Comic Books Inbound!

On top of my previously-established routine of posting video game and anime reviews and related posts, I will gradually be incorporating my comic book/graphic novel reviews to this blog. These will all be in video format, as opposed to the text-based video game and anime reviews. The reason for this is that I have already recorded many of my comic book/graphic novel reviews and posted them to my YouTube channel, but I feel that, as ‘geek culture’ bleeds over in so many different forms of media, it makes sense to me to begin including these reviews on this blog. That said, this does not mean that I am placing any less priority or care on my video game or anime-related posts. I will likely be posting multiple reviews from my comic book/graphic novel collection to this blog at a time for a while, starting with some of the more recent reviews I have done, and will then slow down the rate of posting these as I get caught up with the backlog of reviews I have already filmed and uploaded.

With all of that in mind, I figured it might be worth mentioning just which comic book storylines I am planning to follow this year (and potentially into the next). First up, I found the first trade paperback volume of Rick Remender’s Black Science to be one of the most fresh and interesting ideas to hit the medium in quite some time. I’m a sucker for old-school science fiction in the vein of Ray Bradbury, and this has a lot of that, plus some crazy dimension-hopping, with a dash of the ‘savage’ and ‘horrific’ thrown in with the classic 'science gone wrong' and 'this is what happens when man tries to play god' repercussions. I will most definitely be picking up the second trade paperback with my next proper comic book haul.

Similarly, I plan on picking up the second volume of the current Captain Marvel series, starring Carol Danvers, who will apparently be dealing with the revelation that her cat is in fact the hundred-egg-laying alien creature that Rocket Raccoon previously tried to convince her it was. The first collection was solid, and I’m trying to get a better feel for the character outside of the Avengers team format. I’ve also preordered Rage of Ultron, as the couple of Marvel Original Graphic Novels I recently read (The Infinity Revelation, Avengers: Endless Wartime) proved solid standalone tales. I also wouldn’t mind taking a look at Angela: Asgard’s Assassin later this Summer, as she was a rather fun, though obviously dark and troubled character during her appearances in the current Guardians of the Galaxy run.

As per usual, I will continue collecting Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova, as those are my two main Marvel reads right now. And tying into that, I do plan to get both the Legendary Star-Lord trade paperback and the Guardians of the Galaxy/All-New X-Men: The Black Vortex later this year. I may, however, be dropping Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga if this next trade paperback collection does not absolutely blow my socks off, as I found the fourth volume rather disappointing on the whole. It will be a while before Saga’s fifth volume releases, as the series took a brief hiatus until just recently, but I’ve basically given it the ultimatum of ‘this next volume needs to be straight-up incredible or I’m leaving it behind'. Vaughan’s other well-known series, Y: The Last Man, certainly hit its lowest point in terms of intrigue around the fourth trade paperback, but it was an awesome ride from there on out. Saga’s most recent outing bored me throughout until the last two issues, but by that point I had lost a great deal of respect for someone who had previously been one of my favorite characters.

Finally, with Marvel's new Secret Wars and shift to Battleworld, there are a few series I have my eye on. I loved the Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee Inhumans limited series, as well as the way Attilan's royal family played into War of Kings, so it may come as little surprise that Inhumans: Attilan Rising sits at the the top of my personal 'most-anticipated' list for these upcoming Marvel stories. And carrying on my obsession with wacky cosmic stories, I'll certainly pick up the new Infinity Gauntlet. I am curious to see how both X-Men '92 and Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies are handled, and will give both of those a shot.

I’ll be posting three reviews this afternoon (directly after I post this little update, in fact). After that, expect a few more reviews every couple of days or so, in no particular order aside from me trying to present a nice variety to work with.