Sometimes, the staff at Graphic Policy read more comics than we’re able to get reviewed. When that happens you’ll see a weekly feature compiling reviews of the comics, or graphic novels, we just didn’t get a chance to write a full one for.

These are Graphic Policy’s Mini Reviews and Recommendations.

Logan

Giant Robot Hellboy #3 (Dark Horse) – Continuing from the previous issue’s cliffhanger where the giant robot is still working yet disconnected from Hellboy, Mike Mignola, Duncan Fegredo, and Dave Stewart break out the fireworks for Giant Hellboy #3. There’s plenty of robot punching giant mutated creatures on an island that’s about to explode, but lots of questions left answered like the beings on the screen when Hellboy is disconnected and the miniseries’ protagonist Jian’s whole deal. Nonetheless, Giant Robot Hellboy has high energy visuals, and the whole comic plays like a classic kaiju film, including its anti-atomic/radiation themes. It’s not required reading, but a perfect chaser after watching Godzilla Minus One or Monarch during these long, bleak nights. Overall: 7.9 Verdict: Buy

Kneel Before Zod #1 (DC Comics) – DC Comics starts off 2024 with a bang as Joe Casey, Dan McDaid, and David Baron turn in the first chapter of a solo series featuring one of Superman’s most fearsome foes. However, although there are carnage-filled spreads and fight scenes, Kneel Before Zod #1 is also about a fractured family and the establishment of a new planet/nation state in the DC Universe. Casey unabashedly portrays Zod as a fascist, but more understated and less aggressive until he has to cut loose in battle. There’s a lot of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld in him, but he’s pure blitzkrieg while fighting. Also connected to Nazi eugenicism, he wants to make sure New Candor is populated with Kryptonians before making his move unlike his son Lor Zod, who is all fire and rage and gets exiled after he tries to hurt his father with his heat vision. McDaid excels at letting his pages breathe and inserting panels where key characters like Zod, Lor, and Zod’s wife Ursa show disappointment, sadness, and distance in between the political maneuvering and bloody action. All in all, Kneel before Zod has similar energy to Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca’s Darth Vader series (But with much better art), and the family tension and political intrigue make this a much more complex read than “I’m evil and kick ass” although there’s a lot of that too. Overall: 8.8 Verdict: Buy