It may seem strange to start a review of a book with Volume 8, but when it comes to The Walking Dead, quite often strange is normal.

I have been a fan of this Zombie epic since I bought Issue # 1 when it came out a few years ago. Robert Kirkman writes an incredible tale, and Charlie Adlard’s black and white art adds to not only the creepiness of Kirkman’s world, but also the starkness of it all.

But again, why start here with Volume 8? Because much like the previous volumes, nothing will ever be the same again in the world of The Walking Dead.

Collecting issues 43-48 of the Image Comics series, Made To Suffer follows the continuing struggles of former police office Rick, his wife Lori and their children as they, and a band of survivors try and make a life for themselves in a prison. The prison is the only secure facility in their world that is overrun by Zombies.

Not far away is the town of Woodbury, run by a sadistic man they call The Governor. Rick and his prison folk have had a few tussles with The Governor, so he launches and all out attack on their prison. Shots are fired, people killed, and at the risk of dishing out major spoilers, I’ll leave it at that. Trust me though when I say all hell breaks loose, and things will never be the same.

Normally, saying that “things will never be the same” in a comic book carries about as much weight as saying “he’ll stay dead this time.” That is one of the major differences in The Walking Dead. People who die, stay dead (figuratively speaking) and the consequences are very real for the survivors.

Kirkman weaves a tale that is equal parts horror story and study in human behaviours. The social interactions between the people left to rebuild humanity amongst rotting zombies is the heart of the story. This is not to knock the creep-factor of the book, as it is one of the few horror stories out there that can actually be taken seriously, but it’s the human factor that is really the draw.

Adlard’s black and white art is wonderfully simplistic, which is excellent because the story moves so fast, you don’t need to get bogged down in overly complicated panels. It’s key to controlling the flow of the story, and on top of that his rotting zombies look great when compared to their ragged human counterparts.

The Walking Dead is one of the best stories being told in comics today, and hopefully with Robert Kirkman’s new position at Image, it will be around for a long, long time.

All that said about New Avengers #43, I thought Avengers Initiative was completely missable. We learned the identity of another “good” Skrull, and someone’s 3-D glasses get mess with, with hilarious results! Not really a great issue, and I can’t help but wonder how many “good” Skrulls we’re going to run into. They’re pretty boring.

This Secret Invasion tie-in continued the fight in The Savage Land. We find out what life is like for some of the Skrull-Doubles, and we get one big reveal (or confirmation if you are smarter than me) of the people currently locked in battle in the Savage Land. I thought that this was a great book, telling a crucial part of the story. Now, some people would ask why that part of the story wasn’t told in Secret Invasion itself, but I like that the whole scope of the story is big enough that the tie-in issues actually mean something.

Amazo? Wow, it’s 22 issues ago! Didn’t we already see this story? I recall liking it then, but I’m pretty done with it at this point. Also, we are spending way to much time on Vixen. I understand that she’s an excuse to draw a bum, but I need a little more story please. Shouldn’t this book be touching on, I dunno, Final Crisis?

This book was a huge disappointment. It was literally a Crib-Sheet version of Two-Face’s origin in The Long Halloween (literally the same characters, names, and events), and it wasn’t’ done very well. The story was choppy, the art looked rushed and clearly this was just an attempt to cash in on Two-Face’s appearance in The Dark Knight. Ooops, spoiler alert!

This book continues to rocket along and make one of the most irrelevant X-Men interesting. The art, as always, is incredible, and barring the appearance of the typical “bad” priest character, the story has been what Ultimate Iron Man I should have been. It’s hard to make characters that come from well-off backgrounds interesting without some kind of tragedy (Batman) but this book manages to do it, and do it with style.

This book continues to rocket along and make one of the most irrelevant X-Men interesting. The art, as always, is incredible, and barring the appearance of the typical “bad” priest character, the story has been what Ultimate Iron Man I should have been. It’s hard to make characters that come from well-off backgrounds interesting without some kind of tragedy (Batman) but this book manages to do it, and do it with style.

Yeah, I wish that I could say this is a bold new direction for the X-Men, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it. “Manifest Destiny” has started out like most X-stories, buried in continuity and marred by attempts to keep up with all that’s gone on in the X-world in the last couple of years. Also, I understand the need to pair up big-name creators, but having Brubaker, Fraction, Dodson(s) and Land all on the same book, trading off pages and whatnot, just makes for a very disjointed feeling. Also, I wasn’t sure if the changes in art were supposed to mark points in the story, or if they were just happening randomly. The redeeming factors would be the gorgeous covers, in spite of the fact there were half a dozen of them.

The back of this book features a quote from Mark Millar’s Ultimates partner Brian Hitch that is something to the lines of “we should have done this as Ultimates 3.” Now, barring the fact that a 7-year old drawing with fingerpaint would be better than the current Ultimates 3, Hitch is spot on. This story of superpowered soldiers was a great book. Marvel missed out by not giving Millar a chance to get this one out under their banner. The art was great, the story was fresh and intriguing, and I can’t wait for Issue #2!

I’m still amazed that this book is as good as it is. Not only does it have a radically different and amazing art style, but the story is just as good. I barely care about the X-Men as a whole, let alone Angel, but here I am, drawn in to this story of a young Warren Worthington trying to survive prep school while figuring out what the mysterious bumps on his back are. A surprisingly good book, that left me wanting more!!

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Terry Moore’s great action-adventure story continues here as we get a little bit of backstory on the woman who’s life was sacrificed when Julie inherited her supersuit. But of course, we learn all this stuff just as the army confronts Julie and all hell breaks loose. This issue also features one of the most gruesome crime scenes in recent memory (and I read The Boys!), making me glad that Echo is in black and white!

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Loeb and Sale are back, son! And they brought Cap and Bucky with them! Issue #0 serves as a prequel to the upcoming 6-issue miniseries by the esteemed “colours” creators. It’s Bucky’s origin, and it’s fantastic. Sale’s art hasn’t missed a beat since coming back over from the Distinguished Competition, and Loeb writes Bucky with the same voice he did Robin in Long Halloween and Dark Victory. It gives this issue a familiar tone, while telling a different story. A great piece of work, and I can’t wait to get my greedy little hands on issue #1!

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This issue was all about Captain America. Normally, that would be a great thing but in this case all they did was re-tell Ultimate Captain America’s origin. The problem with that is that apparently, it’s EXACTLY THE SAME as “normal” Captain America. So why did we need to re-tell it all? We know. He was a wimp. Volunteered for service. Shot up with drugs. Captain America. I thought this series was supposed to tell us how everything Ultimate was connected? Maybe that’s the connection: That we’re all suckers.

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The invasion is pretty much over, but how will the people of earth (specifically their heroes) respond? This issue was promised to feature Nick Fury laying the one-eyed smackdown on those dastardly Skrulls, and lay the smackdown he did. But on Ms. Marvel? Does he know something we don’t? I really dug this issue because it answered a lot of questions about the Runaways and Young Avengers, two of my favourite teams! Yu’s art continues to be stunning, and the final panel put a big ol’ smile on my face. I cannot wait for issue #5 of this series. It’s so nice to see an “event comic” that’s actually an event.

When. Will. This. Arc. End? The sad thing is that this would actually be a pretty good story if the art wasn’t so cartoony. It has all the right elements of a great Punisher story, including the added twist of The Hand trying to resurrect him into their war, but the art just does not fit it. The Secret Invasion arc is up next should this one ever end, and hopefully someone who get’s the Punisher a bit more will be put on art duties.

Supergirl’s quest to cheat death for a young boy with cancer continues here, and Kara is set to learn her hardest lesson yet: That she can’t save everyone. Since the art in this book picked up, I’ve been enjoying more and more. This arc is particularly poignant as it looks at the blurry lines between being heroes and being Gods. I’m glad that they are finally developing Supergirl’s character beyond simply being someone else for Superman to upstage.

A new Hellboy story? That must mean we’re close to the release of a new Hellboy movie! Fortunately the movie looks pretty awesome, and this book follow suit. Normally I don’t really like Hellboy stories that Mike Mignola doesn’t draw, but I must say Richard Corben does a great job of creating a really creepy atmosphere as Hellboy wanders into the back woods of the southern US. Witches, Demons, the Devil, this story has it all. Issue #2 can’t come soon enough.

How many game shows must the Joker crash before Gotham City just plain out bans them? This story was all right, if not somewhat predictable. For some reason Arvid Nelson felt the need to throw some message about reality TV and sleazy producers in to a Joker book. Aside from that it was all right. The art to me seemed a little off. People’s faces seemed very smooshed. I know that’s not really an art term, but what do you want? I’m a writer for a reason.

Wow. Uh, What? I really wish that I could tout the brilliance of Morrison’s Batman R.I.P. story here, but I’ll be dead honest. I haven’t the first clue what is going on in this book. I have a loose idea of the plotline, but that’s about it. I guess I have to tread through 2 years of Morrison backstory to get it. Thing is, I’m not going to do that. Hopefully he’s got something up his sleeve to pull this all together.

The final part of the next chapter in the series that fills in the gaps of Stephen King’s epic Dark Tower series was just as mystical and wonderful as the last. The Dark Tower has long been one of my favorite stories, and to see the characters, and the world, that King created treated with such respect both in writing and art is a sheer joy. I haven’t been that big a fan of Jae Lee or Peter David in the past, but with Richard Isanove and Robin Furth respectively guiding them, they churn out sheer brilliance. Can’t wait for Chapter III: Treachery in September.

This is still one of the best books on the market for my money. Ennis and Robertson take superheroes and turn them inside out (literally and figuratively) in a way that only they could do. We dig deeper into the origins of The Seven, and superheroes themselves in this issue. It’s really a set-up issue for #21 that promises to turn everything on it’s head, but the great thing about The Boys is that even the set-up issues are better than most books out there.

Well, with Buffy #16, Joss Whedon has managed three very difficult things. One, he’s still writing Buffy stories that hold up with the best parts of the TV show. Two, he managed to tie two worlds (that of Buffy, and Future Slayer Fray) without making it seem like a ridiculous cash-grab, and Three, he’s written a time-travel story that thanks to points One and Two, doesn’t seem silly. Karl Moline, who drew the Fray graphic novel, takes over on pencils here, and his style is still a perfect fit for Whedon’s characters. So good it even makes me want to buy Angel!

The third chapter of this megaseries lived up to the first two. It was a great ride as the past met the present head-on. I love how the Past Bucky is being made into a much more bad-ass character. I wonder what would happen should he meet the “new” Captain America? All in all a great issue to a fantastic story, but one thing kinda bugs me: why does inLight Studios insist on colouring Cap’s uniform Purple?

Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi had big shoes to fill when they took over from Joss Whedon and John Cassady. After one issue, I don’t know if they’ve done it, but I think they are on their way. The book takes a turn into murder-mystery territory, but manages to keep some of the lightheartedness of Whedon’s run. The art was stunning, but a little dark for me sometimes. I was also happy with the way Storm was re-introduced to the team, and once I got past the idea of the X-Men being “consultants” to the San Francisco Police Department, I really enjoyed the book. Will it be as good as the first 24 issues? Probably not, but I’m still pretty excited about what we have here.

The latest installment of Alex Ross’ brainchild was a little strange as it took a bit of a sci-fi turn with reanimated corpses being brought into the fray. There was also a bit more of a political lean to this issue, as we see what kind of a tight reign the authorities have on the society these heroes have been reborn into. It wasn’t as good as the previous issues, but it was a great set up for what’s to come.

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Sex tapes. Drunken Tony. Random Wolverine. Inexplicable fights in the Savage Land. And now, everyone’s a robot. Seriously, can this story make less sense? I did enjoy seeing Quicklsiver in his Father’s colours, but aside from that what the hell was this issue about? Oh, and if you can’t figure out who Wasp and Ant-Man (he’s Ant-Man this issue, I think)’s son is, then you should probably put the issue down and go back to Essential Avengers. Irritatingly predictable. Who knows, maybe Issue #5 will be amazing and I’ll have to eat these words. Doubtful though.

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It was the return of Ultimate Venom and Ultimate Silver Sable this week, as this never-miss book hit once again. Supposedly, this story is related to the video game that came out a couple years ago, but not being a gamer I can’t confirm that. All I know is that is was well written, well drawn, and yet another great issue in the flagship Ultimate book.

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This was the final Issue of Runaways before Terry Moore and Humberto Ramos take over the next volume. Normally, I am a huge Joss Whedon fan, and dote on everything the man does, but his time on Runaways was a bit of a disappointment for me. Maybe it was the constant delays, but this story just felt disjointed and off. As a trade, maybe it’ll work better, but for now I would rather look towards the future of The Runaways.

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With most of Earth’s heroes still in the Savage Land, only one is left to defend Manhattan against the invading hordes, and that is Ms. Marvel. This issue was action-packed all the way through, and actually brought a voice to Carol Danvers instead of just randomly being involved in the crisis du jour. Adriana Melo’s pencils were spot-on too, being showcased in several splash pages. A great book that directly tied in with Secret Invasion #3.

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The second piece of the Skru-zzle the fall into place this week came in this Issue. Focusing on the Skrull Queen who is posing as Jessica Drew, we see how the switch went down, as well as how the Skrulls have orchestrated things as far back as New Avengers #1, and even M-Day. Always great to see Jim Cheung on a book like this as well. His art is spot on, and Bendis’ masterpiece just gets deeper and deeper.

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