By Dustin Cabeal

That’s right; I’m back with another review in which I punish myself, at least depending on how you look at it. Since I need a break from DC’s titles and they weren’t shipping much, I decided to turn to the only publisher that didn’t take the week after a holiday off and that’s Image.

Same thing as last week, I’m going to read them all, review them all and give a ranking. At the end, I’ll tell you which Image title you should buy if you’re going to buy only one Image title.

If you like this, tell me. If you hate it, don’t tell me. If there’s a publisher you’d like me to tackle in the future, let me know. Again, we don’t get Marvel review copies because they’re too good to send us books or some junk. I doubt they know we exist really and I’m fine with that, I would just talk more shit about them, but if there’s any other publisher, let me know. Let’s begin.

I decided to go alphabetically since otherwise, I miss titles, so I’m starting with Deadly Class #24. Apparently, there was a big swerve in this series in which Remender pulled an Edge and said “You think you know me” and killed the main character of the book and changed the rules to the game. I liked that, okay, but now it’s starting over with the audience knowing the secret. I will admit that it was a decent read and glimpses of what I liked about it before it went too into the Remender pool. It’s not perfect, though, and there’s just a lot of fucking talking. Remender at least makes it digestible and easy to read, but it’s far from compelling and I was probably more inclined to care since I haven’t read the series since the first arc. The stereotypes are just a little too fucking thick, and while that’s probably the point, it makes the characters unenjoyable, especially when one of the characters breaks them down easily. Craig’s artwork has somehow gotten even better than before, and that’s a real treat to see. By default, this gets the top spot.

CURRENT RANKING:

• DEADLY CLASS #24

I fell behind on reading Monstress, and it has been a damn shame to me that it happened. I didn’t particularly want to dive back into the series without getting caught up, but then I figured it would also keep me from being as biased. It worked. Monstress #8 is really good, but it’s not perfect. There’s a lot of chat. A lot. It starts to feel like a European comic because of it, but Lui’s writing is so sharp that it’s hard not to cling to every word. I’m still surprised by how long this series manages to make its issues; that was a treat for sure. The dynamic is interesting, the god living in Maika’s arm is fucking awesome. The part with the siren was random but added this crazy layer to the already crazy story. I don’t see how any of this can have a happy ending, but I have a feeling it will be a rewarding ending, and that’s what I’m looking forward to. To be completely honest, this barely and I mean barely beats Deadly Class #24, but Monstress #8 just has fewer faults and more intrigue. That and I won’t be back for the next issue of Deadly Class.

CURRENT RANKING:

• MONSTRESS #8
• DEADLY CLASS #24

I missed out on the first issue of Romulus… actually, I should rephrase that, I didn’t read the first issue, but meant to. Missing out would imply that you should read Romulus and I don’t think you should bother. The story is convoluted. The characters are generic, but pat themselves on the back for being so cool. Psychic Popstars? The Illuminati are good guys? And a guy ranting about being a shadow… this book has all of that and like a dozen more things. Like a cult of Romulus rising again… and they want to kill 5 billion people to do it. Fuck it. Let them. I highly doubt I missed anything by not reading the first issue and if I did, I’m sure it was re-explained in this issue. I will pass on the third issue since I’ve read similar and better before. In the end, it was like a 90s cartoon that got canceled by the fifth episode; you won’t miss it.

CURRENT RANKING:

• MONSTRESS #8
• DEADLY CLASS #24
• ROMULUS #2

I couldn’t have planned this any better. If you listen to the CBMFP, then you know that I’m not a Remender fan. Reading two books of his in one week… not ideal for me, but I fucking did it. I did it for this review. Seven to Eternity #3 reveals what the title half means. Seven assholes are going to transport the mud king to be poisoned and remove his effect on the people of the land. Yay. The mud king is stupid as fuck. He puts his muddy fucking finger in your ear to take over your eyes and ears and then he grants you your wish using your own fucking abilities? Wow, Remender. Nothing says “believe in yourself” more than that, right? You want your dead family back? I can use your regenerative power to bring them back… and then I’ll put my muddy finger in their ear… and your butthole… I mean earhole! That’s not why they call me the MUD KING!!! COME ON GUYS, STOP LAUGHING AT ME. I’M THE MUD KING! If you can’t tell, I’m still in the minority on this one and dislike the book. The art still feels lifeless to me, and I know that just dropped some jaws, but it does. There’s no personality to it, it all feels like painted over Marvel characters. If Romulus didn’t have a psychic pop star working for the Illuminati, this would be at the bottom.

CURRENT RANKING:

• MONSTRESS #8
• DEADLY CLASS #24
• SEVEN TO ETERNITY #3
• ROMULUS #2

Previously I had only read the first issue of Sex and hated it. It’s now on the thirty-third issue, and I don’t like it much better. The premise of a Batman-esc character retiring early from crime fighting and diving into the business world sounds great on paper. That’s about it. There are so many fucking characters in this book that it has an entire page telling you who’s who. The last time I saw that was in a manga. The story was boring, the highlighted words in the middle of people’s sentences was confusing and didn’t convey the emphasis that I think it wanted me to understand. I will never read this book again. I don’t know what is enjoyable about it, but clearly, people find it enjoyable enough to continue buying it… or maybe they just like the title.

CURRENT RANKING:

• MONSTRESS #8
• DEADLY CLASS #24
• SEVEN TO ETERNITY #3
• ROMULUS #2
• SEX #33

I’m not a fan of Shutter. I don’t hate it, but it just doesn’t do enough to win me over. The emotion this issue was trying to convey at the end was transparent in the beginning. I saw where it was going instantly and the journey to get there wasn’t enjoyable. You can be transparent, but you still need to be good in the meantime, and this was just average. The only part of the story that I was confused by was the part that tied into the larger narrative, and it was all exposition and info-dumps. It was the worst part of the issue because it didn’t make sense why these characters were giving so many details to each other, but then stopping just short. Exposition is exposition even if you don’t finish it. I want to like this series, but it continues to be too generic.

CURRENT RANKING:

• MONSTRESS #8
• DEADLY CLASS #24
• SEVEN TO ETERNITY #3
• SHUTTER #24
• ROMULUS #2
• SEX #33

I hoped never to read Surgeon X again after the first issue. I hated that issue. That hate continues here with the third issue. This book talks too fucking much. Everyone has too much to say, and the timeline is shit. People just teleport and you might say, “but Dustin, the setting changed, they’re allowed to jump the story.” Not when someone else is reminding us of what just fucking happened. It ends up making this book feel like everything took place in twenty minutes, but it doesn’t. That and the art is super inconsistent. Eyes were constantly shifting around on faces and when “surgery” was happening it lacked any details to make it look real. Was that a human or a horse? I don’t fucking know. At one point the art was so shaky, I didn’t realize the main character was the one that was talking which made for some confusion. It blows my mind that people love this book. I get that it’s trying something different, talking about the hospital and big pharma industry, but I’m not going to excuse the rest because of your concept, nor am I going to read anymore. The rest of the titles on this list are lucky this shipped this week because it found the bottom of the barrel and made them not look so crappy.

CURRENT RANKING:

• MONSTRESS #8
• DEADLY CLASS #24
• SEVEN TO ETERNITY #3
• SHUTTER #24
• ROMULUS #2
• SEX #33
• SURGEON X #3

Saga was the only title I read out of order because it was the last book I got to read. I will never understand that either it’s reviewable or it’s not. Making me wait until it’s release doesn’t affect my review any and let’s be honest, it’s not going to affect the sales for this series any either. That said... I haven't read Saga since the twenties. It seems a lot has happened... including Prince Robot sleeping with Alana and getting her pregnant. Also Hazel isn't a baby anymore. Lying Cat still does stuff and really the formula for this series is intact. That was my problem with this series, the formula is good and I'll admit that being away for so long worked on me, but it is the same formula over and over. It focuses on developing one character, it has two soft reveals and then a crazy cliffhanger. I just described every issue of Saga. You're probably already buying this issue and following this series, but I'm here to tell you which book you should buy if you should only buy one. While Saga is good, is this individual issue more interesting or better than Monstress or Deadly Class? For me, its not.

CURRENT RANKING:

• MONSTRESS #8
• DEADLY CLASS #24
• SAGA #40
• SEVEN TO ETERNITY #3
• SHUTTER #24
• ROMULUS #2
• SEX #33
• SURGEON X #3

It looks like Monstress #8 wins it. Again, it's hella close between that book and Deadly Class #24, which is weird for me to say. Trust me, that's not something I expected going into these reviews, but there it is. Also you can always just go with the safe bet of Saga if that makes you feel better. Here's the individual scores for those of you that are interested in that as well, with the exception of Seven to Eternity #3 since Mike did a full review (read it here) and he gets to determine the score for that one.

Monstress #8 - Score: 4/5
Deadly Class #24 - Score: 4/5
Saga #40 - Score: 4/5
Shutter #24 - Score: 3/5
Romulus #2 - Score: 1/5
Sex #33 - Score: 1/5
Surgeon X #3 - Score: 1/5