July 24

I picked up a bunch of back issues this week in several locations. At Comic World, Todd had a new small collection that included Machine Man #1,2, and a couple of older X-Men books (#143, #116). He also gave me a copy of 2001: A Space Odyssey #2 (thanks Todd). At In This Issue, I picked up a bunch of Avengers Vol. 3 and Spectacular Spider-Mans. I picked up I Hate Fairyland Vol. 2 #1-7 off eBay.

Less than one week away from Spider-Man: Brand New Day movie. I will be watching it next Thursday at noon. I can’t wait. Spidey is my absolute favorite fictional character of all time. Very excited.

Comic of the Week

Dog Tag #3

This was another unexpected winner this week. I have enjoyed this Mad Cave book so far, but this week’s issue caught me off guard and I found myself reacting in an emotional way to the story. One scene in particular nearly had me tearing up. I am not sure I can recall a time when a comic book elicited tears from me, so it was unexpected.

Books this Week:

Amazing Spider-Man #33. Written by Joe Kelly with art by Ed McGuinness. Cover A art by Ed McGuinness & Marcio Menyz. I picked up variant cover C by David Nakayama (Bronze Medalist). Legacy number #997 means that the build to #1000 is underway. Spidey teams up with a new band from Damage Control and they take down some of the villains together. Meanwhile, May and her long lost son go for dinner. I sure hope they don’t just make May’s son a villain, but I suspect that is where this is heading.

Spider-Man: Long Way Home #2. Written by Jonathan Hickman and art by Adam Kubert. Cover art was done by Adam Kubert & Arthur Hesli. The pursuit for the Cosmic Cube continued with Spidey, Punisher and the Hulk all after it for their own reasons. This has not been my favorite Spider-Man book out recently. Still, anything with Spidey is down for me.

Uncanny X-Men #32. “Mars Needs Mutants” Part 3. Written by Gail Simone with art by Rogê Antonio, Jim Towe and Federica Mancin. Cover art was done by Luciano Vecchio & Matthew Wilson. The Outliers step up their game and so Rogue and Gambit redub them “The New Mutants” and give them new outfits. However, the promotion does come with some bad news. Gambit and Rogue are leaving the group for awhile to take care of business. If Deathdream cries, we all cry.

Terminal #1. Written by Robert Kirkman & Joe Casey with art by Andy Kubert. I picked up a couple of blind bags celebrating this new series and got a couple of covers from Art Adams. The new series features all new superhero characters in an all-new superhero universe. I thought this was excellent and it gave me thoughts of Strikeforce: Morituri from Marvel.

Flash #35. “The Speed was Power, and the Speed was Joy-Part IV” Written by Ryan North and illustrated by Gavin Guidry. Cover art was done by Gavin Guidry & Adriano Lucas. Wally West was using his new power, flashes of insight, to predict future problems so he could save them before the events happened. I feel as if that has the potential for bad things in the long run, but we’ll see. I have enjoyed Flash since Ryan North took over the writing chores.

Universal Monsters: Blood of the Wolfman #2. Written by Joshua Williamson and art by Leomacs. Cover art was done by Leomacs & Pip Martin. I also picked up variant cover B by Jacob Phillips. There is a classic feel to this book as our main character Adam struggled with a possible transformation into a werewolf when he massacred a whole college party. This has been an excellent book so far, fitting nicely into the Universal Monsters books from Image.

Void Rivals #32. Written by Robert Kirkman with art by Conor Hughes. Cover art was done by Lorenzo De Felica. I have been excited for this book for a month and a half or so with the announcement that Rom is joining the Energon Universe and would make his official debut in this issue. Now, he only shows up at the very end, but I do believe that Rom is a burst of energy into Void Rivals that it has been needing for several issues now. I am looking forward to seeing Rom moving forward.

Sicko #1. Written by Tini Howard and illustrated and cover A art by Amilcar Pinna. Cover B art was done by Juliet Nneka. This is a brand new Ignition Press book featuring a character named Valentine. She has some kind of illness that she seemed to be able to weaponize. Why this is happening is still up in the air, but Valentine is not anxious to help out whomever is chasing her in the hazmat outfits. Ignition Press has had a bunch of winners in 2026 and this feels like another one.

Narco #5. Written by Doug Wagner with art by Daniel Hillyard. Cover art was done by Daniel Hillyard & Dave Stewart. I have loved Narco and this ends the series in a satisfying way. I do think that I wanted more at the end, but that I think comes about because I have enjoyed this book so much.

Wolverine #24. “Master and Monster.” Written by Saladin Ahmed with art by Martin Coccolo. Cover art was done by Dan Panosian. Wolverine’s stolen healing factor is still a major problem as he has to face off with Dr. Murat Mor, who has transformed into a huge, hulking creature. Oh, and Alpha Flight is here remaining as a pain in the butt instead of a help. I have been having a lot of fun with this volume of Wolverine over the last couple of years.

Gambit: Wanted #1. Written by Chris Claremont and art by Robert Gill. Cover A art was done by Leinil Francis Yu & Romulo Fajardo Jr. Cover B cover art(foil) was done by Kris Anka (Gold Medalist) and Cover F (Wanted variant) art was done by Phil Noto. This takes out favorite Cajun back to pre-X-Men days and places him on the streets of New Orleans with the thieves he was leading. I am not sure who (or what) ‘Lil ‘ Ro was supposed to be. Obviously it was some form of Storm, but I do not know where she was or why she was in this kiddie form. Remy LeBeau is an awesome character and I am looking forward to seeing more of him and learning, perhaps, more info on his character that I did not know. Great covers for this issue as well.

X-Men: The Hellfire Murder #1. A who’s who of writers and artists participated in this book. Writers included Saladin Ahmed, Gail Simone, Eric Schultz, Jed MacKay, Eve L. Ewing with artists including Joelle Jones, Luciano Vecchio, Aaron Kuder, Tony S. Daniel, Mark Morales, Federica Mancin, Cory Smith and Dren Junior. Sebastian Shaw is out of prison and hosting the new Hellfire Gala. Little did he know that it would be his last party as Shaw is murdered. But by whom? Wolverine and Jubilee are on the case. This is a fun book, but it felt weird as a murder case, especially since the things that were going on at the Gala. I also picked up a cover by Skottie Young for this book.

Detective Comics #1111. “Flight- Part Five” Written by Tom Taylor and art and cover art by Mikel Janin. The story of Batman, Green Arrow and Black Canary, dealing with the death of their former friend, Prion, and Prion’s brainwashed assassin daughter Arabella.

Something is Killing the Children #49. “All Her Monsters” Part Nine. Written by James Tynion IV and illustrated and cover art by Werther Dell’Edera. We are one issue away from #50 of this series. This brought an end to the Erica as a young girl story that has been running most of this past year.

Bad Thoughts #2. Written by Ande Parks and illustrated and cover art by Dave Wachter. Jack is back from his mission, but things are not good. In fact, things are escalating massively. Everyone is dying around Jack and he is being pursued by the organization. This was a big step up from last issue and led to an amazing story.

Marc Spector: Moon Knight #6. “Midnight Sons” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Devmalya Pramanik. Cover art was done by Paulo Siqueira & Yen Nitro. In an attempt to save his friends, Moon Knight is out to recruit members of the Midnight Sons. This included Clea, Daredevil, Blade, and Robbie Reyes the Ghost Rider.

Tarzan Beyond #2. “Tarzan and the Siege of Paradise.” Written by Steve Orlando and art by Renato Guedes. Cover art is done by Agustin Alessio. Tarzan takes on Blackbeard. And it does not go well. Tarzan also now has to fight his ape father Kerchak. Oh, and his ape mother Kala is here too. Not sure how that is happening, but I am here for it.

Justice League Unlimited #21. “Escape from Powers Planet: Part Two” Written by Mark Waid and art by Dan Mora & Fico Ossio. The League is in search for the Brainiac Queen and Lex Luthor is not being helpful. Secret plans from Red Tornado and Batman are the play of the day.

Excommunicated #3. Written by Jeremy Robinson and art by Tiago Palma. Cover art was done by Flaviano Armentaro. Josephine and her talking dog are heading to face off with a Father who has been possessed by some kind of demon. Excommunicated has been a lot of fun with this series so far and I am anxious to see where the next step goes.

Other Books This Week: Moonstar #5, Marvel Zero #1, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu #1, Godzilla Conquers the Multiverse #1, Estuary: A Ghost Story #4, Captain Marvel: Dark Past #4, Terrorbytes #8, and American Caper #9.

Quick Hits: We got a brand new Red Shirts book called Star Trek: Red Shirts-Ghost of the 21st Century#1. Interestingly, I was not into this book as most of the Star Trek books have seemingly lost my attention. Hello Darkness #23 had a bunch of great covers this week, including a silver medal for Jenny Frison. Odin #3 continues to be a weird and wild book. Gotta pay attention to it otherwise you are lost. Final Boss #8 is setting up something that feels new for the book. We’ll have to see where it goes. Bloodland #5 focuses in on the President more this issue than previously. Corpse Knight #4 saw Foy and her father finally make it to Joan D’Arc and it does not go quite the way she expected. I picked up a blind bag for the 300th issue of TMNT, which was also called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #20. I used to buy the series, but left it at the same time as Jason Aaron did. I got a nice virgin cover by Laird & Eastman in my blind bag. Speaking of blind bags, I picked up the Boys Premium Mystery Variant Blind Bag, which included three issues of separate limited-edition variants of some of the key issues of the series with unique variant covers. Absolute Wonder Woman #22 was released this week too as Diana finishes up her trip to the Underworld. Another Absolute book out this week was Absolute Superman #21, which saw the end of the Superman/Absolute Shazam match up. The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery #6 wraps up the Vertigo series with Ezra taking care of business. It looked like there will be another Ezra Cain book coming up later on. Three issue number fives brought their series to a close this week with Wonder Man #5, Imperial Guardians #5 and A Quiet Place: Storm Warning #5. Imperial Guardians was my favorite of those three and I will miss that book, but it was clear they needed Carol Danvers back on earth for what was going to be happening in Marvel soon. Finally, the next issue of Hidden Spring #3 sees our old folks trying to get the alien to its parent.