Welcome back for the EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week, this week on time on Wednesday night AND ALL COVERS AVAILABLE as it was NEW COMIC BOOK DAY and my comic shop, Comic World had the covers on time (sort of). I do not have to go back to Dubuque on Thursday or Friday to pick up the rest of the books this week. I have them all (for the most part).
Last week, we were all Marvel and DC. Interestingly enough, this week there are none from those two companies among the medalists.
Here we go…
Bronze Medalist
Parliament of Rooks #2.
Variant Cover B
Cover art by Abigail Jill Harding
A beautiful cover in the elegant black and white. This book has had two exceptional covers to kick off the series, both lovely and somewhat frightening too.
Silver Medalist
Geiger #10
Cover art by Gary Frank
The cover combines the faces of Geiger and Junkyard Joe in a very intriguing image. The glowing green of Geiger’s skull is very much popping off this cover and the smoke behind the Joe face is excellent as well.
Gold Medalist
Return of the Living Dead #1
Cover art by Mark Spears
This new series from American Mythology Productions is very hot and has been released some over the last couple of weeks. The cover by artist Mark Spears, himself burning up the cover work, is amazing and the cover has helped this book become such a success. Mark Spears was awarded the EYG Comic Artist of the Year in the Year in Review and I think he may be the early leader for the cover artist of the year for the 2025 Year in Review.
Because of the shipping issues that has been causing problems with the new comics over the last several weeks, I am back for the second EYG Comic Cavalcade of the week. It was a nice day today of just reading the books I picked up from Comic World on Friday.
It is mostly Marvel and DC this time, although there are a couple of other companies represented this post.
Books this week:
Sam Wilson, Captain America #1. “Better Angels” Part 1. Written by Greg Pak & Evan Narcisse. Art is done by Eder Messias with Valentine De Landro. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. A new Sam Wilson book opened up with a big cookout featuring Sam and a bunch of the black Marvel super heroes. It was a birthday party for Isaiah Bradley. It gets interrupted by vampires and then by Red Hulk.
The Spectacular Spider-Men #11. “Spider-What?” Written by Greg Weisman and art by Andres Genolet & Von Randal. Emilio Laiso & Edgar Delgado did the cover art. This was a weird issue with Peter and Miles getting shrunk down and having to face the Seelie Court. The new hero Elementary’s heart is judged. We also meet Cobweb. Strange book this month.
When I Lay My Vengeance Upon Thee #1. Written by Gus Moreno and illustrated by Jakub Rebelka. One of the few independent books this week is from Boom! Studios and it is about a disgraced father named Manuel Barrera who is sent to learn the ability of the exorcism, and the weirdness that comes with it. I like the look of this comic as it is very dark and different than most other books out there.
Saga #71. Written by Brian K. Vaughn and art and cover art by Fiona Staples (Silver Medalist). Saga continues with the growing problems faced by Hazel as she tries to convince Emesis that they were still friends. Saga is constantly an entertaining book and there are things that happen that you never expect to happen. There is some excellent storytelling going on with this series.
Avengers #22. “The Casino Job” Part 1. Written by Jed MacKay and art by Farid Karami. Cover art was by Valero Schiti & Federico Blee. The Avengers head into space to attempt to steal the data on the “Missing Moment” which is what Kang has been searching for for a long time. However, it seems that their attempted theft was spoiled by another thief getting to the data before they could… Black Cat! Of course, you knew that if you happened to look at the cover…
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #28. “Webs of Wakanda Part Two” Written by Cody Ziglar and art by Danielle Di Nicuolo. Cover C variant art was done by Iban Coello (Gold Medalist). Miles is inside Wakanda and he must face off with Bast in a chance to cure the vampirism that has taken over the hero. It looked as if there is something unexpected that may block his path.
Werewolf by Night Red Band #6. Written by Jason Loo and art by Ton Lima. E.M. Gist did the cover art. Jack and Elsa Bloodstone are searching for a silver werewolf in an attempt to stop its massacring of people, much like Jack has been doing. The events do not leave Jack or Elsa in good shape and Lilith is here with her own motivations.
The Ultimates #8. Written by Deniz Camp with art by Juan Frigeri. Cover art was done by Dike Ruan & Neeraj J. Menon. The ultimate version of the Guardians of the Galaxy is here hoping to rescue America Chavez. Why? They have a long and futuristic story to share. I do like the formation of this new version of the Guardians and I hope they can make a return in the future.
Daredevil #17. “Introductory Rites Part Seventeen” Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Aaron Kuder. Cover art by John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Richard Isanove. The cover has Daredevil squaring off with Bullseye, but that does not happen inside this book. Instead DD is trying to face off with the demons out there possessing people and causing him grief. DD finds out that Matt Murdock still has his lawyer license, conveniently so he can go into court to face off with possessed Foggy Nelson.
X-Factor #6. “Traitors” Written by Mark Russell and art by Bob Quinn. Cover art was done by Greg Land & Frank D’Armata. Havok and the remainder of X-Force grieve the loss of their teammate Oskar from last issue. This causes trouble among the people who are in charge. X-Factor does not feel like it has much longer in this form.
Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #9. “Haunted” Part 9. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Paolo Villanelli. Mark Brooks did the cover art. Gwen is in all kinds of trouble, facing her past choices in her own mind. Meanwhile, Black Tarantula is out working on stopping Mister Fear.
What If Galactus Transformed the Hulk #1. Written by Mat Groom and art by Lan Medina. Ron Lim & Israel Silva did the cover art. I really liked the story that we got of Galactus taking the Hulk and making him his new herald. The problem was, this book ended at a spot where the story felt like it was just getting ready to get to the climax. This is a one-shot so I do not think we will be getting a resolution to the story and that makes me feel like it shorted me a finale.
Justice League: The Atom Project #1. “Atomic Collision.” Written by Ryan Parrott and John Ridley with art by Mike Perkins. Cover art by Mike Perkins & Adriano Lucas. My friend Todd told me this was a one-shot, but he must be wrong about that. This included a couple of Atoms and Captain Atom trying to fix some of the wayward powers in the DC Universe. If this is a one-shot, then the story leaves off much like this month’s What If.
Two-Face #2. “The Deadly Divorce” Written by Christian Ward and art by Fabio Veras. Cover art was done by Baldemar Rivas. This mini series featuring Harvey Dent is very fascinating, especially since it seems as one of the big antagonists of the series is inside Harvey’s own mind prison. It is a cool flip on the courtroom story.
Absolute Superman #3. “Boy from the Purple Prairie.” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Rafa Sandoval. Cover art was done by Rafa Sandoval & Ulises Arreola (Bronze Medalist). We get a full issue on Krypton, as we are seeing how the planet would eventually be destroyed. It is more than just that though as the issue is exploring a level of class among the Kryptonians and it does take the familiar story of the planet’s death and shake it up a bit. Krypto is here too.
Deadpool & Wolverine #1. “The Secret Lives.” Written by Benjamin Pearcy and art by Joshua Cassara. Cover art was done by Joshua Cassara & GURU-eFX. I liked this issue quite a bit because it takes Deadpool and does something different with him and sticking Wolverine in the story worked very well. It is not just a book that capitalizes from the movie. It has its own story to tell.
Other books this week: Creature Commandos #4, The Human Fly #2, Cable: Love & Chrome #1, and X-Force #7.
It is the first EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week of the new year. 2025 kicked off with a delay in the delivery of the comics to Comic World, which pushed this post back from Wednesday.
Last year’s Cover artist of the year was Alex Ross and the Platinum Medal winner for cover was Spider-Man: Black Suit & Blood #2 (Variant edition). Can Alex Ross defend his win this year or will there be another cover artist who will overcome the champ? (psst…Mark Spears?)
So… here is the medalists this week…
Bronze Medalist
Absolute Superman #3
Cover art by Rafa Sandoval & Ulises Arreola
It looks like Krypton has seen better days on the cover of Absolute Superman #3. The glowing green is a really strong standout color and I love how the title card is outlined in green too.
Silver Medalist
Saga #71
Cover art by Fiona Staples
This cover’s colors pop out of the new cover of Saga with Emesis in he corner. The background makes it look like a colorful web, but with closer examination, this is a circus tent. A lovely cover that also is very foreboding.
Gold Medalist
Miles Morales, Spider-Man #28
Variant Cover C
Cover art by Iban Coello
Switched out my A cover for this one which I saw on the stand. I love this one with the background of Black Panther and the beautiful NY inside him. I also have a sweet spot for the white background.
Happy New Year. 2025 is here and we kick off the first EYG Comic Cavalcade of the new year. Of course, that meant that the delivery of new books tis still goobered up as it has been for the last several weeks.
I went up on New Year’s Day to Comic World with the knowledge that there would not be any books, but I had some coming from Todd and it was going to be worth it.
I was going to make the trip worthwhile as I picked up some other books at Comic World. With them lacking the books this week, I picked up these books to help even if it is just a little help. I grabbed some graphic novels off the shelf. One was Road Rage and the other was Rain. I have not gotten to either of those, but I wanted to touch on them here.
Books this week:
30 Days of Night: Spreading the Disease #1-5. Written by Dan Wickline and art by Tony Sandoval. All five of my issues were cover B variants done by Nat Jones. This series from IDW and it featured a lot of vampires and it provided a very dark and scary feel to it.
Dark Days #1-6. Written by Steve Niles and Ben Templeton. More vampires from the same studio. I actually started reading the first issue of this series and realized that it came after the 30 Days of Night. So I stopped and went to the 30 Days of Night to read first. It was not a direct sequel, but it felt in the same world. Very dark and creepy art.
Spectregraph #4. Written by James Tynion IV and illustrated by Christian Ward. Cover B art by Ian Bertram. This is the wrap up of the DSTLRY book from James Tynion IV. The house is filled with ghosts and can the two females escape their fate? There is a twist at the end of the book that is a touch confusing, but I do enjoy the creativity of it all.
Groo the Wanderer #95, #112. Written, illustrated and cover art by Sergio Aragones. Picked these two up on eBay and they got here really fast. I mean… I ordered these on Monday or Tuesday this week and they arrived on Thursday. That is really amazing.
Sex Criminals trade paperback. This collects the first five issues of the Sex Criminals series from Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky. This was a wild and sexy issue. Oh, and dirty. So very dirty. It was a wonderful group of issues. I loved this and went to eBay to pick up the complete series.
Motherfu*kin’ Monsters #1. Written by J. Holtham and artist and cover art by Michael Lee Harris. This is an issue from Image’s The Horizon Project, a group of one shot issues that featured protagonists from a marginalized background set in a popular genre. The books called itself the Evil Dead for blerds. I was not a big fan of this book. The art was too cartoonish for my tastes.
Missing on the Moon #1. Created by Cory Crater and art by Damian Couceiro. Cover art by Damian Couceiro with Dee Cunniffe. Mad Cave has a new book featuring a new world that takes place on the moon. It was interesting and had a lot of sci-fi elements that were cool.
Hornsby & Halo #2. The storytellers of this book are Peter J. Tomasi & Peter Snejbjerg. Peter Snejbjerg did the cover art. Zack and Rose show off their angel and demon forms as this books starts to pick up some momentum.
G.I. Joe #2. Written by Joshua Williamson and art and cover art by Tom Reilly. G.I. Joe and Cobra are meeting up for the first time and terrible things are happening. The Energon Universe has become huge for Image and it brings Cobra Commander back to the front. I have been waiting for the second issue for a few weeks and this was worth the wait.
The Rocketfellers #2. Written by Peter J. Tomasi and art and cover art by Francis Manapul. The Ghost Machine series sees the Rocketfeller family trying to find a Christmas tree. Who thought that this would be major issue. Yet, I guess with the Rocketfellers, anything could happen.
Dust to Dust #1. Written by JG Jones and Phil Bram and art and cover art by JG Jones. This is a beautiful new series, featuring a Western story set in the thirties. The new sheriff arrived on a horse and sets up an exciting story… and a huge dust storm is on its way. I loved the art and the coloring of this book.
Groo: Minstrel Melodies #3-4. Written by Sergio Aragones & Mark Evanier and illustrated and cover art by Sergio Aragones. The Minstrel continues to tell stories of Groo’s misadventures. I did enjoy the one where Groo came across a Groo-look-a-like. The final two issues of this new Dark Horse mini series.
We are up to the big year-end movie lists, and we start off with the Top 20 Worst Films of the Year. Of course, it would be a little more accurate for me to call this My Least Favorite Films because that is what it is. Film is subjective and what I think is the worst movie, you may love. That’s fine. You have the right to your opinion.
I have all the respect in the world for the movie makers but everybody has their failures. Even the films that I hate have my respect for their efforts. Some times effort just is not enough.
I should specify as well that the star ratings that I give when I review the movies through the year are basically used as a guide. This is not place in direct order via the star ratings. Plus, movie opinions can change over time.
This was the oddest Worst Film list of all time because literally, I was considering seven movies as the #1 Worst Film of 2024. I have never had that many films in real consideration.
2024 EYG Top 20 Worst Films of the Year
#20. Venom: The Last Dance. The final of the Venom trilogy is not a very good movie. It has a lot of silliness and a waste of Knull as a villain.
#19. Monster Summer. An eighties type of monster film with Mel Gibson that is just not very good. Mel Gibson really did not fit with this movie.
#18. Afraid. AI taking over one house at a time. Killer Alexa? This is a stupid movie and John Cho has been in much better movies that are similar to this one.
#17. Trap. M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film is so full of dumb plots as a serial killer takes his daughter to a concert. The cops set up a sting operation at the concert. There are so many things that make no sense in this movie that it stretches credibility.
#16. Joker: Folie a Deux. What a step down from the first Joker. And I did not love that first film. This “musical” was such a waste of potential. This sequel seems to take a crap on the first movie too, throwing away most everything that was done well in the first one.
#15. Imaginary. There have been a ton of bad horror movies this year. This is one of them. Chauncy the Teddy Bear is causing trouble for the little kid. Terrible and not memorable.
#14. Immaculate. Sydney Sweeney did not have a good year in my opinion. She was a nun here going into an Italian convent. I did not like this one at all and it was not easy to watch, but not in the good way.
#13. The Exorcism. Russell Crowe also did not have the best year. Here, he is an actor playing a priest, dealing with an exorcism on set of a horror movie. I found this to be repetitive and boring.
#12. The Watchers. Another failed horror film. A bizarre situation that makes little sense and these characters are so unlikable that I want them to be gotten. M. Night’s daughter directed this mess.
#11. Lisa Frankenstein. I was looking forward to this comedy, but it was not funny, mean-spirited and had characters that I disliked. Cruel writing and a lack of humor does not make this worth seeing. It was quite a disappointment.
#10. The Strangers Ch. 1. Why did we need this movie? The original Strangers was a decent movie. This was just a wasted prequel with stupid characters and jump scares. And that ending…
#9. Night Swim. Here is the first film I watched in 2024. It was such a stupid movie about a haunted pool. A haunted pool? Yup. That’s what I said.
#8. The Crow. Another movie that has no reason to exist. This is such a bad idea and, what was even worse was, it was boring. The Crow did not need a reboot. This was a horrendous choice.
#7. Tarot. We are starting off with the seven films in competition for the worst film of the year. Tarot obviously deals with the deck of tarot and terrible characters that I couldn’t care less about. Completely forgettable.
#6. Kraven the Hunter. The most recent of the Sony Spider-Man without Spider-Man movies include a great cast in a terrible movie. Kraven is one of the greatest Spidey villains, but this is one of the worst super hero movies in years (although there may be a worse one upcoming).
#5. Borderline. I would have thought this was going to end up much higher than five, which tells you about the films ahead of it. Another great cast, including Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis, but no story, horrible dialogue and such a flop of an adaptation. Eli Roth directed this mess.
#4. Kinds of Kindness. I had a guy on X call me names because I hated this movie. I’m sorry dude, but at least it is not my least favorite movie of the year. I found the three basic stories that made up the film to be pretentious, obnoxious and misogynistic. I hated this film.
#3. Rebel Moon Part 2: The Scargiver. I hated the first film of this series from Zack Snyder even more than Part One and I did not think that was possible. It was dull, boring and filled with characters whom I disliked. And I do not want to wait for the Director’s cut.
#2. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2. Last year’s worst movie was this film’s first in the franchise. There was some chatter that this one was supposed to be better. Spoiler alert…it wasn’t. Although this is only the second worst film of the year, so I guess it could be considered a little better.
#1. Madame Web. Here it is… the film that survived the gauntlet of the horrible movies. This one took a C-level (more likely D level) Spider-Man character and put her in a film with horrible writing, horrible special effects, horrible villain, horrible ADR.. I could go on. Madame Web was a ridiculous film and even film star Dakota Johnson was putting it down before it had been released. Madame Web is the worst movie of this year.
The Batman and Robin Award for Rottenness are the annual look at films that just were not good. Some even bad. Yes, I know that it is very difficult to make a movie, and it is something that I have never done. Nobody sets out to make a bad movie (probably) and I have all respect for the men and women who do this job.
Still there are times when the film is just rotten. These awards look at those times. They receive the coveted Batman and Robin.
Worst Movie: See the list at the end of the year. Honestly, there are about six movies competing for this title yet.
Worst Actor: Scott Chambers, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2. Not much anyone can do when this is your script.
Worst Actress: Sofia Boutella, Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver. She never had a chance. This was worse than the last one.
Worst Director: Eli Roth, Borderlands. He clearly had no idea about this video game. This film is easily one of the worst of the year and Roth had a great cast that he did nothing with.
Worst Sequel: Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver. If only we got to see the Director’s edition first. I’m joking. I do not want to watch a longer version of this.
Worst CGI: Madame Web. There was not much about Madame Web that was good. CGI was no exception.
Favorite Rotten Movie: If. Ryan Reynolds’ first hit of the year wound up with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 50% making it rotten. It is a much better film than that. I liked it. I’d even recommend it.
Worst Movie I did not see: Megalopolis. It’s on the list for 2025 June Swoon.
Cashing a Paycheck: Russell Crowe, Kraven the Hunter. Fun little accent he was playing with. Not sure where he was suppsoed to be from. This guy won an Oscar.
Worst Reboot/Remake: The Crow. Why would you do this? The Crow did not need to be rebooted, and this movie did the original dirty.
Most Successful Bad Movie: Despicable Me 4. This made a ton of money dumbing down the youth of our country even more.
Worst Movie Based on a TV Show/Video Game: Borderlands. One of the worst films of the year, setting back video game adaptations just as they were making some progress.
Worst Superhero Movie: Madame Web. Why Sony why? Madame Web is, at best, a C or D level hero in the Spider-Man universe, and that is when she is with Spdier-Man.
Worst Trailer: Transformers One. Already mentioned this in the Logan “Hurt” Award. Almost made me not see the movie.
WTF: Kinds of Kindness. In risk of offending that guy on X who called me names after my review of this movie, I found this a mess.
Worst Performance by an Oscar Winner: Ariana DeBose, Kraven the Hunter. She was truly terrible in that movie after being brilliant in West Side Story.
Worst ADR: Madame Web. The villain in this movie barely moved his mouth. The voice over is noticeably bad and that should never happen.
Worst TV Show that I Watched: American Horror Story: Delicate. The second half of this season is some of the worst TV I have seen. I couldn’t wait for this one to be done.
Worst TV Finale: Grotesquerie. The final episode of this show for its first season was a jumbled mess and was simply unsatisfying.
Well, here is the last EYG Comic Cavalcade for 2024. It was a year where my collection really took off. It got organized, rebagged and reboarded, and listed on CLZ. The Comic Cavalcade was right there for the entire thing, recording the books that I added to my collection.
Before I forget, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope that 2025 is the best year yet. As for the Comic Cavalcade, I plan to continue to do this on a weekly basis as new comics continue to be released and as long as eBay keeps up the source for back issues.
Books this week:
X-Men #9. “Raid on Graymalkin” Part 3. Written by Jed Mackay and penciled by Federico Vicentini & Ryan Stegman. Cover art by Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, and Marte Gracia (Bronze Medalist). The crossover between X-Men and Uncanny X-Men continues as the two teams fight with one another at Graymalkin, the prison for mutants that was once the X-Mansion. The shadow off Charles Xavier is all over the place….
Exceptional X-Men #4. Written by Eve L. Ewing and art by Carmen Carnero. Cover art was by Carnero & Nolan Woodward. Iceman is here as the book keeps looking at Kitty Pryde and her past issues with her teammates and her own actions while trying to do something good.
Hellhunters #1. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Adam Gorham. Jonas Scharf & Alex Guimarães. World War II Ghost Rider teams up with Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos for some World War II action.
Iron Man #3. “Organized Crime.” Written by Spencer Ackerman and art by Julius Ohta with Jethro Morales. Tony Stark uses his clever mind to finish off the Stark takeover attempt by AIM and Roxxon. I am glad that this arc does not seem to be moving forward as we just had a corporate takeover storyline recently. Guest starring the demon Belasco.
West Coast Avengers #2. Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Danny Kim. Ben Harvey did the art for the cover. Apparently, the Ultron we saw at the end of the first issue was not the same Ultron who is a member of the West Coast Avengers. That was a bit of a surprise.
Amazing Spider-Man #64. “King of Pain” Written by Justina Ireland and art by Gleb Melnikov. Ed McGuinness & Marco Menyz did the cover art. The 8 Deaths of Spider-Man marches on as Peter has to face off with one of the Twins. Peter is also attempting to find a way to win against some of these Scions without actually dying. I like this so far as the villains seem to be underestimating Spidey and are learning their lessons. You don’t see that much any more and it feels a touch old school.
Redcoat #8. Geoff Johns and Bryan Hitch are the creators and cover B art was done by Brad Walker (Gold Medalist). A stand alone issue of the Redcoat that sees Simon take on a family of serial killers in 1873. The Northerner returned at the very end to set up the new story arc for 2025.
Metamorpho #1. “Mister 3, the Triple-State Man” Written by Al Ewing and art by Steve Lieber. Steve Lieber & Lee Loughridge did the cover art. This was a lot of fun. It had a very old school type flavor to the issue, perhaps because of the art stylings of Steve Lieber. It definitely feels as if they are trying to build nostalgia for the character prior to his appearance in the 2025 Superman movie. I have always liked Metamorpho-Meta-morph-o (there is an allusion for ya) and this is an enjoyable book. It does worry me that I am buying more and more DC books. I am concerned that I already buy more books a month than in any time in my life, and I shouldn’t be adding more DC to the list.
Black Canary: Best of the Best #2. “Round Two” Written by Tom King and art and cover art by Ryan Sook. My point about the DC books. There are a bunch now. And Black Canary is awesome. I love this story as they intersperse the flashback of Dinah as a younger girl with the fights she is having with lady Shiva. I do love Tom King as a writer and Metamorpho was written by another favorite of mine, Al Ewing. Maybe it is the writing talent that has attracted me to DC. This one is great so far.
Justice League Unlimited #2. Written by Mark Waid and art and cover art by Dan Mora. Another DC book and another great writer in Mark Waid. When I was young, I was a fan of the JLA, but I moved away from it, being more of a Marvel stan. I do like the idea of the Justice League being all the heroes around and I did like seeing Indiana Jones on page 5. He turned out to be Dr. Richard Occult, but that first shot of him was Indy all the way. I did like the mystery of what was happening to J’onn J’ones as well. Oh DC… what are you doing to me?
Absolute Wonder Woman #3. “The Last Amazon Part 3” Written by Kelly Thompson and art by Hayden Sherman. Cover art by Hayden Sherman & Jordie Bellaire (Silver Medalist). Yet another DC book, but this one is the Absolute line. Diana is very intriguing in this new take on her and I have been enjoying these new variations on the Trinity so far. Kelly Thompson is yet another awesome writer working with DC. Can’t argue with quality.
Uncanny Valley #7. Written by Tony Fleecs and art and cover art by Dave Wachter. Finally out of DC and into Boom! Studios. Oliver finds himself in a new and strange world. The world of his grandfather, Pecos Peet. Meanwhile his mom and Peet are in search for him. Uncanny Valley has been a consistently engaging book with one of the most creative ideas in a long time.
Blade Red Band #3. Written by Bryan Hill and art by Federica Mancin & C.F. Villa. C.F. Villa and Federico Blee did the cover art. As Blade is in search of Pontius, he has to question the loyalty of his current partner and vampire hunter Elena. This has been a very fascinating book full of betrayals and uncertainty. I’m not sure it needs the red band logo, but it has been a good story so far.
Sam and Twitch Case Files #9. Script by Todd McFarlane & Jordan Barel with art by Thomas Nachlik. Thaddeus Robeck did the cover art. A new story arc kicks off with Sam and Twitch as Twitch is in pursuit of a suspect and he shoots him. He was aiming for his shoulder, but the bullet went through his head/eye, killing him. I loved this issue because, despite how normal this felt, there is more under the surface. Good start for the next story arc.
Timeslide #1. Written by Steve Foxe and art by Ivan Fiorelli. Kael Ngu did the cover art. Cable and Bishop team up to go through time to try and prevent time from fraying. It seemed as if this book was used to show hints at what is coming in the future of Marvel Comics. It went as far as to provide a checklist about halfway through including titles of upcoming events. How many actually happen will be intriguing. Meanwhile, this book was okay, but nothing to write home about.
Kidpool/Spider-Boy#1. Written by Christopher Yost and penciled by Nathan Stockman, Jed Dougherty & Chris Campana. Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado did the cover art. Spider-Boy faces his most dangerous and annoying threat yet… a young, female Deadpool variant who likes him. But does she like him like him? Might they hold hands? Or will their relationship be broken up by Stegron?
Mystique #3. “Sentinels” Written, drawn and cover art by Declan Shalvey. This is a different POV from Sentinels#3 where we think we see them fighting Magneto. Thanks to this issue, we know it is not Magneto that the Sentinels are fighting. It is Mystique. But how does she have the magnetism of Magneto? More questions here, and a lot of mutant fun.
Ultimate Black Panther #11. Written by Bryan Hill and guest artist Carlos Nieto. Cover art was by Stefano Caselli & David Curiel. This was actually my favorite issue of Ultimate Black Panther since the very beginning of the series. I liked how they prepared to set up the one on one battle between T’Challa and the Ultimate Moon Knight, and how all of T’Challa’s allies and friends wanted to keep him from it. Builds some solid stakes and tension for the throwdown next issue (I assume).
Geiger #9. Written by Geoff Johns and art by Paul Pelletier and Gary Frank. Cover art was by Gary Frank & Brad Anderson. Mr. Geiger turned on Nate as he lost control of himself. If not for Barney, things would have been very problematic. Geiger wants to change. The most intriguing part of this issue was the prologue where we see Simon Pure from Redcoat, Junkyard Joe, and what looked like the Northerner. Is it the Ghost Machine crossover we have been waiting for?
Spider-Boy #14. “Know Your Enemy” Written by Dan Slott and art by Paco Medina & Humberto Ramos. Cover art by Paco Medina & Edgar Delgado. The Dragon’s Challenge tournament begins with Daredevil and Spider-Boy teaming up to try and prevent Bullseye & Spider-Girl from winning. We get a Spider-Girl origin and Hulkette is hanging around until Spider-Boy loses so she can get her own revenge.
Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #3. “Pathfinder” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Domenico Carbone. Davide Paratore did the cover art. The Midnight Mission is killed in this issue. What? The house died? This sends Moon Knight into an anger, but it feels very odd having killed off the Midnight Mission. Not sure why this was done as it felt like a great setting. I guess we’ll have to see.
Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk #1. Written by Frank Tieri and art by Michael Sta. Maria. Adam Kubert and Laura Martin did the cover art. A flashback story about Sabretooth and the Ravencroft asylum. Bloody and violent, this is an interesting mini series.
Other books this week: Ultraman x Avengers #3, Lawful #6, Hello Darkness #6, Void Rivals #15, and The Creeping Below #2.
The penultimate episode of the series What If aired this morning on Disney + and it took a step back to the first season.
Captain Carter returned to the series that she had been a major part of during the first two seasons and she brought with her a group that was called The Exiles. This was not a group of Exiles like in the comics, but a group that was from the run of What If…?. The group featured Peggy, Kahhori, Byrdie the Duck and Goddess of Thunder Storm.
First off, Byrdie the Duck was the grown daughter of Howard and Marcy the Duck from episode four. Voiced by Natasha Lyonne, this is a whole on original character from What If… and then they teamed Byrdie up with the other major original character from season two of What If…?, Kahhori.
Storm’s arrival was also extremely exciting and well done. Voiced by Alison Sealy-Smith, the fan favorite voice of Storm from the X-Men’97 and animated series, Storm was hauling around Mjolnir and showing herself to be one big time badass. Having Storm in the show, and giving us a Storm that felt just like the Storm that we know was a wonderful treat.
The show’s beginning let us know that something was wrong as it was not the Watcher’s voice doing the narration over the opening credits. Instead, it was the voice of The Eminence who have taken Uatu prisoner, ready to punish him for his breaking of the Watcher Oath.
Peggy realized that the Watcher was in trouble and she decided that The Exiles needed to go to the Fifth Dimension to help the Watcher, but she did not know how they would do it.
Bring in… Infinity Ultron. The one individual ever able to go to the Fifth Dimension on his own. This is how the show returned to the first season, as Infinity Ultron was the big bad of that season.
I did like the fact that this Infinity Ultron had succeeded in his quest and, because of that, had an existential crisis. He realized, way too late, that destroying all life would not bring peace, that in order to have peace there must be life and to have life, you must have conflict.
This was a first part of a two-part finale for the series as the Exiles went to the Fifth Dimension to try and save their friends.
One more episode tomorrow for the series.
E2 What If Agatha Went to Hollywood?
E7 What If the Watcher Disappeared?
E3 What If The Red Guardian stopped The Winter Soldier?
Shang Chi and Kate Bishop make their returns to the MCU in this cool Western story as they chase after The Hood, a character that the MCU has not yet introduced (although he is coming in Ironheart next year).
The pairing of Shang Chi and Kate Bishop worked for me as they pursued the Hood for their own reasons. The show did keep the characters at a surface level, depending on your enjoyment of the previous uses of the character to pull you in. For me, that worked.
The action of the episode was top notch with some awesome animated martial arts fights. The opening scene featuring John Walker, voiced once again by Wyatt Russell, was a neat set up for what we were going to get.
Shang Chi in search of his sister, who he had believed had been taken by the Hood works as well. Having her be the Hood in the end was a nice twist that I did not expect.
Walter Goggins reprised his role as Sonny Burch from Ant Man and the Wasp. Here he was a very sinister second hand man to the Hood. To be honest, he was much more memorable here in What If that he was in Ant Man and the Wasp. I like that they brought him in for this role.
1872 was a limited Marvel Comics series that placed Marvel characters in the Old West. Steve Rogers was the sheriff of the town and Wilson Fisk was the big, bad businessman. Fisk wound up feeding Steve Rogers to the pigs in a scene that stuck with me since I read it. I do not remember much else about 1872, except for that moment. This What If…? episode did not include those characters but I could see it being something going on in another location in this world.
There are only two more What If…? episodes left. With the final scene being the other Watchers confronting Uatu, and his interference will be a major arc to wrap up the series. The Watchers have sworn an oath to only watch and to not interfere, but we have seen our Watcher interfere several times over the three seasons. I am curious to see how this will all wrap up. I know the trailer had Captain Carter and Kahhori in it, so I expect to see them during some kind of conflict with the Watchers.
E2 What If Agatha Went to Hollywood?
E3 What If The Red Guardian stopped The Winter Soldier
Tell us this is the final season without saying it is the final season.
What If gives us a Howard the Duck/Darcy episode. They’re married and she gave birth to an egg.
What?
What If took one of the worst episodes from season one and gave it a sequel and made it one of the strangest, weirdest episodes of the entire run.
What If, the comic book, would have issues that were really bizarre because they could do anything they wanted, and this is a perfect example of that.
I do love Howard the Duck and I would be all for a Howard the Duck series, live action or animated. This did feel a bit much.
There were a bunch of surprising cameos from the people chasing after this egg including Zeus, Thanos and the Black Order, Nick Fury and Agent Coulson, Dark Elves, the Grandmaster …all in pursuit of this egg.
I will say that I found this to be too silly at times and that a lot of the humor did not work for me, and I am a person whose Marvel’s humor almost always works. This might be an episode that I like more on second watch, but for now, this episode was down my list.
E2 What If Agatha Went to Hollywood?
E3 What If The Red Guardian stopped The Winter Soldier
Anna Devane was one of my favorite characters on General Hospital mainly because she was an agent for the WSB and she could kick the butt of anyone messing with her. I loved that and so, in honor of the awesome Anna Devane, this is the kick ass female award.
We have ten females who kicked plenty of ass in their individual places. Some are comic characters, some are TV/movie characters and we even have a professional wrestler.
The Anna Devane Kick Ass Female Award
Previous winners: Rey (Star Wars), Mockingbird (Marvel Comics), Wonder Woman (DCEU), The Shirewolves, Captain Marvel, Kamala Harris, Wanda Maximoff, Pearl, Dorothy “Dot” Lyon (Fargo season five)
Top 10 Kick Ass Females of 2024
#10. Liz Danvers (True Detective: Night Country). Jodie Foster brought a bad ass female to the snowy world of Alaska. She had all kinds of troubles, but you just knew she would find her way thorugh.
#9. Anora (Anora). Mikey Madison was a force of nature as the titular character in this movie from 2024. She was a tornado dealing with the Russians and she was more than a handful.
#8. Black Canary (Black Canary: The Best of the Best). The new DC series featured the writing of Tom King and Black Canary in a tournament with Lady Shiva to discover the best hand-to-hand fighter in the universe.
#7. Zatanna (Zatanna: Bring Down the House). A flashback series showed us how Zatanna came into her own as a member of the Justice League.
#6. Laura (Deadpool & Wolverine, Laura Kinney: Wolverine, NYX). Laura, X-23, returned in the Void during the awesome cameo reveals, but she played a major part with Logan in the movie. It was a real feel good moment… and she sliced Juggernaut’s feet off. Ooooooh. We could extend this one to the comics too as X-23 is known as Wolverine and has her own series, plus a role in NYX.
#5. Storm (X-Men ’97, Storm). It was a big year for Storm. She was a major character in X-Men ’97, she joined the Avengers in Marvel Comics, and she got her own series. Marvel has big plans for Ororo Munroe.
#4. Rhea Ripley (WWE). Rhea “Bloody” Ripley! The Eradicator. One of the biggest stars in the WWE, Rhea took a huge step in her character development when she became a face when her boyfriend Dominic Mysterio turned on her and left her. Rhea is a superstar.
#3. Abigail (Abigail). Alishia Weir brought a serious kick ass girl, a ballerina vampire who has been feeding for centuries. Abigail dominated the film and was incredibly fun.
#2. Elphaba (Wicked). She almost won this award this year and she may be a leading candidate for next year. Elphaba became more and more powerful as the film progressed and the whole “Defying Gravity” sequence at the end of the film was amazing!
And the winner of the Anna Devane Kick Ass Female of the Year Award is…
#1. Agatha Harkness (Agatha All Along, What If…?, Marvel Comics)
It was Agatha all along. Played by the wondrous Kathryn Hahn, Agatha Harkness has risen from a lesser Marvel Comics character to a superstar. After her star turn in WandaVision in 2020, Agatha returned in this year’s surprise hit Agatha All Along on Disney +. Meanwhile, in the comics, Marvel returned Agatha to the young status, making her much closer to Kathryn Hahn. She was in the best episode of What If…? so far co-starring with Kingo. Agatha is one witch whose world is at her fingertips. Down, Down, Down the road… Down the Witches Road…
In honor of those movies that feature large casts without a clear protagonist, it is time for the Avengers: Endgame Ensemble Cast of the Year Award. This has been around since 2019 and has had a strong list of movies win, as seen below.
The Avengers: Endgame Ensemble Cast of the Year Award
Previous Winners: Avengers: Endgame (2019), The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), In the Heights (2021), Mass (2021), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022), Oppenheimer (2023)
Runners-Up: I considered giving this award to the movie I saw today, A Complete Unknown, but I decided that there is too much of a lead character in Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, despite the fact that the cast surrounding him was excellent. Another Chalamet film this year was Dune: Part Two that could have been a winner in this category. Another potential Oscar film was in consideration for this category with Conclave, the story of choosing a new pope. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever had a great cast, especially of young actors that deserve recognition in this category. I loved Wicked, but again, that film is more of a two person lead and may not be right for the ensemble award. Alien: Romulus was a fantastic movie with an ensemble that wound up as fodder for the Xenomorphs. Civil War was a strong film earlier in the year and its cast had a tough story to delve into. Emilia Perez had a strong ensemble as did The Piano Lesson, both on Netflix.
Winner of the Avengers: Endgame Ensemble Cast of the Year is…
Saturday Night
The film focuses on the opening night for SNL, as a group of performers running around unsure if they were actually going to get on the air. There are some great performances among the cast and the roles are beautifully cast. There may be some weaknesses in the script, but the cast itself is impeccable.
“What If The Red Guardian Stopped The Winter Soldier”
One of the strength of the What If show is taking characters who would not usually work together or you may not expect to be together. Episode one had Sam Wilson and Bruce Banner. Episode two was Agatha and Kingo. Now, we get Red Guardian and Winter Soldier.
David Harbour is a gem. His work as the Red Guardian is so silly and over the top that it works, especially when paired with the stoic, more quiet Winter Soldier. This is clearly a “buddy cop” style of episode with the two main protagonists being pursued by Bill Foster, aka Goliath, once again voiced by Laurence Fishburne.
The pairing kicks off when Red Guardian prevents the Winter Soldier from killing Howard Stark and his wife as we see in Captain America: Civil War, and then they wind up thrust together into Las Vegas.
This was the episode from where they dropped a clip after last year’s season two, hinting to us that season three was closer than we thought.
They had some nice moments between Red Guardian and Bucky too, as the episode was more than just a bunch of action strung together. The scene where Red Guardian helps Bucky remember about Coney Island was very sweet, and it was obviously important to Bucky.
I found it odd that Oscar nominated America Ferrara did a voice of a secondary side character, Ranger Morales who teamed up with Bill Foster to chase after Red Guardian and Winter Soldier. That seemed to be a huge casting for such a minor character who, as far as I know, has no connection in Marvel Comics (After some research, I discovered there was an Agent Morales who worked for SHIELD that perhaps this character was based upon).
I love how What If…? has been using different styles to tell their stories. First episode was a Kaiju/monster story, episode two was Old Hollywood and this is a buddy cop tale. It shows the variety that the show can present effectively.
Season Three Episodes So Far
E2 What If Agatha Went to Hollywood?
E3 What If The Red Guardian Stopped The Winter Soldier
This has been a big year for animation and that means this was going to be a tough award to pick. Of course, it is not just animation for a voice over. It could be a character on a show in a helmet that you never see their face. It could be a mo-cap character. There are a ton of choices.
“I am Groot” Voice Acting Award
Previous Winners: Robin Williams (Aladdin- honorary), Auli’i Cravalho (Moana), Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Josh Brolin (Avengers: Infinity War), Ryan Reynolds (Detective Pikachu), Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Jeffrey Wright and Chadwick Boseman (What If…?), Antonio Banderas (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish), Bradley Cooper (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3)
Runners-Up: Let’s start off with one of the toughest jobs of the year. Chris Hemsworth did the voice of Orion Pax/Optimus Prime and had to step into the shoes of iconic EYG Hall of Famer Peter Cullin. And he did a tremendous job in Transformers One. Another film with big shoes to fill was Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Noa was a new protagonist voiced by Owen Teague, who took over the franchise from Andy Serkis. Tom Hardy was the best part of Venom: The Last Dance as he was the voice of Venom as well as Eddie Brock. The Wild Robot had two great performances from Lupita Nyong’o as Roz and Pedro Pascal as Fink. Hamish Linklater was our new animated Batman in Prime’s Batman: The Caped Crusader. Maya Hawke was awesome as the voice of the antagonist in Inside Out 2, Anxiety. Just today, we heard Kathryn Hahn return to the role of Agatha Harkness in one of the best episodes of What If…? ever, and her voice brought the power of this character. Mark Hamill is an iconic voice actor and he continued as Skeletor in Masters of the Universe: Revolutions. Lenore Zann delivered one of the most powerful lines in all of animation this year when she said “I can’t feel you” as Rogue clutched Gambit’s dead body at the end of episode five of X-Men ’97. Alison Sealy-Smith was exceptional in X-Men ’97 as Storm. To be fair, there are so many possible choices from X-Men ’97 because that show was epic.
This year’s winner is also from the show, X-Men ’97.
AJ LoCascio, as Gambit (X-Men’97)
“The name’s Gambit. Remember it.“
He was only in half of the season of X-Men ’97, but he absolutely killed it. Then, episode five of the show is one of the best episodes of TV this entire year. Gambit was at the center of that show and was the massive emotional beat.
While I liked the previous What If…? episode of season three, I did not love it. Season two I ADORED just about everything about this one.
Agatha Harkness and Kingo? Who knew that I needed that in my life?
Golden Age of Hollywood with Agatha making a gigantic, cosmic blockbuster with Howard Stark (and the ever quippy Jarvis) is amazing, but to tie that into Agatha’s latest plot to grab power for herself by way of stealing the power of the growing Celestial inside the earth, Tiamut, is on another level.
There is a dance battle, literally, between Agatha and Kingo. All the while Howard Stark is shouting out some of the funniest dialogue you are ever going to hear.
“I want Busby Berkeley to see this and contemplate being a realtor“
“Will they dance? They will!“
“That chemistry was hotter than the Hindenburg.“
“Is that some kind of euphonism? Are you two a thing now?”
Howard Stark and Jarvis made the perfect Old Hollywood director behind the scenes for this What If…? episode. The quips delivered wonderfully by both Dominic Cooper and James D’Arcy. Jarvis’s initial dry wit fit beautifully in the insanity that was going on around him in this episode.
The fact is this… Kathryn Hahn is a master. She ahs taken this secondary (maybe even tertiary) character of Agatha Harkness and made her something special. Kathryn Hahn’s aura is all over this episode and she just dominated every minute, and she had amazing chemistry with Kumail Nanjiani. These two characters worked so well with one another and who saw that coming?
The dance routine was brilliant. I loved it. The design of Celestial Agatha was beautifully perfect. Her battle with Arishem the Judge was a great call back to WandaVision. The end speech from Kingo targeted what was missing inside Agatha all along.
This episode is very meta with several behind the scenes comments and a reference to Cecil B. DeMille. For me, this all worked so well that I just sat on my couch with a big smile on my face the entire time.
I would put this episode of What If…? right at the top of the series along with the season one Dr. Strange episode, the season two Christmas and 1602 episodes. Certainly the best of season three so far and potentially one of the best of the entire run.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 