CrazyforRAMU's Profile

The author takes a nuanced look at the emotional meatgrinder chewing on both Dylan and Venom during their separation. He allies that to a wild, goofy, deep-cut guest villain gunning for Venom. There's also a lot of focus on Lee Price, who's the least-loved Venom host for a reason.

It's a challenging mix. The mojo that welds it all together and elevates this issue close to greatness is a mind-bending horror-art performance by Juan Ferreyra. It's perfect for a vampire apocalypse, and it makes these crazy pages magnetic.
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I get that the stakes being so small is the point and the joke, but dammit, the stakes are just too small for me.

General C K hit the nail on the head when he pointed out there's no tension, no problem to solve. I would add that the issue lacks conflict. All there is is the employee of the month competition, and that wraps up early and inconclusively.

Once you check the page count and realize this isn't going to pivot into a cosmic adventure, you KNOW the resolution will be some kind of "oh, they actually love each other" scene, and, of course, that's exactly what the resolution is.

Grousing aside, it IS a finely-crafted small-stakes comic. Johnny and Ben sound right, the humor hits the mark, and the art is terrific (Note that Ben has a pencil taped to his finger throughout his supermarket career--adorable!).

Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm are two knuckleheads who spend their days sassing and pranking each other. So it has gone for over 60 years. This issue is a fine example of that relationship--just not a unique or novel one.
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The series comes into its own, telling a self-sufficient story instead of just filling gaps in Rise. The pace is brisk and the storytelling is great: The art is clear and attractive, and the dialogue is filled with snappy lines.

But a certain amount of headache-inducing complexity seems to be absolutely necessary. This time, it falls on the Destiny/Mystique/Nightcrawler relationship, wh ich has become difficult to keep track of. And if this script has one flaw, it's that it can't smooth the joints between this plot thread and the others. It's "Fight! Fight! Fight! Timeout for family drama! Aaaand…Fight!"

I dearly love everything Kieron Gillen has done with these three characters. But I fear it's twined so tightly with the bigger X-story, so often interrupted and paused, that it will never be as clear and satisfying as I want it to be, whether I read it fast or slow.
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The premise is nothing super special, but the new ad-hoc roster is brilliant, both individually and in its interactions. The art is frantic and sketchy, something of an acquired taste. I seem to be acquiring it, though.

This seems unlikely to be a critical part of the event. But it's well-crafted, and a solid take on Captain America (plus an ideal antagonist for him) makes a great tentp ole.
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This is a damn good comic by itself, and it's also vital to the larger event. Blade shares some whopping big revelations, as well as some more subtle hints.

It's all illustrated with that lovely, dreamy art that so perfectly suits Dr. Strange--though I understand a lot of readers don't share my opinion there.

This is also a great spotlight moment for Clea, surging out of he r housewife corner and reclaiming the leading role she had before Stephen's resurrection.

Normally, I'm a giant stan for Jed MacKay's dialogue, but the hoity-toity language in this issue's front half set my teeth on edge. Blade sounds awful--but I suspect there's a method to that madness.
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This is a satisfying issue, which makes it a welcome relief in a volume that's edged toward frustration (particularly in #7). The guest art makes for a stylistic shift, but it's talented enough to justify itself and live up to the script. That script is packed with great lines. The plot inches forward, but it's the character relationships that really carry this chapter.

Because of the h ints this issue drops about changes in Wilson Fisk, I'd wager a rather large sum that he winds up hosting one of Matt's deadly sin demons.
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This is an amazingly good anthology. The art is exquisite all the way through. The B strip might be some of Javier Garrón's best work ever, and that's saying something. The first two strips elevate solid premises with great comedy.

The last strip is the weakest, and it's only weak in comparison to those that come before. It sets a leisurely pace on its way to a "to be continued," and, by engaging with the moral problem of freshly turned vampires instead of treating them as mindless monsters, it aims to be more serious. The character work is terrific, and the art is no slouch.

Still, the C strip makes me fret some. Erica Schultz has a lot of upcoming series that I really want to turn out well. This strip doesn't exactly disappoint, but it could do more to boost my confidence.
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The best parts: The fight scene at the core of this issue is visually fantastic. Danny Lore has written most/all of the Bloodline comics, and this is probably the best-written one yet.

The weak parts: The pace really drags prior to the fight. In terms of plot, this adds very little to the basic "Dracula recruits Bloodline" premise established in the FCBD issue.

The nitpick: The artist is generally excellent, but like a lot of comics artists, they have no idea how to draw pre-adult characters. So Brielle winds up looking like a "TV teen," i.e., played by a 26-year-old.
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Seeing Cap pursue a mission in a quintessentially Cap way does a lot to build my enthusiasm. The art is very good, the science factoids are interesting, and the jokes work for me. The Sandman-esque cabaret content still leaves me cold, though. That's what holds my rating below the "good" line.

I think this issue has a very good one-and-done tie-in script. It's a little adventure to teach Spidey a moral, and it does so efficiently. Of course, it's also a pitch to an event miniseries, and in that role, I think it could have done much better.

It suffers on the visual front, too. There are both subjective and objective reasons to critique John Romita Jr; this issue offers up some woefully under-finished panels. Between this and the weak covers he's been doing lately, I'm genuinely worried that there's some serious outside context problem hampering his work.
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Sabretooth's little psychological detour is clever and entertaining. But it's also pretty clearly a stall because the authors don't want to start the climactic fight too soon. And it's the umpteenth demonstration of the writers' uneasy working relationship: The psychological segment is clearly LaValle's, while the rest of the issue is Percy's.

The art has strong bones under its scratchy finishes, and I do like that. But if anything, I like the weird faces even less than the last time Geoff Shaw took the pencil.

Graydon Creed remains an epic disappointment in my eyes. He's stuck with one of the worst possible premises for a villain: "He's like his dad, but worse." And in "Bad Seed," the authors managed to find him a name even stupider than "Graydon."
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The jokes are funny, Taskmaster and Doug make good additions to the cast, and the startling number of pages devoted to Ellie go down well. In fact, counterintuitively, it's Ellie's plot thread that brings my rating down (along with a subjective antipathy to the tone of the art (It's mainly the faces)).

Ellie's journey is compelling and engaging in a way that her father's isn't, so far. Deadpool seems aimless in comparison, and his new nemesis hasn't stepped up to impress, either.
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Now THIS is the Carol/Yuna balance I want to see! There's a lot to like in this installment of the story. The stakes are high, the conflicts are exciting, and there are even some sincere character beats thrown in.

It hasn't course-corrected all the way into "good comics" territory, though. In my opinion, the biggest fault is that the art and prose both have storytelling limitations. The re are several instances where, for all its visual polish, the art needs a dose of Stan Lee-style exposition to clarify what the hell is going on.
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The author and narrator-Pete burn 15 pages examining grief through the eyes of all their characters, and only at the end does the plot actually advance. It's rescued from being dull by some nice art and a uniquely sympathetic conversation with the Sandman.

Still, there's an AWFUL lot of narration for my taste, and too much of it retreads ground covered in #1.

It's a rather typical latter-day Ann Nocenti joint: It hangs some sharp one-liners and some dull philosophizing on a deceptively simple premise. It concentrates even more on psychology and feelings than is usual for the author, and that could easily disappoint a reader (as could the slow, digressive pace).

I think the net effect is decent, though, or at least harmless. The story's helpe d along by some imaginative art that suits the tone of the script. The new villain shows some promise, too.
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This is an annoying comic. It throws a major swerve in the event, and it does so by reviving the unlovable final plot point of 2023's Contest of Chaos. It introduces a new Strange Academy student and sets her up to play an irritatingly important role. And it does all of this with unsatisfying storytelling work. The individual lines of dialogue and panels of art are decent, but there's a frustratin g lack of narrative flow. It also has a classic "Idiot Ball" plot, where every development is driven by the characters misunderstanding, overlooking, or lying about obvious problems.

Or, with maximum charity, perhaps the problem is that the main strip only approaches satisfactory after you read the last strip and then re-read the first one.
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It's fine, Gómez's art is solid like akways and North continues to provide the Four with good characterization, but I would have liked to have seen a little more tension or problem solving going on between Ben and Johnny.

The pivot toward Blood Hunt is one of the author's better ones. And setting that aside, the remainder of this issue is formidable. The pace is urgent, the dialogue is sharp, the art is dynamic. 8-Ball brings the comic relief, as usual, but he serves a greater purpose, too. The author draws a brilliant thematic link between 8-Ball and Shroud, charting a course toward redemption for both of them.
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This feels like an excellent return to form. The Charlie-Hulk-Bruce dynamic is front and center, as expected, and the author digs into it pretty deeply. The plot takes a single step forward, but it's a very carefully-considered one.

The art is marvelously creepy, taking full advantage of all that DPS real estate. It's fun to check in on Strange Academy after a few years, and Nic Klein' s visual take on the school and the students is compelling.

I guess suffering through the occasional guest artist is worth it if it keeps the main artist stoked to do issues like this.
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