Monday, October 22, 2018
It’s election day here in Ontario but I already voted in an advanced poll last week. Have I told you about my line-up curse? Whenever I line up to pay at a checkout, something always happens in front of me to delay my smooth and prompt departure. Last week a woman’s change purse emptied all over the floor at the grocery store. My time waiting for all her coins to be picked up was made up by finding her wallet on the ground after I checked out and running after her to give it back. I’ve had cashiers have problems changing the paper rolls or waiting to get rolls of coins just as it’s my turn to pay. This kind of stuff happens to me so consistently that I believe I am cursed. Well, it happened when I went to vote. There were three stations when I got there for voters to check in. One for people that didn’t have their registration forms that were mailed out and the other two for people who did. I had mine. When I got to the front of the line I was told to go to table number two and wait behind the person being checked in. The person behind me was told to go to table number one and wait. Sure enough, the woman in front of me decided it was a nice time to have a chin waggle with the woman checking folks in. Meanwhile the person that was behind me in the main line gets checked in and the person behind her also gets checked in at table number one. I was only delayed a few minutes but why me?
It’s a week of number ones, but disappointingly not anything new and innovative.
Cover #2 – Brian Michael Bendis (writer) David Mack (art) Zu Orzu (colours) Carlos M. Mangual (letters). This starts off with Max being interrogated about what he was doing in Istanbul. We then flash back to him arriving in Istanbul for a comic book convention and being greeted by the mysterious Julia. We don’t know how his cover got blown so I am going to stick around to find out.
Runaways #14 – Rainbow Rowell (writer) David Lafuente & Takeshi Miyazawa (art) Jim Campbell & Michael Garland (colours) VC’s Joe Caramagna (letters). That Was Yesterday part 2. This issue features two stories. The first sets up the confrontation with some bad god children after Alex Wilder resurfaces. This one set a tingling in the back of my brain because it reminded me of the TV show. The second is a neat pantomime with Old Lace.
Lucifer #1 – Dan Watters (writer) Max & Sebastian Fiumara (art) Dave McCaig (colours) Steve Wands (letters). It’s hard keeping track of what’s happening in this fractured first issue. There’s a disturbed Lucifer trapped in a strange place looking and acting like a schizophrenic homeless person. Then we cut to LAPD Detective John Decker visiting his dying wife Penny in the hospital. What happens to Detective Decker is the mystery that might keep me reading. There seems to be another Lucifer that appears in the second last page looking like Daimon Hellstrom, Son of Satan, who I found baffling. I really like the Lucifer TV show and did read many of the old Vertigo series but I didn’t like the way this comic book jumped around between people, places, and times. I have a feeling that Detective Decker and Lucifer will eventually meet but getting to that point looks like a lot of work.
The Unstoppable Wasp #1/LGY #9 – Jeremy Whitley (writer) Gurihiru (art) VC’s Joe Caramagna (letters). Not much of a legacy with 9 issue of Nadia’s adventures is it? It’s been over a year since this super fun book has been on the racks and I welcome it’s return. I like that it’s girl positive and educational. This new debut is very new reader friendly and you can even learn some real science and see cool science fiction stuff too. I wonder if the teen plus rating is because of a gay character. That would be sad because it means that Marvel is trying to protect themselves from outraged parents who don’t want their kids to see a homosexual person in a comic book. This isn’t 1990.
Marvel Zombie #1 – W. Maxwell Prince (writer) Stefano Raffaele (art) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) VC’s Travis Lanham (letters). I remember seeing the black and white Tales of the Zombie #1 magazine on the racks back in 1973 with Simon Garth, the Zombie on the cover. I was collecting the Warren magazines Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella back then but only bought the Savage Sword of Conan, Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu and Marvel Premiere magazines that Marvel put out. I wasn’t into horror comic books then and I’m still not a big fan of the genre. I picked this up to read because there weren’t a lot of other books in the new batch that I wanted to read so I thought I had some time to spare. I’m glad I did. This is a pretty good $4.99 US one shot about a zombie vegetarian.
Shuri #1 – Nnedi Okorafor (writer) Leonardo Romero (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) VC’s Joe Sabino (letters). It’s too bad the interior art wasn’t as pretty as the Sam Spratt cover art. If it were I would put this new book on my “must read” list. One of my favourite characters from the Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War movies was T-Challa’s little sister Shuri. All you need to know about her is presented in the very first page. She’s a spunky super intelligent woman older than the Unstoppable Wasp and Nadia’s cohorts in G.I.R.L. (Genius In action Research Labs) so this series is a little more serious, but Shuri is still fun to see in action too. This book is rated Teen even though the main character is older so there’s no controversial content to get parents upset. I enjoyed getting to know Shuri again but there wasn’t that extra special something that I need to keep me reading. Good luck being Black Panther kid.
Thor #6/LGY #712 – Jason Aaron (writer) Christian Ward (art) VC’s Joe Sabino (letters). Midgard’s Final Doom. All-Father Thor and Doctor Doom God battle at the end of time to save Midgard. Throw in Wolverphoenix and it’s epic. Have you noticed that Fin Fang Foom has been popping up all over the place recently? I wonder what’s up with that. This story of the far flung future ends with a surprise appearance of someone worming his way on to the last page.
Batman #57 – Tom King (writer) Tony S. Daniel (art) Mark Buckingham & Andrew Pepoy (folktale art) Tomeu Morey (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). Beasts of Burden conclusion. Tony S. Daniel shoulders most of the workload in this finale as Batman fights the KGBeast in a cabin in the woods. There’s no dialogue, just lots of grunting. It’s a great showcase for the art and Batman shows his vindictive side when re refuses to help the defeated KGBeast in return for the bad guy telling Batman who hired him to kill Dick. It was a treat to see Mark Buckingham & Andrew Pepoy illustrate the Schrodinger’s Fox folktale. Made me wish Fables was still on the racks. I hope the next story arc continues Batman’s search for the person responsible for what happened to Dick. I love it when Batman plays detective.
