By far the weakest Ram V effort I’ve read, but where it fails is it’s onboarding of a new hero. To say it teases out what makes the character interesting is an understatement; the information design is simply lacklustre and poor. After the entire volume there’s maybe three tiny snippets of why he was chosen to be the next avatar, or his past at all. And what is there is too similar to the previous run, when it needed a whole completely new reboot imo. The previous character had some incredible runs. A new character should have been what it needed.

What did cross over well was the panelling and art, which remains more engaging by far and away than most super hero books. But that’s not enough to get me to pick up the next volume. I just never connected with any of the characters, with twinges of interest quickly flaming out when it got bogged down in things already seen, but better.

Asadora is the youngest of 11 kids and her mom is about to give birth just as a massive tsunami hits the town. Before she’s able to get home, however, a man kidnaps her, thinking she’s wealthy because she was requesting a daughter, but the kidnapped thought she was the daughter of the doctor. When the two are trapped together during the storm, they get to know one another and their paths converge further, as both set out after the storm to accomplish something they probably otherwise wouldn’t have.

This almost exceeded my expectations, but it was much to slow in its pacing. It’s got what I like to call breadcrumb storytelling, where just a tiny kernel of plot happens, and the rest is based around relationships. This can be effective, and lots of this does converge into the plot, but so much of it is just pure setup. It’s not a bad step forward, and ends on a cliffhanger, but it’s structured in such a way as to really draw out absolutely everything.

Irreverent, post apocalyptic fantasy, where the protagonist is a bit of a shit heel and has a unicorn with three horns that swears and maims people when (easily) irritated. It’s another fun, turn off your brain, type deal. It’s also pretty messy and overwritten in places, but the artwork and panelling are engaging and great, so it eeks out a pass from me - though I won’t be continuing with it. Bit too gonzo for my tastes.

On a lot of top 10 lists, I thought I’d start with the first volume. It’s a dark fantasy horror, where each issue has a different focus, communicating different darker themes and plots in contemporary times. For me, it was just alright. I don’t really care about this kind of subject matter and aren’t really into horror, generally - I’m just not the market for this at all. It’s too gonzo and superficial enough that I just couldn’t connect with any aspect of it, but recognize why people would be into it.

This is pretty much a very sweet, slightly longer than a short, possibly, Pixar movie-in-comic-form, to me. A man and a woman meet in their later years, seemingly reunited, insinuating a romantic date of some kind. Only the story proceeds through that date, and then goes backwards to the very first moment they met, illustrating the complications this path took. For one, the woman is married and she says she’s been in love with him for 40 years, but it’s their first date.

So, many questions naturally surface. The man, we learn, is a physics professor—though very much in a Pixar way, as he explains his theory of time possibly moving backwards, under certain circumstances. It’s sentimental and romantic, and he uses moths as a device to showcase his point, even though… he’s a physics professor. The book proceeds like this throughout, showing some connective tissue between plot beats revealed already later on.

I found it endearing, but I did think the story would have been even better with a bit more character development, because as is, it takes a certain amount of faith from the reader. Especially when the dialogue is only passable. I love the illustration style and the colour palette though, it’s absolutely gorgeous.

While it does get epic and the elements of craft undoubtedly improve. There are a couple fun twists and the first quarter in particular has a nice progression, when it becomes epic fantasy, it also becomes far more predictable and plodding. None of the characters really have any meaningful arcs, the only progression is in the overall plot, which has lots of goofy antics. Nor are the bone people ever really explained or situated in the story as a whole to make the constant tonal shifts worthwhile. It felt a lot like the author was just winging it from each book to the next, to me.

Harkening back to the original Namor comics and The Invaders, this series combines elements to form a plot in which Namor has become unhinged enough to finally proactively engage the surface world, essentially becoming a villain he would have fought against in the early years. But things aren’t so black-and-white here either. Namor’s past holds the key to the mystery to the submariners changes, and Captain America’s investigation parallels the events, as his altruism regarding his old Invader comrade drives him to different conclusions than those of the other Avengers.

But what elevates it beyond even this fun plotting, is the showcasing of a complex character in Namor and the effects of trauma, PTSD, from the shared war experiences between Cap and Namor, as well as that mystery component that would be a spoiler. It is by far and away the best character study of Namor, but also of most villains! And the ideologies are engrained in real world, current affairs, which makes the story fun, but also, again, far more relevant than most comic book runs these days.

This is simply exceptional work. Even the artwork and colouring and paneling is excellent, and the dialogue and flashbacks bring in nostalgia for a retro feel that never outstays its welcome. One of the best runs from Marvel in recent memory, an all-time favourite.

Post modernism in a super hero comic! Both the story of a super genius unraveling a plot by another super genius in another dimension, as a rumination on the consumer of this kind of art, breaking the fourth wall, in an effort to do something different/new/fresh.

This would have been a 5 star read, but the other elements of craft felt really, really basic. It is often defaulted to six panels, the artwork is passable, but not much more. The use of space, especially in an oversized issue presentation like this, really makes it feel lacklustre and hodgepodge, really. So much space is under utilized and the style looks like it is very quick. Little to no detail. In fact, the variant covers for the issues are miles better than what anyone would expect in the actual pages. It’s a shame; since the actual story is very fun and succeeds at being different.

Dark and twisty. A priest is sent to a new perish where the old priest has just killed himself—only the woman who welcomes him is murdered, and he he saw the old priest alive and well. At the same time, a man diagnosed with schizophrenia is getting counselling because he believes he’s seeing patterns in the trash he’s collecting, tying into a delusion he believes is real: The Black Barn.

Most of the fun of this is trying to figure out what’s going on, and even describing more is a bit spoilery because of that. I love the artwork and paneling, the story is a slow burn, probably, but I think the mystery is really well crafted, continuing to unfurl until the very end of the entire volume. It gets WILD. And I’m here for it.

This is a masterpiece of esoteric, cosmic horror. Especially in the way the seeming nonsense coalesces slowly, and in the way the pages are designed to strike at an emotion, despite the reader probably being unaware of the real-world inspiration the many thematic, symbolic embedded text and images come from. What is explicit is enough to grasp the intention of what’s happening, and the concrete isn’t something this is overly concerned with.

Basically, an occultist is recruited into going to an asteroid on a collision course with earth, because on said asteroid is an occult symbol. Think Armageddon, but cosmic horror—at least, at first. It becomes increasingly clear that all is not as it appears, as seeming memories or alternate timelines, or something, keeps intruding on that narrative, supplanting it for a time with a different, but similar set of circumstances, where the protagonist is needed to combat occult forces.

But together, finally, around three quarters of the way in, things start to click, in so far as what Morrison is trying to tell the reader, regarding the horror of a particular idea that is impossible to eradicate entirely, paralleling it with a cosmic horror liberalized, colonizing. It’s really impactful.

Much of it is coached, I read in the essay at the end, in real occultism, which I’m simply completely unfamiliar with - as am I similarly uneducated in cosmic horror, and horror, in general. But that is merely icing on the cake. The essay explains in great detail every step along the track, which should just elucidate the elusive elements. Just phenomenal stuff, I think. Certainly not for everyone. Heck, I don’t even like horror, and this still blew my mind.