Marco Checchetto

Spring 2020;

I really ended up liking this one, honestly.
For one, the art is absolutely gorgeous and consistent.

For two, I like that these pieces between and around the first trilogy movies really show you the learning, growing, uncertain edges of everyone. There's so much struggle going on for both Obi-Wan and Anakin in this time and place. I love the dedication, the yearning, the searching to belong, to be the person someone else wants you to be or the person you are (/the person you show more might be).

I had several tiny heart clutch moments, like when we get the word-to-word revelation Obi-Wan would have left with child Anakin if he left the order (because he now has a dedication to Anakin and who he *might* be, the Qui-Gon believed he was, more than his place in the Order even), and on the otherside that adorable "Then, we'll save each other!" from Anakin when they're both having that heart-to-heart on the ship.

All in love, a delightful, feelsy, jedi romp. show less

Folks seem to be split on whether or not this comic was any good. I think it comes down to if your a prequel fan (flaws and all), a Charles Soule fan, and a fan of Checchetto's art. If you are, you're in luck. This is an intriguing comic. Set between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, Obi-Wan and pre-teen Padawan Anakin are sent to investigate a distress signal on a planet that is supposed to be abandoned. The debris field around the planet is almost impossible to get through and show more they crash land. They soon find their are survivors on the planet and they are at war. In fact, the war has been going on for so long that no one knows which side actually destroyed the atmosphere by unleashing poisonous gas. We also get some flashbacks of Anakin and Palpatine working together, showing just how early Palpatine was working towards influencing Anakin to the dark side and using his power for his political gain and reign of terror. You begin to see that Anakin was questioning his apprenticeship from a young age. The turn to the dark side doesn't just come out of left field in Revenge of the Sith! The seed of doubt and internal struggle that lead to such a decision was planted long before. The characterization of Obi-Wan felt consistent with the films and Marco Checchetto art is spectacular. He creates a fully realized alien world that somehow felt fresh and new and at the same time, familiar in that Star Wars sort of way. show less

AAAAAAH.

This graphic novel was everything I loved about the original trilogy The Force Awakens. It had all my original favourites: Leia, Luke, Han, Lando, PLUS Poe's parents, so it was the best of both worlds, old and new.

All my old favourites (the original trio Lando) were beautifully in character, from Han and Lando's playful banter, through Leia being a badass, all the way to Luke being a huge drama queen. While I feel like we didn't really get to know Kes Dameron in this Volume, Shara show more Bey was pretty much the main character, and she was amazing at it.

There were several fight scenes, and I admit that I sometimes found them annoying or difficult to read, but nothing tops the teamwork between Leia, Shara and the Queen of Naboo. Queen Soruna was a huge badass and I suddenly want to know more about her.

And that ending, man!! The ending!! The compassion and hope and family that we learned to expect and love in this series! I love it. show less

Once again Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk unleashes his inner Ahab against his white whale, Daredevil. This time he tries to bring all the other superheroes down with Daredevil, using his position as mayor to ban their presence in the city of New York and unleashing the Thunderbolts to arrest anyone in costume.

There are enough of the required cool moments to keep superhero fans happy -- "The law's an ass," and " . . . be born again," stood out for me -- but a lot of this feels recycled from events show more and comics we've seen before. It's done well but also feels very been-there-done-that. And the consequences of the event feel pretty low-key, with no big death or change for the Marvel Universe, though the fallout leaves some heroes in intriguing new set-ups for the coming year.

My biggest whine is that several of the heroes and villains don't even get named in the story. For instance, I wasn't aware of Miles Morales' new costume and didn't even know he was one of the Spider-Men in the book until after I finished and was looking up information about the book. Of course, that's also a problem caused by Marvel stupidly having so many characters share the same code name.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contains material originally published in magazine form as Devil's Reign (2021) #1-6 and Devil's Reign: Omega (2022) #1.

Contents:
• Devil's Reign, Chapters 1-6 / Chip Zdarsky, writer; Marco Checchetto, artist
• Devil's Reign: Omega - "Fall and Rise" / Chip Zdarsky, writer; Rafael de Latorre, artist
• Devil's Reign: Omega - "Cleaning House" / Jim Zub, writer; Luciano Vecchio, artist
• Devil's Reign: Omega - "Mayor for Hire" / Rodney Barnes, writer; Guillermo Sanna, artist
• Cover Gallery and Sketchbook / Mark Bagley, Peach Momoko, John Romita Jr., Skottie Young, Klaus Janson, Jim Cheung, Jorge Fornes, Joshua Swaby, Leinil Francis Yu, Ron Lim, Dan Panosian, Paulo Siqueira, Logan Lubera, Alex Maleev, Rod Reis, Marco Checchetto, and Luciano Vecchio, illustrators show less