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joshbrown's Reviews (431)

The Golden Compass

4.0

At first this seems like a story geared for a very young audience. But the further it goes the themes get more complex and the characters gain a lot of dimensionality. Lyra is such a smart, confident protagonist that you feel comfortable navigating this strange, new world with her by your side. And the entire concept of the daemon is incredible. I wanted to know everything about how that relationship worked in this universe and was delighted that the plot hinged on just that issue.

Astonishing X-Men Trilogy Collection

Joss Whedon

5.0

Last time I read this I didn't have the hundreds of previous X-men comics under my belt that I do now. This made the whole experience even more perfect. Whedon nails bringing in the right amount of history, creating new obstacles, and transferring his signature comedic timing over to comics.

House of M

Brian Michael Bendis

5.0

Still packs a helluva ending.

X-Men: Deadly Genesis

Ed Brubaker, Trevor Hairsine

3.0

3.5

Professor Xavier is a Jerk!

Action gets kinda sloppy at the end, but it's a cool story.

X-Men: Second Coming

Craig Kyle, Sonia Oback, Zeb Wells, Mike Choi, Greg Land, Christopher Yost, Mike Carey, Ibraim Roberson, Rachel Dodson, Terry Dodson, Matt Fraction, David Finch

5.0

This is an amazing, cinematic story that caps years of build up in the X-Men universe. I couldn't read it fast enough.

X-Men: Schism

Adam Kubert, Carlos Pacheco, Jason Aaron, Alan Davis, Billy Tan, Kieron Gillen, Frank Cho, Daniel Acuña

2.0

The inner conflict comes across as forced, there's no justification for why a bunch of preteens are our big bads, and I'm starting to get kind of tired of Sentinels.

Avengers vs. X-Men Companion

Brian Michael Bendis

4.0

Some incredible character progression for Cyclops and a murderer's row of writers make this an event worth the hype.

Iron Gold

Pierce Brown

4.0

4/5 is still a very respectable rating, however I'm a little sad to be giving it to a Red Rising book. The switch to multiple POVs in this chapter was initially very exciting, but I found the pacing it created to be frustrating in the first third or so. Brown loves to create mystery, but doing so for four different characters so slowly meant I didn't know what certain characters' plots were until about half way through.

Despite those frustrations, this is still such an enticing world to be in. The 10 year in story gap between Morning Star in this makes the logical move of throwing away any kind of easy resolution to that trilogy's story. These characters, their war, and their galaxy is a mess, and creating some sort of lasting peace won't be that easy. Seeing characters from radically different walks of life gives us strong, affecting viewpoints on this world when we need them the most. This feels much more like a Part 1 than even Red Rising did, and even though there were missteps here, this is a story I can't wait to continue.

S.H.I.E.L.D.: Architects of Forever

Dustin Weaver, Gérald Parel, Christina Strain, Jonathan Hickman, Todd Klein, Justin Ponsor

4.0

Probably not fair to fully review this until I read the second volume. This is definitely telling the first half of one story, but it already succeeds in having tremendous artwork and delivering an amazing historical fiction premise.

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