What did you read - August 2014

[Eric]

Lazarus Vol. 2: Lift TP--Read in individual issues, but with the trade just out, thought I'd mention it. I am loving this series. Volume one was our introduction to the main character, Forever, and this volume starts to open up the world that she lives in. The individual issues have timelines and bonus information on the world Rucka & Lark are building.

The Wicked + The Divine #1 & #2--I am hooked. I already love the team, and the concept is just the sort of thing that Patricia and I will talk about for hours upon hours.

Batman Vol. 4: Zero Year--Secret City HC--At first I was wary. I've really loved the first three volumes, but when I saw that this was going to be a retelling of his origin, I started to doubt. I should not have. This is damn good. It is not a Gus-Van-Sant-Imma-reshoot-Psycho-shot-for-shot remake of Year One and, smartly, Snyder isn't trying for that. I want to caveat it with YMMV depending on how you feel about the New 52, but I still think it is great read either way.

Guardians of the Galaxy/All-New X-Men: The Trial of Jean Grey HC--I am loving Bendis's All-New X-Men, almost entirely due to how he writes the characters. I am really hating Bendis's GotG, almost entirely due to how he writes the characters. So my feelings on this volume:

EM

[dancj]

Reign in Hell - Keith Giffen miniseries about a coup in Hell. Mmmm... it was just barely okay. I think stories in hell are really hard to make work and if you're not one of the Alan Moores and Neil Gaimans of the world then you're always going to fall short. For anyone who hates decompression though, this book took me ages to read.

The walking Dead v18: What Comes After - Another good volume. In theory, this story line is a bit similar to the Governor one, but so far it's being different enough to hold my interest. I do wonder how long this can keep going before it gets repetitive though. I'm looking forward to the big All Out War storyline.

Secret Invasion: War Machine - I read it two days ago and I've forgotten it already. Obviously completely inconsequential.

The Pitt - Old Byrne/Grunewald/Sal Buscema prestige format one-shot. Not really a whole story. Just a snippet of one. If it was ever concluded or any of the characters are ever seen again I'm not aware of it. And oh my god how much text do you need. You could easily strip out three quarters of the dialogue in this book and not lose one bit of plot and the whole book would have been a much better read.

Fallen Angel - An arty farty bit of nonsense from Nicolas Robel. The whole book took about five minutes to read and was completely unsatisfying. Is Drawn and Quarterly the company who recently hit hard times and had to launch a Kickstarter-esque appeal to save themselves? If so then I suspect books like this are partly to blame.

Edit - I'm not really a misery-guts today - honest.