So, What comics did you buy this week?

[Tom Foolery]

The final batch of ‘C’ books*

Clobberin’ Time 1-5. A Thing miniseries from 2021. Ben Grimm has adventures teaming up with Hulk, Wolverine, and Dr Strange before eventually having to team up with Dr Doom and a rogue Watcher to deal with a time traveling villain who wants to reset the entire universe by stopping the Big Bang and the creation of Galactus. Pretty fun series from Steve Skroce pulling double duty as writer and artist.

Comic Book History of Animation 5. The final issue of the follow up series to the Comic Book History of Comics by Fred VanLente and Ryan Dunleavy. This issue focused on Ed Catmull creating computer animation and also the rise of anime’s influence on animation. I give both of these series the highest recommendations. If you ever see the TPBs get them. You will not be disappointed.

Concert of Champions oneshot. A fictitious concert featuring Dazzler, Luna Snow and Lila Cheney. Meh. I got the Jeehyung Lee variant cover.

Crime Syndicate 2-6. A reboot of the evil Justice League from Earth-3. I already had issue 1 from before. I have a mix of regular and variant covers, which annoys me.

Crush & Lobo 5. Filling in the series I’d already mostly read. Crush is released from prison to track down her father, who used her to facilitate his escape. Still missing the final issue of the series.

*There’s a miniseries of Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League, but the final issue comes out this week, so I set it aside to read when I have all six issues.

So thats it for the ‘C’ pile. There’s a couple of ‘D’ series; Damage Control, and Danger Street before I jump into the big Daredevil run, and all the assorted miniseries and oneshots with it. After that(which will be a few weeks) I’ll get back to another run of Star Wars.

[Tom Foolery]

Due to inclement weather, UPS didn’t ship my comic shop his books on time. So for the first Wednesday in a very long time, I shan’t be buying new books.

They’re supposed to arrive on Friday.

[Tom Foolery]

Here are some more reads before I start in on the Daredevil books that will finish off the box.

Damage Control 1-5. The guy that created the sitcom The Goldbergs wrote a semi-funny miniseries. He’s no Dwayne McDuffie, but he at least tried to keep the satiric vibe of the original trio of minis alive. A new intern is shuffled around various depts at DC but causing more problems with each ‘promotion’. There was also a backup story written by the late McDuffie’s daughter, which was kinda cool.

Danger Street 1-12. Back in the 70s, DC had a ongoing anthology series called ‘1st Issue Special’ which was meant to potentially soft launch a new character into their own ongoing with every issue. Some characters, like Warlord, Dr. Fate, Manhunter, The Creeper, etc went on to get their ow books that lasted for however long. Other characters like Lady Cop, the Dingbats, Codename:Assassin, etc were one and done concepts. So, in 2023, writer Tom King decided to take ALL the characters from this 13 issue anthology series from nearly 50 years ago that had nothing to do with each other, and weave them together into one narrative. In addition to the characters I already mentioned, Atlas, The Green Team, Metamorpho, Starman, The Outsiders(a different team that used that name that predated Batman’s team) and the New Gods themselves all were featured in the story. It was a Black Label series, so I’m not sure how ‘in continuity’ it was(there was nothing that strictly conflicted with current continuity, and Batman and Superman made cameos in the book) but it was a pretty solid read. Tom King always delivers solid stuff.

Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League 1-6. Exactly what the title says. Greg Rucka and artist Nicola Scott put together a super fun heist book where the two super villains gather a team to break into the League’s Watchtower satellite base in space. Recommended read. The last issue came/comes out this week. More on that later.

Crypt of Shadows oneshot. Every year for the past three years, Marvel puts out a “spooky” anthology oneshot with three stories. This most recent release(which was misfiled in the ‘D’s which is why it’smin this batch of reads) features a story with Scarlet Witch and Vision, a story with Namor and Man-Thing, and a story with Blade, Kraven, and Werewolf by Night. None of them were very memorable.

And finally, I read some Star Wars books so I could file them away.

Yoda 1. Yoda heads off to a planet to stop some conflict, and decides to stay and live there for however long. This was the first issue of a 12 issue ongoing I was missing to complete the run. The more I read from writer Cavan Scott, the more underwhelmed I am by his writing.

Bounty Hunters 2, 3, 6, 8, 11. Random back issues as I slowly fill in holes on this ongoing series featuring Beilert Valance and other assorted Bounty Hunter characters like Bossk, Zuckuss, 4-LOM, Dengar, and others. Nothing terrible, but reading them out of order loses context.

Next up, last week’s books. Which comes with a fun story.

[Tom Foolery]

12/31’s books.

Here’s a story. My comic guy texted me and said the books would be late last week. They arrived on Friday, but I was already at work, so I didn’t get in until Saturday. Even though it was basically a skip week for both main publishers(DC didn’t release anything and Marvel had less than ten books out) by the time I got there, he had sold out of everything except three books; Marvel Knights:The World To Come, Red Band Punisher(of which he only had the variant cover), and Boba Fett:Black and White. He offered to reorder the other stuff, but since I got burned on that 1776 issue a few weeks ago, I told him I’d let him know if I needed anything and promptly headed to a different shop and there I found the missing Marvel books(all but one) AND they had accidentally put out THIS WEEK’S DC books a week early. So I dropped $70 at the second store(I also bought an oversized reprint of the original Superman/Spider-Man Treasury issue because I’m gonna hang it on the wall. Then I went to a third shop looking for the one issue I hadn’t found at either place(Undead Iron Fist 4). Didn’t find it, but found a GIJoe reprint and Marvel Oneshot I had missed.
So here’s what I read.

Absolute Batman:Ark-M oneshot. The secret history of Absolute Arkham Asylum, and also a second chapter in the Joker’s backstory which ties into Arkham.

Absolute Superman 15. Kal begins his protection of Earth in earnest, and makes time to try and rehabilitate R’As in prison with the teachings of Krypton.

Absolute Green Lantern 10. Jo has to avoid the assassin Goldface while trying to do surgery on herself to remove the gold bullets that are preventing her powers from kicking in. Tense stuff.

Batgirl 15.
Batman 5. Bruce is on a non-date with a scientist he’s trying to recruit when a bunch of ninjas on motorcycles and a new supervillain attack and he has to fend them off as Bruce. Damian shows up and saves them at the end, but then accidentally drops the word ‘father’ into the conversation in front of the scientist. Oopsies.

Arcadia 2.
Cheshire and Cheetah Robs the Justice League 6. Final issue of the excellent heist series. See the post above.

Knightfight 3. DC KO tie in. Bruce matches wits with a Tim Batman in yet another future before the Heart of Apokalips sends him to a future where Damian doesn’t even need to be Batman and is raising Bruce’s grandson, Alfred. Can Batman be defeated by happiness?

GIJoe ARAH 152. Another reprint from Skybound of the original Marvel issues with added notes from Hama. This issue was Joe Colton’s original mission and the creation of the Joe team by JFK.

Marvel Knights:The World To Come 5. T’Challa is recruiting a team to overthrow his despotic son and save the world.

Marvel Free Previews 52. Solicits for March. Avengers is ending its run and Jigsaw is back in Punisher issue 2. Jigsaw is the most implausible villain ever because there’s no reason Frank would let him keep coming back over and over and over and over.

Marvel Winter Break Special. A sequel to the Swimsuit Special earlier in the year. Roxxon makes a court mandated apology for the previous Swimsuit issue and tries to stop global warming, with disastrous results. All the heroes head to the Savage Land to stop a global freeze, and Gwenpool takes more cheesecake photos of the heroes while they are there.

Red Band Punisher 4. Frankk gets the EMTs to remove the chip from his skull, and then takes the fight to Tombstone. I’m annoyed my guy only ordered variant covers. My OCD might require me to find the correct cover down the road.

Sorcerer Supreme 1. This is going in the Scarlet Witch run because it’s got Wanda’s Legacy numbering on the cover. Wanda has taken up the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme against the will of the Vishanti, who appoint Agatha Harkness as their choice. Wanda also moves into the Sanctum Sanctorum and Wong isn’t thrilled about that much either.

Star Wars Boba Fett:Black White and Red 4. When a Tarkin is murdered, the Tarkin family hires Fett to bring the assassin in alive for justice. This wasn’t as good as the first three issues, but it was still good, and the entire series has been worthwhile.

Ultimate Endgame 1. The end of the Ultimate universe begins. The Ultimates begin their worldwide coordinated attack on the Maker’s forces, and send a team to breach the City. But they are not prepared for what’s inside. But Death’s Head was in there, which I was not expecting.

Ultimates 19. The history of how Jan betrayed the Ultimates and how far back and deep that betrayal goes. But then, she flips and reveals she’s been planning a double cross of her own. Introducing Ultimate Vision!

X-Men Age of Revelation Finale oneshot. Everything reaches its climax as the X-Men try and stop Doug from becoming a planet. But they were always doomed to fail, and Cyclops and Beast get sent back to the present to stop this from ever happening. Except the twist is that it wasn’t Beast with Cyclops in the future…it was the evil Krakoan version of Beast everybody thought died in X-Force. And he’s been the secret leader of 3K this entire time. Gasp. I probably could’ve waited and picked up this entire event and all those minis for like $40 down the road. Hindsight is 20/20.

Up next, like ten issues from this week. And then Daredevil.