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Pick Your Pickle and Prepare for Puns: Pickleball's Board Game Just Launched. A fast, fun, irreverent board game that celebrates the joy of Pickleball. Fans of silly puns, pickles, and fast-paced games alike have a new game to add to their list of must-haves: HotShot Pickleball. This delightful card-drawing board game is quick to learn and gives a surprising amount of opportunity to lightly strategize as you race to the ball and attempt to hit it back over the net to your opponent. The debut release from indie studio Midnight Trading Co., HotShot Pickleball was made while game designer Robert Gelb was recovering from an Achilles injury sustained, ironically, by playing Pickleball. For those who haven’t heard of pickleball, it's the fastest-growing sport in the world, with over 32 million players last year. HotShot Pickleball is a lively, family-friendly game that combines the fun of the sport with a cast of quirky, pickle-themed characters like Stew Cumber, Kim Chee, and Corni

@WildstormAddict Reviews: @DCComics Stormwatch #18, The Ravagers #10, Team 7 #6

Stormwatch #18 CoverThe Ravagers #10 Cover

Here are today's "Guest Reviews" by Joe David Soliz from Wildstorm Addiction. Included are DC's; Stormwatch #18, The Ravagers #10, & Team 7 #6. I have also added my rating after each review. If you have any questions about my rating or want to discuss anything just leave me a comment.

See the Review Rating Overview page for more information on how I rate each comic.



Stormwatch #18 - The Scream


The team battles one of their own for their very survival!

The relationship of Midnighter and Apollo hits a rough patch when the Amazon-like Zealot joins the team!

Preview



I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For It To End Already!


After a tumultuous year and a half since the New 52 started, Stormwatch has survived...but just barely. After many editorial and creative team changes (happening once again next month), Peter Milligan and Will Conrad deliver their final issue and do their best to wrap everything up.

Here it is, the lone survivor of the mass of cancelled Wildtorm-related titles in the New 52. It even outlasted titles that launched later. Stormwatch as a title has struggled to find it's legs and while Milligan's run started off really strong, it soon started to lose steam. It wasn't until we found out this was Milligan's last issue that certain story-lines being wrapped up so quickly started to make sense. This also quickly became the dumping ground for characters who once appeared in other titles. Zealot was a decent addition but now will only have limited time because of the creative team change next month. Then O.M.A.C. appeared at the end of last issue (seen in issue preview so no spoiler) but there is really no reason for him to be here. His inclusion only served for Zealot, Apollo, and Midnighter to have someone to physically fight in their battle against The Engineer.

Speaking of The Engineer, I'm not sure I like what they've done with her. Over in Ravagers, they made Warblade a villain and for some reason that didn't bother me much. But here, I'm sad they chose do to that with The Engineer. The handling of all the characters in general, regardless of the fact they are not their pre-New 52 selves, never really did resonate well.

Read the rest of Joe David Soliz's Review on Wildstorm Addiction

My Rating


Cover & Solicit - 4/5
Art, Colors & Inking - 4/5
Layout & Flow - 3/5
Story - 4/5
Verdict - 3.9


The Ravagers #10 - Women & Children First


Someone claiming to be Terra’s brother comes to the team. Unfortunately, Deathstroke the Terminator isn’t far behind him!

The Ravagers are having serious trust issues already, so a visit from the world’s deadliest assassin certainly won’t help!

Preview



She's Hooking Up With Who & He Turned Into a What?


With the news of the title's cancellation hanging over the issue like a gloomy storm cloud, the latest outing for the new creative team was not as strong as it had been in previous issues. There were some nice twists and turns in the issue but overall the disarray in DC's editorial department seems to have caught up with this title.

After praising writer Michael Alan Nelson for his inaugural two issues, a strange decision was apparently made with this issue. Nelson is only credited for the plot but Tony Bedard is credited for the dialogue. Now, I've seen this before in the Grifter title but there I understood it because Liefeld has his attention split between several titles and needed Frank Tieri to help with dialogue. But here, I'm at a loss why they'd split the writing duties. It may be that they had already informed Nelson about the title's cancellation at this point and had him start working on his next assignment: Supergirl. But I guess we'll find out next month if the writing duties are split again.

Now, Bedard's dialogue wasn't horrible, but I could tell a difference between his style and Nelson's. There were also several strange story choices here. They had an interesting revelation for one character that I thought was kind of neat. But then we get the return of another character with a very clean, straight-forward explanation. It almost felt like DC told them, bring this character back as quickly as possible and don't worry about the explanation. It was just a very weird moment that seemed to come out of left field. There are two characters who start a relationship that I thought was kind of cool as well.

Read the rest of Joe David Soliz's Review on Wildstorm Addiction

My Rating


Cover & Solicit - 4/5
Art, Colors & Inking - 4/5
Layout & Flow - 4/5
Story - 3/5
Verdict - 3.6


Team 7 #6 - Mission 2.2: Birth of a Superman


In the tale from the recent past, Team 7 is on a mission to rescue Caitlin Fairchild when a team member dies!

And in the present day, Deathstroke hunts down his former Team 7 partners! But why?

Preview



Death and Carnage!


Wow! I am so bummed this title is ending. Jordan kicked it into high gear last issue and keeps the momentum going here. We do get rotating artists once again but the story kept me so intrigued I didn't notice it as much (even though there were 4 different artists). He also continues to give some truly oh **** moments that I absolutely love.

Damn you DC for ending this title so early! Jordan is taking these final issues of the series and going for broke! First up, he has a character die that makes no sense because that particular character exists in the current New 52. So I can't wait for him to explain that one! It's also a no-brainer that with the title ending, some of the characters I expected to die have started, but then there's others that are dying and they haven't shown up in the present New 52. Which means their death may be permanent (well, as permanent as comic deaths can be). It's this beautiful confusion that makes this issue so great because Jordan has presented so many questions I want answered!

Read the rest of Joe David Soliz's Review on Wildstorm Addiction

My Rating


Cover & Solicit - 3/5
Art, Colors & Inking - 3/5
Layout & Flow - 3/5
Story - 5/5
Verdict - 3.9


Pre-Order Stormwatch TPB Vol. 03 Betrayal (Save 20%)
Purchase The Ravagers #10
Purchase Team 7 #6
Joe David Soliz is a blogger at http://www.wildstormaddiction.com/ and a comic book reviewer at Comic Vine. The use of this review has been authorized by the original author.

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