Welcome to the first official EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week on Thursday. I decided to wait until Thursdays to pick up the books from both Comic World and In This Issue before doling out the medals. I picked an exceptional cover week to star the switch to Thursdays. I picked out a possible ten books with awesome covers that we in the running. I also ignored the Captain Planet #1 I got in the mail from eBay today. It is a lovely Mark Spears cover.
Speaking of Mark Spears, our current leader for the cover artist of the year had a book this week, Green Lantern #23, that did not make the cut for a medal. This is one of the few Mark Spears covers that I got on time that has not placed somewhere in the top three. It speaks to the quality of covers this week.
And it looks as if there are three Image Comic entries in the medalists this week. Two of them are variants.
Let’s go…
Bronze Medalist
G.I. Joe #7
Incentive Wraparound Variant H
Cover art by Andrea Milana
This may seem like a gimmick, but I really was drawn to this cover, with the partial head of Beachhead die cut and wrapped around the book. This was awesome.
Silver Medalist
Universal Monsters The Mummy #3
Cover art by Faith Erin Hicks & Lee Loughlin
I saw this cover a few weeks ago in passing. As soon as I saw it, I thought this had a chance to win a medal. I just love this compelling look at this character and the sides to her. The bloody hand is all the more riveting.
Gold Medalist
Feral #13
Variant Cover B
Cover art by Tony Fleecs & Allen Passalaqua
This is easily the best of the horror-themed variant covers for Feral, and calling it Feral the 13th was also a stroke of genius. I love the creativity and cleverness of this design and it fit so perfectly in what they were trying to do. I did not mean to do the pun (purr-fectly).
I have seen this character now for several episodes and I just have not been able to connect with her. And now, with Hellbound, it feels as if the writing stuck her into a situation that not only does not make much sense, but feels very lazy.
This whole thing seemed to come out of nowhere and I disliked the manner in which Monica went about this case. I’m to believe that she is some kind of reincarnated being who has been involved in the same basic murder cases for decades, and all of this just started happening in this episode? I really thought the plot of this was bad.
Part of it may be that I have just never cared for Monica Reyes at this point. She has never had much of a character and this felt like a way to try and give her one, but I just did not buy it.
The effects and the make up involved in the creation of the skinned bodies was well done, though. It was some of the best effects that the show had done, especially the one where the skinned man was still alive. There were some excellent suspense built with some of the moments of the episode, but I just did not like the manner in which this was resolved, nor was I fond of the way they inserted Monica into the story.
I have not enjoyed season nine much so far as we have eleven more episodes remaining.
How meta is this when you have the actual Adrienne Barbeau playing a character in your show, while you have an actress playing Adrienne Barbeau in your show. And that actress, in the story, distracts an actor playing Colonel Tom Parker so Jim could steal Elvis Presley’s original blue suede shows.
Wild.
This turned into what felt like a Coen Brothers movie with plot twists and killers. Patrick Warburton played a hitman named Sunglasses that Jim hired to lean on the crooked cop that had seen him meeting with Nina at the end of episode one. That cop wanted a $10,000 pay off to not take that information to the interested parties.
Josh Holloway continues to be charismatic and entertaining in the main role. I felt a little less that this was just a Sawyer-lite character this week than I did the last time, which is a good thing. I think part of that was because of the bizarre storyline of Jim needing to steal Elvis’s blue suede shoes to pay off Sunglasses to take care of the crooked cop.
Of course, the crooked cop ended up shot (I guess not dead though). Jim and Sunglasses had a great fight in a bowling alley. Never knew the bowling alley was such a dangerous location.
I hope everyone will have a wonderful Memorial Day today. This is a day to remember and hold those who have passed on close to your heart. If you go to a cemetery to place flowers, be safe and be thankful that you are alive.
We lost one of the greats this weekend with the passing of Peter David. I was always a fan of Peter David, in particular for his run on the Incredible Hulk. He wrote one of my favorite mini series of all time in Future Imperfect. He had been battling illness for awhile now and there is a whole can of worms about how comic companies do not provide for their creators. It really is something that needs to change, but that does not affect the massive loss of such a talented writer. RIP Peter David.
Books this week:
Moonshine Bigfoot #2. Written by Mike Marlow and Zach Howard and penciled by Steve Ellis. This has been a really fun book so far. It is like the X-Files meets Dukes of Hazzard. Aliens. The Chupacabra, and a moonshine making bigfoot. This is such a hoot of a book after the first two issues.
Absolute Flash #3. “Of Two Worlds” Written by Jeff Lemire and art by Nick Robles. Cover art by Haining (Silver Medalist). I have loved the Absolute Flash so far. I love how the story has been introducing Wally so far. This may be my favorite of the Absolute books so far.
Sleep #1. Written, drawn and cover art by Zander Cannon. The new series from Image is excellent. Jonathan woke up and discovered that a horrendous event had take place and the community is on high alert. How does this connect to Jonathan? It is a new horror story that is a great slow burn.
Amazing Spider-Man #4. Written by Joe Kelly and art by Pepe Larraz. Cover art by Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia (Bronze Medalist). The Spider-Man vs. Hobgoblin match up continues with the drugged drink. The new round of ASM has been pretty solid so far.
World’s Finest #39. “Deadly Reunion” Written by Mark Waid and art by Clayton Henry. Variant cover art by Lucio Parrillo. I was disappointed by the previous installment of this We are Yesterday crossover with Justice League Unlimited. It was World’s Finest Annual and I questioned if this was going to be worthwhile continuing. However, this was a lot of fun with time travel, even if it was a bit confusing at times. This helped bring me back into the story.
Spider-Man & Wolverine #1. “Duality.” Written by Marc Guggenheim and art and cover art by Kaare Andrews. I also picked up a foil variant cover by Dike Ruan & Moreno Dinisio. Peter and Logan come together in this series. Mysterio is here too, I think, as any sort of hallucinations are floating around. They even Civil War Winter Soldiered Wolverine with Peter’s parents. What is happening? Can’t wait to see.
Out of Alcatraz #3. “Redding Part 2” Written by Christopher Cantwell and illustrated and cover art by Tyler Crook. Our escapees race to try to get away while the FBI pair follow their tracks. Who would have guessed that this alternate past history could be so compelling. This has been so good.
Vision & Scarlet Witch #1. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Lorenzo Tammetta. Cover art was done by Russell Dauterman. This issue feels like a direct sequel to the Tom King Vision series, which is one of my personal favorite maxi-series of all time. We get the return of the Grim Reaper and return to the white Vision.
Fantastic Four #32. “The Fantastic One.” Written by Ryan North and penciled by Cory Smith. Joshua Cassara & Dean White did the cover. Valera has ideas on how to save Ben and fix the Fantastic Four. It requires alternate realities. Of course it does. Oh, Franklin Richards as Galactus? Huh?
Redcoat #12. Creators are Geoff Johns & Bryan Hitch. Variant cover C art by Raymond Gay & Brad Anderson. Simon Pure meets up with the Northerner. Apparently, Simon is one of the keys to the result of the Civil War. Of course he is. Redcoat has been one of the most consistent of the Ghost Machine imprint books.
Mark Spears Monsters #1- 5th Printing. I typically do not pick up reprinted books. However, Mark Spears kind of changed that whole idea as it seemed that every time he puts out a new print, there is a new, awesome cover. This one is no exception as it was the Gold Medalist this week with Dracula. I also love how the issue makes it look like an old version with the border around it. I have more to say about Mark Spears later in the Quick Hits section.
Ghostbusters: Dead Man’s Chest #1. Written by David M. Booher and art by Aviv Or. Tyler Crook did the cover art. I am a fan of the Ghostbusters, particularly the first movie. I have not bought many in way of comics featuring the GBs. I grabbed this issue just for the heck of it. It was okay. It featured the cast of the recent movie in an adventure that leads to the ghost of Captain Hook. Arrrrr!
Vatican City #2. Written by Mark Millar and art and cover art by Per Berg. The vampires outside of the walls of Vatican City have a plan to flush out the survivors, but will it work or will it get turned around? There is surprisingly only one more issue of this series so I guess we will find out quickly.
Iron Man #8. “The Deadly Rhythm of the Production Line.” Written by Spencer Ackerman and art by Julius Ohta with Michael Dowling. Variant cover art by Adam Pollina. Tony Stark is trying to go back into weapons manufacturing as a way to stop Doom, but he has to face off with his greatest challenge yet… striking union workers.
Incredible Hulk #25. “God of Thunder, Son of Wrath.” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Nic Klein. Variant cover B art Chris Giarrusso. It is Hulk vs. Thor. What more could you want? How about a cool cover by Chris Giarrusso, who just did the tribute covers to the Marvel Handbook last month, that is a tribute to Incredible Hulk #181?
Doom Academy #4. Written by Mackenzie Cadenhead and art by Pasqual Ferry & Joao M.P. Lemos. Cover art was done by Pablo Villalobos. The kids from Strange Academy are here trying to rescue their friend from inside the fairy tale book. Lots of creativity in this series and I have been a fan of these characters from the early days of Strange Academy.
Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu # 8. “Dragonslayer.” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Devmalya Pramanik. Cover art was done by Davide Paratore. The cover art on this issue was one of the runners-up for the Favorite Cover of the Week this week. Very powerful image. Moon Knight shows once again what a bad ass he is as he takes on Carver and manipulates a god.
Exceptional X-Men #9. Written by Eve L. Ewing and art by Carmen Carnero. Cover art was done by Carmen Carnero & Nolan Woodard. Kitty, Emma and Bobby bring their fight to Mister Sinister to try to save Axo.
The Terminator #7. “The Engine.” Written by Declan Shalvey and art by David O’Sullivan. Variant cover B art by Edwin Galmon. The Terminator arrives in the Holocaust. A powerful issue of the Dynamite book that may not necessarily take you where you might expect.
Bug Wars #4. “The Son of the Jim” Written by Jason Aaron and drawn by Mahmud Asrar. Cover art was done by Mahmud Asrar & Matthew Wilson. Slade Slaymaker has been taken by Wysta the Spider Witch and is taking him to see the spiders. As if that is a good thing.
Daredevil: Unleash Hell #5. Written by Erica Schultz and penciled by Valentina Pinti & Sergio Davila. Elektra is in Hell and trying to stop Muse, while still saving the woman Muse has possessed and shaped into a copy of himself. This issue has quite a moral conundrum for our hero. I do love Muse too.
The Ultimates #12. Written by Deniz Camp and art by Juan Frigeri. Cover art was done by Dike Ruan & Neeraj Menon. The Ultimates find the truth from Doom, and it is not pretty. Plus, there is a mole inside the Ultimates and I never would have guessed who it was.
Superman Unlimited #1. “In the Blink of an Eye.” Written by Dan Slott and art by Rafael Albuquerque. Cover art done by Albuquerque & Marcelo Maiolo. This new Superman book looked like something I wanted to try, but I just was not into the book.
The Thing #1. “The King of Yancy Street Part One” Written by Tony Fleecs and art by Justin Mason. Cover art was done by Nick Bradshaw & Rachelle Rosenberg. The blue-eyed lovin’ Ben Grimm makes his way into a solo title as he disrupts things in Yancy Street. This brings The Thing in the sights of Kingpin!
Whatever Happened to Crimson Justice? #1. Written by Frank Tieri and art and cover art by Inaki Miranda. Yet another intriguing Mad Cave book as we are introduced to a world of heroes that is missing one of its greatest. The opening scene, which is very reminiscent of Batman and Commissioner Gordon, sets the story up brilliantly. I love this first issue and I am looking forward to seeing where this takes us.
Hulk & Dr. Strange #1. Written by J. Michael Straczynski and art by German Peralta. Terry & Rachel Dotson did the cover art. Bruce Banner comes to the Sanctum Santorum in search of aid from Doctor Strange. He wanted to know… if he were a good person. There was also one of my favorite scenes of the year as Bruce Banner needed a bathroom break. LOL
Other books this week: Superior Avengers #2, The Great British Bump-Off: Kill or be Quilt #2, The New Gods #6, It’s Jeff! Jeff Week #1, Weapon X-Men #4, The Killer: Affairs of the State II #1, and The Creeping Below #3.
Quick Hits: The Curse of Sherlee Johnson #1 is new from the Spawn Universe and I gave it a chance since the premise sounded intriguing and I do like the Sam & Twitch series. This one, not so much. DC’s Zatanna #4 keeps people guessing, even with backwards spells. Another new independent book I tried this week that I was not a fan of was RoboWolf #1 from Dark Horse. Bucky dominates in Thunderbolts: Doomstrike #5, which will lead into a new Thunderbolts series. I picked up Doctor Strange of Asgard #3 after missing it from Diamond a few weeks ago. Hey Diamond…*sticks out tongue*. Sister Imperator #3 came out last week and I just now got it too. Don’t think I can blame Diamond for that… oh, why not. Hey Diamond… *flips the bird*. Blade Forger #3 had an awesome cover. I picked up New Warriors Vol. 3 #1, 2, 3, & 6 off eBay this week. I only need Volume three, #4 and #5 to complete my total New Warriors collection. And FINALLY, I received a package from Keenspot this week with my four variant covers for Mark Spears Monsters #4 and my Free Comic Book Day Mark Spears Monsters #0. This included one of the best covers of the year so far, the Mark Spears clown cover. It is so beautiful! See…
What an end to the second season of The Last of Us. Abby comes face to face with Ellie and it sure seemed as if Abby shoots Ellie.
Ellie killed a couple of Abby’s group earlier, including Mel, a pregnant woman, and it was clear that it hit Ellie hard. Mel became collateral damage in this revenge and that shook Ellie to her core.
With the screen going to black when the shots are fired, we have no idea what happened to Ellie. Most series I would say that it was obvious that she would be fine, that it was someone else’s gun going off, but about a month ago, the show killed Joel so I would not put anything past it.
It did end the season with the idea that the show was going to switch POV to Abby as the episode ended with a chyron stating “Seattle Day One” on the screen after we saw Abby in the Wolves’ stadium. I do not know how excited I am in seeing the POV of Abby in this whole thing. I hate this character of Abby and I do not want to have my opinion changed on her. I am not interested in a redemption arc for her, seeing everything that she has been through. She killed Joel and she killed Jesse. I am sad for the loss of Jesse, by the way. I should have known earlier in the episode when Jesse said that he was not dying that it was just foreshadowing the end.
By the way, the short time that Ellie was on Scar Island with the Seraphites was utterly frightening. I was not sure how Ellie was getting out of that situation as the noose was around her neck and she was just about dangling off the ground. She was seconds away from being gutted like a deer by the Seraphites. Thankfully, an alarm goes off, preventing the scarred psychos from completing their ritual. Ellie has that luck roll working for her.
The shots of Ellie on the water in the thunderstorm was amazing scenes. The power of the storm was clear and the danger that Ellie was willing to put herself in to satisfy her own selfish vengeance is fully realized.
I was not sure that this was the finale of the season, and it left off at a horrible moment. Then, Abby seemingly the focus of the third season, at least at first does not make me anxious for the show to return. It is absolutely a quality show, but I worry that it may push some viewers, particularly those that are not the game players, away.
Take me out to the ballgame… where Charlie will solve a murder case with the greatest of ease.
The latest Poker Face episode was set in a small time minor league park with a washed up pitcher named “Rocket” and a team on the verge of setting an all time record for losing.
A group of the players got together to bet on the team losing and it was going to be a huge pay off, especially as they were throwing the games.
However, a new, hotshot pitcher threatened to upend their plan, so they spiked the kid’s gum with drugs. Unfortunately, the drugs only served to make him unhittable.
After some shenanigans, the team still was able to lose and set the record. However, the young kid discovered the truth and was going to blackmail Rocket with the evidence. Rocket threw a ball at the kid’s head, killing him accidentally.
Thankfully, the newly hired ball-girl Charlie was able to uncover the, admittedly, stupid ballplayers’ scam for throwing games and she was able to put together the truth from Rocket.
This was a pretty dumb episode, but it was still fairly entertaining. A big charm of this series is Natasha Lyonne and her performance as the living lie detector. I do hope there are some switch ups coming because I am afraid that the repetitive format might get dull. Last time I mentioned that in reference to this series, the show did change up and gave some creative episodes so I hope the same thing will happen in the second part of this season.
Last week, I was not very interested in the new story arc that The Sandman was starting off. This week, I am all in.
Funny how a week can change things. The whole story of Rose Walker and her search for his brother Jed was not catching my attention. I theorized last week when Rose showed up in the Dreaming at Morpheus’s throne room, business might be picking up and I was right. Right now I am fully engaged with this story of a sister trying to reunite with her brother.
We got more abut Jed’s life, trapped in a basement as his cruel foster father collected $800 checks every month and how Jed escaped into his dreams, with the aid of one of Morpheus’s missing nightmares, Gault, to become a super hero called The Sandman. Perhaps it was this dream that grabbed my attention, but, whatever it was, I thought this was so much more entertaining and gripping than it was last week.
The Corinthian was back again, being brutal and vicious in the most gentlemanly manner. When he showed up to take Jed, it was both a happy moment and one of anxiety. One thing is for sure, I was happy with the fates of the foster parents. They deserved every bit of what they got.
It seems more and more to me that Morpheus is not the hero of this story. On the surface, it appeared as if he wanted to help Rose find Jed, but it appeared that he only cared about retrieving Gault. His punishment of Gault was over the top too. I have to not think about Morpheus as a hero and instead thing of him like a force of nature. He is much like Galactus. Galactus consumes planets, but he is a necessary cog in the universe’s life span even if his actions could, at times, seem villainous.
The Lyta/Hector storyline still does not intrigue me near as much as the main story with Rose, but the dream baby does have some interest.
I am looking forward to next week’s installment, which is episode nine of eleven. We are coming to the end of the second program in the Sunday Morning Sidewalk series. I am actively looking for the third TV show to include after The Sandman concludes in three weeks.
It is May 24th, a date that has been of major significance in season two of Disney +’s Doctor Who. Exactly what the significance of that date is still a bit of a mystery (outside of it being the meta date that the finale was scheduled for on Disney +).
Last week, we saw a post credit scene where we see Mrs. Flood bigenerate into a second woman and it is revealed that she was The Rani, the last surviving Time-Lady.
And this episode started off with The Doctor and Belinda seemingly happily married in a world that felt unreal. There was a definite flavor of Doctor Who meets WandaVision in this episode.
Conrad returned as the man who was installed by Rani as the god-like being of Wish World. Still, even Conrad felt as if he were being manipulated by Rani.
As the Doctor slowly regained his memory, bizarre things were happening all over the place. We saw the return again of Ruby, who is always a welcome sight.
This episode was weird and wild, mostly setting up the big part two next week. They also mentioned Omega, who they said was the first time lord, one who created the Time Lords in the first place. This is a villain that apparently was around in 1972.
This episode did feel like it was here just for set-up, and not its own penultimate episode of the second season. I am looking forward to seeing how this wraps up, especially since the rumors are that Ncuti Gatwa will not be back for another season.
I have been a big fan of the recent Mission: Impossible franchise, so I was looking forward to the final film, and, like everyone I wanted to see Tom Cruise running and doing a massive stunt. Well, he ran throughout the movie but his massive stunt did not come until late in the movie… and it was a long movie.
I do think the last hour or so of Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning was sensational. The problem was that the film was almost three hours long.
The first hour and a half of the movie was so packed with exposition and flashes to previous movies that I was getting a little bored, and that is something that a Mission: Impossible movie should never be.
Tom Cruise was great as Ethan Hunt. You can tell how comfortable he is with the character. His stunt work in the final confrontation of the movie is typically stunning. It was good to see the return of Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg as the team that has backed Ethan for so many missions. Hayley Atwell is back from the last film and she has decent chemistry with Cruise. Rolf Saxon and Lucy Tulugarjuk appear in the film as a couple of characters who become two of my favorites from the film.
Esai Morales is not my favorite character in the film. I do not think he worked as the villain of this movie. I think he was better in the previous film and his transfer over to this one was not great.
I did not love the final scene of the movie either. I wanted some more resolution for the characters than what was done. Perhaps that is in case this is not the final MI movie.
I do not think this was a fantastic finale of this franchise, but it was still a solid action movie. The last hour or so of the movie was really great and engaging. The first hour and a half spent way too much time explaining things and trying to set things up. Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning was a touch underwhelming, but that is probably because the franchise had been so sensational for the last five or six movies that you do not expect it to only be okay.
As I was sitting in the theater with the credits rolling, I heard a family coming down the steps. The mom asked the little boy what he thought of his first movie, to which he responded with an enthusiastic ‘great.’ I sat there thinking how cool that was. I do not remember what my own first movie in theater was, but I know how the experience can be such an enjoyable moment.
I just recently rewatched the 2002 animated movie Lilo & Stitch to prepare for the remake and I thought that was an enjoyable watch though I would not say that I found it a Disney all-time classic.
The Disney live action remakes have been largely not some of my favorite films with a few exceptions on the list. This film is one that I think would be a decent film, especially for a family viewing experience, much like the little boy whose first theater movie was this.
I do wonder if this film has a real purpose for existing outside of $$$. Now, to be fair, all movies are looking to make money, but there have been some of these Disney remakes that just do not feel as if they have any soul, any real magic that the animated films had in excess.
Still, I do think that, for the most part, the 2025 Lilo & Stitch was fine. There were some plot and character adjustments from the animated movie, but nothing that jumped out at me.
The CGI Stitch was well done and worked as a character, which was vital if you wanted this movie to work. Voiced by the original voice actor, Chris Sanders, Stitch was every bit the rapscallion that he was in the animated movie. Young Maia Kealoha made her acting debut as Lilo, and she did a decent job. Some of the trailers for the film did not highlight the strongest aspects of Maia’s work so to see it in context made it work so much more. Again, if Lilo did not work, this movie would have flopped.
The comedic pairing of Billy Magnussen and Zach Galifianakis as Pleakley and Jumba was good casting as they played off each other quite well. I did miss the voice of the late David Ogden Stiers from the animated film. Sydney Agudong played the role of Lilo’s sister Nani and I thought she was wonderful. She had a film presence that stood out on the screen. Courtney B. Vance, Amy Hill, Tia Carrere, Hannah Waddingham, and Kaipo Dudoit added to the ensemble of the film.
In the end, this was a fine film that did its job, basically. I am sure that there will be plenty of children who see this movie as their first ever movie in a theater and that is a wonderful thing. This would be a good film for that honor.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 