Pile to the left, pile to the right, I guess we’ll start with this one. Ended up falling behind through the move and the holidays but here we go.

Sacrificers… I feel like I was reading The Lottery by Shirley Jackson for a second when I started this, so I stopped and started again. The story is different but it just called out the same emotional response from me. The writing by Rick Remender is solid and the color pallet is pleasing and I will continue this one but I hope for a little more detail and a more drawn out plot.

Deviant. I think this is a very well put together idea and one issue at a time just does not cut it. I think James Tynion IV has taken the comic world by storm these past two years but I think this one is the smartest of his efforts. I’m going to scrounge up an issue #2 on the open market and keep this one ordered going forward.

Action Comics #1061. Jason Aaron. I give him 3 issues without reservation as he just earned it over the years. Given the terrible storylines these past years put out by DC, my reading this is solely on his efforts. One problem, I just can not get into Bizarro. The inverse emotions and text just make the stories difficult for me. That being said, I liked the make up of the issue. Good world building, long term reader connection, and enough dialog to make feel like the $5.00 was worth it.

A special mention for people who enjoy animated style art. Silent Tales has some very nice panel work on sequential art without text. I will be looking at the artist’s other work.

• Ghostlore #1
• A Haunted Girl #3
• Ribbon Queen #1
• Cull #1
• Antarctica #2
• Skull & Bones #1
• Skull & Bones #2
• Sacrificers #1
• Franklin & Ghost #1
• Trident of Aurelia #1
• The Deviant #1
• Silent Tales
• Action Comics #1061

Next up is a few independents.

Just burning through some piles.

• Black Cat 2020 #1
• Black Cat 2020 #2
• Black Cat 2020 #3
• Black Cat 2020 #4
• Black Cat 2020 #5
• Black Cat 2020 #6
• Black Cat 2020 #7
• Black Cat 2020 #8
• Black Cat 2020 #9
• Black Cat 2020 #10
• Black Cat 2020 Annual #1
• Fantastic Four #39
• Fantastic Four: Reckoning War Alpha #1
• Fantastic Four #40
• Reckoning War: Trial of the Watcher #1
• Fantastic Four #41
• Fantastic Four #42
• Firefly #21
• Firefly #22
• Firefly #23
• Firefly #24

Knocked off a few older titles again this week and seasoned the stack with a few new ones. This particular pile was about things you want to finish but the direction of their stories twisted away from what you originally wanted the plot to be. I run into this from time to time.

Take for example that I enjoyed the first part of Catwoman: Lonely City some months ago. In the third issue the story left the theme of the aging ex-con reconnecting with her city and focused on Catwoman breaking into somewhere and saving the day as usual. Granted it did connect the Orpheus story, and included most of the players in the wrap up, but that was not what I cared about.

The Me You Love In The Dark suffered from a similar problem but here they changed the emotion they were addressing rather than the main plot device. Creative blocks, scary house and painting were replaced with possession, fear and forced effort in the painting. The house seemed like it would address her issues but what did it need her for? You could assume loneliness as a reason but that’s hardly a parallel to the artist’s issues.

Some of the other titles I read  share the same issues but I want to address a new one here. Gangster Ass Barista was sort of fun. Coffee addiction aside, the issue was pure escapism which was nice after the rest of the pile. The flashback panels are good fill in and help explain why the character is working in a coffee shop. It will be interesting to see if the creative team can keep the story in the shop rather than taking it out into the outside world.

• Parker Girls #2
• The Me You Love In The Dark #5
• Samurai Sonja #2
• Skybound Presents After School #3
• GCPD:The Blue Wall #1
• Gangster Ass Barista #1
• Disaster Inc. #3
• Disaster Inc. #4
• Disaster Inc. #5
• Catwoman Lonely City #3
• Catwoman Lonely City #4
• Captain Marvel #28
• Captain Marvel #29
• Captain Marvel #30
• Marvel Snapshot: Captain Marvel
• Flash 2022 Annual

Trying to get back on course here. Mostly bulk reading to clean up the comic area. I did add in three new ones just to get things started.

Fans of Terry Moore will most likely enjoy Parker Girls but I was hoping for some sort of style change this time. The characters are all reminiscent of his previous titles and the tone is fairly identical as well. Still worth the read but I’m hoping for a little more change in the next few.

Eve: Children of the Moon is a follow-up to EVE, the climate crisis story from May of 2021. The original arc is continued here as the girls have begun rebuilding plant life, and even civilization, as they keep in touch with the other settlements from the first story. Well, except one… I realize many of you did not read the first trade, but if you are in your public library, give this a go, you might enjoy it.

Briar is an interesting take on the the Sleeping Beauty story. I am not going to pretend it didn’t have a little Shrek feel to it but the story is interesting enough to continue. Dark fairy tales are always a good draw and this one has the right approach. All of the details about the main character, limbs weakened from being asleep for so long, no knowledge of the cultural shifts she’s missed, and her complete irrelevance to others, are put together well.  This could end up a good companion for I Hate Fairyland if it continues the way it is.

• Parker Girls #1
• Eve: Children of the Moon #1
• Geiger #4
• Geiger #5
• Geiger #6
• Briar #1
• Daredevil #26
• Daredevil #27
• Daredevil #28
• Daredevil #29
• Daredevil #30
• Daredevil #31
• Daredevil #32
• Daredevil #33
• Daredevil #34
• Black Widow #11
• Black Widow #12
• Black Widow #13
• Black Widow #14
• Black Widow #15

This week is a little more catch up but also a few I have avoided. The best of them is Daredevil #25, the continuing story of Elektra and Matt Murdock as it roles in and out of love and reality. Matt is in prison, Daredevil is not. The lead in to Daredevil Woman Without Fear was worth the 22 pages.

Not All Robots #4 actually made me concerned about the future in the comic. Robots going obsolete and dealing with being replaced hits a little too close to home. This added to the human uprising and the scary nature of the new version of robots. The parallel to our current political environment of rallies and name calling (both sides) made this a little uncomfortable, good but uncomfortable.

Beta Ray Bill #5 was a let down. I enjoyed the first few but they fell right back to Asgardian wins against Asgardian devil. I hate that. The five issues were not wasted, I just hoped for an original conclusion and a little less orange color as the page count dwindled.

• Grim #1
• The Me You Love In The Dark #4
• Beta Ray Bill #5
• Not All Robots #4
• Joy Operations #1
• Captain America & Iron Man #1
• Daredevil #25
• Shang Chi and the Ten Rings #1
• Skybound Presents After School #2

Sorry for the late publishing on this one. I forgot to push the button.

I decided to wrap up a few older titles I read to just catch up the piles. Spider Woman and Captain Marvel both are favorites of mine and rather than pick two or three issues, I will cover these and one new one.

Spider-Women wraps up the “Mother” story that began with this runs issue #1. Long term readers will get why this took so long but new readers should pass on this one. Family history is never easy and the 70’s base story is just too much to invest in.  That being said, I appreciated the mental state of the issues. Fear combined with long term family problems and anger at a close friend all bubble together. Jess will never be the same after this, but that might be a good thing.

Captain Marvel is a time travel arc. We all know how I love the title but time travel, again? The Marvel characters do show the endearment held for Carol Danvers and what her absence does to the timeline, but we knew this already. Knew “children” of heroes, some X-Men and I just want to scream about Kang for a year.

Minor Threats is a Patten Oswalt creation which I did find interest in. A criminal reform book, you should give this a chance if you want something out of the norm. Forgive the minor transition issues and focus on the larger point, a villain trying to get out.

• Spider-Woman #9
• Spider-Woman #10
• Spider-Woman #11
• Spider-Woman #12
• Spider-Woman #13
• Redshift #2
• Captain Marvel #24
• Captain Marvel #25
• Captain Marvel #26
• Captain Marvel #27
• Minor Threats #1
• Damage Control #1
• X-Men Legends #1

Having taken a mental beating over a rejection letter from the Washington Post, I sat in my tent the last few weeks and drank coffee with Achilles. Today I am back to work and put forth the below.

The two picks for this week are a similar genre in that they both are crime/criminal based and it is hard to decide who the good guy really is. Both reads left a feeling that the criminals have somehow placed a slight amount of accomplice guilt or sympathy in the reader at the end. It could also be that I read to many crime stories … The last pages of Reckless however contains a letter at the end about the creative teams reason for going away from the traditional comic form and cutting loose the story in a series of graphic novels. I really would like that letter done as a podcast by Ed Brubaker with a little further discussion about the pulp industry.

A special mention on Beta Ray Bill. Readers who want to know more about this character should check out the series. There is a healthy bit of character building and historical reference in the characters timeline. The art is a painful style for me but the story continues to get me to read the next issue because of the sympathy built as the story progresses.

• Break Out #2
• Spider-Man #3 (JJ Abrams)
• The Fourth Man #4
• Twig #1
• Black Cat #12
• Strange Academy #7
• Autumnal #7
• Dark Knights of Steel #3
• Stillwater #7
• Spider Woman #8
• Black Widow #10
• Me You Love In The Dark #3
• Beta Ray Bill #4
• Mouse Guard: The Owlhen Caregiver & Other Tales One Shot
• Reckless Volume One HC

I realize these posts have spread out a little but the book store requirements have taken additional time from the schedule and this is one of the things that suffered. I will catch up soon though.