Checkmate #5

The artwork in this issue is traditional. It features color work that changes with the location and tone of the story. I found the illustrations engaging and perfectly fitting for the storyline. Read Full Review

I still can't believe that Talia is working for or even with Shaw. But we have seen earlier him try to woo her. Is she a double agent? A triple agent? Or only working for herself? Seriously, this is a solid cliffhanger. I wonder if King has been onto Talia this whole time. Read Full Review

So this is a comic that has good writing and good art, but somehow it just doesn't come together into the event comic it's supposed to be. I'm hoping Bendis can pull it together and maybe spin the loose plots out into something in Justice League down the line. Read Full Review

Lois Lane is fairing a bit better with the sudden appearance of a brother she never knew about, but the “Snowman's Ticket” is still a git of a mystery, except, perhaps to Mark Shaw. Read Full Review

Checkmate #5 keeps readers standing in the dark talking amongst themselves hoping for a Hail Mary pass to make sense of it all. Read Full Review

Despite minimal action Maleev manages to make the static imagery of its leads conversing for much of the pages to be engaging, continuously creating mood in ways that the prose itself simply cannot, not to mention the ever confusing web the story creates anyway. Read Full Review

This series has been a train wreck that's almost worth hate reading to see what kind of foolishness Bendis will perpetrate next. There's just one more issue to go and it's a guarantee nothing will get resolved forcing Bendis to resume the story he really wants to tell in Justice League. Read Full Review

Checkmate continues to be a bore of a story but this issue somehow takes its usual terrible dialog and ability to stand around and do nothing to a new degree as the story progression gets to be ludicrous in what they're telling us is going on. There's one more issue left to stop Leviathan and while none of the story from Event Leviathan to Checkmate was compelling or made all that much sense, I have no idea how one more issue can bring everything to a close... mostly because I'm not sure exactly what Leviathan has been doing this whole time. Read Full Review

cincyfan

Nov 09, 2021

I have really enjoyed this story and with one issue left I can't wait to find out how it turns out. The different theories are running through my mind although I'm really not sure what will happen.

Batman Jones

Oct 26, 2021

This comic book grabbed my wrist and flung my limp hand into my face again and again, whining “Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?” And, I mean nobody’s forcing me to buy this comic book. And certainly nobody’s forcing me to read it. So why *am* I hitting myself?

Psycamorean

Oct 26, 2021

I really hate this comic. The story is all over the place. The characters are very, *very* stupid in this one. Bendis needs to learn how to structure a dialogue scene again. Having the through-line of a conversation repeatedly interrupted by non-sequiturs is not good writing. Conversations have flows to them. Bendis gets a lot of praise in his early work for writing realistic dialogue. There is nothing realistic about this dialogue. I'm just so baffled that this series was published. What editor is reading this and thinking, "Yeah, there's nothing off here,"? The most recent sales for this series have it as one of the worst selling comics DC is publishing. I think the latest issue sales data is available for had it selling around 18,000 cop ies. That is too much for a series of this abysmal caliber. Shout out to the line where the 22 year old offers to dress down. That's just one of many odd throwaway lines that have you questioning what exactly was going on in Bendis' head when he wrote this. I heard somewhere that Bendis actually talks out his scripts into a recording device that transcribes it all. And it reads like a man babbling to himself incoherently, so I'm more inclined to believe it. more

Dali

Oct 26, 2021

I don't know why DC is determined to sink the publisher this year and keep losing money. Why not cancel this thing that not even the critics like?

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• Mingthemerciless

Mingthemerciless - Oct 27, 2021

Bendis is only a fraction of the death wish DC seems to have lately. Granted hes ground JL into the dust as he neatly did Superman but the cash cow is Batman.