July 18, 2024

The summer is flying along. I have just about a month to go before I return to school for the next group of kids and I can no longer spend NEW COMIC BOOK DAY at Comic World sitting at the back table and reading my new books. I do love being able to spend the afternoon with the cool people at Comic World and getting time to read the new books out. I will miss it when I am back at school.

Until then, though, welcome to EYG Comic Cavalcade #107. Every year, I look at the list of Eisner nominated graphic novels and I purchase several of them to see what they were like. Most of them are books that I do not see during the year, but I look forward to reading after. I have several ordered via Prime Day on Amazon and I expect them to arrive any day. One of the nominated graphic novels was called Parasocial by Alex de Campi and Erica Henderson. It was a really powerful read and I would recommend it to anyone.

New books this week:

The Change. Script by Whoopi Goldberg and Jaime Paglia with art by Sunkanmi Akinboye. Khary Randolph did the cover art. I saw this graphic novel promoted on The View by Whoopi Goldberg and I was curious. It is about a woman going through menopause who developed super powers. It may not necessarily be a story that I could relate to, but it was an interesting read. It was definitely left on a cliffhanger so we’ll see if it ever continues.

Napalm Lullaby #5. Written by Rick Remender and art and cover art by Bengal. This was the first time this series hooked me more than just a bit. This spent a good deal of the issue diving into the background of what was going on in this world with Sarah and Sam’s mother and her plans moving forward. It has always looked great.

Namor #1. “Prince of the Blood” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Paul Davidson and Alex Lins. Variant cover art by Alex Maleev (Gold Medalist). I have always enjoyed the character of Namor and this series starts off very strong. We see where Namor is currently at, seemingly depressed and having given up, but we also flashback to a young, arrogant teen Namor. I think this book has a ton of potential and Jason Aaron is always a solid storyteller.

Incredible Hulk #14. “The Hulkscape.” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson with art and cover art by Nic Klein. The horror elements of the Hulk seem to be back with a vengeance as Bruce Banner tries to navigate the Hulkscape, trying to convince the Hulk to help him save Charlie. The Hulk appears to have some deep seeded trauma involving Banner.

Invincible Iron Man #20. “End of the Line“. Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Andrea Di Vito. Cover art was done by Kael Ngu (Silver Medalist). This issue wraps up the marriage of Tony Stark and Emma Frost, with neither of them seemingly thrilled by putting it to bed. Emma also gave Tony a check for…. a lot of money, seeding his return to a company and … maybe the West Coast Avengers? This might be the end of this series. Not sure on that. It is definitely the end of the creative team. I have really been pleased with where this book has gone lately so I am looking forward to the next chapter of Tony Stark’s life.

Immortal Thor Annual #1. “The Idiot Abroad” Written by Al Ewing and art by David Baldeón. Variant cover art by the iconic Walter Simonson (& Laura Martin) [Bronze Medalist]. The Infinity Watch storyline continues throughout the series of annuals, with Powerstone (both the character and the actual infinity stone) making an arrival. Powerstone dealt with the Champion of the Universe inside, and then changed his name again… to Apex. The Death Stone Saga is here too from creative team of Derek Landy & Sara Pichelli.

Elric the Necromancer #1. Adapted by Julien Blondel & Jean-Luc Cano. Story and dialogue by Julien Blondel. The art and cover art was by Valentin Secher. Michel Moorcock’s iconic albino and his sword that thirsts for souls finds himself in this new mini-series from Titan Comics and it looks epic. I remember Elric from an early Marvel Graphic Novel and I have loved the character since.

Laura Kinney: The Wolverine- Blood Hunt #1. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Robert Gill. Bjorn Barends did the art for the cover. Another of the one-shot issues during the Blood Hunt, Laura is in battle with the vampires to save Gabby. What happens when vampires get ahold of mutant blood? Bad news for sure.

Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys #1. Story and words by Neil Gaiman. Script by Marc Bernardin. Shawn Martinbrough did the art. Cover art was by David Mack. I know there is a controversy with Neil Gaiman right now, but I have always tried to separate a person’s work from who they are. I do hope that Gaiman turns out to not be a worthless loser, because this first issue was extremely compelling and set up a real intriguing arc.

What If…? Aliens #5. Written by Leon Reiser and art by Guiu Vilanova. Phil Noto did the cover art. The finale of the mini-series focusing on Paul Reiser’s character Carter Burke comes to a close here with a solid finale and plenty of aliens running around the base. I would love to see other What Ifs of the properties Marvel owns like this one. What If for Planet of the Apes or Predator or Star Wars… those would all be really cool and would help continue the concept of What If. I do miss the Watcher though…

Fishflies #7. Written, drawn and art for the cover by Jeff Lemire. This story comes to an end as Jeff Lemire brings the story full circle. Fishflies has been another exceptional story from Jeff Lemire, who is one of my favorite writers in comics today.

Scarlet Witch #2. Written by Steve Orlando and drawn by Jacopo Camagni. Russell Dauterman did the cover art. Wanda is dead. Pietro and Darcy are trying to save the town from the Griever. And Wanda is seeing what her future holds. If she returns, will she and Pietro lead to the destruction of all?

Redcoat #4. Creators are Geoff Johns and Bryan Hitch. Gary Frank and Brian Anderson did the variant cover art. We get a glimpse into the past of Einstein as well as get introduced to our main, big bad of the series, The Grand Architect, who is revealed to be a very much living George Washington. Between here and the Killadelphia series, those Founding Fathers are pretty rotten.

Daredevil: Woman Without Fear #1. Written by Erica Schultz and art by Michael Dowling. Cover art was done by Mahmud Asrar & Matthew Wilson. Elektra is back on the streets of Hell’s Kitchen and is facing off with Crossbones. We also get a guest appearance from the new Punisher.

Plastic: Death & Dolls #2. Written by Doug Wagner and art and cover art by Daniel Hillyard. We get a little background on Edwyn’s past with dolls and removing their heads. This, of course, leads to his present day decapitations. I would think that keeping these heads in his refrigerator may not be the best choice.

Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #0. “Khonshu: Strikefile” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Alessandro Cappuccio. E.M. Gist did the cover art. Moon Knight is alive again. This issue zero is to go over all of the details of the series: characters, location, villains that will be focused on in the upcoming new Moon Knight book.

Phoenix #1. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Alessandro Miracolo. Yasmine Putri did the cover art. Jean Grey is in space, using the Phoenix Force to do good for once. This was a really good start to this series. I especially liked the mental scenes between Jean and Scott, showing that even the distance of space could not come between them.

Spider-Woman #9. “The Price of Liberty“. Written by Steve Foxe and art by Ig Guara. Leinil Francis Yu & Rachelle Rosenberg did the cover art. The new super team The Assembly is not as they look. Liberty from the group was ‘awakened’ by the scream of Angar and she and Jessica Drew head into the holding facility to try and get Angar free. Bad things happen.

Spectacular Spider-Men #5. “Contingencies” Written by Greg Weisman and penciled by Humberto Ramos. Miles and Peter slug it out, thinking that the other one is a robot. They are inside the new combination world designed by Arcade and Mentallo, while Hammerhead watches on.

Amazing Spider-Man: Blood Hunt #3. Written by Justina Ireland and penciled by Marcelo Ferreira. Cover art was done by Marcelo Ferreira, Roberto Poggi & Rachelle Rosenberg. I loved this last issue here as Morbius designed a cure for the vampires that had been turned by Beyond Corp and Spidey helped save them. That is what Spider-Man would be doing… using science to help save people… not just killing vampires that had been changed against their wills.

Other books this week: Man’s Best #5, Ultimate X-Men #5, The Mammoth #2, Blood Hunters #4, and Lawful #2.