Geekscape Comics: Weekly Reads!

Welcome to Weekly Reads! It’s your little dose of comic book goodness that discusses comic books from the week that was!

How about we take a break from all the video games news to discuss comics! 📚 > 🕹

Ongoing Reads

It’s been awhile since we discussed X-Men and with the release All-New X-Men #10 this past week, what better time than now? The whole is NOT greater than the sum of its parts when it comes to the current arc going on in the X-Men books, Apocalypse Wars. There doesn’t seem to be any continuity between the titles, each storyline seems to be it’s own entity involving Apocalypse but they don’t feel like a part of the same narrative so reading All-New X-Men isn’t going to make your reading of Uncanny X-Men any better. This means you can read as few or as many of the X-Men books as you want and not have to worry about missing out on anything. Currently, I’d say All-New is the strongest of the X-Men titles, with this week’s issue being particularly fascinating. We see Evan, Kid Apocalypse, interact with an Apocalypse who is in his early teens (before becoming one of the most powerful villains in the Marvel Universe). I find it fascinating to see noble and pure intentions from a character who grows up to become bent on wiping out entire races of people. I hope we get to find out what caused him to snap, although I’m not sure what it’ll be since he doesn’t appear to have anything that means too much to him.

Finally, a new issue to one of my favourite ongoing series, The Fix #3! I wouldn’t say it’s a slip-up, but the third issue of The Fix isn’t on the same level as the first two. I didn’t enjoy this issue as much for two reasons. First, the humour was noticeably lacking. The first two issues had me laughing every other page, this issue barely got a smile out of me. Second, our two main characters aren’t together. It became obvious to me that a lot of the laughs and zany moments in this book were a result of the chemistry between Roy and Mac. I’m sure this book will get back on track in the next issue or two. It’s sort of a stretch to say it’s offtrack, it just wasn’t what I have come to expect from this book and therefore I didn’t enjoy it as much. It is still probably my favourite read of the week!

New Reads

I have mixed feelings about Civil War II – Amazing Spider-Man #1. I like Spider-Man, Gage and Foreman put together a nice Spider-Man feeling story that feels like an authentic extension of Slott and Camuncoli’s current Amazing Spider-Man books. My problem is it’s Civil War II branding, which to me is nothing but a money grab play by Marvel. I feel like this book (and probably many others) isn’t going to offer any substantial story elements to Civil War II, yet they clearly market you to buy it to so you can be in the know. These excessively large story arcs complicate the buying decisions of most comic book readers and put a pretty big barrier to entry up to new readers. If you loved the Civil War movie and walk into the comic book shop to read this Civil War II you’ve been hearing about, you aren’t going to be excited by the endless list of books you’re supposed to read, you just aren’t going to bother with it at all. I wish we could trim the fat on these crossover events and keep the number of titles you need to purchase to a minimum.

If you like Spider-Man and want more of him, you’ll enjoy this book. If you just want to read it because it’s a Civil War II tie-in, don’t bother.

DC’s Rebirth continues with The Flash, Aquaman and Wonder Woman this week. All these titles have felt solid so far. As far as a recommendation goes, I’d say go with your gut. No book is noticeably better or way worse than any other book right now, pick a character that interests you and start reading them.

Action Comics and Detective Comics also saw releases this week, 957 and 934 respectively. Yep, these books have been around for awhile. In case you aren’t in the know, Action Comics is Super-Man and Detective Comics is Batman. What’s the difference between them and their solo titles? Well, it would seem to me that Detective Comics will focus the attention on Batman and his team, while his book will be just centred around Batman. The lines between Action Comics and Superman felt a bit more blurred. For someone new to DC, these books feel like they carry a little more baggage than what we are seeing from the Rebirth titles but are accessible none the less.

Next Time

Another week in the books! Come back next time for, you guessed it, more Civil War! More Rebirth! And who knows what else!