Intermezzo by Sally Rooney Review

Peter and Ivan’s dad has died. The two brothers have always had a rocky relationship but without the buffer of their old duffer between them anymore, they’re gonna be ornery to one another - Irish style!

X-Men: Wolverine/Gambit Review (Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale)

Gambit’s missing Rogue (something to do with a larger X-Men storyline happening around this time) and decides to distract himself by investigating the death of an ex in London - the latest victim of a Jack the Ripper copycat killer with a Wolverine silhouette. Couldn’t be Logan, could it? He does have blades in his hands and has a tendency to go off on one without really knowing what he’s doing. Nahhh. Anyhoo, Remy’s on the case, cher.

Hard Copy by Fien Veldman Review

The elevator pitch that got my attention for this novel was “a woman falls in love with a printer” - not a person working the job of printer, but the actual office machine. Alright, that might be fun. And a similar tagline is on the cover too: “This is a story of girl meets printer.” (Hard Copy - geddit, the innuendo, hoho!) And it is that, but it’s also not much more than that - and that’s not enough for a novel.

Ronin Rising Review (Frank Miller, Philip Tan)

I read Frank Miller’s original Ronin years ago and don’t remember much about it besides it fused Japanese samurai with robots. Which sounds ok and probably was - it was the ‘80s and back when Frank Miller was still capable of ok!

The Deviant, Book One Review (James Tynion IV, Joshua Hixson)

1973, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Before Dahmer, there was The Deviant Killer. Dressed as a mall santa wielding an axe, he killed three people - including two teenage boys - before he was stopped. Randall Olsen, a closeted store manager, was convicted of the killings.

Ultimate Spider-Man, Volume 1: Married With Children Review (Jonathan Hickman, Marco Checchetto)

In Ultimate Invasion, The Maker made it so that the origin stories of superheroes in an alternate world never happened - which means no magic spider ever bit a teenage Peter Parker and this world never had a Spider-Man! Instead, this world’s Peter is a middle-aged photojournalist at the Bugle, married to MJ, a PR exec, with a couple kids. The perfect life - except Peter can’t shake the feeling of dissatisfaction… that he should maybe be doing something else with his life…

Batman, Volume 3: The Joker Year One Review (Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Jimenez)

After boring readers with his tedious recounting of how Bruce Wayne learned the skills in his youth to become Batman (he trained with masters of multiple disciplines around the world - whodathunkit!?) in The Knight, Chip Zdarsky does a truncated version of that same, needless story with The Joker. Yup, unfortunately Zdarsky’s Batman run still isn’t improving in this third volume, The Joker Year One.

Batman/Dylan Dog Review (Roberto Recchioni, Gigi Cavenego)

Batman’s had more than his share of crossovers over the years and at this point DC are scraping the bottom of the barrel with this latest one. That’s right, it’s the crossover nobody asked for, featuring a character most English comics readers will be thinking “...who?”: Dylan Dog.

Cormac McCarthy's The Road: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Manu Larcenet Review

A dying man and his young son walk a blighted landscape littered with the mass dead, dodging roaming cannibals and surviving on whatever they can find, heading south, to the coast. Will they make it there alive - and what is at the end of the road?

Batman: The Knight Review (Chip Zdarsky, Carmine Di Giandomenico)

We’re living in a particularly uncreative era for art where a great deal of what’s being produced by the big companies is an endless raft of unwanted prequels, sequels, spinoffs and remakes rather than imaginative original stories and challenging ideas. So here’s another useless prequel: Batman: The Knight!

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Volume 1 Review (Larry Hama, Chris Mooneyham)

Volume 1 is an interesting way of framing a book that starts with issue #301!

Larry Hama has been writing GI Joe comics on and off for over 40 years. His first run started at Marvel in 1982 and ran until 1994. The series went on hiatus and was picked up by IDW in 2010 with Hama writing again and ran until 2022. This third iteration began at Image/Skybound in conjunction with Robert Kirkman’s Energon Universe endeavour in 2023, so, if the pattern holds and Hama lives until he’s 86 (he’s currently in his mid 70s), there’s another 11 years of Hama/GI Joe comics to follow! Gawd help us…

The Tin Can Society #1 Review (Peter Warren, Francesco Mobili)

Born with spina bifida, John Moore overcame his physical obstacles and grew up to become a brilliant inventor. Among his inventions was a powerful armour that turned him into the superhero Caliburn. His childhood friends watched as their friend amazed the world - until today, when Caliburn was found brutally murdered. Whodunit? His old pal Kasia thinks it was someone in their childhood club known as The Tin Can Society…

Jillian by Halle Butler Review

Mid-20s cynical semi-drunk Megan is obsessed with her co-worker, Jillian, a single mom in her mid-30s, relentlessly upbeat and full of love for the Lord. Obsessed in a negative way because Megan hates Jillian. Megan hates full stop. Except when Jillian’s life starts to go tits up and then Megan l-u-v-s the fallout. But how will Jillian react to unending Ls?

Batman: City of Madness by Christian Ward Review

There suddenly exists a distorted mirror version of Gotham called Gotham Below where everything’s a little bit spookier for no reason. Now it’s affecting the rogues in the real Gotham and Batman Below (who has tentacles coming out of his mouth for no reason) has kidnapped some kid to be his Robin for some reason. Batman and a Talon from the Court of Owls have to portal over to save the day. Yay…