Hickman has come into the game to save X-Men.

Actually, there's some recent X-Men I liked. While Bendis run is pretty old now in comparison, I enjoyed a lot of it. I also enjoyed some inbetween them, mostly Rosenberg's stuff, and Taylor's. However, besides those two, it's been okayish-decent-or pretty bad. So it's nice to see Hickman give a boost to the X-Men they needed.

This big sized issue 1 really shows where the X-men are now. They are in their own piece of the world trying to live in a Utopia for their people. This has been done before but for the first time you feel the X-Men are in charge. That they are the ones in control. A meeting with politicals for Magneto doesn't end in bloodshed but in a warning, a future these humans are not ready for. Cyclops meets the fantastic four and let's them know they will not backdown anymore. A lot of it is set up for a new future for the X-Men. One they will not be hunted anymore.

While the pacing sometimes felt slow and a lot of set up, the payoff worked good. Also, art is pretty fantastic. A 4 out of 5. Excited to see where we go from here.

I love Flash as a character, and he has some great arcs, but these are starting to become mehz.

So Flash is meeting different "Force' users. In this we get the Strength Force and...it's just basically makes you hulk out type thing. Then we deal with a fire users and...okay the thing is I'm just going to cut to the chase here. Barry is still pretty uninteresting. I don't even fully blame Joshua, as I think Barry is mostly uninteresting a lot of the time. Same in New 52 and same when even John wrote him. He's just not that great. I might be Bias, but I'm just a much bigger Wally fan.

None of the stories here really hit any emotion. It's all build up to the next big "Force Quest" which is the newest trade out. I bought that and year one but after this volume. I'm going to hold off buying anymore flash. Nothing is horrible but nothing is very interesting. A 2.5 at best.

This was pretty great. The final piece for Harleen to become a sadistic killer with the joker. It's almost flawless in the transformation and the art is truly amazing. Full review of the entire series coming when the graphic novel does (I'll be buying it for sure!)

Hawkeye is a tricky series since no one really has been able to top Fraction's run.

However Rosenberg is determined to prove himself and in one issue, I say he's doing a damn fine job. In this first issue we have Clint focused on taking out "The Hood" which I'm so happy is back. I love him as a villain. Plenty of funny moments occur, some great fights, and a twist on a new Ronin who's in town. Where this series will go from here is interesting but I'm 100% down!

Holy-Fucking-Shit. This is the issue that might turn non-believers into fans.

Magneto, Xavier, and goddamn Apocalypse decide to sit down and talk to the united nations. This is one big meeting about how to approach peace, while at the same type we have Cyclops dealing with all the people trying to kill the three leaders of the new Mutants. It's all done near flawlessly with excellent dialogue and art to match. Hickman is knocking it out of the park here.

Flash Year one is Barry's first year as flash. While some parts are amazing, mostly him learning his powers and going through a rough time in some spots, the second half of this is him going into the future and seeing what COULD be. So basically this book is one big "how to stop a terrible future" from happening.

It feels kind of odd as a year one story. Too much for flash to go through so early in his time. I think this story is better served much later. Saying that, the art is great and there's some funny and exciting moments. While I don't think this is a must read I still had a good time reading it. A solid 3 out of 5.

Supergirl remains to be a fun space adventure. A little cameo from Omegamen makes this a ton of fun. Also, Jon makes a cameo, and he says whatsup Cuz and they wreck some shit. Marc Andreyko is making supergirl fun again. Some of the dialogue at times can be cheesy, and the storyline doesn't feel as epic as it could, but it's never boring and the art is good enough to make stuff look good. Nothing amazing but a fun supergirl adventure. A 3 out of 5.

I think this is aimed for older teens, but I really dug it too. That means the storyline is great.

We have our main character Fred trying to go through her high school years being in a relationship with, you guessed it, Laura Dean. It's already hard enough being a teenager and trying to find love, but to be gay, even in this day and age, adds extra weight. On top of that Laura Dean is a player. She's smooth and cool but she also messes around with other girls. Fred just can't seem to draw herself away from her though.

We also have a plot B with Fred and her friend Doodle. And while it seems like a background story it actually adds a lot of layers to the main story by the end. On top of that we have Fred learning life isn't just high school and coming out more, going to parties, and meeting new people will open you up to more experiences.

By the end of this story I come to really enjoy a lot of the characters. At first, I'll be honest, it was hard to tell who was who. A lot of the characters looked similar, and I was also getting confused on who was a girl and who was a guy. But it all clicked in about 30-40 pages in. I also got drawn to the subplot a lot and the way they handle Doodles issues worked really well. The cursing adds realism to this story and it is used to enforce these are actual teenagers without going overboard. Like I said prior, the art could be confusing at times and a lot of the characters have similar haircuts, which made it confusing at first.

Overall though this is really solid story. One of my favorites of the year in the indie season of great comics. Mariko has a talent of giving some great dialogue to characters. Like "This one Summer" she gives us a slice of life story we maybe didn't know we wanted, but I sure as hell ended up enjoying it. A 4.5 out of 5.

Leave it to Donny Cates to make me STILL care about a Vampire story in 2019-2020.

With the shocking events of the last volume we have a few members of our vampire family out. This leaves big pops to try to make a deal to bring back atleast one injured member. In doing so he might have to make a deal with the devil, but it'll all be worth it. At the same time we have Perry hitting her limit on all the bad shit happening in her life. She decides to take matters into her own hands and take out those who need to be taken out.

While the art can be rough at places, that's the only negative thing I can say about this series. Maybe the slow build up in the first issue too was a little padded. But once it starts going...goddamn it man. Plenty of emotional bits here and there but what really works is the epicness of this volume. Where last volume was slowburn to a shocking ending, this is all out war. Big things change by the end of this volume and where we go next is so exciting. Donny Cates continues to kill it on his independent work and I hope he continues! A 4.5 out of 5.

Gideon Falls continues to be a interesting adventure even if this volume slips a bit.

So this focuses on a secondary character here, and get a lot of background here. When I say background, it's alot of confusion but least you learn this is basically different worlds or different timezones? Not 100% sure but get a few clues there. Then the ending goes back to our main characters and the ending is leading to some really confusing stuff but still emotional.

This is probably the most confusing and weird volume yet. While still good and very interesting with great art, I'm not really understanding a lot what is happening. It's like a weird trippy story that I can't get enough of. I really hope this series continues to be fun but also, would like a few more answers now. A 3.5 out of 5.