This marks the third consecutive year that I will attempt to document my comics reading by writing at least a mini-review. The goal is 1200 books read and reviewed in 2023, although I missed the mark in 2022 by 88 books. Still, I like that number as it’s easy enough to track - - - 100 books per month on average. Wish me luck!
# GOAL FOR November 20, 2023. . . 1,067 comics documented
CURRENT COUNT . . . . . 828 comics documented
#812 ALICE NEVER AFTER #2 of 5 by Dan Panosian (Boom! Studios, August 2023) I feel like I missed something in writer/artist Dan Panosian’s take on Alice In Wonderland, but since I’m familiar with that legendary story I don’t feel totally lost. I just wanted to get a look at this book to see if I wanted to order the eventual trade paperback. The visual style here is very engaging and somehow manages to maintain the whimsical nature of the story despite some dark edges to this version.
Alice has become the new Queen of Hearts and finds it a bit difficult, especially when she has to preside over a hearing to permit Cheshire Cat to return. She banished him last issue. The trial itself is kind of a hoot. The Cat is a classic manipulator of words.
Back in the real world, Alice’s sister and father try to piece things together and learn what happened to Alice. Worth a look. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
#813 MOON KNIGHT #27 by Jed MacKay and Federico Sabbatini (Marvel Worldwide Inc, November 2023)
Older comics readers may recall the days when if a cover caught your eye you could impulsively pick up the book and still be able to figure out what everything is about.
Not so much anymore, but every once in a while I’ll do just that. It certainly helps when the credits page offers a brief synopsis of the story like this did. I just thought the cover was too cool to pass up. Turns out it’s my favorite part of this book.
The mysterious Black Spectre has been orchestrating attacks by villains from Moon Knight’s past. Hoping to get an idea of his identity and mission/intentions, Moon Knight and associate Hunter’s Moon travel inside the mind of an informant to learn more - - and (of course) get attacked inside there.
Interesting, but not enough to make me care to read more. The art was functional but mostly underwhelming. TWO AND ONE-HALF STARS.
#814 - #815 UNNATURAL ORDER #1 by Christopher Yost and Val Rodrigues (Vault Comics, October 2023) This dark fantasy occurs during the early days of the United Kingdom but bends the reality of those times enough to avoid classifying this as historical fiction. The debut issue is very promising, and the art and colors are exceptional - - really worth a view just for the images alone. Copies should be readily available at your local comics shop, thanks to a big marketing push from Vault.
I really admire the shading and color choices here. The battle/action scenes are designed well, and some images (like the Wicker field of burning effigies - a little nod to the Wicker Man film) are stunning.
An unlikely band of adventurers (a Roman soldier, a a thief, a warrior woman, a savage barbarian, a witch) seek to counter an evil druid by locating “The Prisoner” (who appears to be a soldier-of-fortune from the 20th Century). Lots of story elements are introduced in the first installment to the detriment of the characters, who would benefit from a little more development. However, this is worth a look - - and I’ll be getting Issue #2 and beyond.
The back cover synopsis clears up some of the mystery introduced here: “After the fall of the Britons and the Roman invasion of Hibernia, the captive known only as The Druid is released, sending a darkness cross the world . . . an age of horror, of fire and entrails, as the innocent burn in the Wicker Fields. Those who would resist learn of the existence of a man who even The Druid fears. For it is this Prisoner, a solider from a different time, who alone knows The Druid’s secret: This is not how the world is supposed to be.” FOUR STARS.
#816 - #819 MICKEY SPILLANE’S MIKE HAMMER: THE NIGHT I DIED #1 - #4 by Max Allan Collins and Marcelo Salaza (Titan Comics/Hard Case Crime, 2018)
As a fan of hard-boiled detective fiction I certainly heard of Mickey Spillane and the Mike Hammer character, but I've never read a Spillane novel. This short, four-issue graphic adaptation of an unpublished novel was a quick way for me to get acquainted. That Max Allan Collins (a skilled crime fiction writer) was responsible for the script of the graphic novel was an extra incentive to read this.
While the storyline won't seem very original to followers of this genre, it did accomplish the purpose of introducing me to the character of Mike Hammer. He's a hard ass, and not afraid to use his gun. Seems pretty amazing how many people around him die while the police let him off for "self-defense." I'm not sure how close Collins kept to the spirit and mindset of Spillane's Hammer, but this did enough to convince me to pick up a Spillane book one of these days.
The art is a little inconsistent, but gets the job done. The opening chase scene across the rooftops was quite effective. FOUR STARS.
#820 EDENWOOD #1 story and art by Tony S. Daniel (Image Comics, September 2023) In a good fantasy comic, the visuals are what needs to pull you into the story. The more awe-inspiring, the better. That doesn’t happen with EDENWOOD until the mid-point, but when it does - - wow.
Daniel is putting together a neat little fantasy, and wisely tells the story from the point-of-view of six role-playing teens who enter the woods for their fantasy game and stray too far into the Edenwood barrier. They’ve heard the rumors but don’t quite understand what is happening. It’s the mystery that propels the story forward.
I grabbed this as an impulse buy after scanning the art. Had I read the publisher’s synopsis I’m not sure I would have gone along. Very detailed, too much so for a debut issue. Good thing the script doesn’t touch on all the details and sticks with the teen mystery.
Synopsis:
An eons-long series of multiverse wars between demons and witches has found Earth as its latest and final battleground. The battle pits NECRONEMA, the ever-expanding demonic land that supplanted the Midwest twenty years ago, against EDENWOOD, the witchcraft-controlled land that acts as a barrier against the war zone and the rest of the U.S.
RION, a young DEMON HUNTER, is thrust into the role of hero and leader after defeating a magical demon called a GATHER, a transient demon with the power to cross any barrier or dimension.
Summoned by the WITCH WAR COUNCIL, Rion must assemble an elite team of DEMON HUNTERS tasked with annihilating a list of targets within the demon-controlled lands. The men and women he selects happen to be the most famous and revered demon hunters of all time, dating back to the 1700s.
I’m not prepared to invest in this monthly, but I will be looking out for the trade paperback collection. FOUR STARS.
#821 A HAUNTING ON MARS #1 by Zach Chapman and Ruari Coleman (Scout Comics, October 2023) I’ve tried to find a Scout title to latch onto, as I like to follow indie publishers. It’s been a long time since Scout has
published anything that works for me. A HAUNTING ON MARS is a decent comic on a functional level, but the art doesn’t exceed minimum expectations and the story seems like it’s following a tried-and-true formula that is too familiar to me. A stranded space mission. Weird creatures and aliens. TWO AND ONE-HALF STARS.
SYNOPSIS:
Mars is a wasteland: A dead colony, founded by a dead billionaire, holding darkness and secrets within. Secrets which Echo Team are sent to uncover. A hacker. A psionic. An empath. A soldier. And their corpo loyalist leader. They've crashed far from the LZ and their sanity's already unraveling!
#822 ASSAULT ON NEW OLYMPUS PROLOGUE #1 by Greg Pal and Fred Van Lente with art by Rodney Buchemi (Marvel Publishing Inc, January 2010)
Pak and Van Lente did a great job with the INCREDIBLE HERCULES series way back at the beginning of the 21st Century with Hercules and Amadeus Cho making up one of the best and funniest buddy teams in comics. That continues here in this one-shot which serves as a prelude to the Assault On New Olympus event, which I did not follow. I’d forgotten how much fun the Hercules series was. Also, the art is very good.
Herc's dad, Zeus, died and was reborn as a child. Herc’s sister, Athena, has become a mentor/advisor to Cho. Herc’s stepmother, Hera, has become the major villain. After the destruction of Mount Olympus the Greek gods scattered across Earth and established a new seat of power as a U.S. corporation - - the Olympus Group (later taken over by Hera, who made an alliance with Norman Osborn/Iron Patriot). Peter Parker starts paying a lot of attention to the goddess Hebe, who was married to Hercules who hadn’t paid attention to her until Parker did, which sets them at odds. Next comes the battle and exchange of insults between Hercules and Spider-Man, which is pretty funny. As the issue wraps, they have bonded together over the threat of Hera, and teamed up with Spider-Woman and Wolverine. THREE STARS.
#823 - #824 SPY SUPERB #1, #3 story and art by Matt Kindt (Dark Horse Comics, January-March 2023)
My experience reading the quirky concepts and quirky art style of Matt Kindt has been kind of hit or miss - - and SPY SUPERB is a hit. This dark humor exploring the globe-trotting world of secret agents, espionage, and double agents elicited several good guffaws. Told in three over-sized comic books, it's also one of the most concise storylines that Kindt has put together. Sometimes his art annoys me. Here, I appreciate the simple-ness of it all, interspersed with some brilliant images that really convey the mood and tone. You're supposed to laugh, and I did. FOUR STARS.
SYNOPSIS:
John Wick meets Wes Anderson in this mystery-thriller about a secret organization that's developed the perfect spy. Who is the perfect spy? A spy who doesn't even realize they are a spy. AKA the "useful idiot." This particular useful idiot is named Jay. Jay is sent on missions without even realizing he's on a mission. Until he picks up the wrong phone with the wrong secret intel and now Russian hit-squads and elite assassins are after him. But Jay believes he was a sleeper agent-and really is the "spy superb". His complete obliviousness and lack of survival skills may be the only thing that saves him in this globe-trotting espionage tale . . . where nothing is what it seems . . . but also . . . kind of actually is what it seems.
#825 G.I. JOE, A REAL AMERICAN HERO #301 by Larry Hama and Chris Mooneyham (Image Comics, November 2023) I fondly recall reading Marvel G.I. Joe issues to my young son, who had a nice collection of the action figures. Most of those stories were scripted by Larry Hama, who has a real feel for these characters as well as military action and situations. His name on the credits is what prompted me to take a look. The highly detailed and appealing art of Chris Mooneyham persuaded me to purchase this first issue from a new publisher (Image). I have no criticism of the long-running title and all its’ spin-offs when IDW had the publishing rights. I just didn’t read them. I may hang around here for at least the first story arc.
Hama doesn’t waste any time getting right to the action, which I learned picks up from events in IDW’s G.I. Joe #300. There are just two opening pages of a quick summary of the G.I. Joe team and the Cobra Command adversaries, and off we go.
Those without a background knowledge of the characters may be a little lost, but this first issue is not very character-driven. It’s all plot points. Plus, there is a neat little glossary in the back with profiles of the major characters.
Cobra Commander has been captured and is being transported via boat to imprisonment. A G.I. Joe assault team on Cobra Island has to flee in their speed boat after detecting a bomb. Still hidden within the island, Serpentor Kahn activates the bomb, which will turn anyone inside the blast radius into a flesh-eating zombie. (Ugh, more zombies in comics.) Cobra Commander manages to get away from his guard and escapes on a jet ski. The explosion goes off, and a member of the Joe team may have been killed or transformed. I can’t figure out who it is.
Supposedly, the G.I. Joe titles will be linked to the Image/Skybound Energon Universe and overlapping with the Transformer comics (another IDW licensed property that Image picked up). That will probably be the jumping-off point for me, if it doesn’t occur sooner. (I really want to see what Image does with the Storm Shadow mini-series, but not if it’s Energon-infused). I also read the Marvel Transformer comics to my young son (another part of his toy collection) but they bored the stuffing out of me. I used to make up voices for all the characters to avoid falling asleep while reading them to him. I even took him to see the movie version and watched the tv cartoons with him. Also boring. Transformers is just not a property I could ever get interested in.
However, if you’re getting tired of superhero fare but still like team books, G.I. Joe may be something that works for you. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
#826 - #828 THE MINISTRY OF COMPLIANCE #1 by John Ridley and Stefano Raffaele (IDW Publishing, November 2023) Once you go beyond superhero titles, the second most published genre seems to be horror comics (especially where the smaller publishers concentrate, rather than compete with the Big Three).
If you like science-fiction comics, the pickings get slimmer and seem to be dominated by either “horror in space” (monsters, aliens) or licensed properties like Star Wars, Star Trek, The Expanse, etc.
Apart from Saga (maybe the single exception), it’s nice to discover a new entry that holds so much promise. THE MINISTRY OF COMPLIANCE debuts with an over-sized issue that seems to be dealing with futuristic government, politics and infighting, all presented in an appealing style that grabbed my attention and didn’t let go. Ministry enforcer Avigail Senna is a bad-ass character, multi-layered and intriguing. The debut issue is very engaging, with writer Ridley providing a lot of depth in both story and characters. Plus, the clean art of Raffaele is easy on the eyes, and features some neat fight scenes along with the facial expressions and body language. FOUR AND ONE-HALF STARS.
Synopsis:
Thirty-seven years ago, Earth was secretly invaded by an alien force known as the Devolution, and they have been shaping the direction humanity has been going in ever since to prepare us to be assimilated into their empire.
The Devolution has thirteen ministries, each responsible for manipulating a different aspect of human life. The Ministry of Compliance, the most feared of all the ministries, led by the fierce Avigail Senna, makes sure all the ministries stay in line and remain focused on the Devolution's mission. As it appears the Ministry's mission is on the verge of being completed and Earth will be assimilated, things begin to go terribly wrong, and a conspiracy among the ministries breaks out that Avigail must deal with head-on.
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