Above-the-Board Recommendation: Absolute Superman by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank Johns did write the Man of Steel a lot during his heyday in the 00’s and early ‘10’s at DC but he never actually did a proper run on his monthly adventures.  He did, along with Frank, do a number of short stints on “Action […]

Above-the-Board Recommendation: Where the Body Was HC Big surprise:  Another OGN from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips gets the top spot this month!  It may seem obvious and predictable that I keep giving this spot to new work from these creators.  However, when they’ve consistently been delivering greatness (or at least above-averageness) for over two […]

Above-the-Board Recommendation: Venom by Ewing (& Gronbekk) vol. 5:  Predestination The solicitations just have Al Ewing’s name in the title, but it’s been clear from the last few solicitations that Torunn Gronbekk is now filling the co-writing role that Ram V was at the start of this series.  While she did a decent job of […]

You’ll recall that I thought vol. 1 was one of the best things I read last year.  Writer Matthew Rosenberg and artist Tyler Boss’ story of a group of kids, the Academy, navigating their way through a vision of the post-apocalypse where other kids follow the patterns laid down by the adults that came before […]

Cafu takes over for Bryan Hitch as the regular artist for “Venom” with this volume.  Even though he’s got a relatively grounded style, he’s good with the craziness Ewing asks him to draw here.  From symbiote-on-symbiote fights to metaphysical depictions of Eddie Brock’s current state of mind there’s a lot to like about what he […]

Devin Fulcher hasn’t been having a good time as of late.  It turns out that the woman he loves, who is also his fiancee, has been sleeping with one of the biggest asshole cops in town.  Worse still is that she’s now pregnant with his kid, and her father, the town sheriff, is still insisting […]

For those of you who haven’t heard, Donny Cates was in a bad automobile accident over six months back.  This is the reason he abruptly stopped writing “Hulk” and “Thor” and why Ryan Stegman will be writing the majority of “Vanish” vol. 2.  He’s not back to 100% yet, but I’ve heard that he’s been […]

Vol. 6 certainly felt like the end of this series, and writer Peter Hogan acknowledges that in his foreword to this volume.  He also notes that there was still business to wrap up, specifically involving the will-they-or-won’t-they tension between Dr. Harry Vanderspiegle and his nurse friend Asta.  With a title like “The Book of Love” […]

You’ll probably recall that I wasn’t that impressed with writer Charles Soule and artist Steven Cummings’ previous story about Q’ira and Crimson Dawn, “Crimson Reign.”  It suffered because it couldn’t overcome the nagging feeling that none of what went on here would matter given that none of it came up in “Return of the Jedi.”  […]