Naomi: Season Two Review (Brian Michael Bendis, Jamal Campbell)

Remember Season One of Diversity Superman? No, me neither. And that’s because it was so original: Naomi and the Justice League went to another planet to punch a generic bad guy called Zumbado. Well, hold onto your hats because you’ll never guess what happens in Season Two: Zumbado and his version of the Justice League come to Earth to punch Naomi!

Callous by Ken Bruen Review

Kate Mitchell, ex-heroin addict and Maria Callas lookalike, inherits a valuable cottage from her dead aunt in Galway and leaves Brooklyn to start a new life in Ireland. Except a Mexican cartel is attempting to flood the west coast of Ireland with meth and the head of this operation, Diogenes Ortiz, happens to have a thing for deceased opera singer Maria Callas. Will Dio successfully woo the wary Kate? Not if she finds out he was the one what offed her aunt in the first place! Throw in more Cartel enforcers, American Special Forces, a US Marshal, and a very perplexed ex-cop/ex-priest and gallons of booze and Galway’s gonna be covered in blood once more courtesy of Ken Bruen!

Tomie by Junji Ito Review

Spooky unkillable witch girl who makes men fall in love with her only to then go crazy and dismember her, then regenerate and begin the cycle anew. I know, THAT old chestnut again - it’s Junji Ito’s Tomie Boy!

The Max Review (Ken Bruen, Jason Starr)

I was waiting for it and it finally happened: I read a bad book by Ken Bruen! Though to be fair to old Ken, he co-wrote this one with Jason Starr, a writer whose work I’ve encountered before (and which also coincidentally has Max in the title: Wolverine MAX, Vol 1: Permanent Rage) and was thoroughly bored by. So I’m putting the sub-par quality of The Max squarely on Starr’s involvement.

After the Rain, Volume 1 by Jun Mayuzuki Review

Akira Tachibana is one of her school’s best track and field athletes - until a foot injury takes her out of commission. Following a chance encounter, she decides to use her newly freed-up after-school time working at a local restaurant where she develops a crush on the middle-aged manager, Masami Kondo. Could a relationship work between a shy 17 year old schoolgirl and a hapless 45 year old single dad divorcee?

Batman, Volume 1: Failsafe Review (Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Jimenez)

SPOILERS

The Penguin is dying and, with his final act, frames Batman for his seeming-murder. This brings about another unexpected consequence as news of Batman’s “killing” activates a dormant robot called Failsafe who is designed to step in when Batman goes too far and stop him - permanently. How will Batman defeat an unstoppable robot version of himself?

Cold People by Tom Rob Smith Review

SPOILERS

Aliens invade and issue humanity with an ultimatum: get to Antarctica within 30 days. Anyone who doesn’t make it dies. The aliens own Earth now.

Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith Review (Grace Ellis, Hannah Templer)

Flung Out of Space tells the story of Patricia Highsmith’s early years as a struggling twentysomething writer in 1940s New York, doing hack work to pay the bills while pursuing her dream of becoming a literary novelist. The book follows her creation of and eventual publication of her first two books: Strangers on a Train and The Price of Salt.

Ladies' Lunch and Other Stories by Lore Segal Review

I realise I’m far from the first person to learn the old adage “don’t judge a book by its cover” is a (mostly) solid truism, but I learned it once again with Lore Segal’s Ladies’ Lunch and Other Stories. I was drawn to it purely by Adrian Tomine’s lovely cover and, having never read anything by Lore Segal before, thought/hoped the contents might be similar to Tomine’s wonderful comics - Segal’s short stories are most definitely not!

I Hate Fairyland, Volume 5: Gert's Inferno Review (Skottie Young, Brett Bean)

It’s been a spell since Gert escaped Fairyland and, lacking an edumacation, employable skills, or an understanding of the world, yeah… life’s not quite so peachy keen as she thought it’d be sans Fairyland. Basically she’s managed to look like a Face of Meth without doing meth.

Once Were Cops by Ken Bruen Review

Matt O’Shea realises his dream of being a cop in the NYPD when he gets transferred from Galway to New York on secondment. But he gets paired with mean loner on the force, Kurt “Kebar” Browski, and the two start a tense partnership. Something’s not right about either though - Shea has strange “zonings” where he loses consciousness and does… things… during these fugue states, while Kebar is somehow able to keep his mentally-challenged sibling in a fancy nursing home on a beat cop’s salary. Both cops’ secrets lead them towards an increasingly dark and bloody fate…

Batman - One Bad Day: Ra's Al Ghul Review (Tom Taylor, Ivan Reis)

I initially thought that the One Bad Day series was intended to be about Batman’s villains’ origins, and maybe the majority are (the only other one I’ve read is The Riddler’s, which is), but Tom Taylor and Ivan Reis’ entry for Ra’s Al Ghul isn’t. It has a brief flashback to Ra’s as a boy at the start and then it’s about his latest evil scheme in the present-day. Regardless, this isn’t a very good comic.

Cosmic Detective Review (Jeff Lemire, David Rubin)

A god is dead and a detective is given a week to find the killer. Whodunit and why? The answer is in the cosmos…

Cosmic Detective is your typical comic in that the art is high quality but the writing is very poor. The generic plot - in terms of broadly how detective stories are structured - only seems different because of the weird details here and there. Otherwise, it’s like most detective fiction, only much less competently written and barely comprehensible after a certain point.

American Skin by Ken Bruen Review

Stephen’s on the run following a successful bank job. He’s fled Ireland and made it to the States, leaving behind a mess: his best friend Tommy’s dead and a psychotic hitman he thought was dead isn’t and won’t stop until he’s caught up with Stephen. Meanwhile in the States, Dade, a sociopath with a taste for the music of Tammy Wynette, blazes a trail of carnage wherever he goes until he hooks up with his very own punk rock Bonnie to his Clyde, Sherry. Somehow, everyone’s paths will collide in a very bloody Tucson, Arizona.

Tatsuki Fujimoto Before Chainsaw Man: 17–21 by Tatsuki Fujimoto Review

Aliens, school shooters, teen love, hitmen, and vampires - these are the stories of Tatsuki Fujimoto from ages 17-21, before his bestselling manga, Chainsaw Man.

Swann in Love by Marcel Proust Review

If you’ve studied literature or are a bibliophile, chances are you’ve heard the name Proust and maybe even know what he’s famous for: his multi-volume novel In Search of Lost Time, which totals an appalling 4,200 pages. So I’ve been curious about old Marcel for a number of years now but never read him - until now. And: never again! Proust is… ghastly! Ugh, what a horrid chore to slog through this garbage heap of a book!

Nightwing, Volume 2: Get Grayson Review (Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo)

After announcing his philanthropic plans for Bludhaven, Dick Grayson becomes the target of international assassins courtesy of Blockbuster. How does Dick get by with such a high price tag on his head? With a little help from his super friends.