On this week’s review Stack, we’re talking: Bill & Ted Are Doomed #1, Dark Nights Death Metal: Trinity Crisis #1, Empyre Aftermath: Avengers #1, Empyre Fallout: Fantastic Four #1, Stealth #5, Something is Killing the Children #10, Superman #25, Ultraman: The Rise of Ultraman #1, Ice Cream Man Presents Quarantine Comix Special #1, Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity #5, Web of Venom: Wraith #1, G.I. Joe #8, Reaver #11 and Blackwood: The Mourning After #4.

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Full Transcript:

Alex:                 What’s up y’all, welcome to The Stack. I’m Alex.

Justin:              I’m Justin.

Alex:                 And on The Stack we talk about a bunch of comics that come out today. A little bit of a slower week after Labor Day. [crosstalk 00:00:23] chill.

Justin:              Never.

Alex:                 Never?

Justin:              Never. Every week when comics come out… Come on, we just had a… We walked through the great desert of comic drought and here we are back, every week’s exciting. There’s a lot of fun stuff.

Alex:                 I will tell you that in my mind, this is less comics than usual, but just because we did probably 36 comics last week and are doing a little less this week, so there you go.

Justin:              I think that may be what it is. We’re doing just a slightly less number of them.

Alex:                 Yes. We talked for, I don’t know, like an hour last week. That was a very long episode of The Stack. But hey, let’s see what we get here. Two hours for this one.

Justin:              Yeah. Let’s extend it. Let’s offer our thoughts on everything.

Alex:                 And one little business note. Pete is off because he has poison ivy. Now let’s get into it. First off, Bill and Ted are Doomed #1 from Dark Horse Comics written by Evan Dorkin and art by Roger Langridge. This is the official prequel to the film Bill and Ted Face the Music. I think it suffered a little bit by switching around of the release schedule of Bill and Ted 3, unfortunately it’s coming out afterwards. I talked about this on the live show a little bit. I would just be excited about anything that Evan Dorkin and Roger Langridge are doing together because they’re so good. And in my mind, this doesn’t disappoint. But how’d you feel?

Justin:              Yeah, it was fun. I haven’t seen the new Bill and Ted movie. I’m not a die hard Bill and Ted guy. I’ve seen the first two, but I got to say this played almost like Bill and Ted in an Archie comic, in a fun way. It felt just like a fun, almost episodic, touchstone on all the different characters that are in the universe. Yeah, I’m excited to see where it goes next.

Alex:                 It feels like the two dudes who created this are such bit dudes, so they’re a perfect field for it. And you get verbal bits, you get little graphic bits from Roger Langridge in the background of things. It definitely, if you haven’t seen the third movie, it plays off a lot of the storylines there and sets up those things. So I would highly recommend watching the movie first and then go and read this, because it’s not that it ruins bits necessarily for the movie, but it certainly sets up a lot of the plot points there. But this is fun in its own, right. It’s Bill and Ted going on a world tour, dealing with the bummer that is their not paying off on the promise of their big concert at the end of Bogus Journey. It’s fun stuff. I really enjoyed this issue a lot, particularly for it being like… You could phone in a prequel for a comic like this, but there clearly is a lot of love that went out here.

Justin:              Yeah, exactly. And like I said, it does that smart thing that a lot of tie-in books do, where it takes one thing about the characters and it just plays on it, as opposed to getting deep into the mythology of a certain thing or just trying to do something new. It’s like, here, let’s just touch all these things and then push them down the field a little bit, and it does a good job of that.

Alex:                 Next up Dark Nights Death Metal Trinity Crisis #1 from DC Comics written by Scott Snyder and art by Francis Manapul. Now I will say this plays like just another spinoff of Dark Nights Death Metal. This is an essential chapter of the book, I feel like?

Justin:              100%.

Alex:                 Which is crazy, but you get Francis Manapul art, you get Scott Snyder doing wild writing. It’s great. I mean, we had Scott on the live show two weeks ago or a week and a half ago at this point, and he talked quite a bit about the Dark Nights event. It’s just fun to see all of those wild ideas at play here. I liked this issue quite a bit, like I’ve been liking this series, I think.

Justin:              I do too. And this is a good distillation of all the characters, as opposed to the main book, which is really grinding the plot forward and having to touch on so many things. This takes the pace down a little bit, I think, and really lets each character give you a little bit of status quo with them. And after hearing from Scott, it was really cool to see all the different, especially the Trinity characters, and the rest of the characters, to see them and look at them through his eyes.

Alex:                 Yeah. I’m curious to see how it plays out in the next issue because there’s a big cliffhanger at the end here that feels what he is trying to do with the main series. This is an essential issue, but also with the main series, he’s just throwing you into the middle of things. Things have already happened. Between the month that the comics have been released or two weeks or three weeks or whatever, other things have gone on and same thing as here, but here we’re getting a glimpse of it and everything is great. Let’s move from the middle of an event to the end of an event. I want to talk about these together. We got the very alliterative Empyre Aftermath Avengers #1 from Marvel written by Al Ewing, art by Valerio Schiti, Empyre Fallout Fantastic Four #1 from Marvel written by Dan Slott and art by Sean Izaakse, or Izaakse, I guess.

Alex:                 We were a little mixed, I think, about the Empyre event. This had the Kree-Skrull armada fighting the Cotati, some plant people, bunch of other stuff going on. But here as the title says, it’s not as clean as Avengers and Fantastic Four, it’s a little mixed together. But the Avengers issue is dealing a lot with Emperor Hulkling, the Fantastic Four issue is dealing a little more firmly with Fantastic Four, as well as some other things and both of them and big teases for the future of the Marvel universe. Given how mixed I was about the Empyre event, I was surprised how much I liked both of these issues.

Justin:              Yeah, I think these books did a good job of giving us the context that we felt we were lacking with the main event. I feel like with the main event, we were like… The storytelling felt like, “Oh, this is exciting, this is building up to something big.” And then it just was actually sort of a smaller event than we thought. It was a hang out event. Not a lot of characters died and not a lot of status quo stuff was changed. It was like, there’s this issue, and now we’ve resolved this issue. And these give us like, “Well, here’s what is different,” a little bit.

Justin:              And honestly, it’s not a ton. But there are great scenes in here. I love this stuff in the Al Ewing written book, Empire Aftermath, where we get the Brand versus versus Captain Marvel stuff. That stuff was really cool. Just seeing the Avengers hanging out and talking. There’s a great scene between Captain America and Tony Stark. “I wish we trained them. Registered them. Just kidding. Let’s not go there.” That was fun. There were some good moments in here.

Alex:                 The other thing that I really liked about that book in particular is framing Hulkling as a different type of king in the Marvel universe, because we’ve got Black Panther, we’ve got Doctor Doom, we’ve got all of these characters who are very regal and serious and are very “We do what we need to do.” “We do what is best for Wakanda.” “I do what is best for Latveria.” And they frame it as Hulkling is at the beginning of this journey, so he may get to that point. Certainly a lot of people warn him that you’re going to get to a point where these choices are going to be impossible, and if you want to be emperor, you need to choose the people that you’re representing.

Alex:                 But right now he is an emperor that doesn’t necessarily hold back when things need to be done, but he is trying to be more benevolent for that. And that to me, that is a fascinating character to follow going forward, particularly the idea that Wiccan is going to be with him, and it’s the sort of thing, I don’t know if there’s plans for this. I honestly have just not paid much attention to what’s coming forward in comics. But if there was a Emperor Hulkling comic, that would be a great character thing to follow. Just the idea of how do you rule two races that have hated each other for millennia and try to do it the right way with your husband by your side? That’s great.

Justin:              Yeah, I agree. And being able to… They’re the characters that emerged from this as the most interesting. I like the tags at the end of both of these books, but they are the ones… I would definitely like to see them on a day to day basis, what they’re up to, because otherwise most of the characters in this book are characters we know and already like and they’re just being themselves. Thor and She-Hulk are officially dating, which I thought was a fun revelation here.

Alex:                 Also, I think this was in this one, I’m kind of mixing them up now, but I love the line after the unofficial Kree-Skrull wedding where the rabbi says, “This is the first outer space same-sex Jewish wedding that I’ve ever officiated.” But just fun. Just fun stuff. Good times. And the Fantastic Four issue I thought it was very good as well, and also in terms of delineating itself from the Avengers issue, focusing on the history of the blue area of the moon, which has been very key to Marvel universe continuity, working in the unknown that weird Nick Fury robot dude who took over for the Watcher and coming up with a new status quo for him as well. Just a good stuff. It’s very clearly following off of Dan Slott’s run on Fantastic Four, and it feels of a piece of that, but his run has been good. His run has been funny. He has a good handle of the characters, so this feels fun as well.

Justin:              Yeah. Agreed. What I also want to just real quick want to say, it was nice that each separate issue, they came out the same week, and really reflected the different writers who have shepherded this project, their tones a little bit differently, and they were able to have their own wrap up. Because Dan Slott I feel was so Fantastic Four focused and got to have the humor of a Spider-Man hanging out and Wolverine talking shop and all that. That was a very Dan Slott thing to do.

Alex:                 Yeah. So good stuff. Even if you were on the fence about Empyre, maybe pick up these two issues so you can have a sense of the new status quo in the Marvel universe. Let’s move on to another one. Stealth #5 from Image Comics, written by Mike Costa and art by Nate Bellegarde. Man, I love this book. We’ve been talking about every issue of this book. This is about a old dark horse, Darkhawk, excuse me, esque superhero, who is suffering from dementia. His son is investigating mysteries that are tied with it. There is an old villain of his who is tied to his origin who is coming after him. This is the issue before the end, so it definitely feels like, even though some big things happened, there’s a little bit of a pause there, but particularly with the villain, with Dead Hand, it’s so well written and he’s so calculated and terrifying at the same time. It’s very impressive to read.

Justin:              Yeah, I was going to say this comic… We’ve raved about it so much. Its main characters are so well done. And then they take the time and this issue to really establish… The most fun character in this issue is the villain and we get a little bit of origin snuck into the back half of the book, but it was just another great book. Great action. Really well drawn. Everyone’s on the same plane. I don’t know what’s going to happen in this last issue.

Alex:                 I’m very excited to go and get to the end of it. Let’s move on to another one that’s been great the entire run, Something is Killing the Children #10 from Boom! Studios, written by James Tynion IV, art by Werther Dell’Edera. This is continuing the storyline of a bunch of invisible monsters killing some children. It’s fascinating to me that so little and so much happens in every issue of this book. I don’t know if you get that feeling as well.

Justin:              100%. I get the exact same feeling of like… I’m always like, “Ooh…” This is such a tonal book. It’s something that you read where you’re just like… You want the taste of it. It’s not about a million things happening because the dread they create each issue and those moments of horror and every day… I’m always reminded reading this of the issue where the cop is like, “Hey, I have a bunch of beer in my bag if you want to grab one.” When they’re in the impromptu morgue they made in the high school gym, a couple of issues back. And every issue just has those great little details, and then also just a bunch of horrifying action. And this issue has maybe more action than we’ve seen for a couple.

Alex:                 I have a question for you. When there is a monster comes out and kills one of the children, in your head are you like, “That’s the thing that’s killing the children.”

Justin:              No, because I’m constantly, “Is that the thing killing the children?” Because I don’t believe… There’s something… The mystery they’ve created here leaves a little bit of like, “Maybe that’s not what’s killing the children.”

Alex:                 Another great issue of this book, and Werther Dell’Edera’s art is so gorgeous. I also love the layouts of this book. I mean, this might be part of getting it digitally, but the fact that they have these huge spreads that are multi panels long, it just feels and reads different from every other comic that I’m reading today. Real good stuff. Moving on to Superman #25 from DC Comics written by Brian Michael Bendis and art by Ivan Reis. This is introducing another new villain for Superman, or maybe ally, we’ll see what happens, but it is a race of aliens that we’ve never met before who are aware of the destruction of Krypton, become concerned about Superman, and then proceed to follow him throughout history.

Alex:                 So we get a parallel, for this anniversary issue, of Superman’s entire history through this alien’s perspective as well as through Superman’s perspective and his relationship with Lana Lang, which we’re reestablishing here. I like this issue. I’m cautiously optimistic after big guy with weird lip that I’m forgetting of the name, [Roeger Thargar 00:15:49] or whatever, the other villain that he introduced. There’s a lot of returning to the destruction of Krypton and mining that, so I’m cautiously optimistic.

Justin:              Reading this issue, maybe you want to take a mental check in on Bendis’s run in general. What do you think? Because this felt a hard reset and sort of like, “Ah, I don’t know, let’s start over,” in some ways. And I this issue. It made me really think Superman is going to get with Lana Lang, oddly. In a sort of stressful way of.

Alex:                 That would be fucked up if that would happen.

Justin:              Agreed. But what do you think this means for Bendis’s run in general, or what do you think of Bendis’s run in general, reading this?

Alex:                 I appreciate the fact that he’s added a lot of new characters to the Superman continuity. That’s certainly something that’s needed, but this is the absolute worst way of saying this. A lot of reading his run feels like a chore. Like, “I got to read this because he’s going to be adding this new thing that people are going to pick up on later on and it’s going to affect the rest of DC continuity so I got to know what’s going on.” I don’t know, it doesn’t feel exactly the right fit for Bendis at the same time.

Justin:              I agree. It feels homeworky, where a lot of it is just so much of laying the groundwork, when it’s just like, “What is the story you’re telling?” So much of the stuff that came before him, I love so much with Superman, the real Superman family living in Smallville and it was a real family unit, and I was like, “I see what the story is here. It’s a family unit rallying around their father/husband who is Superman and what he has to do.” And everyone got to do their own thing. In this it feels like Lois and Superman are always in different places, very busy. John Kent is with the Legionnaires now. It feels like everyone’s working so hard and I don’t know what’s happening.

Alex:                 There seems to be a loss of the core values of Superman in a certain way. And I think it’s funny, because that’s something that he is trying to hit constantly and trying to work around and trying to reemphasize. And he does get around to it sometimes in his run, like the fight with the Injustice League in Metropolis, which I honestly do not remember whether that was in Superman or Action Comics, was very good and very tense and very dangerous, but then it was interrupted by Leviathan coming in to be like, “Let’s stop this fighting.” It feels watching a chess game in a certain way, to get to your point about laying the groundwork.

Justin:              And that’s everyone’s favorite activity, is just tucking in and watching some fucking chess.

Alex:                 Yeah. Bobby what’s his name.

Justin:              Yes. Searching for Bobby chess fish.

Alex:                 Moving on to another setup thing though, Ultraman, The Rise of Ultraman #1 for Marvel Comics, written by Kyle Higgins and Matt Groom, art by Francesco Manna, Michael Cho, Gurihiru, Ed McGuinness, and Espen Grundetjern. This is the classic Ultraman hero. We get a front story and a bunch of backup stories. I’ll tell you what, I wasn’t totally sold on the lead story because I felt it actually did kind of a Bendis thing of deconstructing and decompressing the origin of Ultraman, and by the end of the issue, I was like, “Great, that was the thing that I was curious to see you get to at the beginning of this issue, because I don’t know any of these characters or what’s going on.” But I really liked the back matter a lot.

Justin:              Yeah, I agree. It was weird. This story had that confidence of “You know what we’re doing here. Look at these characters, they’re hanging out, they’re screwing around.” And then it sort of ended with “Oh, I don’t actually know these characters. I don’t know what’s happening.” And then I’m like, “Oh, I see. Maybe there’s an Ultraman happening here.” But the back matter really set it up, set up the whole thing. The Ultra Q I think was the name of the one that really set up what the deal was and how the Kaiju organization came together. And then they had the fun interspersion of the funnies version of Ultraman.

Alex:                 Yeah, I like that stuff quite a bit. It’s certainly a big package in terms of there’s a lot of stuff going on in the comic, so I think it’s worth picking up potentially for that. Particularly if you’re a fan of Ultraman. I don’t have a connection to the franchise or anything, so I was a little lost to the lead story, but I’m definitely curious to pick up the second issue and see how that continues because clearly Marvel has put a lot of faith of this. This is a big priority for them. So I’m curious to see where it goes, particularly because it gets to the point you want it to get to at the end of that first issue.

Alex:                 Let’s move on to another one, I’m very curious to talk to you about this one, Ice Cream Man Presents: Quarantine Comix Special #1 from Image Comics written by W Maxwell Prince, art by Martin Morazzo, but also by Declan Shalvey and Chris O’Halloran, Deniz Camp, and Artyom Poplin, with Aditya Bidikar, A Ewing, Al Ewing I guess, and PJ Holden, Christopher Cantwell, and Eoin Marron with Chris O’Halloran. So this is a collection of, as the title says, short comics that the Ice Cream Man team published while in quarantine. There are, I believe, four tales of their own, and then four guests tales that go along with it. What’d you think about this book in total and then any particular stories you want to call out?

Justin:              I mean, this felt like such a good ice cream. Obviously we love… We talk about this book nonstop. It’s something that is just a scary comic book that does so much with its stories to create dread, but also there are moments of humor and really make a point. And this felt like a great book that really digested what we’re going through right now and recontextualized our own everyday horror and put it in these different storylines in a way that I thought was great, really great.

Alex:                 Yeah. I really like this a lot too. The thing that I was most curious about reading this book is how other people would handle the idea of Ice Cream Man. And of course the lead stories, they capture it perfectly, they’re great. They feel exactly Ice Cream Man because it’s the team that’s doing it. But the one for me that worked perfectly that I could not believe it was the main team not doing it, that was the one by Deniz Camp and Artyom Poplin with Aditya Bidikar. That was the one, if you haven’t read it this is obviously spoilers, but it’s basically a girl who is looking out through window at the outside world as it’s falling apart, whether it’s through coronavirus or something worse, like zombie plague, it’s not entirely clear. And in the background it certainly seems like her family is falling apart and breaking apart.

Alex:                 And at the same time, she’s drawing little pictures on the windows to add things into the landscape and what’s going on. And of course, things become more horrible, the drawings take on a life of their own. To me, that was like… This is an Ice Cream Man story. This is exactly what it feels like, particularly in the early days of quarantine, to look outside of the window and see those empty streets. Perfect.

Justin:              Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. Being able to really artistically bring that into the comic book form, I thought this whole book just gives that off in a way that I haven’t seen anyone do that. How’d you feel about the Animal Crossing?

Alex:                 It was all right. I thought that was okay. I haven’t really played Animal Crossing necessarily, but it was like… It’s a funny story, but it was too jokey for Ice Cream Man for me, if that tracks?

Justin:              Yeah, totally.

Alex:                 But yeah, this is a great package. And to your point about the quarantine stuff, I’ve kind of rankled against anything that talks about quarantine, TV shows that are like, “It’s set during quarantine. We filmed it during quarantine. Everybody filmed it on their Zoom cameras,” makes me annoyed and I could care less because I’m living that right now. But this is something that worked for me.

Justin:              And I think the real smart thing they did is really interpret it as opposed to presented it, and that’s what I love about it. I got to give a shout out to the first story, because it’s got my man Shakespeare in it.

Alex:                 There you go. Love Shake CW.

Justin:              Shakes CW. That’s how I think. Scholars refer to him in that way.

Alex:                 Back in time. Yeah, great stuff though. Definitely pick that up. Next up Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity #5, excuse me, from DC Comics, written by Kami Garcia, art by Mico Suayan and Jason Badower. We’ve also talked about almost every issue of this one. This is a more realistic take on Joker and Harley. Joker is a serial killer, Harley is the psychiatrist working with the Gotham PD trying to track him down. This issue, Joker is in her house and she confronts him. This is very well written, but to me, the art is definitely the standout, and it’s just gorgeous to look at across the board.

Justin:              Agreed. The use of color in this is so smart. The different passages we get in black and white with Joker affectation, and then the other sections that come through. But vivid detail in the black and white. And then later we get the sort of the more comic booky feeling normal coloring passages. It’s great. And the way they are positioning Joker and Harley here is something that I haven’t really seen in a while, and it was great to see joker with a straightforward origin. There’s not a ton of like, “He’s a ghost from the future,” or whatever. It was nice to see that.

Alex:                 Good book. Definitely pick it up. For adults only. Next up, Web of Venom: Wraith #1 from Marvel written by Donny Cates, art by Guiu Villanova. This is another issue teeing up the big King In Black event that’s coming very, very soon. Here we get Wraith, who is in Donny Cates’s Guardians of the Galaxy run, dealing with his own symbiote, [Arjun 00:27:03]. Big stuff happens here. This is as tense and big and crazy as usual as we have come to expect from Donnie Cates’s Venom run. Good stuff.

Justin:              This book doesn’t… I’m not super familiar with Wraith, but it didn’t have any business being this good and interesting and exciting. It’s great. It had the vibe of a great Western story, but bringing in all the symbiote continuity, I guess is the way… It’s amazing, just in general, that Venom has become this universe spanning continuity.

Alex:                 I don’t want to make this one person versus another, but I was struck reading this book, which is something that Donny Cates has already done, where Brian Michael Bendis was like, “Where did the symbiotes come from? The planet Klyntar. That’s where they’re from.” And the fact that Donny was like, “Yeah, yeah, but also they’re the prison for this god Knull. It’s not actually their planet or where they come from. It’s this other thing,” is in my mind… It’s funny that it’s a responsible retcon of a retcon, if you know what I mean.

Justin:              It’s funny to be calling out Bendis so hard in this episode of The Stack, [crosstalk 00:28:23], who we like.

Alex:                 Don’t come for us, man.

Justin:              Don’t come for us, man. I also want to call out in this book, the art feels like… The pacing of it, the ramping up and coming down. This feels something that could have been a standalone, Western short story, just with this great Marvel universe stuff laid over top of it.

Alex:                 Yeah, it’s very good. All of these Web of Venom event things have been very good. Let’s move on to another surprisingly good comic, GI Joe #8 from IDW written by Paul Allor and art by Emma Vieceli. I got to say, I went from not caring about GI Joe at all to this being top of my stack every month. This book is great.

Justin:              We keep talking about it. Pete’s not even here and here we are talking about GI Joe comics, because the depth of the world building they’re doing here is just so good.

Alex:                 I think my main impression of GI Joe is the 80s cartoon where you have Cobra Commander and it’s all very silly and everybody’s like, “My name is Ice Cube and shoot ices.” That’s pretty much all it is.

Justin:              Most of the communication is just the them shouting their names, and their names are also what they do. It’s a very Pokemon thing for them to do.

Alex:                 And the fact that not only is this team taking the idea of GI Joe seriously, but actually plumbing into their character deaths and making these often excruciating to read character studies about the choices that people need to make in the middle of war, is bonkers. This issue, we get a character who is… Well, the whole setup is Cobra has taken over the world, GI Joe is the underground fighting back, and here we get one of the characters, I’m honestly forgetting which stupid name she has, but she is the Canadian ambassador. She’s behind enemy lines. She’s starting to fall in love with one of the people from Cobra-

Justin:              Are you talking about Bombstrike?

Alex:                 Yes. There we go. And the choices that she needs to make across the board where it’s like… It’s hard to watch. It’s hard to read on both sides, when she makes the right choices, when she makes the wrong choices, but that comes down to the writing. The art is good. I really am shocked how great this book is.

Justin:              Yeah, and continues to impress. It’s not just a flash in the pan one story was good. Continues to be great across the board.

Alex:                 Mainly it feels like, and I don’t say this to deride the writer or anything, but this feels like if Tom King decided to write GI Joe, what would happen.

Justin:              That’s good. That’s a compliment.

Alex:                 Next up, Reaver #11 from Image Comics written by Justin Jordan and art by Niko Henrichon. This follows our fantasy world extreme characters attacking some dudes on a boat. I got to tell you, we’ve talked about a bunch of issues in this book. It feels like Justin Jordan has finally figured out which characters work, which characters pop, and is just focusing on them, and that in my mind is such a smart decision.

Justin:              It’s really funny in the page, the author page or the artist page, after the cover, we see all the characters who are initially wandering through the wilderness, and I was like, “Oh yeah, remember all those people?” And now it’s just gotten down to these few characters that are just kicking ass.

Alex:                 And it’s great. I mean, it works. I’m glad they pivoted the book to that. If you have an enormous dude who is impossible to kill and is a crazy murderous barbarian, and a tiny girl with a ghost face and sharp teeth who likes to bite people, focus on them. That’s all good. Get rid of the other characters and it’s all fine.

Justin:              Bring out the bitey girl.

Alex:                 But it’s good. In terms of being extreme fantasy, I think this is a fun issue.

Justin:              Agreed.

Alex:                 Last one to talk about, another Evan Dorkin book from Dark Horse Comics Blackwood: The Mourning After #4, art by Veronica and Andy Fish. I’ll admit, I haven’t really read Blackwood or The Mourning After, but I like this issue quite a bit. This is bunch of people from seemingly a magical school or a magical library who are fighting against somebody. There’s some evil masks. The character designs are great. The magic is great. Even knowing nothing about this, I think part of it is that Evan Dorkin is good at plot, Veronica and Andy Fish are great at art, so the issue works even if you don’t know anything about it.

Justin:              The way that the masked person kills people in this is unbelievable. It’s horrifying. Every time I was just like, “Huh.” You see their corpse, it’s great.

Alex:                 It’s kind of amazing reading these two Evan Dorkin Dark Horse books back to back, which I did, Bill and Ted are Doomed and The Morning After #4, because you have one that’s like, “Fun times, Bill and Ted, woo.” And the other one’s, people’s flesh being ripped off their bones. Good stuff. Just very talented guy.

Justin:              Yeah, I agree. And to be able to work in those two different tones is very cool.

Alex:                 There you go. All right, that is it for The Stack. If you’d like to support our podcast, patreon.com/comicbookclub. Also we do a live show every Tuesday at 7:00 PM to Crowdcast and YouTube. iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen to the show. @comicbooklive to follow us socially. Comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and many more. We’ll see you at the virtual comic book shop.

Justin:              Live large. Get out of that poison Ivy patch, baby.

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