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User
Soundoffs 1
News Articles 8
Band Edits + Tags 1
Album Edits 49
Album Ratings 300
Objectivity 73%
Last Active 02-16-11 5:19 am
Joined 09-02-06
Review Comments 1,220
| Seven to Eternity
Rick Remender's fantasy-meets-3:10-to-Yuma-meets-Breaking-Bad comic series just wrapped, and went out with a bang. I'd consider it a top-tier work of his, alongside Low and Black Science, with the dense mythology and world-building of both but thankfully without the wheel-spinning that arguably started to bog down the latter towards it's tail-end. Now that it's donezo, list is an unranked assortment of seven of my favorite current ongoing comics, with a couple b-b-b-bonus picks for good measure since I can't count. Neither does Saga, until I see material proof BKV and Fiona are back at it. Music, meanwhile, is digs. | | 1 |  | Raphael Weinroth-Browne
Worlds Within
Deadly Class - Another Remender joint, which has surprisingly continued to feel fresh and exhilarating after no fewer (by my count, at least) than two natural stopping points thus far. Some stylistic flourishes this latest arc notwithstanding, the series definitely still has the feel that it should wind down soon, but if it keeps delivering hits the way it has, I'm glad to let it run another couple arcs to do the conclusion justice. | | 2 |  | Low Roar
maybe tomorrow...
Department of Truth - Credit this book (along with the more recent Nice House on the Lake) for really turning me around on Tynion IV. Granted, I haven't taken the plunge on his Batman run (I've only just recently finished Scott Snyder's, for context), but his work on Detective Comics never struck me as particularly original, let alone compelling. Out from the shadow of the cowl, though…well, he's still heavily indebted to the style of Morrison of McKean, but with a freshly topical coat of paint, and a cynical yet aspirational voice, so what could easily come off as didactic here--or, worse yet, boring--feels atmospheric and unrelenting. The recent mini-arc on Sasquatch(!) alone, which alternates pages of journal entries, with foreboding shadows for panel upon panel, is just some phenomenal storytelling. | | 3 |  | Ludvig Forssell
Death Stranding
The Many Deaths of Laila Starr - Squeaking in on a technicality, as I think this one is a limited series that actually wraps with the issue dropping this week, but Ram V's eloquent fable of mortality, spirituality-made-flesh, and, uh, bureaucracy is a gorgeous, seemingly lighter counterpoint to DepTruth, while also packing multiple emotional gut-punches (sometimes in the same issue) and a lyrical, elegiac style worlds (or, y’know, at least continents) removed from the former's distinctly American, often literally grimmer existentialist take. | | 4 |  | CHVRCHES
Screen Violence
Way of X - The best ongoing X-title right now, for my money, especially with Hickman's run on the main title coming to a close and Duggan concluding his lightweight-but-super-fun Cable to take the reins. There's definitely a lot of chaff in with the wheat on the whole Dawn of X/Reign of X franchise, but Si Spurrier's take blends much-needed humor with a willingness to probe into some of the more nefarious and handwaved-away elements introduced all the way back in the (masterful in its own right) House of X/Powers of X capital-E Event. I'm still pulling a couple others (Hellions, Marauders, S.W.O.R.D.—if that last one even still counts as an X-book), but this is the one I look forward to the most month-over-month. | | 5 |  | Halsey
If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power
That Texas Blood - Definitely shows the pedigree of Sean Phillips (co-creator of the Criminal series, alongside a slew of others with fellow all-timer Ed Brubaker; Sleeper may still be my favorite), son Jacob's lone-star noir generously peppers in some No Country for Old Men-era Coen Brothers sediment and sows sneaking suggestions of something supernatural simmering that all serve to set it apart as something other than just another pulp-crime retread. | | 6 |  | Turnstile
Glow On
Killadelphia - The sheer gutsiness of Barnes' premise (where, spoilies for arc one here, the insidious vampire cult goes all the way to top, with "top" in this case of course meaning now-undead second U.S. President John Adams), paired with some of the best, most expressive faces this side of, well, the Phillips' work courtesy of Jason Shawn Alexander (not to be confused, alas, with Jason Alexander) made this one a wild ride from issue one, and it's only gotten delightfully, ahem, battier from there. | | 7 |  | Dale Kerrigan
noise bitch
We Only Find Them When They're Dead - It's no wonder Al Ewing has essentially full control over what I affectionately call "space shit" over at Marvel, and yet still has time to craft this fascinating, century-spanning (so far) series that tosses you right into its bizarre world of god corpses mined for resources, Ahab-esque government monitors, and an ongoing fixation on transcending one's past, all while throttling (sometimes literally) the action and keeping your full attention firmly locked in. | | 8 |  | Giant
Song
Crossover - Donny Cates' (and, at least for one brief guest-writing venture, my pal Chip Zdarsky's) just-this-side-copyright-infringement love letter to all things comics, the series is also a compelling look into prejudice that will, sad as it is to say, probably never not feel topical. Maybe still early to call it an all-timer, but as far as opening salvos go, it’s one hell of bang. | | 9 |  | Deafheaven
Infinite Granite
Rorschach - Another technicality (it's a limited series, and coming to a close in September), and a highly, perhaps rightly divisive one, to boot—but man oh man what a wild-ass book. True to form, Tom King’s tale might be a bit bloated in the middle, we can charitably claim in order to recreate the original Watchmen's 12-issue template. But unlike superficially similar projects like the abysmal Before Watchmen and didn't-even-bother Doomsday Clock, this series at least gives the impression of caring intensely about comic history and sociopolitical commentary alongside its characters. The irony that it's still siphoning Alan Moore's brand without his approval nor benefit is not lost on me, but like the gonzo HBO series before it, which at least seems cognizant of the iconoclastic spirit of the O.G. in way that Zack Snyder and Geoff Johns can only feverishly masturbate to, this feels like it has something to actually SAY while cashing its checks. | |
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