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SUPERMAN: SON OF KAL-EL #1 - Jon Kent Steps Up

  This story was written by Tom Taylor, with the visual talents of John Timms and Gabe Eltaeb. Just over a month after the ending of the main Superman title, something that rarely happens, here we have it’s replacement featuring Jon Kent in the title role. The final arc and a bit from Philip Kennedy Johnson really wasn’t all that great to be honest, and I will get into his Action Comics run later this week, so I feel that shake up of the Superman status quo was definitely necessary, no matter what some so-called “purists” would have you believe. The one thing that is a little bit weird to me with this book is that, while it would have seemed like it was being done to reduce the number of Clark Kent focused books, that isn’t the case, as Superman and the Authority has filled the void. For the most part, I most certainly got a great deal of enjoyment out of the this first issue. While not much exactly went on in terms of actual story in the modern day setting, I quite appreciated how
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MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN #28 - The Clone Saga Ends

  This story is written by: Saladin Ahmed, with visuals from: Carmen Carnero and David Curiel. I would hardly call this a “Saga” in the traditional sense of the world, as this was not exactly sprawling epic, told over multiple years, or even generations of people. It was simply just a four-issue story, that I felt was rather a boring read for the most part, albeit boredom that was very well written on the part of Saladin Ahmed. A much better use of the Clone Saga name would likely just to have had all of this run leading up this moment be considered Miles’ Saga, obviously further down the line in the collected volume of course, as that is what we have been dealing with for quite a bit of this stint for the character. This finale issue really followed the same formula as all of the previous instalments of the arc, only this time with the threat of a months old baby girl being lobbed off of a bridge (seriously, not every Spider-Man needs to have a bridge threat in their lives). In my
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SUPERGIRL: WOMAN OF TOMORROW #1

  This story is written by: Tom King, with visuals from: Bilquis Evely and Matheus Lopes. After being burned by the latter portion of his Batman run and the cluster that was Heroes in Crisis, I have pretty much made a point of avoiding everything to do with Tom King, no matter how much acclaim any one series seems to be getting at the time. I just could not bring myself to go through any potential disappointment from him once again, in much the same way that I have struggled with certain Joshua Williamson works, and even Hickman’s X-Men run. However, I simply just could not pass up the opportunity to pick up this title, to see what King could do with the iconic Supergirl character, with hopes that it would be more Vision than Batman, and the fact that it is only an eight issue series doesn’t hurt too much either to be honest. Although I am often quick to criticise any series following the first issue, I am here to hesitantly say that this was a very solid start, restoring a little b
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FANTASTIC FOUR: LIFE STORY #1

  This story is written by: Mark Russell, with visuals from: Sean Izaakse and Nolan Woodard.   One of the most difficult things to do for anything in media is to reuse a concept that has proven incredibly popular in the past, and make it as good as it was the first time around. We have seen it for years with movie reboots or television revivals, where you simply just do not get that same magic the second (or third and fourth) time around, with it then coming across as a shameless cash grab made by people who don’t care, or an embarrassment to the legacy of the original (hello Fantastic Four 2015). Of course, this is not just limited to film and television, as our beloved comic books have been guilty of more than their fair share of this over the years. We have Civil War II, which was literally only there to promote a new film (which was far better than the barely related comic book), we have Infinity Wars (again, same deal with Civil War II), and then we have the billion crises that DC
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X-CORP #1 - A Slow-Paced, But Serviceable Beginning

 This story is written by: Tini Howard, with visuals from: Alberto Foche & Sunny Gho. From what I can tell at least, this is a series that has been a long time in the making, dating back to the original announcement of this reboot all the way back in 2019. Back then, it was more a case of teasing that something like this would be coming, rather than actually being a part of that initial slate of titles, but as soon as the Reign of X was announced, this came along with it. To say that the books that have come after that initial wave have been varying in quality would really be an understatement, as so very many of them are really poor in my opinion, and it is a surprise that the ones that are actually considered the good ones in this whole line are the ones that are getting cancelled (aside from Cable, that deserves the axe). Before I go into full on rant mode, I think that we should just get straight on into talking about the events of this very first issue, and exactly what I
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HEROES REBORN #1 - A Surprising Return to a Much Derided Concept

  This story was written by Jason Aaron, with pencils from Ed McGuinness. I understand that I promised to review this title today and everything, but boy was it a long process to actually get it all started. My usual schedule for my reviewing starts just after I have had lunch, where I then spend the next few hours reading the titles for that day and splurging my thoughts out on to this very page. In the couple of years or so that I have been reviewing my comics seriously, there as not been a single one that I have ever been stressed or worried or just completely unwilling to read, until this dreary Spring day that is. For the entire morning, since I woke up at half past nine, I had been dreading the exact moment that I would sit down at my desk, as I really just didn’t want to have to acknowledge the existence of this rehash of a concept that I am sure everybody had hoped died a horrible permanent death after it’s failure the first go around. As a little disclaimer, I have never read
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THE MIGHTY VALKYRIES #1 - Jason Aaron in His Element

  This title was written by Jason Aaron and Torunn Gronbekk, with artwork by Mattia Iulis and Erica D'Urso.   There are simply just some writers that are more suited to certain characters than they are to others. For seven or eight years of his career with Marvel Comics, Jason Aaron was the main writer for the Thor/Might Thor title, putting in one of the most seminal runs in the history of that character, while also writing the likes of Wolverine and Punisher at some other points. It is safe to see that the majority of his Thor run will be remembered fondly by most fans (perhaps War of the Realms notwithstanding, even though it was fun, if a little long), with the things he introduced to that mythos likely to be mentioned in the same breath as Straczynski, Simonson, Lee and Kirby. On the other end of the scale, with things he is not suited to, would be this current run of his on the Avengers title. Now, that has been a tumultuous title for pretty much sixty years, but Aaron’s ta
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