Comic Picks by the Glick

Manga and Comic Reviews

Gotham Academy vol. 2: Calamity

I really enjoyed what writers Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher did with the first volume of the series, along with the art from Karl Kerschl.  This naturally led me to anticipate vol. 2, which has turned out to be a letdown.  It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong here as the smooth, engaging storytelling […]

Phonogram vol. 3: The Immaterial Girl

I’ve been eagerly anticipating this volume since it was announced back in 2012 as we’re helpfully reminded by its backmatter.  I won’t begrudge creators Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie for taking so long to get back to it, particularly since we got “Young Avengers” and “The Wicked + The Divine” in the meantime.  As those […]

Tokyo Ghost vol. 1: The Atomic Garden

Rick Remender’s creator-owned output through Image can be charitably described as “uneven.”  Though he’s clearly a skilled writer, he needs to find a new approach beyond simply tossing his characters into hopeless situations and then starting to grind them down.  It’s an approach that has worked on “Deadly Class,” is on the verge of breaking […]

Secret Wars Rundown

I probably should’ve mentioned this earlier, but tie-ins to “Secret Wars” came in three different flavors.  The titles branded with “Last Days” showed how their characters reacted to the end of the Marvel Universe (such as it was).  “Battlezones” gave us a look at the goings-on in different regions while the main event was going […]

Batman & Robin Eternal vol. 1

The sprawling “Batman Eternal” weekly series gets a follow-up of sorts focusing on all of the sidekicks the Caped Crusader has had over the years.  It may be telling a less epic story in half the space (this ran for 26 issues rather than 52), but that decision turns out to be the right one […]

Star Wars: Chewbacca

Everyone’s favorite wookiee gets his own miniseries from Marvel with some fantastic art from Phil Noto!  Seriously, the art is the strongest thing about this series as Noto invests a great amount of detail and style in rendering the world that Chewbacca has crash-landed on.  From the mines filled with explosive larvae, to the rural […]

Thief of Thieves vol. 5: Take Me

After the previous volume saw master thief Conrad “Redmond” Paulson get himself and his family out from under the thumb of Lola, it would appear that our protagonist has finally got everything he ever wanted.  Well, except for the fact that his ex-wife still hates him.  And, more pressingly, his former partner Celia is still […]

DC Previews Picks: June 2016

Don’t call it a reboot, because they’ve been to that well a bit too often for that to work again.  As DC describes it, “Rebirth” is simply the company getting back to the basics of their characters and focusing on what works best for them.  While most of the titles and creative teams weren’t that […]

Rumble vol. 2: A Woe That is Madness

If the first volume of this series from “B.P.R.D.” co-writer John Arcudi and frequent artist James Harren had one problem, it was the fact that it took a few issues for its point to come into focus.  That’s not a problem with this second volume as it quickly brings us up to speed on the […]