So, What comics did you buy this week?

[Diabolical]

I loved Gotham City: Year One. A good, hard-boiled noir tale.
It reminds me of the Hard Case Crime novels I read.
I would love to read more in this world.

I'm not sure how it fits in to Bat-continuity though.

[Tom Foolery]

I loved Gotham City: Year One. A good, hard-boiled noir tale.
It reminds me of the Hard Case Crime novels I read.
I would love to read more in this world.

I'm not sure how it fits in to Bat-continuity though.

While I couldn’t think of anything that would contradict it being in-continuity, it’s separate. as a Black Label series, it’s basically an Elseworlds tale in its own universe.

[Tom Foolery]

This week’s purchases and reads. I’m on a streak!

Amazing Spidey 58.

Avengers Annual 1. The Infinity Watch finale. The six(seven if you count Phil Coulson) Stone Bearers unite for the first time. Thanos shows up and kicks their asses, reclaiming the stones from their dead bodies. Until Overtime uses his time stone to send his future self to the present where he convinces his past self to go to the recent past(like five minutes ago) so that Thanos can kill him, thus causing a paradox that Thanos will forever be stuck in…unless Thanos gives up the stones he just took. Thanos concedes. There’s an Infinity Watch mini series coming out early next year. Also, the cover of this issue is misleading, as it implies Thanos and the Avengers team up. Which doesn’t happen. At all.

Batman The Long Halloween:The Last Halloween 1. Didn’t read it. But since Tim Sale passed, Jeph Loeb is teaming up with ten different artists to finish the Last Halloween trilogy. This issue is by Eduardo Risso. It looks like they’re doing their best to draw the series in Sale’s art style, but I won’t know until I see a few more issues.

Batman:Brave & Bold 17.

Detective 1089. Ram V finishes his overly drawn out opus. Batman stops the Orgham Queen from using Scarecrow to douse all of Gotham with a permanent fear gas. And then Batman monologues about his city for like the last half of the issue. Just droning on and on and on. Like, STFU Batman. Seriously.

Predator vs Black Panther 2.
Chasm:Curse of Kaine 2.
Daredevil:Woman without Fear 3.
Deadpool Team-Up 2.

Lobo Cancellation Special oneshot. The Main Man gets stranded on a planet for several years, to the point the rest of the universe thinks he’s dead. When he finally gets rescued by alien race who want to hire him to find their kidnapped Princess, the rest of the universe is unimpressed with him. So he has to correct their misapprehensions…Lobo is back and in fine form. This was like a 90s Lobo comic somehow lost until just this week. If you’re a fan, this is just what you wanted.

Marvel Previews 37. December’s solicits, including All New Venom #1. They’re trying to keep Venom’s new host a secret, but my money is on Luke Cage just based on his new color scheme. Might be a herring though.

Phases of the Moon Knight 2. Two stories, one featuring Marc Spector in a tale that is meant to invoke his early 80s series, and a Moon Knight from the year 2846.

NyX 3. After a mutant is murdered, the main characters show up for a vigil. Anole follows a couple mutants back home to discover there’s a new Morlock civilization in the tunnels. When a bunch of militant bigots showup, Kamala, Laura, Sophie, and Anole fend them off. Anole gets invited to stay with the Morlocks because of how he looks, but he says they shouldn’t have to hide. And the final twist on the last page, Sophie is secretly working with her sisters to target Kamala. Uncool, Sophie!

Phoenix 3. Jean and Corsair are fighting the zombie Asgardians unleashed by the Black Order, until she discovers their sad backstory when they tried to overthow Odin’s rule. She psychically eases their suffering and they all wisp away to dust. Meanwhile, the young girl taken under Perriklus’ wing receives a power upgrade.

Saga 69. Nice. Didn’t read it, but the cover art and the issue number are…appropriate of each other.
Star Wars:Ahsoka 3.

Turtles of Greyskull 1. The Ninja Turtles find themselves on Eternia. Shredder teams up with Skeletor, and He-Man gets mutated via mutagen. It was about what you’d expect from a TMNT/MotU crossover.

Ultimate Spider-Man 9. Since Spidey’s suit is compromised StarkTech, Otto offers to make him a new Iron Spider uniform. Peter declines, so the other option is plain ol’ spandex. He and Green Goblin fight the first of Kingpin’s sinister six, the Black Cat(not Felicia, it’s her father) and Harry throws him off a roof.

Venom War:Daredevil oneshot. I’m about two and a half entire series behind on my DD reading, but this one book pretty much caught me up. Matt is now a priest, and Elektra is now Daredevil. When zombiotes attack Matt’s church they reluctantly team up with each other to save the people inside. Pretty solid issue.

Venom War:Zombiotes 2. She-Hulk, Overdrive, and Shocker are trying to save civilians, and they make a last stand in the Bar With No Name. Where Shocker is trying to use a mystical amulet he got from Dr. Bong to resurrect his bff Boomerang. Which he does…sort of. Zombie Boomerang!

Werewolf By Night 2. Elsa Bloodstone enlists Konshu’s help to figure out why Jack’s bloodlust is off the charts after the events of Blood Hunt. Konshu sends Moon Knight back with Elsa, even though there is animosity between Marc and Jack(owing to Jack kidnapping Marc’s daughter a while back). When they arrive, Jack is fighting Deathwatch and some vampires who think Jack is the key to creating a new Darkhold.

Wolverine:Revenge 2. Logan gets Forge to modify Magneto’s helmet to he can enact revenge on the first person on his list; Jason Wyngarde aka Mastermind. With Mastermind’s severed head, they discern the locations of the rest of the Brotherhood. Next on the list: Sabretooth.

X-Force 3. The team heads to Cambodia to stop a rampaging Nuklo.

Uncanny X-Men 3. Logan decides he’s not sticking around, much to Rogue’s dismay. Nightcrawler puts the new mutants through a makeshift danger room session and we get origins for each of them. And Logan gets confronted in the forest by the creepy demon lady hunting the new kids.

Zatanna:Bringing Down the House 4. Zatanna and John Constantine head to Paris, where they bang and then John tells Z she’s a powerful magic user while she’s draped in nothing but a sheet for most of the issue.

Back with Guardians of the Galaxy and some other various back issues.

[anarky]

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Volume "1". Collects issues #301-305 of what's probably, even with the hiatus, the longest-running comic based on a toy.

I can't read it, because THERE'S NO PAPERBACK FOR THE FINAL FEW ISSUES PUBLISHED BY IDW. I don't feel like hunting down floppies of those issues, and only have those issues and the rest in paperback form. I know a few of the big spoilers from the "finale," but I want to actually read them before going on.

Not bashing Skybound here, but it is slightly irritating that could've easily published just that volume, identical to what IDW would've put out, except with the Image logo.

[Tom Foolery]

Not bashing Skybound here, but it is slightly irritating that could've easily published just that volume, identical to what IDW would've put out, except with the Image logo

Especially since Hasbro has the final word on that sort of thing. That’s how IDW could publish the collected Marvel and Dreamwave stuff.

[Tom Foolery]

Back with some Guardians and a couple other books.

Guardians of the Galaxy 13-18. Now that the Guardians are the official heroes of the united planetary federation, they’re fighting Progenitor invasions and stuff. But there’s a secret Skrull cult that’s set up shop on Ego and they’re trying to summon an ancient evil from another dimension. Meanwhile, Dr Doom is trying to steal Emperor Dorrek’s Sword of Space. When he is thwarted, Starlord decides his punishment is to be drafted into the Guardians, because the cult succeeded in summoning the entity by sacrificing ALL their members and turning Ego into an incubation egg. What hatches is a planet sized Dormammu! The Last Annihilation event begins(its barely an event. It was a couple oneshots and a brief crossover with S.W.O.R.D.) with Mindless Ones attacking all the major capitol planets. Doom and a bunch of the Guardians head to the Chitauri homeworld to perform a magic spell to deplete Dormammu’s power, and the rest of the Guardians fire a giant space gun with a mysterium bullet powered by StarLord and Nova to destroy Dormammu. Then we find out Doom was behind the cult and set the entire thing in motion so he could bank Dormammu's power for later.

GotG Annual 1. Prince Otherone finds Hercules in a bar and challenges him to a fight over the title Prince of Power, and we get Otherone’s secret origin that destroyed his entire world when he got the Power Stone.

GotG:Cosmic Rewind oneshot. This is the name of the new Disney ride at Epcot Center, but this story seems to have little to nothing to do with the plot of the ride.

GotG: Bane of Blastaar oneshot. When Bane tries invading from the negative zone, some of his own people drop dime on him because they really don’t want to invade positive space. So the Guardians show up and kick his ass back into the negative zone.

Guardians of the Galaxy 1-10, Annual 1. Grootfall begins! The next GotG series picks up a year later. Something awful happened, and half the team was killed and Groot turned into a giant meteor shower bombarding an entire section of space called the manifold territories. The surviving Guardians are now trying to evacuate worlds in the ‘fold in the midst of a giant civil was between settlers and an alien race called the Whitecaps. Eventually the rest of the team is “killed” and absorbed by the Groot meteors and they realize Groot is returning to the Flora Collossi’s home planets to bring everything on the dead worlds back to life, including all the people it/they absorbed. The Spartax armada shows up trying to stop them, until Starlord explains to his sister, Empress Victoria, what’s really happening and everybody comes back and it’s a happy ending.

Giant Size Gwen Stacy oneshot. There was a Gwen Stacy mini that came out in early in 2020 that got covid-cancelled after the first two issues. This giant sized oneshot collects all five issues in a $10 squarebound issue. Gwen is trying to solve a mystery as to who framed her father for shooting some dude. They cross paths with the Enforcers, Crime Master, Green Goblin, some of the X-Men, and the Kingpin. Pretty fun story by Christos Gage and Todd Nuack.

Hallows’ Eve 1-5. Ben Reilly’s girlfriend found a mystical bag in Limbo(this is all from the main ASM series) full of masks that each give her a different power set. She’s trying to figure out to break Ben out of his prison in the Limbo consulate building, but she inadvertantly turns a security into a werewolf and has the Beyond Corporation trying to recover their “property” from her. An interesting new character who’s neither a villain nor a hero.

Hallows’ Eve:Big Night oneshot. The mini was so popular, they did a follow up oneshot. Some college kids are trying to summon a demon or some shit, and Eve shows up to save the other students on campus by donning a Capt America mask from her bag.

Next up is Harley Quinn, but I’m not in the mood for a lot of Harley, so much like the previous ongoing I skipped entirely, I’m jumping over it and might get to it later.

But first, this week’s books.

[Tom Foolery]

This week’s books.

Absolute Power 4.
Ultraman/Avengers 2.
Batman 153. The first issue of the All-In era. Edward Nygma has gone legit with a tech start-up. Police Commissioner Vandal Savage has endorsed a new gun wielding vigilante called Commander Star. And someone assassinates Mayor Nakano.

Daredevil 14.
DC All-In Special. I didn’t read it, but I flipped thru it. It sets up DC’s answer to the Ultimate Universe called Absolute. And in both universes, the Darkseid of the future has Omega-fied the entire Legion of SuperHeroes.

Deadpool 7. Didn’t read it. Ellie is the new Deadpool.
Get Fury 6.
Robbie Reyes:Ghost Rider oneshot.

Multiversus:Collision Detected 2. Batman tries interrogating Bugs Bunny. The Wicked Witch faces off against Wonder Woman. Flash meets Shaggy and Scooby. And Rick Sanchez shows up on the last page. Wubba Lubba Dub Dub.

Spider-Gwen:Ghost Spider 6. Gwen and Jessica Jones team up to find out what Black Tarantula’s plans are. And Gwen’s new crush(the son and heir of B.T.) asks her out again.

Star Wars:Battle of Jakku, Insurgency Rising 1. Didn’t read it, but I didn’t realize all of these Battle of Jakku series were 12 issue maxi series. Holy fuck, they are gonna milk the shit out of this Jakku thing aren't they.
Star Wars:Inquisitors 4.

Storm 1. Ororo gets a new ongoing. She sets up a new floating base above Atlanta. And after shes saves Oklahoma from a nuclear disaster and fosters goodwill towards mutants, she’s conflicted about telling the truth that a mutant accidentally caused the incident. Also, Eternity is making Storm his herald?

Immortal Thor 16. Thor returns to Midgard to confront the murder charges he’s facing, and ends up fighting a quartet of villains recruited by the recently resurrected Dario Aggar; Radioactive Man, Cobra, Mr Hyde, and the Grey Gargoyle.

Ultimate Black Panther 9. Killmonger and Ororo find the mysterious sorcerer supreme, who’s being held in a prison. And maybe they shouldn’t have freed her.

Venom War 3. As Dylan and Eddie face off against each other, the counter-programming that Doom put in Flexo, and that Kang put in Rascal(Red Goblin’s symbiote) both activate. In order to save both Dylan and Eddie, Peter and Venom realize Venom needs to leave Peter and re-bond with the Brocks. Finally, We. Are. Venom.

Venom War:Spider-Man 3. In the moment before Peter unbonds with Venom in the main series, he has a vision of what happens if he stays bonded and becomes the new King in Black and destroys the universe and everything in it he cares for.

Wolverine:Deep Cut 4. Logan and Sabretooth team up to fight Mr. Sinister. Then, since its a retcon and nothing of consequence can possibly happen, both Sinister and Sabretooth get away and Logan heads back to Australia so he can get strung up on a giant metaphor crucifix.

X-Men 5. Quentin and Kwannon have to do a psychic rescue inside the mind of the new mutant they saved in San Francisco. They find out who the bad guys are and that Cassandra Nova is involved.

And here’s a couple issues from the garage sale.

Robin 8. From Damian’s short ongoing. The tournament comes to an end with the final two challengers, Damian and Connor Hawke, having a bad ass fight that lasts basically the entire issue.

Robins 1, 5. A digital first mini that featured all five Robins teaming up to fight a new villain that is purportedly the first Robin preceding even Dick. Since I only have two of the six issues, not really sure what’s going on.

Action Comics 1061. Jason Aaron took over writing duties. Bizarro shows up and kicks Superman’s ass and uses magic to turn everyone in Metropolis into bizarros.

Up next, some more ‘H’ books.

[anarky]

Batman 153. The first issue of the All-In era. Edward Nygma has gone legit with a tech start-up.

Again?

Fucking really? I don't care if Riddler is evil or reformed, but, swear to God, the guy switches sides every three fucking issues. You're a dork in a green suit. Pick a lane.

Star Wars:Battle of Jakku, Insurgency Rising 1. Didn’t read it, but I didn’t realize all of these Battle of Jakku series were 12 issue maxi series. Holy fuck, they are gonna milk the shit out of this Jakku thing aren't they.

It's actually one 12-issue maxi-series broken into three 4-issue parts. I have no idea why they're doing that. It's confusing as fuck. They're not even breaking it into 4-issue chunks for the paperback collections.

It looks from the preview pages that they're trying to make this jive with all the random shit that's come out about that year after Endor, and there's been a fuckton. I don't envy them that. That year is a fucking mess.

[Tom Foolery]

Well, the Riddler thing is a bit more sinister than that. He’s working with the new CFO of Wayne’s new non-profit to try and get Bruce to merge or invest so he/they can hostile takeover the company. He’s not good, he’s just “good” in the public eye. Batman even confronts him about his new business. He’s like ‘I know you’re shady AF, Edward. I hope you are turning over a new leaf, but I’m fucking watching….’

The Jakku thing is more reasonable, but I wouldn’t’ve put it past them to do the other thing.

[Tom Foolery]

Some more ‘H’ books. There’s an ongoing Harley series that’s on like issue 43. I kept up with it until issue 32 I think, but I’m not reading any of it. However, there’s also some Harley oneshots and minis, so here they are…

Harley Quinn 30th Anniversary Special. A $10 anthology that had previous writers and artists come back for more stories. Some were pretty funny.

Harley Quinn Uncovered oneshot. A collection of variant covers from various Harley issues.

Harley Quinn:Eat.Bang!Kill. Tour 1,2. The first couple issues of a mini set in the Animated series universe. Lots of profanity and a very explicit sex scene between Harley and Ivy. You wouldn’t think DC would have fingerbanging and cunnilingus in a comic book, but here we are.

Harley Screws Up The DCU 1-3. First half of a mini series where Harley finds a time machine and inadvertently erases all the heroes from existence by altering their origin stories. When she gets back to the present, Starro has taken over Earth, and Harley’s alt version of herself takes OG Harley to go “fix” everything in the past. Wasn’t interesting enough for me to make finding the rest of the series a priority.

Harley Quinn:Black,White and Redder 1-6. Anthology series with 3-4 short stories per issue. As with all anthologies, some stories are better than others.

Hawkeye:Kate Bishop 1-5. In the midst of deciding to move back to NYC, Kate accepts an invitation from her estranged sister to go to a resort where there ends up being some brainwashing and kidnapping shenaningans. With the help of Stinger and America Chavez, they stop the bad guys from breaking into the Bishop mansion to steal a cosmic cube fragment her dad had. Pretty dull series.

Hellcat 1-5. Chris Cantwell did a spinoff series of Patsy’s supporting role in his Iron Man run. After her boyfriend is murdered and both she and her friend Rick Sheridan are suspects, Patsy and Sleepwalker have to figure out who the real culprit is and why. Featuring Blackheart and Patsy’s ex Daimon Hellstrom. And kudos to Cantwell for giving Sleepwalker a co-starring role in a series. Good stuff.

Hellions 11. I had to go back and read my synopses from the earlier issues because it’s been two years. Sinister and Jason Wyngarde dupe Arcade into keeping the Hellions trapped in personal nightmares while Sinister plans to use Arcade’s new cloning tech. Using Kwannon’s daughter as leverage, they convince the others that they defeated Arcade and destroyed his facility, but Sinister leaves it intact.

12. The Hellfire gala. Some of the Hellions are invited(Alex, Sinister, Kwannon) but the rest aren’t. So they decide to crash the party anyway.

13-16. The Sinister who died on Amenth returns with the Locus Vile to expose the secrets of the Sinister who returned and let the Hellions know he killed them all after they made it back to Krakoa. The Locus Vile are looking to retrieve the power Sinister took from Tarn the Uncaring. Then both Sinisters double cross everyone and head to the secret Arcade cloning base. The Hellions head there where Alex unleashes his power and accidentally destroys the digital back up of Kwannon’s daughter.

17. In the aftermath of the previous issue’s events, the team disbands. Until Orphan Maker heads to Arizona to attack a Right establishment who kidnapped an AI baby that Nanny had taken in an earlier issue. With Krakoa illegally inciting an attack on US soil, the team has to reconvene and go stop him. I thought the series ended on a weird cliffhanger and then I realized I din’t have the series finale in issue 18.

Hellverine 1-4. When the US Govt resurrects dead soldiers with arcane hell energy, they break out of the pentagon. The army finds Wolverine, thinking he’s the Hellverine attacking the undead soldiers, but he’s like It ain’t me, bub. Turns out the demon, Bagra-Ghul, has possessed Daken’s dead body and made him into the new Hellverine. They have to team up to stop the Army commander responsible for the hell-fueled soldiers. The series wasn’t bad, but I detest that this character is a thing. And Vyn isn’t getting a cent in residuals.

Next up, I already read the Heroes Reborn event when it was coming out, so I’ll skip to the Hulk books.
But first, this week’s new reads.

[anarky]

Harley Screws Up The DCU 1-3. First half of a mini series where Harley finds a time machine and inadvertently erases all the heroes from existence by altering their origin stories. When she gets back to the present, Starro has taken over Earth, and Harley’s alt version of herself takes OG Harley to go “fix” everything in the past. Wasn’t interesting enough for me to make finding the rest of the series a priority.

Any idea if this came out before or after Teen Titans Go! to the Movies?

Sounds remarkably like a subplot from that movie.

Edit: 2023. I'm going with maybe not so strong a word as ripoff, but definitely influenced by. Maybe editorial figured most HQ readers are adults and adult fans all hate TTG! and never saw it, so they didn't nix this series.

[Tom Foolery]

Last week’s reads(not to be confused with this week’s purchases, which I got yesterday.)

Amazing Spidey 59.
Batman & Robin 14.
Absolute Batman 1. His Bat-ears are knives! His chest symbol is an AXE! And other assorted stupidity.
Batman:Gotham By Gaslight, The Kryptonian Age 5.
Blade 1. An explicit ‘Red Band’ issue in a sealed bag. Not sure if I care enough to open it and read it.
Fantastic Four 26.

And here’s what actually got read.

Scarlett 5. Her mini comes to an end. Stormshadow has the blade they were looking for. Cobra Commander and Cobra attack, and Scarlett, Jinx, and Tommy barely escape. Snowjob comes to extract Scarlett after the mission and she chooses to stay embedded in the Arishikage clan to keep an eye on Stormshadow. Sets up the ongoing Joe book in a couple months.

Green Lantern Civil Corps oneshot. Kilowog is a Yellow Lantern now. The United Planets has co-opted the GL Corps and turned it into their private military with nefarious plans. Hal, John, Guy, and a select few GLs are the new resistance. And then Mogo shows up and he(it?) is a Red Lantern. Haven’t been following GL consistently for years, but this seems to be on par with every other lantern story since they made up the different colored corps. “Oh my god, {Character} is a {Different color} now!”

Phoenix 4. Jean hangs out with Carol Danvers for a few pages.(are they trying to establish them as besties now?) The Galactic Council is worried about the Phoenix running around being heroic, given the ample amount of evidence of her destroying planets, so they send Gorr the God Butcher to kill her. And he does. But the thing about Phoenixes is that they come back. That’s their whole deal, yo.

Sentinels 1. A bunch of people who have survived various Events in the Marvel U volunteer to get upgraded as living Sentinel cyborgs and get stupid forgettable codenames. Then they hunt down evil mutants. Dumb.
Sonic Annual 2024. Didn’t read it. I was buying Sonic for my kids when they were both kids. Now they’re both adults, but I’m still buying and not reading it.

Spider-Man:Black Suit and Blood 3. More short b+w stories with red highlights. Al Ewing did a fun story about a villain named Master Blood, who’s fought the Avengers, was part of the sinister seven, and was picked to go to Battleworld in the first Secret Wars. There he stumbles upon the symbiote before Spidey finds it, then Kang shows up and says him taking it will fuck with decades and centuries of his future plans, so he just erases the guy from existence. Lol.

SW:Ahsoka 4.
SW:Ewoks 1. Didn’t read either of these. The Star Wars box is almost at capacity. I should really start reading some of them.

Action Comics 1071. Haven’t picked up Action or Superman in awhile, but it’s the All In branding, and Mark Waid is back writing, so I thought I’d see whats going down with Superman. Some freaky three-person fusion comes out of the Phantom Zone and Superman and his team barely stop it. He decides he needs to go into the Zone to investigate. Action is going weekly, so I’ll stick around for an arc or two. Waid’s usually pretty good on Superman.

The Terminator 1. Dynamite started a new ongoing. A Terminator hunts a young couple and they avoid him, but he eventually shows up when they are an old couple living in a cabin and kills them. Meh.

Transformers 13. Flashback to how a nerdy robot named Ulchtar(?? What kind of random fucking name is that?) was driven by events to become the vicious Starscream. Also, in the solicits, the alternate cover was a secret “spoiler” cover that they didn’t show. It’s because Omega Supreme was on the cover. And Omega Supreme was on the cover because in the flashback, Ulchtar, his friend Genvo, and Jetfire are hanging out and Omega flies overhead and they get excited. Ulchtar waves at Omega and he waves back, and they get all giddy. I wish to fucking god I was just making shit up to see if I could troll Chux’s gullibility. Alas…I am not.

Conquest 2099 1. Steve Orlando has spent the last few 2099 minis establishing a bunch of new 2099 characters. Now its paying off. Dracula arrives at the Vampire paradise planet to find it sacked, his daughter dead, and his people enslaved. He sets off with his new army of Mightusians turned vampires to find the Araneons who plundered his world. Back on Earth Nova/Logan shows up looking for Spider-Woman 2099(an exiled Araneon) and Spidey 2099 doesn’t like his attitude. Miguel vs Space Wolverine!

Ultimates 5. Iron Man sent packages out to erased heroes to get them to re-embrace their identities. Clint Barton rejected the offer and threw his in the trash. Native American Charli Ramsey found the Hawkeye gear and has been using it to attack Roxxon pipelines ruining her peoples’ lands. Cap goes to assess the situation and ends up recruiting the New Hawkeye.

Venom 38. Venom War tie-in. Time displaced Old Man Dylan and Dr Strange head into Cthon’s dimension where Dylan makes a bargain for his eldritch energies in exchange for his taste, memories of his mother and friends, any music he remembers, even his name. After accepting he heads back to the future(though he’s having trouble remembering why) and runs into Loki.

Venom War:Wolverine 2. Wolverine has to insert himself into every Marvel event because he’s a goddamn diva.

X-Force 4. While chasing Nuklo, X-Force uses Betsy’s connection to Otherworld as a shortcut to the Nexus of Realities in the Everglades. There they help Man-Thing defeat Nuklo, but then the Avengers show up and they realize they’re in the wrong universe. It’s the Avengers from the Forever Yesterday story arc in New Warriors from the 90s. Pretty obscure callback, I love it.

Exceptional X-Men 2. Kitty is not looking to be a hero, or a mentor. But she steps into another confrontation at a friend’s kid’s soccer match and meets two more mutants who now want to hang out with her. She’s not really interested. But then Emma shows up and kinda “recruits” the kids while they’re standing on Kitty’s doorstep.

There. Got them read just in time to read this week’s books. I will not fall behind. I will not fall behind.

[Tom Foolery]

This week’s book. And a few I got at the garage sale last month.

Avengers Assemble 2.
Batman & Robin:Year One 1.
Batman:Full Moon 1. With a glow in the dark cover.
Blood Hunters 3.
Catwoman 69. First All-In issue and a new writer. I switched from the variant covers back to the main cover with this issue.
Crypt of Shadows 1.
Daredevil:Woman Without Fear 4.

And here’s what I read.

Destro 5. Cobra Commander and the Twins make a play to take over M.A.R.S but Destro returns and kicks their asses. Then, instead of killing them, he proposes they all need to pool their resources to achieve their goals. Sets up the new Joe ongoing in November.

Jenny Sparks 3. In a flashback, Jenny offers Superman a moral dilemma over a single IED and a single humvee traveling towards it and whether Superman should do anything about it. In the present, the Justice League decide to go into the bar where Capt Atom is holding hostages. It does not go well for the League. This wasn’t even the best Tom King issue this week.

Moon Knight:Fist of Konshu 1. Jed MacKay starts his third Moon Knight ongoing since he took over the title. Marc is back from the dead and he’s set his sights on a new flamboyant drug dealer called Achilles Fairchild.

Multiversus:Collision Detected 3. Rick Sanchez has reprogrammed Brainiac to overrun the Justice League with thousands of Tom and Jerry, and Finn and Jake robots. As they gather the various visiting characters at the Fortress of Solitude; Scooby and Shaggy, Bugs Bunny, Steven Universe and Garnet, etc, the DCAU Joker is listening in on a bug he planted on Scooby’s collar.

Mystique 1. After Krakoa, Raven is returning to her mercenary ways. An underfunded SHIELD has assigned Nick Fury Jr to figure out her agenda. Mystique blows up his D.C. townhouse as he’s going in, making it personal. He leads a small task force to one of her addresses in Colorado where the situation escalates and they shoot(and kill?)Destiny. Writer/artist Declan Shalvey is already making everyone act out of character and not taking recent events into account. Maverick shows up with no mention of his recent vampiric turn. Nick Fury is acting all emo around his dad. And I detest killing characters for shock value. We finally just got Irene back and she’s already dead again? I’m gonna give this one more issue, but the advantage of keeping current on reading is I can now drop turds and find them cheap down the road.

Nightwing 118. Tom Taylor finishes his 40 issue run on the series. Grayson confronts Heartless in front of a crowd outside Haven, exposing his impostor status. Then Nightwing tracks him nemesis down in a final confrontation. Heartless kills Zucco, but the heart he stole from Blockbuster gives out and he dies, refusing help from Dick. Dick visits his parents’ grave and lets them know he’s doing well as Taylor leaves the series in an optimistic place before he heads over to take over Detective Comics next month.

Miles Morales 25. Miles is dealing with his new vampire bloodlust depleting his venom-blast to keep it in check. Black Panther deliberately goads him into battle so he can assess the situation, then gives Miles a new vibranium suit to regulate both power sets. There’s also a back-up story where Miles confronts the new Deadpool.

Spectacular Spider-Men 8. The survivors of the Arcadium collectively join a group therapy session to deal with the after effects of their hallucinations.

Spider-Man Reign 2 4. Old Man Miles attempts to bring Peter back to the future to break the cycle of armageddon. It’s revealed Kitty-Kat, Peter’s new sidekick, is Miles’ estranged daughter with Gwen and Gwen died during the Webb activation. Peter tries once again to free MJ from Venom’s influence, but she explains he’s done this so many times, neither she nor him are the original versions, and he needs to let go of the past and go fix his present.

SW:Battle of Jakku 2. Didn’t read it.

Action Comics 1071. Superman is investigating the Phantom Zone’s new Phantom King, who is revealed to be his old ally Mon-El.

Ultimate Spider-Man 10. Jonah and Ben’s investigations lead them to the true owners of Stark-Stane;Oscorp. Since Oscorp is also funding their new newspaper venture, they’re facing a financial dilemma on printing the story. Until Harry shows up, confesses to being the Goblin, and gives them the REAL story about the Maker changing the past and shaping history to leave the villains in charge.

Venom War:Deadpool 2. Deadpool and the monsters of Monstropolis defend their home and then head to the surface to save civilians. When Jimmy Hudson aka Poison cracks and starts attacking both zombiotes and monsters, Deadpool has to change tactics to stop him. Poison mortally wounds DP’s symbiote dog, Princess and Wade bonds with her to become a new sym, Princess Deadpool!

Wolverine 2. The new Wendigo is a young boy who hasn’t completely succumbed to the curse, so Logan is leading him away from a Dept H kill tram hunting them both. Then the kid succumbs and eats someone anyway.

Wonder Woman 14. All In issue. The King of America murders Steve Trevor to hurt Diana. The following story, told out of order(because King) deals with Diana’s grief and reconciliation after she finds Steve on the River Styx in the afterlife. When she returns to Themyscira, she uses the combined strands of their souls to animate a child she made of sand on the beach, and Trinity is born. Fantastic issue.

World’s Finest 32. With the League trapped under a shield made by Eclipso, and Batman and Superman under his influence, the Justice Society has to step and free the big two’s minds.

Uncanny X-Men 4. Rogue gets into a epic fight with creepy new villain Sarah Gaunt. Corinna Ellis, the new director of the Greymalkin prison realizes its a diversion and contacts Gambit to tell him that the real targets are their new mutant wards.

And Superman:Son of Kal-El 4, 7, 12, and 17. While Kal was gone, Jonathan stepped up as Superman and faced off against the nefarious President of a small country called Gamorra who’s making unwilling superhumans. Tom Taylor was writing this. I liked his Nightwing, so maybe I’ll make an effort to find the rest of this series.

Now back to the Hulk books.

[Tom Foolery]

Mostly Hulk stuff.

Howard the Duck 50th anniversary oneshot. Trapped in an anniversary celebration he wants no part of! Three What if stories(or Waugh If actually. What if Howard had won the presidency? What if Howard had joined the X-Men? And What if Howard became the new Star-Lord. Pretty funny stuff.

Hulk:Grand Design. Two oneshots; Monster and Madness. Similar to the Grand Design books for the X-Men and the F.F., Jim Rugg distills sixty years of Hulk continuity down to the essentials. There’s annotations in the back of each issue referencing the original comics. Interesting stuff.

Hulk 1-6. It’s hard to follow up Al Ewing’s fantastic previous run, but this new ongoing from Donny Cates and Ryan Ottley was just underwhelming. After a mysterious incident in El Paso, the Hulk is wanted for a massacre. Bruce utilizes magic he thinks is from Dr Strange(late in the series, you find out it was D’Spayre posing as Strange) that turns the Hulk into a “starship” with Banner’s psyche as the “pilot” controlling the body, and the Hulk persona trapped in the ‘engine room’ fueling the ship with his rage by fighting imaginary foes…yeah. Dumb. Anyway, Banner heads into space and flies thru a dimensional warp to a universe where the U.S. led by President Ross used Gamma Bombs to defeat the rest of the world. The fallout turned everyone into gamma irradiated monsters that are being pushed thru a different portal to a planet(which shows up in a later arc). Eventually, a new Hulk persona called Titan breaks out of Banner’s psyche(Titan is Banner’s repressed memories of the abuse by his father Brian) Banner lets Hulk out to re-take the body(if this is all very confusing, it was) and Hulk leaves Banner ‘trapped’ in the engine room.

Hulk 7-8, and Banner of War oneshot. Hulk and Thor mini event. Both Hulk and Thor were having shit going on in their own series, so they both relished a chance to beat the shit out of each other. A gamma bomb is set off which turns Thor into a Hulk, so Mjolnir(now possessed by Odin) decides Hulk is worthy and turns Hulk into Thor to stop the Thor Hulk. The kind of goofy shit that would’ve been awesome back in the day. Could’ve been executed better, but still a fun diversion.

Hulk 9-14. The series ended on an arc where Hulk finds the planet where all the discarded gamma monsters were sent to, and they’ve started a society where Hulk is their god. Cates couldn’t even be bothered to finish the series and dipped out, leaving Ottley to both write and draw the conclusion. Meh. Thankfully, this run only lasted 14 issues before the current ongoing, on issue 19 right now started.

Maestro 1-5. There were three Maestro minis that told how Hulk became the despot in the future. I realized I hadn’t read the first ones, so I went and dug them out of older boxes. Hulk has been kept in suspended animation by AIM for decades, thinking he’s living an ideal life in a simulation. When he wakes up, it’s a post apocalyptic world after nuclear wars and mass chemical warfare has decimated the population. He finds Machine Man serving a small group of survivors in Washington DC. Then he heads to the remains of NYC where Hercules has installed himself as their leader, calling himself Maestro. Hulk deposes and kills Herc, and takes over his throne.

Maestro:War and Pax 1-5. The sequel series has Dr Doom teaming up the Pantheon, who are concerned with Hulk’s ascendancy. The Pantheon tries to revert Hulk back to Banner so they can kill him, but it ends badly for them. They blow up the AIM facility Hulk escaped from, and then bomb their own facility trying to take out the Hulk. Then we realize Doom and Hulk had set the whole thing up. But then Hulk doublecrosses Doom who barely escapes with his life.

Maestro:World War M 1-5. Abomination awakes in the rubble of the AIM facility and is recruited by Namor and the Atlanteans. They want to stop Maestro from rebuilding surface society. Namor sicks Jim Hammond on Hulk, then Doom teams up with Namor’s team. After Namor’s wife and son are killed by Hulk, he unleashes Giganto on NYC. Abomination realizes nothing is worth living for and blows up Latveria and Doom by hacking Jim Hammond and making him go supernova in Doom’s castle. Rick Jones recovers Doom’s time machine…
The only thing that bothered me was this was supposed to be Hulk’s descent into villainy, and it was basically he woke up and said ‘wow. People fucked up the planet? Assholes.’ And then just immediately became the bad guy.

Up next, this week’s reads.
Then a couple more Hulk minis like Joe Fixit, then the current ongoing Hulk series.

[Tom Foolery]

This week’s books. I bought a few more DC than I usually do. Because of the All In initiative, I thought I’d try some DC titles to see where various characters are at, and because the unifying theme of the covers; white background with an iconic pose for the main character, looked cool. I also found a few issues at different LCS that I had missed over the past few weeks. Also, the number of books I’m NOT reading every week is steadily declining. Of the 30 books I bought, only six are unread. So I’m splitting the list in two this week.

Absolute Wonder Woman 1. The gods punished the Amazons by taking their clay daughter and leaving her on the Island of Hell for the witch Circe to do with as she wants, but they cast a spell that would never allow her to speak the word ‘Amazon’. Circe raises the child to adulthood and sends her fully armed to man’s world. This is a much more intriguing revamp than the silly Batman premise.

Avengers 19.
Batman:Brave and the Bold 18.
Death in the Family:Robin Lives! 4.

Detective Comics 1090. Tom Taylor and Mikel Janin take over Detective with this All In issue. A serial killer is killing criminals FOR Batman in some misguided attempt to please him. And there’s a flashback to his father saving a victim in a car crash, and then he and Martha setting the man’s abused wife and newborn daughter up safely away from him. The twist? The man’s name is Joe Chill!

Dazzler 2.
Flash 14. All In.

Green Arrow 17. All In. After the events of Absolute Power, where Ollie went deep undercover in Amanda Waller’s camp to sabotage it from the inside, he faces the Justice League to await judgment for his actions. He needn’t have worried, as they forgive him. Except for squinty-eyed, judgmental Batman. Also, Ollie has like a dozen sidekicks at this point, and I don’t know who 80% of them are.

Hulk 18.

Iron Man 1. Journalist Spencer Ackerman is the new writer. Roxxon has joined up with Justine Hammer to do a hostile takeover of Stark Industries, and they’ve introduced malware into Stark’s OS for his Iron Armors. He’s gonna have to go back to low-tech in the opening salvo of the Stark-Roxxon War.

Namor 3. Namor’s ex-gf Kailani has proclaimed herself the new king of the 700 seas, but there’s other factions who don’t recognize her sovereignty. And the surface is getting antsy about Namor stopping this undersea world war.

Nightwing 119. All In. Dan Watters takes over as the new writer. A new villain blows up the leaders of all Bludhaven’s criminal groups and sets off a gang war. While Nightwing is trying to stop the chaos, we find out the circus based villain is in cahoots with the CEO of a new corporation that just opened up in Bludhaven.

Power Girl 14. All In. A new media darling hero called Ejector is running around. Power Girl and Natasha Irons are suspicious and compare notes with PG’s reporter friend at the Daily Planet. They try to do fake crime to ensnare the new hero and it backfires. Meh.

Scarlet Witch 5. Wanda teams up with Daredevil to stop some demon guy that’s possessing subway cars or something. And Agatha Harkness shows up on the last page.

Spider-Boy 12. Now that everyone remembers Spider-Boy, his mentor Daredevil shows up asking about a macguffin Spider-Boy accidentally won in a fight tournament. Because Bullseye and his new protégé Spider-Girl remember that Bailey has it.

Spirits of Vengeance 2. Johnny Blaze heads into the depths of the ocean to free an unjustly imprisoned Atlantean sorceress from an Atlantean prison. And she tells him everything they thought they knew about Spirits of Vengeance was WRONG!!!

Spider-Society 3. All the Spiders are captured. But then one of the Spider-Women figures out how to remove her inhibitor collar and frees all the other Spider and they go confront the bad guys. But the evil Aunt May/Madame Web variant has done the thing mwa-hah-hah…and it’s too late, etc etc. The Spider-verse is getting played out. And now next year they’re doing Spider-Verse vs Venom-verse. Oye.

Up next, the other half of this week’s reads.