TIllie Walden

I Love This Part

A slim graphic novel by Tillie Walden about a middle school first love.  It’s beautiful, sweet, and achingly melancholy in its understated presentation.  Credit Walden’s cover for me taking it off the shelf.

Spinning

That led me to look for some of Walden’s other work at the library.  The result of my search was her Eisner-winning biographical graphic novel, about her time as a figure skater through her entire childhood.  It falls into the “slice-of-life indie comic that I keep trying, but fails to resonate with me” category.  Blankets is the counter-example of one that really spoke to me.

Regret reading: No

Would read again: No

Would buy: No

Rating: Fine

New comics

Covering the last two weeks of new comics.

Legion of Super-Heroes 3

Joshua Williamson is totally dropping the ball with this.  Even Hayden Sherman’s art isn’t enough to make me care about these so-called Legionnaires.  (They’re still in the origin story phase, not competent or self-aware enough to be actual heroes yet.)  And while Sherman’s art is gorgeous, it’s not the perfect fit that it is on Absolute Wonder Woman, so I’d be able to live without it.  Williamson gets one more issue before I drop this, I think.

Absolute Catwoman 4

I’m done with this.  If it were only five or six issues, I’d gut it out, but DC just extended this to a twelve issue series.  I’m too bored to keep going.  

Batman 15

Fun from Matt Fraction, lovely art from Jorge Jimenez.  Nothing super memorable, but certainly good enough to keep reading.  

Superman: The Stranger 3

Superman opens himself up to Lois Lane.  We also get Clark’s powers awakening moment, and its suitably harrowing and fitting for the child labor era this story is set in.  Wes Craig is doing something sweet here, and it’s a different enough take on Superman for me to be very impressed.

Death Vigil 4

Meh.  Still not Stjepan Sejic’s best.  I’m really only buying this to support him.  It helps that it’ll always be great to look at. 

New comics

Dark Knights of Steel II 4

The heroes confront the insidious Amanda Waller far earlier than I’d expected.  (I didn’t think it’d be an end-of-act-one kind of thing.)  It’s good comic book fun, Tom Taylor and Otto Schmidt are doing a wonderful job.  

Six of Us 2

I watched the Netflix Matthew Perry documentary before I read this issue.  It adds to the melancholy of the murder mystery Tom King presents here.  I’m loving this series.  

Last Driver 2

This is drawn with Sean Murphy’s customary excellence, but I’m really bored by the story.  It’s only five issues, so I might as well ride it out.  

Doomquest 5

Hee, Doom is in Sue’s body during Galactus’ first invasion of Earth.  It’s peak Ryan North funny.  Another title that I’m absolutely loving.  

Wonder Woman 38

Matriarch steals the babies and this arc is starting to bore me.  Hope something happens soon.

New comics

I think I’m three weeks behind on new comics.  Let’s make a dent.  

Absolute Batman 25

Bruce’s friends have an intervention for him, which he obviously rejects.  This leads to a showdown w/ Grimm (Joker), who beats the crap out of Batman.  Batgirl rescues him, and a pregnant Selina shows up at the end.  Still interesting enough to stick with, but it’s definitely not as high as it used to be.

Gotham General 1

Greg Rucka returns to the heroic regular folk of Gotham, this time covering the doctors instead of the cops of Gotham Central.  It’s not as good, but very little is.  This reads too much like an episode of ER or The Pitt; where’s the Gotham flavor?  I don’t need superheroes, but patients suffering from prehistoric spore inhalation and the final page of an unconscious Stephanie Brown aren’t enough to give it that special oomph.  (I’ll still read the next (and final) issue.)

Detective Comics 1114

Batman freezes all the plants w/ Mr Freeze and Nora’s help.  Whee.  The action isn’t exciting enough to devote a full issue to it.  

Batman: Bad Seeds: Sunrise 1

Poison Ivy goes to jail, Killer Croc beheads Vandal Savage.  All in all, an underwhelming Bat Family event where the stakes never felt that high and I never felt any tension.  (As opposed to something like Contagion or Cataclysm.)

Flash 38

Turns out the Flashes of Insights are creating micro wormholes in Wally’s head, hence his out-of-character behavior.  Things are heading in the right direction before Oliver snarks one too many times and pisses the Flash off.  Climactic battle coming up next.  

Alien vs X-Men 2

This is the perfect Alien story, where nothing goes according to plan for the heroes and everyone starts dying.  No idea how they’re going to get out of this one, and there’s a good chance they don’t.  Which would only make this more fun.  

Absolute Wonder Woman 25

Diana confronts Cheetah.  Her friends are stupid and drink the fear-removal potion, which will no doubt lead them to do even stupider things.  Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman continue to do great things with this title.  It hasn’t slipped a whit.  

Fantastic Four 18

The FF complete their mission and save Magneto’s life.  Along the way, Johnny demonstrates how he’d be just as capable of a team leader if given the opportunity.  Ryan North nails how to do a company-mandated tie-in, and even manages to develop character at the same time.  

Legion of Super-Heroes 2

I’ve never been the biggest Legion fan, so a total reboot is fine by me.  Not sure where Joshua Williamson is going with this yet, but it’s decent enough, and Sherman’s art will keep me around for a good while.  

New comics

New comics!

Fantastic Four 17

The “team’s lost their memory and need to figure out their powers and interpersonal dynamics” thing feels a little overused, but Ryan North does a good enough job with it.  And it works without the reader needing to know anything about the DNX crossover it’s tying into, so bonus points for that.  

Absolute Wonder Woman 24

I just love this title so much when Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman are together on it.  It’s a perfect mix of exhilarating action, character beats, and gorgeous art.  I need to find the time to read it all at once, I still haven’t done that.  

Alien vs X-Men 1

This reminds me a lot of Warren Ellis’ WildCATs/Aliens, where the xenomorphs kill off a bunch of mainstays early on, setting up the main event to follow.  Kieron Gillen gets things off to a good start, but hopefully it doesn’t fall apart the way Aliens vs Avengers did.

Wonder Woman 2026 Annual

Tom King lets Stephanie and Leah Williams tell the origin of the Matriarch.  Blah blah she’s been selfish as a kid blah blah.  It’s competent enough, but doesn’t make Matriarch any more of an interesting character to me.  

Absolute Batman 24

I’m honestly surprised at how much my enthusiasm for this title has plummeted.  There’s something going on w/ the introduction of Absolute Batgirl, but I find myself just not caring at all.  A few more months of this and I’m likely to drop it.  

Batman of Two Worlds 1

Something DC put out for Batman Day, which I didn’t know was a thing.  This reads like a Free Comics Book Day kind of issue with short stories featuring the Matt Fraction Batman and Snyder’s Absolute Batman.  Totally not worth paying three bucks for.  

Last Driver 2

I’m totally in this for the art, because Sean Murphy’s writing isn’t holding up its end of the bargain.  

Flash 37

Flash gets into an ethics debate w/ this JLA teammates, and comes across as a simple-minded idiot when he’s unable to even acknowledge the gray area of his Minority Report actions.  It’s all a moot point when a catastrophe he supposedly prevented occurs anyway.  I hope his failing precog doesn’t let him off the hook for his philosophical failings.

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees Halloween Special

I was saddened to discover that creator Patrick Horvath only did the wrapper scenes for this anthology issue. But the various teams all do a great job, and certainly capture the same creepy spirit Horvath brought to the original two miniseries.  Looking forward to the next arc when it comes out in 2027.  

Superman: The Stranger 2

Wes Craig nails the 1920’s vibe with this story.  It really feels like a spiritual companion to For All Seasons.  Can’t put my finger on why, but that’s the feeling I get when I read this, even though it isn’t as Norman Rockwell.  

Batman 14

Batman looks for Mr Freeze while Verity Pennyworth takes on a trio of cop looters at the mansion.  Eh.  

Death Vigil 3

More of the same.  Again, not Stjepan Sejic’s best, but it might be growing on me.

New comics

Exquisite Corpses 1-8

Borrowed from the library because the title appealed to me, James Tynion IV doesn’t suck, and the concept of 12 assassins/serial killers duking it out in a sealed off little town was pretty interesting.  Unfortunately, Tynion appears to be the big picture guy, with a different writer doing the heavy lifting w/ each each.  Same w/ the mishmash of artists. 

This was not a fun read.  It’s such a hopeless situation for the townspeople that there’s no entertainment value in the experience.  The killers don’t have enough charisma to sustain the story either.  And the constant return to the shadowy overlords (one from each of the original US states, vying for control of the country) doesn’t add anything.  Not going to read any more of this.  

New comics!

Death Vigil 1-8

Definitely the weakest of Stjepan Sejic’s comicography.  To be fair, it’s an insane list of comics he’s worked on.  But this reads like his take on a generic manga, with a large cast of visually interesting characters, overly-complicated lore/rules, and lots of battle scenes that ultimately don’t engage me all that much.  

I’ll have to re-read the second volume now, I’m sure it’ll make a lot more sense.  I’ll also keep buying it, since Sejic is worth supporting.  Even less good Sejic is worth reading.

Wonder Woman 37

Very much a setup issue.  I didn’t think I’d ever be saying this, but Tom King’s characterization of a perfect Diana is starting to wear a bit thin on me.  At first, it was simply badass.  But now, it’s starting to smack of self-righteousness.  Even though she’s right.  Hopefully this feeling doesn’t last, because I want to keep loving this title.  

Daredevil 7

I had to buy this issue because I didn’t cancel last month in time.  I’ve already forgotten what happened in the last two months.  No regrets about halting my sub.  

Dark Knights of Steel II 3

Amanda Waller completes her coup, killing the queen and installing herself as regent.  Tom Taylor’s doing nice work with this, but it still hasn’t reached DCeased levels.  

Detective Comics 1113

Jeff Spokes isn’t a bad fill in for Mikel Janin at all.  This continues the story from Batman as the Bad Seeds event continues.  Batman fights to stop the blimps from releasing their toxin over Gotham.  Not bad.  

Absolute Cassandra Cain 1

Matias Bergara gives off major Kevin O’Neill vibes with his art here.  It’s a nicely done action story, but nothing stand out.

New comics

More new comics that have backed up.

Batman 13

Matteo Scalera and colorist Tomeu Morey create a Kelley Jones tone here.  Batman fights his way to the top of GCPD headquarters in a very poor man’s version of The Raid.  Vandal Savage is the final boss on the roof, and we’ll see how it goes next issue.  It’s fine.  I’m not that excited about this “Bad Seeds” crossover event.  

Fantastic Four 16

One of Ryan North’s weaker efforts.  The FF violate the Prime Directive on an alien world and go through convoluted lengths to fix the situation.  Not his most inspired work.  

Supergirl: Survive 4

Kara and Kal-El experiment with their powers, then meet an exiled Braniac.  This is the evil one, right?  So him building a gateway to the Phantom Zone can only lead to bad things, right?  I love how this continues to surprise me and leave me guessing.

Daredevil 6

I tried.  But Flaviano as guest artist starkly illustrates how weak Stephanie Phillips’ writing is on this title.  And while I love Lee Garbett, he’s no Hayden Sherman.  He needs at least some semblance of story backing him up to keep me buying.  Cutting from my sub.