Sat down with Tuki: Vol. 2 Fight for Family by Jeff Smith



Smith mentions this is intended to be a 6 book series and books 1 and 2 comprise the first act. I am on board for the whole thing. This volume was every bit as good as vol. 1, and perhaps exceeded the first volume in terms of developing the supporting cast a bit more. I adore this series so far, and Smith continues to grow in my estimation with each new project he puts out.

-M

Got a new issue of Fables and Saga in the same month. Both comics are a little slow moving right now, but happy to be back in both worlds. 

I read the first arc and really liked it.  I need to find time to get back to this.  But I've had almost zero comic reading time in the last few months. 

I feel like it hasn't been coming out very regularly with IDW, but the that story was quite good.


I read Spy x Family today.. 1st two volumes. I've been hearing alot about it, and pulled the trigger today when there was a buy 1 get 1 50% off at Newbury Comics (where I was getting my dad a b-day present) Pretty fun stuff.. a bit silly and over the top, but that's definitely the point. It'll be interesting to see where its heading (hopefully I can get the next two next sale)

I've read them some while ago and already included them in my list of 2023, but that was a short post, so time to spend some bit more time on it:

I bought and read recently (as in the last 2-3 months):

Nice House on the Lake by James Tynion IV and Alvaro Martinez Bueno (DC Comics, Black Label):
I guess Black Label is these days what Vertigo was before; a combination of in-universe titles and creator-owned stand alone titles. Nice House on the Lake is one of the latter.
A group of friends/acquaintances are invited by a man called Walter to a house in the middle of nowhere. It's a beautiful and despite some of the visitors misgivings about their host (Walter has always been a bit.. weird), they gladly accept to relax after a stressful year and to reconnect with friends again.
Now this sounds like the setup of many horror movies and works (Cabin in the Woods, Evil Dead etc. Isolating a group of people in a remote area has always been one of the most common setups), but the story quickly put a twist on that basic premise that I was not expecting.
I'm not that much a fan of Tynion's superhero work (but that has less to do with Tynion himself, but more with him being assigned to Batman books and I lost most interest in Batman long ago (still like Tom Taylor's Nightwing though)), but his independent work is much more my thing. I'm not sure if this replaces Department of Truth as my favourite work of his, but it's close. And I should take time to read some of his other works (as my regular list has grown quite short in recent times)

Immortal X-Men by Kieron Gillen and Lucas Werneck and Michelle Bandini (Marvel Comics.. obviously):
Gillen has done X-Men before and I quite liked his series back then, but I like this one so much more.
The mutants are living on the living island of Krakoa and have established their own nation. Krakoa is lead by a Council of twelve mutants and so far this series, each issue focuses on a different member of the Council (even though other characters still get some attention). Thus in this first trade the stories have followed in order: Sinister, Hope (the new member who replaces Magneto, see more below about that), Destiny, Emma Frost, Exodus and Sebastian Shaw. There is a lot of political manoeuvring here, mostly between Sinister (who as always, can't be trusted) and Destiny. I've never cared for Sinister much as a villain (a combination of a silly look, nebulous motivations and endless plots-within-plots without any direct payoff for himself), but Gillen's previous version of him was the most interesting I have ever found him and this series continues that. Having established a mechanism through which he can basically gain knowledge of the future, Sinister thinks he can manipulate those around him, but Destiny, due to her powers, always is one step ahead of him. So it's nice seeing Sinister frustrated time and again. It's a nice touch with Sinister pretending to be dumber than he is, so that others underestimate him, but not being quite as clever as he thinks he is.
Hope and Frost have got enough attention in previous X-Men runs, so the issues focusing on them mostly just set up their current motivations and attitudes and what they want for the Council.
Shaw has had some development over the years and his recent storyline in Marauders have changed his ambitions a lot, but he's still proud and motivated mostly by greed, so his story did not show a lot of new stuff, but he does make an interesting alliance.
The most interesting chapters I found to be Destiny (whose precognition makes her the most formidable power within all these political intrigues, but behind the mask we find that she is desperately trying to find a path through all these futures she sees that won't end in tragedy and failing so far). An interesting detail I found to be that in one of the scenes where she is predicting the votes of the Council based on several criteria, that she can't predict her own actions with 100% certainty.
Exodus was introduced as a plot point in X-Force to get people up to Magneto's space station quickly and it gave Magneto a 2nd-in-command that was completely loyal (unlike half his previous followers) and powerful (unlike the other half of his previous followers), but personality-wise there was little there. A one-shot a couple of years later established him as a former 12th Century crusader with a history with the Black Knight and Gillen dives deep into that personality and motivation. He's not a good person, but he's 100% opposed to Sinister (basically faith vs. science, but with a lot of clashing personalities as well) and 100% loyal to Hope.
As you can see from the length of this bit, I'm really into this (always been a big X-Men fan and with the strong direction the series has gotten since House of X/Power of X, there are several titles that are exactly what I was wanting from X-Men for years. Still not my favourite title, that is the next one)

X-Men Red by Al Ewing and Stefano Caselli (Marvel comics... of course)
S.W.O.R.D., the title that this series is the successor to, was a good concept that was thrown into multiple crossovers that just distracted from the strong core concept. X-Men Red so far is more focused (though we do get a crossover tie-in, but Ewing manages to use the crossover to work with his concept).
So back in X of Swords, an island full of mutants, followers of Apocalypse, that had been trapped in a hell dimension for thousands of years, are freed and transported to Earth, but as the inhabitants of Arakko, have both power and little interest in diplomacy with the outside world, the mutants of its sister island, Krakoa, combine their powers to make Mars liveable and move the island to Mars.
Storm is designated by Krakoa to take a seat on Arakko's council and keeping its population in check as well as serving as a diplomat from the Solar system to the various galactic powers (though they luck out that most of the galactic powers these days are lead by either people from Earth or people who have a strong connection to Earth). She is joined by Magneto (no longer on Krakoa's Council, a man who has become broken, but still stands up when he is needed) and Sunspot (who since U.S.Avengers has become quite adept at seeing manipulations and intrigues and sees that something is wrong with Brand's plan) as well as the Fisher King, one of the inhabitants of Arakko.
The thing this series does best is fleshing out the people of Arakko: formed by centuries of war against demons and Apocalypse's philosophy of "Only the Strong Survive", Ewing manages to make many of them into sympathetic figures who each have very different ideas on what "Strong" means. And I remain fascinated by Isca, a mutant of Krakoa whose power is "Can never lose", a power that applies both to fights, arguments, games of skill, luck and knowledge. Ewing shares this fascination and explores what kind of effect such a power would have on somebody.

Wynd is one of the few other things I've read by him. Not really my thing, but it was good. I think I'll give those to my nephews once they are old enough, cause it felt more like a young adult comic.