Sunday, September 1, 2019

Friday Slice of Heaven, Slice into the Woods 8/30/2019

Welcome back, Donist World Denizens! For those of you new to our site, I’m Donist, and I am joined by Donist World CFO the Reverse Obie* (my friends’ Boston terrier whose fur recently swapped colors) and by our marketing director/administrative assistant/party planner/friend of the four-day weekend Tulip (my dog, Reverse Obie’s sister). I won’t lie, it was an insanely busy and nervewracking week this week and it’s taken me all of yesterday and half of today to finally chill. Thank goodness my puppy executive team and I have a ton of comics to help us finally begin to unwind, so we are going to keep this intro short. Anyhow, take a breath, let your shoulders relax, grab a refreshing water (or a beer or two) and some kale chips (or delicious tortilla chips and salsa), sit back, and afterward check out some great comics. Thank you for reading!

*Obie, through his dabbling in arcane magics mixed with ancient corrupt business practices, has had not just the colors of his fur switched, but a complete overhaul of his work ethic as well…I think I’m kinda okay with the mishap.

***Possible Spoilers Below***

Friday Slice of Heaven


Ascender #5

(Written by Jeff Lemire, illustrated by Dustin Nguyen, lettered and designed by Steve Wands, edited by Will Dennis, published by Image Comics)
I love this comic. Dang, how I love this comic. If you’ve been following Donist World for any length of time, then you know that the first half of this epic tale, Descender, was a Donist World Darling from the get-go. Now, with Ascender, and its shift from sci-fi/adventure to fantasy/adventure, I am loving it every bit as much. This month, we learn that failure to Mother mean very very bad things for those who underperform, that Telsa is now the captain of her own fleet of oceangoing ships, and, most importantly, that readers of this damn-fine series need to keep turning those solid black pages after the brutal and shocking event that I will in no way spoil. I will say that I was tempted to throw the comic across the room in anger, but that is the beauty of Lemire and Nguyen’s tremendous comic: they have made me fall completely in love with all of the characters to such a degree that I cannot abide bad things happening to them. Nguyen especially over-delivers on the lovely watercolored imagery in this first arc’s concluding issue with amazing emotional moments and the shocking red of Telsa’s much shorter hair. Heck, even the monstrously disgusting punishment that Mother inflicts upon her lackeys is lovely in its grotesqueries. So, yes, this issue continues to be a highly entertaining and rewarding tale that will keep you desperate for more. I’m not sure if the creators are taking a month or two hiatus before issue six comes out, but I promise I will be there on the day of release desperate to see what happens next. You need Descender/Ascender in your life and you can do this with the six available trades of the former before picking up the first trade of the latter come October. So damn good.
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!


House of X #3

(Written by Jonathan Hickman, illustrated by Pepe Larraz, colored by Marte Gracia, lettered by VC’s Clayton Cowles, published by Marvel Comics)
After reading this issue, we are now at the halfway point of this fantastic Marvel Comics event. I know, I know, I can’t believe I am referring to a Big Two event as a “fantastic event” without making the “fantastic” part an adverb describing a string of derogatory words. Nope. In fact, I positively love this event. House of X is the half of the maxiseries that takes place in the present, whereas Powers of X jumps from the past to the present to the future to the distant future, and this issue sets us squarely along the path of Moira MacTaggert’s 10th life. If none of this makes a lick of sense, then you need to get out there and buy all three issues of each series (don’t forget House of X #4 this coming Wednesday!) so you can get caught up with the intense, complex, and captivating exploits of the X-Men. In this issue, the mutant island known as Krakoa is established as a sovereign nation, thus providing diplomatic immunity to all mutants who call it home…including some fairly nasty ones. While that happens, Cyclops leads a team of X-Men off world to destroy a Mothermold (a factory that spits out Mastermolds, which produce the dreaded sentinels) hidden in outer space and the issue ends with a veritable bang. I will be at my LCS as soon as I can make it there this coming Wednesday. I already have my sights on the House of X/Powers of X hardcover that drops right before Christmas.
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!


Venom #17

(Written by Donny Cates, illustrated by Iban Coello, colored by Rain Beredo, lettered by VC’s Clayton Cowles, published by Marvel Comics)
Okay, now I’m mad. You see I took a chance on the first issue of Absolute Carnage and then I get to the LCS and they are sold out of the second issue; I had forgotten to put it on my pull. Now, I think the reading order is shot as that book preceded Venom #17. Still, I couldn’t resist reading Venom out of order, order be danged. Anyhow, Coello steps in as guest artist for this event and his art is the perfect fit for this horror-tinged, superhero versus symbiote slugfest. At its core, it is a spinetingling zombie flick, only instead of zombies we get creepy-as-f_ Carnage monsters swarming the city in search of anyone who has had contact with a symbiote. We also follow Eddie Brock’s son and Norman Osborn’s son who are both being watched by the Maker, who is trying to find a way to extract the symbiote codex from them before the monsters come calling…although I suspect the arrogant Maker has his own diabolical plans for the symbiote goo. And the hits keep coming when four symbiotes—who I have no idea of who they are—arrive to cause all manner of malice only to be thwarted by…Sleeper! Yeah, not a clue who Sleeper is and it looks like this character might be brand new but it doesn’t matter to me, he looks cool, promises to kick some ass, and Cates leaves me desperate to get that dang Absolute Carnage #2 in my hands ASAP!
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

That's it for this installment, Denizens. I’m off to ride the Taco Train to Beer Town. See you next week.




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