What comic are you reading at the moment.

Finished up the previous run of Midnighter, and now caught up on the current issues (Midnighter and Apollo), by Steve Orlando. It can get a bit bonkers sometimes, but in the best possible way. Definitely up there as one of my all-time favourite books, and I knew absolutely nothing about the character up until a couple of weeks ago.
Steve Orlando consistently nails it from issue to issue with a great balance of action, humour, twists and a take on a same-sex relationship that doesn't pander or rely on stereotypes. I have also been enjoying his current run on Supergirl, and can't wait to see what he does with the upcoming JLA.

Hellboy 7: The Troll Witch and Others
Hellboy 8: Darkness Calls
Hellboy 9: The Wild Hunt
Hellboy 10: The Crooked Man and Others - I don't normally get on with Corben's art but it works for Crooked Man. Interesting that Hellboy is just a bystander for most of it.

Escape From New York 1: Escape From Florida - Agree with part of a review on Amazon that, visually at least, the book doesn't do much in the way of recreating the tone of the film(s) Some nice covers though; it's pretty telling that They do little in the way of depicting, y'know, Florida. Would have been nice if the book was just called Escape to Florida too. There'd be a threat of impacting sale presumably but I think it could have gotten away with the movie font and swapping out New York for Florida.

[Assassin's Creed:] Templars 1: Black Cross
Assassin's Creed 2: Setting Sun - Surprised the FCBD story wasn't included in the collection but the continuity of it requires the characters to go off and get a safe house that is neither seen nor mentioned again and would have been really handy to have around in the main story.

Donald Duck: The Old Castle's Secret
Donald Duck: Trail of the Unicorn - Easily the best decision that the DuckTales reboot has made is bring Donald Duck back in. Scrooge and he are great together.

The Amazing Spider-Man: Red Headed Stranger
The Amazing Spider-Man: Return of the Black Cat - Aaaand she's gone in two issues. Raptor put way more effort into his name than his costume.

New X-Men: Childhood's End 2* Re-read
New X-Men: Childhood's End 3*

Fantastic Four: 1234*

Star Wars Special #1: C-3PO - Way better one-shot than the premise - why C-3PO has red arm in Force Awakens - should allow. ; however, the franchise doesn't dip into the issue of droid sentience enough for my liking so it's good to see (threepio) here. That .

Star Wars 1 hardcover
Star Wars: Darth Vader 1 hardcover - Replaced the first volume TPBs that I'd already read with the oversized hardback editions. They still cling on to movie stuff too much which I hope goes away in stories post-Episode VII but I got more enjoyment out of the second volumes.

Batman 4: Zero Year - Secret City*

The Flash by Mark Waid 1 - Yeah, annuals really need to get back to telling stories which the ongoing series doen't usually have room to tell. Had enough of Flash-forwarding into the far future pretty quickly (how come the future as seen by the '90s just looks more '90s? ) but I will gladly take a bunch of villains I have little familiarity with meeting up in a cinema, agreeing to a museum heist then all independently going the night before to take the prize alone because of course they do. Do this more, annuals.

*Digital version

Having read the Suicide Squad lately, I noticed Waller has put on weight again after her new 52 debut. Wonder what prompted the change

Just finished "The Ultimates 1&2" which I had been meaning to read for ages, really enjoyed it. I'm reading "Thor: God of Thunder" at the minute, the 'God Butcher' arc is really good!

Licenced comics-me-do!

Samurai Jack: Tales of the Wandering Samurai - Had already read Threads of Time but this omnibus version of the four volumes showed up on the cheap in time for season 5's broadcast. For me, it's a lot better when they start doing one-shots and switching up the visuals. Shame Tartakovsky has dismissed it since he hasn't read them, the comic and season 5 production had to have been going on around same time - one of his designs is a cover and the same visual is briefly used the second episode - there's a time gap where the stories could slot in nicely and there's nothing (as yet) in the show that contradicts them. The last issue hints at an end for the show but it isn't one: in season 5. time in the comic as well; and they represent different things.

Plus it's insane for a guy that riffs Lone Wolf & Cub and everything Frank Miller in the show to think comics isn't a suitable medium for Samurai Jack (if I'm interpreting that "even comics" aside correctly).

Tomb Raider 3: Queen of Serpents - Oh hey, a cover that actually depicts something from the story! There's a character clearly positioned to explain why they aren't in Rise of the Tomb Raider near the end which looks to be a thread continued in the next comic series set after that game. Just feels like a clunky way to answer a question I don't think many asked.

The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths I*
The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths II*
The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths III* - Bought in a sale and used as an excuse to get around to rewatching the movie which I hadn't seen in forever. With the film, there was way too much unspoken history going on for me to get behind the straight forward story it was telling compared to, say, Star Wars or Lord of the Rings where you don't need to know what the Clone Wars was or exactly what failing to destroy the ring will bring back to the world beyond A Bad Thing.

Creation Myths was a pleasant surprise in that it's so good it arguably should be experienced before getting to the film as an epilogue. I think volume 3 ends rather abruptly and feels like there's space that's being occupied by another product I haven't read like perhaps the novelisation of the film or the manga otherwise Creation Myths is pretty darn enjoyable.

At times though there seemed to be an uncomfortable suggestion that things should just be taken on blind faith to the point that scepticism is an agent of change for the worst (even in the face of evidence to the contrary). There's a character that the book wants you to think of as a trickster figure at one point that just doesn't ring true. as the maker which makes more sense.

James Bond: Eidolon - Bond and his woman's gun struggle to maintain their relationship back in London.

Star Wars: Heroes For A New Hope - Bleh title. Already read the Leia story in TPB form. Bit surprising that Waid's arc is the weaker of the three.

The Amazing Spider-Man 1
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - The hardcover volumes of the Marvel Now! (vol. 1) (hm) run not the awful Mark Webb films. I'm torn between the cheapness (knowingly probably) of Slott giving Silk her powers from the same spider bite as Parker and the quickness of getting the retelling the origin out of the way for new readers (but what about all new, all different readers aah?). Was much better with Clash. Alpha, Clash, Phil Urich Hobgoblin, Grasshopper - Slott is pretty good at twists on the Spider-Man formula. Also he still puts Johnny Storm cameos in his books so he's great even if that Spider-Human Torch in Spider-Verse would clearly have dealt with Morlun effortlessly so there was no reason to bring Spider-Everybody else in.

I bought the Worldwide volume at the same time as these but that might have to wait a while since my reading of Batman and the Avengers going global is too recent.

One Piece 1: Romance Dawn (re-read)
One Piece 2: Buggy the Clown (re-read)
One Piece 3: Don't Get Fooled Again (re-read)
One Piece 4: The Black Cat Pirates (re-read)
One Piece 5: For Whom the Bell Tolls (re-read)
Giving One Piece another go after playing Pirate Warriors and seeing that the plot might actually go somewhere eventually. Though this method won't last, I've been alternating between the anime and the manga, and the anime comes across like a copy-edited version of the story with mixed results. For instance, Luffy's origin is shifted to a couple of episodes in so you see his powers first then you see how he got 'em.

However, Buggy the Clown is given Force powers in the anime which never get seen again (probably): Buggy's supposed to be choking a guy with his hand from a distance because he has the ability to detach his limbs. The manga doesn't want to show you that yet so you can't see what's happening to the guy's neck and Buggy's arm is obscured. In the anime the guy is clearly being held up and choked by nothing so it just raises the question of why the clown is bothering to detach his arms later when he can do this stuff with telekinesis.

...

Well I found it interesting.

*Digital version