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Animal Man by Grant Morrison

Few pieces of art were more impactful to me as Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man, as someone who really loves their pets, some of the things depicted here really got to me. It's not a comic that pulls its punches, but it's not cruel, it's done with an incredible love for animals and their rights.

So, what is it about? Well let me tell you: Animal Man tells the story of Buddy Baker, a retired superhero who now lives with his wife and children that decides to go back to saving the world to make some money with the JL and mantain his family. In the process, he meets a wild cast of unique characters that make him go through a journey that will forever change the way he sees the world. Crazy stuff, really.

From fighting against the killing of dolphins to doing psychotropics on The Grand Canyon and stopping to have a little chat with a pathetic supervillain in the middle of an alien invasion, the stories the creative team pulls off are the best this medium can offer. The art is just as important as the script, the way the action is presented is a treat, it really just takes your hand and brings you along a ride that it's over before you notice.

After the first four, the stories are presented in one or two issues, but what first looks like stand alone adventures is recontextualized in the last third as one of the most brilliant stories ever told. If I keep talking I'll start spoiling so i'll stop, the truth it that this is a story better enjoyed if you go blind, so I won't tell you any more about it, I'll just ask you to read it and maybe go vegan... For you own sake! Cheers!!!

#animal man #dccomics #dc comics #animalman #grant morrison #vertigo #vertigo comics #vertigocomics #comic #comics

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Kang the Conqueror: Only Myself Left to Conquer

I read the Kang miniseries and it was... A mix bag, really. It's only 5 issues so it's not long enough to bother but I think it's the length that hurts it the most, because it has some really fun ideas.

It tells the story of Nathaniel Richards before he became Kang looking for a way to escape his time that he finds boring, but before he could even become Iron-Lad, a Kang meets him and takes him to a few days before the meteor that killed the dinosaurs hit earth to train him. There are many twists and it plays with all of Kang's history but this is how it starts, and yeah, it's a very strong start!

But after this first issue, you start noticing the biggest problem with the book, it's all mostly narration with very little dialogue, and for a visual medium like comics, being told that happens is very distracting and annoying. And here comes what I said at the beginning, I believe it's the short length of this series that played against it, because Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly had fantastic ideas for a fun Kang series that could never fit 5 issues so they had to write it in a way they could move things fast but it ends up hurting the experience a lot.

The art is fantastic, Carlos Magno's art and colors are fantastic and the work he does with panels is as well, he really makes the reading experience better by making very unique panels and pages to accompany the narration, but it's also a shame he couldn't draw an actual story. In a way, this feels more like the entry on a wiki page telling you what a character's deal is instead of telling you then actual story.

But then again, it's 5 issues so it's not unbearable and again, the book has some really cool ideas playing with this new variant of Kang and how he tries to actually alter his own history. If you're like me and like to see at least cool ideas, then I recommend checking this out because you do get something out of it, but if you don't care about Kang or any of that, I recommend skipping it.

#kang #kang the conqueror #marvel #marvel comics #comics #comic #comicbooks #review #comic review

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H-E-R-O

I read and finished this series, part of the Dial H franchise, and my god it was so cool!! It tells the story of how the Dial H affects the life of different people, some with good endings and some with tragic ones, all coming together at the end.

To understand this I think I have to explain the Dial H. It's a dial like those old phones had that when you dial H-E-R-O you get transformed into a superhero acquiring not only their abilities but also their backstory, until you dial it back and transform again into yourself. There are more dials out there in other series, all very good, but this one is exclusively about one single Dial H.

It starts with maybe the best opening of a comic ever, a guy in the phone crying, who after seeing Superman, wants to kill himself. It's shocking, the narration and art so good, making it an unforgettable scene!

And here starts this epic about human relationships, how we relate to one another and ourselves, with one story about a guy that gets transformed into a female superhero and can't change back, done with surprisingly good taste for a 2004 story.

Kano's work is fantastic, playing with panels in the most original ways, accompanied with the fantastic colors of Dave Stewart that give this comic that dark cartoon vibe that fits incredibly well, and of course the incredible script by Will Pfeifer that explores a big amount of characters and ideas every new arc!

The book also has Patrick Gleason and Dale Eaglesham for some arcs, with this last one doing the final arc, who also fit the series perfectly since their styles have all the same vibe.

The story is fantastic and I can't recommend reading this enough, it talks about depression, identity, self-image, love, all in really well executed arcs. From the guy that doesn't know why he keeps living, to the absent father, to the group of internet influencers to a killer, you get to see all kinds of protagonists with all kinds of goals and ambitions, and when I say the moments hit, they hit and hard, not only the sad ones but the happy and badass ones.

What would you do if you could turn into a superhero? What would you use that power for? Everyone has a different answer, and while we might not be able to actually do it, we can read this fantastic series about those who do.

#dial h #h-e-r-o #hero #dc comics #dc #comics #kano #Dale Eaglesham #Patrick Gleason #Will Pfeifer #Kano #Dave Stewart #superman #art #review #recommendation #read #comic recommendations

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The Black Monday Murders

I finished reading the two available volumes of The Black Monday Murders that collect the first 8 issues (4 issues each), and it was an incredible experience. I totally recommend to pick them up, or... Maybe wait until the third volume is released, which is the last one, so you can have a full story.

Okay, this tells the story of a group of families that control the wealth of the world with black magic which is provided by the god Mamon, and like any Jonathan Hickman work, it was a lot of incredibly intelligent world building.

When I say dark magic you imagine a certain thing, big spells and sacrifices, and while there are sacrifices and big spells, they are used sparely because most of the story is about the systems. Money is the primary source of power, said to be the physical manifestation of power in the world, and that is how these people really control the world.

In this context, we have two points of view, Theodore Dumas, a detective that enters this world by investigating a murder, and Grigoria Rothschild, who joins the board after being exiled because of the murder of his brother. These two points of view are also accompanied by the now standard Hickman Data Page™ that expand this world a lot more.

With this, the reader is not really following a character but a world, which makes you start thinking more than what you read, and you start connecting the dots as you go. This is one of the best aspects of the comic, you get the feeling this is all bigger than everyone, it's incredibly well thought out.

Some people say that Hickman is not a character writer, he's more of a plot writer and a world builder, but I don't totally agree. It's true that you never see the characters in their day-to-day life, the small moments you see only serve to tell the story... But, the characters in here are charming, you get their motivations and that is because of how great of a writer Hickman is, he knows what fragments of their life to show to make you get everything about them.

And my god, Tomm Coker's art is FANTASTIC. All the faces of the characters look like real people, if I had to describe the style, I would say that It's like a sketched photograph. The work with the panes and shots is also incredible, for a book that is mostly people talking it's very dynamic and makes this read itself, because these are double sized issues of 40 pages but I read them faster than I do normal issues.

All this is very well accompanied by Michael Garland's fantastic colors, that bring these drawings even more to life, using a very good palette for this story that gets the dark noir tone of this book. And ofc, the thing you get the most in the data pages, Rus Wooton's letters are very well done, because as any good letterer, you don't see his work because of how well it's integrated in the work.

So yeah, I totally recommend this work, and I can't keep talking about it because I will spoil all the fantastic reveals. Just go, read it, and maybe if you want you can DM me and we can talk about this because I loved it!

#the black Monday murders #black monday murders #jonathan hickman #hickman #Tomm Coker #Michael Garland #image comics #comics #image #review #comic review

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Sex Criminals

I finally read the funny sex comic, and I can say it's a funny sex comic. I got the three hardcovers and I liked them.

It's the story of two people that discover they can stop time when they have an orgasm, so they decide to fix their problems by stealing money. It starts simple but as the series goes on it expands the orgasm-lore and becomes something that I can only describe as sexual X-Men.

It's a bonkers idea, but it is hilarious, works very well and it's something you could only do in comics.

But that is the hook, the thing that makes you interested in the comic, but the heart of the series are the characters. Their relationships and small character moments are what makes this a notable work.

To be honest, the plot itself isn't very deep and at the end lot feels improvised, but the characters are all so fun and charismatic that you don't care. It has drama, romance, suspense, it makes you feel what the protagonists are feeling and has a very realistic treatment of relationships with the ups and downs that happen in real life.

Matt Fraction is a fantastic character writer with a great sense of humor and it shows, if you read his Hawkeye you know how he makes you feel for the protagonists as much as he makes you laugh with and at them.

And the artist and co-plot-er? Is Chip Zdarsky, and that guy is maybe the most hilarious person working in comics, make you laugh at loud funny. His art here is fantastic, every character is defined perfectly and you can identify them no matter what they wear, the angles are all super expresive and the detail he puts in every background is admirable.

It's true that it's very cis-het and it's written by two cis-het guys but they start introducing asexual and gay characters and I think they do a good job. If you like funny stories about romance, sex and crazy concepts, this is your book, I believe there is no story like this out there.

#sex criminals #matt fraction #chip zdarsky #image comics #image #comics #opinion #read #book #sex #criminals #sexcriminals

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Reptil Brink of Extinction

This finally came in! After watching the Super Hero Squad show with my partner, I wanted to see what they decided to do with Reptil in the main Marvel universe so I got this. It starts with a brief summary of Reptil's entire history before his solo book and does a good job stablishing everything you need to know and he back of this collected edition also includes the one-shot where he first appeared (Which I recommend reading first) so you have everything to enjoy this story to its fullest extent.

So, is it good? It's fine. I can say that for me it was fine, I like how it explores the latino immigrant experience in the US, with one of Reptil's cousin even learning magic because people still discriminate against third generation born in America and doesn't feel safe, it has a good portrait of how latino culture can be machista and it portrays the community they live in very well too. But the superhero part of it wasn't that great.

The comic plays a lot with the stablished lore of Reptil, and introduces a villain that connects with his powers and the disappearance of his parents (It's not a spoiler, it's revealed in the first issue), but it never does anything very original with that, opting instead for a generic bad guy with bland motivations and almost no screen time to focus more in the characters themselves and their relationships.

You can't do much with 4 issues, so the creative team did what they could and decided to focus on what they thought was more important and I get it, but with the relationship his past has with the villain and his powers, that not being the focus ends up making this comic feeling like half a story. There is a character arc in here for Reptil too about his powers, but it gets resolves very fast because it didn't have time to flesh that out.

It has ideas, fun characters, and a lot of potential for future stories but right now it's nothing more than interesting ideas in a very simplistic plot. Still, it's fine enough for a mini-series and if you're interested in the character, it won't do any harm to read it.

#reptil #marvel #comics #marvel comics #super hero squad #superherosquad #terry blas #enid balám #victor olazaba #christos cage

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Batman Reptilian

So, I read Batman Reptilian and it was really fun! Garth writes the Batman I enjoy which is a big asshole who beats up people for the kicks.

Yeah it is controversial with most Batman fans, but I love that version of the character. It's so much fun to see a guy dressed as a Bat be overly cruel to people dress in weird costumes, and it's an enjoyment I don't get from other characters.

This moment with Penguin for example, it's incredibly funny and could have only worked with Batman.

It's hilarious, it's the same enjoyment I have from seeing those screenshots from All Star Batman & Robin of Bruce just being insane, I'm just completely fascinated by asshole Batman.

But that's not it, Garth is very good at making characters seem pathetic and if there is something he does is make every villain pathetic. Not only with Penguin in that scene, but also with the most loser Joker possible, and how Killer Crock, the main antagonist of the book, is constantly mocked by Batman.

It's a book by someone that doesn't respect this world and these characters, but damn, it's all so fun to read.

And accompanying all this, there is the incredible art of Liam Sharp, that after his time doing the art for Green Lantern he evolved from one of the best artists working today to one of the best in history.

There is an incredible use of colors, shapes, backgrounds, that accompany this take on the Batman world so well.

If you don't mind not having any relatable characters, I really recommend reading it. It's all dark humor like any of Garth's work, but I think it's one of the ones with better taste, you won't ask what is wrong with him like when reading The Boys or the f*cking Crossed.

#batman #dccomics #reptilian #killer crock #comic #art #liam sharp #garth ennis