Adam

This was ok. It's violent, dark and odd. Those can be a great combination, but it didn't really do it for me here. Some of Willingham's dialogue comes so fast it seems forced. Bigby has so many exposition-dump speeches it's crazy. Like, why would anyone talk like this? I understand this is a nitpick about a book of fabled creatures come to life. I get it. BUT isn't the whole point for us to treat these stories like hard boiled noir set in our world? It's awfully stilted and some of it is too tawdry to really be entertaining. It felt over the top to me?

I dunno, I'm likely to give Willingham another chance with this series as the art was interesting enough and clearly stylized. I just don't know that his thing here is really for me. I may be looking for nuance in a place it doesn't exist.

This book got dark. That is fine by me, it only made it more compelling. I'm really curious how this story concludes now as they've introduced this idea of the Green Door and it got me. I'm completely hooked on this concept and where it might go. So many of the Hulk books I've read are about Banner and Hulk trying to live with or in spite of each other. This one is looking past both of them at what has kept the Hulk alive so long or brings him back. It also then starts looking at other Gamma infected heroes/villains. Ewing hit onto an idea that was both different for this character and interesting for his ethos. Totally recommended. - Would be a 5 star book with a different artist.

I wound up enjoying this more than I thought I would in the early going. Some of the art, especially Hulk's face in close up panels, was kind of distracting -even if it was well detailed and colored.

I got past that as time went on (and some other artists guest paneled) and the story really kicked in to gear. Early on it seemed like we were just getting a rehash of older Hulk tales, but as the story builds there was a whole new facet I wasn't familiar with. That really helped pull me into this story.

Hulk is brutal and scary while Banner is as put-upon as I've ever seen him. They are seemingly working together, grudgingly, while Banner handles day time recon and Hulk handles the dirty work after sundown. I don't know why this is suddenly some type of werewolf story, but I wasn't all that bothered. The story is interesting and deep enough in Hulk lore that it kept me hooked. Also, Sasquatch shows up from Alpha Flight and that wasn't something I saw coming.

All in all, this was an entertaining, interesting look at the Hulk and his mythos. I'm for sure picking up Vol 2.

I feel like this was the ending we deserved, but I'm going to let you all judge whether or not it's the one you wanted. I really enjoyed this volume as it tied up all the ends I needed it to. I also feel like my brain was wrung through a pasta machine now that I'm on the other end. - That's one of the things I loved about this series though: it asked a lot of us just to keep up and not lose track of any of the threads. There was a lot of time jumping and new (and old) characters popping in and out. If you managed to hang on, it was really rewarding. Thanks [a:Brian K. Vaughan 24514 Brian K. Vaughan https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1557530189p2/24514.jpg] and [a:Cliff Chiang 674079 Cliff Chiang https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], this was different, fun and exciting. I hope people keep discovering it for a long time to come.

This is a really powerful book that does a lot with very little. The art by [a:Harmony Becker 18567039 Harmony Becker https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] is subtle black & white and really inviting. It's all ages friendly, but after that this book grows up real fast. If you haven't heard [a:George Takei 260482 George Takei https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1563375976p2/260482.jpg] speak about his time in an American concentration camp, this is the time to hear his story. As a Japanese American living in California in the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he has a life story that's both hard to comprehend and incredibly relevant now. That's the part that makes me saddest, how relevant and important this story is right now. I am recommending this to a lot people because this is an incredibly underrepresented and misunderstood moment in American history. Takei and his co-writers make this an accessible and approachable history lesson because we see it as both a child and a man looking back. The narrative is constructed to allow a grown George to tell us about his childhood and reflect on how it was so different for his parents and all they did to protect him and his siblings. Please read this, please give it to a young person who doesn't read non-fiction and watch it change their mind.

Another fantastic installment moving us down the tracks of hip hop history. Plenty of intrigue, invention and fun.

I wish this was longer, I wish I had some idea when (if) vol 5 was coming, I wish that this had gotten farther in the timeline... mostly I'm sad it's over because it was really fun. These aren't complaints about the volume, this is the feeling of getting to the bottom of the ice cream cone and being sad that there's none left, just a sad napkin.

The Beastie Boys really arrive in this one and we spend more time with Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons. The Fat Boys (who were a personal favorite of mine thanks to an absolutely terrible movie they were in when I was young that I certainly didn't understand, but enjoyed the broad comedy and beat boxing Disorderlies) are here along with a whole new list of luminaries in the Hip Hop hallows. This series is the best kind of history book. Thanks [a:Ed Piskor 468319 Ed Piskor https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1412564323p2/468319.jpg] for all the hard work that must have gone into the research and plotting of this story. The art brings me a lot of joy and I can't image that was easy either. ... so yeah, Thank you.

This was even better than the first volume! Ed managed to include more dates in this one to help the reader track the evolution of the art form. Lots of cross over with the growing punk movement and alllllll sorts of new, wild people introduced into this crazy, chaotic, truly fascinating scene.

There is a certain old-school quality to both the art and the presentation here. I'm reading it digitally, so I don't get to hold the giant, oversized book these come in, BUT the color and printing all look like comics I grew up on. -this is me once again admitting I'm largely the target demographic for this series.

For me this book was great, but I don't know that it's a 5 star book for everyone. Ed Piskor is someone who wound up on my radar after working with Harvey Pekar and his underground influences can be felt in the art. He is one of those guys who took inspiration from R. Crumb and makes things are either personal or he finds personally interesting and seemingly creates them without worry about audience reception.

For me this is a cross-section of things I enjoy: hip hop history, underground art/comics, deeply nerdy deep cuts. This book pairs well the the Netflix series “Hip-Hop Evolution” and if you're looking for a good primer on the early days of the art form. Both are really interesting and entertaining, but the series probably does a better job clearing up the historical timeline with first person accounts and interviews. This book is visually fun and engrossing. It may be lighter on firm timelines and hard facts, but it's first a graphic-novel: it excels at creating a rouges gallery of characters who are all unique and mesmerizing in their own way. Can't wait to read the next one!

Woooooooo, Lemire and Nguyen are back baby! Descender did this great thing, much like Star Wars, where you get some space opera & some fantasy/magic elements. These two give you a much more dynamic world than either “genre” might on it's own and -for me- it really worked. The characters, humanity and tension all built issue after issue to this amazing conclusion. (so I guess go read [b:Decenders Vol. One 48224286 Decenders Vol. One Jeff Lemier https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1569096937l/48224286.SY75.jpg 73467010] if you haven't already)Confession time: I've been subscribed to this book as a month title at my local comic book shop since before it launched, however I have had such a busy year I haven't read single issues of anything in months. The collected trade here was my first chance to get into this world and it does. not. disappoint. Someone please tell me [a:Dustin Nguyen 306735 Dustin Nguyen https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1305954729p2/306735.jpg] has won an award, any award, for his cover art on these books. They are amazing both in scope and composition and do what any good cover should do: pull you into the book and story immediately. We're introduced to new antagonists immediately and the differences in the world of Descender and this one are immediately apparent in the best way possible. It sets you up for a familiar cast to tell you a whole new story. It would be really hard to talk about this without getting spoilery quick, so I'll just say it gets a whole-hearted recommendation from me and if you like fantasy comics or stories about complicated family dynamics, this book will satisfy. I received an ARC from Edelweiss.

There was a lot to enjoy about this one. [a:Andrea Sorrentino 4872615 Andrea Sorrentino https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] has some really impressive art that gives this book a very distinctive, grounded feel. [a:Jeff Lemire 543719 Jeff Lemire https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1300396580p2/543719.jpg] isn't a stranger to oddly esoteric stories, but this feels dark for him. It was weird in all the right ways and while it was a slower trip it was easy to keep going. I kind of liked that it wasn't a break neck speed, it let the tension build in a way that worked for me. I don't read a lot of comics like this, but (probably thanks to my affinity for Lemire) I found I was really involved with this and will certainly come back for more.

Great volume all around. Almost no Saitama in this one, but really does a great job of focusing on Garo and all the trouble he's creating. Plenty of great fighting and amazing art. I enjoyed that the story in this one was more focused and our cast of characters was able to support it without the titular hero in here much.
Another great entry in a really fun series.

Let me save you the time. Nothing here matters and it's not worth the time.
It's not a fun Deadpool, you don't get any personality from anyone in X-Force and again, it's all retconned by the last page. The only reasons it's not 1 star is Pepe Larraz's art is genuinely enjoyable.

What a colossal disappointment. I'm immediately going to start something else now to cleanse the palate.

I may have to read this again at some point and re-evaluate how I feel about it. This is a series of short comics that all look and feel like they belong in a Zine somewhere. I read it to intentionally read something different and something I might not normally see. Parts of this were really entertaining and interesting. Some of it was so bizarrely disjointed I lost focus. I wish I could rate this higher, but in terms of just layout and readability there was 1 story I had to skip all together because it was too “high concept” (and just terrible in terms of execution.)

I will gladly read more by Nowak as her art and voice ARE different and there should be space for that. This was just like driving with one flat tire. Not as enjoyable as I hoped it would be and more work that was really worth it.

Yeah, this nonsense is getting a 2 star review because I still have no idea how I feel about it. I don't think it was bad, necessarily, but I also don't think it was a good as it thinks it is. This takes itself very seriously, which is fine, but I don't know that it worked for me. The parts that should have been lighter weren't and it kind of felt at times like the whole thing came out of a 15 year old's diary. It had a lot of mixed genre elements and while that might have sounded good in the elevator pitch, it made it really muddy to read.

I don't know. I might read some of the next volume? woof. If any of you try this one, let me know because I need to talk about it to try and figure it out.

I was fully ready not to enjoy this as much as I enjoyed the first. I prefer the first book, but this wound up being much more fun and compelling by the end. Locke and Jean are a great pair and the sort of trouble they tend to get in makes for interesting reading. By the time this book was over it I could see that Scott Lynch has a formula he enjoys and there are beats that I will expect to find in the next book. That's not terrible, but I did notice it.

I would have liked a few more victories for our heroes, just to make parts of this easier to read. They get kicked to hell a lot and there are times you just want something good to happen to them to keep us reading and cheering. Also, MOST of the real action happens in like that last quarter of this book, making sections of the middle feel too long or sort of needless. - I don't think it's spoilery, but there weren't really flashbacks in this book the way there were in the first. You don't get much of Father Chains or the extended family and I know that changed the feeling of this for me.

That said I'm 100% in for the third book. There is a lot left unfinished and enough people still un-robbed. I'm hoping the next returns some of the things I missed from the first now that Lynch has piracy out of his system.

Woo, that was a ride. I like a good heist story and this certainly starts out as one, but at some point [a:Scott Lynch 73149 Scott Lynch https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1332432746p2/73149.jpg] puts the pedal to the floor and he never really let back up. I was just over 50% through this and I was thinking “In other books, the pace and action we're at here would indicate we're near the climax of this story.” This one, not so much. There was still so much to do! (I did turn to a co-worker around this point and tell her the character's I didn't think were going to make it to the end of the book and she just shook her head knowingly, waiting for me to finish because there was going to be a lot to unpack)Locke and company are really entertaining, they think themselves cleverer than everyone else and the author does a good job letting you keep up with some of their schemes and surprising you other places. The antagonists also worked for me. I hated a lot of people in this book due to my love for all our protagonists. There are lots of things we learn through flashbacks and interludes, which helped pace this story in a way that kept it from just running away from you. You had to pause and breath every once in a while. It's a familiar world with minor fantasy touches of light magic and “alchemy” of sorts. Wholeheartedly recommend this one. Downloaded the next book in the series from my library literal minutes after finishing this one because I wasn't done with this world yet.

I'm hard pressed to say something bad about this series normally, more so when it's been so long since I've been able to read a new volume. This issue was not bad, but it was also kind of slow by OPM standards. There was lots of build up for what's actually happening with the Monster Association and what is actually going on with that entire plot line (which was nice because that's been a long time coming.) Saitama and King have a pretty lengthy conversation about what's more important, the destination or the journey as being so strong has left Saitama feeling hallow.

There is really nothing wrong with this volume and some of the ideas that come out help fill out what is sometimes a too action packed book with a little more substance. That being said, it's also hard not to feel a little let down when our hero doesn't really get to do much of anything at all. –This is a 4 star review not 3 because they were smart enough to put Watchdog Man on the cover.

Work has been crazy, so I'm way behind on things like reviews (and probably reading in general.) This was the I Read Comic Books Book of the Month for May and I was really intrigued going in. Our library had it on the shelf that day so I jumped in and was immediately confused.

The art was great and really evocative and I went back to look at several pages again after finishing. The story itself, while interesting, was really clunky in execution. I found myself wondering if it was a translation issue or just underwhelming dialogue... I dunno.

This was creepy and weird in all the right ways, but it couldn't live up to it's own aspirations. I was really kind of disappointed by large parts of it even if the ending was good. It felt like someone wanted to do a dialogue-less book, but chickened out at the last moment and put the bare minimum amount of text in.

This book is great. It's Hellboy without Hellboy and that's not at all bad. Hellboy has walked off the job leaving Abe as the de facto leader of the BPRD's field squad. This also, to his chagrin, makes him kind of the moral heart and soul of the place. Neither seem to be jobs he wants and his love and respect for Liz Sherman (and Roger and eventually Johann) keep him around.

There are some really interesting side stories here and while the art kind of jumps around more than I'd like in the Hellboy-verse, it was never enough to pull me out of the story or action. The aforementioned “Plague of Frogs” seems to be setting us up for some pretty epic story action and there is even some introduction here to Abe actually origin story.
Wholehearted recommended.

There's a lot of great world building here for fans of Hellboy. You get to see a younger Professor Trevor Bruttenholm build the beginnings of the B.P.R.D. and start down the path that leads us to all the great Hellboy books to come.

This volume is broken down by year and my only real gripe was 1948 was a little long winded. Trevor gets a little caught up by a pretty face and there is a lot of science/magic/physics happening, which would be fine, but it gets so wordy and hard to follow. There were parts where I was just jumping ahead blocks of speech because it wasn't adding anything and got kind of tedious. That being said, the story lines in that are really interesting to watch unfold.

As always, the Mignola-verse delivers.

I forget how this got on my radar, but I'm glad it was as I really enjoyed it!

It's a fantasy graphic novel that really feels aimed at a YA audience. I'm really bummed I didn't read this during the YA Reading Challenge as this would have been perfect. I'll certainly recommend it to the the tween-teen age group looking for non-superhero graphic novels. It's a historical setting with minor magic woven in. There is court intrigue at the heart of this story and it's not overly violent or romantic.

While the stuff Morrison wrote was interesting and different, the art... the art...the terrible terrible art. So many mullets. So many cut off jeans. so many cut off tee-shirts.

I gotta tell you, it was completely distracting for me. I understand this is a product of it's time, but woof. This was also sort of disjointed and I kept trying to figure out if there were issues that were missing. I dunno. I would love for this to have been better or more impressive considering the source, but meh... I guess?

This was a really quick read and I actually liked it a lot. I haven't read a lot of stand alone Catwoman titles so I didn't really have much in the way of expectations coming into this. The story picks up right after her and Batman should have gotten married (which I missed because I'm woefully behind on Batman monthly-s) and I had no problem jumping into the story here.

Catwoman got out of Gotham for a bit and ran afoul of one of the darker villains I've seen from a mainstream DC title that wasn't a Morrison creation. Someone is copying her down to the costume and it's a part of a much larger (and entertaining) picture. It gets pretty spoiler-y from here, but it's definitely worth your time as the story and art sync up really nicely and make for a satisfying read.

Looking forward to seeing where this story is headed.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

-Read for 2019 YA Reading Challenge-

This was one I had been meaning to read for a while and I'm not sure how I felt about it. I may have expected too much from KSD and company here. The art was fine, but not necessarily arresting. The dialog was snappy, but not quite as amusing as it thinks it is. The story was interesting, but maybe not enough? It all felt like it had a higher opinion of itself than what it was actually delivering on.
I don't know, I think the by-line here is that this just didn't do as much as I wanted it to. Others might come to this title with none of the baggage I brought with me and really love it. I just could feel great about it.