Comic Reviews
Uncanny X-Force #5 - Most of this issue is Storm and Psylocke transversing Bishop's mind, finding out what happened after the events with Hope (which I don't really know much about) and how he got possessed. Something about "reverents" that he was fighting and some sort of godlike being taking over Bishop. It's mostly over my head, but the art is really pretty (I didn't realize it was done by the artist of Runaways). We also get a bit of Puck and Spiral drinking/fighting in the real world and the female Fantomex kidnaps Psylocke while they are occupied. No word on what happened between Fantomex and Dark Fantomex.
Kick-Ass 3 #1 - Kick-Ass and his crew team up to spring Hit Girl, but chicken out in the end. They eventually fall into a sad rhythm of shit jobs and low level "crime fighting". Kick-Ass gets fed up in the end and stands up to the guys. It's ... an average Kick-Ass issue, I guess.
Empowered Special #4 - Emp is working as a security guard for an interdimensional car show that gets attacked. I like this issue because she uses her smarts to take down the bad guys one by one, which makes the eventual tying up kinda sad. I like the jokes with the villains renting their mech suits and having to deal with pop up ads and damage chargers. I wish that there were more jokes about vehicles from other dimensions; there are a few signs, but they could have ramped up that aspect a bunch.
Thanos Rising #3 - Thanos travels the galaxy after killing his mother. He ends up starting numerous families and working with intergalactic pirates trying to feel any emotions. Nothing really works until he ends up back home and finds the mystery girl that egged him on as a child. She convinces Thanos to go through the galaxy and kill his old lovers and children. This series continues to be dark and depressing and I'm not sure how enjoyable that is.
Justice League International TPB vol. 05 - This is actually a collection of JLE issues. It starts with a really good Annual with the Justice League trying to have a relaxing get together, which of course is full of problems. Then, the rest of the volume is following the JLE opening their Paris office and trying to be liked with the people of Europe. It's really dramatic, and while funny, not really silly in the "bwahaha" way. Still, it shows a mature series.
Revolver OGN HC - So this guy wakes up one morning and the world is falling apart around his ears. The next morning, the world is going great. Turns out he swaps between the two worlds every night at 11:11 pm. In the "bad" world, everything that can go wrong does: terrorists, plagues, martial law, etc. Here, he works with the boss he hated to bring news to the world. In the "good" world, everything is seemingly going well, but he is dissatisfied with his life and his relationships start to fall apart. Eventually, he finds another man who is also switching between the two worlds, using his knowledge from the "good" to take power in the "bad". Our main character has to decide which world he wants to live in and if he wants to kill the villain. In a nice twist, he decides to stay in the "good" world, not because it's more pleasant, but because he can do more good bringing "truth" to a world that is bent on ignoring it. The art is nice, swapping the color pallets around between the worlds. I like the detail of incorporating the page numbers into a running news ticker at the bottom of the page.
Kabuki: Masks of the Noh TPB vol. 03 - Kabuki has escaped and the rest of the assassins are sent out to find her or her body. We get several short stories following each of the women as they try to find Kabuki, the only ones of real significance being Scarab, who had to kill her boyfriend and best friend in the process, and Tiger Lily, who is gravely injured as she finds the tombstone Kabuki almost died at last volume. Those two end up hiding out together and sharing their feelings of isolation that their work brings. The entire "concept" of the book is that each character is unique, so Mack got his friends to draw the various stories. It's an interesting experiment, but it makes the book disjointed. Plus, this being the mid/late 90's, a lot of the art has a big early-Image vibe, which I don't like that much. Unsurprisingly, I liked the Kabuki parts the best as Mack tackled the artwork himself for those.
Mr. Murder Is Dead OGN HC - This is the last of the books I grabbed from C2E2. It's an homage to old pulp detective stories like Dick Tracy, following a retired detective. He goes out one last time to kill his arch nemesis, but eventually learns that Mr. Murder actually killed himself. Smelling a mystery, the detective ends up teaming up with Mr. Murder's crew to rob a bank. He also meets up with his old friends and we get flashbacks to his life fight crime. The art is pretty and exaggerated. The artist does a good job changing his style to invoke old comic strips for the flashbacks. The story is well written and full of pathos, but suffers from the typical infodump at the end.