Portents by Sarah Cawkwell (Book Review)

I’ve mentioned before, repeatedly so, that Sarah Cawkwell is one of my favourite authors right now, and has been since about late 2010 or so, ever since I started reading her short stories in Black Library’s monthly magazine, Hammer & Bolter, which is sadly discontinued now. She’s one of the best examples of fans of Black Library to have come up through the ranks to become a bona fide author for the publisher and pretty much everything that she has written to date has been spectacular or close it, even her original stuff such as The Ballad of Gilrain or Uprising.

Sarah is most noted for her Silver Skulls fiction for Warhammer 40,000 where she has taken the so-named Space Marine Chapter under her umbrella and told some really fascinating stories about characters from across the Chapter’s many and varied ranks. The most recent Silver Skulls fiction is the (currently) digital-only novel Portents, released just a few weeks ago. In it, she carries forwards threads she introduced in her previous work, whether short stories or her debut novel The Gildar Rift, and it is a most satisfying read indeed. It was great to have Sergeant Gileas Ur’ten back again for another outing, a sizable one this time, and the exploration of the Chapter culture in itself was most fascinating.

Inhuman #7 (Comics Review)

Marvel’s Inhuman has a title that comes with a lot of baggage. Initially it was to be a part of a new mini-event resulting from the end of last year’s Infinity. But the creative differences between writer Matt Fraction and Marvel Editorial meant that Inhumanity didn’t really go anywhere and when Inhuman finally was released as an ongoing with writer Charles Soule at the helm, there were several delays that soured my experience. It didn’t help that the first arc involving Lash was really awkward at times, both art and story, though there was indeed some promise and only recently has the title really improved.

With the end of the arc involving the Inhuman villain Lash, we launched into a new arc involving an old foe of Black Bolt and Medusa, the Unspoken. Things have been pretty damn intense for a while, but everything has centered around Medusa rebuilding what her people have lost. New Attilan is now home to the surviving Inhumans as well as the NuHumans who have come about thanks to Black Bolt releasing the Terrigen Mists on the world. Charles Soule’s writing has gotten steadily better, and even the art has been an upshot of late since Ryan Stegman stepped in for Joe Madureira. But the burning question remains: what happened to Black Bolt?

Fantastic Four #12 (Comics Review)

Things are really beginning to heat up in James Robinson’s run on Fantastic Four. We’ve seen Marvel’s first family broken apart as a schism forms between Ben and Johnny, the team loses its home in the Baxter Building, and the children of the Future Foundation are taken away by SHIELD, and more. It is some really rough stuff and James has certainly not skimped on the whole doom and gloom though he has thankfully restrained from making it out-and-out grimdark. Which is where Peter Parker comes in at the tail-end of Fantastic Four #11, providing a ray of hope for the team.

Fantastic Four #12 is a huge turning point in the series. Ever since the title’s debut a few months ago, we’ve seen Marvel’s first family only react to the events unfolding around them. They’ve never really been in charge of things. Sue attempted to take back control when she briefly fought against the Avengers a while back and when she went to Latveria to get Valeria back, but by and large, the team has only fallen into a sorrier state. But now things are different. Now the team’s allies, the real allies I’d say, are gathering, and for the first time there is some real hope here for everyone.

Arrow Season 2.5 #5 (Comics Review)

CW’s Arrow has begun to find its groove in its new third season, and it has also started casting the net really wide when it comes to characters and events, with the most recent episode last week going back in time to a rather key moment in season 1. But of course, some of the more burning questions are related to what has happened in between the second season finale and the third season premiere, which is where Arrow Season 2.5 from writers Marc Guggenheim and Keto Shimizu comes in. Up until now we’ve seen some pretty nifty stuff with the Church of Blood and it looks like things are finally drawing to a close on that front.

The latest issue of Arrow Season 2.5 pits Oliver and Diggle directly against the Church of Blood as they finally learn more about it and have a location to match. Being as short a comic as it is, things move a little too quickly for my tastes, but it addresses some really key things such as Clinton Hogue recognizing Diggle and Felicity from when they kidnapped him last season to find out Sebastian Blood’s whereabouts and also what is going on with Officer Lance. Plus the Kahndaq backup, while altogether brief once again, is pretty cool and really sets the stage for the return of the Suicide Squad.

Grimm Fairy Tales: Robyn Hood #3 (Comics Review)

When Zenescope decided to move forward the clock on all of its main titles to a year after the events of Grimm Fairy Tales #100, with the intervening time being covered in the Realm War: Age of Darkness mini-series, it was a pretty great decision for the publisher. It allowed for new stories to be told with new characters without the express baggage of an event that had been going on almost a year, and now here we are. I’m not sure what exactly is the continuity of this new Robyn Hood title, but I don’t really care since Pat Shand and Claudia Balboni have been hitting up almost all the right notes with this.

Robyn Hood #3 is the end of the first arc of this new ongoing series, and it brings things to a rather satisfying conclusion as far as I’m concerned. Pat Shand moves things along at a very brisk pace but that also allows him to setup some future arcs, and introduce the big bad villains as well, so that’s not a big point of contention. Marion and Robyn kicked a lot of ass in this issue, and it was really fun to see the two of them bond together in the end. The art is a bit too clean and lacking hard texture, but it was still good, especially the fight scenes in, about, the middle third of the isse.