No better time to read Tolkien than when the Shadow is ascendant

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After watching Rings of Power, I had to go back to the source.

Public Domain is a thinly veiled retelling of Jack Kirby's family's legal battle to win back the rights to the characters Kirby created from Marvel infused with Chip Zdarsky's own experience as a comics writer. While it's pretty funny, it's extremely literal. I'm a Kirby partisan, but these fictional analogues are less interesting than the real people. I'd rather just read a biography of Kirby. The illustrations are very bland digital clip art.

Tom King is undefeated at writing 12-issue miniseries about DC most obscure characters. This one literally started as a joke on Twitter. King's homage to his favorite noir, 1949's D.O.A., is a love story wrapped in a murder mystery. Greg Smallwood's art elevates this story to true beauty.

GotG meets Westerns is a really good premise, but the execution is just okay. The character designs are great, but the illustrations themselves are very simplistic.

Heavily inspired by Tolkien and D&D, the Fellspyre Chronicles is a really fun epic fantasy graphic novel. The double helix chronology moves back and forth from the past to the present. My only complaint art wise is that some of the characters, especially the women, are very hard to tell apart.

The Krakoan Era is technically over, but I'm still catching up! A lot of people think that it went off the rails after Jonathan Hickman left, but Kieron Gillen's Immortal X-Men is really great. Beautiful art by Lucas Werneck, too. The Quiet Council finally pays for its sins.

It's hard for anyone's work to be as over-hyped as George Saunders, but he always delivers. The title story, "Liberation Day," is inventive, haunting, probing, familiar, and contemporary all at once. No one masters voice like Saunders. "The Mom of Bold Action" and "Ghoul" are so funny yet searing. I love how Saunders blends hope, pain, and humor into an incredible emotional realism set against slightly satirical or exaggerated premises.

Sean Murphy's White Knight series is the most successful franchise from DC Black Label. Murphy's distinctive art is unmatched, but just as impressively, he reimagines compelling alternate versions of the whole Bat Family. Beyond the White Knight is also super self-aware and chock full of jokes and references.

I love the oversized Absolute format, especially for stories as epically bombastic as Dark Knights: Metal.

I love the idea of Poison Ivy tackling climate change, polluters, and greenwashing, but this story is a bit repetitive: every couple of issues, somebody gets turned into a weird fungus and Ivy needs to make an antidote. On top of that, the art is fine at best.

Ram V builds on lore established by Grant Morrison and Scott Snyder to put the Gothic back in Gotham. This is an operatic, occult story about Batman's (literal?) demons. Rafael Albuquerque's art isn't really my style, but he is very accomplished.

The definitive oral history of the making of Mad Max: Fury Road, one of the longest-gestating and most ambitious movies ever filmed. After seeing Furiosa, I wanted to go back and learn the crazy story of how they made this wild movie.

No one carries the torch of empathy farther than George Saunders

I absolutely loved this event. It pays off a number of narrative threads going all the way back to the origins of Krakoa in HoX/PoX. Mr. Sinister finally gets everything he wants and casts the universe into chaos. The story spans 1,000 years, blending real character stakes with playful space opera elements and high concept sci-fi. This is the X-Men version of Star Wars & Star Trek rolled into one.

"To me, my mes"

One of the funniest X-Men panels ever

This Lando-centric story is a really fun crossover with the larger Dark Droids event.

Rogue AI stories are getting a little tedious, but this one isn't bad. Terry's characterization is well done, and the art is solid if not stunning.

Taylor & Redondo's Nightwing run is a balm for anyone weary of overly grimdark, nihilistic story-telling: heroes saving lives and helping their communities. This story is about the nature of your heart--literally and metaphorically. Plus, Dick & Babs are adorable.

Impending Doom

I'm not a bug Venom guy, so the King in Black crossover issues we're really my jam. However, the issues written by Torunn Gronbekk and drawn by Nic Klein are great.

Great concept, zany style, and a beautiful ending, but the characters are a little shallow. The genies are very funny.

Including an issue drawn by Phil Noto makes the other artists look like amateurs. This story has to connect to multiple crossover events, which makes it a bit hard to follow.

This volume is a little more exposition-heavy, but Nic Klein's art and Matt Wilson's colors are still great.

Check out Verity Willis reading Douglas Wolk's fantastic All of the Marvels in this Al Ewing story.

The hardest thing in comics is to follow a legendary run on a title. Donny Cates managed to build on what Jason Aaron did with Thor while bringing his own fresh spin that brings the character forward, rather than starting over completely. Having won the War of the Realms, Thor must learn to be a king, not just a warrior.

Badass ladies

I found this . . . convoluted.

I'm loving Donny Cates' run on Thor from a few years ago. In this arc, Cates mines the lore to reinvent Thor's original alter ego Donald Blake. Great pacing, action, and dialogue. Cates picks up the themes of worthiness and authority that were so prominent in Jason Aaron's run.

This was a really cool concept that didn't quite nail the execution. Some of the poignancy and drama of the original are missing, though it does have a bit happier ending.

In homage to the fact that Dumas was Black, The Last Count of Monte Cristo is an Afro-Futurist retelling of the famous tale of revenge.

Donny Cates' Thor run seamlessly picks up where Jason Aaron's left off: after winning the War of the Realms and ascending to Asgard's throne, Thor must now form an uneasy alliance with Galactus to stop the star plague from wiping out the universe. Nic Klein's art perfectly splits the difference between Esad Ribic's and Russell Dauterman's.

On a Sunbeam is a sci-fi, coming-of-age, queer love story about found family told in two different timelines. Tillie Walden drew and wrote the whole graphic novel in a smaller panel manga format. Muted colors accentuate the minimalist illustrations. My only issue is the slight lack of character development for the secondary characters.

When I first saw Return of the Jedi, I wondered what many kids wondered, "How did Luke make his green lightsaber?" Charles Soule is finally telling that story, and while we don't really need to know, it's pretty fun to find out.

Is this story predictable? Yes. Is it incredibly enjoyable to spend more time with some of the most fun characters ever? Also, yes. I love setting this story in the early days of Zuko's reign as Fire Lord. It won't knock you off your feet, but it's terrific comfort food.

This first arc of Wilson's popular Poison Ivy run ended kind of where I wish it had started: with Ivy planning to fight the fossil fuel industry for harming the planet. These early issues felt like an unnecessary prologue in which Ivy realizes that going on a suicide mission to kill all humanity might not be the best plan. I love the idea of Ivy as an eco-terrorist and will definitely check out the next volume.

Stunning cover art by Dan Mora

Squire is a really fun and thoughtful historical fiction adventure inspired by the Ottoman Empire's conquest of Jordan, even if the ending is a bit too pat. The art is great, and I'd gladly read another installment.

The characters are a bit underdeveloped, but the scale is absolutely massive. I hope De Connick gets the chance to complete her saga, as this volume includes only three of the proposed nine chapters in the story.

Diana's mother, Hippolyta, gets an all-new, fierce origin story in Wonder Woman: Historia.

Wonder Woman: Historia is a feminist Greek epic about the origin of the Amazons. The story is incredibly ambitious, and the art is gorgeous.

Nocterra is the last title in Scott Snyder's cosmic phase going back to his Justice League run. Despite being a separate, creator-owned project, Nocterra shares a lot of themes with Snyder's DC work, especially the conflict between light and dark. This third volume is the final arc of the first big chunk of the story. There's plenty of good action, but Emory is just not as strong a character as Val.

It may have taken me forty issues of Monstress to finally understand the vast lore that Liu has constructed, but the character work has always been exceptional. Takeda's art is legendary by this point, but I'll add my voice to the chorus.

Jodi Nishijima's art rules and Ronda Pattison's colors are perfect. Sophie Campbell's story is the most serious investigation of local government, mutual aid, and social infrastructure I've ever seen in a comic, while simultaneously nailing each turtle's character arc.

Soule is so good at blending new and old Star Wars canon, such as bringing a young Holdo into a mission with Luke, Leia, and Lando (she keeps her plans under wraps even back then). More importantly, his stories are just plain fun. Genolet's art is simple without being simplistic.

Killer variant cover by Taurin Clarke

Continuing my wrestling kick

Poignant. Exhilarating. The emotions are as real as the premise is fantastical.

If you liked The Iron Claw, check out Do a Powerbomb.