#Image Comics reviews

[dispatchdcu]

Transformers #13 Review

Transformers #13 Review #transformers #comics #comicbooks #news #imagecomics #skybound #art #info #NCBD #amazon #comicbooknews #previews #reviews

Writer: Daniel Warren Johnson Artist: Jason Howard Colorist: Mike Spicer Letterer: Rus Wooton Cover Artists: Daniel Warren Johnson & Mike Spicer; Jorge Corona & Mike Spicer; Viktor Bogdanovic; Jorge Fornés; Francesco Mattina; Homare; Ludo Lullabi; John Giang; Björn Barends; Mico Suayan; Alan Quah; Deegan Puchkors; Juan Gedeon; Livio Ramondelli; Erik Eliarrez; Tiago Da Silva; Ivan Tao; Sajad Shah;…

[rontra]

ok it turns out if you draw kawakami a lot you'll end up with a lot of kawakami pics

[whoracleoracle]

hi!! i was just wondering where you read your comics online? i wanna read so many more but i dont wanna buy them until i know theyre good 😭

i read them on batcave.biz (this is a pirated website and for that i am sorry) (however it is the best pirated website—i never get porno pop ups on here!!!) i understand people don’t like pirating comics since it’s a dying industry but since i buy the ones i enjoy and you are planning on the same thing i think it’s ok! it’s just not always feasible to afford dc unlimited and marvel unlimited. i also buy comics from tfaw.com and would highly recommend them, although amazon also works.

[pedrocomicreviews]

The Power Fantasy #6

"Okay-- it all comes down to the goth chick, right?"

I think every Kieron Gillen comic I've read defies neat classification. The Power Fantasy is very much not a superhero comic, but it has all the trappings of one, mostly for the purpose of examining and subverting them. One volume in, we're starting to see what they're going to do with it.

We are mostly done introducing the Superpowers by now, even if we still have one to go. More importantly, I think we have a pretty good idea of what they do both in this world and with each other. We have a literal guardian angel with a penchant for the greater good that goes against her best nature, a pyramid scheme conman who can actually put his money where his mouth is, a cult leader who's actually godlike-- these and more are all incredible characters that could be the protagonists of their own books, or the villains for a dozen others.

I think that's what makes this so compelling. It's not a book about how power would make villains and ruin the world, despite the world being a mess as a result of them-- it's a story about regardless of what power did to these people, they still have to live in this planet. Even if we eventually introduce aliens or other worlds (which I believe the timeline kinda implies we will?), there's no Earth-2 for anyone here. There's no easy way out, there's no Phantom Zone, there's no Arakko. They have to learn how to coexist or they'll destroy the world, and at that point, what's the point in being powerful?

And it's interesting to see how each of them doesn't fight. Etienne has fully accepted he is a well-intentioned monster and is manipulating people's entire lives to make sure things go the way he wants, planting people who he can either charm or simply mind-control one way or another to keep situations from escalating. Valentina (BRASIL NÚMERO UM PORRA) has decided to completely check out and has been living in a satellite since 69, and basically sweeps in and leaves to avoid making a mess. Superpowers joining governments, Superpowers breeding other Superpowers, Superpowers being too scary to even approach -- these characters disagree on everything, you never know what they're going to do next.

It's refreshing to read something that expects you to be at least a little grossed out at some of the things the titular characters do, and that assumes you'll have different thoughts when you come back to the book with more information and more context. It's well written, beautiful, and so far every issue has had a twist that completely recontextualizes the few pages prior.

It's rich without being overwhelming, dense despite being concise, approachable despite how deep the rabbit hole for its lore and character relationships clearly goes, and we're just seeing a glimpse of the iceberg so far. I am a massive The Wicked + The Divine fan, and I'm hoping this gets the same chances to shine as that book did.

Buy the first volume to support the series! I'm pretty sure it just came out.

[ultra-phthalo]

TF EU Soundwave In Issue 7 Sky Bound

[Listens to 'Mother Russia Bleeds Night Brawlers' as I read Soundwave beating the bolts out of Starscream in a volcano.]

God damn Soundwave is preying on Starscream. Walking around him and taking his time. Starscream is cornered. And Soundwave acts, letting it slip in the end about how bitter he was that Starscream had kicked his Ravage. The fire, smoke and sharp boulders of the active volcano. The glow of magma being the Decepticons only light source throughout the scene. Transitions. Snapping into a sunny scene on the Autobot's side away from the Decepticons. This change from fire to sunshine is meant to act as a comparison for the talk Arcee has with Carly. Carly is just as bitter about the harm Starscream had caused in her life; as Soundwave is bitter about Starscream running the Decepticons into the ground and harming the cassettes. Carly wants to take out her anger on Starscream as much as Soundwave does.

Soundwave isn't just beating Starscream for control. He's manifesting as the hate that the Autobot's claim they'll refuse to become participants of. And it's saying Carly is acting like a Decepticon. When Cliffjumper refused to kill Starscream. Carly pushed Cliffjumper away socially and doesn't want to talk to him. Considering his refusal as a betrayal to the trust she had in him. Carly does this without knowing the true reason as to why Cliff wouldn't shoot. The reason likely being that Cliff takes being an Autobot so seriously he considers killing a pleading bot a Decepticon act. But right now she doesn't care to listen to the warning the Autobots are giving her.

[lunarharp]

figured i'd do this again..bit early i guess..

[kryptonbabe]

The Closet, the existential familial horror of a broken home, a review

The Creature and concept sketches for the character From the horror comic book The Closet (2022) written by James Tynion IV, art by Gavin Fullerton

This short miniseries was much more a depressing read than a scary one, the sinister imagery paired with the very real troubles faced by the adult main characters work to articulate how kids perceive conflict and hostility. Children can be very sensitive and their world follows slightly different rules, events tend to be felt more intensely. Their whole life is on the balance, their tiny little existence, they can't see things through the lens of different perspectives only experience can help them develop. There's an urgency to your problems when you're 4 years old, like the kid in this story.

But the focus of The Closet is not exclusively about this kid's fear of a monster, we get to see the lives of his parents too, more specifically his dad, a guy living a mid-life crisis, facing the horror of who he has become and how he feels trapped in a life that he should be grateful for. Then we get to see how the dad's and the kid's fears are connected, how we affect each other sometimes without realizing, how deeply we can scar those we love. And it's terrifying, but mostly it is depressing, and the comic does a good job with the art and writing to build this little bleak yarn, so alien and yet so familiar.

This comic has only 3 issues and the themes while not heavy can be upsetting for their hopelessness, yet for its short length the narrative is well balanced in its existential musings and creepy moments. I'm a fan of the naturalism of Tynion's writing here and Fullerton's sketchy and moody looking art also work to create a somber atmosphere, fitting for a claustrophobic familial horror like this.

[mandatory-blog-stop-asking]

April 23 2025 comic reviews

Here's my reviews for this week, April 23, available over at my other blog, @pedrocomicreviews.

Long reviews: Assorted Crisis Events, The Power Fantasy, Absolute Wonder Woman, Absolute Martian Manhunter

Short reviews: Star Trek, One World Under Doom, Ultimate Black Panther, Magik

I've been sick since Easter so I didn't even know if I was going to do reviews this week; and then some of the best comics of the year came out this and I had to talk about it. RIP Magik, I really liked this issue but I'm kinda beat after writing ~10 pages of thoughts about the others.

[izzys-issues]

{TW: Vomit}

52. "(Not So) Secret Origin / Better Off Red / Writing Day"

(Radiant Black # 1 - 3, February-April 2021)

I've been looking forward to this ever since it was announced, and even more so after Comic Drake hyped it up. I'm a big fan of the costumes and am excited to see how this world evolves and gets fleshed out. It's neat to follow a new Peter Parker esque character with failed dreams and financial ruin but in a new context, though the social media element does remind me a lot of the PS4 Spidey game. Also how rad is it to see a letters column? Maybe other series have done them recently but I honestly cannot remember the last time I saw a comic printed since '92 with a letters column.

(Not So) Secret Origin: 6 😭 Crying Uber Drivers out of 10

FAVORITE: that initial morph sequence is so *chef's kiss*

LEAST FAVORITE: Puking through the helmet

Better Off Red: 7 🥣 Oatmeal & Raisins out of 10

FAVORITE: The first super fight of the series was appropriately short and I think established how the two different powers differ(?)

LEAST FAVORITE: He maintained a secret identity for like 3 pages before the police found out 

Writing Day: 10 ✅️ESTABLISHING A BRAND IDENTITY OUT OF 10

FAVORITE: The immersion of the cover, Nathan's creative process, being bad at changing a tire, staring at a blank Word document for 10 hours while browsing YouTube (which hits so close to home), the branding brainstorm, his first deliberate super rescue. It's all just too good.

LEAST FAVORITE: Parents interrupting you while you're doing homework

[driftwooddestiel]

charlie brooker's so obsessed with penis wars its like his jungkook

[alexistalkscomics]

Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives! Issue #1: A promising start to the return of a classic monster

The 1954 classic, Creature From The Black Lagoon is one of my favourite movies of all time and the Gill-Man is in my opinion, one of the greatest movie monsters ever conceived.

So when I subscribed to Global Comix and saw that the first issue of Dan Watters and Ram V’s Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives! was available, I just had to read it.

Set after the events of the original film and ignoring its sequels, the comic serves as a standalone sequel that follows Kate Marsden, a journalist who is on an investigation in Peru that’s seemingly connected to a past trauma and is otherwise, completely disconnected to Gill-Man

Whilst some people might question this creative decision by the writers, I think that it very much works in the issue’s favour as it means that readers who aren’t familiar with the original film don’t have to worry about feeling locked out and it also gives the story a different set up to the film which allows it to avoid feeling like it’s just an adaptation of the movie.

The lack of Gill-Man in this issue is also another decision that works in its favour as it allows the Creature to slowly be built up as a more sinister and scary presence compared to the family friendly tone of the film.

However, the length and pacing of the issue left me feeling mildly disappointed as the page count combined with the brisk pace of the story made it feel quite abrupt when the issue ends on a cliffhanger.

Credit for creating an appropriately creepy atmosphere must also go to the somewhat scratchy (in a good way) art style of Mathew Roberts. One scenes that particularly earns him my praises is near the end of the issue where we see Gill-Man for the first time. When I read this scene, I felt the exact same sense of dread and excitement as when I first watched the film and saw the Creature in full for the first time.

My main and only real criticism for the visual aspects of the book is that the series is in colour. Even though Dave Stewart’s realistic colouring style compliments Roberts’ art well, I think that I would have preferred that the series be in black and white to enhance the feeling of the book as a tribute to one of the best movies of the fifties era.

Overall, Creature From The Black Lagoons Lives! #1 is by no means perfect or particularly groundbreaking but it gives readers a strong opening to a promising reintroduction to one of the best but often most overlooked parts of the Universal Monsters canon.

8/10

[dispatchdcu]

Witchblade #4 Review

Witchblade #4 Review #Witchblade #comics #comicbooks #news #art #info #NCBD #comicbooknews #previews #reviews #IMAGE #Amazon #imagecomics

Writer: Marguerite Bennett Artist: Giuseppe Cafaro Colorist: Arif Prianto Letterer: Troy Peteri Editors: Marc Silvestri, Matt Hawkins & Elena Salcedo Cover Artists: Giuseppe Cafaro & Arif Prianto; Jerome Opeña & Sunny Gho Publisher: Top Cow Productions & Image Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date: October 16, 2024 Sara Pezzini masquerades as a dirty cop. She pretends she didn’t perform heinous acts…

[superpoweredfancast]

Witchblade #5 Review

Witchblade #5 Image Comics Written by Marguerite Bennett Art by Giuseppe Cafaro Colors by Arif Prianto Letters by Troy Peteri The Rundown: Sara attempts to resist the Witchblade and everything it offers as she continues to investigate a personal matter. Sara is having dark and disturbing dreams about the Witchblade and what it is potentially doing to her. Things become more intense for her…

[whoracleoracle]

comic review: invincible (2003) vols. 1-3 by robert kirkman

⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ (4/5 stars)

yays: i’m so glad to finally be getting around to this. one of the best superhero comics of all time and by far the most impactful non-dc/marvel superhero comic. i watched the pilot episode of the show tonight, and read the first 3 volumes. my favorite part is already the parody/bait-and-switch of typical comic stereotypes. there’s a classic “that type of thing only happens in comics” moment, and more specifically there’s a page where mark talks to a comic book writer and the writer makes a joke about reusing panels, which then occurs one level above, in invincible. really fun meta details. also, i can feel the complications ready to arise from the main villain being mark’s father. i’m really excited for that.

nays: so far, the story is very predictable and i’m waiting for it to get more emotionally vulnerable and complex. the plot twist with omni-man was better done in the show in my opinion, that is, it was far more unsettling. i would be annoyed by the obvious justice league rip-off (guardians of the globe) but that’s a cheap gripe, considering they were there for one specific reason, and having them be already familiar characters makes the shock value stakes higher for the audience. they also added a lot of character to mark’s mom in the show, that the comic is lacking in these first 3 vols.

worth a purchase: jury’s out on this one, i don’t want to say until i get further in. i’ll continue reading and watching the show for sure.

[pedrocomicreviews]

The Power Fantasy #8

“Be envious then, angel. I am closer to your God than you.”

Edit: hey folks-- there's a slight mistake in here about the nature of the Queen. I've been sick since Easter and wasn't paying attention when I wrote it. That being said I'm also not fixing it. So be aware that yeah, she's not from hell, I just used the wrong words.

We get the full truth behind the Second Summer of Love and a look behind the curtain as to exactly how turbo-fucked this entire setting is. Light spoilers ahead, but you should be reading this book anyway.

To jump right in, it’s interesting to me that Eliza is the one Superpower who had to “get” her powers. Everyone else either honed their inane, immense skills into what they are right now, or were somehow born as a walking apocalypse. Eliza, in contrast, basically gets a superhero origin story. 

It’s not like she was powerless– she was a member of Magus’s pyramid scheme/cult The Pyramid, and was trying to rise up in the ranks, but was too genuine in her religious lifestyle to really go all-in in Jacky’s opinion. In the same night Valentina was fighting someone she assumed was on her side, but turned out to be hellish beyond understanding, Eliza, a devout Catholic, was giving herself to what she assumed is hell for the sake of mankind.

The parallel between the actual sacrificial lamb, and the chosen of God who couldn’t help much is very interesting, and I can see why it took so many issues to build up to it. We’ve been technically touching up her backstory ever since issue 5, when he first saw how Jacky operates the Pyramid. I was worried the Second Summer of Love was going to overstay its welcome, but it ended up as a pretty climatic, short arc that completely changes our understanding of the setting.

The revelation that there is a type of hell without the, shall we say, confirmation that there is a heaven is something other settings have done in the past, but it’s particularly horrifying here. Specifically, it’s a setting where hell is so unbelievably bad that a being from it tried to make heaven on Earth to make up for it, only to realize horrified that any linear pleasure is simply infinitesimal against the infinity of pain and suffering that defines where she is from. That it would be better to simply cease existing rather than to be happy once and unhappy forever. 

And I think it would have been really easy to make Eliza into Paradise Lost’s Lucifer– it would have made a lot of sense for her to take “better to rule in hell than serve in heaven” literally as opposed to the pathetic cry for help it was in the book, but it really isn’t like that. It’s more Jesus Christ on the cross than anything– Magik, yes, by the author’s own admission, but also the messiah that fundamentally believes it is their duty to die for others, even if she also can’t save them all.

Of course, it doesn’t go down as well as when Jesus did it. Almost a billion people die by the time Eliza finishes saving the world, including the entire Pyramid, which she was ostensibly trying to save. The Second Summer of Love started the current state of the world in The Power Fantasy– objective evidence that humanity is not alone, and that it can be blinked out of existence by a handful of people who aren’t very stable. 

To watch the web of lies and deceit these characters tell each other every time a massive disaster comes up and they’re in the middle of it is always very interesting. You start to see patterns of where people land and what they think should have happened, who they think is to blame and what they think is their job to avoid another pandemonium in the future. Magus, specifically, basically has a complete breakdown after the Second Summer of Love, as maybe the only one who truly understands what “hell” is and what Eliza has actually done to herself. 

The story of a cold war is to either grow hot or to end with a whimper as the parties individually fall apart without conflict, and now that we’re somewhat caught up in world affairs and current relationships between all characters, I’m wondering how this will translate to The Power Fantasy. It’s easy to see how some of these characters are hankering to go against each other, but have to find a way to preserve the world they’re in at the same time– if not for humanitarian reasons, because they also live there, and all their stuff is there. 

It constantly feels like the world is one bad lie away from ending, and this flashback proved that it’s honestly one random thing away from ending, just one event that started without these people even being involved at first and was just naturally going to destroy reality. What if the villains were also Doctor Manhattans, I suppose is what we’re looking at.

Anyway, in this issue Etienne gets kicked in the balls, and I think that’s pretty great. 

[calvinreadscomics]

Joe Death and the Graven Image by Benjamin Schipper is Bananas. I love this comic to death. The most immediately striking thing about Joe Death is its illustrations, which are drawn in an incredibly individual style born of an amalgamation between Mignola spot blacks, rubber hose style cartooning, an incredible eye for abstraction and appealing simplification, and gorgeous flat coloring which makes ample and ingenious use of gradients to hint at lighting, accent shape, and give scenes greater depth. Benjamin Schipper is also consistently innovative and impressive with his page layouts and paneling, frequently breaking panel borders and otherwise playing with the conventions of comics presentation to the benefit, usually, of both the flow of a page and its aesthetic appearance as a whole. The dialogue in Joe Death is also highly commendable for its style. Schipper writes in an archaic and lyrical style, peppered with aphorisms and bits of folk wisdom, which I found incredibly delightful and impressively literate and genuine, reading like a blast from the past rather than a modern writer putting on airs. The world-building in Joe Death is similarly engrossing. There's a sense of mythos, personal history, and social ecosystem permeating every new location, character interaction, and new piece of information. A world made wholly new, like the art style, from familiar pieces and a fascinating individual sensibility. If Joe Death stumbles anywhere it's occasionally in readability, as the style once or twice obscured certain details from me and caused me to lose track of what was happening. That's a minor gripe though, especially in a story where obscurity often seems to be the point and vibes, environment, and again that pervading sense of mythology take precedence. Joe Death was an incredibly exciting and enjoyable read, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

4.5/5