Before I jump into some of the individual titles, all I have to say is this book is solid gold.  If you have ever liked wrestling or "sports entertainment" at any point in your life, you will appreciate this book.  It has all of the over-the-top absurdity of your favorite promo.  It embraces the kitch of every possible character nuance while respecting kayfabe.  It displays the true dumpster fire some of the top wrestling talents are in their personal lives.  And....it introduces a race of aliens wanting to battle for the one true "Champion of the Galaxy."

The advertisements they post in the series for a variety of wrestling memorabilia match the things you would find from 80's and 90's wrestling promotions.  Check out the gallery below: 

Landell is quite pissed with this outcome, as he feels like he's getting hosed in the name of family-friendly ratings (he is) and is told to either toe-the-company-line or to walk away from the promotion all together.  He's handed a new page for his next promo and is ordered to not deviate from the script.

Landell abruptly walks out on the AWF feeling screwed, and attempts to ride out into the sunset (of other indy promotions...pissing off each and every one of them).  Little does he know, his announcement of his new title has planetary repercussions, as the REAL galactic champion is pissed and feels as if he now has a score to settle!

Each book takes the energy and absurdity of its predecessor and says "hold my beer, I got this" and kicks it up a notch.  Books 2-5 feels like cult classic "The Warriors" meets "Saving Private Ryan" meets "every 80's action film ever."  As the quest to pull Landell from somewhere out west comes to order (because they need to get him to St. Paul for the match) he's eventually found...but each time someone tries to pull him in a vehicle to get him on his way, a new gang of oddball rasslin ruffians seem hellbent on gathering him for their own means.  The best part of it all is Landell has no idea why folks are hunting him down...for a while.  

This also is not just a match for galactic bragging rights...but between rival wrestling promotions as well.  With each book, the stakes keep getting higher and higher, and I am DYING to see how it all ends.

I honestly don't want to say anything else about books 2-5 because I don't know what I will spoil, but YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK!

If you are a fan of both wrestling and comics, you should check this series out NOW.  Book 6 is scheduled to release on comixology sometime in May, but for now you should definitely go pick up books 1-5.  You'll be thanking me later.  

Thank you to Suspicious Behavior Productions for bringing your book to my attention.  It feels like this book looked at all of the random memorabilia I have stored in my classroom and house, and said, yeah, we have the perfect book for this guy!  

I'll be reaching out to SBP to see if I can follow up with an interview, because if you are reading this book you may have questions about where it all came from, and if there are broader plans for this title once book 6 drops.  God, I hope so.  This is the kind of reading I needed to distract me from the depressing reality we are living in now, and makes me want to re-subscribe to the WWE network to see what kind of good nostalgia matches I can find to keep the energy of this book fresh in my mind!

One of my favorite philosophical questions to dive through centuries of writing on, is what is the inherent nature of humanity?  Are we good? Are we evil? Are we somewhere in between?  This is the fundamental question at the heart of these Immortal Hulk books, as all of them start with a quote on the human condition. One of my favorite quotations on this question comes from Samuel Johnson:

While there may be some truth to Johnson's sentiment, Bruce Banner in the Immortal Hulk would probably claim otherwise.  Book 1 begins with a gas station robbery gone awry, where the robber shots the clerk, a 12 year old girl, and an unknown man in the store.  We find out that this man is the Bruce Banner who is presumed dead (I'm probably missing something from a storyline before this).  However we learn, while Banner may die or be killed, his beast, the Hulk, cannot.  Book 1 and 2 show the rise and fleeing of the Hulk in taking down the shooter from the gas station and the gang he was working for, as well as finding a cave in a small town where a man who had been conducting radiation experiments to fight death is also poisoning the town.

The first book that piques my interest, is book 3.  Book 3 is where we see the tale of the Hulk intervening in a hostage situation in a church, which may be nothing special.  However, the way this story is told is amazing.  There are several people who are interviewed (a bartender, the old woman, the priest, and a local detective) and each of their interviews are told in a drastically different artistic style.  My favorite may be the James Dean-obsessed old woman. What really drew me in, was the use of each artistic style throughout each narrative, and how they really wove together quite beautifully to tell a seamless story from multiple accounts.

Books 3-6 seem to establish the primary story arc, someone has possessed Sasquatch's gamma form, and has it out for the Hulk, and in book 4 we discover, after a quite epic brawl in the hospital that Bruce's father has come back through the "green door" to possess Sasquatch.  However, as Hulk stripped Sasquatch of his gamma form/power, the evil Dr. Banner Sr. is trapped within the hulk form which Bruce is unwilling to unleash until the end of book 6....

I'm glad I picked these books up, and now it seems like I have another 25 or so to pick up!  I really like these Directors Cut books for the same reason I love a lot of TPB purchases I make, I love seeing the creative process unfolded, and these first 6 Directors cut books pay off in spades for two reasons:
1. You get to see the full book in sketch form, which is something I absolutely love, and I spent considerable time flipping back and forth between the finished and sketch forms.
2. Most books also include script elements, outlines, draft notes which also help show the evolution, and to the curious new-ish reader like me, it is something quite satisfying to read.

What should you do? Even if you are not a Hulk fan, I think any of these books are worth purchasing if you want a prolonged peek behind the curtain.

I love a good $1 back issue sale, why?  Because I like to buy more random shit!  After I get done rooting around for any specific book I may be looking for I start attempting to put together numerical runs of other books to read...and that's the case with By Night, 4 books, 4 dollars, here are my thoughts:

This book seems to be on trend for a lot of otherworld-fantasy-discovery types of titles.  You have two young women (post college) who end up exploring a now-abandoned corporate property in their small South Dakota town, and they decide to film their exploits.  In exploring the owner's (who had been missing for 25 years now) office, they discover a "secret movie theater" which, when they turn on the "projector" it opens some sort of inter-dimensional portal, but it only works at night.  To where or when is not yet clear, however this is a goblin-esque man who is obsessed with 80's pop culture (my guy loves the A-Team) who serves as the guide around this area. And apparently he's been told to be wary of humans who show up....

Final Thoughts?  I think this is an interesting storyline, but 4 books in, I've been left with more questions than answers, so I may try to hunt down books 5 and 6 (to complete the first half of the run) to see if I want to finish it.  My interest is piqued, there is something going down at the Spectrum campus, but it is still very unclear!  Anyone else read this and have any feedback/thoughts?

I put this book on my pull list way back in September, because I wanted to know what the Predator would do in Riverdale....Again....

This is a doom and gloom Riverdale, which is what I assume the series looks like, so seeing dark Riverdale is hilariously refreshing.  But book 1 begins with our heroes fleeing a destroyed Riverdale to arrive in......Riverdale....And the Predators arrive when someone wants to turn an old e-bay based predator mask into a daft punk helmet (cool).  What ensues throughout the remaining books is a lot of blood, gore, and predators who speak in Emojis.  At some point, there is a summoning of what appears to be the devil (in 4-5).  It is great watching the citizens of Riverdale experience the multiverse, it is entertaining in watching some predator-on-predator violence, and it has intrigued me enough to explore the goings on of dark/sad Riverdale, and not cheery "Archie meets the B-52s" Riverdale.

What should you do?​ Look, if you want a campy Predator story, or some odd emoji speak, go for it!  I don't know if I'll ever pull this out of my box again to read, but it was fun to take the ride.

I've heard a couple of folks talk about how good of a book this was, and when I was able to snag all 5 at once, I knew it was fate!

Having friends who have gone into several research-driven fields, I know how competitive fighting for and/or justifying funding for your projects are.  I understand how crazy grant applications are, and I get how one person's project is initiated at a colleague's expense.  I also understand how politics can impact the pool of available funding.

All of the above are in play in Money Shot.  An anti-science administration has limited the pool of research funding, and at MIT everything was put on hold for Dr. Ocampo's Star Shot project.  Star Shot attempts to create a bridge with other planets to create human-alien contact.  Several of her colleagues were frustrated their research was nixed because Ocampo's project was for the name of humanity.

Star shot gets the loving nickname "Money Shot" because it "blows its load like a pro."  The high price tag of keeping Star Shot operational has lead the research team to become desperate.  So what do they do?  Have sex with everyone on the team AND any species they encounter and stream it live, and use the subscription fees to cover the cost of their scientific research.

In the first arc, they land on a planet where they are forced into combat, and if victorious, they can meet with the leader.  Also held captive on the island, is a guru who can teach you to orgasm so powerfully, the energy is equivalent to a nuclear reaction!  After getting themselves into a bit of a jam by helping the leader unleash orgasmic power onto her enemies, the question is, what will this sex-crazed team get themselves into next...for science, of course!

What should you do? This is a book that I liked for the same reason I enjoy SFSX (Safe Sex), its an odd story, that sure it is sex-driven, but its a story I'm unsure you could tell any other way.  I think this is a must read, if you can relate to the science content, if you like an odd alien adventure, or you just want a book with some sex in it (no judgement from me!)