Zack Freeman

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3.8 stars

Average score of 351 user reviews

Review: Thor #620.1 0

A banquet held in Thor's honor gets crashed by the Gray Gargoyle, of all people.  The Good Abnett and Lanning find a pretty effective angle on the Gray Gargoyle's familiar petrifying power that makes for some fun reveals and a strong character moment that speaks both to Thor's tenacity as well as his blunt approach to heroism. I'll also compliment the art team for pulling off ink-less colors in a way that actually realizes the more painterly intention instead of drawing attention to how loose t...

10 out of 11 found this review helpful.

Review: Batman, Incorporated #4 1

The new Batwoman gets an odd crash course in the life story of her predecessor at Kane's Kollosal Karnival.  The Good Good lord, does Morrison remind you why he's an A-List writer with this one. From the dreamy, surrealistic mood to the virtuoso storytelling devices, it's hard to miss why he's such a master of the field. Burnham's art is just gorgeous to look at,  evoking the work of Quitely, Williams and classics of the Silver Age while still maintaining an identity all his own.   The Bad It d...

15 out of 17 found this review helpful.

Review: Uncanny X-Men #534 1

With the flu saturated to its worst intensity, Emma and Cyke get more aggressive about putting Shaw and the Lobe down.  The Good John Sublime and his U-Men were some of my favorite villains from Grant Morison's New X-Men run, so I'm so pleased to see their threat mutating into these "designer casual" mutant huffers. While Emma's bloodless solution to Shaw was really cool, it's Cyclops nasty counter maneuver on the Lobe's virus play that really made this for me. Nothing like turning you enemy's ...

15 out of 17 found this review helpful.

Review: Deadpool #34 2

Deadpool's has to get creative and deceptive to gain the upper hand on Id, his impossibly lunar enemy.  The Good Id the Selfish Moon is such a fitting idea for a villain: I'm truly shocked that nobody got the idea to add him to the mythos before this arc. Barberi's clearly having a ball with this loopy monstrosity and his fun's truly infectious - - just look at that one double splash of Id looking down on the crop circle Deadpool left him. He's got such great body language in his art that you c...

8 out of 8 found this review helpful.

Review: X-Men #9 2

The X-Men gets their hands dirty in the sewers as they discover that Spidey's foe, the Lizard, is in cahoots with an old mutant enemy.  The Good I can think of no other artist save Bachalo who can deliver such kick ass superhero action with such flourishing artistic panache. The expressive palette he uses in the coloring just kicks up the detail, weight and texture of his already superlative work. And I was pleasantly surprised by the reveal of the old foe who returns in this issue - - it's fel...

13 out of 15 found this review helpful.

Review: Batman #708 4

Dick Grayson suffers pains of the heart and of the conscience as Azrael's own agent ravages Gotham's red light district.   The Good Holy dread permeates this and there definitely is an Apocalyptic tone to suit the imagery conjured by Azarael's servant. Considering how Batman and his agents are created on the conceit of ordinary men taking power and passing judgment, it does make for good drama to have them judged by another entity's code of ethics. Indeed, what if Batman isn't a good man, after...

6 out of 7 found this review helpful.

Review: DMZ #63 0

As accusations abound, Matty goes back to confront his old pal Parco about how he's betrayed his trust.   The Good Burchielli's art is absolutely fantastic. It's got authentic realism and detail for its scenery, yet it gives just enough of a cartoonist's flourish to the characters to keep their body language fluid and their emotions clear. It sets the perfect tone for the very matter-of-fact, intense hard sci-fi tone of the story which, in itself, gives a great gritty credibility to this nightm...

2 out of 2 found this review helpful.

Review: Ruse #1 1

The greatest detective has returned to handle a case that strikes close to home - - death threats against his dear "assistant!"  The Good Here's how you get a story going! From the opening hook of Archard pronouncing what's obviously a murder as a suicide, you know you're in store for a fast-paced comic with real wit and charm. By virtue of timing, this does end up resembling the more action-injected revival of Sherlock Holmes, but I find the mix of intellect and agility a lot more palatable he...

5 out of 5 found this review helpful.

Review: Brightest Day #22 2

Firestorm's battle with the Anti-Monitor and the Black Lanterns finally resolves long-standing confidence issues he's had.  The Good Like I've mentioned for Generation Lost, the appeal of the more deliberate pacing of a release schedule like this is that you get to see deeper character studies and watch hard lessons amidst all the spectacular fireworks. To that end, you really do feel the sense of exasperation Firestorm feels as he's put through this latest interminable bout with villains he's ...

11 out of 11 found this review helpful.

Review: Thunderbolts #155 6

Cage calls on his ally, Stephen Strange, to help recruit Satana, as she's the mystical muscle the T-Bolts sorely lacks.  The Good Not even a high-note drum is as tight as this book's pacing. I'm just in awe of how Parker and Walker have such command over storytelling. Nothing in the text is ever redundant to what's shown in the art, and the conclusions you, as a reader, draw from the gapes between them make for one truly involving experience. I especially enjoyed the virtuosity of the B-Team's ...

10 out of 11 found this review helpful.

Review: Infestation: Ghostbusters #1 2

New York's getting over run by zombies and proton packs seem to make their disease spread even faster. What are the Ghostbusters to do?  The Good Burnham absolutely NAILS Venkman's voice in this. Wow. The other busters' dialog is certainly authentic, but it's impossible not to read Venkman's lines and not hear Bill Murray speaking them in your head. It's even harder not to laugh. And kudos to Hotz for making the dudes actually look like the actors while skillfully getting around the pesky exact...

5 out of 5 found this review helpful.

Review: Sigil #1 4

Troubled teenager Sam Rey begins to suspect that her odd dreams of fantasy lands may be hinting at real secret history.  The Good Kirk's art is fantastic, as always. There are no stylistic jumps in his work when he switches through the drastically different locales. Modern day homerooms, floating armada decks and spooky Victorian studies are rendered with the same grace and consistency. His art is just fundamentally appealing, and it does wonder to put over the main character Sam as an immediat...

4 out of 5 found this review helpful.

Review: X-Men Legacy #246 4

Reaper's on the run! Now, all the telepaths who've surrounded Fortress X with their shield join the hunt.   The Good Part of the fun of "What If...?" stories like this is getting to see characters do things they never get to do in the regular continuity. To that end, it's cool to see Rogue have such command of her powers as Legacy that she's able to just grab powers and memories, left and right, as the situation necessitates.  The Bad For an alternate universe seemingly built on the notion of ...

5 out of 9 found this review helpful.

Review: Generation Lost #21 5

The members of the loosely-reassembled JLE cope with Blue Beetle's seeming death - - and Booster takes it the hardest of all of them.   The Good It's always tough to avoid things getting maudlin in "requiem" issues like this without skipping over the necessary reactions characters need to go through. Thus, Winick pulls of a great balancing act here that, above all else, feels fitting. From Booster's avoidance to Captain Atom's existential searching to Rocket Red's almost zen-like peace about th...

6 out of 6 found this review helpful.

Review: Ultimate Spider-Man #155 2

After getting fired, Spidey prepares himself for an even scarier prospect - - a one-on-one meeting with J. Jonah Jameson.  The Good The "partnership" that Jameson and Peter get into here is such a sensible idea, I'm baffled as to why it's never come up once in all the decades of the regular title. Peter's dogged - - even irrational - - insistence on personal responsibility during their dialog goes much farther to express his nobility than any number of pose-downs on skyscrapers would. And it's ...

14 out of 14 found this review helpful.

Review: Joe the Barbarian 2

Joe's confrontation with Death at last unearths the paternal secret that spurred this whole adventure into fantasy in the first place.  The Good Sean Murphy's art is absolutely stunning. A true sight to behold on every page, and in every panel. I love how he infuses such a punkish, rock 'n roll aesthetic to this wild tale of rat warriors and diabetes-fueled illusions. And I'm really impressed by how thorough he is with the detail he lavishes on even mundane settings like Joe's suburban home.  Th...

2 out of 2 found this review helpful.

Review: Streets of Gotham #20 2

Batman's new foe, Bedbug, reflects upon his long history with the families of Wayne and Elliot. The Good Much has been made about the mythic escalation of organized crime in Gotham and this extended flashback puts Bedbug's role into a fitting place in thAT overall scheme. It really does make sense for a mob chemist to have his sociopathic leanings bet out of steps with the regular mob, only to find that they're perfectly in line with supervillains'.The Bad I still feel like Bedbug needs some f...

5 out of 5 found this review helpful.

Review: House of Mystery #35 0

Over Now concludes with explosions, ghosts and a tragically shortened romantic reunion. The Good Wow. The back-up feature here is a real stand-out. It's been a while since I've been even remotely disturbed by a comic and this short, which puts the blame on the reader for all sorts of recent catastrophes, is just the kind of metafictional macabre I've missed. This is not to undersell the main feature, which has such fun wit and whimsy, but just.... wow... The Bad Yes, it's a little silly to jum...

3 out of 3 found this review helpful.

Review: Marvel Zombies Supreme #1 2

A special ops team heads to Project Pegasus for a bizarre, perilous mission to take down a zombified Squadron Supreme.  The Good Blanco's work is quite solid and he shows an impressive range throughout the issue as he alternates between realistic rendering and a more retro comic-booky style for the flashbacks. Even without the greatly effective mood created by the inks and coloring, there's a real, appropriate sense of desperation underlying his art here, even during the most super-heroic potio...

4 out of 4 found this review helpful.

Review: Avengers Academy #10 1

Veil accidentally says something hurtful to Speedball while Hazmat gets to enjoy an odd date with Leech, of all people.   The Good Sean Chen makes for an awesome fill-in artist. It's been far too long since I've seen his work and I'm really pleased to see how his style's evolved into such a solid state. I also enjoy how Gage allows these characters to be stupid sometimes. In a field full of idealized icons, it's refreshing to see characters blurt out stupids things sometimes simply because they...

4 out of 6 found this review helpful.

Review: Secret Six #31 7

The Secret Six goes to Hell! After Scandal loses her all-powerful card, the team has to go deep underground to get it back.  The Good Ragdoll! After Bane's been getting all the big moments, the jape in 'jammies gets to steal the show for once and I was just loving every inch of the scene where he turns the tableS on Scandal. The tongue-in-cheek cold opener with the Secret Six's commercial was a mighty clever approach to a recap page, too, and I'm impressed by how wide Caliofore's range is to pu...

13 out of 13 found this review helpful.

Review: Ultimate Captain America #3 3

Cap holds firm as Nuke launches a torturous assault on his body and on his faith in the American dream.  The Good Once again, I enjoy how thoroughly Aaron owns Ult. Cap's character in this mini - - how his resistance to torture and even his own crisis of faith gets colored by his relentless stubbornness. Garney's art has never looked cooler, with some bold line work that gives this a weight and grit more in tune with Rambo IV than Cap's classic republic serials.The Bad The movie homages go jus...

3 out of 4 found this review helpful.

Review: Invincible Iron Man #501 4

Out of some sick revenge, Dr. Octopus blackmails Tony into trying to solve his terminal brain illness. The Good It's brilliant how this storyline with Dr. Octopus is spinning out of the recent Gauntlet arc that went down in Amazing Spider-Man. You really get the sense Doc Ock's grasping at straws for a solution to his problem and because of that, he's resorting to dredging up his hitherto-unrevealed history with Tony. Once again, Fraction melds intellectual futurism with superheroics for a grea...

11 out of 11 found this review helpful.

Review: Avengers #10 3

The Hood's Infinity Quest nets him another gem while the Avengers look liable to split up on their own.  The Good Few mainstream writers can involve you in superhero action as viscerally as Bendis can. While some characters do end up sounding cattier than they probably should, there are definitely plenty of moments in this that feel very real even when the circumstances are outrageously outlandish. Rulk, Namor and Thor's deep sea dive felt especially cinematic, too.The Bad The characterization...

10 out of 10 found this review helpful.

Review: Iron Man 2.0 #1 5

Having re-enlisted, War Machine's first case is to investigate a rogue inventor whose work seems to keep causing trouble, even despite many guarantees that he should still be dead.  The Good Spencer does a great job clarifying how Rhodey's M.O. for armored adventure differs from Tony's, and he naturally weaves in some lasting, logical consequences of his time doing dirty work for Norman Osborn. Actually, I was pleasantly surprised about how he worked in some nods to Blizzard's fate during the C...

8 out of 8 found this review helpful.

Review: X-Men Legacy #245 1

The Age of X begins in earnest as the X-Men-in-all-but-name encounter an intruder who's actually a familiar face in the regular universe.  The Good The notion of Rogue being shamanistic sin eater in this reality - -  a Reaper or Legacy who preserves the memories of the fallen - - is a very strong concept to anchor this alternate world. Considering how these mutants' day are numbered, I'm sure it'll come out to play in some really intriguing ways once the heads start rolling. I also appreciated ...

11 out of 12 found this review helpful.

Review: Amazing Spider-Man #655 0

Following Marla Jameson's funeral, Spidey has a dream which, yet again, probes deep into his sense of guilt and responsibility.  The Good Storytelling is king in this issue and I thoroughly enjoyed the breaking-from-norm techniques used in both sections. Marla's "silent" funeral procession conveyed grief in a much more poignant than any amount of overwrought, sorrowful dialog could and I found the rolling surrealism of the dream sequence to be quite alluring - - especially in the Escher-esque d...

15 out of 16 found this review helpful.

Review: S.H.I.E.L.D. #6 0

This is a really hard book to describe. The Shield's machinations shape the history of the Marvel at numerous points throughout history... simultaneously.  The Good Conceptually, I dig how the conflict between Newten and da Vinci comes down to difference in ideologies about fate and destiny. Hickman gives you some real, meaty philosophical questions to chew on as Weave and Strain dazzle you with some unabashed visual spectacle. Look at any panel from this and it's clear it's a cut from a very d...

7 out of 8 found this review helpful.

Review: Deadpool Max #5 2

Deadpool's triple-crossed mission gets a whole lot dicier with the return of his old mentor - - and pseudo-dominatrix - - the Taskmaster. The Good Baker takes his stylization a step or two further in this issue by employing a wealth of textures and patterns that make the  whole thing feel that much more trippy. I mentioned some pleasing similarities to Elektra: Assassin in earlier issues and the new psycho-sexual hang-ups DP has over his mother give this a juicy, zesty twist.The Bad As fanboy...

4 out of 4 found this review helpful.

Review: Brightest Day #20 4

The Aqua War concludes as Aqua Girl and Mera join the fray against the new Aqua Lad's dastardly Dad, Black Manta.  The Good By now, everybody should have the swing for how this title plays out. I'm usually not a fan of decompressed storytelling, but I've really come to appreciate this as a wonderful showcase for Reis' art, as you're pretty much guaranteed at least one breathtaking splash from the guy. In this one, it's the double spread of Mera's wave-retracting sorcery.  The Bad I feel l...

6 out of 7 found this review helpful.

Review: Hawkeye: Blindspot #1 3

Short of losing Mockingbird again, what's the worst thing that could happen to Hawkeye? How about losing his vision?  The Good Superheroes so often suffer harsh battlefield injuries without cost, I think a story focusing on Hawkeye possibly losing his sight due to a concussion is both long overdue and also ripe for some tragic drama. Diaz's art is also fantastic, thanks in great part to Morey's more analog-style coloring. There's a real weight and texture to the pages, making even Clint's medic...

10 out of 10 found this review helpful.

Review: Thunderbolts #153 5

When Hyperion turns on the Thunderbolts, the team scrambles together to give the jerk his comeuppance.   The Good Characterization and action - - that's what this book excels at. It's all about these extreme personalities bumping heads and trading punches. I love how Hyperion's revealed to be such a dweeb through simple touches in his dialog and how Ghost finds a way to turn even a selfless act into an opportunity for some creepy lechery. This also has the best depiction of the Juggernaut that ...

7 out of 7 found this review helpful.

Review: Carnage #3 1

 As the new Carnage carves its way out of prison, Spidey and Iron Man discover the symbiote isn't the only villain who's been brought back. The Good Wells' script has such a great cadence. You feel every beat of the story - - from the argumentative head games at the beginning to the terrifying, piece-by-piece surprise reveal at the end. I especially enjoyed how he makes Carnage and  his associates, Shriek and Doppleganger, out to be like a horrible virus that somehow keeps back, again and again...

7 out of 7 found this review helpful.

Review: Power Man & Iron Fist #1 11

After only just one job as a team, the new Power Man and Iron Fist duo are called in to investigate a problem they can't solve with chi powered fists: the apparently false murder conviction of an old friend.  The Good Van Lente has a serious talent for coming up with villains with clever, pun-y names and gimmicks, and the Don of the Dead adds to great menagerie he introduced in the last Taskmaster mini. The mystery of this issue was well-done, stressing the differences in these dudes' methods w...

7 out of 9 found this review helpful.

Review: Onslaught Unleashed #1 3

The monstrosity known as Onslaught has returned, and it'll take the combined efforts of the Secret Avengers and the Young Allies to vanquish him once again.  The Good Andrade's art has got fantastic style. I'm sure some readers will find it too unconventional for a story like this, but I was seriously digging its graffiti-like flourish. Though I'm not sure how appropriate Onslaught's return is (more on that below,) McKeever's definitely got a good handle on how these characters relate to these ...

6 out of 6 found this review helpful.

Review: Emerald Warriors #7 1

Guy turns the tables on his mysterious captor, but his efforts are undercut by Sodam's new allegiance.  The Good Having praised Tomasi's writing at length already, I should definitely pay proper credit to Pasarin's work, as he's the second half of the one-two punch that makes this such a great book. More than anything, I appreciate how he uses composition and detail to give a real sense of space and location to even the most outlandish scenarios. In particular, the part where Guy hijacks a snak...

8 out of 9 found this review helpful.

Review: Ultimate Captain America #2 4

Still smarting from the ambush in North Korea, Cap heads to Cambodia on the trail of Frank Simpson, his disenfranchised successor.  The Good It's a a brilliant move to re-envision Nuke as one of the interim Captain Americas who unsuccessfully tried to follow Cap's example - - and the surprise about the new super-soldiers ties that all up with a clever bow. Really, this is one of those rare superhero comics you can enjoy as much for its conceptual themes as you can for its tight storytelling. An...

6 out of 7 found this review helpful.

Review: Secret Six #30 5

When a slacker inherits a criminal mastermind's empire, his first move is to hire the Secret Six for a job targeting the Doom Patrol.  The Good I'll tip my hat to Simone for making moral ambiguity so outrageously fun in this series. The Secret Sixes were at eachother's throats only a couple issues ago and, now that they're working together, I don't know whether to root for them or my cult favorites, the Doom Patrol. It's tough act to balance a cast this big, yet she gives all 18 or so capes in...

9 out of 9 found this review helpful.

Review: Hulk #29 0

As the Hulks draw closer to the Brain Cluster's weak point, General Ross learns something very important that Banner's been keeping from him.  The Good M.O.D.O.K. Superior's introduction in this issue was spoiled a while back, but it still made for one hell of a creepy closing scene. I'm actually almost fearing for the Hulks now that this even-more fearsome monster's on the scene. Also, while the Hulk's fractured psyche has gone through many reinterpretations over the decades, I'm enjoying the ...

5 out of 6 found this review helpful.

Review: Brightest Day #19 1

In the face of Aqualad's questioning, Aquaman's hesitates on how to properly deal with a resurfaced Mera and Black Manta.  The Good Good lord, are there some pretty pages in this issue! Ivan Reis is an absolute phenom and the splashes of Mera's beachhead assault and Aquaman's maiming are just jaw-dropping in their thorough detail and elegant curve. Actually, there's an elegant curve to writing, as well, and I'm impressed by the genuine insights Johns and Tomasi were able to weave into even the ...

10 out of 10 found this review helpful.