So, What comics did you buy this week?

[Diabolical]

New Mutants 1 & Batman 82.

Same, plus the Batman Annual from last week.

And New Mutants was only because there was an Artgerm variant.

[jjreason]

Fuck, didn't get the Bat Mannual. Love it when the shop leaves me hanging. Was that Annual 3 then or maybe 4?

[Tom Foolery]

It was Batman Annual 4.

Back with the readin’s!

Drax 5-8. The middle of the short 10 issue ongoing written by CM Punk, who is a rapper or MMAfighter or a DJ or a comedian or a YouTube personality or something. Drax and his buddies, Terrax the former herald of Galactus and robot named Torgo are fighting FinFangFoom who has kidnapped a bunch of alien kids to use as sacrifices in a blood ritual to re-energize some eggs and restart Foomie’s race. It doesnt work and Drax takes it upon himself to return all the kids to their respective planets. They are interrupted by Cammie, Drax’s former protege, and the adult version of 80’s Star Comics Planet Terry(which is obscure and fucking hilarious) who have been hired by Pip the Troll because one of the kids is royalty and Pip wants the reward. This was a pretty fun and absurd series.

Elektra 2-5. Elektra is captured by Arcade and put into a MurderWorld in Las Vegas with some various c-list celebrities. I can’t fucking stand Arcade and I don’t believe for one minute he would get the drop on Elektra. Plus, why is she wearing a mask now? People know who she is. Her codename is literally her name. Not to mention her reputation precedes her. So covering her face is stupid. Just because the Netflix version was wearing a mask. Ugh. Dopey.

Falcon 1-8(missing issue 5). After Sam stopped being Captain America, he went back to being Falcon and tried to stop a gang riot in Chicago that was secretly being orchestrated by Blackheart, the son of Mephisto. Eventually, with the help of Jericho Drumm and his new sidekick Patriot, he defeats Blackheart and gets on Mephisto’s shitlist. Mephisto then sends Deacon Frost to cause trouble for Sam back in Brooklyn and he enlists Misty Knight and Blade’s help to stop the vampires. The book got cancelled pretty quick because it was rather dull.

Flash 33. For some reason I bought an issue of Flash that was a tie-in to Dark Knight:Metal.

First Strike 1-6, + the Optimus Prime, Transformers, and GIJoe tie-in oneshots. The second Hasbroverse Event(after Revolution). Optimus has brought Earth into the Cybertronian council of colonies and not everyone is thrilled. During their first diplomatic visit to Cybertron, a rogue team of humans led by Joe Colton now calling himself Baron Ironblood attack Cybertron with the intent of blowing up its core with some macguffin that was introduced in a book I wasn’t reading at the time. Scarlett and the Joes go to stop him, but get waylaid by politics and Optimus and Soundwave must commit treason to help Scarlett escape Cybertron jail and confront Colton. In the end, everyone is double crossed by some guy who is really a Visionarie and he uses the macguffin to bring the Visionairie homeworld to Cybertron. And it also sets up Unicron. Maighread Scott did a decent job writing the series, I really enjoyed her Til All Are One book, but I felt like I should be more excited seeing all the Hasbro properties interacting with each other and it just wasn’t there. Maybe because I had already finished the TF saga and I knew this wasn’t as big a deal in retrospect.

Foolkiller 1-5. Max Bemis brought Greg Salinger back for a tongue-in-cheek miniseries where Greg is dealing with the hypocrisy of him being a phychiatrist with killing issues. His successor, Kurt Gerhardt shows up eventually and in the end Greg checks himself into Ravencroft. Not bad.

Next up, Game of Thrones, GIJoe, the Generations oneshots, and Guardians of the Galaxy, and whatever else is in the ‘G’ pile. And that’s the end of the second box. Only one(and a partial) more after that.

[Tom Foolery]

Back with more ‘G’ reading.

Clash of Kings 3-16. The adaptation of the second GoT novel that stopped halfway thru the story last January. These are pretty faithful adaptations and just made me want to reread the books. This one got up to the point where Stannis’ witch killed Renly in his own tent and Brienne and Catelyn had to gtfo before they were accused of it. I did some research and apparently they are restarting the series with a new #1 but picking up where this series “ended” but, fuck, these things come out as slowly as the actual books.

Gamora 3-5. A tale set “early” in Gamora’s life where she is tracking down the Badoons who committed genocide on her race. I initially dropped this because of the inconsistency in having cyborg Nebula as a supporting character since she wasn’t robotified until significantly later in the actual Marvel U, but since I only paid like 75 cents for the rest of the series, it was a pretty good read. And Checchetto’s art is good.

Generations. This was a series of 10 oneshots that teamed up the current iterations of the main heroes with their legacy counterparts at some point in the past. So Cho Hulk meeting Banner in the past, Laura teaming up with old school Wolverine, Miles traveling back to meet Peter as a teen Spidey, etc. It had something to do with Kobik and the finale of Secret Empire but I don’t remember what. Most were forgettable, but some were pretty good.

Generation X 5-9, 85-87. An attempt at a relaunch of the 90’s team where Jubilee and the other GenXers are now faculty at the X-school training the next group of heroes. It mostly focused on a handful of the students, but I appreciated that the writer was trying to use many of the forgotten mutant students from all the previous series about Xavier’s “next team of mutants” of which there have been many. Had some cool Terry Dodson covers. This wasn’t great, but it was better than i thought it would be. I enjoyed it even if it got cut short after a dozen issues.

Ghost Rider 2-5. Robbie Reyes’ second attempt at an ongoing only made it five issues. Reyes’ Ghost Rider is the Fetch of the Marvel U. Marvel wants it to happen and it’s not. This story arc(and on paper this seems like a clever idea) was doing a new version of the Fantastic Four team from the 90’s but having Cho Hulk, X-23, Silk, and Reyes instead. Even though it’s Reyes’ ‘ongoing’ they have just as much page time to Cho and Laura tracking down a giant purple alien who steals superhuman powers. Robbie was almost an afterthought in his own goddamn book.

Johnny Blaze:Ghost Rider. A oneshot tie-in with the Damnation event in Dr. strange. Mephisto depowered Blaze and pushed him out a window at the top of a casino where he fell to his death. This book picks up where he wakes up in hell and has to team up with the Spirit of Vengeance and he becomes the new King of Hell.

Got some GIJoe and Guardians next.

[Diabolical]

I gave up on A Game of Thrones with a handful of issues left. I wish I had at least finished the first book.

And Generations: Hawkeye tied into Kate Bishop's later story somehow. Something with Madame Masque, IIRC.

[jjreason]

XMen 2
Marauders 2
King Thor 3
Batman 83 - forgot the Annual again motherFUCK.....

[Tom Foolery]

The rest of the ‘G’ books.

GIJoe vs Six Million Dollar Man 1-4. Crossover between IDW and Dynamite. Steve Austin gets brainwashed by Cobra and leads an attack on a summit of world leaders. GIJoe is sent in as security and they bring in their secret trump card, Mike Power, the Atomic Man!! Which is a deep dive into Joe lore, as Power was Hasbro’s Adventure Team answer to the popularity of the $6M Man action dolls from Kenner. Solid, fun crossover story.

GIJoe 8, and 9 and Scarlett’s Strike Force 1-3. Aubrey Sitterson shits all over the GIJoe brand. Won’t even bother recapping this shit, other than to say the Scarlett book got canned after three measly issues because it’s turd.

A few Grimm Fairy Tales pinup oneshots.

Guardians of the Galaxy 9-12, 146-150. Duggan was really ramping up the Cosmic side of Marvel with this series. After Secret War “reset” the Marvel U, the Infinity Stones were up for grabs again and everybody is looking for them. The Fraternity of Raptors, led by Rich Rider’s brother Robbie, have infiltrated the brand new Nova Corps and the Guardians are inducted to try to root out the spies and saboteurs. The Gardner, tricked by Loki, corrupts Groot back to his original ‘evil’ monstrous version and releases an army of Groots on the galaxy. Kang resurrects Adam Warlock. The series ended but led into the Infinity Countdown books, which led into the Infinity Wars event.

Next up the ‘H thru M’ box. Hawkeye, Hulk, Iron Man, and plenty of other good stuff.

[jjreason]

Bat Mannual 4, Valyrie 5 & New Mutants 2. If New Mutants doesn't suit me this issue. I've been thinking about the previously unthinkable - dropping Hickman-penned books. I hope this issue helps change my mind.

[anarky]

Didn't buy it, but checked out and read the full Paper Girls series this evening.

Damn. Good story. I've really got to credit Vaughan for putting together a cohesive time travel story that makes no fucking sense at first but comes together, while leaving just a bit of mystery in the end.

[jjreason]

X-Men & Marauders 3, Batman 74, Thor special by Walt Simonson 1. About 90 percent of the Marvel books at the store this week had big white marks on the back covers due to ink transfer - they are literally not worth cover price the minute they're put on the shelf. Love it.

[Tom Foolery]

Superman 18. Superman reveals that he’s gay...or something.
I also got over 40 other books today. I need to cut back. I’m basically paying the equivalent of rent on books every month, when you consider boards/bags/boxes and other supplies factored in. I mean, I have a decent job and no other vices(don’t drink or smoke or do drugs) so I can afford the hobby that I love, but I could’ve bought a car with what I spent on funny books in the past 12 months.

Also, where should I put these “Gamerverse” oneshots for the new Avengers game? Should I put them with the PS4 Spider-Man minis? Or under Avengers?

[jjreason]

I don't have an opinion on that one, honestly. I'd likely put them with avengers but I'd have to see them to be sure.

[Tom Foolery]

Because both Christmas and New Year’s fall on Wednesdays over the next two weeks, most publishers have a limited amount (or none whatsoever) books coming out until the new year. Unfortunately, that means they dumped all their books this week. Holy fuck, I spent $151 today.
There were also a bunch of finale issues today. King finished his Batman run, Agents of Atlas, Batman:Last Knight on Earth, Doomsday Clock, Future Foundation, Guardians of the Galaxy, Gwenpool Strikes Back, History of the Marvel U, Invaders, and King Thor(which is Jason Aaron’s finale on Thor) all wrapped up.


In other news, I’m back to reading after a couple weeks of slacking off.

Gwenpool 20-25. Gwenpool was coming to terms with her meta-powers that allow her to slip between panels of her comics and was confronted with her “evil” future self. After she refuses to embrace her evil destiny, it truncates the present run of her book and she realizes she only has a few issues left before her series ends. This was a cheeky series that pokes fun at comics continuity and other comic tropes. I enjoyed it.

Hawkeye 10-16. Kate Bishop’s solo Hawkeye series comes to an end. The last story arc brought back Clint and the banter between these two is when the book really clicks. But I get really annoyed when a book set in Los Angeles doesn’t properly understand the geography of LA. The Hollywood sign is not a brief run up a shallow hill away from whatever street they’re standing on before the action switches to the Hills.

Patsy Walker aka Hellcat 3-17. Another humorous book in the same vein as Squirrel-Girl(not as good as SG) has Patsy dealing with her old frenemy Hedy Wolf republishing their old comic exploits without Patsy’s consent, while also dealing with both her exes(Hellstorm and Buzz”Mad-Dog” Baxter and a villainous Black Cat. It was a fun, lighthearted series, but I’m glad I didn’t pay full price for it. I’m missing issues 15 and 16.

Next up, Totally Awesome Hulk, Hulk, and more Hulk. And also Iceman’s short ongoing.

[jjreason]

Purchased Batman, Abrams Spidey 3, King Thor 4, ASM whichever & Absolute Carnage 3 & 4 just for reading entertainment. Oh, and the Miller Dark Knight Golden Child 1 shot.

[Diabolical]

I missed Spidey 3. Shoot.

I grabbed The Rise of Kylo Ren #1, Detective Comics #something, Firefly #12 (which I should drop, as I haven't read past issue 2), and Vampirella #6 for the Artgerm cover.