Alex Nader Comic Reviews

If any of this sounds interesting, pick up the last issue of RAI and read along with me as the awesome (and beautiful) ride continues!

This series, coming directly from Lemire's excellent The Valiant miniseries/crossover, has been a wonderful addition to the valiant lineup. Lemire excels at telling character-driven stories, and he continues the examination of Bloodshot's fragile psyche in this issue.

As excited I am for the new arc (and its awesome title, "The Analog Man"), I'll be a bit disappointed to see the narrative move away from the present, neo-noir storyline. From what the above image suggests, Shadowman's influence and return to the Valiant Universe will be part of this title as well. Synergy!

BLOODSHOT REBORN's second arc improves upon its first, though it has a few pacing and characterization issues that irked me a bit"but not enough to stop reading. Butch Guice's art is stunning as ever, conveying the openness of Colorado as well as his action scenes. Dave Baron's colors took a step up in this issue as well; everything really popped. While WRATH OF THE ETERNAL WARRIOR may be my new favorite Valiant series, BLOODSHOT REBORN continues to tell a dark, gripping, and unique story about Bloodshot. I'm interested to see January's Mad Max-inspired arc, but next month's "The Hunt" finale should tie everything together before that.

I think this is my favorite of Valiant's recent crossovers. Venditti writes Eternal Warrior very well, and he is great as a constant in the Valiant Universe and a focal point in stories.

BOOK OF DEATH concludes with a thrilling fight and a bright future for Valiant. It's the best event of the year!

BOOK OF DEATH: FALL OF HARBINGER is a fantastic, stand-alone comic that shows a possible future for the characters of HARBINGER and IMPERIUM. It ties plot elements from both series as well as other parts of the Valiant universe to make an effective and powerful issue with gorgeous art and a clear story.

These FALL OF" books remind me of DC's recent FUTURE'S END event and tie-ins. They show a future that has greatly changed the main character and reference multiple events that the reader has not seen in order to heighten this future continuity. I think, however, that Valiant has been able to do a much more interesting job and keep my attention better than most of DC's titles.

This was a fitting end to Valiant's most popular hero, and it left a lot of room between his current comics and this issue's start for adventures, fatherhood, and whatever else Venditti wants to throw at us.

I think it might be a bit too difficult to find this comic, especially for some of us with very small stores"I don't believe my local comic store even had the chance to get a single issue of this. In any case, LEGENDS OF THE GEOMANCER tells a pretty interesting story of the first Geomancer, Anni.

Soule and Yu deliver a strong first issue that doesn't waste time spinning its wheels. Yu's art is beautiful as always and this feels like a true sequel to the originalCivil Warcomic. Hopefully, future issues will develop a consistent plot and, maybe, FINALLY allow Peter Parker some family time!

Soule and Yu deliver another great chapter ofCivil War! They take the incredible potential provided by the concept of Battleworld and manage to improve on Millar's original series. This issue is an in-between, stage-setting issue that will no doubt read smoother when collected in a trade, but is still important, exciting, and delightfully quiet.

Civil War #3 is a fairly solid midpoint for this series. Soule delivers on his promises from the first two issues, and Yu's art is as impressive as ever. This issue moves the plot forward, but I found myself a bit sour on a few of Soule's characterization choices.

Civil War #4 brings a majority of the plot threads and elements from the series to a head as the two opposing sides clash! Yu's art is fantastic as always and he really gets a chance to impress with some massive battle scenes. The character issues from earlier in the series are still present, though the dialogue and overall plot is still miles ahead of the original Civil War series.

Civil War #5 is a solid conclusion to this miniseries. Leinil Yu's art is as beautiful as ever and Charles Soule builds some great character moments, though the book's ending is quite abrupt.

All in all, I would consider Dead Drop a fine arc, if inconsequential.

This issue tells a good story and gets into the mind of Harada, which is a dark and interesting place. While not as interesting to me as the earlier issues focusing on Sunlight on Snow and Broken Angel, I am eager to see how Harada's encounter with the entity will end.

The epilogue features a hook suggesting further development for Mech Major and a Vine infiltrator among harada's ranks, setting up the next story (called "The Vine Imperative") very nicely. Again, the Vine are ingtegral to this book's conflict and I love the connective tissue visible between this and other Valiant titles.

The titular Vine aliens are still in the background, planning to kill Harada and liberate his captured Vine commando LV-99. That is a conflict that I'm interested in. As this issue meandered a bit"well, maybe not meandered, but focused on something else"I was more interested in The Vine's plan. I suppose there's time for that; this was only the first issue!

IMPERIUM continues to introduce some interesting ideas, but this issue feels like an origin story in the wrong ways. After the incredible two-issue interlude with Divinity, I expected something a bit more engaging. The art is still outstanding, though, and I'm excited to see how this turns out in next month's conclusion.

I love Eternal Warrior and Armstrong, and any embellishment on their past and further stories has been continually compelling. I do however find myself continually wishing for this book to have lower stakes, which would allow more breathing room and time for some character development, as I think that its leads are rich and would benefit from some time together, outside of mortal danger.

IVAR, TIMEWALKER continues its latest arc, utilizing all of the narrative possibilities created by Van Lente to create an extremely satisfying product. Alternate universes, time travel, dinosaurs, and gladiator apes? What's not to love?

Aric's nemesis Commander Trill gets an issue spotlighting his villainy in X-O MANOWAR: COMMANDER TRILL #0. Based on the end of this week's X-O, we should see him transitioning into a more nuanced character, rather than a ruthless death machine. However,he was still finding himself in the BOOK OF DEATH tie-in, so who knows! See you then!

IVAR, TIMEWALKER, we hardly knew ye. Well, we did, but it's still a shame to see this comic go. IVAR was a combination of the humor of ARCHER & ARMSTRONG with DOCTOR WHO and alternate universes thrown in for good measure. It was a strong comic that introduced a great character in Dr. Neela Sethi (who we will hopefully be seeing again) and built on Ivar and Neela's tragic love story while giving the readers over-the-top sci-fi action and the kind of insane concepts only possible in comics. This issue, the series' last, ties up most of the hanging threads, though I think it does so a bit hastily.

Kindt has managed to take the most complimentary elements of Batman and James Bond and form something exciting and new in a similar tradition.

Juan Jos Ryp and Ulises Arreola deliver another great issue, as the art is particularly horrifying, thus enhancing Sanguine's menace greatly.

Overall, another solid piece of the Shadow Wars arc and an exciting piece of Ninjak's story.

NINJAK #9 is a solid conclusion to "The Shadow Wars." It introduces and clarifies elements about Ninjak's past, elaborates on the Shadow Seven, and uses flashbacks creatively to delve into an otherwise quite enigmatic character. Unfortunately, the heavy use of flashbacks, both in the main story and backup, leave some action to be desired in Ninjak's fight against Fakir.

This was a huge week for comics. Marvel released a load of new issues, DC started BATMAN & ROBIN ETERNAL, Valiant started a new arc in IMPERIUM (review coming shortly!), but I feel confident in saying that this is the best of the week"and not just because I'm reviewing it! Go out there, buy PAPER GIRLS. Tell your friends to buy PAPER GIRLS. Buy extra copies and force your friends to read PAPER GIRLS! It's for everyone!

PAPER GIRLS #2 by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, and Matt WilsonAs this issue opens, the town is deserted, save for the girls and very few other humans. Obviously Vaughanisn't going to lay all of his cards out right away " it makes the mystery much more enticing " but there's clearly something happening with time. Probably space, too. The uncertainty of the situation adds to the tension, as does a certain page that I won't spoil, though it introduces some new, likely time-displaced players into the plot.

PAPER GIRLS continues to be my favorite comic of the week (though THE VISION and PLUTONA are giving it a run for its money) as the mysteries build alongside carefully planned character interaction and development. It's always a good thing when you want more of a comic immediately, and I'm sure once this first arc ends with a planned hiatus I'll be mourning until it returns. Until then, there's plenty to enjoy. Pick this comic up now!

Clayton Crain's art continues to shine on this comic. His digital panting style is an excellent match for RAI. In the past, I've felt his coloring to look a bit unnatural and here I still do; but it works incredibly. Neo Tokyo looks great and smooth and alive, in a weird and wonderful techno-organic melange of textures. This is definitely Crain's best work I've seen, and it keeps getting better each issue. I can't wait to see more of his depiction of the ruined Earth as Rai (probably?) tries to find his way back to Neo Tokyo.

RAI is Valiant's best looking comic, though next month's WRATH OF THE ETERNAL WARRIOR might bump it down to second. Rai's earthbound journey and the welcome appearance of the Eternal Warrior make me excited to see where this arc can go.

Gage, Diaz, and D'Armata deliver an intriguing look at a potential future of Spider-Island, with enough hooks and ideas to keep readers interested. The first issue takes too long to establish the plot, but it promises to have interesting consequences. The art is great and the cast is exciting, and I can't wait to read the next issue. However, thebackup story has some issues. While certainly pertinent and interesting to fans of Mayday Parker, is likely to confuse a majority of readers rather than entice them into reading more about the young heroine. Hopefullyfuture installments will remedy some of these issues!

Spider-Island continues to be incredibly fun, offering a strange, if rushed, story about Agent Venom and his team of infected heroes. The backup Spider-Girl story seems out of place when paired with this the primary story and "Secret Wars" and end ups feeling confusing and inconsequential.

Spider-Island #3 is a rather unremarkable entry in what has been a fun, if inessential, series. Paco Diaz and Frank D'Armata's art remains strong, in a very 90s sort of way, but the familiar waxing and waning, constantly unresolved conflicts of Gage's script are growing repetitive. DeFalco, Frenz, and Buscema's backup remains a solid chapter in the Spider-Girl mythos, though the decision to divide it into five tiny parts hurts the flow of the storytelling.

Spider-Island #4 provides some excitement as the action comes to a head, but the characters mull over the same plot points without offering any new ideas of concepts, just as they did in the previous issue.

Christos Gage wraps up Spider-Island in this week's issue. Unfortunately, the conclusion is completely predictable and generally tedious, suffering from the unnecessary length of the miniseries and the lack of adequate characterization. The Spider-Girl/Woman backup story is similarly obstructed by its format, though this issue picks up from the last few chapters and delivers a solid ending.

This arc has been getting a bit repetitive, as I mentioned earlier. I like the concept of War-Monger but I'd rather see something other than bleeped out cursing and disgust towards Unity members, and maybe more background or forward movement. That being said, I think that Kindt is adding a lot of lore and potential for future stories.

This issue, the conclusion to the War-Monger arc, is quite a bit different than the others in the arc, much to my pleasure. Though I did like seeing different eras of Unity assembled as War-Monger told her story of how she defeated them, it grew a bit tiring.

Asmus effectively set up the stakes in this issue, combining a tense plot with good characterizaiton and banter. Unfortunately we know that the there are no real lasting ramifications (such is the way of comics) as this takes place prior to BOOK OF DEATH. However, this seems to work quite well as a last hurrah for the team and the title.

Venom Space Knight #1 sets up Venom's new status quo in a very routine fashion. The pieces are all there for some potentially exciting space adventures, but Thompson has a lot of work to do in order for this to be anything other than another decent Marvel series with great art.

Venom: Space Knight #2 continues to deliver solid character work, though divisive artwork and middling narration choices hamper Thompson's efforts.

That's more like it! Robbie Thompson and Ariel Olivetti's Venom: Space Knight #3 attains escape velocity and emerges as the sword and sorcery (and space) comic that it has been teasing us with since the beginning.

Venom: Space Knight #4 is an entertaining read, highlighted by interesting characters and buffeted by inconsistent art and dialogue. The episodic nature of this arc may put off trade readers, but it works on a monthly basis and draws favorable, if unusual, comparisons to Conan the Barbarian.

Venom: Space Knight #5 meanders towards a conclusion with predictable twists and plotting. The characters and art however continue to impress.

WRATH OF THE ETERNAL WARRIOR is a fantastic new series from Valiant with Venditti, Allen, and Martin at their bests. It's a worthy continuation of BOOK OF DEATH and of Gilad's long journey, and I am already eagerly awaiting the next chapter.

WRATH OF THE ETERNAL WARRIOR is Valiant's best comic. Buy it, read it, tell a friend, and repeat that process a few times. Frame the art!

Rafa Sandoval's art is great and clean. His paneling is easy to follow " the most important part of sequential comic, and something that is often unobserved. He also keeps the look of the Vine consistent, which is something that has been difficult in Valiant books.

Sandoval, Tarragona and Arreola's art is strong as usual. The focus they place on characters and technology is nice and generally well-defined, though the lack of backgrounds leaves some panels a bit cold. With X-O's continual shipping schedule, I would much rather have some lean backgrounds and an on-time comic however.

Venditti is great at crafting these tense storylines, and the explosive events towards the end of the issue left me very excited for next month's finale and whatever the future holds for X-O.