January 22, 2023

This is now the fourth day in a row for the January version of Comic Catch-Up, which was unexpected. The consecutive run should end as of tomorrow unless something unforeseen happens. As I have stated, I plan on having a daily Comics Catch-Up during February.

I have to get some organization done too so I can start to attack these books in some kind of order. I am currently in search of Thunderbolts #3 so I can read that five issue series. I have located #1, 2, 4, and 5, so #3 is a goal for the day.

Got a good chunk of reading done this morning, across several comic companies.

All-Out Avengers #1 and #2. Written by Derek Landy and drawn by Greg Land, All-Out Avengers was confusing for me. Issue one and issue two did not seem to have any tie in with each other and issue two started off with Dr. Doom as a member of the Avengers fighting another Dr. Doom. I do not know where any of this happened. It was not tied to issue one. It was so weird that I was wondering if I had to go searching for other Avengers titles that might tie in to it, but there did not appear to be such a thing. Both stories were good (Spidey was in #1. Yay!) but they confused me.

Shang-Chi: Master of the Ten Rings #1. “Fathers and Sons” Written by Gene Luen Yang with art by Michael Yg. I guess I should have waited for this until I had read the Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings series. This seemed to be a one shot issue that helped tie up the story from that limited series, which meant a lot of it was confusing for me. I’ll have to get that organized and onto the list to read.

Blue Beetle: Graduation Day #1. “Chapter One“. This is the first DC book that I read for the Comic Catch-Up and I liked it. Blue Beetle is a character that I have always liked, especially the new version, Jaime Reyes. He does have a Marvel feel to the character. Jaime has a bunch of troubles and Superman shows up to ground Blue Beetle. Written by Josh Trujillo and drawn by Adrian Gutierrez.

Deadpool #1-3. Written by Alyssa Wong and art by Martin Coccolo, Deadpool is back again. I have been up an down on Deadpool over the years. There have been series that I have enjoyed featuring the Merc with a Mouth and there have been series that I couldn’t care less about. So far, this has been interesting with a piece of the Carnage symbiote implanted and percolating inside of Wade by a villain named The Harrower. Wade is also after Doc Ock as an audition to join a secret society of assassins called the Atelier.

Mary Jane & Black Cat #1 & #2. Two of my favorite Spidey flames team up during the Dark Web crossover event. MJ has superpowers, which I have missed somewhere. Black Cat wants to restart a relationship with Spidey and that is making her uncomfortable in this strange team up taking place in Limbo with Belasco needing Black Cat’s thief skills. This was probably my favorite fo the Dark Web crossovers so far, even if that is not saying much. Written by Jed MacKay with art by Vincenzo Carratù.

The Riddler: Year One Book Two. Written by Paul Dano and drawn by Stevan Subic. I have liked this series so far and this book continues to be dark and gritty. Paul Dano as the writer, who is expanding the story of the Riddler, the character he played in this past year’s The Batman is a cool idea. I have always loved the Riddler and this interpretation was intriguing.

There’s Something Wrong with Patrick Todd #2-4. This is one of the series that my comic shop made me buy. I would not have paid any attention to this book from Aftershock, but my friend Todd said how his name and Patrick’s (another person at Comic World) name were put together in the title. I will say though that the concept of the book was fascinating and I liked the character of Patrick Todd so far. The introduction of the crazed Zeus gives us a mysterious reason to look for as well.