Monday, June 18, 2018
My brother-in-law George and I went fishing yesterday. Something interesting always happens when we are together. I time arriving at the lake at twilight so we’re driving there when it’s still dark. One year we saw lights in the bush off of the off ramp to Almonte and a young woman sitting on the barrier crying. We stopped to see if she was okay. She wasn’t injured but was pretty shaken up. This was before everybody had a cell phone so George stayed with her while I drove all the way back to Stittsville to find a pay phone. I got the OPP and told them where the off ramp was. I drove back and we waited until an officer arrived and then we continued on our trip. George said she dumped a whole bottle of perfume on herself probably to hide the smell of booze. Please don’t drink and drive. So yesterday we’re cruising down the 417 with my cruise control set at 105 KPH and we pass an OPP cruiser. Next thing we knew he was behind us with his roof lights going. I pull over thinking I was going to hit with a speeding ticket and when he got up to us he asked why we were driving without the headlights on. Y’see, I had just bought a 2018 Honda CR-V and one of the features is that you can set the headlights on AUTO and the car will turn them on and off as needed. I thought that the switch was set to AUTO. What must have happened was that the last time I parked I automatically turned off the headlights and forgot I did that. The CR-V’s dashboard lights up when you start it so I assumed that the outside lights were on too. The headlights were on because I could see that they lit up the road but the tail lights were off. It took several minutes for the officer to check my credentials but he accepted my lame excuse and wished us luck on our fishing trip. We did have a good outing too. We caught 23 fish between us.
Strangers in Paradise XXV #4 – Terry Moore (story & art). I don’t know what Katchoo is looking for in this back story but I am hooked.
Weapon X #19 – Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (writers) Yildiray Cinar (art) Frank D’Armata (colours) VC’s Joe Caramagna (letters). Sabretooth’s in Charge conclusion. The cover of this issue should have a spoiler alert on it. Weapon X does not join S.I.C.K.L.E. here but maybe next issue as they try to help out their new friend Omega Red.
Batman #48 – Tom King (writer) Mikel Janin (art) June Chung (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). The Best Man part 1. Tom and Mikel’s version of the Joker is a very scary homicidal maniac. I get that Batman doesn’t kill but seeing what the Joker did in the church, Batman actually being an eye witness to a murder, and Batman doesn’t just snap his scrawny neck when he has a chance, I don’t get that. Maybe the Cat will act differently when she joins the fray. I hope so.
Death Or Glory #2 – Rick Remender (writer) Bengal (art & colours) Rus Wooton (letters). I love the art but the gruesome story about human trafficking is hard to take. Glory is a relatable hero and her heart is in the right place. I hope she keeps it there.
Man of Steel #3 – Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Ryan Sook (art) & Jason Fabok (art page 16) Wade von Grawbadger (inks pages 12 – 13, 15) Alex Sinclair (colours) Josh Reed (letters). The big bad guy Rogol Zaar has a hate on for Krypton and he does major damage physically and emotionally to Superman when he hits Earth. I notice that he looks like Jonah Hex’s ugly brother. He’s got an axe to grind and he’s going to use Kal and Kara. The teaser mystery of what happened to Lois and Jon is what’s keeping me reading.
Hunt for Wolverine: The Adamantium Agenda #2 – Tom Taylor (writer) R. B. Silva (pencils) Adriano Di Benedetto (inks) Guru-eFX (colours) VC’s Joe Sabino (letters). Our heroes go undercover in a black market auction in a submarine. What can go wrong? They should have brought a bucket of Flex Seal.
Doctor Strange #1 – Mark Waid (writer) Jesus Saiz (art & colours) VC’s Cory Petit (letters). Sorcerer Supreme of the Galaxy part 1. It’s a new number 1 with a new creative team and they are starting from scratch. Stephen Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts is powerless. He’s lost all of his magic so he goes to Tony Stark for help. This leads to a space trip, hence the title of this story arc. I have a feeling we’ll be hearing “I am Groot” soon. I actually like this new direction mostly because the writing is more mature and not in the “there’s swearing” sense. The art is awesome too. I’m going to follow along to see if Doc Strange gets his mojo back.
Plastic Man #1 – Gail Simone (writer) Adriana Melo (art) Kelly Fitzpatrick (colours) Simon Bowland (letters). This is great. The writing is stellar and the art is gorgeous. I wasn’t a big fan of DC’s super hero comic books when I started collecting but I loved their oddball books like The Inferior Five and Plastic Man. Plas is like a human ball of silly putty who can transform into any crazy shape. This updated version is wang. If they throw in Woozy Winks, it would be more wang. Deadpool fans would like this too.
The Magic Order #1 – Mark Millar (writer) Olivier Coipel (art) Dave Stewart (colours) Peter Doherty (letters). Man, this is so good. Mark Millar introduces a dysfunctional family of magicians coping with the murder of one of their fellow magic wielders by another faction of magic wielders. It’s good magicians versus evil magicians. I am so happy to see Olivier Coipel’s art on the racks again. I recommend this to all you Harry Potter fans out there.
Astonishing X-Men #12 – Charles Soule (writer) Gerardo Sandoval (art) Erick Arciniega (colours) VC’s Clayton Cowles (letters). A Man Called X finale. What? The Shadow King isn’t dead? Chuck is helplessly watching his precious X-Men fall into despair as the evil villain prepares to take over the world. I was disappointed that there wasn’t a clever twist thrown in to defeat the bad guy, just Chuck rallying to save the day. The point of this story was to resurrect Charles Xavier as the man called X. A new creative team takes over starting next issue and I wish Matthew Rosenberg (writer) and Greg Land (artist) well. There’s no one on this X-team that I’m a big fan of so I’m going to bench this one.
Detective Comics #982 – Michael Moreci (writer) Sebastian Fiumara (art) Dave Stewart (colours) Clem Robins (letters). This is a spooky one shot story pitting Batman against the disenfranchised of Gotham City and their spiritual leader Deacon Blackfire. He’s a ghost dontcha know. The whole issue feels like a fever dream
Kick-Ass #5 – Mark Millar (writer) John Romita Jr. (pencils) Peter Steigerwald (digital inks & colours) John Workman (letters). This penultimate issue has another uh-oh moment for our hero. It really doesn’t look like she’s going to get out of her situation alive. We’ll find out in next issue’s conclusion, but I’m banking on more bad guys getting killed no matter what happens.
Thor #1– Jason Aaron (writer) continues his stalwart efforts chronicling the adventures of the mighty Thor. The Odinson is back as the star of this book and Marvel celebrates his return by giving this issue a number 1. I like using the legacy numbering though. There are two stories in this $5.99 US issue.
“God of Thunder Reborn” with Mike del Mundo (art) Marco D’Alfonso (colour assists) and VC’s Joe Sabino (letters) catches you up with all you need to know to follow along with what’s going on after Jane Foster relinquished the mantle of the Mighty Thor. Jane even makes an appearance and I like how she has recovered. One thing I like about Jason’s writing is that he smoothes out the thees and thous to make the Asgardian dialogue less archaic. The change in art from Russell Dauterman’s fine line work to Mike del Mundo’s painted style took some getting used to but I think he suits the manly change to this book. What’s a Thor reboot without the god of Mischief? He’s not the only god returning either.
“The Grace of Thor” with Christian Ward (art) and Joe Sabino (letters) takes us far into the future in a Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy type story starring All-Father Thor and his three granddaughters. Something is amiss with the universe and Thor goes off to see what’s what. There’s a big surprise on the last page and it’s going to be torture to wait for Thor #711 (#5) to find out what happens next. It’s going to be a super big gulp of an issue, trust me.
Batman: Prelude to the Wedding: Batgirl vs. Riddler #1– Tim Seeley (writer) Minkyu Jung (pencils) Jose Marzan Jr. (inks) Otto Schmidt (epilogue art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). Prelude to the Wedding part 3. I loved this classic Riddler story where he leaves riddles for Batgirl to solve in order to save lives. The epilogue doesn’t lead into the next duel but does reveal another guest to the wedding.
X-Men Red #5 – Tom Taylor (writer) Mahmud Asrar (art) Rain Beredo (colours) VC’s Cory Petit (letters). This issue did me in. the story is going along just fine with the red team righting wrongs and protecting fellow mutants. Even X-23 and Gabby appear, albeit briefly. Then Namor shows up in his cool new costume (I can imagine Cosplayer getting giddy) and Jean says something noble and then we cut to twenty years from now where major characters are dead. So did the red team efforts fail? The last page by Ed Brisson (writer) Oscar Bazaldua (art) Erick Arciniega (colours) and VC’s Cory Petit (letters) is the “Countdown to Extinction” teaser, which sounds like another big threat that will eliminate all mutants. It wasn’t that long ago that the Terrigen mists almost wiped out mutantkind. I was talking to Rob McLennan recently about the X-books and why we haven’t been wowed by them. We are both long time fans and my opinion is that none of the current writers know what else to do with these characters given the “world that fears and hates them” theme of the X-Men. I love these heroes but the team dynamic isn’t doing it for me anymore. Plus Nightcrawler has a goatee now. This X-team is eliminated off my “to read” list.
Marvel Two-In-One Annual #1 – Chip Zdarsky (writer) Declan Shelvey (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Letterer not credited. They used the extra long $4.99 US annual format to tell a fuller story featuring Victor Von Doom, the Infamous Iron Man, helping out Ben and Johnny. Victor knows the truth about their missing family and friends and is trying to find out why Ben is hiding it from Johnny. I really like how Chip is keeping the changes that Brian Michael Bendis made to Doctor Doom. He’s still super arrogant and self confident but he has some compassion now. I thought the flashback scene with Reed and Victor at the end of Secret War was very enlightening.
Domino #3 – Gail Simone (writer) David Baldeon with Anthony Piper (art) Jesus Aburtov (colours) VC’s Clayton Cowles (letters). Domino decides she needs help to deal with her nemesis Topaz. The guy she goes to is one of my all time favourite Marvel heroes. No, it’s not Spider-Man. He might call her Grasshopper.
