Season two continues to be fire as multiple storylines are combining into some excellent action and storytelling.
Skye is reunited with her mother in Afterlife, the location where the Inhumans are living. Sure, there is not any of the named Inhumans like Black Bolt or Medusa, but there are several intriguing characters. We are introduced to Lincoln, who becomes more important in the Shield series.
Skye is training, trying to control her quake powers. I remember not being a fan of her changing her name but this time through, I am not bothered by it. While she has not officially changed to Daisy Johnson yet, I believe in it more. It could be that I actually spent more time with Daisy Johnson than Skye (Five more seasons).
The show was trying desperately to make Coulson look like he was dirty, keeping all these horrible secrets and even betraying those around him. I hate the idea that May seemingly is being convinced. Still, it is clear that Coulson is the hero that he always has been.
We get the final reveal about what happened with May in the situation that led to the nickname “The Cavalry” and why she hated that name so much. It was an emotional situation where she had to kill an Inhuman girl to save everyone. It changed May for the longest time, costing her May’s marriage and her ability to be in the field.
Ward back and “sort of” working with Coulson has provided some tense moments, including Fitz’s reaction. Hunter has his share of funny lines. I remember why I liked Hunter as much as I did.
Just four more episodes of season 2. Lots of things happening.
Once again, I am very late with this column. Still, with the Genre-ary coming to a close until 2027, I hope I can get this back on a more regular basis.
I have been picking up a lot of back issues recently, both from my two comic shops and off eBay. I am still working on Marvel Team-Up from In This Issue, the Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2 books I am missing, and I got a bunch of Sensational She-Hulk during John Byrne’s run.
I need to catch up with putting these books away too. I have a couple of large piles awaiting me to put them in the proper boxes. I need to get this done before the next round of new comics on NEW COMIC BOOK DAY, which is just a couple of days away.
Books this week:
Survive #5. Written by Robert Venditti with art and cover art by Doug Braithwaite. Survive has been one of my favorite books of the last several months. The Bad Idea comic was very cinematic in its storytelling. ZI will say that I think the conclusion was a little short of what it has been so far, but I can understand that I had the bar set really high. This was a wonderful five issue series.
Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1. Written by Saladin Ahmed with art by Federico Vicentini. Cover art was done by Francesco Mobili & Marte Gracia. Spider-Man and Rapid team up to try and stop the weirdness of Screwball in this fun pairing.
Iron Man #1. “A New Nightmare” Written by Joshua Williamson with art by Carmen Carnero. Cover art was done by Ryan Stegman & Frank Martin. There is a brand new arc for Tony Stark, as he is still just pushing the limit. So much so that a new group of Illuminati are looking into what they need to do to keep Tony Stark under control. Good start for the armored Avenger.
Malevolent #1. Written by Justin Jordan with art and cover art by John Bivens. I also picked up the Cover B which may or may not be done by Phil Hester. Either Hester or Jorge Corona. 30 years before, demons were unleashed into the world of humans. However, now humans have created a weapon to kill the demons… if she does not kill the humans first. Interesting new dystopian future story from Image Comics.
Wrestle Heist #2. Written, Drawn and Cover art by Kyle Starks. Is Grave Digger the best wrestler to never win the big one? And who is Ocho Bolo? How does it all work together in this pro wrestling saga? What evil plan does promotor Buddy Hanson have? We know he has one.
Infernal Hulk #3. “Whatever Happened to Bruce Banner?” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson with pencils by Kev Walker & Nic Klein. Cover art was done by Nic Klein. We get a look in this issue of where Bruce Banner is and how his life is going. Iron Man and Reed Richards make a cameo appearance looking for help to face the Infernal Hulk.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #42. “Webs of Regret: Conclusion” Written by Cody Ziglar with art by Marco Renna. Cover art was done by Federico Vicentini & Neeraj Menon. This is the final issue of Miles’s current book as he and Peter take down the Assessor. I enjoyed the banter between the two Spider-Men in this book and I expect that Miles will be back in his own title sooner rather than later.
Spirit of the Shadows #1. Written by Daniel Ziegler & Nick Cagnetti with art and cover art by Nick Cagnetti. Erik Leroux was a musician who loved his music and his love, Katrina. His sudden death sent his soul to a carnival-like Spirit World beyond this world. But death did not end things for Erik. Another intriguing horror series from Oni Press.
Feral #20. Written by Tony Fleecs with art by Trish Forstner & Tone Rodriguez. Cover B art was done by Tony Fleecs, Trish Forstner & Allen Passalaqua (Bronze Medalist). I do love these horror covers that Feral has been doing the last year plus. It has also been one of the best books on the market consistently every month. The issue is tense and suspenseful and you are never sure what is going to happen next.
Dust to Dust #7. Written by JG Jones & Phil Bram with art and cover art by JG Jones (Gold Medalist). Dust to Dust has not been seen since #6 came out August 2025. I looked that up and, honestly, it felt like it should have been much earlier. It was a pretty good issue considering I was uncertain about what was going on.
Strange Tales #4. “Hela on Earth?!” Written by Jeremy Whitley and art by Bayleigh Underwood & Carola Borelli. Cover art was done by Bayleigh Underwood & Jim Campbell. Hela is here. The young heroes in Strange Tales, including several Runaways, Spider-Gwen and Wiccan & Hulkling wrap up this short series.
Detective Comics #1105. “The Courage That Kills Part Five” Written by Tom Taylor with pencils and cover art by Mikel Janin. Things are going really poorly for Batman, who is infected by Lion’s virus, and realized that the whole thing was a distraction.
Final Boss #3. “Stage 3: The Wharf” Written by Tyler Kirkham with art by Tyler Kirkman with David Miller. Cover art was done by Tyler Kirkham. The video game-like book that reminded me of Street Fighter continued this week with some solid action. This has been a fun book that makes me feel like I am playing a video game.
Absolute Batman #16. “Bat Out of Hell” Written by Scott Snyder & Nick Dragotta with art by Nick Dragotta. Cover art was done by Nick Dragotta & Frank Martin. We continue the team up between Absolute Batman and Absolute Wonder Woman as Batman and Wonder Woman head to the Underworld to look for a way to help Bruce’s friend, Waylon. Not sure things worked well.
Drawing Blood #10. Written by David Avallone with art by Ben Bishop and cover art by Kevin Eastman. Another book that is back after quite a long layoff. This book about a comic artist who is trying to deal with his greatest creations being changed for a movie has been pretty solid. I actually felt like I was able to get back into this book easier than some of the others that take the long break.
Punisher: Red Band #5. “Urban Warfare” Written by Benjamin Percy with art by Julius Ohta. Variant cover art was done by Clayton Crain. This red band book came to an end, but it sounded as if this series was being picked up in the next Punisher book coming soon. I am still not sure what the continuity of this book is and I am not sure what that means for the next Punisher #1. I guess we will see.
Marvel Zombies: Red Band #5. Written by Ethan S. Parker & Griffin Sheridan with are by Jan Bazaldua. Greg Land & Rachelle Rosenberg did the cover art. This was a great version of Spider-Man in the zombie world. I thought this use of Spider-Man was right on spot. Jean Grey was back again as Phoenix.
Justice League Unlimited #15. Written by Mark Waid and art by Dan Mora & Sean Izaakse. Cover art was done by Dan Mora. Mister Terrific and the time misplaced Leaguers have had better days. Batman and Superman do not make it and we find that we have a traitor in the group. JLU has been good during this time of KO, when all the main Leaguers are gone.
Justice League Red #6. Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Clayton Henry. Cover art was done by Clayton Henry & Arif Prianto. The drama around the Red Tornado and the Crimson Cloud ended in this issue as the JL Red brought the end to this saga.
Terminator Metal #4. Written by Declan Shalvey & Rory McConville with art by Fabio Gallo. Cover art was done by Declan Shalvey. This was one of the better issues of the Terminator books, going back to the original series. I really enjoyed this issue a lot.
Absolute Flash #11. “The War of the Flashes” Written by Jeff Lemire with art and cover art by Nick Robles. This has a feeling of a big finale happening as Absolute Flash is getting a lot of the story from ghost Barry Allen and is preparing to take on all the problems.
Escape from Skull Island #1. Written by Simon Furman with art by Christopher Jones. Cover art was done by Maria Wolf. The story picked up from Return to Skull Island, a mini series from last year. There is a lot of Kong in this book, but he had seen better days.
Void Rivals #26. Written by Robert Kirkman with art by Andrei Bressan. Cover art was done by Lorenzo De Felici. The Quintesson War Part 2 is underway and we meet the bizarre Quintesson judge, Judge Naven. Once again, the book has broughtDarak andSolila are back together again. Still the best this book gets is when they are together.
Absolute Wonder Woman #16. “Season of the Witch, Part 1 of 5” Written by Kelly Thompson and art by Hayden Sherman. Cover art was done by Hayden Sherman & Jordie Bellaire. We get the debut of Absolute Zatanna and the Absolute Suicide Squad. Zatanna is taking Diana’s magic powers away from her.
KO: The Kids are all Fight Special #1. Written by Jeremy Adams with art by Travis Mercer. Cover art wa done by Bruno Redondo. This is a one shot that kind of brings together a bunch of the young heroes of the DC universe that are on their way to the Titans series. This was an interesting group of characters and I may give this a chance when they become the new Titans.
Other books this Week: Tales of the Shadowman #2, Astro Quantum #1, The Author Immortal #4, Harley Quinn x Elvira #4, Lost Fantasy #7, Blink and You’ll Miss It #5, DC’s Supergirl: Next Door #1, Conan the Barbarian #28 (Silver Medalist), and Be Not Afraid #5.
Quick Hits: Another good use of Spider-Man is in Marvel’s 1776 #3. I hate it when books use Spidey but do not do him justice or have him do things that are not in his character. This one has done a solid job. A new book from Invader Comics is Do Not Disturb #1. It is a noir-type book dealing with a character that has died and a mystery. It’s pretty good. Save Now #0, the origins of the Save Now characters is strong too. Wanda vs. Agatha Harkness in Sorcerer Supreme #2. More Oz action in No Place #3. The horror anthology book Hello Darkness #18 has some of the most original stories in all of horror comics. A one shot book following up on Bug Wars was released this week with Bug Wars: The Spyder Wytch Special #1. I picked up Sonja Reborn #5 from Dynamite, ID’s Return to Sleepy Hollow #3 and Absolute Martin Manhunter #8.
The Andy Griffith TV Show theme is one of the most recognizable songs around. How many times do I whistle along as Andy and Opie walk to the fishin’ pond?
However, much like Bonanza, this well-known instrumental does feature lyrics.
Skye and her new Inhuman powers take center stage as she tried to deal with the aftermath of them and of her crazy father.
There is also a second Shield storyline that I did not remember from my original viewing. Apparently, Mac and Bobbi have been working for this new Shield, which was being led by Edward James Olmos. Olmos played Robert Gonzales and was leading the push to bring down Coulson.
We had a guest shot from Lady Sif, who was chasing a Kree warrior, who was here pursuing those changed by the Terrigen Mist. That meant Skye.
It was fun in the episode “One of Us” when they brought Angar the Screamer to the screen. He is the type of low level supervillains that Agents of Shield would be allowed to use in the MCU.
Watching Mac lie to all of the other Shield crew, I wonder how he worked his way back into the good graces of Coulson, May and so on. I know Bobbi and Hunter do not stick around long, but Mac is there until the final episode.
Agent 33 and Ward returned to stir up trouble as well. There are so many different spy level stuff going on in these episodes, plus the Inhuman storyline. Been really solid so far.
I arrived at the third season of Sha Na Na with the first four episodes on YouTube and it kicked off with an odd thing. Episode one started with the group singing “Summertime” and then they had a backstage version of Up on the Roof, and I swear I had seen both of these performances on previous episodes. I did not want to take the time to go back and see if I could find them, but it was so odd that I wondered if they had to plug in some older versions of these songs for some reason. Jocko did not have his mustache, which is a key clue.
There was another song that I think they had done: Three Cool Cats. It featured one of the actresses who was the waitress at the diner, who we did not see in any other season three episode.
The season added a new set. One set was Greasers’ Hall, which apparently replaced the diner set. We also got much more Soupy Sales than in previous seasons. The new season episodes kicked off with a comedy bit before the introduction and episode one and two had a bit called “The Sha Na Na Joke Hall of Fame” which seemed like it was going to be a regular bit, only to not have it in episode 3 or 4.
Connie Stevens and Danny and the Juniors did a typical routine, with Stevens singing “Tan Shoes and Pink Shoelaces” and Danny and the Juniors doing “At the Hop.” The other two guests were Conway Twitty and Ben E. King, who both did medleys of their songs. I liked that and hope more musical guests will follow suit.
Sha Na Na did the theme song for Grease as one of their opening songs on the stage and poor Donny was so lost on the choreography of the dance routine. I felt so bad for him. He was giving it his all, but he was just behind the others so much. Donny is not the best of the backup dancers and this was pretty complicated. He kept just trying to do the grease your hair move.
Of course, Sha Na Na appeared in the movie Grease, playing the band at the dance where John Travolta and Olivia Newton John would win.
Maybe that was why they sold Donny to science in a future episode.
Man, they sure stick Lennie into a lot of dresses.
Lookin ahead, there are a lot of country musicians coming up. I wonder if they had burned through guests from the 1950s and had to move into different genres.
Sam Raimi has a new movie in the theater this weekend that has all kinds of Sam Raimi-isms in it. As a director, you can see those moments where Sam Raimi shined through.
The movie featured Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien as our two stranded survivors.
According to IMDB, “An employee and her insufferable boss become stranded on a deserted island, the only survivors of a plane crash. Here, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, will they make it out alive?“
Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien are fantastic playing their characters. They give these characters some real depth and characterization in this over the top story. It starts out with these two characters seeming to be one-dimensional, but they both improve a ton over the course of the movie.
I have a problem with this movie, but, sadly, I can not explain those problems because they deal with major spoilers for the film. This stuff really makes me question what I felt about the movie, but I am unable to talk about it without spoiling it. I don’t want to do it, but I will just say that there is something that happened that was less than satisfactory for me.
The film looked great and the cinematography on the island was special. The film is shot wonderfully and all the technical aspects were good. There was a scene with a boar that was really awesome.
Without being able to go into specifics on the spoilers, I liked much of this movie, but by the end of the film, I had a lesser feel for the movie than I did in the middle.
One of the best lines of the entire show. I laughed out loud.
Chet proclaimed it about Steph at their wedding after he said “I don’t” instead of “I do.”
Also, The Ghoul, Maximus and Thaddeus walking side by side down the street with Maximus in armor was so cool. Of course, Thaddeus’s arm fell off, so there is that.
Maximus fighting the Deathclaws was really epic.
Lucy and her father having an interesting interactions, while driving a golf cart.
Ned was back this week as he took a couple of dramatic blows to the head.
Clancy Brown as President of the United States? Never would I trust him. I have seen him in too many other projects where he is just not trustworthy.
I mean, there is a woman with her head in a jar.
Lots of dangling plots heading into the finale next week.
This week’s new show on the Sunday Morning Sidewalk is from Netflix and is an easy to digest three episodes. It is entitled Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials, and it is a mystery based on the 1929 novel from one of the iconic mystery writers of our times.
According to IMDB, “In 1925, a country house party prank turns deadly. Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent investigates the chilling murder plot. Lady Caterham and Superintendent Battle assist in solving the country house mystery that changes Bundle’s life.”
I do love a mystery. The first episode does an admirable job of setting up some solid questions. The whole clock thing in the bedroom of the dead man, the Seven Dials being repeated, everything pointing to a suicide though Bundle would not believe it, and the tragic occurrence at the end of the episode all set the table for an interesting story.
It is a touch slow, but I loved that about it. It allowed the story to take root and bring me into it with its deliberate touch.
Mia McKenna-Bruce as Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent feels like a very engaging and entertaining lead character. I am also excited for more from Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman, the biggest stars in the cast.
I am not always into a period piece, but this mystery grabbed my attention immediately and I love the fact that there are just two more episodes to go. I hope it doesn’t wind up forced because of time. The next two episodes are just under an hour, much like the first episode was, and this feels like there are a lot of moving pieces in the story.
Still, I am happy with the new choice of show for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk.
This week’s episode of The Pitt was a slower one, as we got some specific, individual cases that allowed the staff to show that they are all very competent and intelligent doctors.
We also got some info on Dr. Collins, who is the one actor not returning to season two. The character is said to have gone back to her home in Portland, taking an attending job and planned to adopt a baby. It was nice to know the story behind the character’s departure.
Whitaker is reveled to be “helping” out a patient’s widow on a farm. The widow was from last season too and it did seem that Whitaker protested about being just friend a bit too much.
Whitaker also joined in on the betting pool about the reason why patients were being diverted from Westbridge Hospital. Whitaker chose power outage. Dr. Al-Hashimi joined the pool too.
It seemed as if Louis is doing better, bringing the stress level down that the happy-go-lucky patient was going to face something critical this season.
There was a interesting story involving eating disorder with Mel showing a lot of empathy in the situation. The show revisited the boy who was brought in an sedated early in the season, with his sister showing up, unsure about what was going on.
More foreshadowing involving a motorcycle and Robbie. Something is going to happen with that this season, I would bet.
It feels like they are setting up for something big later on in the season, but these slower episodes give some great opportunity for character development in both the staff and the patients.
I am a couple of days late for this column this week. I think the biggest issue has been the Genre-ary, which has been going on every day this month. It has been busy so this post just never crossed my mind until tonight as I was reading these books. With the Genre-ary done until 2027, hopefully this will get back on track.
Also-Rans: Survive #5, Malevolent #1 (sketch cover), Do Not Disturb #1, Iron Man #1, Sonja Reborn #1, Spirit of the Shadows #1, and DC’s Supergirl Next Door #1.
Bronze Medalist
Feral #20
Variant Cover B (Halloween H20 homage cover)
Cover art by Tony Fleecs, Trish Forstner & Allen Passaloqua
The horror movie homage covers for Feral has been consistently sensational. This is one I recognized immediately as the Halloween H2O poster is the homage here. I love these homage covers.
Silver Medalist
Conan the Barbarian #28
Cover art by Gerardo Zaffino
This is a beautifully brutal cover with the blood running down Conan’s head. The black and white cover with the red blood is very striking.
Gold Medalist
Dust to Dust #7
Cover art by JG Jones
Dust to Dust is back after quite a layoff, with its fantastic covers jumping right back into the medal rounds. The beautiful image of the fire in the background makes this cover pop. JG Jones has been a regular in this column with Dust to Dust, and the Image book is right back into the race.
So another Genre-ary comes to an ending with today’s movie, MASH, the original film from 1970 starring Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould and Tom Skerritt, wrapping up the Comedy Genre-ary 2026.
I love MASH the TV show (it was my #8 in the Top 100) and that probably hurt this film, which I have seen a few clips from, but never sat down and watched the entire thing.
They were saying character names that I loved, but who did not seem like the characters that I loved. Outside of Radar O’Reilly (who was played by Gary Burghoff in the film and the TV series, the only cast member that returned), we saw Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John, Henry Blake, Hot Lips, Frank Burns, Father Mulcahy, and Spearchucker.
My biggest problem with this film is that it is not the TV show. The doctors of the 4077 MASH felt so much meaner than what I was used to. I did not like some of the things that they did because they felt cruel instead of funny. They were cruder, obnoxious and not as empathic as I expected.
The plot was nearly non-existent. The film was just a series of scenes that were only connected together because they came at the 4077 MASH. That is… until the show turned into a football film. There were several episodes of the TV show where they competed against other units, but seeing them all in full football pads and helmets was weird.
The actors were strong with Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Tom Skerritt, Gary Burghoff, Rene Auberjonois, Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerman, Jo Ann Pflug, Fred Williamson, David Arkin, Roger Bowen, Michael Murphy, and Timothy Brown.
I am sure that I would have liked this more than I did, if I did not have the TV series so firmly placed in my head.
Joe Cocker originally recorded this song, a soulful remake of the Beatles hit, in 1968 and it was chosen for the theme of this series, which debuted in 1988 because of its nostalgic feel and the feeling of the 1960s. The show was set earlier that the 1968 song, but still fit perfectly.
Joe Cocker performed the song at Woodstock in 1969.
On the penultimate day of the Genre-ary, I watch yet another Steve Martin movie. M y Blue Heaven is actually the fourth Steve Martin movie (along with The Jerk, Cheaper by the Dozen, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) in this year’s comedy Genre-ary.
I rented My Blue Heaven on Fandango at Home to fall into the Genre-ary.
According to IMDB, “An all too uptight FBI agent must protect a larger than life mobster with a heart of gold, currently under witness protection in the suburbs.”
Steve Martin and Rick Moranis are great together. They are a wonderful pair with amazing chemistry, dating back to Little Shop of Horrors. The two lead actors are the reason why this movie holds together because there are some shaky moments in the story.
The story itself is kind of hard to buy because there are so many things that happen that are not realistic. But everything is held together because of Martin and Moranis.
There is a great cast around Martin and Moranis. They included Joan Cusack, Carol Kane, William Hickey, Daniel Stern, Deborah Rush, Bill Irwin, Jess Bradford, Seth Jaffe, Robert Miranda, Melanie Mayron, Ed Lauter, and Raymond O’Connor.
There are some awesome dance routines in the film. It was really entertaining.
My Blue Heaven was fun and funny with some great actors that overcame some of the wonkier marts of the script. A solid Steve Martin movie.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 