Honorable Mentions: Episode 55 Follow-Up

All hail (a more nuanced and complex) Doom! 

Honorable Mention Highlights: December 11, 2019

• Doom 2099 #1 (W: Chip Zdarsky; A: Marco Castiello)
• Harley Quinn's Villain of the Year (W: Mark Russell; A: Mike Norton)
• Captain Marvel #13 (W: Kelly Thompson; A: Lee Garbett)
• Hack/Slash 15th Anniversary Special (W: Tim Seeley, Sam Eggleston, Brian Crowley, Jeff Bohn, Greg Ellner; A: Dan Leister, Jules Shapirov)
• Criminal Macabre The Big Bleed Out #1 (W: Steve Niles; A/CA: Gyula Nemeth)

Doom 2099 #1 (Marvel Comics) 
I have really been enjoying the more considerate depictions of Doom lately; yeah, he's a bad guy, but now he's a bad guy with DEPTH. This one shot was no different, plus it rocks house with a great twist at the end that I should have seen coming, even if I didn't. Props to you, Chip.

Harley Quinn's Villain of the Year #1 (DC Comics) 
An awards ceremony issue where the winners we're actually voted on by readers. Honestly, this was super fun and I wish DC would do this every year. I don't know about you, but I actually voted on the various categories and it was cool seeing how my votes measured up compared to the winners.

Captain Marvel #13 (Marvel Comics) 
Yeah, so, CALLED IT. Ain't nobody dead (I guess?), and of course she's not REALLY evil. But I love that Kelly brings back characters from previous books she's written, and does so unapologetically. This book felt like a nice return to form, so even though I CALLED IT, I'm looking forward to the next issue.

Hack/Slash 15th Anniversary Special #1 (Image Comics) 
Nothing too fancy, but a nice reflection on the series if you've been a fan for a long while like I have. Tim Seeley does make a promise of something new to come, so I hope he follows through with that and gives us some more of Cassie Hack in the future.

Criminal Macabre: The Big Bleed Out #1 (Dark Horse Comics)
This book is trying too hard to be noir, filling in the "she walked into my office, and I knew I was done for" private eye monologue with a gruff guy's tale about falling for a vampire. Unfortunately, the only character I seem to really care about is our quiet, ghoulish partner-slash-protagonist's-friend, and he just wandered into the darkness. So, there's that.