Every comic you've read in 2016

[Missy]

The Fix #2: So fucking nuts! I love it!

Comics: 213

[Missy]

Penny Dreadful #1: I'm guessing this will make sense to viewers of the television program, but others like me, who picked it up out of curiosity, will be lost with no hand to hold in the dark. And I appreciate what the art is trying here, but it was often too hard to follow and varied wildly from page to page.

The Ultimates #7: Well, things have surely escalated. Also, Carol channels her inner Nick Fury in one badass scene.

Comics: 215

[Koete]

Penny Dreadful #1: I'm guessing this will make sense to viewers of the television program, but others like me, who picked it up out of curiosity, will be lost with no hand to hold in the dark. And I appreciate what the art is trying here, but it was often too hard to follow and varied wildly from page to page.

Not trying to be a dick but, considering you've never seen the show and tie-in comics are generally terrible, why read it?

[Donomark]

Black Panther #2:  Like the previous issue, there's one scene that sparks promise for the run. Much of this book thus far is in cliche'd platitudes and heavy dialogue, but the fight scene near the end and the people's rejection of T'Challa was well done. Still, I'm in Nehisi-Coates' run for the long haul. Here's hoping it picks up soon.

Batman #52: Okay

Action Comics #52: Okay

All New X-Men vol.2 #9: Okay

Vision #7: Pretty good. Last issue?

Ms. Marvel v.2(4) #6: A good end to an arc I wasn't grooving on. I still think Attack of the Giant Kamala clones was a dumb idea, but the resolution with Loki, Cap. Marvel and Iron Man was nice.

Edited May 12, 2016 by Donomark

[Dread]

Cry Havoc #4: I'm done. This is terrible.

Daddy's Little Girl: weird crime graphic novel from a couple years ago. Ok.

Dark Knight III - The Master Race #4: this is also terrible.

Dark Souls #1: I've never even heard of the video game this is based on. I'm not sure it would help if I did.

Dept H. #1: I feel like this would have been decent if it was published 20 years ago, but we've literally seen this exact first issue so many times since that this is nothing but derivative shit.

Divinity II #1: I might like this more than the original.

Faith #4: great end. I'll probably grab the first issue of the ongoing.

Godzilla Oblivion #2: fun.

Gutter Magic #4: ends with a whimper.

Heartthrob #1: the premise is so...done...but I really liked the character work.

Hellboy and the BPRD 1953 Beyond the Fences #3: I feel like it took me as long to read this as it did to type the title of the book.

Hercules #6: this is pretty great even though it's just American Gods in the Marvel Universe.

Hot Damn #1: a buddy comedy in hell? You have my attention.

Comics: 495
Trades: 18

Graphic Novels: 14

Omnibuses: 7

[Missy]

Penny Dreadful #1: I'm guessing this will make sense to viewers of the television program, but others like me, who picked it up out of curiosity, will be lost with no hand to hold in the dark. And I appreciate what the art is trying here, but it was often too hard to follow and varied wildly from page to page.

Not trying to be a dick but, considering you've never seen the show and tie-in comics are generally terrible, why read it?

Curiosity, mostly. I wanted to see if it could get me into the show.

[Davedevil]

ASM #11 - Kinda unremarkable to me.

Daredevil #6 - Better than the previous arc. Art by Matteo Buffagni was about as good as Garney's, leading me to believe it's Matt Milla making the book look as nice.

Ms. Marvel #6 - Ridiculous, but not unenjoyable. 

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #6 - Just when I was thinking it's starting to wear a bit thin, it got my interest again.

[Dan]

Superman: The Golden Age Omnibus Vol. 1: collects the Superman stories from Action Comics #1-31 and New York World's Fair Comics #1 and 2, plus the non-reprint material from Superman #1-7.

Well, this was fun. Reading this is quite literally watching an art form figure itself out over the course of two and a half years, and it's pretty fascinating stuff. Everything starts off kind of dark and pulp-influenced, and slowly gets brighter and louder and sillier as the creators mold the comic from something ostensibly meant to appeal to all ages and zeroes in more and more on a younger audience. Siegel and Shuster spend a lot of time having Superman battle societal evils more than anything else early on; there's some gangsters and murderers, but Superman spends a lot of time - a lot of time - fixing crooked politicians, corrupt industrialists, abusers of authority, and generally anything and anyone keeping the working man down. There's really only one problem - Jerry Siegel was a terrible writer. To say that Superman smacks of wish fulfillment is really underselling things; Things Are Wrong, And Superman Will Fix Everything. The writing is really immature, and not in that "well, it was early days, they were still finding out what worked and what didn't, and anyway, it was meant for kids" sort of way (although of course that's true also). No, all problems are incredibly simplistic, easily remedied, and presented as solvable by beating someone up, breaking his stuff, and threatening to murder him.

"You, Mr. Construction Company Owner! You're using shoddy building materials, and people are getting hurt as a result!"

"What do I care about people? I'm a very rich businessman, and all I think about is the bottom line! Mwa ha ha!"

"Oh, yeah? Take that!"

"Ow! Don't hit me again! I swear I'll do better from now on!"

"The day is saved!"

Take that thread, and repeat it several dozen times, and you have this book. Every situation can be turned around by hitting it, which this Superman is more than willing to do. "Gambling is a terrible problem! People are losing their money, their homes, their very lives to this widespread disease! Hey! Mr. Gambling Person! I'm going to punch you in the face until you stop gambling!" "Crime is going wild in this neighborhood! That's because people live in terrible slum conditions! I'm going to destroy every apartment building in a four block radius! That way, the city will have no choice but to build nicer buildings, and people will stop being criminals!" "War is awful! I'm going to beat up the generals on each side and make them sit down and sign a peace treaty, because that's obviously how things work! I've created world peace! By punching it!" Also, and this can't be stressed enough, 1930s Superman is a huge asshole. He's bigger than you, he's stronger than you, and nothing you do will faze him in the slightest, and he knows it. He's a bully. There's no getting around it. When he decides that the city has a real problem with auto safety, he embarks on a campaign to get people to drive more cautiously. How does he announce this? By bursting through the wall of the radio station, kicking the crap out of everyone there, straight up threatening to kill people, and grabbing the microphone away from the announcer. That's his standard M.O. Superman will gleefully destroy anything that happens to be in his field of vision for no reason other than because he can, and because he wants you to know he can. And that's a big part of my problem with Siegel's writing; this is very, very obviously the product of an angry, bitter nerd who remembers every schoolyard taunt, every girl who ever turned him down, every time he took grief from someone more popular than he was, and every page of this collection reads as an "I'll show them!" Lois is cruel to Clark for no real reason, and Clark in turn thinks rejecting her as Superman (while simultaneously pursuing her as Clark) is hilarious, because it serves her right for not liking him. It's very tempting to say, "well, these were created by kids," because the perception of Siegel and Shuster as being teenagers who signed away their rights to National Comics is compelling, but the fact is that they were well into their twenties when they sold Superman (they'd been working for National for several years before they got the company to buy Superman from them, having already created Slam Bradley and Doctor Occult, among other things), and closing in on thirty by the time this book wraps up, so that really doesn't fly. Furthermore, on top of the fantasy revenge against the world, the stories themselves are repetitive and hold no real suspense. Superman can't be stopped, and in 800 pages covering two and a half years, you can literally count on one hand the number of times he's even mildly inconvenienced. He's put into actual, honest-to-God peril twice, maybe three times, depending on how free and loose you want to get with the definition. Every story presents Superman with a series of obstacles which he beats up or destroys in a single panel, and then the day is saved when the bad guy would rather confess to his crime than risk getting hit in the stomach.

"But Dan! You said this was fun!" I did, and it is. There's still a lot to like here. Seeing the early, relatively low-powered Superman is fascinating stuff; having nearly all his abilities come from his strength makes for a frankly more interesting character than one who can fly, melt girders with his eyes, and is also a super-genius. He spends a lot of time going undercover in disguise, which is really wild. About a year or so into the feature we meet the Ultra-Humanite, Superman's first supervillain, who's presented as the evil opposite - he's physically weak and confined to a wheelchair, but his genius intellect makes him a force to be reckoned with. After a handful of appearances, he seems to die, but comes back by transplanting his brain into the body of a beautiful Hollywood starlet, and for several months he is literally a man trapped in the body of a woman, and this is not presented as being any weirder than anything else going on. It's kind of awesome. Shortly after, we meet Luthor for the first time, and while he's pretty unimpressive and nowhere near as interesting as Ultra, still. Luthor. Clark is also portrayed as a really good reporter, and that aspect is played up quite a bit and keeps things interesting. Also, and I was surprised by this, continuity is a real thing here; a story will frequently refer to events that happened two or three issues earlier, and there's even a couple of two-part stories, which was unheard of then.

The real attraction here, however, is the art. Joe Shuster is never going to be included on a list of the greatest pure artists in the history of comics; his work is incredibly cartoony and rough, and he is incapable of drawing a woman other than Lois. Even if a female character isn't supposed to be Lois, it's Lois. If there are two women in a story, they are "Lois in a red dress" and "Lois in a green dress". Even giving one of them blonde hair is beyond him. However, it's charming as hell. He's really quite good at action and movement, and Superman in motion consistently looks pretty wonderful. By the end, he's getting some help on inks by Wayne Boring (who would go on to define Superman in the 1940s and 50s), and that tightens things up quite a bit. Furthermore, Jack Burnley (a very talented artist of the time, the co-creator of Starman, who should be much better remembered than he is today) handles a few stories, and they look phenomenal. Shuster does the vast majority of the artwork by himself, though, and it tends to show in the Superman issues; coming up with 64 pages of material is harder than coming up with 13 pages for Action, and they are frequently rushed, sketchy, and generally inferior to the Action Comics material.

For all its problems, this was a very engaging, surprisingly quick read, and I tended to enjoy it quite a bit.

[Donomark]

I believe Jack Burney also designed or co-designed the Penguin if I'm not mistaken.

[Dan]

I believe Jack Burney also designed or co-designed the Penguin if I'm not mistaken.

That wouldn't surprise me. He's not credited, but he did a ton of ghost work for DC at the time, and was the regular artist on the newspaper strip in the 40s.

[Davedevil]

Spawn Vol. 1 - Pretty impressive, actually. First five issues are pretty well-done. Sixth issue leaves me cold. The countdown is a cool gimmick, and I'm actually intrigued to see what the point is. The art by McFarlane's even better than his Spidey stuff. Bit cluttered from time to time, but he does well with emotion.

The Flash #51 - Enjoyable. I wish the art was a bit more consistent, there hasn't been a defining artist since Booth left.

A-Force #5 - Promising start to this new team's run. Really enjoy the art.

ASM #12 - Ehh. 

Black Widow #3 - Fantastic. 

Spider-Gwen #8 - Still my favorite parts of the Spider-Women crossover, which I'm enjoying a lot.

Poe Dameron #2 - Terex is a pretty cool villain so far. The art by Noto is some of the best I've ever seen from him. 

[Missy]

Marvel Two-in-One #8 and The Brave and the Bold #117: Thoughts in an upcoming Earth-2-in-1.

Showcase '94 8-9 and Zero Hour #4-0: Thoughts in can upcoming episode of The Show.

Powers (2015) #6: It's been years since I've read an issue of Powers (possibly since 2003), so I thought I'd give the current series a try. Nope, not for me. Back in the early 2000s, when Bendis was coming onto the scene, his overlapping dialog was innovative. Here, though it's toned down some, it's become distracting. Also, apparently Deena's a killer with a badge now, but I could not care less how that wraps up.

Vision #7: A touch short for my liking, but that's fully on me; the flashbacks were so strong, I wanted more. Vision continues to prove why it's at the top of my Must-Read list each month.

Gwenpool #2: To my surprise, I actually enjoyed the heck out of this. Thor, especially, was fun.

Constantine: The Hellblazer #12: It's okay, but I found myself wanting to read other Hellblazer stories.

Comics: 228

[Dan]

Hawkworld Vol. 1 (1989) #1-3: The culmination of DC's fascination with grim 'n' gritty combined with its ongoing post-Crisis reboot! This was, of course, the retelling of Hawkman's origin, taking place over a ten-year period on Thanagar, where we see the corrupt and decadent society through the eyes of idealistic Ensign Katar Hol. This was the obvious result of the tendency during the 1980s to portray Thanagar as being rather less awesome and incredibly warlike; now, the rich live in towers above the clouds while the castoffs and vanquished are trapped in the slums on the surface. So yeah, this is violent, dirty, filled with drugs and implied sex and all kinds of other things that comics tended to think made a book awesome in 1989. It's also absolutely gorgeous. Timothy Truman wrote and drew this, and it's a lot smarter than it ought to be, as well as being just wonderful to look at. Katar Hol feels like a three-dimensional character (even if he's presented as the upper-class rich man's son who is going to save the poor downtrodden from their lot in life). There's a swerve regarding Shayera Thal that still works. And by the time the book is over and the Hawks are getting ready to head to Earth to pick up where their story originally began, I found myself really wishing that this had been longer. (The follow-up series was decent, but not as strong as this.) I walked in expecting to be let down - I enjoyed the hell out of this when I first read it 20 years ago, and that rarely ends well these days - but I was very pleasantly surprised. Almost worth the utter ruination of Hawkman's continuity that left him radioactive for a decade!

Seriously, though, look at this.

[Missy]

Holy shit! That's going in the queue.

Hellblazer #41-46: Garth Ennis begins his Hellblazer stint by killing John Constantine. His death comes not by demon's revenge or an act of black magic gone awry, but with terminal lung cancer. Knowing he's bound for Hell, John concocts a scheme only he can pull off, and the world goes with him if he loses. Ennis' take on the broken, desperate Constantine is perfect. He's consumed by his crippling loneliness and self-rage, yet his cocky snark is ever-present without being over-the-top. The two times his bravado gets the better of him (both in the face of Satan), Ennis' Constantine knows he's made grave errors for which he'll one day have to pay. It's here Ennis shows his true craftsmanship; it's easy to write a cocky bastard, but not so much when said bastard has a ticking clock over his head and is dragging decades of guilt with him. Depending on who he visits, John's personality shifts for the moment. He can be the drunk, laughing friend; the sorrowful, distant bother; the mate trying to do one last good deed; the kind-hearted soul for a fellow cancer-sufferer. Later in the book, when John is rightly called on his shifting personality, it implores the reader to look back and realize Constantine is a deep, multifaceted character; he's more than the dark jester with a smoke on his lips and a trick up his sleeve.

Art wise this is a very mixed bag. William Simpson is the artist throughout, but he has a total of six inkers and it shows. The story begins with John looking so beat down you can almost smell the booze rising off his skin. His tiredness and despair are wonderfully illustrated; every line on his face tells a tale of woe -- past, present, and yet to come. As the series moves forward, however, some of the issues are downright ugly -- I hate to say. Too many lines run across John's face, characters are off-model, emotions are both under-and over-played. It's a real shame there isn't a consistency, because I think the lack of it will keep a lot of potential readers from beginning or finishing this otherwise poignant Hellblazer tale.

Comics: 234

[Venneh]

Absolute New Frontier: Still fucking gorgeous, and Cooke does a great job of taking the universe and planting them in the realities of the time. The John Henry Steel bit got me a lot more this time around. And the last page made me bawl.

Batman: Ego and Other Tails: Ego is a great one shot, as is Date Knight, but honestly, I came for Selina's Big Score. Just a great mini and a wonderful ride.

The Spirit: The Cooke reimagining from back in '07. Still just a great ride, and pretty to boot. The Spirit/Batman crossover using a convention setup is also just great, too.

Faith: Hollywood and Vine: Valiant was giving out rebound copies of the mini at BEA, and Jim picked one up for me. (Aside: this actually strikes me as a good publicity move and an easy cheap way to use up all those singles that publishers likely have lying around?) The full mini does really well on the full story arc, and I'm really glad this got the ongoing. A bit more of a fan of the fantasy sequence art than I am the main artist, but they're changing for the ongoing, apparently. 

Rai 13: ASTRO BOY RAI ASTRO BOY RAI ASTRO BOY FUCKING RAI. Start of a flashback arc to all the previous Rais while the main story goes on over in 4001. We get a sense of the early days of New Japan, and how Father begins tailoring his response to all the challenges. (Also, of course the kid is named Osamu. There's also some interesting visual references that I wouldn't put past Kindt to be Japanese creation myth references.) Cafu steps in nicely on the art, and Mack does a gorgeous cover.

Single Issues: 223
TPBs/Collections: 64
Digital First Issues: 10

Edited May 15, 2016 by Venneh

[Dan]

Nightcrawler Vol. 1 (1985) #1-4: The limited series written and drawn by Dave Cockrum. I found these issues for a buck a pop online, and I figure I got more than my $4 worth. Kitty somehow manages to program a real interdimensional portal in the Danger Room, and Kurt (with Lockheed in tow) gets sucked in and has adventures with air pirates, alien princesses, shark wizards, and Kitty's Fairy Tale world. It's completely nonsensical and paper-thin, but a hell of a lot of fun. It's obvious that Cockrum is having a blast writing this story featuring his favorite character, and it's infectious. If you think about it even a little, it completely falls apart, but the sheer amount of goofy humor (which veers into Warner Bros. territory) and loose swashbuckling action makes for a read that entertains for the half hour or so it takes to read it.

Also, Bamfs!

[Missy]

Daredevil (2016) #1-5: Matt is back in New York, the reset button has been pressed with his secret identity, and he now has an apprentice.

Besides the sidekick angle, this is pretty much your average DD story: Matt fights a crime lord, there's magic, The Hand shows up, his job and friends suffer for it. Along those lines, it's okay. Maybe I'll read the next storyline when it wraps up.

Ron Garney is employing an odd mixture of Frank Miller, John Romita Jr., and Scott McDaniel. This tends to work during the action scenes, but those set in the DA's office are lifeless and show no hints of the craftsman Garney truly is. He is, however, helped greatly by Matt Milla's exceptionally muted colors. The pallet is comprised of mostly reds, greys, black, and tans, adding a modern pulpy feel to the series.

Comics: 239

[Venneh]

Parker: The Score and Slayground: Jim picked these up from the IDW booth at BEA the other day. Gorgeous crime adaptations. I'm a bigger fan of some of the art tricks in Score, but Slayground is the better read, by far. Pick them up if you find them, they're worth a page through at the least. 

Twilight Children 1-4: As near as I can tell, the last thing Cooke worked on - and at least it was something kind of creator owned. Switches between a small town drama and sci-fi; the two don't entirely merge effectively story wise, and you never quite figure out what's going on, but by god it's fucking gorgeous. 

Single Issues: 227
TPBs/Collections: 66
Digital First Issues: 10

Edited May 16, 2016 by Venneh

[Missy]

Daredevil #6: Well, that was one unexpected cliffhanger. Looks like I'll be reading #7 as soon as it comes out. Sadly, Matteo Buffagni is only on for this and the next one, but I'll keep an eye open for his name.

Venom: Space Knight #7: Grrrr! Gaarrr! GRRRAAAARRRRR!

Comics: 241

[Davedevil]

Matteo Buffagni's done an arc or two on the current volume of ASM, and while he's not that great a fit for Spidey it was still good art. That issue of Daredevil was even better, enhanced by Milla's coloring.

[Missy]

Daredevil (1964) #1: Though I wouldn't call this issue deep, Matt's origin is much more fleshed out than other Stan Lee-written first issues. We learn quite a bit about Jack, see Matt's training (pre- and post-accident), get hints of his college life, watch his powers grow and have them explained to us, follow along on his first adventure as Daredevil, meet Foggy and Karen, and have a lot of fun along the way. Interestingly, the storytelling is an odd mixture of Golden and Silver Age styles. Mobsters fixing fights and needing to be taken down by a boxer's kid, to me at least, is an idea right out of the 1930s or 40s, but telling the tale over 20-plus pages gives it the room to breathe that many of the Golden Age stories lacked. Thanks to that, you come out of this feeling like you really know the world and characters.

Bill Everett is a fucking star here. Ever single character -- especially Matt, Foggy, and Karen -- are amazingly realized. As Matt ages and begins his training, his face and body fill out very naturally; you can see a progression from youth to adulthood. There are times, though, that it is very clear Everett is using Tony Dow, James Dean, and even some Archie as reference for Matt. That aside, his pacing is masterful. Full sequences are spent with Jack pondering life and Foggy worrying about his buddy, and some of the fights are cinematic in their action. It's a shame this was his only issue.

Comics: 242

[Missy]

War Machine (1994) #1-4: The opening four issues of the first War Machine ongoing are, actually, not as bad as I was afraid they were going to be. In fact, the creative team is telling a prototype for an Authority story in that Rhodey must deal with a power-mad leader, world politics, the UN (and SHIELD), and the real-world decision to let a high-profile hostage die to keep an unstable region from breaking into further carnage. Then-current events are mentioned to draw parallels with reality, but they also serve as a sad reminder that, in the 22 years since, we've not grown any friendlier as a world. Additionally, zero supervillains are faced by War Machine. It's a superhero and a band of rebels versus a tyrant and his army. And while War Machine's actions may be morally just, that doesn't mean they are the best course of action for the world. It will be interesting to see if the rest of the series picks up on the threads sewn here, however, the writers leave after issue 11, so this could be the first and last time the story and themes are mentioned.

If the name Gabriel Gecko doesn't sound familiar, that's because he's now known as Gabriel Hardman. Despite this being his professional work (save for a story in Marvel Age), Hardman skips all of the trappings of the early 90s. Sure, there are big guns and Cable shows up, but his storytelling is fluid and every line is there for a reason. Nothing is done TO THE XTREME~!, despite other Marvel books of the same era taking it there. Admittedly, most of his women are the same model / body type, but they are never sexualized and are presented in positions of power. Best of all, though, is his take on the War Machine armor. It's badass. Hardman illustrates it as the perfect militarized upgrade of the Iron Man armor without, again, Imaging it up.

At the very least, I'll stick around to the end of Hardman's run (#8) but the series has me intrigued enough to take it to #11 when the writing team of Scott Benson and Len Kaminski are replaced by Dan Abnett.

Comics: 246

[Missy]

Superman: American Alien #7 (of 7): Lobo causes trouble, because Lobo; Superman becomes a worldwide phenomenon; and Clark has found answers, more questions, and a bit of peace. The series ends on a soft, human note which was the right decision. While it would have been nice to see a grand Superman Moment, it would have been disingenuous and thematically wrong for the series. From page one, American Alien has been a story about a young man in search of himself, not about superpowered punch-ups. So the quiet, heartfelt final scene keeps Clark grounded as a human rather than raising him up as a godlike figure.

The hardcover has already been ordered, and I cannot wait to reread this seven-issue story time and time again. This is one of the best Superman origins I've read.

Comics: 247

[Venneh]

Vision 7: A flashback issue that ends up circling slowly and inexorably back to the present. Neat issue to break Michael Walsh in on (his style here is a lot more sketchy than it was on Secret Avengers, but I think that might be partially Jordie's colors (not sure if the inker changed too). The dread continues to grow, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this all blows up, shortly. 

Ultimates 7: Branded as a Civil War tie-in, and I can see why. Al's definitely laying out the building blocks for whatever's going to go down in the main title, and we've definitely got the team's first big moral quandary here. Let's see how this plays out. 

Gotham Academy 18: Last of the Yearbook storyline; feels like it's starting to run on fumes, so thank god this is the last one. Good contributors, though. Apparently we get the Annual next, and then the relaunch in September or so. 

The Fix 2: And oh my god does this keep up the momentum. I love that Josh keeps showing up to build the fear of him (and is that fucking Brevoort he's strangling in that one sequence??), and seeing the frankly idiotic lengths our idiot mains are going to to make this happen. Lieber does great on the art, and god bless the way they introduce that dog. So here for this. 

Single Issues: 231
TPBs/Collections: 66
Digital First Issues: 10

[Missy]

HA! That could be Brevoort, couldn't it?