The "clandestine mission" nature of the team is on full display in G.I. Joe #6 as a top-secret smuggling job takes a number of unexpected twists that are a gold mine of character development. With the world under the command of Cobra — which has gone from "oddball persistent threat" to "multinational technology and defense […]
Have you ever been watching one of those legal shows, and the unlikely, possibly disheveled defense attorney starts their closing argument, and it's wildly implausible, but somehow it starts working? The individual elements of their case might be anywhere between odd all the way to wildly stupid, but the attorney's charm and the meaningful pauses […]
In another stunning triumph, this issue brings a surprising but wholly factual indictment of the Dark Knight Detective's defects in an unusually effective way. Shortly after the Batman's first year concludes, the criminal justice system is so overloaded with suspects that the government claims they need more prisons to keep up. Well, of course, that […]
With forceful characterization, dazzling visual choices, and real steel in its spine, there is a lot to like about the newly revitalized team's efforts here. Uneasy allies as some of the "traditional" Squad try to play nice with the vastly more powerful extrahumans who have a mission to fix what Task Force X breaks; there's […]
Middle School Misadventures: Operation: Hat Heist is the second graphic novel in Jason Platt's popular Middle School Misadventures graphic novel series. It follows the antics of middle-schooler Newell and where his hyperactive imagination takes him and his loyal friends. In Operation: Hat Heist, Newell has his favourite hat stolen. It's not just any old hat, […]
In a year that has brought us murder hornets, killed a rock legend and a heroic retired wrestler, seen humans ingesting bleach and sent Comic-Con online, rest assured of one thing with absolute certainty: Ludocrats #1 is the craziest damned thing to happen this year. Where to begin? Well, this is less a script from […]
The premise here is very strong. Paolo Alighieri is the founder and president of a company that offers a premier service for a drastic markup: "adventure tourism" into places humans are not meant to be. That's different from "places you're not allowed to go," like military bases because these places could kill you. The first […]
When the mayor is the not-so-reformed former Kingpin of Crime and a supernaturally-empowered crime lord called The Hood goes too far, for some reason, the hearing impaired archer Clint Barton decides he has to fix things, on his own. On the way, he says he will "bribe, bother, borrow, burn, bully and beat" his way […]
This issue of Gold Digger does not lack either ambition nor big ideas as it posits its lead as a multiversal mix of many of the classic "chosen one" motifs with a seductively friendly adversary willing to do anything to achieve goals. On the good side, as noted, there are some very big ideas tossed around here […]
A truly motley assemblage of maniacs and survivors are watching their lines be breached as they try to protect an orphanage full of children from an endless deluge of undead zombies created by Darkseid's Anti-Life Equation. When the building becomes impossible to hold, there's one last-ditch road trip on the table, looking for the last […]
What if The Walking Dead was global in scope, and had its origins in the hubris of some of our greatest minds? Well, this thought exercise walks down that path with a taste of the Watchmen approach (yet little of its resonance). Basically, a few people who thought they were smart did some dazzlingly stupid […]
One of the biggest modern criticisms of Batman is that he's an entitled rich white guy in fetish gear who beats up poor people in alleys. What if he used his greatest super power — money — to access criminals on a whole other scale? The billionaire class of Gotham may not wear ridiculous costumes […]
There is a sense of disconnectedness that has permeated the character of youth culture long before Slackers, maybe even as far back as Rebel Without A Cause. Stuck in some lame podunk town, seeing the same people, hearing the same "get it together" shtick from authority figures or the same backwoods superiority. These myths perpetrated […]
This issue is a conundrum in that it shows the Justice League execute a display of power and teamwork that is presented very gorgeously. With sumptuous visuals presented by Xermanico, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Tom Napolitano, the Javelin is a triumph of lines and sleekness while the dynamic action scenes are worth seeing. […]
In a dystopian future, the villains banded together under Doctor Doom and, for once and for all, won. Taking over the world, they split up the United States into territories and sniped at each other's heels. Now a group of would-be Avengers — the super-powered daughter of Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, the son of […]
Loud! by Maria Llovet is surprisingly difficult to describe. It feels like an X-rated short feature or a particularly decadent midnight movie. Simplest: A night at a Loud!, a music bar/strip club goes wrong. Disastrously so. Loud! is the Spanish artist's second Black Mask work, and the second thing she's done that she's the writer/artist […]
Chelli Aphra, Ph.D., is, at best, a scoundrel. A rogue archaeologist who has betrayed everyone who ever loved her, she's also running from a death mark personally authorized by Darth Vader himself. Lucky for her, like Ashoka Tano, Vader never seems to get it together enough to make sure she's dead. Unfortunately, she's surrounded by […]
The dark knight detective has teamed up with a mournful mix of costumed misfits and Lady Shiva (commonly known as the world's deadliest assassin and best fighter) to chase down Ra's Al Ghul, immortal terrorist, and a weapon from space that Ra's has acquired. In tow, you'll find pretty much everybody is struggling with some […]
For some Dungeons & Dragons fans who were looking for more adventure beyond their table, IDW Publishing comic books about it since 2010. The series has been published in a somewhat irregular fashion with a couple of different writers taking up the helm. But the ones that really caught media attention the past few years […]
Humanoids sent me a .pdf of their new collection Metal Hurlant: Selected Works contains the best of the non-Alejandro Jodorowsky stories from the 2000's revival of the magazine Metal Hurlant. Humanoids already collected the Jodorowsky stories in a small hardcover called Screaming Planet, which you could say Metal Hurlant: Selected Works is a sister release. […]
