So, What comics did you buy this week?

[Diabolical]

26? Amateur.
I'm somewhere in the 70s behind.

[Tom Foolery]

The last issue I think I read was in ‘The War of Jokes and Riddles’ arc, so I’m about 50 issues behind. Plus, y’know, ALL the other 15 Batman ongoings from Detective on down. So really I’m about 2,000 issues behind. Does DC publish anything without Batman in it anymore? Even their bad guys are just evil Batmans from other dimensions....

[Tom Foolery]

Finished up the Avengers run. The four ongoing Avengers books(Avengers, Uncanny, U.S., and Occupy) all ended at the same time and the current writers on those books; Waid, Ewing, and Zub, collaborated on a weekly book running from 675 thru 690.
The Grandmaster and another Elder of the Universe calling himself the Challenger(who was the original Grandmaster until En Dwi Gast ‘bested’ him in a contest and took the name for himself) remove Earth from its orbit to be used in a cosmic rematch. Challenger is using the Black Order as his pawns, while Grandmaster is using a new Lethal Legion. Most of Earth’s heroes are put in a stasis except for a few Avengers(who just happened to be the teams from the four recently ended ongoings) are rallied by a mysterious woman who was one of the founding Avengers; Valerie Vector aka Voyager.
The Avengers are supposed to be acting as obstacles in the game, but it ends up becoming a three way battle as the Order, the Legion, and the Avengers all battle for “tokens’ called pyramoids that are randomly showing up on Earth. Eventually Challenger reveals his ace in the hole, a resurrected Immortal Hulk, and Grandmaster reveals his daughter is actually Voyager, who he planted as a mole in the Avengers to help him win. In the end the Avengers defeat Challenger and Living Lightning( yes, d-list 90s Living Lightning) bluffs En Dwi Gast in a game of poker to save Earth.
A really solid, good old fashion Avengers story. My only problem was Grandmaster having a daughter, since y’know, the Elders schtick was them being the last of their races and all that. But it’s forgivable because the series was great.
After this, the series concluded and the current Jason Aaron series began.

Avengers:Shards of Infinity oneshot. This came out around the time of Infinity War and is one of those might be in MCU continuity but not officially oneshots they always put out when a new movie hits. Completely forgettable.

Avengers 1.1-5.1. A ‘between the panels’ retcon of when Cap’s Kooky Quartet took over from the “original” Avengers and the infighting that shaped them into a legitimate team. Decent story from Mark Waid who was also writing the main title at the time. His villain in this series ‘Avenger X’ eventually showed up again in his main series.

And a bonus, I finished up Bane:Conquest 3-12. The maxi-series from Bane’s original creators, Chuck Dixon and Kevin Nolan. Bane is trying to take his Gotham criminal organization worldwide and sets his sights on Kobra, by killing their NagaNaga, and then kidnapping the newborn successor. Wasn’t sure where this was supposed to be taking place in continuity, because Tom King was doing something VERY different with Bane in the main Batbook and his actions and interactions with Batman here didn’t exactly gel. The story wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. I expected more from Dixon honestly.


Next up is Batman. I left off during ‘Jokes and Riddles’ right around issue 25. So, up thru the non-wedding(sorry, spoilers) around issue 50, including all those tie-in Wedding oneshots, and then up to the current ‘City of Bane’ that just started with issue 75. 50+ issues. Looking forward to it.

[Tom Foolery]

I am now all caught up on Batman. Since a couple of you are still reading it, and were behind like I was, I won’t recap all the story arcs just yet. But I’d love to discuss this 100 issue storyline King has crafted.

I will say, I enjoy the ongoing “It was the ship./It was the street.” argument between Bruce and Selina about where they first crossed paths. He thinks it’s the first time he caught her stealing stuff on the yacht. But she is correct that they met earlier when he hadn’t donned the cowl yet, and they fought in the street during year one.

Also, who thought Kite Man could be an interesting character? Hell, Yeah.

Next up, Detective Comics.

[jjreason]

I stopped reading after #50 & Detective around 985 or something. I'm almost done with the Nu52 trade paperbacks so I'll go back to it & get caught up once that's done.

[jjreason]

Marvel Comics 1000
Powers or House 3, whichever came out this week. Was that the first big "Hickman Moment"? I guess we'll see.
Thor 16

[Tom Foolery]

Detective Comics. It’s in the ‘B’ box because Batman. Fight me.

981. Was the final issue of Tynion and Barrows run on the book, so not only was it finishing up whatever arc they were doing, it was basically tying off all the plot threads from their last 40-50 issues on the series. So I was pretty much lost.
982 was a one-off/filler where the ghost of Deacon Blackfire tries to possess a young boy and continue his reign of hatred.
983-987 Bryan Hill and Miguel Mendoça do an arc that would spin off into the new Outsiders ongoing. Batman recruits Jefferson Pierce to lead his new Outsiders team consisting of Batgirl, Signal, and Orphan (Orphan is Cassandra Cain’s latest codename. Is that her third? fourth?) They have to fight against a new member of Batman’s gallery calling himself Karma.
988-993. James Robinson eats up six issues with a shitty Two-Face arc.
994-999. Tomasi and Mahnke take over with an arc about someone killing all the people who trained/influenced Bruce before he was Batman. Leslie Thompkins dies from Joker gas. Henri Ducard is blown up, etc etc. The entire thing ends up being a simulation Bruce runs every year on his birthday to keep himself mentally prepared. Kind of a cop out.
1000 was the big 94 pager with several stories from plenty of different creators, as well as a bunch of pinups. Solid. Even if it was $9.99.
Annual 1 was a Clayface origin story. Like the umpteenth Clayface origin story.
Annual 2 was the return of the Reaper. But they had to limp dick it by making it his son taking over the identity. Yawn.
Everything 1001 and up is in the new boxes so I probably won’t get to it for at least a year.

Next up, lots of Black. Bolts. Panthers. Panther tie-ins. Then Bullseye, Captains America and Marvel, and Champions and thats the next box finished. After that, two boxes to go.

[jjreason]

House or Powers, whichever one we're on this week. Doomsday Clock 11, Alpha Flight one-shot 1 because who needs money.

[Tom Foolery]

Didn’t Doomsday Clock start like three years ago?
If Publishers are gonna do big event books like this, they need to get the entire thing in the can before they solicit the first issue.

[jjreason]

I joked with the guy a the counter that each new issue released requires an entire series re-read. I figure it will be done by my birthday next May & I can finally figure out where I stopped reading & finish it.

[jjreason]

Thor, whichever X-Men book came out & Batman 78. Also got Hulk Epic 1(even though I have all the issues elsewise) and a Cap epic on sale - Man Without a Country - because it contained most of the end of v1 of all the Avengers related books.

[jjreason]

Quite a few after missing the last couple of weeks.

House & Powers of X - last 3 issues
History of the MU 2 & 3
Marvel Comics 1001
JJ Abrams Spider-Man 1
Batman 79 & 80
Paper Girls TPB 6 - the last volume

Just under $85.

[Tom Foolery]

My guy’s order from Diamond had a bunch of damaged books so I didn’t get House of X, Transformers/Ghostbusters, Contagion, Marvel 1001 and a couple others. He will get replacements next week.

[Tom Foolery]

Been sorting Legos the last couple weeks, so haven’t been reading as much. But I finished the BlackBolt and Panther stuff tonight.

BlackBolt 7-10,12. The first six issues I don’t have had BlackBolt stuck in an intergalactic prison and being tortured repeatedly until he broke out with the help of fellow inmate Absorbing Man who died during the escape.
This second arc was Bolt returning to Earth with an alien child inmate, having a funeral for Creel, and dealing with the fallout of him being a shitty King.

Black Panther 8-18. T’Challa is dealing with internal strife in Wakanda and ends up promising to revamp the govt from a monarchy to a democracy.
Black Panther 166, 169-172. Reverted to legacy numbering. Something was killing the old gods of Wakanda. It turned out to be The Adversary, a semi obscure X-Men villain.
BP Annual 1. Short stories from previous BP writers Priest, Hudlin, and McGregor.
Black Panther:Sound and Fury. A oneshot that came out around the same time as the movie. Features Klaw as the villain.
BP:World of Wakanda 1-6. Anthology series featuring supporting BP characters. Primarily featuring the origins of the disgraced former Dora Milaje Aneka and Ayo as they meet, fall in love, and become disillusioned with Wakanda and become Midnight Angels.
BP:The Crew 1-5. Misty Knight, Cage, Storm, Manifold, and T’Challa become embroiled in a conspiracy when a black activist is arrested and murdered in his cell. Hydra is involved. Missing the final issue, but I can guess the good guys win in the end.

Now to finish off the box with some ‘C’ titles.

[Tom Foolery]

Back with some more reading.

Bullseye 1-4. The 2017 mini. Part of the ‘Running with the Devil’ launch that had a new DD book, as well as Elektra, Kingpin, and Bullseye minis. Bullseye gets hired by a mobster to rescue his son from cartel kidnappers. And a rogue FBI Agent hires d-list villains Shotgun and Bullet to help her get revenge on Bullseye for killing her husband in the first issue. Not a fan of the characters irredeemable portrayal here. Brisson doesn’t understand that Bullseye isn’t a superhuman martial artist that can beat up a room of 50 guys. Also, while he’s used playing cards to kill for dramatic effect, I feel like he doesn’t walk around with several decks in his pockets using them exclusively like cheap throwing stars. Missing the final issue.

Cable 1-5. Okay. Seriously one of the shittiest story arcs I have ever read. Even for James Robinson. There’s a bad guy named Conquest jumping thru time gathering up five pieces of a macguffin blade that can let the user change the timeline. Cable is jumping thru time to stop him. What’s the bad guys motivation? His backstory? Doesn’t have one. He’s just there to gather the pieces of blade. What’s the origin of the blade? How does it work? What is it’s origin? Doesn’t have one. It(they) only exists as a reason the bad guy is jumping thru time. What kind of character development is there for the main character, Cable? None. He’s only existing to chase the bad guy thru time and stop him from gathering the pieces, spouting cliche tough guy bullshit the entire time. Also, why do either of them need a magical blade to travel thru time, when you both are ALREADY TRAVELING THRU TIME??! James Robinson is a seriously shitty writer and I feel sorry for anyone that paid full price and waited five months for this story arc to be resolved. Fuck off.
Cable 150-154. The second arc reverted to legacy numbering as Brisson and my least favorite artist John Malin take over. I was seriously confused for most of this arc until I went back and read the caption on the first panel of the first page that said “13 years ago” and then never mentioned it again for the rest of the series. The other thing that was confusing is that Brisson(nor his editors) has apparently never heard of the Sliding Time Scale because 13 years ago was events that were happening circa 2004 in the books. And references to ‘ten years earlier’ when the X-Ternals were all killed off in X-Force issue 52 back in the 90s. So Brisson brings back the X-Ternals just so he can kill them off again in this “flashback” story. And Cable is recruiting X-Men who weren’t X-Men yet like Armor and X-23(which confused me because I didn’t get this was not a current story) and a subplot with Selene and Blink which also didn’t make sense because Cable refers to the X-Necrosha event from 2009 as “the future” but the blink in this series is the alt-universe Exiles version and the Blink from Necrosha was the resurrected 616 version who died in her first appearance back during Phalanx Covenant crossover back in the 90s. Essentially a writer who hasn't done his homework teamed with a shitty Liefeld disciple. So two crappy story arcs in a row.
Cable 155-159. The third arc had Cable reconciling/teaming up with his estranged “daughter” Hope and fighting a techno-organic bogeyman from his childhood. I’m missing a few of the issues, but it wasn’t terrible. Still, I can see why Marvel decided Cable was expendable and killed him off at the beginning of X-Termination. He’s an uncharismatic cipher of a character.

Cage! 2-4. I seriously thought I had the first issue but I can’t find it anywhere. Genndy Tartakovsky takes a stab at Luke Cage. Tartakovsky isn’t really my cup of tea, but thanks to him using only 1-3 panels per page, I flew thru the entire series in like seven minutes.

Sam Wilson 24, Steve Rogers 19, and Captain America 25. Both Cap books ended amidst the chaos of Secret Empire. The more I read of Secret Empire, the more I feel it’s one of the weakest events of the modern era.

Not a lot of great reading here. Next up is Waid and Samnee’s Cap legacy relaunch. Then a Capt Marvel series and the rest of the Champions first modern series.