Not a whole lot happening on our pull list this week, unfortunately. Some of the series we’ve been following have sadly wrapped themselves up – including this week’s Oh Killstrike which ends the Deadpool-inspired miniseries from BOOM! Studios. There’s a lot of really great series starting up this fall, though, and we’re hoping to find some new favorites soon.

For now, though, let’s see what the girls from Giant Days are getting up to and see how things wrap up for Jared in Oh Killstrike.

Sam’s Reads

Giant Days #6 (of 12)

Author: John Allison
Artist: Lissa Treiman
Publisher: BOOM! Box
Source: BOOM! Studios DRC
★★★★☆

When Susan goes missing while back home in Northampton it’s up to the girls to try and find her. They go from place to place trying to figure out what might have happened to her only to find that she’s got a pretty serious reputation for pissing off some dangerous people. One of them is Karen Shaw, a fake faith healer that Susan had revealed as a fraud. After running into McGraw they realize that she’s been captured by the Shaws and there is only one way to save her. They have to go into the belly of the beast, also known as the Shaw family’s nightclub.

While the girls and McGraw sashay their way through the club and break into various offices, Susan has a final show down with Karen on the roof. Thankfully she doesn’t get pushed off. Instead, they sorta reconcile and Karen tells her that she’s mostly upset that she was somebody for a while. Now she’s just another Northampton nobody. Of course, it turns out that there are tons of other people who are pissed at Susan in Northampton, too, but that’s for another day. Right now the scariest thing going on is… EXAMS. Exams that Esther is not at all prepared to take. Hopefully she gets her shit together by next issue!

This was an excellent issue through and through. It was fun and the story didn’t seem as aimless as other issues. If you’re not reading this series yet, this is a very solid jumping on point. You really don’t need to know much about the girls to jump on board anywhere. I highly recommend this series now – especially to incoming freshmen as the semester starts up!

Sam Wildman is a co-founder and co-editor at Nerdophiles. She still has nightmares about failing exams even though she’s been out of school for over a year now. @samaside

Kylee’s Reads

Oh Killstrike #4

Author: Max Bemis
Artist: Logan Faerber
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Source: BOOM! Studios DRC
★★☆☆☆

I did it. I read through all four issues of Oh Killstrike so you don’t have to – you’re welcome. It’s been punch-you-in-the-face meta from the very beginning, so I’m not sure why I’d hoped things would get better at the end. If the end of issue 3 didn’t tip you off, Jared’s father went off the deep end and this issue shows you how deep he went. It’s kind of murky as to how Jared came to accept and understand what his crazy father did, but the dialogue is eye-roll worthy: “A repressed hero’s memories surface to explain a murky plot development *sniff* man, for the first time it doesn’t feel like a complete cliché.” If that’s what you have to tell yourself…

Of course there’s Dark Killstrike and a final battle, everything wrapped up in a neat bow. For as groan-inducing as the writing was, the art continued to entertain throughout the series. A final shot of Jared outside on his porch with his family, the door behind him boarded up after Killstrike’s damage, did startle a laugh out of me. Those visual gags carried throughout, though they might not make it worth the read in the long run.

Kylee Sills is an associate editor at Nerdophiles. Don’t let the header fool you, Oh Killstrike didn’t deliver on the zingers like it leads you to believe… @kyleewho