Author: Brandon Carlisle

Hawkeye: Freefall #5 Marvel Comics Writer: Matthew Rosenberg Artist: Otto Schmidt For the most part, Hawkeye: Freefall is a wacky, light-hearted story about Hawkeye coming up with increasingly-insane plans and trying to hide them from the other Avengers. In this penultimate issue, however, things start to become more focused and more serious. Not too much more serious, but enough to give the feeling of real stakes and a determination for defeating The Hood. Clint Barton has been dressing up as Ronin while trying to take down The Hood as a way to keep The Avengers from finding out. The Avengers would…

Strange Adventures (2020-) #4 DC Comics Writer: Tom King Artists: Mitch Gerads & Evan “Doc” Shaner Strange Adventures is a series with something to hide. The tension is rising with every issue, and the situation is getting more complex. The story is unraveling slowly, and there’s much that is still to be uncovered. How long until things come crashing down? Only time will tell. Adam Strange is still under fire as the scandal about him continues, with Mr. Terrific leading the investigation. In this issue, we get to see Mr. Terrific in full detective mode as he arrives at the…

Suicide Squad #7 DC Comics Writer: Tom Taylor Artists: Daniel Sampere, Juan Albarran, Adriano Lucas, & Wes Abbott The Suicide Squad has gone through a lot together in this run, and their bond is now starting to be felt in the story. Some surprising warmth is given to the characters, and this makes them feel stronger. This issue focuses more on Deadshot, adds more depth to the characters, and sets up the next exciting chapter excellently. The Suicide Squad has gone AWOL in the past two issues, escaping from their previous commander as well as Batman. Deadshot previously learned…

Empyre: X-Men #1 Marvel Comics Writers: Jonathan Hickman & Tini Howard Artists: Matteo Buffagni & Nolan Woodard Empyre’s main event has been set up to be a large-scale story with dramatic tension and questions of morality. This X-Men tie-in, however, takes a different approach. This story instead is a goofy, fun adventure with some of the lesser-known mutants. Following the Cotati’s rise to power during the events of Empyre #1, the species lands in Genosha in preparation for an attack on Wakanda. X-Men fans will remember Genosha as being the site of a horrible mutant massacre at the hands of The…

Tartarus #4 Image Comics Writer: Johnnie Christmas Artist: Jack T. Cole Tartarus is a science-fiction/space-fantasy story focusing on action and drama.  With a wide variety of characters and locations, there a lot of moving parts working to create a rather-ambitious plot. With the complexity of it all, some things end up being confusing, but overall it’s an exciting and imaginative story. In the previous issue, our characters arrived at the colony of Tartarus. Right off the bat, the citizens showed themselves to be ruthless and the streets riddled with crime. The protagonist, Tilde, who fled her community, soon ran…

The Ludocrats #3 Image Comics Writers: Kieron Gillen and Jim Rossignol Artists: Jeff Stokely and Tamra Bonvillain The Ludocrats is a brightly-colored, foul-mouthed, dirty-minded series. With it comes a lot of humor and charm. I wasn’t fully on-board from the start, but this issue feels like the pieces are finally starting to come together and the full potential of the story is on display. The previous issue ended with our wacky group of characters saving the protagonist’s love interest: a part-locomotive/part-human(?) woman named Gratty. She possesses information relating to the villain’s plans, and so the group decides to torture…

Hamilton Director: Thomas Kail Starring: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Daveed Diggs, Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 160 minutes I would like to preface this review by saying that I am not the biggest fan of musicals. Hamilton is one that I have heard about for years, and with a live recording of the musical coming to Disney+, I decided to give it a shot. What I found was a fascinating, engaging, and enchanting show that I can’t stop thinking about. If you somehow haven’t heard of Hamilton, it is a Broadway musical that became a…

Immortal Hulk #35 Marvel Comics Writer: Al Ewing Artists: Mike Hawthorne, Mark Morales, and Paul Mounts Al Ewing has established a wild and complex story in the past thirty-four issues of Immortal Hulk. As much as I love it, I’ll admit that things can often get confusing. With the multiple identities of Bruce Banner and The Hulk, and the many callbacks to previous Hulk runs, it’s easy to feel lost at times. In this issue, Ewing does something different. He steps back a little and lets us all catch up. And with that, he creates a great jumping-on point…