Month: September 2020

Power Pack (1984-1991) #8 by Louise Simonson

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Power Pack (1984-1991) #8Power Pack (1984-1991) #8 by Louise Simonson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Surprising nobody who’s read my other Power Pack reviews, I thought this was wonderful.

Power Pack team up with Cloak & Dagger to take down a drug cartel in New York city. And the kids teach Cloak & Dagger to be merciful and not, you know, just kill all the bad guys. Because doing that would have robbed the Power kids of their innocence in much the same way that the drug cartel robbed Cloak & Dagger of their humanity…and Cloak & Dagger are better than that.

And that’s when this series is at its best, when the innocence of these children is juxtaposed with the darkness of New York and the heroes that police its underworld.

Oh, and Katie prancing around at the end pretending to be Dagger is simply adorable!

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X of Swords: Creation #1 by Jonathan Hickman

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X of Swords: Creation #1X of Swords: Creation #1 by Jonathan Hickman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well, bravo!

Amazing writing, beautiful art, what a fantastic comic!

I was slightly concerned, going into this, that a lot in the build up simply didn’t make sense, or add up. That people were trusting people they probably shouldn’t be trusting. And I didn’t get how everything fitted together.

Now everything is much clearer and I’m simply left feeling excited for this event.

It’s also just always fun seeing Apocalypse get stabbed.

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Star Wars: Bounty Hunters (2020-) #5 by Ethan Sacks

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Star Wars: Bounty Hunters (2020-) #5Star Wars: Bounty Hunters (2020-) #5 by Ethan Sacks
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Well…the cover’s nice?

Other than that…well, I think all interest I had in this series drained away with #4, now I’m honestly just reading this as I’m a completionist and I have every other canon Star Wars comic.

But, really, this is bad. It’s hard to follow. The dialogue is terrible. Characters just appear out of nowhere and we’re supposed to know who they are. But we don’t. We don’t know who they are or what’s going on. It’s just a mess. And, honestly, at this point I hate Valance. He’s an obscure character from the original Marvel run someone brought back because they thought he was cool, but pretty much anyone else would be more interesting. A gonk droid would be more interesting. And having him fight Boba Fett doesn’t make him more interesting, because the only thing that would be interesting would be to have a definitive victor, and that can’t be Fett because then Valance would be dead, and it can’t be Valance because, well, they can’t kill off Fett in a comic set before RotJ, can they?

I’ve already wasted too many words talking about this comic.

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Immortal She-Hulk #1 by Al Ewing

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Immortal She-Hulk #1Immortal She-Hulk #1 by Al Ewing
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jen visits Wolverine and Thor as she struggles to come to terms with her immortality, but an encounter with The Leader in…sort of Hell…maybe…throws her immortality into question.

And…this issue is far better than that makes it sound. This is a fascinating insight into the mind of Jen Walters, ably written by Al Ewing, whose writing is always thoroughly enjoyable.

Also, this, I believe, finally brings Empyre to a close!

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Juggernaut (2020-) #1 by Fabian Nicieza

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Juggernaut (2020-) #1 (of 5)Juggernaut (2020-) #1 by Fabian Nicieza
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Cain Marko is one of those characters who always runs hot and cold for me. Written well he can be really interesting, written badly he can be a real one note character. Fortunately Fabian Nicieza is an excellent writer and this is an enjoyable book.

Juggernaut’s made several attempts to reform in the past, but as we meet him in this book he seems to be attempting to be neither good guy nor bad guy, but just…guy. He’s working demolition with Damage Control and just getting on with his life. This brings him into contact with a young, homeless, super powered woman called D-Cell. She looks to be an interesting character and I’m intrigued to see how her relationship with Cain develops.

I’m also intrigued to find out how Cain got out of Limbo and regained his powers, which is something I assume we’re going to discover over the course of this series.

Finally, Ron Garney’s art is exceptional, as ever, and really suits the Juggernaut, stylistically. His style gives this series the grounding it needs.

The only reason I didn’t give this a higher score is that it felt very brief. There’s not a lot here and I suspect that this series will work better in trade paperback form. But, still, a good read nonetheless.

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Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski

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Sword of Destiny (The Witcher, #0.75)Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was initially disappointed that this second collection of Witcher short stories included less stories that are longer…simply because I don’t get a lot of time to read prose books and found the first volume a quick and easy read because the stories were so short. I was also initially a little put off because this volume doesn’t include interludes between each story that connect the whole thing into a cohesive narrative.

And then I started reading it and discovered that I love it.

I wasn’t sure if I’d continue into the novels but the moment I finished this I ordered the first proper novel, because it left me wanting more, and certainly wanting to read more about Geralt’s bond with Ciri.

If you’ve watched the series, this book only includes one story that made it into that, but what the last couple of stories do is explain a lot of what was going on in the series (especially the Ciri stuff). I do like the series, a lot, but would definitely recommend that anyone who enjoyed watching it should read the books…they’re a lot better.

Now, I’m going to impatiently wait for my copy of Blood Of Elves to arrive…

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Star Wars (2020-) #6 by Charles Soule

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Star Wars (2020-) #6Star Wars (2020-) #6 by Charles Soule
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was good stuff, although I have questions about how the Grand Inquisitor is here, especially after his spirit knighted Kanan in the Jedi temple in Lothal. But, you know… *waves hand* …the Force.

That didn’t mean that seeing Luke fight the “whatever the Dark Side equivalent of a Force Ghost is” of the Grand Inquisitor wasn’t cool, because it was, and I’m sure that there some kind of explanation for this. And, obviously, the call back to his death and his claim that there are fates worse than death was very welcome. I feel like we need a novel or at least a comic book mini series explaining everything about the Grand Inquisitor at some point.

Of course, Luke gaining a new yellow lightsabre leads me to the question of when, exactly, he’s going to lose it. Because we know he has to lose it before the events of The Return Of The Jedi. But I guess time will tell…

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Star Wars: Darth Vader (2020-) #5 by Greg Pak

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Star Wars: Darth Vader (2020-) #5Star Wars: Darth Vader (2020-) #5 by Greg Pak
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pak continues to ably chart Vader’s character development between episodes five and six.

It makes a lot of sense that his face to face confrontation with his son would have him revisiting his past and trying to deal with the fact that he is, at heart, still Anakin Skywalker and still mourning the death of his wife…a death that he ultimately caused. It’s also clear that his misplaced jealousy of Obi Wan still runs deep.

Ienco’s art also continues to be outstanding, and I really like the so-subtle-you-might-have-missed-it call back to Cloud City as he envisions himself falling down that shaft, rather than Luke, and regressing back to the child he was when we first met him as he does so. Illustrating that he sees so much of his old self in his son…just as Uncle Owen did.

Next issue promises to be traumatic and, possibly, be yet another step along Vader’s path to redemption.

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Iron Man (2020-) #1 by Christopher Cantwell

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Iron Man (2020-) #1Iron Man (2020-) #1 by Christopher Cantwell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is exactly what this book needed, a return to basics, in a sense, for both Tony and the book itself.

As someone who’s been reading Iron Man for over thirty years, and has read a good slice of the back issues before that, this feels like Iron Man, in a way that the book hasn’t for a long time. It also looks like Iron Man too, with Tony in a new suit that manages to be both retro and futuristic at the same time. It looks like the classic suit without looking outdated, which is a tough thing to achieve.

And while we’re talking about looks…Cafu’s art is simply stunning. Not only does he draw the suit beautifully, but also the regular human people, the locations and the vehicles too. Talking of those regular humans, teaming Tony up with Hellcat was a great idea and works really well.

As a long time Iron Man fan I really appreciated the appearance of the Unicorn. That’s a real old school Iron Man villain, and it was a lovely touch having him working for a secret, villainous mastermind too. Again, some classic Iron Man shenanigans reminiscent of the Black Llama! (There’s a throw back for you!)

So, this is a cracking start to this new series that has me excited for Iron Man all over again!

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