January 11

It is Sunday night and I have finally gotten to the EYG Comic Cavalcade. It has been a busy weekend of movies and completing season one of Agents of Shield. There is a lot of good stuff this weekend, but I had to make sure there was time to finish reading the comics from this week.

I finally got my Ultimate Endgame blind bags from eBay. I picked up 10 of them and did decent with the copies. I got the Peach Momoko cover, the wraparound cover, the Skottie Young cover, the Wasp 1:50 incentive, and the Cafu variant. I also got a few duplicates that I had already gotten, including three of the Spider-Man/Wolverine covers. I also picked up a blank blue line variant. Fortunately, none of my books were damaged, which a lot of the Ultimate: Endgame books were. Marvel should not put the A cover inside the blind bags, as I have seen some people get multiple copies of that issue. The Mark Spears blind bags were much better since there were more variety inside them.

Books this week:

X-Men #23. “Assassin” Written by Jed MacKay with pencils by Tony Daniel. Cover art was done by Tony Daniel, Mark Morales, & Fer Sifuentes-Sujo. The future Cyclops’ mind takes roto inside the past Cyclops body, and he tries to kill Doug before he becomes Revelation. Doesn’t work.

Amazing Spider-Man #19. Written by Joe Kelly with art by Pepe Larraz. Cover art was done by Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia. I also picked up the variant cover with art by Lee Bermejo (Bronze Medalist). Peter and his space crew prepare to face off with Hellgate in an attempt to get Peter back to earth. We will see how things go.

Hank Howard: Pizza Detective in The Two Hollywoods #1. Written by Robert Venditti with art by David Lapham. Cover art was done by Alex Maleev. Another fun, new book from Bad Idea, Hank Howard is a private detective who seems to specialize in cases involving pizza. Huh? I do love me some noir, which this fits perfectly.

Wolverine #14. “Silver and Snow” Written by Saladin Ahmed with art by Martin Coccolo. Cover art was done by Dan Panosian. Wolverine meets up with Silver Sable in the wilderness of Canada to help a couple of mutants stay free. This draws the attention of Alpha Flight!

The Twilight Zone #3. “The Relic” Written, drawn and cover art by James Stokoe. A futuristic post-apocalyptic tale in the style of the classic TV show. This was my least favorite of the Twilight Zone issues from IDW so far, but I do love the black and white layout.

Deluge #3. Written by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by Marika Cresta. Cover art was done by Riley Rossmo. The prisoners of the flooded prison have more to worry about than water. They are being attacked by the creatures that are in the water… and they are frightening. Deluge ahs been a great book so far for Ignition Press.

Blue Falcon & Dynomutt #5. Written by Jimmy Palmiotti with art by Pasquale Qualano. Cover art was done by Lucio Parrillo. I believe this was the final issue of Blue Falcon & Dynomutt, which upset me. I have been enjoying this book and I love the new take on the Hanna-Barbera characters.

Absolute Batman: Ark M #1. “A History of Arkham” Written by Scott Snyder & Frank Tieri with art and cover art by Joshua Hixson. We get a comprehensive history of Arkham Asylum in the Absolute Universe. This was a fascinating book to read and gave us a real intriguing story.

Batman #5. “Date Night” Written by Matt Fraction with art and cover art by Jorge Jimenez. I also picked up the 1:25 variant cover by David Aja (Silver Medalist). Bruce Wayne and Dr. Annika Zeller are on a “date” (depending on whom you ask) but they are being pursued by a new villain named The Ojo. This is a fun book with no appearance by Batman.

Spider-Man: Noir #4. “The Gwen Stacy Affair, Part IV” Written by Erik Larsen with art by Andrea Broccardo. Cover art was done by Simone Di Meo. Someone has taken away Peter’s super powers and has been dressing up as Spider-Man and being more violent.

The Monster and the Wolf #2. Written, drawn and cover by Mark Spears (Cover B- Gold Medalist). I ordered this from Keenspot directly, and I got it in the mail late this past week even though it technically is not released in comic shops until next week. I do love the Monster books from Spears.

Cheetah & Cheshire Rob the Justice League #6. Written by Greg Rucka with art by Nicola Scott. Cover art was done by Nicola Scott and Annette Kwok. This heist book concludes with this issue as Cheetah and Cheshire are able to show off how complex they had made their plot. Every time you thought it was done, there was a twist. Nicely written.

The Phantom #4. Written by Ray Fawkes and art by Russell Olson. Cover art was done by Freddie Williams II. The Phantom is shot. Can he make it to safety and still survive? Only with a little help from his friends.

Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider #6. Written by Stephanie Phillips with art by Van Randal. Cover art was done by David Marquez & Federico Blee. Gwen is hoping that her new band can win an upcoming Battle of the Bands. Why are there always super villains around?

Nova Centurion #3. “For the Corps” Written by Jed MacKay with art by Alvaro Lopez & Matteo Della Fonte. Cover art was done by Alessandro Cappuccio & Rachelle Rosenberg. Richard Rider has been fun in this series so far. I have always like Nova and this has been giving him to me in a new and exciting manner. I am still unsure about time and continuity, but I am trying not to let that bother me.

Absolute Superman #15. “In Blue” Written by Jason Aaron with art by Juan Ferreyra. Cover art was done by Rafa Sandoval & Ulises Arreola. Superman is trying to do everything he can to help the people of earth. Not only that, but he is reading poetry to Ra’s Al Ghul. Oh, and Brainiac is walking around. That can’t be good. Superman is in his new blue suit too, while he is sucking up wildfires.

War Wolf #3. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Marco Perugini. Cover art was done by David Talaski. Bruin returned from the spaceship after all of the aliens retreated. He was able to parlay that story into a senator-ship and political power. But what really happened on that ship? Mad Cave has another good book going.

Other books this week: Conan: Scourge of the Serpent #4, Ultimate X-Men #23 (A & B covers), Marvel Rivals: The Cities of Heaven #1, Marvel: Black, White & Blood and Guts #4, and Arcadia #2.

Quick Hits: Starting off this week with a new series from Dark Horse called Devil on My Shoulder #2. It is brutal and violent revenge tale that has been very entertaining so far. Absolute Green Lantern #10 is out this week. It has been picking up steam a bit after struggling to keep my attention. This is still decent, but one of the lower of the Absolute books. Knightfight #3 picked back up after kind of losing me last week. This week was much more engaging than the whole weird Clayface stuff from last issue. Ultimate Wolverine #13 has a brutal fight between Wolverine and Ursa Major. It is a battle that was way more graphic than many of the Red Band series. We have a new issue of Batman/Green Arrow/The Question: Arcadia #2. Not sure what Batman is doing in this issue with some of his choices. FML #7 is back after a LONG hiatus. I hate it when independent books take such a long break between issues. It is nearly impossible to keep up any sort of momentum. FML #6 came out September 3, 2025 making it about 4 1/2 months between issues. Godzilla Kai-Sei #6 had two covers for me this week. I picked up one of its covers that was an homage to Superman #75. It was a cool cover. Eat Your Young #5 came out too, with the violent struggle within a family to survive.