Monday, May 6, 2019
I don’t tweet or instagram but I am on facebook. I joined a facebook group 613fishing where fellow fisher folks post stuff. Fishing season in zone 20 on the Saint Lawrence river opened on Saturday and the pictures of peoples’ successes got me excited for zone 18, where my lake is, to be open this coming Saturday. I can hardly wait.
Domino: Hotshots #1 – Gail Simone (writer) David Baldeon & Michael Shelfer (art) Jim Charalampidis (colours) VC’s Clayton Cowles (letters). Cold War part 3. Just when you think the team can’t win against some giant robots a surprise twist helps out. The search for the Creation Constellation continues.
Savage Avengers #1 – Gerry Duggan (writer) Mike Deodato Jr. (art) Frank Martin (colours) VC’s Travis Lanham (letters). Now that the dearly departed light-hearted West Coast Avengers is gone off the racks I have room for a new Avengers book. So the rumour that Conan the barbarian was going to be in the Marvel U are true. His appearance in Avengers: No Road Home was a surprise and it leads to this story where Conan in stuck in the Savage Land. Makes sense, doesn’t it? We meet 5 of the six members in this debut and with the Hand as villains the sixth member should show up soon. I like 4 out of the 6 so I’m going to see what happens next.
DCeased #1 – Tom Taylor (writer) Trevor Hairsine & Stefano Gaudiano (art pages 1-6, 15-26) James Harren (art pages 7-14) Rain Beredo (colours) Saida Temofonte (letters). The cover blurb of this 6-issue mini says “the end of everything starts here”. What, again? Darkseid’s obsession with the anti-life equation sparks a world wide epidemic turning people into zombies. The Justice League is up against what the heroes of Winterfell were defending themselves from in the Game of Thrones. I don’t think (spoiler alert) killing patient zero will win the day this time. I would normally give the rest of this story a pass because fighting zombies doesn’t thrill me much but I do like what Tom Taylor has written in the past so I’m going to keep reading to see what interesting things might be in the future.
War of the Realms Strikeforce: The Dark Elf Realm #1 – Bryan Hill (writer) Leinil Francis Yu (pencils) Gerry Alanguilan (inks) Matt Hollingsworth (colours) VC’s Joe Sabino (letters). One of the things that the good guys need to do is to destroy the Black Bifrost that Malekith is using to win the War of the Realms. Lady Freyja assembles a team to do that. This one-shot shows us how she recruits Blade, Ghost Rider, She-Hulk and the Punisher. I liked how this issue ended with the team nearing the end of their mission.
DC’s Year of the Villain Special #1 – The cover blurb of this 25 cent one-shot says “the most dangerous summer event starts here”. You can pick your poison, it’s either this or DCeased. I’m having a déjà vu moment as I remember that DC did a big villains event a few years ago. That one involved Lex Luthor and this one does too. There are two new villains this time around to make things different. We’ve got the Batman Who Laughs and Leviathan to boost interest. You sure get your money’s worth with three chapters in this comic book.
Chapter one is called “Doom” by Scott Snyder (writer) Jim Cheung (pencils & inks) Tomeu Morey (colours) & Tom Napolitano (letters). Lex Luthor and his Legion of Doom kick things off.
Chapter two is called “Leviathan” by Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Alex Maleev (art) & Josh Reed (letters). Batgirl features prominently and she meets Leviathan who makes her an offer.
Chapter three is called “Justice” by James Tynion IV (writer) Francis Manapul (art) & Tom Napolitano (letters). The Justice League must gather every hero in the Multiverse to fight against the Batman Who Laughs and Perpetua, DC’s new Dark Goddess.
As you can see, they’ve got some big time creative teams telling this story so it should be entertaining. I think I’ll hang around for a while.
War of the Realms #3 – Jason Aaron (writer) Russell Dauterman (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC’s Joe Sabino (letters). Well geez, if it was that easy to get the Rainbow Bridge going again why didn’t they do it sooner? The war is happening on many fronts here. The War Avengers are still defending Midgard. Lady Freyja sends Captain America to Jotunheim, Realm of the Frost Giants, to find Thor. Cap’s got Power Man, Iron Fist, Spider-Man and Wolverine with him. We get to see what we missed in War of the Realms: Strikeforce, the Dark Elf Realm #1 as Lady Freyja and her team battle towards the Black Bifrost and find out why their mission changed. When Thor is finally found it doesn’t look like he’s in any condition to help his friends. I am in awe of the art in this series so far.
Batman #70 – Tom King (writer) Mikel Janin & Jorge Fornes (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). The Fall and the Fallen part 1. Now that Batman has awakened from his Knightmares it’s time to confront Bane. But first he goes home for a nap. I found it hard to slog through all those Knightmares. I’m so glad we’re back to reality. There’s a bonus 6-page sneak peek at “Batman: Last Knight on Earth” that looks very promising. The creative team of Scott Snyder (writer) Greg Capullo (pencils) Jonathan Glapion (inks) FCO (colours) & Tom Napolitano (letters) certainly makes the first issue a must read.
The Amazing Spider-Man #20.HU – Nick Spencer (writer) Cory Smith (pencils) Mark Morales (inks) Erick Arciniega (colours) VC’s Joe Caramagna (letters). This Hunted supplement features Adrian Toomes/Vulture and tells us how Arcade helps him rally the super villains. I wouldn’t trust Arcade as far as I can throw him. Then there’s the back-up story by Nick Spencer (writer) Tyler Crook (art) Jim Campbell (colours) & VC’s Joe Caramagna (letters) that features the pathetic Vermin. It will explain why there’s a pack of rats in the next issue.
Young Justice #5 – Brian Michael Bendis (writer) John Timms, Kris Anka & Evan “Doc” Shaner (art) Gabe Eltaeb (colours) Wes Abbott (letters). This may be part 5 of “Seven Crises” but if you can’t find the first four issues because they’re sold out you can catch up quite easily once you read the first page. I appreciate when writers do a recap. It jogs my memory and helps me keep track of stories. One of my biggest turn offs is feeling confused when I’m reading a comic book. I need to be reminded that this title is in an alternate reality where Tim Drake is Robin.
Marvel Action: Spider-Man #3 – Delilah S. Dawson (writer) Fico Ossio (art) Ronda Pattison (colours) Shawn Lee (letters). The three Spideys fight the Lizard and do some genetic engineering to save the city. These kids are unbelievably smart. That’s what’s so great about comic books. Anything is possible.
Marvel Team-Up #2 – Eve L. Ewing (writer) Joey Vazquez (art) Felipe Sobreiro (colours) VC’s Clayton Cowles (letters). This story where Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man swap bodies is a lot of fun but it made my head hurt when they switched back and forth a couple of times. Kamala talking as Peter and vice versa freaked me out. Thank Thor for word balloon tails.
