Dark Knights: Metal★★★☆☆
Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, and Jonathan Glapion The art is great, and the scope is ambitious, but the story follows the same beats as Final Crisis.
Doom Patrol★★★★☆An absurd, character-focused, darkly humorous, psychological take on people with the super-power/body horror combo.
The Downloaded★★★★☆
Robert J. Sawyer A short, fast tale of frozen people reawakening after the fall of civilization, built around the premise that you need to keep a frozen person’s consciousness active in VR, and there are very different reasons you might put people into cryo storage and a simulation. Not a lot of plot, mainly concepts and character studies.
Final Crisis (Audio and Graphic Novel)It actually flows better than the comic book, especially toward the end, when the comic starts fragmenting the narrative.
Final Crisis: Revisiting the Tie-InsSuperman Beyond is essential. Submit and Reqiuem show the street-level perspective. Rogues Revenge is not a good as I remember.
The Gathering Storm (Wheel of Time Book 12)
Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson Events move rapidly toward the apocalypse foretold in book one, and Sanderson shows he was a good choice to finish Jordan’s series.
iZombie (graphic novels)★★★★★
Chris Roberson, Mike & Laura Allred, Todd Klein A horror/comedy that ranges from Scooby Doo to Lovecraft by way of Moorcock, featuring thinking zombies, vampires who run paintball, ghosts, secret societies, and a were-terrier. Off the wall concepts and a clean, sharp art style that contrasts with the monsters and gore. The TV series was loosely based on these comics.
Overgrowth★★★☆☆
Mira Grant Invasion of the Body Snatchers from the POV of an alien plant person who grew up human. Now the invasion has started, and she’s sorting out friends, family, and who she can trust from either planet.
Parable of the Sower★★★★★
Octavia Butler Hard to put down. And hard to pick up again. It’s certainly not a fun book, but it’s extremely engaging, despite the bleakness of the slow-apocalypse setting and story.
Star Trek: Discovery - Season 2★★★☆☆The stand-alone episodes are good, and the Burnham/Spock family dynamics, but the main arc gets really frustrating in the second half.
When The Moon Hits Your Eye★★★★☆
John Scalzi A fast, enjoyable read with a few gut punches hidden throughout. Not so much about the moon turning into cheese as how lots of different people react to the moon turning into cheese.
