- Avengers/X-Men: Bloodties – Bob Harras, Andy Kubert et. al. Meh. I mean, honestly, why do people like the Scarlet Witch? I don’t get it at all.
- Uncanny X-Men, Volume 4: vs S.H.I.E.L.D. – Brian Michael Bendis & Chris Bachalo. Solid, but not particularly memorable. Can we take a minute to talk about Magik’s costume though? Why so insanely slutty?
- The Wake – Scott Snyder & Sean Gordon Murphy. A fairly decent start but then it jumped forward in time and totally lost my interest.
- Pretty Deadly, Volume 1 – Kelly Sue DeConnick, Jodie Bellair & Emma Rios. I wanted to like this story about Death’s daughter, I really did, but it didn’t float my boat at all.
- Amazing X-Men, Volume 2: World War Wendigo – Kathryn Immonen et. al. A surprisingly fun read.
- Ferney – James Long. I picked this up after seeing it referenced in The Guardian. The claim made was that it was a more inventive (and earlier) version of The Time Traveler’s Wife. I love The Time Traveler’s Wife so Ferney sounded amazing. Imagine my disappointment when I found myself having to slog through it. The central relationship between Ferney and Gally was okay, but I never became particularly invested in it. Most unfortunately of all, I found the flashbacks to their past lives pretty dull and my heart sank every time I had to read another one. The cover was pretty blah too, which is never a good sign.
- X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills – Chris Claremont & Brent Anderson. A classic X-Men title that, slightly histrionic storytelling aside, more or less holds up today.
- X-Treme X-Men, Volume 2: You Can’t Go Home Again – Greg Pak, Stephen Segovia & Raul Valdes. Still not a massive fan of dimension hopping, but an okay read.
- Mind the Gap, Volume 2: Wish You Were Here – Jim McCann & Rodin Esquejo. This series continues to be a great read, with twists and turns galore. Still loving it.
- Mind the Gap, Volume 3: Out of Bodies – Jim McCann & Rodin Esquejo. See above.
- East of West, Volume 2: We Are All One – Jonathan Hickman & Nick Dragotta. Still no. So over the western genre in comics, even if it is supposed to be happening in a post-apocalyptic world.
- Trigger Warning – Neil Gaiman. Zoomed through this one. I’m never really a fan of Gaiman’s poems, but I loved a lot of the short stories. (PS I still haven’t read The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Meep!)
- Love Letters to the Dead – Ava Dellaira. I picked this up from an LGBT display I’d put together at work and ended up loving it. In trying to deal with her sister’s death, Laurel writes letters to dead celebrities, and they’re beautiful, and honest, and painful. Recommended for all YA fans.
- Slaine: The Brutania Chronicles, Book One: A Simple Killing – Pat Mills & Simon Davis. Slaine is a series that I’ve always wanted to enjoy but I’m not sure if I’ve ever really managed it. I love the mythology, but I’m never particularly interested in the storylines, and this volume only confirmed that.
- Little Boy Lost – Marghanita Laski. It’s probably naïve of me, but I never realised that there were so many displaced and unclaimed children at the end of World War II. This is the story of Hilary who returns to France after the war in search of his lost son, which is slightly harrowing in itself, but when Hilary finds a boy that might be his son, his struggle to decide whether or not the boy is his is heart-rending. The best thing about this book is that the emotional material is dealt with in almost dispassionate way. The writing is matter of fact rather than flowery, which serves the story really well.
- Moone Boy: The Blunder Years – Chris O’Dowd & Nick V. Murphy. This was a fun little read, but I wanted to love it so much more than I did. Although it maintains the humour of the TV programme, and uses the same super cute illustrations, it doesn’t quite match up to it.
- X-Men, Volume 3: Bloodline – Brian Wood & Matteo Buffagni. I always approve of Jubilee taking centre stage, even if the baby daddy from the future storyline was a bit ridiculous.
- Wolverine and the X-Men, Volume 1: Tomorrow Never Learns – Jason Latour & Mahmud Asrar. Not as fun as the previous Wolverine and the X-Men run, but not the worst ever. Plus, the more I see of Doop, the more I like him.
- Savage Wolverine: Kill Island – Frank Cho. Dear Shanna the She-Devil, doesn’t your torso get all scratched up when you run around the Savage Land half naked?
- Sheltered, Volume 2 – Ed Brisson & John Christmas. A solid continuation, but not one that inspired me to pick up the next volume.
- Todd, the Ugliest Kid on Earth, Volume 1 – M.K. Perker & Ken Kristensen. I picked this up from the library pretty much just because it was there (I’ll give pretty much anything in the graphic novel section a try). Happily, it was totally worth a read. Todd has to wear a paper bag over his face because he’s no ugly. For some reason, this makes everyone act like a total bastard to him, but Todd never lets it dampen his spirits. Off-beat and enjoyable.
- The Language of Dying – Sarah Pinborough. A beautiful, haunting read that adds a slight supernatural edge to an exploration of how death affects everyone differently.
- Pivot Point – Kasia West. I enjoyed the premise of this novel, as well as the more sci-fi elements, but I wasn’t overly taken by the story itself.
- The Silver Darlings – Will Morris. A Scottish coming-of-age story with beautiful artwork.
- Morning Glories Deluxe Collection, Volume 1 – Nick Spencer, Joe Eisman & Rodin Esquejo. Morning Glory Academy is an elite boarding school, it’s also weird as fuck. The storytelling style reminded me a bit of Lost, in that you have a basic premise that’s riddled with odd, inexplicable things, and characters who are never quite what they seem. In other words, it’s interesting and generally awesome.
- Ultimate Comics X-Men, Volume 3 – Brian Wood & Alvaro Martinez. I’m a fan of evil Jean Grey, she’s pretty epic. And I really like the Ultimate Comics version of Kitty Pryde, who’s conflicted but spremely confident.
- All-New X-Men, Volume 2: Here to Stay – Brian Michael Bendis & Stuart Immonen. And speaking of interesting versions of Kitty Pryde, Kitty Pryde as kick-ass mentor also works really well.
- All-New X-Men, Volume 4: All-Different – Brian Michael Bendis & Stuart Immonen. I have never been a fan of X-23 and I am definitely not a fan of her addition to this title. Do I want to read a Cyclops/X-23 romance? No, I really, really do not.
- Daredevil, Volume 1: Devil at Bay – Mark Waid & Chris Samnee. I didn’t find much to like in this, to be honest. Totally unremarkable.