August 16, 2023

Things have changed. Yes, the summer is over for me. I went back to start school today at the middle school where I teach. No students yet. We have a week of prep, meetings and organizing to get ready. Because I was back at work, that meant I did not get the chance to go to Comic World and hang out and read a bunch of books today.

I went after school was over, but I was not able to do any reading at the store. When I got home tonight, I did some reading here, but it means that this post is not going to be as long as it has been after NEW COMIC BOOK DAY!

With the schedule busy lately, I will be working on finishing up the rest of the pile of new comics during the weekend. I wanted to get to this EYG Comic Cavalcade tonight anyway.

Starting off, I want to talk about Messenger. This is a graphic novel that I received in the mail from Amazon on Monday of this week. It deals with the life of Muhammad Ali. Written by Marc Bernardin and drawn by Ron Salas, Messenger: The Legend of Muhammad Ali is an interesting book. It is a beautiful black-and-white book that is a fairly quick read.

Marc Bernardin is a personal favorite of mine. He does a podcast with Keven Smith called Fatman Beyond and being able to match the personality of Kevin Smith is a tall order. Marc Bernardin is one of the few who can accomplish it. I wanted to order this book when I heard him promote it on an episode of Fatman Beyond. He said on the podcast, as well as in the forward of the book, that some of what appears in the book was true, but a lot of it is made up, or mushed together. It is told more for the legend of Ali than the entire truth. It’s more of creating a feel of who/what Muhammad Ali was than being tied to a narrative of what actually happened. It picked out some of the biggest moments of Ali’s life and gave us an idea of how it affected The Greatest. If you are an Ali fan, you love this. I have only a passing knowledge of the champ and this was a fun read. Check it out.

Other books I have started off with this week…

Uncanny Avengers #1. “Truth & Justice.” Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Javier Garrón. Captain America has taken a step to try and help out mutantkind once again by re-creating the Unity Squad including Psylocke, Deadpool, Quicksilver, Penance, and Rogue in an attempt to bring the rogue Captain Krakoa to justice.

Antarctica #2. Written by Simon Birks and featuring art from Willi Roberts. Hannah comes face to face with someone who is an exact duplicate of herself. Is she from a different dimension? Not sure, but there are some really weird things going on in the Antarctic.

Groo: In the Wild #2. Written by Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier and illustrated by Sergio Aragonés. Groo is still hungry and in search of the meat of the ortix. Sadly, it is extinct, but Groo does not understand that. And his very presence is causing all kind of trouble for King Putrio.

Daredevil #14. “The Red Fist Saga: Conclusion.” Written by Chip Zdarsky and art by Marco Checchetto. Chip Zdarsky’s run on Daredevil comes to a close with this issue. Foggy, North and Elektra have been going on with their lives for the past six months, mourning the death of Matt Murdock. They see him everywhere. When Elektra wound up at a church, she found a certain blind priest there that will be setting up the next arc of the character of Daredevil. Chip Zdarsky has been one of the greatest Daredevil writers of all time and he will be missed on this series.

Spider-Man #11. “Marvel Tales” Written by Dan Slott and art by Luciano Vecchio. Mark Bagley & Edgar Delgado did the art for the cover. Spider-Boy tries to convince Peter that he is Peter’s sidekick. He tries to convince him by telling him about several stories that Spider-Boy claim have already happened, but that Peter has forgotten. It is a strange idea, but it really works well. I have enjoyed the character of Spider-Boy so far.

Something is Killing the Children #32. “Showdown at the Easy Creek Corral, Part Two.” Written by James Tynion IV and drawn by Werther Dell’edera. Erica and Cecilia come face to face and share their mutual dislike for one another. However, there is someone they both hate even more, and that showdown is coming soon.

Alpha Flight #1. “Divided We Stand- Part One“. The Canadian super hero team has returned to dive directly into the whole Orchis-Mutant conflict engulfing the Marvel universe at the moment. One team of Alpha Flight members team up in order to try and capture Northstar and Aurora, as well as capturing any mutants still here. Or is there more to the story?