Yep, another series spun out of DC's Metal event. And, arguably DC trying to find their teen version of a Spider-Man character yet again. This is a review of both TPBs which collect the entire run.Dereck isn't a bad character, but he is so cliche in many ways. Trying to use his powers to become a You Tube/Instagram star, then taking a hero's journey, problems at home. In a lot ways this is just way too average. A decent read, but not much above average. UntilSpoilersWe met Dereck's birth mother....

Sideways is just about getting to grips with his powers when the unthinkable happens, and his mother is murdered. But before he has a chance to investigate for himself, he finds himself back in the Dark Multiverse alongside the Seven Soldiers Of Victory! If he survives that, the mystery of Dark Star Sciences and the despicable Leto Dominus awaits him...Seven Soldiers is one of those stories that you probably shouldn't go back and touch. It's iconic in its execution, and it's easily one of my fav...

This is better than the previous volume. Sadly only a handful of issues were drawn by Kenneth Rocafort. I feel that the story is a little bit rush because the series was cancelled immediately. I want to see more of Sideways with a proper story and good writer.

In the post Dark Nights: Metal DCU, there were a few completely new superheros that stemmed out of the event. Sideways was one of these.Overall, this Volume (and the previous one) were both pretty good, but you can see why this hero wouldn't last very long on his own. Quite interesting story, yet not as fleshed out as you'd like to see. Hopefully, the character will join one of DC's myriad of super-teams and we'll get to see more of Derek James.Highlights: - Right after his mother dies, he gets

I surprisingly liked this volume better than the first, if only because see a lot of drama in Derek's personal life in the last half. The first part of this book is a filler arc to give us a break from the main story. The dialogue is sloppily written and makes no sense given what was going on in JLD at the time, but we get to see Jimmy Olsen as a werewolf and Superman as a wraith so that's cool I guess?What really boosted my opinion of this book was the last story which quickly attempts to wrap

A sad early end to a promising new series. Hopefully, they’ll figure out something to do with this character before he fades into complete obscurity. I could see him fitting in with other young heroes on Young Justice. That show would be a nice boost for his profile.

Sideways getting dragged into some of DC's crossovers causes his own story threads to stumble, but still a fun character with a decent supporting cast and loads of potential.Hope DC does right by Sideways now that his series is over, as his mix of Spider-man and cosmic trippiness worked really well.

Synopsis: Derek is struggling to deal with the murder of his mother. He's pushing his father and best friend Ernie away and the kids at his school are being total assholes about it. He gets swept up with this group called the Seven Soldiers, composed of Zatanna, Frankenstein, Klarion, the Shining Knight, Shilo Norman, the Bulleteer and the Manhattan Guardian (who is missing). What follows is something that is hard to follow, but essentially, Derek goes dimension hopping with the Seven Soldiers.

DiDio tries to tie this into the Seven Soldiers of Victory event Grant Morrison did years ago. It wasn't interesting then and it's less interesting now. The Seven Soldiers basically fight a crapload of giant spiders while Sideways gets captured by these odd universal monsters versions of Superman characters from the dark universes of Dark Night: Metals. Then DiDio tries to quickly wrap up the open plot threads with the death of Sideways mom before the series is cancelled. This actually had some

I liked this volume better than the first.I don't like how they were positioning Sideways to be a key hero to the existence of the DC universe and history...cough cough Pandora again.I would not be upset if this hero showed up again.But it seems like nearly all the Metal branded books didn't make it.

A nice revisit to the Seven Soldiers and a nice use of some classic Superman characters with "The Unseen". Sidways is a fun character, similar to "The Bounce". He's a multiversal hardtraveling Spider-man. He's not particularly deep at all.The stuff with New 52 Superman (and him being a "True Source" that the Unseen worship is very interesting--and fits into the ideas of the Metaverse (and Multiversity, Metal and Doomsday Clock).

This volume was better than the first one, if that's possible. I didn't find the first half as interesting, even though it broadens the scope of Sideways' narrative universe (and literal multiverse) and it ends in a great annual with Superman as the celebrity guest; the second half, however, was much more grounded and relatable, and the contrast between both was really nice. Kenneth Rocafort art is as good as in the previous numbers (I'm liking it more now), and Grant Morrison co-writing the ann...

The Seven Soldiers of Victory show up...and do nothing. There's a group of monsters based on old Superman comics where Lois, Jimmy, and Lori are always turning into different things.There's a part where a detective is investigating Derek's (Sideway's) mom's death and since Derek went into the Dark Multiverse for a week, he's a suspect. So the detective asks where he's been, specifically, and Derek goes, "I was in Metropolis with friends." The detective says, "Ok" and heads out, still a little su...

I liked this volume less than the first, mostly because it relied too heavily on stuff from Dark Knights Metal. I didn't read much of that story so I ended up being a little lost. This is my constant complaint about DC. I wish they would put in a little time bring you up to speed rather than just assuming everyone has read every single thing they put out. Regardless, I enjoyed this series at a whole and wish it had more time to grow.We discussed it more over on Comic Book Coffee Break: https://w...