[QuickTidal]

Creator original stuff is always SO much better than Big 2 work for hire shit as you don't have to colour inside their lines. Like Brian Wood's THE MASSIVE, Hickman's EAST OF WEST, Grant Morrison's WE3, hell. Scott Snyder's THE WAKE is excellent even in the face of his insanely good BATMAN run.

I'll make these down to check out, sounds cool.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 07 April 2026 - 04:35 PM

[Abyss]

Remender and Opena's SEVEN TO ETERNITY.
Great series, very clever, exceptional art. Sadly, a thing w Remender for me, does not quite stick the landing. The big twist that

Spoiler

the main character was always a bad guy pretending to be good, and that all it took was another bad guy - who had a grudge against his dad so big he was willing to sacrifice his own kids to pull off this twist - killing his family to make him go full evil, just didn't work. It requires a reader to accept that the main character has been lying to the reader, and himself, and everyone else, the entire run, and it

doesn't work because Remender doesn't spend enough time/effort setting it up. Are there hints? Sure, there are hints... are they effective? Not so much. I enjoyed the read, there are some moments and entire issues that are fantasy comic gold, but the end left me unsatisfied.

Next, time to catch up w some xbooks, i think...

[polishgenius]

Picked up the next three volumes of the Absolute collection I'm ammassing: WW and Superman 2 and Flash 1 (my brother has Bats 2, not got the chance to read it yet).




Absolute Superman is definitely a repudiation for the Snyder-goons insisting that what Superman should be about is power and killing. Like, he has internal dialogues about this. It's definitely the densest of the books I've read so far, there's a lot going on, but there's still plenty of big scale action, especially in this second volume.


Flash (written by Jeff Lemire, art by Nick Robles) is maybe the most by-the-book story of the ones I've read so far, but as you'd expect from Lemire it's good, and the art is absolutely dynamite.

Wonder Woman continues to be the best of the 'verse aside from Martian Manhunter. It's got such a great take on the core of what being Diana means, doesn't lose any warmth despite the obvious 'dark and edgy' status of things around her, and it's got great inventive enemies and action set-pieces. And the art is so good. That's true of all the lines, they've really gone all out to ensure the Absolute Universe looks both great and distinct, but it really is pushing things here. Like I said, very JH Williams III-inspired panel and page layouts.



I will say that the Absolute Universe so far is verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry depended on evil secret organisations. Everyone seems to have a monster in a lab somewhere.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 28 May 2026 - 07:43 PM

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 28 May 2026 - 07:43 PM, said:

Picked up the next three volumes of the Absolute collection I'm ammassing: WW and Superman 2 and Flash 1 (my brother has Bats 2, not got the chance to read it yet).

Absolute Superman is definitely a repudiation for the Snyder-goons insisting that what Superman should be about is power and killing. Like, he has internal dialogues about this. It's definitely the densest of the books I've read so far, there's a lot going on, but there's still plenty of big scale action, especially in this second volume.


Flash (written by Jeff Lemire, art by Nick Robles) is maybe the most by-the-book story of the ones I've read so far, but as you'd expect from Lemire it's good, and the art is absolutely dynamite.

Wonder Woman continues to be the best of the 'verse aside from Martian Manhunter. It's got such a great take on the core of what being Diana means, doesn't lose any warmth despite the obvious 'dark and edgy' status of things around her, and it's got great inventive enemies and action set-pieces. And the art is so good. That's true of all the lines, they've really gone all out to ensure the Absolute Universe looks both great and distinct, but it really is pushing things here. Like I said, very JH Williams III-inspired panel and page layouts.

I will say that the Absolute Universe so far is verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry depended on evil secret organisations. Everyone seems to have a monster in a lab somewhere.

I read the first couple of AS and AWW floppies when they dropped (I found the 'massive muscles tiny head' art of AB thoroughly annoying) and enjoyed but decided they needed time to cook, so i would wait til they had a few months in the can before reading. The buzz near everywhere i follow reflects your thoughts, so i'm looking fwd to the read.

Current comics read is to catch up on the X-Books, then the end of Marvel's Ultimate line which should be completed on the app by the end of this month, so i'll likely go Absolute after that.

[polishgenius]

I picked up Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League, by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott. Great fun, just a tightly told heist story featuring a combination of villains (I was worried they'd soften Cheshire, but no, not really) and rogues. Not much to say about it other than it's fun, and surprisingly heartfelt, and recommended.


Only sour note really is that there's a relationship between the new trans character (who's overall positive, don't get me wrong) and someone who has a crush on her that... well, it's a minor moment right at the end and they didn't mean anything by it, they were playing a 'let him down gently' cliche, but it's careless.



I also got Assorted Crisis Events, by Deniz Camp and Eric Zavadzki, a collection of stories of ordinary people during, well, crisis events. I will read it in a bit but since Deniz Camp is arguably the best writer currently working (I also got the second part of his Ultimates run the other day, and while not as good as his best work, it still sees him flexing a lot) I suspect it's gonna be great.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 05 June 2026 - 05:32 PM

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 05 June 2026 - 05:21 PM, said:

...
I also got Assorted Crisis Events, by Deniz Camp and Eric Zavadzki, a collection of stories of ordinary people during, well, crisis events. I will read it in a bit but since Deniz Camp is arguably the best writer currently working (I also got the second part of his Ultimates run the other day, and while not as good as his best work, it still sees him flexing a lot) I suspect it's gonna be great.

I keep seeing glowing praise for this. It's on my radar for when they have a few more runs in the can.

[polishgenius]

Abyss, on 05 June 2026 - 06:07 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 05 June 2026 - 05:21 PM, said:

...
I also got Assorted Crisis Events, by Deniz Camp and Eric Zavadzki, a collection of stories of ordinary people during, well, crisis events. I will read it in a bit but since Deniz Camp is arguably the best writer currently working (I also got the second part of his Ultimates run the other day, and while not as good as his best work, it still sees him flexing a lot) I suspect it's gonna be great.

I keep seeing glowing praise for this. It's on my radar for when they have a few more runs in the can.

FWIW (I've read it now), it's an anthology series, individual stories that don't tie much together. Camp described it on twitter as 'Black Mirror if time and space were breaking down', and that pretty much tracks. There's a linking character so there maybe will be an eventual throughline, but it's not composed of long arcs.


It's also a ridiculous writing (and art) flex. All the stories are written the same kind of ambition and flair as the Watchmaker chapter of Watchmen. But each issue is also about a... well, a real issue. Immigration crises, anxiety spirals, dissacotiating from the modern world, various things like that, interrogated via metaphors created via a reality crisis. It's not a light happy read, but it's very, very good.


Camp is a machine, he's so good at this.

[JPK]

Re Mignolaverse: The reading order I've been following has the story Sledgehammer 44 in between Lobster Johnson and BPRD 1946-48. For those deeper in, how vital do you find that placement? It's one of the connections that wasn't in the giant bundle and I'm thinking I'd prefer to wait to buy it until I come up to the next story.

[QuickTidal]

JPK, on 08 June 2026 - 07:03 PM, said:

Re Mignolaverse: The reading order I've been following has the story Sledgehammer 44 in between Lobster Johnson and BPRD 1946-48. For those deeper in, how vital do you find that placement? It's one of the connections that wasn't in the giant bundle and I'm thinking I'd prefer to wait to buy it until I come up to the next story.

It's not vital to HELLBOY, but it's pretty important for BPRD.

[JPK]

QuickTidal, on 09 June 2026 - 11:14 AM, said:

JPK, on 08 June 2026 - 07:03 PM, said:

Re Mignolaverse: The reading order I've been following has the story Sledgehammer 44 in between Lobster Johnson and BPRD 1946-48. For those deeper in, how vital do you find that placement? It's one of the connections that wasn't in the giant bundle and I'm thinking I'd prefer to wait to buy it until I come up to the next story.

It's not vital to HELLBOY, but it's pretty important for BPRD.

Gotcha. To be clear, I don't plan to skip it entirely. Was just thinking of slotting it in with the other stories in the collection.

Edit: About halfway through BPRD 1946 now and this is easily among the best of the Mignolaverse I've read so far.

This post has been edited by JPK: 09 June 2026 - 08:11 PM

[polishgenius]

Picked up two volumes of Absolute Green Lantern and the second volume of Absolute Flash, so I'm pretty much caught up with the Absolute comics that are out in trade now (the shop didn't have Martian Manhunter volume 2, but it's possible it's just not out yet, it only finished in floppies a few weeks ago I think).



Anyway

Flash is still fun, don't get me wrong, but apart from the art which is amazing (Nick Robles giving some John Cassaday vibes), it's the weakest story of the lot, I'd say. It just doesn't really do anything that makes it feel different in the way all the others do- like, all the others do tricky things with the mythology/symbology of their heroes plus with the supporting cast, but this doesn't really. Just 'make it more depressing' isn't enough, coz Wally West in the main universe has been through some shit, it's not really any worse than his normal life. Also: the way it re-imagines Thrawne is disappointing, since it leaves him impersonal rather than history's greatest hater. The Rogues are fun, but the re-working here is basically just 'they're the Suicide Squad now', followed by 'they're the secret six now', which is entertaining but not a big reach.

It's worth a read, but of all the Absolutes it's definitely the least essential.Though there's one hint at a re-do of Mirror Master that does make me want to see what they do with him.


Green Lantern is almost the opposite, being a total reworking of the Green Lantern mythos from the ground up. As a result it's very dense, since a lot of the pagetime is spent with both the characters and us figuring out what is going on and how it all works. It does this cleverly by framing it as police/detective/spywork, so it's plot driven not just expodumps. But it also has a very strong feel for Superhero Stuff. in particular it's balancing like four levels of villain, all of whom are great fun and fit right in. Like, there's some almost 'Darkseid is' level buildup to one of the villains, a couple more around that also getting buildup, and an Earth-based villain doing his shit too. And still because emotions are still key to how it all works, it needs and has strong character drama to drive the plot forward, so there's a lot going on.

It's really good. I might put it alongside WW as the second-best tier behind Martian Manhunter, though it's a slower burn and I'm glad I waited till two trades were out.







I also got the third volume of The Power Fantasy. Note for those who wait: the story is not complete but these volumes ie issues 1-16 are potentially a good jumping on point, since a major arc finishes and the next half of the story is gonna be kind of a new thing.

Anyway: it's really fucking good, the writing is super smart and the art from Caspar Wijngaard is incredible. Just get it.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 13 July 2026 - 09:21 PM