I promise I wont review just Archie Horror books and DC only... however, I am a sucker for these books that put a dark twist on our angsty gang from Riverdale.
Afterlife with Archie has been my favorite (even if they never finished it!) followed by Jughead: The Hunger... The Blossom book was fun too, and of course you have to throw some love to The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. These Vampironica books do fall a little towards the bottom of the list for me. However, if you are picking up these books... you are asking to read "evil" Archie comics... so take them for what they are worth... a journey into fun, teen drama with sinister bend. Fangs The New Blood story line is a quick 4 part series that follows Ronnie as she tries to find a way back to being a normal teen life, discover how the Lodge family legacy is tied to the very beginnings of vampirism, and find Sir Francis Lodge in the process. Shocker... Kevin is a vampire and created Fangs Fogarty as a child after putting up with his bullying for quite some time. Fangs and his vampire crew is in pursuit of Veronica for a reason not known to us until the end of this book. They caused quite the ruckus in the previous issue. Veronica knows her dad has secrets that will help her discover her dark family history and turns his office over trying to find them with her lackey Dilton by her side. They get busted by her mom, only to be shown the hidden passage to Hiram's dungeon of secrets. There they find their white rabbit... the diary of Sir Francis Lodge! The issue wraps up with Archie and Betty following Fangs behind the stadium to discover that Hiram is the one behind this group of vampires who are trying to get their claws on Veronica. Then we cut to a vampire teen (I think its Moose) making a call to who we assume is Sir Francis himself. This issue was good. I was hoping for a little more blood and action and less talk bubbles, but every series has its ebbs and flows. I am hoping things pick up in the next issue. Again... I am a sucker for these books and for sure want to see how it ends. If you love this dark Riverdale world... pick this book up. -CBD One additional thing to add... The day this blog was written, Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna were killed. So I wanted to share the following with you. It's a message to his daughters on his retirement night: “Those times when you get up early and you work hard; those times when you stay up late and you work hard; those times when don’t feel like working — you’re too tired, you don’t want to push yourself — but you do it anyway. That is actually the dream. That’s the dream. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. And if you guys can understand that, what you’ll see happen is that you won’t accomplish your dreams, your dreams won’t come true, something greater will. And if you guys can understand that, then I’m doing my job as a father.” Thanks.
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Ok... this new year new me continues with reviews on back to back weeks! We are jumping on the Batman hype train with reviewing Batman #86.
I haven't read Batman in a hot minute. Don't get me wrong, I love Tom King. I loved Omega Men, Mister Miracle, and Superman: Up In the Sky. I just fell in with the crowd that wasn't super thrilled with his Batman run. So, when I saw the creative team who was going to be taking the reins.. I was colored intrigued. I have been a fan of Tynion since he wrote The Woods. and Tony S. Daniel has always delivered on art. When I saw one article that sold it as an almost "action-horror" series... I decided to jump back in. A New Era The hard part about picking up after a writer like King, is that the choices he made are now canon. So, we are in a post Bane Gotham, with no Alfred, and Catwoman seems to be a part of the Bat Family now. However, I think Tynion did a good job using the hand he was dealt. The 5 best assassins in Batman's rogue gallery, lead by Deathstroke, are plotting something and of course Batman is on top of things. Now that Lucius has taken the Alfred mantle for Batman, he is the "guy in the chair." They are working on a new toy called the Nightclimber. What basically seems like the Scuttler from the Lego Batman movie... still pretty cool. Batman ambushes them with his new toy... he battles Deathstroke... there are some awesome bat-tech used... just good old Batman fun. Meanwhile, Selina Kyle is back at a Wayne fundraiser to help with Bruce's vision of a new Gotham that he used to dream about with Alfred. She follows a guy to a part of the Wayne campus he shouldn't be trying to steal some data. She stops him, but he quickly starts to form acidy boils on his face and dies. As hes dying... another voice starts talking to Selina saying it would all start with the 5 killers coming to town. Selina knows something bad is coming and that is more or less where we are left hanging. There were a couple of great moments worth noting. One was really getting to see Tony S Daniel stretch his legs in moment where Cheshire kisses the doorman and ultimately rots his face from the venom in her kiss. I twas very gruesome... I loved it. Then the moment after the crazy battle with Deathstroke, Batman calls out to Alfred over the comms only to be reminded by Lucius that Alfred wasn't there. Then in classic Batman form, he replies with "Forgive me Lucius, its been a long night." All in all I am excited about the potential of this Batman run. I don't think it will be as out there as Batman has been recently, but I think that's what we need right now. Batman doing the things that we love seeing Batman do. It seems that other's are exited too. As I write this up, I found out that its already headed back for a second printing... pick it up if you can! -CBD New decade... here we go. One resolution was to get comicbookdads back up and going, so here is our first entry of the new year. Hopefully you will see more fun and adventures of comicbookdads this year. We love this community and finding our little corner of it has been a lot of fun.
As always... spoilers ahead. I'm Lovin' It I will admit... I am a little late to the Harley Quinn love train. The new show on DC Universe has been quite the ride. It has made me go and read some of her more recent shenanigans. Mark Russell took the reigns on this one that takes a Harley back to Coney Island before losing her mom (spoilers... sorry). This nice little one shot story was just what I needed. You can tell Mark had a great time working on this. It centered around the Hambezzler who just finished serving 30 years for stealing the employees' pension fund from the McGobble company and uncovering the truth about who framed him for it. Just from those 2 names above you get a hint at all the satiric shots taken at fast food and corporate greed. There are vats of pink slime and County Dew... a cheeseburger headed city councilman, and the Hall of Food which looks like a hamburger bun topped Hall of Doom. So the Hambezzler shows up just in time to help Harley with doing her taxes. Quickly, Grumpus, Clown McCrown, and Captain Playhab show up for revenge after his release. No matter what got you there, Harley takes care of her own and meets them outside to rough them up. Harley even has a nice moment where she said its been years since she beat up a clown. They meet at Delaware Fried Chicken to settle their differences. Again.. love it. They discover that the Hambezzler was framed by Mitch and Murray McGobble after being fed insider info from Councilman Cheeseburger... dun dun duuuun. Ultimately they all end up at the Hall of Food to take out these two corporate greedsters with Harley leading the way. The brothers throw each other under the bus and leave each other for dead. They get whats coming their way in the end. The issue wraps up with Harley and that crew on the couch, eating McGobbles, and taking in the news of the McGobble bros stepping down. Then the last panel ends with the Hambezzler working on Harley's taxes. There were a couple things about this issue I especially loved. One was Harley being Harley... Showing up to the McGobble brothers office saying she was there to kick ass and and chew bubble gum and that she... finds more bubble gum in her pocket. The other was her stepping up to help this group of misfits. She knows what its like to be used your whole life by someone you thought cared about you, only to find yourself all on your own. So of course she was happy to swing her bat across the face of these slimy CEOs. For some good old Harley Quinn fun, this issue checks all the boxes. It was a nice break from some of all the darkness and villainy (which I am typically a fan of) going on in DC right now. So pick it up and enjoy the ride. -CBD |