I know its occurrence that’s not limited to me, but there are times when I buy comics and I don’t read them. I think it’s the collector mentality or something; hell I’m not going to explain it. What I will say is that I’m behind on reading and after getting moved, married and settled I’ve finally sat down read books that I bought years ago and never read. Here’s the first batch done in much the same way as The New 52 reviews. Mostly because I enjoy that format for reviews so shut up and read it already.
Locke & Key: Head Games #2
Fuck I wish I had bought the rest of this series! Seriously I love this book and this series and I’m way behind which sucks since I was reading about it before it blew up. I remember picking up the first issue to “Welcome to Lovecraft” and my comic shop guy was like, “I don’t think that book is going to be very good.” At that point I knew his opinion could not be trusted especially when he doubled his order size for the second issue and raved about it. At any rate the second issue is better that the first which I re-read in order to read this issue. If you haven’t read this series then buy the trades or pick it up digitally, which is likely what I’ll do while I track down the single issues.
Crawl To Me #1
Wow! I was really impressed by this issue. It was interesting and captivated me instantly. Also Alan Robert is very talented! His art style reminds me of Ben Templesmith’s, but his storytelling is very different. I really like this book and thankfully just got a review copy of the entire series (before the fourth issue mind you) so you’ll definitely see a write up for the trade. If you can find the back issues though you should pick it up.
G.I. Joe #1
By now you should have a good idea of how long my pile has been sitting around since this series is in the thirties already. This book was pretty good, the art was decent and I liked the way they eased you into the world. I didn’t care for all of the movies influence into the series, but hey what can you do. Also, it’s Chuck Dixon. I could take beef with him but there are worse formula writers out there. If you like the Joe’s and can tolerate Dixon then this book is worth reading but not struggling to track down. If I didn’t own it already I wouldn’t go out of my way to get a copy.
Green Hornet # 16
Is this book still going on? I hope so since it’s the best thing that Dynamite is putting out. Hester has great ideas for this series and I really enjoy the deep character moments that he adds to the book. I fear that if the book is still an ongoing that the art has taken a dip in favor of Bionic Man, but I will be tracking down the next issues to get caught up on the book. Green Hornet is one of my favorite pulp heroes and it’s strange that Dynamite would excel with this title. Of course pulp enthusiast would probably disagree, but I dig this book.
Green Hornet Strikes#8
As much as I like the regular Green Hornet, Strikes is so much better! It reminds me of Phantom 2099, in that the legacy of the character is still there, but it’s in the future and this new Hornet must find his own way with the old ways. Unfortunately it’s been heavily delayed and I honestly don’t know if it’s an ongoing or a mini, but again another one I’m going to track down. This issue saw the end of the first story arc which wraps up the events started in the first issue.
Last Phantom #7
Speaking of the Phantom,this book was full of potential… wasted potential. The best part of this book is the flashback to a pulpy comic look. It was the only part of the story that didn’t suck and frankly I think I already read ahead in this book. I’m personally done with this series and can’t wait until Dynamite gives up on the title so some else can take a chance on it and do it right. Such wasted potential that it’s just sad to see. Also the art was pretty meh with the exception of the flashback.
The Boys # 41
I’m just going to say, there is no possible way for The Boys to end that is going to be gratifying to long time readers. Everyone seems to think that Butcher has some huge endgame planned, but he doesn’t. Nor does Garth Ennis. I enjoyed this issue and I really need to get caught up on the series, but I could tell that 41 issues in that this book is going to end one day and not how anyone hopes. It’s a shock book that I’m sure Ennis thought would get cancelled and he’d be done with, but it turned out to be so much more than that. That’s it.
Golly #3
One of Phil Hester’s more under appreciated books, Golly is the story of a Carnie that must carry out Gods work. I’m paraphrasing a lot there. This issue has Golly and the other Carnies trying to spray Brother Dare with holy water while in his were-hog form, which ends with Golly pissing on him. I can only guess why this book wasn’t well received, but I think it was just ahead of its time. If this book came out today I wonder how well it would do. I know that the hardcover came out not too long ago and if you’re in the mood for something different then pick it up.
Impaler Vol 2. #1
I couldn’t finish reading this book. It was terrible. I know it was a finalist in some horror awards (says so on the cover), but it must have been a slow year or something for horror. The writing and storytelling was so bad and so uninteresting that I started to pay more attention to Whitney which was playing in the background. I don’t know why this book got so much press, but it was all hype.Terrible book and I’m sorry that I bought it and sat on it for so long. At least I didn’t buy the second issue. Also this book is another example why Top Cow is shutting its doors (not confirmed, but it has to be coming).
Savage #1
I really liked this book! I think a lot of people wrote it off when it came out, but this book was good. The first issue was very intriguing and really left me with a lot of questions, but in a good way. It explained just enough so that I wasn’t confused and wanted to read more.Thankfully I bought all but the last issue, so I’ll be track that down in order to finish reading the series. What I’m really excited about is that this is a book from Niles in his prime so it should hopefully get really good! -- Well there you have it, my first “Behind Pile” batch of reviews. I’m looking at about four or five piles of books to read still so don’t fret they’ll be more… as soon as I have the time to read them.