January 20, 2023

Yesterday, we had a two-hour delay at the school where I teach. Except, when I got there, we realized that we did not have any water. The school sent any kids that were there home and the staff stayed and worked, heading to a gas station in case the restroom was needed. We had another problem coming. The boilers at our school required water and we had none. Plus, the boilers have been sketchy this year anyway. No water and no heat.

Well, today, the water did not return until early morning and the boilers would not start. So school was cancelled again at our building while the rest of the district continued on. We were told to come to school at 9:15 to have a meeting to determine what we would do today.

Making the long story short (too late, I know), that meant that I had some time in the morning that I normally wouldn’t so I carved out an hour and did another January Comic Catch-Up.

Spider-Man: The Lost Hunt #1-3. Written by the legendary J.M. DeMatteis and drawn by Eder Messias & Belardino Brabo, I typically am not a big fan of non-continuity Marvel stories (that are not What If? books). Those alternate reality books just rarely do it for me. However, the pedigree of DeMatteis writing a story that is connected to his seminal work, Kraven’s Last Hunt, makes it hard to ignore. DeMatteis is putting Spider-Man through the wringer once again. The story was told with multiple points of view, but when Mary Jane is telling the story, her boxes are in red, which I found difficult to read. Other than that, the story worked well and I was invested.

The Invincible Iron Man #1: “The Autobiography of Tony Stark” The new volume featuring Iron Man was written by Gerry Duggan and the art was by Juan Frigeri. Tony Stark has fallen on some hard times and has been going through it. This was another story that looked back at the origin of Stark and his past. This was very intriguing as well.

Fantastic Four #3. “A Shoptastic Day” Written by Ryan North with art by Iban Coello, this was the issue to focus on Johnny Storm, the Human Torch. Johnny had some funny things going down, including some new facial hair and a not-so-great secret identity. It was an intriguing look at the character of Johnny Storm in ways that have never been covered before. At first, I was not sure about what was happening, but it won me over. Looks as if we get to find out some details about what happened to the FF next issue.

Secret Invasion #3. “Now I Know You’re Human” I really have liked this series so far. I am really looking forward to the Disney + series in a few months so this has been great, focused more on Maria Hill than Nick Fury ( as the show will). Tony Stark is in this issue too, causing his normal amount of trouble. There was also a fantastic cliffhanger at the end of the issue. Secret Invasion was written by Ryan North and the art was by Francesco Mobili.

I’m hoping to get another couple of hours this weekend for Comic Catch-Up.