By Zeb Larson
Southern Bastards is finally back, after a long hiatus. Both Sebastian Girner, the series editor, and Jason Latour lost their fathers within a few weeks of each other, and understandably this pushed back publication of the book. But I’ll be selfish and won’t lie: it’s good, damned good, to finally have this series back. We’re in the middle of several different threads of narrative payoff even as new ones take their place. All of the different factions and people around Boss want him dead, and he’s running out of ways to make himself indispensable to them. For once, his biggest problem isn’t going to be what happens next on the gridiron.
Read MoreBy Zeb Larson
I grew up with Vietnam stories, but on the American side. My grandfather lived in Bien Hoa during the war, and when he left the country on April 29, 1975 he smuggled several people out of the country in his car; one of them was adopted into the family and became my aunt. He went into the war a true believer in the United States, and by its end was far more pessimistic about the country’s goals and intentions. He loved the country and kept going back there for the rest of his life; he even took me in 2006. He also passed on a love of American and Vietnamese literature about the war: The Quiet American, A Bright and Shining Lie, Memories of a Pure Spring, The Destiny of Love, or more recently The Sympathizer…
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
This comes across feeling like an oddly lifeless (har har) issue of The Walking Dead, except for the very last panel, and I’m still not sold on whether or not that’s nothing more than a fake-out. I wouldn’t have thought that the fall of Alexandria would have so little going on, but as it turns out, most of this arc’s energy was spent in the first two issues. Now we’re just waiting for the Saviors to make their move, or whatever other twist might come from this arc. Warning: I will be discussing spoilers in this review, so consider yourself forewarned.
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
This was the first issue of Bitch Planet that has failed to grab or affect me in a really strong way. Every issue is so visceral and so full of subtext, references to the present, and complicated intersectional feminism that I always have plenty to think about when I finish the issue. But I finished reading this particular issue, and it had no real impact on me. It just advances the plot, and it doesn’t even do that to the normal standards of Bitch Planet. Perhaps it’s just an off issue? I hope so. Warning: I will be discussing spoilers here.
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
The war with the Whisperers becomes more serious in this issue. At first, it was a battle between the Whisperers and Rick’s army, and the people who were dying were soldiers. Their deaths could be expected to a certain extent. But now that both the Whisperers and Rick’s men have split up, the individual communities are being forced to man their own battlements against the enemy. Just how violent it will be is still unclear, but it’s going to be hard to undo this damage, especially since Rick is now facing a new internal challenge. Warning: I will be discussing spoilers here.
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
The Wicked + The Divine #23 radically breaks with prior format in this issue. In fact, it breaks away from just about every comic book convention you can think of. Instead of being a traditional comic, this reads like a miniature magazine, and the entirety of the book is devoted to interviews with various members of the pantheon. There’s barely any art in this issue at all, and the art that exists would be more suited to an issue of Vanity Fair. It’s an interesting gimmick, and one that gives us a new look at the pantheon. But it’s also a limited approach, in part because the picture that emerges of the pantheon members is all roughly the same, it lacks the brilliant art that makes up this series, and we ultimately end up no closer to the characters of the Pantheon.
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
Southern Bastards is finally back, after a painfully long hiatus, and close to a dozen issues that were about the backstory and background of Craw County. I've been excited for this story to come back, and not just because I'm a fan of chicken-fried noir stories. We're finally moving toward some kind of narrative payoff, after what the first story arc managed to establish well over a year and a half ago. I'm pleased to say then that we what we get here lives up to the promise of the first arc. Blood is in the water in Craw County, but nothing fights more viciously than a wounded predator.
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
In this, the penultimate issue of Lucas Stand, one of the series’ major problems is front and center: the confusing narrative. Things seem to happen from out of nowhere, and characters I’m supposed to recognize suddenly appear and say things about the plot that totally change our understanding of it, but without any other clues to suggest those changes were in the offing. Stuff happens and we don’t understand why, and since the series is almost over it doesn’t seem like any nuance is really going to be injected into this. It’s a shame, because the premise had some initial value. Warning: I will be discussing spoilers here.
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
It’s funny to be writing a review of Venus, given that Comic Bastards gives its endorsement on the back page of this book. But our reviews only went through the first half of the series, and now I’ve got a chance to say something about the series as a whole. Do I like it? Yes, I do think this is a worthwhile series. While I’m generally a sucker for anything science-fiction, what I liked about this book is that the real focus was on exploration: even as it looks at humanity’s place in the cosmos, it’s also looking at the challenges we faced in the past and what we’re looking at today.
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
I’ve done nothing but complain about Descender’s current story arc. It’s been nothing but a cheap stalling tactic; half of the stories we’ve seen have been things we’ve already known, making this nothing more than repetition. So it was with not inconsiderable dread that I picked up this latest issue, only to be pleasantly surprised by the story that I got. If it didn’t resolve the broader issue that this has just been a six-month way to put off telling what happened to Tim, at least this given issue managed to tell a good story that is actually relevant to the broader plot. Warning: I will be discussing spoilers in this review.
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
I wasn’t entirely happy with the direction Black Science took last issue, in part because the never-ending series of misfortunes was starting to wear thin. Yes, it’s been fun to watch Remender take the screws to his characters, especially given that most of them deserve at least some of the misfortune they’re force-fed, but it can start to feel predictable. And yet, this issue makes me want to step back from that a little bit, if for no other reason than Remender really commits to the monkey-wrench he threw last time. I can at least appreciate a writer making meaningful consequences stick.
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
It feels like there’s been a real explosion in the number of comics dealing with a second civil war (DMZ), secessionist movements (Briggs Land), or American military occupations (We Stand on Guard). This latest one breaks a bit of new ground by dealing with the aftermath of the first two and the midst of the third, this time in the state of Kentucky. It throws out some interesting ideas, though the narrative structure left some things in the air that could be secret for now, or just inconsistencies. I want to like it, but I’ll need another issue.
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
Southern Cross doesn’t let up with the second issue of this arc, which is usually where a series slows down for a little bit. But given the crisis that’s unfolding on Romulus, taking things slowly wouldn’t really make all that much sense. Everything was so close to crisis as is, and the disappearance of the Southern Cross and the murder of Carter has make it all fall apart. In the middle of this, Hazel is trying to make sense of it all without getting killed, knowing full well that a murderer is targeting her.
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
This is an oddly lifeless issue of The Walking Dead (har har). The battle between the Whisperers and Rick’s people ends in a kind of stalemate, which makes most of the fighting filler for what comes next. Paradoxically, the most interesting moments occur off the battlefield, as there’s a hidden threat in the Kingdom that might derail some of Rick’s plans. But that can’t change the fact that this is a thoroughly middling issue, some filler on the way to something else. Warning: I will be discussing spoilers in this review.
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
In keeping with the revelations from the last issue, we learn a lot from Autumnlands #13, enough to change our perception of this world. Last issue was about the creators of the Autumnlands, who were really nothing more than irresponsible party boys who used the planet as a kind of pleasure resort. The frat bros made a mess, and now somebody’s been sent to clean it up. But for the residents of the Autumnlands, particularly Dusty and Aelbert, a clean-up crew is not going to be a good thing.
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
I’ve figured out Red One’s schtick. Imagine a hard-core pornographic film that had no sex in it: some initiating dialogue, a premise, but ultimately no payoff. That’s basically this book. It works at a literal level, because Vera keeps talking about sex but never actually having any (though we’re treated to a porno fluffer sequence that ranks up there with the most pointless moments in all of print media); it also works because we keep having this conflict between her and the Carpenter teased, but now the arc is over, and we wait another year for it to be finished. All promise and no payoff.
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
Well, Descender picks up a little bit with this issue, though it’s not exactly by much. All it does is manage to avoid retreading familiar ground in the never-ending series of flashbacks postponing the revelation of Tim’s fate. Is it interesting? Not particularly, because what we some of what we could have easily guessed, and the other piece is somewhat interesting but ultimately rushed, so it doesn’t come with a whole lot of emotional payoff. Business as usual? I suppose, but that’s not a good thing for this book. At least we might finally be done with this flashback horse-hockey and get back to advancing the narrative. Warning: I will be discussing spoilers.
Read MoreBy Robert Larson
Lucas Stand just can’t seem to hit a winning formula in a given issue. In the first few issues, the central tension of working for hell and leaving behind a lot of collateral damage was undercut by the fact that some cheap writing undermined those consequences. For once, that’s not a problem here; instead, the basic premise of each has finally worn thin, so that all of the emotional baggage of Lucas with his father is so muted that it doesn’t evoke much response. In other words, too little, too late. Warning: I will be discussing spoilers here.
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