Review: DC/Young Animal: Milk Wars

July 18, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

DC/Young Animal: Milk Wars is a weird kind of crossover. I know, big surprise from the story about the extradimensional corporation Retonn weaponizing milk to “homogenize” the DCU. But, what I mean is, it’s not a dedicated five-issue miniseries, nor is it a five-part story taking place in single issues of the various books involved. Instead, it’s five separate one-shots, each pairing DC and Young Animal characters. Now, Grant Morrison did something similar with The Multiversity, but there, it directly ties into the narrative. Whereas, with Milk Wars, it’s a stylistic choice more than anything else. But, what makes it truly strange is the fact that two of the one-shots, Mother Panic/Batman Special #1and Shade the Changing Girl/Wonder Woman Special #1 have little to no impact on the plot. You could remove both of those issues and their respective characters, and the story literally wouldn’t change at all.

Review: Sacred Creatures vol. 1

May 31, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

If Ales Kot’s Wolf taught me anything (other than that a mediocre series can still get you back into reading comics), it’s that I’m a sucker for extra-sized first issues. So, when Sacred Creatures #1 came out in July of 2017 boasting a whopping 66 pages on top of a contemporary fantasy story (a subgenre I already prefer), I was more than a little intrigued. I picked up the first issue, as well as the other issues in the first volume as they came out, but they all ended up unread and in my backlog. That is until I signed up to review this trade.

Review: Justice League: No Justice #1

May 15, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t exactly excited about this book, and that’s mainly because Scott Snyder is in the driver’s seat. Don’t get me wrong; I like him well enough as a writer. However, the Snyder-spearheaded Dark Nights: Metal only just wrapped up back in March, yet here he is with another crossover event impacting the whole of the DCU. Okay, sure, James Tynion IV and Joshua Williamson are co-writing Justice League: No Justice, but Snyder’s the one with top billing. And, regardless of the actual quality of his work, that starts to be just a little bit too much company-wide creative control for a single writer for my taste. But, despite going in feeling that way, I still quite enjoyed Justice League: No Justice #1.

Review: Hungry Ghosts #4

May 9, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

I didn’t review Hungry Ghosts #3, but I did still read it. And, it was weird. Structurally, it was identical to issue #2 with virtually no framing narrative. As a pair, the stories were the strongest presented so far, even if the ending of “Deep,” the first story, both came out of nowhere and was… strange. By themselves, neither of them was better than “The Pirates” from issue #1, but they were much closer in quality. Granted, none of the stories throughout Hungry Ghosts have been outright great or, more importantly, all that scary. And, even though it’s safe to say Hungry Ghosts #4 is the book’s best issue, those previous problems are still very much present.

Review: Doom Patrol #11

May 3, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

Doom Patrol#11 really, really should’ve come out before Milk Wars. I already knew that going in, but after reading through it, it’s pretty baffling that DC would ever let that event happen before this issue. From setting up Milkman Man to establishing this version of Cliff as being from fanfiction to explaining where the Doom Patrol just came from and what they’re talking about at the beginning of JLA/Doom Patrol Special #1, several things from Milk Wars make considerably less sense without first being touched upon here. All that being said, Doom Patrol #11 is itself a great issue with a lot going on in it.

Review: Red Sonja/Tarzan #1

May 2, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

I have never read an issue of Red Sonja in my life. What’s more, I’m only familiar with Tarzan at all because of the Disney film of the same name, and I haven’t seen that for something like a decade, if not longer. Gail Simone, on the other hand, is a slightly different story. Granted, I’ve not yet read nearly as much as her work as I should have, but, from what I have read, she’s a very skilled writer, and she very much continues to be one here. Because despite going into this crossover book knowing as outright little about two franchises that, frankly, I didn’t remotely care about, she had me fully hooked by this issue’s midpoint.

Review: Action Comics Special #1

May 2, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

I love Superman. Plain and simple. When I was a kid, I only really liked him because, well, I was a kid, and he was a superhero. The superhero. And, for a few teenage years, I didn’t like him for all of the easy, low hanging fruit reasons to dislike him. He’s too strong. He’s boring. His one weakness is too readily available. Blah blah blah. But, when I finally sat down and actually read books like Superman: Birthright, Superman: Secret Identity, Kingdom Come, and All-Star Superman, I quickly came to love him for everything he truly embodies. So, you better believe I was hyped when I found out that, among other things, Rebirth meant the original Superman was returning to the limelight. Now, just a couple of weeks ago Action Comics #1000 came out and paid thorough homage to the legacy of the Man of Steel. Admittedly, I stopped reading Action Comics after a couple of months, mainly because I found the other Clark Kent (when that was still a thing) to be insufferable. However, I absolutely picked up that issue, and it was fantastic. So, I am kind of surprised to see Action Comics Special #1 come out this week. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems a bit strange, maybe even pointless, to release a special right after the infinitely more special 1000th issue.

Review: Justice League of America #29

April 27, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

As singer and songwriter Adele once wrote and sang, “this is the end.” In this case, it’s the end of a long, at times bleak, trek of a comic titled Justice League of America. I remember being really excited when first hearing about the book, its interesting cast of characters, and all of the possibilities that came with them. And, the first four Rebirth one-shots, focusing on The Atom, Vixen, The Ray, and Killer Frost, respectively, were all promising prequel tie-ins that each built up more and more hype for the main book. Then, Justice League of America: Rebirth #1 came out, and it was different. Everything suddenly felt less thought-out and put together and more superficial and contrived. However, this wasn’t an isolated incident. Justice League of America issues #1 through #4 followed the trend with a weak and irritating first story arc, and things only went further downhill as the series continued. Slightly over a year later and here we are with Justice League of America #29. And, long story short, the conclusion to “Dawn of Time” sucks, but the series finale afterward is marginally better.

Review: Justice League of America #28

April 25, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

After reading and reviewing the absolute hot mess that was Justice League of America #27, I found a question prodding me from the back of my mind: had the introduction of Ahl, God of Superheroes, really been as out of nowhere and slipshod as I’d thought while writing that review? It seemed too poorly thought out for even Orlando, so I did some quick research and discovered that it might’ve very well tied into the recent Milk Wars crossover event between JLA and pretty much every book from DC’s Young Animal imprint. As such, I opted to verify those claims for myself. This led me not just to read the entirety of Milk Wars but also reread the first four issues of Doom Patrol, read issues #6 through #10 for the first time, reread parts of JLA #27 and #22, and, of course, read Justice League of America #28. It could perhaps be considered an excessive amount of reading, as Ahl is only relative to five of those eighteen issues. What’s more, only two of those appearances were in series other than JLA proper, and not even those make his presence here any less problematic.

Review: Justice League of America #27

April 13, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

Well, here we are at the beginning of the end for Steve Orlando’s Justice League of America, and holy shit is this issue terrible. I mean, Jesus, this book’s been bad in the past, even awful, but this takes the cake. From the utterly laughable premise to the entirely clumsy execution, everything about Justice League of America #27 reads like Orlando isn’t even trying anymore and is instead phoning it in as much as possible. Maybe this is his way of being petty and getting back at DC for canceling his crappy book, or maybe he somehow thinks this is a quality idea. But, it really, really isn’t, and it kind of has to be seen (or at least heard) to be believed.

Review: Justice League of America #26

April 13, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

As it turns out, “New Life and Death” isn’t just the same type of story “Deadly Fable” was. No, as Orlando shows us with Justice League of America #26, “New Life and Death” is also a retread of “Panic in the Microverse.” Except, this time, it ends exactly how I said “Panic in the Multiverse” should have ended in my review of Justice League of America #17, with the villain willingly sacrificing themselves to save their home. The problem is, in the context of “New Life or Death,” that ending makes no sense. Especially since here it doesn’t matter who sacrifices themselves. But, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.

Review: Justice League of America #25

April 4, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

Simply put, Justice League of America #25 is a boring issue. And, I don’t mean just low-key. Low-key is to be expected from the issue following a story arc’s conclusion. Some writers monopolize on that phenomenon by writing the issue as an epilogue or character-focused one-shot. Orlando has attempted that at times throughout his JLA run, and it would’ve worked if those issues had been better. However, after finishing the arc he’d spent almost twenty issues building up to, he’s opted to start right in on the next one. Granted, that is perhaps more a symptom of him learning his run will soon end than his discretion as a writer. Regardless, the problem isn’t actually that he rolls right into another big (well, as “big” as two issues can be) arc. In fact, at first, it seems like this might actually be a great jumping on point if, for some reason, you wanted to jump on the book right at the end of its lifespan. But, what makes “New Life and Death” ultimately not work is the fact that it’s basically a less interesting, less relevant, and somehow clumsier, retread of “Deadly Fable” that also tries way too hard to tie into the events of Dark Nights: Metal.

Review: Hungry Ghosts #2

April 4, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

Hungry Ghosts #2 showcases just how strange it is that this book is both a horror anthology as well as a four-issue limited series. The framing narrative is all but abandoned save for briefly showing the teller at the beginning of each story. It makes you wonder why Bourdain and Rose spent so much of the first issue establishing such specific circumstances. As for the two stories we get this time around, they’re an overall stronger pair. However, taken individually, neither is especially good and, despite its flaws, “The Pirates” from the last issue remains the single best story this book has offered so far.

Review: The Beef #1

February 28, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

With a title like The Beef and a cover featuring the subtitles “tainted love” and “a biochemical romance,” I went into this first issue expecting a story along the lines of Image’s Plastic from last year. And, since Plastic was the best thing I read from Image last year, I was pretty stoked at the idea of a similarly nontraditional love story, this time utilizing an inverse metaphor and theme (that is to say, about meat rather than, well, plastic). Of course, that was a pretty big conclusion to jump to, so it’s not all that surprising that it turned out to be an inaccurate one as well. Yet, that by itself isn’t the most disappointing thing about The Beef #1. Instead, it’s the story’s utterly familiar setup and stark lack of any meaningful variation that turns this issue into one big missed opportunity.

Review: Justice League of America #24

February 15, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

With Justice League of America #22, Steve Orlando rose to the occasion and finally wrote what I would call the first truly decent issue of his run on the series proper (meaning not including the prequel one-shots). Sure, issue #17 ended with some legitimate character development for Ryan, but that was in spite of the first half, as well as every other issue in that story arc, being crappy. And yes, if you ignore the art problems, the Annual was a relatively fine read. But, with double the page count and only about a third of the main cast (read: Lobo and Black Canary), it failed to represent or even adequately connect to the rest of the series, and it sure as hell didn’t give the impression that the book, as a whole, would be getting any better. However, that changed with JLA #22. We finally got a villain with some complexity to her, and none of the title team’s members did anything too stupid. And then, Justice League of America #23 managed to keep it mostly together. But, as I said in my review for that issue, it takes three to form a pattern. So, here we are with Justice League of America #24, the upshot of which is twofold. On the one hand, it appears that Orlando has indeed settled into a new, less stupid standard for his last half-dozen issues of JLA. But, at the same time, there’s been a conceptual short-sightedness that’s been at the heart of his work on this title, and it returns as clear cut as ever here.

Review: Justice League of America #23

February 5, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

It seems I was wrong about “Deadly Fable” being only two issues long. Well, sort of. Because while DC claims the next issue is part one of “New Life and Death” (which is supposedly “following the Queen of Fables saga”), this one ends on a cliffhanger without any kind of conclusion in sight. Now, could I simply be taking DC’s description of next issue a little too much at face value? Sure. In fact, I hope that’s the case. But, it’s hard to be certain with a book that has previously failed to end arcs satisfactorily and at one point abruptly injected two flashbacks into the middle of a story before resolving its own cliffhanger. Of course, the biggest question regarding Justice League of America #23 is whether or not it keeps up the actually decent quality the previous issue finally managed to achieve. And, the answer is, again, sort of.

Review: Cold War #1

January 24, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

AfterShock has been making a pretty good name for itself over the last year or so. Their catalog of books has expanded exponentially, and they’ve maintained a decently high standard of quality across the board. So, when they first announced Cold War, it seemed to be a pretty safe bet for some quality high concept shenanigans. Unfortunately, that’s not what we get from this first issue. And, what we get instead is a jumbled and unengaging plot, characters devoid of development and/or likeability, and a blatant absence of any proper reason to bother with any subsequent issues.

Review: Justice League of America #22

January 11, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

Huh. In a lot of ways, Justice League of America #22 is a pretty decent, even good, issue. And, that’s legitimately surprising. Steve Orlando’s entire JLA run has been building up to this story, but so much of it has been mediocre (or just plain bad) that it was hard to expect much good to come from “Deadly Fable.” Any yet, so far, it’s avoided a number of previously seen pitfalls. In place of the usually paper-thin and blatantly wrong antagonists, we get one with relatively sounds motivations and rationales behind her actions and statements. At least for a villain. Instead of ungrateful civilians who’re willing to turn against the JLA at the drop of a hat, we get citizens that’re concerned and horrified by their defeat. And, even the majority of the heroes react and respond appropriately to their given circumstances. Killer Frost is perhaps the major exception, but at the same time, her irrationality isn’t wholly without justification either. It’s not flawless, but it is a substantial step in the right direction.

Review: Justice League of America #21

January 11, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

Justice League of America #21 is a one-shot focusing on the book’s most likable character: Ray “totally not an insufferably whiny and pretentious man-child” Terrill. Yippee skippy. Of course, just like every other time JLA has put the spotlight on Ray, the goal is to illustrate just how good and fair and doggone heroic he is. And believe it or not, this is the most successful attempt made to date. Yet, it’s not because Ray suddenly and inexplicably turning into a decent character. Rather, it’s because he finally runs into someone that preaches and screams at him at least as much as he does to everyone else.

Review: Hungry Ghosts #1

January 4, 2018

By Jonathan Edwards

I was not aware that celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain also wrote comics. I mean, he’s not done it a ton, but he’s got a couple of other books under his belt with Get Jiro! and its prequel, Get Jiro: Blood and Sushi. Granted, he was not alone in writing those. Joel Rose co-wrote them both with Bourdain, and sure enough, they are writing once again as a pair for Hungry Ghosts. Now, if you’re like me, that title will be just straightforward and potentially high concept enough to make you at least want to know what it’s about. And as it turns out, the premise is a weirdly complicated one.