November 26, 2023

Good Sunday everyone. We just had a bunch of snow last night and that makes for a nice day inside on my last day before Thanksgiving break comes to a close.

Then, last night on the WWE Survivor Series, former Marvel Comics Drax limited series writer, CM Punk returned to the WWE. In related news, major snowfall happened in Hell as it froze over.

I was able to finish off the remaining books from last week’s large pull of comics as well as a couple of back issues.

Comics include:

Planetary #7. “To Be In England, In The Summertime.” Written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by John Cassaday. Elijah, Drummer and Jakita go to try and find the truth about the death of an old friend named Jack Carter. I do like the way this series is going.

Ice Cream Man #5. “Ballad of a Falling Man.” Written by W. Maxwell Prince and art by Martin Morazzo. Cover art was by Frazer Irving. This was a great story. A man jumps off a building from 100 floors. We see some of the things happening in the building on his way down. Very creative and fun.

Ghost Rider #20. “The Kids are All Wrong” by Benjamin Percy and Carlos Nieto. “Kill the Blue-Eyed Man” by Steven Paul Judd and Shaun Beyale. Bjorn Barends did the cover art. Lots of weirdness as Johnny Blaze and Talia Warrroad are in search of Cult of Mephisto leader Stefan Skaar.

Deadpool: Seven Slaughters #1. Seven stories with Deadpool from a series of great writers including Cullen Bunn, Justina Ireland, Rob Liefeld & Chad Bowers, Cody Ziglar, Steve Foxe, Gail Simone, and Marc Guggenheim. The artists of the book include Phillip Sevy, Greg Land, Rob Liefeld, Federica Mancin, Gerardo Sandoval, David Baldeon, and Whilce Portacio.

Blade #5. “Mother of Evil: Part Five” Written by Bryan Hill and art by Elena Casagrande. Blade is on the way to find Adana but he was not ready for what he found. This whole issue was a set up to the final page…Blade face to face with Dracula, looking for help.

Black Panther #6. “Reign at Dusk” Part Six. Written by Eve L. Ewing and art by Matt Horak with Mack Chater. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. This was the first of the new Black Panther series that I enjoyed a lot. This told a story of a Black Panther from a century ago.

Silver Surfer Rebirth: Legacy #3. “Silver & Black” Written by Ron Marz and penciled by Ron Lim. Silver Surfer and Genis come together while Thanos battled the black Surfer. At the end, we see Nova and Galactus. Big time story developing.

A Haunted Girl #2. Written by Ethan Sacks & Naomi Sacks and drawn by Marco Lorenzana. Cover art was by Jessica Fong. Cleo is having a lot of trouble. She does not want to go back to school and she is trying to get through the horrors around her.

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #5. Script by Tate Brombal and art by Isaac Goodhart. Cover art was Nick Robles. Christopher, Dracula Boy and Viv join with Alex Frankenstein and go to a place beneath the ground where monsters exist.

Hexagon Bridge #3. “5. The Departure“. Story and art by Richard Blake. Adley heads out to try and find her parents who she expects Gerardus has them. I’m not 100% sure the story going on here, but it is beautifully drawn and things are interesting.

November 22, 2023

I got to go to Comic World today and sit and read my new comics on NEW COMIC BOOK DAY! It was such a treat. I have missed these Wednesday since school started. I got the entire new comics of this week right there at the little table.

Here are this week’s new books:

The Sensational She-Hulk #2. “Jen-Sational! Part 2” Written by Rainbow Rowell and art by Andres Genolet. Bonus Wyatt Wingfoot story was written by Bobby Wilson and art from David Cutler. Jen Bartel did the cover art. The Incredible Hulk makes a guest appearance with his cousin, though he doesn’t want any part of Jen.

The Uncanny Spider-Man #4. “Slice and Dice” Written by Si Spurrier and art by Lee Garbett. Tony Daniel and Yen Nitro did the cover art. Spidey is back for part of the issue and it seems that Silver Sable has made her choice about the contract that she has signed for Nightcrawler.

Amazing Spider-Man #38. Written by Zeb Wells and art by Ed McGuinness. The Rek-Rap story ends here. I had not been a fan of this story so far, but this is a solid conclusion as Peter has to deal with Re-Po, the demon that comes to earth to reclaim the escaped demons. The second half of this issue spent time starting to set up the Gang War storyline.

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #2. Written by Brian Buccellato and art by Christian Duce. Drew Johnson & Romulo Fajaroo Jr. did the cover art. I was a little down about number one after reading it because of the confusing continuity. That does not come into play in this issue and it is so much the better for it. This was great, with more of the giant monsters showing up and the DC heroes needing to take action. And the confrontation with Superman and Godzilla is epic. Definitely better than last issue and has me excited to see the next one.

Invincible Iron Man #12. “Patron Saint.” Written by Gerry Duggan and art from guest artist Ig Guara. Kael Ngu did the cover art. We get a fun mental battle between the White Queen and Riri Williams. They also had to battle one of the Iron Sentinels. They end the issue with a Thanksgiving celebration among Tony Stark, Emma Frost (in her alias), Kamala Khan, and the Uncanny Avengers team. Cool since tomorrow is Thanksgiving in America. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Enjoy that turkey!

Incredible Hulk #6. “Spirits of Vengeance” Part One. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Nic Klein. Some new characters debut in this issue. One that sure seems to be a ghost ride of some kind and it looks like that rider is going to take on the Hulk.

Universal Monsters: Dracula #2. Written by James Tynion IV and art by Martin Simmonds. Cover art was by Jason Shawn Alexander. This is great. I love the look and the feel of this book. The story is told a lot of the time through images, which I love in this.

Avengers Inc. #3. “Case Number 003: The Man Who Died Twice.” Written by Al Ewing and penciled by Leonard Kirk. Valkyrie comes to Janet and Vic to help try and figure out who, in Valhalla, killed Skurge the Executioner. Of course, the heroes in Valhalla are already dead so being killed again is weird. This was some Asgardian fun.

No/One #6. Written by Kyle Higgins & Brian Buccellato and art by Geraldo Borges. I love this series. It is keeping me guessing with who this No/One is and how it all fits together.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars: Battleworld #1. Written by Tom DeFalco and art by Pat Olliffe. Giuseppe Camuncoli & Paul Mounts did cover art. This is one of those flashback series that is set in the past of the Marvel Universe. This was during the first Secret Wars. It focused on Spider-Man and Human Torch. It was fun. I am not a huge fan of these kind of flashback stories, but this was okay. Probably helped for me to have Spidey in the book. However, there is something I want to mention that I felt was very clunky. Twice heroes, during regular dialogue, used the whole name “Reed Richards” when speaking. One was Captain America who said to the whole heroes, “You heard Reed Richards. Let’s all take a break.” Why would Cap use Reed’s full name in that situation? But even worse was when Johnny Storm was talking to Spidey and he said to Spidey, “Who needs Reed Richards when we have a genius like you.” Johnny is Reed’s brother-in-law… why wouldn’t he just say ‘Reed?’ NOBODY TALKS LIKE THAT.

Daredevil: Black Armor #1. Written by D.G. Chichester and penciled by Netno Diaz. Mark Bagley and Edgar Delgado were the cover artists. Another of those flashback stories, but I did like the way this one was written.

Other books read this week: Void Rivals #6, Captain Marvel #2, Kill Your Darlings #3, Plot Holes #4, Carnage #1, Bone Orchard: Tenement #6, and Moon Knight: City of the Dead #5.

November 21, 2023

It’s been a busy week. Between a bunch of rewatch TV series, several active TV shows, a group of new movies in theater, and school, there has not been a lot of time to read last week’s books. In fact, tomorrow is NEW COMIC BOOK DAY and I am just now making a dent in last week’s large pile.

However, I am officially on Thanksgiving break and tomorrow I am excited to head into Comic World (after watching Napoleon in the morning) and spend the afternoon reading my new books. I may bring along some of the ones from last week that wound up falling to the side.

I really have missed these Wednesdays since school has started. These days of coming to Comic World and just lazily read the books while hanging out with the great people who work there. I’m thrilled this is going to work out.

I did carve out some time tonight after school to get caught up somewhat with the new comics from last week. Here they are:

Spine-Tingling Spider-Man #2. Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Juan Ferreyra. This new Spider-Man horror series has been really fun these first two issues. The art is great and the story is rather creepy, as Peter finds himself powerless and being pursued by some true horrors. I have loved this original idea so far.

Daredevil #3. “Introductory Rites” Part Three. Written by Saladin Ahmed and pencils by Aaron Kuder and Farid Karami. John Romita Jr, Scott Hanna and Marcio Menyz did the cover art. Father Matt has plenty of problems, including one where an old friend, Ben Urich, is looking into the church Father Matt is at. Worse yet… Bullseye is back!

Astonishing Iceman #4. “Out Cold: Part Four” Written by Steve Orlando and drawn by Vincenzo Carratù. Jesus Saiz did the cover art. Iceman teams up with his Amazing friend, Spider-Man in his continued struggle with Orchis. Throws memories back to my childhood. All we were missing was Firestar.

Fantastic Four #13. “A Thing or Two.” Written by Ryan North and art by Iban Coello. Alex Ross did the cover art. Dr. Doom teams up with Dr. Doom the T-Rex against our heroes, including the FF-dinosaurs. Weird and wild issue and continues this excellent run of FF comics.

Red Goblin #10. Written by Alex Paknadel and penciled by Chris Campana. Inhyuk Lee did the cover art. Venom guest stars. Normie and Rascal come together and ‘make up’ in the series finale of this intriguing book. I do think that I am going to miss this book.

Capwolf and the Howling Commandos #2. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Carlos Magno. Ryan Brown was the cover artist. This has started off as some pulpy fun. Captain America has been turned into a werewolf and the Nazis are out there causing trouble in this WWII flashback.

The Deviant #1. “A Christmas Story” Story by James Tynion IV and Joshua Hixson with Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. A cool new horror story by James Tynion IV. It definitely has the flavor of some of his other horror books, such as Something is Killing the Children. Except this is with Santa.

Big Game #5. Written by Mark Millar and art by Pepe Larraz. This has been a bloody and shocking book so far. Sadly, they use time travel to make everything not matter any more. All those deaths were just done away with inside this finale. I must say that I was a little disappointed but not surprised. I mean, the whole Hit Girl fake out was about as cheap as you get.

The Cull #4. Written by Kelly Thompson and art by Mattia De Iulis. The crew comes back to their world to find things are considerably different, not even counting their own new powers. They are looking for their families and hoping everything is okay. Spoiler alert: it’s not.

Animal Pound Ashcan. Written by Tom King and illustrated by Peter Gross. A very thin or short issue. Admittedly, it was an ashcan, and it did give a nice flavor of the new Tom King series, Animal Pound. It feels too slight to matter. I am looking forward to the actual series though.

Antarctica #5. Written by Simon Birks and art by Willi Roberts. The first arc of this book wraps up here, with a pretty solid cliffhanger at the end. Hannah and Dr. Curtis have to unite to face their troubles. This is a beautiful looking book. I do have some challenges following with the story at times, but it has been a rewarding experience so far.

Killadelphia #31. “Death Be Not Proud. Part 1: From Hell the Dead Thing Spawned.” Killadelphia returned with an appearance by Spawn. I got into Killadelphia by reading the first 30 issues combined into trade paperbacks. This is interesting, but it really is a step in a new direction than the previous books. I’m curious to see where it goes from here.

The Immortal Thor #4. “To Possess the Power of Thor.” Written by Al Ewing and art by Martin Coccolo. Alex Ross did the cover art. Cool issue as Thor is reforming the all-new Thor Corps to help him face off with Toranos. There is Ororo, Beta Ray Bill, Jane Foster and Loki here.

Swan Songs #4. “The end of… a Sentence” Written by W. Maxwell Prince and art by Caitlin Yarsky. A man right out of prison, who loves word games such as Mad Libs, falls into a job as a watchout for his brother’s bank heist. Very original and fun to read.

Outsiders #1. “Never the End.” Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly and art by Robert Carey. Roger Cruz with Adriano Lucas did the cover art. Todd made me buy this one. I exaggerate of course, but he did point out that this is a new version of Planetary, which was a series from Wildstorm that I recently picked up and am currently (slowly) working my way through. This featured Batwoman and some other new versions of the old series. Unfortunately, this did not interest me as much as the previous series did.

Other books read this week: Uncanny Avengers #4, Superior Spider-Man #1, Superman: Lost #8, Jean Grey #4, Alpha Flight #4, Fishflies #3, and Something Epic #7.

November 12, 2023

Boy, there was a big week of comics this week. However, there was one in there that seemed not to fit with the others.

It was Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #3. I do not buy many DC books and I certainly do not buy Fire & Ice. Sometimes, Todd sticks books in my pull list as a joke. I usually come across them because I look through the pile at Comic World pretty carefully. But Todd has been sending me pics on Tuesday of what is in my box so I can tell him if there is anything missing. Since that, I did not go through the pile as closely as I would have. I found this book at home afterwards. I texted Todd and he blamed Drew, another employee and, to be fair, Drew has put books in my box before too. I’m exchanging it next week.

I have started to collect the horror anthology series, Ice Cream Man. I read the first four issues, compiled in a trade paperback, and I really enjoyed it. So I started picking up some issues on eBay and at Comic World. I actually wound up with some doubles because the set that I purchased on eBay did not have some issues listed on it (or at least, not on the one I was looking at) and I picked up these back issue at Comic World. That is fine. I am still working on completing the series. I am missing around 11-12 issues of the 37 that have been released. It looked like #38 is scheduled to come out in January.

Other books this week:

Punisher #1. “The Bullet That Follows.” Written by David Pepose and art by Dave Wachter. Cover art was done by Rod Reis. Frank Castle is gone, and we seem to have a new Punisher. I did like what I read here and, even though the Punisher has never been my favorite character, I am going to give this new version a chance.

Predator Versus Wolverine #2. Written by Benjamin Percy and art by a trio of people, Ken Lashley, Andrea Di Vito, and Hayden Sherman. The cover art was by Marco Checchetto. They followed up an excellent number one with an okay issue 2.

Amazing Spider-Man #37. Written by Zeb Wells and penciled by Ed McGuinness. I am truly ready for the Gang War storyline that is coming soon to these pages, because I have had the right amount of Rek-Rap. Looks like there may be one more Limbo demons issues of ASM so I hope to get through it and get back to some street level action.

Inside the Mind of Sherlock Holmes graphic novel. “The Case of the Scandalous Ticket” By Cyril Lieron & Denoit Dahan. A really fun graphic novel with an original Sherlock Holmes story. This graphic novel does a great job of showing us the skills of Sherlock during the story and presents it in a creative and very original manner. I love the cover with the Sherlock Holmes head cut out on it. This was a ton of fun.

What If…? Dark: The Tomb of Dracula #1. Written by Marv Wolfman and penciled by David Cutler. These What If Dark books have been up and down. This one falls right in the middle. We get Dracula transforming Blade into a full-fledged vampire. I kind of enjoyed the ending sequence, but the whole book was, at best, okay.

Avengers Inc. #2. “Case Number: 002 The Ghost of Avengers Mansion.” Written by Al Ewing and art by Leonard Kirk. Daniel Acuna did the cover art. Wasp introduced Victor Shade to Victor Shade, aka Vision. This has been an interesting comic, with a tone of noir about it. Janet Van Dyne and Victor Shade make an intriguing pair and the story was decent.

Cereal. “Sweet Darkness.” Written by Mark Russell and drawn by Peter Snejbjerg. Another book that I technically did not ask for, but Pat (another Comic World employee) had gotten one for himself and he thought that I would like it and he put it in my box. And he was right. Cereal is a weird satire of the monster movies of the past while using the characters from American breakfast cereals such as Count Chocula or Frankenberry. I was constantly looking for more allusions to the cereal mascots (there are a bunch of them) while enjoying seeing this (sorta) serious story with them involved. The Comic World guys are good to me.

Thanos #1. Written by Christopher Cantwell and art by Luca Pizzari. Leinil Francis Yu and Sunny Cho did the cover art. Okay, I did not think I would care much about this book, but I was totally engaged with it. I loved the way this book was about Roberta, a character that I did not know, but easily started to root for and when the Illuminati arrived… well, the story picked up again.

Unleashed #4. Written by Kyle Starks and art by Jesus Hervas. David Baldeon and Israel Silva did the art of the cover. The super hero pets team up, Marvel style came to a close with this issue as D-Dog heads to the great beyond. This series had no right to be as fun as it was, but I did enjoy the exploits of these animals.

Phantom Road #6. Chapter Six: “Monsters Don’t Make Campfires.” Written by Jeff Lemire and with art by Gabriel H. Walta. This series returned after a bit of a hiatus with a strong issue as we get a name for these strange creatures…Horror Men.

Transformers #2. Written and drawn by Daniel Warren Johnson. The Decepticons, led currently by Starscream are after energy and they may have found it where Spike’s dad worked. Oh… and we get the debut of Duke, from G.I. Joe. Cool.

Uncanny Spider-Man #3. “Superpositional” Kurt Wagner and Silver Sable get their groove on. And what has happened to Cloak and Dagger? This is a continuing entertaining book.

Destiny Gate #2. Written by Ryan Cady and art by Christian DiBari. Mitchell is facing the monster in the water. Destiny Gate has been a fun new horror book with some inteersting ideas.

Nights #2. “Into the Woods” Written by Wyatt Kennedy and art by Luigi Formisano. Vince has found himself in a world of vampires and creatures while he has feelings for Gray.

Other books read this week: Dark Ride #9, Captain Marvel: Dark Tempest #5, Hunt for the Skinwalker #3, Damn Them All #10, Guardians of the Galaxy #8, House of Slaughter #19, Star Signs #6, Midlife (or How to Hero at Fifty) #2, G.O.D.S. #2, Groo: In the Wild #4, and The Enfield Gang Massacre #4.

November 4, 2023

Welcome. This past Wednesday was not only NEW COMIC BOOK DAY, but it was also my official anniversary for collecting comics. I have been collecting comics for 43 years now. Sure there were stretches where I did not have much money and so I did not buy comics (I’m looking at you 1990s), but I never considered myself not a collector.

I remember staying over at a friends house over Halloween, reading a bunch of his own comics and deciding the next morning that I was going to collect comics too. He had a folder at Comic World in Dubuque and since my dad worked at John Deere and would commute daily, I would have him stop off monthly at Comic World and pick up my folder from Al Picker, the owner at the time.

Dad always gave me crap about how much money I was spending in my collection, but he never refused to pick them up for me. 43 years later, I am still picking up comics at Comic World, though Al Picker is gone from the store and it is no longer down on Central Ave.

Being the fifth week of a month, there were not as many comics this week as usual.

This week’s books:

Planetary #6. “It’s a Strange World” Written by Warren Ellis and drawn by John Cassaday. I have been pushing this book off lately while doing Omega and Howard the Duck. I have enjoyed this book so far, so it will be nice to get back into it.

Spider-Boy #1. Written by Dan Slott and art by Paco Medina. The cover art was from Humberto Ramos and Edgar Delgado. The fun new book featuring the mysterious Spider-Boy, who claims to be Spider-Man’s sidekick though no one else remembers anything about him. At this point, I find Spider-Boy interesting enough to be curious.

Ultimate Universe #1. Written by Jonathan Hickman and art by Stefano Caselli. Bryan Hitch and Alec Sinclair did the art for the cover. The Ultimate universe is being reborn with a group of characters that are somewhat like the ones we know. This has an Ultimate Thor, Ultimate Iron Man, Ultimate Doom, Ultimate Sif, along with some others. I am giving this a try, but I have never been a big fan of those books outside of general continuity in Marvel.

Unnatural Order #1. Written by Christopher Yost and featuring art by Val Rodrigues. This was on sale at Comic World for $0.25. That was why I picked it up. I read part of it. It was not for me. It felt like a D & D campaign.

Blood Commandment #1. Part 1: “Flesh.” Written and drawn by Szymon Kudranski. I picked this up because of Kudranski. He was the creator behind Something Epic which has been one of my favorite books. Blood Commandment started off very strong too with a very intriguing character named Ezra, whose relationship with his son Wil was front and center even though there was a secret in Ezra’s life. Art is absolutely gorgeous.

Avengers #7. “Twilight Dreaming” Part One. Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by C.F. Villa. Stuart Immonen did the cover art. A new arc begins for the Avengers and this started really dark. I was not sure what was happening as characters were being killed. Then, it revealed the truth. Nightmare. Looking good.

White Widow #1. Written by Sarah Gaily and art by Alessandro Miracolo. Cover art was by David Marquez & Rachelle Rosenberg. Yelena BeLova is featured in this new series. This was okay. I may not have loved it, but I did think it was fine. May check out number two just to see how it progresses.

X-Men #28. “Jail Break.” Written by Gerry Duggan and penciled by Joshua Cassara. Firestar and her undercover work is having some success as she helped Juggernaut escape and passed some vital info to the X-Men. Her time inside Orchis may be coming to an end soo though. Not sure what is happening with Sunfire, but… was that Apocalypse?

Doctor Strange #9. “Nebraska Pt. 1” Written by Jed MacKay and with art by Pasqual Ferry. Alex Ross did the cover art. The battle between Stephen Strange and General Strange intensifies and there is a little baby girl?

Scarlet Witch #10. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Sara Pichelli. This is the last issue of this series which I have been enjoying. I am sad to see it go, although apparently there is a new series coming next year called Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Here Wanda takes on Hexfinder, the killer of witches.

Ghostlore #6. Written by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by Leomacs. Cover art by Reiko Murakami and Jakub Rebelka. Jakub Rebelka illustrated a few pages in the center of the story when one of the ghosts was telling his story to Lucas as he is in search for his daughter.

It’s Jeff: The Jeff-Verse #1. Written by Kelly Thompson and drawn by Gurihiru. The short stories with the shark Jeff are back. That’s about all I have to say.

October 29, 2023

Funny story to start off with this week. A few weeks ago, I read issue #3 of The Cull from Image Comics, but I actually did not know it was number three. Instead I thought it was number two. Why? Well, I had not gotten number one and when I got number two (the numbers of which are very small on the cover of the comics) I thought it WAS number one.

When I read issue two, thinking it was number one, things seemed to make sense for me. Where the issue picked up, it seemed to make sense for the story and the characters. It just felt like there were some holes that I assumed would be picked up on later in the five issues.

When I noticed that I was reading number three and not number two as I thought, I was surprised. I had The Cull on my pull list, and number two wound up pulled, but apparently, number one was not there. So I quickly went to eBay and bid on a #1 of the Cull. It came this week and I read it and, guess what? It made the actual number two and three make way more sense. Who would have thunk it?

The Cull is written by Kelly Thompson and has spectacular art by Mattia De Iulis.

Other new books read this week:

The Defenders #76-77. Written by Steven Grant and art by Herb Trimpe. I guess we are starting off with an “old” new book this week. This two issue arc of The Defenders came from 1979 and was the wrap up of the Omega the Unknown storyline from Omega #1-10. That was written by Steve Gerber and I had been following along with it for awhile now. This finished up the story, which I wonder if the fans of the Defenders hadn’t read Omega #1-10, would they understand what this was all about? It was nice to get a bow tied to the storyline though.

Howard the Duck #1-6 (MAX Comics). Written by Steve Gerber and penciled by Phil Winslade (except for issue three which was penciled by Glenn Leach. This six issue series was published in 2002 and had a “Parental Advisory Explicit Content” label on the covers. I saw this while surfing around eBay and I was able to get a good deal on it. It was strange because for most of the issues, Howard the Duck had been transformed into a 60-lb mouse instead. This was very much a satire and it poked fun at everything from politics to Witchblade to religion.

Gone #1. Written and illustrated by Jock. The larger scale book from OSTLRY is an interesting science-fiction tale. It was difficult to read at times because so much of it is new and the world building is so important in a new sci-fi series. It is a beautiful book and I will certianly be looking at in the coming weeks and months.

Universal Monsters: Dracula #1. Written by James Tynion IV and illustrated by Martin Simmonds. I do love me some James Tynion IV. I also love me some Dracula so this was a clear winner for me when I saw the ad for it in Previews a few months ago. This book is another top notch job from James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds, who worked with Tynion on several projects, brings his distinct style of artistic flair to the book. I am happy to be able to say, “Blah Blah.”

Captain Marvel #1. “The Omen” Written by Alyssa Wong and featuring art by Jan Bazaldua. Stephen Segovia & Romulo Fajardo Jr. did the cover art. The MCU movie, The Marvels is just a few weeks away, so it is time for the new ongoing series for Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel to be replaced. And the storyline seems very similar to what I know of the storyline for The Marvels. Curious timing, hm?

Amazing Spider-Man #36. Written by Zeb Wells and penciled by Ed McGuinness. Rek-Rap is back and being chased by other demons to try and get him back to Limbo. Spider-Man joins in to the excitement, but has to team up with the demon on his “big case.” I’m not a big fan of Rek-Rap, but this was a little better than his last appearance.

Uncanny Spider-Man #2. “Blue Streak” Nightcrawler, in his new Spider-Man outfit, takes on the Rhino while trying to deal with Silver Sable and Mystique too. This has been a fun book starting Kurt Wagner so far.

Marvel Zombies: Black, White & Blood #1. Three stories featuring Daredevil, Spider-Man and Moon Knight separately. The cover was a beautiful rendition of Wolverine as a zombie by Gabriele Dell’otto which was weird because Wolverine is not in this issue. The Spider-Man story was my favorite of the three with the Moon Knight one being my least favorite. Good zombie action though.

Captain America #2. “Taking A.I.M.” Written by J. Michael Straczynski and art by Jesus Saiz. I am really enjoying this new take on Captain America, going into his pre-Super Soldier past as a young boy in Brooklyn and matching it up with his current Marvel Universe world. This includes a guest appearance from Spider-Man which is always a plus for me.

Rare Flavours #2. “Chapter 2: Mirchi” Written by Ram V and illustrated by Filipe Andrade. I actually had a little hard time following this story this issue. I do find the book beautiful to look at and I am hoping that I can figure out what is happening after a re-read or so.

Money Shot: Comes Again #5. Written by Tim Seeley and drawn by Gisele Lagace. The climax of this series feels a little premature. I feel as if they could have squeezed out some more by getting a handful. It can’t be that hard. Come on…

Void Rivals #5. Written by Robert Kirkman and featuring art by Lorenzo De Felici. Solila and Darak started off together, but both had a dark future fate in their heads. Darak gets rescued by an underground resistance force and Solila has to face her destiny as a Keeper of the Light (whatever that means).

Hallows’ Eve: The Big Night #1. Written by Erica Schultz and illustrated by Michael Dowling. Ben Harvey does the cover art. Halloween is just a couple days away so we have a one-shot featuring Hallows’ Eve. She uses some new masks, including one like Captain America and another like the Hulk in her actions. This is a fun character that has been enjoyable to read and one of the better things to come out of the recent Dark Web story arc.

Uncanny Avengers #3. “The Arrogants” Written by Gerry Duggan and drawn by Emilio Laiso. Javier Garrón & Morry Hollowell did the cover art. I love it when Captain America is monologuing and everyone listens and is in awe of him. That happens this issue showing how much presence Steve Rogers has.

Immortal Thor #3. “The Riddle of Raidho” Written by Al Ewing and art by Martin Coccolo. Alex Ross did the cover art (and it is gorgeous!). Loki has Thor trapped in a dimension and seems to be playing games with his brother. Thor has to use his mind to escape instead of his typical fisticuffs.

Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #3. “Waking Nightmare” Written by Iman Vellani & Sabir Pirzada featuring art by Carlos Gomez & Adam Gorham. Sara Pichelli & Matthew Wilson are the cover artists. There is a tense story going on inside Kamala Khan’s dreams as she is confronted by her mutant mutation and Orchis is setting her up to be the ultimate weapon against the other mutants.

Something is Killing the Children #34. “Showdown at the Easy Creek Corral” Part Four. This showdown has been building for what seems months and it seems as if it is finally here as the last panel of the book gives us a huge shocker. Next issue must be the big wrap up of this storyline.

Other Books read this week: Marvel Unleashed #3, Slow Burn #1, The Schlub #3, Newburn #12, Jean Grey #3, and Plot Holes #3.

October 22, 2023

Sadly, looks as if I am missing Avengers Inc #2. Not sure where that one was. It was due out last week according to Marvel.com

Lots of good books this week. Let’s just jump in to it:

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #1. Written by Brian Buccellato and art by Christian Duce. Drew Johnson and Romulo Fajardo Jr. did the cover art. I liked the match up with the monsters and the JL, but this felt weird. Did this fit into continuity anywhere? The whole Clark and Lois proposal thing… didn’t that already happen? Maybe I shouldn’t worry about continuity in DC, but as a Marvel guy, I prefer when it meshes up. Is this an Elseworlds? Will we ever know?

Godzilla #3. “A Tale of Two Saviors” Written by Doug Moench and drawn by Herb Trimpe. Speaking of Marvel, in honor of the other series coming out, I picked up an issue from 1977 when Marvel had the Godzilla license. They had the Champions, Hercules, Iceman, Angel and Black Widow taking on Gidzilla outside of San Francisco. I knew where this fell into continuity.

Spine-Tingling Spider-Man #1. Written by Saladin Ahmed and penciled by Juan Ferreyra. A cool issue with Spidey winding up somewhere where no one knows who he is and he is being pursued by some horrific creatures. No powers either! Beautiful interior art.

Omega the Unknown #9-10. Steve Gerber wrote both of these issues. In fact, they list him on the cover as the “author of Howard the Duck.” I wrapped up the ten-issue Omega series. I really enjoyed the path through and I will be heading to the “conclusion” of Omega’s story in the pages of an old issue of Defenders. This series had a distinct feel to it, different than what we were used to in the Marvel Universe while still being planted firmly in continuity. I’ve used that word a few times already today.

Crypt of Shadows #1. Five short stories featuring Scarlet Witch, Hulk, Deadpool, Daredevil and Werewolf by Night. Narrated by Victor Strange, who is on his way to the pages of Dr. Strange. This was a fun Halloween special that highlights the weird corner of the Marvel universe.

Klik Klik Boom #5. Written by Doug Wagner and art by Doug Dabbs. Klik Klik Boom wrapped up after a really enjoyable five-issue run. Sprout found some secrets and kicked some massive butt. I do hope that this series receives another arc sooner rather than later.

The Sensational She-Hulk #1. Written by Rainbow Rowell and art by Andres Genolet. Jen Bartel did the cover art. This started the She-Hulk series over at a number one, but feels exactly like the previous She-Hulk series. Still had the Punch Club. Jack of Hearts. Law work with Mallory Book. Not sure why it needed to be a new number one (yeah, I know why…$$$)

Daredevil #2. “Introductory Rites” Part Two. Written by Saladin Ahmed and drawn by Aaron Kuder. John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna & Marco Menyz did the cover art. Father Matt continues his conflict with his past life as Daredevil. And someone close to Matt has sicced the police on the church where he is working. Ben Urich? What’s up with that?

Big Game #4. Written by Mark Millar and drawn by Pepe Larraz. Watching all of Millar’s characters come together only to get butchered is really a hoot. Everything seems to be coming to a huge conclusion next issue and I will be anxious to see if anyone will be left. Maybe they all just die and Millar retires.

Local Man #6. “The Dry Season.” Written and created by Tim Seeley & Tony Fleecs. Art was by Tony Fleecs. Local Man returns with his next story arc which starts off with a shoot out at Auntie Inga’s. There always feels like there is more than what you can see going on with Local Man.

Astonishing Iceman #3. “Out Cold” Part Three. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Vincenzo Carratù. Cover art was done by Jesus Saiz. Iceman faces off with the Orchis forces led by Mister Clean. Aaron Fischer, the Captain America of the Rails is right there to help. Fun with the Omega mutant. Next issue includes the Amazing friend, Spider-Man!!!

Invincible Iron Man #11. “The Honeymoon is Over” Written by Gerry Duggan and guest artist is Andrea Di Vito. Kael Ngu did the cover art. Tony Stark and Emma Frost are on their honeymoon. Unlike most couples, this entails Tony going on a covert mission to Krakoa in search of some of the special metal.

Incredible Hulk #5. “Riddle of the Man Thing.” Part Two. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson with art by guest artist Travel Foreman. Hulk continues his adventure in the Nexus of Realities with the Man-Thing. Honestly, I was not a fan of the art in this book and it made it difficult to read.

Deadpool: Badder Blood #5. Story by Rob Liefeld and script by Chad Bowers. Pencils were by Rob Liefeld. This mini-series with Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Venompool joining Deadpool comes to a conclusion with some success. This was a fun team-up book with some excellent characters.

Other books read this week: Ghost Rider #19, Hexagon Bridge #2, Miles Morales: Spider-Man #11, Scarlet Witch #9, Grim #14, Moon Knight #28, Antarctica #4, Kill Your Darlings #2, Guardians of the Galaxy #7, Star Signs #5, Black Panther #5, and Tenement #5.

October 15, 2023

Things are very busy here at EYG. There seems to be TV shows coming out of nowhere that I want to watch. There is the October 13 films underway. Two re-watches going on at the same time. The new release movies are still coming out. There is also my full time job as well. So I am trying to work in the reading of these comics into this schedule.

I am planning to rebag and reboard the older comics of my collection, maybe as soon as next summer. I have the unbagged books all done, but the old books are a giant job. I am collecting bags and boards every week with the comics to build up toward the start of that effort.

Books read:

Amazing Spider-Man #35. Written by Zeb Wells and art by Patrick Gleason. I have the cover D, which is the best cover of the week in my opinion. It was done by Elena Casagrande & Mate Gracia. The Goblin sins that have created the evil Spider-Man is pulled out of Peter and seem to be isolated and buried by Kraven. Or have they?

Midlife (or How to Hero at Fifty) #1. Written by Brian Buccellato and drawn by Stefano Simeone. Ruben is turning 50. And along the way, he becomes a superhero. This takes a look at heroism that we have not seen before. It is an intriguing start to this book.

Blade #4. “Mother of Evil: Part Four.” Written by Bryan Hill and art by Valentina Pinti with Elena Casagrande. Cover art was by Elena Casagrande & Jordie Bellaire. Blade and Dr. Strange battled vampires in an attempt to get the sword of Lucifer.

Omega the Unknown #8. “A Blast from the Past.” Written by Roger Stern and penciled by Lee Elias. Omega takes on Nitro the Exploding Man. James-Michael meets Richard Rory, who receives a card from Foolkiller.

Captain Marvel: Assault on Eden #1. Written by Anthony Oliveira and art by Eleonora Carlini. Cover art was by Carlos Gomez & Jesus Aburtov. Carol heads to Hala to celebrate the anniversary of the peace accord between the Kree and the Skrulls. The Supreme Intelligence may not want to maintain a peace.

Howard the Duck #2. “Cry Turnip!” Written by Steve Gerber and illustrated by Frank Brunner. Howard faces off with Turnip Man. Turnip Man? Yes, a powerful space turnip takes over control of a human. Only in Howard the Duck could this work.

Superior Spider-Man Returns #1. Story by Dan Slott, Script by Christos Gage and penciled by Mark bagely, Ryan Stegman, Humberto Ramos and Giuseppe Camuncoli. Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer & Edgar Delgado did the cover art. A story of the Superior Spider-Man from years before while Doc Ock looks for answers in the present.

Hunt for the Skinwalker #2. Written by Zac Thompson and illustrated by Valeria Burzo. Cover art by Martin Simmonds. Tom saw the things in the sky and now he is having several of his cows killed in strange ways, blood drained.

Something Epic #6. Written and illustrated by Szymon Kudranski. Daniel’s darkness comes out of his creativity and the darkness leads to the death of Dalia. The penultimate issue of the first story arc is here, setting up the final next issue.

A Haunted Girl #1. Written by Ethan Sacks and Naomi Sacks and art by Marco Lorenzana. Civer art was by Joe Quesada & Richard Isanove. A look at mental health/illness with a young girl who may not want to live, but who may need to save the world. Ethan Sacks said that this book was a personal story about depression and suicidial thoughts that his daughter went through, and now she is helping write the book.

Groo: In the Wild #3. Written by Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier and illustrated by Sergio Aragonés. Groo continues to look for food to eat, and causing trouble for King Putrio. More frays! Less food!

Capwolf and the Howling Commandos#1. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Carlos Magno. Ryan Brown did the cover art. France, 1944. Captain America leads the Howling Commandos into battle after Nick Fury is injured. And Cap gets scraped by a werewolf and becomes Capwolf!

The Cull #3. Written by Kelly Thompson and art by Mattia De Julis. The story continues to take a weird twist as some kind of being showed up to meet the others.

The Avengers #6. “Citykillers” part four. Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Ivan Fiorelli. Stuart Immonen did the cover art. The Avengers take on Ashen Combine and free up the Immortal City. I had a guess about the Immortal City joining the Avengers and that is what happened. There is a back up story featuring Firebird called “The Truth is Out There” written by Kalinda Vazquez and penciled by Alba Glez.

Nights #1. “Vespertine” Written by Wyatt Kennedy and art by Luigi Formisano. Vincent comes to Santo Pedro and there are vampires. This was a fantastic book with some serious storytelling going on.

Spider-Man India #5. “Seva Part V” Written by Nikeshi Shukla and penciled by Tadam Gyadu. Cover art is by Adam Kubert & Brad Anderson. The battle with Lizard and Giri finished and we got a redesigned Spider-Man India costume for Pavitr.