So, What comics did you buy this week?

[Tom Foolery]

More Spidery books.

Spider-Man 10-16. The final issue of the CW2 tie in. Then a three part crossover with Spider-Gwen where Miles and Gwen make out. I didn't get any of the Gwen issues, so it was basically half a story arc. Then Miles and his father come clean to his mother that one of them is a SHIELD Agent and the other one is Spider-Man. She doesn't take it well. Then a new arc begins with Black Cat as the villain.

Spider-Man/Deadpool 12-17. 12 was a fill in Christmas issue written by Scheer and Giovannetti that was frunking hilarious. 13-14 continued the second arc by Kelly and McGuiness. 15-16 were another sidetrack crossover with the other Deadpool books that I previously read back during the D list. And 17 gets back to the main story line again. I feel like more than a third of this series has been fill in issues.

Spidey 6-11. This is an out of continuity series that only lasted 12 issues and focused on Spidey's earliest adventures as a teenager. I didn't care for Nick Bradshaw's art and dropped it after 1 or 2 issues, but these issues I found on FCBD were pretty good. Will look for the 4 or 5 issues I'm missing.

[anarky]

Black Cat is a villain again this week?

[Tom Foolery]

Yeah, she's basically the new NYC mob boss right up there with Kingpin. Hammerhead is her numero uno henchman.
If I remember correctly, when Doc Ock was the Superior Spidey, he messed up one of her schemes, and when Peter came back she blamed Spidey for ruining everything, so she went full villain again.

[Tom Foolery]

Was rounding up to 16 books yesterday, and I needed a couple extra. So on a whim, I picked up Moon Knight 14 because I hadn't bought it in awhile and thought I'd check in. Turns out it was the final issue. Heh.

[jjreason]

End of Lemire's story - didn't know they were killing the series here also. Moon Knight fails.... again. Dr. Strange & Surfer must be due to follow shortly.

[jjreason]

Digital copy of Saga 43 for only 25 cents (!) as I have no patience. Confirmed the loss, which somehow gives me closure - I was hoping against hope it was a very black red flag. Another beautiful, beautiful issue.

[jjreason]

What else did I get (mixed up between stores A&B):

Saga in paper format
Dr Strange 21 (done, Dennis Hopeless takes over from Jason Aaron here, so I'll read the Secret Empire crossover issue & let them go on their merry way)
Secret Empire 3
Secret Empire special (uprising?) 1
Dr Aphra (Screaming Citadel part 3)
OM Logan 24
Moon Knight 14 (done)
EDITED: Forgot Thanos 7
Uncanny Avengers 23 on a re-order that came in (done, as is Gerry Duggan - I liked his work on this book)

Saga Trades 6 & 7 - handed over my floppies of the contained issues for these 2 trades. The heard continues to thin out, albeit slowly.

[Tom Foolery]

Almost done with the S's.

Spider-Woman 4, 6-8, 10-13, 15, 17. Except for 14 and 16, the complete run of Spider-Woman I hadn't had/read yet. Issue 4 was the conclusion of the first arc where Jess has her baby. 6-7 were a crossover event with Silk and Spider-Gwen called 'Spider-Women' that I've totally read out of order so no clue what's going on, other than they jump back next forth between Gwen's Universe and the main one. 9-11 were CW2 tie ins where Jess and Carol ruin their friendship because Carol was being a facist douche and Jess called her on that bullshit. The final arc 13-16 involved Hobgoblin and Jess's manny/boyfriend the Porcupine. 17 was the final issue that wrapped up the series.

Squadron Supreme 2-12, 15. After Secret Wars, the surviving members of other Universe's Squadron Supremes join together on Earth. It's the Hyperion from Hickman's Avengers, the uber violent Nighthawk from Supreme Power, Blur from the New Universe DP7, and Power Princess from the original Gruenwald Squadron. The first thing they do is destroy Atlantis and behead Namor. Then they fight the Uncanny Avengers. Then they go to Weirdworld, where Power Princess betrays them and reveals she's really Warrior Woman from the SW Squadron Sinister mini. Then the actual Power Princess shows up and there's an extended story arc with a bunch of secret aliens on Earth. Then they realize they need Namor's help, so they go back in time and save him from the moment of his beheading and defeat the aliens. Then the team breaks up and goes their separate ways. As I've stated repeatedly, I don't like James Robinson's writing. His characters are all assholes.

Squirrel-Girl 15-20. I cannot overstate how fun this book is to read. Anybody dismissing it because SG is a "stupid character" is really doing themselves a disservice. The running meta-commentary by Ryan North at the bottom of each page is alone worth the price of admission. But the rest of the book is excellent also. It's not quite as great as MTMTE, but it's goddamn close. That's how fun it is.

Next up is a bunch of Star Wars, and then onto the T's. Which is a bunch of Thor and Transformers. Getting close to the end of the Box. The beginning of the box is filling back up though. *sigh*

[Tom Foolery]

Finished the S's tonight.

Star Wars 25-30, Annual 2. C3PO gets kidnapped by fanfic Stormtrooper Squad in isssue 25. Luke decides the best way to save him is to read Obi-Wan's journal about a story that Yoda told him about a Planet of force sensitive Lord of the Flies kids and a bunch of alien mountains made of force sensitive rock. The Annual is about Leia recruiting a woman into the Rebellion.

Han Solo 5. Finished the mini about Han winning a space race. Bleh.

Darth Maul 1. Only bought the first issue of this mini. Maul finds out a padawan has been kidnapped by space pirates or something and decides to go rescue her to upstage the Jedi he hates. That'll show 'em!

Doctor Aphra 1-6. Aphra's dad gets her doctorate rescinded so she'll be forced to help him search for an ancient Jedi order splinter group on Yavin 4, not knowing it's occupied by the Empire after the rebels used it as a staging ground to blow up the Death Star.

I held off on reading Screaming Citadel 1 and the subsequent issues of SW and Aphra until I get the whole story.

Thanos 2. Thanos is dying. His son, Thane, recruits Starfox, Nebula, and Tryco Slatterus to kill him. (but why? He's dying....) Thanos kills his father Mentor and then the Imperial Guard shows up. Dammit, I dropped this and now I want to read what happens next.

[jjreason]

Thanos is just okay. I've kept buying because Deodato, and the fact that I'm complete on "new Thanos" stuff dating back to the start of Marvel NAO. My jumping off point is the end of whatever Lemire's doing - looks like he might be aiming at having Thanos jump in & help the heroes in Secret Empire.

Somehow I missed Thor 19 which I'm not happy about, and I'm NOT done with Dr Strange as they released issue 21 before issue 20. Excellent work, Marvel.

[Tom Foolery]

Deodato seems to be falling in to that trap that seasoned artists do where they spend an hour on a page instead of three or four. It hasn't gotten to the point where it's awful like JRJr, but his pages definitely look more sketchy than usual.

[jjreason]

Dr. Strange 20. Bachalo & Deodato close off in half decent fashion. I will include this 20 issue arc on the list of things I want to keep in my collection, albeit in trade format.

Secret Empire Brave New World Special - rolled the dice on it as the uprising one was ok. Haven't checked it out yet.

[Tom Foolery]

The rest of the T's!

The Mighty Thor 13-19. If you're going to write about gods, you need to go big or go home. And Jason Aaron never shies away from going big with these books. 13 and 14 finished off the League of Realms story arc. 15-18 was the epic Shi'ar/Asgard War where two Shi'ar gods challenge Thor to a series of god god challenges. Eventually the Phoenix Force shows up and Thor has to punch it in the face. Great stuff. Between the several relaunches of this book, Aaron is approaching 60 issues he's written on Thor and it's been consistently great. It helps having a wonderful artist in Dauterman for the majority of the current run.

Unworthy Thor 2-5. Aaron and Oliver Coipel follow the adventures of Odinson as he attempts to recover the hammer of the Ultimate Thor. Guest starring Beta Ray Bill and the Collector. We finally find out what Nick Fury whispered to Thor to make him unworthy. I was satisfied with the answer as it had been set up early in Aaron's run.

Thunderbolts 7 and 10. I dropped this after issue 2 because the artist was an abomination. I picked up 7 and was pleased with Izaakse's art. The original team re-recruits Songbird to help break Winter Soldier out of a SHIELD prison. Issue 10 was the 20th anniversary issue and had a short story by original T'bolts creators Busiek and Bagley that brought Jolt back from Counter-Earth. Unfortunately, Malin came back as artist for the main story and I couldn't even finish the issue. He's so awful. It's like a ten year old Liefeld trying to draw.

Transformers Til All Are One 5-10. Holy Shit! Kudos to Mairghread Scott for having the stones to kill off her main character! Add in a bunch of tense political intrigue as Starscream staves off getting outflanked by Elita-1's power play for control of Cybertron. Only a couple issues remain, but good stuff here.

Optimus Prime 1-7. Optimus insists of having Earth be part of the Cybertronian coalition, despite nobody on Earth OR Cybertron wanting that to happen. Then the Junkions show up on Earth. The Sharkticon attack is one of the best cliffhanger endings I've read in years. It's great how there are zero bad Transformer comics right now.

Lost Light 1-6. The ironically named sequel to MTMTE(ironic because they are stuck on Necroworld after Getaway stole the titular ship). Rodimus, Megatron and a crew attempt to teleport to Cybertron and they do...except it's the alternate universe version where Megatron never started the war and the Functionists rule everything. Oh my god, this book is glorious.

Transformers Annual 2017. Optimus and Pyra Magma travel to Cyberton. In flashbacks, We see how Bumblebee met Optimus and how Pyra ascended to leadership of the Torchbearers. Also, an interesting twist on the relationship between Starscream and his "conscience" Bumblebee. Hefty $8 pricetag, but a great story.

Next up, U-W. and then the X's! The end of the box is in sight!

[Tom Foolery]

The U's and V's.

Über:Invasion 1-6. So, I happened across an issue of Über a year or two ago. Might've been an FCBD book, I'm not sure. But I found the premise haunting and intriguing. What if Germany introduced superhumans into WWII right before it was almost over. And not in a cool four-color comic book way. But in a horrifying destructive Hell is War kind of way. I've been trying to piece the first 27 issue series together ever since. This series is the second volume that picks up where the first one left off. Europe is in Ashes, England was forced to surrender or be obliterated. And Germany and Japan now set their sights on invading the US. Boston and Washington DC are wiped out in issue 1 and it just gets worse from there. Keiron Gillen( the guy who wrote the Kid Loki story in Journey into Mystery a few years ago, which is I shit you not Wathmen levels of good) is crafting a horrible epic about war here. It's fascinating stuff.

Ultimates2 1-7. Al Ewing is writing the definitive Cosmic book at Marvel these days. This series is even better than the previous one, which is saying a lot. Has Ewing ever written a bad comic? I dare say no. The art in issue 7 sucked though.

Vampirella 0. The 25 cent introductory issue from Dynamite's relaunch. Vampirella is awoken from her slumber.

Venom 1,2,5, and 150. Also 13 from the previous series. So in the course of like six issues, the symbiote went from Flash Thompson, Guarding the Galaxy out in space as a SpaceKnight, to some new guy for a couple issues, and now with issue 150 it's back with Eddie Brock. I have questions. However, editor Devin Lewis stated on the letters page he fucking HATES Venom's stupid ass long saliva tongue bullshit. And with that, I am now a loyal reader of this series because I also fucking hate the tongue. Fuck Erik Larsen for ever introducing that piece of shit, and fuck every other subsequent artist for perpetuating it.

Next up the W's. Wasp, Web Warriors, and Wolverine.

[anarky]

Holy Shit! Kudos to Mairghread Scott for having the stones to kill off her main character!

Damn. I loved Fat Tankor.