So, What comics did you buy this week?

[Tom Foolery]

I played Hooky from work today! And to celebrate, I’m reading some more ‘S’ comics.

Scarlet Witch 7-10. Wanda went on a journey of self discovery in this 16 issue series. While I am not a fan of James Robinson, I did like that this series had a different artist for each issue and each issue was a stand alone story that explored ‘witchcraft’ in the Marvel U. I could’ve sworn I read the rest of the series at some point, but didn’t bother “reviewing” it on here. I didn’t dislike the series.

She-Hulk 160 and 161. The Hulk series that ran 11 issues went back with Legacy numbering and went back to the She-Hulk title. I had previously read issue 159, and still have to find the final two issues, 162-163. But the story arc deals with The Leader trying to steal Jen’s Hulk power and her having to deal with her PTSD after she woke up from her coma in Civil War 2. It was meh.

Agents of SHIELD 6, 7. After Mark Waid had a really great SHIELD series that introduced the TV show cast into the Marvel U(May, Fitz, Simmons, etc) the book was cancelled and replaced with this inferior book with the same cast. I’m still missing a few issues and it only lasted 10 issues anyway. Forgettable.

SHIELD 5, 6. Hickman had a crazy SHIELD mini series back in 2011. Then he did a follow up mini that was also six issues, but only four came out. Until they finally finished the series in 2018. So I’m reading the finale of a story I read almost 10 years ago, and it was a head trip of a story to begin with, so naturally I was fucking lost trying to figure this out. Basically SHIELD has been around for millennia, and the current super spy organization is only the latest iteration. The two minis were about Isaac Newton and Leonardo DaVinci fighting for control of Shield, with people like Nicodemus, Tesla, Tesla’s alien bird-wife, Michelangelo, Howard Stark, Nathaniel Richards, etc choosing sides. The whole thing was batshit crazy.

Silver Surfer Annual 1. A story from Norrin’s past about the one of the first times he had to destroy an intelligent civilization to satisfy Galactus’ hunger.

Slapstick 5. Part of a mini about the cartoony Marvel hero. Some clever parodies of Mario, Transformers, and Disney toons, etc but otherwise I think this was just to keep the copyright up to date.

Solo 3, 4. Another mini about a C-List Marvel character whose copyright window was closing.

Ben Reilly:Scarlet Spider 1-4. Ben goes to Vegas after the Clone Conspiracy to try make amends for his failed super-villain turn. Kaine follows him with the intent of killing him. Peter David always does a decent job of telling entertaining stories that don’t need to be epic.
19. Mysterio’ s daughter transports an entire casino into the Dark Dimension and then dies while trying to gain the power of Cytorrak. Mysterio blames Spidey for her death.
20-25. The finale of the series. After tussling with Sauron, Ben finds a cure for the fatal disease the daughter of the Casino owner he works for has. It’s the blood of the Angel Gabriel. But before he can give it to her, Mephisto intervenes and makes everyone think Ben withheld the cure for his own selfish reasons. He manages to save the girl, but has a falling out with Kaine and stabs him in the chest and tells his to get out of town, basically reverting to being a bad guy in the final pages. This led into the SpiderGeddon event.

Next up, Spider-Gwen. I was missing fewer issues than I thought.
Also, the ends of Spidey/Deadpool and Squirrel Girl. Almost done...

[jjreason]

I purchased those last 2 SHIELD issues as well, and I think they actually did a catch up type one shot that reprinted either the full 1-4 or enough to get you ready for 5,6. I then wound up getting the 2 hardcovers (one for each series) at a good price so I'm either getting or have already gotten rid of the floppies. Not my favorite Hickman stuff but it was "good". On par-ish with Secret Warriors.

[Tom Foolery]

Here it is. The last batch.

Spider-Gwen 7-8. This was part of a crossover event between Spider-Woman, Silk, and Gwen called Spider-Women. There were an Alpha and Omega issues and two parts in each characters series. I have read them all out of order and read Alpha and Omega, the first and last parts, last. But the gist is, the Silk from Gwen’s universe is a major villain and the reason Gwen has her Spider powers.
9-12. NYPD Detective Frank Castle has become obsessed with the identity of the Spider-Woman and bringing her to justice. So much so, he begins going outside the law to bring her in. The arc ends with Gwen’s father turning himself in for aiding and abetting.
13. A one off where Gwen and the rest of the Mary Janes go into an abandoned haunted house for Halloween.
14-15. In order to get her father out of jail, Gwen makes a deal with Matt Murdock, the Kingpin of crime, to defend her dad in court.
16-18 was a crossover between Gwen and Miles’ book where Mile’s dad’s doppelgänger in Gwen’s universe is a high ranking criminal in Silk’s organization. There’s also romantic tension between Gwen and Miles.
19-23. Murdock and Silk send Gwen to Madripoor to find Harry Osborn so they can recover the Lizard serum in his blood. Along the way Gwen fights bounty hunters who are that universes versions of Logan and Kitty Pryde.
24. I’m missing 24, and it’s $20 or more on eBay because it’s the first appearance of “Gwenom”.
25-30. The bad guys use Gwen’s spider blood to leech the Lizard formula from Harry and the resulting compound is a black sentient goo that bonds with Gwen and turns her into a ‘dark’ version of herself. Gwenom. In order to defeat Silk and Murdock, Gwen reveals her identity to her friends and family and asks for their help defeating the bad guys.
31-34. After the Gwenom saga, Gwen decides to turn herself into authorities and is found guilty and goes to prison. I’m missing a couple of these last issues, so I don’t know how the series ends.
Overall, I enjoyed the alt-universe What If series. It’s kind of a cop out that Gwen can pop over to the main 616 universe whenever she feels like it for help/guidance, but it was a pretty good read. She’s had two short ongoings since then and has renamed herself Ghost-Spider.

Spider-Man Annual 1. The Miles annual. Bookended by a random battle with Morbius(?) this was a flashback to the first time Miles ever used his powers to help people when robbers attack a fashion store opening to rob all the rich attendants. One of Miles’ friends dies during the fight, so now he has guilt. Meh.
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man 311-313. Chip Zdarsky ended his run on the book with 310. The final three issues were written by Sean Ryan and were a tie-in to Spider-Geddon. I don’t know what was happening in the rest of Spider-Geddon(my guess is I’ll get around to reading it in 2023) but for these three issues Morlun is back and specifically gunning for Peter who has beaten Morlun in their last three encounters.

Spidey 4. One issue of the short lived ‘flashback’ ongoing. Spidey fights Dr Doom in this one.

Spidey/Deadpool 37-40. Spidey and Wade have become ‘co-parents’ to the very first LMD Master Matrix trying to teach him right and wrong. A side adventure in the Savage Land and a battle with the Wrecking Crew ensue before Matrix decides to sequester himself back in Area 57 where he was discovered. And he sends Spidey and Wade on bro-bonding road trip.
41-45. On their road trip, they get attacked by invading big things and sucked into the Negative Zone and fight Blastaar who has some big invasion scheme. They defeat him.
46-50. The finale of the series had them come back from the Negative Zone to find they had missed out on a giant crossover event called Infinite House of Civil yet Secret Crisis War Invasion and the world is an apocalyptic ruin. Wade realizes that this is because the book is getting cancelled and the big secret bad guy is actually the writer Robbie Thompson.
These issues were pretty hilarious as Deadpool is constantly breaking the fourth wall, but Spidey is not and the meta-story possibilities of that are exploited quite well. Good stuff.

Squirrel Girl 41 was a one off where a new villain kidnaps Nancy and Peter Parker, and Doreen has to solve quizzes to rescue them.
42 was their big 50th issue(because the first series was 8 issues before Secret Wars cancelled it) where Doreen from the future, present, and past team up to defeat Kang. Clever stuff.
43-46 was a War of the Realms tie-in where Doreen has to team up with Asgardian god of Chaos Ratatoskr (her nemesis) to defeat the frost giants invading North America.
47-50 was the finale of the series. One of her bad guys outs Doreen’s secret identity to the world and she is assaulted by an army of super-villains, but the Avengers and a whole slew of villains Doreen reformed, like Kraven and Mole Man come to her aid, culminating with her BFF Galactus showing up. It was a fantastic finale to a fantastic series. I laugh at literally every page and I look forward to whatever Ryan North writes next. Highest recommendations.

Spider-Women Alpha and Omega. The beginning and end of the Silk/Gwen/Jessica Drew crossover. These two issues have been bouncing around my read pile for like five years. Every time I move issue or boxes, these would get left out with the intent of reading the story in order. It never happened. So now it’s finally read and can be given a home.

And, now, I have 15 long boxes to sort and organize.

After that. The new stack of boxes begins. It’s at nine and counting.

[Tom Foolery]

Starting to sort boxes and came across a handful of random issues that needed reading before they got put away in the right spot.

Blackbolt 6. Blackbolt and some other inmates escape an interstellar prison. Absorbing Man sacrifices himself to destroy the warden so everyone else can get away.

Cage! 1. The first issue of Genndy Tartakovsky’s kinda sorta racist Luke Cage mini. Like maybe it’s sorta satire of blaxploitation or whatever, buuuutt....

Falcon 5. Falcon escapes hell and stops Blackheart from becoming Mayor of Chicago or something.

Groot 3. Groot teams up with Silver Surfer and Dawn Greenwood. Awwww...she’s dead now.

Guardians of Infinity 6. Guardians of three different eras team up via time travel to defeat some bad guy.

Iron Fist 2. Iron Fist goes to a mysterious island to partake in a Kung fu tournament.

Okay, whew. That’s done. Now back to the sorting...

[jjreason]

2 issues of Marauders, 2 issues of New Mutants, Valkyrie 8 & X-Men 7. It's going to wind up being the condition of the new comics that's going to be the final straw. There simply weren't any acceptable copies of my non pull list books on the shelf but I purchased them anyhow just to read as I don't want to bother needing to find them later. Frustrating to know you're paying $6 for something that has no value upon leaving the store & never will.

[jjreason]

33 issues of Spectacular Spider-Man (vol 1) from a local seller. Facebook groups are the new something or other.

[jjreason]

Everyone needs to read Steve Geppi's statement re. Diamond's closure & give me an honest opinion. It reads to me like he's out. And I mean out out.

https://www.newsarama.com/49539-diamond ... tdown.html

[anarky]

Sounds like the direct market is fucked. There is no alternative to Diamond. This is why monopolies are bad.

Though it sounds like Diamond's operations were pretty much hamstrung by mandated closures.

[jjreason]

I think the big players could find relief through the standard magazine distribution chains, and that might put comics back in stores like WalMart & 711 where they belong, honestly. This might not be a bad thing IF the hobby survives the change. Independents - even the big ones like Dark Horse - are significantly more fucked.

[Tom Foolery]

Can you imagine the condition books would be in if you had to buy them at WM or gas stations?
Ew.

[jjreason]

That's the beauty of it. You'd actually have to LOOK (or meet the magazine person there every week) to get yourself nice copies. It wouldn't be for everyone & there would still really be a need for direct sales versions too.

[Tom Foolery]

Since some week in 1988(?), I have consistently and persistently purchased comics every Wednesday. Thru jobs and joblessness, living in different cities, different states, different homes. I’ve changed relationships and friendships, but Wednesday has always been the constant.
Today was the last Wednesday for the foreseeable future. Here’s what I purchased.

Amazing Spidey 42[843]
Avengers:Black Widow oneshot. From the Gamerverse.
Batgirl 45. Variant cover.
Batman/Superman 8. Variant cover.
Detective Comics 1021. Variant cover.
Road to Empyre: Kree/Skrull War oneshot.
Falcon and Winter Soldier 2.
Flash 752. Variant cover.
Game of Thrones;Clash of Kings II 3.
Revenge of the Cosmic Ghost Rider 4.
Hellions 1.
Immortal Hulk 35[750]
ForceWorks2020 2.
Marvel Action Avengers 1.
Punisher Soviet 6.
Sonic the Hedgehog 27.
Star 3.
Supergirl 40. Variant cover.
Action Comics 1021. Variant cover.
Transformers Galaxies 6.
Transformers/Terminator 1.
Wolverine 2.
Wonder Woman 754. Variant cover.
X-Men 9.
4X 3.
Giant Size X-Men:Nightcrawler 1.
And 3 True Believers issues.

[vynsane]

IF the hobby survives the change.

that's a big IF. i'm thinking this could be the tipping point for digital comics.

[Diabolical]

I can't even get this weeks comics, as all "non essential" stores are closed.

And if this is indeed the death of physical comics, I'm out.
Fuck digital.

[jjreason]

Here are my 2 best guesses as to what will happen:

1. Pause in the action. Things resume "as normal" once the crisis abates, including comics & comic distribution through Diamond. Society learns nothing from the Covid lessons & is doomed to repeat the same mistakes. 99% chance.

2. Digital becomes the new "first print" and paper copies are only available as collections later, available through anywhere that sells books. Comic stores evolve or die. Society learns a lot from the Covid lessons & we all help each other next time a pandemic shows up limiting deaths to a much smaller number. 1% chance.