THE HUMAN TORCH Vol. 2 wraps up Johnny Storm’s Silver Age strip in Strange Tales, which improves on the first volume but not by much. The improvement is adding Ben Grimm rather than keeping Johnny a solo act but the stories and art — mostly by an assortment of Marvel second-raters — still leave this one of the weakest series of the Silver Age. Switching to Nick Fury, Agent of Shield in #135 was a genius move.
POSTAL by Matt Hawkins, Bryan Edward Hill and Isaac Goodheart, deals with an Asperger’s postal worker in a town where the population consists entirely of wanted criminals. Keeping the peace is essential because they don’t want outside attention but that understanding is beginning to break down … The central character didn’t come off like a character, just a disability, so I dropped this after the first issue.
BITTER ROOT: Legacy by David F. Walker, Chuck Brown and Sanford Greene wraps up the Sangereye saga for now as they struggle to save Earth from a demon invasion and worry all their work against the Jinoo has been nothing but a futile effort. This is a poor finish after the strong opening volume Family Business (and the follow-up, Rage and Redemption): the plotline bounces around so much I really wasn’t clear what was going on or why, or what the final battle with the Nazis means.
#SFWApro. Cover by Jack Kirby all rights to image remain with current holder.
