State the Last Comic Book You Read and Rate It

[dancj]

Furious v1: Fallen Star 4/5 - I picked this up for £2 having never heard of it and it turned out to be really good. It the story of a new superhero who wants to be a beacon of hope, but has anger issues and she gets caught on camera beating the crap out of a criminal. Good stuff. I hope there's more.

Southern Cross v1 3/5 - An okay murder mystery on a space ship. The dialogue is seriously stilted, and everyone who gets confronted about anything seems to just spill the beans completely. It didn't quite work for me.

Red Team v1 4/5 - Story from the ever-reliable Garth Ennis about a squad of police who decide to start taking the law into their own hands when they can't find enough evidence to convict. Good story and art.

Asterix and the Chariot Race 3/5 - While I will agree that the new team are doing a better job than the later Alberto Uderzo ones, they're still not up there with the better Uderzo stories, and nowhere near the standard of the typical Goscinny ones. It all just felt a bit too slight. No real plot to speak of compared with the classic books. Shame - but I'll still be getting every new Asterix book forever. I can't not.

Wolverine: Old Man Logan - This is good stuff. I know some people get annoyed by Millar going for "shock value", but I like that he doesn't hold back. Good art from McNiven too. I was tempted to try Lemire's Old Man Logan ongoing, but looking on Wikipedia, it doesn't appear to be set in the same world as the original story, which defeats the purpose for me.

[Foxy]

Read Brightest Day as follow-up to Green Lantern Volume 2. I liked it even though I don’t know too much about DC characters. But now I can‘t wait to read up on Martian Manhunter and Hawkman.

Solid read, would say 7.5/10 but maybe that‘s a bit unfair as I just came off Blackest Night, which was excellent.

Currently reading Green Lantern Volume 3, great stuff as usual

[Jack Dracula]

The entire run of Warren Ellis' Global frequency.
Quite good. It isn't on par with Planetary, but still well worth the time. 4/5 stars.

[Foxy]

Geoff Johns Green Lantern Omnibus Volume 3: 8.0/10. Great stuff, but Volume 2 was a tough act to follow. Still finished it in record time.

Currently doing a read-a-thon for Bendis' New Avengers and really liking it so far:
Avengers Disassembled 7/10: exciting start for the story but some context of preceding story arcs is missing.
Secret War 7/10: very interesting idea, execution could have been better, i.e. having more of the story take place in Latveria and giving some more context to the situation there.
New Avengers volume 1-10: awesome start, would rate it 8/10
House of M: one of the best events I've read so far (but I am biased towards the X-Men). 9/10.

Now continuing with the New Avengers Omnibus, which I can read all the way through until I come to Secret Invasion (Civil War comes in between but I have read that previously during Brubaker Cap).

I have to say that I really like this integrated type of reading where I include several series and events.

[dancj]

The Omega Men: The End is Here 4/5 Not up there with The Vision (the only other Tom King I've read), but still a good read, though it took a few issues to get into it. King is obviously a lot more ambitious than most writers around at the moment.

Tekkonkinkreet: Black & White 4/5 Weird mad near future manga about a couple of homeless kids with apparent superhuman fighting ability. Despite the fact that they're basically thugs who mug and beat up people, you still wind up rooting for them. The art has a more European than Japanese file. At times reminiscent of Jose Munoz.

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

Been reading a lot of the first MAX volume of the Punisher, 54 issues in and I love it. Garth Ennis did a fabulous job starting a world where Punisher is not involved with superheroes, that man is really terrible at handling superhero stories.

The Punisher 2001 series: I did not read them, I actually plowed through the issues that have Spider-Man as a guest star.. he's terrible at handling superheroes -sans Daredevil- of which I realize he's not a fan, but it's awkward to see a non-fan include characters he dislikes in a run of a character he likes working on, especially when the Punisher was spawned out of one of these characters books, and Spider-Man is that superhero who usually lets Punisher walk away after a team-up insults him for being a killer in one story and tries to capture him in another.

[dancj]

Over on http://www.pipelinecomics.com/ Augie De Blieck has started a year long project to reread all of the Uderzo-drawn Asterix books, so I'm reading along with him...

Asterix the Gaul 4.5/5 The art (not the colouring) is good, but still warming up to Uderzo's peak, but the writing is great straight off. Just a really funny book. I really felt for Crismus Bonus when they ate the strawberries.

Asterix and the Golden Sickle 4.5/5 A great old-fashioned detective story and one of my favourites.

Asterix and the Goths 3.5/5 Still a good book, but not up there with the previous two for me.

Jupiter's Circle book 2 4/5 The art isn't up there with Millar's other books (except for the bit Chris Sprouse drew), but it's still a good story. I'd probably like it even more if I could remember anything from vol 1 or from Jupiter's Legacy.

The Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade 4/5 Big kudos to Peter Steigerwald for his inks and colours making John Romita Jr's art feel like TDKR. The story is slight here, but has some subtlety I haven't seen from Miller in a long time. Over all I liked it.

Young Avengers v1: Style > Substance 4/5 and v2: Alternative Culture 4/5 Great stuff here from Keiran Gillen and James McKelvie. I really must get around to reading Journey into Mystery because I'm loving this young Loki.

[Jack Dracula]

Warren Ellis' Aetheric Mechanics. 3/5
The black and white artwork by Giancula Pagliarani was wonderful, but may have been better with color.
The story was well done, but felt like Ellis had shortened it from something much bigger.

[sirmarkus]

Champions #16: Start of a new arc, and the beginning of a change up of team members. 4/5
(https://sirmarkussite.wordpress.com/...-a-day-part-1/)

Forces of Destiny Hera: One shot issue focusing on Hera from Star Wars Rebels 3/5(very much for kids)
(https://wp.me/p81uZL-o3)

[dancj]

Warren Ellis' Aetheric Mechanics. 3/5
The black and white artwork by Giancula Pagliarani was wonderful, but may have been better with color.
The story was well done, but felt like Ellis had shortened it from something much bigger.

Ellis did loads of those "graphic novellas" (as he called them) at the time. Most of them felt like they needed a bit more meat to me.

[Jack Dracula]

Ellis did loads of those "graphic novellas" (as he called them) at the time. Most of them felt like they needed a bit more meat to me.

That is an excellent way to put it. I recently re-read Desolation Jones and came away with the same feeling.
Like unfulfilled potential.

[dancj]

Young Avengers v3: Mic-Drop at the Edge of Time 4/5 - Satisfying conclusion to Gillen/McKelvie's run.

New Super-Man v1: Made in China 3.5/5 - This is a lot of fun. Only towards the end it started to feel a bit ordinary. I'll pick up v2 if I see it cheap enough.

Nailbiter v1: There Will be Blood 4/5 - Good creepy stuff. I definitely want to see where this goes.

Asterix the Gladiator 3.5/5 - Decent book with Uderzo's art really blossoming. The story was fun, but I'm marking Asterix books on a slightly harsher scale because I know the good stuff that's coming.

Deadly Class v1: Reagan Youth 4/5 - I always had a feeling that Rick Remender had it in him to write a book I could like, and I've finally found it. Good stuff.

Birthright v1: Homecoming 4/5 - Good story (from Joshua Williamson who also wrote Nailbiter above) and good art. A young boy disappears - and then reappears a year later as an adult warrior who's grown up in a fantasy world. I really enjoyed this. I'll be looking out for more volumes.

[dancj]

Snotgirl v1: Green Hair Don't Care 2.5/5 I'm probably not the target audience for this, but I really didn't enjoy it. I think it's probably more suited to a teenage girl than a 45 year old man.

Huck v1: All American 4.5/5 Millar has a weird knack of writing books which are incredibly quick to read, but so much happens, that I'd struggle to call them decompressed. This book was great, and Huck is probably the nicest guy ever to appear in any comic ever. Lovely art too. I'm not familiar with Rafael Albuquerque, but he's definitely on my radar now.

Asterix and the Banquet 3.5/5 Definitely one of the weaker Asterix books that Goscinny wrote - but that still makes it better than lots of books out there.

The Goddamned v1: Before the Flood 3.5/5 Interesting book from Jason Aaron. Very slight in terms of plot, and seriously brutal. I didn't love it, but I'm on board for the next one to see where this goes.

#$@& The Official Lloyd Llewellyn Collection 2.5/5 I've mostly loved what I've read from Daniel Clowes, but this collection of some of his pre-Eightball work was a it of a slog TBH. Some decent bits here and there, but part of me wanted to give up halfway through.

Asterix and Cleopatra 4.25/5 I won't make a habit of giving quarter stars, but I was so torn between 4 and 4.5. The art is still evolving very nicely, and the story is very good for this one. I'm really looking forward to the mid-late era of Goscinny's writing though.

The Kents 2.5/5 Another one I wanted to give up on halfway through. I'm glad I didn't though as it did improve. It was a hell of a slog though. Clearly John Ostrander researched meticulously for this, but it was just way too dense for me to fully enjoy. It didn't help that a lot of the text was in joined up handwriting, which I hate reading at the best of times, but when you shrink it down to fit on a comic page, and then use strange spellings (like ghurl instead of girl) then it makes reading the book a bit too much like hard work. Good art from Tom Mandrake in the final third. I wasn't fond of Tim Truman's in the first two thirds.

Asterix and the Big Fight 4/5 The first book fully set in the village we know so well - which is my favourite setting for Asterix, and a good lively plot. You can tell it's early though. There's no Fulliautomatix, Unhygenix or Impedimenta. A man who might be Geriatrix popped up for a couple of panels at the end. The best stuff is yet to come.

[dancj]

Super Crooks v1: The Heist 4/5 Mark Millar's stuff is pretty much always fun to read and this is no exception. Good art from Yu.

Hellblazer: Joyride, The Laughing Magician and The Roots of Coincidence 4/5 I generally don't like Diggle's writing, but this was pretty good. It was almost like a Geoff Johns story the way it managed to go back and pull loads of old continuity and make it all connect together neatly. If anything, the main storyline was tied up a little too easily at the end, but then the issue after that made up for it, by bringing back the past in a clever way. Good art throughout too.

Asterix in Britain 5/5 One of the finest Asterix Books. Goscinny and Uderzo have really hit their stride.

We Are Robin v1: The Vigilante Business 3/5 and v2: Jokers 3/5 Individually these are 3/5 books, but as an overall experience I'd have to go with 2/5. I kind of expected vols 1 and 2 of a series to be a cohesive read, but vol 2 started off with a recap of what happened in a crossover event called Robin War, then proceeded to give me an issue starring Dick Grayson and some guy in a Batman-esque costumer, but without a cape and who looked a bit too thin to be Bruce. I'm guessing it was actually Bruce, but not 100% sure. The reading experience would have been a little more cohesive without that issue, but still not good. They also had some guy who seemed a bit like The Reaper from Batman: Year Two in the first volume being build up as a subplot, who was then never mentioned in vol 2. Over all it was a bit of a mess. I was a bit disappointed that Lee Bermejo's beautiful art wasn't on the interiors too.

Asterix and the Normans 4/5 A bit slight on the plot, but still a lot of fun.

Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files v14 4/5 This volume covers the point where I started reading 2000AD back in the day. This has The Tale of the Dead Man and Necropolis. I think they missed a trick by not including The Dead Man which covers Dredd between The Tale of the Dead Man and Necropolis. Necropolis is an interesting one. At the time it came out, 6 pages a week for six months, it was really long and quite boring. Reading it all together now it is much better, though it's surprisingly decompressed for Dredd, so it's still a little unsatisfying. Carlos Ezquerra's art is on top form here though. And he did over six months solid without missing a chapter.

Deadpool Max v2: Involuntary Armageddon 2.5/5 I really enjoyed the first one, but this one mostly left me a bit cold. There were some neat moments here and there, but not enough. Kyle Baker's art is great though.

[Starter Set]

Suicide Squad 37, 2/5.

Meh, i liked one moment with boomerang but the rest was not so greatly executed and for being honest i'm not giving much of a darn about that storyline.