I tend to have two types of reading: reading for a project and reading for fun. The thing is, the reading for fun often turns into a project, and the reading for a project can be, but isn’t always, pretty fun. In 2020, this chiasmus was in full effect.

My fun reading was overwhelmingly comics from Marvel Unlimited at the time, and that was driven by a project. See, I go to the comic book store every month, and every month I’m there, I pick up an issue of Marvel Previews so that I can figure out what, if anything, I want to add to my pull list from the upcoming solicitations. A rational person would probably throw these away after that determination had been made, but instead, I’d been accumulating them on a shelf until there were many years’ worth there. It was time to clear that shelf, but again, because I am the way I am, I decided to make a project out of it.

For each issue, I pick a random page, and then read the run that page suggests on Marvel Unlimited. This ended up taking a lot of different forms, but overall it let me jump around Marvel history, focusing on the more recent, reading the work of lots of different creators and the stories of lots of different characters. In these days, those catalogs would sometimes include toys and statues, so when I landed on one of these randomly, I’d try to read 100 issues of that character, driven by the internet’s suggestions. I still do this random Previews page thing, but now just once a month when I get the new one.

The project reading, as is pretty much always the case nowadays, was driven by The Watchmen Bestiary. In mid-2020, I was doing background reading for a post on the Mayfair DC Heroes RPG, and its Watchmen content. That meant reading a rulebook, and also familiarizing myself with the dominant DC comic of the era, Teen Titans.

There are 42 entries from 2020 (dating from the time I started giving decimal-place ratings), but that’s too many for a single blog post. Consequently, this post covers a period from May 7 to August 1.

Note that because these were mostly notes to myself, I was not careful about spoilers. Therefore, be thee warned that these reviews are not spoiler-free, especially the Teen Titans stuff.

Invincible Iron Man (2015) #6–#14

Brian Michael Bendis, Mike Deodato
7.5/10 · May 7, 2020

Bendis at his worst is glib and facile, reiterating dialogue mannerisms like tics across every character and blithely wrenching characters into increasingly implausible and inconsistent actions. Bendis at his best is deep and emotional, striking to the very heart of what’s essential about a character while radically reworking their iconic qualities into startling and fresh configurations. This was somewhere in between — some wonderful moments with Tony, especially his post-AA conversation with Carol, plus the introduction of Riri Williams, who disrupts the whole “white male genius” vibe. At the same time, blowing past narrative cohesion in an extremely frustrating way — e.g. at the end of one issue there’s a giant explosion engulfing all the characters, and in the next issue everybody is fine with no explanation why — and some pretty tiring “You’re telling me this?” “I’m telling you this.” dialogue.

Thunderbolts (2016) #1–12

Jim Zub, Jon Malin, et al.
7.0/10 · May 14, 2020

There seems to be tons of affection for the original Thunderbolts series, and given that it was Busiek + Bagley that makes sense. Never read it myself. This iteration is much of the original cast but led by Bucky, and centered around Kobik, the cosmic-cube-as-precocious-preschooler from the Pleasant Hill event. It has its charms, though the art is mostly ugly 90s pastiches.

Avengers: Standoff (2016)

Marvel
7.2/10 · May 22, 2020

Kind of a harebrained plot, engineered mostly to de-age Steve Rogers and set up Secret Empire. Mostly pretty silly. I did enjoy seeing the backstory to the Thunderbolts run, and getting to see a bit of Roberto da Costa running his own renegade Avengers squad. Also, Al Ewing continues to be great.

The Haunted Mansion (2016)

Joshua Williamson, Jorge Coelho
4.8/10 · May 23, 2020

There are probably people who have fond memories of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. I’m not one of them. Also, seemed to be aimed at kids, with some questionable messages about taking ridiculous risks. Overall, this was not for me.

Venom: Space Knight (2016) #11–13

Robbie Thompson, Gerardo Sandoval, et al.
6.8/10 · May 23, 2020

This felt like being dropped into the midst of a story with a bunch of characters I don’t know or care about. Also, Venom is not my favorite character. But I do like the Flash Thompson part, and this series had a nice Spidey cameo, just post-Superior. Also, there was a moment with Spidey and the symbiote that felt redemptive. Con: the ugly art.

Extraordinary X-Men Annual #1 (2016)

Ollie Masters, Brandon Montclare, Carlo Barberi, and Rosi Kampe
7.7/10 · May 23, 2020

A fun prison break story. Fluffy and lightweight but enjoyable enough. Same goes for the secondary story between Forge & Moon Girl (they’re spending time together why?) Pretty art on the first story.

Marvel (2020) #1

Alex Ross, Frank Espinosa, Kurt Busiek, Steve Rude, et al.
8.2/10 · May 23, 2020

First issue of an anthology series — Marvel-themed “anything goes” stories done by various people from inside and outside of Marvel. The frame story did nothing for me, but both the shorts, a Spider-Man/MJ marriage story by Espinosa and an old-school 1960s-style Avengers story by Busiek, were pretty good.

Civil War II

Brian Michael Bendis, David Marquez, Olivier Copiel, et al.
8.8/10 · May 23, 2020

I like it when Marvel digs into the metaphorical value of their characters by having them clash over serious philosophical differences, and this one paid off mostly. It still felt a little unsatisfying, as some of the more obvious arguments remained both unstated and unrefuted, replaced by more punch-outs. And it loses points to the original Civil War in being that much further removed from real-world debates (I mean, I guess the future predicting is like profiling, but that’s also a bit of a stretch.) Overall enjoyable combo of writing & art though, and some good character moments, though none as good as the argument outside an AA meeting that Bendis wrote for Tony & Carol in Iron Man.

Guidebook to the Marvel Cinematic Universe – Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD Season Three (2016)

Mike O’Sullivan et al.
5.3/10 · May 24, 2020

Lots of character-by-character recaps covering the same plot ground over and over. And not my favorite season of AOS either. (Though not my least fave…) But pretty dull to read, and a little too divorced from the fact that it’s a show — why not say who played what?

Miracleman Book One: A Dream Of Flying

Alan Moore, Garry Leach, and Alan Davis
9.7/10 · June 1, 2020

Moore’s original superhero deconstruction, before Swamp Thing and Watchmen. It feels like a younger Moore, but still fantastic. It’s the redemption of the ludicrous all over, a Shazam-like hero brought to our earth and his implications examined, his foundations overthrown. Essential. Thank goodness Marvel brought it back into print.

The New Teen Titans Volume One

Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, Romeo Tanghal
8.3/10 · June 10, 2020

Reading these as background for the Mayfair DC project, but they’re enjoyable in their own right. I’m a fan of Wolfman’s Marvel work, and he doesn’t disappoint here, though the grating DC goofiness/silliness is always in place. Also, Pérez’s art and composition are consistently fricking gorgeous.

The New Teen Titans Volume Two

Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, Romeo Tanghal
8.6/10 · June 20, 2020

Pérez is still wonderful. Reading these in tandem with the RPG rules, and it’s amazing how some of them really feel like RPG scenarios, especially the quest to find the Doom Patrol, which splits the team, then has encounters in a hidden temple, then reunites the team, then a plot twist, then a redemption, then a boss fight, etc. Also, Pérez, man. Wow.

The New Teen Titans Volume Three

Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, Romeo Tanghal
8.8/10 · June 29, 2020

A bunch of little one-off stories, either revisiting past Titans stuff (pre “New” series) or experimenting with different narrative structure, like the “Dear Mom And Dad” story. The real winners though are the limited series issues where they all go camping together and we get a BUNCH of backstory and character development on Cyborg, Changeling, Raven, and Starfire. The Starfire one in particular sets up much bigger stories for Vol. 4.

100+ issues with Medusa

Marvel
8.0/10 · July 3, 2020

Highlights of this were the Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four stuff, Charles Soule’s Uncanny Inhumans (it’d be fun to read Soule’s whole Inhumans arc across various titles), and Fraction/Allred’s FF. Ant-Man’s “sociopath” speech to Doom while giving him the beatdown in the final issue of FF was GREAT.

Elektra (1996) #1–19 and #-1

Peter Milligan, Larry Hama, and Mike Deodato
2.8/10 · July 7, 2020

OMG the awful, AWFUL, horrendous 90’s-ness of it all. What a terrible time for comics. Page after page of grotesqueries — anatomical abominations, exploitative sexualization, laughably flowing ponytails & cloaks, cheesiness masquerading as grit, and lordy the shoulder pads. Pages centered around poses. Close-ups on slitted eyes. Strands of hair EVERYWHERE. Just bad bad bad. But also the storytelling just sucks — threads outright dropped, or stuff happening “because badass”. What did I like? Uh, the hints of Frank Miller Daredevil were pretty cool. And, uh… maybe the Greek stuff? Overall just no.

The Unbelievable Gwenpool: Head Of M.O.D.O.K. (Issues #5–10)

Chris Hastings, Irene Strychalski, & Gurihiru
7.1/10 · July 8, 2020

The concept of somebody getting thrown from our universe into the Marvel Universe, and exploiting her meta-level knowledge of how stories are structured, etc., in order to prosper, is a fun one. But the character is way too nihilistic, willing to murder people because they’re “background characters”. It’s like if Zero Sum Game from Comp97 were a comic book character. Kind of a bummer.

The New Teen Titans Volume Four

Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, Romeo Tanghal
8.9/10 · July 10, 2020

The book is maturing at this point, and laying in richer characterization and deeper themes. Brother Blood stuff explores cults, and the epic space opera gives us much more background on Starfire, as well as giving her character some development & cultivating her romance with Robin. Also we’re getting increasing hints that all is not well with Raven. Absorbing and fun.

The New Teen Titans Volume Five

Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, Romeo Tanghal
9.0/10 · July 22, 2020

Strands getting thicker and stronger. The introduction of Terra and verrry slow burn on her sketchiness. Increasing unreliability of Raven. Development of Robin separating from Batman — probably the best character development in this volume, though Raven’s was good too. Brother Blood was strong, Thunder and Lightning weaker.

Thanos (2016) #1–12

Jeff Lemire, Mike Deodato, and German Peralta
5.4/10 · July 25, 2020

I don’t love series that center on villains, and seeing one broken down only to build himself back up again isn’t exactly inspiring to me. I guess it’s fun to see other takes on cosmic characters, but overall really not my cup of tea.

DC Heroes RPG 1st edition

Greg Gorden
7.4/10 · July 29, 2020

I wish I could be part of a game of this run by somebody else. In my head, the logarithmic AP mechanic and the fact that you have to keep looking stuff up on a table feels clunky, and I still have trouble wrapping my head around the notion that the “health bar” is so low, but maybe in play it would feel natural. Certainly it’s got its fans, who call it elegant and transparent. EvilDM’s videos, Hero Points podcast, and DC All-Star Games have been invaluable resources in understanding the living, breathing feel of the game beyond the rulebooks.

Nick Fury (2017) #1–6

James Robinson and ACO
7.3/10 · August 1, 2020

Wild and crazy art feels like a tribute to Steranko (though not an aping), and the writing has a freewheeling 60’s-James-Bond energy. Those are the pluses. On the minus side, the whole thing felt kind of disconnected from the overall universe, and consistently failed to generate any feeling of stakes.