Welcome to this week in comic book reviews! The staff have come together to read and review nearly everything that released today. It isn’t totally comprehensive, but it includes just about everything from DC and Marvel with the important books from the likes of Image, Boom, Dark Horse, and more.

The review blurbs you’ll find contained herein are typically supplemented in part by longform individual reviews for significant issues. This week that includes East of West #45 and Incoming #1.

Also, in case you were curious, our ratings are simple: we give a whole number out of five; that’s it! If you’d like to check out our previous reviews, they are all available here.

And with that, on to the reviews — which are listed in alphabetical order, but first by DC, Marvel, and the rest of the publishers.

Marvel #1

DOCTOR STRANGE #1

The newest volume of Doctor Strange promises a new twist to Stephen Strange’s career as he returns to medicine following the restoration of his hands. Unfortunately, that idea is explained without ever being made interesting or essential to the story at hand. Exposition details how this has occurred and updates the mystical status quo slightly, but the medical elements of this story are neatly separated from the action and conflicts at hand, leaving the first half of the issue lifeless. The latter half indulges in standard superhero fare, including a familiar villain, action, and cliffhanger. It’s all very paint-by-numbers and only adds a superficial coating of magic on top of the all too familiar genre affectations. Kev Walker’s layouts and designs elevates this rote runaround slightly, but there simply isn’t much of interest to work with. Any promise embedded in this new premise is forgotten and ignored, and it raises the question of why a relaunch was needed in the first place if this was all that could be offered in a new #1 issue. — Chase Magnett

Rating: 2 out of 5

INCOMING #1

[READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE]

As a collection of creators connected to Marvel Comics in 2020, Incoming #1 offers a nice list of names and plenty of reasons to be interested in what they are producing outside of this comic. However, as a comic book unto itself, Incoming #1 asks its intended audience to cough up $10 so they can read through an illustrated version of Previews. The excuse for a plot at its heart fails to intrigue or excite and the artistic talent is poorly utilized across more than 80 pages. This is a Free Comic Book Day giveaway with an outsized ego and should be promptly ignored before being read and, ideally, never purchased. — Chase Magnett

Rating: 1 out of 5

SPIDER-HAM #1

Whether you’ve been a Spider-Ham fan for years or are still chuckling from John Mulaney’s portrayal of the character in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, there’s quite a lot for you to love in this debut issue. This installment covers bits of Peter Porker’s origin story, as well as the ways that interdimensional travel and being on the Sca-Vengers has impacted his life. As one would expect in a Spider-Ham comic, there are quite a lot of animal-themed parody names, and jokes about everything from The Wizard of Oz to YouTube recommendations. In and amongst all of that, this issue is heartfelt, self-deprecating, and clever, and it will be interesting to see where things go next. — Jenna Anderson

Rating: 5 out of 5

VENOM #21

Following “Absolute Carnage,” Eddie Brock’s solo book is heading in a very different direction. The kick off to “Venom Island” is just as exciting of a read as the previous event, a difficult feat considering its lack of outright action. Even without Stegman’s work, Venom remains one of the more interesting and engaging Marvel Comics in 2019. — Charlie Ridgely

Rating: 4 out of 5

Other Publishers #1

CRIMINAL #11

The heist has arrived in a tension-filled issue well worth the wait. Months of character development and slowly converging subplots provide plenty of subtle, and not so subtle, stakes for an extended sequence that quickly moves readers through both the plan and its execution with uncertainty swirling about every turn of the page. The actual pay off for this carefully constructed tower of cards comes next month, but the excitement leading to the cliffhanger of Criminal #11 is plenty exciting on its own. This is as much a thriller as a crime comic, and it shows how well Brubaker and Phillips can deliver on a moment that has been promised across so many issues (and even prior volumes of this same series). The final issue of this story will have the final say, but nothing can negate the visceral enjoyment of a well executed heist comic like this one. — Chase Magnett

Rating: 4 out of 5

EAST OF WEST #45

[READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE]

East of West #45 secures the series place in a pantheon of excellent original comics epics. It fulfills the promises of the very first issue, offering readers both a vision of apocalypse and unexpected rays of hope. It is released in a very different period than where it began, but feels all the more essential today, especially as the 2020 presidential race looms large. East of West was a multi-faceted saga and it continues to engage readers on a variety of levels in its finale—providing both tremendous action sequences and consequential reveries on how a fractured society may move forward. At the heart of its complexity, it remains a story about family and the precious bonds formed in the midst of chaos. The dedication, care, and understanding displayed regarding these purposes is clear in each of its final moments and ensure that this series still has a long life ahead of it, long after it provides a deeply satisfying conclusion. — Chase Magnett

Rating: 5 out of 5

FIGHT CLUB 3 #12

“You’re addicted to Tyler,” the still-nameless narrator of Fight Club tells Marla Singer at one point in the final issue of Fight Club 3. A cleverer, more meta comic—like, say, Fight Club 2—might have made such an accusation and directed it at the comic’s creators (especially writer Chuck Palahniuk, author of the original Fight Club) or the audience. Instead, the audience gets an unfulfilling conclusion that explicitly tees up another sequel. Cameron Stewart’s art is a saving grace, but as the story has worn on, and increasingly large percentages of the issues are designed to be visually unappealing, well-executed art can do only so much to make you want to look at it. — Russ Burlingame

Rating: 2 out of 5

THE KILL LOCK #1

The Kill Lock starts off with a simple premise—you’ve got a soldier, an addict, a murderer and a child all convicted of crimes, and they’ve all been linked in a way where if one dies then all four dies. On the surface it’s a simple western-esque story with a small fantasy twist, but then the book adds an extra hook; all four characters are fully-sentient robots. The design of all four, they’re human-like qualities and their utter coldness when it comes to violent acts are all absolutely stellar. Author/artist Livio Ramondelli writes in the back of the book that this was a labor of love, and that really shows on every panel. This has all the makings of a solid miniseries. — Connor Casey

Rating: 4 out of 5

THE MASK: I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE MASK #3

Nuance is not I Pledge Allegiance to the Mask‘s forte, but that much was clear even before the series released. What’s been surprising though is how unfunny this story of The Mask is despite irreverent, dark humor supposedly being one of the comic’s strengths. Even the graphic and violent body humor The Mask is known for can only go so far when you start with a fart joke on the first page. I Pledge Allegiance to the Mask‘s actual story is also turning out to be pretty exhausting as well since it’s mirroring real-world political climates without even managing to say something compelling yet. It’s only redeeming factor so far is the unpredictability of the The Mask itself when Abner and other mask wearers whip out improvised weapons and dispatch their opponents, but those moments don’t nearly happen often enough. — Tanner Dedmon

Rating: 2 out of 5

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #24

The newest installment in the Zombot saga provides some excellent moments for the (relatively) new character Tangle to shine, along with a few other lesser known members of the non-zombified cast of characters. However, these are exceptions to another issue that primarily treads water. The distance traveled between the first and final pages is negligible, essentially stalling for time before a last page reveal and next month’s release of #25, which looks to be a very big issue. In the meanwhile, Sonic the Hedgehog remains a well constructed all-ages comic, but one that struggles to make each issue count in a story that is more interested in pairing its climax with a certain number than the best possible pacing. –– Chase Magnett

Rating: 3 out of 5