Review: Royal City #4
By Jonathan Edwards
I've been championing this book since pretty much the get go, and as far as I'm concerned, it's been doing a pretty good job of consistently living up to that hype. However, with the next issue marking the end of Royal City's introductory story arc, it seems that Lemire has slowed down his momentum a touch for this fourth installment. Mind you, it's by no means a bad issue. The priority is just different. Rather than following in the footsteps of the last couple issues by introducing new plot threads, we see those that already exist start to get pulled together. Although, Lemire still leaves us with the lingering question of who exactly is the young woman that Patrick keeps running into? And perhaps more importantly, how does she fit into what all's going on with Tommy and Royal City?
Review: Plastic #3
By Jonathan Edwards
Ever since initially glimpsing the preview pages at the end of the last issue, I've been both excited for as well as a little apprehensive about this one. Why? Because, I knew going in that the first scene (or at the very least, one of the first scenes) would involve sexual assault. It's a very serious subject matter that can very easily be mishandled and used exploitatively, even when the creator doesn't intend it, simply by way of not being familiar enough with how to responsibly look at and talk about it. Now with that being said, how does Plastic #3 handle it? Well, first let me note that I am by no means an expert on this, so everything I'm saying should be taken with a grain of salt. Anyway, while I'm honestly not convinced that its inclusion was entirely necessary to tell this story, I do see why Wagner did it. Furthermore, I personally found something quite powerful about how Edwyn reacts to and talks about it throughout the issue. To me, it's the final proof that this book is earnestly exploring themes of love, good, and evil through a lens that is so commonly associated with the perversion of, or in some cases the outright disagreement with, those same themes. What we're ultimately left with is a story that's romantic in the same way that Palahniuk is romantic. And, I love it.
Review: Justice League of America #8
By Jonathan Edwards
No, this book still isn't any good, and no, I won't leave it alone. This issue feels like a whole new low in the perpetual suck that is this series. On top of characters being dumb, inconsistent, and poorly written, loads of development happening offpanel, a shitton of sloppy exposition telling us about said development, as well as an entirely artificial and manufactured conflict regarding the "hypocrisy" of Batman, Justice League of America #8 has the most convoluted train wreck of a story to date. Makson is a shit-tier villain, an even worse character, and the "twist" is flimsy and contrived at best. The fact that DC currently lists five more issues of JLA, all still written by Orlando, is insanity and could be used as proof for us living in an unfair world.
Review: Helena Crash #4
By Jonathan Edwards
I find it funny that even though this issue literally says "end" on the last page, signifying that this is the last issue in this limited series, some sources do still list this as "4 of 5." That being said, this is indeed the last issue (at least until they go and make and sequel series, that is). The three previous issues were all a fast and fun ride, and this one keeps right in line with that all the way up to an ending that ties everything up quite nicely. Honestly, as easy as it would be for Helena's story to be followed up upon, a part of me hopes they just leave it at the way it ends here.
Review: Mighty Mouse #1
By Jonathan Edwards
When I was fairly young, I owned a VHS or two compiling a large number of older cartoons. The first thing I recall from watching them was me fast forwarding through in hopes that I'd eventually run into some Looney Tunes. I didn't, but that was the first time I ever remember seeing Mighty Mouse. Now, that was a long time ago, so I really couldn't tell you anything that happened in those cartoons anymore (although, those cassettes are still likely lying around somewhere). The next prominent encounter with Mighty Mouse I can remember was when I was probably twelve or thirteen and taking an acting for the camera class. One of my practice scenes involved a discussion about the rodent superhero (I think it was from Donnie Darko, but I kind of hate that movie, so I'm not all that bothered to go and double-check that). Finally, at some point in probably my late teens, I decide to watch the first episode of Saturday Night Live, and I saw the relatively famous clip of comedian Andy Kaufman lip-synching the theme song to the old Mighty Mouse cartoon (it's possible I'd happened to have seen it prior, but I don't think it was until then that is stuck). These are probably the only three significant connections I have to Mighty Mouse, if you want to even go as far as calling them "significant." Yet for some reason, when I saw the first ads for this book, something drew me in and made me want to read it. So, I did.
Review: Dark Knight III: The Master Race #9
By Jonathan Edwards
Holy god, this shitheap of mediocrity is finally over. You really have to wonder what the creative team was doing during those extra months between issues. Because, they sure as hell didn't use that time to create a superior book. Seriously, a year and a half to get out nine issues averages about one every two months (remember, this was supposed to be a monthly title), and they've all been bland at best. It's even worse when you juxtapose it with what DC is doing with a fair amount of their Rebirth titles. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Nightwing, and The Flash, to name a few, have been shipping semimonthly since June of last year, and they've all been a far cry better than DK3. Whereas here we've been subjected the awfulness that is contemporary Frank Miller filtered through Brian Azzarello, who only succeeds in stripping away the lion's share of poor taste that would likely be there otherwise. Other than the, y'know, barely masked Islamophobia and support for police brutality in the name of "justice," that is. So, I welcome this end. And funnily enough, this might be the best, or at least close to it, this series has been. But, again, that's not saying a lot.
Review: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 2017 Annual
By Jonathan Edwards
I believe it was after I reviewed the 2nd, or maybe 3rd, issue of Justice League/Power Rangers that I started to wonder what BOOM!'s actual Power Rangers books were like. They couldn't possibly be as simplistic and shit as the crossover book is, I thought (granted, everything I've read from Bryan Hitch's current run on Justice League has been straight garbage). My curiosity would be piqued every time I saw a Power Rangers title pop up on the spreadsheet, but I was never motivated enough to actually check any of them out. Until I saw this annual, that is. I figured it'd be the perfect microcosmic jumping on point to determine the general quality of BOOM!'s actual Power Rangers material. And I'm happy to report, not only was I right about that, it's also pretty good too.
Review: Trinity - Annual #1
By Jonathan Edwards
I remember having some particular interest in Trinity when I was first looking over DC's new releases that would be launching with Rebirth. I couldn't tell you exactly why, though the promise of a book focusing specifically on the dynamics between Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman intrigued me. I now know there had previously been an ongoing weekly book with the same name and conceit, but at the time, I was easily hooked by a novelty I somehow hadn't really ever considered. I read the first six issues before stopping, mainly because I'd managed to fall behind in my reading after around Trinity #3. I didn't really want to play that much catch-up, so I opted to just finish up the first story arc and leave it at that. I enjoyed the book enough (I even briefly considered reversing my earlier decision and checking my LCS for back issues), but ultimately I decided that treating those first six issues like something of a limited series was enough for me. And then, this annual cropped up. After some slight deliberation, I decided I might as well let it be the final say in whether or not I picked up the main book again.
Review: Plastic #2
By Jonathan Edwards
Holy cow, I was not quite expecting this to be the direction this book went, but I'm so glad that it is. Last time I talked about how I didn't feel like this was a mean-spirited story, and frankly, this second issue only reinforces that. It's actually kind of amazing how much this issue makes you feel like Edwyn is an actually good guy that you want to root for despite the horrendously gruesome things he has the capacity to do. By the end of it, even his conversations with himself felt closer charming than anything else. It makes me wonder if Wagner's perhaps making some kind of statement about mental health. There's no denying that there's a huge stigma against people with mental disabilities, but here we have a protagonist who (even though he can and has taken human life in very violent ways) kind of just wants to love, laugh, live his life, and be left alone. Who cares if Virginia is a sex doll? She makes Edwyn happy, and people only get hurt when they try and mess with that. But, Edwyn is only "useful" when he's dangerous, and mental illness really does tend to be represented in much the same way in the media. That is to say, only when it's dangerous.
Review: Justice League of America #7
By Jonathan Edwards
How does Steve Orlando suck so bad at writing exposition? Seriously, he routinely has characters suddenly bring up plot elements and character developments that hasn't even been hinted at. Furthermore, he's written every villain in this damn book so far in exactly the same way. Lord Havok, Aegeus, and now Terrorsmith are all far too eager in divulging their entire backstory, philosophy, and subtext to everyone they happen to run into. No joke, the first thing that Terrorsmith does is say his name to security guards that were minding their own business. Admittedly, Orlando is going for a "he's pissed no one remembers him" angle, so him introducing himself outright should work. In theory. However, he fucks it up by drawing it out and, again, devotes too much time to shitty exposition dumps that are really hard to care about when the villain hasn't even done anything yet. It would've been infinitely more pithy if Terrorsmith introduced himself, the guards are confused but tell him he can't enter, Terrorsmith has some follow up one-liner like "remember the name," and then he transforms them into monsters. Boom, we've established our threat and foreshadowed his motivations. Sure, people unfamiliar with the character won't get an exact breakdown of how and why his powers work, but is that important to the story? Certainly not enough to front-load it. The details can always be worked in later if they're really necessary, and with the space saved, we could have actually seen him start to transform the guards. Instead of, y'know, just being told that's what happened.
Review: Winnebago Graveyard #1
By Jonathan Edwards
Many years ago, my parents opted to buy an RV, and we went on a cross country trip across America. We actually all flew to Florida to buy the damn thing to drive all the way back to the West coast. We actually had that RV for an absurdly long time for only going on, I think, one other trip with it. And then, they sold it. I don't really know what the moral of that story is, but it's part of what made me want to check this book out. See, I was a skittish kid for a long time. So much so that I flat out refused to even watch horror films (although, some gradual encouragement in my teens eventually got me to break out of that). So during that RV trip, I was pretty frequently scared of someone or something "getting" us. Winnebago Graveyard is that fear turned comic book, or at least it endeavors to be. And when I saw Steve Niles's name attached on top of that, I knew I had to at least give it a try.
Review: Royal City #3
By Jonathan Edwards
I swear, with every new issue of Royal City, I read it, love it, and want more. Lemire does such a good job of setting and maintaining a tone that it hardly takes any effort to slip back into the same emotional space each month. Furthermore, he has a specific way of revealing information so that it informs about the characters and world while also generating further intrigue and follow-up questions. As far as I can tell, the "model" (if you want to call it that) tends to be something of a reversed order of events. We meet a character who's feeling a certain way or in a certain state of mind. Then, we slowly move backwards to find out the actual event that got them there. And after that, we uncover what led to that event. For example, Tara and her husband Steve have been at odds since the first issue, and with this one we finally learn what the cause of that was (I refuse to spoil it). And now, the question becomes "what else was going on before it that affected and led up to it?" It's really great stuff, and I can only presume it will all eventually lead back to finding out exactly what happened to Tommy Pike.
Review: Justice League/Power Rangers #4
By Jonathan Edwards
Y'know, despite it being a couple of months since the last issue of Justice League/Power Rangers, I was still annoyed enough with its bullshit that I didn't really want to review issue #4 when I first saw it pop up on the spreadsheet. However, after giving it some thought, I decided to let the CERN nonsense slide for now and give it a chance. The book, in turn, reciprocated by having the first third of it entirely dedicated to giving an explanation to how exactly the Large Hadron Collider was going to make a proper portal from the DCU to the Power Rangers universe. Except, not really, because everything about that process is written so vaguely that I really don't know what Tom Taylor decided to try and drag real world science into this. Interdimensional portals are easily accepted by suspension of disbelief. But as soon as you say CERN or Large Hadron Collider, you are setting a precedent for what can and can't be done. I'll let you guess whether 'creating a portal with a direct connection to a parallel universe that will safely transport people between said universes' falls in the former or latter category. No, I won't; it's stupid and wrong.
Review: Cannibal #5
By Jonathan Edwards
If you read my review for Cannibal vol. 1, you already know a few things about this book and me. You know that I really like it, since it's an intriguing twist on the tired zombie subgenre, and there's a level of nuance to its characters and their interactions that really works for me. You'll know that one of the sample reviews I submitted when applying to be a writer for Comic Bastards was the first issue. And, you'll also know that I tend to think it works a bit better read as a trade than issue to issue, but I personally still read it month to month. If you didn't read that review, well, now you know all that too, and it all holds true with this one. Although, this is also probably one of, if not the, best issue of the series so far.
Review: Justice League of America #6
By Jonathan Edwards
So, here we have the second part of a two-issue story called "Heart of the Bastich." If the title wasn't a complete giveaway, the main focus is meant to be Lobo. And from that, one can presume the purpose of this 'arc' would be to further cement him as a member of the JLA and better align him with their goals (as stupid as they may be), as he's easily been the furthest outlying for literally the entire run. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of metaphors would understand that the word "heart" in that title obviously implies that we are going to see the emotional core of the character, and that will likely lead to some kind of genuine growth. However, there are a couple problems with that here. For one, why the hell is Steve Orlando doing that with Lobo of all characters? Were people really clamoring for that type of development for him? Secondly, Orlando fucks it up.
Review: Supergirl: Being Super #3
By Jonathan Edwards
After a month or two delay, Supergirl: Being Super is back with issue #3, and here I am with it. I actually just reread my reviews of the previous couple issues for the sake of retrospection. The upshot of that process? Well, I now feel like a sinner that need repent for their actions. That is to say, I really like this one, and I'm regretting discouraging some people from picking it up in my first review. Don't get me wrong, I still stand by it being a slow start. However, this issue proved to me that it was totally worth it and more than paying off.
Group Review: Youngblood #1
By The Comic Bastards
Welcome to a Comic Bastards group review! If this is your first, then allow me to remind you how this works. Each of the participating writers from Comic Bastards will give a score and their thoughts on the issue. This time it’s Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood #1, rebooted by Chad Bowers and Jim Towe.
Review: Helena Crash #3
By Jonathan Edwards
Back when Helena Crash #1 came out, I seem to recall it being listed as the first of five issues. It appears that, somewhere along the line, that changed, and now it's only a four-issue limited series. Honestly, it's a bit disappointing, because after this one, I want more that just one final issue. The charm of Helena Crash has slowly but surely won me over. Not that it was met with much, if any, resistance along the way. It's a good book with an interesting enough premise and a world comprised of colorful characters (both literally and metaphorically). It may be a relatively quick read, but it's a solid good time too.
Review: Underwinter #2
By Jonathan Edwards
Hrm, this is not the second issue I expected. At first, I thought it was, and I got excited. But as I read on, the promise of a deeper exploration of the demonic forces teased previously quickly gave way to decompressed check-ins with each of the quartet's members. Okay, I thought to myself, it's just reorienting us, and then it's going really dig in. A few pages later, it was suddenly over. I was surprised, and I couldn't help but wish there had been a bit more. In that regard, you could say that this issue was something of a letdown. Although, it is still enjoyable.
Review: Justice League of America #5
By Jonathan Edwards
Welp, I'm back. And if you read my review for the previous issue of JLA, you'll know that means the book has, in fact, gotten worse. But funnily enough, it's not all that rage inducing this time around. It's shit, but it doesn't really feel like much of an effort is being made to convince us otherwise. It's more of a whimper than a bang as T.S. Eliot might say. That being said, shit is still shit, and I'm hard-pressed to let this alone as long as Steve Orlando continues to provide such baffling and stupid content in hopes it'll somehow justify the book's existence. So, here we go: Justice League of America #5.
FEATURED POSTS
Archive
- April 2025 2
- March 2025 2
- February 2025 3
- January 2025 6
- December 2024 2
- November 2024 1
- October 2024 1
- July 2024 4
- June 2024 3
- May 2024 2
- April 2024 7
- March 2024 7
- January 2024 3
- December 2023 2
- November 2023 4
- October 2023 6
- September 2023 5
- August 2023 12
- July 2023 4
- June 2023 3
- May 2023 2
- April 2023 3
- March 2023 2
- February 2023 1
- January 2023 3
- December 2022 2
- November 2022 3
- October 2022 3
- September 2022 2
- August 2022 1
- July 2022 6
- June 2022 4
- May 2022 14
- April 2022 15
- March 2022 9
- February 2022 5
- August 2019 1
- January 2019 2
- August 2018 12
- July 2018 188
- June 2018 159
- May 2018 204
- April 2018 156
- March 2018 178
- February 2018 180
- January 2018 176
- December 2017 112
- November 2017 143
- October 2017 152
- September 2017 210
- August 2017 180
- July 2017 199
- June 2017 150
- May 2017 129
- April 2017 184
- March 2017 180
- February 2017 178
- January 2017 195
- December 2016 164
- November 2016 135
- October 2016 163
- September 2016 219
- August 2016 248
- July 2016 267
- June 2016 242
- May 2016 160
- April 2016 199
- March 2016 163
- February 2016 145
- January 2016 175
- December 2015 105
- November 2015 166
- October 2015 130
- September 2015 147
- August 2015 135
- July 2015 183
- June 2015 190
- May 2015 140
- April 2015 275
- March 2015 198
- February 2015 430
- January 2015 198
- December 2014 144
- November 2014 187
- October 2014 239
- September 2014 193
- August 2014 289
- July 2014 334
- June 2014 308
- May 2014 244
- April 2014 253
- March 2014 268
- February 2014 232
- January 2014 254
- December 2013 302
- November 2013 276
- October 2013 349
- September 2013 262
- August 2013 325
- July 2013 349
- June 2013 303
- May 2013 373
- April 2013 416
- March 2013 124
- February 2013 16
- January 2013 26
- December 2012 24
- November 2012 17
- October 2012 18
- September 2012 22
- August 2012 13
- July 2012 20
- June 2012 12
- May 2012 23
- April 2012 20
- March 2012 9
- February 2012 20
- January 2012 96
- December 2011 93
- November 2011 73
- October 2011 52
- September 2011 54
- August 2011 37
- July 2011 1