Tag Archives: marvel

EYG Comic Cavalcade #142

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March 8

Big week here at EYG Comic Cavalcade. We had everything from weather to special sales to eBay orders. I have a bunch of books to enter into my CLZ app. I broke the 17,000 limit this week and, after today’s “fill-the-bag” sale at In This Issue Comics, I am nearly to 17,100.

I went to the comic shop In This Issue Comics in Bettendorf, which my friend James goes to for his Turtles books. There happened to be a special sale going on. It was a really nice little shop with terrible parking. It had a great variety of independents and variant covers. While I am always loyal to Comic World, In This Issue Comics was a nice shop that I might go back to some day, just to check it out. Certainly, I will go there before I go back to the other one in Davenport that I visited last month that made me think of an armpit.

Books this week:

What If…? Mickey and Friends Became Avengers #1. “The Coming of the Avengers.!” Plot by Steve Behling, script by Luca Barbieri and art by Alessandro Pastrovicchio. I started off with this because I got this cover A from Comic World, but picked up the Pluto variant at In This Issue Comics. This cool Pluto as Ant Man variant looks awesome and I just could not ignore it.

The Missionary #2. Written by Ryan Stegman and art and cover art by Jason Howard. This DSTLRY book continues with all kinds of demons and creatures battling their way through the pages. The character designs are really cool and well done. The imagery of the book works so well for these larger sized pages from DSTLRY.

Falling in Love on the Path to Hell #1-4. Story and art by Gerry Duggan & Garry Brown. I picked up these four issues of this ongoing Image book off eBay this week and I have #5,6 & 0 on the way in another order. I have enjoyed this series very much as we cross genres between Western and Samurais. It is a mystical story with two characters stranded on an island. Always reminds me of LOST. This has been very enjoyable so far.

Hornsby & Halo #3. Written by Peter J. Tomasi and art by Peter Snejbjerg. Peter Snejbjerg and John Kalisz did the art for the cover. I actually haven’t gotten this read yet, since it just arrived in the mail today from eBay. However, I had #4 last week and realized I was missing an issue. I am hoping to get to these two later tonight or sometime this weekend. They look cool.

Uncanny X-Men #11. “Echoes of Madness” Written by Gail Simone and art by Javier Garrón. Cover art was by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson. The big crossover “X-Manhunt” started in this issue with Chapter 1. Charles Xavier is out and about, back to causing trouble, even if he does not intend to.

NYX #9. “Charles.” Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly with art by Francesco Mortarino. Variant cover B art by Peach Momoko. This is Chapter 2 in the “X-Manhunt” crossover event as Charles makes his way to New York. Mojo is also here ready to bring his own brand of problems.

Storm #6. “Thundercloud.” Written by Murewa Ayodele and art by Luciano Vecchio. Cover art was done by Mateus Manhanini. Chapter 3 of the “X-Manhunt” happened in this issue. Storm faces off with the X-Men and she shows them that she is anything but a soft touch. Xavier came to Storm for help and boy does she give it. Poor Cyclops and Juggernaut.

The Spectacular Spider-Men #13. “Life and Limb.” Written by Greg Weisman and art by Emilio Laiso. Cover art was by Emilio Laiso and Edgar Delgado. The Lizard stopped the Electros from finishing off the Spider-Men, but the Lizard was still in a crazed form. So Peter and Miles had to face off with the reptile.

Juvenile #4. Written, illustrated and cover art by Jesus Orellana. Juvenile has been an excellent book so far and this penultimate issue of the series is not the exception. The kids get together and attempt an escape from the institution. I look forward to seeing what the end of this book will bring.

Doctor Strange of Asgard #1. Written by Derek Landy and art by Carlos Magno. Cover art was done by Geoff Shaw & Arthur Helsi (Gold Medalist). After losing his Sorcerer Supreme mantel for earth, Strange heads to Asgard to attempt to become the Sorcerer Supreme of Asgard. Thor says sure, but there are other obstacles for Strange to avoid. This is a cool new book featuring Dr. Strange while Doom is earth’s sorcerer supreme.

Jumpscare #1. Written by Cullen Dunn and art and cover art by Danny Luckert. This brand new Dark Horse book was a lot of fun. A new super hero is one the scene and she can summon weapons that she has seen from horror movies. Luckily, she is an aficionado of the genre. This is another cool, new Dark Horse book. I love the originality.

The Ultimates #10. Written by Deniz Camp and art by Juan Frigeri. Cover art was done by Dike Ruan & Neera J. Menon. It is always great fighting Nazis. We wind up with an unofficial Invaders reunion… though Namor has seen better days and our villain is a surprise (though I guessed it right away) identity.

The Terminator #5. “Gemini Rising.” Written and cover art by Declan Shalvey and art by Joe Mulvey. Action in outer space with astronauts and a Terminator. This Dynamite book has given us multiple locations for these robot battles and this one makes me think about the Alien franchise instead. Still cool though.

Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #11. “Uncharted” Part 1. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Paolo Villanelli. Cover art was done by Mark Brooks. Some of the answers as to why Gwen had to leave her dimension and how she got tied up with the TVA come out in this issue, as King Loki guest stars.

Space Ghost #10. Written by David Pepose and art by Jonathan Lau. Variant cover C art was done by Bjorn Barends. Space Spectre arrives from the future with a mystery identity and a mission to prevent what is coming. Can Space Ghost stop someone so close to him?

Wolverine #7. “Ancient History.” Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Martin Coccolo. Cover art was done by Martin Coccolo & Bryan Valenza. The mystery of the Adamantine rolls on as Wolverine goes one on one with Romulus. Things do not look good for our hero.

Spider-Boy #17. “Bug Brothers.” Written by Dan Slott and art by Nathan Stockman. Paco Medina and Edgar Delgado did the cover art. Spider-Boy and Boy-Spider try to co-exist now that Bailey is back from his overseas trip with Daredevil. It is weird but it seems as if every Spider character has a monstrous sidekick nowadays. Bailey has Boy-Spider, Miles has Shift and Peter has Rek-rap. Hmm.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #7. “The Sewers of Newark.” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Juan Ferreyra. Variant cover B art by Kevin Eastman. A new story arc begins with this issue, but the Turtles are certainly not on the same page yet. However, perhaps Donatello is not as crazy as he seemed.

Kill Train #2. Written by Olivia Cuartero-Briggs and art by Martina Niosi of Outclass Studios. Skylar Patridge did the cover art (Bronze Medalist-tied) We get introductions to some of the other people on the Kill Train and they team together to try and keep themselves alive.

Pinupocalypse #1. Written, art and cover art by Andrew Tarusov. This was one of the independent books I picked off the shelf at In This Issue on Friday and I was surprised how much I loved the book. It reminded me a bit of Love Everlasting crossed with a zombie book. The book was from Massive Comics and I really loved it. Those unexpected treats are the best.

Dust to Dust #3. Written by JG Jones & Phil Bram and art and cover art by JG Jones (Silver Medalist). Sheriff Meadows tried to convince people around him that the mysterious dust storm did not cause a family’s truck to burst into flames. He suspects foul play but no one else seems to buy into it. This was my favorite of the Dust to Dust issues so far as I was into the investigation.

The Tin Can Society #6. Written by Peter Warren and art by Francesco Mobili. Cover art was by Francesco Mobili and Chris Chuckry. I swear Tin Can Society has the absolute best cliffhangers/last pages of any series out there. My jaw dropped at the last page of this issue.

The Immortal Thor #21. “Two Did Enter.” Written by Al Ewing and art by Jan Bazaldua. Cover art was done by Alex Ross (Bronze Medalist-tied). We get a Executioner-centric issue as he faces off with Thor as they fight over who will go ahead to face the danger coming.

Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #6. “Shame.” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Domenico Carbone. Davide Paratore did the cover art. I have to say that I was a bit confused by this issue and I do not remember much about it. I do love the cover from Davide Paratore and it was nearly a medalist this week.

The Fade #1-2. Written by Aabria Iyengar and illustrated and cover art by Mari Costa. Another fun independent book from the shelves of In This Issue. I liked this story and the way they brought the “Fade” into the book. Is it just all in their minds? This was a great couple of books.

Sam and Twitch Case Files #11. Written by Jordan Barel and Todd McFarlane with art by Thomas Nachlik (with special thanks to Magnus Arts). Cover art was done by Raymond Gay & Marco Failla. This issue focuses more on Twitch than we have gotten in the entire series.

Secret Six #1. Written by Nicole Maines and art by Stephen Segovia. Segovia and Rain Beredo did the cover art. It is another DC book that I liked a lot. I just grabbed this at Comic World this week because the heroes intrigued me and… dang it… I really enjoyed this one too. I have too many DZC books on my list. I don’t need another, but… it looks like I have another.

Parliament of Rooks #4. Written by Abigail Jill Harding with Richard Starkings and illustrated and cover art by Abigail Jill Harding. Things are taking a sharp turn for the worse with our mismatched lovers. There are a lot of monster fight going down this issue and it feels like it is building towards a conclusion.

Hyde Street #4. Storytellers are Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis. Cover art was done by Ivan Reis & Danny Miki with Brad Anderson. This month’s tale is of an actor cast in the role of Frankenstein’s Monster in an Abbott and Costello movie and his problematic path, from hours in the makeup chair to injuries to his eyes. Hyde Street continues to be one of the more entertaining horror anthologies of the month.

Blade Forger #1. “Sakima.” Written by Inaki Miranda & Roy Miranda with art and cover art by Inaki Miranda. I liked this book even though it felt all over the place. It is told over the span of decades and feels like a mixture of current and fantasy storytelling.

Scarlet Witch #10. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Jacopo Camagni with Russell Dauterman. Variant cover C art by Corin Howell & Raul Angulo. This next run of Scarlet Witch books came to an end with this issue. It looks as if Wanda is going to have a new series coming up with Vision. I am not sure why they can’t just keep these as a Scarlet Witch book featuring the extra character. They did the same thing last year with Quicksilver.

Blade Red Band #5. Written by Bryan Hill and art by Federica Mancin. Cover art was by David Yardin & Romulo Fajardo Jr. This also brings this round of Blade books to a close. Only five issues for Blade this time. Blade is much like Wanda because they both come back for short runs in a book and then go away for a short period before they return in a new volume. I wish Marvel would not do that so many times or call it a mini-series and put the numbering on the cover (such as 5 of 5).

Two-Face #4. “The Trial of Harvey Dent.” Written by Christian Ward and art by Fabio Veras. Cover art was by Baldemar Rivas. This Two-Face series has been bat-shit crazy. All of the action inside Harvey Dent’s mind, but we are learning a ton about the character of Two face. It has been a great read.

Justice League: The Atom Project #3. “The Bond.” Written by Ryan Parrott and John Ridley and art and cover art by Mike Perkins. Captain Atom is in a difficult mindset and he is not quite in a state of mind for help from the other Atoms.

Other books this week: Web of Spider-Verse: New Blood #1, The Nice House by the Sea #6, Living Hell #3, Moon Man #7, Knights vs. Samurai #6, and Huge Detective #4.

Elevation (2024)

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I came across this movie on MAX and, while it was listed as a 2025 film, everywhere else had it as a 2024 release. Had I know that, I could have saved this for the June Swoon, but I do think I have plenty of films available for that. I decided to list this under the “classics” instead of 2025 for that reason.

Anthony Mackie played Will, who lived with his son Hunter (Danny Boyd, Jr.) in the Rocky Mountains. Humanity has been destroyed by these creatures that suddenly just popped up from out of nowhere. Fortunately, the creatures could not go past 8,000 feet elevation.

Hunter was sick and needed certain materials that could only be found in the hospital, which meant Will had to go down the mountain to try and find more. He was accompanied by two women, Nina (Morena Baccarin) and Katie (Maddie Hasson).

I really like Anthony Mackie. He is a star and you can see how he commands the screen in a film like this. Sadly, I do not think the film matches up to the strength of Mackie’s screen presence.

The writing is, at best, passable. The story depends way too much on exposition which can become repetitive and dull. The story is full of contrivances and coincidences that really damages the plot.

Nina and Katie started out really hating one another. There was clearly conflicts between the two women, but that conflict disappeared in what seemed no time, without any true resolution. The relationship between them felt forced and had no basis in reality. I know that the film has giant sci-fi monsters running around, which is why the central relationships have to have a dose of realism if the film is to work. These three characters are lacking in that area.

This felt like a poor man’s The Last of Us, mixed with a little bit of A Quiet Place. It was just not at a level of either of those franchises. Anthony Mackie is great and he is doing everything he could to elevate this script, but there is only so much he can do.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #140

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February 22

Another big week of books, both from Comic World and eBay.

One of the books that I picked up off eBay was Come Find Me, which was a one shot from DSTLRY. I have become a big fan of this company, but I have one major problem. The books do not come out on a regular basis. There are great issues and then it feels like months before the next issue comes out. A one shot like this is nice. It is also an anthology, so there are a variety of stories within it.

Other books this week:

Bug Wars #1. “The House of Slaymaker” Written by Jason Aaron and drawn by Mahmud Asrar. Cover art by Mahmud Asrar & Matthew Wilson. I picked up this issue off eBay because it was sold out so quickly across the comic book shops. I’m not sure why it was this hot, but it was a really great issue form one of the best writers in the business in Jason Aaron. Lots of fun.

Behemoth #1. Written by Grant Sputore & Ryan Engle and art and cover art by Jay Martin. Another great new comic, this time from Dark Horse. What a wonderful concept this book has. A bus load full of people wind up getting eaten by a giant monster and they have to survive inside. This was more fun and I am pleased that I was able to get this issue after a bit of delay.

Amazing Spider-Man #68. Written by Justina Ireland and penciled by Andrea Broccardo. Cover art was done by Patrick Gleason and Richard Isanove. Peter gives up his remaining life power up thingies to save Aunt May, Randy and Shea… and some other guy… who got killed because Peter was having his crisis. I will be happy when this arc is over since I do not feel as if this writer has a good enough grasp on Spider-Man.

Ripperland #1. Written by Steve Orlando & John Harris Dunning and art and cover art by Alessandro Oliveri. Ripperland is another new banger from Dark Horse. I have always been a big fan of Jack the Ripper (I know that doesn’t sound right…) so this hit a sweet spot for me.

Laura Kinney: Wolverine #3. “The Devil in Me- Part 2” Written by Erica Schultz and art by Giada Belviso. Cover art is done by Elena Casagrande & Edgar Delgado. Laura and Elektra, aka Wolverine and Daredevil, are out battling the forces looking to hurt mutants. Laura and Elektra are a good pair and a lot of fun.

Green Hornet Miss Fury #2. Written by Alex Segura & Henry Barajas with art by Federico Sorressa. Cover art was done by Francesco Francavilla. I have been liking this pairing of two classic noir characters. Dynamite has been doing some fun books lately and this one works so much.

Kill Train #1. Written by Olivia Cuartero-Briggs and art by Martina Niosi. Cover art was done by Skylar Patridge. Another good new series, this one was from Mad Cave. Todd grabbed this one for me in Des Moines. I have to say that this series did a great job of setting up the story f these trains.

Uncanny X-Men #10. “Off the Leash” Part Two. Written by Gail Simone and art by Andrei Bressan. Cover art was done by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson. I was worried about Deathdream because he surely looked dead last issue. Thankfully, he was able to survive the event and this issue gave us the chance to get to know our new characters more. And I liked them.

Dust to Dust #2. Written by JG Jones & Phil Bram and art and cover art by JG Jones. The dust storms are still causing trouble. I still love the look of this book. It is one of the most interesting looking books on the market right now. Very dramatic cover too.

Mystique #5. “Compromised” Written, art and cover art by Declan Shalvey (Silver Medalist). This series came to a great conclusion. This series had a really great series of covers. Declan Shalvey did a great job on this series, considering he was doing most everything on the book.

Doll Parts: A Lovesick Tale #3. Written , illustrated and cover art by Luana Vecchio. Another book where the writing and art are done by a single person. Luana Vecchio also did multiple variant covers for this series. Doll Parts has been a wild story so far and this issue takes it to another level. This has so much adult content among these young characters that it can be unnerving to read at times. Still very much compelling though.

Zatanna #1. “A Tilnoom Edalb” Written, art and cover art by Jamal Campbell. Weird. Third straight book where the creative did all of the writing and art. This felt very different than the previous Zatanna series from late last year. She sure took a bad blow near the end of the book. Of course, she will not die. I mean, it is her book. I’m not sure if I will be a long term reader on this one, but I will mot likely give it another issue or two before I decide.

Thunderbolts: Doomstrike #1. “A Doomed Man.” Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly. Art was done by Tommaso Bianchi and cover art was from Leinil Francis Yu & Romulo Fajardo Jr. Bucky and Black Widow are the remaining Thunderbolts trying to face off with Dr. Doom. Things do not go well for them, nor does it go well for residents of Shelbyville, Indiana.

Doom Academy #1. Written by Mackenzie Cadenhead and art by Pasqual Ferry. Cover art was done by Pablo Villalobos. Strange Academy gets a face lift and a new location. Latveria! I have loved the Strange Academy characters and to see them in the new place spices things up as they have some new learning to do. I love the new character of Scoop.

Daredevil #18. “Introductory Rites” Part Eighteen. Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Aaron Kuder. Cover art was done by John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Richard Isanove. Matt Murdock returns to a court of law… only to get his butt kicked by the possessed Foggy Nelson. Can DD get through the case while still stopping these demons?

Mine is a Long, Lonesome Grave #1. Written by Justin Jordan and illustrated and cover art by Chris Shehan. This is a new independent book from Oni Press and it was a good read. Harley Creed is a bad man. Someone placed a hex on Harley and he has seven days to try and reverse it or he will die in twisted, screaming agony. This was a good week (or weeks) for new independent books. Long title though.

The Patchwork Girl of Oz #2. Adapted, illustrated and cover art by Otis Frampton. Based on the novel by Oz author L. Frank Baum. I was surprised how much I liked the first issue of this, which I was not expecting in my pull box. I am sure it was a book that I asked for, but just did not remember it. However, I have had a lot of fun with this book and this issue gives us our first glance at the Patchwork Girl. She looks awesome.

Daredevil: Unleash Hell #2. Written by Erica Schultz and penciled by Valentina Pinti & Jose Luis Soares. Paulo Siqueria & Rachelle Rosenberg did the cover art. Our new Muse is being led along by the ghost of the original Muse and it is great. I loved the character of Muse and seeing a new form of the serial killing artist is epic.

Infinity Watch #2. Written by Derek Landy and art by Ruairi Coleman and Enid Balám. Salvador Larroca & GURU-eFX did the cover art. Avery Zavala is a stone bearer from another timeline and he pretty much kills all of the Infinity Watch. I’m not completely sure what is going on, but it feels as if there are shenanigans.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #30. Written by Cody Ziglar and art by Luigi Zagaria. Federico Vicentini & Neeraj Menon did the cover art. The Miles Morales and Deadpool showdown continue don from the previous Deadpool issue as Miles comes face to face with Princess.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #3. Written by Christos Gage and art by Eric Gapstur. Leonardo Romero did the cover art. This prequel series to the Disney + animated series continued with Peter trying out for football. This book has been fun, but the animated series was one of the best Spidey animated series of all time. You should check it out on Disney + for sure.

Ultimate Wolverine #2. Written by Chris Condon and art by Alessandro Cappuccio. Cover art was done by Alessandro Cappuccio and Frank Martin. Ultimate Wolverine has only had two issues so far, but it is right there beside Ultimate Spider-Man as the best Ultimate book so far. This is full of action and having the Winter Soldier version of Logan? Epic!

Let This One be a Devil #1. Written by James Tynion IV and Steve Foxe with art by Piotr Kowalski. Gavin Fullerton did the cover art. Another banger from Dark Horse this week. A new horror series from James Tynion IV gives us a couple different time lines, including a horrific birth. I do love me some Tynion IV.

NYX #8. Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly with art done by Francesco Mortarino. Laura Kinney faces off with Julian in a massively emotional conflict. Can she stop him without popping her claws? Is that what he really wants her to do?

Exceptional X-Men #6. Written by Eve L. Ewing and art by Carmen Carnero. Cover art by Carmen Carnero and Nolan Woodard. We are introduced to Sheldon Xenos, a mutant who has a job for the young mutants being trained by Kitty and Emma. Does he have their best interest at heart? Axo believes so. I disagree.

Weapon X-Men #1. “The Real Thing” Written by Joe Casey and penciled by Chriscross. Alex Ross did the cover art. Wolverine. Deadpool. Cable. Thunderbird. Chamber. Sounds like a huge team up. However, one of them will betray another. Which one will it be?

The Question: All Along the Watchtower #4. “The Great Escape” Written by Alex Segura and art by Cian Tormey & Raul Fernandez. Cover art by Tormey & Romulo Fajardo Jr. Cyborg Superman has taken over the Watchtower and only The Question can stop him. Or can she? Things do not look good for our detective.

X-Factor #7. “Terms of Use” Written by Mark Russell and art by Bob Quinn. Cover art was by Greg Land & Frank D’Armata. Angel returned to take the mantel of leadership as X-Factor heads to Genosha to try and prevent Dr. Doom from getting his hands on a special weapon.

G.I. Joe #4. Written by Joshua Williamson and art and cover art by Tom Reilly. The Joes are captured by Cobra after Duke surrendered. Why does it seem like Duke believes that they have got Cobra right where they want them?

Werewolf by Night Red Band #7. Written by Jason Loo and penciled by Sergio Davila. E.M. Gist did the cover art. Jack Russell is in serious trouble, but thankfully, Elsa Bloodstone is not dead and on the case. She is building her own group to help Jack and it features her own Werewolf by Night (Jake) and Reptil.

House of Slaughter #30. Written by Sam Johns and illustrated by Letizia Cadonici. Cover art was done by Jorge Fornes and Werther Dell’Edera (Gold Medalist). I have been very down on this series recently, though the covers have been fire. I believe this arc, “Azure” is done with this issue and I hope the next one is more engaging for me.

Incredible Hulk #22. “The Skin of Charlie Tidwell” Part One. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Nic Klein. Matthew Wilson did the cover art. Things are still bad off for Charlie, as she is becoming more of a monster than Hulk expected.

Other books this week: X-Force #8, Ultimate Black Panther #13, W0rldtr33 #13, Shazam #20 (Bronze Medalist), Creature Commandos #5, Challengers of the Unknown #3, Seance in the Asylum #3-4, Aliens vs. Avengers #3, The Power Fantasy #6, and New Gods #3.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S1 E9, E10

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Spoilers

“Hero or Menace”

“If This Be My Destiny…”

The finale two episodes of the first season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man are absolutely amazing!

In episode nine, we get a big showdown between Spidey and Scorpion, with Lonny smack dab in the middle. Lonny gets exposed to a gas that gives him super strength (and will eventually turn him into the Tombstone we know in the comics). Spidey and Lonny defeat Scorpion.

In episode ten, we have a big battle with Dr. Strange and the symbiote and we are shown that this battle is what would lead to the battle from the first episode at Peter’s school, and the spider that bit Peter was the spider that Norman had created with Spider-Man’s blood that they had collected. I loved that adjustment in the story. It made everything work for me.

The writing on this series has been excellent. It has developed more than just Peter Parker. I feel like they built the supporting characters around Peter so well, especially Lonny who could arguably be considered a co-lead character. They show us the beginning of several villains in the Spider-Man world, like Otto Octavius, Scorpion, Norman Osborn, Venom etc.

With Spider-Man’s actual suit debuting in episode nine, Spider-Man looked sensational. The animation of these episodes were so great with some amazing shots. I have not necessarily loved the animation prior, but this seemed to really be something special.

The voice acting did great all season long. Everything was excellent, especially Coleman Domingo, who was so epic. I would love to see Domingo play Norman Osborn in the MCU. The show has done a great job of slowly building Norman into who we expect he will become. And yet, it feels very justified.

I did not expect this series to be great because recent Spider-Man animation has been more directed toward very young children. This series was right up there with the best Spider-Man series and right there with X-Men ’97. I am happy that this series has a three season order so there are at least two more to go.

I love Spider-Man.

Captain America: Brave New World

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The fourth film in the Captain America franchise debuted this weekend from Marvel Studios. It has been a film that has had its struggles dating back to Covid, multiple reshoots and delays. Finally, it has arrived in theaters. As with other struggles, this film has had some middling reviews from critics. All of this made me a little nervous about the movie. I am pleased to say that I enjoyed this a great deal.

Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) was still facing challenges of assuming the mantel of Captain America, but the new president of the United States, Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) reached out to Sam with an olive branch and an offer to reform the Avengers.

Ross, who had done plenty of horrible things over the years, was trying to turn over a new leaf. However, an unexpected assassination attempt changed everything for the new POTUS.

Sam was completely confused when one of the attempted assassins turned out to be his friend and invitee Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), one of the original soldiers who was given the Super Soldier Serum and then experimented on by the government for years. Sam believed in Isaiah’s innocence and it created a chasm between Sam and the admnistration.

This film works well as a sequel to the Disney + series Falcon and the Winter Soldier and also, oddly enough, the Incredible Hulk. There are elements in the film that tied it to The Eternals as well.

Anthony Mackie is tremendous as the lead in this film. He showed that he was an excellent choice to take over the role of Captain America. He is charming and does a really great job with the dramatic moments as well. Harrison Ford, who took over the role of Thunderbolt Ross from the late William Hurt, looked to be having a ton of fun as President Ross who eventually turned into the Red Hulk. Harrison Ford is always exceptional, and he and Mackie have great chemistry. They are the standout of the movie.

You can tell at times that this film has been stitched together from reshoots, but it does a decent job of blending them together. With as many reshoots that this film had, it is amazing that this film is as coherent as it is. The film is a political thriller, but I would have liked even more of that.

The inclusion of Giancarlo Esposito as Sidewinder had been added later. Esposito was great and cool, but he was not in the film very much. I hope that he has more to come down the road in the MCU because the little bit we get of Sidewinder in Brave New World is wonderful.

I loved Tim Blake Nelson returning as Samuel Sterns from the Incredible Hulk. He is another character that could have had more screen time. I loved the look of this character.

No spoilers here, but there is a cameo in this movie that I absolutely loved!

I thought the action scenes were really solid. The aerial action with Sam and Joaquin (Danny Ramirez) was a lot of fun as was the eventual Sam and Red Hulk showdown that we have seen in the trailers.

There are some moments where the film is a little messy, but none of that bothered me. I understood with all of the challenges this movie faced that it may not have been the most polished of films. Some of the first act exposition may have been too much, but there was a lot of material that the film had to provide to those who may not have watched the corresponding films/series.

In the end, Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford were great together and they carried this film. It may not be the best of the Captain America franchise, but, to me, it is a welcome addition.

4.3 stars

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S1 E6, E7, E8

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Spoilers

“Duel with the Devil”

“Scorpion Rising”

“Tangled Web”

The next three episodes of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man dropped on Disney + today and, boy, they were epic. I really liked how the three episodes worked together a story seeing Spider-Man get his butt kicked a couple of different times.

Daredevil showed up… and voiced by Charlie Cox. Spidey and DD fought, with Daredevil showing the inexperienced Spider-Man what a real fighter was like.

Then the arrival of Scorpion led to Spidey getting beaten so bad that he was nearly killed.

Lonny kept his downward spiral towards Tombstone going as he imbedded himself into the 110 Street gang even more. Pearl discovered his involvement and things went poorly.

There were some great scenes with Nico and Harry as they begin to show some signs of a connection. The whole Nico drag racing scene was a lot of fun and teased the powers that Nico have.

Otto Octavius is arrested… by Iron Man? We get a hint at his future with the octopus arms working separately from Ock.

Having Norman Osborn do the “Great Responsibility” line and switch it around to make it “Great Responsibility – Great Respect” fits the character well. It is a really awesome, unexpected turn.

And we are just about to have the actual Spider-Man suit, as we got a giant tease at the very end of episode 8.

There are just two more episodes remaining in season one and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has been an excellent Spider-Man animated show. It is well written and blended together well.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #138

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February 6

We had some ice last night in the weather and it has led to there being a no school day today after I had a personal day on NEW COMIC BOOK DAY. All that meant that I had some open time to finish reading the books and the EYG Comic Cavalcade is able to come out early this week.

I picked up several graphic novels yesterday, two at Comic World and two at BAM!. At Comic World, I grabbed We Called Them Giants by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans and Fantastic Four: Season One by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and David Marquez. The Gillen/Hans book is beautiful and really great. At BAM!, I got Dark Horse graphic novel Skull and Bones: Savage Storm by John Jackson Miller and James Mischler and the beautifully drawn The Road, adapted by Manu Larcenet.

This is a double dose of Marvel this week as the missing shipment from Diamond (boooooo) last week arrived with this week’s books. Diamond is really setting themselves up as the antagonist of this column.

Books this week:

Exorcism at 1600 Penn #3. Written by Hannah Rose May and art by Vanesa Del Ray. Cover art was done by Vanesa Del Ray. The possession of the President’s daughter takes more steps forward as Kevin tries to convince everyone that it was happening. I was getting frustrated how these adults were all so blind with their denial, but it seemed like everyone has come around to the truth as the penultimate issue of this series concluded.

Deadpool #10. Written by Cody Ziglar and art by Roge Antonio. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. Deadpool and Ellie are back from the dead with their healing factors compromised. Taskmaster tried to help them train their fighting style to adjust. I was not a huge fan of this issue or the way they have downgraded Deadpool’s healing factor. I am willing to see where they go.

The Patchwork Girl of Oz #1. Adapted, Illustrated and cover art by Otis Frampton. This is an adaptation of one of the novels from L. Frank Baum and I really enjoyed it. It was a surprise to find it in my box, because I did not remember actually ordering it (I’m not saying I didn’t do it. Just did not remember it). I like the more cartoony art here because it worked so well with this story. I found this to be very joyous.

Hellhunters #2. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and drawn by Adam Gorham. Variant cover art by Salvador Larroca & Edgar Delgado. This World War II series with these characters continues to be interesting, especially now that Logan (aka Wolverine) has joined the crew. He has made it much bloodier than it had been. This dynamic is intriguing as well.

Namor #7. “The Battle of the Eighth” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Paul Davidson & Alex Lins. Varian Cover art by Olivier Coipel (Silver Medalist). I thought this was epic. Namor facing down the leaders of the different ocean kingdoms. Namor’s battles were so awesome.

The Ultimates #9. Written by Deniz Camp and guest artist is Chris Allen. Cover art was done by Dike Ruan & Neeraj J. Menon (Bronze Medalist). We get a whole issue featuring Luke Cage in jail. This Ultimate universe continues to be rocking hard.

Spider-Boy #15. “All Eyes on the Prize.” Written by Dan Slott and art by Paco Medina. with Spider-Girl’s origin art by Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado. Cover art by Paco Medina and Edgar Delgado. The Dragon’s Challenge rolled on as we end up with a final battle between Daredevil & Spider-Boy and Bullseye & Spider-Girl. Daredevil does something to protect Bailey that was unexpected and costs them dearly.

Avengers #23. “The Casino Job Part 2” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Farid Karami. Cover art was done by Valerio Schiti & Alex Sinclair. The ultimate odd couple is taking on the Avengers this week. Kang the Conqueror and the Black Cat. Huh? Strange pairing for sure, but Kang needs someone to steal something and he chose Felicia.

The Spectacular Spider-Men #12. “Hero Worship.” Written by Greg Weisman and art by Emilio Laiso. Cover art was done by David Baldeón and Edgar Delgado. The two Electros return and are about to defeat the two Spider-Men until we get the appearance of a scaly surprise. Honestly, this issue felt a little lesser than it has been recently. We’ll see how it goes from here.

X-Men #10. “Brinksmanship.” Written by Jed MacKay and penciled by Netho Diaz. Cover art was done by Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer and Marte Gracia (Gold Medalists). This was another epic issue that was highlighted with a tension filled confrontation between Cyclops and Lundqvist. This scene was just awesome and stood out as one of the best one-on-one verbal matchups in the entire series. I loved this.

Juvenile #3. Written, illustrated and cover art by Jesus Orellana. Juvenile has just been a tremendous book over the first three issues. Sara and Max are amazing together and there is a ton of stress after they are recaptured from their escape attempt. What is going to happen to them? It is especially up in the air after we see Ella. This might be my current favorite independent book going.

Justice League: The Atom Project #2. “Cold Fusion.” Written by Ryan Parrott and John Ridley and art and cover by Mike Perkins. I will admit that I was not as into this issue of the series as I was issue #1. I do like super powered polar bears though.

Absolute Superman #4. “Chasing the Storm.” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Rafa Sandoval. Rafa Sandoval & Ulises Arreola did the cover art. Superman seems to be messing with the Peacemakers, and they are not happy about it. I actually thought this was the weakest of the Absolute Superman books so far too. Still, I like this new take on the character.

Ultimate X-Men #11. Written, illustrated and cover art by Peach Momoko. This was an interesting book. There were several mentions of other Ultimate books, including Black Panther and the new Black Cat. I wonder if this was included to make sure everyone understood that the Ultimate X-Men was still taking place in the same universe even though it is so different from anything else.

Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk #2. Written by Frank Tieri and art by Michael Sta. Maria. Tyler Kirkham and Arif Prianto did the cover art. I enjoyed how this book is building the world of this time, with all of these groups vying for power. Plus, Sabretooth takes on an alligator man. Always fun.

When I Lay My Vengeance Upon Thee #2. Written by Gus Moreno and illustrated and cover art by Jakub Rebelka. More possession this week as Father Stygian and Father Barrera have to face some seriously gross stuff.

Frankenstein New World: The Sea of Forever #1. Script by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden & Thomas Sniegoski. A follow up series from ten years ago, Mike Mignola returned to Frankenstein and young Lilja following her vision above ground. I like this take on the Frankenstein story in this new series from Dark Horse.

Parliament of Rooks #3. Written by Abigail Jill Harding with Richard Starkings and illustrated by Abigail Jill Harding. Darius has gone full monster form, though his thoughts are still with his beloved Princess Seraphina. Some beautifully drawn monster images make this book stand out. I am curious to see how this Ablaze book wraps up.

Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #4. “Rats” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Devmalya Pramanik. Davide Paratore did the cover art. Things are going rough for Moon Knight as he is out for vengeance of those that killed the Midnight Mission. Moon Knight takes it to another bloody level.

In Bloom #2. Written by Michael W. Conrad and art by John J. Pearson with Lola Bonato. John J. Pearson did the cover art. The story of the people “blooming” take another turn in a much more shocking and graphic manner. There were a couple of scenes of pure horror in this book.

Storm: Lifedream #1. Cover art was by Taurin Clarke. There are three different chapters of this Storm story that is written by and drawn by different teams. I do enjoy me some Storm and this does cover a long part of her history. It is clear that there are big plans moving ahead for Ororo Munroe.

Red Before Black #4. Written by Stephanie Phillips and illustrated by Goran Sudžuka. Goran Sudžuka with Ive Svorcina did the cover art. This book has been reminding me of Thelma and Louise while bringing in a character this issue that made me think of the Crocodile Hunter. Lots of fun.

What If Galactus Transformed Spider-Gwen #1. “Tipping the Scales.” Written by Kalinda Vazquez and art by Daniel Picciotto. Ron Lim and Israel Silva did the cover art. This is the final of the What If Galactus series and this book felt the same as a lot of the others. I was enjoying the set up, but the book ended before the big final battle. This left me feeling unsatisfied as many of these recent What Ifs have. I thought this was an excellent HALF of a story.

Power Man: Timeless #1. “Something New” Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly and art by Bernard Chang. Andrei Bressan & Rachelle Rosenberg did the cover art. This is the surprise of the week. I did not expect this to be a new series. I was not a fan of the previous Power Man: Timeless one shot from a few months ago, but this was great. They brought this Power Man into the 616 universe (it seemed like) and I suddenly found his adventure engaging as could be. I never thought I would want to read on with this book, but I do.

Phoenix #8. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Alessandro Miracolo. Yasmine Putri did the cover art. Jean Grey is going through some personal growth inside a cocoon? We get the new form of Phoenix at the end.

Wolverine #6. “Lineage.” Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Martin Coccolo with Martin Coccolo and Bryan Valenza did the cover art. Laura arrived in the book to help Logan follow the clues that are leading them to Adamantine.

Two-Face #3. Wild, but I could not find the creator credits inside this issue of Two-Face. The cover listed Ward, Veras & Plascencia but that was all I could find. I found the creators of the few pages of Zatanna at the end of the book that is appearing in all of the DC books this month. The Two-Face book has been good so far as we get a big reveal at the end of it.

Psylocke #3. “Lady-Killer.” Written by Alyssa Wong and art by Vincenzo Carratù. Cover art was done by Mahmud Asrar & Matthew Wilson. This was a solid issue of Psylocke as she met up with John Greycrow, after finding his bloody arm with a note on it last issue. This was probably my favorite issue of the series so far.

Scarlet Witch #9. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Jacopo Camagni. Russell Dauterman did the cover art. Hey, fresh off her appearance in the Avengers, Black Cat is now here stealing from Wanda. Felicia is really giving those luck powers a go. Not sure why Black Cat has suddenly been everywhere, but I don’t mind it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #6. Written by Jason Aaron and art by Juan Ferreyra. Cover art was by Jorge Fornes. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back together and… things are falling apart. They can’t get along and spend most of this issue fighting with each other. And Donnie is carrying around a rat claiming it is Master Splinter. Things aren’t good for the Turtles.

Other books this week: Grim #21, Rocketfellers #3, Bitter Root: The Next Movement ashcan, and Spirits of Vengeance #6.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S1 E3, E4, E5

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Spoilers

“Secret Identity Crisis”

“Hitting the Big Time”

“The Unicorn Unleashed”

The second week of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man on Disney + saw the release of three new episodes. Three solid episodes again this week as we see several new interpretations of Spider-villains as well as the debut of one of the most iconic ones.

The dual story of Peter’s rise as Spider-Man and Lonnie Lincoln’s downward spiral to Tombstone is fascinating. They are spending a ton of time building the character of Tombstone to become, perhaps, the big bad of the series, long term.

But we also got our first look at Otto Octavius, pre-Octopus arms. It is revealed that Octavius is behind the weapons that have been showing up around New York.

We got a version of Speed Demon, Unicorn and who will eventually (I think) become Rhino.

Harry Osborn is brought into the “Team Spider-Man” by Norman. Norman said that he couldn’t always be available, but his son could. The Peter-Harry friendship is starting to develop, even though Harry seems to be becoming Peter’s Ned Leeds in this cartoon.

This is also interesting since the show is using the Iron Man/Captain America MCU storyline as a backdrop. I assume they will show up sooner or later.

My biggest problem I have in this show is the fact that everybody wears the same clothes every time. I know it is meant to identify these characters, but it is becoming very odd. I want Peter in something besides that yellow shirt and blue jacket.

I would say that the animation style is still a little distracting, but the storytelling has been top notch so far.

Paradise S1 E4

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Spoilers

“Agent Billy Pace”

Okay, I am officially in.

I may have still been slightly uncertain about this show after the first three episodes, but after the fourth episode, I am all in. I thought this was easily the best episode of this show that I have seen yet, and it was also the one that crushed me.

This episode featured Billy Pace, with a look at his background, and it was tremendously engaging. He had a dark past and the episode played with the uncertainty that he was the reason the president was killed. As it moved on, it became clear that Billy Pace was a bad guy who had found his friend and family with Xavier and his kids. By the end of the episode, I was in love with this character.

And then the show killed him off.

Man, that scene where he is poisoned by Jane on the orders of Sinatra. Then there was a scene with Sinatra and Billy that was just tense and anxious, which is what led to his death. I know I was nervous about Billy the rest of the film at that point and I thought he had made it when he got home. Then, the rugged gets pulled out from under me.

The death of Billy Pace was a kick in the gut. I would not have guessed that his death would have meant anything to me, but it has been awhile since I have felt this upset over a character death.

By the way, the mystery of the surface world is another cool thing and having Billy kill the people doing the investigation was a rough truth that caught me off guard. I am looking forward to seeing how everything ties together.

The music was by Poison this episode… Every Rose Has Its Thorn. Was the band’s name a hint?

I am fully in on this show now, at I guess, the halfway mark. You can watch Paradise on Hulu or Disney +.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S1 E1, E2

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Spoilers

“Amazing Fantasy”

“The Parker Luck”

There is no fictional character that means more to me than Peter Parker. I have spent my entire life loving Spider-Man. He has been an inspiration to me and my own core beliefs come from him. Every time I see a new Spider-Man project, I am both excited and a little nervous.

Nervous because there is always a chance that the project will be bad. I have gone through that a few times. And to be honest, seeing the initial images from Disney +’s new Spider-Man series, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, I was a little more nervous than usual.

However, after seeing the first two episodes of season one, my fears were alleviated. I loved these episodes. Even though the show did take some leeway with some things, YFNSM seemed to get the flavor, the tone of Spider-Man right.

One of the original issues I was afraid of was the animation style, but as the episode continued, it did not bother me at all. In fact, i think it worked very well with the character of Spider-Man.

I thought the show was funny and gave us a real good look at this Peter Parker, which is MCU-adjacent. While there are definitely connections to the MCU (Hey there, Left Hand Free), the differences are here too. It sure appears that Norman Osborn is going to be the Tony Stark figure in Peter’s life as the scene in Peter’s apartment with Aunt May was basically reenacted with Norman in Tony Stark’s place.

I love the balls this series is showing. I could tell immediately that there would be plenty of hatred on the internet because of certain “woke” items. I hate that term, by the way. When I first saw Harry in the first episode, I knew there would be some hate-spewers coming for this show. The gender swapping of Curt Connors will surely get some ignorant comments too. Fine. None of that bothered me.

Even the spider bite did not upset me. It certainly was different than any other version of Spider-Man, but that is not a bad thing. The spider was not from Oscorp in the original comics, yet the we’ve seen that happen in other Spider-Man versions.

The choice of Nico as Peter’s friend is intriguing. I have always enjoyed this character in the different comics. The football player is not Flash Thompson, but Lonnie Lincoln, who, by the way, we know from the comics as Tombstone. Amadeus Cho, a Shuri-like Wakandan also show up. The side cast is very eclectic. Great Dr. Strange cameo too.

Spider-Man has had some awesome animated series in the past with the 1990s Spider-Man and Spectacular Spider-Man, but it also had some shows that felt way too childish. I was concerned this would fall into that category like Ultimate Spider-Man. After the first two episodes, I feel as if those fears have been put to rest. It may not be in the same range as those first two I mentioned, but I think this has some real room to grow.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #136.ONEDOLLAR

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January 26

Welcome to a special edition of the EYG Comic Cavalcade.

I wanted to include issues from the one dollar box that I picked up this week at Comic World, but I did not remember to add a paragraph at the beginning of yesterday’s post. So I thought we could cover it by doing a bit of a parody.

Marvel has done this several times, with Amazing Spider-Man being the top offender. In fact, just this month, Amazing Spider-Man released issue #65 and then a week later released Amazing Spider-Man #65.DEATHS. Then, this week they had ASM #66. Why they numbered the books in this way is beyond me. Why can’t #65.DEATHS just be issue #66 and continue their numbering from there? As the kids say, IDK (I hate IDK, by the way).

I have done plenty of parodies involving comics during the Comic Cavalcade (I joked about Legacy Numbering once before) so this is officially EYG Comic Cavalcade #136.ONEDOLLAR.

Books from the One Dollar box this week:

Avengers Vol. 3 #10. “Pomp & Pageantry” Written by Kurt Busiek and art by the legendary George Perez. It is an anniversary of the Avengers and the city is celebrating. This roster of Avengers features Firestar and Justice, which I like quite a bit. The party crasher is the Grim Reaper who resurrected a bunch of dead Avengers to fight against the team. Funny enough, I do not think any of them are currently dead in continuity except the original Captain Marvel and maybe Swordsman and Thunderstrike. Wonder Man, Mockingbird, Hellcat, and Dr. Druid are all currently alive and active in the Marvel Universe. It’s funny.

Black Book #1. Todd chastised me about this. He said I had never heard of the company Comico before, implying that I shouldn’t care about this book. It turned out the Black Book #1 is just a promotional book for comic that had been and will be (maybe) released by Comico. I saw both Space Ghost and Jonny Quick in here, which is funny since they are both out in Dynamite.

Captain America #601. Written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Gene Colon. The Winter Solider tells Nick Fury (the original one) a story of World War II where Cap and Bucky had to fight vampires. Listed as “A Very Special Issue of Captain America” on the cover, this was a neat book, especially with there being so many vampires in the Marvel Universe today.

The Stuff of Dreams #1. This is subtitled “A Kim Deitch Comic Book.” Kim Deitch was an American cartoonist who worked in the underground comix scene during the 1960s. This book, released in 2002, was very much in the style of those underground comix, black and white and full of controversial material.

The Dreaming # 21-23, 25, 30-31, 35. This is a Vertigo book, which was an imprint of DC Comics at the time (and is once again, I believe). It is a book of horror stories set in the Sandman universe. It featured some of the lesser Sandman characters. The books looked attractive, but I do not think I would pick up any unless they arrive in the dollar box again.

Ex Machina #9, 11-12, 33. This book is written by Brian K. Vaughn, which is absolutely a selling point, but I love the phrase Deus Ex Machina which, honestly, why I picked these up. This apparently sprung out of the events of 9-11 and I will say that, though I have not read these yet, I have scanned them through and I find this more intriguing than the Dreaming. This is from Wildstorm Comics, which was also an imprint for DC.

That’s it for this special edition of EYG Comic Cavalcade. We will continue next week with our normally numbered posts, though it will apparently only feature DC Comics and Image comics. Thanks a lot, Diamond.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #136

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January 25

It is time for the EYG Comic Cavalcade once again.

This week I did something that I rarely do. I picked up a 3rd printing of a book. I prefer the first printing and have been known to skip it if it is not 1st prints. However, Mark Spears Monsters #1 third printing had an all-new cover by Mark Spears and I loved it. It earned a bronze medal in this week’s Favorite Comic Covers of the Week and Spears continues to be absolutely fire.

Books this week:

Superman Annual #11. “For the Man Who Has Everything“. Written by Alan Moore and art and cover art by Dave Gibbons. I was talked into buying this by Todd. He talked about the story, how it had been adapted into one of the animated shows. He guaranteed that I would love it, and…. it was fine. Two things really stood out to me. This was a different Batman. He called Jason Todd “chum.” That was like an Adam West Batman line. Then, Robin saved them all, and nobody thanked him. Good thing Jason was there.

Doctor Doom & Rocket Raccoon #1. Written by J. Michael Straczynski and art by Will Robson. Cover art was done by Gary Frank & Alex Sinclair. Doctor Doom needs some specific help. And who does he call? Of course, he calls Rocket Raccoon. This was a fun issue, but some of the Dr. Doom lines felt strange, kind of out of character. It was not disqualifying for me, but it felt odd.

Amazing Spider-Man #66. “No More.” Written by Justina Ireland and art by Andrea Broccardo. Mark Bagley & Richard Isanove did the cover art. Peter is is a serious funk. The whole 8 Deaths of Spider-Man has seemingly broken him. I’m not convinced that he would be acting this way, but I do like how Cyra was so confused by his behavior. The whole kissing Black Cat was strange too.

Black Canary: Best of the Best #3. “Round Three.” Written by Tom King and art by Ryan Sook. Cover art was done by Ryan Sook. I have really enjoyed this series so far. Batman makes a guest appearance as does Ted Grant. Black Canary and Lady Shiva kicking the crap out of each other. I love this series. Tom King has done it again.

G.I. Joe #3. Written by Joshua Williamson and art and cover art by Tom Reilly. There are some trouble inside the Joes and physicality breaks out. Meanwhile, Clutch is inside Cobra, trying to stay hidden and get a message to the Joes. Will Cobra Commander find him? The new G.I. Joe has been solid so far.

Fantastic Four #28. “Die By the Sword.” Written by Ryan North and penciled by Steven Cummings. Cover art was done by Joshua Cassara & Dean White. Reed and Sue try to find a way through the magical dome over Latveria and they approach Dane Whitman, the Black Knight for aid and suggestions. Things don’t go the way they want. I have loved Ryan North’s run on FF, and I am excited that he gets to write the upcoming One World Under Doom event series.

Uncanny X-Men #9. “Off the Leash.” Written by Gail Simone and art by Andrei Bressan. Cover art was done by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson. I did not like the end of this one. I was shocked at the final page image with the brutal Wolfpack, a group of dog-like sentinels. I definitely hope something happens to save the character that look pretty dead at the end.

TVA #2. Written by Katharyn Blair and art by Pere Perez. Cover art was done by Pere Perez and GURU-eFX. We have Sylvie. We have Daimon Hellstrom. Such a fun group of characters, including our favorite ones from the Loki Disney + series. However, I am worried about Mobius. He ended the book looking pretty bad, in a pool of blood. I do not want him to be dead.

Ultimate Spider-Man #13. Written by Jonathan Hickman and art by Marco Checchetto. Cover art was done by Marco Checchetto and Matthew Wilson. Peter and Harry are in a lot of trouble as they are in the Ultimate Universe’s Savage Land as Kraven prepared to hunt them. I hope we get a Ultimate Ka-Zar. Meanwhile, Richard is trying to take his missing father’s place with the help of the AI that had replaced Peter.

Time Waits #3. Written by Chip Zdarsky and David Brothers and art by Marcus To and Marvin Sianipar. Marcus To did the cover art. Robert is back in his time and is on trial for his life. Wyatt is out for his own revenge. Robert is actually just looking to get back to his love. Zdarsky has been excellent over the years, and I do enjoy this one. I have had a little more challenge to follow these characters, but it is entertaining for sure.

X-Men: Xavier’s Secret #1. Two stories in this one shot, first one featuring Cyclops and Jean the night before she headed off to outer space as Phoenix. The second one dealing with Charles and his machinations.

W0rldtr33 #12. Written by James Tynion IV and art by Fernando Blanco. This series returned from its break. This was just like I remembered it. Confusing but completely engaging. This was involving Sammi and a flashback (?) to 1999. I love the layout of the book panels. It is original and creative.

Drawing Blood #7. Written by David Avallone and penciled by Ben Bishop. Cover art was by Kevin Eastman. Another book that was back after several months off, Bookman goes home to Maine and does not find himself welcome. We get a glance at the back story of our favorite fictional comic book writer.

Doll Parts: A Lovesick Tale #2. Written, illustrated and cover art by Luana Vecchio. A second issue that i think I liked even more than issue one, which I liked a lot. Maddie finds herself in a bunch of bad situations, with boys at school and a weirdo from the gore forum she had been posting on. There are some real tense moments here and you are never sure what might happen. This has been a great story so far.

Blade Red Band #4. Written by Bryan Hill and art by Federica Mancin & C.F. Villa. Blade and Elena have some bloody fights, chopping several vampires to pieces. This may be one of the few “Red band” books that really earned that title. Blade is still in pursuit of Pontious.

Justice League Unlimited #3. Written by Mark Waid and art and cover art by Dan Mora. Plastic Man is here. I am not sure where the Plastic man recent series falls in continuity, if at all, but Plastic Man is recovering his powers here. And what happened to Swamp Thing??? This new Justice League book has been solid so far and I do like how there are a bunch of characters to use instead of just Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

Hyde Street #3. Featuring storytellers Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis. Cover art was done by Ivan Reis & Danny Miki with Brad Anderson. Merry Christmas on Hyde Street. Pranky and Mister X-Ray are after Santa Claus. Yup, that is right. And then we get an appearance by the Matinee Monster. The level of horror weirdness in this series has been sensational so far. It reminds me of the best of Ice Cream Man.

Mystique #4. “Covers” Written, art and cover art by Declan Shalvey (Gold Medalist). Mystique is in search of Destiny. But she is doing it with a much more powerful ability. The ability to mimic the powers of the person in which she is shape shifting into. Angel? Juggernaut? Others? What about Nick Fury? This has been a showcase for Raven so far.

Phoenix #7. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Marco Renna. Yasmine Putri did the cover art. Phoenix takes on Thanos, who has the special artifact called the Wizard’s Eye, giving Thanos even more power. Can Phoenix stop him? Guest starring Nova, Rocket Raccoon, Captain Marvel and Sif.

The Tin Can Society #5. “Just Kids” Written by Peter Warren and art by Francesco Mobili. Cover art was by Francesco Mobili and Chris Chuckry (Silver Medalist). Our group of friends, investigating the death of their friend. They launched an assault on who they thought it was. This woman had a suit, but she was not inside it. The final page was a shocking reveal. I have enjoyed this book every issue. I wish I knew the characters better, but it has been a ride the whole time.

Metamorpho #2. “The Woman from Yesterday!” Written by Al Ewing and art by Steve Lieber. Cover art by Steve Lieber and Lee Loughridge. The relationship between Rex mason, Metamorpho and Sapphire Stagg hit a snag in this issue with some cool elemental action. I still enjoy the throwback feel this book has adopted.

What If Galactus Transformed Rogue #1. Written by Ann Nocenti and art by Stephen Byrne. Ron Lim and Israel Silva did the cover art. The next of the series of What If…? involving Galactus having to choose a different Marvel hero to be his herald. This was is okay, but the gimmick may be starting to show some ware. Watcher was back this issue though and he is always welcome.

Space Ghost #9. Written by David Pepose and art by Jonathan Lau. Bjorn Barends did the cover variant C art. Space Ghost is in a battle with the supervillain Metallus and so much is in jeopardy. Space Ghost has been such a surprisingly good series from Dynamite.

Iron Man #4. “Hellman Circle” Written by Spencer Ackerman and art by Javier Pina. Cover art was done by Yasmine Putri. It also said that the Scarlet Witch spread was done by Rod Reis. Iron Man, Ironheart and Melinda May team up to raid a Stark factory. And they come across yet another Stark Sentinel.

Other books this week: The Terminator #4, Kill All Immortals #7, Life #4, Absolute Wonder Woman #4, Scarlet Witch #8, Void Rivals #16, Lawful #7, and House of Slaughter #29.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #135

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January 18

I got the DC/Image books on Wednesday on NEW COMIC BOOK DAY and then the Marvel/Dark Horse/DSTLRY etc. on Friday, making a full week of books. I am afraid this may be the new status quo moving forward until Diamond figures out what exactly is going on.

We had two of the Favorite Comic Covers of the Week, but only one Comic Cavalcade. When I got back from Wolf Man early this afternoon, there was no internet and it was out until around 5:30ish. That gave me an opening to finish off the books for this week.

Books this week:

Green Lantern Dark #1-2. Written by Tate Brombal and art and cover art by Werther Dell’edera. I picked up #2 a few weeks ago because it looked interesting and I seem to be liking the Elseworlds books in DC more than I like the Marvel alternate future books. I picked up the #1 on eBay and I grabbed a beautiful foil virgin cover. This was a lot of fun, and, with the creative team involved, it had definite feel of Something Killing the Children to it.

Amazing Spider-Man #65.DEATHS. “Death and the Spider.” Written by Derek Landy and art by Kev Walker. Cover art was done by Mark Bagley & Richard Isanove (Silver Medalist). Not sure why ASM does this. Why not just make this issue #66 instead of making it 65.DEATHS? Peter Parker is struggling with what he is having to do as earth’s champion and Phil Coulson’s, the possessor of the Death Infinity stone, presence does not seem to be helping much.

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #15. Written by Tate Brombal and art by Isaac Goodhart. Cover art was done by Nick Robles. This arc of Christopher Chaos ends with this issue as we get the truth behind what exactly Christopher Chaos is and we get a path forward. Apparently this book will be continuing with a new storyline moving forward, and this was one of the best issues of Christopher Chaos in awhile.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #29. “Webs of Wakanda Part Three.” Written by Cody Ziglar and art by Daniele Di Nicuolo. Cover art was by Federico Vicentini & Ceci De La Cruz. The Miles is a vampire storyline came to a close with his face off with Black Panther. Miles seems to have picked up yet another problem with Anansi.

Avengers Assemble #5. Written by Steve Orlando and penciled by Jose Luis. Cover art was by Leinil Francis Yu & Romulo Fajardo Jr. The Aveng.e.r.s all assemble to take on the Serpent Society in a big war in the end of this mini series. I did like the combination of these characters with Cap.

What If…? Galactus Transformed Moon Knight #1. Written by Alex Segura and penciled by Scot Eaton & Chris Campana. Ron Lim & Israel Silva did the cover art. This is the third of this stretch of What If books featuring Galactus. This book was okay, featuring Moon Knight and the other previous Galactus heralds.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #2. Written by Christos Gage and art by Eric Gapstur. Leonardo Romero did the cover art. The book tied to the upcoming Disney + animated series is a fun book. Spider-Man figures out his web sooters and then faces off with the Enforcers in this issue.

Ultimate Wolverine #1. Written by Chris Condon and art by Alessandro Cappuccio. Cover art was by Lee Bermejo. Ultimate Wolverine is this universe’s Winter Soldier. Powerful story as the Wolverine goes through some faces that we recognize. It is a violent book and a really strong start for one of the most anticipated Ultimate books of the run.

Standstill #6. Written by Lee Loughridge and art by Alex Riegal. Cover art was by Andrew Robinson. Ryker is in pretty bad shape and Colin is even worse as this book has two more issues remaining. I say it every time, but I love the way this book is structured and put together, panel-wise.

Challengers of the Unknown #2. “Mother June” Written by Christopher Cantwell and art by Jorge Fornés, Sean Izaakse, and Amancry Nahuelpan. The cover art was done by Sean Izaakse and Jorge Fornés (Silver Medalist). The mystery involving the Challengers of the Unknown and the Justice League Watchtower marches on with Batman and other Leaguers investigating.

Those Not Afraid #1. Written by Kyle Starks and art by Patrick Piazzalunga. Glenn Fabry did the cover art. Two serial killers meet up and decide to see which one of them can set the all time murder record. A wild mini series from Dark Horse.

Juvenile #2. Written, art and cover art by Jesus Orellana (Bronze Medalist). Juvenile is one of my favorite new books from Image. I love the relationship being shown of Max and Sara. I love the set up with the kids being drugged to keep their telepathy and telekinesis in check.

The Question: All Along the Watchtower #3. “Do the Collapse” Written by Alex Segura and art by Cian Tormey. Cover art was by Cian Tormey & Romulo Fajardo Jr. I have been enjoying this series and I love how it is weaved in with Challengers of the Unknown and Justice League. Question and Batwoman are trying to figure out things while doing what they can to trust each other.

Feral #9. Written by Tony Fleecs and art by Trish Forstner & Tone Rodriguez. Cover B art by Trish Forstner & Tony Fleecs. Tragedy strikes as our cats try to figure out what is going on with the Lady. Feral has been consistently excellent and filled with stress each issue.

Knights vs. Samurai #4. Written by David Dastmalchian and art by Fede Mele. Cover art was done by Gianenrico Bonacorsi and Bjorn Barends (Gold Medalist). Knights, Samurais and dragons…oh my!

Exceptional X-Men #5. Written by Eve L. Ewing and art by Carmen Carnero. Carmen Carnero & Nolan Woodward did the cover art. Finding out about Kitty’s murderous past sent a ripple through the new students, causing some to bolt.

Laura Kinney Wolverine #2. “The Devil in Me- Part 1” Written by Erica Schultz and art by Giada Belviso. Elena Casagrande & Edgar Delgado did the cover art. Laura heads into Hell’s Kitchen and she winds up on the other side of Daredevil (aka Elektra). They then team up to try and stop a group using an exploding mutant to blow up a protest.

Nights #12. “Nice While it Lasted.” Written by Wyatt Kennedy and art by Luigi Formisano. This issue definitely feels like a conclusion in many ways. I had not paid too close of attention to this book for the last several issues and it has been a long time since #11 came out. This felt like a satisfying issue though while leaving it open for future books. This is probably my last one though.

Living Hell#2. Written, drawn and cover art by Caitlin Yarsky. Jerome is out in search of demons and ghosts to return to hell. There are some intriguing creatures in this issue, including the two spirits of old women who were on the cover. Lot of creativity in this Dark Horse book.

Incredible Hulk #21. “Wolves of the Old World Part Two” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Danny Earles. Nic Klein did the cover art. Hulk, Werewolf by Night and Charlie, in the Godskin of Lycana face off with the monstrous wolf Varcolac. Incredible Hulk has been a little up and down recently. I do like the use of Jack Russell in this book.

Doll Parts: A Lovesick Tale #1. Written, illustrated and cover art by Luana Vecchio. When I picked up the Lovesick series a year or so ago, I was not a huge fan of the book. It was interesting, but kind of dirty. I debated whether to pick this issue up. I was glad I did because this was a really good story that was still rough at times. The story followed 12-year old Maddie through some tough situations. I was compelled with the story the whole way.

Minor Arcana #5. “The Ballad of Budd St. Pierre, 1976.” Written, art and cover art by Jeff Lemire. We get some back story on Budd St. Pierre, Teresa’s late grandfather. This felt like a bit of a filler issue, but it is important to learn more about this character.

Storm #4. “A Flame in the Wind.” Written by Murewa Ayodele and art by Lucas Werneck. Mateus Manhanini did the cover art. Storm is having dinner with Dr. Doom. She had to not use her mutant powers for seven days because of the deal that Brother Voodoo had made to save Ororo’s life. She may not make that time limit.

Immortal Thor #19. “Tales of Asgard.” Written by Al Ewing and a whole bunch of artists. Cover art was by Alex Ross. We do not have Thor in this Thor comic. We come across a lot of the other characters around Asgard, including Sif, the other dimensional son of Thor, Magni, Loki, the Warriors Three, Executioner and Enchantress.

Rogue the Savage Land #1. “Heroes Never Come Home Part 1: So Alive” Written by Tim Seeley and art by Zulema Scotto Lavina. Kaare Andrews did the cover art. A flashback series when Rogue wound up in the Savage Land with Magneto. I like Rogue, I like Ka-Zar and I like the Savage Land so I think this one will be fun.

You Won’t Feel a Thing #1. Written by Scott Snyder and illustrated by Jock. John Reader was a retired detective, dying of a brain tumor, but one of the cases that shook his life as a young man, The Chatter Man, is back. Can his once sharp mind help bring this vicious serial killer to justice. A great and challenging story from DSTLRY.

Through the Boughs #1. A group of Christmas stories from a plethora of great comic creators. Creators including Patrick McHale & Jim Campbell, Sweeney Boo, James Tynion IV & Jensine Eckwall, Molly Mendoza, Ryan Andrews, K. Wroten, and Grim Wilkins.

Other books this week: Finders Keepers #1, Skin Police #4, Anansi Boys #7, Spirits of Vengeance #5, The New Gods #2, The Nice House by the Sea #5 and the Moon is Following Us #5.

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week Part 2

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January 17

So with the issues facing the comic book stores with the bankruptcy declared by Diamond, the biggest of the delivery companies for comic books, nobody is really sure what delivery dates may be moving forward.

Truthfully though, it seemed that this week’s Diamond’s issues were not because of the bankruptcy. Todd was telling me this week was because of a snowstorm that struck Diamond’s big warehouse in Memphis and led to a shutdown over several days which led to the distributor’s delay. Of course, this has been the rule over the last few weeks to month with Diamond as the delivery has been out of whack.

That means we have the second time when I am doing a second post of Favorite Comic Covers in a week. This week included mostly Marvel and some independents, as DC and Image was this past Wednesday. I do not have a problem with that. The more the merrier, I suppose.

Medalists this issue:

Bronze Medalist

Amazing Spider-Man #65.DEATHS

Cover art by Mark Bagley & Richard Isanove

Great Spidey cover with the torn mask over the skull. It is absolutely a compelling image that makes one a touch nervous.

Silver Medalist

Immortal Thor #19

Cover art by Alex Ross

Last year’s champion of the EYG Comic Cover Artist of the Year makes his first appearance in the 2025 race with this awesome Thor cover. This pose strikes the power of Thor as he sits upon that throne with Mjolnir and Stormbringer within reach. I love the golden huge all around Thor giving him that specific hue.

Gold Medalist

Green Hornet/Miss Fury #1

Variant cover S

Cover Art by Mark Spears

The early season leader in the race for Best Cover Artist of 2025 is an artist who may be threatening to run away with this award this year. This is already his second gold medal for 2025 and his book Mark Spears Monsters has not even come out this year yet. Mark Spears is absolutely on fire and this cover for Dynamite shows how awesome he is. Mark Spears has thrown down the gauntlet to the other comic book cover artists out there and we’ll see how things go with the rest of the year.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #134

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January 12

Welcome back to the EYG Comic Cavalcade! It was a big week this week especially with the back issues.

Last week I had purchased the first five issue trade paperback of Sex Criminals and I really enjoyed the book so I went to eBay to search up for the series and I found the whole series, #1-30 and #69, available. I will say that when they came in that big box, I was not prepared for the covers that were on these books. I was needing a fan to cool off. The quality of this book was high and that should not be a surprise considering it was done by Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky. I have not yet read all the books, but I am looking forward to it.

Another reason I got a nice influx of books this week was because Comic World added four $1 boxes of books and I could not avoid the sale. I picked up a bunch of Ed Brubaker Captain Americas, most of vol. 2 of Challengers of the Unknown, some issues from Neil Gaiman’s 1602, as well as an Avengers Annual from 1999.

Back to eBay, after this week, I am down to just five remaining Groo the Wanderer books from Marvel/Epic that I am missing. The late issues of that book are difficult to find because they were low printed at the time.

Other books this week:

Amazing Spider-Man #65. “Signifying Nothing.” Written by Joe Kelly and art by Cafu. Mark Bagley & Richard Isanove did the cover art. The 8 Deaths of Spider-Man continues with Spidey taking on the challenge of Callix & Cyra, the twins. Phil Coulson makes a guest appearance, which is not the best of things considering he is now the Infinity Stone Death Stone guardian.

Uncanny X-Men #8. “Finale.” Written by Gail Simone and art by Javier Garrón. Cover art was by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson. The crossover with X-Men finishes up in this issue as the two X-teams face off again over what they should do with Xavier. The issue continued to tease Inmate X, who is apparently not Xavier as I thought.

New Champions #1. Written by Steve Foxe and art by Ivan Fiorelli with Ig Guara. Cover art was done by Gleb Melnikov & Edgar Delgado. A new group of young heroes form under the name New Champions and they kick off their first issue. Some of these characters were from the recent Spider Woman run and they are an intriguing group. I do enjoy young heroes and I liked previous versions of Champions so I hope this will be a fun book.

All-New Venom #2. Written by Al Ewing and art by Carlos Gomez. Adam Kubert & Laura Martin did the cover art. The mystery of the identity of the all-new Venom deepens this issue as they seemingly eliminated Luke Cage as a possibility. I am not clear on how they did it, but Dylan Brock stated it at the end of the issue, so I guess that is meant to be the case. Luke Cage was one of my favorites to make the new Venom, but now I am not sure. I can’t see Robbie or Madame Masque being the new Venom, but Rick Jones feels too obvious. I am curious where this is headed.

Return of the Living Dead #1. Written by S.A. Check and James Kuhoric and art by Andrea Arcari. Cover art by Mark Spears (Gold Medalist). When a toxic gas is accidently released at Peddler’s Point, the reaction of nearby people seem a touch ghoulish. How do you survive a new outbreak of zombies out for brains? The new book from American Mythology Productions is hot, big reason is because of the Mark Spears cover.

Marley’s Ghost Graphic Novel. Based on the story A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, this graphic novel came about after nine pages of an adaptation done by legendary Harvey Kurtzman was found. The adaptation was expanded upon by Josh O’Neill and Shannon Wheeler with illustrations by Gideon Kendall. It is a beautiful and faithful adaptation of Dickens’ classic from Ablaze.

Transformers #16. Written by Daniel Warren Johnson and art by Jorge Corona. Cover art was by Daniel Warren Johnson & Mike Spicer. The Autobots and Decepticons fight on both on earth and on Cybertron, but just wait… he’s coming! It is just a matter of time before the big man himself, Megatron, finds his way back.

Sentinels #4. “We Assembled Him in the Kitchen.” Written by Alex Paknadel and art by Justin Mason. Justin Mason & Federico Blee did the cover art. This story centered around the character of Justin Seyfert, a young boy who was able to control a Sentinel. This character was around back in the days of the Avengers Academy and I always liked him. His death in Avengers Arena saddened me and this fate made it all the worse.

The Blood Brothers Mother #3. Written by Brian Azzarello and art and cover art by Eduardo Risso. It has been awhile since the second issue of this DSTLRY series came out. In fact, looking at CLZ, issue two was released in the first week of September. I love these DSTLRY books but the time between release really make it difficult to keep the story in my head. This Western tale was enjoyable, but a closer release schedule would help me considerably.

Wolverine #5. “The Call of the Adamantine” Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Martin Coccolo. Martin Coccolo and Bryan Valenza did the cover art. This new story involving Wolverine and other characters with adamantium in them is off to a very interesting start. I am also happy that our new Wendigo, aka Leonard, is still very much involved. I love the new Wendigo so here is to more with him.

Blood Hunters #5. Written by Erica Schultz and penciled by Chris Campana & Robert Gill. The team up to rescue Dagger came to an end this issue with the Blood Hunters heading in their own ways. It was nice to see Cloak make his triumphant return to the side of Dagger in this issue. I have been a fan of Cloak & Dagger since their debut way back in the pages of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man.

Absolute Batman #4. “The 200″ Part Four. Written by Scott Snyder with art by Gabriel Hernandez Walta. Cover art was by Nick Dragotta & Frank Martin. We get some flashbacks to a young Bruce Wayne as he was starting to become whom he is. This Batman has been very fascinating as he is different yet similar to the Batman we know.

Namor #6. “The Wyrd of the Waves” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Paul Davidson & Alex Lins. Cover art was by Alexander Lozano. Namor battles himself, literally, as he continues to move toward reclaiming the throne of Atlantis. Meanwhile, the kings of the sea are all preparing for all out war.

What If Galactus Transformed Gambit #1. Written by Josh Trujillo and art by Manuel Garcia. Ron Lim & Israel Silva did the cover art. This was a much better issue of “What If Galactus Transformed…” than last issue was. This one felt like a complete story as the last one did not. Even better yet… this issue marked an appearance by Uatu the Watcher! He has been sorely missing from these special What If books and I was ecstatic that he was included here. Uatu should be in every What If book, period.

What If Mickey and Friends Became the Fantastic Four #1. “The Fantastic Four vs. Mole Pete.” Written by Riccardo Secchi (plot by Steve Behling) and art by Lorenzo Pastovicchio. Cover D variant art was done by Skottie Young. For example, the Watcher is not in this What If book, but why couldn’t he be here? I would love it if the Watcher was here and maybe even played by a Disney character.

Geiger #10. Written by Geoff Johns and penciled by Gary Frank. Cover art was done by Gary Frank (Silver Medalist). Mister Geiger is in bad shape and he is losing control of his powers. Is he a danger to everyone? Can Junkyard Joe help Geiger at all? Crossovers are happening in the Ghost Machine imprint.

NYX #7. Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly with art by Enid Balan. Cover art was done by Sara Pichelli & Federico Blee. Synch vs. Prodigy… but not to the death as the cover seems to indicate. There is also problems forming for Ms. Marvel as some of the other mutants around are getting after her for keeping a secret identity. Is this leading to Kamala Khan revealing her true self soon? Feels like that.

Daredevil: Unleash Hell: Red Band #1. Written by Erica Schultz and art by Valentina Pinti and Jose Luis. Elektra battles to protect Hell’s Kitchen while Muse is finding a way of getting his spirit out of Hell and possess another disgruntled artist. With Muse scheduled to be one of the main villains in the MCU upcoming series Daredevil: Born Again, it was time to bring him back in the Marvel Comics Universe.

The Lucky Devils #1. “First Circle: Limbo.” Written by Charles Soule and art and cover by Ryan Browne. It is a new, fun series from the creative team that brought us Eight Billion Genies. The Lucky Devils has the same flair, the same feel to it as that series. The Little Devils themselves are a very cool character design and I am excited to see where this story goes. It should be wild.

Green Hornet/Miss Fury #1. Written by Alex Segura & Henry Barajas and art by Federico Sorressa. Cover art by Francesco Francavilla. Dynamite Comics has been on a huge roll lately with their adaptations of older, classic characters and this time they are taking the Green Hornet and Miss Fury, teaming them up in their own book. I loved the noir feel of this book and the way they brought these characters into the present day of comic book presentation. Another big win for Dynamite.

Parliament of Rooks #2. “Summer” Written by Abigail Jill Harding with Richard Starkings and art and cover art by Abigail Jill Harding (Bronze Medalist). The love story hiding in a horror story finds its footing as this book moves on. The town is getting more and more scared over the monster they believe is loose but Princess Seraphina and Darius are still meeting in secrecy. This is dark and beautiful, another solid book from Ablaze comics.

Ultimate Black Panther #12. Written by Bryan Hill and art by Stefano Caselli. Stefano Caselli & David Curiel did the cover art. It is the face off between Black Panther and Moon Knight of the ultimate universe, but will T’Challa lose himself in this final showdown? Not if some guests at the end of the book have anything to say about it.

Batman: Dark Patterns #2. “We are the Wounded.” Written by Dan Watters and art and cover art by Hayden Sherman. Batman is investigating the Wound Man, and the twist of this issue is quite well done. This feels like an older version of Batman and I really have enjoyed the book so far.

Other Books this Week: Magik #1, Napalm Lullaby #8, Where Monsters Lie: Cull-De-Sac #2, and Moon Man #6.