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Paper Girls

The Pull List: Justice League, Mech Cadet Yu, Batman, Giant Days, X-Men Red, & more!

February 9, 2018 by krisis

My pull list just keeps getting bigger and better! This week, The Pull List is twenty-six issues long with seven new number ones, four issues with Batman, and an average rating of 3.17.

What did I pull this week? Well, I’m still not caught up on my Superman, but I’ve got a pretty big cross-section of DC and Marvel on my list, plus a handful of smaller publisher titles!

  • Aftershock Comics
    • Monstro Mechanica (2017) #3
  • Boom! Studios
    • Giant Days (2015) #35
    • Mech Cadet Yu (2017) #6
  • Dark Horse
    • Incognegro – Renaissance (2018) #1
  •  DC Comics
    • Batman (2016) #40
    • Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles (2018)#2
    • Justice League (2016) #38
    • Milk Wars: Mother Panic / Batman Special (2018)
    • Swamp Thing Winter Special (2018) #1
    • Young Monsters In Love (2018) #1
  • Image Comics
    • Paper Girls (2015) #20
    • Twisted Romance (2018) #1
    • VS (2018) #1
    • Witchblade (2017) #3
  • Marvel Comics
    • Avengers (2017) #679
    • Black Bolt (2017) #10
    • Black Panther – Sound And Fury (2018) #1
    • Hawkeye (2017) #15
    • Iceman (2017) #10
    • Infinity Countdown (2018) – Adam Warlock One-Shot
    • Rise of the Black Panther (2018) #2
    • Rogue & Gambit (2018) #2
    • Runaways (2017) #6
    • Spider-Man (2016) #237
    • X-Men: Gold (2017) #21
    • X-Men: Red (2018) #1

Marvel/DC Issue of the Week: Justice League (2016) #38, DC Comics

4.5 starsJustice League is finally back to being amongst DC’s most exciting books every month with Christopher Priest at the helm for the first time since Darkseid War in the latter part of New 52 in 2015.

Marco Santucci’s pencils on this are brilliant right out of the gate! Flash’s one-man reenactment of Sandra Bullock in Gravity is riveting and an absolutely amazing blend of real science and comics magic. It plays out over a League realizing just how reliant they’ve become on technology, both to back them up and to tell them what to do and where to be.

What makes the story unusual is that Batman is the physical representation of that weakness – not Cyborg. As a brilliant tactician who is just a regular man, Batman uses technology to enhance his detective skills and the breadth of his knowledge. Yet, that can easily be used as his own Kryptonite when there’s a situation he cannot strategize his way out of.

Just as Flash keeps emphasizing “I’m only a scientist, not an engineer” as he tries to arrest his free float through space, Cyborg is an engineer first and a tactician second. He’s not Batman. He “doesn’t want to be the boss.”

What happens when Cyborg has to take charge of the League in a way that’s greater than just Boom Tubing them from place to place? Can he fake being a leader with engineering in the same way Flash fakes being an engineer with science?

I don’t know, but I am transfixed by this Christopher Priest arc!

Small Publisher Issue of the Week: Mech Cadet Yu (2017) #6, Boom! Studios

4.5 starsWith the way this book has been going, it’s going to be really hard for anything to excite me more in a week that it’s on the stands.

If you haven’t seen my breathless catch-up on this Greg Pak/Takeshi Miyazawa series in this week’s Back Issue Review, here’s the skinny: years ago a giant semi-organic robot crashed to Earth and bonded with a pilot, and ever since then four mechs descend into our atmosphere each year.

To find the four pilots that will bond, the US maintains a Hogwarts-esque Mech Academy to train the best and the brightest. We need them, because a race giant Kaiju monsters named Shargs are constantly creeping into our orbit and can only be repelled by the mechs.

We’re in the middle of the second arc of this book now after it was extended past a mini-series, presumably for just being unbelievably excellent (and also selling a few copies). I cannot tell you the last time I got this nervous about characters in a comic book being in peril.

This series continues to perfectly toe the line between Pacific Rim and Harry Potter, and I just want there to be 20x as much of it so I can keep reading more! [Read more…] about The Pull List: Justice League, Mech Cadet Yu, Batman, Giant Days, X-Men Red, & more!

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Adam Warlock, Aftershock Comics, Avengers, Batman, Black Panther, Boom Studios, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles, Frankenstein, Gambit, Giant Days, Hawkeye, I Vampire, Iceman, Incognegro - Renaissance, Infinity Countdown, Marvel Comics, Mech Cadet Yu, Miles Morales, Milk Wars, Monstro Mechanica, Mother Panic, Paper Girls, Rogue, Rogue & Gambit, Runaways, Spider-Man, Swamp Thing, The Pull List, Twisted Romance, Witchblade, X-Men Gold, X-Men Red

Back Issue Review: Black-Eyed Kids, Lady Mechanika, Warframe, and more!

January 28, 2018 by krisis

Welcome to another week of Back Issue Review! In this post, I share my capsule reviews of comic books I read that were not newly-released this month.

My reading this week was entirely focused on non Big Two comics (that means no Marvel and no DC) and largely on checking out books with women protagonists I hadn’t read before.

This post includes reviews of:

  • Black Cloud (2017) #1-2
  • Black-Eyed Kids (2016) #1-15
  • Bonehead (2018) #1
  • Dread Gods (2017) #1-2
  • God Complex: Dogma (2017) #1-3
  • Interceptor (2016) #1-5
  • Justice League (2016) #22-24
  • Lady Mechankia (2010) #0-2
  • Maxwell’s Demons (2017) #1
  • Morea (2017) Vol. 1
  • Paper Girls (2015) #11-15
    (AKA Volume 3)
  • Reactor (2018) #1
  • The Realm (2017) #1-4
  • Rose (2017) #1-4
  • Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose (2000) #1
  • Void Trip (2017) #1-2
  • Warframe (2017) #1

Unfortunately, most of those weren’t very good, but I did come away with a pair of new favorite titles, plus one I enjoyed but couldn’t commit to because we’re from such different worlds. [Read more…] about Back Issue Review: Black-Eyed Kids, Lady Mechanika, Warframe, and more!

Filed Under: comic books, reviews Tagged With: Aftershock Comics, Back Issue Review, Black Cloud, Black-Eyed Kids, Bonehead, Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Dread Gods, God Complex: Dogma, Guy Major, Image Comics, Interceptor, Jim Balent, Joe Pruett, Justice League, Lady Mechanika, Maxwell's Demons, Meredith Finch, Paper Girls, Reactor, Ron Marz, Rose, Szymon Kudranski, The Realm, Vault Comics, Void Trip, Warframe

Back Issue Review: Maestros, Super Sons, Umbrella Academy, Victor LaValle’s Destroyer, & more

January 21, 2018 by krisis

Welcome to my third pilot post of Back Issue Review, where I give you the run-down on all the not-new comics I read this week. (Did you miss last week’s edition?)

This week I read very little Marvel and DC, instead focusing on a ton of indie comics series that are easy to pick up with no prior comics background. As it turns out, a pair of the most-popular series fell a bit flat with me, while a few more obscure titles totally blew me away. I even found a new favorite comic book to add to my pull list!

Today’s back issue review includes write-ups on:

  • Backways (2017) #1
  • Captain Canuck (2015) #4-5
  • Dept. H (2016) #1-12
  • Eternal Empire (2017) #1-4
  • Gasolina (2017) #1-4
  • Justice League (2016) #20-21
  • Maestros (2017) #1-3
  • Mercury Heat (2015) #1-12 & FCBD
  • Paper Girls (2015) #6-10
  • Super Sons (2017) #1-4
  • The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite (2007) #1-6
  • Victor LaValle’s Destroyer (2017) #1-6

I’ll tell you now that Maestros and Victor LaValle’s Destroyer are two of the best comics I’ve read from 2017 – they both totally blew me away!

Please let me know if you like this this post – I’m still experimenting with this new weekly series, but there’s no guarantee it will be back for more with you reading it.

And now – let’s get to the comics! [Read more…] about Back Issue Review: Maestros, Super Sons, Umbrella Academy, Victor LaValle’s Destroyer, & more

Filed Under: comic books, reviews Tagged With: Aftershock Comics, Avatar Press, Back Issue Review, Backways, Brian K. Vaughan, Captain Canuck, Cliff Chiang, Dark Horse, DC Comics, Dept. H, Dietrich Smith, Eternal Empire, Gabriel Ba, Gasolina, Gerard Way, Image Comics, Joana LaFuente, Jonathan Luna, Kieron Gillen, Maestros, Matt Kindt, Mercury Heat, Paper Girls, Sarah Vaughn, Skybound Entertainment, Steve Skroce, Super Sons, Umbrella Academy, Victor LaValle

The Pull List: Babyteeth, Black Bolt, Captain America, Crosswind, Giant Days, and more!

January 6, 2018 by krisis

What did I read this week that was newly released and wasn’t X-Men?

I’m still a long way off from being caught up to all of present-day Marvel, so I have to choose my battles – reading series that are in the early stages of their Legacy numbering or have few enough issues that I can catch up all the way. A handful of indie series I follow (one only begrudgingly) also dropped this week.

This post covers:

  • Babyteeth (2017) #7
  • Batman (2016) #38
  • Blackbolt (2017) #9
  • Captain America (2017) #697
  • Crosswind (2017) #6
  • Giant Days (2015) #34
  • Guardians of the Galaxy (2017) #150
  • Paper Girls (2015) #19
  • Spider-Man (2016) #236
  • Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles (2018) #1 [Read more…] about The Pull List: Babyteeth, Black Bolt, Captain America, Crosswind, Giant Days, and more!

Filed Under: comic books, reviews Tagged With: Aaron Kuder, Aftershock Comics, Babyteeth, Batman, Boom Studios, Brian Bendis, Brian K. Vaughan, Captain America, Cat Saggs, Chris Samnee, Cliff Chiang, Crosswind, DC Comics, Donny Cates, Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles, Gail Simone, Gary Brown, Gerry Duggan, Giant Days, Giula Brusco, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ian Hering, Image Comcis, John Allison, Mark Englert, Mark Waid, Matt Wilson, Paper Girls, Spider-Man, The Pull List, Tom King, Travis Moore

Review: Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Vaughan & Chiang

June 28, 2016 by krisis

E and I had our first DVD player when we lived in Pine Street, just after I graduated college. I suppose it was in a laptop of hers, because we didn’t have a television and I remember watching movies in bed.

I was excited to reclaim some of the films of my youth long since lost on the beta tapes they were captured on, so between that year and the next I filled them all in. Dark Crystal, The Lost Boys, Labyrinth, and more.

The thing about these nostalgia viewings is that you can re-watch the thing you once loved, but it might not produce the same magic. I was so excited to show E The Lost Boys, labelling it as a sort of proto-Buffy as we settled into bed to watch it, but it was laugh-out-loud lame. Yet, there are still new layers to unravel in Labyrinth.

The 80s produced so much of those wonderful coming of age stories, and I don’t think I’m saying that because I was young at the time. Actually, I was ignorant of most of the stuff like Stand By Me and The Goonies, because at the ripe old age of seven I already felt I was too old for their messages. The Lost Boys, at least, had vampires. Yet, looking back there are so many seminal movies in that Amblin Entertainment model set by E.T. and Goonies that are still referenced today, right down to their feel being aped by films like Super 8.

Paper-Girls-vol-01I’ve never seen Stand By Me or The Goonies. I know, I know – it’s sacrilege. Just now I looked them up on Wikipedia to make sure I wasn’t mistaking them for something else.

It’s odd for me to watch this new generation of media being produced by the folks who came of age with the first set – usually a few years older than me, probably old enough to have seen these films in theatres on their own.

The 80s vibe is unmistakeable, but I don’t know all their influences by heart the way I do things that reference David Bowie or Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Paper Girls, Vol. 2 2.0 stars Amazon Logo

Collects issues #1-5 written by Brian K. Vaughan with line art by Cliff Chiang, color art by Matt Wilson, and letters by Jared K. Fletcher.

Tweet-sized Review: Vaughan and Chiang’s Paper Girls tries for all-girls Goonies but maybe foregrounds too many monsters too soon

CK Says: Skip it (for now)

Paper Girls is the newest Brian K. Vaughan jam to hit its first collection, but I think you’d be better off waiting for a second trade paperback before you start reading.

Vaughan is the master creator of critical hits like Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Marvel’s Runaways, The Private Eye, and the still-running deeply personal space fantasy Saga, which is currently the biggest independent comic after The Walking Dead. Vaughan is joined on this creator-owned Image Comics series by artist Cliff Chiang, directly from his run on DC’s Wonder Woman, and uber-colorist Matt Wilson, from everything.

Paper Girls promised a return to normalcy after the devious Saga, focusing on a group of girls on their 1988 paper route. Of course, Vaughan would never go full-normal on us – these girls would surely tangle with something fantastical. [Read more…] about Review: Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Vaughan & Chiang

Filed Under: comic books, reviews Tagged With: Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Image Comics, Jared K. Fletcher, Matt Wilson, Paper Girls

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