Abbott #1 (Boom! Studios)
Martin: 5/5 stars. My favorite book from this past week. Horror detective noir story taking place in 1972 Detroit with a strong black female protagonist that manages to include commentary on racism & sexism while telling a compelling story w/ fantastic art. Highly recommended.
Infinite Speech: A great first issue but I LOVE that we have a story set in the 70s and the main character is a Black woman NOT sporting an afro!
Action Comics #996 (DC)
Martin: 3.5/5 stars. Booster Gold & Superman are a fun team-up, but the story is really starting to drag and miss out on stronger character-building opportunities. Great art helps elevate the score.
NickZ: The Supes and Booster time travel adventure is getting old. At this point, I’m more interested in Lois saving her dad than anything else going on in this story.
Avengers #677 (Marvel)
NickZ: Just when you think that Quicksilver is finally going to get his moment to shine, Wanda ruins it, as usual!
Black Panther #169 (Marvel)
Infinite Speech: In this semi-silent issue, Dora Milaje Aneka proves why she’s one of the best while the Midnight Angels do what they do best!
Black Science #34 (Image)
NickZ: Crazy is the new normal for this book and this issue leaves literally everything and everyone in the unknown! These are going to be the longest months ever until this book returns.
Detective Comics #973 (DC)
Martin: 4/5 stars. The real shining star of this arc has been the exploration of the Clayface/Orphan relationship, and the building up of Orphan’s character. The last panel is sure to have implications for the future of the team.
NickZ: It appears future Tim’s warnings were correct as Batwoman shatters the entire team with a single bullet.
Doomsday Clock #3 (DC)
Infinite Speech: Well…this is a comic.
Martin: 5/5 stars. Two top creators doing what they do best. The richness and detail of this story so far can’t be overstated. Issue #3 is the best of the series to date, carefully crafted to slowly roll out the overall story.
NickZ: Between fake Rorschach, wanna be Joker and Harley, and very little Supes or Dr Manhattan this book has been extremely unsatisfying thus far.
Flash #39 (DC)
Infinite Speech: So glad Di Giandomenico is back on art and now Grodd’s life depends on the Speed Force? Can’t wait to see why!
Martin: 4/5 stars. Other than the cover completely spoiling the story, this is a strong return to a less mopey and dark Flash that has dominated the book in recent months.
Incidentals #5 (Lion Forge)
Infinite Speech: Thought Stroman would be drawing more of this series but aside from the artist change the story is still a must read.
Kid Lobotomy #4 (Black Crown)
Infinite Speech: Milligan and Fowler continue to pull you into this twisted and weird world of theirs and you’ll definitely want to stay a while!
Legion #1 (Marvel)
NickZ: This series totally ignores everything that happened in the previous Legion series and just seems to be (poorly) trying to ride the coattails of the incredible TV series.
Marvel 2 in One #2 (Marvel)
NickZ: As someone who has never been a big Fantastic Four guy, I am really enjoying this series! With Ben and Johnny each dealing with Sue and Reed’s absence in their own way and Doom being as great as ever, I am totally on board. Zdarsky and Cheung are the real fantastic 2 of this book!
Nightwing: The New Order #6 (DC)
Arnab: It’d be cool if we got some more stories from this Universe.
Martin: 3.5/5 stars. A solid and satisfying ending to this short future tale, but it seemed a bit rushed. It would have been nice to have one more issue to explore the breadth of the DC Universe and why certain characters picked the sides they did.
Ninja-K #3 (Valiant)
Infinite Speech: One hell of a flashback issue revealing how messed up the Ninja Programme really is.
Phoenix Resurrection #4 (Marvel)
NickZ: Who the hell is Kitty to decide that Old Man Logan should be the one to engage Jean over Young Man Cyclops? Scott and Jean have always had a stronger connection in every timeline or reality than her and any version of Logan.
Postal #25 (Top Cow)
Infinite Speech: I knew the ending was coming but not like this! Postal needs to be on your radar and in your collection!
NickZ: Postal comes to an end with the revelation of Eden’s darkest, most horrifying secret! I am so glad those one-shots are coming out because I’m not ready to say goodbye to these characters. In any event, Hill and Goodheart have done an outstanding job with this series!
Raven: Daughter of Darkness #1 (DC)
Martin: 3/5 stars. I really wanted to like this better than I did, but so far it’s not showing any much different from the last mini-series, which wasn’t great. The inclusion of Baron Winters could help take this in a better direction in future issues.
Sex Criminals #21 (Image)
NickZ: Leave it to Fraction and Zdarsky to create the most hilariously awkward first encounter of ex-lovers ever!
Southern Bastards #19 (Image)
Infinite Speech: If you thought this series couldn’t get any better you were wrong! Poor monkey though.
Teen Titans #16 (DC)
Infinite Speech: A nice little one and done storyline here that puts Starfire front and center!
Martin: A one-off filler issue focusing on Starfire, but oddly doing little to re-establish her character or that of two of her colleagues, Beast Boy & Raven. A lot of potential wasted, especially given that it was written by Starfire co-creator Wolfman.
NickZ: This may very well have been the single worst issue of Teen Titans that I have ever read.
Wonder Woman #39 (DC)
Martin: 4/5 stars. Great action sequences with a villain who actually has some depth to her. However, the issue is slightly marred by the inclusion of Darkseid and Grail that has nothing to do with the main story.
X-Men Blue #20 (Marvel)
NickZ: Since when can Xavier send people through time?
X-Men Blue Annual #1 (Marvel)
NickZ: Aside from Wolverine, I don’t recall the X-Men and Venom ever crossing paths before this which in their long histories seems so odd.
X-O Manowar #11 (Valiant)
Infinite Speech: Well that was expected but Aric should have just left a long time ago. Kindt has not made his stay here a pleasant one.
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