March 4, 2023

The last few days, I have been getting a few comics read here and there. As I mentioned last time, this weekend was Wrestlemania weekend so I was quite busy watching wrestling. There was some time to fill however.

Specifically, I had an oil change scheduled for Saturday morning down at Brad Deery’s Motors. I used that time to read two graphic novels that I had recently gotten on eBay. They were a couple of books that I heard discussed on the Fatman Beyond podcast with the writer Jim Krueger. There are The High Cost of Happily Ever After and The Runner.

I found The Runner as the better between the two. The Runner was a story about a man named Daniel who looked in the face of death and survived, only to have death chase after him forever. And he had to run from them.

Meanwhile, The High Cost of Happily Ever After is about a princess whose recently married husband went off to war. She is captured and tortured mentally in a chance to break her.

Both were enjoyable and I have grown to enjoy Jim Krueger’s work. Zach Brunner was the artist on both of the two graphic novels. I thought the art worked very well with each book and it created a excellent tone. There are plenty of wonderfully beautiful images in his work.

The other books I have read…

Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain #2. “Two Captains, One Country” Written by Tini

Howard and drawn by Vasco Georgiev. Erica D’Urso & Matthew Wilson did the cover art. The Captain Britain Corp arrive on the world of Captain Carter looking for that world’s Betsy Braddock. Morgan Le Fey continues to plan to try and destroy the Captain Britain Corp.

Frankenstein New World #1-4. Written by Mike Magnola, Christopher Golden and Thomas Sniegoski with art by Peter Bergting. This Dark Horse limited series featured the Frankenstein character that was from the world of Hellboy. This was a neat little series with Frankenstein and a little girl named Lilja. There was a weird end to the series, but I liked it quite a bit.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #4. “Chapter Four: Restraint, Endurance, and Passion.” And then there was Supergirl. I had liked the first three issues of this series. I know that this limited series is going to be the basis for the upcoming Supergirl movie in the James Gunn run DC Studios. Unfortunately, issue four really came off the rails for me. I was bored throughout it. I had no connection or care about anything that was happening. I was truly disappointed in this issue. I certainly hope the remainder of the issues 5-8 turn out more interesting that this one did. I believe in Tom King so I will hold hope.

Where Monsters Lie #2. Script by Kyle Starks and art by Piotr Kowalski. We return to the place where a group of serial killers have been living and the police, on a tip from a young boy who had seen some of the killers and had managed to escape, come to find them. This all just led to a massive slaughter. We are introduced to a federal agent named Connor Hayes, getting a bunch of backstory on him. I have to say that I do not trust this guy. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but there is just something about him that makes me wonder. This limited series has been fun so far.

Sabretooth & the Exiles #5. “Station Five.” Written by Victor LaValle and drawn by Leonard Kirk. Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer and Frank Martin were the artists on the cover. This limited series came to an end as Sabretooth winds up battling and joining a group of multiversal variants of himself. This one did not wrap up quite like I wanted. It turned the series into an okay one, where it could have been very solid.

Thor #32. “Blood of the Fathers Part Two” Written by Torunn Grønbekk and drawn by Juan Gedeon. Nic Klein was the artist on the cover. Another Thor story that is involved in different time lines, making it difficult to follow. It was also a book that has a cover that really kind of misleads what is going on inside. Despite a cover where we see Thor and Dr. Doom fighting, that does not happen this issue. It does seem as if it will happen next issue though so perhaps it is a bit of a set up. Still, much of this recent arc of Thor has left something to be desired.