[Kinda Book Report] 52, vol 2 (but a different one)

Having read the second part of the story and wanting to read more, I decided to bite the bullet and get volume 2.

But JP, you say, didn't you already read and reviewed that volume already?

Well yes. However, this is volume 2 of 2. This book has the equivalent of volumes 3 and 4 of the series. In short, the final of the year.

So how did it do?

Well the story started out pretty good, but the plots go down from there. Most of them just drag on and on without any really full interest. In the end, the world is changed but it's not that exciting. I liked the ending of the plot with Doctor Fate/ Elongated Man and the new Question, they were "fine". But the space travel story with Lobo, yawn. The plot with Black Adam was okay... it dragged on a little too much. The EggFu and his island of mad scientists was okay. But the one thatleft me angry was the Booster Gold plot: after an interesting reveal, the rest was just exposition and talking, including time and dimension traveling (while talking).

Instead of having action, they talk. They talk. They don't do much but talk and talk to the point where it get boring. I expected they do more than build machines. The art was good but the story fizzled out and that, more than anything else left me with a bad taste.

My final rating is 2/5. I found myself bored and looking forward to the end. The endless exposition "look how clever my story is, here are three pages where I explain what the bad guy did instead of doing stuff." I like action in my comic. This is a modern comic and why I am not a fan. Good start, no idea how to finish. Too bad, I paid good money for that book. Got ripped off.

Demonic Forces I: The Blighted released!

During the work for the upcoming Witches of Pikemaster, I came up with a number of monsters that can easily be bunched together in a collection I call "Demonic Forces".

The content of this small product is a set of five monsters to serve as low-level nameless faceless hordes of the Abyss. Blighted look like monsters whose flesh has their armor welded directly on their skin. Vile, disgusting, near-mindless, and malevolent, they were designed to serve alongside the bigger demon, surrounding them with mobs of creatures.

I cannot wait to use them against my party. Again and again...

You can now get Demonic Forces I: The Blighted on DM's Guild.

[Kinda Book Review] Spectacular Spiderman Vol 1

I have to admit that in my youth, I did not follow Spiderman too closely. I was an X-men guy. However, he was the subject of multiple TV shows and crossovers. He just wasn't my favorite.

When making my list of potential gifts for Christmas this year, I added a number of "Marvel Essentials" comics. I really dig that line of 25-30 comics from one series reprinted in black and white on newspaper paper. The great part is that you can get a full story, and more all in one place. I mean, isn't that what I love best? A full story.

I was really happy that my secret Santa (aka Kitty) chose that book! Excellent news. I placed it on top of my read pile and wait. The one book over that one was The Man with Two Names. Having finished that one, I dived directly into Spiderman with great gusto.

Now let me explain what I got from reading this book (and later confirmed by making a Wikipedia search). The stories focus more on Peter Parker and his entourage, the "normies" that surround Peter Parker: MJ, Flash, Betty, and Hector Ayala/ White Tiger are pretty important to the stories. I could say it is something akin to what the team-up series is but instead of Spidey meeting super heroes, he deals with his friends.

The story has one notable exception: it serves as an epilogue for the Champions title that was canceled a short time before. Appearing here are Angel and Iceman, founding members of the X-men. That story and seeing those characters hit a soft spot and I was really intrigued and devoured that story. I really liked it. Some of the other stories weren't as strong and some (the Brother Power/ Sister Light) were overly convoluted to provide a rewarding conclusion. Other characters, like the Arkansas Razorback (this is a wink to the mascot of the University of Arkansas' mascot, the razorback) were funny but became tiresome in his bad stereotype of a southern man.

Still an enjoyable read, that leaves me in a lurch between a 3 and 4. So to break the tie, I looked at the 3s and the 4s I rated on this blog and it is closer to the other 3s and 4s. So I rate this one a 3/5 because of the uneven nature of some of the stories.