Annual Miscellanea - 2016

All the random comics and TV shows I read and watched over the last year.

* = designates titles I'm revisiting from the past.


Comics


Action Force [from Battle] (1983)
- 422 "Blood for the Baron (1)" Liked it. Zero characterization, but good action hook, dig the art.
- 423 "Blood for the Baron (2)" Liked it.
- 424 "Blood for the Baron (3)" Liked it. "Dance for me, Goddess!"
- 425 "Blood for the Baron (4)" Liked it. Really fun opening arc. Love the art.
- 428 "Ironblood's Revenge" So-so. Exciting, just still flat as a table regarding characters.
- 430 "Jungle Ambush" Liked it. Surprisingly gritty.
- 432 "Desert Victory" Liked it.

Adventures of Supergirl (2016)
- 1 So-so. Not sure why they felt the need to make over half the issue a recap instead of focusing more on the immediate story.
- 2 Liked it.

After School Nightmare (2004-2005)
* 1 Liked it.
* 2 So-so.
* 3 So-so.
* 4 Liked it.
* 5 So-so.
* 6 Liked it.

Alpha Flight (1983-1987)
* 1 "Tundra" Loved it. Solid pilot, no surprise this became the hit it did.
* 2 "Shadows of the Past" Liked it.
- 3 "Yesterday Man" Liked it.
- 4 "Resolutions" So-so.
- 5 "What Fools These Mortals Be" Liked it. Great way to finally flesh out Puck as a character.
- 6 "Snowblind" Liked it. Tho can't tell if Byrne's being inventive or lazy with his gimmick here.
- 7 "The Importance of Being Deadly" So-so. Great art as always, just not hooked by this setup. In which Northstar gets caught in a mystery involving his past while struggling to come to terms with Aurora's split personality.
- 8 "Cold Hands, Cold Hearts" Liked it. Good conclusion, really like the character of Nemesis and want to know more.
- 9 "Things Aren't Always What They Seem" Liked it.
- 10 "Blood Battle" Liked it.
- 11 "Set-Up" Loved it.
- 12 "And One Shall Surely Die" Liked it. Even knowing it was coming, that was a jawdropper of a twist.
- 13 "Nightmare" Liked it.
- 14 "Biology Class" Some shockingly dark bits, but liked it.
- 15 "Blind Date" So-so.
- 16 "And Forsaking All Others" Liked it.
- 17 "Dreams Die Hard" The middle reprint was an unnecessary drag, but liked everything around it.
- 18 "How Long Will a Man Lie in the Earth 'ere He Rot?" Liked it.
- 19 "Turn Again, Turn Again, Time in Thy Flight" Liked it.
- 20 "Gold and Love Affairs" Liked it.
- 21 "Love Wrought New Alchemy" Liked it.
- 22 "Rub-Out" So-so. Byrne continuing to just not get fat people.
- 23 "Night of the Beast" Liked it.
- 24 "Final Conflict" So-so. Starts well enough, nothing bad, just felt flat for most of it.
- 25 "And Grave Give Up Their Dead" Liked it. Tho hoping there's a twist coming, because this is a stretch of a retcon.
- 26 "If at First You Don't Succeed" Liked it. Ok, THAT sold the retcon twist.
- 27 "Betrayal" Liked it.
- 28 "[Secret Wars II] Cross-Over" Liked it. Thus ends the Byrne era. I never fell in love with his Alpha Flight, but it was skilled, entertaining, and consistently strong throughout.
- 29 "Cut Bait and Run" Liked it. Good start to Mantlo's run, even tho the difference in style is a little jarring. Also cool to see an early Mignola comic before he really developed his signature style. His layouts are already fantastic.
- 30 "Enter, Scramble" So-so.
- 31 "The Grateful Dead" Liked it. Great sequel to the Nemesis / Deadly Earnest story.
- 32 "Short Story" So-so. Very well executed, especially powerful art from Bogdanove, but Mantlo's new Puck origin is more than a bit in poor taste, and diminishes more than it enriches him.
- 33 "A Friend in Need" Liked it. Sal Buscema! Debut of Lady Deathstrike, start of Logan's Weapon X backstory.
- 34 "Honor" Liked it.
- 35 "The Child is Father to the Man" Liked it.
- 36 "Labor Pains" Liked it.
- 37 "Death Birth" Liked it.
- 38 "Pestilence" So-so. A still entertaining mess of questionable choices.
- 39 "The Invasion of Atlantis" Liked it.
- 40 "Love" Liked it. Whatever Mantlo's issues on this book, there's times that he nails it.
- Annual 1 "Homebody" Liked it. Poor, pathetic Diablo.
- 41 "It's Not Easy Being Purple" Liked it. Introduction of Kara Killgrave.
- 42 "Auction" Liked it.
- 43 "Strike Across the Border" Liked it.
- 44 "Plague" So-so. Some twists that could be powerful were it not a muddled story.
- 45 "Resurrection" Liked it. Takes some... questionable turns, but curious how they'll play out.

Appleseed (1985)
* 2 "Civvy Street" Liked it.
* 3 "Even Bets" Liked it.

The Avengers (1969)
- 61 "Some Say the World Will End in Fire, Some Say in Ice" Liked it.
- 62 "The Monarch and the Man-Ape" So-so. Exciting, well-drawn, but has a very mixed message on African culture that Roy Thomas probably wasn't the best choice to be the one to explore.
- 63 "And in this Corner, Goliath" So-so. The one where Hawkeye becomes Goliath.
- 64 "Like a Death Ray in the Sky" Liked it.
- 65 "Mightier Than the Sword" So-so.
- 66 "Betrayal" Loved it. Debut of adamantium. Great build to a stunning, classic twist. The art's stunning at times. Barry Smith was still in his rough era, but his inventive layouts shine under the masterful inks of Syd Shores.
- 67 "We Stand at Armageddon" Loved it.
- 68 "And We Battle for the Earth" Liked it, but doesn't fully live up to the epic setup. I love Sal, but he's not Barry Smith.
- 69 "Let the Game Begin" Liked it. Debut of the Squadron Sinister.

Beauty and the Beast (1984-1985)
- 1 So-so. The Beast/Dazzler team-up.
- 2 "Heartbreak Hotel" Didn't like it.
- 3 "Showtime" Hated it.
- 4 "Checkmate" Didn't like it. The whole mini is a waste of a good hook concept. Perlin's art is bland and flat, Nocenti's writing is chaotic and random to the point of being unreadable at times. Just avoid.

The Black Knight and Captain Britain [from Hulk Comic UK / Incredible Hulk Weekly] (1980)
- 1 So-so.
- 3 So-so.
- 4 Liked it. Nice return for Captain Britain. The Paul Neary/John Stokes art is gorgeous.
- 5 Liked it.
- 6 Liked it.
- 7 Liked it. This is developing very nicely into an urban high fantasy epic. It's a very clever use of these characters.
- 8 Liked it.
- 9 Liked it.
- 10 Liked it.
- 11 Liked it.
- 12 Liked it.
- 13 Liked it.
- 14 Liked it.
- 15 So-so.
- 16 Liked it.
- 17 Liked it.
- 18 Liked it.
- 19 Liked it.
- 20 Liked it.
- 21 So-so.
- 22 Liked it.
- 23 Liked it.
- 24 Liked it.
- 25 Liked it.
- 26 Liked it.
- 27 Liked it.
- 28 Liked it.
- 29 Liked it.
- 30 Liked it.
- 42 Liked it.
- 43 Liked it.
- 44 Liked it.
- 45 Loved it.
- 46 Liked it.
- 47 Liked it.
- 48 Liked it.
- 49 Liked it.
- 50 Liked it.
- 51 Loved it.
- 52 Liked it.
- 53 Liked it.
- 54 Liked it.
- 55 Liked it.
- 57 Liked it.
- 58 Liked it.
- 59 Liked it.
- 60 Liked it.
- 61 Liked it.
- 62 Loved it.
- 63 Loved it. The series did wander a little before veering to the finale, but I still really enjoyed it. Between this and Demon Knights, I want more superhero high fantasy.

The Books of Magic (1990-1991)
- 1 "The Invisible Labyrinth" Liked it.
- 2 "The Shadow World" Loved it.
- 3 "The Land of Summer's Twilight" Liked it.
- 4 "The Road to Nowhere" Loved it. This entire mini has definitely been among the best works I've read from Gaiman. Fantastic.

The Books of Magic (1994-1997)
- 1 "Bindings (1): Tearing Down" Liked it.
- 2 "Bindings (2): A Book of Leaves" Liked it.
- 3 "Bindings (3): Closing Circles" Liked it.
- 4 "Bindings (4): Lost Causes" Loved it.
- 5 "The Hidden School" Liked it.
- 6 "Sacrifices (1): Instruments" Liked it.
- 7 "Sacrifices (2): Victims" Liked it.
- 8 "Sacrifices (3): Altars" So-so. I still like a lot of what's in this arc, but it doesn't stick the landing. Ultimately feels kinda rushed and anti-climactic.
- 9 "The Artificial Heart (1): Handmedowns of the Ragged School" Liked it.
- 10 "The Artificial Heart (2): Bleak Houses, Hard Times" Liked it.
- 11 "The Artificial Heart (3): The Climbing Boy" Liked it. Though again, more than a bit anticlimactic. I'm noticing a bit of a pattern in Rieber's plotting where, instead of stories moving to a climax, after he builds a thread, he'll find a way to just kind of abruptly end it, leaving things a bit deflated and squandered. I'm hoping this is something that starts to work its way out as the run continues.
- 12 "Small Glass Worlds (1): Missing Colors" Liked it.
- 13 "Small Glass Worlds (2): Transparent Lies" Liked it, tho a sudden retcon feels like unnecessary waffling.
- 14 "What Fire Leaves Us" So-so. Again, odd waffling for this early in a series.
- 15 "Playgrounds (1): Hell and Back" Liked it.
- 16 "Playgrounds (2): Tag, You're It" Liked it.
- 17 "Playgrounds (3): Deformative Years" Liked it.
- 18 "Playgrounds (4): Boys Will Be Boys" Liked it.
- 19 "Playgrounds (5): Really-Pretend" Liked it.
- 20 "Playgrounds (6): The Knight, the Dragon, and the Maiden" Liked it.
- 21 "Heavy Petting" So-so.
- 22 "Needlepoint" Loved it.
- 23 "Red Rover, Red Rover" So-so. Good stuff, but the plotting keeps getting so jumbled and random.
- 24 "And Sure In Language Strange She Said" Liked it.
- 25 "Used to Bes" Loved it. Really hoping Death continues to be a recurring character.
- 26 "Rites of Passage (Prologue): Into Thin Air" Liked it. Though again, such quick back-tracking in the writing.
- 27 "Rites of Passage (1): Down with That" Liked it.
- 28 "Rites of Passage (2): This is Not About Chocolate" Liked it.
- 29 "Rites of Passage (3): Singing in the Dry" Liked it.
- 30 "Rites of Passage (4): Shells" Liked it.
- 31 "Rites of Passage (5): I'll Hold Your Breath" Liked it.
- 32 "Rights of Passage (6): Drowning in Place" So-so. Some nice bits, but hard to follow everything they threw in here.
- 33 "Rights of Passage (7): Purgatory Creek" Liked it.

Captain America (1969)
- 118 "The Falcon Fights On" So-so.
- 119 "Now Falls the Skull" Liked it.
- 120 "Crack-Up on Campus" Liked it.

Captain Britain (1977)
- 22 "Mayhem at Midnight" Didn't like it. Frustrating because there is a good underlying plot in this arc.
- 23 "The Night Big Ben Stood Still" Didn't like it.
- 24 "The Fall of the Fourth Reich?" Didn't like it. Not even John Buscema taking over the art is enough to save the clunky flatness of Friedrich's scripts and characters. Hell, John's not even bringing his A-game.
- 25 "Gathering of Gladiators" Didn't like it.
- 26 "Hickory, Dickory, Death" Didn't like it.
- 27 "Will You Never Win" Didn't like it.
- 28 "Night of the Hawk" Hated it.
- 29 "Lonely Are the Hunted" Hated it.
- 30 "Panic in Piccadilly" Hated it.
- 31 "In the Shadow of the Hawk" Hated it.
- 32 "Only the Strong Survive" Didn't like it.
- 33 "Even Heroes Bleed" So-so.
- 34 "An Odyssey of the Mind" Didn't like it. Though I do believe this is the first hint of Betsy "Psylocke" Braddock's psychic powers.
- 35 "That Camelot Might Live" So-so. I like that's they're trying to revisit and enrichen Cap's origin, and there are a few decent flourishes in there, but it's still flat.
- 36 "The Star-Spectre" Didn't like it.
- 37 "And the Highwayman Came Riding, Riding" So-so. Though Highwayman makes one hell of an entrance, and Len Wein taking over on writing is a definite plus.
- 38 "When Hero Turns Villain" So-so. So much for Wein sticking around.
- 39 "A Throne Threatened" So-so. This is where the book ends, with Cap's strip shifted into another series as a backup. I'm not surprised. The initial chapters were a fun pastiche of Lee/Kirby, but they lacked substance, and the book just slipped further and further into blandness and mediocrity. Some shifts in the last few were welcome and nice, but far too little far too late.

Captain Britain [from Super Spider-Man] (1977)
- 231 "Sea Fury" So-so.
- 232 "Death Duel" So-so.
- 233 "The Monster from the Murk" So-so.
- 234 "When the Star-Creature Strikes" So-so.
- 235 "Nightmare Castle" So-so.
- 236 "The Wrath of the Black Baron" So-so.
- 237 "When Terror Reings" So-so.
- 238 "Doom at Darkmoor" Didn't like it.
- 239 "Five Tickets to Terror" Didn't like it. After some moderately charming fun, this series is just devolving into random nonsense at this point.
- 240 "To Shrink in Fear" Didn't like it.
- 241 "A Madman's Whim" Didn't like it.
- 242 "Hell Island Climax" Didn't like it.
- 243 "When Slaymaster Strikes" So-so.
- 244 "Dogfight with Death" So-so.
- 245 "While London Gapes in HOrror" So-so.
- 246 "Tunnels of Terror" Didn't like it.
- 247 "The Devil and the Deep" Didn't like it. Officially the end of the first Captain Britain series. It did get a nice little injection of fun when Larry Lieber and Jim Lawrence took over writing, with a great run of art by Ron Wilson, but it never rose above being a series of bland and mediocre stories for a bland and mediocre hero, and feel more like unintentional throwbacks to the empty action of the Golden Age than anything else Marvel was putting out around the time. Even when it's quality and has good people involved, it feels half-assed, like everyone knows it's not working and don't care enough to figure out how to fix it. I've still got a little ways to go till the Moore/Davis stuff, but I'm curious to see what others try to do with Cap in the interim. (Which is going quite well so far. See: Black Knight above.)

Captain Britain [from Marvel Super-Heroes] (1981-1982)
- 377 "The Return of Captain Britain" So-so. This is where Alan Davis joins the team and redesigns the uniform. But wow, what an unexpected and weird tonal shift.
- 378 "Outcasts" Didn't like it. It's so wobbly and weird that it's hard to even follow.
- 379 "The Junkheap that Walked Like a Man" So-so.
- 380 "In Support of Darwin" Didn't like it.
- 381 "Rebirth" Didn't like it.
- 382 "Against the Realm" So-so.
- 383 "Face of Britain" So-so.
- 384 "Friends and Neighbours" So-so.
- 385 "Attack of the Binary Beings" So-so. Though a nice early taste of Alan Davis on writing duties.
- 386 "If the Push Should Fail" Didn't like it. As this issue ends, Alan Moore slides into the writing slot. Oh boy. Here we go. *hesitant wince*
- 387 "A Crooked World" So-so. Dammit Moore, why do you have to be so damned skilled at doing awful things.
- 388 "Graveyard Shift" Didn't like it. Not entirely due to Moore's grimdark fuckery (though there is that). I'm just pretty thoroughly done with this parallel universe story and am waiting for it to end.

Captain Britain [from Daredevils] (1983)
- 1 "A Rag, A Bone, A Hank of Hair" So-so. Though a nice refresher before changing course.
- 2 "An Englishman's Home" So-so.
- 3 "Thicker Than Water" Liked it. A major issue in X-Men lore as Betsy Braddock first reveals both her psionic abilities and purple hair.
- 4 "Killing Ground" Liked it.
- 5 "Executive Action" Liked it.
- 6 "Judgement Day" Liked it.
- 7 "Rough Justice" Liked it.
- 8 "Arrivals" Loved it.
- 9 "Waiting for the End of the World" Liked it.
- 10 "The Sound and the Fury" Liked it.
- 11 "But They Never Really Die" Liked it.

Captain Britain [from Mighty World of Marvel] (1983-1984)
- 7 "The Candlelight Dialogues" So-so.
- 8 "The Twisted World (Reprise)" So-so.
- 9 "Among Those Dark, Satanic Mills" Liked it.
- 10 "Anarchy in the UK" Liked it.
- 11 "Foolsmate" So-so.
- 12 "Endgame" So-so. Some fantastic bits, but messy end to a mess of an arc.
- 13 "A Funeral for an Otherworld" So-so.
- 14 "Bad Moon Rising" Liked it. Not one falter from Moore's departure.
- 15 "Tea and Sympathy" Loved it.
- 16 "In All the Old Familiar Places" Liked it.

Captain Britain (1985-1986)
- 1 "Pictures, Puzzles, and Pawns" Liked it. Jamie Delano's run off to a nice start.
- 2 "Law and Disorder" Think I liked it. So bizarre. Alan Davis is weird.
- 3 "Flotsam and Jetsam" Liked it.
- 4 "Sid's Story" So-so.
- 5 "Double Game" So-so. Muddled, and really, what the hell is that cliffhanger.
- 6 "A Long Way from Home" So-so. Expected to hate it, do hate part of it, but I like where things ultimately go.
- 7 "Things Fall Apart" So-so. Seriously, how many origins has Cap had in just a few years.
- 8 "Childhood's End" So-so.
- 9 "Winds of Change" Confused. Throws so much at us, but have no idea anymore how any of it goes together.
- 10 "African Nightmare" Didn't like it. I can't even.
- 11 "The House of Baba Yaga" So-so.
- 12 "Alarms and Excursions" Liked it.
- 13 "It's Hard to Be a Hero" So-so.
- 14 "Should Auld Acquaintance" Liked it. A good if abrupt finale. I'm glad I finally read the Davis stretch of Cap Britain, but his plotting is so chaotic, throwing in so much, exploring so little of it.

Captain Marvel (1969)
- 9 "Between Hammer and Anvil" So-so.
- 10 "Die, Traitor" Didn't like it.
- 11 "Rebirth" Wow. I don't even. Drake seems to be pouring his heart out with the writing, cramming it full of new ideas as he sets Cap up for a new status quo, and while there's stuff there I love, there's also stuff I hate, and it's mostly a muddled, boggling mess. And the tragic blend of Dick Ayers and Vince Colletta on art doesn't help. Ultimately going with didn't like it.
- 12 "The Moment of the Man-Slayer" So-so. And thus ends Arnold Drake's short run, which I really wanted to like a lot more than I ultimately did. It had moments of zing and his poppy inventiveness, but he felt stuck with bland, pre-existing characters he didn't get to create from the ground up, and it's a shame Stan tied him down by forcing him to write in a format he wasn't comfortable with (aka, the double-edge of the Marvel Method).
- 13 "Traitors or Heroes?" Didn't like it.
- 14 "When a Galaxy Beckons" Didn't like it.
- 15 "That Zo Might Live, a Galaxy Must Die" Liked it.

The Cherubim [from Captain Britain] (1985-1986)
- 11 "Playgrounds and Parasites (1)" So-so.
- 12 "Playgrounds and Parasites (2)" So-so.
- 13 "Playgrounds and Parasites (3)" So-so.
- 14 "Playgrounds and Parasites (4)" So-so.

The Children's Crusade (1993-1994)
- 1 "Nine Day's Wonder" (1993 comic) Liked it.
- Black Orchid Annual 1 "The Memoirs of an Epiphyte" / "The Wiles of Junkin Buckley" So-so. Interesting, but muddled.
- Animal Man Annual 1 "Misfit" Liked it.
- Swamp Thing Annual 7 "A Child's Garden Revisited" Liked it.
- Doom Patrol Annual 2 "The Wild, The Good, and the Grown-Up" So-so.
- Arcanna: The Books of Magic Annual 1 "Long Walks in Dancing Shoes" A little confusing to follow, but liked it.
- 2 Liked it. It is a little anticlimactic as the writers struggle to weave together and wrap up all the threads they've established, but for the most part, this was a really solid crossover series, a great sampler pack of this era of Vertigo, and a Sandman spinoff that could easily be read alongside the main series.

Chrono Crusade (2000)
- 7 "Ghost in the Watch" Didn't like it. So much for this comic being light on fanservice.
- 8 "Falling Rain" So-so.
- 9 "The Beginning" So-so.
- 10 "Two Decisions" Loved it. I've been a bit blah on the series to this point, but this is a fantastic origin story.
- 11 "To Move Forward Again" Liked it.
- 12 "Girl's Step" So-so. And of course, as soon as the epic backstory is done, things start stumbling around again.
- 13 "Raging Tornado" So-so.
- 14 "I am Here" So-so. This is among a stack of manga I've had sitting around that I'm finally getting through so as to weed out. I only had the first two volumes of this series and don't feel compelled to keep them. I might check out some more of the manga some day, as I do like the art and design, and some of the concepts, but I do find it clunky and very formulaic. I didn't mind reading this chunk, I just didn't really get all that invested in it.

Classic X-Men (1986-1987)
- 1 "First Night" So-so. Some iconic Logan/Jean stuff, but the whole framing sequence feels flat.
- 2 "First Friends" Liked it.
- 3 [revised reprint of Uncanny 95] Liked it. The extra page of Thunderbird characterization was a needed addition.
- 3 "Mourning" Liked it.
- 4 [revised reprint of Uncanny 96] Not the strongest issue to begin with, just adds some downtime shennanigans.
- 4 "The Big Dare" Liked it.
- 5 [revised reprint of Uncanny 97] Still so-so. Additions (mostly Havok) don't add much.
- 5 "Prison of the Heart" Loved it. Heartbreaking.
- 6 [revised reprint of issue 98] Like how additions expanded on team, but don't know why they blow Shaw's reveal so early now.
- 6 "A Love Story" Loved it. Holy crap!
- 7 [revised reprint of Uncanny 99] The Wolverine nugget is the only addition that matters.
- 7 "Out with the Old" So-so, but like the payoff.
- 8 [revised reprint of Uncanny 100] Just adds some more action beats, which is fine.
- 8 "Phoenix" Liked it. Well executed, but makes the infamous retcon even more convoluted.
- 9 [revised reprint of Uncanny 101] Adds a really key chunk exploring the immediate aftermath of Phoenix's debut.
- 9 "The Gift" So-so. Lovely, but ending fell flat for me.
- 10 [revised reprint of Uncanny 102] So little is changed in Storm's origin that I'm confused why they completely redrew it.
- 10 "Tag, Sucker" Liked it. Classic Wolvie/Sabretooth.
- 11 [revised reprint of Uncanny 103] Odd additions, mostly recap. Cuts a full page of Nightcrawler and the leprechauns.
- 11 "Hope" So-so. Starts as wonderful Claremont meta venting, then waffles, never settles with its theme.

Cloak and Dagger (1983-1984)
- 1 Liked it. Finally reading these after years of wanting to.
- 2 "Bellyfull of Blues" Loved it. Some of Mantlo's best writing.
- 3 "Dark is My Love, and Deadly" Liked it.
- 4 "True Confessions" Loved it. Especially glad we're getting a new tv series, as there's elements of their origins which are still massively relevant to today.

Cloak and Dagger (1985-1986)
- 1 "Sinners All" Loved it!
- 2 "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadows?" A little muddled, but liked it.
- 3 "Lost and Found" Loved it.
- 4 "[Secret Wars II] Ultimatums" Loved it. Now THAT'S how you do a fantastic Beyonder story.
- 5 "Mayhem" Liked it.
- 6 "Festival" Mayhem's needless lack of a shirt aside, loved it.
- 7 "Stowaways" Liked it. Early Silvestri's actually a great fit for this book.
- 8 "Vacation" Liked it. More Mignola!
- 9 "The Lady and the Unicorn" Liked it. Art Adams!

COPS (1988)
- 1 "Bad Vibes" So-so. Though, tonally, it starts off with a much better handle on this world and these characters than the cartoon did.
- 2 "The Long Cuff of the Law" Liked it.
- 3 "The Vibe Piper of Empire City" So-so. But holy crap is Bart Sears a bizarre and perfect fit for this series as artist.
- 4 "Sundown Hates Bugs" So-so.
- 5 "A Bowser and his Blitz" So-so.

Daredevil (1969-1970)
- 57 "In the Midst of Life" Didn't like it.
- 58 "Spin-Out on Fifth Avenue" So-so. Tho Roy does a good job of settling things back in order.
- 59 "The Torpedo Will Get You If You Don't Watch Out" Liked it. Good plot, great Shore inks over some of Colan's best.
- 60 "Showdown at Sea" Liked it.
- 61 "Trapped, by the Trio of Doom" So-so.
- 62 "Quoth the Nighthawk, Nevermore" Liked it.
- 63 "The Girl, or the Gladiator?" So-so.
- 64 "Suddenly, the Stunt-Master" So-so. Stunt master plot was nice, DD, not so much. In which Daredevil goes through a bad breakup and turns into a disturbingly thorough stalker.
- 65 "The Killing of Brother Brimstone" So-so. Not bad, but I'm completely confused by their choice of setup on this one.
- 66 "And One Cried Murder" So-so.
- 67 "Stilt-Man Stalks the Soundstage" So-so.
- 68 "Phoenix and the Fighter" Liked it.
- 69 "A Life on the Line" Liked it.

Dazzler (1981-1986)
- 6 "The Hulk May Be Hazardous to Your Health" Didn't like it.
- 7 "Fort Apache, the Hulk" Didn't like it.
- 8 "Hell. Hell is for Harry" So-so. Still clumsily executed, but this a great and necessary shift for the series to take, with stronger characterization, a grittier plot, and an intriguing new villain. Here's hoping the book is able to keep following this line with Fingeroth having taken over the writing.
- 9 "The Sound and the Fury" Liked it.
- 10 "In the Darkness a Light" So-so.
- 11 "Lest Ye Be Judged" So-so.
- 12 "Endless Hate" Liked it. Which isn't to say I find it all that good. It's still pretty bland and the Springer/Colletta art continues to be a mediocre mixed bag. However, now that Fingeroth is running on his own as a writer instead of being stuck with Tom DeFalco plots, the story is pulling together nicely, and taking a few quiet steps forward in terms of characters and direction. This has me curious to see how it fares for the rest of Danny's run.
- 13 "Trial and Terror" So-so. Still surprised at how dark they've suddenly taken this book. There's some neat aspects to the middle suddenly becoming a brutal prison drama, but also a lot that's really cheap and exploitative. The legal case surrounding it fares much better.
- 14 "Without Getting Killed or Caught" Liked it. Especially the great sequence of Dazzler and She-Hulk bonding while roaring down a street in a semi. Some great writing there.
- 15 "Private Eyes" So-so.
- 16 "Black Magic Woman" So-so.
- 17 "The Angel and the Octopus" So-so.
- 18 "The Absorbing Man Wants You" So-so. Geez, Warren Worthington III is a dick.
- 19 "Creel and Inhuman Treatment" Liked it. It's a shame this book is still plagued by the poor art team of Springer & Colletta, because Fingeroth continues to knock out some great stories, and this one is especially wonderful.
- 20 "Out of the Past" So-so.
- 21 "Alison Blaire, This is Your Life" Liked it. Solid finale to a lot of the threads they've been building. Looking forward to where they go from here.
- 22 "The Sisterhood" Liked it. The start of Dazzler and Rogue's rocky relationship.
- 23 "Fire in the Night" So-so.
- 24 "A Rogue in the House" So-so. I really want to love the Rogue/Dazzler rivalry more than the execution will let me.
- 25 "The Jagged Edge" So-so.
- 26 "Against the Wind" Liked it. I'm gonna miss Danny Fingeroth on this book. His writing was clumsy, he was stuck with mediocre artists, but he locked onto some really interesting storylines and figured out how to make this gimmick character interesting as a person.
- 27 "Fugitive" So-so. Though after all the work I've seen from him as an artist, it's cool to see Frank Springer take on writing duties too. It's not great writing, but nor is it bad.
- 28 "Vendetta" So-so. The big showdown between Daz and Rogue.
- 29 "Fame" So-so.
- 30 "The Debt" Liked it. Charming with some fun twists. And the depiction of young Bob Harras (really!) going editorially power mad is hilariously prescient.
- 31 "Tidal Wave" So-so. The romance is awful, but it's neat seeing Shooter briefly return as writer.
- 32 "Moon Lighting" Liked it.
- 33 "Chiller" So-so. Though it is a lot of fun at times. In which Dazzler and "Michael Jackson" team up to solve the mystery behind the director of an acclaimed horror music video. Yes, THAT music video.
- 34 "Where Have All the Models Gone?" So-so. Some lovely bits, but new creative team is as shoddy as the last. In which Dazzler teams up with Millie and Chillie (yes!) to solve the mystery of models who get lost on the runway.
- The Movie In which Dazzler goes public as a mutant while shooting her film debut. Didn't like it. I really hate the draging build of this awful romance, but post-reveal, there's some solid bits amidst the lousy.
- 35 "Brawl" Didn't like it. Fallout from The Movie was nice, rest of the story not so much. In which Dazzler teams up with Janet Jackson against a villainous roller derby team. Which sounds WAY more awesome than it is.
- 36 "The Human Touch" Liked it. Shame Linda Grant didn't write more of the book. Plot was so-so, but she has a really strong take on the character and themes.
- 37 "The Girl in the Machine" So-so. Lousy setup, but builds to better and better twists as it goes along.
- 38 "Challenge" Liked it. Archie Goodwin & Paul Chadwick! And nice debut of the blue suit.
- 39 "Deathgrip" Liked it.
- 40 "[Secret Wars II] Travelers" Liked it.
- 41 "Revelations" Liked it. So sad.
- 42 "Curtain" Liked it. Final issue of her solo series. As much as I dug this final stretch by Goodwin/Chadwick, it felt like an entirely different book, and I can't ultimately recommend the series as a whole. It has moments and good ideas, Dazzler's a cool character, but too much of the execution was shoody and mediocre.

Death's Head [from Transformers UK]
* 127 Liked it.

Death: The Time of Your Life (1996)
- 1 "Things You Just Do When You're Bored" Liked it.
- 2 "Imaginary Solutions" Liked it.
- 3 Liked it. Honestly, I think I've enjoyed both of these Death minis more than I have any single volume of Sandman. Some of Gaiman's best.

The Dreaming (1996)
- 1 "The Goldie Factor (1)" Liked it. More zany than I expected. In a good way.
- 2 "The Goldie Factor (2)" Liked it.
- 3 "The Goldie Factor (3)" Loved it. As much as I welcome this being an anthology book of sorts, this opening ark has me bummed that LaBan and Snejbjerg won't be regular talents throughout. Seriously, what wonderful, wonderful work they did here.
- 4 "The Lost Boy (1)" So-so. Not badly made, just really isn't hooking me in.
- 5 "The Lost Boy (2)" So-so.
- 6 "The Lost Boy (3)" So-so.
- 7 "The Lost Boy (4)" Liked it. Bland, overly-drawn out setup, but charming payoff. Good Hettie story.

Free-Fall Warriors [from Captain Britain] (1985)
- 1 "Warworld" So-so. Well drawn, but confusing.
- 2 "A Cat Out of Hell" So-so.
- 3 "Recruitment" So-so.
- 4 "Mission: Improbable" So-so.

Girl Got Game (1999)
* 1 Liked it. The gender politics are not aging very well, as expected, but it's otherwise starting off just as fun as when I first read this series as a teenager.

Guardians of the Galaxy [from Marvel Super-Heroes]
- 18 "Earth Shall Overcome" Liked it. It's a real shame that, at the time, this didn't become something Arnold Drake could keep running with. It's a hell of a pilot issue, and instantly comes together far better than his Captain Marvel run ever did.

Iceman (1984-1985)
- 1 "The Fuse" Liked it. Funny and charming.
- 2 "Instant Karma" Liked it. Loved the ending.
- 3 "Quicksand" So-so.
- 4 "The Price You Pay" Liked it. The DeMatteis plot was wild and bizarre, but expertly handled. And I LOVED Kupperberg's Ditko-esque art.

The Incredible Hulk (1972)
- 150 "Cry Hulk, Cry Havok" Liked it.
- 151 "When Monsters Meet" Liked it.
- 152 "But Who Will Judge the Hulk?" Liked it. A really solid and clever crossover plot.

Iron Man (1969)
- 13 "Captives of the Controller" So-so.
- 14 "The Night Phantom Walks" Didn't like it. Good Craig art, flat Goodwin story.

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine (1984-1985)
- 1 "Lies" Liked it.
- 2 "Terror" Liked it. Tho it takes one hell of a strange turn. Having already read the turn Psylock later took, it's interesting seeing a somewhat early draft of it here.
- 3 "Death" Liked it.
- 4 "Rebirth" Loved it.
- 5 "Courage" Liked it.
- 6 "Honor" Loved it. I was surprised by this mini. It centers on a bizarre plot choice, but it's so lively, striking, and well executed that I, yes, enjoyed it even more than the earlier Wolverine mini Claremont did with Miller. That fell a bit flat for me, this pulled me in.

Longshot (1985-1986)
- 1 "A Man Without a Past" So-so. Nice early Adams art, another incomprehensible Nocenti script.
- 2 "I'll Wave to You from the Top" Liked it. Still very uneven and chaotic, but really really great at times.
- 3 "Just Let Me Die" Liked it. First appearance of Mojo.
- 4 "Can't Give It All Away" Liked it.
- 5 "Deadly Lies" Liked it.
- 6 "A Snake Coils" Liked it. I haven't been a fan of any of the past writing I've encountered by Nocenti, but I think her chaotic plotting and jokiness, mixed with Adams' art, actually worked really well here.

Magik (1983-1984)
- 1 "Little Girl Lost" So-so.
- 2 "Cold Iron, Hot Blood" So-so. Some powerful storytelling, but muddled, and Buscema/Palmer art surprisingly bland. In which Cat begins training Illyana's training as a warrior, leading to a brutal fight with Nightcrawler.
- 3 "Soulquest" So-so. Love bits, confused by others. Art is even worse. Blaming it on Plamer's thick, sloppy inks. In which Illyana bides her time and trains, as Ororo and Belasco draw toward their ultimate confrontation.
- 4 "Darkchild" Liked it. It's still muddled with poor inks, but this was a powerful end to the story. Made me an Illyana fan. In which Illyana struggles with who she is while finally gaining her iconic weapon and taking on Belasco. Overall, the drawn out writing and murky art kept me from loving Magik, but it was a story worth telling, deeply moving at times.

Marvel Team-Up (1978)
- 65 "Introducing, Captain Britain" So-so. Also, the introduction of Arcade.
- 66 "Murder World" Liked it.

The Micronauts (1979)
* 1 "Homecoming" Liked it. Instantly hits the ground running, solid characters, world-building. Love Golden's art. And yeah, regarding his claims, I can see just as much Shooter in the writing as I can Mantlo. I can believe he did do a pass on it.
* 2 "Earth" Liked it.

Mister E (1991)
- 1 "At the End of Time" Liked it.
- 2 "Master" Liked it.
- 3 "Maze" Liked it.
- 4 "The Power" So-so. There's a lot that I enjoy about this series, especially Snyder's art, but it doesn't stick the landing, nor does it entirely justify itself as its own thing. I want this story and this character study, but it feels like it should be happening as a thread within Tim Hunter's Books of Magic adventures instead of being its own transitional series while the ongoing was still being developed. It needed to be a part of that whole.

The New Mutants (1983-1987)
- 2 "Sentinels" Liked it.
- 3 "Nightmare" Loved it.
- 4 "Who's Scaring Stevie?" Liked it.
- 5 "Heroes" So-so.
- 6 "Road Warriors" So-so.
- 7 "Flying Down to Rio" Loved it.
- 8 "The Road to... Rome?" So-so.
- 9 "Arena" So-so. Very ready for this Rome arc to come to a close.
- 10 "Betrayal" So-so. SERIOUSLY, ENOUGH WITH THE ROME ARC.
- 11 "Magma" Liked it.
- Annual 1 "The Cosmic Cannonball Caper" Liked it.
- 12 "Sunstroke" Liked it.
- 13 "School Daysze" Liked it.
- 14 "Do You Believe in Magik?" Liked it.
- 15 "Scaredy Cat" Liked it. Especially Sam & Rahne's talk on the bus.
- 16 "Away Game" Liked it. We finally meet the Hellions.
- 17 "Getaway" Liked it.
- 18 "Death-Hunt" Loved it. Sienkiewicz. Warlock. Demon Bear. I can see why comics changed forever.
- 19 "Siege" Liked it.
- 20 "Badlands" Loved it.
- 21 "Slumber Party" Liked it.
- 22 "The Shadow Within" Liked it. Always fun when Claremont takes a fairy tale break.
- 23 "Shadowman" Liked it.
- 24 "The Hollow Heart" So-so. Some great execution at times, but mess of a story.
- 25 "The Only Thing to Fear" Liked it. Good capper to a muddled arc.
- 26 "Legion" Liked it. Though it doesn't understand what autism is. At all.
- 27 "Into the Abyss" Liked it.
- 28 "Soulwar" Liked it.
- 29 "Meanwhile, Back at the Mansion" Liked it. Though it's a lie. We're never back at the mansion. Still, glad they managed to wring some bits of good out of the threads they're revisiting from the awful Beauty & the Beast mini. Also, debut of Strong Guy!
- 30 "The Singer and Her Song" So-so. A bit too much of a mess.
- 31 "Saturday Night Fight" So-so. Great action, soured by the big twist.
- 32 "To the Ends of the Earth" Liked it. The debut of artists who aren't Bill Sienkiewicz trying to figure out how the hell to draw Warlock.
- 33 "Against All Odds" Liked it.
- 34 "With a Little Bit of Luck" Liked it, tho still feel this was a poor twist for Karma. Sad to see this brief run is Steve Leialoha's only work on the series. Loved his art.
- Special Edition 1 "Home is Where the Heart is" Not the easiest read, but liked it. Though I can't believe how quickly they added an even stupider twist to Karma's arc. They're really struggling with her story. Painfully so.
- 35 "The Times, They Are A'Changin'" So-so. Great stuff as Magneto takes over, but awful art.
- 36 "Subway to Salvation" So-so. Muddled, and bummer that much of Sienkiewicz's later run is over weak Wilshire layouts.
- 37 "[Secret Wars II] If I Should Die" Liked it. I spoke too soon on the art.
- 38 "Aftermath" Liked it. Starts muddled, but like where it builds. Sienkiewicz's last, over Leonardi pencils.
- 39 "Pawns of the White Queen" Liked it. Shockingly twisted, but well done. And Keith Pollard is always a treat!
- 40 "Avengers Assemble" Liked it.
- 41 "Way of the Warrior" Loved it.
- 42 "New Song for Old" Liked it.
- 43 "Getting Even" Liked it, tho the message is muddled.
- 44 "Runaway" Liked it.
- Annual 2 "Why Do We Do These Things We Do?" Loved it. Masterfully weaves together threads left over from other X-books. Betsy becomes Psylocke, goes thru some major development.
- 45 "We Were Only Foolin' " Loved it. An absolute stunner of an after-school special story. Seriously, Kitty's speech at the end is some of Claremont's most powerful writing. Which is really saying something given his output.
- 46 "[Mutant Massacre] Bloody Sunday" Loved it.
- 47 "My Heart for the Highlands" Liked it.
- 48 "Ashes of the Heart" So-so. Good stuff, but often clumsy, and surprise misfire from Russell inks.
- 49 "Ashes of the Soul" Liked it. Love the Magneto scene.
- 50 "Father's Day" Loved it. This was a weird jumble of an arc, but leave it to Claremont to once again stick one hell of a landing.

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD (1969)
- 8 "Thus Speaks Supremus" Didn't like it. Crap fill-in issue.
- 9 "The Name of the Game is... Hate" Didn't like it. Gah, Gary Friedrich.
- 10 "Twas the Night Before Christmas" So-so.
- 11 "The 1st Million Megaton Explosion" Hated it. Basic idea is fun, Springer's trying like hell on the art, but the finished product is woeful. I'm definitely not a fan of Gary Friedrich by this point, and am not excited by how much of his work I still have to get through.
- 12 "Hell Hath No Fury" So-so.

Nightcrawler (1985-1986)
- 1 "How Much is that Boggie in the Window?" Liked it. Love Cockrum getting to play around with swashbuckler tropes.
- 2 "A Boggie Day in L'un Dun-T'wn" Liked it.
- 3 "To Bamf, or Not to Bamf" Loved it. Hilarious and wonderful.
- 4 "The Wizard of Oops" Loved it. This whole mini has been a wonderful, surprising delight.

Night Raven [from Daredevils] (1983)
- 6 "The Anaesthetic, Wearing Off" Liked it.
- 7 "The Snow Queen (1)" So-so.
- 8 "The Snow Queen (2)" So-so.
- 9 "The Snow Queen (3)" Liked it.
- 10 "The Snow Queen (4)" Liked it.
- 11 "Quiet Town (1)" So-so.

Night Raven [from Mighty World of Marvel] (1983-1984)
- 7 "Quiet Town (2)" Didn't like it.
- 8 "Quiet Town (3)" Hated it. Just an ugly ramble of a mess.
- 9 "The Haunting of Don Salvatore Vischetti" So-so. Not continuing with the Night Raven stories. For now, at least. Become too much of a slog under Delano.

One Piece (1999)
- 102 "Now, the Grand Line" Liked it.
- 103 "The Whale" Liked it.
- 104 "Cape Promise" Liked it.
- 105 "Log Pose" Liked it.
- 106 "The Town of Welcome" Loved it.
- 107 "Moonlight and Tombstones" Liked it.
- 108 "100 Bounty Hunters" Liked it.

One-Punch Man (2012)
- 1 "One Punch" Liked it.
- 2 "Crab and Job Hunting" Liked it.
- 3 "Walking Disaster" So-so.
- 4 "Subterraneans of Darkness" Didn't like it. This type of plot is such a pet peeve of mine.
- 5 "Itch Explosion" Liked it.
- 6 "Saitama" Liked it.
- 7 "A Mysterious Attack" Liked it.
- 8 "This Guy?" Liked it. I'm enjoying this series, but given how much I hear the anime compresses this down, I'm going to jump there in the future instead of continuing with the manga.

Origins of Alpha Flight [from Alpha Flight]
* 2 "In the Beginning" Liked it.
- 3 So-so.
- 5 "Deathwatch" Didn't like it. Flat, dull, by the numbers. Doesn't endeer me to Shaman as it unceremoniously kicks his wife to the curb.
- 6 "Shaman: The Old Ways" So-so.
- 7 "Let a Child Be Born" So-so. Gorgeous art, but a bit ick and odd. In which a dying goddess needs to have a baby, so she asks an archaologist to stick his "seed" in her.
- 8 "Genesis" Liked it. Nice to see the threads of the team start pulling together
- 9 "A Stranger In My Mirror" So-so. End well, tho.
- 10 "Family Ties" Liked it.
- 11 "Unleash the Beast" So-so. Glad they're ending the backup with this one.

The Phantom Stranger [from Swamp Thing] (1982)
- 1 "In Shadowed Depths" Liked it.
- 2 "Soul On Fire" So-so.
- 3 "The Beauty of the Beast" Didn't like it. How NOT to do a Freaky Friday plot.

Saga of the Swamp Thing (1982)
- 1 "What Peace There May Be in Silence" Liked it. I've seen a good handful of his animation work, but I believe this is the first Martin Pasko comic I've ever read.
- 2 "Something To Live For" Liked it.
- 3 "A Town Has Turned to Blood" Liked it.

The Silver Surfer (1969)
- 4 "The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny" Liked it. Some of Buscema's best art.
- 5 "And Who Shall Mourn for Him?" Liked it.
- 6 "Worlds Without End" Liked it.

Space Thieves [from Captain Britain] (1985)
- 5 Liked it. Started rough, then pulled me in and made me smile.
- 6 "PARTS vs Zarts" So-so. Still awkward, still delightfully cheeky.
- 7 "PARTS vs PARTS" Liked it.
- 8 So-so.
- 9 Liked it.
- 10 "PARTS v the Universe" Liked it. Bummed this fun backup ends here.

The Sub-Mariner (1968-1970)
- 6 "And to the Vanquished... Death" So-so. Though holy crap is John Buscema knocking it out of the park on art.
- 7 "For President... The Man Called Desinty" Liked it.
- 8 "In the Rage of Battle" Liked it. Excellent gut punch of an ending, too.
- 9 "The Spell of the Serpent" Liked it. Marie Severin! :D
- 10 "Never Bother a Barracuda" So-so, though I am really digging the ways Roy Thomas is crossing this over with his Conan comics.
- 11 "The Choice and the Challenge" Liked it.
- 12 "A World Against Me" Liked it.
- 13 "Death, Thou Shalt Die" Loved it. Absolutely floored by this one. Roy Thomas and Marie Severin at their absolute best.
- 14 "Burn, Namor, Burn" Liked it. One of Roy's great love-letters to the golden age.
- 15 "The Day of the Dragon" Liked it.
- 16 "The Sea That Time Forgot" Liked it.
- 17 "From the Stars, the Stalker" Liked it.
- 18 "Side-by-Side with Triton" So-so.
- 19 "Support Your Local Sting-Ray" Liked it.
- 20 "In the Darkness Dwells Doom" Loved it.
- 21 "Invasion from the Ocean Floor" Loved it. Seriously, this has been just an absolutely spectacular story arc.
- 22 "The Monarch and the Mystic" Liked it. Nice predecessor to what will become the Defenders formula.
- 23 "The Coming of Orka" So-so.
- 24 "The Lady and the Tiger-Shark" Liked it.
- 25 "A World My Enemy" Liked it.
- 26 "Kill, Cried the Raven" So-so. Though it's neat seeing Roy twist a Golden Age hero into a villain.
- 27 "When Wakes the Kraken" Liked it.
- 28 "Youthquake" Liked it.

Thor (1968-1970)
- 159 "The Answer at Last" Liked it. The big retcon finally revealing the origin of Dr. Blake.
- 160 "And Now, Galactus" Liked it.
- 161 "Shall a God Prevail?" Liked it. Amazed by how much Jack is pouring into this arc. It's like he knows the end is near, and all his energy and imagination is being funneled into this stretch.
- 162 "Galactus is Born" Liked it.
- 163 "Where Dwell the Demons" Liked it.
- 164 "Lest Mankind Fall" Liked it.
- 165 "Him" Liked it. I know Him returns and becomes a certain someone not too long after this in the Marvel U, but I wasn't aware that Kirby himself brought the dude back in this run. Neat!
- 166 "A God Berserk" Loved it. Some of Kirby's best, even under Colletta.
- 167 "This World Renounced" Liked it.
- 168 "Galactus Found" Liked it. I'm elated to hit an issue not inked by Vince Colletta. No, George Klein's style isn't a huge step up, but I'll take it. At least he's not erasing random shit in each panel for no reason. Also, one hell of a story. Not just on the Galactus front, but I adore Baldur & The Warriors taking a crack at being heroes in New York.
- 169 "The Awesome Answer" Liked it.
- 170 "The Thunder God and the Thermal Man" Liked it. Kirby inked by Bill Everett!
- 171 "The Wrath of the Wrecker" So-so. Interesting civil rights subplot, poor choice to frame against Wrecker.
- 172 "The Immortal and the Mind-Slave" Liked it.
- 173 "Ulik Unleashed" Liked it. Old-fashioned Stan plot, but well done, Kirby/Everett art stunning as always.
- 174 "The Challenge of the Crypto-Man" Didn't like it. Great art wasted on a crap story.
- 175 "The Fall of Asgard" Liked it.

Transformers UK (1986-1989)
* 81 "Target: 2006 (4)" So-so.
* 82 "Target: 2006 (5) - Wreck and Rule" Liked it. The Wreckers! Whirl! Maccadams!
* 83 "Target: 2006 (6) - Prisoners of War" So-so.
* 84 "Target: 2006 (7) - Trios" Liked it.
* 85 "Target: 2006 (8) - Prisoners of War" So-so.
* 86 "Target: 2006 (9)" Liked it. I vividly remember the big fight of this issue, and it doesn't disappoint. Have I mentioned I'm a huge fan of Geoff Senior's art? Because GEOFF SENIOR IS MAGNIFICENT!
* 87 "Target: 2006 (10) - Back to the Future" Liked it.
* 88 "Target: 2006 (11) - Aftermath" So-so. For the first epic of the UK line, this was a real mixed bag. Some great stuff, some messy stuff, and not all of it fit together as a whole. Still, it was neat revisiting the groundwork for many, many Transformers stories to come.
* 93 "The Gift" So-so. Harmless holiday filler.
* 96 "Prey (1)" So-so.
* 97 "Prey (2)" So-so.
* 98 "The Harder They Die" Liked it.
* 99 "Under Fire" Liked it. This is when Simon Furman and the UK series really start to hit their stride. I just still wish there was a better scheduled consistency to the constantly rotating art teams.
* 100 "Distant Thunder" Liked it.
* 101 "Fallen Angel (1)" Loved it.
* 102 "Fallen Angel (2)" Liked it.
* 103 "Resurrection (1)" Loved it.
* 104 "Resurrection (2)" Liked it.
* 113 "Wanted: Galvatron, Dead or Alive (1)" Liked it. Death's Head!
* 114 "Wanted: Galvatron, Dead or Alive (2)" Liked it.
* 115 "Burning Sky (1)" Liked it. Forgot about the wobbly art of Dan Reed. It can feel out of place at times, but I don't dislike it. Has a bit of a Peter Chung vibe. Albeit without the hyperfetishization.
* 116 "Burning Sky (2)" Liked it.
* 117 "Hunters (1)" Liked it.
* 118 "Hunters (2)" So-so. I find that the longer Simon Furman runs with a story, the more he keeps cramming more and more stuff in. They often don't end as strongly as they begin.
* 119 "Fire on High (1)" So-so.
* 120 "Fire on High (2)" Liked it.
- Annual 1988 "What's in a Name?" So-so.
- Annual 1988 "Vicious Circle" So-so.
- Annual 1988 "Ark Duty" So-so.
- Annual 1988 "Headmasters Saga" So-so.
- 125 "Ancient Relics (1)" Liked it. Good crossover with GI Joe, though it's a shame I don't have the remaining issues on hand just yet.
* 130 "Worlds Apart (1)" So-so.
* 131 "Worlds Apart (2)" So-so.
* 132 "Kup's Story" Liked it. Classic.
* 133 "Headhunt (1)" So-so.
* 134 "Headhunt (2)" Liked it.
* 135 "Grudge Match (1)" So-so.
* 136 "Grudge Match (2)" So-so.
* 137 "Ladies' Night (1)" Liked it.
* 138 "Ladies' Night (2)" Liked it.
* 145 "Stargazing" Liked it. How can you not. It's a kid teaching Starscream the meaning of Christmas. Classic and adorable.
* 146 "The Legacy of Unicron (1)" Liked it.
* 147 "The Legacy of Unicron (2)" Liked it.
* 148 "The Legacy of Unicron (3)" Liked it.
* 149 "The Legacy of Unicron (4)" Liked it. I do enjoy Death's Head, but my main problem is that Furman loves him way, way too much. He does wildly overtake the stories he guests in, and not always in good ways.
* 150 "The Legacy of Unicron (5)" Liked it. In which Furman finally reveals his grandiose creation myth involving Unicron and Primus, which becomes a staple of many of the franchise incarnations which followed.
* 151 "The Legacy of Unicron (6)" Liked it.
* 152 "Enemy Action (1)" Liked it.
* 153 "Enemy Action (2)" Liked it.
* 160 "Salvage (1)" Liked it.
* 161 "Salvage (2)" So-so.
* 164 "City of Fear (1)" So-so.
* 165 "City of Fear (2)" Liked it.
* 166 "Legion of the Lost (1)" So-so.
* 167 "Legion of the Lost (2)" Didn't like it.
* 168 "Meltdown (1)" So-so.
* 169 "Meltdown (2)" So-so.
* 170 "Deadly Games (1)" So-so.
* 171 "Deadly Games (2)" So-so.
* 172 "Wrecking Havoc (1)" So-so.
* 173 "Wrecking Havoc (2)" Didn't like it.
* 182 "Space Pirates (1)" Liked it.
* 183 "Space Pirates (2)" Liked it.
* 184 "Space Pirates (3)" Liked it.
* 185 "Space Pirates (4)" Liked it.
* 186 "Space Pirates (5)" Liked it.
* 187 "Space Pirates (6): The End of the World" Liked it.
* 188 "Firebug" Liked it.
* 189 "Dry Run" Liked it.
- Annual 1988 "Altered Image" Liked it. Megatron vs Galvatron. What's not to like?
- Annual 1988 "All in the Minds" So-so.
- Annual 1988 "Peace" Loved it.
* 198 "Cold Comfort and Joy" Liked it. Andrew Wildman!
* 199 "Time Wars (1)" Liked it.
* 200 "Time Wars (2)" Liked it.
* 201 "Time Wars (3)" Liked it.
* 202 "Time Wars (4)" So-so.
* 203 "Time Wars (5)" Liked it.
* 204 "Time Wars (6)" Liked it.
* 205 "Time Wars (6)" Liked it. Mess of a story, but nailed the landing.
* 213 "The Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire (1)" Liked it.
* 214 "The Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire (2)" Liked it.
* 215 "Race with the Devil (1)" So-so.
* 216 "Race with the Devil (2)" Liked it.
* 217 "Race with the Devil (3)" So-so.
* 218 "Race with the Devil (4)" So-so. The Starscream stuff is neat, the rest pretty bland.
* 219 "Survivors (1)" So-so.
* 220 "Survivors (2)" So-so. Tho nice to finally see the factions beginning to blur their loyalties.
* 221 "Survivors (3)" Didn't like it. Indecipherable.
* 222 "Survivors (4)" So-so. This chopping down of the page length is already hurting the book.
- Annual 1990 "Destiny of the Dinobots" So-so.
- Annual 1990 "Dreadwing Down" So-so.
- Annual 1990 "Chain Gang" So-so. This whole annual is a mess of random, unengaging action.
* 223 "Aspects of Evil (1)" So-so. Tho the setup has potential.

Transformers: Full Throttle Scramble Power (1986) Hated it.

Transformers: Fight! (1986)
- 1 Didn't like it.
- 2 Didn't like it.
- 3 Didn't like it.
- 4 Didn't like it.
- 5 Didn't like it.
- 6 Didn't like it.
- 7 So-so. Charmed me with a few kooky ideas.
- 8 Didn't like it. Thus ends the manga series debut of Transformers. Ugh. Even as brisk and as short as it is, it's a slog. Ban Magami's art is very striking and lovely at times, clunky and hard to follow at others. The absolute pits is Masumi Kaneda's writing, and between this and the other Transformers manga of his I've already gone through, I think he may very well be the consistently least capable creator to have had a significant run on this franchise. Yes, even worse than Don Glut. Who's an awful, dinosaur-obsessed writer, absolutely, but at least he didn't control an entire medium of the franchise for years.

Transformers: The Story of Super Robot Lifeforms (1986-1987)
- 1 Didn't like it.
- 2 Didn't like it.
- 3 Didn't like it.
- 4 So-so. Guiltar kinda won me over. I want more Guiltaur. And surprise Starscream's Ghost is never a bad thing.
- 5 So-so. And that's the end. Ban Magami's art is getting even better. Masumi Kaneda's writing, not so much at all.

Transformers: The Great Transformers War (1987)
- 1 Didn't like it.
- 2 Didn't like it.
- 3 Didn't like it.

Transformers: Headmasters - Great Decisive Battle of Planet Beast (1987) Didn't like it.

Transformers: The Headmasters (1987-1988)
- 1 Didn't like it. Specifically, the manga tie-in to the anime season. So many versions of Headmasters!
- 7 Didn't like it. Good art, zero story. Skipped issues 2-6 as they've yet to be translated.
- 8 Didn't like it. Glad that's all quickly done.

Transformers: Infiltration (2005)
* 0 Loved it. Solid pilot for the IDW line.
- 1 Liked it.
- 2 Liked it.
- 3 Liked it.
- 4 Liked it.
- 5 Liked it.
- 6 Liked it.

Transformers: Stormbringer (2006)
- 1 Liked it.
- 2 Liked it.
- 3 So-so.
- 4 Liked it.

Transformers: Escalation (2006-2007)
- 1 Liked it.
- 2 Liked it.
- 3 Liked it.
- 4 Liked it.
- 5 Liked it.
- 6 Liked it.

Transformers Spotlight (2006)
- 1 "Shockwave" Liked it. Nice way to cross the Dinobots/Beast Wars streams.
- 2 "Nightbeat" Liked it.
- 3 "Hot Rod" Liked it.
- 4 "Sixshot" So-so.

Witchcraft 3 "Crone" (1994) Didn't like it. This mini-series as a whole was a rough slog, and one hell of a misstep for being one of the earliest Gaiman-less Sandman spinoffs. It's an ugly, awful story, told in a shoddy, misguided way. While I do get what James Robinson was aiming for with his themes and ideas, and the art is quite lovely throughout, this is ultimately a miserable trainwreck everyone should avoid.

X-Factor (1986-1987)
- 1 "Third Genesis" Liked it. A little clunky, but nice, clever launch of the new team.
- 2 "Bless the Beasts and Children" Liked it.
- 3 "Regression Obsession" Liked it.
- 4 "Trials and Errors" Liked it. Debut of Frenzy!
- Annual 1 "Grand Design" So-so. Interesting but wobbly predecessor to the upcoming Genosha arc. Not quite there yet.
- 5 "Tapped Out" Liked it. Debut of Apocalypse! While it's not the greatest, I am bummed to see that so many people are dismissive of Bob Layton's initial run on X-Factor. It is wobbly, but it's a great throwback refresher on the G1 X-Men team, many of whom had been left behind by the Claremont run.
- 6 "Apocalypse Now" Liked it. Louise Simonson begins her run as writer. It'll be interesting to see Apocalypse grow over time. Here, he's just a throwback to 60s era Magneto, with his own Brotherhood.
- 7 "Fall Out" Liked it.
- 8 "Lost and Found" Liked it.
- 9 "[Mutant Massacre] Spots" Liked it.
- 10 "[Mutant Massacre] Falling Angel" Loved it. Poor Warren. :(
- 11 "[Mutant Massacre] Redemption" Loved it.
- 12 "Boom Boom Boom" Liked it. Boom Boom, Silvestri excelling at slapstick comedy. What's not to enjoy.
- 13 "Ghosts" Liked it. Walt Simonson! A rare issue in which I actually feel bad for Scott.
- 14 "The Mutant Program" Liked it.
- 15 "Whose Death is it, Anyway?" Liked it. The death of Warren Worthington III, who will never ever come back in any way. Ever.
- 16 "Playing with Fire" Liked it. Great O'Henry plot, fleshes out the new young recruits wonderfully, especially Skids.

X-Men and Alpha Flight (1985-1986)
- 1 "The Gift (1)" Liked it.
- 2 "The Gift (2)" Liked it. An odd plot for this crossover, but well done.

X-Men: Heroes for Hope (1985) Liked it. Not the strongest story, but fascinating jam collection of talent.

Zipang (2001-2002)
- 43 "Mirai, Towards the Island Chain of Truk" So-so.
- 44 "Landing of the Crew" So-so.
- 45 "Zipang Stirring" So-so.
- 46 "Reunion" So-so.
- 47 "Tide" So-so.
- 48 "Retired General" Liked it.
- 49 "The Other Staff Headquarters" Liked it.
- 50 "Samuel D. Hutton's Wager" Liked it.
- 51 "The Attack of the Wasp" Liked it.
- 52 "I 21GO" Loved it.
- 53 "VB-6 Bomber Squadron" Liked it.
- 54 "Naval Battle Off Saipan" Liked it.
- 55 "1 vs 40" Liked it.
- 56 "Chief Hutton's Decision" Liked it.
- 57 "Corkscrew" Liked it.
- 58 "Warning" Liked it.
- 59 "Impact" Liked it.
- 60 "Sinking the Wasp" Loved it.
- 61 "Last Resistance" Liked it.
- 62 "The Dead and the Living" Liked it.


TV


Agent Carter (2016)
- 9 "The Lady in the Lake" Liked it.
- 10 "A View in the Dark" Liked it.
- 11 "Better Angels" Loved it.
- 12 "Smoke and Mirrors" Liked it.
- 13 "The Atomic Job" Liked it.

Agents of SHIELD (2015-2016)
- 45 "Laws of Nature" Liked it.
- 46 "Purpose in the Machine" Loved it. James Hong!
- 47 "A Wanted (Inhu)man" Liked it.
- 48 "Devils You Know" Liked it.
- 49 "4,722 Hours" Loved it. Mesmerizingly well done, and a clever take on Ego.
- 50 "Among Us Hide" Liked it.
- 51 "Chaos Theory" Liked it.
- 52 "Many Heads, One Tale" Loved it. Mark Dacascos!
- 53 "Closure" Loved it. HOLY SHIT THAT CLIFFHANGER.
- 54 "Maveth" Loved it.
- 55 "Bouncing Back" Liked it. Love Yo-Yo!
- 56 "The Inside Man" Loved it.
- 57 "Parting Shot" Liked it. Full on sobbing at that ending.

Arrow (2012-2013)
- 1 Liked it.
- 2 "Honor Thy Father" So-so.
- 3 "Lone Gunmen" Liked it. Tho there's some REALLY bad writing at times.
- 4 "An Innocent Man" So-so.
- 5 "Damaged" Liked it. Genuinely great, gripping episode. Directed by Michael Schultz!
- 6 "Legacies" Liked it.
- 7 "Muse of Fire" Liked it.
- 8 "Vendetta" Liked it.
- 9 "Year's End" So-so.
- 10 "Burned" So-so.
- 11 "Trust But Verify" So-so. You can't give me the awesome promise of the Blackhawks being led by Ben Browder, then do something this flat and anticlimactic with it.
- 12 "Vertigo" Liked it. Seth Gabel!
- 13 "Betrayal" Liked it. David Anders!
- 14 "The Odyssey" Liked it. Yay, Felicity!
- 15 "Dodger" Liked it. Colton Haynes!
- 16 "Dead to Rights" Liked it.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005)
- 4 "The Warriors of Kyoshi" Loved it.
- 5 "The King of Omashu" Loved it.
- 6 "Imprisoned" Liked it.
- 7 "Winter Solstice (1): The Spirit World" Liked it.
- 8 "Winter Solstice (2): Avatar Roku" Loved it.
- 9 "The Waterbending Scroll" Loved it.
- 10 "Jet" Liked it.
- 11 "The Great Divide" Liked it.
- 12 "The Storm" Loved it.
- 13 "The Blue Spirit" Loved it. HOLY SHIT.
- 14 "The Fortuneteller" Loved it.
- 15 "Bato of the Water Tribe" Liked it. Surprising animation dip until the fantastic end battle. Looked like a Totally Spies ep. Which isn't a bad thing, just felt different from other episodes. Unexpected for a DR Movie work.
- 16 "The Deserter" Loved it, even tho the healing comes out of nowhere a bit suddenly.
- 17 "The Northern Air Temple" Loved it. Those tanks! That ending! The Science Bros!
- 18 "The Waterbending Master" Loved it.
- 19 "The Siege of the North (1)" Loved it. Ending on that hell of a cliffhanger for the night.
- 20 "The Siege of the North (2)" Loved it. Bittersweet, like all my favorite finales are. So yeah, that was a spectacular season of television.

Beast King GoLion [Voltron] (1981)
- 7 "The Beautiful Princess' Battle" Didn't like it. Maybe DON'T represent the princess' struggle to be taken seriously as a pilot by having her spanked while her teammates laugh on.
- 8 "Stolen Blue Lion" Hated it. Just a stinker from beginning to end.

Beauty and the Beast 19 "Everything is Everything" (1988) Didn't like it.

Bodacious Space Pirates (2012)
- 21 "The Final Battle at the Nebula Cup" Loved it.
- 22 "Pirate Hunting" Liked it.
- 23 "Head for the Pirate's Nest" Liked it.
- 24 "The Wounded Benten" Liked it.
- 25 "The Pirate's Council Begins" Liked it.
- 26 "There Go the Pirates" Liked it. What a wonderful series. I'm glad I finally finished it up, and hope we get more some day.

Broken Blade 1: The Time of Awakening (2010) Liked it. Tho wow are the few moe moments blatantly and painfully pasted in there.

Burn Notice (2012-2013)
- 83 "Last Rites" Liked it.
- 84 "Under the Gun" Liked it. Always a treat when Kristanna Loken stops by.
- 85 "Split Decision" Liked it.
- 86 "Shock Wave" Loved it. Helluva gut punch. Directed by Renny Harlin!
- 87 "Reunion" Liked it.
- 88 "Unchained" So-so. Some fantastic bits, but a lot of it felt clumsy and clunky.
- 89 "Official Business" Liked it. Directed wonderfully by Jonathan Frakes!
- 90 "Desperate Times" Liked it. Hell of a midseason cliffhanger. Directed by Renny Harlin!
- 91 "Desperate Measures" Liked it.
- 92 "Means and Ends" Liked it. Loved the ending. Directed by Ron Underwood!
- 93 "Over the Line" Liked it. Great escalation of consequences.
- 94 "Down and Out" So-so. I understand the desire for a formula ep, but this threw a wrench in their momentum.
- 95 "Best Laid Plans" Liked it.
- 96 "Odd Man Out" Liked it.
- 97 "You Can Run" Liked it.
- 98 "Game Change" Loved it. Would have been a great gut punch to end the series on that note.
- 99 "New Deal" Liked it. Solid premiere for the final season.
- 100 "Forget Me Not" Loved it. I hope Jeffrey Donovan will continue to direct. This was an exceptional piece of work.
- 101 "Down Range" Liked it. Love the punch of where they're going with Sam.
- 102 "Brothers in Arms" Liked it.
- 103 "Exit Plan" Loved it.
- 104 "All or Nothing" Liked it. Directed by Jonathan Frakes!
- 105 "Psychological Warfare" Loved it. Stunning.
- 106 "Nature of the Beast" So-so.
- 107 "Bitter Pill" Liked it.
- 108 "Things Unseen" Liked it.
- 109 "Tipping Point" Loved it. Sets up fantastic build toward finale. And Garret Dillahunt!
- 110 "Sea Change" Loved it.
- 111 "Reckoning" Loved it. A little clumsy at times, but a solid finale. I'm glad I finally finished up Burn Notice. It was an uneven series, but at its best, it was fantastic, sharp, exciting series. And I'm glad they got a final season to wrap things up, as they went all out with this final arc.

Code Lyoko (2007)
- 89 "Music to Soothe the Savage Beast" Loved it, especially that use of the ending theme.
- 90 "Wrong Exposure" Liked it.
- 91 "Bad Connection" So-so. In a season already overstuffed with Odd-centric episodes, this is definitely a weaker one which could have been dropped.
- 92 "Cold Sweat" Loved it. Holy crap, Kolossus.
- 93 "Down to Earth" Loved it.
- 94 "Fight to the Finish" Liked it.
- 95 "Echoes" Liked it. A bit more clipshow than it needed to be, but ended things on a nice note. Thus concludes the original animated incarnation of Code Lyoko. I avoided this series for years because of the character designs. I was wrong. This is a fantastic show, with great characters, crisp direction, and great exploration of some really cool concepts. Seriously, this is a fascinating study in how you can do episodic storytelling in some really unique ways.

Code Lyoko: Evolution (2012-2013)
- 1 "XANA 2.0" Liked it. Awkward, but does a good job setting up the relaunch. Though I don't know what's trippier, suddenly seeing Code Lyoko in live-action, or in French!
- 2 "Cortex" Liked it.
- 3 "Spectromania" Liked it. Great twist on one of their formula mainstays.
- 4 "Mrs Einstein" Liked it.
- 5 "Rivalry" So-so.
- 6 "Suspicions" Liked it.
- 7 "Countdown" Liked it. Odd's victory dance!
- 8 "Virus" Liked it. A whole pile of gamechangers! Again!

Conan, the Adventurer 62 "Into the Abyss" (1993) Liked it. Some more great writing from Christy Marx leading into the finale. Glad I'm finally making myself finish this series. The personal baggage I have with this show does hurt, but I need to see it through.

Daredevil (2016)
- 14 "Bang" Liked it.
- 15 "Dogs to a Gunfight" Liked it.
- 16 "New York's Finest" Loved it.
- 17 "Penny and Dime" Loved it.
- 18 "Kinbaku" Liked it. Really digging their take on Elektra.
- 19 "Regrets Only" Liked it. Neil Grayston!
- 20 "Semper Fidelis" Liked it.
- 21 "Guilty as Sin" Liked it.
- 22 "Seven Minutes in Heaven" Loved it.
- 23 "The Man in the Box" Loved it.
- 24 "380" Liked it.
- 25 "The Dark at the End of the Tunnel" Liked it.
- 26 "A Cold Day in Hell's Kitchen" Liked it. My one big beef this season is that Nobu just isn't that interesting of a villain, and there's a certain act in the final episode that I feel was weakened by giving it to him instead of the character it was originally written for. Otherwise, another fantastic season, all the regulars continue to knock it out of the park. Great fights, the new additions of Punisher and Elektra were marvelously well handled.

Dungeons and Dragons (1984-1985)
- 14 "The Girl Who Dreamed Tomorrow" So-so, but the climax is pretty strong at times.
- 15 "The Treasure of Tardos" (script & episode) Venger stuff is great, but overall so-so.
- 16 "City at the Edge of Midnight" Loved it. Holy shit, Michael Reaves!
- 17 "The Traitor" (1984) (script) Didn't like it. (episode) So-so. Fucking Ewoks. Fucking BLATANT Ewoks! Tho points to direction and cast for boosting Hank's emotional arc, which fell flat on the page.
- 18 "Day of the Dungeon Master" (script & episode) Liked it.
- 19 "The Last Illusion" Liked it.
- 20 "The Dragon's Graveyard" (script & episode) Loved it. Floored. Even by today's standards, this is a bold, brilliant, challenging half hour of tv that flips the whole series on its head.
- 21 "Child of the Stargazer" (script) Liked it. (episode) So-so. Awful boarding and animation. I'm betting this is yet another case of Toei farming their work out to AKOM.
- 22 "The Dungeon at the Heart of Dawn" (script & episode) Loved it.
- 23 "The Time Lost" Liked it, but wobbly in what it's trying to face off against obvious censorship.
- 24 "Odyssey of the Twelfth Talisman" So-so.
- 25 "Citadel of Shadow" Liked it.
- 26 "Cave of the Fairie Dragons" So-so.
- 27 "The Winds of Darkness" So-so.
- "Requiem" (unproduced script) Liked it. Not a perfect finale, but still would have been a good one.

Erin, the Beast Player (2009)
- 26 "Lilan's Feelings" Liked it.
- 27 "Fallen into Hikara" Liked it. It's weird to see such a grounded show suddenly whip out a surreal dream episode, complete with a musical number, but they pull it off well.
- 28 "Joh-On's Death" Loved it. Even the damned spoiler title didn't keep me from having so many tears.
- 29 "The Beast's Fangs" Liked it.
- 30 "The Fourth Winter" Liked it. Clipshow, but done well, acting as a nice transition to the latest timejump.
- 31 "Luminous Sky" Liked it. Great start to the new arc, though I'm not a fan of the warbly singer of the new title sequence.
- 32 "The Great Crime" Loved it. Marvelous, epic backstory dump.
- 33 "Flying" Liked it.
- 34 "Ia-lu and Erin" Liked it.
- 35 "A New Life" Liked it. Though the transcendant flying wolf sex got a bit ridiculous.
- 36 "The Graduation Test" Liked it.
- 37 "Birth" Liked it.
- 38 "Shin-Oh Harumiyah" Liked it.
- 39 "Tohda Attack" Loved it.
- 40 "A Nation in Shadow" Liked it.
- 41 "the Truth of the Shin-Oh" Liked it. HUGE twist.
- 42 "Seimiyah's Tears" Liked it.
- 43 "Beast Healer" Loved it. Yet another stunning gamechanger.
- 44 "Akun-Meh-Chai" Liked it. Intriguing new framing device.
- 45 "Caged Bird" Loved it. Kirik has become one of my favorite types of characters to explore.
- 46 "The Bond Between the Two" Liked it.

Fang of the Sun Dougram (1981-1982)
- 9 "Recovering Dougram" Liked it.
- 10 "The Garcia Platoon" So-so.
- 11 "Distant Father" So-so.
- 12 "Faltering Sights" Liked it. Shit gets real.

Galavant (2016)
- 9 "A New Season, aka, Suck it Cancellation Bear" Liked it.
- 10 "World's Best Kiss" Liked it.
- 11 "Aw, Hell, the King" Loved it.

GI Joe (1983-1985)
* 1 "A Real American Hero (1): The Cobra Strikes" Liked it.
* 2 "A Real American Hero (2): Slaves of the Cobra Master" Liked it.
* 3 "A Real American Hero (3): The Worms of Death" Liked it.
* 4 "A Real American Hero (4): Duel in the Devil's Cauldron" Liked it.
* 5 "A Real American Hero (5): A Stake in the Serpent's Heart" Liked it. Revisiting this miniseries has been a treat. Yeah, Ron Friedman's writing is just as convoluted as most of his multi-parters are, but I keep forgetting his nuance in terms of characters and the crafting of individual scenes. It all flows pretty well - with some especially great character animation - and there's fantastic moments throughout.
* 6 "The Revenge of Cobra (1): In the Cobra's Pit" Loved it.
* 7 "The Revenge of Cobra (2): The Vines of Evil" Loved it.
* 8 "The Revenge of Cobra (3): The Palace of Doom" Liked it.
* 9 "The Revenge of Cobra (4): Battle on the Roof of the World" Liked it.
* 10 "The Revenge of Cobra (5): Amusement Park of Terror" So-so.
* 11 "The Pyramid of Darkness (1): The Further Adventures of GI Joe" Liked it.
* 12 "The Pyramid of Darkness (2): Rendezvous in the City of the Dead" Loved it.
* 13 "The Pyramid of Darkness (3): Three Cubes to Darkness" Liked it.
* 14 "The Pyramid of Darkness (4): Chaos in the Sea of Lost Souls" Liked it.
* 15 "The Pyramid of Darkness (5): Knotting Cobra's Coils" Loved it.
- 16 "Cobra's Creatures" Liked it.
- 17 "Countdown for Zartan" Liked it. Christy Marx!
- 18 "Cobra Soundwaves" So-so.
- 19 "Cobra Stops the World" Liked it. Especially when we get some trademark Gerber zaniness.

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life (2016)
- 1 "Winter" Loved it.
- 2 "Spring" Loved it.
- 3 "Summer" Loved it. OH. MY. GOD.
- 4 "Fall" Loved it.

Grace and Frankie (2015-2016)
- 5 "The Fall" Liked it. Though damn do I hate it when shows go for the cheap twist they ended this one with.
- 6 "The Earthquake" Liked it.
- 7 "The Spelling Bee" Liked it.
- 8 "The Sex" Loved it.
- 9 "The Invitation" Liked it.
- 10 "The Elevator" Liked it.
- 11 "The Secrets" Loved it.
- 12 "The Bachelor Party" Liked it.
- 13 "The Vows" Liked it. A marvelous, hilarious season of television. Looking forward to its return this summer.
- 14 "The Wish" Loved it.
- 15 "The Vitamix" Liked it.
- 16 "The Negotiation" Loved it.
- 17 "The Road Trip" Loved it.
- 18 "The Test" Liked it.
- 19 "The Chicken" Liked it.
- 20 "The Boar" Liked it.
- 21 "The Anchor" Liked it.
- 22 "The Goodbyes" Liked it.
- 23 "The Loophole" Loved it.

Helix (2015)
- 14 "San Jose" Liked it. Really interesting new direction to start off season 2.
- 15 "Reunion" Liked it.
- 16 "Scion" Liked it.

Heroman (2010)
- 6 "Backlash" Liked it.
- 7 "Resistance" Liked it.
- 8 "Combat" Liked it.

Luke Cage (2016)
- 1 "Moment of Truth" Liked it.
- 2 "Code of the Streets" Loved it.
- 3 "Who's Gonna Take the Weight?" Loved it.
- 4 "Step in the Arena" Liked it. Sweet Christmas.
- 5 "Just to Get a Rep" Liked it.
- 6 "Suckas Need Bodyguards" Liked it.
- 7 "Manifest" Loved it. Holy shit!
- 8 "Blowin' Up the Spot" Loved it.
- 9 "DWYCK" Loved it.
- 10 "Take it Personal" Liked it.
- 11 "Now You're Mine" Loved it.
- 12 "Soliloquy of Chaos" Loved it.
- 13 "You Know My Steez" Loved it. Really, really hope we get a second season.

MacGyver (1985-1986)
- 1 Liked it.
- 2 "The Gauntlet" Liked it. John Vernon!
- 3 "The Golden Triangle" Liked it. Loved Terry Nation's opening gambit.
- 4 "Thief of Budapest" Liked it. Even tho most of the best stuff was lifted from Italian Job.
- 5 "Trumbo's World" So-so. Bland. Stock footage of ants is a weird choice of villain for this series. Most interesting bit is this being the tv debut of Peter (Londo Mollari) Jurasik.
- 6 "Last Stand" Liked it. Solid thriller. I want to watch more tv shows written by Judy Burns.
- 7 "The Heist" So-so. Some great bits, but not even Vernon Wells overcomes the techical mess. This is our second Alan Smithee ep of the season, with telltale hard edits and oodles of offscreen ADR.
- 8 "Hellfire" So-so. Melodramatic Wages of Fear riff. Tho, I do believe this is MacGyver's first use of a bubble gum wrapper. Also, Nana Visitor!
- 9 "The Prodigal" Liked it. Typical 80s one-off plot, but well executed with some good emotional punch.
- 10 "Target MacGyver" Liked it.
- 11 "Deathlock" So-so. Good funhouse plot, but Quail is a laughable villain. Hope he doesn't recur.
- 12 "Nightmares" Loved it. Solid hook, good villain, well told. Sadly, they missed the potential of having Tammy Lauren join the show as Mac's partner/protege. She was awesome.
- 13 "Countdown" Liked it.
- 14 "Flame's End" Liked it.
- 15 "The Enemy Within" Loved it. Right from the opening where Mac has to fix the brakes on a car while it's barrelling down a mountain with armed soldiers on its tail, this is an absolute corker of an espionage plot.
- 16 "Every Time She Smiles" Loved it. Terri Hatcher!
- 17 "To Be a Man" So-so. Tho Persis Khambatta's great in it.
- 18 "Ugly Duckling" Liked it. Russell Johnson! Rob Paulsen! Hack the planet!
- 19 "Slow Death" Liked it. Especially well crafted and nuanced script on this one.
- 20 "The Escape" Liked it. John de Lancie!
- 21 "A Prisoner of Conscience" Liked it. Elya Baskin! And great showcase for Dana Elcar's Pete Thornton.
- 22 "The Assassin" Loved it.
- 23 "The Human Factor" Liked it. What a gloriously goofy way to open the season.

Maoyu 3 "Where Have You Been?!" (2013) Liked it.

One Piece (1998-2001)
- OVA "Defeat Him! The Pirate Ganzack" Liked it.
- The Movie. Loved it.
- 8 "Who Will Win? Showdown Between the True Powers of the Devil Fruit" Liked it.
- 9 "Honorable Liar? Captain Usopp" Liked it.
- 10 "The World's Strongest Weirdo! Jango the Hypnotist" So-so.
- 11 "Revealing the Conspiracy! The Pirate Caretaker, Captain Kuro" Liked it.
- 12 "Battle! The Blackcat Pirate Crew. Battle on the Slope" Liked it. Took a few episodes to settle in, but finally fully on board with Usopp and this story arc.
- 13 "The Terrifying Duo! Nyaban Brothers vs Zoro" Liked it.
- 14 "Luffy's Revival! Miss Kaya's Life and Death Confrontation" Loved it.
- 15 "Defeat Kuro! Usopp's Tear-Filled Determination" Liked it.
- 16 "Protect Kaya! Usopp Pirate Gang Takes Action" Liked it.
- 17 "Completely Infuriated! Kuro vs Luffy, Final Battle" Liked it.
- 18 "You Are a Special Animal! Gaimon and His Bizarre Friends" Loved it.
- 19 "Past of the Three Swords! The Promise Between Zoro and Kuina" Loved it.
- 20 "The Famous Cook! Sanji of the Floating Restaurant" Liked it.
- 21 "An Unexpected Guest! Sanji's Food and Gin's Grace" Liked it.
- 22 "The Greatest Pirate Fleet: Captain Don Krieg" Liked it.
- 23 "Protect Baratie! The Great Pirate: Zeff the Red Leg" Loved it.
- 24 "Hawk Eyes Mihawk! Swordsman Zoro Falls Into the Sea!" Loved it.
- 25 "The Emerge of the Superb Kicking Skill: Sanji vs the Iron Wall Pearl" Liked it.
- 26 "Zeff and Sanji's Dream: The Sea of Dreams - All Blue" Liked it.
- 27 "The Coldhearted Devil-Man: Gin, the Pirate Fleet Battle Commander" Liked it.
- 28 "I Won't Die! Conclusion: Luffy vs Krieg" Liked it.
- 29 "Outcome of a Deadly Battle! The Inner Spear!" Liked it.
- 30 "Departure! Sea Chef and Luffy Travel Together!" Liked it.
- 31 "The Most Wicket Man of East Blue, Fishman Pirate Arlong" Loved it.
- 32 "The Witch of Cocoyasi Village, Arlong's Female Officer" Loved it.
- 33 "Usopp's Death?! Luffy - Yet to Land?" Loved it.
- 34 "Reunited! Usopp Tells Nami's True Story" Liked it.
- 35 "The HiddenPast! Female Fighter Bell-mere!" Liked it.
- 36 "Survive! The Mother Bell-mere and Nami's Family!" Loved it.
- 37 "Luffy Stands Up! End of a Broken Promise" Loved it.
- 38 "Luffy in Trouble! Fishmen vs Luffy Pirates" Liked it.
- 39 "Luffy Drowning! Zoro vs Octopus Hatchan" Liked it.
- 40 "Proud Warriors! Sanji and Usopp's Fierce Battles" Liked it.
- 41 "Luffy at Full Power! Nami's Courage and the Straw Hat" Loved it.
- 42 "Explosion! Fishman Arlong's Fierce Assault from the Sea" Liked it. Though the direction was a bit shoddy in this episode, and wow is this arc running on longer than it needs to. I'm betting this will be far from the last time I'll have to say that about this show.
- 43 "End of the Fishman Empire! Nami is My Friend" Loved it.
- 44 "Setting Off with a Smile! Farewell, Hometown Cocoyashi Village" Loved it. I laughed, I literally cried. Sweet lord, this show.
- 45 "Bounty! Straw Hat Luffy Becomes Known to the World" Loved it.
- 46 "Chase Straw Hat! Little Buggy's Big Adventure" The first filler ep. Liked it.
- 47 "The Wait is Over! The Return of Captain Buggy" Liked it.
- 48 "The Town of the Beginning and the End! Landfall at Loguetown" Liked it.
- 49 "Kitetsu III and Yubashiri! Zoro's New Swords and the Woman Sergeant Major!" Liked it.
- 50 "Usopp vs Daddy the Parent! Showdown at High!" Liked it.
- 51 "Firey Cooking Battle? Sanji vs the Beautiful Chef" Liked it.
- 52 "Buggy's Revenge! The Man Who Smiles on the Execution Platform" Loved it.
- 53 "The Legend Has Started! Head for the Grand Line!" Liked it.
- 54 "Precursor to a New Adventure! Apis, a Mysterious Girl" Liked it. Again, totally down with the Junki filler.
- 55 "Miraculous Creature! Apis' Secret and the Legendary Island!" Liked it.
- 56 "Eric Attacks! Great Escape from Warship Island!" Liked it.
- 57 "A Solitary Island in the Distant Sea! The Legendary Lost Island!" Liked it.
- 58 "Showdown in the Ruins! Tense Zoro vs Eric!" Liked it.
- 59 "Luffy, Completely Surrounded! Commodore Nelson's Secret Strategy" Loved it.
- 60 "Through the Sky They Soar! The 1000 Legend Lives Again!" Loved it.
- 61 "An Angry Showdown! Cross the Red Line!" Loved it. This whole filler arc has been wonderful and flies right in the face of those who dismiss filler as inherently lesser or skippable.
- 62 "The First Line of Defense! The Giant Whale Laboon Appears!" Loved it.
- 63 "A Promise Between Men! Luffy and the Whale Vow to Meet Again!" Liked it.

Power Rangers Turbo (1997)
* 2 "Shift Into Turbo (2)" So-so.
* 3 "Shift Into Turbo (3)" So-so. Bland, Zordon and Alpha's farewell is underwhelming. But holy hell, that chase/merger scene in the middle is fantastic.
* 4 "Shadow Rangers" Liked it.
* 5 "Transmission Impossible" Liked it.
* 6 "Rally Ranger" So-so.
* 7 "Built for Speed" Loved it. 50s greasers. Drag racing. A jukebox dance/fight. A fun villain. Great action. A massive pair of fake monster legs. A wonderful "and now you know" scene. Marvelous episode.
* 8 "Bicycle Built for the Blues" So-so. Though there's some particularly great bits in the middle.
* 9 "The Whole Lie" So-so.
* 10 "Glyph Hanger" Liked it. Paul Schrier (Bulk) continues to be one of my favorite directors on the series.
* 11 "Weight and See" Liked it.
* 12 "Alarmed and Dangerous" Loved it. Also, Mrs. Applebee's last episode.
* 13 "The Millennium Message" So-so. Introduction of Blue Senturion.
* 14 "A Drive to Win" Didn't like it. Introduces Carlos and Ashely. Forgot they did take a little time to introduce the new bach of Rangers before the big cast overhaul.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011)
- 1 "As If I Met Her in My Dream" Liked it. A striking debut.
- 2 "That Would Be Truly Wonderful" Liked it.
- 3 "I'm Not Afraid of Anything Anymore" Loved it. HOLY SHIT.
- 4 "Miracles and Magic Are Real" Liked it.
- 5 "There's No Way I'll Ever Regret It" Loved it. Oh how they'll regret it.
- 6 "This Just Can't Be Right" Loved it. [SPOILERS], YOU ABSOLUTE LITTLE FUCKER!

Re:Zero (2016)
- 1 "The End of the Beginning of the End" A few moe qualms aside, loved it. So far, this is a great example of how a sharply executed and nuanced adaptation can elevate an interesting yet mediocre source.
- 2 "Reunion with the Witch" Liked it.
- 3 "Starting Life from Zero in Another World" Liked it.
- 4 "The Happy Roswaal Mansion Family" Liked it. A bit wary of the new dating sim tropes, but they're taking hilarious jabs at them.

Senyu (2013)
- 4 "The Hero Gets Flustered" Liked it.
- 5 "The Hero Gets Excited" So-so. It's starting to lose me with the creepy loli humor.

The Shannara Chronicles (2016)
- 1 "Chosen (1)" Liked it. Brought me right back to being 12 and reading the original trilogy for the first time.
- 2 "Chosen (2)" Liked it.
- 3 "Fury" Liked it.
- 4 "Changeling" Liked it.
- 5 "Reaper" Didn't like it. The majority of the episode was great, but the scene of the attempted rape was an awful choice which brought the entire episode down. And further confused me with how it continued to build on those characters afterwards. I really, really don't understand their reasoning for going there. After this point, I started writing episode reviews of this show for Made of Fail, which are linked to in this post.

Stranger Things (2016)
- 1 "The Vanishing of Will Byers" Liked it.
- 2 "The Weirdo on Maple Street" Liked it.
- 3 "Holly, Jolly" Loved it.
- 4 "The Body" Loved it.
- 5 "The Flea and the Acrobat" Loved it.
- 6 "The Monster" Loved it. Your hair is the real monster, Steve. May it one day send you straight to the hell you deserve.
- 7 "The Bathtub" Loved it.
- 8 "The Upside Down" Loved it. A really clever and solidly executed pastiche, bringing a lot of nuance and surprise to all the familiar beats it plays oh so well.

Supergirl (2016)
- 8 "Hostile Takeover" Liked it.
- 9 "Blood Bonds" Liked it.
- 10 "Childish Things" Liked it.
- 11 "Strange Visitor from Another Planet" Liked it.
- 12 "Bizarro" Liked it.
- 13 "For the Girl Who Has Everything" Liked it.
- 14 "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" Liked it.
- 15 "Solitude" Liked it.

SWAT Kats (1993)
- 1 "The Giant Bacteria" Didn't like it.
- 2 "The Metallikats" So-so.
- 3 "The Pastmaster Always Rings Twice" So-so.

The Tick 1 (2016) Liked it.

Transformers: Headmasters (1988)
- 25 "The Emperor of Destruction Vanishes on an Iceberg" (actual title) Didn't like it.
- 26 "I Risk My Life for Earth" Didn't like it.
- 27 "Miracle Warriors, Targetmasters (1)" So-so.
- 28 "Miracle Warriors, Targetmasters (2)" Didn't like it.
- 29 "The Master Sword is in Danger" So-so. Had some charming fun and adventures. And a ridiculous giant floppy disc.
- 30 "The Zarak Shield Turns the Tide" Didn't like it.
- 31 "Operation: Destroy the Decepticons" So-so.
- 32 "My Friend Sixshot" I... actually liked it. It's probably the best episode of the series. It's still bland and sloppy, and calling it the best isn't saying much, but it had a heart and charm that won me over. A very "d'awwwww" episode.
- 33 "Duel on the Asteroid" So-so.
- 34 "The Final Showdown on Earth (1)" Hated it. Such a collection of bad writing and shoddy execution. The rock climbing scene was especially infuriating.
- 35 "The Final Showdown on Earth (2)" Didn't like it. And thus, this series comes to a close. The finale, like the series as a whole, just came and went like a fart in the night. It was a struggle to get through, and it's one of the few Transformers properties I regret having bought, as I don't ever want to watch this series again. Well, maybe the Planet Hive episode. Planet Hive was kooky fun. I wish the rest of the series was that fun.

Twin Peaks (1990-1991)
- 10 "Coma" So-so.
- 11 "The Man Behind Glass" Liked it. There's a few too many new additions to the cast, but this season is starting to settle after a rough start.
- 12 "Laura's Secret Diary" Liked it. I never knew Todd Holland and Jerry Stahl worked on this show!
- 13 "The Orchid's Curse" Man, I want to say liked it because there is a lot of great stuff in this episode... but oof I can't stand the Harold Smith thread, and he's in quite a bit of this one.
- 14 "Demons" Liked it. Especially the final scene and Lynch himself as Gordon Cole. Though damn, wish I hadn't been spoiled that a certain someone is really a certain someone in disguise.
- 15 "Lonely Souls" Loved it.
- 16 "Drive with a Dead Girl" Liked it.
- 17 "Arbitrary Law" Liked it. A great finale for the series. Oh wait...
- 18 "Dispute Between Brothers" So-so.
- 19 "Masked Ball" Liked it.
- 20 "The Black Widow" Loved it.
- 21 "Checkmate" Liked it.
- 22 "Double Play" Liked it.
- 23 "Slave and Masters" Liked it. It says something, this show being what it is, that Diane Keaton's direction stands out as impressively weird. It's a shame she didn't get to do more for this series.
- 24 "The Condemned Woman" So-so.
- 25 "Wounds and Scars" Liked it.
- 26 "On the Wings of Love" Liked it.
- 27 "Variations on Relations" Liked it. Ted Raimi!?
- 28 "The Path to the Black Lodge" Liked it.
- 29 "Miss Twin Peaks" Liked it. Just one more left to go!
- 30 "Beyond Life and Death" Loved it. Well that was a helluva thing. Thus ends the original Twin Peak series. It didn't always work, but when it did, holy crap was it an amazing, inventive, whimsical ride.

Valerian and Laureline (2007)
- 4 "Till Time Do Us Part" Liked it.
- 5 "Time is Up" So-so. Some great bits, but fumbled the payoff.

The Wild Wild West (1966-1967)
- 39 "The Poisonous Posey" Liked it. First half is an especially brilliant, twisted, cheeky good time.
- 40 "The Watery Death" So-so.
- 41 "The Green Terror" Didn't like it. Dr Loveless' first stinker of an ep.
- 42 "The Lord of Limbo" So-so. Ricardo Montalban is great, but WTH was going on.
- 43 "The Skulls" Liked it.
- 44 "The Tottering Tontine" Liked it.
- 45 "Gypsy Peril" So-so.
- 46 "The Feathered Fury" Liked it. Victor Buono!
- 47 "The Brain" So-so ep, but Edward Andrews is magnificent and unrecognizable as the villain.
- 48 "The Vicious Valentine" So-so. Tho Agnes Moorehead!
- 49 "The Tartar" Starts rough, Astin miscast as villain, but picks up as it goes along.
- 50 "The Deadly Bubble" Liked it. Written by DC Fontana!
- 51 "Night of the Surreal McCoy" Liked it. Plot doesn't hold together at all, but love individual bits.
- 52 "Night of the Colonel's Ghost" Liked it. Really sharp and suspenseful ep. The whole episode is good, but the best thing is Ross Martin playing Terry Thomas.
- 53 "Night of the Deadly Blossom" So-so. Great open and close, slog of a middle.
- 54 "Night of the Cadre" So-so. Starts strong, peters out as it goes along.
- 55 "Night of the Wolf" So-so. Weak story, neat horror atmosphere.
- 56 "The Night of the Bogus Bandits" Liked it. Great Loveless episode to end the season on. Season 2 of Wild Wild West was a bit inconsistent, but a blast when it went full out, and change to color led to a great design aesthetic.
- 57 "Night of the Bubbling Death" So-so. Well produced, but it's lost what made this series this series. Whoever had the idea to shift Wild Wild west away from fantasy to just a typical western made one hell of a wrong call. Cut out the heart.
- 58 "Firebrand" So-so. Good hook, but new direction continues to leave the show bland.