April 27, 2023

Once again, yesterday was NEW COMIC BOOK DAY and I got a bunch of new books. I also had a personal day from school so I was able to spend a couple of hours sitting and doing some reading at Comic World. It had a feel of the summer, when every Wednesday finds me at the table with my newly purchased books and the plethora of customers, some I know and other I don’t.

I did miss Todd yesterday as he was substitute teaching. While I do enjoy the company of the others at the store, there is just something about the back-and-forth between Todd and me.

Wednesday was a wonderfully relaxing day. I got to go out for breakfast and lunch, saw Evil Dead Rise at Phoenix Theaters (where I was the only audience member… one of my favorite things) and finished the evening off helping the school fundraise at our local pizza joint. Overall a really good day.

Kicking off…

Phantom Road #1-2. Written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Gabriel H. Walta. Jeff Lemire has become one of my favorite writers in comics today. The new Phantom Road series seems to fit right in with some of his other awesome books. There is a fun set-up that blends The Walking Dead with a Stephen King book. This started out with some definite questions that are piquing my curiosity.

Strange Academy Finals #6. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Humberto Ramos. This series comes to an end with the big final conflict between Emily Bright and the Strange Academy students, led by Doyle. This was a great conclusion that brought us some exciting moments and one major shock of a death. Strange Academy has become one of my favorite Marvel books and I sure hope that it will return sooner than later.

Daredevil #10. “The Red Fist Saga Part 10.” Written by Chip Zdarsky and illustrated by Marco Checchetto. Chip Zdarsky’s run on Daredevil has been just epic and this continues that trend. Daredevil and Elektra facing down with members of the Avengers is just awesome. Of course, I loved the interactions between Daredevil and Spider-Man that happen in this book. It feels as if Zdarsky has a really solid grasp on Spider-Man as well. I’d love to see him get a chance to write that book too. This has an amazing last couple of pages and I have no idea where it is heading next. What great storytelling.

Deep Cuts #1. Written by Kyle Higgins and Joe Clark while the pencils are done by Danilo Beyruth. This is a cool new book. It is an anthology series (I Believe) and this issue focuses on New Orleans in 1917. It is the story of a young black boy looking to be able to join a local musician and play his clarinet. We follow the story through several moments and it is a deep look at jazz and the power of music. I am excited to see what comes next.

Wasp #4. Written by Al Ewing and drawn by Kasia Nie & Carola Borelli. Tom Reilly did the cover art. Janet Van Dyne and Nadia break free from the strange alternate world and are able to bring down the Creature from Kosmos. I have to say the whole alternate world came and went really quickly and felt like it could have been explored a little longer. I guess they had to get the story to fit inside the four issues they had. A fifth one might have helped the flow of the book. It was still an enjoyable read as both Wasps are fun characters that I like a great deal.

Hulk #14. “Hulk Planet Finale” Written and penciled by Ryan Ottley. The saga of Planet Hulk comes to an ending here. I have not been much of a fan of this run of the Hulk, but the conclusion was fine. Titan caused some problems and Banner was able to reconnect with the real green goliath and bring down the rotten side of his mind. Of course, at the end of the book, everything was fixed and back to normal for Banner. I am not sure anything that happened during this series mattered in the long run. I am looking forward to the new direction for Hulk, though.

Money Shot: Comes Again #1. Written by Tim Seeley and drawn by Gisele Lagace. Not sure how to describe this. It might be considered a satire. It could also be considered a sci-fi dark comedy with plenty of sexual innuendo (and actually not a ton of innuendo). The biggest problem I had was that Todd did not get me the dirty cover (ha ha).

Mary Jane & Black Cat #5. Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Vincenzo Carratù. Paul Siqueira & Erick Arciniega did the cover art. MJ and Felicia have their final confrontation with Belasco in Limbo. This has been an odd series and what saves it is the interactions between MJ and Felicia. They are a pair of wonderfully likable characters that the audience just want to read about.

Monica Rambeau: Photon #5. Written by Eve L. Ewing and penciled by Luca Maresca. Lucas Werneck did the cover art. This is yet another of the Marvel series that came to an end this week. Monica had the help from a Starfox from a different universe to straighten everything out. This series did help get me excited for the MCU film The Marvels that will include Monica Rambeau later this year.

Captain America: Symbol of Truth #12. Written by Tochi Onyebuchi and with art by R.B. Silva. Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson are together again and trying to prevent the machinations of Bucky Barnes, hoping to keep him from slipping into full fledged villainy. There is more with Ian and with Dimension Z as well as this is the continuation of the Cold War storyline.

Doctor Strange #2. “Dream Evil” Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Pasqual Ferry. Alex Ross did the cover art. Moon Knight guest stars as Strange and Clea try to help a young boy by confronting Nightmare. It is great to have Stephen Strange back and working together with his wife Clea. Things look to really pick up starting next issue as the death of Aggamon will come into play.

The Neighbors #2. Written by Jude Ellison S. Doyle and featuring art by Letizia Cadonici. Variant cover by Stephanie Hans & Zu Orzu. I do have one of the variant covers (cover B -21) and it is absolutely stunning. Things are continuing to build in the story as our main characters have more interactions with their neighbors and the problems that they are going to cause.

Avengers Beyond #2. Written by Derek Landy and penciled by Greg Land. Avengers are in trouble all over the place and the Lost One is on its way to Earth to hunt down the Beyonder. Can the Avengers prevent this major danger? Not too much to this series so far, but I like all of the heroes involved so I hope it will pick up.

The Invincible Iron Man #5. “The Autobiography of Tony Stark: Conclusion.” Feilong has taken over Stark Unlimited and left Tony with almost nothing. So Tony goes to learn what he can about the mutant-hater. Big things are happening though as Feilong has constructed the Stark Sentinel!

April 25, 2023

Day off tomorrow. I’m excited of being able to go to Comic World just as it opens on NEW COMICS DAY! Taking a Wednesday off in the middle of the week is a different feeling than having the day off on a Friday or Monday.

Anyway, jumping right in…

No/One #1. Written by Kyle Higgins & Brian Buccellato with art by Geraldo Borges. This new Image series was really a fascinating kick-off issue. There is a killer running around that the media and everyone else calls No/One, but there is a bunch f a back story to this book. This No/One is apparently a copycat killer and trying to discover his true identity seems to be the direction of the book. There is a ton of cool info at the end of the book too including a timeline and a Wikipedia-type entry called Knowpedia. This feels pretty dense, but it is just the type of mystery that I love. Excited to see where this 10-issue series goes.

The Silver Coin #10. “Covenant: Abomination.” Written and drawn by Michael Walsh. Witchcraft and the cursed inside the silver coin. Honestly, I thought this was a good read, but I do not remember much about it. So how good of a read could it have been?

The Cryptidnals #1. “Chapter 1: Shadow Kingdom.” Written by Ray Ramos and illustrated by Darion Rodriguez. Cover art was by Darion Rodriguez and Red Garcia. Another new horror series, this one featuring several of the legendary creatures of myth and urban legends such as sasquatch, La Llorona, Man-Dog, Chupacabra among others. The black and white book creates an even eerier tone. It was interesting.

Sleeping Beauties #6. Based on the no9vel by Stephen King and Owen King, adapted by Rio Youers and art by Alison Sampson. The sleeping sickness story continues as the mysterious woman Eve Black remains as a vital component of the story. We start to get something different though as it seems as if there is a different reality where these women are existing. Things are heating up.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #7-8. Written by Tom King and drawn by Bilquis Evely. The series wraps up as Supergirl battles in space and Ruthye confronts Krem. Overall, this series was up and down for me and the conclusion was okay at best. I did find the very last page to be fairly shocking, but it did not do enough for me to find this anything more than meh.

Captain America: Unforgiven. “A Few Good Monsters.” The end of the arc with the Forgiven, a group of vampires fighting to prevent their bloodlust. We have seen them with several other Marvel characters including Spider-Man and the X-Men. Now it is Captain America’s turn. I will say that I have had a hard time getting any connections with these characters so, even though there were some interesting moments in the series, I can’t say that i loved it.

Newburn #7-8. Written by Chip Zdarsky an drawn by Jacob Phillips. The first arc of Newburn comes to a close with Newburn helping bring his assistant’s past out of the shadows and saving her from the forces looking to gain revenge. I have enjoyed Newburn, even though it felt as if I shouldn’t have been rooting for him during these comics.

April 21, 2023

I’m never quite comfortable when Todd is right.

Let me explain. Todd is my friend who works at Comic World. When I came to the shop this Wednesday for NEW COMIC BOOK DAY, Todd had placed something special in my pull box.

Now, that is not an uncommon event. He has placed certain things in my box multiple times. Sometimes it is a serious thing where he has put a new book that he thinks I would like in the box. He has been right about whether I will like the book a little more than not.

Sometimes he puts some books in my box as a joke. You can practically guarantee that any book featuring bondage will find its way there.

This week, there were actually three comic series in there. An old Storm series, The Unworthy Thor series and Daredevil: End of Days. He had said that the only one that he wanted me to read was the End of Days book, written by Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack and art from Klaus Janson.

I already owned The Unworthy Thor and the Storm series (prior to her wedding with Black Panther) did not interest me. However, the Daredevil book was fascinating.

Todd was trying to give me a synopsis of the series because it seemed familiar to me, but I could not make out if I had read this before. He compared this book to Citizen Kane.

Yup, Citizen Kane.

That was all the idea that this book told the final Daredevil story, as he is killed in issue one by Bullseye. Daredevil’s final word: ‘Mapone.’

Much like Rosebud in Citizen Kane, the mysterious word became the key to Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich’s investigation into Matt Murdock’s final days.

Todd promised me that I would like this. He knows that I do not typically enjoy these future stories that are not in continuity. Most of these books annoy me. He told me I would like End of Days.

And despite this type of story is not usually in my wheelhouse, he was right. I loved this.

However, he also told me that he heard that Brian Michael Bendis had said that this would eventually wind up in continuity, that the real world Daredevil would reach this point. In this, I call Hooie. There is no way this series will EVER be anything but a ‘What If’ type story.

That does not take away from it though.

I really enjoyed the story of Ben Urich going around to all of the key individuals in Daredevil/Matt Murdock’s life and seeing how DD’s death affected them and the mystery of what the word Mapone means. The series does a great job including such important characters as Frank Castle, Bullseye, Kingpin, The Owl, Melvin Potter, J. Jonah Jameson and even a short cameo by Peter Parker.

And I do not know how many little red headed kids Matt Murdock has running around in this series. It is true that Matt has always been a player, but, come on, does he ever think about some protection?

It is not a perfect series though. There is a mystery on who a new Daredevil is and it is painfully obvious who it was. I will say the mystery of Mapone is better, but also felt tagged on.

I really enjoyed the art from Klaus Janson, whose dark and moody art fit with the tone of the series. I’ve never been a huge fan of Bendis, but this worked well. There were some covers that had scenes that were not important in the book. Again, that does not bother me much, but it does create some expectations.

Daredevil has been one of my favorite characters in Marvel for some time now and I did love seeing his legacy continuing. Todd, you were right. This was outstanding.

April 20, 2023

Once again, yesterday was NEW COMIC BOOK DAY!

A very interesting week of books this week. I also threw in a couple of books from series that I am working my way through. I am looking forward to several full series reads that I have which will be like the last issue of Man-Eaters.

Jumping right into it.

Middlewest #10. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Jorge Corona. Abel meets his grandfather and this has been a really solid twist. All of these characters are intriguing and feel as if they are more than black and white. I found the grandfather very fascinating and I am excited to see where this is heading. Beautiful cover on this issue too.

Newburn #6. “Chapter Six: My Lucky Night” Written by Chip Zdarsky and drawn Jacob Phillips. This issue of Newburn focused on the Angie backstory, flashing back and forth from the past and present. This also was the first Newburn that felt like a continuing story.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #6. “Chapter Six: Home, Family, and Refuge.” Written by Tom King with art by Bilquis Evely. I had been hard on the last few issues of Supergirl. This was the totally opposite reaction. This issue, dealing with the origin of Supergirl, is my favorite issue of this series so far. I did enjoy the style of writing in this book and the bit about the city from Krypton turning into Kryptonite and poisoning the survivors was rough. Not knowing about Kara, I do not know if that was always part of her story, but I liked the idea. This made me hopeful for the last two issues.

Hallows’ Eve #2. Written by Erica Schultz with art by Michael Dowling. The cover art was by Michael Dowling and Morry Hollowell. Hallows’ Eve is one of the more original and engaging new characters out of Marvel recently and one of the best parts of the Dark Web run. This book has been entertaining so far, but their sudden ends are a little unsatisfying. Otherwise, this has been a lot of fun so far.

New Mutants: Lethal Legion #2. “Terrible Decisions.” With the second issue of this comic, I really enjoyed it too. I specifically had told Todd that I was not a big fan of the X-Men stuff, but this New Mutants book has been great, even if I am not really sure who some of these people are. The combat to attempt to become a new member of the Lethal Legion was clever and hilarious.

House of Slaughter #14. “The Butcher’s Return Part Four.” Jace is in some horrendous trouble. A friend from Jace’s past does not turn out to be quite what he expected as he was in search of Sonny. Continues to be a brutal comic in all the best ways. Written by Tate Brombal and illustrated by Antonio Fuso.

Amazing Spider-Man #24. Written by Zeb Wells and drawn by John Romita Jr. We start getting more info behind the things that have happened over the last year, including where these children that Mary Jane apparently have had. I’m not sure how much I buy Spidey doing what he has done with the FF or that the FF would not immediately help Spidey. Still, I believe that Peter was desperate to get back to MJ. It is supposedly building toward a shocking issue soon. We’ll see. I always love Amazing.

She-Hulk #12. Written by Rainbow Rowell with art from Andres Genolet & Joe Quinones. Jen Bartel did the cover art. This new She-Hulk series has been extremely entertaining so far and I loved the extended book for the legacy numbered 175 issue. The backup story with “The First Rule of Book Club” was a ton of fun and featured some awesome cameos from Marvel heroines.

Hellcat #2. “The Know-It-All.” Hellcat’s new series has quickly become one of my favorite reads of the month. The mystery behind the murder of Spalding Grantham, Patsy’s newest fling, deepens this issue and we get an appearance at the very end by Blackheart, who has been pretty busy lately. I am loving this book so far. I love the pairing of Hellcat with the stuffed bunny being possessed by Damien Hellstrom, her former husband the Son of Satan. So far this has been top notch.

Red Goblin #3. Written by Alex Paknadel and drawn by Jan Bazaldua. Inhyuk Lee did the art for the cover. Normie allows the symbiote full reign in order to save his grandfather and fight off the Goblin King and his new Goblin Nation. The end of the book had a couple of pages that were just emotionally powerful with Normie and a dog.

Avengers Assemble Omega #1. “One Last Ride.” Created by Jason Aaron, Aaron Kuder, Dexter Vines, Ivan Fiorelli, Javier Garrón, Jim Towe & Alex Sinclair. Aaron Kuder & Alex Sinclair did the art on the wrap around cover. The huge finale to the Avengers Assemble storyline that has brought Avengers from across the mulitverse and across time to do battle with the Multiversal Masters of Evil. This was fun and did have that epic feel. The final issue written by Jason Aaron, this book wraps up everything he had been setting up for these many years, giving Robbie Reyes a star-making moment. Good stuff.

Warlock: Rebirth #1. “Better Half.” This was unexpected. First of all, this story took place in the past. Back in a time when Gamora and Pip the Troll were involved in the Infinity Watch. However, we get a new character popping out of a cocoon…. Eve Warlock. Hm. I will admit my first thought was to roll my eyes. However, I did find her to be quite kick ass and set up a cool story. I loved the nostalgic feel to the book as the cover had some 80s style design. Written by Ron Marz and drawn by Ron Lim (who I always enjoyed when was younger).

Harrower #3. Written by Justin Jordan and illustrated by Brahm Revel. High level action in this slasher book and the very end of the issue threw a huge curveball at me. I am not sure 100% what was going on, but it certainly caught my attention. Full of brutal, bloody action, Harrower feels like few other books currently on the market.

April 18, 2023

I love Chelsea Cain.

When I read the Man-Eaters Vol. 1 trade paperback, I found yet another exceptional series from her. There was Spy Island. Of course, Mockingbird, one of my all-time favorite series. I was excited to see how this amazing series continued.

As I was looking for the series in comic books (besides just in the trade paperbacks), I found that there was a second volume of the regular series, called Man-Eaters: The Cursed and I was excited.

There is so much creativity in this book. From the creative storytelling to the amazing advertisements that fall into the world she is building. It is amazing that Image does not have any ads for their other books in these issues. It is all-encompassing man-eaters.

Man-Eaters #1-12.

The first series was exceptional. We start finding out that some menstruating girls, at one point, started turning into vicious killing werepanthers. Maude is our 12-year old protagonist who is right at the age for the possible transformations. And her father, a detective, is investigating a series of brutal attacks that certainly could be werepanthers. Maude is not sure if she is turning into a killer cat or not.

I love the story and I really love the ending. It switched everything that the series had been working on over the entire run and the ending was a great surprise.

Another fantastic bit of this series is that issue #4, issue #8 and issue #12 have no part of the basic story and are more like magazines or training manuals. Issue eight included a card game that provided the cards on flaps on the inside front and back covers. It feels like a teacher’s manual with games that can be used to instruct students in the problems of menstruations. It is a really cool feature of this.

Man-Eaters: The Cursed #1-5.

The second series took a different path. With the werepanthers wrapped up, we find out that Maude had attended a “Craft Camp” and was the best camper ever. She was sent to the camp once more until she discovered that all the campers, except a boy named Burt, had disappeared.

More so, we discover that the camp was a “Witchcraft” camp and that Maude was a practicing witch.

The Cursed was a shorter run, but it was an even tighter story and was funny and well done.

I know that some people are not fans of how much of a feminist Chelsea Cain is and how much she uses those beliefs in her writing. That has never bothered me. I love a good strong woman. Sure there are plenty of misogynists on the internet or in the world of comic collectors, but that is not my beliefs. I love Chelsea Cain’s work and I find it engaging, entertaining and hilarious.

I hope we get some more in the Man-Eaters world someday.

April 16, 2023

I’m not sure why this is the case, but it seems as if I like DC Comics’ future/Elseworlds type stories more than I like Marvel ones. The stories in Marvel that are non-continuity (outside of the What If? title) always bug me, but the DC ones does not bother me at all.

For example, for the Comic Cavalcade #11, I have read the Swamp Thing: Green Hell Black Label series. It is clearly a story of a possible future and I found it interesting. I do not feel as if a Marvel book in the same vein would pique my curiosity as this did.

I wonder if the Marvel continuity means more to me since DC has rebooted its continuity multiple times over the years. For better or worse, everything that happens in Marvel, stays.

It is an intriguing thought. Still all of the X-Men futures just do not matter to me. Maybe there have been too may of them. I remember loving Future Imperfect with Maestro/Hulk.

Either way, I’m kicking off #11 with Swamp Thing.

Swamp Thing: Green Hell #1-3. Written by Jeff Lemire with art by Doug Mahnke and Shawn Moll. I have never been a huge fan of Swamp Thing, but I have not read much of anything featuring him either. This was very good. I have been loving much of Jeff Lemire’s work lately and this fits in perfectly. I missed out on #1 and then I had seen #2 & #3 in the back issue section at Comic World so I picked them up and searched for #1, which I got at Amazon. These Black Label books have been pretty interesting at DC and the future world tale does not bother me. This had some great storytelling and the art was excellent.

Middlewest #9. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Jorge Corona. Abel has a name for the thing on his chest. It was the Heart of the Storm and he is trying to find a way to get it taken off him. Looking for answers, Abel and Fox arrive at the Nowak village with the few remaining Nowaks. The Nowak sent them to see Nokoyuna (and how cool this thing looked).

Nocterra #2. Written by Scott Snyder and illustrated by Tony S. Daniel. Issue #2 is every bit as great as issue #1 was. Maybe even better because there was less world building required and we could just start building suspense and stakes. Blacktop Bill is the name of the all black creature from the end of #1 and he is a bad ass. I continue to love this book so far.

X-Men #21. “Lord of the Brood Part Three“. Written by Gerry Duggan and drawn by Stefano Caselli. The X-Men continue their battle against the Brood, and it seems as if Scott and Jean are coming down on opposite sides of the fence. Jean is helping Broo set up a colony for the Brood that he can still control via the hive mind and Scott is heading off to join up with the fight Captain Marvel is carrying out in her series.

Sleeping Beauties #4-5. Based on the novel by Stephen King and Owen King. Adapted by Rio Youers with art from Alison Sampson. The Aurora sleeping disease is sweeping the nation and some have decided that trying to burn the cocoon off is a good idea. Things are getting crazier by the minute. There is also a woman in the prison who seems to be immune and able to sleep. That info is causing a ton of strife.

The Silver Coin #9. “The Dancer.” Written by Vita Ayala and drawn by Michael Walsh. This issue finds a crooked cop in possession of the coin and he has to chase after a little girl who witnessed him setting a fire in a building. This is another tragic story with some of humanities worst people. The end of this one was pretty satisfying.

The Ambassadors #2. Written by Mark Millar with art by Karl Lerschl. We meet one of the newest selections for the superhero team, Codename India. He has been given powers over gravity. We get to meet him before he is selected, after he wound up being shot by some terrorists. So far there is not much story, but there are some interesting character development going on.

Newburn #5. “Chapter Five: Luck Ran Out” Written by Chip Zdarsky and drawn by Jacob Phillips. Newburn is in jail? How did that happen? I am not sure how I feel about this issue. Newburn is in prison undercover but what he does is kind of questionable. Is Newburn the guy to root for in this book?

Black Cloak #4. Written by Kelly Thompson and with art by Meredith McClaren. Phae and Pax go to see the mermaids and discover who is behind the murder. The problem is, they have no evidence and that makes it practically impossible. We discover the background of why Phae was exiled as well. The first half of the book was a bit slow, but I found it pick up in the second half. It continues to be a fascinating book.