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Awesome debut issue of Sheltered, which is now a series I definitely recommend people try! I didn't know what to expect and it certainly was something unexpected--the entire idea of the series and the issue #1 twist. A series about "Preperationists" would have to be eerie and unnerving, and this certainly was.

I feel too much more might give it away? (And I'm posting on my phone so I don't feel like going on).

Is that supposed to be a link? It's not linking for me.

Who's writing this? artist? SOMETHING!

Go ON!

please

Not posting from a phone ;), so here's a link to a story about Sheltered.

"The ongoing "Sheltered" is about a group of "Preppers" living in the fictional town of Safe Haven. When the story begins the townspeople are gearing up and hunkering down for the apocalypse, and the series understandably features plenty of enclosed spaces, hair-triggers and the intensity of a community focused on preparing for the end of days. What makes one vigilant and not paranoid when faced with these encroaching themes and this day-to-day life? How do different views come into play in such a tightly wound environment? Brisson and Christmas joined CBR News to talk about preparing for the apocalypse and what it means to be "Sheltered.""

(Okay, now I'm at a computer...)

FC gave a good overview of the series, which centers on a "preppers", the people who believe the end is nigh and are thus building underground bunkers full of canned food, fresh water, etc. So the series is not Post-Apocalpytic, but rather Pre-Apocalyptic. Whether that end of times will ever actually come is left up in the air (for now?), which makes it all the more eerie.

The story is really going to be a high-tension character piece about what happens when people really start thinking the end is coming. Thus far, it is very intelligent and isn't going for the easy answers, easy scares or easy characterizations. By being so realistic, that increases the tension and weirdness IMO.

Of course, it all comes down to delivery, and the pacing, dialogue and artwork really present a cool debut. The tension increases throughout the issue and the twist at the end is horrifying, realistic and makes me highly anticipate the next issue.

Thanks.

Sounds interesting enough to pick up an issue. Maybe I'll get some good tips, uh, I mean decorating ideas for my outside basement.

There's a bonus page at the end of #1 that gives you those exact tips. I can't tell if its tongue-in-cheek, or written by a real "Prepper". It really comes across as the latter.

Read the second trade of Glory this past week. (didn't realize it was so short) but it was damn good.

It had the same formula of all the epic comic book, someone must die, endings but ... was quite a bit more charming than any of those stories.

... all that and a happy ending of sorts.

I'd give it four and half:

The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys continues to be a character driven version of a cross between Bladerunner and Mad Max.


It has me hooked in, while like Glory, representing age old comic book and sci fi conventions.

I find all the books I really am enjoying lately are like this, sci fi or thriller first within a comic book medium ... and comic book second.

P.S. I am also loving the underdog heroic blue porn bot.

I'll give this five just for that uber invention ... because she's a character, not an exploitation, and a porn bot second (or third she's seems to have some depth).

I have American Vampire volume three setting on my shelf. But it took a long time to get through the Western (what I assume) is a prequel.

FLEX MENTALLO, by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely, originally published 1996, collected in hardcover 2012.

If I hadn't been so anti-DC and so anti-Vertigo at the time, and if 1996 hadn't been such a horrible year for comics in general, I might not have missed this masterpiece the first time around. There's some parallel universe out there where a young Fanfie read this in 1996, and her life was altered for the better.

For this is genuinely a life-altering comic, the first thing I've read by Morrison that truly lives up to the hype. Oh, I've enjoyed a few other things of his -- 7 Soldiers, All Star Supes, and especially Animal Man. Really, if you liked Animal Man, you'll love this -- guaranteed. Because Morrison explores a lot of the same themes -- superheroes before they became tainted by pseudo-realism, the elusive nature of reality -- but in a much more self-assured way, and, crucially, with art that is more than merely functional. Yes, Frank Quitely is an acquired taste, but here he and Morrison achieve that rare kind of creative chemistry which can only be called transcendental. Quitely's combination of indie quirkiness and abundant detail fits Morrison's story like a hand in glove.

The incorruptibly sweet-natured titular superhero, who looks to me kind of like a muscle-bound Morrissey in a loincloth (Morrison is definitely a Smiths fan, I don't know what he thinks of solo Morrissey) sets out on a quest to find his former teammate and best friend, The Fact (a Question/Batman analog), which leads him through the grimy city and beyond, into worlds of both horror and wonder. Running parallel to Flex's quest is the emotional breakdown of a drugged-up loser and wannabe rock star as he babbles on the phone about superheroes.

If you're rolling your eyes and thinking, "Typical Morrison," hang on a second, because as a former Morrison skeptic, I came into this with zero expectations. What's most amazing is not that it delivers, but that it delivers because of Morrison's self-consciously cerebral meta-commentary, not in spite of it!

As I was typing this rave review, I had to bring myself back down to Earth with the sobering reminder that Morrison followed up "Flex Mentallo" with the bombastic mediocrity of what I call "The Infallible Batman featuring the JLA."

Thus the question for me is no longer, "Can Morrison deliver 100%?", but rather, "Will Morrison ever scale these heights again?"

Man, I have to get Flex Mentallo! Now I'm more anxious than ever. Over the years Quitely has continued to rise to the top of my favorite creators in comics list.

I picked up Jupiter's Legacy, seems like it will be interesting.

I look forward to finding out what you think, Cobie. Glad my review helped.

I am a bit curious about Villains Month and the Villains Forever title ... because I love the Crime Syndicate but the issue seemed very similar to that of Ryan Choi's death in Brightest Day but with the beloved Dick Grayson being beat up the whole time.



beside the art was sketchy. Comics are too short now for any compromises on quality or for characters to stand around talking about what they're *gonna* do.

... and I think the only reason to care if Nightwing is beat up and killed ... is because of his history. If it was just the latest reboot Nightwing ... is there a reason to care?

I think there is one of your many problems DC.

I was pleasantly surprised by the debut of the new X-Files "Season Ten" comic published by IDW. I found the story gripping and petty fresh, even as it embraced the complex continuity of the TV show and picked up the status quo established by the post-show "I Want to Believe" feature film of a few years ago.

I'm a big fan of the show, even as I recognize its flaws and how it really waned in its last few years. Unlike most reviewers, I thought the latest movie revival was pretty good. So I was excited, though a little pessimistic, when I heard IDW was bringing it back. IDW has done well with licensed properties in the past, but their reputation isn't as good as Dark Horse's or Dynamite's in that regard.

But I definitely liked this debut, even though it was an incomplete story billed as a five-parter. It set up a mysterious threat very well, showed what Mulder, Scully and Skinner are up to and left me wanting to read more. Doesn't hurt that series creator Chris Carter is personally involved, just as Joss Whedon is overseeing the Buffyverse comics at Dark Horse.

I like the art, which was reminiscent of Charlie Adlard's work on the excellent previous X-Files series that Topps Comics published when the show was still on TV. Kind of plain and no-frills, but also a little stark, edgy and very appropriate. The characters weren't perfect likenesses of the actors, but they were recognizable.

So after the first issue, "I Want to Believe" that I'll be enjoying new X-Files stories in comics form for the foreseeable future!

I've started up Blog Shanghalla again. Here are my thoughts on this week's comics, crossposted from there:



Astro City #4
DC/Vertigo, $3.99, 40 pages
Story Grade: A
DNA Score: 82.50
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This is how you give your narrator a voice. One can't help but get a sense for the main character, and a feeling that no one else could have told this tale. This is really a great book that explores what happens when you have super-powers, but have no driving need to go out and right wrongs, or rob banks. My only complaint is that Brent Anderson's art looks terribly rushed. He's a great draftsman as I know from past experience and his layouts are near impeccable. But there are parts of this issue that look like I feel when an editor is breathing down my neck as the presses start to roll. I hope it won't crush Anderson's artistic integrity, or that of Kurt Busiek, but I really would like to see an inker brought on board, even if it's just to assist with backgrounds and minor characters. However, if an inker is hired and he or she does any of the primary characters, it must be someone with a facility at old-fashioned brushwork, which I think Anderson's style demands.



Batman #23.2
DC Comics, $3.99, 32 pages (3-D cover)
Story Grade: A
DNA Score: 81.25
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

And just like that, The Riddler goes from someone who could be played on film by Jim Carrey, to a character who demands the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch, or Tom Hiddleston. Yeah, that's right, remember when you thought The Riddler was lame? Well, not anymore, friend! Scott Snyder has been rehabilitating ol' Eddie in his "Batman Zero Year" tale — about the only part of that saga that's working for me, I'm afraid — but really brings it home here, adeptly elevating The Riddler back unto the upper pantheon of Batman villains where he belongs. Now, he's not just a villain with his own shtick, he's come into his own as a full-fledged psychopath. He is become Batman's Moriarty. I do have a few quibbles with this issue. The toss of the cane over the metal detector could have been better depicted and I'm not quite sure how or where the riddles got "out of order." Still, Snyder gives us such a great character, presumably riddled with a deep-seeded self-loathing that fuels his superiority complex, that I don't care. It also helps that Snyder gives us supporting players who transcend the stock roles they could have taken. Oh, one final quibble, however — that is one weird-ass looking Batman on the cover, with his waist longer than his thighs.



Aquaman #23.1
DC Comics, $2.99, 32 pages
Story Grade: B+
DNA Score: 68.00
MODERATELY RECOMMENDED

Here we get an alternate view on the events in Forever Evil #1 in a style that might as well be titled, "Black Manta and Guildenstern Are Dead." That's all fine and well, but to be successful, the two works need to match up exactly. A lot is lost if characters say more than they had time to say in the original work (Amanda Waller), say things differently (Monocle), or speak their lines at different times and places (Ultraman). This story reminds me that I'm still pissed off about the New 52 Aquaman being an unrepentant and unpunished killer, but this issue does a decent job at transferring Black Manta's revenge-fueled psychosis from Aquaman to Ultraman, setting up, I'm sure, events in future issues of Forever Evil. I say decent, and not great, largely because of the art. Claude St. Aubin does a perfectly adequate job telling the story, but the drawings seem a little flat, lacking any palpable emotion. As a result, the underlying motivators that fuel Manta's obsession come off as pat. In the end, I'm less, "Oh, my God, did you see what happened to Manta's father?!" than, "Meh. Okay, so he hates Ultraman now." I mean, all the pieces are there, this issue is just missing that little extra something.



The Flash #23.2
DC Comics, $2.99, 32 pages
Story Grade: B
DNA Score: 72.75
RECOMMENDED

Manapul and Buccallato have built a better Reverse-Flash, I think. And, given what we know of the character's pre-Crisis history, i.e. the death of Iris Allen at his hands, his every future appearance will bring an added undercurrent of uncertainly and dread. So, good work. Also nice in this issue are the crickets and how they create a sort of metronome that soothes the villain's fractured —and fractious — psyche. There are faults however. I'm old-fashioned enough to believe the fill-in artists should ape the style of the main illustrator on a book. Scott Hepburn does an able job in some places, but the art really goes off the rails in others as he tries to be Manapul. However, as the Reverse-Flash goes further back in time, Hepburn begins to draw in what may be his natural style, and the work improves markedly. Sadly, the villain's narration reads like something straight out of central scripting, as if the words could have been said by almost anyone. Nothing really makes the voice of the narrator sing in quite the same way as this week's issue of Astro City. It doesn't help, I guess, that Papa West is a stereotypical bad dad, with no redeeming characteristics. It's a wonder Iris isn't a total basketcase herself.



X-Men #5
Marvel Comics, $3.99, 28 pages
Story Grade: B-
DNA Score: 66.50
MILDLY RECOMMENDED

I wondered if I was going to get burned on the books I don't normally buy which are crossing over into the "Battle of the Atom" story. The verdict: Not burned, just maybe slightly singed. This issue feels a bit like filler. Marvel Girl and Cyclops were on the run in the previous chapter and they're still on the run at the end of this one. There's an attempt to capture them that sort of unsuspends my disbelief in how utterly unsuccessful it is, while Kitty Pryde going rogue on the plan seems not quite in character for her, at least as she's been depicted this far in All-New X-Men, the only X-title I followed regularly going into this saga. The art is good, but lacks a certain amount of dynamism that kind of throws off the battle scene for me. The scripting lacks the punch that marks All-New, while the one attempt at humor — the babysitting scene — feels tacked on for no particular reason other than to pass the time. This wasn't a bad book by any means, but I certainly didn't see anything here that will compel me to continue buying this title after the current storyline is over.



Buck Rogers #1
Hermes Press, $3.99, 32 pages
Story Grade: C+
DNA Score: 60.25
RESERVEDLY RECOMMENDED

Well, now — one of the original red-blooded American heroes recast as a bleeding pinko. That's a concept that actually has some promise and, as Howard Chaykin points out in the interview contained in this issue, it makes a certain amount of sense given the timeframe Buck hails from. However, we know Buck here as a union organizer, if not an outright Communist sympathizer, only because he tells us that's what he is. Apart from his saying "plutocrat" as often as Wolverine says "bub," we really don't get much evidence of Buck's political leanings though his words and deeds. Unfortunately, a large part of this issue is Buck telling others things they should already know about his history and how the previous 500 years passed on earth while he slept in an state is suspended animation. That information should have been folded out as part of the ongoing action, not as a history lesson that brought the issue's momentum to a full stop. That said, there is promise here. Essentially, it seems Buck is fated to become a sort of union boss over several locals (i.e. the fractured American rebel forces) as he organizes them against management (that being the Chinese). Sadly, fight scenes that could have really kicked this issue up a notch fell flat for me, in part because Chaykin left himself so little room after Buck's big lecture, and partly because I found the digital sound effects so annoyingly mechanical.



Earth-2 #15.2
DC Comics, $3.99, 32 pages (3-D cover)
Story Grade: D-
DNA Score: 37.50
NOT RECOMMENDED ON ANY EARTH

OH. EM. GEE! This was SO bad. When I tweeted this issue I actually gave it an F. I've since relented a bit, as the artwork is actually pretty decent, if undynamic. But really, I read this book in three minutes and 25 seconds. Given that I got the 3-D cover at $3.99, that comes to $1.17 per minute. Boy and girls, phone sex is a better value for your entertainment dollar! I can't imagine anyone not already intimately familiar with Solomon Grundy, the character's New 52 history in this title, and the nursery rhyme from which he takes his name, being able to make heads or tails of this issue. We have Grundy in the now crashing to earth and sucking the life out of everything he touches as he takes a southwest walkabout in search of "the green man," interspersed with scenes of a dude names Sol losing his nut in 1898. Other than the fact that Grundy, unnamed but on the cover, and Sol both recite snatches of the same rhyme, there's nothing at all to connect past to present. A clever reader might get that the two are reading from the same poem, but the point is completely lost unless you already happen to know the full verse. The part set in the past has a mechanical plot and wooden dialogue right out of the worst B-movie imaginable. But as laughable as the flashback scenes are, what we get is far outweighed by what Kindt withholds. We aren't told what about the swamp turned Sol into Grundy, how Grundy got into space, or why he seeks the green man, let alone who that person may be. You either already know what's going on here, or you know nothing. This issue fails unless you've been reading comics for 40 years. Of course, I have been reading comics for 40 years and it failed for me nonetheless. This was just a total hack job with an editor absolutely asleep at the switch.

Totally agree, PB! Astro City is the only remaining book on my pull list. I may need to add Guardians of the Galaxy soon, though.

I picked up the new Mighty Avengers today. I liked it. Land is a big plus but cage sounds right, the annoying Spider Man was fun if a bit more sassy than funny, and ....


Monica Rambeau .... without a trench coat. I love her. Always have.

and seems like she will have all her old powers (instead of a limited set she had for a while).


plus ... They fight Thanos ... which I thought was a joke at first ... but Captain Marvel 2 and Power Man 1 gave a good stare down on the final splash page.

Tracker, I recommend Guardians of the Galaxy which has been a blast thus far. All around a ton of fun.

Also agree with all comments on Astro City. Man, it feels to have it back regularly.

Is anyone else reading The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys?

Because you should be. I have no criticisms of it, it moves along at a great pace, the art is fantastic, and the characters are so real you want to hug your comic book.

It is the best type of sci fi, not about the future at all but about the human condition.

Number one cover with a preview!

http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/16-705/The-True-Lives-of-the-Fabulous-Killjoys-1-Becky-Cloonan-cover

It is on four now, and four is my favorite issue of the bunch so far. issue one was good too.

I like it too. I like a bunch of things more right now, but I definitely look forward to each new issue. The big draw is of course Becky Cloonan's art which his just fantastic.

I read issue 1 of Killjoys, and it really didn't grab me. I found the concept confusing and the characters flat. Becky Cloonan's art was nice, though. But combined with the $3.99 price and the not overly impressive debut, I passed on future issues. I'm glad I held off on buying the rest of the issues for months until I finally read issue 1. It saved me some $$$.

I guess I'm not wired for Gerard Way like you young'uns because I didn't really care for Umbrella Academy either.

Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo

By Joe R. Lansdale and Tim Truman

Jonah Hex is gonna be hanged as we open this 5 issue tale. Obviously, the mini wouldn’t go very far if he was…so he is saved by an old bounty hunter named Slow Go Smith. Hex and Smith decide to join forces (kinda) for a while and they head off after the one that got away.

They get a room at the nearest town and Hex throws Smith out for snoring. Then everything hits the fan. Something else else happens to Smith, and Jonah is blamed…so off to the hangmans noose again. But in a turn of events, Jonah being nice to someone helps him out of this and he is off after Doc "Cross" Williams and a gang of Zombies.

Yep, this here book has Zombies in it. “What kind of Zombies?” you ask. Both kinds.

Joe R. Lansdale writes us a fun tale of the old west with a twist. What is really going on? Are these really zombies…or something else? How will Jonah survive against both Doc "Cross" Williams, Apache raiders and some military types? The answer may surprise you. Oh yeah, Wild Bill Hickok plays a role in all this as well.

The art by Tim Truman is everything you would expect from him. It’s awesome. Very gritty and dirty looking, definitely not a polished looking old west.

They did a total of three Hex Mini’s under the Vertigo imprint. So, you have two more peeks into the life ant times of Jonah Hex…after his trip to the future and before he returned with Greypal.