First off courtesy of Marvel Comics we see the return of their "Marvel Knights" imprint with Marvel Knights: Spider-Man. The cover alone is enough to draw you to the book, even if you know nothing about Marvel Knights you may take it up to the counter and say something the lines of "Hey cool comic shop employee, what's the dillio with this book?" they will then tell you that it is from an amazing writer in Matt Kindt and is a 5 part mini-series where Spider-Man has to take down 99 of the world's most vile villains or a bomb will go off killing millions. My original gripe with this was a simple one... How do you fit 99 villains into 5 books? Now villain overload is a real problem to have (See: Deadpool Now's first dead president arc) where you seen them for a panel and then gone. But the reviews were so good for this book I figured "Hey, maybe they pull it off"... Well let me just tell you something, this first book is nothing but a set-up for the gauntlet you see a couple villains poke their head in but Spider-Man doesn't defeat them... They seem to be a means to set up and not part of the 99 so my original worry about having 99 villains in 5 books is really 99 in 4 books... That's 25 a book, and this title is a 32 pager so I'll let you figure out the math on that one... Fractions... Ouch... Decimals... Am I supposed to carry the 3... Sorry. Back on point. Although this book does give me some fears and issue 1 did nothing to quell those, I will continue to pick up the series in hopes that it delivers on the excitement it has promised.Rating: "Pull" for now anyways...
Next up we have those crazy wholesome teenagers at it again. That's right the Riverdale gang are back and up to their old tricks as Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica and all are celebrating Halloween, fighting over each other, living the high school life, killing dogs, becoming zombies... Wait what? Are you sure this is an Archie title? Yup sure is. In Afterlife With Archie the gang is back and normal or so we think... This dark tale begins to spin once Jughead visits Sabrina The Teenage with his dog Hot Dog to see if her and her magical aunts can help Hot Dog seeing how he has been hit by a car. They are unable to do anything as the dog has already passed on, Sabrina, against her aunts wishes, perform Necromancy and raise Hot Dog, although the price is very high. Sabrina gets in massive trouble with her aunts and Jughead gets a zombie dog. So not only does Archie have to deal with Betty and Veronica fighting over him to be his date to the Halloween dance, he's dealing with Jughead's sudden "sickness" as well as Reg's sudden depression... This was a very fun book and I highly recommend it.Rating: "Pull"
Moving on let's take a look at Dynamite's Cryptozoic Man. Fans of AMC's Comic Book Men (Starring Silent Bob, Kevin Smith) will recognize this title as it was a focal point of the 2nd season as they created the pitch, got Stan Lee to endorse it and got Dynamite to pick it up. The writing was handled by relative newcomer, he's got 2 comcis credits to his name, and Comic Book Men main caster Bryan Johnson off a story that he and artist Walt Flannagan, also a Comic Book Men main stay though he's much more veteran having drawn Johnson's previous comics as well as Kevin Smith's Batman: Cacophony and Batman: The Widening Gyre. The premise itself was interesting enough for me to pick it up, and the connection with the show ensured I picked up the monthly's instead of the trade. And I just got to tell you after reading issue #1, I am very dissapointed. The storytelling definitely lacks, and Flannagan's art is nice and right in his wheelhouse but overall given the bouncy nature of the story it's just not something I can fully appreciate thanks to the scripting. This is a 4 issue mini series and I will likely be getting them all since I'm willing to give it a 2nd and maybe even 3rd chance, and by that point what is the harm in grabbing the final issue for collections sake, I would not recommend this book to anyone at this point. It may still redeem itself now that hopefully the sloppy origin is out of the way but if not, you didn't waste your money, if it does get better, there is always the trade to look forward to.Rating: "Don't touch"
Finally, I've been in love with Forever Evil since the first issue which litterally blew my mind. So how does the mini-series tie-in Forever Evil: Arkham War hold up? Well it's written by Peter Tomasi who has a string of goodwill behind him after his excellent handling of Damian Wayne in Batman and Robin, now known as Batman and... The premise is this, the nutjobs at Arkham Asylum are out and have divied up Gotham into districts in which each villain controls, all overseen by mayor Penguin of course.But Bane and his Blackgate prison pals have also broken out and aim to take control of Arkham. The premise had me hooked as the thought of Team Bane vs. Team Scarecrow duking it out gave me a nerd boner, but this first issue offers very little. We see Bane take out Professor Pyg and Scarecrow meet with Penguin. So although a first issue should get you hooked and make you not want to wait for the following issues, Arkham War doesn't. Although I'm still hoping to see an all out war errupt in the following 5 issues so I'm not about to give up on it similar to Marvel Knights Spider-Man the premise is too strong to give up on after 1 issue, and again it wasn't that bad, it just wasn't amazing like I would have expected.Rating: "Pull" for now.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on these books and some others you may have recently read so tweet at me @DonnyForTheWin and keep loving comics kids.
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