Kevin Lau

2/5 After being lost outside of time and space, Wally West (the original Kid Flash), finally returns home in the events of DC Rebirth  thanks to the help of Barry Allen. However, a bigger power has taken away 10 years from their world and any memory of Wally. That doesn't stop Kid Flash from finding his friends, though, and through the magic of the speed force, Nightwing, Aqualad, Omen, Donna, and Arsenal are a team once again now called the Titans. That's the summary for the first issue in this volume and it's certainly a heartwarming read. It was this one-shot issue that really made me think that this was going to be a fun series to get into. I was wrong. After that solid 4-star issue, Dan Abnett decides to take the grand mystery of how Watchmen 's Dr. Manhattan is related to the Flashpoint  event into his own hands by reviving the villain Kadabra. Abnett writes that it was Kadabra who sent Wally outside of time and space as an act of vengeance, leading t...

4/5 The Flash's rogue gallery and his relationship with them has interested me ever since I started reading up on the character. They're in it for the score and make it a code to never kill. Then, sometimes, when Central City is under attack by, say, an army of gorillas, they don't hesitate to defend their turf and help the Flash. The first story in this volume plays around with the idea and really analyzes the rogues and what they stand for, bringing to the surface Joshua Williamson's talent for writing The Flash . The second story of this volume follows up with a plot point laid out in the previous one: Wally West is in search of Daniel West, a Reverse Flash, who turns out to be Wally's dad (which really  begs the question: Who is Wally's mom?). It's secrets on top of secrets that Wally has to uncover, leading to Barry having to make a big choice, which was probably one of the best executed scenes in the series so far. As for the third story, we...

2/5 Talk about a serious downgrade from the first volume. Told mostly from Wally West's (a.k.a. Kid Flash) perspective, Speed of Darkness  contains 3 stories. The first one is an issue where the Wally you see on the cover meets the Wally from the pre-New 52 era who had recently returned home due to the events in DC's Rebirth . The second story is Speed of Darkness itself and runs for 3 issues, where Wally tries to achieve the Flash's trust by going after a rogue called Shade by himself, leading to scenario that traps him, his aunt Iris, and the Flash himself. The third story, another single issue, has Kid Flash patrolling the streets as Barry and Iris go on a date. In volume 1, Lightning Strikes Twice,  Joshua Williamson wrote an exciting and heartwarming story of Barry Allen training all the citizens who had gained access to the speed force, only to find out that a speedster known as Godspeed is killing them off and stealing their speed. Don't let the cover ...

3.5/5 Ever since I've started reading Flash comics a couple years ago, I've pondered on the idea if DC has ever published a Flash novel (After all, they do so with Batman and Superman), but it wasn't until a month ago I found out that this book was already released. Of course, it ties into the show instead of the comic, but I decided to take what I could get. It's understandable that a Flash novel hasn't been published before now due to the stories and action heavily relying on visuals. However, I think Clay and Susan Griffith did great with what they had. Based on the show somewhere in the middle of season 2 (though technically never happened due to time travel in a later episode), The Haunting of Barry Allen  revolves around the Flash as his connection to the speed force is going on the fritz. Not only is he temporarily losing his speed, but he's also having hallucinations of loved ones he couldn't save. As if that wasn't bad enough, a few of ...

2/5 Not only does Justice League vs. Suicide Squad  use a cookie-cutter plot setup, but it also lacks character, depth, and (quite surprisingly) the Justice League fighting the Suicide Squad. The Suicide Squad is a team of super bad guys who are put under the control of the government to complete missions considered too dangerous to send out our own people to complete and completing these missions and living through them would give them time off of their prison sentences. However, Batman soon finds out that these criminals and brings the Justice League along with them to investigate the squad only to be caught in the midst of a revenge plan of a bigger baddy: Maxwell Lord and the original Suicide Squad. And there you have it: A team of superheroes sort of fights a team of supervillains and then stops to take care of a common enemy. It's a simple plot and, unfortunately, Joshua Williamson (an up-and-coming author who currently write The Flash and is quite good at it) fai...

3/5 Great first volume, remarkable second volume, and... Well, no one said writing comics was easy. So Scott Snyder, the writer of the Batman  for the whole New 52 era, wanted to write another huge Batman story that required tie-ins from other Batman-related series (after all, it mostly worked for City of Owls ). In this event, the Joker has returned to Gotham City after gone missing for five years, putting the Bat-Family on high alert. Dick Grayson is busy with assassin Lady Shiva coming into town on top of trying to restore Gotham's old theme park Amusement Mile, but that doesn't stop the Joker from getting his attention. Death of the Family  is a bit of a disappointment in my eyes, both in the Batman  and Nightwing series. However, Kyle Higgins does his best at making the story feel as natural as possible and this series seems to have a bigger seems to be impacted more than the Batman series where the core of the story takes place (weird). The story still ha...

3.5/5 Robbie Thompson continues his run on a younger version of our web-slinging hero, keeping the same set-up and momentum as the first volume. This set of issues has a bit more going on. On top of the usual villain-of-the-issue, Spidey teams up with the likes of Black Panther and Captain America, each taking an interest in Spider-Man after his team-up with Iron Man. Of course, Spider-Man still has to stay on top of his life as Peter Parker, which includes tutoring not only Gwen Stacy, but bully Flash Thompson as well! Much like the first volume, After-School Special  still delivers fun stories for younger audiences and never loses its stride. It's funny, bright, and easy to read through in a single sitting. Not only that, but the plot and characterizations are becoming more and more solid, making this a bit better than volume 1. Plus, Robbie Thompson crafts an interesting scene between Captain America and J. Jonah Jameson. Overall, I'm starting to war...

3/5 Finally, kids have a Marvel comic with good writing! Written by Robbie Thompson (former writer of CW's  Supernatural  and current author of  Silk ),  Spidey  is an ongoing comic going back to Peter Parker's high school days. There's not much of a plot, per se, but rather this series functions similar to the cartoon  The Spectacular Spider-Man . Each issue has Spider-Man facing off with a different villain with subtle hints at a bigger villain that will come in later, this volume containing Doctor Octopus, Doctor Doom, the Green Goblin, and more. On top these supervillain debacles, Peter has to balance his priorities with high school as well as finding a way to make money. It's a comic that's really easy to get into and the concise writing makes it a breeze to read. Nick Bradshaw does the art for the first 3 issues and does well with the character designs and setting the tone. Andre Lima Araujo illustrates for the other 3 issues of this volume...

5/5 Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows continue their run on Nightwing with this second volume, which I found to be even better than the first! This volume contains 3 story arcs: The first of which ties up the Court of Owls event (which actually still works in this series without crudely interrupting the main story), the second has Dick Grayson facing off the anti-Gotham group that framed him for murder, and the third is issue #0, which gives us Dick Grayson's origin story. All-in-all, I absolutely loved this volume. The Court of Owls tie-in is used masterfully to create a deeper lore of Nightwing's ancestry. The second solo story, much like the first volume, had twist and turns that kept me hooked from beginning to end. Then, with the origin story, we get a much deeper look into not only Dick Grayson's character, but Bruce Wayne's as well. The art still has some botchy moments here and there, but the writing heroically saves the whole ordeal in style. Highly re...

4/5 Dick Grayson (aka Nightwing/the first Robin) is trying to get back in the swing of things when Haley's Circus, the circus where his parents had died years ago, comes to Gotham. After paying his old friends a visit, the dying owner of the circus gives Dick ownership of the circus, hinting at a mysterious past in Dick's ancestry. As if Dick wasn't already confused, a highly-trained assassin is trying to punish him for crimes he didn't commit. A solid story with great writing, Kyle Higgins really brings this character to life. Right away from the first issue I knew this was a character I wanted to get behind. Nightwing is a bit like a Peter Parker character, making quips as he fights his foes, but he's also different enough to be his own character (one factor being that Dick is empathetic whereas Peter is sympathetic). The story had twists and turns and was well-paced. Eddy Barrows does the art for this volume and even though all the action sequences wer...

4/5 Revival  was certainly an unexpected treasure. One day in Wausau, Wisconsin, everyone who was dead were mysteriously revived.  With the world in shock, both on a secular and religious level, the people of Wausau are quarantined from the rest of the world until they figure out where the revivers came from and are made entirely sure they are safe. Dana Cypress, a local cop, becomes a part of the Revitalized Citizen Arbitration Team and soon finds out her sister, Em, is a reviver. Not only that, but she knows she's been murdered. When trying to find her sister's killer, Dana finds out there are more secrets the small town has been hiding. Tim Seeley writes like a beast in this series of 47 issues, keeping the quality pretty much on par throughout. Though the final arc of this story feels a bit rushed compared to the rest of the series' slow pace, the story still comes to a satisfying and heartbreaking conclusion. Everyone's character arcs are clear and defi...

5/5 Paper Girls  volume 2 picks up right where volume 1 leaves off. So, fair warning, there will be very slight spoilers here if you're wanting to go into this series blind. First, I want to point out that I might be hopelessly addicted to this series now. I've binge-read each of the volumes from cover-to-cover and they only end with me wanting so much more. Oh, the struggles of getting into a comic that isn't finished yet! That being said, I absolutely love this volume more than I thought I would. Brian K. Vaughn seemed to have gotten the memo from the first story arc and slowed things down a bit, given us readers time to focus more on the characters and all of the concepts that are being thrown at us (Including a very interesting take on time travel). The dialogue flows even better now and the twists still hit you harder than you really want it to. All of the character interactions made me laugh, kept me on edge, and made me empathetic. Part of this goes with t...

4/5 At this rate, we've seen all we could possibly see in a superhero origin flick: The world is in danger, one person must stop said danger and either fit in a newfound society or hide their newfound powers from society (or just be Iron Man and flaunt it everywhere). That being said, Wonder Woman  still manages to be a fresh take on the origin formula yet still remain true to the source material. Like most origin stories (and unlike Batman v Superman ), Wonder Woman  stays concise with its story and avoids overbearing itself with unnecessary subplots. Simply put, if you haven't liked any of DC's recent films, you should definitely give this one a shot. Gal Gadot and Chris Pine absolutely nail their roles of Diana/Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor respectively. With these two leads guiding the film, most of the script and cast surrounding them are pretty solid. Some distracting acting and the fact that the main side cast is almost two-dimensional can be overlooked si...

4/5 Honestly, I could not have picked a better time to start reading this series. I've read snippets of Brian K. Vaughn's work and absolutely love his writing and ideas. Then I came across Paper Girls  when it was on sale for a dollar, the synopsis describing four 12 year olds in late-80's Ohio who come across a supernatural mystery that threatens the town. Still having to wait until Halloween for the second season of Stranger Things  and almost done rewatching Gravity Falls , this comic totally hit the sweet spot for me. Collecting the first 5 issues of the series, this volumes contains the introductory story arc that had me completely hooked from beginning to end with an ending that left me wanting more. The dialogue flows and Cliff Chiang's art is distinct and mesmerizing, enhancing the writing with the page layouts and colors. The only issue I can really point out here is that this first arc should have been one or two issues longer due to how quickly t...

2/5 Jaime Reyes as the Blue Beetle has interested me and been on my reading list for a while. When I first discovered the character watching Batman: The Brave and the Bold , seeing Jaime as a relatable teen arguing with the sentient suit that gives him his powers, his New 52 line had already been cancelled. Then Geoff Johns wrote Rebirth and added a little scene with Jaime Reyes that I thought was both very interesting and promising. In short, Keith Giffen doesn't deliver in this volume until issue #6, where he kind of gives a small splice of what the series could be. Getting the obvious out of the way, the dialogue here is absolutely horrible. I tell myself it feels like a first draft, but then there are moments of repetition and sentences upon sentences of nothing going on. By then, it feels more like a very bloated outline with the characters speaking mostly hot air. The dialogue here isn't flat, it's completely empty. This, in turn, makes all the charac...