Comic Reading: March 2019

March was something of a long month for me as it felt look it never stopped.

Throughout the course of this month I saw my second child come into the world, his older brother's room created from nothing, sleep deprivation and a house which looks like a bomb hit.

I also had no new pull list comics until the end of the month, reading and writing about a whole host of trades and single issues I had on my to read pile and another six titles which I reviewed through Pipedream Comics.

As such, this month's round up-esque post is a little different. As you'll see when you get further down, while I'm still going to talk about the comics on my pull list which I picked up, I'm also going to give a brief, but more personal, view on those comics I reviewed for pipedream.

(I'll also link each statement to the review so you can see how the professional does it!)

So, this could be a long one, so let's get started.

The Pull List:

My first read from my pull list was Lazarus Risen #1, which is only down to it's release a week prior to the others. This new issue returned to where the prior series had left off, with Forever's tenuous alliance with Johanna still intact as they continued to avert disaster for their family during the war.

Lazazrus: Risen #1
Reborn to my standards!!

Now, I had previously been concerned about where this new series would go with the Lazarus story, given it's new format and release schedule and how I (and other readers) might ultimately be screwed. However, after reading this issue, I was glad to see that my fears were unfounded (at least for now). I find it a little contradictory that, after reading this comic, I am feeling both relieved to have Lazarus back while simultaneously feeling like there has been no gap at all. However, that is exactly what I feel as (with help from a terrifically detailed recap page), I don't think I skipped a beat as I read through.

Lark's art was as glorious as ever and Rucka's story was once again addictively compelling, leaving me plenty of questions as to what had exactly has happened between the past issue (two story years prior) and now. I also wondered what happened to Forever's hair as her short cut really confused me to begin with, thinking she was Marisol. Of course it makes sense given that 'Eight' looks set to become more prominent, but it really did throw me for a moment.

However, the thing which really blew me away was the back matter. Lazarus has always been a title consisting of good special features, but with this new bigger format, the creators have gone to the elevens!! The letters pages are still here and now there's additional pages relating to the Lazarus roleplaying game, but the coup de grace for me had to be the prose story 'Your Last Meal on Earth' by Lilah Sturgess. It's been a while since I've read a prose story, focusing more on comics, but this tale was a truly epic read which is continuing to make me wonder if we'll see more about the character, Ginger, in future.

All in all, this one issue has blown out of the water all the concerns I had for this reborn series. It's just a shame I have to wait 3 months for the next issue, that's one hell of a wait!

Next on my pull list (although it felt like an age between the two) was Fantastic Four #8, which saw Doctor Doom begin his plans to harvest the power cosmic from a captured Galactus as the also captured Fantastic Four await his judgement.



Fantastic Four #8. More
of the four is always good.

However, much like with the previous two issues, I found myself to be in two minds about this instalment. Not that I didn't enjoy the issue because I did, especially the art by the team of Kuder, Caselli, Marquez and Brown which had this really gorgeous look to it (bettered by Matt Yackey's colours). I not only loved these visuals (particularly the Thing imprisoned panel, which gave such a cool, moody vibe) but was also surprised to realise there were so many cooks in the kitchen as I did think only Kuder was responsible, so consistent was the art.

Also, the characterisations of the Four, particularly of Reed and (naturally) Ben, started to feel real spot on here as both sounded more like the characters I've been reading all these years.

However, I still struggled to get on board with the plot of this arc due to the same reasons I had for those first two issues; the early use of Doom and Galactus as villains, the return to standard superhero tales for the book and the seeming about turn on Doom's 'hero' journey. Also, this issue felt very reminiscent to me of Waid/Wienigo's Unthinkable arc, although not as epic in comparison to it in my opinion and I struggled to correlate what was going on in my head given Doom's 'altruistic' plan against his plans for the FF. Also, I have found myself wondering why Franklin and Valeria needed to build a Teleporter as you'd think Franklin's power could have got them there.

That said, this issue still has me hooked overall as its good points outweigh my worries about it enough for me to come back (not that I'm likely to go anywhere). However, while it is a good (ish) read, I do wish this Fantastic Four run was as 'fantastic' as I feel it can be.

Last up on my pull list was Detective Comics #1000 which, like Action Comics #1000 last year, saw DC's top talent come together to tell a series of stories about the Dark Knight to celebrate 1000 issues and 80 years.

Detective Comics #1000.
A worthy milestone.

I'm not sure if I expected a lot from this comic after my tremendous enjoyment of Action Comics #1000, but I did find myself struggling to enjoy the opening story, Batman's Longest Case, despite it being by the awesome Batman creative team of Snyder and Capullo. The thing is, I'm not sure why I had such a problem with this story, although it might be down to the fact that it didn't seem like a classic Batman story.

That said, any dread I had thanks to that first story were quickly and easily dispelled by the rest of the issue's content. Now, not all of the stories appealed as I read through, such as the final story Medieval which introduced Arkham Knight from the video game (for some reason) but despite my initial fears a large number of these tales really resonated with me.

Kevin Smith's Manufacture for Use, The Legend of Knute Brody by Paul Dini and the Batman's Design by Warren Ellis were incredibly enjoyable stories (The latter of which I absolutely adored Becky Cloonan's terrific art) which I thought really sold/displayed certain aspects of the character perfectly. Also, I loved seeing Matches Malone return in who knows how long.

After those, the stories dropped in my estimations with a couple of tales not really grabbing me. Of course, that's not to say they weren't good as both also offered some cool insights into Batman's personality while Epting's art on Return to Crime Alley is hauntingly beautiful. Unfortunately, as I said, that, along with Heretic, I Know and the Last Crime in Gotham, while visually pretty and well written stories, just didn't appear to be my bag and were largely forgettable to me.

Fortunately, the two penultimate tales were far more interesting to me as they focused on the Bat-Family dynamic and Batman's relationship with them. Of these, I particularly liked The Precedent, which focused on Bruce Wayne's inner debate over accepting original Robin Dick Grayson. What I enjoyed about this story was how it not only focused on the minutiae of Robin's origin, but also focused on what a lot of fans always wondered; why does Batman put a kid in harm's way? Because of that, it was interesting to see Batman not have the answer for a change as well as his always great father/son dynamic with Alfred.

Meanwhile, Batman's Greatest Case continued the thread from the Precedent with the Dark Knight bringing together all of his partners, sidekicks and disciples for a special event. Now, not only did I love Daniels and Jones' art on this story but I also adored how King was able to show the not often seen sentimentalism that Batman must obviously feel for all those members of his 'family'.

Overall, the stories within this issue were equal numbers hit and miss in my mind but, nonetheless, I found reading Detective #1000 as a whole to be quite a fun passing of the time. I'm not sure it was as good as Action #1000 but it was certainly good enough to make me realise that DC know how to make a good milestone comic.

And so, with my Pull list done, next come the Pipedream reviews.

The Reviews:

Heads #1 was the first title of the month (whose review was released anyway) and I have to confessed that it intrigued me some. I enjoy crime stories and novels, but I never seem to come across all that many in comics (and I know the Brubaker/Phillips comics are but I just haven't gotten around to them). With this comic though, I really liked the style, which as I think back really helped sell that noir look on the title, and enjoyed the potential this opener's story seemed to hint at. As such, I do need to check out the next issue and see if it continues the way I hope it to.

I don't know what I was expecting when I read The Eelman Chronicles Volume 1. I recall that when I opened to the first page that I found myself uncertain if this was really my thing, the art looked a bit too 'unpolished' than what I was used to. However, this comic was hilarious, with that art actually helping sell me on it rather than push me away. I mentioned in my review how this was a labour of love and, I think, that's what sold me as a I read it because love and affection for 'the Eelman' could not have been warmer or more complimentary. If a second volume comes out, I'm looking forward to it with a much more open mind frame.

Ken Reynolds and Sam Bentley's Cognition #4 continues a series which is definitely one of my most enjoyable in small press, if my reviews of #0 & 1, #2 and #3 are anything to go by. Thankfully, this fourth instalment shows little in way of changing that opinion. With this issue I thought that there was far more action than story compared to the earlier issues and, once again, a couple of panels seemed to have the foreground and background merge, which I'm seeing as a common problem with each issue. However, it doesn't change how much I enjoy it, as the characters are awesome and keep me more than invested. I'm hoping for a trade now five issues are out, as I'll be happily investing my coin there.

When it came to reading The Robot War #1, while I gave it a good review (because, technically, it deserved one), I found myself in two minds about what I thought of this issue overall. The thing about it which put me off was just how crass the dialogue was as I read through it. My issue here was that, while I have no problem with swearing or crude language in order to maintain a realistic world, I felt that this title had all of that in abundance, taking me out of the world a little. Despite that, I have to admit that it was a gorgeous comic and I'm really intrigued about where the story will go in the next issues.

The Offspring #1 & 2 was next up and, again, this was a tough one to justify what I said, although the more subjective reasonings are a little vaguer. As I had stated in my review, this series' two entries really felt like a mash up of multiple genres, from crime to horror to superheroes. However, this isn't a flaw with the series as I enjoy all of those and, as such, this series came across as just fine. Unfortunately, just fine was about all I could say about the Offspring as, while I enjoyed it as I read it, I don't think it's a comic for me and isn't necessarily a title I'd probably go back to under my own steam.

And so, I finished my reviews of the month with Songs for the Dead Volume 1, which admittedly had been sitting in my to read pile for most of 2019 thus far as I worked my way towards it. With this comic, I had a lot of anticipation for it, expecting it to be akin to Porcelain or it's two sequel books; Bone China and Ivory Tower. Unfortunately, I fear that I held it to too high a standard as Songs for the Dead just didn't sing to me (pun intended) like I hoped it would. This is a great shame really as, once again, the story and art were of high quality (probably more so than any review I've done this month). However, it was ultimately a tale which didn't appeal to me prior to it's cliffhanger (which does have me tempted to return).

And so, there you have it!! After three Pull list comics and 6 reviewed comics, (a rather long) March round up is done!

Sadly (or fortunately), this size of round up won't be a common feature for a couple of months for, as I head into April, my second born's recent arrival will undoubtedly take up much of my time.

However, I was glad that took the time to give a small shout out to those reviewed books here and offer a more personal note or two on how I found them.

Hopefully, I haven't put too many people off of at least checking them out because they are still great books (as my reviews will attest).