In a bid to broaden the number of comics we cover at ComicsXF, we give you, the reader, these one-paragraph reviews of some recent releases. This feature doesn’t have a name yet, but if we keep doing this and anyone has a good idea for a name, let us know!
Avengers Assemble #1
W: Steve Orlando / A: Cory Smith / I: Oren Junior & Elizabetta D’Amico / C: Sonia Oback / L: Cory Petit / P: Marvel
For years, the Avengers have been Marvel’s biggest non-arachnid-or-mutant-related franchise. For some reason though, they’ve been unable to sustain more than one ongoing B-title since around 2018. With Avengers Assemble and the upcoming West Coast Avengers, Marvel is taking another swing at it. And frankly, I don’t hate this. Smith is not the artist I would have picked for an Avengers title, but in this first issue, the team faces Sin Schmidt possessed by a hate demon. That horror angle makes Smith a great choice, with inkers Junior and D’Amico adding a great weight to his lines and Oback’s colors creating an impending sense of doom. This issue does fall short in the writing, though. The plot is great, and I think Orlando writes Captain America wonderfully. There’s just a lot of weird little moments that pulled me out of the story — Cap describing Sin’s attack with Photon immediately repeating it in bigger words, Photon calling Cap “Rogers,” Hercules not only reminding us of an obscure bit of continuity, but doing so in a ham-handed way that stuck out of the flow of the story, Julie Power geeking out over Night Thrasher. It happens in such a heavy-handed way that it makes the flow of dialogue feel stilted and awkward. It’s not bad, but each time it happens in the issue — and it was almost every page — it made me pause in a way that a single-issue action story shouldn’t.
— Tony Thornley
Buy Avengers Assemble #1 here.
Marvel Zombies: Dawn of Decay #1
W: Thomas Krajewski / A: Jason Muhr / C: Rachelle Rosenberg / L: Travis Lanham / P: Marvel
If there is one thing that heralds the start of fall and spooky season, it’s Halloween aisles in most stores. If there are two things standing as heralds, the second would be pumpkin-flavored anything. Somewhere down the list though would be spooky comic books. In this particular moment we would be referring to Marvel Zombies, the concept that Marvel hit gold with once so they roll it out every so often to swing for the fences once more. This time around, Groot’s got a space cold, which creates a plant-infused zombie virus, because The Last of Us is so popular currently. All snark aside, the story is overall fine, with some fun and cuteness here and there. Rocket and Groot with the Avengers and Groot having to wrestle the Hulk to keep him from killing (possibly) curable zombified folks is kind of a fun idea. How dare Captain America pull an “I’m not mad, just disappointed” with Groot though; we will not stand for such things! Artistically, it hits the right spot of being very superhero common but also light and kind of fun. Really going for an MCU-mashed-up-with-the-comics vibe. It’s a potentially fun take on a usually forgettable concept, so we’ll see where it all goes.
— Scott Redmond
Buy Marvel Zombies: Dawn of Decay #1 here.
Dawnrunner #5
W: Ram V / A: Evan Cagle / C: Francesco Segala & Gloria Martinelli / L: Aditya Bidikar / P: Dark Horse
For four issues, Ram V has opened the floor for Evan Cagle to stretch his arms and deliver some of the most intricate, detailed and monstrous kaiju art ever put to page. It has been impossible for me to read Dawnrunner without seeing direct parallels to Neon Genesis: Evangelion, and this issue is the final battle of the titular mech and the final boss kaiju. Cagle delivers incredible action on every page, continuing to use a complex mix of cross-hatching and halftones that denote the depth and light stretching across the grotesque forms battling on the skyline. While the fifth issue more than succeeds in its world-shattering, explosive fighting, it suffers a bit in its ending, as the story wraps with a one-page “where are they now” narration instead of giving the story more time to breathe with additional scenes. But I can imagine that asking for more pages of this quality from Cagle & co. would qualify as cruel given the energy put into this entire mini. As someone who (please don’t yell at me) never engaged with Jack Kirby’s Fourth World, Dawnrunner has me super on board for Ram and Cagle’s next project: DC’s New Gods.
— Adam Reck
Vengeance of the Moon Knight #9
W: Jed MacKay / A: Devmalya Pramanik / C: Rachelle Rosenberg / L: Cory Petit / P: Marvel
Jed MacKay’s Moon Knight run has been excellent for quite some time, but with its main protagonist, Marc Spector, back from the dead and cracking heads on the New York streets, it shows no signs of letting up. Vengeance of the Moon Knight #9 is a showcase issue for artist Devmalya Pramanik, who continues the excellent work of regular series artist Alessandro Cappucchio with his creative paneling, stunning city vistas and propulsive action sequences. MacKay gives him a clear and simple brief here: Show me Moon Knight hunting down and killing an impostor Moon Knight (old villain the Shroud) in brutal fashion. He pulls this off in style, showing astonishing variation in his page layouts in particular to compensate for the fact that the fight scene is between two men in masks wearing very similar outfits. There are some phenomenal moments in the issue, like a series of panels incrementally zooming in on Moon Knight’s expressionless face as he chokes out his adversary. The highlight, though, is the splash page of Moon Knight hanging the tattered costume of his victim on the wall in the Bar with No Name, delivering an incredibly efficient threat to the assembled villains. None of this works, though, without the incredible work MacKay has done over the past few years to establish a refreshed mythos around Moon Knight and Khonshu. So much so that you may even convince yourself that in fact impersonating a fist of Khonshu really should be punishable by death, even if this death is a technicality.
— Jake Murray
Buy Vengeance of the Moon Knight #9 here.
Transformers #12
W: Daniel Warren Johnson / A: Jorge Corona / C: Mike Spicer / L: Rus Wooton / P: Image/Skybound
I wondered and worried whether a change of artist on the second arc of this Eisner-winning comic about violent robots would diminish its impact. Daniel Warren Johnson has such a unique ability to blend action and emotion that I thought Jorge Corona couldn’t possibly match. Then I saw Corona draw Optimus Prime pound Shockwave’s face into the ground, his thumbs digging into the part of Shockwave’s face where human eyes normally are. Optimus’ eyes are wide, lilac hexagons of pain (shoutout to colorist Mike Spicer for providing a continuity of art from one penciler to the next). He is at once saving his friend Cliffjumper and wrestling with the violence of a seemingly endless war. It’s not the only great action moment in this comic — a close second is Optimus plummeting toward Earth, burning up on reentry and being saved by the Silver Surfer Beachcomber — but it’s the one that’s stuck with me days later. Corona isn’t just doing a house-style version of Johnson, he’s making sure we get those same pops we got in the first arc seeing robots do suplexes and Optimus beat Starscream with his own severed arm. And pairing that with the weight of Optimus being forced to choose between his former home of Cybertron and his current home of Midgard Earth, a choice not all of his fellow Autobots will be happy with but one that shows just how human this giant robot is after all. Here’s hoping Jason Howard serves us just as well on the next arc. PS, props to Elita for dropping Devastator like an AT-AT Imperial Walker on Hoth.
— Dan Grote
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Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
Scott Redmond
Scott Redmond is a freelance writer and educator fueled by coffee, sarcasm, his love for comic books and more "geeky" things than you can shake a lightsaber at. Probably seen around social media and remembered as "Oh yeah, that guy." An avid gamer, reader, photographer, amateur cook and solid human being.
Adam Reck is the cartoonist behind Bish & Jubez as well as the co-host of Battle Of The Atom.
Jake Murray spends far too much time wondering if the New Mutants are OK. When he's not doing that, he can be found talking and writing about comics with anyone who will listen.
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
