September 7, 2023

A whole bunch of back issues have come into my possession recently for several series that I just recently discovered. A big thank you to Todd for his efforts to find these books for me across his mountains of contacts.

There is also, of course, a NEW COMIC BOOK DAY in there as well, although this was actually a lighter week of new books for me. The whole DC Knight Terror series is done now, which is helpful in bringing down my total.

Oh, and I owe an apology to Todd for doubting that he had already found me Planetary #12 & 13, which I thought he had not. I did not recognize the pics that he showed me on his phone. He was sure that he had already gotten those two books, and he was right. My bad.

Books this post…

Avengers #502 & 503. “Chaos” Part three and four. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and penciled by David Finch. This is the Avengers Disassembled story arc that had seen some of the team killed (such as poor Scott Lang and Hawkeye) by Wanda Maximoff. The story arc is tense and exciting, if not a tad anticlimactic.

Avengers Finale. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and art by a plethora of people. The surviving members of the Avengers gather together to mourn Scott Lang, Hawkeye, Vision, while dealing with their anger/frustration over Wanda’s decisions. The book wound up with the Avengers just reminiscing over their biggest moments and felt like a minor wrap up of the more tense Avengers Disassembled series.

Kill Your Darlings #1. Written by Ethan S. Parker and Griffin Sheridan with art by Robert Quinn. This is a book considered hot, coming out of Image, and it is, of course, because I picked it out of Previewed months ago. I am a trendsetter. Seriously, this is really an engaging book with a young girl named Rose and her imaginary world… or is it imaginary? Beautiful art work and a gripping story.

Secret War #5. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and art by Gabriele Dell’Otto. The heroes get together to finally discover what Nick Fury had gotten them to do the year before in Latveria. Daisy Johnson, aka Quake, steps forward to take Fury’s back. Honestly, this felt a little anticlimactic as well. I liked the whole series, but it just did not finish up that well.

Omega the Unknown #1. Written by Steve Gerber & Mary Skrenes and illustrated by Jim Mooney. Cover art by Hannigan & Sinnott. I picked up Omega the Unknown #6 at last weekend’s super secret sale at Comic World and I loved the issue, so I went to eBay and found the whole ten issue series. I started off with number one and it was decent. I was really curious about what has been set up in the story between Omega and James-Michael. Pretty good for a series that I had never heard of before.

Amazing Spider-Man #33. Written by Zeb Wells and featuring art from Patrick Gleason. Marcio Menyz did the cover art. Well… sure looked like Kraven done f@*ked up. Last issue, he stuck Peter with a spear that he intended to stab Norman Osborn with to make him return to his darkside, but instead, it turned Peter into something horrendous. The scenes at the end of this issue with Spidey and Kraven are as cold-blooded as I have seen. It always makes me unhappy to see Spidey look anything but his happy-go-lucky self.

Hunt for the Skinwalker #1. Written by Zac Thompson and illustrated by Valeria Burzo. Cover by Martin Simmonds. Colm Kelleher and George Knapp wrote the original book that this was based on and was involved with the series. This included some weird things as the Skinwalker ranch took center stage. This is a fascinating four issue series with a strong beginning.

Scarlet Witch #8. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Lorenzo Tannetta & Sara Pichelli. Russell Dauterman was the cover artist. Wanda heads to meet up with Loki in a battle of… the truth? I never thought two comic characters could show as much chemistry as these two did. This was written beautifully and showed something that you never thought you wanted.

Fantastic Four #11. Written by Ryan North and drawn by Iban Coello. Cover art by the legendary Alex Ross. I have really enjoyed this run on FF. It has had engaging stories with the team at the Grimm family farmstead in Arizona that feel very down to earth while still having huge stakes and action. This is a Thing-centric issue as he is joined by a little dog. Good stuff.

Void Rivals #2. Written by Robert Kirkman and drawn by Lorenzo De Felici. This is another book Todd got for me because I was not aware that when I picked up issue 1 a few weeks ago that I actually was buying a second printing and that this series already had several issues released. I really loved #2 and I really liked this issue too.

Planetary #1. Written by Warren Ellis and art by John Cassaday. Another series I had never heard of before until I picked up issues #17-22 because they looked like an anthology series that was interesting. However, after reading 17 & 18, I realized that there was more to it than just an anthology series so I waited until I got #1 to continue reading. Todd got me a bunch of these and I did like #1 a lot.

X-Men #26. “Whack-A-Mole” Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Jim Towe & Javier Pina. Alex Ross did this cover too. Kate Pryde heads to assassinate Firestar, unaware that she is a mole set up by Jean Grey just before she died. Plus, Tony Stark and Emma Frost wind up in a strange moment where it looked as if Stark was popping the question leading to their wedding??? I do like how Stark and Kingpin have become major players in the mutant storyline.