the vynsane asylum

Back already.

Elektra 1-2. The last few Elektra stories from Marvel have been all over the board. They just don't seem to know what direction to take her. In her last ongoing she ended up as the head of the Assassin Guild, but apparently that's all been thrown out the window. Also, she's been regulated down to 'Daredevil's ho" in her own recap page summary. It says thusly

"The costumed vigilante known as DAREDEVIL has been fighting crime in the dark streets and on the foggy cold rooftops of New York City for years. In that time he's fought some deadly men and women, asassains, crime lords, killers, and thieves. One of Daredevil's most complicated relationships is with the ninja-assassin known as...Elektra. '

So really, it's all about Daredevil. As if she didn't have a rich enough history and back story to fill the recap summary on her own. She's the last sentence in his recap. An afterthought. Also, she's running around in her Netflix-esque costume with the bandana over her face like she's robbing a stagecoach. Even though she was perfectly fine running around without anything for the last 30 years worth of comics. Meh.
Anyway, the art by Juann Cabal is good, but on the negative side is the fact that Arcade is the villain for the first arc. I fucking hate Arcade. I think entropy has won out on this one. I don't foresee myself going to the trouble of catching up on however many issues I missed after 2. For a series that likely won't make it to issue 12.

Gamora 1. Only got issue one, even though it has Marco Chechetto art. This book was announced like two years ago. Seriously, it was in the launch tube before Secret Wars, and kept getting delayed. Along with most things Marvel these days, they're borrowing heavily from the MCU, with Gamora and Nebula having their frenemy/sister relationship as co-wards of Thanos retconned in. Even though, that was never a thing previously in the comics. After that I decided to look up both Nebula and Gamora at cbdb, and as it turns out, I have ALL the appearances of both characters. It's weird when you read a character for the first time, and assume they have a long previously established continuity in the books. My first exposure to Gamora and Nebula was when they showed up in Infinity Gauntlet. Turns out both of them had hardly been in a dozen books before that, and I've since acquired all of them.
Anyway, it wasn't a bad issue, but I have finite funds, so it's already dropped.

Ghost Rider 1. The second attempt to make Fetch Robbie Reyes happen. I dropped this after this first issue, but from what I read online, they added Amadeus Cho, Laura X-23 aka the new Wolverine, and Silk into the book, because they were trying to do a modern take on the replacement FF team from the 90s. Anyway, it already got cancelled with issue 5, so I only have to find 4 back issues on FCBD this Saturday. Hey Marvel, two words: Dan fuckin' Ketch. That's the Ghost Rider that was popular as fuck back in the 90s and guest starred every month in literally everything alongside Frank and Logan. Maybe bring that guy back and your Ghost Rider books will last more than a dozen issues.

GIJoe ARAH 234-239. Every issue continues to be jam packed and full of multiple ongoing subplots. What annoys me is the multiple covers. Because the print run is so small, my guy gets in one, maybe two copies. And they're all special orders for me and other people. But I don't get to choose which cover i get. So on some of them, I get the awesome John Royle, who almost looks like J Scott Campbell, art. And on other issues I get the boring Gallant cover. ONE COVER!! That's what I want.

GIJoe 1-4. Disappointed. I wrote more over in the GIJoe topic.

Finished up the Gs.

Guardians of the Galaxy 14-19. Wow, Bendis really limped to the finish line with these final issues. A bunch of solo stories wrapping up loose plot threads for various team members, Thing, Groot, Angela, Gamora, etc before the final issue where Thanos re-invades Earth for like the 30th time and is wayyyy too easily dispatched. Yuck.

Guardians of the Galaxy:Dream On one shot. The GoGs get captured by Death's Head. Deaths Head is always a plus, Yes? Also a reprint of the first issue of the 1990 series.

Gwenpool 9-14. People hate that this character is an actual thing, but I think it's a cheeky humorous book that pokes fun at comic tropes.

Gwenpool Holiday Special. Gwenpool and guest stars Punisher, Deadpool, Miles Morales, Galactus, etc. This one shot was hilarious. Someone has erased Christmas, and other holidays like Pantsgiving have filled the void. The Red Skull story about saying the non-denominational Hail Hatred instead of Hail Hydra was fucking hilarious. If you find this gem in the dollar bins, absolutely grab it.

On to the H, I, and Js.

Thor 18
Flash 22
Action 978
Detective 955

Thanos 6
Secret Empire 1
OM Logan 22
Iron Doom 7

Normally I would have broken down & purchased Jean Grey 1 and RiRi 6, but I stuck to my guns. No. New. Marvel (series).

I haven't been getting Old Man Logan since the 2nd issue, but that ad for issue 25...I'm definitely getting that one. Logan vs Maestro. Drawn by Mike Deodato. Holy shit.

I'm out at 25, def looking forward that issue for sure.

The H,I,J books.

Hawkeye 1-6. Kate Bishop moves out west and opens a Detective Agency that she doesn't have a license for. Acquires a supporting cast. Obligatory guest star Jessica Jones shows up for a couple issues. Not great, but not awful. I like Kate enough to keep it going.

Totally Awesome Hulk 12. CW2 tie in. Dropped this a lonnng time ago.

Hulk 1-2. Jen Walters is suffering from PTSD after Civil War II and Bruce's murder. She rejoins her old law firm as plain ol' Jen Walters. Hulk hasn't shown up in the first two issues of a Hulk comic. Typically not a good start. Dropped.

IvsX 0,1. Seriously could not even be bothered to get through two issues. Don't care.

Inhumans Prime one shot. The fallout of IvsX, sets up the three or four new ongoing Inhuman books. Will be getting Royals because Al Ewing is writing it. Picked up Blackbolt 1 but haven't read it yet. Secret Warriors isn't out yet.

Invincible RiRi 2 and Infamous Iron Doom 4. Dropped both these, but both of these were pretty good. Dammit, now I have to hunt down some back issues. Sigh.

Iron Fist 1. Why does every single fucking Iron Fist book have to "challenge everything Danny thinks he knows about the Iron Fist". Seriously. That's the well that EVERY single new writer of an Iron Fist series goes to right off the bat. But Mike Perkins is drawing this, so I'll probably stick with it. Not even sure what issue it's up to at this point.

Jean Grey 1. Time displaced Teen Jean gets her own ongoing. The Phoenix Force immediately shows up.

Jessica Jones 3-8. As far as Bendis was out of his element with the Guardians books, this series is so up in his wheelhouse. It's soooo freakin good to see Alias back in print after all these years. I'm loving this series. Jessica is Bendis' baby and you can tell.



Next up is a couple issues of Kingpin and then into the 'M's.

When I picked up my books today, almost every copy of Secret Empire two had these tiny little tears on the edge of the comic. I looked through every one of the 10-15 copies he got in and found the ONE copy that didn't have rips in it. I flipped it over and the back cover looked like it had been dragged thru dirt. I didn't buy any. I'll find it at the other shop when I go this weekend. For $5 a pop Diamond ought to ship their comics safer.

Read K thru P over the past couple weeks. And really I read Monsters Unleashed and then stalled on all the oneshot tie ins. Then a couple days ago binged thru the several series after that one.


Kingpin 1-2. Wilson Fisk hires a journalist to ghost write his autobiography. She spends the majority of the first two issues hand wringing and navel gazing on whether she should. I feel like this series will be over by issue six, so I didn't keep up with it.

Monsters Unleashed 1-5, + seven of the eight oneshot tie ins. I'm missing the Hulk one. The main series involves Kaiju from outer space crashing down on earth in alarming numbers and all the heroes getting spread thin fighting them, until a new inhuman kid with the power to summon classic 1950s Marvel Monsters by drawing them in his notebook turns the table with Fin Fang Foom and other monsters. Not bad, but nothing really memorable about it. I was afraid I'd have to read the Oneshots Ina particular order, but I didn't need to. The highlight was probably the Dr. strange issue written by Chip Zdarsky. The rest of them felt like Marvel had hired a bunch of amateurs and this was their trial if they were gonna get more Marvel work down the road. There is now an ongoing series launched from the mini.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 13-18. Luna discovers she's the smartest person in the Marvel Universe thanks to a testing device made by Bruce Banner and administered to her by Amadeus Cho. The following issues have guest stars like RiRi Williams, the X-Men, Ben Grimm, etc while Luna fights an army of Doombots. Sadly, Amy Reeder left the series with issue 18. This series is lighthearted and fun. I'm glad I stuck with it.

Ms. Marvel 13. Kamala deals with gerrymandering and voter registration in her hometown in New Jersey. I ended up dropping this book just because I can't afford everything.

Nick Fury 1. Artist Aco tries to channel Steranko' bombastic page layouts, but James Robinson story telling is so muddled it doesn't help. One and done.

Nighthawk 2-6. I dropped this after the first issue, but found the rest of the series on FCBD. This Nighthawk is the Supreme Power version transplanted into our universe after Secret Wars. He's in the Squadron Supreme series and got this short lived ongoing that only lasted six issues. David Walker's writing isn't my cup of tea, but it isn't bad. Marvel wants their own version of Batman, but this isn't it.

Nova 1. Yet another relaunch of the Nova series, this time both Sam Alexander and Richard Rider co-star. I only bought the first issue, but this series has already been cancelled with issue 7.

Prowler 2. This was all a Clone Conspiracy tie in series. I didn't buy it past issue 2, but from what JJ said, it ended with issue 6 anyway.

Punisher 7-12. After Steve Dillon passed away, they replaced him with an artist that's doing his best to ape Dillon's style for consistency in the Trades I guess. This hasn't been an awful Punisher book, but there's nothing really memorable about it either.

Next up is a few issues of Royals, the new Inhuman series, and then a LOT of S books. Like a LOT.

Star Wars 31 (but he didn't save me the Screaming Citadel special, so I get to track that down)
DD 20 (done)
OM Logan 23 - this book feels like it comes out daily, every time I buy comics it's there again. 2 more issues and I'm out
Surfer 11
Secret Invasion Wars Empire 2
The Wild Storm 4 - trying to like it, but it's basically Warren Ellis being allowed to write every character as a wiseass - not sure why I keep buying. Hopefully done but I'm weak.

Went to my backup comic shop today for Secret Empire 2, and also filled in a bunch of runs of books I had accidentally missed for the last few months.
Up to date on Steve Rogers, Uncanny Avengers, Guardians, Serenity, Spider-Miles, Ultimates2, Wolverine, and Uncanny X-Men.
Still missing Thor 14, and didn't really look too hard for the Totally Awesome Hulk, Silk, Spider-Gwen, and All New X-Men, Extraordinary X-Men issues I was missing.
Also got a bunch of those recent True Believer $1 issues of Wolverine and X-Men reprints.

Back with the Rs and the start of the S's.

Red Sonja 0. 25 cent starter issue from Dynamite. Sonja falls asleep in a cave and wakes up in 2017 New York City. So She-Devil with a sword in a fish out of water tale.

Revolution 4-5, plus the GIJoe, TAAO, and MTMTE oneshots. There was such a huge gap for me in reading the beginning and the conclusion, I honestly didnt really care what was going on. The MTMTE oneshot was typically hilarious. Roasting GIJoe, M.A.S.K. and literally crossovers.

Royals 1-3. In the fallout of IvsX, the Inhuman Royal family hears from Noh-Varr, aka Marvel Boy, aka The Protector, who suggests that there may be more terrigen somewhere else in the Galaxy, so they jump on a spaceship and leave earth. Marvel is thinking maybe an Inhuman book will sell better without Inhuman in the title? Eh, it's Al Ewing, so I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt for now.

Rocket Raccoon. So Rocket and Groot work fine as comic relief in team books and blockbuster films. But having their own series doesn't bode well. Either together or alone, the two of them have had like eight ongoing series over the last three years.
Rocket Racoon and Groot 10. The final issue of their second team upseries was a CW2 tie in that guest starred Gwenpool for good measure. After that Rocket got another series that spun out of the "Grounded" arc in Guardians, where the team is stuck on Earth after CW2. That series only lasted 5 issues, of which I have 1 and 5. Kraven the Hunter was in there somewhere. It just got rebooted again as simply Rocket. Al Ewing is writing it, and it has Rocket and members of the Technet in an integalactic bank heist. Only one issue of that so far.

Saga 40-42. We shall not speak of the unbearably bleak sadness of the final page(s) of issue 42. It haunts me still.

Secret Empire FCBD, 0, 1, and 2. Steve Rogers, head of Hydra(and SHIELD) takes over America and manages to neutralize most of the heroes in the process. The ones left over form a guerilla resistance to stop him. Rick Jones was executed on live television and Las Vegas was blown up. It's still early in this Event du Jour from Marvel.

I got 2 Marvels this week - Steve Rogers 17 (filler) and Iron Doom 8 (which made me feel like I had missed an issue when I started it, but nope). I still look forward to reading this one & Thanos, that's about it.

Another smattering of S books.

Secret Warriors 1-2. Amidst the chaos of Secret Empire, Daisy "Quake" Johnson recruits a bunch of Inhumans like Ms Marvel and Moon Girl to fight Hydra. Snappy pace and dialogue. Will keep getting. Unfortunately, issue 1 had a printing error where several interior pages were ripped all to shit and I didn't know until I opened it several months after the fact. Will need to replace.

Serenity 2-5. Finally found the Jeanty cover I was missing for issue 3. Follows the events of the movie. Jeanty paints some gorgeous covers, it's unfortunate his interior pencils are so amateurish. I can hardly tell which character is which.

Agents of SHIELD 5. I dropped this after the first issue because it wasn't as good as the Waid series it replaced. But this was a decent issue that balances the characters of the TV show within the Marvel U. I think this series was cancelled after Cw2.

Silk 15-16, 19. Two issues that tied into the Clone Conspiracy and issue 19 was the final issue of the series.

Silver Surfer 8-11. Dan Slott and the Allreds are having a lot of fun with this series. I'm sad it's ending in a few issues.

Up next, lots of Spidey books, Squadron Supreme, and Star Wars. Then onto the T's.
By the time I finish with the X's, I already have like 50-100 from the beginning if the alphabet piling up again.

I didn't see the news that Slott Surfer was ending. :**(

The wording in this months solicits suggests that the July issue is the final one. Something about taking "One last trip around the cosmos" or something.
Before Marvel would just say FINAL ISSUE. Now they have to be coy and clever about stealth cancelling books. Arseholes.