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The Vault #1 (Image) - Another press review copy read! Personally, I love Garrie Gastony's art (he also did Radical's Caliber) and the #1 story (by Sam Sarkar) has a nice balance of setting up the real world "treasure hunter" aspect of the story whilst dropping in some cool mystical/supernatural elements, particularly the last panel of #1. Really nice way to get me to want to come back for #2!

The Red Wing #1 (Image) - I initially decided to pick it up because the preview art caught my attention. I have only read one other thing from Hickman which I also picked up because of the art. The general plot is time travel has been invented in the future, and there is a war being waged throughout the past. The plot seems more of the focus instead of making me care about anyone involved in the issue. As a concept it is OK, but it is not enough for me to pick up monthly. I will try the trade when it comes.

One thing that struck me as bad pacing was to put to pages with a single line of dialog on each page. This may work in a trade, but as some one reading a single issue it does seem like a waste of two pages.

spid wrote:The Red Wing #1 (Image) - I initially decided to pick it up because the preview art caught my attention. I have only read one other thing from Hickman which I also picked up because of the art. The general plot is time travel has been invented in the future, and there is a war being waged throughout the past. The plot seems more of the focus instead of making me care about anyone involved in the issue. As a concept it is OK, but it is not enough for me to pick up monthly. I will try the trade when it comes.

One thing that struck me as bad pacing was to put to pages with a single line of dialog on each page. This may work in a trade, but as some one reading a single issue it does seem like a waste of two pages.

The Red Wing #1 (Image) - This one got a "low green" for me. I was not blown away by it, but liked it enough to get another couple of issues. Those pages with the title sequence didn't go over that good with me either, but they didn't count as pages of story either (there was a full comic worth of art pages not counting those "wasted" pages). I give the concept a 4/5 (which could trend higher as more is revealed) and I give the art a 3/5.

Captain America #1 (Marvel) - This is a nice way to ease people into picking up a Captain America book. It seems like a nice entry point for people who saw the movie, I have not seen it yet, and want to follow the character. The art is freaking gorgeous. The layouts are imaginative without being confusing. If you were a fan of the series before they pick up threads Brubaker used in his previous run.

X-Men: Schism #1 (Marvel) - Jason Aaron did a great job making an accessible X-book. I figured someone could do it, no writer seemed much interested in doing it, though. Bravo.


Daredevil #1 (Marvel) - Mark Waid brings the swashbuckler back to DD, kind of refreshing after so many years of noir-ish storylines putting him thru hell time & time again.


Sergio Aragones Funnies #1 (Bongo) - This is pure Sergio & is a must read for anyone who's a fan of this master cartoonist.


Executive Assistant Lotus/Orchid/Violet #1 (Aspen) - I'm enjoying all of these Executive Assistant books. I don't think I'd want to read 4 of them on an on-going basis, but it's OK for 3 issues, and then I hope we get more Iris after it ends at #5. I like the world these are set in.


Ghost Rider #1 (Marvel) - This new spin on Ghost Rider did nothing at all for me. I also found it kind of pander-y to make a female skeleton with breasts.


I.C.E. #1 (12-Gauge) - Decent enough action movie in comics, but I thought this was one that would really work better live action, perhaps with "The Rock" in the lead role. I appreciate that this was $1 to try.


Marksmen #1 (Image) - I liked this take on the post-apocalyptic story genre. Cool to see the San Diego Convention center worked into the story. Another book that's only $1 to sample.

Elric: The Balance Lost #1 (Boom) - This was a decent 3 out of 5 comic, but not good enough for me to add to my pull list. I though there were two too many characers out of the four in different scenes for one 22 page comic. Also the art style while nice, isn't one I would pick for Elric. I don't read that many comics and there are plenty of other 4 out of 5, or 5 out of 5 comics for me to read. I enjoy fantasy and I'll be on the lookout for more of it in comic book form.

Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom #1 (Dynamite) - OK story, but not good enough to be added to the 2 existing Warlord of Mars titles I'm getting. I guess I'm just not that interested in Mars 1000s of years prior to John Carter.

Mysterious Ways #1 (Top Cow (Image)l) - I liked the art and the story was intriguing. The most interesting thing is if you predict the story you win a year of free Top Cow comics. The thing is, I went to the forum where you submit your guess and so far only three people have done it. There are three prizes .... so it seems like a lot of people didn't care enough to try.

I think it's very silly to say "This story is so shocking you cannot predict the ending" after 1 of 6 issues. I would HOPE you can't predict the ending or else the story is probably too simple or not very good. So it's a pretty dumb marketing ploy when you think about it, and apparently no one cared. I may throw a post on just for the hell of it though. July 31st [tomorrow] is the final day.

Either way, I enjoyed the read and look forward to more ... just leave the gimmicks alone.

Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker #1

Even though this issue was a origin story of Butcher, I was still left thinking, " I still don't understand what this series is suppose to be about and who anyone really is. It may be because I haven't read the boys since Darick Robertson left the interior art duties, but I don't have a single care for Butcher's life or the rest of this series.

IanG wrote:Elric: The Balance Lost #1 (Boom) - This was a decent 3 out of 5 comic, but not good enough for me to add to my pull list. I though there were two too many characers out of the four in different scenes for one 22 page comic.

Elric: The Balance Lost #1 (Boom) - I liked this one, I'd give it a 4/5, but I've had a long history of liking Elric, Corum, & Hawkmoon, both in comics & novel format.

I'm excited to read Bob's 52 reviews of the 52 new #1s from DC!

Frank Castle wrote:I'm excited to read Bob's 52 reviews of the 52 new #1s from DC!

John & I will be reviewing them all on the show in a series of "very special" episodes

Godzilla: Gangsters & Goliaths #1 (IDW) - I liked this one WAY better than the 1st Godzilla series from IDW (the one with all the variant covers)...... We go to Monster Island, see Godzilla & Mothra PLUS there is a story-line involving humans (gangsters & a Tokyo detective) that's very engaging.

Punisher #1

This was not a very good first issue to a new series. This is starting out too slow and spent a lot of time introducing other characters, and Punisher doesn't make an appearance until the very end. I'm a fan of Greg Rucka, and I know that he is setting the building blocks for something amazing, so I'll keep picking it up. So if it wasn't Rucka, or another well established writer, writing this, I would not give this book a second chance

Haunted City #0 (Aspen) -This was really cool and right up my alley, reminds me of Harry Dresden books (Jim Butcher) ... except he's a normal cop. The art was great, the story was told perfectly with the first few pages giving us background info, and a pretty cool ending into #1.

Aspen sure makes quality stuff, let's see how the release dates for this comic turn out.