Berserk ch. 343-350 - 10/10

Spoiler

So the group finally made it to the island and found out there is a way to restore Casca's mind but it requires Schierke and Farnese to go into Casca's dreams. I'm also hoping the person Casca wants to see is Guts. Either way the next chapter is going to be brutal.

 

Batman: The Golden Age Omnibus vol. 3 9/10

I'm collecting and reading this series and the Superman series as each volume is released, covering the late 30s and 1940s issues. And I think that while Superman started out strong and lost some of the spark as it went along, Batman started out very uneven, and has continued to improve over time. Most of the stories in this third volume, covering most of 1943 and part of 1944 are pretty strong. Alfred is finally introduced to the series, Two-Face gets cured and written out as a villain in his third story, and the Joker or Penguin turn up every other month. Dick Grayson's aunt and uncle nearly succeed in taking him away from Bruce Wayne. Alfred loses weight and grows a moustache, becoming (in appearance) very much the Alfred we know today, though his desire to be a detective along with his sheer incompetence are nothing like modern characterization. There are more WW2 related stories than I expected, and among the endless assortment of super villains and gangsters are a few human interest stories that have held up well. For my money, this is the best of the three volumes published so far, and the various Batman series had really hit their stride at this point. Looking forward to volume 4 in the fall.

 

Corto Maltese in Siberia 503,000/10

One of the greatest graphic novels ever published in any language. Cannot recommend highly enough. So far beyond anything I've discussed in this thread, I almost feel weird mentioning it here.

Here's a short preview from Comics Alliance:
Globe-Trotting Adventure Is Back In 'Corto Maltese In Siberia'





and the Amazon link, although it's weird...both the 'Look Inside' and most of the reviews are actually from other volumes in the series:
Corto Maltese: In Siberia: Hugo Pratt: 9781631408489: Amazon.com: Books


And for no particular reason except that I like it, here's the first part of the animated movie adaptation the French did:

 

Batman/Elmer Fudd: 10/10

What an amazing take on such a weird crossover. Loved it.

 

I'm still not sure how I feel about this book -- it's just so weird.

But the art is fantastic. Weeks is a master.

 

I am Groot #2

I am Groot/10

Not much to say about this one but I am Groot.

 

Superman 26

6/10

In this issue Superman is trying to teach Jon how to use his power more responsibly but Jon is being somewhat arrogant and impulsive. Basically the whole issue which is self-contained is Superman and Superboy jump from one crisis to another and Clark recounts a moral lesson from his childhood. My main problem with this issue is that for the story to hold up Jon needs to act completely OOC. Jon has always been since to be very devoted and obedient to his father. In this he is more like a subdued Damian. I will point out that Gleason and Tomasi didn't write this one. Kinda disappointing but if you skipped it you wouldn't miss out an any story.

 

Saga #44 - 9/10

Spoiler

That last page has to be a hallucination from Alana's viewpoint

but seriously, what the fuck?

Twin Star Exorcists #43 - 8/10
Something I didn't mention when I was writing about the last chapter but at first I thought Jin'ya was one of Seigen's cousins but it turns out he's head of the affiliates for Mayura's house.

Spoiler

That moment with Yuzuru and Mayura was kinda heartwarming and the fight between Gunki and Keiji was pretty interesting since they're both fighting to look cool in front of their siblings.

 

After looking through this thread and seeing the ratings of the TPB/Manga/Comic for anyone that has read one, I have not seen one report about Stan Sakai's: Usagi Yojimbo.

Just picked up Usagi Yojimbo: The Hell Screen Vol. 31 TPB - 10/10

Not because I was born under the Year of the Rabbit (in the Asian Calendar), this one has piped up my interest due to the fact that I'm also a history buff. There's so many movies about Japanese culture that one has seen and heard plus tales and legends that follow. Each story is self contained and there is no need to jump into other various copies of other comics just to get the storyline (in which the comics here in the North American tend to do); you can just pick up one and start reading. Stan Sakai blends in culture/myth and legends into his stories of this Ronin Rabbit and his adventures that follow in his footsteps.

If anyone is interested in Stan Sakai's work, you're welcome to do more research.  

Edit: On a separate tangent, who has just finished reading the collected edition version of Tokyo Ghost DLX HC? This has got me interested and be willing to pick up a copy. PM your thoughts.

 

Stuff Ive been binge reading

the 2011 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IDW series thats still ongoing up to issue 71. I read the first 12 issues and they're really good. Cant wait when whenever I get up to issue 44.

original Avengers comic. Some issues are good while most of the rest of the issues are just boring as heck. I should be reading Avengers West Coast by now

 

Cosmic Odyssey

Yikes, not as good as I remember it being as a kid. Cosmic is Starlin's wheelhouse, so it's kind of weird that the voice he nails best is Batman, while with characters like Starfire and Martian Manhunter, he misses their voices completely. I mean, he doesn't even try with Starfire.

 

Hickman's Avengers/New Avengers run: 9/10

Enjoyed New Avengers way more, but the way they all tied in by the time Secret Wars rolled around was a lot of fun.

 

Last Stand of the Wreckers: 8.5/10

This is my first full read of an IDW product. It delivered on everything I'd heard about it. Only part i'm disappointed about is it's a digital copy on the IDW app and my phone doesn't do it justice. Also I couldnt tell if my brain just wasn't used to recalling all thohat, but I did get lost trying to keep track with as many characters as were given a couple panels before... y'know.

More Than Meets The Eye vol 2: 9/10

my introduction to the DJD was long awaited on my par. I am digging the cast so far, especially the off the wall new guys like this group of scavengers and the dud k-bomb. "Wear my face" is the stuff nightmares are made of. Who's afraid of the DJD? I am!

 

Saga #45 - 10/10
It wasn't a hallucination... and the chapter felt waay to short.

My Hero Academia #148 - 8/10

Twin Star Exorcists #44 - 10/10
Did not predict Kankurou making that wager and Rokuro's shikigami reveal  . Also I think Kankuro's back story will probably be revealed in the next chapter along with the reveal of whatever's under his mask.

 

Justice League #23

7/10

It isn't anything groundbreaking but I'm laughing hard at the Black Shield. This villain is perfect.

It's not only about being invulnerable and throwing some punches, he'll terrorize you on social media too...

 

Discovered today there was an Escape from New York comic and I picked up the first trade "Escape from Florida".

And it was... average. I didn't like the kids as enemies. Just like in Robocop 2, kids make terrible enemies for big action heroes and the kids here are no exception. Every scene with them is just plain silly and cannot be taken seriously. But when they're out of the picture the plot gets stronger if not hindered by characters dying before you get to know them but can't complain about that since the movies had the same issue but with lower body count.

The art is a hit or miss. The fight scenes are the biggest offender since they're badly choreographied you need to triple take to get what's going on and who shot first.

Not the best start so I hope the next trade Escape from Siberia is better.

6/10

 

Ghost in the Shell Volume 1. 8-10

figured I'd start getting into the world of GITS by going back to the original manga itself and so far I'm liking it. Really has parts in there that can get you thinking and the art is beautiful cyberpunk at it's finest.

Also I was not expecting Motoko Kusanagi to be so sassy here too. I actually like that. XD

 

Dropped Grant Morrison's Batman during Incorporated. It got boring and I have no desire to reread it.

Aside from that Deadman Wonderland has been a treat. The same duo behind Death Note has put out a new work (I'm probably late to the party) called Platinum End and I am adoring it.

 

Yeah, she's a completely different character than in the animated movies or SAC.

 

Mista's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo
This was an absolute slog to read through honestly, basically had to drag myself to the finish line just so I can get around to the next parts.

Vento Aureo is essentially Stardust Crusaders 2.0 where the story is about a group of characters fighting a bunch of people as they travel to a bunch of places. There's next to no downtime, none of the locations are interesting or feel fleshed out, the characters don't even really interact with each other beyond shouting "THIS IS THE WORK OF AN ENEMY STAND" and explaining the fights out loud, and the plot is extremely bare bones. To facilitate a lot of these fights, the characters have to act as stupidly as possible where one of them will be literally dying right behind their backs and they won't notice or even turn around despite knowing they are the most wanted dead men on the planet. You don't have the tightly paced, rocket propelled momentum of Battle Tendency nor the slice of life setting that allowed Diamond is Unbreakable to be a series of enjoyable low stake encounters.

Stardust and Vento's "high stakes" life or death battles get pretty dull honestly because there just isn't a reason to care. They disrupt the flow of the story but the fights themselves aren't interesting enough to just have the story be a framing device for the fights. Specifically speaking about Vento Aureo, the stands suffer from being too similar to what's been seen before, too similar to each other, not having their powers used very creatively or cleverly or matched up interestingly, and each fight being too long for having so little consequence. There's tons of gore but having a healing ability among the main characters turns any injury into a short term annoyance at worst. Man in the Mirror is just like Hanged Man in that it's abilities rely on reflections. Baby Face and High Priestess both attack the main characters in enclosed environments and turn into objects. Purple Haze, The Grateful Dead, Notorious B.I.G., White Album, and Green Day all involve abilities that "poison" characters upon contact with the beginning of these fights usually having a character look at their finger and being shocked at something growing on them. Gold Experience, Baby Face, Green Day, Notorious B.I.G., and Metallica, and probably more, all possess vaguely defined abilities that truly stretch my suspension of disbelief because all of these Stands basically manipulate matter however they see fit on a molecular level. The Pillar Men would be jealous. This isn't even getting into just how inconsistent all of these abilities are with Gold Experience and King Crimson being the absolute worst offenders. There's just too much overlap between these abilities and the fights are so loooooooooong and I got deja vu multiple times from the same manga it's ridiculous.

Spoiler: Ending

The villain is a complete non-entity and the final battle is pretty terrible. You get ready for the final fight, there's tons of hype, but noope here are 2 new bozos, we have to sit through like 15 chapters of filler as the main characters fight these nobodies when we're all already geared up for the boss battle, boner is dead. Then instead of a proper fight, we get this batshit insane lore bomb, a plot device that doesn't want to be part of the plot that all the main characters have to wrestle to be involved, and other needless complications like body-swapping (why??? is this?? a thing????). The actual, proper endgame battle lasts like a second and the villain is utterly obliterated without being able to put up a fight in a manner that isn't cool or exciting or smart or anything at all. I guess the explanation makes more sense than Star Platinum just for some reason randomly having time stop powers too but at least there was still a fight after the fact was discovered. I mean Stardust had a lame villain defeat as well but this out does that handily. The endings (and everything else really) to Battle Tendency and Diamond is Unbreakable are so amazing, they make sense and are foreshadowed and are clever, how is this even the same author.

Like, the end is so fucking bad. It is literally "and then the good guys win"

Wait no, after the ending the manga KEEPS GOING I totally forgot about those completely arbitrary and pointless last chapters

Like, I know inconsistency is a JoJo thing but it also has almost none of the positive aspects of its predecessors. The mafia aspect of the story is a non-factor so it doesn't even have that going for it. It's better than Stardust Crusaders on virtue of having better Stands but it has nothing on the other three parts. And Stardust has the DIO fight as a trump card so idk maybe it's not. I felt pretty empty after reading it.

Spoiler: you just know what im about to complain about

WHAT THE FLYING FUCK IS KING CRIMSON
why is koichi in the intro like why
why the hell was fugo and his baller ass stand purple haze NOT USED AT ALL
like why even use fugo, why write him out, why does he never come back even as an antagonist after he betrays the group
moody blues also the best stand ever made, used like twice
mista and sex pistols are cool but man are they like the weakest things ever, sex pistols never hits fucking anyone, emperor successor indeed

so why was bruno dead for like half the series
earlier in a fight it was said that if bruno didnt have blood in his body he would die
like that was a plot point when he was separated by zippers, he NEEDS blood and food and stuff
so how come when his body didnt function he did
like what
so he doesnt bleed after he becomes a zombie
but sometimes he does
so
but it didnt work for narancia later when gold experience did the same thing
why wasnt narancia a zombie too
someone explain this to me

Gold Experience quite honestly has the most vague and bullshit set of powers in JoJo yet, it's not consistent
so he hits things and they turn into things like plants and bugs (he doesnt decide what) and reflect damage
and apparently hitting people gives them an acid trip
but then it doesnt anymore
but soemtimes the life forms dont reflect damage
and sometimes he CAN pick what they turn into
and sometimes he DOESNT need to hit them to change their forms
and sometimes he can actually RECREATE stand abilities
hell they dont even need to be plants or bugs anymore, he can replace limbs with them wtf is this even the same power at this point
like theoretically shouldnt he be able to just coat his entire body in something like sand as an extra layer of skin to reflect all damage and all his hits should dizzy opponents and he can heal wounds by transforming his clothes right where the injury is
how would he ever lose a fight
even josuke had the limitation of not being able to use it on himself come on

It's actually kind of hilarious that Silver Chariot, quite possibly the most inconsistent Stand of all time, makes a return here. He fits right in!
remember when silver chariot had armor
and got faster when he took it off
and made clones of himself
and then he never did those things again
So Polnareff is the only guy who fought Diavolo solo and survived to tell the tale, most badass motherfucker confirmed
also jotaro left his friend in rome crippled for like years what the actual fuck man, worst jojo confirmed
why didnt polnareff just use super chariot to put everyone to sleep from the beginning again

so diavolo wants to kill his daughter
so he enlists the help of his most competent, most powerful men to make sure she lives
to protect her from the most dangerous organization against him
to kill her himself
what
like what
and he's so secretive and protective of his identity that he does everything by proxy
but then later he just does everything himself
and makes sloppy mistakes and looks like a nincompoop
even though he can see the future at least hours in advance
even though later he can only see like a few seconds into the future for some reason
is he even the same character anymore

so king crimson erases time
but does that not create a paradox
like how would he erase that time if it was erased to begin with
so he why doesnt he just kill people during the erased time since time is basically stopped
i mean he kills narancia like that right
and he breaks a gun
and throws blood into people's eyes
those actions werent erased
so why
how is this NOT the world??
why do people see doubles of themselves somettimes
because theyre displaced? how does that happen? what does it even mean
if people dont notice the time skip then why did giogio notice LITERALLY every single time he used it like why would he even begin to suspect
giogio notices a lot of things he shouldnt
why did the bullets go through him but it hit risotto, like isnt the result the same, why isnt the result of him being riddled with holes kept, unlike all the other times he used time skip where he had to manually move out of the way here he stayed still
like what is going on

i know it sounds like im picking on part 5 but the sheer VOLUME of all this. what happened

The only thing that can save Vento Aureo now is some Great Days-tier anime openings.