This episode saw the final dismantling of Hydra… offscreen. Amazing that an organization that had such a huge impact on the MCU and this series was dealt with finally as Coulson watched on screens.
We get the debut of Holden Radcliffe, who would become more of a important character in the next season dealing with LMDs. Radcliffe is quite the snake as he is willing to switch sides without blinking an eye.
Fitz and Simmons have sex at the end of the episode, finally consummating a relationship that has been “cursed” from day one, seemingly.
“Failed Experiments”
The Kree appear in this episode as Hive lured them to earth in order to get their blood. Hive’s plan to turn the human race into Inhumans means he had to recreate the original experiment where he had been turned into an Inhuman.
Mac and Daisy faced off and she beat him silly. Mac kept saying that he wasn’t going to fight her. Mac is able to survive because Daisy does not really want to kill him. Mac ruins the experiment with the Kree too.
Daisy offers her own blood to continue the experiement.
“Emancipation”
The Sovokia Accords show their rotten faces in this episode as Talbot comes to Shield headquarters looking for answers. Talbot wants the Inhumans in Shield to be registered, but Coulson said that this is not what they need, they need to keep them secret.
Lincoln has been contacted by Daisy. It’s so funny how Daisy just pushes a few keys and she is throughout the Shield HQ. Daisy wants to help Lincoln to escape and come join her and Hive. Lincoln agrees, but it is part of the plan. Daisy manually brings in a Quinjet, that she believed had Lincoln inside. Instead, it was Lash.
Lash used his power to cure Daisy of the control of Hive, but ends up getting killed by James. Daisy returned to Shield with the Quinjet and the dead body of Lash.
“Absolution”
Daisy is struggling. Like she is addicted to Hive, she is having trouble dealing with things that she had done.
The team launched an assault on Hive, and they end up capturing him. They brought him aboard the Zephyr One, but it turned out that is exactly what Hive wanted. Hive had a bomb that had a virus connected to it and he needed a way to get high enough in the atmosphere to spread it across the earth, changing humans into Inhumans.
Daisy confronted Hive at the end of the episode and begged him to take her back. I was not a fan of this, because it made Daisy look pretty weak.
“Ascension”
The Hive storyline came to a satisfying conclusion as Coulson came up with a new plan, to load the bomb onto a Quinjet and send it into space. When the explosion went off, the virus would be in space and would not cause any trouble for the earth.
Of course, there are all kinds of trouble with the execution of this. Yo Yo gets shot trying to protect Mac. Lincoln gets injured by James. Hive is still running around causing trouble.
Daisy, who had had visions of the future where a Shield agent died, wanted to sacrifice herself in the Quinjet to make sure the bomb is safe for the planet. However, Lincoln beats her to it and he and Hive are trapped in the Quinjet as it leaves earth’s atmosphere.
I was never a big fan of Lincoln, but I appreciated his sacrifice and his last few moments with Hive in the Quinjet, knowing that their deaths were imminent, was very strong.
I did feel bad for Daisy, who sure went through it this season. Her grief over Lincoln’s death was tough.
The end of the episode restarted things for the next season, with Life Model Decoys, a vigilante Quake and Coulson no longer director being major hints dropped.
I had a tough choice this week that I wussed out of. I was down to four covers for the three medals and, once again, I decided to have there be a tie. Oh well…
Last week we did not have any variants in our medalists. This week, there are two of the four covers.
Also-Rans: Narco #1, Avengers #36, Batman #7, Moonstar #1, The Twilight Zone #5, Bloodland #2,
Bronze Medalist
(TIE)
Disney Villains: Gaston #1
Cover art by Milena Ciccarello
Variant Cover C
I loved this cover, helping me decide to pick this Dynamite Comics book up. I love how we get Gaston and LeFou running inside the outline of Gaston’s body. The black background makes this standout all the more.
Hello Darkness #19
Cover art by Jenny Frison
Variant Cover B
Another variant that I saw on the shelf and decided to pick it up. I have been enjoying Jenny Frison’s work on the Clean Room Vertigo series that I have been reading on the Daily Read and I think her touch really helps make these horror comic covers effective.
Silver Medalist
Sleep #8
Cover art by Zander Cannon
I have been waiting for the finale of this series for quite awhile now and I was excited to see the book come out this week. The covers of Sleep have been consistently excellent and this one is no exception. The black and white background with the blood red running down creates an exceptional contrast for the cover and really makes me want to see what the finale has in store for me.
Gold Medalist
Nectar #1
Cover art by Chris Shehan
Another new hot book has a beautiful cover featuring butterflies. How does that fit into the story? I am very curious about this book. The orange color of the butterflies and the title jump off the page, especially with that big white moon behind them.
I love this issue. We get a couple of major face offs and sets our two main protagonists on a course for each other.
Astrid video called into the board meeting, revealing that she was very much alive. The confrontation with Mr. Wenuka was like the worst Zoom call ever. Astrid sure showed that even on a mountain top, she had everything under control. I loved how she dealt with Todd, who was the assassin who attempted to kill her on the mountain. She treated him way better than I expected.
Meanwhile, inside the Clean Room, Chloe embraced her ability to control the Clean Room and to show Spark his past… something Spark did not want to see. There were some horrible scenes with Spark possessing a little girl and the tragedy around it. Chloe seemed to be in control as much as Astrid was during the video conference. Killian was shocked since she only knew of one person, Astrid, who could activate the Clean Room.
Both of the assassins, Todd and Duncan, were shown to have been hypnotized and the people around them forgave them quickly. I like that very much. It also seems as if Spark may have taken a step back from the evil that it had looked to reclaim last issue.
Astrid’s brother’s baby was discovered by Astrid’s people. They told her the baby was normal. Of course, Astrid is able to see things differently as the last shot shows the baby with the monstrous head.
Every issue has a twist that I did not see coming. I love how this series feels like a roller coaster that is just flying without me knowing where it was going.
What a fabulously emotional and powerful episode. The first three episodes were strong, but this episode of Paradise was tremendous. It was surprising, engaging, emotional. I found myself tearing up at a specific spot in the episode.
One of my favorite things was that as Xavier and Annie were on their way to Atlanta, they came across some people in another wagon. If The Walking Dead and The Last of Us have taught us one thing, it is that the real monsters in any sort of post-apocalyptic world are other humans. Annie begged Xavier not to look at these people, just to ignore them, and not speak to them. Xavier greeted them anyhow.
Later, Annie goes into labor, and Xavier ran for help from them. I swear I have seen this scene before on one of the aforementioned dramas. However, Xavier returned with a group of these people who went right into helping with the situation. I loved the fact that this show led with the message that not everyone has become monsters. There are good people still around.
The show did a juxtaposition between two births: Annie’s baby birth, and the first birth of a baby in the Colorado bunker (it was great to see James Marsden, once again). I was so on edge the whole time expecting something to happen to one of the babies, and they both survived. I was so happy.
Then, the show threw a twist that fit right with those other shows. Annie died from the birth. I couldn’t believe it. It was such a major shock. This was where I was nearly crying. The scene where the horse would not leave her graveside was so great.
Excellent episode. Next week looks like the story will be taking off, big time.
So, what I wrote about last issue is a touch different now.
It appeared that Spark is not dead. The electricity that was sent through him last issue did not turn him into a pile of ashes. That is what I thought happened, but we see Spark this issue, still alive, still in the Clean Room and being tortured for information. The panel where Spark spoke for Chloe Clim Clam, begging for her to help him, made me worry that Spark is going to resent her for leaving him.
In fact, Chloe knows Spark is alive and I wonder why she left him in the first place. We see her investigating Mueller holdings, and she called Astrid all kinds of nasty names, but why did she leave in the first place?
We return to the scene several days later and Astrid has left the Clean Room and gone to a mountain retreat. Killian sent Capone to retrieve Astrid, but Astrid does not seem to be planning on coming back. Suddenly, there is some feeling for Astrid, a character who I called cold and sent straight t team bad guy last issue. I had some pity for her as she dealt with the idea that her brother shot her through the heart. I am such a manipulated mark.
We also have a new pair of horrendous individuals to fill that villain role. Wenuka and Pete are Jesus-loving corporate businessmen who are looking for a takeover of Astrid Mueller’s followers. We met them earlier, but this issue, we discover that they are darker than we imagined. They had their own “Dark Room,” which made me think it was similar to the Clean Room, and they seem to be ready to torture a poor couple. Weirdos.
I was sure of how I felt about these characters after issue #9 and then #10 flipped it over again. I love that this series is able to play with my emotions. I just hope Spark does not turn angry after his suffering, blaming Chloe.
When Monarch: Legacy of Monsters debuted on Apple TV + a few years back, the show was definitely hit and miss. Most of the misses came from the human characters in the present day.
It’s clear that those characters in the present day have not learned anything since season one.
Cate Randa showed off her selfishness and her stubbornness in the last half of this episode and wound up getting Natalia Verdugo, the Deputy Director of Monarch, killed by a new monstrous Titan that also escaped into the world when she opened a rift to retrieve Lee (Kurt Russell), who was stranded in the other world last season.
She would not listen to anyone else. She was going to do things her own way and to hell with any consequences. Well, Cate, you got an innocent woman killed. A woman who was just trying to get you and your foolish group to safety. She may be a bureaucrat, she may have different viewpoints, but she did not deserve to be swept away by some giant tentacle.
Cate really should be held accountable for Verdugo’s death. It was her fault.
The new Titan is going to be called Titan X and it sure looked as if Kong wasn’t happy Titan X was here.
Of course, Kong is supposed to be guarding the island, but he is too busy sleeping away in the middle of the afternoon.
Kong looked great in this episode. He was massive and the effects were movie-like. My memory of the first season was that everything did always look great, but the humans in the present day were just insufferable.
However, any time we spent time back in the 1950s, this show was so much better and it seemed as if that trend is going to continue. Wyatt Russell, Anders Holm and Mari Yamamoto appeared in the flashbacks and they were always smarter, more engaging and less likely to do something deftly stupid. This season looks to be the same way.
I was up and down with the first season. At least this year, the action was top notch. The question will be… can I stand the stupidity of Cate and her friends in the present? Will there be enough positives in the rest of the show to keep me from hating her?
Up to Issue #8 in the Daily Read of Clean Room by Gail Simone. It is truly epic so far. I really am enjoying that Vertigo series from 2016.
I bought the first appearance of Mockingbird in Marvel Team-Up #95. I am down to six more of the volume 1 run of Marvel Team-Up to complete my collection. That’s fun.
Comic of the Week:
Amazing Spider-Man/Venom: Death Spiral #1
What a massive list of Comic Book writing royalty working on this book. #1 is listed as written by Joe Kelly, Al Ewing & Charles Soule. That is three pretty solid writers for this series. Then the whole thing is drawn by Jesus Saiz. The book started off strong as Symbie (Peter’s little symbiote friend) gnawing of Johnny Storm’s head. I almost fell over. I will say that one thing could ruin it all and that would be a romantic pairing of Mary Jane and Flash Thompson. NO THANK YOU, PLEASE!
Books this week:
Is Ted Okay? #1. Written, drawn and cover art by Dave Chisholm (Silver Medalist). The runner of for Comic of the Week this week is Is Ted Ok? #1 from Mad Cave. It was a very intriguing and interesting idea that I am excited to see expand even more. What is up with Ted and why are we needing to keep an eye on him? Ted is isolated and antisocial, and Sarah, who has been assigned to watch him, starts to wish there was something she could do to help him. It’s complex and different and those are always welcomed.
Murder Drones #1. Written by Wyatt Kennedy and illustrated by Jo Mi-Gyeong. Cover art was done by Alessio Zonno. I was surprised to see this book in my pull list, because I did not think I had it on my list. I had planned on picking #1 up so I was happy I had it. I noticed that I was missing Murder Podcast #5, so I assume the wrong “Murder” book got pulled. As for moving ahead, this one will not be on my pull list. I did not enjoy Murder Drones much at all.
Murder Podcast #5. Written by Jeremy Haun and illustrated by Mike Tisserand. Cover art was done by Jeremy Haun. Unlike the Drones, Murder Podcast is a great story that has that ongoing mystery that is easily filling this story. There are so many brutal kills (some of which were hilarious) that it engages the reader. The issue ended with some military intervention that seemed important (?).
Bat-Man: Second Knight #3. Written by Dan Jurgens and art and cover art by Mike Perkins. The noir style Batman Elseworlds story comes to an exciting close as Batman and Superman learn how to work together and to stop the poisonous fear gas of the Scarecrow. The Black Label book was a lot of fun and reminded me some of Spider-Man Noir.
Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #1. Written by Tyler Boss and art and cover art by Martin Simmonds. I also grabbed the die-cut cover by Andrea Milana. The next installment of Image Comics reboots of the Universal Monsters is up and it is Phantom of the Opera. The well-known saga of the man with the scarred face but beautiful voice. I have enjoyed all of these Universal Monster books and I am looking forward to more Phantom of the Opera.
Iron Man #2. “Under Pressure” Written by Joshua Williamson and art by Carmen Carnero. Cover art was done by Ryan Stegman & Frank Martin. Tony Stark is trying to figure out what Madame Masque is up to… that is, when she is not sharing his bed. Ooooh Tony. Also, who would guess that Iron Man would have to fight side by side with MODOK?
The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery#1. Written by Chris Condon and art and cover art by Jacob Phillips. This is the newest Vertigo book from DC and this is the standout one for me so far. The other two were fine, but this noir detective thriller is the one I am most interested in. I have been a fan of Chris Condon over the years with That Texas Blood, The Enfield Gang and News from the Fallout, so his name on this helps to sell the book even more.
Detective Comics #1106. “The Courage that Kills” Finale. Written by Tom Taylor and art and cover art by Mikel Janin. The virus storyline comes to a close this issue as Batman is able to find the antidote to save the day from the Lion.
Infernal Hulk #4. “Alone” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson with art and cover art by Nic Klein. How many Hulks are too many Hulks? Well, when you are banished into the Hulkscape, that answer may not be an easy one
The Punisher #1. Written by Benjamin Percy with are by Jose Luis Soares. Cover art was done by David Marquez & GURU-eFX. Picking up right after the end of Punisher: Red Band, Frank Castle is back and out for vengeance. His rogues gallery got a return too as Jigsaw made another return from the dead. I also picked up a virgin variant cover by John Tyler Christopher..
Spider-Man & Wolverine #10. “Reunions and Partings” Written by Marc Guggenheim and penciled by Gerardo Sandoval. Cover art was done by Kaare Andrews. This brought the team-up series to a close this week. I have enjoyed this second half of the series more than I did the first arc and it is fun to see these two characters matched up.
Mortal Thor #7. “The Accelerationist” Written by Al Ewing and art by Pasqual Terry. Cover art was done by Alex Ross. The world around Sigurd Jarlson is just getting crazier. Mister Hyde is after him. People are starting to realize that he is pretty decent with a hammer. Then, that he may have a connection that they can exploit. Sigurd has some trouble coming.
Red Book #4. Written by James Tynion IV and art and cover art by Michael Avon Oeming (Gold Medalist). UFO stories out of China continue to affect the world and the way the US looks to the skies. This is the final issue of this volume of this UFO book, where Tynion IV provides us with some real world incidents and how they may be conceived. I have enjoyed these Blue/Red Book series and I will look forward to the next one in the future.
Disney Villains: Ursula #1. Written by Sherri L. Smith and art by Gabriele Bagnoli. Cover art was done by Mirka Andolfo. I grabbed this one off the shelf for the heck of it. Dynamite Comics has surprised me before with some characters that I did not think would interest me only to be enthralled by their series. Honestly, picking up Ursula #1 was just the collector in me. Let me tell you, I thought this was a great book and a fascinating story of Ursula and her missing sister. Damned if Dynamite didn’t do it again.
Maid Cafe #1. “Welcome Home, Master: Chapter One” Written by Aimee DeLong & Kazue Watanabe and adapted & illustrated by Remy “Eisu” Mikhtar. Cover art by Mark Spears. This one surprised me too, but not in the positive way. I thought this was another Mark Spears book like Monsters or Monsters and the Wolf, but it was more of a manga type, black and white book with a killer maid. Honestly, I passed on reading it so it may be more entertaining than I thought, but it did not appeal to me at first glance. There are fun trading cards inside the polybagged book.
Save Now #3. Written by Matt Kinot and art and cover art by Tomas Giorello. There is a lot of pain and anguish in this time travel series. There is a lot of loss too. Saver sticks around with Jan for awhile, watching the young girl grow into a young woman. Is his time traveling over? This is the penultimate issue of this series.
Wrestle Heist #3. Written, drawn and cover art by Kyle Starks. Our team of pro wrestlers, both active and retired, get together for Thanksgiving dinner to continue to discuss their plan on stealing from the evil promoter Buddy Hansen ( who looks a lot like Paul Heyman). Little do they know that there is a traitor in their midst. As a pro wrestling fan, there are a lot of insider things in this book that make me giddy. It is fun connecting these characters to the real life versions out there.
Absolute Wonder Woman #17. “Season of the Witch” Part 2 of 5. Written by Kelly Thompson and art and cover art by Hayden Sherman. Diana is able to free Zatanna from the control that was forcing her to take Diana’s magic and then she winds up facing a crew of her villains including Absolute Cheetah and Absolute Giganta.
Hyde Street #10. Written by Geoff Johns with art by Francis Portela. Cover art was done by Ivan Reis, Danny Miki with Brad Anderson. Sisters Hood are the newest pair arriving in Hyde Street. I do not think they are tied to the Sisterhood series we just got as they seem to be fortune tellers. Hyde Street has a lot of fun, weird horror going on.
Final Boss #4. “Stage Four: Forgotten Desert” Written by Tyler Kirkham with art by Tyler Kirkham and David Miller. Cover art was done by Tyler Kirkham (Bronze Medalist). The battles rage on as the tournament continues. The video game-like comic continues to have fun moments throughout.
Other books this week: Void Rivals #27, New History of the DC Universe: Dakota Incident #1, Nights #18, The Author Immortal #5, Be Not Afraid #5, Alice Forever After #2, Power Fantasy #16, Absolute Martian Manhunter #9, Liquidator #4, Return to Sleepy Hallow #4, Conan the Barbarian #29, and 30 Days of Night: Falling Sun #3.
Quick Hits: The Ultimates universe’s story is coming to a close as we get The Ultimates #21 this week with more Luke Cage. Escape #6 dropped the last issue of the series for a while. There will be a break for this series by Rick Remender, but it is not finished. Wiccan: Witches’ Road #3 is back with more magical shenanigans in the Marvel Universe. Wiccan’s mother, Wanda is still at it in the new Sorcerer Supreme #3 book. Rogue is after the truth from her past in Rogue #2. Cable and the members of X-Force are here in Inglorious X-Force #2 as they continue to try and prevent the future murder of Kamala Khan. The second series comes to a close with the new Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong 2 #7. Lots of DC heroes/Titans action. I grabbed two covers of the Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Book One (Facsimile Edition) that came out this week. The first cover is one of the most iconic covers of all time. More boobs and sexual chicanery going down in Voyeur #4 from Ignition Press. Malevolent #2 had me thinking a lot of Leeloo from Fifth Element. The art from Oni Press’s new book Spirit of the Shadows #2 reminded me of Jack Kirby. The story of the heroes out of time came to a brutal end in Justice League Unlimited #16 this week. I was not a huge fan of the start of this group, but I did like what they did with them over the last several issues. Keenspot sent me the Pecos Bill and the Guns of Oz #2 this week. It was a fun book.
What a fascinating episode of His & Hers this week. It feels like this is one of those TV show that none of the characters are meant to be liked by the audience. Jack slept with the victim, Rachel, on the night of her murder, in his truck. Anna revealed info about the murder victim on TV claiming “It’s my job.” Rachel herself is being shown as a cruel individual whose husband is a piece of crap.
We met Clyde Duffie, Rachel’s husband, and it was revealed that he knew about Rachel’s extra-marital affairs. They had an apparent agreement since Clyde had heart problems. Clyde knows more than he is letting on though and he had some kind of connection to Rachel’s friend, Helen Wang. It did seem as if Rachel and Hellen were blackmailing Clyde.
Jack discovered Rachel’s phone in his truck. That was because it rang when Clyde was calling the phone to try and run out the battery- after Jack had told him to not call the phone nay more. There is something ont he phone that Clyde did not want people to see.
Of course, there turned out to be things on the phone that Jack did not want people to see as well… including some dirty pics on a text thread. Jack was having trouble unlocking the phone so he went to the morgue to use the face of Rachel to open the phone.
He deleted the text thread which won’t remove that totally from the phone. He as a detective should know that.
He also found, in a text conversation, that Helen knew of the affair Jack was having with Rachel.
Other details we learned:
The cameraman that Anna slept with last episode is the husband of her rival at the TV station who had taken the anchor job from her. Felt very purposeful
We got a flashback to when Anna told jack she was pregnant. This was back before the world made them such a-holes.
My favorite line of the episode was when Jack told Anna to stay out of the way or he would arrest her. Anna asked on what charge and Jack responded, “For being an asshole.” LOL.
Helen had been ignoring Jack’s calls all episode, but she wound up calling the Sheriff’s Department and asking to speak to the Sheriff, not Jack specifically. Is she revealing Jack’s connection?
Anna’s mother Alice is a sweetheart. She seems like the one person untainted by the world, even though she has been struggling with her mental health.
We learn that Anna’s year long disappearance had to do with a baby that she lost, probably the same one we saw her telling Jack about. I think we had inferred this already, but this confirmed it.
Anna gets called back to the station in Atlanta. Her rival Lexy has not shown up and they need Anna to fill in on the broadcast last minute. How much did this have to do with the cameraman/Anna?
Jack got his niece Meg to give him a DNA sample, which he then turned in as his own to prevent any identification from the body.
At this point, I think any of these people could be the killer. They all have motives. I wonder if we have met the killer yet? Could it turn out to be someone unexpected like Alice? She has been having trouble wandering recently. I hope it is not Alice, cause that would feel too soap opera-y.
I am fully engaged in the mystery at this point and I am looking forward to seeing next week’s Sunday Morning Sidewalk.
The court case today involves an RC car and what it did to Mr. Kevin Fuss. The judge for today’s case is Judge Alexander. So here is what we know so far. The RC car was out of control and at some point made contact with/and injured Mr. Kevin Fuss. The owner of the RC Car Alexander (not the judge) has testified not guilty to any wrongdoing. Mr. Kevin Fuss has testified that the RC Car was to blame and not Mr. Alexander. He also believed that because of these reasons that he should be in court against the RC car and not Mr. Alexander. The witnesses include the tree that was near the scene of the incident, Ms. Sarah Hilltop, and the RC cars front tires (who were not in control of the car).
The case lasted from 2am-2:30am and was a long, grueling day of testimonies, back and forth, and questioning. The jury was made up of locals Betsy James, Kristopher Plomet, Jim Johnson, Trisha van Jackie, and Darick Knicklem. They were all very bored by the end of the case but the outcome was that the RC Car was deemed guilty and sentenced to 20 to potentially even life stored in a box at Walmart at the back of the shelf where nobody looks so the RC Car would feel the shame of its actions. And Mr. Alexander was put on probation and forced to change his name so that the judge would not be associated with such a terrible man. And as for Mr. Kevin Fuss, his hospital bills were paid for by the RC Car (who doesn’t have any money to begin with so is now heavily in debt) and he was flabbergasted at the outcome of the case but yet he found it quite funny. So then he was further questioned for laughing but it turned out he was just a jolly guy that happened to be injured by a RC Car.
After court was dismissed, everyone left the courtroom at 2:45am and went home but because they had been up for so long in the courtroom all of the jury members fell asleep while driving home and all crashed their cars. So then the whole court case became a mess because of how long they had to be in the courtroom for and because Mr. Kevin Fuss was in charge of scheduling the court date, he had to pay for the damage to all the jury members’ cars. He claimed that it was not his fault and questioned why he had to pay for the damages. He then no longer found the court case funny, but instead was sad and homeless because he had no money and had to sell the house because he could no longer afford it. So it turns out nobody came out of the case happy and everybody had some sort of tragic event that occurred because of the case, even the poor jury members.
This was certainly a wild court case. Anyways until the next time goodbye and macaroni.
I’m so very tired right now. I went back to work after being sick for three days and it was a long afternoon. Thankfully, the classes were pretty good today. Still, my eyes are drooping.
Good number of covers this week. There was a battle for the Bronze this week, and last year’s champion came up short. In fact, both of the last champions in cover artist of the year wound up in the Also Rans this week.
No variants in the medalists this week. That is becoming more uncommon every week.
Also Rans: Maid Cafe #1, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Book One (facsimile edition) Cover A, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Book One (facsimile edition) Cover D, The Punisher #1 (Virgin Cover F), Phantom of the Opera #1 (Die Cut Cover I), Justice League Unlimited #16, Spider-Man/Venom: Death Spiral #1, The Mortal Thor #7, The Power Fantasy #16, and Murder Podcast # 5.
Bronze Medalist
Final Boss #4
Cover art by Tyler Kirkman
The cover with the fire creature in the background is all contained in the title of the book. While it may not be the most original idea I have ever seen, it is executed beautifully.
Silver Medalist
Is Ted Ok? #1
Cover art by Dave Chisholm
More fire this week with this new Mad Cave book having someone consumed by fire. Is this something like the Human Torch or something more sinister. Is that Ted? I like how “Ted’s” eyes are rolled back in his skull.
Gold Medalist
Red Book #4
Cover art by Michael Avon Oeming
The James Tynion IV book about UFOs in Communist countries takes the gold medal this week with the fun star design and the UFO at the center. The whole week has a red theme to it as we got fire on the other two and the red coloring on thisone.
I got a chunk of episodes from season three watched tonight as I continue to try and fight my way through this cold that is kicking my butt.
“Parting Shot”
Starting off with the end of Bobbi and Hunter. They were originally written off the show to star in their own spin off Marvel’s Most Wanted, but it never got past the planning stages. It was a shame because I really liked these two…even though, technically, Bobbi Morse was not Mockingbird in the MCU. They were awesome members of the team and the story that wrote them out was strong.
The bar scene with the “Spy’s Goodbye” was one of the best scenes of the series.
“Watchdogs”
We get a little background on Mack as we are introduced to his brother and discover the lies that he has been telling him about his career. The Watchdogs are a new hate group formed to go after Inhumans… very much “mutant-esque.” In fact, they could easily have been the Friends of Humanity from the X-Men group.
“Spacetime”
We get an Inhuman who can glimpse into the future and show another person whom he touched the future. As with all futures, you only get a glimpse and so it is difficult to understand exactly what the images mean.
The team discovered that Ward is back during this episode, which really threw their plans out the window. Of course, it is not Grant Ward, but the Hydra “god” from the other planet, but with the face he showed, the buttons were drastically pushed.
“Paradise Lost”
This gives us a background episode for Malick as we see how he betrayed his brother in the traveler contest.
This led to Ward, or Hive- as he would become known, killing Malick’s daughter as a sacrifice. It also led to the Agents of Shield (non-Inhumans) to be captured.
“The Team”
Because of the team being captured, Daisy called in the Secret Warriors to help. Unfortunately, it also turned out to be a huge mistake, as we discover that Hive is able to mind control Inhumans. The mission of the Secret Warriors to rescue everyone is now in question as Malick indicated that Hive may have compromised that team.
The paranoia is rampant and led to a lot of mistrust to be spread. Turned out it was Daisy herself who was turned by Hive, and she and Lincoln left the base together as Daisy was ripping it down with the others inside.
This is a great stretch of the series, but my memory is that I was ready to be done with Ward. There are still several episodes of the season to go.
Clean Room #2 is the next book in the Daily Read and it added to the wonders of the first issue dramatically. Gail Simone’s imagination is truly expansive and provided some dark moments of terror. I wonder how much books like this helped us into the current time of comics where we get a ton of horror books from Ice Cream Man to Hello Darkness.
The second issue started off with another cold open that I did not expect. It was a rough one with a man bent into a pretzel. I did not tie it together until I started looking at this post, but the man who had been killed in the first couple of pages of issue #2 was the same man, Mikey, that Chloe found in the alleyway and who tried to convince her to not pursue the Clean Room. He was afraid of Astrid Mueller and he desperately tried to talk Chloe into just leaving it be. Chloe couldn’t do it and went ahead to meet Mueller.
Did this lead directly to the death of this man? When did that happen? Mikey said that he had been in the Clean Room and he described it, in no uncertain ways, as being horrific. He compared Mueller to Satan and prayed for Chloe as she left him to move forward.
The meeting between Chloe and Astrid Mueller was odd. Mueller seemed to be trying to push it aside and leave. However, when Chloe tossed out some questions about the Clean Room, everything took a turn.
Makes one think that this was what Mueller wanted in the first place.
The whole Dwight stuff was weird and somewhat disturbing. It confused me for a bit since it seemed as if he wound up getting his comeuppance, but was that meant to be what Mueller wanted?
After two issues, I am extremely intrigued with what happens next.
These Jenny Frison covers remind me of the variant covers for Hello Darkness.
Welcome to the Daily Read. This is going to be a new semi-regular column at EYG where we take a comic series and we read an issue a day, every day until we finish the run. Much like the DailyView where we watch a movie a day, this will be reading a comic.
I was inspired to do this by a series that I picked up on eBay this past week. I had been interested in the latest rebirth of DC Comics’ Vertigo line. These new books are intriguing and I will be picking them up. Meanwhile, I was on Blue Sky recently and Gail Simone (or someone who was responding to her) brought up a series called Clean Room. I had never heard of it before so I went to eBay and found the whole 18-issue series. It had debuted in December 2015 and I decided to order it.
I have been a huge fan of Gail Simone’s work on the Uncanny X-Men recently, and I have been looking into other work that she had done in comics. I was able to meet her at the SiouxCon this past September and get her to sign some books. I purchased a comic script she had written for Savage Wolverine #19, which was so cool.
So I wanted to read this series, but I have a busy schedule and it is difficult to make time for things. That is… unless I am doing a column about it. This led to me creating the Daily Read in order to make sure that I carve out the time needed to read the series.
I read issue one this afternoon and I was fully engaged with it. It started out with a frightening scene with a little girl and an angry man driving a truck. For a moment, I thought this book was starting out with something truly tragic, but the little girl survived only to ask a creepy question: “Mama, why is Papa’s face made of snakes?”
We then meet Chloe, who is on a mission to discover what she could about Astrid Mueller. Mueller had written a self-help book that led to Chloe’s husband’s death (I am not sure if it was explicitly said, but it certainly implied that he had taken his own life).
Chloe’s path in just this first issue was rough as she seemingly tried to drown herself, only to be rescued. She decided on her path to find out why Philip, her husband, died.
Meanwhile, we do not meet Astrid Mueller until the final page, but the book does a great job of setting this woman up as something horrendous, even comparing her to Satan. The story does a sensational job of creating an aura around this character before we see her walk into the scene.
After reading the first issue, I confirmed that I wanted to do this Daily Read on EYG. I have decided that this series is very much worth the time that I will need to commit to read it and write about it. I love it when a series is clever and creative and makes me think about what is going on, and, so far, Clean Room has succeeded in that.
I will be reading an issue a day for the next 17 days and posting my thoughts about it.
We kicked off the final season of Sha Na Na with the first three episodes and a surprise. Dirty Dan was gone. He was no longer on the show, off the theme at the beginning and out of the “Goodnight Sweetheart” line at the end. I took a deep dive trying to discover the reason why he left the group and I did not find much of anything outside of wanting to pursue other opportunities. It did leave a gap in these episodes because the lack of guitar limited the type of songs they were singing.
Fourth season guests included Stephanie Mills from The Wiz, impressionist Fred Travalena, and, my personal favorite, The Unknown Comic (aka Murray Langston) who I saw regularly on the Gong Show, which was another show of the time that I enjoyed. Just a few years ago, I dressed up as the Unknown Comic for Halloween which was a ton of fun.
The group redid a song called “Remember Then” on stage as an opener. They had done this on the rooftop set a few seasons before (may have even been season one). It is a great song and was well worth the redo.
In episode two, they did a whole comedy bit called Mastergrease Theater, without the musical song between the jokes. They had three of the boys dressed up like detectives (Jocko was Columbia- a parody of Columbo, Bowzer was dressed like Sherlock Holmes and Santini was dressed like Sam Spade/noir detective). They were there to investigate the murder of Lennie, who was supposed to be a rich, high class businessman. It was a weird bit, but I liked that it was different than what they had ever done before.
Chico and Donny continued the trend of blending voices extremely well as Chico sang “Teenage Idol” with Donny providing the backing vocals. Chico and Donny had a couple of songs in these episodes and both seemed a touch soft. I thought they were living singing these and both were quite tender. Screamin’ Scott had a song like that too called “Things We Used to Do.”
The group was using more props in the opening songs during these episodes too, including long white beards for “Rip Van Winkel” and a giant broken heart for “Remember Then”
I was sitting here, preparing to get started on the EYG Comic Cavalcade when I decided that I was feeling tired. I have been battling a cold over the last couple of days (since I went to the doctor’s office to renew my medication… coincidence???) and I decided that I would lay down and just relax for a bit.
I took a short little nap, not fully asleep, but enough to feel happy about the time. It is something that I do not usually allow myself, so this felt special. I have no school tomorrow because of Presidents’ Day and so this was a nice afternoon. I do hope that I will not pay for this tonight. In the past, when I have taken a nap in the afternoon, I struggled to get to sleep that night. I do think my body was telling me that I needed the shut eye and I hope it will not throw off my sleep pattern.
There were a few things running through my head while I was resting. First was the fact that I have a current run of 997 consecutive days of posting at EYG on Word Press. That has been a fun fact as we have been building on the streak, but I realized something the other day. Around a week and a half ago, I saw the number and I wondered when the actual day would be for the 1000th consecutive post. When I counted, it turned out that day 1000 would occur on my birthday! How fun! So this coming Wednesday, unless there is some massive major event, I will post my 1000th consecutive day on my 57th birthday.
Speaking of birthdays, my friend Shane just celebrated his yesterday on Valentine’s Day. Shane was one of the four original Embrace Your Geekness guys. In fact, he had asked me a question about whether I preferred Avengers or X-Men, to which I replied Avengers. He was surprised by that and then he made some comment about excuse his geekness. My response was to not be ashamed and to “embrace your geekness.” And so it went on. So happy birthday, Shane.
Well, I should get back to getting the Comic Cavalcade ready to go. I did love the lazy Sunday afternoon though.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 