September 14, 2024

Not much to say this week. Jumping right in to the books I picked up.

Duck and Cover #1. Written by Scott Snyder and art and cover art by Rafael Albuquerque. An interesting new book from Dark Horse. This gives us an alternate reality of 1955 and the story of a group of teenagers, that have been instructed to “duck and cover” as a way to protect themselves from a nuclear bomb. When the bomb goes off and the teens come out from beneath those life-saving desks, they find a post-apocalyptic world that they need to survive. Pretty good start to this new series. Hope you’re happy, Todd.

Groo: Minstrel Melodies #1. Written by Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier and illustrated and cover art by Sergio Aragones (Bronze Medalist). The Minstrel and his daughter Kayli are traveling the land, singing about the misadventures of Groo. I love the Wanderer.

Amazing Spider-Man #57. Written by Zeb Wells and penciled by John Romita Jr. Cover art was done by Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Morry Hollowell. Tombstone is in jail. He does not stay there long. He is out trying for revenge on the person who put him there… his daughter Janice.

Time Waits #1. Written by Chip Zdarsky and David Brothers and illustrated by Marcus To & Marvin Sianipar. Marcus To was the cover artist. I have been enjoying the books coming out of DSTLRY, and the new Time Waits is another excellent start. This is told in a fascinating manner, with flashbacks that just appear in the narrative and kind of do not make sense. I am looking forward to the next issue.

Geiger #6. Creators Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. Cover art by Gary Frank & Brad Anderson (Gold Medalist). A story focusing on Barney, the two headed dog that has been an important piece over the last couple of issues. Barney and a bunch of the other animals involved in this issue. Good stuff.

Transformers #12. Written by Daniel Warren Johnson and art by Jorge Corona. Cover art by Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer. Optimus Prime makes a major decision. Cybertron or Earth? There are some major issues among the Autobots here too.

Spider-Man: Reign 2 #3. Written, drawn and cover art by Kaare Andrews. MJ has the Venom symbiote. Miles and Peter face off. I have to say that Peter’s gigantic white beard is somewhat distracting, but the discovery of what happened was powerful. This has been a good series, even though I am not a huge fan of these alternate stories.

Captain America #13. “The Last Stand of the Front Door, Part 2” Written by J. Michael Straczynski and art by Carlos Magno. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. I have not been a fan of this arc of Captain America, but this finale of that arc was okay. Cap was definitely kick ass here, but I am glad the comic moves on to another storyline next issue (which looks like it will co-star Thor and Spidey).

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #9. “The Killing of Moon Knight” Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Devmalya Pramanik. Davide Paratore did the cover art. This issue brings to a close the “new” Moon Knight, aka Shroud. Khonshu wants Shroud dead and he ordered Marc Spector to do it. This is the final issue of this series as we get a new Moon Knight title coming soon.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2. “Super Mutant Turtle Power Go!” Script by Jason Aaron and art and cover art by Rafael Albuquerque. I really loved the first issue of Jason Aaron’s TMNT book, but issue two is not as amazing. It is still good as we focus on Michelangelo and his new career as an action actor.

Red Before Black #2. Written by Stephanie Phillips and illustrated by Goran Sudžuka. Val and Leo have a throwdown in a cafe over breakfast. Yet they end up somewhere completely different. This new book has some cool moments and some originality.

Uncanny X-Men #2. “Red Wave” Part Two. Written by Gail Simone and art by David Marquez. Marquez & Matthew Wilson did the cover art. We get introduced to the Outliers, a new group of mutants that Rogue, Gambit, Wolverine, Jubilee and Nightcrawler have to deal with. We also have a new character named Sarah that is somehow tied to an early Charles Xavier. Gail Simone is an outstanding writer and she has a cool concept working with this version of the X-Men.

Ain’t No Grave #5. Written by Skottie Young and art by Jorge Corona. Ryder challenges death in this series finale issue. It is a real jaw-dropper of an issue. I did not expect the conclusion of this story to happen the way that it did. I was very impressed with the way this mini-series concluded.

Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider #5. “Haunted” Part 5. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Paolo Villanelli. Mark Brooks did the cover art. Gwen is out to try an help Chameleon, whose powers have gone haywire. Plus, they were being pursued by forces, as well as having to battle Vermin.

Blood Hunters #2. Written by Erica Schultz and art by Robert Gill. Ema Lupacchino and GURU-eFX did the cover art. Elsa Bloodstone seems to be fairly unhinged and she is anything but happy about vampire Miles Morales. However, she is forced to work with him against the Bloodcoven.

Jonny Quest #2. Written by Joe Casey and art by Sebastian Piriz. Chad Hardin did the cover art. The new Dynamite comic of Jonny Quest is once again a great book, as we get past Jonny and the future Jonny try and find a way to get the Quest family back where they came from. This has been a solid start to this series so far.

Space Ghost #5. Written by David Pepose and art by Jonathan Lau. Francesco Mattina did the cover art. Another Dynamite book that has been awesome. Space Ghost is desperate as he tries to save Jan and Jace from the clutches of Zorak. Then, Jace drops a bomb at the end of the issue.

Avengers Assemble #1. Written by Steve Orlando and penciled by Cory Smith. Cover art by Leinil Francis Yu & Romulo Fajardo Jr. The new Avengers Emergency Response Squad starts to assemble under the leadership of Captain America. It is nice to see Jarvis once again and it is fun to see the plethora of the heroes arriving, answering the call of the Avengers. There is also a battle with Sin.

Fantastic Four #25. “Star-Crossed” Written by Ryan North and drawn by Carlos Gomez. Joshua Cassara & Dean White did the cover art. Okay, this is a love story. And a weird one with Johnny Storm falling in love with an alien. And Star-crossed is a good example of the story here.

The Department of Truth #25. Written by James Tynion IV and drawn and cover art by Martin Simmonds. There are actually a series of other artists who worked on this issue, which details more about the life and ties of Lee Harvey Oswald and may even insinuate that the assassination of JFK was done by the fictional woman. The Department of Truth is always full of wild ideas in storytelling.

Wolverine #1. “In the Bones” Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Martin Coccolo (Silver Medalist). Logan is running with a pack of wolves. The whole X-Men thing was weighing on Logan and Nightcrawler came to try and get him back. Cyber is there hunting Logan too.

Other books this week: The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #12, Profane #4, Wonderland: Return to Madness #3, Domain #3, and Ultimate Black Panther #8.