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Writer: Rainbow Rowell / Artist: Kris Anka / Marvel

Runaways is great for many reasons, but the one I always come back to is family. The Runaways team has this undying feeling of genuine love and appreciation for each other, despite their frequently crappy circumstances. They didn’t choose this life. It was kind of thrown at their feet after, ya know, the whole sacrificial children thing their nutty parents were involved in. Issue #16 reminds us that these boys and girls have, and always will be a bunch kids enjoying the little things in life. Even if they’re being held captive, they like having a proper Christmas tree to string up for the holiday season!

This creative team of Rainbow Rowell and Kris Anka, maaaan. Such a problem! These two were really out here tugging on mufuckas heartstrings this week. Anka’s attention to Christmas dinner detail is impressively heart warming. Rowell’s characters have internal battles raging and they are on full display once the Christmas spirit takes over. Of course, those positive intentions and respect for family new and old are completely ruined by a certain Benedict Arnold and his quest for dominance, but we not gonna get into that though.

What we are going to get into, is Gert da Cynical Gawd and her side quest. Come to think about it, Gert is the only member of the team that has consistently gotten various character arcs that deepen her history and advance her journey. Everyone has received their issue or 2 but she’s the one who Rowell keeps coming back to, for good reason. Gert is a complicated person. She doesn’t conform to societies expectations and even after she got the whole jaw dropping makeover that some would consider pretty damn basic of her, she goes and gets bae’d up with the sexiest robot since Ex Machina! Gert’s torn mentality is on full display when she reveals all the power she has at her fingertips, but is so unsure of what to do with it. I have a feeling her time weighing those options is coming to an end.

This was a well-paced Christmas issue of fun that spread lots of holiday cheer and romance. That’s right, I said romance! If a girl can come back from the dead and still find love in an Ultron manufactured robot head named Victor, anybody can! Anka and Matt Wilson helped Rainbow fill this issue of Runaways with the right amount heart and comedy. The expressions on Molly’s face when the hideout was transformed into a Winter wonderland was adorable. I really found myself laughing out loud all throughout this one and it was rewarding. Unexpected hilarity is something I live for and Rowell seems to let the funny flow through her pen with ease. After last issue’s history rewriting romp around LA, this one was another good entry for Runaways. Make sure you check this one out so you can see which lovely guest crashed Christmas dinner!

8 Green Bean Casserole Dishes out of 10

Reading Runaways? Find BNP’s other reviews of the series here.

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The post Runaways #16 Review appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

Writer: Bryan Hill / Artist: Leandro Fernandez / DC Comics

The opening pages of American Carnage #2 are actively and objectively terrifying. A white passing African-American detective is in the backyard of an affluent white man in California watching a bunch of racists rag on each other before it pivots to two old white men discussing the current status of racism in exceedingly candid terms. There’s a lingering question of continued physical violence versus ideological warfare. There’s also a panel that shows what happens when you combine the two.

This book is exhausting perhaps because 2018 has been exhausting. If anything must be said about this series, it is that Hill has created an authentically chilling premise that feels a little bit too real and purposefully cuts a little too close to home. It’s that Fernandez’ artwork captures the titular carnage in all of its blood red, alcohol-induced viscera and violence.

American Carnage #1 was largely focused on setting up the premise, which allows American Carnage #2 to focus on developing a myriad of character dynamics. Characterization happens in bursts, where a book selection or simple reveal of knowledge have drastic implications. Every minuscule action and word choice speak magnitudes to the character behind them. In these subtle moments, American Carnage finds its bloodied, beating heart.

Hill has a fascination with ideology and violence that pops off the page. Fernandez’s artwork gives that fascination a body to bruise and break. This is a really good book, but it’s an exceedingly bleak book. It’s a violent book. It’s not going to be for everyone. But the people willing to dive deeper into this solemn reflection of the current political under-climate, they will find a story that turns the proverbial knife in the stomach. They will find a story about monsters and the depths we are willing to undertake to fight them.

8.9 “Brawls” out of 10

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The post American Carnage #2 Review appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

Happy Solstice, indeed. Netflix has gifted mortals and witches alike with two more seasons of our favorite dark coming-of-age series. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Seasons 3 and 4 will begin production in 2019, and Season 2 is slated to premiere on April 5, 2019.

In light of Netflix canceling a number of other fan favorites — such as Daredevil, American Vandal, Luke Cage, and Orange is the New Black — the show must be doing something right to earn 16 more episodes before Season 2 even airs.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, based on the popular Archie comics character Sabrina the Teenage Witch, is a dark, sometimes horrific adaptation. Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) wrestles with the conflict of being half-witch, half-mortal while standing against the evil forces that threaten her family, Greendale, and the witchy world she lives in. Characters, such as her openly pansexual warlock cousin Ambrose (Chance Perdomo) and delightfully wicked witch and anti-heroine Prudence (Tati Gabrielle), round out the dimensional cast of Chilling Adventures.

Salem, Sabrina’s familiar, has yet to talk in this adaptation of Sabrina, though he does in creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s comic book Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Salem the cat still, however, has a message to deliver:

Creator and executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa expressed gratitude to Warner Brothers, Netflix, Berlanti Television, and Archie Productions for supporting this darker reimagination of the world’s most famous teen half-witch, half mortal. Season 1 of CAOS and the A Midwinter’s Tale holiday special are currently available to stream on Netflix.

The post Netflix Orders Two More ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ Seasons appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.