Sometimes, the staff at Graphic Policy read more comics than we’re able to get reviewed. When that happens you’ll see a weekly feature compiling short reviews from the staff of the comics, or graphic novels, we just didn’t get a chance to write a full review for. Given the lack of new comics, expect this weekly update to begin featuring comics that we think you’ll enjoy while you can’t get anything new to read – only new to you.
These are Graphic Policy’s Mini Reviews and Recommendations.
Logan
Amazing Spider-Man #75 (Marvel)– Marvel’s new direction with Spider-Man gets off to a decent start courtesy of Zeb Wells, Patrick Gleason, and Marcio Menyz. Amazing Spider-Man #75 shows Wells’ gift for capturing the grief, the overall weight of the world on his shoulders, and also the humor of Spidey. And then, he and Gleason turn that on its head with Ben Reilly, who didn’t experience Peter’s upbringing and background and also has cool new gadgets from the Beyond Corporation to fight crime. Patrick Gleason’s best art comes when he’s showing Ben and Peter out of costume chatting with each other, their partners, and various side characters. Everything gets a bit blurry and hard to follow when they’re in action, but Menyz uses nice pops of color to make the Z-list villains U-Foes visually interesting. The whole issue sets up a thesis that Ben Reilly is, shall we say, a superior Spider-Man to Peter Parker with his corporate backing and lack of grief about the death of Harry Osborn. Zeb Wells and Gleason keep the tension between them mostly passive aggressive, but then open a can of worms with a great cliffhanger. In addition to the lead story, there’s a Daughters of the Dragon from Kelly Thompson and Travel Foreman, who draws the best action of the issue plus another one from Wells and Ivan Fiorelli featuring Dr. Kafka and the sketchy-as-hell Ravencroft Institute and adds layers to Ben Reilly and Beyond’s role in the new status quo. Amazing Spider-Man #75 isn’t a sure-fire hit just yet, but it’s enjoyable even for a reader who hasn’t picked up the title in three years. Overall: 8.0 Verdict: Buy
Crush and Lobo #5 (DC)– Crush is out of jail and on the trail to recapture her dad Lobo for the jail. Crush and Lobo #5 is another fun space road trip comic from Mariko Tamaki, Amancay Nahuelpan, and Tamra Bonvillain with an undercurrent of sadness and toxic relationships. Nahuelpan keeps the energy of the comic high with clever layouts like having a literal trail of cigar butts lead Crush on her journey as well as the reader’s eye. Also, Crush finds some sad parallels between a woman named Julia’s relationship with Lobo and her own relationship with her ex Katie. Of course, Lobo is using this poor woman, but this woman thinks he’s in love with her and even has a romance novel style painting of him. Tamaki continues to write funny and sassy captions and dialogue for Crush, and she and Amancay Nahuelpan keep things entertaining with plenty of action and gags to go with the daddy issues. Overall: 8.4 Verdict: Buy
Chicken Devil #1 (Aftershock)– Chicken Devil #1 is a chaotic, culinary crime comic from Brian Buccellato and Hayden Sherman. There is definitely a bit of Breaking Bad in the DNA of a book about a humble hot chicken restaurant owner/put upon patriarch ending up with a bag of heroin and a chicken mascot costume. However, Buccellato, Sherman, and letterer Hassan OE play to the unique strengths of the comics medium using fonts to convey tone, having panels overlap during heated conversations, and the washed out color palette of it all that gets intense when our protagonist, Mitch, starts having guns pointed at him. And speaking of Mitch, Brian Buccellato writes like an anti-hero, if a relatable one, who cares more about his business than being with his family, and this really ends up biting him in the ass and sets up the series’ hook. Chicken Devil #1 features really fun backup material like a legit menu from Mitch’s restaurant and some backstory about how he founded Mitch’s Hot Chicken that also sheds insight on his relationship with his wife Denise and business partner. Overall: 8.8 Verdict: Buy
Dirtbag Rapture #1 (Oni Press)– Dirtbag Rapture is a snarky, high concept comic about a woman named Kat Garcia, who had a near death experience and can see ghosts. She uses this ability to make money by dropping off ghosts at places they won’t haunt and also charging to rent as a kind of supernatural landlord. Christopher Sebela’s characterization her definitely leads into the dirtbag side, but he, Kendall Goode, and Gab Contreras also show how annoying it is to be pursued by ghosts all the time wanting to tell their story, find rest etc. A lot of this first issue is exposition about how Kat’s job works as well as how ghosts and hauntings fit into the world of Dirtbag Rapture, but then in the last few pages, Sebela and Goode throw what they’ve set up out the window and make everything infinitely more complicated. Overall: 7.6 Verdict: Read
Cherry Blackbird #3 (Scout/Black Caravan)– Cherry Blackbird #3 doesn’t miss a beat with this issue’s antagonist, Madame Cocaine, fucking a guy to death on the first page and then sucking his blood. Writer/artist Joseph Schmalke weaves together Cherry’s band Whore of Babylon with her soul-taking exploit and draws a nice caricature of Jimmy Fallon as Cherry could less about media coverage and just killing bad guys. And there’s a lot of that second part with two extended action sequences with plenty of gore, one-liners, and nudity as Schmalke really digs into Cherry Blackbird’s Bad Girl and grindhouse roots. Unfortunately, the comic doesn’t have a strong cliffhanger or last few pages, but overall, I’m still enjoying this unique, fucked up read. Overall: 7.9 Verdict: Buy
Well, there you have it, folks. The reviews we didn’t quite get a chance to write. See you next week!
Please note that with some of the above comics, Graphic Policy was provided FREE copies for review. Where we purchased the comics, you’ll see an asterisk (*). If you don’t see that, you can infer the comic was a review copy. In cases where we were provided a review copy and we also purchased the comic you’ll see two asterisks (**).
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