November 12, 2023

Boy, there was a big week of comics this week. However, there was one in there that seemed not to fit with the others.

It was Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #3. I do not buy many DC books and I certainly do not buy Fire & Ice. Sometimes, Todd sticks books in my pull list as a joke. I usually come across them because I look through the pile at Comic World pretty carefully. But Todd has been sending me pics on Tuesday of what is in my box so I can tell him if there is anything missing. Since that, I did not go through the pile as closely as I would have. I found this book at home afterwards. I texted Todd and he blamed Drew, another employee and, to be fair, Drew has put books in my box before too. I’m exchanging it next week.

I have started to collect the horror anthology series, Ice Cream Man. I read the first four issues, compiled in a trade paperback, and I really enjoyed it. So I started picking up some issues on eBay and at Comic World. I actually wound up with some doubles because the set that I purchased on eBay did not have some issues listed on it (or at least, not on the one I was looking at) and I picked up these back issue at Comic World. That is fine. I am still working on completing the series. I am missing around 11-12 issues of the 37 that have been released. It looked like #38 is scheduled to come out in January.

Other books this week:

Punisher #1. “The Bullet That Follows.” Written by David Pepose and art by Dave Wachter. Cover art was done by Rod Reis. Frank Castle is gone, and we seem to have a new Punisher. I did like what I read here and, even though the Punisher has never been my favorite character, I am going to give this new version a chance.

Predator Versus Wolverine #2. Written by Benjamin Percy and art by a trio of people, Ken Lashley, Andrea Di Vito, and Hayden Sherman. The cover art was by Marco Checchetto. They followed up an excellent number one with an okay issue 2.

Amazing Spider-Man #37. Written by Zeb Wells and penciled by Ed McGuinness. I am truly ready for the Gang War storyline that is coming soon to these pages, because I have had the right amount of Rek-Rap. Looks like there may be one more Limbo demons issues of ASM so I hope to get through it and get back to some street level action.

Inside the Mind of Sherlock Holmes graphic novel. “The Case of the Scandalous Ticket” By Cyril Lieron & Denoit Dahan. A really fun graphic novel with an original Sherlock Holmes story. This graphic novel does a great job of showing us the skills of Sherlock during the story and presents it in a creative and very original manner. I love the cover with the Sherlock Holmes head cut out on it. This was a ton of fun.

What If…? Dark: The Tomb of Dracula #1. Written by Marv Wolfman and penciled by David Cutler. These What If Dark books have been up and down. This one falls right in the middle. We get Dracula transforming Blade into a full-fledged vampire. I kind of enjoyed the ending sequence, but the whole book was, at best, okay.

Avengers Inc. #2. “Case Number: 002 The Ghost of Avengers Mansion.” Written by Al Ewing and art by Leonard Kirk. Daniel Acuna did the cover art. Wasp introduced Victor Shade to Victor Shade, aka Vision. This has been an interesting comic, with a tone of noir about it. Janet Van Dyne and Victor Shade make an intriguing pair and the story was decent.

Cereal. “Sweet Darkness.” Written by Mark Russell and drawn by Peter Snejbjerg. Another book that I technically did not ask for, but Pat (another Comic World employee) had gotten one for himself and he thought that I would like it and he put it in my box. And he was right. Cereal is a weird satire of the monster movies of the past while using the characters from American breakfast cereals such as Count Chocula or Frankenberry. I was constantly looking for more allusions to the cereal mascots (there are a bunch of them) while enjoying seeing this (sorta) serious story with them involved. The Comic World guys are good to me.

Thanos #1. Written by Christopher Cantwell and art by Luca Pizzari. Leinil Francis Yu and Sunny Cho did the cover art. Okay, I did not think I would care much about this book, but I was totally engaged with it. I loved the way this book was about Roberta, a character that I did not know, but easily started to root for and when the Illuminati arrived… well, the story picked up again.

Unleashed #4. Written by Kyle Starks and art by Jesus Hervas. David Baldeon and Israel Silva did the art of the cover. The super hero pets team up, Marvel style came to a close with this issue as D-Dog heads to the great beyond. This series had no right to be as fun as it was, but I did enjoy the exploits of these animals.

Phantom Road #6. Chapter Six: “Monsters Don’t Make Campfires.” Written by Jeff Lemire and with art by Gabriel H. Walta. This series returned after a bit of a hiatus with a strong issue as we get a name for these strange creatures…Horror Men.

Transformers #2. Written and drawn by Daniel Warren Johnson. The Decepticons, led currently by Starscream are after energy and they may have found it where Spike’s dad worked. Oh… and we get the debut of Duke, from G.I. Joe. Cool.

Uncanny Spider-Man #3. “Superpositional” Kurt Wagner and Silver Sable get their groove on. And what has happened to Cloak and Dagger? This is a continuing entertaining book.

Destiny Gate #2. Written by Ryan Cady and art by Christian DiBari. Mitchell is facing the monster in the water. Destiny Gate has been a fun new horror book with some inteersting ideas.

Nights #2. “Into the Woods” Written by Wyatt Kennedy and art by Luigi Formisano. Vince has found himself in a world of vampires and creatures while he has feelings for Gray.

Other books read this week: Dark Ride #9, Captain Marvel: Dark Tempest #5, Hunt for the Skinwalker #3, Damn Them All #10, Guardians of the Galaxy #8, House of Slaughter #19, Star Signs #6, Midlife (or How to Hero at Fifty) #2, G.O.D.S. #2, Groo: In the Wild #4, and The Enfield Gang Massacre #4.