Seven Things I Liked About Russian Doll

1. It surprised me.

2. It was only eight episodes long.

3. It was smart.

4. It surprised me.

5. It assumed its audience could follow along.

6. It gave me new respect and admiration for Natasha Lyonne, both as an actor and creator.

7. It really fucking surprised me.

Wrap It Up! Domino #10

This was a mess.

Gail Simone's Birds of Prey run is among my favourites. This is why when I see a Gail Simone book, I will give it a try. I also love Domino, so this title should have been a lock for me. A joy! Something to keep my hope alive! A peek into a better world!

But no.

There are many things I don't like about this comic. The worst crime is that it feels rushed. There is a small army of artists drawing this, all with varying styles but united in their clear attempt to get their pages down and out the fucking door. The storyline--which was flimsy to begin with, something about Longshot being a threat to all humanity because someone from Wakanda said so, so Domino and her team get involved and woah both Domino and Longshot have luck powers and won't that be freaky (SPOILER: it isn't)--races to an abysmally unsatisfying conclusion. From what I can gather, Domino and her team go to an extradimensional realm and conquer it--in 12 hastily drawn pages. They upset years of slavery and rally the oppressed to fight back--in 12 pages. Four people with guns do this. FOUR PEOPLE A BIT OF OF LUCK. IN TWELVE PAGES.

Well, I assume there is a bit of luck, since that is Domino and Longshot's power, but you don't see it. You don't really even see who Domino shoots most of the time. In fact, it could be just four anyones who did this. There is nothing here to make this a Domino comic, since apparently anyone can overthrow an entire realm. You should try it yourself.

Even before this issue, I was having problems with this series. In my opinion, the art style of the regular artist is far too cartoony for a story about an assassin. Domino's sidekicks--Outlaw and Diamondback--seem interchangeable and one dimensional, and in Outlaw's case, down right embarrassing. The inclusion of a new member--Atlas Bear from Wakanda, because you just have to have a Black Panther connection to sell comics these days--seems equally empty. (She wants Longshot dead for most of the last few issues, but suddenly wants to care for him because he's sick.)

Like I said, a mess. Apparently this is the last issue before it gets re-launched as a --wait for it-- a brand new Number One! This time Domino will be in another team book, set to run for five issues. With the same empty characters but with Black Widow thrown in, so yeah, that'll solve all the problems plaguing this run of Domino.

I'm not sure if I'll pick it up. I may let the burning stench of this trash fire dissipate first.

Venom #11

I admit to a certain snobbery when it comes to comics.

I do not consider myself a Venom fan. It has been my experience--and I am being honest here, so please understand--that the people who identify as Venom fans are not ones that I associate with in the weird social hierarchy that exists in my city's comic book shops.

As a young twentysomething, clad in black Levis and Joy Division T-shirts,  I read real comics. You know, like Sandman, Watchmen, Sin City, Love and Rockets.  If I read superhero comics, it was because I grew up reading them, and it was still a somewhat elevated passion. I did not read Venom. Good God, you'd think I read Spawn next.

But here in my fifties, I admit to a certain curious affection for this dumb character. I am circling around watching the Tom Hardy movie. I recently bore witness to a young man spend several hundred dollars on a Venom bust at my local. He seemed to be in his right mind. He also seemed very excited about owning this statuary, and watched as it was boxed, then carefully carried it out to his car.

So I saw this latest issue, liked the cover, and finally gave in. I purchased a Venom comic.

And then I hear this is the issue that led several people to issue death threats against the writer, Donny Cates.

Having not read a single issue in this series--or any of the previous legacy 177 issues-- I'm probably not the best judge of why these people are upset. Apparently, some of these people are shippers, which is another term I had to look up. They wanted a romantic relationship between the Venom symbiote and its host, Eddie Brock?

I guess?

Anyway, as a comic on it's own, with me not knowing really anything about what was going on, I was surprised to enjoy it. It felt very much like a horror story, focusing on the odd relationship between Venom and Brock. There is a major revelation that I can see being very polarizing. But death threats? Please. If you don't like a creative vision, then simply stop supporting it. Nothing speaks more loudly than the non-ringing of cash registers. Look at Solo.

But for me, I was intrigued by the book. Not sure if I'll pick up the next issue, or ever read another Venom comic again, but yeah, I got my money's worth.

Retro Reads: Secret Avengers #34

We didn't know how good we had it in 2013. Jonathan Hickman was on Fantastic Four and Avengers, and Rick Remender was doing Secret Avengers. I'm not sure if things will ever be this good again.

Remender and Hickman are now busy doing their own creator owned work, but I still miss their touches on the Marvel heroes. (Remender's run on Uncanny X-Force remains one of my favourite comic book runs of all time.) So I thought I'd just randomly read an old issue from the Good Times, when the future seemed a lot brighter and smarter.

This issue made me nostalgic for the fun back then. Hawkeye and Captain Britain discussing The Smiths, the Flash Thompson Venom, an alternate world of Marvel heroes gone all horror called Earth-666, Wolverine as Morbius The Living Vampire, Captain America as a werewolf, Punisher as Frankenstein's Monster, and even the original Human Torch as an evil baddie.

There was just an energy to this book that I don't see that often anymore.

I'm getting older every day.

Oh, JoJo: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable

I was going to write a review of the godawful TITANS, but decided against it. It would be waste of my time since no one reads this thing anyway, and it seems that when it comes to superheroes on television, the hack writing and slapdash production evidenced in TITANS is what people want. Suffice to say I did not enjoy it, and I'm perplexed that anyone could.

So I thought I'd focus on something that I also recently finished. Something I adored. Something that is so highly polished and thought out, so clever and so much its own thing. And that thing was JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable.

JoJo tells the story of the Joestar family, starting back in the 1880s in dear old England. Each series deals with one member of the Joestar family, who is the 'JoJo' of the show's title. Each series leaps ahead in time, since the awesome of the Joestar family often skips generations (but not always). Diamond Is Unbreakable is the fourth part of the Joestar Saga, taking place in a small town in Japan in 1999.

This time 'JoJo' is a teenage boy with a weird fashion sense called Josuke Higashikata, the illegitimate son of a previous JoJo, Joseph Joestar. Like his father and nephew, Jotaro, Josuke has something called a Stand. Stands are like separate entities tied to a person, each with their own power or ability. Stands were introduced in the previous series, Stardust Crusaders, where it seemed they were rare things. But due to plot events in Unbreakable, several Stands begin to manifest in Josuke's small town. And one of them belongs to a serial killer.

Diamond Is Unbreakable, all 39 episodes of it, tells the story of the various Stands that arise in this quiet and unassuming town and how Josuke and his friends--who also have Stands--deal with them. Whereas the previous series was driven by a quest to save a Joestar family member, this series seems to meander all over the place, almost to the point of distraction. But as the serial killer storyline is brought into tighter focus, it becomes clear there was a reason for that. As the series comes to a climax, the series becomes as tense and dark as the previous series.

One of the things I like most about JoJo is how with each new series, you hate the new JoJo. You miss the previous one, and it takes a very long time to warm up to this clear imposter to the JoJo name. But by the end, you adore them, and are sad to see their time in the spotlight come to an end.

I also enjoy how JoJo masterfully builds tension with most episodes, writing itself into a corner that you're not sure how they'll pull themselves out of. Yet they always do, and they never cheat. The rules are clearly laid out, be it through character traits or Stand powers. Every resolution feels earned, even if you find yourself having to go back several episodes to see where that particular plot point was laid down.

JoJo is also just gloriously weird. The Stand powers are always strange. The titular JoJo is always a bit odd, be it Jotaro's standoffishness from Stardust Crusaders to Josuke's money scams or 1940's bouffant. The show is so much it's own thing, uncaring of what anyone thinks of it. The focus group for JoJo just seems to be that of its creator, Hirohiro Araki, and no one else.

It's a glorious series, and more worthy of your time and attention than another cynical re-imaging of other things I could mention.

I'm Tired of Clones Now Aren't We All: X-23#8

I've been enjoying Mariko Tamaki's run on X-23. She has a great feel for Marvel's convoluted mutant world, and her take on Laura and Gabby is a delight. But I admit to a certain disappointment with this issue, and I'm not sure if it's her fault.

There are some storylines that just seem to glom themselves to certain characters, being repeated over and over like a narrative bass line. Spider-Man has his Self Doubt and Responsibility storylines, Captain America has periodic What Is America Becoming storylines, and Wolverine is forever facing cross checks from Am I A Man or Beast multi-part tales.

X-23 has Another Clone stories. Tom Taylor touched on these in his run, and now Tamaki is bringing her take on that to this title. And I find myself asking: Why?

X-23 is, as I'm sure everyone knows, a clone of Wolverine, as is her sister, Gabby. There was another sister as well, and maybe even more. Being a clone of Wolverine, we've had the stories where Laura confronts her humanity as it vies against her bestial nature. I had thought that particular narrative vein had been mined to death, but nothing in comics is ever mined to death. It's only given a few months to recover.

This time, though, there is yet another clone, another sister, another opportunity for drama. This time the clone in question is the ultimate killing machine, a combination of Wolverine DNA and cybernetics. A Terminator version of X-23.  Once again Laura and Gabby have to deal with this--Laura being the more apprehensive older sister to Gabby's cheerful 'Let's all be friends' approach.

It's not a terrible issue by any means. The exchanges between Laura and Gabby still amuse, as does Gabby's approach to all out carnage. I'm just really tired of clone stories.  What's needed to salvage this story for me--and since I paid for this comic at a store, and didn't rip it off from the internet, paying customer right here it's all about me--is some drastic change or surprise by story's end. Because right now, it just seems like well paddled water.

LOOK OUT! IT'S X-FORCE!!!

Oh, look! Another Number One! And this time it has an X in the title! Goody!

So once again X-Force has been resurrected for another run. This time around Ed Brisson is writing, with some interesting art from Dylan Burnett. Strap in for some hard edged graphic fun! These comics ain't for kids! Look out!

X-Force is the wetworks division of the X-Men. This is the team that takes out threats with a little more finality than the baseline X-Men would be comfortable with. (Black Widow would approve.). My favourite runs on this title have been the Kyle/Yost era and the Rick Remender era, the latter being one of the best runs on a title ever.  In fact, if X-Force never came back, the Remender era would a great high point to go out on.

But I'll give anything a chance. So this new take hews pretty close to what we'd expect from X-Force. The team is a mix of hardcore characters (Deathlok, Domino, Warpath, Shatterstar) and ones who maybe stumbled into the team by opening the wrong door and are too embarrassed to  leave,(Cannonball, Boom Boom.)

Yes, Boom Boom.

We know early on that the team is hard as fuck because they torture some mutant hating terrorists, where Domino informs them that they are 'the mutants you're terrified of'. A little on the nose. I mean, aren't the black variants on the X-Men costumes enough to let you know how hard they are?

The story spins out of an X-Men mini-series I haven't read (Extermination, apparently), with the team assembled to take out Kid Cable, who murderized the old Cable. While investigating, the team discovers some time travel business, weird guns, and a country in a grimy corner of Eastern Europe that may not be as kind to mutants as they keep telling the world that they are.

It's an enjoyable story, and you know it's X-FORCE!!! because we saw a few heads blown apart by bullets. If that's not enough hardcore for you, there is also a real shitty Bulgarian hotel room.

The second story in this issue deals with Boom Boom having slept through the team's departure time and running into the previously tortured mutant hating terrorists in New York. It's a fun bit, with a much cleaner art style by Juanan Ramirez.

All in all, a good launch of Marvel's hardest team. And I actually liked a story with Boom Boom. Wonders, cease, etc.