This week, Sam started a new BOOM! Studios series, Death Be Damned, and Renee enjoyed Spider-Man #13 from Marvel Comics.

Want to hear more about what we thought about these issues? Read on – and let us know what you thought in the comments below.

Sam’s Reads

Death Be Damned #1 (of 4)

Author: Ben Acker, Ben Blacker, Andrew Miller
Artist: Hannah Christensen
Publisher: BOOM! Box
Source: BOOM! Studios DRC
★★★☆☆

When I first came across Death Be Damned I was pretty excited. I mean, who doesn’t love a good Western? Mix in a literally death defying heroine on a quest for vengeance and you’ve got me. I am a simple person with simple needs.

And for the most part I enjoyed Death Be Damned.

Our main character is a woman who inexplicably returns from the dead after her husband and daughter are killed by a band of outlaws. Along the way we’re introduced to a handful of other characters – most importantly a man being hanged for a series of murders and an undertaker with an obsession with death and resurrection. Unfortunately, the only one who really gets any development this time around is our undertaker whose backstory involves a mix of native Zuni shamanistic teachings among other things.

The pacing (and at times the dialogue) is a little off in the first issue and I’m hoping that sorts itself out in the next three. It was disappointing how little information we got about our main female character – yet we get a few pages of wall-to-wall text from the undertaker about his background. 

Similarly, I’m not sure how I felt about the interlude and epilogue featuring the murderer being hung. The interlude distracted a bit from the main story and I feel like instead of an interlude they could have told the whole story in the epilogue to help with the flow. 

Still, I’m very interested in this murder who also appears to cheat death like our heroine and I want to see how he fits into everything. I’m also looking forward to how her relationship with the undertaker develops because he take a pretty unorthodox approach to gaining her trust this issue.

Probably the best part about this new series was the artwork. I’ll admit, the character designs threw me off at first but they really grew on me by the end. And I loved the background scenes and just the general scenery from the beginning. Mix in some pretty excellent color work and it all seemed to come alive. Hannah Christensen does some pretty great work with this one.

Ultimately the premise is interesting and the characters have potential. Plus, the book looks great. If the writers can figure out the pacing and start fleshing out the characters more in the next issue, Death Be Damned could turn out to be a pretty good Western story.

Sam Wildman is a co-founder and co-editor at Nerdophiles. She has a lifelong soft spot for Westerns. 

Renee’s Reads

Spider-Man #13

Author: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Sara Pichelli
Publisher: Marvel Comic
★★★★☆

I love this Miles and Gwen pairing. I mean, I didn’t even ship them until this happened, and they are now my favorite star-crossed lovers. I liked this issue because Gwen helps balance Miles and also shows him that he does have many things to learn about fighting and life. Ganke also brings me life, and I love him.

Spider-Man opens with Ganke and Fabio asking him to continue the story. Miles tells them that he let his dad, who was the Scorpion, de-mask him and the Scorpion slaps him across the face with the cane. Spider-Gwen kicks the Scorpion in the back of the head.

Miles acknowledges that he and Spider-Gwen have the same powers, but he has a long way to grow in getting creative with his powers, as Spider-Gwen has better moves than he does. Spider-Gwen attempts to end the entire fight with Scorpion and takes out all of the guys, except the Scorpion is a lot faster than she expects.

Ganke attempts to guess what happened with his father and comes up with several plausible explanations when Fabio tells him to stop so Miles can continue. Miles and Spider-Gwen continue to fight the guys, and Miles keeps calling the Scorpion, Dad, which upsets him, and punches him through a wall.

Miles decides that the fight needs to stop and sarcastically announces that his favorite people showed up, which were the cops. Scorpion tells the cops who work for him to leave and the police open fire on them. Spider-Man and Spider-Gwen can escape, but the police arrest the Scorpion.

Miles is having difficulty leaving his dad, and he is about to go after him and help him escape when Spider-Gwen uses her web shooters and pulls him back. Miles tells her that wasn’t cool. Spider-Gwen continues to wrap him in the web and pulls him close to her and tells him to calm down. The police find the two of them on the roof and tell them to get on the ground.

Spider-Gwen presses a button and tells Miles that she is saving them and transports them to a weird spider-verse and then transports them back to the roof top. Miles’ realty transporter beeps and tells him to go back to the origin point. Spider-Gwen decides to come with him and presses the button with Miles, and the issue leaves on a cliff-hanger!

Renee Marriott is a staff writer at Nerdophiles.