By Grant Morrison and Jon J Muth
In a small Yorkshire town, a performance of a Mystery Play is disrupted when the actor playing God is found dead. Manchester policeman Detective Sergeant Frank Carpenter is brought in to investigate. A rural murder mystery, aiming to be a grim slice of Yorkshire Noir that clearly wants to be profound, but I don't think it really has anything substantial to say. The ending aims for ambiguity, but just comes across like Morrison didn't really know how to wrap things up. Also feels like there's a pretty big bit missing in the middle, like someone cut out a chapter out and hoped no one would notice.
Rating: ⭐⭐
By Jed MacKay, Ryan Stegman, and Others
My main takeaway upon first reading this series was that MacKay must've really liked Brian Michael Bendis' Uncanny X-Men run from 2013. Identical setup, many of the same characters (Cyclops, Magik, Magneto), similar plots, this is essentially just one big tribute act to it and herein lies the problem with this run and the whole From the Ashes relaunch. It offers nothing new or interesting. If you just want standard X-Men books doing standard X-Men things they've done dozens of times before, then this is the era for you. The new group editor, a Marvel veteran firmly set in his ways, obviously as a rather limited idea of the X-Men should be (finding young mutants to take in and train), and seems intent on micromanaging the whole line into mediocrity. Even gifted writers like Mackay are struggled to work around all the limitations imposed upon them by their unimaginative editor.
Rating: ⭐⭐
By Jeff Lemire and Nick Robles
One of the recent additions to DC's Absolute line, this series ask what if Wally West became the Flash when he was still a teen and didn't have a support network of older Flashes to show him the ropes? No Barry Allen, no Jay Garrick, not even a Max Mercury. And what if his powers were less about speed and more to do with time, often causing his mind to drift between past, present and future. One advantage I think Marvel's new Ultimate line has over DC's Absolute book is that the Ultimate world genuinely feels different and that serious thought has been put into developing it. The Absolute world, however, doesn't feel any different from the regular one despite all the changes to the main characters. I don't get the sense there is much of an overall plan to these books, it's just a bunch of different creators rebooting these characters however they like. Which is perfectly fine, but it does mean I'll only be interest in an Absolute book if it has a creative team I like whereas I'm happy to try out every Ultimate book because I'm invested in the overall story being told. I checked this out solely because I like Lemire as a writer, but while this has certainly been an interesting new take on The Flash, it hasn't exactly been mind blowing either.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang and Others
There probably isn't a single Wonder Woman run more divisive than this one. For some it's a masterpiece and one of the few diamonds in the rough that was the New 52. But for others it's a total calamity that betrays everything the character is about by making some major changes to her origins. I'm really not a fan of those changes, but I've learned to make my peace with them, mainly by just thinking of this run as an extended Elseworlds story removed from the main continuity. Helps that it's a very isolated story, completely cut off from everything else happening in the DC universe at the time. Azzarello had the clout to be left alone to do their own thing with minimal editorial interference, allowing him and Chiang to tell a completely standalone story. I'll admit that this isn't one of my favourite runs, but I do think that overall it tells a good story despite the aforementioned changes. It is certainly one of the more consistent and coherent runs, mercifully unburned by any crossover nonsense or the creators suddenly leaving. Chiang's art alone is worth the price of admission, featuring some of the best designs yet for the Olympian Gods. While Perez went for the classic look of pretty people in togas, Azzarello and Chiang reimagine them as truly otherworldly beings. There are frequent guest artists, but their styles aren't too dissimilar from Chiang's so it never feels jarring.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
By Joe Keatinge and Sophie Campbell
Like Supreme, and pretty much any character created by Rob Liefeld, Glory was a blatant knock-off of a more famous character, in this case Wonder Woman. She was basically Wonder Woman for those who like to eat at Hooters. It was never anything more than shallow, titillating drivel that might've become something interesting if Alan Moore's planned reboot hadn't been prematurely cancelled. The series got a new lease on life in 2012 when Keatinge and Campbell, taking some inspiration from Moore's aborted run, completely revamped the character's look and origin. It's a great series overall, but you can just tell the axe came down sooner than excepted and the creators were told to wrap things up quickly. The big final battle they've been building towards is over before it even really begins. However, the final issue does manage to conclude things on a satisfying, and surprisingly uplifting note.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011 More Mark Greig
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