EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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Week of September 2

It is NEW COMIC BOOK DAY so it is time to pick our medalists for this week. Last week we had no Marvel, but will the House of Ideas make its way back to this week’s medalists? Let’s see…

Bronze Medalist

Plastic Man No More #1

Cover art by Alex Lins & Marcelo Maiolo

I have always enjoyed Plastic Man, but this cover is a little unexpectedly frightening and that’s cool.

Silver Medalist

Spider-Boy #11

Cover art by Paco Medina & Edgar Delgado

This Spider-Boy cover is just a lot of fun. Just hanging out on the back of a school bus. While holding on to his Spider-Man lunch case. This works so well.

Gold Medalist

The Ultimates #4

Cover art by Dike Ruan & Neeraj Menon

A Doctor Doom mask with Fantastic Four mice. What a fascinating cover, plus I love the white background. White background is always a personal favorite.

Bonus Action Vol. 2 Ep.1

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Spoilers

“A Spring’s Awakening”

Bonus Action returned to officially kickoff their second volume of D & D role-playing action with the wonderful cast of characters and a remarkably creative DM.

One of last year’s top surprises was the arrival of Bonus Action from the Preview’d guys, Adam lash and Jay Schmidt. They had decided to film their group’s gaming as a YouTube series and I found it to be very fun.

The cast returned this season with DM (Or as he says, friendly neighborhood campaign manager) David Armstrong as well as Jay and Adam (playing Bric and Victor respectively), Amanda Nicholas as Barb’E, Ja-Ron Young as Marlon, Josh Hurley as Todd, and Jason Spina as Rory. This only works because of these talented individuals with their acting, improv and interpersonal skills. They all have a total grasp on their characters and it makes it a total rush watching them play into the amazingly constructed and described world of Wild Country.

This episode kicked off with an unexpected one-on-one with David and Amanda, in a flashback for Barb’E, and it was tremendous, emotional and thrilling.

The rest of the episode was set up and character development, both important and silly in many manners. Making Todd’s 4th Wall Breaking a part of canon is truly a hoot.

I will say that the cliffhanger at the very end was fairly shaky. How could you?

This was a ton of fun and next week’s combat at the parade (or is it Pear-Raid?) will be something special. Glad this is back.

Only Murders in the Building S4 E2

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Spoilers

“Gates of Heaven”

Two episodes in and I am completely enthralled with this new season of Only Murders in the Building.

Steve Martin may be doing some of his best work of his long and illustrious career as Charles went through the episode trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he might have been the target of the murder attempt that claimed the life of his friend and stunt double, Sazz. Martin’s performance was beautiful as he spoke to the delusion he was seeing of Sazz. This was both sad as could be and relatable in a situation that just was crazy.

While Charles was breaking our hearts in his apartment (and kind of reuniting with escaped killer Jan), Oliver and Mabel went to investigate the Westies, people who could be the shooter in apartments across from Charles’ place, in the west end of the Arconia. These were some weirdos, led by Richard Kind’s “Stink Eye Joe” aka Vince Fish and his moving pink-eye. We also met a family who invite Oliver and Mabel to join them in a card game called Oh Hell. Some of the things that happen with the Westies are truly crazy and are either meant to throw us off or to highlight how crazy things are in this part of the Arconia. We certainly see that they know something more than they let us know.

We do not meet the Westie that Charles dubbed Christmas Guy, played by Kumail Nanjiani. Apparently, his apartment is decorated for Christmas year round. Oh, and by the way, when Oliver and Mabel were in the apartment where they believe that the shooter took the shot, Oliver found some tinsel. That clue may be too on the nose to be anything but a red herring, but you never can tell with this show.

I thought this was tremendous, with Steve Martin and Jane Lynch were amazing. I found the documentary that was the only time Sazz’s own face was on the screen packed a powerful wallop. Steve Martin’s moments at the beginning of the episode when he had Sazz’s ashes all over his hands and he did not know how to wash them off respectfully was both funny and crushing at the same time. His plan of washing off the ashes and catching the water in a bucket, putting the water in a Mason jar and allowing the water to evaporate to leave the ashes was never going to work, but it displayed the tremendous shock that Charles was suffering from.

I love the start of this season and I am thoroughly enjoying each episode so far. Only Murders in the Building airs on Hulu.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E14

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“Black Market”

The black market of goods aboard the fleet is given some light in this episode that focuses on Lee and his recent struggles since the ejection of the blackbird.

Truth be told, the whole Apollo arch feels sloppy. Much of what was going on, things that seemed to be a huge problem for Lee felt like it just showed up now and did not seem to fit in to what I knew of the character. There were a bunch of things in this episode like that. One in particular is Lee who had been taking up with a prostitute on Cloud Nine, a prostitute who had a child. I was not sure where this was supposed to have come from and it was jarring when she was there.

It was the same thing about the flashbacks to Lee’s former girlfriend prior to the Cylon attack. I knew little to nothing about this woman and, because of that, I had little to no emotional connection to her.

I also was not sure about the relationship between Apollo and Dee. This did not seem like much of a relationship before. It always felt as if Apollo was more with Starbuck, and Dee was with Billy. Maybe I missed something important, but it just felt lacking.

The stare down with Apollo and black market head Phelan was intense and ended surprisingly. I kind of liked that, even if it felt like it went against Apollo’s character. At least that felt like a choice he made to make things better.

Overall, this was not a strong episode and felt as if it lacked the narrative that this show is used to presenting.

Bates Motel S4 E2

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“Goodnight Mother”

I really love the relationship that developed in this series between Norma Bates and Alex Romero. Alex, who is anything but an angel, goes to such lengths to help Norma.

Freddie Highmore is exceptional. You can see how he is slipping deeper into his own insanity with every scene. Despite what we know of the eventual fate of Norman Bates, you can’t help but hope he makes it through.

That said, Norman’s mental break this episode was absolutely frightening. You could tell that Norman really believed that Norma was the person who had killed all the other women, even though none of that made any sense. It just fueled his rage and Highmore was compelling the whole time.

The show then juxtaposed Norman’s story of downward spiral with the new hope given to Emma after the lung transplant. The scene of Emma taking her first breaths in the hospital was just as powerful and engaging as the scenes of Norman and Norma.

With all her flaws and lack of trust, Norma Bates truly loves Norman, which makes everything that goes down here even more tragic. Bates Motel succeeds dramatically at making Norma Bates a deeply three-dimensional character and the fact that she winds up dead and in an attic is even more tragic. It provided even more layers to the film Psycho than it had before.

The X-Files S6 E16

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“Alpha”

It has been about a year since I started this X-Files rewatch and we have enjoyed some really great episodes. When The X-Files is doing well, few shows can match it. Sadly, there have been several clunkers during this time frame as well, which included the current episode, “Alpha.”

There were some ideas in the episode that could have worked well. It just felt run-of-the-mill and as if the execution of the overall story was just underwhelming.

Several concepts that did not work, that could have worked better with a different script, included the weird “love” angle between Mulder and the canine expert  Karin Berquist. While the character of Berquist was quirky and different, her motives were messy and convoluted. Another concept that did not work was the villain and his entire plan, as it were. Dr. Ian Detweiler was initially shown to be the man who captured and imported the dangerous dog, which we first seen locked in a cage on a boat. Later we find out that Detwiler is the dog himself and can shapeshift. How this happened was never discussed and none of this made any sense.

Worse yet was the finale, the final confrontation between Berquist and Detwiler, which was simply laughable. The cliche of a werewolf being impaled on a fence spike is used here in just the most painfully obvious manner.

I didn’t understand why any of this was happening and nothing made sense. It felt as if the entire story between Mulder and Berquist was just constructed so Mulder could get his “I Want to Believe” poster back after his own one burned in the fire set by CSM at the end of season five. Somehow, Berquist had the same poster and somehow, someone sent it to Mulder to have… for no apparent reason.

Season six has had some highs, but it has had its shares of lows too. “Alpha” is clearly one of the lows.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #113

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September 1, 2024

2024 is flying by. We’ve reached September already, and, before you know it, we’ll be ringing in 2025.

We are currently running the EYG Hall of Fame ballot on the main page. As I was thinking about that, I realized that I should have announced the EYG Hall of Fame Comic Wing Inductees for 2024 in the EYG Comic Cavalcade. I inducted the following earlier this year: Avengers Annual #10, Saga #54, Future Imperfect #1-2, New Mutants #98, Top 10 #8, The Boys #1, and Tales of the Teen Titans #44. Congratulations to this year’s class.

EBay pick ups this week included The Tick #11 from the original run of comics from New England Comics. I am down to just two Ticks from that first series missing in my collection. I also had some trouble with an eBay seller who apparently couldn’t find two of the books that I had purchased from him. He wanted to replace the books with a couple of other books. This was the second time this had happened, so, just because I was annoyed, I said fine. In the end, he did find the two books I wanted and he also sent me the Amazing Spider-Man variant #666 for free. In the end it turned out acceptable and I got the Amazing Spider-Man books (#554, 632,659,660, and 662) I had ordered.

Books from this week:

Something is Killing the Children #40. “Road Stories Part Five” Written by James Tynion IV and illustrated and cover art by Werther Dell’Edera (Bronze Medalist). This might have been my favorite book of the week as Erica goes through the memories of one of her most traumatic monster fights that ends with an unspeakable tragedy. This “Road Stories” has been some of the best stand alone issues of the series so far.

Last Mermaid #6. Written and drawn by Derek Kirk Kim. The final issue of Last Mermaid, for now. This book has been an amazing one, with beautiful art, with sweeping imagery filling each page. The very end of the book lists a “To Be Continued” tag so it tells me that we may not be done yet with the story of the Last Mermaid.

Life #1. Written by Brian Azzarello and Stephanie Phillips with art and cover art by Danijel Žeželj. DSTLRY have been doing some of the most creative and original books. Admittedly, the release dates of them have been a bit… scattered, shall we say. However, Life#1 has two stories and two covers and brings some solid sci-fi storytelling to comics.

Hello Darkness #2. This anthology series continued this month with a bunch of stories from the horror genre. My favorite one this issue is probably “The Clown” by Azam Raharjo. I love the stylistic black and white this story is presented in. There are other stories from Frederik Hornung, Wes Craig, Robert Hack and Garth Ennis.

X-Men #3. Written by Jed MacKay and penciled by Ryan Stegman. Cover art is by Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, and Marte Gracia. Scott Summers has a meeting with Agent Lundqvist in a little coffee house and they have an intense discussion about the X-Men and the future. Scott end the issue looking as if he were having a panic attack. The new X-books have all been very solid to start and I hope they can maintain this quality.

Aliens vs. Avengers #1. Written by Jonathan Hickman and art and cover art by Esad Ribić. I wonder if Jonathan Hickman can ever write a Marvel story inside of continuity? With the resurgence of the Xenomorphs on the big screen, a conflict with the Avengers feels right. This book was pretty good too.

NYX #2. Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly and art by Francesco Mortarino. Sara Pichelli & Federico Blee did the art on the cover. Young mutants are being lured to the control of the mysterious Mr. Friend and Laura wants to do something about it. A surprising villain is shown as being behind Mr. Friend.

Fantastic Four #24. “If It Wasn’t Forever…” Written by Ryan North and art by Carlos Gomez. Cover art by Alex Ross. Marvel’s First Family continued with the adventure from last issue by trying to help save a little tentacled alien that was choking Johnny Storm. I was not as fond of this space story as I have been of the rest of this run of FF. It was still a competent read.

Saga #68. Written by Brian K. Vaughn and drawn and cover art by Fiona Staples. There are so many awesome characters in Saga that you could go issues without seeing them and not miss out on anything. Saga is one of the easiest and yet most involved reads every month and I am so glad that it has come back to a regular release schedule… hopefully for the foreseeable future.

The Nice House By the Sea #2. Written by James Tynion IV and art and cover art by Alvaro Martinez Bueno 9Gold Medalist). The group of people together at the end of everything continue to interact and show more about their characters. They are doing that while wild things are going on around them. Tynion IV still one of the best writers working today and this is a great example of his work.

Deadpool Team-Up #1. Written and drawn by Rob Liefeld. Liefeld and Juan Manuel Rodriguez did the art for the cover. Deadpool fighting dragons? Yes please. But I will be honest and say that the biggest draw of this series is the appearance of Crystar, Lord of Crystallium. I was shocked when I saw him on the cover back in the Previews because I knew he was based on a toy and I did not know that Marvel had the rights to the character. I bought the Crystar books when they first came out and I like the character a lot.

Universal Monsters Frankenstein #1. Written, drawn and cover art by Michael Walsh. This is the third series of Universal Monsters from Image, following Dracula and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Frankenstein is one of the most iconic of all monsters and this fresh take blends the classic bits of the story with some new takes that really work.

Amazing Spider-Man #56. Written by Zeb Wells with art by John Romita Jr. Cover art was by Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Marcio Menyz. This is Legacy number 950 for Amazing Spider-Man. I still wish they would just leave the legacy number as the number of the issue, but who am I? I love it when Peter shows how smart he is and he does so when Tombstone tries to deliver a message to Spider-Man by killing his “friend” Peter Parker.

Captain America #12. “The Last Stand of the Front Door, Part 1” Written by J. Michael Straczynski with art by Jesus Saiz. Taurin Clarke did the art for the cover. I am not a fan of this Cap and the demons and this weird door story that has been going on through the Captain America series recently. I hope the “Last Stand” doesn’t take them too long.

X-Force #2. “Igubu Lika-Anansi” Written by Geoffrey Thorne and art by Marcus To. Phil Noto did the variant “Disco Dazzler” cover art. X-Force heads into Wakanda to confront someone claiming to be Black Panther. I do like this new team, but I really do not know the characters very well. I hope to learn more about them as this series progresses.

Ultimate X-Men #6. Written, drawn and cover art by Peach Momoko. Shadow King makes his appearance in this book and it takes an intriguing turn. I am not 100% sure I know what happened, but I do like the seemingly bizarre twist that the book took. I still love how this book is so different than any other X-Men book we have and how this Ultimate book is not just the same X-Men in a different setting.

Drawing Blood #5. Written by David Avallone and art by Ben Bishop. Kevin Eastman did the art on the cover. Shane “Books” Bookman is facing all kinds of troubles. Now the FBI wants a piece of him. Books has to try and weave through the Lithuanians as well as keep his comic publishing company afloat. Oh, and he has to go to Hollywood. While this series originally was not one I looked forward to, by now I am into it and I have enjoyed the last several issues quite a bit.

Void Rivals#12. Written by Robert Kirkman and art and cover art by Lorenzo De Felici. I just complained last issue that things were starting to feel repetitive with this series. So this issue, Solila and Darak head in their own separate directions, with their own missions to complete. We get a powerful goodbye between these two who have spent the last eleven issues together and have developed something more than just friendship.

Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #4. “Haunted, Part 4” Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Paolo Villanelli. Mark Brooks did the cover art. Gwen is going through some troubles in 616 universe. It seemed as much of it was coming from Chameleon. Is it though?

Chasm: Curse of Kaine #1. Written by Steve Foxe and art by Andrea Broccardo. Leinil Francis Yu & Dean White did the cover art. Ben Reilly is back and the focus of this new series which includes his “brother” Kaine. There is also a intriguing appearance from the Eternal Druig and the Mole Man. Lots going on here.

Marvel 85th Anniversary Special #1. This featured a ton of writers and artists as Wolverine and Deadpool’s head take a special tour of the Museum of Heroism in the 85th Century. We get several shorts featuring such characters as Ms. Marvel, Spicer-Man, Excalibur, and a Moon Knight. Koore Andrews did the cover art.

Incredible Hulk Annual #1. Written by Derek Landry and art by Geoff Shaw. Cover art is by Salvador Larroca & GURU-eFX. What more could you want besides Hulk vs. Thanos for the Mind Stone? And you may be surprised who winds up with it. This also includes the sixth chapter of the Death Stone Saga written by Derek Landry and art by Sara Pichelli. Fury and Coulson vs. Nighthawk.

Zatanna: Bring Down the House #3. Written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Javier Rodriguez. Variant cover by Tula Lotay. The Zatanna series is getting stranger by the issue as we get a woman with rabbit ears and we follow her down the Bunny Well. This has been a weird series so far, as a book about using and not using magic should be. And it is only going to get weirder as John Constantine shows up on the last page.

Phases of the Moon Knight #1. “The Once and Future Knight” and “Crusader“. First story written by Erica Schultz and penciled by Manuel Garcia. Second story written by Benjamin Percy and art by Rod Reis. Cover art was by Mateus Manhanini. This is an anthology series that will tell stories of the different Moon Knights over the years. This one starts with the Shroud and ends up with the Moon Knight of the Old Crusades. It is an intriguing concept. I’m not sure there is enough to sustain this over time, but we’ll see.

Other books: Kill All Immortals #2, Nights #10, Killadelphia #35 (Silver Medalist), The Mammoth #3, and The Butcher’s Boy #4.

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

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Week of August 26

It is NEW COMIC BOOK DAY once again. I got a ton of books this week and I have not had much chance to get to them much yet. But the Favorite Covers of the Week MUST GO ON!!!

I have zero Marvel in the top three this week. Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #4 almost made it.

Here are this week’s medal winners.

Bronze Medalist

Something is Killing the Children #40

Cover art by Werther Dell’Edera

A fascinating cover with Eric Slaughter front and center. Whose hand is holding the gun to her head? She looks to be holding a gun off cover too. It tells a story that I am very curious about.

Silver Medalist

Killadelphia #35

Cover art by Jason Shawn Alexander

One of the most interesting Killadelphia covers I have seen. The giant vampire in the back with the huge fans and the series of crosses. I also love the sideways red title up the side.

Gold Medalist

The Nice House By the Sea #2

Cover art by Alvaro Martinez Bueno

What a lovely, and yet scary, cover. The colors are beautiful. The shine across the face of the woman on the cover. It makes me wonder exactly what is going on and that is what a good cover will do.

Bonus Action Vol. 2 Ep 0

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Spoilers

I was excited about the news of the return of Bonus Action. However, I was really hoping it would be played on another night than Monday. Simply put, my schedule is bad on Mondays for watching and hour and a half + show on YouTube. So I made the conscious decision that I would be watching this new season on Tuesday nights.

So I watched the first new Bonus Action and it turned out to be a lot of discussion on what is to come in Vol. 2 as well as what the individual players wanted their characters to go through or to face.

There was also a bit of a shock for me. I learned that there were some holiday specials with the group. I had no idea. Checking on YouTube, the holiday specials included “Midnight on Ever Clear” which was almost two-and-a-half hours long, and “Smackdown on the Solstice.” Each of these two featured three of the players in what is listed as “Odd Jobs.” I am going to try to find some time to watch these two videos, but 2 1/2 hours is a huge time commitment at this point. It would have been much easier for me around Christmas… or this whole summer break.

Either way, these characters are a ton of fun and I am pleased to rejoin their campaign, apparently around six months later from the conclusion of Vol. 1.

Only Murders in the Building S4 E1

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“Once Upon a Time in the West”

Charles, Oliver and Mabel are back for another round of mystery as they slowly discover what we all saw at the end of the third season, that Sazz, played over the series by Jane Lynch, had been killed by an assassin’s bullet in Charles’ apartment.

Well, it actually took them awhile to find out about Sazz since her body was not in Charles’s apartment and had, apparently, been removed and taken to the building’s incinerator.

Charles had been getting worried about Sazz, since she took off without any notice and that she was not responding to him. There was one mysterious text, but it did not help soothe Charles’s anxiety.

Meanwhile, the threesome headed off to Hollywood when they received an offer which included selling their life rights to a movie studio so they could make a movie based on the podcast. They were introduced to the actors that would be playing them in the movie: Eugene Levy as Charles, Eva Longoria as Mabel and Zach Galifianakis. (By the way, this casting is inspired.)

Meryl Streep reprised her role as Loretta and she and Oliver had a lovely scene together. Loretta tried to talk Oliver into coming out to California with her as she was involved in a TV show.

Scott Bakula also appeared, running into Charles and confirming that Sazz had not shown up for the job of backing him, causing Charles to really start to worry.

This started with a really excellent episode. Steve Martin, in particular, was exceptional with his confused and worried state over his missing friend. Watching him dig the joint replacements from Bulgaria out of the incinerator at the Arconia was horrifying. The response on the text message moments later, as Charles mourned his friend, was chilling.

This has a ton of promise and I can’t wait for next week’s episode to see where they go with it.

The X-Files S6 E15

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“Arcadia”

I remember loving this episode when it first aired. I still loved it after this rewatch, but it may have taken a slight step down. Still one of my favorite X-Files episodes.

Mulder and Scully going undercover as a yuppie married couple in a planned community to try and discover why people have been disappearing without a trace is a fantastic premise. It opens the show up to some funny moments as Mulder and Scully interact with each other and the neighborhood and its ridiculously strict rules.

This, I think, is a perfect episode to talk about something that I have truly noticed during this rewatch. I know there were people who thought Scully and Mulder were meant for each other, but this episode showed to me that they just did not have that lover connection. Each scene of them as a married couple, where there could have been sparks with their unrequited love, just lacked any energy and was played as humor.

I have never felt that Mulder and Scully had that “will they or won’t they” vibe of TV pairs such as David and Maddie of Moonlighting, Sam and Diane of Cheers, Richard Castle and Detective Beckett of Castle. I mean, I have no doubt that they loved each other, but more like brother-sister, or best friends. Heck, I would compare the relationship between Mulder and Scully more like that of Adrian Monk and Natalie from Monk. Closer than co-workers. Tighter than friends. Just platonic. Trying to do more feels uncomfortable, and that is the feel of “Arcadia.”

I do like the garbage monster which is revealed as a tulpa, a thought creature brought to life by the planned community leader Gene Gogolak, played by Peter White. However, the third act of the show sure seemed rushed. I think this concept could have been a two-part episode, although I know they kept those two-parters for the mythology episodes and not the monster-of-the-week affairs. I do think this could have worked as one in order to give a little more background to the monster and fleshing out the characters in the community more.

The comedic timing of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson is really great. They work in so many versions of this show. They are such solid actors. It just does not seem as if their characters are in love.

The Greatest American Hero S2 E2

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“Operation: Spoilsport”

I think this was the best episode of The Greatest American Hero that we have seen so far.

I actually remember this episode from when I first watched it back int he 1980s because of what was different. In the episode on Amazon Prime that I watched today, there were several songs used as a soundtrack as Ralph and Bill raced around trying to prevent the launch of nuclear weapons via a computer program called Operation: Spoilsport. The nuclear weapons were intended to be a preemptive strike on the USSR and General Stocker (played by John Anderson) was behind the strike, bringing the story of Dr. Strangelove to The Greatest American Hero.

What I remember clearly about this episode was the use of the song “Eve of Destruction.” I believe it was the first time I heard this song and it was so much more powerful with this than the songs than the original songs that were on the version on Prime.

There was a definite thrill in this episode as the chance of a launch of nuclear weapons from a crazed general is a danger that loomed large in the 1980s. Ralph and Bill’s desperation fit right in with the tone of the episode, which still had its comedic flavor, but the humor was in its proper place and was not over used. The threat of nuclear war was real at the time and this story of two heroes doing everything they could to prevent it was epic.

Yes, the special effects are of the 1980s TV variety, but that is not the show’s fault. The storytelling was strong and these two characters reacted in ways that you understood.

Connie Sellecca was reserved for a phone call cameo, apparently since she was pregnant at the time.

We also saw the return of the little green guys who communicated with Ralph through the radio as well as through a dead guy (which was actually kind of creepy).

Great episode.