Geekscape Comics: Weekend Reads!

Welcome to Weekend Reads! It’s your little, weekly dose of comic book goodness that focuses on some aspect of my weekend reading!

This week I discuss our first DC book…

Before diving in, I’d like to give an update on past reads. A couple of weeks ago I ripped on the current X-Men books. They are starting to pick up steam. The Blob storyline in All New X-Men is fun, but Wolverine and Angel’s relationship problems take away a lot of the book’s momentum. The last pre-Apocalypse Wars issue of Extraordinary was a fun, Inception-esque story of Storm and Jean rescuing Nightcrawler from his mind. If you love the X-Men, you’ll find something to enjoy in these arcs.

Ok, now that we have the X-Men out of the way, let’s get to THE READS:

There isn’t a comic book out there that I recommend more than Archie. Waid and Fish are flat out killing it right now. I can boil my thoughts on the series down to simple mathematics:

Waid’s writing + Fish’s art = you care about these characters

Whether you’ve read Archie before or not you’re going to enjoy this book. Waid also provides insights into classic Archie comics, along with the comics themselves, at the end of each issue which are fascinating from both a historical perspective and just seeing how much society has changed. READ THIS BOOK!

I discussed The Goddamned with Matt on Check Your Backseat awhile back when The Revenant and Bone Tomahawk were all the rage, and I thought it would fit in with that genre. I didn’t plan on keeping up with it but when the third issue came out I couldn’t help but check it out.

This series will definitely be more gratifying to read in trade. Character and plot development move at a pretty slow pace, but Guéra art saves it from being crippled. He captures the book’s barren and desolate tone perfectly. It draws from some Christian religious stuff, but it isn’t too much to make you clueless if you are unfamiliar with it. If you’re a fan of Bone Tomahawk or The Revenant, there may be something to love here for you, but I would recommend picking it up in trade.

Dark Knight III: The Master Race is a tough book to discuss. If you rip on it too hard you just like like one of those people who love to bitch on the Internet but if you give it too much praise you’re going to get ripped by people and told you aren’t a serious comic book fan. I think I fall somewhere in between.

When this title was announced most comic book fans labeled it as a DC money grab, I tried to maintain optimism in the face of criticism. After three issues, I’m ready to admit I was wrong.

This book just isn’t that good. If any other creative team were behind such a mediocre series you wouldn’t hear anything about it; it’s the Tiger Woods of comic books.

The writing suffers from a lack of direction. One second it seems the old and tired Batman and Superman are going to pass the sword down to the younger generation of heroes and next they’re back in the driver’s seat. Where Archie sparks a broad range of the reader’s emotions, this book fails to deliver any emotional impact. It lacks any sense of danger or excitement. I also find it has a tendency to feel more like a Superman book than a Batman one.

The book has a couple of high points. 1) the artwork. 2) the mini comics at the end. In the third issue, we get to see the Miller finished Romita Jr. art. It is unlike anything else you’ll see in comics today.

Is the series worth checking out? Sure? But only because of the names attached to the book. Read Archie instead.

Alright, that’s it for this week! What do you think? Are you enjoying Dark Knight III? Have you dug into anything Archie? Tweet me!