December 28

We are up to the final Comic Cavalcade of 2025. The next NEW COMIC BOOK DAY is New Year’s Eve and, even with a smaller pull list as it looks to be, there is no way to finish it up before the clock strikes midnight.

2025 has been a great year for comics. With this last week’s load of books, I passed 20,000 comics in my personal collection. That was a cool thing. It was just a few years ago that my collection was in such a mess that I had no idea how many comics I had. Now, after several years of work, my books are all bagged, boarded, boxed, and counted. Sure, there are books where I am unsure where they are still, but it is certainly progress.

I received my order of Mark Spears Monsters #8 this week. I picked up 24 blind bags from Keenspot and I wound up with 19 new covers. I only had 5 duplicates, which I am considering a huge success. I also got three foil covers and three glow-in-the-dark covers in the blind bags. I am pleased with the delivery, even if it felt as if the package was never going to get here.

Books this week:

Sleep #7. Written, drawn and cover art by Zander Cannon. The penultimate issue of Sleep came out this week and it continues to be one of the best, most creative books on the market. I am anxious to see what surprises we are going to have in store for us in the finale next month.

Red Book #3. Written by James Tynion IV with art and cover art by Michael Avon Oeming. More UFO stories from the Soviet Union and, setting up, China for next month. Tynion IV writes this as if it is the truth and that it is out there.

The Will of Doom #1. Written by Chip Zdarsky with art by CAFU. Cover art was done by Jonas Scharf & Alex Guimarães. Dr. Doom is gone (yeah, right) but the Doombots are causing trouble. One issue with the Doombots is that they always believed that they were the true Doom. This one-shot feels important as Chip Zdarsky is heading toward the big event next summer. How will this fit into that?

Orla #5. Written by John Lees with art by Sally Cantirino. Cover art was done by Sally Cantirino & Dearbhla Kelly. Orla was a fun book that seems to believe in true love, even over that desire to murder and eat your lover. This is the final issue of this Mad Cave series.

DC KO: Red Hood vs. The Joker #1. Written by Scott Snyder & Joshua Williamson with pencils by Dustin Nguyen & Giuseppe Camuncoli. Cover art was done by Jorge Corona & Sarah Stern. I also picked up cover C by Guillem March (Gold Medalist). This was the most interesting of the first round match-ups in the KO tournament because of the history between Red Hood and Joker. Many of the other match-ups did not have much background to them, but this one was firing on all cylinders.

Gunpowder Profits #3. Written by Justin Jordan with art and cover art by Patrick Piazzalunga. Marley and Huck got in trouble for their murder of the motorcycle gang last issue, but it seemed as if the gang was not going to let death stop them. Just an excuse for Marley to be even more violent. Meanwhile, America has been snatched away.

Sisterhood #5. Written by Maytal Zchut and art by Leila Leiz. Cover art was done by Leila Leiz with Alex Sinclair. The final issue of this Hyde Street story sees the weird end to the friendship as one person is arrested for the crime. Was it the right person though?

Rocketfellers #11. Written by Peter J. Tomasi with art and cover art done by Francis Manapul. The Rocketfellers have been running through time to avoid Raina Rocketfeller, Roland’s sister. However, Raina has caught up with the family which lead to, apparently, a tragic result. I did not see this coming.

Justice League Unlimited #14. Written by Mark Waid with art and cover art by Dan Mora. The Terrific Ten storyline continues as yet another of the out-of-time heroes bites the big one here. That means that they are down to six.

Absolute Superman #14. “Son of Nowhere, Nothing and No One” Written by Jason Aaron with art by Rafa Sandoval. Cover art was done by Rafa Sandoval & Ulises Arreola. Big finale between Superman and Ra’s Al Ghul. The last panel brings the character a little closer to his true look. Thanks Ma.

Trinity: Daughter of Wonder Woman #6. “What’s the Point of a Corgi?” Written by Tom King with art and cover art by Belen Ortega. With the time travel shenanigans going on in this series, we now have Trinity gain a chance to meet her father, Steve Trevor. Admittedly, it is only via the clay molding manner which does not sound nearly as fun.

Justice League Red #5. Written by Saladin Ahmed with art by Clayton Henry. Cover art is done by Clayton Henry & Arif Prianto. Black Adam is throwing shade to Red Tornado. Is the mind behind the Justice League Red actually plotting against them? As I am not as much of an aficionado of DC, am I supposed to know who the Crimson Cloud is?

Tama #5. Written by Adam Schlagman & Doug Pasko with art by Daniel HDR. Cover art was done by Ashley Witter. Tama continues his brutal path of killing people. Can the video game creature be shut down before it becomes the ultimate monster? Spoiler: Answer is no.

Detective Comics #1104. “The Courage That Kills Part Four” Written by Tom Taylor with art and cover art by Mikel Janin. Batman is in a race against time as he has now become symptomatic with the virus that he has been fighting against. How does the Scarecrow fit into this?

Amazing Spider-Man #18. Written by Joe Kelly and penciled by John Romita Jr. Cover art was done by John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna & Marcio Menyz. I also picked up the variant cover by Simone Di Meo, featuring Mary Jane. Norman Osborn and J. Jonah Jameson sit down to talk about their connection to Peter Parker.

Spider-Man ’94 #4. Written by J.M. DeMatteis with art by Jim Towe. Cover art was done by Nick Bradshaw & Rachelle Rosenberg. Spidey and Kraven take on the powerful Morlun. Somehow, it sure looked like Morlun turned into Swamp Thing on the final page. Marvel should watch out for copyright lawsuits.

X-Vengers #3. Written by Jason Loo with pencils by Sergio Davila. Cover art was done by Mike McKone & Morry Hollowell. The X-Vengers X-ssembled! Or something like that. This is another of the Age of Revelation books that was fun, but felt unneeded. It just gave a flavor to the rest of the Marvel Universe.

Cloak or Dagger #3. Written by Justina Ireland with art done by Lorenzo Tammetta & Edoardo Audino. Cover art was done by Mike McKone & Rachelle Rosenberg. This was another fun book as we get a chance to see Cloak and Dagger’s daughter kick some butt during the Age of Revelation.

Undeadpool #3. Written by Tim Seeley with art by Carlos Magno. Cover art was done by E.M. Gist. I liked this book at first, but I am not sure if I enjoyed its conclusion during the Age of Revelation. Deadpool got himself got it appeared. Still lots of death X Years Later.

1776 #2. “Our Sacred Honor” Written by J. Michael Straczynski with pencils by Sean Damien Hill. Pete Woods did the art for the cover. Okay, Spidey and Cap together with the revolutionary war soldiers is a hoot. I love their little hats. Clea vs. Morgan Le Fey is a bigtime throwdown.

No Man’s Land #4. Written, drawn and cover art by Szymon Kudranski (Silver Medalist). This awesome story of a murder mystery that could lead to major troubles between the US and the USSR comes to a close. While the mystery is not a great one (considering we did not really have a list of suspects), the resolution is epic. The scene with the showdown was amazing and I actually had my jaw drop with the presentation of it. I loved this four-issue series.

Hello Darkness #17. Variant cover art was done by Jenny Frison (Bronze Medalist). Another strong issue with multiple horror stories. There is always a great deal of variety in this Boom! Studios book.

Absolute Wonder Woman #15. “The Mark of Hecate” Written by Kelly Thompson and art by Hayden Sherman. Cover art was done by Hayden Sherman & Jordie Bellaire. After over a year of publications, the Absolute Universe has finally crossed over. In this book, we get the first ever team-up between Absolute Wonder Woman and Absolute Batman. The story will continue in the next Absolute Batman book.

Other books this week: Masterminds #3, Godzilla Escapes the Dead Zone #5, Blink and You’ll Miss It #4, Titans #30, Absolute Martian Manhunter #7, Fire and Ice; Nekron #1, Event Horizon: Dark Descent #4, Gray Lady #1, Immortal Legend Batman #5, Return to Sleepy Hollow #2, and Red Vector #5.

Quick Hits: Final Boss #2 is back with more hand to hand fighting in the style of the classic video games. In the spirit of the awesome blind bag trend, I picked up an Image Christmas Blind Bag that was supposed to guarantee me a incentive comic of one of Images books. I got the 1:25 version of Assorted Crisis Events #5, which was a cool cover. Hornsby & Halo #13 featured a battle with an angel and devil in search of our heroes. The crime comic called American Caper from Dark Horse is, once again, a very enjoyable book. Dynamite put out The Lion King #2 as Simba was on the case of a missing elephant baby. The Marvel Winter Break Special #1 follows up the Marvel Swimsuit special from earlier this year. Still silly, but some fun art. Expatriate X-Men #3 was my least favorite of the Age of Revelation books this week. Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong 2 #6 sees our heroes and the big titan monsters in bad shape. Is that supposed to be a monster version of Cheetah? The Quintesson War has begun in the pages of Void Rivals #25. Ignition Press comics gave us Voyeur #3 this week as we get even more adult comic action. I received Hero Hiro #2 from Keenspot this week along with the Monsters book. While this is a little young, I do like the story that they are telling. Finally, it is Star Wars #8 as Luke is doing his best Spidey under the rubble routine.