August 20, 2023

Fifty posts in the EYG Comic Cavalcade! Of course, when I reached fifty posts in the Comic Catch-Up, I rebooted into this current format. I am not going to do that this time. We will continue to push forward with the EYG Comic Cavalcade moving ahead.

It is a good time to reflect on what I have done over the last year or so. I have gotten through a ton of the piles sitting around my house. The books are being bagged, boarded and boxed. I am in the process of reorganizing everything, which is a massive chore.

The comics I read on a weekly basis are really some of the best I have read in my years of collecting comics. I still consider myself a mostly Marvel guy, but the increase in my independent collection cannot be ignored. I would guess that Something is Killing the Children was the initial emphasis of this new push, though one can not deny that Jeff Lemire’s Gideon Falls had a lot to do with it too.

Some of my favorite Marvel books over the last few years are more than just Spider-Man books. It was unexpected, but I loved Hellcat, a few of the variations of Jessica Jones, and Loki. It always seemed that when I really started to enjoy a book, it would end. Now, with the limited series being the norm, it is easier to deal with.

I am still not into DC much, but I will admit that I am enjoying the Knight Terrors event. This week there were only five issues as things are starting to wrap up. My order of favorites this week would be Knight Terrors: Nightwing, Knight Terrors: Superman, Knight Terrors: Wonder Woman, Knight Terrors: Catwoman, and then Knight Terrors: Punchline. Punchline has been one that I have had a hard time getting involved with since I did not know the character prior to the event.

Other books that I completed this week:

Void Rivals #1. Written by Robert Kirkman and featuring art by Lorenzo De Felici. Ryan Barry and Mike Spicer did the cover art. What an unexpected pleasure this was. I had no idea that this book was tied into the Transformers at Image thing that is happening. Yes, the cover looked like a Transformer, but I did not make the connection. This would not be the first character that looked like a Transformer. Not only was this a Transformer, but it was Jetfire. Jetfire was my favorite Transformer character on the 80s cartoon (he was called Skyfire on the show), but his appearance here caught me completely off guard. I was interested by the two characters the book introduced at first, but when Jetfire showed up, the book truly started to pop. Void Rivals made me interested in checking out Transformers #1 from Image, something that I had not been before.

What If…? Dark: Moon Knight #1. Written by Erica Schulz and drawn by Edgar Salazar. The new Dark What If series of books have been interesting and this new issue deals with Moon Knight… at least a little bit of Moon Knight as he does not last long in the story. The whole ending with Marlene becoming a luminary of Ra and being taken over by Ra was weird, but fit well in the nature of the What If series.

Loki #3. “The Liar: Chapter Three.” Written by Dan Watters and drawn by German Peralta. Dustin Nguyen was the cover artist. Remember when I mentioned that the limited series allow me to know a story isn’t going to last. This one caught me unexpected when the final page said it would be concluded next issue. Four issues was not what I thought. I did enjoy the reunion with Loki, Wiccan and Hulkling.

Something Epic #4. Written and illustrated by Szymon Kudranski. The latest issue of the book that does more to celebrate creativity and the imagination of comic books than just about any book out there came out this week once again. It is working on creating the mythology of this universe with the existence of ‘epics’ and has placed Dan into almost a video game like situation. Something Epic is continuing to be the most original book I read.

X-Men: Days of Future Past-Doomsday #2. The prequel to the major X-Men story from the 1980s continues here as we get several of the mutants dying and Colossus and Kitty Pryde taking the chance to express their love for one another. The series is dark, but I did appreciate how it took a moment to find the joy inside the grief.

Star Signs #4. Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Megan Levens. The people with their star sign powers continue to join together, finding where they belong. It was a close call for the group to escape Mister Duke, and things look to be getting worse as we meet Libra.

Ghost Rider #17. “Part 2: Demonology” The team up between Ghost Rider and Wolverine is in full swing as they search for the young boy Bram. We get a flashback to where Logan and Ghost Rider meet for the first time too. The next part of the story takes place in the issues of Wolverine, which I do not get so I am not sure where this will go for me.

Marvel Voices: X-Men #1. This is a compilation of a series of shorts featuring the X-Men characters. I have to say I do not usually read these Voices books too closely, but I did enjoy this one and read it through. Bernard Chang & Marcelo Costa did the cover art.

Iron Man Annual #1. “Contest of Chaos: Part Two.” Written by Jason Loo and drawn by David Cutler. I had a variant cover drawn by Felipe Massatera. As we saw in the Spider-Man annual earlier this month, two heroes wind up fighting with each other and the winner winds up being taken. In this annual, we get Iron Man vs. Storm. There were some snipping going on through the book and it was a pretty solid fight between an X-Man and an Avenger. We also see a final few pages with Spidey and Jessica Jones heading to see Clea to look for answers.

Dark X-Men #1. “There is a Kingdom.” Written by Steve Foxe and featuring art by Jonas Scharf. Madelyne Pryor, the ruler of Limbo, returns to the forefront as she is helping some mutants escape the persecution of Orchis. She is also involved with Alex Summers, aka Havok. A bunch of interesting X-Men characters are in this book and it was a fun read.

Money Shot Comes Again #3. Written by Tim Seeley and drawn by Gisele Lagace. I have to say, this book is weird. I feel a little dirty reading it.

Here is to fifty more posts in the EYG Comic Cavalcade!