Manga and Comic Reviews
Nearly three years passed between the release of volumes two and three of this series, and I can still remember sections of vol. 2 like I had just read them. Particularly the opening fight between Shinobu and her friends, and the villains who moved into her house on Ishikunagijima island. It wasn’t just proof that […]
Vol. 4 ended with Sabe acknowledging a piece of information that should’ve signed her death warrant: She knows that Darth Vader was once Anakin Skywalker. That the Dark Lord doesn’t kill her outright is likely down to the fact that she’s got Padme’s face, and is offering him a chance to prove that her queen […]
Things were bad when we last saw the good Doctor, even by her usual standards. She and Sana had finally caught up with Kho Fon Farrus and their pursuit of the Spark Eternal, only for the legendary artifact to possess Aphra instead. Now the Doctor is a prisoner in her own mind as an intelligence […]
The sub-titular organization of this volume is the Russian answer to the Department of Truth. At least, they were until Lee Harvey Oswald was finally able to orchestrate the downfall of the Soviet Union in the early 90’s. Its leader, Grigori, never forgave him for it and when Black Hat came knocking at his door, […]
Prince Helgir has a problem. He’s just come into possession of the Eye of Odin after a frost giant attacked his village. Now he has to return it to its rightful owner, Mimir the Frost Giant King, before the next full moon or else he’ll suffer a painful death involving boils and decay. Most of […]
Osaragi and Ino were once the best of friends. Now their relationship is on the outs about how they feel about Ishigami. It’s this fracture that drives vol. 24’s opening chapters as they slowly work through their issues in ways that are more dramatic than comedic. The comedy comes back in subsequent chapters as Chika […]
Above-the-Board Recommendation: Junkyard Joe vol. 1 “From the explosive pages of GEIGER comes JUNKYARD JOE!” is what the solicitation text tells us. I’m still wondering why we’re getting a story about the combat robot Geiger fought in the final issue rather than another volume of his series. Writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank have […]
Above-the-Board Recommendation: Avengers Assemble Even if individual stories in this run haven’t worked as well as they should’ve, I’ve been invested in the overall story that Jason Aaron has been telling since the start. That’s because he’s found a new villain be the big bad for an “Avengers” title that I’ve not seen before: Mephisto. […]
Above-the-Board Recommendation: Den vol. 1 HC This round of solicitations is filled with hardcover and softcover collections of new material that feel overpriced. This is a new problem for the publisher and it’s something that’s going to have me start picking up a lot of their stuff when it comes on sale through their app. […]
Had I engaged in a bit more planning and/or patience, I’d have talked about this volume when I did the podcast for the series. In the end, I was left hoping that the stories collected here would offer some additional insight into the ending we got with vol. 11. That’s not the case here. Vol. […]