Every comic you've read in 2015

[Koete]

I'm glad "Mason Verger shit" is established shorthand.

[Donomark]

Batgirl 43: Yeah, I know comics people really like drawing their friends in, but the cameo this issue was slightly distracting, if awesome. Good art, solid enough story.

Who was the cameo?

[Venneh]

Kate Leth

[Dread]

Aquaman #43: I get it, and it's cool, but I'm just not engaged.

Archie #2: Fuck. So. Fucking. Good.

Armor Wars #4: Interesting to see how this ends.

Captain America: The Captain-Continuing with Gruenwald's Cap run, I was pleased to discover that this story holds up for the most part. Unfortunately, this story is already omnibus size, so I wish they had started it with the 30 Year Marvel anniversary cover issue instead of the one where Cap gets fired. It's only five more issues to include and it features the first appearance of Super-Patriot (who later becomes Cap). Fun stuff. Kieron Dwyer's art is incredible. He's like John Byrne without the constant mistakes in anatomy. The more I look at Byrne, the more I see how inconsistent of an artist he always has been. Dwyer apes his style but does it better, in my opinion.

Comics: 1048

Graphic Novels: 40

Trade Paperbacks: 86

Omnibus: 11

[Professor]

Brandi Bare - To quote Des, not very good.

Sister Armageddon (Vol. 2) - Only two issues long and clearly only a Vol 2 due to publisher change. Think this would have been better had I had these when I read Vol 1.

Moon Girl - Interesting idea, no so good story and bad art. I can tell it is good art, but everything is so damn dark that it makes no difference. Shame.

Phantom Lady and Doll Man - An uninteresting origin story that I've read so many times. And an ending that doesn't make any sense for a very causal DC reader.

Catching up on Batman '66 - Still a fun little book.

Comics: 376
Digital First Comics: 65
Graphic Novels: 23
Trades: 130 (696)(4)(144)

[Venneh]

The White Lama 1 and 2: Jodorowsky does Tibetan spiritualism with the soul of a great Buddhist master being reborn into a white child in Tibet. It's pretty insane. Yetis. Old naked dudes who can fly. The CCP at one point. George Bess does amazingly on art.

Judge Dredd vs Death: my first foray into Dredd. Dredd fights Judge Death over various arcs, and I kind of love it. Would be interesting to read some more. Bolland does great on art.

Strange: the Doctor is Out: Waid and Rios mini. You can tell its early days for Rios (the colorist doesn't exactly help at times), but there's still some real stunning moments. The story is a pretty standard Strange and apprentice story, and you could see where it was going pretty quick after the first issue.

Suicide Squad: Trial by Fire: The first (and only) Ostrander trade collection. God fucking bless Amanda Waller. Includes the rewritten origin stories for Flagg and Waller.

Supreme Blue Rose: FUCK YOU UNCLE WARREN AND AUNT TULA FOR MAKING SUCH A BEAUTIFUL AMAZING COMIC

Island 2 : cat mummy thing continues to suck pretty hard, but at least it's over now. Rios' thing was well wrapped and real well done. There's a thing that feels like Moebius in its scale and detail, cant remember the creator right now. And a great short thing in front and a good essay. Gonna stick with it.

[Donomark]

Re-read Batman Year One for the purposes of an upcoming podcast.

Still is good. I like Dark Knight Returns more because it's more interesting, although Year One has more traditional art. The Miller classics (all police suck, whoreswhoreswhores, Film Noir monologues) jumped out at me a lot faster this time around.

It really is a Gordon story first and a Batman story second, and that's not a bad thing but it can't been stated as anything otherwise. Gordon's written more interestingly, and it was this and DKR that helped make Gordon a much more immovably valued character in the fanbase.

[Dread]

Book of Death-Fall of Ninjak #1: Not incredible, but fun nonetheless. I'd say Bloodshot was better.

Book of Death #2: Whoa. Insanely good.

Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders #2: am I missing something or is she

left over from the previous world?

Civil War #3: The worst of the three so far, but still pretty good.

Cyborg #2: Nope. I'm out.

Dark Horse Presents #13: reminds me of why I stopped buying this series originally: you go for one story/creative team and are introduced to part 5/9 of another story that you can't possibly enjoy. Kill All Monsters story was great though.

Comics: 1054

Graphic Novels: 40

Trade Paperbacks: 86

Omnibus: 11

[Venneh]

I think due to the nature of her powers (healing, repair, etc), she might be one of the few not affected by the Doomness.

[Davedevil]

Batgirl Annual 3 - Great flow to it. Not a bad chapter in the whole lot. All the art was gorgeous too.

Detective Comics 42 - Really like all this focus on the cops. Dunno if that's been covered much in the modern era, post-Gotham Central.

Flash Annual 4 - Dug it. The history of Zoom and his lackeys. They're an interesting bunch. Art was nice too.

Harley Quinn and Power Girl 2 - Gonna read the rest of this in trade. I love Harley, and the art's good, but this is hard to read.

Superman 42 - I might enjoy this much more if JRJR wasn't drawing it. He draws a good Lois though, gotta give him that.

ASM Renew Your Vows 2 - I picked it up from the stack and, after opening it up, realized that I'd already read it. Which might say something about how memorable it is. Love the art though.

Darth Vader 7 - Good issue, but it doesn't feel weighty enough.

Secret Wars 2099 2 - Another ehh series. I'm committed to it though.

Spider-Verse 3 - Kinda hollow to me. Art was unappealing as well. Not sure if there's a Secret Wars book that's really grabbing me.

[Professor]

Freelancers - I'll admit, I saw the cover for the first issue and read based on that. Really misleading. I figured a bounty hunter/assassin story. I got a kung-fu sensei revenge story. And a below average one at that.

Mercy Thompson: Hopcross Jilly - About three pages in I could tell two things: 1) this was based on a book series and 2) this was not the first story. And I will give this book credit, I never felt that I was missing out based on those things. Sadly, it didn't help. This was boring. So boring. Six issues to tell what amounts to an episode of *Insert Crime Procedural*.

Comics: 388
Digital First Comics: 65
Graphic Novels: 23
Trades: 130 (696)(4)(144)

[Dread]

Dead Drop #4: finally straightened itself out. One of the lesser series from Valiant's rebirth. Not recommended particularly highly.

Death Head #2: Holy shit! Things escalated quickly. Feels very much like a film or TV pitch put to comics, but it's still very intriguing.

E Is For Extinction #3: How they manage to fill even 19 pages with this flimsy-ass story is beyond me. Burnham is about as good a writer as he is an artist.

Fight Club 2 #4: still killing it. This was a weird one, but fun.

GI Joe ARAH #217: I don't remember a lot about this issue.

Ghost: a pretty bleak Italian GN by Andrea Mutti.

God Is Dead #41: Damn. I think this is my favorite comic.

Godzilla In Hell #2: the first issue was masterful as a silent issue. This one, given to a different writer/artist is full of captions describing exactly what you're seeing. What a waste.

Grimfish #1: Been a long time since I've enjoyed a new sci fi comic. It's still a long time.

Guardians of Knowhere #3: Not sure where this is going.

Hank Johnson Agent of Hydra #1: the day in the life of an average Hydra agent in the world where Hydra is in control. Same as the Hail Hydra series. Pretty hilarious and fun.

House of M #1: Interesting.

Ivar, Timewalker #8: Did not really expect things to go this way.

Justice League #43: Batman has Metron's chair and I fucking love that. This is the first Johns written series that I've enjoyed a little while.

Justice League of America #3: Man, this is beautiful and fun. The bottom about to fall out on what makes things hunky dory in this series though. It's not a new story but it's pretty amusing.

King #1: not enough to keep me interested.

La Grande Odalisque: a GN that I'm shocked to find has not been adapted to film in the three years its existed. A team of hot female thieves stealing classic works of art from huge museums. I loved this.

Marvel Zombies #3: Lost its lustre.

Master of Kung Fu #4: easily the best issue of the series (not saying a lot) but a great ending.

Ninjak #6: one of the most beautiful looking books on the market.

Old Man Logan #4: Interesting tour of Battleworld that will obviously end with Logan existing in the post SW universe.

Parallaxium #1: artsy fartsy garbage.

Rasputin #8: so. good.

Robin Son of Batman #3: not great, but good.

Comics: 1076
Graphic Novels: 42
Trade Paperbacks: 86
Omnibus: 11

[Venneh]

SWORD: I reread this mini often enough on MU, Third Coast had it half off on sale this weekend for its owners birthday (Terry is an awesome guy who I will introduce anyone who comes down to Chicago to), figured I should pick this up just to have it on my shelf. Abigail Brand and Lockheed for life.

Pluto 1-8: Reimagining of Astro Boy over an amazing 8 volumes framed as a murder mystery, with plenty of other Tezuka characters (Black Jack most notably off the top of my head). Weird oblique references to the early 2000s as Not Sadaam Hussein and Not George Bush are primary political characters and what's clearly meant to be an Iraq War parallel. Hell of a ride though, and a great read.

Casanova: Acedia 4: ....ohkay, so, we're in full on flashback mode now, but I think this is starting to make sense, or at least kind of coalesce as to where this is going.

8House: Kiem: We flash to another part of the 8House universe, more sciency and techy but still with plenty of magic, new artist, and I really quite like what they're doing with this. Might be going on my pull list.

Thors 3: Yeah, alright, kind of loving this. Classic closed interview room situation, and the Odinson coming back into the story in a neat way.

Star Lord and Kitty Pryde 3: Fluffy as shit, and a throw away line explains a question I've been having since the start of this fucking event.

House of M 2: Gratuitous Fin Fang Foom? More Namor? Even more building on the world of House of M? YAS. Art's not that great, was clearly meant to be Anka on this, but it's well done, even shines in places here and there.

Silver Surfer 14: Randomly picked this up. Features the Surfer and Dawn recreating the universe. Allred gets to shine so hard here. Something appears to be up though? Idk. Missing random chunks of this, would probably read this in a big collection if they ever did that.

Midnighter 4: Mostly paged through this because gratuitous Dick Grayson and Midnighter fanservice in a banya. I'll take it.

[Venneh]

Material 4: Yeah, just keeps getting worse and worse. Now taking bets on how quick this gets cancelled.

Lazarus 19: I'm so underwhelmed with Rucka, and Lark on the art isn't really doing any better. This needs to turn around hard.

Plutona 1: Five kids find the corpse of one of the city's biggest superheroines. Mostly focuses on the kids, with a bit of back story about Plutona as a backup in back. Lemire's intriguing me with the story, and I like the sketchiness of the art. Let's see where this goes.

[Donomark]

Ultimate Spider-Man Vol.9

The Sinister Six arc. I never read it because Bagely didn't do the main story so what would've been the point? A bit more enjoyable now that I've read the Ultimates. Peter doesn't show up in the main story until about 55% of the way in, making it more of a Norman Osborn vs. Nick Fury arc. The art's pretty good, if a bit of a Hitch wannabe.

[Dread]

Magneto vol 3 Shadow Games: fun, swirling toward the "Last Days" final volume. This was a pretty good series overall.

Daredevil-The Daredevil You Know: I think this is the definitive DD run. Waid/Samnee/et al have done something really special with this series. One more trade? Can't wait...and sad to see it go.

Satellite Sam vol 3: I could have passed on this entire series and been just fine.

Secret Wars Journal #4: the Punisher/Iron Fist story is really fun. The next one, not so much.

Secret Wars, Secret Love #1: Terrible.

Sensation Comics #48: The art in this is atrocious. The story feels like they're trying to cover EVERYTHING in 22 pages of a digital comic (which is like 11 pages of a regular comic. Doesn't do a good job. This is the last of the book I will read.

Sons of the Devil #4: a lull in the series that's been great otherwise.

Star Wars #8: Han has a wife? Okaaayyyyy....

TMNT #49: Holy shit, this turned around really quick.

TMNT Casey & April #3: Not great. Interesting nonetheless.

Maxx-Maxximized #22: Hard to believe this series ran 35 issues in the 90s. It's hard to follow.

Weirdworld #3: Arkon and Crystarr? Whoa. I thought Crystarr was off limits due to a rights issue. Guess it was because no one knew what to do with him.

Welcome Back #1: Weird issue. I'll probably read #2.

Wolf #1,2: sure weird that it takes its time telling you its supernatural even though it begins with a guy on fire and not feeling a thing. Not sure what to make of it.

Young Terrorists #1: Wow. Really impressed with this HUGE 80 page first issue. I'm in for sure.

Comics: 1089
Graphic Novels: 42
Trade Paperbacks: 89
Omnibus: 11

[Venneh]

Alright, I'll bite. What specifically about Secret Love did you find terrible?

[Donomark]

I personally found most of the artwork to be kinda bad. Also did I miss something or did Kamala change into her costume at super-speed?

[Dread]

Alright, I'll bite. What specifically about Secret Love did you find terrible?

The art was awful and the stories were completely devoid of anything engaging.

[Venneh]

Like, I'll give you that the Katie Cook story was legitmately awful and overly twee. Staples I can take or leave as an artist. And yeah, the Guihiru, Anka and Fiffe are stylized, but that's something you guys and I will probably disagree on in terms of taste Story wise, they're all essentially backup length (seven pages) or shorter (three pages), given the space they have to work with, I think they did pretty damn solid. This is basically meant to be a taster/sampler one-off, there's not anything meant to lead into anything else. It's just meant to be a bit of fluff and fun.

[Professor]

5 Days to Die - A revenge story with a twist that makes it not all that interesting.

Deadpool Kills Deadpool - Bad. So bad.

Comics: 393
Digital First Comics: 65
Graphic Novels: 23
Trades: 131 (700)(4)(144)

[Dread]

A Voice on the Dark vol 1: a tpb collecting Larime Taylor's miniseries from Top Cow about a burgeoning young female serial killer and her anonymous late night confessions radio call-in show. Compelling characters and tight writing. The art is a little less detailed than I usually prefer, but given that it was drawn on a tablet with a stylus held in his mouth, it's pretty fucking good.

Painkiller Jane #0,1: Jeez...tried to go back now that the Soska Twins are directing the new movie and this is terrible. Not even a story by Waid and Augustyn can pull me through the next three issues.

Comics: 1091
Graphic Novels: 42
Trade Paperbacks: 90
Omnibus: 11

[Dread]

#IFightGhosts #1: Terrible. Cool cover, but the interior is super bogus high school student level art talent. The story's pretty lame too.

Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies #4: an overlooked title as a SW tie-in book. Really solid finale here. I love 1872 Hank Pym interacting with Vision, Wonder Man and Original Human Torch.

Aliens Vs Vampirella #1: Interesting. Great ending to the issue. Not a huge fan of the art. I'll check out issue two.

Ars Magna 1-Mysteries: a Belgian GN about the search for occult knowledge in Nazi-occupied Brussels. Pretty solid, but a little plodding.

Comics: 1094
Graphic Novels: 43
Trade Paperbacks: 90
Omnibus: 11

[Dan]

Strange Tales (2009) #1-3: This was a three issue Marvel Knights mini where they handed the keys to the company over to some of the bigger independent creators of the day. Each issue features a handful of short stories, and by nature it's a mixed bag. The interesting stuff is pretty good. Peter Bagge tells a Hulk story (across all three issues) that would honestly have been dated even then, but it was reasonably fun for anyone who ever read Hate. Some creators are having fun (Paul Pope's Inhumans, Molly Crabapple on She-Hulk, Jhonen Vasquez' MODOK story), some are bringing their sensibilities to superheroes to tell stories they otherwise might not be able to (Stan Sakai's feudal samurai Hulk, Nicholas Gurewitch's one pagers), and some are pretty openly mocking the characters they're using, like Tony Millionaire and Michael Kupperman. Overall, a fun experiment, and I'll keep an eye out for Strange Tales II pretty soon.

[Donomark]

Ultimate Spider-Man vol.18: Ultimate Knights

Featuring Ultimates Daredevil, Doc Strange, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist and Moon Knight banding together to take down the Kingpin. In some ways this feels like a redux of vol.8 with the Black Cat. Ultimate Daredevil is a fucking prick, but it's neat to see how Bendis has him still feels like Matt Murdock. The artwork is fantastic, a return to form by Bagely after a few years of lesser quality, and Justin Ponsor's colors make the end of the story. This was the last volume of Bagely's consecutive tenure, and he ends it on a high note. His final issue with Peter and Aunt May is interrupted by Stuart Immonen's preview take on the book, and I'm sorry but it's not even kind of comparable. Immonen's a decent artist and I feel his All-New X-Men work is solid, but to put him as Bagely's successor was a huge mistake. I have the next trade so maybe I'll get used to it, but issue #111 which featured both him and Bags' art makes his work look downright ugly.