Monday Morning Grind 5-16

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Easter and Mother’s Day are over and it is time to get back to reading. Last week I spent Monday doing an audit of my reading box. I noticed I had ignored a few titles, so in order to try and get some focus I picked a few forgotten issues to read this week. I threw in a few follow ups to keep moving forward, so here we go with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

The Good: The positives on the list, Animal Castle and Beta Ray Bill, each moved their plot forward as they lead me to believe they would. However both had an abundance of text balloons, dense conversation, and lettering issues so it was tough to enjoy a casual read. The added story details in both titles made the next issue more attractive. The Daisy themed propaganda in Animal Castle was really smart and put hope into the characters which, after the failed rebellion, was necessary to keep me interested. Beta Ray Bill’s ship is now sentient and Bill is trying to get a handle on what caused it and how to move forward. I think the creation of the living ship is good for the comic but five issues may be too short to do it justice. Readers of late 90s Cable may recall we visited this type of plot device with Cable’s “Ship” which later is named “Graymalkin”. I am hoping the writer can make Skuttlebutt as endearing as its predecessor.

The Bad: Radio Apocalypse, Little Monsters, and Me You Love In The Dark all suffered from the sophomore slump. The first issues 9f these titles all drew me in, but the follow ups lacked that same interest level. The stories all moved forward but they seemed more extra detail than plot driven additions. Righteous Thirst also reflected the same flaw, body but no real plot progression. This one actually seemed to lose a step in that the normally volcanic stress was replaced with panic, indecision, and even fear to some degree. All four comics made me feel like I paid for a 22 page stalling tactic while the writer figures out where to go. I’ll read the next one but I hope these improve as I did enjoy the previous issues quite a bit.

The Ugly: Marauders #1 from the new releases was just a let down. I realize that writing my own space pirate story makes me a little critical… but nope, just not good. There is no on ramp for new readers, banners for places, times and characters are missing, and it’s the most rushed plot I have experienced so far this year. I realize for the coming Avengers/X-Men event I will likely have to read it but if this is the best the team can do, the X-Men should be dead.

  • Radio Apocalypse #2
  • Me You Love In The Dark #2
  • Animal Castle #2
  • Ordinary Gods #1
  • Beta Ray Bill #3
  • Marauders #1 (20278)
  • Righteous Thirst For Vengeance #3
  • Iron Man #2 (09866)
  • Little Monsters #2
  • She Hulk #3

 

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