Taffy's Take

My blog for reviews of comics, manga, and other media that interests me

[taffystake]

Time Paradox Ghostwriter

Written by: Kenji Ichima

Illustrated by: Tsunehiro Date

Now....when I feel inspired to write, it typically involves either a work I utterly disdain or something I absolutely adore. And usually, for the second one, it takes me a long time to finally reach my conclusion that I like said thing. With the comic reviews, I was only all in with certain comics either do to previous work by the writer or due to the amount of time allowing me to finally draw my conclusion. With manga, it takes even longer since while I get new portions of the story weekly, those portions are generally quick snippets that can vary on how much they offer to sway me on whether I am all in or not with the story.

And then sometimes, crazy shit like Time Paradox Ghostwriter happens. Where barely ten chapters of the manga are out and I am already full-on ride or die for this story and want others to join me on this ABSOLUTELY insane and touching story.

Time Paradox Ghostwriter is the story of Teppei Sasaki, a small-time artist attempting to make his first break into the manga industry after showing some promise in his younger days. But as he nears his 25th birthday and has faced a duo of rejections as he continues attempting to create a manga that will evidently appeal to everyone, he pledges to quit if he can manage to say the words. And just as he is about to, lightning strikes his apartment and absolutely ruins his microwave, his fridge, and a robot figurine, fusing them into a small monstrosity. Said monstrosity suddenly dings before the microwave pops open and deposits a copy of Shonen Jump into his room. A copy from ten years in the future, just as a new manga has debuted. Reading this manga from the future, Teppei is absolutely blown away with the quality of both the art and the story offered by this first chapter and screams it out into the still-raging storm after leaving the magazine behind. But as he returns to his room, he finds the strange future manga is no longer there. 

Chalking it up to a simple burst of inspiration made manifest, Teppei quickly sets to drawing an entire copy of this first chapter in the final 24 hours before a meeting at Shonen Jump for what entries will be given a one-shot. And while he manages to do this, he is denied the one-shot. Instead, due to the copy landing in the hands of a lead editor, the manga is instead picked up as a new series directly. Which is interesting, since that whole time travel thing wasn’t a dream and the original author of the series sees a concept that she has only begun to work suddenly in Shonen Jump in a fully fleshed-out form.

From there, the manga is quick to establish and build up the relationship between Teppei and this original author, Itsuki Aino, a 17 year old girl who soon becomes a drawing assistant to Teppei. And while it could lose some of the drama that this first chapter and the second chapter introducing Itsuki produce, the story just keeps things focused onto the manga from the future and the eventual results that these alterations to the timeline are aimed to produce. And while it does so, the story begins to make some commentary about creative works and some of the pitfalls that one can fall into involving them, ranging from imposter syndrome, unattainable standards, and deleterious efforts to maintain some perceived level of quality or appeal within a work. 

And while I would have stayed on the fence usually, Chapter 10 pushed me over the edge to write this piece, just because of how pointed it is with the discussions about those creative pitfalls that were mentioned. And it does so while showing a very relatable story that just drives the point home. And I dare not spoil any of it. I’d rather leave it for anyone who reads this and looks at the manga to discover.\

On top of that, the art is exceptional, with a great level of detail to the expressions and the actions, which is especially shown in moments like the leadup to the lightning strike in Chapter 1, the rushes of drafts during chapters 3 and 4 as Teppei attempts to continue creating the manga, and even more moments beyond.

You can check out a few free chapters for this manga on the Viz website at https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/chapters/time-paradox-ghostwriter. And honestly, just read the first chapter. As a single one-shot, it works exceptionally and knowing that you can continue on from where it ends just leaves you wanting to continue forward as quickly as you can.

[taffystake]

So......Are you ready for the encore?

Taffy’s Take: Dark Nights Death Metal #1

Written by: Scott “Hallowed Be Thy Name” Snyder

Pencils by: Greg “Panikiller” Capullo

Inks by: Jonathan “Motorbreath” Glapion

Colors by: FCO “Fixxxer” Plascencia

So....it has all finally come to this. The finale. The ultimatum in a long saga of stories that started in the original Dark Nights, began showing its hand in No Justice, and was fully fleshed out with Snyder’s Justice League run. And it opens with a resounding boom that rivets your attention straight to the story and won’t let go until the pages run out. 

We open with Sergeant Rock, preparing himself and an unknown audience for a conflict to come. When or where this is set is somewhat unknown, but the massive futuristic assault rifle he levels to emphasis his last line says that Rock is somewhere in the modern day.

After the credits page, featuring a map of the current world of the DCU and a message that calls Death Metal an “Anti-Crisis”, we cut to Wonder Woman, hard at work deconstructing the invisible jet with a buzzsaw-like device in the literal depths of hell (Originally Themyscira) when someone interrupts her over approaching people. Said person is the flaming, green-covered skeleton that Swamp Thing has become in this world and he says that someone is coming with prisoners. And as Diana walks through her prison to meet these people, we get to see the absolute myriad of villains entombed in the place, including Joker. Once they reach the quartet, we get to meet Batmage, a red-suited Batman, a cloaked figure, and.....Bat-Tyrannosaurus. After some very terse banter, Diana is forced to throw this unknown prisoner into the pits of Tartarus. But before he is cast into the depths, he mutters something to Diana that makes her recognize the person for a moment.

After that, we are shown Castle Bat and given a backstory of a specific field within that area and the rebels who died within the tunnels underneath it before pulling back to a panel of a castle, with The Batman Who Laughs’ twisted Robins and Joker dragons dominating the structure. And then we meet The Batman Who Laughs’ League, composed of pairings of heros and Dark Multiverse Batmen. We have Harley Quinn and Dr Arkham, Aquaman and Bathomet, Wonder Woman and Batmage, and Mister Miracle and Darkfather. With each of them, we get a small question about their current work, with the most noteworthy being Mister Miracle revealing that Superman has almost succumbed to the Anti-Life Equation. Content with their briefings, The Batman Who Laughs begins to explain how Perpetua, the god who created their multiverse, has destroyed another of their universe, leaving only 8 before The Batman Who Laughs and Perpetua can remake the multiverse however they desire. Before we can hear more, we’re dragged into Diana’s perspective as the true Batman engages in a psychic link with her, trying to advocate for a small victory rather than the sweeping final win that Diana desires. As her thoughts turn towards what happened to result in the current state of the universe and her lack of memory about what caused it, The Batman Who Laughs interrupts her as he can tell that she is hiding something.

And at that moment, an explosive arrow fires out of the nearby woods and nearly vaporizes The Batman Who Laughs. Sacrificing one of his Robins, we soon see Bruce stride out to exchange threats with The Batman Who Laughs, who takes with some jest before ordering an entire squadron of Dark Multiverse Batmen to kill Bruce. While the enslaved Justice League does their best to take advantage of the distraction, their Dark Multiverse minders are quick to detain them from any rebellious actions. So Bruce is left alone, simply standing in this field to face down an army. And as The Batman Who Laughs monologues about how disappointed the brave men and women who died in this field would be at Bruce’s actions, he asks him what he would say to justify himself.

His answer?

One word.

“RISE.”

And so, with a BLACK LANTERN RING ON HIS FINGER, BRUCE WAYNE SUMMONS AN ARMY OF UNDEAD REBELS TO FIGHT THE DARK MULTIVERSE BATMEN JUST PURELY TO DEMONSTRATE WHAT HIS METHOD CAN DO TO DIANA BEFORE RIDING OFF ON A SKELETAL MOTORCYCLE AND LEAVING ZOMBIE JONAH HEX TO CONTINUE LEADING THE ASSAULT.

And now, as the audience both in the know about all of that and not in the know but hyped as hell because BRUCE WAYNE WENT FULL FUCKING NECROMANCER sits in the afterglow of that amazing moment, we cut to a single page depicting the planet Ossex as the Main Man, Lobo, unearths something from underneath the living bone of the planet.

Having made it back to Themyscira, Diana is quick to continue with the rebellion, setting off into Tartarus to see who this mystery prisoner is. And its...Wally West, with a Dr Manhattan-style hydrogen atom drawn into the forehead of his costume. And with Wally, we finally get an explanation of what the hell is going on. See, with the traditional multiverses, they are created using the positive energies that were explored in the Justice League run, things like the Speed Force, the Emotional Spectrum, Imagination. The inverse, stuff like chaos magic and the forces of doom that Perpetua wished to bring to power (and succeeded at doing) are what Wally calls Crisis Energy. And whereas the positive energies wish to create a strong united universe, Crisis Energies wish to simply make only one thing, one moment, one person important. And so, when Perpetua was trapped after her attempts to make a universe of war out of crisis energy, she did her best to instigate crises and came back empowered with all that energy. Meanwhile, the league, empowered by the slightly failed efforts of Dr Manhattan to ‘fix’ the multiverse, gathered all the positive energy they could and then, between the last issue of Justice League and Death Metal, the two forces clashed. Which, since they were basically smashing tow inverse forces together, resulted in both sides burning themselves out.

Now, that block of text could be extremely dry feeling, but it works really well in the two page spread, with the word balloons beginning to form an infinity symbol as images of past crises ranging from the original Crisis On Infinite Earths to Emerald Twilight to Dark Nights Metal in the background. 

But back to the story. With that explanation done, Wonder Woman begins to theorize potentially going back to those crises and gathering this information for themselves in order to reshape the universe themselves. Resulting in....”The first Anti-Crisis” The Batman Who Laughs interrupts with, striding into Tartarus to cut his own deal with Wonder Woman to let him take control over Perpetua. If she helps him, she gets all the people Perpetua has trapped and their own planet. And after that, he emphasizes how she can’t out-plan him, how he’s already prepared for her to knock him out, use the invisible jet she was being forced to deconstruct and melt down to give her armor that would render her undetectable. Wonder Woman is quick to counter that despite all the knowledge The Batman Who Laughs says he has, that entire plan is what Bruce would do. So he is quick to counter, stating so then she’d make a weapon, some sort of sword?

But it seems The Batman Who Laughs didn’t account for two things. One, for Diana to have already made her weapon before he showed up. Two, she didn’t need to make a sword. And so, with a pull of its ripcord, THE CHAINSAW OF TRUTH CLEAVES ITS WAY THROUGH THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS IN A SPLASH PAGE OF PURE ENERGY ERUPTING OUT OF THE DEMON WHERE THE CHAINSAW IS CUTTING THROUGH HIM!

The comic ends with two quick one panel stories. The first, with Batmage executing a final plan that The Batman Who Laughs had in place to unleash a final Bruce Wayne. Which only sounds mildly menacing, unti the art shows both a button with a watchmen-style frownie face and the final Bruce Wayne in silhouette, a glowing hydrogen atom on his forehead.

The other is a cut back to Sergeant Rock, still continuing with his tirade from the beginning of the comic before he is taken out of the moment by Batman coming to retrieve him for the big fight. And as Batman promises One last fight with everyone together, we get to see in silhouette that Sergeant Rock is missing his everything below his torso, revealing himself to likely be another resurrection from Bruce’s Black Lantern ring.

So, in summary, IM PUMPED TO SEE WHAT HEIGHTS THIS THING HITS! THE BIG MOMENTS WERE SO DAMNED COOL! THE ART IS STILL THE ABSOLUTE ALL KILLER NO FILLER THAT CAPULLO ROCKED OUT WITH IN THE LAST DARK NIGHTS METAL EVENT AND I CANT WAIT TO SEE WHAT NEW SPORES OF MADNESS HE GETS TO CREATE FOR THIS STORY! 

And while I’d like to be pure hype beast, that feels a little disingenuous when I do have some small moments that seem like they could be tweaked. Both of the long exposition scenes for the Dead Bats and the Positive Energy vs Crisis Energy could have potentially stood for another pass just to really tighten them up, but I will also admit that both those scenes kinda deserve to be long-winded. The Dead Bats to make sure that the setup for Batman with a Black Lantern Ring summoning an army at that point works and the Energy one because its explaining the entire setup for the rest of the event series and it helps lull things down so that the hype of Chainsaw of Truth can hit like it should. 

So yeah, this thing is absolutely something any Scott Snyder fan, any DC fan, heck Id almost venture to say anyone interested in comics read. None of the story elements of the comic intrinsically need you to know the backstory behind them, but there are definitely rewards for knowing DC continuity in general and Scott Snyder’s previous works in this arcing story. So yeah, I am going to sit here, vibrating in anticipation as I await the next issue of Death Metal from the Cowboys From Hell on their encore tour.

[taffystake]

Three Weeks Worth of Reviews in One Post

So....yeah. Not packing the most amount of time this week, so I figured I would do these up quick and get my general opinions of the stuff I read this week out there. Especially cause a lot of it was really great.

Amazing Spider-Man #29 & 30: Both of these issues are very fun times, even if 29 is mostly just a bit of a moment to help display clearly where MJ and Peter sit in their current relationship. Which is....mostly on each others’ side and doing their best to always try and improve. With the fun twist at the end that Peter was going to make sure that they always tried to stay together by asking MJ to marry him. The side effect of this story? It gets MJ out of New York just in time for Absolute Carnage to go into full swing, with issue 30 occurring alongside Absolute Carnage #3. Pete hides away Eddie’s kid and Normie Osborn before fighting against the Cletus Kassidy-pretending Norman Osborn, while we get to see Kindred during his visit to Ravencroft to grab Mysterio as he talks to Norman. And how he displays this level of familiarity with Norman and Peter that begins to narrow his possible identities, while we keep cutting to Norman beating down Peter, with the comic ending with Norman triumphant over Peter. All of it is a heck of a show and the art is a lot of fun to look at, while managing to convey some great emotion at times. Fun times all around, still loving Nick Spencer writing Spidey.

Absolute Carnage #3: VENOMIZED HULK!!!!!! BEATING UP GOD-CARNAGE!!! AS THE LAST PANELS!!!!! Look, I cant sell people on Absolute Carnage more than it sells itself. This is a story that is good, epic, and amazingly arted that it does you a disservice to be missing this series or Marvel’s other event series during this current time.

Powers and House of X #4-5: Speaking of other event series, here is Jonathan Hickman’s.....honestly? I’m gonna call it his magnum opus. The story is so great even for the less informed on the X-Men, but knowing exactly what a turn this entire event has created, the level of cult fanaticism and fear that it puts into you about mutants due to seeing what is occurring within the entire Krakoa continent under Xavier’s.....honestly I’d call it regime, gives it even more impact. There is nothing crazier than seeing the evisceration of the X-Men during House of X #4 and then seeing the almost horrifying ceremony that surrounds their revival in House of X #5, not even getting into villains like Apocalypse showing up on Krakoa due to their entire place matching what they wanted for Mutantkind. The 6s for both series cant come soon enough, and Im certain they will rip this entire event wide open.

Justice League Dark #15: The fight between the JLD and the Injustice League Dark begins as the seeds of discord that were planted last issue take root. We get to watch as Kirk Langstrom does his best to become more ‘monstrous’ to hide his insecurities and transforms himself into a monster straight out of John Carpenter’s The Thing, Wonder Woman and Zatanna begin to mess with the Black Diamond of Eclipso which Circe is searching for and puts Wonder Woman into a place that she is likely to be attacked by a remnant of Hecate, and Swamp Thing is turned into mulch when he ends up becoming noticed by the new Guardian of the Green, The Floronic Man Jason Woodrue. And it all ends with Klarion and Solomon Grundy forcing a creation of Heacte’s into submission, a creation that literally looks like a reaper. And the art conveys this horror so well. I donèt make that The Thing comparison lightly, because it looks like the kind of thing that Junji Ito would have nightmares about. I am so excited to see where this goes.

Ironheart #10: This is a comic that is definitely on the line for me from purchase on day vs actual subscription, but I enjoy Riri under Eve Ewing’s writing, the whole thing is fun and interesting to see, and even if there are a fair number of guest heroes, Riri always feels like the main focus who these characters are supporting in places she isn’t strong in. Plus, the ending here with the tease over the Ten Rings matched with Luciano Vecchio’s art mkaes me really wanna see what comes next with Riri.

Justice League #32: This comic felt so epic to me that the big reveal of a hero coming to the Justice League’s aid had me humming the one superhero theme that always comes to mind when the heroes arrive to save the day, the Avengers theme. I dont care if that IS crossing companies, it was the only thing running through my mind because of how good a moment it was story and artwise. And getting to see the Justice League in past, present, and future all unite to face down their villains and use everything that have (along with some help arriving for most of them) to actually succeed in beginning to push back the villains.......it just feels so rewarding after 30 issues of the heroes and villains exchanging very equal blows that kept each side scrambling in order to keep the upper hand. Also, getting an ending moment where I was cheering the ANTI-MONITOR ON FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING was just such a moment of pure build-up and subversion that I was in awe. Please.....go read the No Justice miniseries and the entirety of this. You wont regret it at all.

Batman Curse of the White Knight #3: It’s Sean Murphy continuing to write his story as the Batman crew begin to slowly learn what exactly Azrael is and what inspired his attempted destruction of Batman last issue. Which results in more than a few shifts as Bruce reveals his identity to Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya, Batman and Harley attempt to get some information out of Joker before giving up and just investigating Arkham again to find more stuff about Lafayette Arkham and Bekkar, and finally Gordon retires from the GCPD and lets Renee take over as Commissioner. Which is good....because Gordon goes out to talk to Batman and finds Azrael, starting a street war between Azrael’s followers and the cops, eventually ending with Harvey shot and Commissioner Gordon....dead, thanks to a greatsword through the chest and a 10 story drop. Please read. Highly recommend, especially with how all killer, no filler the story and universe Sean set up with the original story and this story are. You will either enjoy the hell out of it or despise it. No in-between.

[taffystake]

Something Is Killing The Children #1 Review

Written by: James Tynion IV

Illustrated by: Werther Dell’dera

Colors by: Miquel Muerto

This is something I bought on a whim after seeing the above cover at my LCS (Cover courtesy of Jenny Frison) and looking at some of the interior art. Now, allow me to try and sell you on this comic that absolutely deserves all the attention it can get. Especially with a few crowds of people that should be active and looking for things like this.

The comic opens with a group of kids at a sleepover, playing truth and dare. After one truth, we get to hear an absurdly creepy story of one of the kids seeing some strange creature on their lawn after they turned off the lights in the room and looked out the window. After proclaiming it lives in the ravine, we jump ahead to a police interrogation room where the kid explains the entire story was made up but they still went to the ravine, where the kid slipped out of view into the ravine and heard his friends screams.

We jump to two weeks later, in a totally different place, where we see a wounded young girl in a red wagon as another older woman, armed with a pair of swords and covered in blood, walks over to the wagon to grab a drink of water. A short little conversation between the young girl and older woman ensues as it seems the older woman has another thing to kill in a town called Archer’s Peak. Back with the kid, we see him going to school and walking past a memorial for his dead friends when he gets called out by a kid over how he was totally the one who killed them all and how he msut have done it because he’s gay and got shot down by his friends.

After the confrontation, he ends up in the principal’s office, where we see both of them desperately trying to cope with this mass slaughter and failing before the principal simply lets the kid back to class without anything else said between them. After seeing the older woman from earlier arriving in Archer’s Peak and looking at a wall of missing kid posters, we go back to the kid as he checks a message from his dad to be careful, get inside the hotel room, and make sure to lock the door. And after that moment, we see the older woman introduce herself to the kid, James, and she begins trying to extract information about what the hell happened to James’ friends. And we get to see what James actually saw, how he saw the eviscerated bodies of his slowly dying friends and the monstrous alien creature that committed this wholesale slaughter of the kids. After she gets a call, the woman explains what she’s about to do: she is going into those woods and she is going to kill the monster there. And our comic ends as James looks up to her with only one question: “Can I help?”

And the art really backs up the feel of this story, with the sketchy look, heavy shading, and exceptional color work all adding to the atmosphere the story creates. Whole pages go without anything beyond sound effects, there is no censoring or toning down of any of the gore, and the entire thing holds a level of tension that makes it feel like it could all snap into a complete slaughter or horror show at any second. I have no idea about anything here beyond a monster is in the woods killing kids and a mysterious woman has come into town to fight it herself, but I don’t have to with how well the tone and emotion come through in this issue. I can’t wait a minute for the next issue and I hope that this review inspires you all to at least check this comic out. If you are a fan of Stranger Things, It, Stephen King, or any horror that is more predicated on the tone and feel than a simple reveal of spooky thing, then you are doing yourself a disservice by not looking at this thing.

[taffystake]

Absolute Carnage #2 Review

Written by: Donny Cates

Pencils by: Ryan Stegman

Inks by: JP Mayer

Colors by: Frank Martin

Last issue ended in Cletus recreating the Norman Osborn Carnage thanks to finding Norman in Ravencroft, with Venom and Spider-Man cornered in Norman’s old cell. So yeah, things are bad. Lets see them get worse!!

So we open with the pair still cornered, with Spidey preparing for a desperate last stand against Knull-Carnage, normal Carnage, and the horde of infected people behind them. Venom....is not for that particular life, instead bashing through the wall behind them and taking off with the wings he can now use. Norman questions why they aren’t mindlessly charging after the pair, with Cletus advocating for a little patience so they can kill them all (Damn if that aint a good way to show that new Carnage doesnt mean old Carnage is obsolete). With Spidey and Venom, they are quick to establish they need to help everyone they can. So Spidey is naturally sent towards the more heroic people while Venom is aimed towards the more....villainous symbiote possessors. After a quick scene with Cletus and Norman establishing the hierarchy and pointing out how things are going down in the tie-ins that are important to this codex hunt, we jump to Venom as he comes to aid Scorpion and Miles as they fight off a horde of Carnage infectees. Which ends after Eddie throws Scorpion back into the fight with Scorpion getting paralyzed as Norman extracts his codex from his spine and leaves Miles to be grabbed by them. Resulting in the comic ending with Miles turning into another intelligent Carnage infectee that taunts Eddie over this failure.

So yeah. Ryan Stegman doing art. Is amazing. Go look at. Cause it is always so damn good with Stegman at the pencils. Go read this sucker. It is so damn good and creepy and cool and....GAAAAAHHHH!!!!

[taffystake]

Justice League #30 & 31 Review

Written by: Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV

Art by: Jorge Jimenez

Colors by: Alejandro Sanchez

Now then, its time for the great Justice/Doom war to begin. And the Justice League can only see one way to actually manage to do this: time travel for a few specific artifacts. If they can do that and grab the Anti-Monitor, they might just manage to shoot the moon and save the multiverse.

The first issue is a slow burn to start up what is about to happen, explaining the forces of the universe that have been established by this run and correlating them to their matching forces that have empowered members of the Justice League. And all of this is being explained to the mass of superheroes that have been recruited by the Justice League to defend the Hall of Justice while they try to find things. Specifically, parts of the same rock that Lex has to try and create a similarly powerful part of this Totality to fight him on a level playing field. So they send Flash and Jon Stewart into the past to grab a piece from the WWII era, while Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman are sent to the future to find another piece. But after they do so, a strange being charges into the portal after GL and Flash after declaring how the Justice League will die due to....something. That something? The fact the Legion of Doom beat them by two weeks to both time periods to find these Totality pieces themselves. So naturally, they find some irritable people in both eras calling them out on their lateness: The JSA in the past, and Kamandi in the future.

The next issue picks up with the current timeline building a way to find and grab the Anti-Monitor, while attempting to keep Hawkgirl from deciding revenge is a better plan than the actual good plan. In the past, we have the JSA being re-established as part of the universe, with GL and Flash realizing they need to find Starman (Golden Age)’s Star-Rod, which he gave to the government. And so they set off for a strange island called Hawaii. In the future, we have Kamandi and the Trinity discovering that Brainiac beat them to the punch and has begun bottling potential futures. So they set off to find the future that actually possesses what they want, cause Kamandi’s future certainly doesn’t. And with this, we get to see what major obstacle all three timelines face. With the modern day timeline, its the fact that Perpetua and Lex are already en-route towards where they expect the Anti-Monitor to be. In the past, its the fact that they have arrived exactly in time for the Pearl Harbor attack with some aid from members of the Legion of Doom to boost the damage. Finally, the future timeline has our group coming across a group called the Justice Legion Alpha that have already been infected by Brainiac and prepare to attack our heroes. But the true twist comes as we go to the Anti-Monitor and his ally at the end of the Universe....Aquaman.

So yeah, the art definitely backs up and helps convey exactly the scale and power going on here. Jorge Jimenez is a damned good artist and packs all kinds of cool panels, great expressions, and crazy cool shots in both of these issues. This isn’t to diminish the power that Alejandro Sanchez adds with his colors, but those exceptional colors wouldn’t have nearly the impact without the amazing base to work off of. I am still so in love with this run and I hope that all y’all are trying to read along with me.

[taffystake]

Justice League Dark #14 Review

Written by: James Tynion IV

Pencils by: Alvaro Martinez Bueno

Inks by: Raul Fernandez

Colors by: Adriano Lucas

Much like Justice League is building up to the Justice/Doom war, Justice League Dark is building up for The Witching War. So this issue may not be the fastest paced but the groundwork it is laying looks to be leading towards some crazy magic stuff that the rest of this run has been showing us.

We open with Wonder Woman, being contacted in her dream by Zatara to reveal that she has been pushed towards ending all magic in the world due to the actions she has undertaken. After an errant uttering of the Upside-Down Man’s name as the reason for this results in the creature cutting the dream short, we jump to the rest of the JLD blasting their way through a coven of vampires with a ton of cool and kinetic action shots. After that, we go to the Oblivion Bar, where Wonder Woman attempts to help inspire Traci 13 unsuccessfully before she begins talking to Constantine. And as a charlatan himself, he is quick to point Wonder Woman directly towards who exactly has been manipulating her towards this eventual end: Circe. Back with the rest of the JLD, we see a cat in the church they just liberated that quickly leads to Klarion the Witch Boy. Who Man-Bat nearly discovers before the witch boy charms Kirk to instigate some self-doubt about him being a fraud and how a more monstrous serum would help hide his fraud nature. Teleporting back to the rest of his allies, we get to see Circe has gathered Solomon Grundy, The Floronic Man, Papa Midnite, and Circe pointing towards their last recruit: Eclipso, the recruit who will turn the entire war towards Circe’s victory.

The art here looks so creepy and cool, that I can’t wait to see what comes next. Especially if it packs the level of horror and magic coolness that one expects after the other issues that have been in this run. So...whose ready to see a real Witching War?

[taffystake]

Amazing Spider-Man #28

Written by: Nick Spencer

Pencils by: Kev Walker

Inks by: John Dell

Colors by: Laura Martin and Andrew Crossley

Last issue ended with the reveal that Randy is dating Beetle, the new leader of the Sinister Syndicate who just kidnapped Boomerang to sell off to Kingpin. And now we get to see what exactly comes of that.

And what comes of that....is the pair getting into an argument over Beetle going full villain after proclaiming she simply does a lot of legal loopholes to enrich herself. Specifically, her crime was assaulting Randy’s place of work, nearly wounding his boss May Parker, and kidnapping the roommate he likes. So she leaves, Pete goes to grab his long range spider tracer receiver after watching that whole fight, and he quickly finds the Syndicate. Just in time for Kingpin to initiate a siege on the group that Beetle is helping stage. Spidey shows up to save Boomerang before this whole thing devolves into a brawl, which is when Kingpin decides to invoke a little loophole in his deal with Kindred by proclaiming Spider-Man to be under mind control and let the police assault him. And as they do so, Boomerang decides to reveal to the rest of the Syndicate that he has figured out whats going on: Beetle has sold out the entire Syndicate in the exact same way he sold out her.

And before Beetle can disintegrate him for attempting to reveal the truth, Boomerang reveals exactly what the hell he has that has resulted in this massive Kingpin-powered assault against him. Something powerful enough to get Beetle to instantly flip to wanting to keep Boomerang safe. And so, after some talk, the Sinister Syndicate charges out to fight the police and let Spidey escape with Boomerang. The Syndicate gets captured, Boomerang decides to sit down and reveal what exactly he revealed to Beetle that made her flip so easily, and we get to see the Syndicate freed by the uncaptured Beetle attacking their prison transport. The comic ends with Randy at the F.E.A.S.T. center as we watch a crew of men employed by a Mister Stone arrive to help rebuild and repair the place, with a very fun permit expediting by a council member thanks to a threat of suing from a lawyer named Janice Lincoln. AKA Beetle. So nice to see Randy’s relationship might no longer be on the rocks.

While the art isn’t the most rockstar of the run and Kingpin looks exceptionally weird in some panels, the whole comic is very serviceable and fun. Best line was what kept the Sinister Syndicate from killing any of the cops they fought, which was Spidey threatening to tell Randy about Beetle wounding people severely. Its tons of fun, even if it isn't ‘advancing’ that big myth arc about Kindred (Mister Centipede guy) that Nick has been pushing for most of the run. Tons of fun, plenty to like here, but I wouldn’t exactly call this my hill to die on for calling it the best like I would with Absolute Carnage and House of X.

[taffystake]

Powers of X #3 Review

Written by: Jonathan Hickman

Art by: R.B. Silva

Colors by: Marte Garcia

Alright, so here we are. The ‘supplementary’ comic to House of X. Which does a ton to explain why they do all sorts of things in House of X. Especially today.

The entire issue is focused on the era 100 years from the inception of the X-Men and 90 years from House of X. And we get to watch as the majority of the mutants launch an attack on the last bastion of humanity, attracting the attention of the majority of the Sentinels for how illogical and dumb this sort of move is. So naturally they go over there to check out why the hell they are doing this incredibly stupid move. Which is just what they want, since it leaves Woilverine, Apocalypse, and the mutant Krakoa able to break into the data repository and get some vital information. Sure, this results in a massive last stand that ends in the majority of the characters killing or dying in their own little last stands. To the point, Apocalypse is the one to stay behind and fight off the Nimrod Sentinels while they send Wolverine back to their hideout. So even as Apocalypse, the immortal mutant, is torn apart, we get to see the last scene.

Wolverine opens up the coffin that traditionally contains Apocalypse to reveal....Moira McTaggert. And our recently revealed little reincarnator has been prepped to absorb all the information contained in what they stole in the data repository, identifying approximately when and how the Nimrod Sentinels that drove mutants to extinction emerged to allow for a possible solution to be found. And with that, Wolverine stabs Moira in the chest due to the lack of anything to save in this timeline. And so, we watch as Moira’s ninth life ends and she begins again, to instigate the events of House of X. See, when they showed the timelines of Moira’s lives, two of them went off into the future without data attached: Moira 9 and Moira 10. With Moira 10, its obvious why, since that might spoil House of X, but this shows why Moira 9 wasn’t elaborated more. To hide the major twist of this timeline and what it implies.

While the art of this last stand does nothing to carry the emotion that we saw in House of X #4, it definitely shows a lot of fun details and cool bits. Still a totally solid comic with a great story, but its hard to compare to Pepe Larraz’s exceptional art. So yeah, read this comic and make sure you do it in the order that all these comics list in the back because otherwise you might miss a detail or have a question that the other series answered. 

[taffystake]

House of X #3 + 4 Review

Written by: Jonathan Hickman

Art by: Pepe Larraz

Colors by: Marte Garcia

Here we are: things are kicking into high gear. With a final twist in issue 4 that just makes you get hooked to see what in the blue hell could POSSIBLY be next. 

With issue 3, we get to see Krakoa establish itself as a massive world power, able to override the US’s attempt to detain Sabretooth within the deepest, darkest hole they have available thanks to Emma Frost and a few of the Stepford Cuckoos....surprisingly not using psychic powers but instead diplomatic power. Meanwhile, a good portion of the traditional X-Men team boards  a Shi’ar scout ship to launch towards the giant Mother Mold in orbit of the sun. Apparently, the data that Mystique and Sabretooth stole was about the fact that such a thing existed and how they could best assault the place in order to end the threat it posed before it could reach anything approaching full power. Specifically, due to information that was revealed in Powers of X #3 that told about how the next level of Sentinels and robots would come from this thing coming online. So they are off to end it all, and manage to reach the space station at the time none of the Sentinels that typically live on it are onboard. However, one suicide bomb later and their ship looks to be destroyed. Enter next issue.

The good? The majority of them survived. The bad? Husk and Archangel are dead, Nightcrawler is pretty wounded, and Logan is busy regenerating from being exploded. But they venture forward as security prepares to respond to the X-Men now triggering the emergency kill process for Mother Mold, with two of the four collars being released before security can respond. A third is quick to follow, but when they attempt the fourth is when things take a sudden and severe turn for the worst. Mystique is spaced before she can release the last collar, Nightcrawler is disintegrated in a second as he teleports Wolverine out onto the final strut keeping Mother Mold attached to the station, Wolverine falls into the sun with the Mother Mold after breaking the last strut, Cyclops is hot to death by the remaining security, and Jean Grey is killed out in space by the returning Sentinel drones. And with that, Xavier snaps, declaring that these sorts of wholesale mutant slaughters will happen no more, as images of the data from the destruction of Genosha and the devastation caused by Scarlet Witch flash alongside the words “No More”. End of comic.

And damn if the art doesnt back all of this up. Pepe Larraz’s art and Marte Garcia’s color make that entire long final scene that was issue 4 carry the emotional weight and power that some entire events WISH they could pack. Because it lets all the characters go out with a heroic last stand or having done what heroics they could before they end up dead. 

Honestly? If you are sleeping on both this and Absolute Carnage, then I have no damned clue what you are doing. These are some of the coolest things Ive seen in comics in....ever, for my time as a comic reader. After around a dozen events from both DC and Marvel that I’d call boring to mildly cool, these two are some of the strongest comics I’ve seen in a long time. Go read either of these, cause I know for a fact that nearly everyone was a fan of the characters associated with one of these events and both of these are amazing.

[taffystake]

This Week in Taffy Comics (AKA I Have A Busy Week But Still Wanna Talk About The Comics I Read)

As the title says, its time to write another batch of quick reviews for each comic.

Amazing Spider-Man #27: Picking up from last issue, we get to see the all-female Syndicate on their first opting: capturing Boomerang to torture him to death for how much he has screwed all of them over in the past/been generally scummy. And Boomerang is hanging out at the FEAST center to help Peter and May when they show up. So we get to see as an extremely well-coordinated Syndicate just brutalizes the extremely less-capable Spider-Man and Boomerang duo before taking Boomerang back to their base, where we see Beetle is planning to sell Boomerang back to Kingpin rather than the offers to let the others dictate what happens she told the rest of the Syndicate. And also, when Spidey goes to get his gear to track down Boomerang, he finds out that Randy Robertson, his roommate, is dating Beetle. So yeah, tons of fun little intriguing bits at work here. The art from Kev Walker is a ton of fun, if a little weak in some of the facial expression work. And this comic is still showing the small tie-ins to the villain Kindred from issue 25, with how Beetle (as an employee of Kingpin) won’t harm Spider-Man due to Kingpin’s deal with the centipede villain.

Absolute Carnage Separation Anxiety #1: Well, its time to see how the LIfe Foundation symbiotes that formed into Hybrid are managing out in the world. And how they are....is basically as a stray dog who comes across a young girl doing her best to avoid going inside to her about-to-be-broken family. So, in its Knull-crazed state, Hybrid decides to help out by ‘fixing’ the family and letting each family member get a symbiote. And so we get to watch as a young girl and boy essentially deal with the monster from The Thing, and all of the horror that entails. The art really helps to sell it, with everything looking nice and normal up until the moment Hybrid emerges, which is when the art just takes off with very tense paneling and crazy new models for the symbiotes. Its honestly a ton of fun and I recommend it as a read.

Silver Surfer Black #3: After getting smacked by Knull, Silver Surfer is now hanging out with a very young version of Ego and is trying to get the living planet to help him fight Knull. Except Ego has a massive pain and Silver Surfer offers to take care of it in order to let Ego help him and hopefully get Silver Surfer back to a place and time where he won’t be slowly dying due to using his powers. So he dives in, gets past the organic defenses that this living planet has and reaches Ego’s core. A core that is currently occupied by Lifebringer One, the cosmic incubator of Galactus. Still a lot of fun, definitely interesting to see Silver Surfer on the back foot for this comic run and can’t wait to see where we go from here. The art is definitely a lot more psychadelic and abstract than some people might enjoy but I find it a great time.

Ironheart #9: Riri is in Wakanda to find the Wellspring of Power that the Ten Rings is after and her only help is Shuri. Unfortunately, Shuri and Riri initially mix like oil and fire, at least until a lot of heroic action against shadow monsters that are likely a result of this wellspring occurs, letting Riri and Shuri establish something resembling a rapport. Luciano Vecchio is an amazing artist and really sells a lot of the characters and actions extremely well, the fact that Riri and Shuri drive each other nuts due to their similarities rather than just automatically clicking as a team because they both do hero things is fun and gives the whole story its own little arc instead of simply being all about the Ten Rings stuff. I am having a lot of fun with this series and hope the rest of y’all are as well.

Powers of X #2: Four stories that once again begin showing small details. In this case, it shows how Professor X and Magneto united due to Moira’s interactions with them, a reveal to the House of X crew about the Mother Mold that is orbiting the sun and preparing to launch Master Mold Sentinels towards the Earth, the crew with Rasputin and Cardinal showing their leader to be Apocalypse and preparing for what seems like a suicide mission to get information, and finally the robot world preparing itself for integration with a massive robotic collective from space. All are a lot of fun, but the small hints of information and the fact that this could be read separately from House of X and still get a great story (if requiring House of X #1 to understand things). 

Gwenpool Strikes Back #1: Gwenpool is desperately avoiding being retconned or removed from the Marvel Universe. So she will get herself powers from the radioactive bits of Spider-Man. How you ask? By robbing a bank and waiting for Spider-Man to show up to ask. Cause damnit, Gwenpool wants to remain relevant as a character. So she threatens Peter with revealing his identity, falls into the gutter space between panels and ends up seeing she is about to be retconned. So instead she decides to abuse a bit of reality-warping to become even more relevant....and also be irradiated as hell.

So yeah, fun week this week. Nothing will top Absolute Carnage for me for a long while but dang if this wasnt as least a fun attempt.

[taffystake]

Absolute Carnage #1 Review

Written by: Donny Cates

Pencils by: Ryan Stegman

Inks by: JP Mayer

Colors by: Frank Martin

Its here. Knull is here and Carnage is going to do his bidding, even if Cletus has the barest hints of a body to do it with. Hooray, the symbiote Slenderman is here to kill you all.

The comics by doing a quick recap of….Cates’ entire Venom run before we jump to Eddie and Dylan in Time Square….just in time for Cassidy’s little impersonation of Eddie that killed people in Ryker’s to hit the news. And seeing someone now following them, Eddie and Dylan make for the subway, still being followed by two men. The first pushes Eddie and Dylan onto the tracks in front of a train, while the second turns into ooze and coats Eddie, giving us the triumphant return of the Venom symbiote to Eddie. That joy lasts…..five seconds before the first man reveals himself as the reborn Carnage and attacks Eddie.

Carnage has god powers now, so Eddie cant do much to Carnage as Venom. So instead Eddie grabs Carnage’s jaw and the subway’s third rail to give the symbiote a direct blast of high voltage. And after that Eddie and Dylan flee to where Eddie had intended: Peter Parker’s apartment. The three go away to a diner, where Eddie gives a lot more detail about whats going on with himself and Carnage before a news story catches his attention. A giant spiral mass grave of thousands of bodies has been discovered containing people from the Life Foundation, the Fortunato crime family, and even General Thunderbolt T Ross. So Carnage has a good headstart on collecting the left behinds from all the symbiotes.

So with a lot more urgency, Eddie and Spidey go to track down The Maker, whose been busy designing a way to safely extract those symbiote left behinds. And Spidey has the first candidate: Normie Osborn, Norman’s grandson he infected with the Carnage symbiote while he was the Red Gobllin. But since they don’t want to test the highly experimental machine that could kill people on an innocent kid, The Maker offers them a choice to possibly grab another highly dangerous and obvious target for Carnage to target next.

And so we jump to Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane, where Spidey and Venom are breaking in to break out the most insane man of them all: Norman Osborn. Taking advantage of John Jameson being on the staff, the two are able to quickly reach Norman’s cell, which is when John’s eyes turn red and he pulls the alarm to let the siren overwhelm the Venom symbiote. Meanwhile, out in the hall, Carnage is pulling maggots out of his body and throwing them onto the inmates, slowly building up an army of symbiote warriors. So Venom and Spidey fall back into Norman’s cell where Venom tries to hold the doors shut while Spidey attempts break through the back wall. Unfortunately, Carnage and his minions are too strong and bust past Venom before Spidey can even make a dent in the wall.

But Carnage isnt there to kill Norman for the symbiote left behinds he has. No, Carnage has a different plan, as he begins to assimilate and transform Norman into another Carnage. And thats where we end.

So yeah. HOLY COW! ALSO! THE ART! THE ART IS SO DAMN GOOD! I CANT EVEN EXPRESS HOW GOOD IT IS! JUST LOOK AT IT ONLINE! ITS SO GOOD! 

So yeah. Absolute Carnage is an absolute blast and I am all in on reading this thing for the entirety of its run just based off the art and story strength this first issue brought.

[sirvenomblog]

Thoughts on the Spider-Man/venom interactions? By far my favorite part and I think really makes this book worth the buy

[taffystake]

Honestly? Beyond the exceptional moments in Ravencroft, its what sold me on the comic storywise. Getting to see Spidey be flippant over the premise of this event before he snaps into serious mode, doing everything he can to make sure Eddie does the right thing and will be able to move on after Absolute Carnage with Dylan is just great. Plus it was fun to see Donny writing Spider-Man.

[taffystake]

Absolute Carnage #1 Review

Written by: Donny Cates

Pencils by: Ryan Stegman

Inks by: JP Mayer

Colors by: Frank Martin

Its here. Knull is here and Carnage is going to do his bidding, even if Cletus has the barest hints of a body to do it with. Hooray, the symbiote Slenderman is here to kill you all.

The comics by doing a quick recap of....Cates’ entire Venom run before we jump to Eddie and Dylan in Time Square....just in time for Cassidy’s little impersonation of Eddie that killed people in Ryker’s to hit the news. And seeing someone now following them, Eddie and Dylan make for the subway, still being followed by two men. The first pushes Eddie and Dylan onto the tracks in front of a train, while the second turns into ooze and coats Eddie, giving us the triumphant return of the Venom symbiote to Eddie. That joy lasts.....five seconds before the first man reveals himself as the reborn Carnage and attacks Eddie.

Carnage has god powers now, so Eddie cant do much to Carnage as Venom. So instead Eddie grabs Carnage’s jaw and the subway’s third rail to give the symbiote a direct blast of high voltage. And after that Eddie and Dylan flee to where Eddie had intended: Peter Parker’s apartment. The three go away to a diner, where Eddie gives a lot more detail about whats going on with himself and Carnage before a news story catches his attention. A giant spiral mass grave of thousands of bodies has been discovered containing people from the Life Foundation, the Fortunato crime family, and even General Thunderbolt T Ross. So Carnage has a good headstart on collecting the left behinds from all the symbiotes.

So with a lot more urgency, Eddie and Spidey go to track down The Maker, whose been busy designing a way to safely extract those symbiote left behinds. And Spidey has the first candidate: Normie Osborn, Norman’s grandson he infected with the Carnage symbiote while he was the Red Gobllin. But since they don’t want to test the highly experimental machine that could kill people on an innocent kid, The Maker offers them a choice to possibly grab another highly dangerous and obvious target for Carnage to target next.

And so we jump to Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane, where Spidey and Venom are breaking in to break out the most insane man of them all: Norman Osborn. Taking advantage of John Jameson being on the staff, the two are able to quickly reach Norman’s cell, which is when John’s eyes turn red and he pulls the alarm to let the siren overwhelm the Venom symbiote. Meanwhile, out in the hall, Carnage is pulling maggots out of his body and throwing them onto the inmates, slowly building up an army of symbiote warriors. So Venom and Spidey fall back into Norman’s cell where Venom tries to hold the doors shut while Spidey attempts break through the back wall. Unfortunately, Carnage and his minions are too strong and bust past Venom before Spidey can even make a dent in the wall.

But Carnage isnt there to kill Norman for the symbiote left behinds he has. No, Carnage has a different plan, as he begins to assimilate and transform Norman into another Carnage. And thats where we end.

So yeah. HOLY COW! ALSO! THE ART! THE ART IS SO DAMN GOOD! I CANT EVEN EXPRESS HOW GOOD IT IS! JUST LOOK AT IT ONLINE! ITS SO GOOD! 

So yeah. Absolute Carnage is an absolute blast and I am all in on reading this thing for the entirety of its run just based off the art and story strength this first issue brought.

[taffystake]

Justice League Dark Annual Review

Written by: James Tynion IV and Ram V

Art by: Guillem March

Colors by: Arif Prianto

Cover by: Riley Rossmo and Ivan Plascencia

Its time for an annual that was actually good as hell and ties directly into the narrative arc of Justice League Dark.....look, as much fun as the Venom annual was, that thing isn’t tied into Donny’s current run at all. But tiny shade at Venom Annual over. Lets talk Swamp Thing.

And yes, I specify Swamp Thing because the narrative this issue is entirely related to the death of the Parliament of Trees during the Witching Hour event last October. The new Parliament of Flowers is searching for its own Guardian of the Green, which they find in a man named Oleander Sorrel who has recently killed in a chemical fire amongst his flowers. And while Swamp Thing does his best to explain what actually happened to the echo of Oleander that this massive flower golem has for a mind, Oleander instead follows the advice of Jason Woodrue AKA The Floronic Man. 

And following Jason’s advice, Oleander attempts to aid his wife, who left due to their grief over losing their son, by creating and sending a child for her to care for. And even more children. Until eventually, those children begin to disintegrate in petals due to their nature as flowers. And flowers are fleeting, ephemeral plant life that lasts a short time. Which is when Swamp Thing finally gets through to Oleander, giving him the last page of his journal and showing that Oleander died in the chemical fire that consumed the flowers he was trying to create. And not just died, specifically set the fire and committed suicide over his own grief and feelings of his flowers ability to survive all he did to them mocking his inability to do similar.

Oleander....doesnt take the news well, deciding that rather than attempt to be the Guardian of the Green, he will just enter hibernation as Jason instructs him he can do. As Swamp Thing leaves over his inability to aid this new Guardian of the Green, Jason decides that he deserves to be connected to the Green and cannibalizes Oleander before becoming the new Guardian of the Green. And soon after, Circe arrives to invite the newly empowered Floronic Man to join her in her little magical Legion of Doom.

So yeah. Fun story, the art looks great as hell, and the story conveyed by the entire thing is such a quintessential Swamp Thing story that it just feels so fitting for the 10 foot tall swamp creature. The art is great and moody, fitting the tone and style of the horror comics that came before it while also offering its own little spin as Jason and Swamp Thing do end up physically dueling over Swamp Thing’s efforts to reveal Oleander’s full past to him. So yeah, a really fun time that works as a strong stand alone and stands as a good representation of what Justice League Dark is bringing to the universe lately. Can’t recommend it enough.

[taffystake]

Powers of X #1 Review

Written by: Jonathan Hickman

Pencils by: R.B. Silva

Inks by: R.B. Silva and Adriano Di Benedetto

Colors by: Marte Gracia

Welcome to Powers of X, a comic that shows the past and future of Mutantkind in intervals that cover....powers of x. Cheeky, but lets see where it goes.

We start at Year 1, with Professor Xavier as he meets Moira McTaggert for what seems like the first time, before Moira’s cryptic words and a mind scan by Xavier lead to some strange conclusion by Xavier that we aren’t enlightened to currently. 

Next, we jump to Year 10, which is the era of House of X as we see Mystique and Toad drop off the thumb drive they stole in House of X with Xavier.

And now we jump to the characters depicted on the cover as we hit Year 100. Sentinels and Humans have started a very direct war against the mutants, with the mutants having been bred and formed in the time before this due to bits of history told in the text pages scattered within and after the Year 100 story. Long story short, Mister Sinister started making his own mutants for the Krakoans on mars, but they had a limit of four generations before they basically became nonviable. But each generation could pack more mutant powers into one person than before, so our protagonists against the Human-Sentinel Supremacy have things like Colossus’ metal skin, Kitty Pryde’s intangibility, and the like all in one. 

Now for the actual story. Much like the first issue of House of X, we have a group of mutants post-information heist as they escape their pursuers. Except in this case, it is Sentinels and human soldiers hunting down Rasputin, Cardinal, and Cylobel, all third generation mutants from Sinister’s efforts. And Cylobel has just been caught by the Sentinels. Rasputin leaps into action to fight back against them with her glowing greatsword while Cardinal, genetically unable to fight, plants a Krakoa seed to give them a way out. While Rasputin manages to eviscerate a large part of the forces holding Cylobel, they eventually overwhelm her and force her and Cardinal to retreat, leaving Cylobel behind. 

We follow Cylobel as she is taken to Nimrod, who is very apologetic over what the machines did in creating mutants like her, mutants designed to help them track and hunt down other mutants. But since they need the information that she isn’t giving up, Nimrod decides to place her into a machine to try and analyze her mind and biology to understand the mutant condition. Back with Rasputin and Cardinal, we watch as they return to the Krakoa hideout where a few unique-looking mutants, ranging from a Magneto-like man, what seems like Wolverine, Groot possibly, and a strange skull-faced man who ask for this information to be brought to the ‘Old Man’.

And finally, we jump to the Year 100, where machines rule the earth, mutants are kept in a library that was started by Nimrod in Year 100, and humans are kept in a preserve to give the machines something look at and remember what exactly they overcame to become dominant.

Okay so.....a lot to parse. But thankfully, the art from Silva really helps to keep things clear and moving well, with each era having its own general look and environment that stands in stark contrast to each other. Like, even the two views of Krakoa are distinctly different from each other. And all of it pops and looks really good, especially the small amount of action we got to witness as Rasputin tore her way through the Sentinels and humans. I can’t wait until this event really kicks off and we get to see some supremely awesome action in all of these eras. 

And also can’t wait to see what exactly each era informs about the mutants and how things will be going for them from this point forward. Dang, I really need to look at some other Jonathan Hickman stuff, cause this legitimately has me interested in him.

[taffystake]

The Batman Who Laughs #7 Review

Written by: Scott Snyder

Art by: Jock

Colors by: David Baron

So, here we are. At the end of the Batman Who Laughs’ (BWL from now on to save my fingers) mad saga to try and make Batman just like him. And with the tie-in it brings to the Batman/Superman comic that is coming out, who knows where exactly Batman will land. He might even become one of those notably emphasized ‘Infected’ that will become a central figure there. Let’s take a look.

So, we open with BWL and Batman still in a standoff over the graves of the Wayne family, the alternate young Bruce Wayne watching as the two crazed madmen stare each other down. BWL needs Batman’s blood at the moment he turns into the same entity as BWL, so his syringe has a handy little indicator light that will turn red when its time. Meanwhile, Commissioner Gordon is still being choked out by the Grim Knight while James continues to watch passivel.

And with that the action kicks off in both scenes, with Gordon breaking out of the Grim Knight’s hold and diving into the poisoned water basin to get a knife before James can. Meanwhile, with BWL and Batman, BWL is preparing to shoot himself and let Batman take his place in the plan when the light turns red...which is when BWL shoots Batman, rightly assuming Batman triggered something to preemptively make the light go off. Another shot later, and BWL is distracted by Bruce Wayne running away and goes off in pursuit. A pursuit that leads him into the barrel of Alfred’s shotgun. While it doesn’t kill him, the blasts knock the demon back and force him to monologue on Alfred’s fate to try and recuperate.

Back with James and the Grim Knight, James grabbed the knife and Gordon is being drowned in the poisoned water by the Grim Knight, trying to force him to take in the corruption by this drowning. Unfortunately, when the Grim Knight attempts to egg James into stabbing his father, James decides he can show off how stabbing feels by stabbing the Grim Knight until he is no longer a threat and they can disable the drones transporting the poisoned water.

Back with Alfred, as BWL draws closer, he is halted by Batman kicking him in the head and proceeding to enact the final stages of his plan. First, harpoon guns wired up to high voltage are fired into BWL to immobilize him. And he counters the continual beating that BWL has dealt Batman over being the worst version of himself by owning the moniker and declaring how the Batman who loses to the worst version is the biggest joke of a Batman, as he pummels BWL with the stone plaque off of his mother’s grave. And with this, we get to watch as Batman delivers a brutal beat down with the plaque, showing how close he is to going over the edge before Joker shows up and shoots Batman. And the page ends with the drones being disengaged, but no hint to Bruce’s fate.

We jump to a while alter as Batman and Alfred discuss how using the young Bruce Wayne’s blood for a transfusion ended up managing to clear out the corruption due to the boy’s nature as an entity of the Dark Multiverse. And as we close, we get to see what batman learned from this interaction, how BWL’s creation was by both Batman and Joker being right. About how a combination of believing there is meaning to all actions is the way to win and a lack of meaning to any actions leads to the cold conclusion that the only meaningful thing is to win, however you can. Before we hear about the hope that Batman discovered from this, we get to watch as Gordon addresses his son and says that he can return to his original treatment plan rather than head to prison, Gordon having now seen exactly how effective the treatment had been at helping to get to where he wanted to be and that trying is simply all that’s needed.

And with this, we finally get to see the conclusion the comic reaches. After demonstrating it with the James and Gordon scene, how defying what comes easy due to it being your nature to be better than you’re supposed to be. Because Batman isn’t about knowing who you are, but what you want to be. We also get a small finisher to Batman’s conclusion that Joker helped give him extra time to be sane due to some extra chemical decelerant, when Alfred points out there was no such thing found in Batman’s blood. And our comic ends as we discover one of the Dark Metal-infected that will be center stage in Batman/Superman as Gordon reveals a pair of black, irritated eyes.

Now this issue, this is where Jock went absolutely nuts with the harsh inks and crazy shapes as Batman’s corruption by the Joker toxin reaches its peak. He renders BWL as a literal demonic entity with harsh sketchy inks and distorted shapes, which just adds to the suspense and horror of what might happen to Batman at the end of this story and what effects it might have on the future. Honestly, while the art isn’t ‘pretty’, it is very thematic to the story here. So yeah, overall this was a great little limited series and anyone who is a fan of Scott Snyder’s Batman writing should check it out.

[taffystake]

All The Reviews!!!!

Well, because my internet is being a butt on uploading my usual covers at the opener, I will do some quickie thoughts on my comics here. 

 Sword Master - Its got two stories here, just like Aero before it (forgot to write on that, but it was good. Art was real cool in story one.)  First story is very....slow. Story and art are manga styled, with it packing a lot of cliche. Honestly, the pacing of this first chapter would be more fitting for the first chapter of a manga.The issue here is that the amount of pages given to a manga’s first chapter is 60 to the 19 pages given to this first story, meaning you just get left with a lot of possibility but no real sense of direction. Second story is Sword Master and Shang-Chi interacting, which is....fine. Its more normal comic art for this one, if a little boring in facial expression. Overall, its fine but it wont exactly be rocking the world with its art or its story.

 Justice League Dark - We get three stories, but all under the same art team. First is showing the deal with Doctor Fate after he attempted to kill magic, showing his origin and beginning discussion of who may take the mantle in order to prevent Kent from being forced into the role. Second is a discussion between Constantine and Zatanna, which drives at John basically having a set path to this defense against darkness and John's less than great history with magic before he got put on this path. And finally, we get to see the The Offer as it was given to Circe, a promise from Lex Luthor to gather a magic Legion of Doom to combat the magic Justice League. There is a lot to unpack here and it opens up a lot of new routes for the magic of the DC Universe to continue being crazy, dark, and tense like it has been for the last 12 issues.

Amazing Spider-Man - We're finally discussing what exactly Boomerang did to drive Kingpin so mad and make the crime boss want to kill him. Also get another hint towards the reach Kindred has since Kingpin's goons are EXPLICITLY not allowed to even have a minor risk of injuring Peter. And finally, we get to see that Boomerang's criminal past comes back to haunt him as the all-female Syndicate aim to take revenge on him screwing them all over at one point or another. Kev Walker’s art doesn’t draw me into the story like I felt with Ryan Ottley and Humberto Ramos but it does facial expressions really well and that is key with this very story and fun-focused issue.

Tony Stark: Iron Man - Tony decides he can 'be sober' the same way he was 'drunk' in the eScape storyline, by abusing tech. After erasing his memory and putting that memory into a drive to keep on hand, it is quickly stolen by Spymaster, who uses the memories to rig Tony's armors and tech to attack him and Captain Marvel, the woman who inspired this memory erasure plan due to Tony being her AA sponsor.  Its fun, does a lot to point towards the humanity of Tony, and also drops a lot of hints towards Arno and Baintronics becoming the new villainous threat in the comics as they offer to help upgrade Jocasta into a more biological form. Valerio Schiti is continuing to rock the action artbut his skill really shows in the scenes with Arno that occur to break up the fight, telling a story purely through Arno’s expressions extremely well.

Batman: Curse of the White Knight - Joker turns to the ancient history of Gotham in order to tear down everything Batman and Jack Napier created by helping to create the White Knight universe version of Azrael while Batman continues to deal with the fallout from the events Jack Napier instigated. Its great as hell and I want everyone to read it. I can’t say any more than that because its just so great to see Batman doing this self-examination, seeing this deeper look towards the Wayne family that reminds me of the Telltale Batman games and I want more right now dangit.

Finally 

 House of X -Jonathan Hickman's effort to re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-relaunch the X-Men. And it offers up a good first step, showing us Professor X in a younger body as he prepares to lead a new stage in life for mutants. First, they use a plant-mutant-thingie named Krakoa to create mutant habitats and overtake an island in order to create their own nation, with them also creating drugs and other things in order to help the world adapt to their presence. This idea of a mutant nation is taken to the point of making their own language, Krakoan, and the entire presentation being delivered to ambassadors of many nations. With the presentation ending as Magneto declares from a Krakoa Habitat in Jerusalem that humans 'have new gods now'. And naturally, there is a response to this mutant uprising as out in space, a station called The Forge is hard at work creating a cosmic-scale Sentinel. 

 Honestly, this was one I did not expect to like as much as I did. The presentation is grand and sweeping since it's meant to be a presentation to a group of ambassadors to appeal for nationhood. There are pages between each little show of whats going on to describe things like what these Krakoa flowers can do, a map of Krakoa, and even an official list and definition of what the hell an Omega-level Mutant is.