This was a very cute story of a gay teen ending an unhealthy relationship and forming a new one with an amazing friend. The story is cute,  funny, and lighthearted and is sure to bring about some smiles. It would be great if everyone struggling with their sexuality as a teen had such great support from a friend like the main character of this comic. I recommend it if you're looking for an uplifting queer story.

The pacing for this story is short and shows Quicksilver being stuck in a time limbo after saving the world. He ends up having to fight his inner demons (quite literally) while in limbo as they try to kill people he knows. Through hai journey of acceptance for his past actions and self acceptance of the person he is despite his past, he is able to find his way back to his sister, Wanda, and the Avengers. We get a very heartwarming ending as well as some background about Pietro's inner feelings pertaining to his relationship with Magneto and discrimination as a Romani immigrant to the US. An excellent read if you don't know much about Quicksilver and want to get a quick character exploration.

The first half of this issue is reasonably pessimistic, as Diana must face the end of the world as we know it as per the future. She also witnesses Clark Kent sacrificing himself for the sake of the universe. At the end, Diana is lonely and must make one last necessary sacrifice for the good of the universe. We then transition over to Nubia obtaining her powers and gaining the mantle of Wonder Woman with the help of the African goddess, Oshun. I appreciated that Nubia's origins were given the same mythological weight as Diana's with the Greek/Roman gods. The comic ends with a message of hope for the future, despite the sad beginning. I think this exploration of the future was interesting, albeit atmospheric and at times a bit confusing. However, to an extent I believe that was purposeful. 

I was so excited when I visited a local comic book shop and found this full mini series. I had never read Aquaman's origin story from the 90s, so it was exciting to take a dive into that era. Despite the story being told via diary entries by Aquaman, the most interesting character introduced in the story was Orm. I looked it up, and this is actually his first appearance after Peter David's reinvention of Aquaman. He was retconned to be the son of an Inupiat woman. Orm rejects his indigenous heritage, which is a great source of disappointment for his family. He first finds Arthur starting a sexual relationship with his cousin, Kako, and only sees him again once he becomes Ocean Master. He proceeds to find Aquaman in Atlantis and challenge him for the throne. This ultimately fails and in the process of narrating this recollection, Arthur realizes Orm is his half brother. It is an interesting turn of events and there is an overlap with indigenous myths within the story that I found interesting. Arthur's origins also resemble those of Tarzan, as he was raised by dolphins and once he no longer fit in, sought contact with the surface world. Now I'm hoping to read the New 52 run of Aquaman to have another point of comparison. Very good storyline if you want to know more about Aquaman, though.

This conclusion was fitting for the relationship between Aquawoman and Aquaman of mentee and mentor. They are both separated and Aquawoman learns the value of all the lessons she learned from Aquaman. She is forced to grow up on her own and fight to reunite with Jackson. Through her journey, she must grapple with how her powers and feelings are interconnected. At some point she takes something by force because of her feelings of fear and panic. She promises to return it once she finds Jackson, but it is not addressed after that point in this issue. I would have liked to know if she kept her promise. Despite this, when she reunites with Aquaman he has to remind her to let go of the sea creatures she has under her control. I think this shows that the nature of her powers will be an ongoing issue and something she has to deal with consistently. I'm sure this will make for an interesting character arc if there are more storylines starring Aquawoman.  

It's really cool to see Andy as a teenager and Jackson as Aquaman in the future. Aquaman clearly is hopeful that Andy and him will meet again. The story switches between the past and the future and we get to see Jackson being a mentor to Andy, albeit reluctantly at times. We also catch a glimpse of her powers that seem to differ mildly from that of her father, Arthur. I'm interested in seeing how the story concludes because we'll be able to see an adult Andy and the superhero she has become.

A great ending to a great run by Kelly Sue DeConnick. After going through a journey of memory loss, a coma, becoming parents, and making Atlantis a democracy, Arthur and Mera are able to settle down. Jackson comes to terms with his relationship with Black Manta and finds a potential love interest. We only saw Jackson for a short time, but he had a surprising amount of character development in that time. I'm looking forward to reading more runs with him. I had a lot of fun through this journey and can't wait for the next Aquaman run.  

I had never read a romance book that involved cheating, so that was something new. There is nuance given to both the party that was cheated on and the individual in the marriage cheating. I don't think the cheating is excusable, but I appreciated that the cheating party was not depicted as all bad. Bennett and Olivia love each other a lot and each of them dealt with the grief within their relationship in different ways. In the process, they both ended up hurting each other and there was trust lost within the relationship. However, I think this story is a good example that it's up to the people within the relationship if they wish to reconcile or not. I think in Olivia and Bennet's case, there was still hope because they were willing to try again and they were still in love with each other. There were moments where they you could see that they enjoyed each other's company despite everything that had happened. In addition, Bennett cheating was a one-off incident rather than a pattern of behavior. I think that also was a large contributor to their reconciliation. If you're not into books with cheating in them, this might be worth your time. I didn't think I would like it and I did.

Elodie and Lucas were pretty well established characters in Nairne and Zed's story and it was nice to finally see them together. Lucas is dealing with an emerging disability and ties his self worth to being able bodied. He has a lot of denial that he has to work through, part of which affects his relationship with Elodie. Despite how stubborn he was throughout the story pertaining to his disability, I think he is a good representation of what a lot of people that become disabled later in life feel. The idea of having to change the way you function on a day to day basis is nothing short of overwhelming. Lucas goes through some amazing character development once he accepts that his disability is inevitable and takes steps to change his life that behoove him. It was brave and beautiful to see and reinvigorated my sense of admiration for people who learn to deal with the challenges that come with disability. Through Elodie we also see how people around those dealing with disability can try to be helpful in ways that enable rather than improve the situation. There comes a point in Elodie and Lucas's relationship that she feels like he is not communicating with her and is refusing her help. He does to an extent, however, part of it is also because nobody can deal with the reality of Lucas's disability except for Lucas. As supportive as Elodie is, the person most affected by the disability is Lucas. Therefore, he has to take time to deal with it himself, otherwise he is being enabled by someone else. It's a great lesson to be learned and paints disability in a much more nuanced light that I haven't seen in many other works. I actually enjoyed this spin-off more than I did the first book in the Tough Love series. 

I'm looking forward to seeing Teo's story as well as learning more about Lucas's coach. It would be fun to get them both in a room together honestly. They seem like they would have explosive energy in a room, even if it was platonic. They would at the very least make good friends, I think.

It was also great to see how well Elodie's miscarriage was handled. The scene where she has the miscarriage and the depression she goes through following it is understandable and created a sense of empathy. It was also great to see her be able to recover from that and grieve together with a supportive partner.

This installment has us follow Zed and Nairne as they start  dealing with their upcoming parenthood. There are a lot of moments with family and friends that I appreciated and added to character development and relationship building. Nairne has very poignant moments where she has to deal  with her personal insecurities about being a disabled parent. Thankfully, Zed is a very supportive partner and does not see Nairne as any less capable or valuable because of her disability. This is very helpful to her resolution with this conflict and I found that this interpersonal conflict made Nairne very relatable. Both Zed and Nairne also have many concerns typical of many prospective parents. It's endearing to see parenthood change both Zed and Nairne for the better. With pregnancy and parenthood their sex life also goes through changes, which I think is probably accurate for a lot of people in long term relationships. There are also different perspectives presented around the institution of marriage. I think a lot of couples today have differing opinions on marriage compared to previous generations, and I think Nairne and Zed are a good example of that. Some couples will choose to be married, and some won't, and I think either way you pull, Zed and Nairne will be very easy to relate to in that respect.

There is a spying subplot that I was mostly indifferent towards. I don't feel it added much to character development or adding interest in the plot. I could have done without it, but it wasn't anything that ruined the story overall. 

This was a good ending for Nairne and Zed's story, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Lucas and Elodie. There are hints given that something is going on with Lucas, so I guess we'll find out what in the spin-off.