Happy Victoria Day to all you Canuckleheads out there.
I took a mini vacation two weeks ago to drive over to Killarney, Ontario to visit an old friend. It’s a 7 hour drive from Ottawa and my time away coincided with my comic book reading days. Fishing season started two weeks ago as well so the few times that I read comic books on Sunday is going to be affected now. This week’s off the rack is very short because I didn’t comment on all of the books that I read. It’s very difficult to say something new about a title that I’ve been reading for a long time without sounding like a broken record or a corrupted music file for all you younguns. I’ll get back to including all of the comic books eventually but expect to see number ones exclusively at times.
Secret Warriors #1 – Matthew Rosenberg (writer) Javier Garron (art) Israel Silva (colours) VC’s Clayton Cowles (letters). Okay, I get it now. This whole Secret Empire story is Marvel’s attempt to capitalize off of the popularity of it’s TV and movie franchises. I haven’t watched Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. recently but the main character in this new book is Daisy from that show. It took me a while to figure that out. Having Hydra take over S.H.I.E.L.D. and the U.S.A. may work for TV but comic book fandom is up in arms about it taking over the racks and their favourite periodicals. People have told me they’ve stopped reading Marvel comics because of Secret Empire. And these are Marvel Zombies like me. I hope they come back to Marvel when this whole mess concludes and the good guys win. The only reason that this book got a teens plus rating was for the unnecessary expletives deleted.
Bug: The Adventures of Forager #1 – Lee Allred & Michael Allred (writers) Michael Allred (art) Laura Allred (colours) Nate Piekos (letters). This new Young Animal book reads like it was written for a very young audience. Bug is a silly chaotic character with ties to Jack Kirby’s Forever People. This is way too “what the heck is going on” for me but if you’re into weird and whacky, you might enjoy this.
Grrl Scouts: Magic Socks #1 – Jim Mahfood (writer & art) Justin Stewart (colours & letters). Here’s another weird and whacky book. We haven’t seen these bad ass women on the racks since 2003 so if you were born when the 4-issue “Work Sucks” came out you still wouldn’t be old enough to buy this very immature mature comic book. Jim Mahfood fans will eat this up. The rest of you may need chemical help.
Luke Cage #1 – David F. Walker (writer) Nelson Blake II (art) Marcio Menyz (colours) VC’s Joe Sabino (letters). This debut impressed me. I bought Hero for Hire #1 off the spinner racks in 1972 and have loved this hero ever since. I hear the Netflix show is pretty good and hope to watch that eventually. Luke travels to New Orleans to attend the funeral of the scientist who gave him his super powers but all is not what it seems. There’s a couple of shocking surprises at the end that puts this new title on my “must read” list.
Batman #23 – Tom King (writer) Mitch Gerads (art & colours) VC’s Clayton Cowles (letters). This team-up with the Swampthing is a great one off story. It left Batman wanting more but I was thoroughly satisfied. I haven’t read a Batbook this good in a while.
Generation X #1 – Christina Strain (writer) Amilcar Pinna (art) Filipe Sobreiro (colours) VC’s Clayton Cowles (letters). Marvel hauls out another old X-Title to try and woo fans back and this might work just for the pretty art alone. So the school for gifted youngsters in Westchester is no more. It’s now moved to Central Park in New York City and is called The Xavier Institute for Mutant Education and Outreach and acts as an embassy for mutants. That’s not going to cause any problems in the city huh? Anyways, this issue introduces all the players. Main ones being Jubilee as mentor and Kitty Pryde as Headmistress and X-Men leader. There sure are a lot of characters and the only one I really care about is Quentin Quire/Kid Omega and he’s a jerk. Hey, if you’re a fan of the X-Men you’ll probably love this but me, I’m sticking to the solo books that are less crowded.
