EDITOR'S NOTE: Comics review contributor MATT LOWDER is also a member of Captain Blue Hen's RUN THE COMICS 5K Facebook group. Here's a big sampling of some of his reviews there.
By MATT LOWDER . . . .
I had a busy weekend of board games and playing Sonic the Hegehog with my son, so I'm gonna drop this here and run!
REALLY WELL DONE - 5 Stars
Artemis and the Assassin (#5 of 5, Sept 2020, Aftershock) 4.5/5
Wonderful end to a series. This year has been my first experience reading several mini-runs in real-time monthly, mostly going only for 5 or 6 issues. A lot have been let-downs narratively as they've wrapped up their last issue. Plunge, Alienated, Rogue Planet and Artemis and the Assassin have been great endings though.
Batman: Three Jokers (book 2 of 3, Sept 2020, DC) 5/5
I really can't go into this without spoiling it, but this is one you have to read if you're into the Batman Universe. Especially due to it's focus on the traumas of Joker, Barbara, and Red Hood. I was really surprised the emotional impact that resonated with me here. It was really well-written.
ADEQUATE CONCLUSIONS - 4 Stars
There's nothing wrong with any of these books, but none of them were 4.5s or 5s to me. Coincidentally, All four (4) of these happen to end either the series or an arc. Let's go.
The Resistance (#6 of 6, Sept 2020, AWA Upshot) 4/5
This was a solid offering. I still think it was ten pounds of sausage stuffed into a five-pound-bag though. The idea of martyrdom, pandemic, unified populism, and heroism in the face of political malfeasance are all here, but are definitely continuing in either sister books or future runs. There's just a lot here left open. I wish I had known going into it. I think my expectations of a contained-story hampered my overall enjoyment and I ruined it for myself. Not the fault of the story. The middle issues started to lose my interest. I can see a collected volume arc being a great prologue to a much grander story.
Alienated (#6 of 6, Sept 2020, Boom!) 4/5
Now here was a consistently good series, contained, that read well from issue to issue, well-paced and not overwhelming while still heavy in its themes. This is for teens, or adults who remember feeling anxiously angsty, against-the-grain, alone, and powerless. An alien in the woods psychic-links 3 teens named Samuel, Samantha, and Samir, and while they enjoy it for a while, one of them takes the powers too far to tries and improve his life, and then the world. It's a human drama at heart, wrapped in a cinematic and well-illustrated sci-fi for young adults. While this issue is a 4/5, I think the series as a whole I'd call a 5/5.
Rogue Planet (#5 of 5, Sept 2020, Oni Press) 4/5
Another short-run which pleased me with its ending. Seems like half the time, short-runs don't. But the relatively minor investment to try something new is worth it. This comic had some interesting visual elements and allusions weaved throughout that I think are more significant than I first gave them credit for. I think this was methodically planned from start to finish, which I appreciate, and a second reading (which I rarely do in comics but will do here) may illuminate some metaphor and subtext I missed on the first read. If you like Interstellar, Sunshine, Prometheus, or The Martian, you know, space survival flicks, please give this one a try when it's collected in paperback.
Wonder Woman (#763, Sept 2020, DC) 4/5
Sometime you stick with a book because you just love the character and come to expect the cycles of lukewarm and really entertaining. We're on an upswing here, despite me really not liking this current artist's style of Diana. But this concludes an arc with Liar Liar and Max Lord. There's a lot of lore I'm unfamiliar with, but this year, I decided to try to learn more about Teen Titans, Batman and Robin, and WW specifically as they pertain to the comics. Sometime very soon I'm going to begin reading the New 52 vol 1-6 of WW, continue through Flashpoint, then start WW Rebirth. The hope being I can one day catch up to what I'm presently reading, LOL, miles and years ahead.
PEEEEE-YUUUU - 2.5 stars
Unpopular opinions coming now. But I thought these were very subpar books. I really considered whether or not I was being too tough on these because the art and color are so nice in both, but since that is two great elements of a book, two stars is what they get. The fun factor, the writing, the characters, simply were not there for me personally. I found these forgettable. I was very let-down by where the series began and where they ended up. I was completely disconnected by these final issues. I expect a little flack for this first one.
Year Zero (#5 of 5, Sept 2020, AWA Upshot) 2.5/5
This one is painful for me. I love the other Benjamin Percy stuff I've read in Wolverine, Devil's Highway, and X-Force. I don't know what happened here. I'm not trying to fight anybody, but this was so underwritten, unfocused, and half-baked. There's almost no story throughout, just the shortest little vignettes with no meat on the bones I understood some narrative parallels and metaphor, but it was so mild. I felt like each issue was readable in two-minutes due to how short it was, and the entire 5 issues at $3.99/each was a really sneaky over-sell of a larger story's prologue. Maybe I stand alone here. I know Year Zero "the second volume" begins a 4-issue series in November, and I'll be skipping it. It's an hors d'oeuvre wearing an entrees clothes.
Mirka Andolfo's "Mercy" (#6 of 6, Sept 2020, Image)
There's not much to say here, beside this was a let down for the majority of the issues, starting in the third issue. Again, color and art art top-notch, but after the high I got from a very unique and atypical book for me, the sexually-charged "Unnatural" by Andolfo years ago, this was a confusing, unfocused, chatty, and a tedious read despite people dying, cosmic horrors in the 19th century, and a unique setting for a mother-daughter story about belonging and desire. I was confused most of the time I read this, and couldn't wait for it to end. I felt like this was a passion project by Andolfo, and I hate to distill down all that hard work into a "pee-yuuu" kind of review, but an editor should have helped her reign it in, take the story someplace else, and focus these characters differently. It's like when George Lucas was making the prequels and the studio and producers gave him way too much leash and didn't push back on any of his creative choices and story decisions. This is what you get. Just read Unnatural for her best work. Andolfo does draw super sexy work, as can be seen in Black Cat, Cat Woman, Spider-Man, Aero, and Bombshells, but this comic was a stinker for me, and I don't say that often.
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