Comics of July 8, 2015

So I’m in the middle of July’s Camp Nanowrimo, and this month I’m writing the most ambitious book in my series yet. It’s already starting to look like the first draft will be at least 100,000 words (my previous longest 1^st draft was 83,846 words, and its second draft is over 120,000). There are 6 main characters when I haven’t written more than 4 in the past. Most importantly, it spans several months and all over North and South America, when I’ve usually kept the stories restrained to about a month and a couple European countries and in some cases, a handful of cities. This book’s been fun so far, and tomorrow I’ll be writing the first major action scene.

Enough about my writing though, it’s time to talk about today’s comics. This doesn’t seem to happen very often lately, but I picked up an even number of Marvel comics and titles from other companies. I picked up include Age of Apocalypse 1, Civil War 1, Inferno 3, Spider-Verse 3, Starfire 2, Gotham Academy 8, Batman 42 and Witchblade 183. Here are my first impressions, and links to full reviews will be added when they’re posted.

Age of Apocalypse 1 review

Starfire 2 review

Inferno 3 review

Civil War 1 is good. This is basically “What if Civil War continued”. Years after the conflict started, the United States has divided into two countries in a state of war. It’s about two civilizations with completely different legal systems and beliefs, while it also delves into how it’s torn apart not only a country, but individual families split between the lines. This issue is mostly setup, but Civil War could easily become great. Fans of the original event should at least read this.

Spider-Verse 3 is fascinating. The first two issues introduced each of the spider characters involved with the story, and this entry starts off with a fight between them and the Sinister Six. It’s a good fight scene, but what really makes Spider-Verse 3 interesting is how it ties Battleworld mythology to the Web of Life in Spider-Man mythology. How Battleworld disrupts the web is only touched on, but even the mention makes this mini-series feel more important. Spider-Man fans should check this mini-series out, as should fans of Spider-Gwen.

Gotham Academy 8 is good. This is a much more dramatic issue than previous entries. Sometime between Gotham Academy 6 and 8, Olive’s mother died, and part of this issue is dedicated to her reaction. Olive’s scenes are very well written, and her reaction is a realistic range of sadness, confusion and anger. That said, other parts of this issue feel disjointed and the narrative keeps jumping around. It’s never hard to follow, but GA 8 would have benefitted from focusing on Olive more and saving the subplots for later issues. Even so, this is a very unique title for the Batman franchise and it’s definitely worth checking out, even if this is the weakest issue so far.

Batman 42 is fun. Honestly I’m not sure what to say about this issue, apart from how it continues the story of Jim Gordon as Batman as he fights someone with artificial superpowers. The mystery of Bruce Wayne’s disappearance is touched on, but not really expanded on. Some might not enjoy Jim Gordon as Batman, but so far it’s been well-written. If Bat-Jim interests you, at least give this a read.

Witchblade 183 is fun. Since they just announced that Witchblade 185 will be the final issue in the series, I was expecting a bigger story than this for the third last entry. That said, there’s a fun action scene and a building mystery that could still lead to something big. At this point I’m kind of in a wait and see state of mind, but Witchblade fans should be reading this.