In 2021 I set a goal to post reviews here for 1,000 comics, and finished the year at 1,008 reviews. It was a stretch - - not to read that many comics, because I actually read quite a bit more. The challenge is to find and take the time to write a fair review of what I read - - but I made it. I’m up for a new year, and a new challenge. My goal for 2022 is to read and document 1,200 comics. That’s an average of 100 books per month, easy enough to check and update. Wish me luck!
# GOAL FOR May 31, 2022 . . . 500 comics documented
CURRENT COUNT . . . . . 491 comics documented
#486 A CLASH OF KINGS #15 adaptation of the Game Of Thrones series by Landry Q. Walker and Mel Rubi (Dynamite Entertainment, 2019)
If you don’t relish the thought of reading through 1,000s of pages or binge-watching the HBO series, then this is a great way to stay with the series. I read the first trade paperback from several years ago and found it to be essential to recalling the events of the tv series. (I’m also anxious about jumping into those massive print volumes, although I have most of them).
This particular issue adapts the story from Book Two of A Song Of Ice and Fire, and does a commendable job. While you can read a standard comic within 15-20 minutes, this will require more time. It is chock full of text boxes and lengthy dialogue/exposition. Still interesting in spite of that. More bang for your buck. FOUR STARS.
I usually enjoy anything by Tim Seeley and have long wanted to explore his Hack/Slash series. I realize now I probably picked the least likely starting point. This is a cross-over with a bunch of characters from Chaos Comics (Evil Ernie, Purgatori, etc). Add an assortment of demons and devils, plus the regular cast of Hack/Slash and you can imagine how much trouble I had following this and making sense of it.
The art is very good, but it didn’t help me figure out the story. I hesitate to rate this since it’s completely unfair that I begin here, but I’m going to anyway.
THREE STARS.
John Wick survives yet again, digs the bullets out of his shoulder and near his ribs, and recuperates. After failed yet again, the modern equivalents of Billy The Kid and Buffalo Bill obtain the release of Calamity Jane from a treatment center and recruit her in their mission to get Wick.
She immediately uses text messages to recruit new four new hitman, who immediately fail to take down Wick. This is leading up to the final issue confrontation between the two. This feels and looks like the movie. Escapist fun, if that’s what you’re after.
THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
I”ve watched a few episodes of the late LIBRARIANS television show, and this seems pretty faithful to it although it seems to lack the same level of humor to break the seriousness of everything going on here.
The Librarians have a hidden HQ beneath the Metropolitan Public Library, and dedicate their lives to “protecting an unknown world from the secret magical reality hidden all around them.” Each of the six members have special gifts (counter-terrorism, memory retrieval, encyclopedic knowledge, etc) and fend off the threat of a bunch magicians who have gone back in time and become huge and godlike.
I feel the same way about this that I did about the tv show - - nothing specifically wrong with it, but it just doesn’t hold my interest. THREE STARS.
In the waning days of the Mars invasion and devastatin, Mr. Carbutt and his faithful companion dog Butthead capture a Martian. They journey to Fort Woods to turn their captive over to the government. Fort Woods is a wasteland, but there is a government installation underground that welcomes Carbutt and heralds him as a hero for the cause.
He is immediately recruited for a mission to Mars to join the Army in taking the battle to a brand new location. End of story.
The art is very whimsical and cartoonish, not even near the level of detail as appeared on the original trading cards but still fun and in the proper spirit. THREE STARS.
This is truly “a sword and sorcery superstar crossover event.” Empress Camilla’s Tournament of Death is finally at hand, with Red Sonja bearing the ceremonial Scepter as champion of the immortal tyrant. She, along with John Carter of Mars, and Tarzan have been brought to the Pathfinder fantasy world.
John Carter is getting assistance from cleric Kyra to help heal an army of wounded gladiators, preparing therefor a final strike against Camilla’s forces. Kyra has a vested interest in helping as her friend Valeros has been seriously wounded by Red Sonja.
Carter and Sonja meet on the bloody tournament grounds, pitted against each other. It’s a stand-off until Tars Tarkas interferes, and then melee breaks out with everybody from both sides in the mix.
Where is Tarzan. Nowhere this issue, except for a last page mention by a scheming wizard with a counter-plan to rule the world. Ho hum. TWO AND ONE-HALF STARS.
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