Tiara's Weekly Comic Stack - 05.08.13

This week I will be finishing up The Boys, and right now, I have a big overall series review planned for it, which may span multiple parts depending how intense the writing gets... and as long as I don't get lazy or get pulled away by life. Locke and Key is a keeper as well. I really enjoyed the first volume and hope that the series manages to keep up the steam it's built up. It will also be ending soon--this year, it appears, so I won't have to wait an eternity for the next parts. Gotham Central is a keeper, as well. I enjoyed it's look at life in Gotham from the PD's POV that deals with the pressure of Batman outperforming them and being woefully under prepared for major crimes. It also shows how well they deal with crimes that don't blip on Batman's radar, the "small" crimes that doesn't get them a ton of recognition but shows they're capable all the same.

Locke and Key, Vol. 2: Head Games by Joe Hill

Following a shocking death that dredges up memories of their father's murder, Kinsey and Tyler Locke are thrown into choppy emotional waters, and turn to their new friend, Zack Wells, for support, little suspecting Zack's dark secret. Meanwhile, six-year-old Bode Locke tries to puzzle out the secret of the head key, and Uncle Duncan is jarred into the past by a disturbingly familiar face. Open your mind - the head games are just getting started.

Gotham Central, Vol. 2: Half a Life by Greg Rucka

Renee Montoya has a secret. She's a Grade A detective but her reputation is put on the line when she's implicated in a murder and her deepest secret is revealed. Suddenly, her colleagues in the GCPD look at her askance, begin treating her with hostility, and when she needs their support the most, she finds mostly cold shoulders. The man who reaches out to her, though, is one who belongs behind bars. If free, he presents a grave threat not only to Montoya but to all of Gotham's citizens.

The Boys, Vol. 10: Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker by Garth Ennis

He could have been a very different man. Billy Butcher, leader of The Boys, once had a chance at another life entirely - when the love of a good woman pulled him aside from his dreadful path of violence and despair. This is the story of Billy and Becky, told by the man himself: from the backstreets of London's East End to the carnage of the Falklands War, from the heights of love to the depths of tragedy. And when he's done, he'll be ready ... to finish things once and for all.

The Boys, Vol. 11: Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men by Garth Ennis

It's been a long time coming, but Billy Butcher's revenge on his wife's killer is about to be realized - if he can only get his hands on the bastard. The Boys prepare for one last terrible battle, as the Homelander finally bites the bullet and sets an army of superheroes against the forces of the United States military. Battle rages at the White House, Frenchie and the Female are unleashed, and Hughie faces his own terrors... while MM, patient to the last, races against time to uncover the greatest and most dreadful secret of Vought-American's superhero program. Butcher steps willingly into the jaws of death, alone and unafraid: but what he finds waiting for him is beyond even his darkest dreams.

The Boys Volume 12: The Bloody Doors Off by Garth Ennis

The war is over and the world is saved. The supes have been beaten down so far they'll never get up again. So why would anyone want one hundred and eighteen metric tons of the only substance on earth that can kill them all stone dead? Bad days start coming thick and fast, as the Boys are caught in the last throes of the battle they were recruited to fight so long ago. Hughie, all on his own and out of luck, finds himself walking down one last bloody trail - and the truth he finds waiting for him at the end of it will be nothing short of shattering! Billy Butcher's vengeance comes full circle, in this twelfth and final entry in the story of The Boys.