WEEKLY ROUND-UP #19 WITH JOE!
- Joe Loves Comics
- Mar 8, 2022
- 5 min read
For new releases 3-2-22!
Lauren was busy with the launch of her new live show (Your Friendly NBHD Morning Show, Sundays 10am ET, which you should absolutely check out by the way it's a great time) so it's just me this week, let's get into it, my top 4 books for last week's NCBD!
Joe’s Picks
Honorable Mentions: The Amazing Spider-Man #91, A Thing Called Truth #5, Batman: Killing Time #1, Dark Knights of Steel #5, Devil’s Reign: X-Men #2, One-Star Squadron #4, Rogue Sun #1, it was another absolutely awesome week of new comics for sure!
Special mention to Step By Bloody Step #1, which I didn’t get in time for last week’s round up, but I finally got to check it out this morning and I’m so glad I did because it was just gorgeous! Absolutely worth a read if you haven’t already. I posted a full review the other day, which you can check out through the link below!
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artist: Rafael de Latorre
Colorist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
I'd heard lots of good things about this run of Daredevil, but it wasn't until Elektra took over the mantle I really felt compelled to check it out as it was going along rather than just trade waiting it.
So I've been loving her time as Daredevil and this three issue mini-series has been an excellent continuation of that. I thought this was a particularly spectacular wrap up to this side story of hers, and the awesomely done action by de Latorre is what landed this issue on my top comics this week.
The coloring and panelling in general was just gorgeous to me. It felt epic, cinematic, and there were just some generally great character moments for her written by Zdarsky. AND THAT ENDING?!! I got to read this early but only just reviewing it, so didn't have anybody to warn me unfortunately. I am very intrigued and excited for the next issue of Devil's Reign this week.
Writer: Mariko Tamaki, Matthew Rosenberg
Artist: Amancay Nahuelpan, Fernando Blanco
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Rob Leigh, Ariana Maher
I've got to be honest, the second act of this story just didn't do it for me. With great writing by Tamaki, and some of my favourite artists working on it (Reis, Miki & Anderson on pencils, inks and colors respectively) it had this epic event feel.
The second act was a lot of exploring the reveal at the end of that first act, but now with that build up out of the way we are fully heading towards the end of this storyline in spectacular fashion.
The second act art was good, but it just felt quite tonally dissonant from the first act. This felt like a return to form in that artistic feel as well. It was slick, awesome, epic, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how this Arkham Tower storyline gets brought to it's conclusion.
Finally, I know lots of the backups DC have had in their issues have not been worth the extra price, but this House of Gotham storyline has been one of the most compelling and honestly just as entertaining as the main story itself. I've been loving Rosenberg's latest Image series with Tyler Boss and I love how this backup just showcases his writing in a big two comic, and the art style is just perfect.
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Alessandro Cappuccio
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Cory Petit
What else is there to say about this series that hasn't already been said. Like lots of people, this was my first Moon Knight run and I'm really enjoying it. I read the first issue and didn't keep up with it, but I was very glad to finally catch up when I did a month or two ago. The character of not just Marc himself, but his few supporting characters such as his therapist all make for a incredibly compelling story each issue and this just continued that trend.
The other main pull of this series is the art, which is just absolutely spectacular. It's so bright, clean, crisp, a slick art style with such vibrant coloring that makes it such a spectacle to look at and soak in.
Especially in an issue like this, which gave the art team lots to work with to make something truly special. I agree that not a whole lot happened in the overall story, but the issue was entertaining enough that I didn't mind that too much.
In general great stuff, one of Marvel's best books at the moment for sure! Worth checking out if you haven't already, looking forward to seeing where this goes in issues to come!
Writer: Donny Cates, Robert Kirkman
Artist: Geoff Shaw, Phil Hester
Inker: Klaus Janson
Colorist: Dee Cunniffe
Letterer: John J. Hill
"But seriously, we gotta go. This arc is insanely off the rails and we have to integrate the A and B plots before this all falls apart."
Wow. I was not only impressed by this issue, but by this whole arc and importantly how quickly it managed to turn me around on this series. I know the arc isn't over quite yet but I just wanted to say that. I'll be honest, by the end of that first arc this book had really irritated me.
I'm not only saying that because I hardly recognised any of the characters that showed up, though obviously that didn't help, but it just generally felt a bit shallow and hollow to me.
There were some nice ideas and characters, but I needed a bit more.
This has been that more I needed. The whole premise for this second arc was set up in the first couple pages of #2, and I've been so glad they've decided to pick it back up. It's been fun, compelling, fascinating, rich, clever, I adore this sort of meta storytelling and this arc has perfectly scratched that itch for me. I've been avoiding saying too much about the issue itself so you can experience it for yourself, but if you've seen the credits for the issue they should intrigue you enough.
It just honestly made me laugh out loud a solid few times while I was reading it. The whole issue, from the guest part of it, to the rest, all setup for the grand conclusion to this arc was just so much fun and such a joy to read. It feels meta in a well done way, not just a "hey it's that character you like!" way, which is fair enough but like I said I needed a bit more. There is of course the element of that still, but it's just got much more compelling and entertaining to me over the storyline.
Anyway, great issue, artwork was great as always (from both teams), nice to see another very entertaining and well done issue in a series I've been so up and down on. Can't wait to see how this arc all concludes next issue, and where the series goes in issues to come!
What were your top picks this week? Let us know what we missed! You never know; your recommendation could end up on our lists in the future!
Come find both Lauren and Joe on Twitter and let's talk comics and good times :)
You can find Lauren, Your Friendly Neighborhood Bi, at all her links here: beacons.ai/friendlynbhdbi
You can follow JoeLovesComics over on Twitter for (albeit shorter) thoughts on comics he loves.
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