Welcome back to ‘Raff Reads Comics.’ If you have been following along you will have noticed that it has been a few weeks since I have written a new column. That's because I work in a comic store and I also work away at conventions. Some months I am away for every weekend, so it can be really hard to get the time to actually sit down and write my thoughts on the week’s releases.
Obviously, I have kept up with the reading of my comics because I love the things. If I don’t read, I really can’t function, and sometimes, if I leave it too long, I will sit in the corner of whatever room I am in and slowly rock backwards and forwards, wondering what have happened in my favourite comics. This can get quite embarrassing when I am at a convention. People stare!
Anyway, this is the reason that I have taken the decision to make these articles a monthly round up of reviews, rather than a weekly one. Especially since starting from this week, I will also have a review of Fear The Walking Dead to prepare. I know, life is hard. Let’s get on with this shall we...
The X Files: Season 11 Issue 1 – IDW
This month I was happy to see the return of my beloved X-Files. I know it was only a one month break, if you count the annual, BUT I WANT IT ALL THE TIME. Yes, I have problems.
In season 10 we left Mulder on the run with possibly the most romantic Mulder/Scully goodbye scene that I have ever seen. I was a state. Well in season 11 the FBI is interrogating Scully and Mulder is still on the run. Scully is wistfully staring at her computer monitor waiting for an email from Mulder, but she hasn’t heard from him in months. This was the point when I started blubbering into my brew. Yes, this was page 2.
Mulder, meanwhile, is investigating whether someone has shot a satellite out of the sky, and when I say someone I, of course, mean aliens. I hated the woman that Mulder was with! She kept making references to Mulder loving redheads and my rage was building. Mulder is Scully’s. That is just the way life goes. Don’t even get me started on the thought of Mulder and Scully being separated in the new TV show!! I will have to save that for another review because I am going off on a tangent.
To be honest, despite an all-consuming rage, I loved this issue. Gibson is a major super-villain and I can’t wait to see where the writing team goes with this storyline. I wasn’t a big fan of the art in this issue and I hated Mulder’s moustache but overall, I enjoyed myself reading this issue.
AmericaTown – Archaia
I was really looking forward to reading this comic but I ended up being a little disappointed. The story surrounds a family being smuggled out of America into Spain. I found it to be a bit confusing and I didn’t really know what was happening, but that might say more about me than the comic itself.
I loved the art because it had a retro feel to it, and I will be giving it another chance and reading the next issue, but I wasn’t as excited about this comic as I was about some others.
Beauty – Image
Beauty is amazing! It might actually be my favourite of the new comics this month. It's a brilliant idea. So get this right - there is an S.T.D that makes people prettier, naturally everyone wants to get the disease!
However, people will the disease start combusting from inside out! Therefore, there is a criminal element to this comic and there is a police department related to beauty crime.
Beauty has a massive twist at end, which I won’t spoil, but oh my god, this comic is amazing.
When I saw it on the shelves I didn’t expect to like it, but it blew my mind! It's kinda like a cross between Fear The Walking Dead (UK readers, it’s amazing, watch it tonight on AMC) and any cop show that has ever aired.
Boy-1 – IDW
This was a weird one for me because I kind of liked it but I had to read it a few times to understand what was happening.
As far as I can tell, there is a group of scientists that are genetically modifying DNA to cure disease, and they've had success with a chimp named Caesar. The main character, Jadas has lost his father but he wants to find out more about him. This brings him to a random lab called DreamGen, which he can mysteriously gain access to with his handprint. We have ourselves a mystery.
Jadas reminded me of Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye, in the sense that he is privileged but he doesn’t really care about anything and has gone of the rails.
It did enough to ensure I will be picking this one up next month, plus I loved the art.
String Divers - IDW
String Divers was another weird one for me. As soon as I found out it was about string theory, of course I wanted it. It follows the story of these divers that travel through dimensions saving strings. It's based in Geneva, at Cern (Large Hadron Collider, anyone?) and I loved the fact that in this story string theory has been confirmed.
The main characters are droids, and if they lose one another colour takes their place. I enjoyed the art and I applaud the writers for questioning the reality of losing a string and what will happen to the remaining strings. Again, there is another twist that I loved, and I am really looking forward to issue 2.
The Walking Dead issue 145: Blood for Blood – Image
This issue went really fast. It seemed to be one thing after another without anything more really happening from last time. There was a lot of death, but it seemed to be setting the stage for the next issue.
The next big bad is being set up in this issue and I wonder if she will be more calculating than Negan?? I am genuinely scared for the gang that we know and love and what will remain once this storyline gains pace.
Oxymoron – Comix Tribe
Oxymoron is a horror comic of the best kind. The art is beautiful and the story is really spooky. In this issue, we meet May, a cop that lost her partner when he was killed in the line of duty. She is now ostracized because we learn that his death came about because she collapsed due to an illness. There is mystery, there is murder and there is a serial killer that wears a clown mask. What more do you want? Brilliant!
The art is spooky too, and I love that when the killer is speaking the speech bubbles are black. It made the read seem more intense somehow.
Wolf issue 2 – IDW
I was less in love with this issue 2 of Wolf than I was the previous one. This is mainly because there is a vampire that is stuck in the menstrual cycle and her blood is worth more. Gross. I was eating breakfast when I read this and quickly lost my appetite. You all know how much I love my breakfast.
We do learn a bit more about Wolfe, and we learn that there is a special super prison for supernatural villains.
Drive – IDW
This is one that wasn’t on my radar but I loved the art on the cover so much that I just had to pick it up, and when I opened the comic I wasn’t disappointed. The colours were amazing, and it reminded me of old movies that were set in L.A.
Drive is the story of a young man who is a stunt driver, but also moonlights as a driver for criminals - hold-ups, that sort of thing. Obviously something is going to go wrong, right?
It's one of those comics that starts slow, in the middle of the story, and then boom! Action left, right and centre. I can’t wait for next month!
That’s it for this month guys, if you have read any of these comics, let me know what you thought in the comics below. If you want to pick any of the issues up, contact me at @WorldsApart_Liv or @Raff42 for more information.
Raff buys all her comics from forbiddenplanet.co.uk
Raff is a massive Disney Geek, Thrill Seeker, Gamer and Comic Book reader. Basically she's an all round massive geek! For more from Raff, follow her on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. If you want some special offers, competitions or just geeky news, follow her work accounts on Twitter and Facebook.
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