Reviews
Saga #15 - The big plot advance in this issue is The Will deciding to get off the planet and continue hunting our heroes and after getting his ship fixed, learns that the food on the planet they are is poisonous, causing you to hallucinate (explaining The Will's visions of The Stalk). The issue ends with Sophie having a vision of her mother and stabbing The Will in the neck to keep from leaving the planet. Meanwhile, our heroes are working out their problems of board games and seem to be making their bonds stronger ("Is she praying?"). We also get a bit of the reporters following Alana and Marko where they see the ruthlessness of the robot people as they destroy a building to get a single sniper. Lots of good character work throughout until the awesome cliffhanger ending that redefines everything The Will has been going through the last few issues.
Prophet #40 - Seems like the Empire's Johns are putting together Braddock's giant, sleeping children in a ring and causing them to awaken too soon, using their pain to call a massive Braddock out of The Bleed. Our John and and crew find some being called The Wake who gives vague predictions and tells John to act quickly if he has any chance to affect things. There's also an interesting aside where the various Johns talk about their lives and experiences, especially how it relates to pleasure. It's all still very poetic and confusing and pretty.
Uncanny X-Force #13 - The crew goes in to attack The Owl Queen and things go bad with Psylocke getting knocked out and kidnapped, Spiral getting knocked out, and the psycho bear going back under The Owl Queen's control. It's a typical "darkest before the dawn" issue with not a lot of character work and the art is average at best.
The Sandman: Overture #1 - Sandman's back! JH Williams III on art with only double page spreads! DC ads every other page! It's a great issue, but it seems to toss away some of the major ideas from the original series: we learn that a different aspect of Dream has been taken by Death in a galaxy far, far away and Morpheus is going to be shocked when he finds out (which he is!). So, there is more than one Dream (and, presumably, other Endless)? And he actually has died before? What's going on?!
The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys #5 - I still think this series is disjointed and not very compelling, but we learn that the main character contains the soul of her mother and she's a bomb that can destroy the city, but shouldn't she be a savior instead and, I don't...
Kick-Ass 3 #4 - This issue just pushes pieces around. Kick-Ass and crew are just being themselves, though Kick-Ass kicks out the freeloading Juicer and no one else seems to agree with that decision. Also, Hit-Girl is being built up to comical levels of competence.
S.H.I.E.L.D. by Steranko: The Complete Collection - I guess this series was very ground breaking at the time, but it picks up from Lee/Kirby's work and starts off being a Kirby clone. There's some inventiveness with panel layouts and artwork throughout, but it's kinda sparse at first and doesn't really get creative until the end of the volume. The writing is decent and actually continues a story from issue to issue, but suffers from the wordiness of 60's comics. The full issues Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD at the end are by far the best in here.
Daredevil TPB vol. 04 - After the Avengers fix his senses (by sticking Ant-Man into his brain) Matt goes back to his office and Foggy yells at him because he found Matt's father's remains in Matt's desk. Foggy tells Matt he's insane and kicks him out of the practice. Matt says he was set up and ends up at home, but finds his (crazy) wife. Again, he gets Foggy to check the insane asylum and Mila is there, reinforcing the "Matt is crazy" angle. During this, Foggy takes a case defending a nurse who is accused of killing a mob boss in a locked room and witness dies in a closed elevator. This all leads to (seemingly) The Spot (after a really chilling scene with the villain killing off people by teleporting and shooting them in the head) messing with Matt after Matt beat him up in the first volume, which ends with Matt being headless and finding a bunch of heads who's bodies are being used as slaves. Turns out Spot was just being used like a battery and comes back as a Human Centipede looking creature to take revenge for the situation. Turns out Matt wasn't crazy in the end, but he and Foggy still fight and are on the outs in the end. I wasn't too hooked in the first half of the volume, especially with the unneeded Allred issue, but it all comes together well at the end and brings back the inventive use of teleporting. I'm a little disappointed with the toning down of the cool ways of showing off Matt's powers.