Now Reading: Carnage, Sarah and 2000AD

I decided to start doing a new feature where I post about what I have been reading lately. Not necessarily current stuff, just whatever I have been reading. It will be an ad-hoc kind of deal.

CARNAGE: BLACK, WHITE & RED ISSUE 4 (OF 4)

I don’t read a lot of Big Two stuff but will always try to check out stuff by Irish creators. I actually only heard about this one because Declan Shalvey plugged it on his newsletter. The anthology is a bunch of creators doing different Carnage stories. They don’t necessarily occur in current continuity. Declan’s story focuses on the serial killer aspect of the character. Interesting piece that makes me wonder what he could do with a longer format. Stephen Mooney is on art and does a heck of a job. I particularly enjoyed his background work (see above). He also got to do a cover which is great (see the top of this piece). I’m imagining this is a boyhood dream come through kind of moment for them even though Marvel forced them to work together. Possibly by knife point.

SARAH

Garth Ennis is pretty much an expert on wartime history and always seems to find a unique and interesting angle to take. This one is about a team of female snipers on the Russian side (Sarah is the best sniper hence the title). It is set in 1942 during the Battle of Stalingrad and is based on true events. Nicely balanced between character work and going into the psychology and tactics of war. Wonderful art from Steve Epting and Elizabeth Breitweiser.

2000AD SCI-FI SPECIAL

Plotted by Maura McHugh and Michael Carroll, it has stories from all over the Dreddverse. Michael Carroll starts it off with a Dredd story, then we get a few different writers on other Dreddverse characters and it ends with a Judge Anderson story by Maura McHugh. Michael Carroll knows his 2000AD history and Maura McHugh is stacking up the Anderson stories and really gets the character in my opinion. It is also good to see her on other characters. I’m hoping to see a Dredd or a Devlin Waugh story from her. Nicely connected stories which have something to say and something for the reader to think about. I’ll be interested to see if they go back to this.