Kingsway West

This book has so much potential but the execution leaves a lot to be desired in what had a strong first issue.  This book starts off with the title character Kingsway Law who is a war hero from a war that we don’t see but only hear about through dialog.  The United States is divided up into five different empires.  Kingsway used to work for the Chinese whose capital is the Golden City in northern California; but now he is done with them and he is looking to disappear.  Kingsway comes off as an Unforgiven type of cowboy who just wants to be left alone.  But when the queen of the Golden City has put a price on his head everybody is coming out to the wild looking for him.

After a gun fight with some of the queen’s guards Kingsway wakes up next to a campfire with a Mexican woman named Sonia.  The Mexicans and the Chinese have been at war in western part of the country over the mining of Red Gold.  Red Gold is a magical type of gold that can shift the balance of power to any of the empires that are vying for control of North America.

The book jumps ahead five years, Sonia and Kingsway have been living in the wild and created a life for themselves.  The wild is a beautiful place the animals that inhabit this place remind me of the book Manifest Destiny.  Their world gets turned upside down by a Chinese woman who shows up with her dragon looking for Kingsway to save her small band of rebel miners from the Golden City.  Meanwhile the engineer of the United States of New York is coming across the country looking for the mother load of Red Gold.  Strode is introduced as a winged African American scout for the engineer.  Kingsway and Ah Toy go looking for Sonia and battling the United States forces along the way at the mine they battle the Windigo what guarding the vein of Red Gold.  Strode joins the fight with the engineer and his forces not far behind.  There is a final showdown fight with all three parties where the United States of New York’s forces take out the Golden City’s guards leaving the miners and our heroes make way to the freemen’s fort in the south.  Kingway finds his wife but the ending is expected but it wasn’t executed well.

Greg Pak’s work is hit or miss with me I really like his work on Incredible Hulk over at Marvel Comics but this could have used a lot of more to expand upon.  This type of western is a grand and new concept but it wasn’t executed very the art was okay but nothing special.  Frankly I would love to see more and I would like to know more about each of the empires the world that these characters inhabit.  I also think that (SPOILER) Sonia being a ghost that Kingsway met when he was close to death and a figment of his imagination was a cop out ending or that it could have been executed better.

The Kitchen

Vertigo Comics has been going through a Renaissance of sorts and this story is part of that new push.  If you love crime noir or any type of mob movies this is a book for you.  If there is one other title I could compare this to it would be History of Violence.  The whole idea behind this book is that the wives of three Irish gangsters step up to run the business.  The three Irish hoods go to prison because they got arrested for beating the crap out of somebody.  Jimmy, Johnny and Rob go to prison but their absence has left a vacuum in Hell’s Kitchen.  Enter their wives Kath, Raven and Angie this book starts off pretty tame low level crime the wives are just collecting for their husbands while they are in prison but people keep shorting them on the payments.  This pisses off Kath to the breaking point and when she snaps she winds up putting the relative of someone in the Italian mob in a coma.  That’s not the worst of it however someone saw the whole thing go down.  But this witness doesn’t want justice he thinks that because its just a group of women that he can blackmail them.  This is where the book takes it dark turn down the road towards a life of crime.

The girl’s team joins forces with Tommy to run the Irish gang in Hell’s Kitchen.  Tommy is Jimmy’s best friend but he has just escaped a mental hospital.  The book gives very little back story to the characters throughout its tale.  We do learn that Kath and Raven are sisters but once the book takes that deeper dive into organized crime we see that Kath isn’t as in charge as we expected her to be.  Angie really changes as she becomes the enforcer for the group learning from Tommy everything that she can.  The women make deals with the Jews and the Italians over the course of the story to completely take over Hell’s Kitchen.  While their husbands have been locked up the girls reputations have surpassed their own they are released early.  What they find when they return to the streets is that the women want nothing to do with them anymore.  Raven is in deep with the Italians, Kath wants Jimmy to treat her equally as a partner and Angie has become independent.

The husbands try to take out Tommy but it doesn’t work.  One by one the husbands fall to the women as they find they don’t have the credibility on the street that they once had.  But as the girls continue to climb the higher they begin to split apart.  Raven takes control of everything Kath kind of checks herself and Angie and Tommy take off for brighter shores.  Later on Kath and Raven are talking and Raven confesses all she has done that Kath was too weak to do even killing someone she thought was going to drag Kath down over time.  This sets the two sisters to fighting and Kath is killed when she falls on a kitchen knife.  The story doesn’t end there as Raven continues to climb the ladder to success only to meet a very The Departed style end when she arrives home one night to find Tommy and Angie there.

Looking at this series as a whole I can’t say I’m impressed but I wasn’t expecting much from it anyway.  I feel this could have been longer by including lots of character development and exposition.  Probably my biggest complaint of this series was the art as a whole.  I think the colors worked really well for this story I love the whole opening scene but I have a problem with the framing and perspective of the artist’s work some of the drawings are just painful to look at.  I didn’t like History of Violence the book or the movie but if you liked either of those I am sure you will like this.

Reborn: Book One

Back in the 1990s Image Comics was the place to go for comics that were not about superheroes it was a place to go to see what comics as an art form could be stretched toward.  Mark Millar is one of those visionaries he has been crafting his own stories for some time now with several of them becoming films and even some of them surpassing the original source material.  Reborn is one of those books.  Now I’ll be up front this book may not be for everybody.  There is a lot to like in this book but there are things that I did not like as well.

First off the art is simply spectacular as Greg Capullo is here to provide the art for this series coming fresh off of his run on Batman with Scott Snyder.  The book starts off with a sniper in a public place taking out unsuspecting victims.  One of the unlucky citizens wakes up in a green field much younger in what looks like something out of Lord of the Rings.  The hero of this tale is Bonnie Black a school teacher who is very pessimistic about the afterlife as she is in a nursing home and has lost her husband, mother, father and best friend.  When she dies she awakens in this realm in the middle of a warzone.  She finds out well she’s in this new land with a new lease on life and a younger body that she is the savior of this realm.  She discovers that she has some type of powers she is reunited with her father and her childhood pet.  She is on a quest to find her husband in this realm and along the way she finds her best friend.  At the end there is a big showdown between Bonnie and the demon like villain of this realm.

What I like about this book is this high concept of an idea that Mark Millar has come up with I like most of his books because of their concepts but I don’t particularly like his execution all of the time and this was one of those times.  I really liked the first half of this book but I just felt that he didn’t stick to the landing.  I also didn’t like the reveal of who the big bad was before he died.  It didn’t sit well with me.  I also didn’t like how bitter her best friend became when she discovered that her faith and beliefs had been dashed by this new reality.  This book leave lots of room for improvement, I had hoped that this would be a one and done tale like so many of Mark Millar’s books but sadly that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Saga Vol. 7

It has been awhile since I've read Saga & without picking up volume 6 or looking back at my previous reviews of the other volumes; I just wasn't feeling as emotional about this one as I was supposed to.  I will definitely be rereading this series as a whole when it's finished.  This volume was only OK for me as there's a lot that happens in this collection.  There is a time jump of six months & the story takes place entirely on the comet of Phang.  This is by far the saddest entry into the series as several characters die but in some cases the deaths don't have the same amount of emotion as some of the characters who have been around for a while.  This collection has about the same amount of death as The Walking Dead.  

From here on (SPOILERS!) abound, Hazel & her extended family are coasting through space when they discover they are running out of fuel.  Petrichor who came with Hazel from the prison instead of grandma has sort of replaced her role in this family.  Their ship has to make an emergency refueling stop on Phang an inhabited comet flying through the blackness of space.  Phang is war torn & full of refugees in fact I would say that this is Brian K. Vaughan's cosmic version of Aleppo, Syria.  Phang is the birthplace of Sophie is still off with Gwendolyn & Lying Cat.  Lying Cat is still one of the greatest comic creations of the 21st century.  On Phang our family comes in contact with another family of small rodent like characters not as cute as Gus but just as likable.  Kurti & his family are a great addition to the book.  Throughout this book we see the extended family grow as Alana becomes a mother to all while she is going through her second pregnancy.  Petrichor warns Marko of these refugees that they have taken in saying that they are not what they appear.  All of this alludes to the fact that Kurti's family are religious fanatics who will go so far as to participate in suicide bombings against at least one side of the conflict.  Marko stands up for them saying that you can not judge a race based on the actions of a few.  Izabel & Hazel get into an argument which prompts Izabel to offer to help out Prince Robot IV.  Meanwhile The Will  with Sweet Boy tracks down Gwendolyn to get the band back together so they can continue hunting down Marko & Alana only to find out that his bounty hunter status has been revoked.  Izabel runs into a new bounty hunter The March she tries to run but they capture her & kill her, permanently. There is a really touching story where Hazel & Kurti are talking remembering Izabel,  Hazel tells this story about her past & the feather fairy it is really a touching story.  Gwendolyn goes on a mission for Wreath High Command to meet with a representative from Landfall.  Prince Robot IV gets high & comes close to crossing the line between raping Alana & committing suicide.  Right when The March finds Marko & Alana's tribe, Petrichor finds out why so many people have deserted Phang.  The showdown between The March & our group ends in Marko once again taking a life to save his family.  The Last issue of this collection sees the death of Sweet Boy & supposedly The Will by an unknown assassin.   Hazels family escapes Phang just as it is being destroyed but do to some turbulence Alana is knocked down & it is speculated that she has lost the baby boy she was carrying.  Kurti & his family refused to go with them preferring to remain on Phang believing that their faith will protect them from the time of trouble ahead; all were lost.

Saga is still one of the greatest series on the shelves right now I love how Brian K Vaughan is able to balance writing multiple books at the same time.  I haven't read Paper Girls yet but that he is currently writing along with this one.

Scalped Deluxe Ed. Book Five

The last book in the Scalped series is quite satisfying as an ending but at the same time I still had some problems with it.  The opening issue is a great reflection on how far the series has come since it was first started.  Bad Horse & Falls Down are looking for Catcher since he killed Gina & tried to kill both of them.  Meanwhile in the wake of Medicine Rock's heart attack Red Crow has been tearing down his own meth houses.  Wooster Karnow has wised up as a law man & is taking matters into his own hands.  All of these changes seem very organic in the way they are executed in this final book.  

The teaser at the end of the last volume doesn't lead anywhere since Belcourt doesn't wake up next to Catcher in the hospital but instead Catcher winds up in jail with Wade.  During a fire fight in which some meth dealers in Nebraska were trying to kill Shunka.  Wade gets hit with a stray bullet & as he is dying Catcher admits to killing Gina which leads to Wade & Catcher choking each other.  I really wish Catcher had died here but it was not to be.  Sheriff Karnow takes on a meth house by him self after all of his back up deserts him.  Nitz finally arrives but it to late Karnow after being shot multiple times tries to reason with one the criminals wearing a gas mask but get shot anyway.  As the gangs runs away it is revealed that the guy with the gas mask is Dino who the sheriff let off with a warning earlier in this collection.  Shunka & Bad Horse have their showdown that has been teased since the very beginning and it is great but it still proves that Shunka would have one if it hadn't been for the most unlikely person.  Red Crow shoots Shunka at which Dashiell turns the situation around & puts Red Crow under arrest  Meanwhile Catcher makes it to a field where he comes upon his old horse.  Upon recognizing him the horse attacks him & while about to stomp a mud hole in him Catcher shoots the horse & it collapses on him.  If the series had ended here it would have been fine but no this is only the halfway point of the story.  

Red Crow is in jail Nitz is happy as hell & Bad Horse is viewed as a hero Dashiell starts up a relationship with Maggie Medicine Rock who seems to be a good fit for him but I was really rooting for him & Carol since they have so much shared history.  Dino manipulates things behind the scenes with Red Crow's lawyer which leads to Lincoln being released & Dashiells reputation in ruins.  Dash is on the run from the F.B.I. while someone is killing the tribal council.  Diesel's body turns back up putting further evidence against Dash.  The final fight is in the closed casino between Dino's gang of former Red Crow employees & Red Crow.  It turns out that Catcher is still alive & that he is behind the tribal council murders.  Nitz finds out that Catcher is really the one who murdered the F.B.I. agents back in 1975.  So everybody is converging on the casino.  Dino flees with a lot of money making his full criminal transformation.  There is a whole Mexican standoff thing that happens between Red Crow, Bad Horse & Catcher.  Bad Horse shoots both, while Catcher is stumbling away Nitz runs in & tackles him into the fire where they both burn.  Dash carries Red Crow outside.  Red Crow makes him an offer but Dash refuses.  By the end of the story Falls Down is made sheriff of the reservation Maggie is elected leader of the the tribal council.  Carol has officially replace Granny Poor Bear as we witness Granny's funeral.  There is a new drug kingpin on the reservation in Dino.  Red Crow is living secluded outside of town just trying to get back to his roots & Dash is hitching a ride out of the reservation because he is still wanted for the murder of Diesel.  This is not a happy ending book but it does have definite closure.  If you liked 100 Bullets or Y the Last Man you will love this I haven't read D.M.Z. yet but I have a feeling it is in the same vein as these other titles.

Scalped Deluxe Ed. Book Four

This is the second to last collection as Scalped is starting two wind down.  This book feels much more like an anthology as it includes several side stories.  I absolutely love issue 35 which opens up this book it is a beautiful one & done story about Mance & Hazel.  Next up we learn about Carol’s past as she comes to the realization that she is pregnant with Dashiell Bad Horse’s child.  She winds up torching her house & going to live with Granny Poor Bear.  Granny helps get Carol off of drugs & by the end it looks like Carol is turning her life around.  Dashiell’s father Wade has returned to the reservation & he wants to see his son.  Everybody is always giving Wade a hard in this book & I understand that he really doesn’t stand up for himself but he is at least trying to make an effort & is his past with all of the characters is murkier than anyone can guess.

The Native American sweat lodge comes into play in this book a lot as it is used to ween Dash off of drugs & even for prayer or meditation.  Other side characters get their chance to shine as Wooster Karnow from Nebraska keeps reminiscing about how he used to be such a big shot & a war hero until he starts chasing down a guy wanted by the US Marshalls office.  This is issue was also quite amazing & is setting up something for the final book.  The other character who really get some page time is Nitz.  Agent Nitz has such a fall from grace when his superior comes in from Washington fires him for incompetence & getting his partner killed.  Nitz is in a drunken rage goes to confront Red Crow who basically has his men beat the crap out of him but not kill him.  Nitz trying to find a way to end it so he goes to a meth lab hoping that the tweaking junkies will kill him in a fire fight.  But do to his luck things don’t work out the way he was expecting them to.  The whole Unwanted storyline is about regrets & bad decisions. 

The next story-arc in this book is called You Gotta Sin to Get Saved.  This is a very Red Crow centered story.  Lincoln is coming up against a rival for chief of the tribe & his rival is the man who raised him.  As Red Crow is dealing with this new threat Dashiell & he have become quite close.  Meanwhile Dino Poor is developing a major crush on Carol that balances on the very edge of creepy.  The character that I have lost all respect for in this book is Catcher.  In this collection Catcher proves how messed up & sadistic he really is as he tries to kill Officer Falls Down & Dashiell Bad Horse.  I can’t wait for him to wake up in the last book & see who is in the same hospital room as him.  This series has gained a lot of respect from me as I have continued reading it but it is not an easy series to get into.  But once it has its hooks into you be prepared you are in for a wild ride.

Scalped Deluxe Ed. Book Three

A lot happens in this volume of Scalped with the High Lonesome storyline.  This introduces us to a con man by the name of Wesley Willeford & he has a secret that even he doesn’t know until he sees Dash Bad Horse; he knows that Dash works for the F.B.I.  Dash is going through his own problems throughout this entire volume in fact he comes real close to losing his grip on reality.  He has turned to drugs, sex & alcohol to just ease the pain & burden that he is living with every day.   Finally Dash does confess to Carol that he is working for the F.B.I.  As the world is closing in on him Dash sobers up pretty damn quick really just in time to talk Diesel into double crossing the F.B.I. & then double crossing Diesel on the evening that he is released from prison.  The justice that Dashiell Bad Horse rains down on him quite literally in fact is too extreme & doesn’t make me sympathize with him anymore than I already do. 

Officer Falls Down is piecing everything together rather quickly in the case of the murdered F.B.I. agents from 1975.  Lawrence Belcourt who sits in prison wrongly convicted of this crime knows who the real murderer is hell everybody that was there that day knows who it is.  It is finally revealed to us in this volume, it was Catcher.  By the end of this volume Falls Down knows that Catcher killed Gina Bad Horse but he doesn’t know why.  Reveals himself to Dashiell again after swearing on Gina’s grave that he will protect her son.  Catcher has this old sage presence in this series he just pops here & there in the story & reveals major plot points he is becoming one of the most enjoyable characters to read along with Granny Poor Bear only appears briefly in this book. 

The second half of this book is very Red Crow centric as Lincoln does something brash when he shoots Mr. Brass in the head while he is on the phone with Johnny Hmong.  This causes the Hmong’s to come down to the reservation in force.  They are expecting to have a war with Red Crow & his men right outside the police station.  However Red Crow changes the game & goes out to meet them himself unarmed.  The Hmongs don’t kill but instead beat him senseless as example.  While all of this is going on there is a witness on the loose that can either seal the fate of Lincoln Red Crow for murder to the F.B.I.  or Dashiell Bad Horse to Red Crow or the F.B.I. for drug use.  But in the end everything is good the witness is killed to protect Dashiell & Red Crow flies to the city to deliver some Godfather style retribution to Johnny Hmong & his gang which is quite satisfying to see.  This book was the halfway point for the series if you have made it this far there are only two books left.  

Scalped Deluxe Ed. Book Two

The second volume of Scalped comes at you the emotion from the get go.  Tragedy comes for everybody in this volume.  Gina Bad Horse is dead but no one knows who killed her.  Dashiell Bad Horse has a crisis of consciousness while he is trying to deal with the death of his own mother & the death of a teenage boy’s mother.  The teenage boy's name is Shelton, he has four brothers & sisters that he looks out for.  Shelton reminds Dashiell of his own troubled past as he tries to relate to the kid & reassure him that they will catch the guy who killed his mom.  In his grief Dashiell turns to Carol & picks up some more of her bad habits.  We do get to see some of her backstory & why she hates her dad so much.  Shelton dies while trying to get revenge for his mothers death. This leads to a confrontation between Dashiell & Diesel except now they both know that they are both undercover agents for the F.B.I.  

Lincoln Red Crow is probably the one character who has been affected the most by Gina’s murder.  He is starting to downward spiral in some of his decisions he is making.  Thanks to Red Crow's business deals with an Asian crime family the Hmongs, he is starting to lose control of his hold on the reservation.  The Hmongs have sent Mr. Brass a scary little man who works a lot like the Spanish Inquisition pain first & asking questions second.  By the end of this book Red Crow steps up & takes a stand against the cruelty that Mr. Brass is raining down on his people but some o the damage has already been done.

Granny Poor Bear is Dino's grandmother but she is respected by all of the characters that have interacted with her so far.  She prepares a soul pouch for Gina's soul & gives it to Lincoln Red Crow because of his history with her.  The book shows a lot of their history throughout this part of the story, Gina really plays a bigger part in flashbacks than in the present.  This responsibility that Granny has bestowed on Red Crow is a real driving force in this book & provides his character with a lot of conviction.  In the end however some old habits are just to hard to give up.  

Dino Poor Bear is the other great tragedy of this volume.  Dino fixes up his car with the money he was given but he gets pulled over for driving recklessly.  This one event leads to several bad decisions & bad situations that seem lucrative at the time.  All the while Dino keeps telling himself that he is trying to provide a better life for his daughter but in reality he is shackling her to life on this reservation.  Granny sees what is happening & she tries some tough love on him to make him see reason but in the end Dino will have to live with what he has lost as he is lying in a hospital bed at the end of this book.  

Franklin Falls Down makes his return in this book after recovering from being set up to be killed during a routine drug bust by Red Crow.  Falls Down is one tough character he is the one good cop on a police force of crooked cops his father was cop before him.  Red Crow comes to officer Falls Down with Gina Bad Horse's Murder Case because Red Crow wants it solved at all cost & he knows that Falls Down is the only cop he can trust to solve it.  F.B.I. Agent Nitz is back in all his glory he is glad that Gina is dead & like everybody else he believes that Red Crow had her killed.  The F.B.I. is portrayed in a very negative light in this series & I have a feeling that there is more to Agent Nitz than simple retribution for the deaths of two F.B.I. agents in the 1970s.  Catcher also returns in this book for one brief scene in which is is screaming that he can't wash off the blood it leads the readers to believe that he killed Gina.  To which I ask why did he do it?

Scalped Deluxe Ed. Book One

Jason Aaron can be a very polarizing writer you either like his writing or you don’t.  I have only read one title by him prior to this & that was Wolverine.  I like Jason Aaron’s style but this was a little hard to get into at first.  Scalped is not told in a linear fashion like 100 Bullets for example however that being said if you liked 100 Bullets you will like Scalped.  The art style is very similar in terms of color pallet but art in this book is grittier.  In 100 Bullets some of the characters were quite likable I have not found that to be the case in this book in fact by the end of this first volume I have only two characters that I like.  This book takes a lot of cues for Quentin Tarantino movies & forces the reader to piece things together.  This book is told through flashbacks, dreams, flash-forwards & different vantage points of the present.  It is truly amazing & confusing at the same time.  For example one of the main characters is killed off about half-way through this book but yet they are still heavily involved with the rest of the story in this volume because their death was revealed in a flash-forward.  I like the fact that this story takes place on a Native American Reservation for the Sioux Indians in South Dakota.  I love studying about Native American history however I am deeply saddened by the United States treatment of Native Americans even to this day.  It shows that America as a country has not learned its lesson.  Similar to that of the story even though this story is about a decade old it still rings true as taking place in the present.

Anyway there are several characters that we are introduced to in this opening volume the first is Catcher even though we don’t know it him at the time.  He shares a past with many of our main characters that is coming back to haunt them.  The second is Dashiell Bad Horse, he is supposed to be the protagonist of the story but I just can’t bring myself to like him.  From the very beginning he is more than what he seems but even the reveal of him working with the F.B.I. doesn’t make him any more likable in fact it gives off the opposite effect.  The next is Lincoln Red Crow who also has a lot of history with this reservation & a past with Catcher.  Red Crow is positioned to be the villain of the story but every time he appears a little more is revealed about him & he’s not as bad as everybody says he is.  Gina Bad Horse is one of the more relatable characters in the book simply because it is so hard to like her son Dashiell.  She also shares history with Red Crow & Catcher.  Carol Red Crow is a girl from Dashiell’s past & Lincoln’s daughter.  Agent Nitz is an F.B.I. agent with a grudge against the Native Americans.  That brings us to Dino Poor Bear who is just a teenage dad trying to create a better life for his daughter.  He dreams of leaving the reservation but something is always pulling him back in.  I really hope he survives this tale but I think that this is just beginning of what is set to be one long tragedy.  I look forward to reading the next volume in the series.  This is the series that put Jason Aaron on the map as a comic book writing & his career has just skyrocketed since.

Saga Vol. 6

One big happy family, is what Brian K. Vaughan has crafted in Saga volume six.  I absolutely love this series there is nothing bad I can say about this book I am a little upset that we didn't get to touch base with all of our characters in this volume but it is still amazing.  If you are a fan of The Will then this may be your least favorite collection to date but overall it is still great.  The time jump is great it really is nice to see Hazel interact on her own Brian K. Vaughan has given her a great voice now that she is older  It looks like Marko & Alana's family is going to get a little bigger after this volume with the big reveal at the end.  I hope there isn't another time jump for awhile because I am need to readjust to how everybody is older in this volume.

Manifest Destiny Vol. 3: Chiroptera & Carniformaves

This is the most emotional entry yet into the Manifest Destiny series so far.  Our heroes have encountered another arch & with it the first intelligent species that is currently inhabiting the wild untamed land of the Louisiana Purchase.  The Fezron are an awesome addition to the series Chris Dingess has opened up the forest & given readers a creature that can be just as cute as the Ewok & just as deadly.  The Fezron are not the only creatures that lurk nearby the arch the other creature that our explorers encounter is the Vameter which is some type of vampire.  The ending of this story is bittersweet because our heroes carry out their mission no matter what or who gets hurt, the mission comes first.  I can't say I agree with their decision but it does make for a nice contrast & it reminds me of stories like Sheltered.

Archie Vol. 1

Mark Waid has done it, not only did he update Archie & the gang but he was also able to inject all of the Americana wonder that has made Archie a for close to 75 years.  This first volume is pretty much all set up & establishing the characters & opening up of this mid-american town.  This book has two main events the first is the break up of the perfect couple in Archie & Betty.  Which happens in such a way that realistic to how teenagers act today.  Everything has been modernized & updated to fit into the 21st century.  The second is the Lodge family decides to move to Riverdale.  One of the things I like about this series is it gives some of the characters more of backstory than they previously had; Jughead for example this collection goes into what his real name is & where he came from.  Mark Waid is working with some of the best artist for this relaunch.  There are three main artist in this collection the first of which is superstar Fiona Staples of Saga fame, the second is Annie Wu & the the third is Veronica Fish.  The changing art does not feel jarring like in other books.  All of the characters are perfectly portrayed.  I can't wait to see where this goes.

Thief of Thieves Vol. 5: Take Me

The fifth volume of Thief of Thieves sees Conrad try to retire a second time & reignite his relationship with his ex-wife.  Except this time Audrey finale gets through to him that there is know way to win her back.  On the plus side Conrad is closer to his son now that the events of the previous two volume are over.  Celia is the main focus of this volume, she thinks she can just take over the Redmond persona but she is in way over her head.  We see the return of Liz Cohen in this volume & Redmond saves the day by the end.  So much for retirement but not all is as perfect as it seems.

Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland

Winsor McCay was ahead of his time in comics & his creation of Little Nemo's Adventures in Slumberland is a timeless classic.  I was first introduced to Nemo & friends as a child through the cartoon made in the 1980s  Like the original work by McCay the art is the highlight of this book Gabriel Rodriguez is a master at recreating & updating the world McCay imagined.  The story starts off kind of slow but it continues to draw you in & by issue two you can't put it down.  The tessellated tower & the lava lake are the highlights of this book I would love to see a book that explores dreams the way this does.  This is Nemo for a new generation; it is a great way for parents to introduce their kids to this character & the legacy that was created.  There are some gripes about this but they are minor the major one for me though is Flip.  He is just as out of control as ever but they have made him less rough around the edges.  This is definitely a more politically correct version of Nemo but other than that I would love to see an ongoing series spiral out of this.

Saga Vol. 5

Saga is back in all its glory picking up where the previous volume left off we start off learning about some of the history of the war between Landfall & Wreath.  However we still don't know what started the conflict between the two factions.  Dengo has taken the Hazel, Alana, Klara & the little robot baby hostage to get the attention of the Robot Empire, but the space ship tree has taken them to a snowy planet & stranded them there.  Meanwhile The Brand, Gwendolyn & Sophie are on a quest to save the The Will's life.  Their quest has taken them to the planet Demimonde a land of dragons.  The third party of our heroes is traveling across space trying to find where Dengo has taken the others.  This group consist of Prince Robot IV, Marko, Ghus & Yuma.  The underlying theme in this volume is the role of the parent & sacrifice or better yet the definition of sacrifice.  Three of our heroes heroes die in this volume one from each of the aforementioned parties.  One dies for the memory of a lost loved one, while another dies saving the other members of their group & the third character dies protecting the youngest member of their group.  All in all the every character has moment to shine in this story there are even some new characters introduced in this volume The Revolution a group of terrorist who are bent on killing innocents to stop both sides from fighting. The Will wakes up at the end of this volume & receives a gift from The Stalks brother.  By the end of this two of our groups are reunited but it is far from a happy ending for all.  I eagerly await the next volume of this series part of me wants to wait until Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples are done with this series but it is just to good.

Spawn Origins Collection Vol. 1

I can't believe that it took me this long to pick up a Spawn comic.  Spawn was created back in 1992 by Todd Mcfarlane one of the co-founders of Image Comics he was also known for his work as an artist on Spider-Man.  Mcfarlane's art is to die for it is on par with Jim Lee's artwork.  Al Simmons is a tragic character who doesn't view himself as a hero.  By the end of this volume of Spawn is starting to accept his powers & this second chance at life that he has been given.  Mcfarlane's opening story arc is a little wordy for my taste but the origin story pulls you in leaving you wanting more.  Spawn references several other Image Comics creations like Youngblood, The Savage Dragon & Shadowhawk.  Not only was this a great diversion from the big two super-hero comic book companies but it made me want to delve into the other titles that set up the foundation of Image Comics which is now known for a vast array of creator owned comics.

Manifest Destiny Vol. 2: Amphibia & Insecta

This volume picks up after the events of the first one the Lewis & Clark's group has expanded a little by picking up the survivors from the fort.  But are these new characters going to help or hinder the expedition remains to be seen.  This volume slows down the expedition quite a bit by having the boat get stuck on the river, the symbolism of the arch is back, & to top it all off the group has been split in two.  Clark is in charge of the group that has made it to the shore while Lewis is in charge of the group that has remained on the boat.  There is a giant frog like creature that is preventing them from continuing on their journey.  On land however in the woods a blood thirsty foe awaits not as deadly but just as gruesome.  There is also a glimmer of back story to who Lewis & Clark really are & that they may not be as wholesome heroes as we are meant to believe.

Sheltered Vol. 3

The finale of Sheltered is here, I don't know maybe its the fact that there was so much time between reading the first two volumes & this one but something was missing from this one.  Maybe it was the fact that I knew this was the final act but this volume played out in a very predictable way.  I am not going to spoil anything on here this is a short enough series that you should be able to read it in one sitting.  If you are a fan of Lord of the Flies or any pre-apocalyptic future type tale involving children this story is for you.  The question in the end who was right?

Copperhead Vol. 1

Copperhead is a new comic out from Image Comics its basically a western set in space after a war.  Think Firefly with a female lead character the main character of this title is the new sheriff in town.  This sleepy little mining town is rife with problems that are floating just beneath the surface.  This first story arc is essentially a murder mystery to recover a sacred stone by the end of this book there are still a lot of unanswered questions but I am super excited to see where this series is going.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 1

This is a nice reintroduction to the mutants that shaped my generation.  There are a few points that seem off about this story like how Shredder is still alive & the whole reincarnation twist on Splinter & his four sons.  But everything else is spot on in this updated vision of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  There are even easter eggs from the original movies that familiar readers will be able to pick out & enjoy.  While it wasn't the most spectacular read of the year so far it has a lot of potential, its good to know that Leo, Raph, Mikey & Donnie are back for a new generation to enjoy.