Bodyguard (2021) Dassy Bernhard (The Bodyguards) An orphan. With secret superpowers. Who works as a bodyguard. Tang Jun-young had hoped that saving the K-Pop boy band he was guarding flew under the radar, with people paying attention to the musicians rather than the nameless man who saved them. But no such luck, as the chairman […]

Jessica Jones Vol. 1: Uncaged! (2017) Brian Michael Bendis, David W. Mack, Michael Gaydos Several notes here: 1. I know nothing about Jessica Jones. I never watched Alias. I don’t follow the Avengers. I picked this up because Jessica Jones is a female private investigator and that piqued my curiosity. 2. I have the digital […]

Rising Stars: Visitations (2002) J. Michael Straczynski Visitations is four short stories, the first two of which are the background of what the Specials were. Interestingly, the recurring character throughout the entire run is Dr Wells, the man who was supposed to watch the kids, but also report on them to the government. The first […]

Rising Stars: Voices of the Dead / Bright (2006) by Fiona Avery, Dan Jurgens, Staz Johnson, Al Rio This is actually the last published of the Rising Stars comics, but it’s my least favorite, and since there was no need to read the latter comics in order, I read it before Visitations because I don’t […]

Rising Stars, Vol. 3: Fire And Ash (2005) J. Michael Straczynski, Keu Cha, Ken Lashley, Christian Zanier, Jason Gorder, John Livesay, Edwin Rosell, David Wohl, Dennis Heisler, Dreamer Design, Robin Spehar, Liquid!, Matt Nelson, John Starr, Tyson Wengler And the story ends. We see the culmination of the paranoia and fear that those in power […]

Rising Stars, Vol. 2: Power (2002) by J. Michael Straczynski, Ken Lashley, Christian Zanier, Stuart Immonen, Brent Anderson, John Livesay, Brett Evans, Dan Kemp If, perhaps, you thought the first volume was a little confusing, this volume begins with a synopsis: “Mediaweek: Ten Years After” which gets you up to speed on what happened before, […]

Rising Stars, Vol. 1: Born In Fire (2001) J. Michael Straczynski, Jason Gorder, Keu Cha, Christian Zanier I really really love this comic. Enough so that this is the first time I’ve actually stopped between volumes to review the first separately (usually I just plow right through without stopping). Here is the start: This is […]

Mockingbird Vol. 2: My Feminist Agenda (2017) Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Sean Parsons, Rachelle Rosenberg Clarification: the last two chapters (issues) in this book are NOT written by Chelsea Cain et al. They from The New Avengers. I didn’t like them. The difference between the two was kind of amazing. In the Cain chapters, Bobbi […]

Mockingbird Vol. 1: I Can Explain (2016) Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Ibrahim Moustafa, Joelle Jones I said after the first time I read this it was going to need a second reading. But I decided to wait until I had a paper version of the comic, since the ebook versions of comics don’t work well […]

Mockingbird Vol. 2: My Feminist Agenda (2017) Chelsea Cain and Kate Niemczyk I’ll be honest, I didn’t understand most of what was going on here. But I really didn’t care, because I found the whole thing fascinating. Mocking bird receives a ticket to a cruise from an anonomous source. Since she’s trying to get out […]

Mockingbird Vol. 1: I Can Explain (2016) Chelsea Cain, Joelle Jones, Ibrahim Moustafa, Kate Niemczyk To be honest, I think I need to read this again later. There was much I liked–a lot I liked–but the story was described as a puzzle box, and some of it seemed to depend upon previous knowledge of characters, […]

Wonder Woman, Vol. 1: Blood (2012) Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang, and Tony Akins This is part of the DC New 52. I picked it up first as an ecomic, but could not get into it reading in that format–I can see the page as a whole OR I can read the text. Not both. So […]

Mighty Thor Vol. 1: Thunder in her Veins (2017) Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman So what do I like about Mighty Thor? I really really liked the parts about Jane Foster, about her history with Thor and Odin and Loki. But mostly about her fight with cancer, and how being Thor is working against her […]

Thor Vol. 2: Who Holds the Hammer? (2016) Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, Matthew Wilson, Jason Aaron, Noell Stevenson, CM Punk This is the second volume of Thor, Goddess of Thunder, and I’m finding that my lack of grounding in the Marvel mythos and history is starting to become a problem. It felt like there was […]

Thor Vol 1: Goddess of Thunder (2015) Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman I picked this up after reading the first bit in A-Force Presents which was a lovely introduction to some of Marvel’s female heroes. I initially wasn’t sure about Thor, because there was a good amount of background that I was missing, but I […]

She-Hulk Volume 2: Disorderly Conduct (2015) Charles Soule and Javier Pulido She-Hulk is fun, and I enjoyed reading these two volumes, but I don’t think that this is a series I’ll continue reading. There are a couple threads in this volume. She-Hulk has to work with a variety of different super heroes, getting miniaturized, and […]

She-Hulk Vol. 1: Law and Disorder (2014) Charles Soule, Javier Pulido, and Ron Wimberly The A-Force Presents Vol I was my introduction to Jennifer Walters. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy her story (after all, she’s not damaged and conflicted–she’s instead stable with a good head on her shoulders). But I wasn’t expecting a well-adjusted lawyer, […]

Black Widow Vol. 3: Last Days (2015) Nathan Edmondson and Phil Noto This is the closing volume of the Black Widow trilogy, and was very — difficult and depressing aren’t quite the right words, but much of it was hard to read. We see glimpses of Natasha’s past through the story, and the volume closes […]

Black Widow Vol. 2: The Tightly Tangled Web (2015) Nathan Edmondson and Phil Noto This is the second volume of Nathan Edmondson’s Black Widow run, and although I enjoyed it, parts of it were difficult to follow because I am not immersed in the Marvel Avengers world. Winter Soldier, Punisher–apparently Black Widow appeared in these […]

Black Widow Volume 1: The Finely Woven Thread (2015) Nathan Edmondson and Phil Noto Oh, I liked this one lots! I have not seen the Avenger movies, or read any of the Avenger comics–I just know tangential bits picked up from here and there (because: geek). Natasha is the Black Widow, who was formerly a […]

A-Force Presents Vol. 1 (2015) by G. Willow Wilson, Nathan Edmondson, Kelly Sue Deconnick, Jason Aaron, Phil Noto, David Lopez, Adrian Alphona, Russell Dauterman This is brilliant. These are six introductory stories to six female characters in the Marvel world: Black Widow, Captain marvel, Thor, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. It’s a […]

Ms. Marvel Vol. 3: Crushed (2015) G. Willow Wilson, Takeshi Miyazawa, Elmo Bondoc The third volume of Ms. Marvel finds Kamala Khan still struggling with her identity as an Inhuman, but also with keeping the secret from her family. There are a lot of amusing jokes for older readers here–references to many general pop-culture geek […]

Ms. Marvel Volume 2: Generation Why (2015) G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, and Jacob Wyatt Volume 2 of Ms. Marvel finds Kamala still trying to come to terms with her powers, and still trying to hide her secret from her family and friends. The later gets her a talk with Sheikh Abdullah, because her parents […]

Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal (2014) G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphonsa Marvelous! This is a lot of fun, and had me giggling multiple times! Kamala Khan is your average 16-year-old Muslim girl living in New Jersey–which means there is nothing average about her. She wants all the things she can’t have–or isn’t allowed to […]

Rising Stars, Vol. 1: Born in Fire (2001) J. Michael Straczynski, Keu Cha, Ken Lashley, Christian Zanier, Jason Gorder, John Livesay, Edwin Rosell, David Wohl, Dennis Heisler, Dreamer Design, Robin Spehar, Liquid!, Matt Nelson, John Starr, Tyson Wengler Rising Stars, Vol. 2: Power (2002) J. Michael Straczynski, Keu Cha, Ken Lashley, Christian Zanier, Jason Gorder, […]

X-23 Vol. 3: Don’t Look Back (2012) Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda, Phil Noto This is (apparently [at least for now]) the conclusion to Laura’s story arc. The first part of the story–pretty much ‘Adventures in Babysitting’ with X-23 I really could have one without. It felt like they needed to shoehorn some action adventure in, […]

X-23 Vol. 2: Chaos Theory (2012) Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda, Phil Noto What could this be? Why, it’s a new volume of X-23! This wasn’t bad, but it’s still nowhere near as good as Craig Kyle’s take on X-23 in Innocence Lost and Target X. The first half of this volume is very good–X-23/Laura continues […]

So, yeah. I went to put away my new X-23 comics, and instead ended up rereading all the X-23 and NYX books. Oops! The stories written by Craig Kyle were still–far and away–my favorites. X-23: Innocence Lost (2006) Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Billy Tan, Jon Sibal X-23: Target X (2007) Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Mike […]

The Killing Dream (2011) Marjorie Liu, Will Conrad It’s possible I should have paused a bit, between reading X-23: Target X and The Killing Dream, because Target X is really really good. That’s not to say The Killing Dream is bad–it’s just not as good as Target X. Apparently, Things Happened between Target X and […]

Target X (2007) Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Mike Choi I really liked the X-23 comics, but for some reason had only read NYX and Innocence Lost. Target X is the same author and storyline as Innocence Lost. We see what has happened to Laura after her escape, and how she has continued to struggle with […]

Ex Machina: Vol 10 Term Limits (2010) Brian K Vaughan, Tony Harris, JD Mettler Last volume in the collection. I can’t decide if I’m extremely happy or ridiculously disappointed. Regardless, it’s over. Rating: Published by Wildstorm

Ex Machina: Ring Out the Old (2010) Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, Jim Clark, John Paul Leon, JD Mettler Uhhh… What the hell was that? There were so many different things I didn’t like about this volume. First and foremost was the meta “artists in the story” bit. Sorry BKV, but that was just a […]

Ex Machina: Dirty Tricks (2009) Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, Jim Clark, John Paul Leon, JD Mettier Mitchell Hundred has several problems, as usual. He’s being haunted by a ghost, the Republican convention is coming to town, a woman is pulling crazy stunts to protest President Bush, and the Klan wants to march in the […]

X-23: Innocence Lost (2006) Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Billy Tan, Jon Sibal I came across X-23 in NYX: Wannabe, and discovered that she had her own story arc. Since I liked the NYX stories so much, I decided to check out Innocence Lost. I have to say, this was surprisingly good. I’ve browsed different superhero […]

Runaways: Rock Zombies (2009) Terry Moore, Takeshi Miyazawa, Christiana Strain First things first: Wha? The last two stories? Wha? This volume starts at the radio station where Chase has been working. Val has decided he wants to money and power and all that, so attempts to turn all of LA into zombies. And I have […]

Runaways : Dead Wrong (2009) Terry Moore, Humberto Ramos, Christiana Strain, Dave Meikis Well. That was disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t horrible or anything, but it wasn’t the quality I’ve come to expect from Runaways. First, the review I read on Amazon was spot on–I really dislike the Humberto Ramos’ art. Some of […]

Ex Machina Vol 7: Ex Cathedra (2008) Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, Jim Clark, JD Mettler I’ve been reading Ex Machina for awhile now, and I’ve been pre-ordering the collections since then. I have yet to regret these pre-orders, yet I also feel like the more I read, the less I know about Mitchell Hundred […]

Runaways Vol 8: Dead End Kids (2008) Joss Whedon, Michael Ryan, and Christina Strain Finally! The next installment of Runaways! And boy have things changed. First and foremost, Brian K Vaughan gave up his writing duties on Runaways to Joss Whedon. Second, the format changed, and instead of the little tiny book, Dead End Kids […]

Civil War: Runaways & New Avengers (2007) Zeb Wells, Stefano Caselli As I have mentioned previously, I love Runaways and what Brian K Vaughan has done with the series. So I hesitated to pick up this tie in, because I know nothing about the whole Marvel “Civil War” storyline, and know nothing about the New […]

Runaways 7: Live Fast (2007) Brian K Vaughan, Adrian Alphona, Mike Norton, Craig Young After ordering and reading volume 6, Parental Guidance, I was able to read volume 7, Live Fast, and I have to say that the beginning made a lot more sense. The Runaways are dealing with their losses, and attempting to adapt […]

Runaways 6: Parental Guidance (2006) Brian K Vaughan, Adrian Alpohna, Craig Yeung I somehow missed publication of volume 6 of Runaways, but saw when volume 7 came out. Considering the events in Parental Guidance, I was quite confused when I started to read volume 7, and quickly realized I’d missed several important events. Luckily, Amazon […]

Ex Machina Vol 5: Smoke Smoke (2007) Brian K Vaughan, Tony Harris, Tom Feister, JD Mettler Okay, I must be missing something somewhere, because this is the second volume in a row of Ex Machina that I found to be only so-so. Between the title and the cover, it should be obvious that one of […]

Runaways Vol 5: Escape to New York (2006) Brian K Vaughan, Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa Escape to New York is the fifth volume of the Runaways series. The Runaways are still trying to clean up the mess they created when they took out their parent’s crime syndicate, and for now they’re allowing Victor to remain […]

Runaways Vol 4: True Believers (2005) Brian K Vaughan, Adrian Alphona, Craig Yeung True Believers is the fourth installment in the Runaways series, telling the story of five teens who ran away after discovering their parents were super-villains. Still on the run from Foster Care, the Runaways are hiding out under the La Brea Museum, […]

Ex Machina: March to War (2006) Brian K Vaughan March to War is the fourth installment of the Ex Machina series. The president is pushing for war in Iraq, and Mitchell Hundred is dealing with the repercussions of that in New York. A group wants to have a peace protest, and the police commissioner wants […]

Rising Stars: Voices of the Dead / Bright (2006) Fiona Avery This was definitely a disappointment. First of all, it didn’t say on the front cover that this was not written by J. Michael Stracznski. So I was expecting a certain type of writing and story, and didn’t get it. That probably didn’t help matters. […]

Rearranging bookshelves requires a will of iron. Unfortunately, when it comes to books, I have a will of aluminum foil. Let me repeat what I said the first time I read these: Wow. All I wanted to do was update my book database and rearrange a couple of bookshelves. However, I foolishly opened Born in […]

Runaways Vol 3: The Good Die Young (2004) Brian K. Vaughan And finally, the conclusion of the story arc started in Pride and Joy. We finally learn why the Pride formed, and what they were trying to do. And the teens finally resolve the problem. We also learn who the mole was, and why the […]

Runaways Vol 2: Teenage Wasteland (2003) Brian K. Vaughan Now that they’ve escaped from their parents, the runaways are trying to figure out what to do with themselves. To amend for their parent’s actions, some of them believe that they should fight evil themselves, but they’re broke and hungry and still scared and shaken up, […]

Runaways Vol 1: Pride & Joy (2003) Brian K. Vaughan The series Runaways came up as a recommendation for me several times, and it looked interesting. However, I am wary books with of teenage characters, because if they’re not well done, I find them intolerably annoying. Luckily, the characters in Runaways may be teenagers, but […]