“Hellboy” isn’t driven anymore by an epic story about the title character’s role in the end of the world.  Instead, creator Mike Mignola is free to give us more stories about the character’s adventures prior to his death.  “The Beast of Vargu and Others” serves up four stories in that vein.  Three of which are […]

After the success of “DCeased,” a generally alright superhero zombie story, it was expected that a spinoff like this would be forthcoming.  What I didn’t expect was for “Unkillables” to be more entertaining than its progenitor.  It may be eighty pages shorter, but that makes for a tighter pace overall as writer Tom Taylor crams […]

While I generally try to stay away from spoilers, sometimes they have a way of sneaking up on you.  Maybe they’ll turn up in an unrelated article, or a friend will let one slip unaware that you were trying to remain in ignorance.  Other times they’ll be spoiled in a publication from the same family.  […]

After you’ve managed to make enemies of the galaxy’s biggest corporation, Lux, and its biggest religion, the Renunciation, by proving that they’re actually in bed together, what do you do for an encore?  If you’re Captain Grix of the Sundog, then you try to find a way to survive while sticking to your principles.  After […]

There are some comics whose first volumes read like first issues.  This is in the sense that they take a whole volume to do what a proper first issue should do:  Explain the setup, introduce the core cast, and then show the audience where the story is really headed.  “Reaver” is the example of this […]

Stop me if you’ve heard this before:  A psychiatrist shows up at Arkham Asylum and begins to treat the Joker, convinced that they’ll be able to resolve his madness, only for the Clown Prince of Crime to turn the tables on them.  “Killer Smile” isn’t the story of Dr. Harleen Quinzel; however, it’s the story […]

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the biggest Image launch from 2019.  For most of that year, Image was having its thunder routinely stolen from other publishers like BOOM! with their launches of titles like “Once and Future” and “Something is Killing the Children.”  Then along came “Undiscovered Country” towards the end of the year, and […]

Well, vol. 4 doesn’t make me want to give up on the series before its final volume comes out.  So that puts it ahead of “Sex Criminals” at least. As for the actual story contained within this volume, it involves a lot of running around.  Clara and the local police are running after the Laughing […]

This will be the fourth collection of comics written by Garth Ennis that I’ve read this year, and it’s safe to say that the writer has been having something of an off year.  Yes, I’m saying that “Out of the Blue” doesn’t measure up to the lofty standards of the writer’s past work either.  This […]

The main arc of this volume feels like Aaron had a lot of cosmic stuff he wanted to put his characters through and decided to cram it all in here.  Which is why you get to see:  Thor infected by the Brood; Ghost Rider, She-Hulk, and Captain Marvel vs. The Silver Surfer, Terrax, and Firelord; […]