. Seriously, I'm 99% sure Humphries is writing the closest to canon Steve/Bucky we're ever gonna get. Also, dinosaurs.

Southern Cross 4: Shit gets deeper and trippier. Cloonan's getting closer to showing her hand, but she needs to move quicker, especially as apparently each new arc is a new story.

Howard the Duck 4: Zdarsky gets to play around with Dr. Strange, various parodies of actual major Marvel things and Civil War, and the Fantastic Four. Quinones continues to do a great job. It's not spectacular, but hell, it's fun.

Loki Agent of Asgard 15: Verity's backstory imposed on the Asgardians fighting off the hordes of the dead with machine guns. Again, even though it's now getting tied into its... fourth or fifth crossover, Ewing is clearly getting the ability to do what he wanted all along with the story. it's a shame it's taken this long to get there, though.

Mythic 1-2: Ghostbusters, but for the mythological staples that keep the world running. McCrea does amazing stuff with the art, and Hester is writing a good, intriguing story. Haven't read either of them before this.

Nameless 1-4: Morrison straight up does space horror with Burnham assisting on art. Of the various space horror comics out currently, I like this one more than I do Southern Cross, but it's definitely heavier on the gore than any other entries. Take a look at the trade when it comes out, but not if you have a weak stomach.

Material 2: Remember how I said how I said I was intimidated by Material 1? yeah, I take that back. This story is basically a way for Kot to jerk off and preen over how much more he's read than you, and he ruined the only two fragments of story I liked, so I can safely say I'm out. Also, Tempest's art managed to get even worse. Didn't think that was possible.

Bucky Barnes The Winter Soldier 3-9: So, when Kot manages to restrain himself, he can actually be pretty damn good. Multiverse, lots of trippiness, future/past/alternate selves, telepathic lovers, and basically the good kind of Kot going crazy all over a story. Marco Rudy does amazing things with panel layouts, style switches, and coloring to tell the story. Makes me want to find more of his stuff.

Kaptara 3: Zdarsky does space shenanigans and frequently makes me choke laughing. *slow clap*

Batgirl 41: Babs is standing on her own now for doing the layouts, and I like what she's doing. Story is mostly about her and her dad doing the whole secret identity thing.

E is For Extinction 1: Very much captures the feel of the Morrison era New XMen and spins out of that as a sort of AU. Villalobos does amazing things on art. it has my attention.

Black Widow 19: Primarily an extended flashback sequence. Noto does great work as always.

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Ms. Marvel #1-11 - So. I don't get the love this book gets. It's not bad. I enjoyed it even. Yet, I wasn't blown away. Might comeback to this after a while, but I somehow doubt it.

Comics: 222
Digital First Comics: 59
Graphic Novels: 17

Trades: 90 (479)(4)(144)

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Astonishing X-Men Vol. 2 hardcover - collects issues #13-24, plus Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1 by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday.

This is the collected second half of the Whedon/Cassaday run, which famously told one story in two years' worth of comics over a span of four years. It's very difficult to put my finger on what works and what doesn't; it's incredibly densely told, and the dialogue is very witty and the art is mostly terrific. However, the issues tend to have so much going on that this was one of the rare modern books that almost worked better as a month-to-month experience; reading multiple issues can get exhausting. (Of course, the fact that Whedon and Cassaday were both so slow at putting issues out meant that by the time the new comic was released, you'd largely forgotten what happened in the last one. And since Whedon was never one for recapping the story so far - and that's not just his comics work; I tried to start watching Buffy halfway through its original run and had to give up because he had no interest in catching me up in who anyone was or what the hell was going on - it made the original read a somewhat frustrating experience.) The story is, by and large, very good, but it needs to be read slowly and carefully, because it's very, very easy to miss something important.

The art is overall pretty great. Sometimes Cassaday's figures can come across as posed and lifeless, but he's good at action and facial expression, and the redesign of the uniforms are mostly very successful (though I don't love that Scott switched back to his Morrison-era leather jacket halfway through). Colossus actually looks like the youngest X-Man, save Kitty, for the first time ever.

Recommended, but take your time reading it.

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Black Canary #1: Nope. Awful.

Bloodhsot Reborn #3: ok, this is starting to make sense.

Burning Fields #5: why am I still reading this?

Constantine The Hellblazer #1: holy fuck. No.

Doctor Fate #1: I remember very little about this except Fate is now a half-Egyptian teenager. No.

Doomed #1: Also, no.

E is For Extinction #1: some of the Battleworlds make some sense, this one is just "what if the X-Men from Morrison's run kept going?" It's not very good.

Empty Zone #1: another heavy-handed but zero substance IMage sci fi book.

Fight Club 2 #2: This book is pretty fucking good.

Frankenstein Underground #4: YES! More.

GI Jo ARAH #214,215: Hmm...they actually killed Snake Eyes. Not bad. Better thanthe first few issues.

Garbage Pail Kids Gross Encounters of the Turd Kind #0: this is not for me.

Ghost racers #1: Looks pretty but has nothing of substance.

GL The Lost Army #1: Sadly, no.

Harley Quinn and Power Girl #1: Fuck. No.

Comics: 690

Graphic Novels: 33

Trade Paperbacks: 73

Omnibus: 4

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Went on an unintended break from single issues.

Black Canary #1 - Uhm, yeah. I dunno. I'll just get the trade depending on what I hear.

Constantine The Hellblazer #1 - Felt like a good compromise between the Vertigo series and the modern comics, just like the TV show. Which is probably intentional.

Starfire #1 - Somewhat fun and it's a lot to read, but the dialogue was just awkward. Art by Lupacchino and McCarthy was gorgeous, very much like the Dodsons.

Black Widow #19 - Solid. Hope to see the creative team continue the book after Secret Wars. Haven't heard anything about Black Widow yet.

Daredevil #16 - The end of the run is coming along nicely.

Ms. Marvel #16 - Great view of how the Secret Wars is affecting the regular people, real sense of peril here. Alphona continues to be a delight with all the little details in the art.

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Action Comics #42 is a brain-dead, blind piece of crap that thinks its 2DEEP4U by trying to do blatant analogies to the protests Ferguson Missouri.

Yet sites like Business Insider and International Business Times, for some reason, are claiming it's the greatest Superman story ever made.

Instead of going from review to review across the internet with copied and pasted "Let me tell you why that's bullshit" remarks, I'll just opt to write an essay about it.

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WicDiv 12: Start of the guest artist arc while Jamie does work for Phonogram 3. Kate Brown is someone I have to be in a very specific mood for, and except for some really good stuff with layouts in back, she just didn't stick it for me here. But frankly, this month is basically getting the pieces in place for whatever is coming down the pipes, so I can live with it if the art isn't as good. Writing's holding up. Frankly, we get Tula fucking Lotay next month, and I'm real excited for that, not gonna lie.

A-Force 2: We're starting to get the shape of what's going on, and Singularity appears to be birthed from whatever the fuck is going on as part of what Doom did to preserve the universe. I'm gonna keep giving this my money, because I want it to have a decent showing coming out of the gate, but lord I wish this weren't so heavily tied to Secret Wars. Think they could also get a better artist, but meh, Molina's probably going to be replaced.

No Mercy 4: So Des, you said you're buying the trade on this - please do, it sounds like it's bordering on cancellation from the way Alex has been promoting it. Which, frankly, blows, because there is some awesome shit going on here. The cliffhanger is evil, and we don't get more until November. So, do me a favor - buy the trade, and then hop on it monthly.

Fresh Romance 2: So Leth's thing is a magical HS romance, which frankly, I like even more for the additional dynamics it brings. Plus it's real pretty. You go girl. The Regency romance thing needs to get to its point sooner rather than later - there's more of a hint of what happened, but I'm way more interested to find out about that and how it's going to play into things now that she and her new husband are alone together. The cafe thing at the end is definitely picking up steam.

The Spire #1: The description that got me to pick this up was "Fantasy that's hard like Perdido St Station, soft like Labyrinth". Absofuckinglutely accurate, and I'd also throw in the description Miyazakiesque. It's basically a police procedural in a fantasy setting with a new person coming into power further up the Spire. Sha is pretty great (and I'm also 99% sure that the girl she's sleeping with is the new Baronness' sister). Love the bit of world building that we get as to the various races sharing the Spire, just in dialogue and in passing in the art. Pick this up, you'll not regret it.

Midnighter 2: ???. Not really sure the fuck is going on here. Also pretty sure the artist changed. *shrug?*

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 7: *slow clap*, Ryan. Doreen gets to kick ass again and team up with the Thors, Erica does great things on art. Consistently a fun, funny read. I have a feeling this is one of the books that will be getting the axe unless it's one of the 15 they've got left to announce at SDCC, though.

Secret Wars Journal 3: I really don't remember much about either story? Something about Hulks in therapy, and noir setting Logan? Mehhhhh.

Darth Vader 7: Good dual focus between what seems like a pretty damn logical step for Vader to be taking as he starts to realize shit about Luke, and what appears to be the new villains for the arc. Larocca continues to do a good job, but kind of looks like he's tracing at some points?

Years of Future Past 2: Okay, so, we have a bit better shape of things that are going on here, and the story benefits from a bit of a breather. But I'm really looking forward to next month. Why? Because giant ass Lockheed vs Sentinels. And Marguerite continues to be a stealth contender in the pun department, and writes some real good poignant moments. Art's pretty unremarkable, it does it's job and it's not awful.

Giant Size Little Marvel AvX 2: Definition of a fluff book, but it's cute.

8House: Arclight 1: Something tells me I'm going to be paying a lot more attention to the 8House verse in upcoming months. Brandon Graham and Marion Churchill craft an absolutely exquisite world, and give us a great hook in.

Secret Wars 4: Aka, this is why you do not fuck with the Doom. We've seen him being a vague kind of badass, but we get to see him bring the full force of him being a god when

he straight up murders Phoenix Scott and Dr. Strange. The remaining life raft survivors have been split and spread to the various corners of Battleworld, so I'd imagine we're gonna see some of them show up in certain titles in the upcoming month - where, I'm not sure, but hey.

. Esad does a great fucking job on the art and expressions again.

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No Mercy 4: So Des, you said you're buying the trade on this - please do, it sounds like it's bordering on cancellation from the way Alex has been promoting it. Which, frankly, blows, because there is some awesome shit going on here. The cliffhanger is evil, and we don't get more until November. So, do me a favor - buy the trade, and then hop on it monthly.

Oh, I'm on it.

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The Flash #41 - Still continuing at a good pace. Feel some influence from the TV show, with the emphasis on Henry Allen that I don't remember there being in the Manapul-Buccellato run. Booth's art is better than it was before.

Harley Quinn #17 - Gang of Harleys. So much fun. All the different Harleys are pretty distinct. Art by Hardin continues to be a joy.

Sensation Comics #11 - Great story by Elder and Igle. Glad it was a full issue.

ASM Renew Your Vows #1 - Huh. Uhh... Huh. I'll reserve judgement on the story. Love the art by Adam Kubert.

Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps #1 - Because I figured the best followup to a blonde leading a team named after her is reading about, well, the same. Enjoyable but not as fun as it could have been. Art may have been too muddy. Kit becoming a Thor was really cute though.

Princess Leia #4 - I'll be sad to see this one end.

Scarlet Spider Volume 3 - Kaine is a delight with how much of a jerk he is. The supporting cast is pretty good, although I don't think they've been fully utilized quite yet. I'm still amazed at the book having three regular artists, even in individual issues. Khoi Pham takes the most of the art chores, and is the one I prefer. Neil Edwards, I can't even tell from Pham. Paulo Siquiera is the most different, and is a bit out of place. Also, The Other storyline is working for Kaine much better than it did for Peter, at least up to now. From what I've heard, it got out of hand soon after this. But we'll see.

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What I'm enjoying about Scarlet Spider is how hard Kaine is trying not to be Peter. However, the more he pushes against his inner Peter (uh...), the more he acts like Peter. It's the little things, like how both men cannot handle beer, and how he accepts the name "Scarlet Spider" out of respect for Ben. They're very minor details, but they help make the character and book for me.

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Harrow County #2: Creepy. Sad. I might just keep doing this monthly.

Inferno #2: Pretty dumb. First issue had some promise. Not so much anymore.

Infinity Gauntlet #2: Oh my God, this is great. Love it!

Inhumans Attilan Rising #2: Hrrm...I see what they're doing. It's just not that good.

Invisible Republic #4: Okay, I'm out. This is fucking dense and I just don't care about the characters to put the time into the book. I prefer Hardman's art on stuff he doesn't write.

Ivar, Timewalker #6: The Anni-Padda boys altogether is a wonderful thing to behold. You can tell Van Lente was waiting a long time for this to happen.

Justice League of America #1: Bryan Hitch on JLA. Not since Heaven's Ladder I guess, right? Or did the Waid issues with him come after that? It's beena long time regardless and this was pretty fun. It needs a second issue to help me decide whether I'll read or not.

Korvac Saga #1: Ugh. No.

Mad Max: Fury Road #1: It was fine. The problem with it is that everything was so well drawn form the movie that we didn't need to see the backstory. Exactly the same as the other issue of the Mad Max stuff. I don't get the big hoopla.

Marvel Zombies #1: Elsa Bloodstone is a difficult character to get right. I think only Ellis has done it. Until now. I'm in.

Midnight Society-Black Lake #1: Interestingly themed around the Loch Ness Monster, as is my novel which comes out this summer (Ting!). I wasn't completely sold here, but it was neat.

Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos #1: is this good? I don't now. It's pretty fun though and that hides some shit. I'll try another issue.

Ninjak #4: Holy fuck, that was amazing.

Oh, Killstrike #2: this just crossed completely over into cliche. I'm out.

Old Man Logan #2: not as good as issue one. It's still the best Bendis I've read since the early days of his Avengers run.

PLanet Hulk #2: Goddammit. So good.

Prez #1: This was fucking terrible.

Project Superpowers Blackcross #4: I'm going to do every monthly issue and then buy the trade. This is the best Ellis has been in a decade.

Rebels #3: Not great. Not very good, actually. Boring.

Resident Alien The Sam Hain Mystery #2: I'm out.

Comics: 710

Graphic Novels: 33

Trade Paperbacks: 73

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Captain Marvel (first Marvel series, 1968): I got a handful of issues of this title in a pile of Silver Age stuff. This is some of the most aggressively boring stuff I've read in a long time. This is the really old Mar-Vell stuff, the green-and-white costume days, brought to you by the team of Arnold Drake and Don Heck, aka the creators who routinely made The X-Men a book that no one wanted to buy. There's some potential for the idea of an invader who decides to defend the planet he's invading, and it's really cool to see the very early days of Carol Danvers (even at this very early stage, she's pretty kickass), but overall this is dull. It picks up after Gary Friedrich takes over as the writer and things start to get cosmic, but by that point I was done.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and Dynamo (1966): I got a couple of these as well. These were interesting; very Golden Age-style comics smack dab in the middle of the time when Batman '66 was influencing everything. Every comic was a 64-page giant with multiple stories, and as such some stories are better than others, but generally these were very simple, kid-friendly stories with a lot of subtle humor for the older teens. The creators weren't credited, but even so Wally Wood's style shines on the stuff he did, and Steve Ditko got a few things in here as well.

Also, this cover is awesome.

Dynamo-v1-02-pg00fc.jpg

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Starfire 2: Definition of a fluff book with the occasional cheesecake shot. It's like Conner's run on Power Girl, except not nearly as good.

1872 1: the Wild West Marvel AU. You go kids.

Inferno 3: Surprise it was Sinister all along apparently!! IDK. Convoluted, but good battle scenes.

Amazing Spiderman Renew Your Vows 2: Ehhhhhhh. Peter will do Anything to Protect His Family, the Power Pack shows up briefly, as do the Superior Foes and Sinister Six, his kid has powers, some evil dude named Regent, I don't know, it's happening and not really that well written.

Runaways 2: the final exam has a battle royale twist you probably saw coming, the kids are officially on the run now, to what end, not sure, but hey, let's see where it goes. not quite as good a follow up, but it's still nice.

Ghost Racers 2: the sinister secrets of the races, robbie reyes' origin in this world, this shit went bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s

Constantine the Hellblazer 2: yeah, I like it, I'm here for this. more on the ghost deaths, explaining the urban magic, and shit begins to go down.

Gotham Academy 8: Becky Cloonan does the crazy gothic boarding school AU you never knew you wanted, and it's also real pretty.

Injection 3: Holy shit I think I finally understand what's going on. Wish they had thrown some of these explanations in earlier, but we're getting there. Real pretty, as always.

Saga 30: Welp, let's see where this goes now. At the next trade break, so we're back on pause for a bit. Think I'm gonna stick to trades on this.

Archie 1: A thing I never thought I would say, ever: I can't wait for more Archie. Fiona's art is awesome, and I like the way Waid is framing the series. What would be even better? If the pov changes each month among the main cast - so that next month would be Betty. Just a thought.

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Robin Son of Batman #1: I've always liked the idea of Damien, but I've never liked him in the comics. This time I do. I'm in. Very interested.

Runaways #1: Kind of fun. I'll check out the next one.

Savior #3: Only following this because it's close to something I'm working on.

Secret Identities #5: Still one of the top three superhero books out there. So good.

Secret Wars 2099 #2: Oh shit...It's Hulk 2099.

Secret Wars Journal #2: Kind of fun Killville story. Forgettable.

Sensations Comics #38-40: three solid issues in a row.

Sons of the Devil #2: Shit. This is really good.

Squadron Sinister #1: Didn't knock my socks off, but I liked it.

Starve #1: Shit. I swear I've already read this. It's fucking good though, so I don't mind.

Comics: 722

Graphic Novels: 33

Trade Paperbacks: 73

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I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets!: Fletcher Hanks was a deeply weird guy. For a period of less than three years, between 1939-1941, he created some of the strangest, creepiest shit ever sold to third-tier comics publishing (although he did have a couple of stories appear in Timely magazines), before leaving the field entirely and disappearing from public life. This is the first of two volumes reprinting his work for Fox Comics. His stories dealt primarily with nigh-omnipotent, invincible heroes meting out ugly, ironic punishments to criminals well after they killed thousands of people in batshit insane schemes such as stopping the Earth's rotation and flinging the entire human population into space (while keeping the atmosphere and water safely on Earth with magnets or some shit), or destroying the oxygen supply of specific powerful people like the President and various financiers and news publishers via remote control. Most of these schemes are not so much thwarted as avenged after the fact by two characters: Stardust the Super-Wizard, an alien magician who can do pretty much literally anything, and Fantomah, a beautiful jungle princess whose face turns into a skull whenever she uses her powers of being able to do pretty much literally anything (and who was probably the first superpowered female character in comics). In one instance, Stardust causes the bad guy's head to grow to enormous proportions while the rest of his body atrophies and is absorbed into his head (as the bad guy protests "Stop it!"), and then bowls the head across space where it is caught by a gigantic headless ogre, who puts the head on his body, and then swallows the head, and oh my shit.

In addition to the just plain insanity on display, the art is really arresting. It manages to be hideous and offputting while also being strangely compelling and dynamic. It's clean, bold work, and there's personality jumping out of every panel, even if anatomy is a thing that Hanks was not terribly familiar with. As artwork from the early Golden Age goes, it's actually some of the best stuff out there, even if the actual stories are so fucking bizarre that it's hard to wrap your head around them. Even without the afterword, which tells in comic format the story of the editor meeting with Hanks' son and learning what an irrevocable shitbag the man was (he was a wife-beating alcoholic who abandoned his family while stealing the life savings of his ten-year-old son), it's very, very clear that this is the work of an angry, bitter person with a lot of issues that needed to be worked through.

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