ROBERT KIRKMAN WEEK: DIE!DIE!DIE! #10

Released on June 10th, 2020

     It's July 1st...which should mean the only thing people are thinking about is what they're going to do to celebrate the big holiday this weekend. Unfortunately, the virus pandemic that has swept the globe isn't getting any better...at least here in the U.S. Since I wrote the "30 Reviews in 30 Days" feature, things have gotten somewhat better here in Pennsylvania. Last Friday the state went into the Green phase...which meant that barber shops and nail salons could open back up. Restaurants are allowed to have outdoor dining. Comic book stores finally opened back up two weeks ago. Florida and Texas have had a big rise in cases, mostly because their governors are Republicans and idiots and opened up too early. California attempted to reopen most things but had to stop doing that when a surge in cases started. So, quite basically, we're fucked. This virus isn't going away any time soon. A few scientists have said what I think most scientists actually believe: the virus isn't going away and we'll just have to learn to live with it. The death of comic book stores hasn't occurred, as some had thought, though if things get worse and worse then who knows what will happen. The big news in the comic book world was that DC officially broke from the Diamond distributor and two new distributors, Midtown Comics (UCS) and DCBS (Lunar), are shipping DC books now. DC comic books are now on sale on Tuesdays, which means that new comics are now coming out on Tuesday and Wednesday. It's good that comic book shipping isn't a monopoly any more, although the last time this happened, when Marvel left Diamond and started their own shipping company, the comic book industry tanked and Marvel went bankrupt. All of this craziness means that comic book shipping has been pretty haphazard and all over the map since new books started coming back out about a month ago. And so far it isn't really new books that are coming out, but books that would have been released in April that are just delayed. This week actually has no new Marvel books coming out, and DC only has a few digital only releases. Image has a ton of books coming out this week, noticeably three from writer Robert Kirkman. They're not exactly three typical, ho-hum books, either, they're huge fucking releases that merit attention. So why not delve into the mind (and books) of Robert Kirkman for a week? Hell, he's been the biggest writer/creator in comics for the last five years or so at least. And either because he's rich (thanks to his The Walking Dead TV money) or just a good guy, he's actually doing something pretty unique this week. To help comic book stores in this dire time of need, he's publishing a new Walking Dead book and sending it to comic book stores for free (customers have to pay $4.99 for it). The book, Negan Lives!, is a comic book store exclusive, meaning it isn't being published digitally (granted, I assume someone is going to scan it and post it online sooner rather than later). The other books he's writing that are coming out today are the Free Comic Book Day issue of Fire Power #1 and the Fire Power prequel graphic novel, both of which were supposed to come out in early May. Kirkman also has three other monthly books that he writes, so I figured I'd review the latest issues of those and let the world know if his stuff is any good these days. Kirkman was one of the best writers in comic books...about ten years ago. His early issues of The Walking Dead were legend, as was Invincible. Die!Die!Die! is one of his newer books and it's not really entirely his book. He writes it but the ex-producer of The Walking Dead TV show, Scott Gimple, co-plots it. Chris Burnham, who used to draw Batman, Inc. awhile back, is the artist. The book is kind of like Mission: Impossible; a secret, government funded group of assassins/spies help prevent world destruction. The caveat, as the ridiculous title kind of tells you, is that this book is balls-to-the-wall bonkers. It's ridiculous and super bloody and comedic. I guess since I've read all ten issues so far (the book recently returned from a year long hiatus with #9) I kind of like it. Intrigued is probably a more apt description. The book is probably most famous for being a "surprise" release. It came out with only a few days notice and was sent to comic book stores for free. Considering nobody really talks about it online that much, I guess very few people kept reading it after the surprise wore off. The last issue, #9, came out in March, and #8 came out in February 2019, so while reading #10 I have to admit that I was a little lost as to what happened in previous issues. The book started with three identical twins that were also assassins. One is evil. One comes back from the dead in this issue. There's not really much of a plot in this issue besides the dead brother coming back. There's some action but I wasn't entirely sure what was going on. Amusing? Sure. I did laugh at the scene when a mother is showing her daughter the parlor trick of stabbing a knife between your fingers really fast while not cutting them. "Is game," she says to the child. "Hand and eye to work as one. Mostly just looks cool. Is in...all the movies." Should I also mention that the book opens with, for whatever reason, a sequence showing that men are getting pregnant now and so they're all suddenly for abortion? Dick babies. Does that make you laugh? Kind of just embarrassingly stupid. I guess the book just tries to shock for the sake of shock. It doesn't help that the art looks a little rough and rushed. But the book does have one good element; it feels like Kirkman and Burnham are having a total blast making it and it shows. I just kind of wish maybe reading it felt that good. * (out of ****)

30 REVIEWS IN 30 DAYS (30): STRANGE ACADEMY #1

Released on March 4th, 2020

     Kids don't read comic books. Gerry Conway, the writer who famously killed off both Gwen Stacey and Norman Osbourne/The Green Goblin in consecutive issues, said in an article about the future of comic book stores that "as comics began retreating from newsstands into specialty shops in the early 70's, comic readers became older, preferring heavier, more complex fare. But this may have made comics less accessible to newcomers." Everyone seems to say this, although I started reading comics around 1990 when I was only ten (I used my paper route money to buy comics every Friday). Although if you ever go into a comic book store, you get the point. Everyone is around my age (40). Which kind of makes sense, since my generation was young when comics were at their peak in the early 90's. You would think that with all of these blockbuster superhero movies being released every year that it would make the new generation start reading comic books. If it's happened, it certainly hasn't happened in droves. So it's kind of weird to see Marvel making a book like Strange Academy, which is purely for children (although I doubt few children will end up ever reading it). It's basically Harry Potter but instead of wizards its superheroes...although since this is Dr. Strange's school for kids with powers, it kind of is more about wizards than superheroes. Is Dr. Strange a hero or a wizard? Both? Either way, the plot of this book is fucking lazy as hell. Harry Potter was probably the biggest best selling book series ever...so maybe it makes sense to rip it off. So far, Strange Academy is a pretty poor Harry Potter rip off. There are zero compelling characters, teachers, villains, or plot points. Granted, it's only a first issue. The art, by Humberto Ramos, is terrific. The writing, by Skottie Young, who's a terrific cartoonist, is pretty basic and flat (as compared to his writing in Image's I Hate Fairyland...which was wild and balls-to-the-wall). I doubt that this book will sell a lot, or be popular, or turn into something great. Not that it's geared towards children, but the fact that it's kind of boring. It also didn't help that #2 was delayed because of the Corona virus pandemic. And the whole reason I started this "30 Reviews in 30 Days" was to give me something to take my mind off the death toll that keeps rising. But any news related to comic books just kept reminding me about it. Nobody knows when comic book stores here in PA will reopen. DC is releasing a few books next week to stores that are open. I'm not sure if they're going to release them digitally. DC had to find a new shipping company to do this since Diamond isn't opening until the middle of May. While the U.S. government is apparently going to send billions of dollars to small businesses, I'm not sure this will prevent the closure of thousands of comic book stores. I always thought that they should just go digital and give up on comic book stores. Digital is the future, right? Hell, I'd be reading new books right now if they did that. But the industry is still clinging onto the past. As great as comic book stores are, they're an outdated business model. Why not bring comics back to the drugstore, the supermarket, the convenience/gas store? Us 40 year old fans aren't going to keep comic book stores in business forever. So maybe this pandemic will alter the landscape forever. It's too early to tell. When I started writing this I probably didn't think that 30 days later we'd actually be in worse shape. I probably should have written a "500 Reviews in 500 Days" blog instead, as I'll still need something to keep my mind occupied until the Fall, Christmas, next year, or whenever things go back to normal. In the end, though, I don't think comic books, in whatever shape or form they're produced and delivered, will ever disappear. They've been around too long, they're ingrained in our culture, even if it's just now a small little hobby that kids don't really pay much attention to anymore. 1/2*

30 REVIEWS IN 30 DAYS (29): JOHN CONSTANTINE: HELLBLAZER #1

Released on November 27th, 2019

     I got into Hellblazer late, when Andy Diggle was writing it and it was getting a phenomenal reception. I stayed until the end, #300, which came out way back in 2013 and ended writer Peter Milligan's excellent run. In those years, it was one of my favorite comics. The character was great, the stories great, and the Simon Bisley covers were the best in comics. DC tried two different reboots of the series that didn't last long because they weren't R-rated like the old book. This new reboot, with its stupid title (just call it Hellblazer and number it #301, you fuckwits), is pretty much the same as the old, good book. It's a return to form that's very welcome. There is a reason that John Constantine has stuck around since Alan Moore introduced him in the 80's during his legendary Swamp Thing run. He's a compelling character in a compelling world. He's basically a drunk, cigarette smoking bad ass that also can do magic and ends up dealing with the underbelly of sorcery; demons, ghosts, monsters, etc. Writer Simon Spurrier, who has written Crossed in the past, is kind of a perfect fit for this book. His writing is bonkers and very, very dark. But he can also be very funny. It's a great mix. This issue is truly out there. The basic plot isn't, but the way it unfolds is very much all over the map and often obscure, confusing, wild, bizarre, sick, and disturbing. It's also very, very hard to follow with this heavy English dialect being tossed around. Here's a bit of dialogue from this issue: "Common's hot, bruv. Gone dead-up. Six lost--daaaak shit. How we gonna sell what we got where we can't go, uh?" I'm not sure if this is realistic dialogue...I'd probably have to go sell drugs in the poor part of Liverpool to know this, but it does make the book interesting at least. The plot here has a few drug dealers trying to sell drugs but there are angels that appear in a park at night and peel the skin off of people. Okay. So the drug dealers get John Constantine to help out. Boris Johnson, the real prime minister of the U.K., also makes an appearance at the end as he runs away naked after having sex with some weird, shady guy in an alley. Yep. I guess a book like this can get away with a controversy like that because who the hell reads Hellblazer? This book feels like writer Simon Spurrier doesn't give a fuck about anything. This is truly out there. The dark, gloomy, sketchy art by Aaron Campbell certainly helps to set the tone. So far, only one issue in, this isn't exactly the same or as good as the original Hellblazer. But it definitely feels like it could become similar. Bring on another 300 issues! I've been dying to get back to these dark places. ***

30 REVIEWS IN 30 DAYS (28): WONDER WOMAN: DEAD EARTH BOOK TWO

Released on February 19th, 2020

     DC started a mature line called Black Label awhile back. It was pretty much a complete disaster. Batman: Damned #1, by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo, was DC's first Black Label book. It also just happened to show Batman's dick. Granted, it was in shadow, but it still caused an uproar. DC refused to reprint the issue and in the collected trade paperback and digital edition they edited it out. So that's how Black Label started. I heard somewhere that they were going to end it this year anyway for whatever reason. The basic idea was to get big name creators to do different, R-rated spins on famous characters. They'd only be a few issues but they'd be a larger size (so...pretty much impossible to collect and find a bag and board for them) with more pages. They recently did two Joker series and now they're doing a Wonder Woman book. Daniel Warren Johnson, who did Extremity and Murder Falcon for Image, is writing and drawing Wonder Woman: Dead Earth, which is a four issue series. I haven't read his Image work, but heard good things about Extremity, which I actually have downloaded somewhere waiting to read. I should read his earlier stuff, as Wonder Woman: Dead Earth is great. The story has Wonder Woman waking up and realizing that the world has completely changed while she was out. It's basically Mad Max now...which humans struggling to survive in a post apocalyptic world filled with monsters. So Wonder Woman takes charge and decides to lead a group of humans back to her island. The big reveal in this issue is that while she was in a coma or asleep for centuries or whatever, humans tried to launch atomic bombs onto her island and kill off all of the gods. This radiation turned all of the female gods on the island into monsters. So Wonder Woman hadn't been helping humans to fight monsters...she'd been helping humans fight her own people! Daniel Warren Johnson is definitely a better writer than artist. The story here is very interesting but the art is pretty sloppy. The art isn't bad...it's just not as clean and vibrant as most comic books are. The art does work for some of this story since the world is a post apocalyptic hellscape and it should look messy, dirty, and ragged like the art. The story is so good that I didn't really mind the artwork not being high caliber. My biggest problem with this book is mostly the way it was published. This is a great Wonder Woman story. Granted, it might be difficult to do it in the regular series without everything going back to normal at the end, but when was the last time the regular Wonder Woman book was this good? Ever? They should have just done this story in the regular book. I hate when they do these excellent side mini-series when the regular, continuing book is a fucking joke that needs a boost. It makes no sense. It's not to sell more copies...because nobody buys Wonder Woman comic books. Wouldn't you want to give the main book a boost? And it would've gotten a huge boost. This might end up being the best Wonder Woman book ever. ***1/2

30 REVIEWS IN 30 DAYS (27): ASCENDER #10

Released on March 18th, 2020

     There's a huge death in Ascender #10...and I'm wondering if this book is probably better reading it in trades, since I vaguely even remember who the woman that dies is. Descender was a great book, a true modern classic. Jeff Lemire wrote it and Dustin Nguyen did the art. When that book ended they picked everything back up years later with the same characters in Ascender. The only difference is that this new book has magic in it, so it's more like Lord of the Rings when the first volume was more like Star Wars. The first book had Andy as a boy, but he's a man now with a kid. He kills the mother of his kid in this issue because she's become a vampire and wanted to die. Meanwhile, their kid is having her own adventure with a few other ragtag heroes. The big reveal at the end is the return of Driller, a robot from the first book. This issue ends volume II...which I'm guessing is volume II of Ascender. I actually read this book every month but am a little lost, which is why I mentioned that reading it in trades might make it more coherent. I do love this book, as it's one of the few books I usually read when it first comes out (granted, this issue came out a month ago...but it's also probably going to be the last issue of this series for awhile because of the pandemic). Ascender has a big bad known as Mother, who's kind of a witch because she has powers and sort of controls/brainwashes most of the world. There's also vampires in this series that are sort of Mother's army. Then there's Andy who was living with his daughter on the fringes of society and trying to keep things quiet and simple until he was forced to become a hero again. While Ascender isn't as interesting as Descender, it's still a very cool book. The one standout is still the art. I probably should go on Youtube or somewhere and find out how Nguyen does the art. It looks like he draws it then paints over it with water colors. He might just use a computer to make it look like that...but either way this book looks like nothing you've ever seen. It's beautiful. It's also Jeff Lemire's best book...which is saying something because he literally seems to be writing a hundred books every month (just off the top of my head I know he's been writing Joker: Killer Smile, Black Hammer, and Gideon Falls lately). It's also saying something that, unlike a lot of comics, I'm really looking forward to the next issue. ***

30 REVIEWS IN 30 DAYS (26): X-MEN #7

Released on February 26th, 2020

     My pick for Best Comic Book last year was the 12 part, weekly X-Men book that brought writer Jonathan Hickman back to Marvel. Technically it was two books, House of X and Powers of X, but both 6 part series were continued and connected and led to the new X-Men #1 and to a bunch of other new #1 issues (Wolverine #1, Marauders #1, Excalibur #1, X-Force #1, New Mutants #1, and Fallen Angels #1). I loved HOXPOX (as comic book fans started to call it) because it was fresh, bold, alive, and exciting. The X-Men have been boring for years and this gave it an adrenaline shot to the heart. It was a big hit both commercially and critically. So now...seven issues into the main, continuing X-Men book...has it kept its momentum? Yes and no. It's still a great book. Visually, this issue is exceptional (Leinil Francis Yu penciled and inked it). The writing is pretty much just more of the same as HOXPOX...which is kind of where the big problem comes in. As an introduction, HOXPOX was great. It had a fantastic setup and felt very bold in the act of actually trying to do something new with characters that have been around forever. The problem is that, like HOXPOX, this ongoing series is basically just a bunch of "cool" scenes without any kind of forward momentum. Yes, the X-Men fighting a big bad has been done before...but there's a reason for that. Without a big evil enemy or any sort of continuing conflict, there's kind of a big chunk seemingly missing from this book. So far the big bad is the X-Men and their newfound island, Krakatoa. They are their worst enemy. Which is new, sure, but it isn't really sustaining the book since it's bi-monthly. Everything seems to be setting up the X-Men and their newfound, bizarre cult-like family world crashing down on themselves. Which is definitely going to happen. So while this book is great and readable and engrossing and definitely unique, it also feels like just random scenes and it feels like it's either missing something or it's just moving too slowly to get to its ultimate destination. In this issue, we get The Crucible. This is a gladiator type of event where a human that used to be a mutant is sacrificed so they can be resurrected as a mutant. All of this is happening on Krakatoa, which is the island that all of the mutants live now, even the bad guys. The big idea that Hickman came up with is that this new island world has their own laws, rules, and the rest of the world can't touch them. The island is also fantastical and filled with a bunch of weird shit. So it's a cool premise. And I'm sure once this new paradise collapses it'll be a hell of a ride. But it also feels like something that probably could have been accomplished a lot quicker, right? It's definitely a great book, definitely better than most superhero books out there that are just the usual, cliched, been-there-done-that shit, but it also feels like it's missing something, that it's just a cool setup and nothing else. ***

30 REVIEWS IN 30 DAYS (25): TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #101

Released on January 8th, 2020

     About ten years or so ago, Image rebooted Glory, which had been a forgettable Rob Liefeld book from the 90's. Surprisingly, this new Glory was a masterpiece. Joe Keatinge wrote it and Ross Campbell (now Sophie Campbell) penciled it. After that series ended, I would read whatever Keatinge put out because I had loved Glory so much. And I often looked around to see what Sophie Campbell was doing because her artwork was so beautiful and unique. Finally she's back on a major book and she's writing and drawing the new IDW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles book. I shouldn't say new because it's already at #101 but it is a reboot of the famous Kevin Eastman/Peter Laird book from the 80's and 90's. I think most people don't really even think TMNT started as a comic book, they probably just remember the cartoon, movies, and toys from when they were kids. But the original comic book was darker, grittier, weirder, and a classic for a reason. This reboot actually was pretty popular and selling out and talked about a lot online around the time #25 to #50 came out. Then interested seemed to wane and I hadn't heard much about it until I found out Sophie Campbell was working on it. I'm definitely glad I picked this issue up, as it's probably the best comic I've read in this "30 Reviews in 30 Days" piece (and we're on the 25th day). First off, Campbell's art is fantastic. It definitely looks like a comic book (Ronda Pattison did the colors), if that makes sense. It's organic looking and fluid while also being obviously fantastical and cartoon-esque. The story is great, too, although Campbell is mostly just picking up the pieces of the "City at War" story line that ended with the death of Splinter in #100. A bomb was set off in NYC that turned a section of the city's inhabitants into mutants. The rest of the city walled off that section and it's become a wild west Mutant Town. Raphael has gone rogue and become the Batman of Mutant Town. The others are still struggling with Splinter's death. There's a new mutant ninja turtle, Jennika, that was caught in the bomb blast and transformed. She heads to Mutant Town and ends up fighting some of the animal/mutant goons that control the streets. This book is one wild ride, and pretty to look at, and compelling enough that I'm eager to read the next issue and find out what happens. Definitely a win-win. ***1/2