stadkison's reviews
299 reviews

Miles Morales: Spider-Man, Vol. 8: Empire of the Spider by Christopher Allen, Saladin Ahmed, Carmen Carnero, Alberto Foche

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

Ending a comic book run is hard. Stan Lee loved talking about the illusion of change, but here, there wasn’t even an illusion. This run had some great moments of struggle for Miles, but the ending felt weightless and without grounding.
The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe

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5.0

I don’t even know how to describe or pitch this book. It’s probably best enjoyed when read alongside some expert commentary, in fact, alongside two contradictory and disagreeing commentators. This feels as dense as Plato, or perhaps the Bible.
Carnage, Vol. 1: In the Court of Crimson by Francesco Manna, Edgar Salazar, Ty Templeton, Ram V., Phillip Kennedy Johnson

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3.5

Don’t know how Im this interested in a Carnage story, but it has its hooks in me now
Venom by Al Ewing & Ram V, Vol. 2: Deviation by Al Ewing

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4.0

Hitch art, chef’s kiss. Ewing developing weird lore and V making the people feel real
Captain Carter by Jamie McKelvie, Marika Cresta

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3.75

The biggest knock against this series is that the covers make me want the Jamie McKelvie cartoonist version instead of the Jamie McKelvie writer version.
X-Cellent Vol. 1: Hereditary-X by Peter Milligan

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3.5

Milligan and Allred feel like they’ve barely missed a beat. At most you lose a little given how far culture has advanced towards the ways their original run satired. Theres a lot of characters here, and some of the legacy characters get a bit short-shrifted. 
She-Hulk Vol. 1: Jen, Again by Rainbow Rowell

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3.25

Intriguing start. Best bit comes in issue 1, where panel layouts are used to make a height joke. Hopefully this series will explain who Jack of Hearts actually is for me at some point because I am not looking that up.
Fantastic Four Vol. 11: Reckoning War Part 2 by Dan Slott

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1.5

Leave it to Slott to write a series that simultaneously too fast and too slow, and spend significant page space in the denouement making retcons