It's smart that they're now making Riverdale-specific comics, since the show is prettttty different from the actual Archie reboot comics. (I appreciate what they're doing with the "Road to Riverdale" trade volumes in a marketing stance, but there is no way that those comics are actually a road that arrives at Riverdale the TV show.)

These comics are dumb but in the way that the show is dumb, which is to say: compellingly dumb. I read this whole volume over my lunch break and enjoyed it, especially the bonkers detail of Betty reading the copy of THE STORY OF O that JASON GAVE TO POLLY. Did NOT love that this gave us MORE of Archie and Ms. Grundy like jeeez was anyone asking for MORE of that whole deal?

Anyway it's a quick fun read if you're already in the Riverdale trash pile.

Every time I pick up a new volume of Saga I feel like I'm starting all over because I can never hold everything in my brain? But it's always a freshly enjoyable experience.

first of all this should be called Misty Knight and the Crew because Black Panther is barely in this. Which is fine because I love Misty, obv.

I like the concepts here (

Spoiler

HYDRA IS GENTRIFYING HARLEM

) but there was a lot of legwork to set up the whole premise? I know this got canceled but I'm not sure when....oh okay there are no more issues forthcoming, which is A BUMMER because they just finished assembling the titular crew >:(

a note on the art (specifically the colorist)--mostly it was fine but there was an ongoing thing where Storm is semi-incognito and her nickname is "Blue" specifically and explicitly not because of her eyes but rather because of her "blue-black skin" but she was not depicted with especially dark skin? so that was...weird

anyway this was interesting but seriously bummed that it got canceled before this could really go anywhere. THANKS MARVEL.

cuties

This was cute. It's sort of weird how it is operating separately from both the current comics and also the Hulu TV show? But uhh sure whatever. It's a fun story and it has some good twists. Not a must-read, but entertaining.

This is a little hard for me to rate because I certainly am very moved by Tara Westover's journey and have a huge amount of respect for everything she overcame.

This is a great book for reading and muttering "wow that's fucked up" to yourself.

That said, it's hard for me not to compare this negatively to The Glass Castle--they're both somewhat similar stories of very difficult childhoods with charismatic but unstable fathers--but The Glass Castle is so beautifully written, and this is more a straightforward listing of events. Again--the events are extremely compelling and I have nothing but respect for Tara and her journey. Her story does make you think about education and what pieces of knowledge we tend to take for granted. (When Tara went to college, she raised her hand in a class and asked what the Holocaust was, because she genuinely did not know. I also appreciated the way she unpacked the systematic way the things left out of her extremely spotty homeschool education were designed to uphold racist/sexist/otherwise oppressive viewpoints.)

I'd definitely recommend it to people who are drawn to stories of fundamentalism/doomsday prepping etc, and also perhaps to educators.

I read barely any of the Civil War II stuff so I'm not super familiar with what this book is a follow-up to, but like, I read the little "previously..." text box and basically I get that Jennifer Walters is recovering from some serious Superhero Trauma? So I appreciate the character arc and Mariko Tamaki is a beautiful writer; I personally have loved previous She-Hulk books where the character is happier and more fun-loving?

IDK this is great for what it is but I hope, in the way of comics, that Jen makes a quick recovery and the comics can return to like, Regular She-Hulk shenanigans plz!

This was a fast, compelling read and really makes it clear how the odds are stacked against black teens. I was afraid the letters to MLK concept might come across as being contrived but for the character of Justyce, it works. (And the book is kind of mixed media--the letters to Martin, prose narration, conversation). It's sad and infuriating but does end on a hopeful note.

Ugh, I'm glad the rest of this comic got collected in a trade (tho I don't really care about the New Avengers issues added to fill out this volume) but so sad it's over! WHY CAN'T WE HAVE NICE THINGS MARVEL >:(

I re-read this for podcast reasons and stand by my original review.

http://www.idontevenownatelevision.com/2018/03/18/102-the-angel-experiment-maximum-ride-book-1-w-renata-and-kait-from-worst-bestsellers/

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I found this VERY hard to get through and would not recommend it to adults. However it is VERY popular among teens. It's very fast paced which allegedly makes it appealing to reluctant readers. It's about 6 kids who were experimented on and have wings and powers and are on the run from the government.

Good readlikes can be found in the comics world with Runaways, Avengers Academy, X-Men, or... anything, basically.