Defalt

Venom can be funny

It’s very creative, really fun and looks fantastic with very nice two-page scenes. And there's a great one-shot included at the end with the same mood featuring a lot of spider-man related characters.

Perfect for kids and for adults who just want to have a good time without anything serious happening. Also you don't need to know anything about Marvel, spider-men, venom and whatever which is probably the best thing about this one.

Can’t wait to read the rest of the double trouble series!

Good Ol’ Fantasy Continues

Cool action right from the beginning featuring various, nasty monsters which just keep getting more interesting as the story progresses. But characters also talk a lot about their past or present problems and we gradually learn—because it’s a sad story—their reasons for this revenge quest.

The art is great—detailed enough, especially the faces, with nice two-page scenes and stylised colours. And the ending feels intriguing.

I really hope this series continues and stays this good for a very long time.

Starring bloody Keanu Reeves

Not much to say about this one. There’s a story about remembering main hero’s past and a lot of very brutal action. The art is fine enough for portraying that violence but not detailed at all. Of course Keanu looks good even in this format.

I think I won’t continue this series unless I hear some very good reviews.

It’s a classic, I guess

Wait, what, a mutant with super sharp blades growing out of his hands and who can't be killed pledged against violence? This won’t end well.

The art is good enough and quite detailed most of the time, but Wolverine always has some strange look on his face and in a couple panels some details were out of focus. Dialogues and action are mostly good but to me feel a bit confusing in some places. Overall the story, atmosphere and action episodes are very dark and violent. And all the famous heroes and villains are very old which looks interesting. But the f-word is censored for whatever reason, this makes no sense here.

Also to me some character moments feel like fan service—Hulk's descendants are evil landlords, Hawkeye is blind—, maybe because of how these things are spoken instead of just shown and sometimes are even repeated. And some famous Marvel characters can be seen in the background. Although an episode featuring other hero’s suit is quite interesting and fun.

But then the villain just tells all his motivation during a fight. And that happens more than once. What? Why? I guess, it’s a feature of superhero comics.

Yeah, I’m not a Marvel fan but at least this has a more interesting setup than the movie.

Part five of “Geralt is again the Witcher”

The intro has a lot of time jumps and involves a few new, secondary characters and the latter feels a bit unnecessary. Toussaint is an interesting change of environment with all the knights and vineyards but Fringilla is so cliche that I find it unbelievable that Geralt with all his experience has fallen for her trap. Fortunately there’s some monster hunting happening, so it’s fine.

There are a couple of pretty important places presented here like it’s not the last book in the series. And overall the amount of descriptions for the same kind of events is a bit weird—in one place it’s just one line and then a scene break, in another it’s a page or two. Most of the descriptions of Ciri's travels just waste time and it feels like even the author knows it because at some point he gives a few short descriptions of different places in a row and then says "there were even more places". And then there’s another one which wastes two pages on some random astronomer who can't say anything to Ciri—because of his shock?—and misses a very rare comet because of her, this is supposed to be funny, I guess. And then Sapkowski spends time to scientifically describe and prove The White Frost. Do we really need that in a fantasy world?

Some side characters from previous books, who haven’t appeared for a long time, return here, sometimes we're even shown their point of view. Like Jarre who has changed a lot and goes through some hard times, his story line is very interesting. And sometimes you have a hard time remembering who that character is because her previous appearance is in Blood of Elves.

Ciri and Vilgefortz interaction is just boring—he talks too much, she can't do anything. However that whole episode is one of the best parts of the book, it’s like the final point of the whole adventure, that’s what all characters have been going towards all this time. And we get a big battle where almost everybody is involved, it’s really nice.

The problem is that it’s only the middle of the book and it feels like the ending of the series, it's very confusing. But it just drags afterwards with a lot of politics and some random, unnecessary side quests. It feels like Sapkowski got tired of writing The Witcher and didn't know what to do with these characters.

The ending is ambiguous. Sex scene in the royal library is too much. The story moves forward just by pure coincidence more than once. The emperor suddenly tells us his life story for a few pages. The elves are just gone from the story after their big setup.

I just hope that Season of Storms is better.

Geralt looking for a job

Art style here is simpler than in other Witcher comics but it's good enough. And there are some interesting, unusual features like some events in the past are mixed in with the present and other characters narrating on top of the main events.

Geralt thinks about life and is a bit angrier than usual. And there’s a nice detective episode. Overall not a lot happens here, it's more about atmosphere and looking for a purpose in life.

So it’s a good one but not as good as most other volumes.

A break from all the previous action

It’s all about royal court intrigues, government stuff, useless dreams and personal things. Guts finally reflects on what he’s doing with his life and what he wants.

Overall it’s pretty slow with a lot of talking or thinking and hints at some big, important events, like a quiet before the storm. The ending is great once again!

Looking forward to the eclipse, I guess.

Epic battles and a bit more of Casca’s past

We finally learn some parts about Griffith’s past and see what he’s gone through. Again he talks about his dream but we still don’t know what that is.

Also here’s a lot of action! Awesome episode where Guts and Casca fight together, giant enemies in scary-looking armour with large, super dangerous weapons. And, of course, Guts being a super cool swordsman again! (he killed just too many enemies in one fight)

And I can’t not talk about the art. Night forest panels in black and white are so unusual and nice! And there’s a shot with some maps on a table as a part of the environment and even they’re extremely detailed when they don’t have to be. And here you can really appreciate the amount of different things like armour—most of the armour pieces are different between each other and there are a lot of shots with many armoured soldiers. The art is just getting better, it’s amazing!

And the ending is really cool. I have to read the next volume immediately!!

Ice cream in a desert and old-fashioned cinema!

A collection of very creative, funny, cute and very short stories (1-7 pages) with stylish, awesome, unique art. It’s just fantastic!

What else do you need from Cuphead?

Can’t wait to read the next volume!

A bit more of Guts’ past

Feels like the writing gets a bit better, especially because here we have some chapters that are just about talking and that’s great. Also there’s a good pacing for setting new characters, dangerous situation and enemies, although one might think it’s done in a simple way. Casca finally has some character development and tells about her past.

All of a sudden stealth episodes…

Also the ending this time doesn't feel too abrupt. And, of course, the art is still great with very detailed faces, clothes and giant battle or countryside scenes.

But there’s still a bit too many reactions shots and “thinking” speech bubbles but I’m getting used to it, I guess.

So, it's better than the previous one, story progresses at a good pace. Waiting for the Eclipse, I guess...

Classic, military, first person sci-fi

There are a lot of nasty and brutal details about military training in a made up future where a man doesn’t have to go to the army, so it must be even worse when a man must do it. But in addition to those we have chapters where the main character wants to leave the army and where he describes too many technical details about his super high-tech infantry suit—both feel too slow and boring. Well I guess a third of the military training part isn't necessary here.

The bugs action starts only at 50% mark and very quickly ends switching to an officer school and after a long time we get a bit more action. But literally 30-40% of the book—probably even more—is military philosophy discussions, talking about duty, describing some regular soldier’s tasks. And all of this is written in a not very interesting way and goes for too long. So mostly it’s a military lecture.

Also there’s almost no description of the enemies, some unusual military slang that can be hard to understand and chapters don’t have any breaks in them while they can last for 30-60 pages.

So the movie is so much better.

Part five (or nine, depending on how many spin-offs you’ve read) of “Same old, same old Abercrombie”

It’s hard to describe all features of Abercrombie’s writing especially when it’s the second book in the second trilogy and you probably already know what’s going on. And unfortunately I haven't read any spin offs yet because I was very tempted by A Little Hatred’s rating and reviews, so I'm getting more and more spoilers for those here.

The book starts a little slow to remind where the previous one has ended and spends a lot of time to build up the stage for something very big and epic, but to me it somehow—I rarely like long setups, especially when it’s the second part—still feels very interesting, probably because of the writing. And I think because of the pacing and some hints from the first book you sometimes have a feeling that you know where some storylines are going like “she will do this and it will be so epic”.

Also I really like the chapters where main characters get together in one place and we get different points of view in one chapter. For example, there’s one where two characters arrive at an “entertainment” house at the same time but they’re the worst enemies and everyone there is wearing a mask, it’s awesome. Overall I find a couple of characters not very likeable, though it’s still interesting to follow their path and see how they change. To me Leo is the most boring and has almost no development, when in A Little Hatred he seems very similar to Jezal from the first trilogy.

Although there’s almost no action until the last 100 pages, it’s fine because we get a big, mad, impersonal, pointless battle which is shown from many very different points of view—pikeman, crossbowman, canon guy, messenger—that are chained together, which is a great way to show this kind of action scene.

The ending has three plot twists, one of which is shocking and devastating where a character is crushed completely. But for some characters it feels like a long awaited redemption. Also the endings in the first and the second books in both trilogies are filled with so many gripping events that you want to grab the next book.

So I really can’t wait to read The Wisdom of Crowds!

The beginning of a long, epic sci-fi—The Expanse.

The story is set in the close future solar system where capitalism is still the main driver and the amount of explored space is similar to Red Rising but the society is much closer to modern. So there are some research stations on some of Saturn’s moons and that’s the farthest we get in this book.

There’s a very short intro—compared to most other books where it’s at least a third—after which we get one gripping event after another with very short breaks between them. And also there’s a lot of mystery about what’s happening for like half or two thirds of the story which gets even more mysterious and dangerous. But then it all slows down around 70% mark until almost the very end which feels a little strange and like the authors try to build tension through a lot of text instead of a lot of exciting stuff.

Also the story is told from two points of view: a detective on the asteroid belt and a captain of some transport ship who, at the moment, works for the belt. I think they’re pretty good in showing the story from different perspectives and telling a lot of interesting details about how the world works and how people live on the asteroids. And I mostly prefer the detective here as he shows some real dangers and unpleasant details of that future, while the captain has some good points and decisions in the beginning, he later becomes too naive or strict with his rules (at least he starts to realize this in the end).

So the epically open ending promises some big events and even bigger threats. Can’t wait for the second book.

Part four of “Geralt is actually not a witcher anymore”.

I feel that the series gets better with each book and here the story and events are the most solid and to the point. Until Dijkstra shows up (although this episode is pretty short). And as always there are a lot of points of view and time jumps, however this time around they have a little more sense, purpose and context and show the story from different angles which enriches it.

While some points of view are not too interesting or last a bit longer than needed, the episodes where Ciri tells the story from the future and first person narrative from Dandelion are the best, as we’re rarely shown their perspective. And the dialogues are really immersive most of the time—when characters don’t repeat the same thing.

Also there’s a lot of classic-witcher, visceral action moments, which also feel better than ever, but some episodes can be too brutal for some readers.

And that scene on a frozen lake is just insane.

However the ending is not satisfying, as it’s too open and there are no hints at what's happening with other characters.

So I will definitely finish the story and hope the last book is even better!

The second part of The Three-Body Problem.

For the most part the plot feels slow and mystical, very similar to some classic sci-fi—like Foundation and Childhood’s End—where you and some characters don’t know what’s going on or going to happen next. Or it’s just you and the author doesn’t reveal some character’s plans. Also there are some unique—to me—alien features, which has a big impact on their communication with humans and perception of the world.

The intro (the first third) is kinda slow and I’m like "where are the aliens or some cool sci-fi stuff?", cause mostly it’s just discovering how ordinary human lives may change in that kind of alien situation. And then, as always, after the intro the plot accelerates to the first cosmic velocity. We also get some time jumps here, the last of which for me is very captivating.

Then there’s that action episode on the 80% mark… It’s just shocking.

And then it’s very devastating and depressing because The Dark Forest finally gets explained to you. But the ending suddenly becomes hopeful during the last 5 pages. Which leaves you with a lot of questions about the next book’s potential story.

Overall it’s a realistic, grounded and even scary science fiction story. Can’t wait to read the conclusion!

One more episode of Guts and Griffith in the past.

Again we get giant, very detailed action panels that still look amazing. And one on one fights are brutal and insane as always. The plot has even more mysteries and hints for the future.

But I still don't like one particular character which shows no logic in what she does. And I guess, I'm not a fan of some manga features overall—some dialogue lines and too many reaction shots. And there's another abrupt ending here...

However, I'm really invested in the story and setting, so I will read on!

Ascender continues the story of Descender, but this time it's in a fantasy setting instead of sci-fi.

And this change may sound very sudden, but it was created by the same team, so for me it felt just as mind-bogglingly beautiful as the prequel. Locations, character designs, details—really nice.

Also the plot picks up after 10 years and even has some of the old characters—which obviously has changed a lot—and overall a similar atmosphere. The new characters are also quite interesting, but there aren't a lot of them. Considering it's just the first volume, the story still has a pretty good pacing, while making all the necessary introductions, and even a sense of mystery.

So if you like Descender, then definitely read this one.

The final act of The Fade Out.

Here we have the same team that created Kill or Be Killed so the art is very similar, although there are too many close ups here. And to me the setting of early movie making studios still feels unique and very interesting.

Also the story is unpredictable and twisty and we get more character backstories. But the ending is a bit disappointing, I feel like there aren't enough hints at it in the plot and it's not too sudden or special like in Kill or Be Killed.

Overall it's a good detective in an unusual environment.

I'm sad that it's only volume 9 and this is what we got. The action and art are still good, but the jokes get repetitive.

The main story is forgotten until the last issue and almost nothing important happens anyway. And it's kinda underwhelming overall because it looks like the characters don't a have plan, so it doesn't feel like a dangerous situation. The Poyo part is quite cool and even has its own spin-off issue here.

So I think it's the last volume for me. If you're a very big fan, you'll probably still like it.

The last part of Luke, Leia and Han vs Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Overall it's a nice conclusion to the trilogy with some pretty interesting mysteries and dangers. Some story events are quite sudden and satisfying, while some of them happen "just cause" or can be easily predicted and don't lead anywhere. The Jedi action is still cool and—sometimes—impactful. However space battles are hard to understand.

And although there are the same characters here as in original Star Wars trilogy, in this book they feel too stable and not evolving at all—especially considering it's the third book. Luke is somehow still very naive and likes to surrender, but he should be a cool Jedi master. Han and Leia are too same. Also some character decisions, lines and reactions feel just too strange and unimaginable.

So if you've read the first two books, you'll most probably read this one as well.

So this volume pick up right after the ending of the previous one and for me it was a little hard to remember what happened at first.

There's a lot of time—too much for my liking—spent on backstories of the main characters. And I didn't really care about their past. maybe because it was too detailed or because I read the first volume a year ago. Also I always don't like when the villain spends most of the time just talking about their plan or issues or ways of vengeance. It's just boring.

The art is still good. So read it if you're a big fan of the first volume, I guess.

The first entry in The Murderbot Diaries is a short sci-fi adventure with cool, unusual concepts.

The story is told from first person perspective by a kinda security robot which has some social issues and likes to watch a lot of tv series.

Also there is a bit of tense action and are some mysterious detective moments. And on top of that it has an open ending...

Can't wait to read the next one!

One more adventure of the famous Geralt of Rivia in comic book format.

So here we have a nice art style with enough details and a classic witcher story with "monster" humans that Geralt doesn't want to kill. And of course classic witcher fights!

Also there's a new interesting concept for The Witcher universe, which to me still feels in place and canonical, involving some already familiar monsters.

If you like Geralt adventures, definitely read this one.

Part three of “Geralt not being a witcher”.

Although the story progresses very slowly and I don’t care about a couple sub plots, from the main saga I like this one the most (the next one may be better, reading it right now). There are some time jumps here, which sometimes feel all over the place (or time?), but to me they're not too distracting and provide some additional points of view.

The whole traveling through forests, meeting new people and making new friends, dealing with some tense situations, being on a frontline between the two armies… It feels like the author emphasizes the grimdark atmosphere more and more, as the series continues, by showing the consequences of medieval war and what scared and desperate people may do in that situation. (which also happens a lot in the next book, but I’m getting ahead of myself)

Yeah, also, Regis is just the best! And Geralt receives some upgrades in both gear and character. And the ending is really nice and even satisfying.

So it feels like the series is getting better with each book and worth continuing if you're on the fence about it. (the first half of The Tower of the Swallow is very good)