Jon Carroll Comic Reviews

It's a great example of how broadening the pool of both creators and the type of content they produce enriches the entire medium and helps to lift it out of the ghetto of people in colorful tights punching each other. If the next four issues are as good as the first, then this is going to be a book to remember.

Conan the Barbarian is one of the best fantasy comic debuts in years.

In a time when toxic masculinity has become a subject of regular discussion and female creators across all media come under regular attack for daring to even point it out, Death of Love is both a cogent and relevant critique of sexual relations wrapped up in what promises to be a brilliant (and bloody) farce. It is at once a great big middle finger in the face of Gamergaters, MRAs, nice guys and a valentine for everyone who despises them… or for anyone who just wants to see some angels cut down with a chainsaw.

Not a great comic for the casual readers but essential for anyone who has been following the series from the beginning (and this is a series anyone who likes superhero comics should be following).

Fun to look at and fun to read, this is a great introduction to comics for someone who is new to DC or for a lapsed reader like myself. Fans who remember the cartoon may be slightly confused that the character isnt named ‘Matt Hagen but it is otherwise a one hundred percent accessible take on this material.

The most frustrating thing about this book is that I really want to read Flash War but I have to wait another three months. While I understand that this is to allow people to have a taste before the books go up for pre-orders I feel like starting to read the main Flash title now would be like running in place.

If youre looking for the kind of rich, character driven horror delivered by books like Hellblazer or Swamp Thing, look elsewhere. If you want a comic that approximates sitting around the campfire on a dark summer night with a bag of marshmallows and a few good friends, trying to scare each other stupid, then I recommend giving Hungry Ghosts a taste.

In a day and age when too many creators feel like interchangeable cogs in a corporate machine and too many comics feel like they are mass produced to appeal to the majority of hypothetical readers a book likeIncognegro Renaissanceis refreshing because it is unique. This is a book that only Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece could have made and one of the best things I've read this year in any format.

Overall the new Kick-Ass is a mixed bag, a fumbled attempt at producing the kind of comic the industry needs with some really nice looking art. It might have been successful if Millar had bothered to delve a little deeper into the inner life of his protagonist and brought to light something that felt half as true as Dave Lizewski did at his best. He can do great stuff when he doesnt try to outdo Garth Ennis in being edgy. I wish he would remember that.

Mata Hari is certainly an interesting book though it demands a lot of the reader in terms of attention to both the written words and the pictures themselves. You're going to want to read this one carefully and probably more than once. I dont know that it's a great comic book, but it certainly reads like the first chapter of a very good graphic novel. Given editor Karen Bergers reputation for producing many such longer form examples of the medium, it's a bit mystifying to me that Mata Hari is being serialized at all. From what Ive seen it will be a fascinating read when complete but is not particularly well served by being chopped up for monthly publication. That said it was good enough that I'm on board for at least one more installment.

If I have one criticism it's this: TheSilencer is heavily tiedinto the end of Grant Morrisons Batman run (I cant really reveal how without spoilers). While it's not hard for longtime DC readers to follow (even those like me who havent read many of issues in question), I dont think that brand new readers are well served by the level of name dropping, especially in a first issue. It's particularly annoying given that this a brand new character. Depending on how the story develops and how the creators handle the exposition in issues to come it might not be a long term problem but as things stand now I would hesitate to recommend this to anyone without at least passing familiarity with recent Bat-history. For everyone else it gets a hearty thumbs up.

I love DC's supernatural characters so I was really expectingYoung Monsters In Loveto be a fun book. What it is instead is a collection of what amounts to back-up features that are as lacking in purpose as they are in heart.Oh and the story teased by the cover about Swamp Thing and Frankenstein's bride? That never happens. For shame DC. For shame.