June 13

Happy Friday the 13th to all of the horror movie fans out there. It has been awhile since I was able to get the EYG Comic Cavalcade out on a Friday, but summer’s here and some extra reading time is available.

I also have a brand new computer chair that I put together (with only some swear words) last night. It is nice and comfy as I type this week’s Cavalcade post.

Books this week:

Death of the Silver Surfer #1. “Chapter 1: Here” Written by Greg Pak and art by Sumit Kumar. Cover art was done by Dike Ruan. As readers of the Comic Cavalcade know, I am not much of a fan of alternate future stories and this is a new one from Marvel. However, this book, written by Greg Pak, who I do like a great deal, is really decent. I was very engaged when I was reading it and I think this will be one of those future stories that will work for me.

Star Hunters #1-7. This is a group of seven books, the full series, that Todd made me buy. JK. He did recommend it. I have not actually read the full series, just skimming the first issue a bit, but I am happy to have it. Issue one had cover price of $0.35 which jumps up to $0.50 by the final issue.

Robin & Batman: Jason Todd #1. Written by Jeff Lemire with art and cover art by Dustin Nguyen. Jeff Lemire is the reason I picked up this number one, and I am very pleased that I did so because it is an exceptional story involving the eventually tragic Robin, Jason Todd. I have always been a fan of Robin and, while Jason Todd is not a personal fav, this book takes that character into a new level.

Giant-Size Dark Phoenix Saga #1. “Marvel Girl“. Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly with art by Rod Reis. Ms. Marvel and Legion insert themselves into the Dark Phoenix Saga after being in the recruitment of the new X-Men in the last issue. I am not sure what this Ms. Marvel group of books is meant to do, but the stories have been fine.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #9. “The Way of the Rotted Rat.” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Juan Ferreyra. Cover art was done by Jorge Fornes. With Donny behind bars, the remaining Turtles try to keep from killing each other in an attempt to save their brother. Things are not going great for them.

Lost Fantasy #2. “Book One: A World Beneath.” Created by Curt Pries & Luca Casalanguida. A new hunter comes into play while Henry fights for his life. Lost Fantasy has been a great read so far and the ‘giant size” regular book is awesome. More books should provide more pages of story than what they have been doing recently.

Nightwing #126. “By the Book- Finale: Bad Cop/Good Cop.” Written by Dan Watters and art by Francesco Francavilla. Cover art was done by Adriano Lucas. I have been a fan of Nightwing since his debut in Teen Titans, and Dick Grayson prior to that as Robin. I decided to give Nightwing a chance and grabbed this issue off the shelf. Of course, it was a finale of a story arc, but even with that, the story was understandable and interesting.

Something is Killing the Children #42. “All Her Monsters Part Two” Written by James Tynion IV and illustrated and cover art by Werther Dell’edera. I also picked up cover B variant with art by Tyler Boss (Gold Medalist) which was a glow-in-the-dark cover. Erica is back as we continue to see into the past of the young monster slayer.

Far Down Below #3. Written by Chris Condon and art by Gege Schall. Cover art was done by Jacob Phillips. Brian, Jeff and Brian’s grandfather continue their trek beneath the surface of the earth and find all kinds of dangers and obstacles. And they found someone else!

The New Avengers #1. Written by Sam Humphries and art by Tony Lima. Cover art was done by Stephen Segovia & Rain Beredo. The New Avengers … or The Thunderbolts! Bucky and Black Widow are on a mission and they need to find some “team members.” They start off with Laura Kinney Wolverine and Namor. More to come.

Trinity: Daughter of Wonder Woman #1. “Crisis on Infinite Corgis.” Written by Tom King and art and cover art by Belen Ortega. This was a fun, little time travel story with Trinity along with a couple of other versions of her from different times, are out to retrieve a group of time traveling corgis. Weird book, but always fun thanks to Tom King.

Avengers Academy Assemble #1. Written by Anthony Oliveira and art by Carlos Lopez and KJ Diaz. Steven Byrne did the cover art. This looks like it is collecting the Avengers Academy: Marvel’s Voices Infinity Comic #1-6, which I believe is on the Marvel Unlimited digital series. This is my preferred way to read comics, with the floppy copy. I do like a lot of these young characters and I was a fan of the old Avengers Academy books, so this was fun.

Runaways #1. Written by Rainbow Rowell and art by Elena Casagrande. Cover art by Stephanie Hans. I also picked up a variant cover by Elena Casagrande with a wrap-around cover of the original Runaways. I was a fan of the Runaways and Doombot was one of my favorite characters so with Dr. Doom running the world, it was just a matter of time before he tried to reclaim his property.

One World Under Doom #5. Written by Ryan North and art by R.B. Silva. Ben Harvey did the cover art. Doom and the Avengers find themselves on the same side against the dread Dormammu. Of course, this is something that the manipulative Doom will take advantage of as he groomed his reputation and image as a world wide savior.

Geiger #15. Written by Geoff Johns and art by Gary Frank. Cover art was done by Gary Frank & Brad Anderson. The battle between the Glowing People comes to an explosive finish in this issue. Geiger continues to be high quality in the Ghost Machine imprint.

Spider-Girl #1. Written by Torunn Grønbekk and with art by Andre Risso. Variant cover B art was done by Peach Momoko. From the pages of Spider-Boy, we get the new heroine who had teamed up with Bullseye to fight in a tournament. Here she has to face Vermin.

Amazing Spider-Man Giant Size #1. Four separate Spidey stories written by Kevin Smith, Al Ewing, Chip Zdarsky and Mitsuyasu Sakai. The four artists involved were Giuseppe Camuncoli, Mark Buckingham, Cafu & Gerardo Sandoval. Spidey is out looking for a fix for his torn costume, he meets Wyn from G.O.D.S., and they introduce the new character Rapid, who can slow down time.

Conan the Barbarian #21. “Slaves of the Magi” Written by Grim Jim Zub and art by Ferocious Fernando Dagnino. Cover art was done by Dan Panosian. Another book I grabbed off the stands to give a try. I used to collect the Conan books that were recently at Marvel and I thought I would try this Titan book. It was fairly decent. Certainly looked great.

New Champions #6. Written by Steve Foxe and art by Ruairi Coleman. Cover art was done by Gleb Melnikov & Arthur Hesli. The young New Champions team up with the Avengers in a battle against a new Super-Skrull. Oh, and Moon Knight shows up and scares Moon Squire.

Exceptional X-Men #10. Written by Eve L. Ewing and art by Carmen Carnero & Federica Mancin. Cover art was done by Carmen Carnero & Nolan Woodard. Kitty, Emma and Iceman are here to help their trainees, but Axo has to come to the rescue instead. I thought this might be the end of this series, but I am glad it looks like it is moving on.

Jumpscare #3, 4. Written by Cullen Bunn and art and cover art by Danny Luckert. I finally got Jumpscare #3, which was a suddenly difficult book to find. Todd was able to find it in Des Moines (although he then tried to hid it from me…. ). I was starting to believe that issue three was just a urban legend. I do enjoy this book and I am glad I am currently caught up.

Absolute Batman #9. “Abomination Part One” Written by Scott Snyder and art by Nick Dragotta. Cover art by Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin. The Absolute Universe debut of Bane. And Bane is badass!

Eddie Brock: Carnage #5. Written by Charles Soule and art by Juanan Ramirez. Cover art was done by Iban Coello & Frank D’Armata. Carnage and Eddie are having their internal struggle for control as Eddie is trying to help a crashed plane’s passengers. Misty Knight may be in over her head.

Phoenix #12. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Roi Mercado. Cover art was done by Lucas Werneck (Bronze Medalist). This issue spends most of the time with Sarah Grey, in both present day and flashbacks. It sets her up as a possible mutant, but Cable does not seem too pleased.

Batman: Dark Patterns #7. “Pareidolia” Written by Dan Watters and art and cover art by Hayden Sherman. The new arc of the Dark Patterns series kicks off here and it continues to be an exceptional take on an early Batman.

Star Wars #2. “Smoke” Written by Alex Segura and art and cover art by Phil Noto. Luke takes off, leaving Rynn behind and winds up in search of a Jedi artifact called the Crown of Verity. This issue featured Luke’s travels and his confrontations as he searched for the McGuffin.

Magik #6. “The Road Back Home.” Written by Ashley Allen and art by Jesus Hervas. Cover art was done by Pablo Villalobos. Trouble brewing in Limbo, so Illyana meets up with Madelyne Pryor to cause sparks to fly between the two powerful Limbo masters.

Other Books this week: Frankenstein New World: The Sea Forever #4, The Loose Ends #4, Huge Detective #5, Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma #3, Marvel United: A Pride Special #1, Marvel Rivals Ignite #1, and Deadpool/Wolverine #6.

Quick Hits: Todd had gotten a group of Superman Unlimited #1 issues signed by Dan Slott through Midtown Comics and I was able to get one of those. It was cool because I swear, Dan Slott is the only comic book creator whose signature is readable. Optimist Prime is still in some bad shape in Transformers #21. EC Blood Type #1 was another off the stands book to try out. It wasn’t bad even though there are a surplus of vampire stories right now. Blue Palo Verde #1 is also new and I had never heard of it before, but I feel as if Mad Cave deserves the benefit of the doubt right now and I did love this book. Falling in Love on the Path to Hell #8 is one of the least regularly released books currently coming out that is not from DSTLRY. No Black Panther in Ultimate Black Panther#17, but it might have been better with the focus on Killmonger and Okoye. Sister Imperator #4 closes that series out. I am not sure if I will miss it. W0rldtr33 #15 has the silver medalist this week for Fernando Blanco. Hello Darkness #11 continues to have great covers too and a potpourri of horror short stories. Finally Peach Momoko’s Ultimate X-Men #16 is here and is still the most original Ultimate books available.