September 4, 2023

I hope everyone has had a happy Labor Day spent with friends, family or engaging in their favorite geek activities. I went to a movie, although saying that I ‘enjoyed’ it would be a gross overstatement.

By the way, it really feels like Sunday night to me right now. Have to keep telling myself that it is Monday.

Before heading out to the theater though, I did some comic reading this morning, finishing off the books from last week’s pull list that I needed to read and getting some of the new back issues that I recently purchased read as well.

My comic book shop sprung a super secret sale on Sunday out of nowhere. Literally, I saw a Facebook post about it on Saturday night and Todd called me wondering if I new anything about it. LOL. Anyway, I went and sprung for a bunch of comic bags and boards for my continuing goal of getting my full collection bagged and boarded, including replacing the old books’ protective materials with new ones. However, it was quite the depressing fact because I am almost done with the bags/boards that I bought and I made it through one long box with unbagged books. I have at least two more of these long boxes to go BEFORE I get into the books in the old boxes. Suddenly, I saw the expense that I would be looking at to complete this goal…

Definitely a LONG term goal.

I originally thought it would be about a year, but that seems impractical (and quite expensive). Anyway, it is still a process.

The books read…

Omega the Unknown #6. “A Tug of the Wrench” Written by Mary Skreenes & Steve Gerber with art by Jim Mooney & Mike Esposito. Cover art by Romita/Cockrum. I bought this at the aforementioned Comic World secret sale simply because it came out in 1977 and it would allow me to make my first post in the Facebook group that I recently joined, Old Guys Who Like Old Comics. I had never heard of Omega the Unknown. I just read it and I have to say that I loved it! I was totally in on everything happening in the book and I thought it was amazingly original and unlike most anything that I have read before. Looks like a winner for the first post.

Marvel Spotlight #24. “Walk the Darkling Road.” Written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Sal Buscema. This featured Daimon Hellstrom, aka the Son of Satan. I have always enjoyed the character in his runs in the Defenders and such and I loved his involvement in the recent Hellcat series. He had a confrontation with his sister Satana, but he seemed too goodie-good for the Son of Satan. Still a fun read.

Local Man Gold. Creative team: Tony Fleecs & Tim Seeley with colors by Felipe Sobreiro. This surprised me to no end. I enjoyed the Local Man series that was recently out by Image, and this was a one shot involving him. However, there were other heroes that showed up from the past. Strangely enough, I did not recognize them and I thought they were just new characters in Jack Xaver’s life. Then, shockingly, there was Joan Petersen, the main character in Love Everlasting. I couldn’t believe it. Then, I got to the page that showed that all these characters that I thought were just new characters were actually from all kinds of Image books. It was a cool surprise.

W0rldtr33 #5. Written by James Tynion IV and featuring art by Fernando Blanco. I will be honest that I have been struggling with this book so far. However, this issue was really exciting and compelling and made me want to get the next issue immediately. Much like a lot of Tynion’s work, W0rldtr33 requires focus and is not designed for a quick skim, and that is not a bad thing.

Spider-Man: India #3. “Seva Part III.” This has been fun so far. Pavitr started selling videos making Spider-Man look bad for money. However, this is all playing back into his own self-image issues. I like Spider-Man: India and the character is interesting.

Justice League: Another Nail #1-3. Written and drawn by Alan Davis. This is an Elseworlds series featuring Superman as an Amish kid and Batman depressed over the death of Robin and Batgirl by the hand of Joker. I liked the resolution of the series, but to be honest, I did not like this that much. It felt like just a whole bunch of cameos by DC heroes that, while cool, did not service the story very well. I did not love the manner the story was told or constructed. Superman did not feel like he was Amish, with it being more in name than anything else. The Batman stuff in Hell was interesting. Overall, this was okay, but not much more than that.

Deadpool: Badder Blood #3. Story by Rob Liefeld, script by Chad Bowers and penciled by Rob Liefeld. Venompool takes on Deadpool… and Zabu? This is a great series that feels like a top notch Deadpool book.