Batman: The Dark Knight Rises...Again & Again & Again etc.

 

What’s your favorite TV Show? Think of it. Now, think of it being everywhere at once. Think of there being multiple iterations of your show with different characters and different takes of the show going on all at the same time while you’re watching the main show. It’d be ridiculous right? Let’s take, I dunno, Breaking Bad, one of the greatest TV shows in the history of the Universe. What if, while you were watching Season 2 or 3 all of a sudden they said ‘Hey, tune in after the show for ‘The Maniacal Heisenberg’ a new show where Walt stalks the back alleys of New Mexico on the hunt for someone who is copycatting his signature blue meth. 

 

                 

What if they said during that show they said, premiering on Netflix next week ‘Jesse & Friends’ , it tells the tale of Jesse and his best buds before he met Walt. Then, while watching Cartoon Network Adult Swim you see an ad for ‘Wow. Walt. Wild’ a new anime style show about Walter White doing Science Guy things in his Science Class while he was also being Heisenberg. Then, while watching football on Sunday, Fox advertised ‘Walter: A Brutal Christmas’ a new show that tells the untold holiday tale of the one and only Walter White, and all of this is going on while you’re still watching the initial show of Breaking Bad and have no idea how it ends at this point. It’d be stupid. It’d be overkill. You’d wonder, why are they doing this? Let me watch the show in peace. They don’t release a new season of Stranger Things and then tell you to tune in to other Stranger Things shows do they?

Now, you may know where I’m going with this and you may say, well, comics aren’t like TV Shows. I would counter with, no they aren’t but, in a way they kind of can be. I mean, if I’m reading a great hero comic and it’s really hitting all the right notes for me I don’t need another one do I? Well, the Big 2 would say otherwise. DC would say, dude, eff you, here; take a dozen more and, wait, open wide, yeah, here’s like 3 or 4 that go down your throat and, oopsie, we just shoved a couple up your anus. Welcome to Batman Comics in 2025. 

 

                       

 

In fact, welcome to entertainment in 2025. If anything works, if there is any ‘IP’ that is considered valuable or potentially valuable they will replicate it until it can’t be replicated anymore and one could argue that it can always be replicated. We are in the thick of the ‘Just make another one’ philosophy that every company on the planet is implementing without fail. No risks can be taken, shareholders must be happy, bottom lines must be met. That’s obviously a deeply cynical take but as far as I am personally concerned it’s how I feel right now when it comes to anything in comic books, especially hero comics and especially my favorite hero of all time:

I’ve reached the point with Bats where, and I hate saying this, but I’m over it. It’s been too much. There is, too much. I’ve tried to cut down and focus on just a few but even then it’s become an unenjoyable pursuit. Let’s take Absolute Batman, the premiere ‘everyone’s gotta have it’ Bat book on the shelves right now written by Mr Bats himself, Scott Snyder.  I’m trying to figure out why I’m not in love with Abs Bats. I think a lot has to do with Bruce Wayne looking like an Anime Yo Let’s Lift Bro. I also think I’m suffering, and perhaps you are too, from ‘alternate imagined universe’ burn out. Where characters are interchangeable, attributes are whatever they dream up and there’s no accountability to canon. Now, Snyder is one of the best to ever do it and he’s definitely writing the shit out of this series. Nick Dragotta's art has also been top notch. I think this is for sure the best Bat Book out there. So why am I not gushing profusely over this series like everyone else? There’s no stakes. In all these alt Uni’s there ultimately no stakes for anyone because it’s just an alt uni that will cease to exist once the series does. So whenever they decide to end this it will also, in all likelihood, end these characters and you’ll return to your normally scheduled Bat Book where whatever’s happening in the main series is technically the one that will hold the most weight. Looking ahead I see a Joker that looks like a spiky lizard that Jock will be drawing. Okay, that’s a must pull but I’m pulling it out of curiosity not out of joy. I find myself going ‘ooh that’s cool’ a lot in this series but I’m not emotionally invested and that’s a big problem. If anything can happen to the character with zero consequences and canon is irrelevant then it's just a petri dish experiment.

I think that’s a big problem with a lot of these stories, they exist in their own vacuums and whatever happens in these stories ostensibly stays in these stories. There’s no accountability for whatever happens to Bats in these books. They just released the second installment of the ‘Long Dark Knight’ which is a sort of an origin story of Bats set in the 30s with all the vernacular of the time. The first one they did last year was amazing, but the new one? It feels rehashed, it feels a bit stale, it feels like a cheaper version of the original. It feels like they asked chatgpt for every single unique phrase and slang that was uttered in the 20s and 30s and are peppering the dialogue with one every chance they get. It’s like a gut wrenching version of Groundhog Day with these Bat Books where they try to make the same thing from a successful run and it never feels the same. You can’t just fall in the snow with Andie McDowell and make snow angels every night and every month over and over and not have it feel forced and awkward.  

 

           

 

Now we have the new Batman by Fraction. Oy vey. I mean, I absolutely love Matt Fraction. I would consider him one the Top 5 Best Comic Book Writers of the past 10-15 years. Of course I’m going to be interested in his take on Bats, which sucks! Why? Because I don’t need him to write Bats right now, I’ve got plenty of Bat goodness on my plate, it’s overkill. It’s like ‘Wow this pizza is amazing’, oh you like it? Here, let me just drop a whole other pie right on top of this one, now eat up! I’m finishing up Mark Waid’s run on Bats & Robin Year One which has been delightful and it’s like okay now I have two pizzas stacked on top of each other and someone sent a whole other pie to my place. So I’m gonna throw that in the freezer and deal with it at another time. I sit down, stuffed to the gills with pizza, and I read an ad that says ‘Oh hey, we’re making a pizza right now, want one?’.

Matt Fraction writing Batman should be an event. It should be the wow moment of the year. Instead it’s just another pile on of Bats on already out of control Jenga pile of comics. I read that Fraction first issue, you know what it was? Unnecessary. There was no reason whatsoever for that story to exist. It was useless. It could have been added into one of the dozens of Batman anthologies they put out all the time. It felt like such a waste of talent, time and money. Who’s to blame? I have no idea. Is everyone in the Big 2 in so much debt that you have just pump out your best characters in as many books as possible to make rent? Are DC execs deep in sports gambling doo doo like millions of other people?

It’s just yucky and sad and ultimately, when you have so much of the same thing it cheapens the experience and that’s what it feels like: cheap. So for 2026 I'm going to be dropping all Absolute Books and it's going to have to be one the biggest wow drops ever to get me to open a Bat Book for a while. 

Aren’t you glad you read this post??? So happy, merry and joyful. Hey, I had to get it out, had to vent, whether it’s heard or not, it had to be said.

Here’s what I’ve been reading, it ain’t much. I should've posted this months ago but life got in the way...

 

Is this turning into a soonzefest? Ya, probably. This has been a delightful series by the Powerhouse Waid & Samnee team but, ehhh, the story is getting stale. I could look at Chris Samnee draw toilets all day long, he’s that good, but the overall tone and muddied brown and grey color palette that seems to be everywhere you look in this series is beginning to feel like a bummer. It’s rough enough in LA, I don’t need to open a comic book that looks like most of the streets around here. Feels like this should have been either a 6 or 8 issue series; twelve is kinda pushing it. When I look at the solicits hoping to see that a series is ending soon, it’s never a good sign. This is why Clayface stories usually end up sucking. When a villain can just look like anybody he wants it lends itself to cheap writing and staid plot developments since, well, ooh, this character can become anybody and move the plot forward if I get stuck or bogged down in blah middle acts. With a bunch of Bat Books now on the shelves that are way more exciting along with, oh I dunno, 758 that are blah or just suck, it’s time to put this bed already. I see a lot of comic book geeks clamoring for a season 2 as this book winds down. I wouldn’t be opposed to it but make it 6 tops. Honestly the real thing that needs to happen is somebody needs to get These dudes need to get back on Daredevil somehow. It’s where they belong. 

Update: So I just read the finale. It was sweet, nostalgic, classic Bats with a few awww moments. A truly enjoyable read. No regrets following this to the end. Now, I'm sure DC is readying a whole new 12 issues of this which is all well and good but I will not be joining them if they do. Get back on Daredevil you two! It sucks! It's been sucking. C'mon, make the dirty deal with the Mouse.

 

What a shit show. What a disastrous punch to my comic book face. That’s what reading this felt like. I sat down excited to actually read a new series for the first time in forever. I was praying that someone would rescue 2025 with a spectacular book, this fit the bill. I saved it for that special moment when I had the doggies napping and the world all to myself. I opened this comic and a fist of some hot pseudo anime babe drenched in blood flew from between the pages and punched me in the fucking face. Jae Lee. Genius. Variant covers suck. Jae Lee variant covers don’t. Gerry Duggan. Doing yeoman’s work on one of the best, if not wackiest, series of the year ‘Falling in Love on the Pathway to Hell’; monster combo. Well, these two didn’t just poop the bed, they had a fireball come out their bunghole and set the whole bedroom on fire. I can see how somebody might say ‘Oh this is a rock ‘em sock ‘em frenetic tale that grabs you and doesn’t let up. Strap yourselves in and -‘ No. No strapping in. It’s a bloody mess. Something about two families coming through a portal millennia ago and fighting, a truce, a kid exchange, elve ears  and some Male Stripper Bill Dickcock. Umm, no. Looks amazing. Still a mess. Heads are flying. Arms are being sliced off. People appear out of nowhere, get killed, next. Some ridiculous dialogue including ‘You have a date with the back of my hand'  'You have a date with a dentist arrgggh’ uggh. Couldn’t even finish it. I think the culture of comic books and entertainment in general has moved past senastionalized hyper violence. I believe it had its place. Tarantino came in at the perfect juncture and capitalized on it with his distinct brand of genius and craft. He drew from Asian Cinema that had not yet reached the mass awareness in the States and took it to another level. It inspired many to continue, copy and evolve his vision to the point that we’re so desensitized to it, it’s become a crutch for lazy writing and artists in general. Duggan pulls a fast one though, he cliffhangers the audience with the last page, it was all a hallucination, drugs, who knows as the pink moon sits in the sky. Dammit. As awful as this year has been for comics I’m gonna have to give this another pull. I’m halfway between this ending after I get up or this ending after another issue. 5.0

Update: I just finished the second issue…bleccchhh. C’mon guys, wtf? If you got rid of the text bubbles, which you probably should since there’s no coherent plot, this book is just a miss mosh of rail thin babes long legged babes miraculously avoiding bullets and the like while kicking dudes in the head amidst the copious pantie shots. Oh yeah, and let’s throw in some more decapitated heads. Trash. So disappointing. Me pulling another issue of this waste of my money? This ends today!

A backstory bingo issue that stopped the hurdling momentum of recent issues which seemed to be coming to a climactic boiling point of a resolution. Yup, let’s side step and tell you why this guy we just introduced in the climactic cliff hanger moment of the last issue is so important and why the cliff hanger moment was such a major cliff hanger with all sorts of drama. Now don’t get me wrong, this was a delightful issue that filled out the character of Asami a lot more and did provide a barrel of TNT to the moment we just left in the previous issue. That said, if I wanted to read a comic about the plight of female Samurai during pre-modern Japan I would happily do so but maybe, I dunno, finish this one first and then tease us with the ‘Life of Asami’ book in the back matter of your finale. The problem here is that the main trio of characters have nothing to do with this blast from Asami’s past so this issue is more of a distraction then it is necessary. Sound like social media. I’m gonna call this the Instasami Issue. Not going anywhere but let’s get back to our regularly scheduled wild premise mmkay?

 

Hayden Sherman and Jordie Bellaire are putting in work these past few Abs Dubz issues. The visuals for this book have soared into the stratosphere of comic book nirvana and every panel is becoming a feast for the eyes. It’s giving New 52 Batwoman by J.H. Williams/W. Haden Blackman energy. My goodness that book was amazing, I still feel jilted by DC ending it so abrutly because they didn’t want Bat Dubz marrying a chick; so ridiculous. Anyway, the paneling in these issues really reminds me of those interconnected layouts and it’s bringing me back. Wish they would put this book in a Prestige Format. I feel like they may have missed the boat on that by not releasing all the ‘Absolute’ books in Prestige Format, but what do I know other than I would’ve coughed up the extra 2-3 dillies per issue for the eye candy. Also, I’m not sold on this Thomson's wackadoodle plot set in a Minotaur Maze with fish people and a chick villain who really needs a spa day. That said, Abs Dubz has been the best DC book of the year in my humble opinion so they could run around a maze, an escape room or a cheesecake factory and I'd be knee deep in it.

Oh no! Not another one of these Titan Licensed Characters Smorgasbords! Uggh. I thought this was a stand along story not Titan mushing all of the characters it now owns from Robert E. Howard or whatever and throwing them together in a disjointed mist mosh of a plot that spans millennia and locales. I fell for this once before, I’ve already memory holed the previous iteration of this major event. Well, I’m not falling for the banana in the tailpipe again or perhaps the Conan Sword in the Victorian Library again. Who thinks this is a good idea? Just throwing a bunch of characters that have nothing to do with each other in a story. I mean, if you had the rights to Snoopy why not add him? Isn’t Popeye in the public domain now? Why not add Popeye and Steamboat Mickey and Ralph Kramden from the Honeymooners. I don’t know what the point is. I suppose it’s to excite you about characters you wouldn’t necessarily be excited about so you could potentially buy their titles as well. Oy. Titan’s main Conan title is finally picking up some steam again after a lull, I suggest sticking to that and avoiding all their mish mosh books. They also just came out with a colorized SSOC (Savage Sword of Conan) which feels…silly? The appeal of SSOC is it’s gritty black and white newsprint feel. C’mon Titan, stop trying to make new fan dangled cookie flavors like lingonberry buckwheat crunch with white chocolate and mustard greens, just stick to chocolate chip. Simplicity is the new complexity in comic books.

I’m grasping at straws these days desperately looking for great new comics that are starting now before the year ends. My ‘Best Comics of 2025’ list doesn’t even have 10 contenders on it. What a horrible year. I figured why the hell not with this Spidey book and it turned out to be a why the hell did you make this book in the first place. Seriously? I mean, why? What’s the point of this book? Spidey can’t decide if he wants Gwen or MJ? Is it really that hard of a choice? So you’ve reduced Peter Parker to an Archie comic dillemma, is it Betty or Veronica, awesome, great job. This felt like it was meant for 5-8 year olds who have never read Spiderman before. Are kids reading comic books? Like, actual comics? Or are they just downloading them on their iPads? I saw a kid the other day get out of a SUV with two phones and an iPad, we are doomed. The ultimate silliness of this book is when the hot blonde stealing a book from a library turns into a demon with a tail and wings and flies away . Dude, this happens like allll the time in LA, it’s not that big of a deal. Spidey, torn. Yeah, I’m torn whether I should keep this or put it in a cardboard box outside with most of my other comics I’ve bought this year and label it free. Trash.

 

The Unwritten by Mike Carey and Peter Gross is without question one of the greatest comic book series ever written in the entire history of the genre. It transcended the medium and made mincemeat of the more popular Harry Potter story with its own brand of boy becomes legend. If you have not read The Unwritten you are depriving yourself of a sublime feast for the mind and a comic book experience you will not soon forget. When I saw this Author book on the solicits I immediately thought of the Unwritten, same kinda vibe. Unfortunately, this one just plain sucks. Again, I’m not sure if editors are actively looking to dumb down plots and dialogue as they are in TV. TV writers, and this is real, are being told to dumb down plots and write dialogue that continually reiterates the story developments so that the millions of people who watch TV on their phones can keep up with what’s going on since they rarely watch more than 5-10 minutes at a time  The dialogue and exposition here in this book is so on the nose it felt like I was being read to as if I was a five year old sitting on a library carpet being read to by a high pitched librarian showing me the book as she turns the pages. I really had high hopes for this one. It’s like dating one of the greatest women of your life and then someone comes along in your later years who looks like her and talks like her but you soon realize she’s a complete phony. I tossed this drivel and began drunk texting Mike Carey to let me come over.

If you're going to have a grumpy, unlikable and unattractive main character for your story you're really going to need to do some heavy lifting around the supporting cast and plot development that will slowly connect your audience with your lead. You're going to have to make them root for the whiny troll somehow After almost a year of issues I don't think it's happened yet in this series and I'm officially checking out. I have zero fucks to give for Theresa the lead 'Ooh I think I have psychic abilities' chick. I also was generally disappointed in the tarot aspect of this book, I thought it would be a little bit more sophisticated. I don't think Lemire has any real knowledge of the Tarot and the whole 'I look at the cards and then get transported in my mind to some alternate dimension regardless of what the cards are' is super lame. Now we get this subplot of a psychic mystic loser cartel who are trying to sabotage the lead troll and it's officially a sillyfest. I see my future and it has no pulls of this sad uninspiring tale.

 

Yay Comics! So fun! Oy vey. I know this is about the time that I pop out a best of the year post but that's going to have to wait. Especially since I'm going to have to squeeze whatever drops of juice I can out of the three month old moldy lemon that was this year of comic books.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season and received gifts of trade paperbacks of comics from long ago that will remind you that, yes, comic books were once the best thing ever.

Bags, Boards and Burns - A City & Industry Up in Smoke

 

 

LA is weird right now. It’s been weird for a minute. The fires not only ravaged the city but they also ravaged the psyche of Angelenos; it was an unfathomable event that is still smoldering in the hearts of the people who live here. It feels like everyone has been trudging through sludge for the past month or so including yours truly. It’s not so much that the fires have exacted such an unflinching toll on everyone, rather it was more like they were the final body blow from a series of gut punches that LA has endured for the past 5 years. From the Pandemic hysteria to the Strikes to the upheaval in the Industry and now to the destruction of neighborhoods that meant so much to so many, there’s only so much you can take before it feels like the world has it out for you. Hell, today due to torrential rains we had mud slides wreaking havoc all over the city. Seriously what’s next? Locusts? Should I smudge my front door with some Lamb’s blood???

As I sat there watching LA go up in flames of course my mind drifted towards the things I love about LA. I will say this, no major Comic Book Shops went up in flames in the Pacific Palisades, Malibu or Altadena; at least none of note. Which got me thinking, there really isn’t a Mecca Destination for Comic Books in LA anymore. There used to be, it was Meltdown Comics. Meltdown Comics on Sunset near WeHo embodied everything great about being a Comic Geek. Within their cavernous space (at least for LA standards) one could find any and everything: new issues, back issues, graphic novels, toys, memorabilia, fashion, oversized knicknacks and doodads. There were tables to play D&D and other board games and if that wasn’t enough there was a back room where they held Comedy nights that drew some of the top Comedians in town. It was said that Matt Groening would pop in and just sit in the back to take in a show every now and then. Well of course he did, there was no place in LA where he could go and truly feel at home; he got to be just another nerd who loves comics just like anyone else.

I knew one of the guys who owned it pretty well from coming in so much. I remember when it was just a normal comic shop on the North Side of the street when I first moved to LA in 2000; they were a few blocks away from me. When they moved into the big space across the street it was like God answered my prayers for a legendary comic book shop. Well, Meltdown closed years ago and since then nothing has taken its place, which feels deeply wrong since LA is ostensibly the Comic Book Capital of the World now that both DC & Marvel have decamped from NYC to sunnier climes. Perhaps it’s a true indicator that the Big 2 really don’t give a shit about the actual comic books that fuel their movies and their IP (oy I hate that fucking word, IP, IP has ruined entertainment). One would think that if they really did love comic books they would combine their might and create a place where the ideas that made them who they are could be celebrated and shared with the masses. Nope, none of that. There’s a bunch of little cool shops here and there in LA but nothing overly special. My LCS is basically a hole in the wall but I’ve been going there for years and it suits me just fine. San Diego Comic Con doesn’t count, that’s just a circus and a Sales Pitch-athon and the fact that a normal comic book dude like me hasn’t been able to get into it once underscores the fact that it’s not really for normal comic book dudes.

January used to be a big month for comics, at least it seemed like that was the case to me. Looking back over the years my pull numbers show that January and February were big months for new releases and for publishers to ramp up current series or reveal their upcoming gems. Even as recently as 3 years ago I was yanking 20 books a month in both Jan and Feb. Ten years ago I was pulling 30. This year? 9. Nine, with two being facsimiles. WTF? According to this article, retailers are saying that the Industry is on the upswing and that they’re doing really well, so is it me? They’re extolling the virtues of the ‘Absolute DC’ line as one of the big drivers of sales. Look, I’m pulling both Bats and Dubz from that line and, well, yes they’re really good but they’re not oh my goodness fucking spectacular. The New 52? That was spectacular. Are you gonna tell me that Absolute Bats and Dubz are better than New 52’s Snyder’s ‘Court of Owls’ and Azzarello and Chiang’s ‘Wonder Woman’ run?? No, no you’re not. So, I think what’s happening is that it’s been so bad for so long and titles have just been cratering that when something half decent comes along people lose their minds. I would say that’s the same for the music and film industry as well. There's so much caca that when something comes along that doesn't soil your soul it comes off as genius. It's also an offshoot of the fact that content has become so over saturated it's almost impossible to sift through it all to find the greatness.

I believe things will change and yes there is still some amazing stuff out there, I’m looking at you DSTLRY. But man, it’s been fucking rough. With so few comics on my rack these days I started reading a novel that’s been sitting near my La-Z-Boy in what feels like forever, it’s Cold Mountain. I wanted to jump in front of a moving car after the first 16 pages. Maybe I’ll join a book club. Maybe I’ll make more of an effort to get into Anime. Maybe I’ll find a challenging puzzle! Oh who am I kidding, c’mon people, make some fucking unbelievable comic books! Oy. Nine. Nine this month. Googling Batman Puzzles...ooh this one looks good!

Here’s what I got into this past month or so:

 

I just put this down and, wow. I mean, wow, Snyder crushes this one over the fence. I'm not a huge gritty gruesome crime drama. true crime, serial killer guy but when I saw Snyder and Jock together it was a no brainer to grab this. It was perfectly done, like, there's really nothing bad you can say about this book. They deftly set the tone, drew you in, had strong characters and set up the plot with a cliffhanger as well as you possibly could. If this was a Pilot episode you'd binge the entire series. After Snyder's Wack 'White Boat' debacle on DSTLRY this is a heroic dub. This comic saved the beginning of my 2025 Comic Book Experience, thanks Scott & Jock 9.7

 

This 'Absolute Dubz' series is picking up steam and becoming a real page turner. My question is this, you’re saying that these ‘Absolute’ books are All In, right? So it stands to reason that your other books aren’t all in, right? I would go so far to say that most of what DC is putting is either halfway in or just full on the fuck out. Maybe what DC should do is put ‘Just the Tip’ on their normal comics so comic geeks know ahead of time to not expect a Wham Bam story. I will say this, having Dubz connected to Circe while affirming that her exile to Hell was by the Gods really makes me pine for the days when Azzarello and Chiang were writing that Dubz story line with all the Greek Gods. I know I probably mention that run at least once every two months or every other paragraph; shrug emoji. Regardless, Thompson, Sherman and Bellaire are putting together a real humdinger of a first arc that is definitely all up in that goody good. How much to bribe a DC Lackey to put 'Just the Tip' on all their non All-In books? 8.5

It was quite the surprise to see the Jade Snot Babe back in the solicits after, what has been, almost two plus years? No, wait, it’s been almost 5 years since the last issue! Wow. This was a silly yet delightful series about a neurotic model chick with a runny nose problem. You would think I would run into one of these girls in LA over the years but I haven’t. I did have a girl I was dating all of a sudden produce a bloody nose when she was alone with me in my apartment. She definitely wasn’t a cokehead so I attributed it to her being able to bleed from the nostrils when she wasn’t down for knocking dem boots, quite impressive. Yes, I just brought the boot knockin’ phrase back, and what? Anyway, this is why you don’t take long ass layoffs from your book, because it’s invariably going to suck or be less enjoyable than when you left unless you really really bring the ruff neck business. I’m looking at you Saga, and Monstress. O’Malley decided to show Snottie’s Boobies along with her new Hawt GF’s boobies in a big ‘Welcome Back’ ish but all they did was provide a brief ooh before spoiling the tension of the previous issues. The whole comic felt eye roll silly, not whimsical and fun. It’s been so long since I read one of these I can’t even remember where the plot left off. So as a ‘first issue’ of sorts it was quite blah and looking at the upcoming issues, they look blah as well. Safe to say it’s a different world today than it was in March of 2020. A world where a model babe with a drop dead gorgeous girlfriend who doesn’t seem to have a snotty nose problem anymore really doesn’t grab me. Dropping this like a snotty sinus infection tissue in my cheap bathroom garbage thingy. 5.2

 

Well, if you’re wondering what Belit the Savage Pirate Queen of the Black Coast would look like as a Disney Princess then this is the issue for you. Yeesh, Danica Whoever is definitely the 3rd String Quarterback Artist behind De La Torre and Braithwaite. A bit of. a dirty trick on Titan's part by having a De La Torre main cover while having a new Artist on the actual pages. These pages look like Darkwing Duck Material. Of course the difference between this Disney Princess is that you’re gonna get a lot of panels with nekkid boobies, which is nice. A plot point and wardrobe gripe: So Conan and Belit have just knocked boots (boot knocking!) in a bedroom in a tavern, they’re butt nekked, because of the boot knocking, and they hear thieves on the roof coming down to rob them. When the Thieves land on their balcony they’re fully clothed again, WTF? Do you think these two savage IDGAF heroes would deem it necessary to get their clothes back on??? Belit even has all of her necklaces and bracelets back on, like she needed to get ready before murdering some thieves - Conan: 'Dammit Girl! They're here', Belit: 'Just one more Nose Ring left to put in my Lion'. Like, if Danica drew a butt nekkid Conan and Belit slashing their way through some run of the mill loser thieves then I would have hailed this as a monumentally fantastic issue. As it stands, it's the first miscue from Titan's magnificent Conan experience. I will forgo the next issue in this two-issue blip and wait for one of the Top 2 QBs to return to knock some story boots. 3.0

 

 

Reading Saga these days is like watching the last season of Cheers, or maybe even Happy Days. It feels like BKV is just going through the motions, nothing is happening yet we come back because the love we have for the book has never died even though the mind of it’s creator seemingly has. It’s not like this comic has jumped the shark but the shark is jumping around in a carnival in a space ship so it’s really fucking close. Look, Fiona could draw on the back of the box of my non-dairy coconut cream coffee creamer and I’d buy it up every month, which makes me wonder - what if Fiona took a hiatus and BKV didn’t? Can you imagine someone else drawing this book, it would be an absolute disaster and fully droppable. The last 17 issues have been so blah they should be put on anti-depressants or I dunno, someone needs to go down on this story line and suck on it 'til it cums back to life. BKV says the next issue is going to be some major pivotal oh shit issue that he’s been dying to do forever. We shall see. Meandering plot lines and pages of letters with everyone saying how much this comic saved their lives or gave them a connection to someone who they eventually married is getting tired. I think Fraction and Zdarsky should take over the letters of this book and make it Sex Criminallish, now that would be a must read comic. C’mon BKV, find that magic homie you’re an issue away from putting Ghus on jet skis with a dozen Lying Cats floating on buoys off the Santa Monica pier. 6.3

 

 

Not sure this was the Spidey issue I was looking for. Seems like Hicksy likes to throw these curveballs into the mix where there’s no action just talking heads and relationship dialogue. Maybe deep down Hicksy wants to be writing TV Dramas on Oxygen Network or something. I definitely do not think all the Spidey fans of this book were thinking back in December ‘Man I hope Hicksy comes out with an issue where he delves into the interpersonal relationship of MJ and her estranged sister along with the complicated dynamics she shares with her Divorced Boss Mom during a holiday party for the entire comic'. Or maybe I just out of touch with the kids these days. Maybe Hicksy forgot he was writing this book and threw this together from scraps of dialogue from his ‘Oxygen Network’ desktop folder during a hop skip and a jump flight from LA to Vegas.Yeah Yeah, I get it, big Kraven issue incoming blah blah but this was a bit of zzzzzzzz. I did inhale the Kraven issue right after this one and although it was a little goofy, the whole ‘Drop Peter and Harry in the Prehistoric World of the Mole Man before Kraven hunts them down' is brilliant. This is still the only Marvisney title worth reading these days other than their facsimile reprints. 7.7

 

 

I just can’t with this fucking monkey detective. Why? Like, why? Who is this thing? I’m not like a huge longtime DC reader outside of Bats so is he some fever dream from the 60s when all the DC writers were doing acid? Am I supposed to be amused by a monkey detective? Are they butt hurt that Gerard Way took their talking monkey character and made a gajillion bux from it with his wonderful ‘Umbrella Academy’ comics and dirt garbage TV show on Netflix? It just takes this elevated tone that King brought to this great run and smears it in banana peels. Like, the Monkey is making banana jokes. Also, the Sovereign is all of a sudden a bumbling Mr. Burns rather than this sinister character that’s been slowly building for almost 2 years. It’s a bummer cuz this has been such a great run by King but it feels like it’s monkey poopin’ out as it swings to the finale. I just assume King like everyone who works at the Big Poo has been blackmailed into something, so whenever DC or Marvel wants something done or when they want to humiliate their writer to remind them who’s in charge they hold it over them. King must’ve fucked up big time. It’s the only valid explanation. Maybe that’s what this Monkey Detective is all about. When you fuck up at DC or don’t do their nefarious bidding after dark they send in the chimp. 4.5

 

Hey, it's a sunny day again in La La Land! Maybe I needed to slog through these comic book reviews to put them behind me so I can bask in the dawn of a new day of comic book goodness. Oy, my doggies are barking, guys relax it's just the frikkin' Amazon dude. Hmm, big box, what the hell is this? A Batman Puzzle??? When the hell did I order a Batman Puzzle?!?!?

June '24 Reading Round Up

 

 

I pulled a piddly 9 comics in June. Nine. Nine times. I pulled Niiiiine Times. Yes, Rooney’s ‘Nine Times’ from Ferris Bueller is ringing in my head. 

 

 

That’s the first time in over 15 years (the two months of global shutdown notwithstanding) since I’ve been keeping track of my pulls that I went a month where I pulled in the single digits. I wish the country’s inflation problem was like my comic pulls; the price of good organic hummus wouldn’t make me cry anymore. Why just 9? I suppose I’m at the point where I see shit come down the pike and say to myself ‘Yeah, I ain’t falling for the banana in the tailpipe again’. I can tell when something that looks good is going to suck. Let me clarify: I can tell when a comic that looks good is going to suck, a woman…not so much. I can also tell when a comic that seems like it can be okay is not worth my dillies. 

 

 

With The Big Poo releasing drivel, decent books at least 5 or 6 bux a pop, really great prestige books around $9 a pop, and with new drops almost always being a limited series it’s been easier to give books that I normally might pull or continue to pull the Heisman. That said, at the halfway point of 2024 I’ve still pulled a little more than I did at this point last year yet last year was my lowest annual pull in 15 years as well. I would say it’s been a better year so far for the quality of comics that have come out versus last year. Image has kinda sucked but DSTLRY, Titan and Tom King may very well save the comic book industry if they keep on their current trajectory. Looking through July and August I don’t see much other than what I’m grabbing now. With that segue, here’s what I’ve been grabbing:

 

 

 

Christian Ward is not allowed to do any comics that are not in Prestige format ever again. I have gotten so used to seeing his amazing art plastered across enormous oversized pages that mushing it back into a standard comic size would be blasphemy. It seems like the Industry agrees with me as I feel like all of his recent books have been Super Sized. As expected, his work on this book is nothing short of absolutely fucking gorgeous. As for Tynion, I’m not really a huge fan. I know a lot of geeks geek out on his work and he’s regarded as one of the best by the publishers but he just doesn’t do it for me. The last two projects of his that I checked out was ‘Nice House on the Lake’ which started off wonderfully and by the midway point it had devolved into a wack CW Show inspired piece of poop. Same thing happened with ‘Department of Truth’. It started off with a bang/slap on the ass and spiraled into a whimpering fetal position of a book. The premise of Spectregraph is immensely strong and they’ve set it up perfectly. It remains to be seen if Tynion can handle maintaining the story arc. We know that Ward is going bring the ruffneck bizness to the art. Maybe that’ll jolt Tynion into actually finishing what he started. Otherwise, this is another solid release by DSTLRY which is fast becoming the Jewel of the Industry for the non Tights & Capes titles. 9.5

 

 

 

This 3 Issue Jock-O-Rama series ended with a resounding thud and put a stink on the first ever initial release from DSTLRY. Since this offering they have been slaying the marketplace with their spectacular books so they haven’t looked back. As I’ve said before these 3 issue Prestige Format releases that cost a grip are hard for the consumer to navigate through. As long as the premise and presentation of the initial issue grabs you, you’ll be on board for Issue 2, where it seems like more often than not that it goes off the rails; which it did in this series. Then you’re left wondering, well, I’ve already dropped $16-18 and there’s only one issue left, might as well get it, maybe it will have a great ending. In this case it didn’t. In this case it turned into a bumbling disconnected plot of Mommy & Daddy issues, Zombies, intergalactic politics and general poop on a page dialogue. They’re in a ship. They’re in a different ship. They want to come back to this ship. Nobody’s on the ship. We’re running from this ship. The other ship is running from something else. Now he’s on the ship. Zombies everywhere. Boom Bam. Zombies. Ships. Space. There, I just saved you $9, no need to get this now. Man, finishing a Sucky 3 Issue Prestige really punches you in the stomach. Mark Simpson, AKA Jock, really dropped the ball on this one. Shame. His ‘One Dark Knight’ was one of the best of 2022 so naturally one would assume he would knock this out of the park too. Nope. Your $27 be Gone. And Nelson is going Ha Ha to you like your name was Bart Simpson. 5.6

 

 

 

If someone rushed into my home and said ‘Quick, the Zombie Apocalypse is here, they’re minutes away and they’re mangling everyone in their path. You only have time to take your Dog and 3 comic books with you’, I’d say ‘Well, is that like, 3 comics I’d have to read over and over or could I keep pulling them?’. They’d say ‘What?’ I’d say, ‘Like, could I keep pulling the issues so I could continue following the story while I flee the Zombies’ They’d say ‘Well, of course your LCS is being relocated to within a safe enclosed fortress so they’ll still be able to distribute media to its customers’. I’d then rush over to my rack and take Conan the Barbarian first without question. I’d probably take Love Everlasting next and debate whether I should take Helen of Wyndhorn or fucking Saga. There’d be nothing worse if BKV still took 6 month hiatuses during a Zombie Apocalypse. Dude. You’re in a barbed wire enclosed fortress with Fiona, y’all should be pumping out Saga bi-weekly my guy. Anyway, this Conan comic is the fucking best. 9.8

 

 

 

After I stirred up all this Hullabaloo on LOCG (League of Comic Geeks) by proclaiming Ultimate Spidey 4 a Boring AF comic since it was nothing more than a dinner conversation, I had a stink eye prepped for this issue as the solicit told me it was going to be another one of those Backstory Bingos that publishers/creators use to deal with Artist hiatuses. I’m okay with a Backstory Bingo/Tangential Issue or Episode for a secondary character, but it has to be memorable AF - clearly my feeling of this book requires multiple AFs. I always use the recent example of the episode in the final season of Ted Lasso that was dedicated solely to Beard. He leaves Ted and goes on this wild and wacky adventure throughout London; it was fantastic and in a way I remember that episode more than I do the others of that season. So it can be done, but man, you better come wit dat ruffneck bidness if you’re going to do it. Did Hickman bring a ‘Beard’ issue to the table? Not really. It was a solid and interesting Backstory Bingo and Hickman’s such a fucking great writer he can make anything intriguing. Yet at the end of the page count, it’s still a Backstory Bingo Bonanza that could have been dripped in with subsequent issues that moved the story forward. 

 

If you ask me, Hickman could have taken the 2 months off that he used for Issue 4 & 5 of this book and, oh, I dunno, FINISHED THE BLACK MONDAY MURDERS!!! Hicksy! WTF?!?! That book is still hanging in the ether! Finish that shit! It was amazing! And while you’re at it FINISH THE DYING AND THE DEAD!!!! WTF is wrong with you??? I feel like a nerdy chick who just got picked up, banged and dumped by Brian Wood at a Comic Con. Get to work on those Dammit! Yeesh. Man, Issue 6 of this book better be the Shizzznit or I’m dropping this like a booger on a plane seat. 6.6

 

 

 

 

I am really loving this Dubz run. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Best Dubz run since the New 52 dropped out of the sky and Azzarello and Chiang absolutely destroyed this book with their combined genius. I do have a bone to pick here though. So at the end of last issue Dubz heroically overcomes her captor’s ‘Rope of Lies’ or whatever and is able to slough off her restraints and reach his neck with her hands. Next thing we see is that she’s in a prison cell in the dark with no windows. Umm, how did we get here? This is the same Dubz from a previous issue that was taking on the entire U.S. Army and was throwing tanks around like I throw doggie toys around my home. This is the same Dubz who took the blow of half of the Washington Monument being throttled on top of her, and yet, she couldn’t subdue a bunch of soldiers in a room, nor escape a guarded cell for months??? She had to eat a rat? Really? Then lost her mind and befriended another rat? 

 

Of course she ate the male rat and befriended the female rat who was its mate. I bet the male rat was a bumbling husband who had a gut and drank beer and had no respect from his rat wife but since she was so noble and had a heart she found it in herself to love the animal with no brains cuz that’s what females do when it comes to husbands since all husbands are Al Bundyesque idiots. You think I wouldn’t pick up on that King? C’mon dude. I’ll forgive you for the fact that you felt the need for some Steve McQueen ‘Papillon’ shit but let’s get back to main narrative. From the cliffhanger I can tell you’re ready to do so, so, bring the ruckus and dat roughneck Dubz bizness. 7.7

 

 

 

The Next Great book out of Image may have finally dropped after a long run of mediocrity and mnyeh from the Publisher that once could do no wrong. With Falling in Love On the Path to Hell Duggan & Co. have concocted a premise so bonkers and yet somehow so perfect that there’s almost no way you won’t be coming back for seconds. Sometimes reckless passion executed with acute simplicity is all you need to deliver something great. When creators go ‘Hey, what if we did this?’ and then laugh and get wildly excited about it at the same time it provides the breeding ground for creating a piece that people will never forget it. No need for me to break down their premise or explain the elements. Just go grab the first issue of this if you can and remind yourself why you love comic books so much. 9.1

 

 

 

 

Umm, this Masterpiece issue was kinda crappy and a general eye roll/flip ahead. Not sure why other than it felt like Bendis was trying to be too cool with the dialogue and character development. Maybe the premise of this book was wack from the get go. A billionaire who supposedly murdered a husband and wife who were thieves that stole from him is now after their kid because, she’s their kid. I think it’s a commentary on how the super rich are so narcissistic that whatever they want is justified, even if it means killing a kid. The kid's assembling a team with an array of cool spy type abilities was really neato, but maybe this premise needed to stay in the oven for a bit longer. It feels soft in the middle. Just one issue to go which feels a little wonky since there seems to be a lot of unresolved shit to tie up after these 5 issues. This was fun for a bit but it’s nowhere near as amazing as ‘Pearl’, Bendis’ last must read book. Still, give me a Bendis/Maleev half baked premise over The Big Poo’s $3.99 jam packed advertisements any day of the week. 7.0

 

 

Great Comics come and go pretty fast. If you don't stop reading caca Tie-In Events from Marvel and DC you might miss them - Pherris Schmuckler

 

THE BEST COMIC BOOKS OF 2023

 

                  THE BEST COMIC BOOKS OF 2023

Is the Comic Book Industry falling apart? Well, I think you can swap out ‘Comic Book Industry’ and put almost any business model, institution or political party before the words ‘falling apart’ and it would be an apt statement for this past year or two. Yet this year, more than any other, has been in my view one of the roughest years of comic books that I can remember. It just felt waaaay off. I mean, I hear how LCS retailers are constantly complaining about the publishers. I see how stores are closing all over the country. I hear the Comic Book Pundits (am I one? Mmm, not really) decrying the ills and missteps of the industry itself. Fans seem to whining and moaning left and right, what the fuck is going on?

 

Well, I can only speak from the experience of a dude who has been buying comics for over 40 years. What I would say is, mmm, it’s not that it’s falling apart it’s that it’s been reassigned. In other words, comics are means to other ends especially when you’re talking about the Big Poo (the Big 2). For these corporate death stars, comics feed into its inordinate amount of IP offerings that are charted on X & Y Axis graphs and all kinds of business degree mumbo jumbo bullshit that have basically ruined comic books. Sure, the independents are going strong. Wait, no, scratch that, Image is still going strong while other independents thrash and claw for a limited audience with either rehashed characters or gruesome over the top silly horror/sexy books. Dark Horse got bought out by a gaming company and their titles have also sunk to new lows of blecchh. Even Image, as wonderful as they are, didn’t knock a lot out of the park this year.

 

Here’s the bottom line for me: I bought 150 comic books this year. That’s the lowest amount of comics I’ve purchased since I started keeping track of it about 15 years ago. Back in the heyday of 2016-2018 I was buying over 300 comics a year. So what happened? Well, Marvel got bought out by Satan aka Disney and their comics became all but unreadable. 

 

I seriously root for Disney’s stock to crater every day with the hopes that, I dunno, they sell Marvel cuz they need the cash or don’t care anymore? DC? I dunno either, last year was the year of their amazing run of Black Label titles, this year? Pure poop. I don’t think anyone knows what the fuck to do or how to do it over in DC and it shows. Their recent Aqua Turd movie is dead in the water as was most of the garbage they put out this year. So when you have the Two Pillars of the Industry mired in caca it fucks things up for everyone else. One would think “oh there’s now a void to fill because Marvel & DC are churning out titles that look like the pink goo that they make McNuggets with” but it’s actually the opposite. Hate on them as much as you want but Marvel & DC are comic books. If they’re going strong everybody is going strong because that means butts in the Comic Book shops which means more sales of the independent offerings.

 

Here’s another reason why I bought less books: y’all raised the prices a bit too much. See, back in the day I could jump on a book for 5-6 issues, grab a mini-series for 4 issues, try out a series and spend about $15, woop dee doo. Now, every story arc/mini series is like $25-30, hmm, yeah fuck that! If issue one sucks, buh to the bye homie. Now I’ll check out the solicits for future issues to see what’s going on with the plot before I decide to pick something up whereas before I wouldn’t care, I’d just add it to my pull and read the whole series, because, well, I love comics. But I’m not trying to spend over $100 a month on comics right now especially since most of them are so disappointing. So with the quality of books in the toilet and the prices up it makes for a very nasty combination.

 

Mark Millar, who I’m not a big fan of but who I deeply respect as guy who loves comics, had this to say on what he thinks should be the fix for the industry

 

Mark Millar's Comic Book Plan

 

I wouldn’t know if this would work or not but it’s clear to me that something has to change. Somebody has to come in and clean fucking house at the Big 2 like Javier Milei is doing in Argentina. I need a Comic Book Geek of the People to go in the same way that Javier did and get rid of all the Editors and Ideological Fuckwits that have ruined Hero Books.

 

Yo Marvel and DC Dipshit Editors? AFUERA!

 

There’s a guy who makes amazing videos about the Comic Book Industry. I would say he is the true voice of reason for Comic Book Geeks like myself and it’s clear that he loves comics as much as anyone. I remember watching a video of his where he said that the Big 2 were more interested in the Variant Cover market than they were in actually making good comics. So, that makes a whole lot of sense to me. People are buying up covers at astronomical prices regardless of what’s inside so the more you poop out and the more you create artificial scarcity for them the more shekels you will make. That’s all well and good for your corporate hooker and blow budget but, yeah, sucks for us. If that is what’s really going on then we may not see the end of this downturn for a while until they cut back on these variants. You can check out this dude’s channel here:

 

Thinking Critical 

 

Anyway, as for the ‘Best of the Year’ it was a slog to say the least. Last year I chose a dozen books that were absolutely amazing along with some honorable mentions. This year? I couldn’t even find 10 titles that blew me out of the water. Not even 10 for goodness sake. I went over every week of my pulls and, man, I pulled a lot of stuff that ended up sucking ass. To be clear, this list isn’t of comics that were good, or decent or really good. This is a list of Greatness. This is a list of books that after I put them down I went ‘That was fucking awesome’ If I didn’t feel like that then it’s not on this list. So yeah, not that many to choose from but these did the trick, here ya go…

 

 

8. Deep Cuts - A series of stories that travel through the history of Jazz? Sign me the fuck up! Kyle Higgins and Joe Clark along with some bad ass artists deliver some wonderfully poignant and historically accurate tales that span the early decades of Jazz. I really wish this was an ongoing series rather than a standard ‘Six issues and we’re done’ affair. That’s something that would be exciting to dive into every month. I really loved the sheet music that they included in the back matter and the homage to Blue Note. This was Image's Golden Offering of the Year by far. For some reason they dropped three issues and then stopped in July but it looks like they’re picking up again in January. 

 

 

7. barnstormers - Dark Horse has been reprinting all of Scott Snyder’s Comixology’s Originals Digital Series into 3 issue Drops for the past year or so. One was atrocious (We Have Demons) one was mediocre (Night of the Ghoul) one was really good (Clear) but this one was downright awesome. I’d say the main reason besides an out of the box story of a death defying pilot and his forbidden love on the run is Tula Lotay’s spectacularly beautiful art that graced each and every panel. Bonnie & Clyde take to the air! What an absolute joy to read. Snyder’s got another one that just started, ‘Canary’ and so far it’s also a great first issue. Go Scott Go!

 

 

 

 

 

6. The Avengers: War Across Time - The best thing Marvisney put out all year by far was a Retro Series. What a fucking blast it was to read a story that hit on all the right notes from the Golden Era of Comics! They dusted off some dude named Paul Levitz who was probably busy noshing on a pastrami sandwich at Katz’s Deli and made him pop out a paean to what made hero books great: bright colors, silliness, goofy and sexy dialogue, gravitas, time machines and buildings and streets that were always being destroyed or spewing lava men. I’ve been saying for years that Marvisney should just publish monthly facsimile issues of their great titles like Spidey & FF & The Avengers on a monthly basis so it could give us the feeling that we’re reading them as if we were living back in the 60s when they first came out. But that would be too much fun, so, that won't work these days.

 

 

 

 

5. Love Everlasting - The second arc of what very well might be Tom King’s masterpiece of a series upped the ante and the wow factor on what already was a perfectly executed story of Joan Peterson and the multiple timelines of deadly love that follows and torments her through all of her lives in all of the different eras that she has lived in. Written in the style of a dimestore comic book romance this mind trip of a book just kept getting better and better from issue to issue. It’s one of those rare books that you really get excited about when you see a new issue pop up on the solicits. Elsa Charretier is officially an Art Super Star and I will follow her work wherever she goes. I will also say that so far King's first few issues on Wonder Woman are quite good, the best Dubz story I’ve read in ages! Tom King comin’ wit da ruffneck bidness in the two three boyeee.

4. Batman: City of Madness - It was a really tough year for my homie Bats. I just could not get into anything that he was in. All the books were just blah or refried plot beans. Sean Murphy ended his beyond brilliant White Knight run on a ‘ehh, that was cool but not great’ note then handed it off to his wonderful wife and a putz who wrote a series about the Joker’s kids which I couldn’t stomach. I suffered month after month begging the Comic Book Universe to deliver me a majestic Bat Book and it finally answered my prayers at the very end of the year with Christian Ward’s eye popping beast of a book. My goodness, give this man an ongoing series for the next five years! In a year of cheap fake meat Bat burger stories this was the Wagyu patty with the Goldleaf Bun story that beat the bejeezus out of them all. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new run of great Black Label titles.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Rare Flavours - The creative team behind one of the best comics of the decade ’The Many Deaths of Laila Starr’ returned with another magical tale that invoked the earthly representation of another Hindu deity. This time around it’s a Raksha or demon that fancies itself as a type of cannibalistic Anthony Bourdain. Each issue just feels like an event as you’re transported away from your life and immersed into a fully realized elevated world of monstrous beauty. I feel like these two had a conversation that went something like 'Should we tell the Demon Bourdain story now or should we wait?' as if they were waiting for the perfect moment to unleash this gem of a story on humanity.  Ram V and Filipe Andrade have that uncanny artistic synergy that doesn’t come along very often in comics. Catch them while you can. 

2. A Vicious Circle - Only one issue of this mind blowing three issue series was released this year, over six months after its first issue which was released in December of 2022 but oh what a fucking issue it is. The art in this comic is absolutely astonishing. Lee Bermejo puts on a clinic on how to turn a comic book into art gallery material. I suppose with the amount of assumed work and attention to detail that went into each of the first two issues it’s understandable why it takes them so long to release them. Mattson Tomlin’s exhilarating time jumping story of mortal enemies does more than enough to keep up with Bermejo’s legendary work. A book like this puts publishers and creators on notice. This is how it’s done. This is how you make a statement to the world on why comic books matter. Despite it being limited to only three issues this is a time traveling book for the ages.

1. Conan The Barbarian - By Crom you did it! You wrested the Conan license away from the evil clutches of Marvisney and showed the entire planet how to make a Hero Book. True, this Cimmerian isn’t like the heroes of neon tights and inter-galactic superpowers but make no mistake, this Barbarian slashed his way through those mangy curs to the top of the heap of the comic book world this year. Oh, what a joy to experience the true unbridled love that the creators of this comic most certainly have for this character and for them to have the courage to present him in all of his glory. In a pathetic world where nitwits, meager mealy mouthed toads and spindly cowards froth at the mouth with their idiotic claims of toxic masculinity, Titan Comics had the balls to say ‘Yeah, fuck that, here’s Conan’. 

 

And yes, it wasn’t just their approach, Jim Zub’s writing and Roberto De La Torre’s art was as perfect a match for Conan as you could ask for. What an absolute triumph. If you’ve never read a Conan story before you could actually pick up the first arc of this book and know exactly what it’s like to read one of the best from the past as it feels just as authentic as any of Robert E. Howard’s offerings. Perhaps this is the future of comic books. Is it possible for a group of hyper excited artists and writers to somehow get the licenses from all of our favorite heroes and start them over for us? Can we join Conan on his pirate ship with Belit and do a hostile takeover of the Hulk, Spidey and Iron Man? Can we have Scott Snyder and Christian Ward storm DC's offices with guns blazing and take Batman from them? 

 

Is this the way? Will there need to be a Comic Book Civil War? Drastic times call for drastic measures. Titan's 'Conan' reminded me how amazing it is to read a heroic tale. Yes, all genres can be found in comics but it's the heroes that really shine the most. It's the heroes that we can't find in our world, lifting buildings, shooting lasers out of their eyes, flying above us, it's these heroes that we find next to the staples of the pages of our favorite childhood titles that inspire us the most. And yes, we're adults and we have jobs and responsibilities now that go beyond these tales. Yet these tales remind us of what can be, not only in the world but within ourselves. They reminds us that life is a magical journey where anything can happen at any moment. The improbable victories over evil that we read in the pages of strong iconic heroes can somehow give us what we need to overcome the obstacles that we face in our lives.

And so as we turn the page on another year I see hope for a return to this glorified experience of reading comics that sit in our hands, not in our computers. I'm not sure how it will happen but I know it's possible. 

“There is always a way, if the desire be coupled with courage,” - Conan

 

Happy New Year - Issac