May 2, 2023

It is May already as the year is flying by. It is just a few days away until Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is released and I am very excited about that. The school year is down to about a month remaining before summer break. And the weather outside is improving.

Overall, lots of great things to look forward to and the Comic Cavalcade is filled with those as well.

Here we go…

No/One #2. Written by Kyle Higgins & Brian Buccellato with art by Geraldo Borges. Two issues in and I love this book. The mystery of who is the new No/One is rich and layered and the pathway for Ben Kern is completely engaging. I’m getting the vibe that something is heading for a twist in this story and I am totally here for it. This has just been completely entertaining and I can’t wait for the next issue.

The Ambassadors #3. Written by Mark Millar and drawn by Travis Charest. So far, this has been an okay read. It is not as gripping as No/One has been, but it is a novel premise and an intriguing follow through. This issue we are introduced to Codename France and her sidekick (and son) Paris. However, there were some minor hints in the book that something more than just the intro of the new characters is going to be happening soon. I am interested enough to keep progressing with this.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Bane of Blastaar #1. “The World at my Fingertips” Written by Ralph Macchio and drawn by Davide Tinto. Todd Nauck & Rachelle Rosenberg did the art on the cover. This one-shot is another Marvel story that is set back in continuity, and, honestly, I found this one boring. I like all these characters, but I just did not have any feelings for the situation and Blastaar has never been one of my favorite villains.

Middlewest #11-13. Written by Skottie Young with art by Jorge Corona. Everything has started to pick up in this story since Abel met his grandfather and discovered that he had the same curse as he and his father had. Abel had become angry and mean, sending Fox off and heading in his own direction. He wound up captured and forced to be a child slave, and the troupes are on their way to help him. I am continuing to work my way through this fantasy-feeling book and I have started to really enjoy it.

Thor #33. “Blood of the Fathers Part Three.” Written by Torunn Grønbekk and drawn by Juan Gedeon. Nic Klein was the cover artist on this book. This arc of Thor has not been one of my favorites even though it includes Thanos and Dr. Doom. I mean.. it’s fine, but I am not desperately waiting for the next book to see where the story is heading.

Deadpool #6. “Valentine’s Day.” The relationship between Deadpool and Valentine has been a lot of fun, a was watching them on their date. This issue was very clever and used these characters in excellent ways. The use of Lady Deathstrike as a person Wade could bounce romantic ideas off was just inspired. Deadpool has always been up and down for me, but this current series has most definitely been an up.

Grim #10. “Chapter Ten: Life.” Written by Stephanie Phillips and illustrated by Flaviano. Jessica continues with her struggles to become the new Grim Reaper and trying to find and save her friend who had been taken to Hell. Grim is consistently entertaining and has some creative ideas behind it.

Blue Beetle: Graduation Day #5-6. Written by Josh Trujillo and drawn by Adrian Gutierrez. I really enjoyed the conclusion to this mini series. The book took a different way than most comics wrap up and I really appreciated the choice. Jaime took some huge steps forward and seeing the big guns of DC deciding to back the Blue Beetle instead of battle him was an awesome way to go. I’m not sure how I felt about the other Beetles introduced here, but the ending was still fun and something you do not see that much. I also loved the variant cover (cover B) that I picked up. This cover was drawn by Bruno Redondo. This series also made me curious to pick up the next Blue Beetle series in September.

April 30, 2023

Welcome to another special edition of the EYG Comic Cavalcade where I focus on Image Comics series Nocterra. I read issues #3-13 today, along with the Nocterra: Blacktop Bill Special #1.

I have no idea why I had been buying Nocterra. It was on my pull list and I had been buying them and putting them in the piles around the house. When I started off with the Comic Catch-Ups, I sorted through a bunch of the books, finding the issues of Nocterra. I assume that I saw it advertised in Previews and asked for it to be pulled. I do not remember doing it, but that is the only reason it could be happening. I certainly wasn’t picking it up off the stands every month. I hardly knew anything about it.

Then, as I started reading these back issues, I read issue #1 and I loved it. I was so engaged with the new world that they had introduced and intrigued by the originality of the setting. A lot of independent books these days have some kind of post-apocalyptic world as a setting and a lot of those get repetitive. The world of Nocterra, an the other hand, is creative and one of a kind.

Issue #2 was just as great and I was hooked. That was when I decided that I would hold off on reading any more of the issues until I could sit down with the remaining 11 issues (+the special one) and do a full series read.

That time was this afternoon.

I love the characters in this book. Val and her brother Em are top notch protagonists and Val’s sacrifice that lead to her physical transformation in issue #11 was a cool twist. The remainder of the members of the Sundogs balance things out. Admittedly, the secondary members are not major players at this point, outside of Bailey.

Blacktop Bill. Maybe the best villain introduced in comic in years. The design of the character is just exceptional, creating such an awesome looking bad guy. He reminded me a lot of Spike from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, especially while he was ‘working with’ the Sundogs.

Blacktop Bill was so great of a character, they even gave him a special issue of his own, as they looked at the background of the character. I did enjoy the way they displayed the characters, keeping his face in the shadows, even before he was covered with the Nano coating.

Scott Snyder has written the entire series so far. Snyder has been fairly well known for his work on DC Comics, in particular Batman. Admittedly, he did write the Dark Nights: Metal stuff which I did not like at all, but the Batman Who Laughs is a fun character who probably inspired or was inspired by Blacktop Bill.

The art has been handled by Tony S. Daniel, who also did a lot of work for DC. His art has been extraordinary in Nocterra so far. The themes of light and dark are used extremely well in the art. Technically, Denys Cowan was the credited artist for the Blacktop Bill Special.

The arcs so far have all been awesome. I will say that I hope the comic keeps moving forward. I do hope that they are not just going to be always trying to save the world from the darkness with Bailey and the formula that she memorized, created by her grandfather, Augustus. That feels like something that needs to eventually be paid off or it would feel as if the book is just keeping the goal post moving.

I am also totally engaged in the current flashbacks involving Em and what his birth parents did to him. His backstory of traveling to see his birth parents in #13 left me yelling for more as it ended with a cliffhanger.

This is a book that I do not know why I started buying, but I am so glad that I did. It is currently one of my favorite non-Marvel books that I am purchasing, right up there with the James Tynion IV books and No/One.

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.

April 14, 2023

Happy Friday.

Busy week. I am still working on getting caught up on the NEW COMICS DAY books. I get a whole bunch of those on Wednesday and I have a few to finish off. I could have done a Cavalcade last night, but instead I read the series of back issues that I purchased as well this Wednesday.

I am starting to pile up with some of these independent books that I have been buying. I expect to do some special editions soon to read through these series.

Captain America: The Chosen #1-6. Written by David Morrell and drawn by Mitch Breitweiser. This series was from 2007 and I had never heard of it. Todd told me that it was good, so I decided to pick it up. I have always enjoyed Cap. This series was excellent and an easy read. However, I am not sure I enjoyed the ending. It felt like a in continuity series the entire time until the end when Cap dies. I do not remember Cap dying again and so this must have been some kind of alternate universe and I am always uncertain about those. It is a great read however.

Captain America: Cold War Alpha. “Part 1” Written by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly & Tochi Onyebuchi and art by Carlos Magno. Patrick Gleason & Alejandro Sanchez did the cover art. A new crossover event featuring Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson’s Captain Americas get together. The storylines of the double Cap series are also coming together so we get White Wolf, Ian, Dimension Z, The Outer Circle among others. I enjoyed the re-team up of Steve and Sam so I am onboard.

Guardians of the Galaxy #1. “The Massacre at Galilee IV“. Written by Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing (who were just writing the Cap: Cold War book previously) and drawn by Kev Walker. Michael Checchetto did the art for the cover. This book intrigued me. I saw the cover and thinking about the Guardians in a Western type motif was a cool idea. I was a little unsure though because of the specter of the alternate future stories. I think this is a book in continuity (at least, I am pretending it is, until I see evidence to prove it is not). The whole Groot thing was bizarre and I am curious to see where this goes.

Year Zero #5. Written by Benjamin Percy and illustrated by Ramon Rosanas. Kaare Andrews did the cover art. Finishing up this series, I really enjoyed the format of this book. The multiple stories that was taking place across the planet worked really well. So much that I went out of my way to find the Vol. 0 series and the Vol. 2 series. They arrived today and may be one of those special editions that I mentioned earlier.

X-23: Deadly Regenesis #2. “The Past Haunts Us All Part 2″. Written by Erica Schultz and drawn by Edgar Salazar. Kalman Andrasofszky is the cover artist. They continue the flashback story with Laura. Interesting enough, much of this issue was dedicated to the villain, Haymaker, and giving us a background on why Haymaker is after X-23. I like the depth of the charatcers.

Superman: Lost #2. “Kansas” Written by Priest and drawn by Carla Pagulayan. The book begins to give us background on what had happened to Superman during the time frame that he believes he was gone for 20 years. Honestly, this gave me some Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow vibes as I read it. It was fine, but it did not stand out that much. I hope it continues to improve.

Bloodline: Daughter of Blade #3. Written by Danny Lore and illustrated by Karen S. Darboe. Brielle gets to spend some time with her father, Blade. We also get more of the story behind how Blade became a daddy. This seems to be a vampire-coming-of-age tale and it has been decent so far.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #5. “Trial By Spider Part Five.” Written by Cody Ziglar and drawn b Federico Vicentini. Dike Ruan & Alejandro Sanchez did the cover art. Miles puts his life on the line to attempt to rescue his family from the dangers of the villainous Rabble. It’s a rough issue for Miles.

Moon Knight #22. “Instinct.” This issue sees the return of the Midnight Man and Tigra goes after him. This was a heavily leaning Tigra solo issue among the Moon Knight series and it was awesome. I have always been a fan of Tigra and this felt like a great time to focus on her character. There is also big time development in the ending. Good stuff continues from Moon Knight. Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Alessandro Cappuccio. Cover art by Stephen Segovia & Rachelle Rosenberg.

Fantastic Four #6. “A Shot in the Dark.” The issue before the big LGY #700 of the FF was fun. The FF try to fix their error from last issue where they unintentionally unleashed an other-dimensional bacteria that could bring about the death of the planet. Just another day for the FF. Written by Ryan North (who I have really liked on the FF. He seems to have a great grasp on these characters) and illustrated by Ivan Fiorelli. As much as I like the FF right now, I think Johnny’s mustache has got to go.

Worldtr33 #1. Written by James Tynion IV and drawn by Fernando Blanco. The new Image series written by James Tynion IV came out this week and it was something else. Like much of Tynion’s work, there is a lot going on and you need to pay close attention to the story. There were some truly shocking scenes in this issue too. I am excited to see where this heads next.

The Seasons Have Teeth #1. “Spring.” Written by Dan Watters and illustrated by Sebastian Cabrol. The cover art was done by Qistina Khalidah. The new book from Boom! Studios arrived this week and it was a beautifully looking book with some intriguing storytelling. The flashback scenes were very compelling and the world building was solid.

Captain Marvel #48. “Revenge of the Brood Part Six.” Written by Kelly Thompson and drawn by Sergio Davila. Cover art was done by Juan Frigeri & David Curiel. The battle with the Brood raged on, but there was a loss. Binary, who Carol was coming to save, wound up killed saving Carol from the Brood. I did not have a big connection to Binary so it did not make it horrible for me. Still, it was a surprising twist. There are only two more Captain Marvel issues with Kelly Thompson’s epic run.

Silver Surfer: Ghost Light #3. “Part 3: Too Much Information.” Written by John Jennings with art by Valentine DeLandro. So far, this limited series has been not been my favorite so far. There are some decent moments, but these characters have not grabbed my interest as of yet. The use of the Stranger is curious though.

April 11, 2023

New banner!

I do enjoy making these banners for the site. I had just done the blue one when I switched from Comic Catch-Up to the EYG Comic Cavalcade, but it felt like it was time for a change. So I did the new white and red version you see here now.

I am very happy with the way the new one turned out. I do plan on making new ones as the time moves on. I could also see myself doing special ones when the whole issue is a theme like I did for the Comic Catch-Up when I had the special editions featuring Something is Killing the Children, Gideon Falls or Ant Man.

With the new banner, I took pics from recent comics that I am enjoying (such as Strange Academy: Finals, Local Man), books I just discovered (Man-Eaters) or ones that I will read soon (Swamp Thing, White Savior). Spider-Boy made it on the banner too as a hot new character.

We’ll see how long this one lasts. I really do love the new banner.

Let’s get started…

Nocterra #1. Written by Scott Snyder and with art by Tony S. Daniel. I have been waiting to start into Nocterra. I had all of the issues ready to go, but truly I just was not that into starting it. I have no idea where or why I started buying this one, but I had never read any of them leading into this. However, I absolutely loved this first issue. I loved the character. I loved how they set it up. I loved the world building. The art is beautiful. The villain at the end was awesome. I found this story completely compelling and thrilling. I can’t wait to dive back into the next issues of this series.

Sleeping Beauties #3. Adapted by Rio Youers and drawn by Alison Sampson. Based on a Stephen King book, Sleeping Beauties started to pick up with this issue. I’m not sure what is going on with the animals that showed up this issue, but I am here for it. Only two more issues to go for this book.

Image! 30th Anniversary Anthology #2. Another anthology book with a bunch of short stories featuring some of the greats from Image. For the second issue in a row, my favorite of the stories was The Blizzard Part Two, by Geoff Johns. We get a bit of a monster in the story, which deals with transferring Michael to prison after he killed his son’s murderer. Some of the stories are not as compelling, but I have enjoyed much of the book.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #5. “Chapter Five: The Lake, the Trees, and the Monsters.” Written by Tom King and drawn by Bilquis Evely. I liked this issue more than I did last issue. However, it does fall into a problem I have for this character and her famous cousin. In order to create any stakes or tension, the writers have to remove (or limit or downgrade) Kara’s powers. It just feels like it is lazy writing. How many universes out there have a non-yellow sun? Why does she have to find every one?

Silver Coin #8. “Rising & Falling in America” Written by Matthew Rosenberg and drawn by Michael Walsh. I found this Silver Coin issue to be very shocking and I liked what I saw. It continued its trend of tragic circumstances falling those in possession of the cursed coin. The final few pages of this issue was just one shock after another.

Newburn #4. “Chapter Four: Bring Some Heat.” Written by Chip Zdarsky and with art by Jacob Phillips. Newburn has a new problem. The cops want to hire him to sole a murder of a cop by one of the families. This placed Newburn in a difficult position forcing him to use all of his guile to wiggle his way out.

Middlewest #6-8. Written by Skottie Young and illustrated by Jorge Corona. Abel is still in trouble. His father is in pursuit of his runaway son and Abel’s own power is out of control. This led to him being sent out of the Fair and off on his own. Well, his trusty friend fox is there too. Middlewest still has that fairy tale feel to it and I am interested in the eventual confrontation between Abel and his father because it may not be as cut and dry as it seems.

April 9, 2023

I was looking over my graphic novels this morning, I spotted one that I had not read. It was Man-Eaters, the first volume which reprinted the series issues #1-4. Then I saw the writer on the spine. It was Chelsea Cain.

I loved Chelsea Cain. There have been two major feeling of betrayal I have felt from Marvel Comics over the years I have bought comics from them. The first was when it was revealed that Ben Reilly was actually not a clone of Peter Parker, but he was the actual Peter Parker. The Peter Parker that I had ALWAYS watched since I was reading Spider-Man comics, my absolutely favorite super hero, was the real clone. A fake. That is, to this day, the worst moment I have ever had while reading comics.

The other moment of betrayal was when I found out that Mockingbird, which included issues 1-8, was being canceled. Mockingbird is one of my favorite series of all-time and I felt crushed when Mockingbird was gone. And then to hear a lot of the negative aspect behind the end of the series was very disappointing.

Chelsea Cain had become one of my favorite writers. Then she did a mini-series called Spy Island that I picked up simply because she was the writer. She had elevated things for me where I will purchase a book solely because her name is on it. I know there are people who do not like her work because she is such a strong voice for feminism, but I find her funny, extremely creative and willing to take the comic genre in different ways.

Back to this morning. So I took the graphic novel Man-Eaters Vol. 1 and read it through. It was wild story of teen girls changing into killer cats because of a virus that almost everyone on earth had contracted. It was so awesome with a ton of metaphors and the format including amazing advertisements for the different products that kept the transformations at bay. They even had a long section (probably issue #4) that gave us background info and reports and medical details. It was more of an informational pamphlet than a comic book. It was glorious.

I am excited to see the rest of the series that I went to eBay to find immediately. I have stated that independent comics are more about the story/writer than the characters. This is a perfect example. If I see Chelsea Cain’s name on a comic, I am buying it.

The rest of this issue’s books:

Dead Day #1-5. Written by Ryan Parrott and art by Evgeniy Bornyakov. There comes a day when the dead rise from their graves and head out to try and go back to spend time with their loved ones. When Brandon meets a beautiful teen girl who was a member of the Revivalists, he and his friend Zack sneak out to meet up with her on Dead Day. I liked this self-contained story about Dead Day and how it affected Brandon’s family. At the core of this book is the family aspect and that was why it worked.

Middlewest #5. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Jorge Corona. Mike Huddleston did the cover. Abel keeps trying to find someone at the carnival that would help him become normal again. Meanwhile, his father, who we keep seeing how abusive he could be, is searching for Abel. Middlewest continues to be a beautiful book to look at.

Planet Hulk: Worldbreaker #5. Written by Greg Pak and drawn by Manuel Garcia. The cover art was done by Carlo Pagulayan, Jason Paz & Chris Sotomayor. I am so grateful that this one is done. Did not enjoy the finale of the series that I did not like. Just another throwaway alt-future tale.

Silver Coin #7. “Tzompanco” Written by Ram V. and drawn by Michael Walsh. This issue of the anthology horror series that follows a mysterious silver coin found its way back to Vegas and into the hands of a gambler who did not have a lot of success, until now. This was another interesting story in this series, but not one that I will remember a month from now.

X-Men: Unforgiven #1. “Cure for Pain.” Written by Tom Seeley and drawn by Sid Kotian. Kyle Holz & Dan Brown did the cover art. The team called the Forgiven, a group of vampires, team up with the X-Men to take on a vampire by the name of the Curator. This Unforgiven series of books (previously with Spider-Man) are okay, but I have not been able to really get invested in the characters of the Forgiven yet. Next issue is Captain America so we’ll see how that goes.

Newburn #3. “Chapter Three: We’ve All Lost Men” Newburn is on the case of an apparent serial killer that is targeting men from the different crime families. This was probably my favorite issue of Newburn as of yet. I really enjoyed this self-contained story that was wrapped up within the issue.

Year Zero #1-4. Written by Benjamin Percy and drawn by Ramon Rosanas. I have been meaning to read this limited series for awhile now (and then I realized that I am missing the final issue #5). I hope it is somewhere in the piles, because I thought this was great. I especially enjoyed how the story bounced around the planet as the zombie apocalypse was breaking out. We spent time with a long list of different characters and saw how they reacted to what was happening. Got to find number five.

Image! 30th Anniversary Anthology #1. Cover design by Michael Busuttil. I had bought issue #8 of this series recently to see a short story featuring World Tr33, a short intro to the upcoming James Tynion IV book. There were a bunch of shorts in that book that were like part 8 and such. SO I went after the earlier of this anthology series. Issue one had several fun shorts in it, my favorite probably being Geoff John’s The Blizzard.

Ghost Rider #13. “My Brother’s Keeper” Written by Benjamin Percy and drawn by Cory Smith. Björn Barends did the cover art. We get some info on what is going on with Danny Ketch. Johnny Blaze and Talia is on his trail to try and understand why Danny is doing the horrendous things that he is doing.

Rogue & Gambit #2. “Throw it Girl.” Written by Stephanie Phillips and drawn by Carlos Gomez. Steve Morris did the art on the cover. Rogue and Gambit are in search of the missing teleporter Manifold while Black Panther is trying to bring in Gambit and Rogue to question them about the same thing. Plus, the mutants’ powers are going all wonky. So far, this has been an entertaining couple of issues. I have always liked the pairing of Gambit and Rogue so this worked well for me.

Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clones #2. Written by Emily Kim and drawn by Kei Zama. Cover art was by David Nakayama. Spider-Gwen and Gwen Ock battle SandGwen in an attempt to get the whole clone thing under control. I am having terrible flashbacks back to the Clone Saga. I’m not sure why all Spider-titles need their own clone, but Gwen is an enjoyable character and she had some nice interaction with Gwen Ock. The Ghost-Spider outfit is just one of the best costumes designs in comics.

April 5, 2023

Spring break has sprung. Yes, it is just a couple of days around a weekend, but it is that time of year where any break from school is welcomed.

Of course, yesterday was NEW COMIC BOOK DAY at Comic World and I picked up a cavalcade of comics to read. Most of them were pretty decent and continues my enjoyment of the medium. A couple of series came to a close and there were a few new issues.

One in particular.. Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

I also learned how to determine if it is the cover A, cover B, cover C and so on with variant covers. I feel like a super spy with this knowledge.

I am Iron Man #2. “Chapter Two: The Man with the Bleeding Heart.” This may have been my favorite book of the week (top couple for sure). This Iron Man book saw Tony searching the ocean’s bottom for a radioactive asteroid with the help of a giant, mutated, mind-reading sardine. Yes, I said that right. It sounded silly, but I’ll be danged if it wasn’t a awesome read. Congrats to Murewa Ayodele, who wrote this story that was so compelling with a giant fish and the art by Dotun Akande worked beautifully.

Love Everlasting #6. Written by Tom King and drawn by Elsa Charretier. Joan Peterson has gotten so used to the routine that when something different happens, she is not sure what to do. This issue features the actual marriage of Joan to a guy whom she clearly finds ‘meh.’ Yet, the killer cowboy does not shoot her this time. What is going on?

Stillwater #18. Written by Chip Zdarsky and drawn by Ramon K. Perez. “Chapter Eighteen” brings us the finale of the Stillwater series as the conflict within Stillwater and the neighboring Coldwater comes to a head. I loved the ending of this series with the last few panels really putting a surprise exclamation point on the book. Chip Zdarsky maintains his place near the top of my favorite writers list.

Code Name Ric Flair: Magic Eight Ball #1. Written by James Haick III with art by Rafael Loueiro. Ruben Cubiles did the cover art. In this book, ‘The Nature Boy’ Ric Flair, one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, is revealed to have had some special surgery after his infamous plane crash (which was real) and he became a special secret agent. This was pretty weird, with what seemed like a lot of stroking of Flair’s ego, but I had a lot of fun with it. My knowledge of wrestling and of Flair himself made it more enjoyable as I picked up on some of the jokes and traits that they were bringing into the story.

Amazing Spider-Man #23. Written by Zeb Wells and art by John Romita Jr. Peter finds himself back home, desperate to try and find his way back to MJ. Unfortunately, the FF and Captain America have some questions they want answered. Peter did not have the time. This is the continuation of the story about what Peter did that caused such a rift in his life and his relationships. I am still in on what is going down even if it is making me anxious.

The Approach #5. Written by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley while the art of the book was done by Jesus Hervás and Lea Caballero. This is the second series coming to an end this week with this cool Boom! Studios book wrapping up with a huge blast. Now, there are several things that were not covered or dealt with in the series and I wonder if there will be more coming from The Approach eventually. It certainly left off on a cliffhanger.

Scarlet Witch #4. Written by Steve Orlando and drawn by Sara Pichelli. Russell Dauterman did the cover art. We get a back story on Darcy Lewis, who debuted as a character in the MCU Thor movies and met up with Wanda originally during WandaVision. Here, Darcy is being pursued by Hippolyta, who became the powerhouse Scythia. A powerful pair of females battling over Darcy’s life.

Joe Fixit #4. Written by Peter David and drawn by Yildiray Çınar. I finally determined that this book was taking place during the time frame when Bruce Banner was showing the Joe Fixit personality. Perhaps it should have been obvious to me, but I had not read Hulk books during the original Joe Fixit arc. I do love this series, especially since there is such a presence of Spider-Man in the book.

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #11. Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly with the art by Carmen Carnero. Cap and the returning Invaders fought against MODOC while struggling to try to stop the Outer Circle, including Bucky Barnes. The death of the Destroyer last issue set up some major implications here. Then, at the end, Ian is reunited with his ‘father.’

Hairball #1. Script by Matt Kindt with art by Tyler Jenkins. The new Dark Horse comic that immediately gave me Stray Dogs vibes, even though it sure appeared that the black cat, called Bestie, in this series is anything but our hero. In fact, who could have guessed that the cat hairball that as coughed up would be such a powerfully gross weapon? This was a cool start to a new horror series and I am here for it.

Planet of the Apes #1. Written by David F. Walker and drawn by Dave Wachter. Cover art was by Joshua Cassara & Dean White. The first ‘official’ book under the 20th Century Studios Marvel brand, we get a book that is set after the events of the film Rise of the Planet of the Apes. When I started reading the Alien books (which will now fall under the 20th Century Studios banner as well), I really enjoyed number one, but slipped off my interest quickly. Here, even though I do like these movies, I found this comic to be…fine. Nothing that blew me away, but I was not actively hating it either. I kind of expect this will be another book that I just am not that into if I were to continue to buy it. Still, it was okay.

Spider-Man #7. “Part Seven: Spider-Genesis” Written by Dan Slott and drawn by Mark Bagley. This classic creative team has been bringing the End of the Spider-Verse saga and, to be honest, I was not overly interested. This issue debuts a mysterious new Spider character in the 616 universe, specifically one called Spider-Boy. I do find the initial design of Spider-Boy to be cool and I would like to know more about him. With Peter Parker back as the Amazing Spider-Man, I hope this one picks up.

Order & Outrage #1. Written by Jim Starlin and drawn by Rags Morales. My cover art (which was the B cover, which I now know thanks to my unofficial lesson by my friend Todd), was done by Jim Starlin. This was a book that ended up in my pull list because someone (ahem, Todd) thought I’d like it. He usually does a decent job of picking out books that I should give a go, but I just never got into this book. I like Jim Starlin but Order & Outrage just never piqued my interest. It was a beautifully illustrated book (although there may have been too many shots of a penis, just saying).

March 4, 2023

The last few days, I have been getting a few comics read here and there. As I mentioned last time, this weekend was Wrestlemania weekend so I was quite busy watching wrestling. There was some time to fill however.

Specifically, I had an oil change scheduled for Saturday morning down at Brad Deery’s Motors. I used that time to read two graphic novels that I had recently gotten on eBay. They were a couple of books that I heard discussed on the Fatman Beyond podcast with the writer Jim Krueger. There are The High Cost of Happily Ever After and The Runner.

I found The Runner as the better between the two. The Runner was a story about a man named Daniel who looked in the face of death and survived, only to have death chase after him forever. And he had to run from them.

Meanwhile, The High Cost of Happily Ever After is about a princess whose recently married husband went off to war. She is captured and tortured mentally in a chance to break her.

Both were enjoyable and I have grown to enjoy Jim Krueger’s work. Zach Brunner was the artist on both of the two graphic novels. I thought the art worked very well with each book and it created a excellent tone. There are plenty of wonderfully beautiful images in his work.

The other books I have read…

Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain #2. “Two Captains, One Country” Written by Tini

Howard and drawn by Vasco Georgiev. Erica D’Urso & Matthew Wilson did the cover art. The Captain Britain Corp arrive on the world of Captain Carter looking for that world’s Betsy Braddock. Morgan Le Fey continues to plan to try and destroy the Captain Britain Corp.

Frankenstein New World #1-4. Written by Mike Magnola, Christopher Golden and Thomas Sniegoski with art by Peter Bergting. This Dark Horse limited series featured the Frankenstein character that was from the world of Hellboy. This was a neat little series with Frankenstein and a little girl named Lilja. There was a weird end to the series, but I liked it quite a bit.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #4. “Chapter Four: Restraint, Endurance, and Passion.” And then there was Supergirl. I had liked the first three issues of this series. I know that this limited series is going to be the basis for the upcoming Supergirl movie in the James Gunn run DC Studios. Unfortunately, issue four really came off the rails for me. I was bored throughout it. I had no connection or care about anything that was happening. I was truly disappointed in this issue. I certainly hope the remainder of the issues 5-8 turn out more interesting that this one did. I believe in Tom King so I will hold hope.

Where Monsters Lie #2. Script by Kyle Starks and art by Piotr Kowalski. We return to the place where a group of serial killers have been living and the police, on a tip from a young boy who had seen some of the killers and had managed to escape, come to find them. This all just led to a massive slaughter. We are introduced to a federal agent named Connor Hayes, getting a bunch of backstory on him. I have to say that I do not trust this guy. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but there is just something about him that makes me wonder. This limited series has been fun so far.

Sabretooth & the Exiles #5. “Station Five.” Written by Victor LaValle and drawn by Leonard Kirk. Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer and Frank Martin were the artists on the cover. This limited series came to an end as Sabretooth winds up battling and joining a group of multiversal variants of himself. This one did not wrap up quite like I wanted. It turned the series into an okay one, where it could have been very solid.

Thor #32. “Blood of the Fathers Part Two” Written by Torunn Grønbekk and drawn by Juan Gedeon. Nic Klein was the artist on the cover. Another Thor story that is involved in different time lines, making it difficult to follow. It was also a book that has a cover that really kind of misleads what is going on inside. Despite a cover where we see Thor and Dr. Doom fighting, that does not happen this issue. It does seem as if it will happen next issue though so perhaps it is a bit of a set up. Still, much of this recent arc of Thor has left something to be desired.

March 31, 2023

Tonight starts the big Wrestlemania weekend, which is one of my favorite times of the year. There is going to be a bunch of wrestling this weekend so I wanted to get some of these new comics read.

I could not get the books on Wednesday this week because I had the make-up parent/teacher conferences scheduled for that day which meant I could not get them until Thursday.

There were some terrible storms in the area with tornados and heavy rain that are just coming to an end so I waited to get on the computer. Here are the books from this week that I have read.

Strange Academy: Finals #5. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Humberto Ramos. I have really loved this series so far. The big showdown with the Strange Academy characters and Emily with Dormammu went into full throttle and there was a huge surprise at the end. The ultimate deus ex machina showed up to confront Emily. And they used her middle name too. It was Emily’s parents! I have to say I laughed heartily at that. I did not expect that twist coming.

It’s Jeff #1. Creative team: Kelly Thompson and Gurihiru. Um… what was this? This was a weird book with a bunch of shorts that involved a land shark named Jeff. There was nearly no dialogue and almost no words. Some of these shorts were funny and some were cute. That was about all I could say about Jeff.

Avengers Beyond #1. Written by Derek Landry and penciled by Greg Land. This basically is the continuation of the All-Out Avengers series from earlier this year (or late last year) when the Avengers realized someone had been messing with their heads and keeping them confused over situations. Apparently, it was the Beyonder. And he is the omen for something even worse. This was a lot of fun.

Image Anthology #8. This was recommended to me by Todd because there was a short, introduction to an upcoming book by James Tynion IV called WorldTr33. The short story was interesting, but Tynion has my trust. Since most of the rest of these stories in this anthology were in part 8s, I did not read them. Maybe I want to look for the other books here.

Local Man #2. The creative team on this series is Tony Fleecs and Tim Seeley. This book has caught my attention quickly. I have really enjoyed this so far. I love the idea of the fallen superhero trying to just get his life on track, but having to deal with a negative image.

Daredevil #9. “The Red Fist Saga Part 9” Written by Chip Zdarsky and drawn by Manuel Garcia. Zdarsky’s Daredevil run is coming to its end soon, and this was amazing again. Zdarsky has been so consistently sensational in the Daredevil series for the last few years that I can not imaging what the book will be when his run comes to an end. I would venture to say this run by Zdarsky rivals, if not exceeds, the run of Al Ewing on The Immortal Hulk.

Something is Killing the Children #30. “The Girl and the Hurricane Part Five.” Written by James Tynion IV and illustrated by Werther Dell’edera. Things are ratcheting up again as Erica tries to plan to save Gabi and Riqui from Cutter. Tis series has a great way to make even the transition or filler issues seem just awesome.

Deadpool #5. “Render Reveal Party” The Carnage symbiote exploded out of Deadpool’s guts, bringing Cletus back to the book. However, that was a short return as another horror arrived. There are plenty of moving pieces here, but I have liked this Deadpool series more than some of the other variations over the years. The character Valentine is fascinating and might wreck Deadpool.

Invincible Iron Man #4. “The Autobiography of Tony Stark Chapter Four” Feilong has taken over Stark Industries and Tony Stark is not happy. Iron Man dominated this issue’s confrontation with the new CEO but there are some things that straight physical power can fix. This series has really started to work over Tony Stark even more. and I am here for it.

The Neighbors #1. Written by Jude Ellison S. Doyle and art by Letizia Cadonici. An unlikely family move to a new home with some, let’s say, bizarre neighbors. This new horror series from Boom! Studios had an intriguing first issue. I am curious to see where this comic heads.

Clobberin’ Time #1. Story and art by Steve Skroce. This was a team-up between The Thing and the Hulk. And I have to say, I did not like this one much at all. It looks like this series will be Thing teaming up with other heroes because next issue looks to include Wolverine. I’m just not sure that I’ll be buying that issue.

The Ambassadors #1. Written by Mark Millar and drawn by Frank Quitely. This is a cool concept, where someone is deciding which six people will receive super powers. Only six people. This is off to a good start. I enjoyed Millar’s book, King of Spies, and I think this could be a great book.

Wasp #3. Written by Al Ewing and with art by Kasia Nie. Janet Van Dyne and Nadia Trovaya wind up in worlds where they never have connections to Pym. Watching these characters who we know become different people, but still the same, is great. Al Ewing is one of my favorite writers working today.

March 26, 2023

Welcome to the one and only ‘Comic Cavalcade’ in the 21st century!

Today, I’m going to look at a specific title that came out in 2019 called The No. Ones. It was a six-issue series from Cave Pictures Publishing, which is a comic company that I had never heard of before.

I was introduced to this series during the pandemic as I was watching the YouTube show Fatman Beyond with hosts Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin. They were doing their show live, but on Zoom, as many YouTube shows were forced to do at the time. One of the features of the Zoom was they were able to get guests easily.

Kevin and Marc, both of whom were comic fans and comic creators at one time or another, had invited writer Jim Krueger on their show. Kevin and Marc interviewed (The interview begins around the 45 min mark) Krueger about his background, how he got into comics, and his work on Marvel’s Earth X.

During the interview, Kevin asked Krueger about a book he had created called The No. Ones. I was intrigued when I was watching the interview and I went over to Amazon and found the series. I ordered it and it arrived, but I never really read it. When I came across it in the piles, it went on the list to read. Today, I finally got to it, and I enjoyed it.

The No. Ones was a series about this super hero team that was celebrities and world renowned when something happened and they wind up being forgotten by the world at large. Literally one day later.

This was a difficult job in my opinion because it is a challenge to introduce an entirely new group of superheroes with powers and personalities and to get them connected to the audience in a short series, but Krueger does a very solid job of bringing the characters to the forefront. The book is truly a character piece and you find these characters very relatable. There are some great ideas in this series and it worked quite well.

The rest of the books involved in EYG Comic Cavalcade #3 are…

Sleeping Beauties #2. Based on the novel by Stephen King and Owen King. Adapted by Rio Youers and art by Alison Sampson. The sleep sickness continues to strike females and a few people discover the tragic results of what happens when they remove the cocoon-like coating from the women.

The Silver Coin #6. “High Score” Written by Joshua Williamson with art by Michael Walsh. What happens when the mysterious cursed silver coin winds up being used in a video game? Major fatalities! I liked this issue quite a bit, though it came up short and they had a backup story that was not quite up to par as the first one.

Black Panther 13-15. Written by John Ridley with art by German Peralta. Cover art on all three by Alex Ross. I am now caught up with Black Panther only to discover that issue 15 was the final issue of the series. Ha. There looks to be another Black Panther #1 coming out soon (of course). This arc continued the T’Challa downgrade as he is exiled from Wakanda, thanks to Namor and the Atlanteans who made a deal with Wakanda to aid in the war against Jhai. Not going to lie, the ending felt a little anti-climatic and I am still not a fan of the way Steve Rogers was written in the book. Still, there are some intriguing ideas here and I like how they filled out the supporting cast and other characters (such as Buffalo Solder, whom I love).

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #3. “Chapter Three: Modest, Calm and Quiet.” Written by Tom King and drawn by Bilquis Evely. I have to say, this was a weird issue, with Supergirl and her alien compadre Ruthye. They are on a planet with aliens called Purples and blues and it deals with a lot of class levels. They are continuing to unsuccessfully look for Krem.

I Walk With Monsters #4-6. Written by Paul Cornell with art by Sally Cantirino. Wrapped up this series, but I was not too fond of this conclusion either. Some of the areas that the early part of the book seemingly focused on were not what was wrapped up. They did go into more specifics about Jacey and David’s relationship and his power to be a weird dog like monster (among other things). I was into the first issue, but this one did not finish off strong for me.

Middlewest #4. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Jorge Corona. Abel and his friend the fox arrive at the carnival in search of the ‘mystical Magdalena’ only to get into trouble with the carnies and the little girl in charge when he was pickpocketing people for money to buy a funnel cake. Hey, you need a funnel cake. That just goes without saying. This continues to be fun and beautiful to read.