So, What comics did you buy this week?

[Tom Foolery]

Finally sat down and read Dark Nights:Metal 1-6. I guess I thought the Batman Who Laughs and the other evil Batmen were the main protagonists, but they were little more than supporting henchmen for the real villain, the dark god Barbatos. The stakes and scale were almost too grandiose, and DCs continuity is such a clusterfuck, I was confused why Hawkman and Hawkwoman were “new” characters. But no one can accuse Snyder and Capullo of not swinging for the fence. I did enjoy Batman outsmarting BMwLaughs in their finale battle by inviting the Joker to help him kick the evil Batman’s ass.

I skipped reading the sequel, Death Metal, when I was reading the ‘D’ box because I would’ve been too lost. There were also a bunch of ‘Tales of the Dark Multiverse’ oneshots that I’ll get to in due time.

[Tom Foolery]

Started the next box. A huge chunk of Star Wars stuff in the front third.

Star Wars:Age of Republic. They did three different eras; Republic, Rebellion, Resistance. Each era had a Special, eight oneshots, each focusing on a character from that era. In the back of each issue was an essay on the impact that character had in Star Wars.

Republic Special. Three short tales featuring Mace Windu, Asajj Ventress, and Jar Jar and Captain Rex.

Darth Maul. Maul hires a thief in the lower levels of Coruscant to bust up a drug smuggling operation, then kills the thief because he’s force sensitive as an outlet for his rage against Jedi. Sidious preaches patience to him.

General Grievous. Grievous takes out some Jedi and enters their Jedi Temple looking for secret power. Then he bomb the entire area from orbit when he doesn’t like what he finds.

Anakin. Anakin disagrees with Admiral Yularen’s decision to bombard a droid factory on a neutral planet because it will mean killing the workers there. He goes in solo and realizes they were slaves and frees them, saving the Republic from a PR catastrophe.

Padme. Padme and two handmaidens go on an unofficial diplomatic mission to a neutral world. They get ambushed by a sniper, but overcome the shooter and recruit the world into the Republic.

Jango. Jango takes Boba on a Bounty job where they get double crossed and Boba learns an important lesson on spreading your reputation.

Qui-Gon. Master Qui-Gon navel gazes about being called a “warrior” and questions whether the Jedi are tools for the Republic. Yoda suggests he calms the fuck down.

Obi-Wan. Early on in their partnetship, Obi-Wan questions whether he’s fit to be training Anakin. Anakin misinterprets this is as whether he deserves to be trained.

I’m missing the Dooku issue.

Jody Houser wrote all the oneshots. They weren’t bad, but none of them were essential reading that impacted these character’s story arcs in the slightest. I’d say the Jango one was the best of the bunch.

Next up, the Rebellion series.

[Tom Foolery]

Star Wars:Age of Rebellion. The second set of oneshots were written by Greg Pak. Terry Dodson did some cool thematic covers for the run.

Special. Short stories featuring IG-88, a mopey Yoda on Dagobah, and Biggs and Porkins on vacation.

Boba Fett. Fett tracks down a fellow bounty hunter with cold, clinical precision. Excellent issue.

Han Solo. After getting his 17k after the Battle of Yavin, Han has every intention of heading straight back to repay Jabba. But he keeps getting sidetracked doing good deed missions for the Alliance and ends up losing the money.

Lando. With his mining operation on the constant verge of bankruptcy and seizure, Lando makes a deal with some alien industrialists. Then he realizes he’s inadvertantly gotten into the slave trade, and torpedos the deal. He uses the last of his stashed ‘getaway’ money to keep Cloud City viable for like two more days.

Leia. Leia gets into character as Boushh in order to bluff Bossk into giving her a captured Chewbacca, and faking Lando’s death so they can prepare to rescue Han.

Tarkin. When a test of the Death Star laser doesn’t go as planned, he gathers the 168 gunners and tells them he needs precision and obedience for the battle station to work. After the destruction of Alderaan, he gathers the gunners who hesitated even for a moment, and throws them out an airlock. Pretty good issue.

Jabba. An exceptionally rare and expensive ale made by Tuskens is in high demand in the Inner Rim. Jabba manipulates a bunch of smugglers, the Imperials, and greedy Jawas into a shootout in the desert so he can get the booze for himself. Then he just drinks it. Haha classic Jabba.

Luke. An alliance Major has reservations about the newly self promoted Jedi Skywalker when they go on a supply raid for fuel. Luke gets prodded by the Emperor thru the Force during an Imperial ambush, but Luke shakes it off and helps the Rebels escape.

Vader. The Emperor commands Vader be subservient to a local Moff as a punishment/test about his loyalties. Vader eventually kills the bureacrat, which was Palpatine’s lesson.

Next up, the Resistance series.

[Tom Foolery]

Star Wars: Age of Resistance. The final set of oneshots were written by Tom Taylor. Phil Noto did the cover art.

Special. Maz Kanata hires Han and Chewie to help her recover the helmet from what I assume is one of the EU’s Sith. But I don’t know enough to know which Darth it is. A story about how Amilyn Holdo became Capt. Holdo on her way to Vice Admiral Holdo. And while on a mission, BB-8 incites a droid revolution and recruits a bunch of mistreated First Order droids to the Resistance.

Captain Phasma. Phasma teaches a FO Stormtrooper lessons on leadership, and also using troops as cannon fodder. Then she kills the Stormtrooper.

Finn. While serving as a janitor on Starkiller, Finn discovers an indigenous lifeform and helps move its nest offworld to the garbage moon.

General Hux. After their shuttle is sabotaged, Hux and Kylo Ren survive on a desolate planet. Hux uses his guile to call for a rescue by bamboozling an elderly Alderaanian living there. Then Hux exacts revenge on an officer that bullied him as a child.

Poe Dameron. Poe and his squad chase a thief into an asteroid field filled with robot mines. The thief turns out to be Holdo looking for proof they need to justify the start of the Resistance.

Kylo Ren. Ren and a First Order army set down on a planet that Vader failed to secure in the early days of the Empire. The chip on his shoulder makes him do what grandpa couldn’t and defeat the locals.

Rey. On her way to find Luke, the Falcon breaks down and Rey sets down on a junk planet to find replacement parts. While there, she quickly overthrows the tyrant and frees the slaves before heading on to Ach-To.

Rose Tico. An origin story for Rose and Paige. The First Order started strip mining their home world, so they joined the Resistance.

Snoke. As part of his training, Snoke takes Kylo to Dagobah to make him go into the dark force cave. Kylo fights off his demons; Uncle Luke and his parents, then he destroys the cave.

None of these were remarkable issues. It should be noted that all three sets of books; Republic, Rebellion, and Resistance, came out in between the releases of Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker. So, most notably in the Resistance series, the writers didn’t know what was gonna happen in the finale.

Hmmmm…I think up next are a bunch of Star Wars mini series and oneshots, before getting into the newest current ongoings for the main book, Vader, Aphra, and Bounty Hunters.

[anarky]

Maz Kanata hires Han and Chewie to help her recover the helmet from what I assume is one of the EU’s Sith. But I don’t know enough to know which Darth it is.

It was the Grand Inquisitor's helmet, IIRC. It's not as well-known because he was only ever seen wearing it while piloting his TIE Fighter, which happened like once or twice in Rebels.

Of course, live action GI's head would be too wide for it.

[Tom Foolery]

More Star Wars.

Star Wars:Vader-Dark Visions 1-5. An anthology miniseries where various characters cross paths with the Dark Lord of the Sith. 4 out of the five issues, it does not end well for them. Decent stories from Dennis Hopeless and a variety of artists.

Star Wars:Target Vader 1-6. Bielert Valance, a holdover from the original Marvel comics continuity, gets retconned into the new “official” canon as a Bounty Hunter tasked with assassinating Darth Vader for a mysterious organization of arms dealers called the Hidden Hand. But the entire thing is a long complicated revenge plot as the Hidden Hand wiped out Valance’s home years ago. Wasn’t awful.

Star Wars:Tie Fighter 1-5. Interesting concept that tied into a Star Wars novel. The book told the story from the Rebel pilots’ perspective, and the comics told the Imperial version. The concept is sound. The execution was lacking. Didn’t care about any of the characters, and the series ended when the Imperials were off on an unimportant side mission and when they got back to base, they heard the news the new Death Star had been destroyed, the Emperor was dead, and the war was over. Womp womp.

Star Wars:Galaxy’s Edge 1-5. Inspired by the Disney Theme Park attraction. An Ithorian antiquities dealer in Black Spire is searching for an ancient sith weapon and thru various flashbacks, regales stories featuring Han and Chewie, Greedo, Hondo Ohnaka, and Dr Aphra stealing artifacts for him. Didn’t really care for the main characters, but having recently visited the actual Galaxy's Edge at Disneyworld, I appreciated the references peppered into the series. Clever.

Star Wars 108. As part of Marvel’s 80th anniversary, they did an extra issue of the original Marvel series that featured some of the recurring heroes and villains from that run. Jaxxon, the green rabbit, Valance the Hunter, and Domina Tagge look for the Crimson Forever stones from the original issue 50, which just happened to be my first Star Wars comic ever. Fun nostalgia trip.

Next up, the newest ongoings that all started after the events of Empire.

[anarky]

Star Wars:Tie Fighter 1-5. Interesting concept that tied into a Star Wars novel. The book told the story from the Rebel pilots’ perspective, and the comics told the Imperial version. The concept is sound. The execution was lacking.

The series doesn't even follow the concept. It takes place months before the novel, and most of the characters don't even play into the novel. The most interesting thing was a n alien (I think) character who was in the Han Solo: Imperial Cadet comic (as was Valance, though that mini was forgettable).

I know there were three novels in the series, all well received, and only the one comic. My assumption is the comic went over like a wet turd and they didn't pursue it.

[jjreason]

Purchased ASM 900. Couldn't not grab a copy. I'll try to read it & see if I can follow along. Also grabbed Epic Spider-Man #8 which includes issue 129 but is entitled "Man Wolf At Midnight". OK guys.

[Tom Foolery]

Star Wars vol 2 1-6. After the events of ESB, the Rebel Fleet has broken into smaller units, but their communications code has been broken by the Empire. Luke, Leia, Lando and Chewie return to Cloud City. Luke is looking for his missing lightsaber and Lando needs to rescue Lobot. A force vision leads Luke to a former padawan and he leaves with a replacement yellow-bladed lightsaber. Lando enters into a shady deal with Jabba to pass along Alliance secrets in exchange for not getting killed.

7-8. A two part arc that fleshes out the origin of Commander Zahra, the former protege of Tarkin, who has been tasked with hunting down the Alliance fleet(s) and her personal hatred for Leia, who Zahra personally blames for Tarkin’s death.

9-12. The Alliance steals an obsolete translator droid that has an obscure alien dialect they can use as a new code to reunite the fleets before they get picked off by Zahra’s forces. The rest of the current series is in the new boxes, its on issue 26.

Vader 1-5. After his failure to recruit Luke to the Dark Side, Vader goes on an unauthorized mission to discover who kept Luke hidden all these years and what happened to Padme. He comes across a group led by Sabè and others loyal to Padme who think Vader killed Padme and Anakin. Vader kills a bunch of them (RIp, Ric Olie) before he finds the midwife droid that delivered the twins.

6-10. The Emperor is displeased Vader went off on his own, so as punishment, he rips him apart and leaves him in the exact spot Obi-Wan left him on Mustafar. Palpatine tells him to fix himself without using the force, then sends Sith assassins and Imperial Death Squads after Vader. Vader finds a wayfinder that leads him to Exegol…the rest of the series is in the new boxes on issue 25.

Next, a few issues of Aphra and Bounty Hunters, and that wraps up the SW stuff that isn’t in the new boxes.

[Tom Foolery]

Star Wars:Dr. Aphra 1-6. Aphra teams up with a grad student and a professor who Chelli used to hook up with back in school to find some ancient macguffins before one of the Tagge offspring find them. Lots of double and triple crosses ensue. The Tagge nephew gets blown up, which puts Aphra on Domina Tagge’s radar in the sixth issue. I accidentally bought issue 6 twice and I’m missing issue 7.

Bounty Hunters 9,10, 12, 15. It’s titled Bounty Hunters because who would buy a book called Bielert Valance. Also, a better title would be “Mercenary” because the jobs Valance takes are rarely ‘Bounties’ and more ‘we need a guy with guns to go shoot stuff’. My guy wasn’t ordering this when it came out, so I didn’t start getting it until the War of the Bounty Hunters crossover event. These four issues were just random back issues I recently got for cheap.

Next up, Strange Academy from Marvel, and Strange Adventures from DC, then its a lot of Supergirl and Superman.

[Tom Foolery]

Strange Academy 1-9. Dr Strange and Dr Voodoo start a school for young magic users in New Orleans. Wanda, Illyana, Agatha Harkness, and others are part of the faculty(they even namedropped Rick Sheridan at one point, but he wasn’t actually in the issue). The book is mostly about the students; a girl from Kansas named Emily Bright is the “main” character, but theres a couple Asgardian kids, a faerie, a frost giant, S’ym’s daughter, a zombie girl, and Doyle Dormammu, the son of Strange’s nemesis. It’s a fun series from Skottie Young and Humberto Ramos. The first issue is going for crazy big bucks.

Strange Adventures 1-12. Tom King wrote this maxi series starring Adam Strange for DC’s new Black Label imprint. Two intertwined stories by two different artists, Mitch Gerards and Evan ‘Doc’ Shaner. One in the ‘present’ as Adam does a bookstore tour for a novel he wrote about the war on Rann, and the other story in the ‘past’ about the war. After allegations of war atrocities pop up, Batman and the League get Mr. Terrific to objectively get to the bottom of the accusations. Michael Holt is as much a main character, if not moreso, as Strange, and King writes him fantastically. Highly recommended. I only had the first eight issues in the old boxes, and I dug out the final four because it was so good.

Strikeforce 1-9. A book that sort of spun out of War of the Realms, but not specifically. Blade, Angela, Spider-Woman, Wiccan, Monica Rambeau, Winter Soldier, and Daimon Hellstrom team up to solve an invasion of shape-shifting Svartlheim elves who were displaced by the destruction of the black bifrost bridge. A Doombot, Moonstone, Ghost, and King Deadpool of Monster Island were some of the guest stars in the short lived ongoig. It felt like Tini Howard had just taken a bunch of heroes who didn’t currently have their own series and threw them together to keep them published somewhere. It wasn’t awful, but I was bored plowing thru the series.

Next up, a couple issues of Suicide Squad, and a spotty run of the last half of the latest Supergirl series.

[Tom Foolery]

Suicide Squad 1, 9, and 10. I read these and then realized the first issue was from a different series than the other two issues because Suicide Squad gets relaunched so often. Issues 9 and 10 were from the 2020 series that ended with issue 11. The Squad is hunting down Ted Kord who they think is a badguy, but its really Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask, in disguise. Floyd Lawton figures this out a second too late and gets shot in the face. He ded.
Issue 1 was from the following series from 2021. Peacemaker and some cannon fodder villains break into Arkham to help Talon escape.

Supergirl 26, 28, 32, 33. Kara is looking for Rogol Zarr out in space, trying to figure out who hired him to destroy Krypton. The Omega Men show up and help her defeat a bunch of her clones. Jonathan Kent guest stars, and eventually Kal and Zod also. I think this was crossing over with the other Superman books, but I’m also missing every other issue, so the story was hard to follow.

Supergirl 34 , 36-40. Kara returns to Earth and gets into a fight in the Fortress of Solitude with Braniac program that Apex Lex gave sentience to, but then she’s one of the six heroes that got infected by Batman who Laughs, so the rest of her series is her being evil and Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman trying to cure her and/or convince her to be good again. Eventually, its Krypto that makes her realize she’s evil and she goes up to the sun to try to get the solar energy to burn the infection out…but it doesn’t work and she crashes back on Earth and her series ended and the story got resolved elsewhere LOL

Next up, Bendis was writing Superman and Action. I found a reading order online, so I’ll be flipping back and forth between the two.

[anarky]

Rick Sheridan!

Fuck yes!!

[Tom Foolery]

Rick Sheridan!

Fuck yes!!

He is criminally underused.

[anarky]

Batman '89. First, what the fuck is up with all the promo art showing Prince from Batdance, then not including him? Fuck that noise!

Pretty decent. I actually really liked the story. It seemed like an organic progression of Batman Returns. The execution was a mixed bag. There were several points where the art was pretty, but the storytelling so muddy I had to go back when I realized I missed some major point, usually a character being shot, which the guy seemed to have serious trouble conveying. All in all worth reading, but not going to inspire decades of sequels. (I understand a follow-up to Superman '78 got the green light, but not the case here.)

Crimson Reign. A series of barely connected one-shots that is clearly just meant to pad this Qi'ra story out to a year. Some are quite good, some are just there. On the one hand, fleshing the galaxy out is cool; on the other, it seems like this pissant organization came out of nowhere and is causing more trouble for the Empire than the Rebellion, and I expect many Bothans to die soon while saying "Await the Dawn" because of course Qi'ra is responsible for all this shit.

As an aside, why has Din Djarin not showed up anywhere yet? He was supposed to be a badass bounty hunter in the waning days of the Empire. I can understand they don't want to step on the show's toes, but he seems rather low-profile in a galaxy with seven bounty hunters total who always hang out together.