At first I didn't like it. The first two issues are confusing, jumbled, and pretty hard to following. Then it starts panning out, and you get into it, and then it clicks. It's a lot of fun when Damien and Batman come in. Batman being cold and calculated and Damien being a little shit in the best way possible. Works well to see the two work with Deathstroke and Rose (his daughter).

Listen I don't like Slade much. I never understood the hype around him. I believe Judas Contract is veryyyyyy overrated. So I was surprised how much I did enjoy this. I think it comes down to Priest writing. It's not conventional. Sometimes very confusing. However it stays fun and I feel that's something missing from comic books a lot now days.

The dialog is sharp most of the time, super fun moments, and over the top action you learn to love. Especially Superman vs Deathstroke, very fun. On the flipside there is some bad. The story isn't easy to follow, feels like in the middle of an arc half the time, and it can be a bit over the top for some. However if get into the groove I think Deathstroke offers plenty of fun moments. Check it out!

Ah man this one started SO good.

So this book is broken into two stories. First one is about a new boy who is a Kryptonian and Superman takes him under his care. It's fun to see early versions of Clark and Lois taking care of a young boy (which is what the current rebirth run is doing and it's so gooooood) but it works well here. Reason clark is so well done is when he has human moments but he rises above most human reactions.

The fight against Superman and Zod is both fun and entertaining and watching the family references is nice. I enjoyed that whole part of the book, which to be fair is the first half. Then we get to the second half. Braniac or whatever his stupid name is. What a boring story, and the ending tried to give emotion, but I was so bored by then I just didn't care.

So first half is a solid 3.5-4 where's second half is like a 1.5-2. So I'll settle on a 3. Decent story to read.

Another okay volume from my most disliked famous author, Grant Morrison! So let's get the good and bad.

Good - Enjoyed Rock of Ages story despite it being too long for it's own good. However some bad writing we will address later it contained some fun moments and a look into the terrible future that COULD be. I always enjoy those type of stories. Prometheus storyline is really good. Especially finding out his origins, how he tricks the entire JL, and how they eventually stop him all worked well. Felt like a well made story.

Then we get that last piece of shit story. Whatever it was it was terrible. Also Morrison doesn't intend to give our heroes any real character development. Like most of his stories it's all over the place, he can hardly write dialog worth a damn, and we're stuck with generic character's from Saturday cartoons instead of making us feel like we can learn and like these characters.

Bonus - Priest little side story was excellent and makes me wish he wrote this entire volume instead. Well done pacing (better than the rest of the stories) and FUN and WELL DONE dialog.

Check it out, it's fun, but expect a lot of bad traits from Morrison you've learned to expect.

Deadly Class remains one of the best series out there. Smart writing, well done art, and great pacing with a wonderful cast of characters.

Spoilers from volume 4 so don't read ahead if you aren't ready. Ready? READY!? Okay here we go. After Marcus and crew were murdered horribly I thought we might be in trouble. Killing compelling character's can be great and add to the story but then we got new characters and what if we don't like them?

Luckily we got a new cast of kids, all freshmen, and all well done. They collide with some old faces who fucking deserve to die so bad and makes for entertaining moments. I also love the German as he is both badass and awesome fighter. You get a interesting crew this time and more so they aren't as clean as you expect, but this is Deadly Class after all.

The big issue comes at the end. Enjoyable no doubt but kind of...expected? I guessed it the second the first few pages happened and it kind of made volume 4 less of an impact for me. Maybe it'll pick up once read next volume but it did let me down a little bit. We shall see.

Still, Deadly Class is top 10 ongoing comics you should be reading. Are you reading yet? NO? WELL WHAT THE FUCK GET ON IT!!!!

Loved it as much as the first volume.

Yes there's still parts where too much talking is happening. I also think sometimes plot advances little too slow.

Now the good part.

Holy hell is this series funny as fuck. Who didn't laugh at the face for Keagleface? Or even better the ass-illuminti line. I fucking lost it. My wife is reading these at the same time as me and just finished volume 3 and we laugh so much in bed you'd think we're fucking insane. It just has too many funny lines.

Also the series gives us such a great cast. So many wonderfully made characters. I can't get over how many people I like in this series. I mean rainbow? COME ON. This series has too many good characters I'm waiting to hate one.

So yeah on to volume 3!

I thought I'd like this more. I guess maybe if I read it BEFORE I read Kill or Be Killed I would. That and maybe if I liked the character's more.

The themes and ideas in here are solid. I really loved the art. I love how it was explained on each character and how they're different. One of the biggest thing being that each person the main character meets he interacts differently with. I also loved the backstabbing and betraying, because it gives shock value, but in the best way. Characters will die here, don't get too attached.

The ending though and the characters all felt a little...movie like? Predictable? The story is really a big old "This is why crime is bad" but we know that. I wanted to care when characters died, but everything felt too self contained, too strict, so they didn't have time to flush out everyone. so when people died I was more like Oh, that sucks. Instead of "NOOOOO!" type feeling.

Still, I'll read the next one because the writing is solid, art is great, and maybe a different story will grab me a different way.

I have nothing against Landry. I don't think he's a awful writer, cause this is the only thing I've read, so I won't judge him on one work.

Saying that, this is one of the worst graphic novels I've ever read.

The art is...okay? It's not bad, but it reminds me of Kickass yet...not as good? Like that's weird. Also the storyline jumps all over the place, and not in a coherent way. I sometimes had to jump back and re-read moments to understand, and when I did, it didn't make it better. In fact it was somehow worse. ON top of that the dialog is filled with cliches. I guess that matches the characters who are mostly mixes of other more famous characters.

Don't get me wrong. As someone who is writing a Superhero comic now, it's nearly impossible to be completely original anymore. You have to take things from other sources. That's fine. But these characters don't stand out. You know why? Because multiple heroes are introduced in just 3-4 pages and not flushed out at all, so you don't care when people die or get beat.

People do get beat and a lot die. Sounds good huh? It's like Millar, without the storyline, and that's saying something cause something Millar makes garbage storylines (Nemesis anyone?)

This is really just a bunch of killing, death, badly paced, and shitty dialog. I can't recommend this at all, to anyone, because it's that bad. Sorry Landry but this is pretty terrible. I wish ya all the luck with future stories though!

I almost gave this a 4 star. I would have if the second half of this collection was as strong as the first half.

First half is all about Elecktra, our favorite sexy assassin ready to kill you in just a moment. Matt dealing with her is nice to see, and watching him torture himself over it because she doesn't remember him is both enjoyable and sad. The end result works well and sets up future events.

The second half of this collection is a tad weaker. It has Spider-man in the end so that saved it from being just okay to good old fun. However after that is the annual story and it's just not that fun or interesting. Gives me vibes of the bad parts of Waid's run.

Overall it's a good start, so so ending. I still am enjoying this run though, but that's because I LOVE Daredevil!

This volume is a nice step up from the last volume. This time we go to ALOT of present day, year 2000, stuff. I loved most of it.

The majority of the volume revolves around Shogun. He is one of Kenji's best friends growing up. You do get some nice glimpse into the past, into when they're kids, and it's nice to see that contrasted compared to now. However it's the modern day stuff that keeps this volume interesting and excited. A few new people introduced, some sad results, and I won't spoil it, but this one got me a bit emotional and I just met these damn characters haha.

On the flipside we get a bit more into the "Friends" and see their planning. The part dedicated to them building the robot is unnerving. It's funny at times but the "threats" bring it back down to horrifying and anything can go wrong. You see just how powerful the friends are and by the end you really feel some bad shit is coming.

This might become one of the best mangas of all time for me. Most volumes have been great, and I really hope it continues.

Well this was a lot better than the first for me. Maybe because of the ending or maybe because I like Tracy a lot more. Either way let's get into it!

Tracy Lawless is a conflicted character. His life is actually pretty sad. You see glimpses into his childhood with his brother Ricky and his father. The life of a criminal and how he wound up the way he did. Flash forward and you're in present time, and Ricky, his brother, is dead. Now it's Tracy turn to go around his old town to find out what happened.

When Tracy joins the crew, the one Ricky was apart of, it becomes so interesting for me. I want to know about each character. Want to know what they do. All the ins and outs of their schemes and how the fuck they got away with it so long. I was more into Tracy and how he ran his life than finding out what happened to Ricky.

The art is still top notch and very much worth checking out for that alone. I recommend Criminal Volume 2 even more than 1 and so far the best part of these is you can read each separate as they have nothing to do with each other. Check this series out!