REVIEW: Wonder Woman #54 by Steve Orlando, Raul Allen, Patricia Martin, Borja Pindado, & Saida Temofonte

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By Zack Quaintance — I tend to keep a running list of my favorite single comics in any given year, in part because I’m compulsive but also because it helps when December rolls around and it’s time to spin some Best Of lists. One of the first books for 2018 was from Valiant. It was a one-shot comprised of vignettes about random items conjured by a guy with special powers. It was called Secret Weapons: Owen’s Story, written by screenwriter Eric Heisserer and drawn by the duo of Raul Allen and Patricia Martin. Meanwhile, one of the more recent additions to my list was Wonder Woman #51, a one shot about the depths of Diana Prince’s compassion, as drawn by Laura Braga and written by Steve Orlando.

See the connection? Now in Wonder Woman #54, the artists from that first comic and the writer from the second have united to tell a two-part Wonder Woman story, and the results in this first half are fantastic. It’s easy to see why DC tapped Allen and Martin to draw this issue. First of all, they’re super talented, and second, the plot of this book takes us to a mythology-tinged anachronistic setting, not unlike territory often covered by stories over at Valiant, where the duo typically works.

Their detailed and fully-rendered linework really grounds the world of the Bana-Mighdall, emphasizing the exotic timelessness of their culture. Orlando’s Wonder Woman writing continues to be strong, as it has for the entirety of his time on this book. Orlando just gets this character, depicting her as he does with equal parts limitless empathy and boundless swagger. It’s a delicate balance, and he nails it, giving us a Diana who knows full well how important her role is, and is also determined to have fun while doing her duty.

One of my favorite visual sequences from Wonder Woman #54

There are some sequences in this comic wherein the sensibilities of the writer and the artist come together impossibly well, thinking specifically of the page in which Borja Pindado’s yellow palette accentuates Rustam’s power as he blasts Diana out of the panel as well as of the bit where the center of the page depicts Diana deflecting bullets within the actual letters of the sound effects she’s making. There’s an old school adventure sensibility to both the writing and art here, as welcomely unstuck in time as the immortals who star in the story.

Overall: Separately, Steve Orlando and the duo of Raul Allen and Patricia Martin have fast become some of my favorite emerging creators in recent years, and so I found it an absolute treat for them to collaborate, especially with a character for which Orlando in particular possesses such an evident understanding. 9.0/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

ADVANCED REVIEW: Blackbird #1 by Sam Humphries, Jen Bartel, Paul Reinwand, Nayoung Wilson, Jodi Wynne, & Dylan Todd

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Blackbird #1 is due out 10/3. 

By Zack Quaintance — Blackbird #1 is an intriguing debut comic, a stylish fever dream steeped in family dysfunction and disaster and illusion and fantasy and escape, all tinged with a bright dusting of supernatural art. This book is, simply put, an incredibly-stylish story told in big clean panels, rich with memorable visuals and a firm narrative voice from its start. I found it to be thoroughly engrossing.

Blackbird is written by Sam Humphries, who had an instrumental role in DC’s Rebirth line penning Green Lanterns and has since transitioned into writing Harley Quinn. Humphries greatest strength as a comics writer is perhaps his ability to write characters who talk to the audience as if they were a friend (or at least a chatty stranger). His narration makes this protagonist sound like she’s talking directly to us, telling a story, leaning in for support, or even opening up while knowing she’ll come to regret it. The result is a hero who feels and sounds real.

My favorite bit comes about halfway through this issue, when she tells us: I became that girl. I talked about monsters and magic and wizards, like, all the time. I was a girl who made things up, said anything to get attention. But I know what I saw. There is magic in the world, I just can’t find it. The Verdugo Earthquake was ten years ago. Hi. This is me now….it’s a thesis statement, really, one that is intriguing, informative, and conversational all at once.

It’s always hard to tell after a first issue, but thematically Blackbird seems interested in exploring the disconnect between childhood wonder and adult reality. It draws a constant and powerful connection to how kids deal with trauma by finding solace in the biggest and brightest ideas they can, whereas adults are more likely to wonder what the hell happened to me and how do I stop it? There’s a lot of universality here, universality that powerfully compliments the bold and bright linework supplied by Jen Bartel, who, to be clear, is a towering talent of an artist, one with a unique and kinetic style. Really, the visuals in this book are absolutely stunning, worth the price on their own merits.

This book also seems interested in addiction, hints of which were used powerfully by Humphries in another semi-recent book, his follow up to Jason Aaron’s Weird World, which came out post-Secret Wars and was severely underrated. We live in a country where 200 people a day died last year from opioid overdoses. It is without question as serious an issue as any, and I’m curious to see how it factors into this excellent creator-owned comic moving forward.

Overall: A gorgeous urban fantasy that contrasts forlorn subject matter with clean and bright linework. Much intriguing track has been laid in this first issue, wherein Humphries and Bartel also show themselves to be a perfectly complementary team with a grandiose vision. A great debut that I enthusiastically recommend. 9.0/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Batman #54 by Tom King, Matt Wagner, Tomeu Morey, & Clayton Cowles

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By Zack Quaintance — Batman #54 is a stand-alone tale that uses the character’s longest-standing relationship—Bruce Wayne’s adoption of Dick Grayson, which goes back to Detective Comics #38 in 1940—to tell a heartfelt father-son story. In this comic, grown Dick is visiting Bruce, who is still suffering serious heartache following the events of Batman #50.

**BEWARE if you haven’t yet read it, I’d hate to spoil the emotional trajectory.**

The pattern of the book’s structure intermingles the present day with the past, using snippets of Dick’s first days at Wayne Manor, when he was freshly-orphaned, a sad and furious youth, understandably stunned by the loss of his own parents, guarded and distrustful and stubbornly bent on acting out. We get a scene of young Dick struggling as Bruce tries to comfort him. Then we get a scene of adult Dick cracking wise as he and Bruce fight some of their most ridiculous foes (Crazy Quilt, Condiment King, etc.), with now Bruce being the one who won’t express himself.

The construction is perfect, so emotional. King is a student of comics history, a writer who so obviously appreciates this character’s past. He knows what he has here with arguably the most ubiquitous duo in the world. Up there with Lewis and Clark, Sonny and Cher, peanut butter and jelly...Batman and Robin. King savvily knows his audience will mostly all have some level of emotional attachment to this bond, likely one that connects back to their own childhoods.

That brings us to the other major creative decision that makes this such a heartrending comic. King’s script never once calls for young Robin in costume, because this isn’t about the dynamic duo’s adventures. King instead reels us in with the far more relatable moments in which Bruce was simply an adult caring for a child who needed him. We’ve all been there, with older readers (of which Batman surely has many) having been on both ends.

There’s an early scene here where young Dick has a nightmare about his parents dying and wakes up screaming. Bruce runs to comfort him, to just be there. King—to his credit—gets out of the way and doesn’t overwrite. Wisely, there’s no narration throughout. While comforting Dick after his nightmare, Bruce is actually laconic, as most fathers surely were, saying It’s okay, boy. It’s a dream. You’re safe. It’s not much, but it’s perfect.  

And the issue is littered with similar relatable moments. There’s Bruce asking adult Dick how long he’s planning to stay. I practically heard my own dad trying to ask me about my life, So, uh, what’s new with you? So much always unsaid. And there’s Dick and Bruce bonding while watching football, which might as well have been my living room as a kid. It just all so perfectly captures the emotional fragility of heart-aching men, our deep desire for someone to reach out and our crazy inability to let would-be comforters see us suffer. It’s what makes father-son stuff so inherently fraught, and it’s rendered so gorgeously here via one of the most enduring father-son relationships in all of fiction.

“Writer: Tom King
Artist: Matt Wagner
Colorist: Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 5, 2018”

Much credit should also go to Matt Wagner’s art. Wagner is an incredible cartoonist operating at full strength. As emotional as the story is, the depiction of faces and the framing of certain shots is just as vital (if not more so). Essentially, Wagner’s work brings out the potential of King’s words. I’m a noted big sappy baby, so it doesn’t mean much for me to say this issue made me cry, but oh man did this issue make me cry. I loved it.

Overall: Following the three-part Cold Days arc is a tough act, but the standalone story about the father-son relationship between Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson in Batman #54 pulls it off. Matt Wagner’s art is fitting and emotive, and Tom King’s script is tonally perfect, an honest look at the emotional fragility of hurt men and how difficult it is to open up. 10/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: The Unexpected #4 by Steve Orlando, Yvel Guichet, Cary Nord, Scott Hanna, Jeromy Cox, & Carlos M. Mangual

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By Zack Quaintance — The Unexpected has featured locales, ideas, and lore from throughout the DCU…and now in issue #4, we get other heroes, too, right from page 1 panel 1. New characters in superhero comics often face world-ending threats, and a natural question becomes why don’t they reach out to the experienced shared universe heavy hitters? This story nicely addresses that, making for another strong single issue in one of my favorite new Big 2 books in ages.

As an individual issue, The Unexpected #4 clearly has a specific goal to reach before its end, and it definitely gets there, landing in a place that promises a new evolution for the book in #5. Along the way, we see our new heroes—Firebrand and Neon the Unknown—study their plight with the tense aid of Bat-family detectives. We also see another of the grandiose set pieces that have so far appeared in every issue, plus a continued push to address the aftermath of DC’s recent Dark Nights Metal event, extending plot points from that story to new and interesting places, essentially contextualizing what happened into the history and future of the DCU.

That’s all to say writer Steve Orlando’s main strengths are very much on display here: his vast and impressive command of continuity, his commitment to taking the shared universe concept seriously, and his ability to have muscle-bound folks punching each other with stakes.

Art-wise, the book is in transition. Cary Nord, on-board from issue one, is off to G. Willow Wilson’s forthcoming run on Wonder Woman, launching in November. That leaves us with the team of Yvel Guichet and Scott Hanna, plus Jeromy Cox providing colors. And this book looks good, to be sure. Next issue will see Mark Farmer drawing, followed by Ronan Cliquet. There’s no reason to believe future installments will suffer, but if we could just take a brief moment in honor of Nord’s contributions. He will be missed.

Anyway, with The Unexpected I remain impressed by how compelling the team has made original characters—no easy feat within a publishing line of adventures that span many decades. The book being a natural extension of Metal helps. Thematically, I think The Unexpected also addresses an idea prominent in the post-Metal DCU: restraint. In surviving Metal, the Justice League broke the source wall, ushering in complex threats. The Unexpected’s central use of the volatile Nth Metal builds on that. Here, we have a powerful character who must resist giving into violent urges, lest she destroy herself and maybe the world, as threats accelerate around her. In many ways, it’s a metaphor for 2018, and I love it.

Overall: The Unexpected continues to be a standout book of DC’s New Age of Heroes line, expertly incorporating bits of the DCU’s past while making an argument for being part of its future. Artist Cary Nord’s departure is a bummer, but this book clearly still has big plans. 8.5/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

Relay #3 by Zac Thompson, Eric Bromberg, Donny Cates, Andy Clarke, Jose Villarrubia, & Charles Pritchett

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By Zack Quaintance — When I finished reading Relay #3, I took a moment, inhaled, and stretched a one-syllable expletive into five or six. I don’t use much profanity (or I didn't before November 2016, ahem), and I usually say words with the regular amount of syllables (because I’m not Pauly Shore in the ‘90s...anyone get that? sorry, never mind). This comic, however, is as intricate and complex as any I’ve reviewed, as laden with disparate and heady ideas as it is with plot twists and perils for our hero.

Relay is, simply put, a precisely-executed hard sci-fi book that sets out to disorient and misdirect its reader...and then wildly accomplishes its goals. It’s why I love this book, and it’s also why I, quite frankly, find this book a major challenge to review. I, however, will bravely soldier on (hold your applause) throughout the length of this series, because I think Relay’s complexity will attract a large and loyal audience, catapulting this book into a massive hit, and also I want to engage with it on a deeper level, hopefully catching as much of what’s happening as possible before my head explodes (no regrets!).

Phew. Okay, now about this issue: in some ways it’s utterly different from all that came before, yet how it expands your perception of this story is entirely consistent with the first two issues. What actually sets Relay #3 apart is the long stretches within where Andy Clarke and Jose Villarrubia absolutely decimate eyes and minds with their artwork.

I’m becoming (somewhat) used to Zac Thompson’s whip-smart scripting and the brain twists of the story he cooked up with Eric Bromberg and Donny Cates, which point one way while suddenly teleporting another. Until now, however, Clarke’s linework has been detailed and imaginative yet fairly grounded in a futuristic vision of reality. That changes here. There is a stretch in Relay #3 where the art is grotesque in its design but stunning in its execution, abstract in a way that disorients while also serving the goals of the story. It’s really impressive, and based on the cover for Relay #4, we’re surely in for more.

As with the end of the first two issues, the final panel of Relay #3 leaves our story with an entirely new status quo. As such, I think it’s becoming clear that part of this story’s ambition is a statement about reality, showing us how fallible our perceptions are due to the inherently-limited nature of the information we as individuals have access to. We just believe so much because it’s what we’ve been told, be it history, customs, religion, politics, power structures, technology. In past reviews I’ve talked about how this story’s interests are colonialism, conformity, and God, and I think all of that is still true, but I’m starting to also suspect Relay has a point to make about the very nature of reality.  

Overall: This book is becoming more engrossing with each issue, so much so that I suspect word of mouth will soon catapult it to much wider audience. I highly recommend jumping on board now. Start at the beginning, of course, but whatever you do, read this comic—this series is not to be missed. 9.5/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

ADVANCED REVIEW: Man-Eaters #1 by Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Rachelle Rosenberg, Joe Caramagna, & Lia Miternique

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Man-Eaters #1 is out Sept. 26.

By Zack Quaintance — There’s a fantastic sense of freedom in Man-Eaters #1. The book is written by Chelsea Cain and drawn by Kate Niemczyk, a duo that last teamed together for Marvel Comics’ Mockingbird. I really enjoyed that comic, which was an engrossing puzzle box of a superhero story that also hinted (somewhat controversially...but I won’t get into that nonsense) at the themes in this book.

Mockingbird, however, addressed those themes subtly, putting superheroics at its forefront pretty much at all times. Man-Eaters #1, though, has the liberating benefit of being a straight satire. The book has mystery, action, and even a touch of body horror, to be sure, but all of those qualities grow from the story’s foundational poignancy, rather than having it be the other way around. The result is an unencumbered creative team firing with all its strength, and, simply put, it’s fantastic.

Visually, this comic is brimming with small details and gags that reward careful readers. Pencil Shoppe...Hand-Sharpened While You Wait!, an unseen kid labeled The Intern In Charge of Social Media., a Bitch Planet poster on the wall in a bedroom, etc. Niemczyk is a big talent, with clean and precise linework on characters and in backgrounds. There’s an eclectic two-page splash early in this book that sets the tone for the strength of the visuals to come, as well as for how much attention should be devoted to each panel, lest readers miss out on the details included for them by the creators.

And these visual gags in the early pages go a long way toward making the hefty amount of exposition we get up front story palatable. It’s not that big of a deal—stories with younger protagonists have a long tradition of heroes talking directly to the audience, introducing readers to the world the same way kids in real life explain things—but it’s still noticeable. The young protagonist and her narrative voice are both immediately likable, and the world and concept of this comic are more than interesting enough to make this comic engaging. In the end, this book is really well-done and smart, ending with a fantastic last page cliffhanger, as all great #1 issues should.

Essentially, Man-Eaters #1 did a fantastic job setting up its characters, world, and plot points, and I’m excited to see what the creative team will do with it all moving forward.

Overall: A smart and searingly clever satire, Man-Eaters #1 is a great setup for a comic that has important things to say. Visually, this book is a total treat, packing rewarding details and entertaining gags for careful readers into most of its panels. This comic gets a full endorsement. 8.5/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

Beyonders #1 by Paul Jenkins & Wesley St. Claire

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Beyonders #1 is out Aug. 29. 2018.

By Zack Quaintance — The opening pages of Paul Jenkins and Wesley St. Claire’s Beyonders #1 are not unlike having a conversation with someone who is really into historical conspiracy theories at a party or a bar: the information comes at you so fast that you can’t make much sense of it...all you know is that there’s something much much larger going on here, something that may or may not be worth going all in on.

In that sense, Beyonders #1 does a great job opening up a new comic, throwing out an intriguing hook that basically encapsulates what this story is about, one that will surely make clear to like-minded readers that they’re in for something worthwhile. For those who are maybe a little overwhelmed with the opening, the creative team does a great job of getting us right to our protagonist, who himself then makes clear that he finds this all a bit overwhelming as well. That he does it with some funny too is another enticing quality laid out early by Beyonders.

That’s all really great on a surface level. What I found more enticing about this book was the hints at bigger questions about conspiracy culture, about how it’s accelerated in odd regions due to the Internet and about how certain types of people are prone to use it as a distraction from more tangible and immediate things in the world around them. It’s all so relevant for this tough year of 2018, and Jenkins and St. Claire do a great job of conveying that without being heavy-handed.

Some of the scenes of Jacob’s real life, however, are just a little too on the nose and convenient, especially one where he’s called into his principal’s office so the man can give him a speech and also inform him he’s been denied...by every college he applied to. That convenience took me out of the story a little bit (just a little), but thankfully the book is never far off from lapsing back into its central concern: conspiracies.

Jenkins and St. Claire are experienced creators who know their craft stuff, and the book reads quickly. Everything here is well-polished and easy to digest. Whether or not is proves to be a lasting series, however, will likely depend on how well it continues to unpack the reasons online culture has accelerated belief in conspiracies.

Overall: There are a lot of surprises in this comic, as one is right to expect from a book about conspiracies, and they’re all well-done. In the end, I’d heartily recommend this comic to anyone who gets lost down conspiratorial rabbit holes on the Internet with any degree of regularity. 7.0/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

ADVANCED REVIEW: Cemetery Beach #1 by Warren Ellis & Jason Howard

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Cemetery Beach #1 is due out Sept. 12.

By Zack Quaintance — Right from the start, Cemetery Beach by Warren Ellis and Jason Howard lets you know it’s a wild affair, very much unlike the team’s previous book, Trees. It does this with a set of instructions on the inside cover, starting with: 1. This book is valuable. Do not lose it. Whereas Trees was high concept sci-fi intermingled with commentary on social and cultural issues, Cemetery Beach is high concept sci-fi delivered via raucous adventure, steeped in shock, danger, and lunacy—you know, the good stuff.

The book’s front/inside cover starts establishing all that before readers hit the first panel. On top of that first instruction, there’s more plus also imagery that evokes escape, colonialism, Black Hawk helicopters, and early space travel. When the first panel does arrive, we launch straight into our exposition heavy yet very entertaining opening scene, in which Ellis pens some of his pithiest dialogue in recent memory. We learn in 1920 a group of industrialists and scientists found and operated a method to travel off-world. They built a colony, and our hero is on that colony now doing reconnaissance for Earth...that’s as far into the plot as I need to go here.

As you can see, this book is imaginative. It’s also light by recent Ellis standards, which feels like an odd way to describe a book with this much murder but here we are. The high-concept Ellis ideas are still here, as is the world-building. What sets Cemetery Beach apart from recent Ellis output (think Trees, Karnak, The Wild Storm, etc.) is a lighter energy and gripping plot from our start (more on that soon).

Howard’s artwork is also outstanding, a bit more kinetic than what we saw through much of trees, but just as clear and interesting. This first issue has a necessarily claustrophobic feel through most of it, seeing we start within a Mysterious Torture Shitbox, as our hero puts it. We do get a quick glimpse of the larger world, though, and I’m anxious to see more in future issues when the adventure presumably takes us to new corners of this colony.

The book’s clearest strength, however, is the mastery with which it takes a complex plot and gives us an absolutely perfect amount of information to engage with, to not feel disoriented, and to root for our protagonists. This balance, to me, is key to all great #1 issues. Creators must obviously avoid making readers feel like they’re having info forced on them, but they must also orient us within the story and make us care about characters, otherwise the cliffhanger at a first issue’s end won’t be compelling. Ellis and Howard nail all of that so hard with Cemetery Beach.

Overall: A masterful debut issue from a veteran creative team. Ellis and Howard’s Cemetery Beach #1 puts vast thematic and conceptual depth beneath a fast-paced and deceptively simple exterior, one loaded with quips and kinetically-drawn action scenes. BUY BUY BUY this comic and enjoy. 9.5/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: House Amok #1 by Christopher Sebela, Shawn McManus, Lee Loughridge, & Aditya Bidikar

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House Amok #1 is available Aug. 29, 2018.

By Zack Quaintance — Simply put, writer Christopher Sebela is on fire, rolling out some of the most compelling creator-owned books in all of comics with a nigh-unparalleled range of themes, concepts, and genres. His summer started with the historic high seas/frontier revenge story Shanghai Red, continued with the satirical late-model-capitalist nightmare Crowded, and culminates now with the morbid reality-bending familial murder story, House Amok.

House Amok pulls the difficult double duty of orienting the reader with traces of recognizable tropes while mercilessly pushing into original circumstances as its story demands. Our leads are the Sandifers, a dysfunctional family the exact likes of which I’ve never seen, not in any medium, made unique not by the macabre violence they’re perpetrating—horrifying as it is, it has been done—but rather their justifications. That’s what makes this story so urgent and vital. Not only do the Sandifer parents utterly believe in some contorted and bloody logic, they’ve made it a matter of survival for themselves, their oldest son, and their younger fraternal twin girls, our protagonists.

It’s this decision that makes House Amok so compelling on essentially two separate fronts: first as a story of depravity and survival, and second as a tale of precocious innocents trying to parse the truth of their parents' dysfunctions. While there is little universality in the horror elements within House Amok, it’s this feeling of having to forge a world view from within the imperfect lens provided by one's parents that most (if not all) readers will relate to, hard. I could even see the story broadening into a look at shared delirium among certain segments of society. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing where Sebela and team take this narrative potential. 

From a craft perspective, House Amok is impeccable, as have been all the books from IDW's Black Crown imprint. Shawn McManus is a confident and veteran artist, and it shows in his linework, which conveys deep terrors from within a mundane childhood framework, and Lee Loughridge contributes much with a standout set of muted palettes and fitting color tones.

House Amok’s greatest strength, however, is the voice of its narration, which guides readers through the madcap reality-skewing imagery of this story with an orienting calm, poetic and assuring in a way that made my brain tingle. The twist at House Amok’s end is fittingly subdued, yet the unexpected nature of it is such that it ranks as one of the most chilling cliffhangers I’ve read in a #1 issue all year. Closing though: Egad, did I love this comic.

Overall — House Amok is a comic so rich and immersive that its ending will ambush you, leaving you demanding the second issue. It’s a childhood horror story that raises questions about fears, realities, innocence, and shared delusions. It is, quite simply, yet another must-read title from IDW’s Black Crown. 9.5/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Amazing Spider-Man #4 by Nick Spencer, Ryan Ottley, Cliff Rathburn, Laura Martin, & Joe Caramagna

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By Zack Quaintance — If Amazing Spider-Man #1 was a series intro and primer, than Amazing Spider-Man #4 seems to be our first real glimpse of its scope, giving readers a better idea of where the fresh creative team wants to take Marvel’s flagship character. As I wrote in my review of #1, I loved that issue, but if I’m being totally honest, I still had trepidation, albeit buried somewhat deeply.

Basically, I wondered if I’d simply given in to Spencer’s quippy scripting and Ottley’s shiny kinetic pencils, and if that meant eventually the glow would fade and the book would feel hollow. Ottley is a massive talent, to be sure, and I’ve liked Spencer’s work, especially Astonishing Ant-Man and The Superior Foes of Spider-Man. Those books, however, were decidedly straightforward in terms of ideas, and neither sustained the type of multi-year run all signs suggest is coming on Amazing Spider-Man.

And, really, it’s almost certainly too soon to say Spencer and Ottley have shown they’re able to tell a meaningful long-form story about Peter Parker. That said! I’m doing it anyway, because in Amazing Spider-Man #4, I saw hints that Spencer was interested in far more than jokes (which he’s great at) and bringing back bygone plot points that if mishandled could end up being fan service.

There were two decisions in this issue that made me more bullish about the future of this title. The first was the choice of villain, which was a fantastic reveal that both changed the way I viewed the past two issues and made me nod my head back like—respect—in regards to Spencer’s knowledge and use of Spidey’s deep continuity.

The second was how the sci-fi hijinx in the foreground was able to meaningfully unpack and examine part of Spider-Man’s defining belief system, which is perhaps the defining belief system in all of superhero comics: With great power comes great responsibility. I won’t spoil the details of how this happens, but I will note that a great way to realize the impact of ethos is to revisit what life is like when that ethos is absent. And Spencer, Ottley, and co. found a really entertaining way to do just that.

As a friend on Twitter noted, this book is benefiting right now from some great Spidey alchemy between Spencer and Ottley, and as I noted on Twitter (I really need to spend less time on there), Amazing Spider-Man is etched in stone on my pull list, but when it’s at its best (as it has been now through these first 4 issues), it makes Marvel’s entire line feel more exciting.

Anyway, I’ll wrap up by noting I like this series so much (and it’s so prominent) that I’m going to add it to the regular review rotation here, meaning we’ll have a new Amazing Spider-Man review for every new Amazing Spider-Man issue.

Overall: Amazing Spider-Man #4 continues with the great art and hilarious quips of the first three issues, also adding a villian expertly culled from deep Spider-continuity plus a well-done examination of Peter’s core beliefs. Simply put, there’s seriously good comic book-ing going on here. 9.5/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Wonder Woman #53 by Steve Orlando, Aco, Hugo Petrus, David Lorenzo, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Saida Temofonte

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By Zack Quaintance — Wowza.

Wonder Woman #53 is out Aug. 22, 2018.

This is maybe the least elegant opening line for any review I’ve ever written, but I just don’t think there’s a better summation of what Aco does in Wonder Woman #53 within all the massive mythological Aztec battle scenes. It’s stunning stuff, whether it be the intricate double-truck splashes or the askew panel grids filled with colorful detail that burst off the page. When you get your hands on this issue, do me a favor and linger on some of Aco’s linework. I suspect wowza will start to make a whole lot of sense to you, too.

I didn’t even really mind that Hugo Petrus (whose work is also quite good) had to come in to spell Aco for a handful of pages between the bigger set pieces. It would have been nice, of course, had Aco been able to draw this entire issue, but Petrus’ pages fit in seamlessly between the absolutely jaw-dropping bits done by Aco. It all adds up to a gorgeous comic.

The story is great, too. As I noted in my review of last issue, Steve Orlando is well aware of the two central qualities of Diana Prince’s character: her stubborn and limitless compassion, and her inherent place as a swaggery ass-kicking mythological goddess who walks among us. Orlando’s first issue on this book—the supremely beautiful Wonder Woman #51—examined her compassion, while Wonder Woman #52 setup an old school adventure romp fit for the aforementioned swaggery ass-kicking mythological goddess. Wonder Woman #53 knocks down what its predecessor setup, having Diana and her crew (Artemis and the new Aztek) deal with the antagonist they initially united to confront.

Wonder Woman is undeniably the star of the show here, but the panel time that Orlando and Aco devote to both Aztek and Artemis is used efficiently, yielding great results. There's such a mutually-beneficially vibe to this team-up, with all three characters having logical reasons to be together here.

I particularly enjoyed Aztek confronting the foe that her predecessor essentially kamakazied (ineffectually) to defeat waaaaay back in the late ‘90s when Grant Morrison was writing his Justice League saga. One of Orlando’s best strengths as a writer is his nuanced and surgical wielding of DC’s vast continuity, and it’s certainly on full display within this issue. Finally, not to spoil anything but the story does a great job of extending the adventure into next issue, which is to be drawn by Raul Allen, a favorite of mine based on his work over at Valiant.

Overall: Wonder Woman #53 is ultimately a gorgeous comic that nicely wraps up the adventure in Aztec mythos that was set into motion last issue, while simultaneously laying groundwork for more action. 9.5/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Wasted Space #4 by Michael Moreci, Hayden Sherman, Jason Wordie, & Jim Campbell

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Wasted Space #4 is out Aug. 22, 2018.

By Zack Quaintance — One of the qualities (among many) that has drawn me to Wasted Space is its sheer complexity. This is the series’ fourth issue, and going in I found myself wondering what facet of this story Moreci, Sherman, et al. would explore here in greater depth. Would we finally see Devolous Yam (almost)? Would we learn more about the powers shared by our series leads (almost again)? How about more of Legion, the giant unstoppable force driven to absolutely stomp our heroes (no, but check out #5’s cover)?

The first three issues have just laid so much excellent groundwork, planting tons of compelling seeds for the creators to explore (great news: this book had been granted ongoing status, now likely to run for at least 20 issues). Anyway, we start here with protagonist Billy having his longest conversation yet with The Creator, a robot who appears only to him and is also basically God to the vast majority of the galaxy.

Wasted Space #4, much like preceding issues, doesn’t spoon feed its audience easy answers. Instead, it keeps marching forward, putting characters in deeper jeopardy and revealing info only as it applies to that. What does, however, become clearer in this fourth installment is that Wasted Space likely aspires to be a pretty direct (although not heavy handed) allegory for our current times, one that challenges readers with difficult questions.

There are plenty of interesting questions asked in brief, but the one I see at the heart of this thing is about repercussions. This is a theme hinted at in every issue, and so it’s no surprise it shows up again here, but what this book seems to want its readers to think about is not causes of systematic oppression or tumult, but rather what is the responsibility of individuals to respond to grave trouble, what is the just thing to do and how does one continue doing it after personal losses mount? It’s heady and compelling stuff, at times blurring the troubling line between staying comfortable and embracing outright nihilism.

Hayden Sherman, meanwhile, continues proving himself one of the most versatile sci-fi artists in comics, as capable of nailing scenes entirely reliant upon facial expressions as he is of rendering extreme violence or intricate spaceship interiors. He’s supported here by Jason Wordie’s vibrant colors, and by Jim Campbell’s letters, which do quite a bit, getting across long tracks of whispered conversation seamlessly. When a letterer is at their best, their work breezes by without notice, and that’s certainly the case with Campbell in this issue.

Overall: Wasted Space #4 is rich with both sporadic bursts of idea-heavy conversation as well as with space opera action, which is basically this series’ MO. For those as engaged with this comic as I am, this issue is yet another step forward in one of the most exciting sci-fi epics in comics today. 9.0/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Cold Spots #1 by Cullen Bunn, Mark Torres, & Simon Bowland

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Cold Spots #1 is out Aug. 22, 2018.

By Zack Quaintance — Cullen Bunn is prolifically establishing himself as comics’ foremost purveyor of horror, and Cold Spots #1 is another title likely to bolster that reputation. In this opening issue, Bunn takes a minimalist approach to introducing characters and exposition, using a few small exchanges and revelations to hint at larger backstories. For the most part, this first issue concerns itself with ambiance, as well as with enabling Mark Torres’ artwork to really shine.

Although, shine is probably the wrong word for linework as alternatingly foreboding and forlorn as we get here. Simply put, Torres’ art in Cold Spots is beautiful, perfect for this story. The highlight of all of it is the use of color. Afternoons in rural locales, late nights in cities, even rooms for individual meetings—they all get their own palettes, palettes that go a long way toward influencing how the scenes in Cold Spots read and feel. There’s even a scene wherein color shifts based on a character’s (questionable) decision. It’s absolutely fantastic work from Torres.

The setting is also an interesting facet of Cold Spots. Between this book and other recent work (thinking specifically of Bone Parish with Boom! Studios), Bunn continues to tell stories about less-heralded regions of the United States, regions often ignored by television shows and movies,where problems in real life have made them ideal for explorations of the supernatural and occult, beset as they are by job loss and our worsening national opioid crisis (which, to be fair, is a problem everywhere). Anyway, Bunn has tapped into this as of late to emphasize the gothic qualities of places that range from Louisiana to the heartlands to (as in this story) North Carolina, telling tales of phantoms and wispy ghouls and the undead.

Cold Spots #1 is in the end a pretty and spry read, one that tears through its opening chapter while doling just enough exposition to further its mystery. The characters are shallow-yet-believable so far, letting the creative team provide a fantastic hook for readers along with a set of stunning and scary artwork. This is ultimately a five-part series, and I’d be surprised if the vast majority of folks who pick up #1 don’t end up sticking around for the duration.

Overall: A traditional supernatural mystery, Cold Spots #1 is another story from writer Cullen Bunn that uses horror motifs to chronicle forlorn pockets of the United States often ignored in television and film. This is a brief yet beautiful comic, and Mark Torres’ work with colors in particular is not to be missed. 8.0/10

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Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Extermination #1 by Ed Brisson, Pepe Larraz, Marte Garcia, & VC’s Joe Sabino

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By Zack Quaintance — I was at Marvel’s SDCC X-Men panel, during which Matthew Rosenberg insinuated major X-happenings would come in Extermination, a five-part mini-series with a tagline of EXTERMINATE THE PAST. ELIMINATE THE FUTURE. The smart money was on this being the book that would settle the fate of the original 5  X-Men, who basically all of X-fandom agreed had run their course like two years ago.

Through one issue, that suspicion is all but guaranteed, especially given the new Uncanny X-Men #1 teaser art with hardly a young X-person in site. Another thing Rosenberg insinuated at the panel was everyone would think they knew what Extermination was about, but that, in fact, they would be wrong (a pretty standard teaser in superhero comics). Rosenberg was, of course, vague, as to not accidentally step on the upcoming project of a fellow X-writer.

All of that is my way of saying Extermination #1 is maybe not entirely what it seems to be. Through one part (or 20 percent) of the story, I feel like I have a decent grasp on what’s at stake: one part of it is definitely sending the time-displaced X-pups away, another part is doing something interesting with an older X-character whose identity I won’t reveal because, you know, spoilers. If that’s all this story is about, it’ll be interesting enough.

Really, this first issue is incredibly well-paced, doling out consequential action at a clip the vast majority of event comics (is this an event?) don’t. It’s in a unique position to do this given the current X-status quo. Marvel’s mutant stories have gotten pretty messy of late, with little sense of cohesion. This, in fact, has been my central complaint with X-titles (Blue and Gold, etc.), and I’ve largely limited myself to X-Books that have RED in their titles, or are written by writers named Thompson (Kelly and Zac) or Rosenberg.

This is significant here, because the unwieldy state of the X-titles gives Brisson disposable pieces to take off the board, pieces he uses expertly, giving needed jolts to the ends of the first and third acts of this comic. I enjoyed the tight plotting, but, more than that, Brisson’s willingness to make big moves is also an encouraging sign for the upcoming 10-part weekly re-launch of Uncanny X-Men. There sure seem to be quite a few X-Men on that promotional poster. I know it’s morbid, but wouldn’t it be thrilling if there weren’t as many left when that 10 weeks is over?

Extermination likely marks the start of a cleanup before the franchise’s flagship title returns in full, and an encouraging one at that. I suppose it remains to be scene which of Brisson, Rosenberg, or Thompson will ultimately write Uncanny full-time, but I’m glad they’re doing it together at the start, potentially portending that sense of cohesion I’ve craved.

Overall: An exciting and fast-paced first issue, posting a couple quick surprises. If this book is the start of an X-cleanup before the fall’s Uncanny X-Men re-launch, the Brisson-Rosenberg-Thompson era is off to a very nice start. 8.5/10

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Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Ice Cream Man #6 by W. Maxwell Prince, Martin Morazzo, Chris O’Halloran, & Good Old Neon

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This titular Ice Cream Man is a real piece of work...

By Zack Quaintance — Ice Cream Man #6 is yet another nasty (in a good way) read from one of the most bleak-yet-mesmerizing comics of all-time. In broad strokes, this series is about a sinister Ice Cream Man who serves as the only throughline in a series of disparate tales that add up to one of the most unflinching looks at the everyday lives of modern Americans...in any storytelling medium. Abandon hope all ye who open this book, for sure, yet also know that it will somehow never cross the line into sensationalism. In other words, start reading this and you probably won’t give it up.

I know I won’t any time soon. Ice Cream Man #6 is yet another great issue. In many ways, this is the book’s most experimental story yet, following one character through three divergent life paths, all of which are depicted in near-total silence (and are also depressing as all hell). The reason why the story fractures into three (and gets the name/flavor of Strange Neapolitan) becomes clear near the end, when (no spoilers) the script comes out and just basically states its central conceit.

Like all issues of this book, this one starts out idyllic before descending into horrors both real and existential.

This is, to be blunt, is a story structure that on the surface seems like it shouldn’t work, should instead tip into feeling too gimmicky. It is, however, pulled off expertly by the creative team. Let’s talk first about the work Chris O’Halloran does with his colors, utilizing three distinct palettes to separate the alternate futures of the nameless hero. This is challenging in itself, but O’Halloran also makes it work while sticking to the general strawberry-vanilla-chocolate color scheme of neapolitan ice creams. It had a high potential to look goofy, but O’Halloran nailed it, using his shades to perfectly compliment Morazzo’s artwork.

Perhaps the most impressive feat in this book is the triply (mostly) silent script, which tells three distinct stories that hit complimentary beats almost always at the same time, even while moving at different speeds through the protagonist’s lifetime to basically end at the same haunting spot. Thematically, this story is somewhat one sizable note, but in terms of craft, it’s easily one of the most impressive feats I’ve seen a writer pull off with structure in some time, possibly since Eric Heisserer’s vignette tapestry in the Valiant book Secret Weapons.   

Overall: Ice Cream Man #6 is another astoundingly well-done comic that scares you as you read and then lingers with you existentially for days after you finish. This series continues to be one of the most unflinching looks at everyday lives in modern American...in any storytelling medium. 8.5/10

For more comic book and movie reviews, check out our review archives here.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Crude #5 by Steve Orlando, Garry Brown, Lee Loughridge, & Thomas Mauer

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By Zack Quaintance — I’d like to start today by discussing Crude #5’s artwork. Garry Brown is a doing yeoman-like work on this book, creating panel after panel that brims with exactly what this story calls for in any given moment, be it a kinetic and violent pastiche or quiet emotional impact of our hero learning something heartbreaking and new about how he failed his son. Brown has been putting out killer work for a while now—from Black Road with Brian Wood to Babyteeth with Donny Cates—but, simply put, Crude is his best book to date.  

Phew, now on to the story. Crude #5 is the penultimate issue of the first arc, the place traditionally reserved for the steepest escalation in both action and consequence, and in that regard it certainly doesn’t disappoint. This is easily the best issue of Crude yet. What is perhaps most interesting about it is how much we learn about Piotr’s relationship with his murdered son, Kirilchik, which so far has been shown in brief, often only through a father’s mourning lens.

I once had a writing teacher who stressed what he called The Rate of Revelation. It’s a simple enough concept: stories live and die by how much new information we’re getting at any given moment. That’s not to say writers have to be telling us what our hero’s favorite food is all the time or something, but rather that a writer’s job is to find compelling ways to continually show an audience who these people they’ve invented are, what they’re made of, and why they matter.

And that’s exactly what Orlando’s script excels at in Crude #5: it finds new and compelling ways to constantly give us revelations about our hero, this time having the thoughts and feelings of his murdered son quoted back to him by someone who knew his son while he was alive. Our protagonist thus far has been nigh-invincible (thus far), at least when things devolve into violence, to the point I find myself unconcerned about his physical well-being. When he starts to learn key details (no spoilers!) about his son’s life—and the next panel pulls away to show how small he is in the room at that moment? Ho man, was I on the proverbial edge of my seat, and it just got more tense from there.    

Another thing Crude #5 does well is deepen its shady corporate culture plot, showing the exploitation of real people, which is thematically so relevant right now that it hurts. To say anything more would be to risk giving too much away. Lastly, I just want to note that this script has a wealth of really impactful lines, including one of my favorites: But there’s no self-respect in living just under people’s noses. Great stuff.

Overall: Crude #5 is the best issue of this book yet. More than a stage-setter for next month’s first arc conclusion, this comic is rich with revelations about its lead character and the world he’s beaten his way into. This series is career-best work for both Brown and Orlando, must-read comics. 9.5/10

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Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

Crowded #1 by Christopher Sebela, Ro Stein, Ted Brandt, Triona Farrell, & Cardinal Rae

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Crowded #1 is a much-hyped comic that does not dissappoint.

By Zack Quaintance — Crowded #1 is, to put it simply, a super-hyped book, one of those comics that got a movie deal (with Rebel Wilson attached!) before its first issue saw release. It also has a notable and rising creative team (writer Christopher Sebela of Cold War, Shanghai Red, and artists Ro Stein and Ted Brandt, who’ve done cool stuff with Marvel, to say nothing of Triona Farrell, who’s absolutely great). As such, I came to this book with a mix of excitement and high expectations—and I was thoroughly and utterly hooked from basically the first page.

Crowded extrapolates the gig economy to its natural and excessive capitalistic extremes, to a place wherein anything you could ever need is accessible via the gig economy or a social connections app. In the world of Crowded, our protagonist Charlotte works 12 for-hire jobs in one day (on a slow day), ending the first night we see her by hooking up with a man she meets via another app, with whom she never needs to so much as exchange real names.

When people start trying to kill Charlotte en mass the following day (via a crowdfunded death app), she hires a bodyguard via yet another app, this one called Dfend, and our plot is off and running. That’s really all I’ll say about Crowded’s story, since the inner machinations of this book are such a joy to unfurl. Solid plotting aside, this creative team does a wonderful job peppering their book with the little touches that do work to keep readers engaged (things like the mysterious bodyguard's personal life/motivation, Charlotte’s pithy rejoinders, an adorable chihuahua, etc.) and make good graphic sequential storytelling so enthralling. In addition, the storytellers use a workmanlike precision to accomplish the required exposition and world-building, as if they themselves had been materialized by an on-demand app for great creators. Yeah, it’s all that entertaining.

Crowded at its core, though, is about a dystopian future that should feel too real to us all, a vivid imagining of a likely scenario to come, steeped in a plot that feels as dangerous, urgent, and tense as vintage Tarantino.

Overall: Stein and Brandt’s linework is strong, their character designs as stylish as they are revealing of traits, and Sebela’s script is, in a word, witty. This is a confident and fully-formed debut comic with something important to say about where working life and society are both going. My advice? Make like a character in Crowded—buy this. 9.5/10

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Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

ADVANCED REVIEW: Bully Wars #1 by Skottie Young & Aaron Conley, Jean-Francois Beaulieu, & Nate Piekos

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For Bully Wars, Skottie Young teams with Aaron Conley, a Skottie Young-esque artist.

By Zack Quaintance — I heard writer Skottie Young on the Word Balloon Podcast a few weeks ago talking about his new book, Bully Wars, saying the aim was to make an Image comic that was accessible for all ages but didn’t exactly feel like a story strictly for kids, a challenge for creatives in any field or medium. It’s that sweet spot that made Pixar films so vibrant in the studio’s early years. They hit the mark repeatedly then, and continue to do so with relatively high frequency to this day. Call it broadly safe but smart appeal.

Well, Young and his Bully Wars collaborators—artists Aaron Conley and Jean-Francois Beaulieu—however, have come pretty close to finding that sweet spot in this first issue. There’s not even close to anything in this book that would ring as inappropriate for young readers, and, despite my obvious disadvantage of being a kind of old guy (I will only ever admit to being somewhat older than 22), I’m fairly certain the bright colors, exaggerated and cartoony character designs, and classroom setting will be a big draw for all ages of kids, likely up through high school. I know I certainly would have dug this in my day of angsty (but improving!) late ‘90s comics.

When it comes to appeal for adults, Bully Wars #1 is slightly more of a mixed effort. The twists in how characters are perceived are interesting, but the book will likely need more substance to hold older readers’ interests long-term. There are, however, plenty of signs in this first issue that that substance is coming. This brings me to the other goal Young mentioned for Bully Wars on Word Balloon: incorporating more understanding into the standard school narrative of bully bad and mean. The book definitely has hints of an aspiration to humanize its bullies, although at this point those aspirations are still in nascent stages.

Young’s interests as a writer, though, are fairly subversive (see the recently-concluded I Hate Fairyland), and so I think it’s safe to assume he’ll get where he’s aiming for. I know that I’ll at least be following this book for the entirety of its first arc. Really, the background sight gags (an athletic apparel company called Sike got a little chuckle out of me) and excellent cartooning on par with some of my favorite animation is enough to seal its appeal for me.

Overall: Bully Wars #1 is a vibrant all ages comic with a lot of promise and potentially even an important lesson about labels. This comic does more than enough with its first issue to pique my interest in where it’s headed. 7.5/10

For more comic book and movie reviews, check out our review archives here.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Wonder Woman #52 by Steve Orlando, Aco, David Lorenzo, Romulo Fajardo Jr., & Saida Temofonte

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Steve Orlando and Aco get the band back together from their character-defining run on Midnighter.

By Zack Quaintance — Two weeks ago, writer Steve Orlando and artist Laura Braga put out Wonder Woman #51, a stand-alone story about the depths of Diana Prince’s compassionate stubbornness to not give up on even her most dangerous enemies. That issue was—to me—the best standalone Wonder Woman story in years, a perfect comic that had me tearing up at the depths of our hero’s desire to help. As I wrote in my Wonder Woman #51 review, I loved it.

Wonder Woman #52 sees Orlando returning for a four-part adventure story with the character, this time joined by artist Aco, his collaborator on the 2015 Midnighter run that remains my favorite story about that character. In the intermittent time, both creators have progressed in their craft, and I'm happy to say that it very much shows.

There's just so much to like about this comic. It's confident, bold, and well-paced, but let’s look first at this issue’s plot. Whereas Wonder Woman #51 dove into the qualities and values that make Diana arguably DC’s most admirable hero, Wonder Woman #52 is a fast-paced adventure that makes fantastic use of the actual mythology inherent to the character. What results is, put simply, another great comic.

This is a tight story that expertly plays to Wonder Woman’s status as a figure within mythology to drive its narrative. Diana obviously knows this sector of the DCU well, and the book does a great job conveying this early, so that when something threatening or out of the ordinary comes later on, her reaction is telling and meaningful (and also badass).

The other thing this issue does especially well is incorporate additional characters, specifically Artemis and the new Aztek (fresh from Orlando’s run on Justice League of America, btw). Although Wonder Woman is undeniably the star, these other characters have separate priorities and desires that pull them into danger alongside her. Each having their own agency goes a long way toward engaging the reader in the holistic success of our erstwhile team, which ups the stakes.

In the end, Wonder Woman #52 is a real page-turner, a great start to a different type of Diana Prince Story. It's a confident and entertaining read that seems to set up some massive twists and fireworks to come. For a first issue from a new team, it's also remarkably polished, likely because Orlando and Aco had such a productive relationship in the past. The ultimate success of this arc, of course, remains to be seen, but Orlando once again displays a deep understanding of Diana. As such, it seems safe to assume this entire arc will be as rewarding as the standalone story that preceded it.

Overall: Whereas Wonder Woman #51 examined Diana Prince’s deep and stubborn capacity for compassion, Wonder Woman #52 utilizes her role as a living piece of mythology to launch a multi-part adventure. Orlando and Aco have clearly worked together in the past, and the result is a polished and fully-formed start. Fans of great superhero comics, take note. 9.5/10

For more comic book and movie reviews, check out our review archives here.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Black Badge #1 by Matt Kindt, Tyler Jenkins, Hilary Jenkins, & Jim Campbell

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Black Badge #1 is a polished and confident debut from the same team behind Grass Kings.

By Zack Quaintance — Black Badge #1 is writer Matt Kindt and artist Tyler Jenkins follow up to Grass Kings, and, at first glance, it seems to be a gentler story, one about a group of scouts on a special trip to faraway South Korea. Like its predecessor (and like most comics, really), however, there is also a darker complexity at work here.

There are a few layers to this book. There’s the premise: our heroes are part of an elite troop of boy scouts that the U.S. government sends on covert missions, kind of like green berets with a deceptive and innocent veneer. There’s the thematic interests: merit badges here seem to be standing in for ornamental and ultimately meaningless life achievements, things we convince ourselves we must obtain because we’re told that’s what we should want. And there’s an examination of what it means to be the good scout, or in this case, soldier.

Black Badges #1 is very much a straightforward and well-done introduction to this story. It’s an engaging read, a polished #1 comic that never stumbles by over-explaining who are heroes are, which does the double work here of leaving room for the creators to later build in secrets. We get a four panel grid in which a bully underestimates each of them, saying things like, You brought everything you need? Your tedd bear in there? And, Willy. Dude. you need to lay off the scout snacks. Typical bully snark that shows us how our elite team will be both perceived and underestimated.

This excellent four-panel grid does a great job telling us about our protagonists without feeling like an info dump.

This first issue is well-told, an effective and entertaining means of learning who are heroes are, what they do, and, in part, why they do it. It works well as a hook, although the exact direction of the plot is still fuzzy. There definitely seems to be an exploration of morality in the offing, one that might use the age of the characters to explore idealism as well as the way children are often treated as invisible non-actors (our team’s secret weapon). Previews of future issues also hint at the book taking a look at foreign policy, and they've definitely set up a great lens to do just that. I certainly trust Kindt and Jenkins too, especially after the success they had with Grass Kings, which had a less engaging premise, at least on its surface.

Overall: Black Badge #1 seems to be the start of another great series by Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins. This first issue has all the exposition we need plus some intriguing hints into its thematic interests, yet it never feels like an info dump. This is a confident and polished debut issue, one that hints at big things in store. 8.0/10

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Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.