You know...this whole going to the comic book store, picking up things from my Holds box, & going home to read New Comics is starting to feel kind of normal.
Ahhh.
This week, there was only one book in my Holds Box--Static: Season One #3...but I found three other books that wanted to go home with me, too.
I started with Dark Ages #1. To be honest, I hadn't planned on buying any Marvel books. I can't even remember the last time Marvel put out a book that I actually wanted to read, much less buy. But I wanted to see what was going on behind that cover. To be honest, the way that Johnny Storm's arm was on fire kind of drew me in. It was just a little different, y'know? So I opened the book up. And there on the first page was Luke Cage, whom I've always loved...and in a glance I learned that he and Jessica Jones had had a baby, so I wanted to see what was up with that...and there was Peter Parker and Mary Jane's baby, May, sitting on the ceiling. Yeah, I was interested. And then I saw that Tom Taylor had written this book. Hmmm. Wasn't I just bitching about Tom Taylor last week? Let's see...oh, right. I just read Hellblazer: Rise and Fall (for free, courtesy of Hoopla, courtesy of the Louisville Free Public Library), and I thought it sucked hard. And it was written by Tom Taylor. But Mr. TT also brought me many hours of pleasure with his Injustice stuff, so...maybe the Hellblazer book was just a slip. (But it did suck REALly hard.) Anyway, I thought that Dark Ages was pretty fascinating. Remember how good that first 1602 series by Neil Gaiman was? This looks like it's going to play out that way. In brief, a Very Bad Thing happens and all technology on Earth is shut down (and it actually makes some sense, even though I'm sure that that is very hard to believe). And this book just sets it up. From here on out, we're going to see how our boys and girls (& etcetera) deal with this shit. There was a sketch page at the end of the issue which showed a proposed look for a steam powered Iron Man. Oh. Yeah, I think I WILL be coming back for the second issue, actually. I did resent paying $4.99 for this issue, but apparently that's par for the course for the #1s these days. It's usually a rip...but this book actually was worth it, I'd say.
So while I was in a Marvel kind of mood, I went right on and picked up Cable Reloaded #1. I have to admit to a certain fondness for Cable...much of it engendered by his appearance in Deadpool 2. (Speaking of Josh Brolin...Jonah Hex, Dwight McCarthy, Thanos, and Cable...this guy has got some comic book cred, for sure.) But I haven't bought very many issues Cable comic books. (Well, I just checked...and I bought a lot more Cable books than I thought. Like 25 issues in a row of that ass-kicking Duane Swierczynski /Ariel Olivetti run from 2010.) Something about this Reloaded book called to me. In part, it was because when I flipped some pages, I saw that Rocket Racoon had a part to play in this story. I've been fond of Rocket since he made his first appearance in The Incredible Hulk #271 (May 1982). * The story is pretty simple: go to planet, fight bad guys, steal a thing. But there are some nice touches along the way. I don't know if I'm down for issue #2, but I haven't decided NOT to be there, so we'll see how it goes.
Groo Meets Tarzan #2--which is a Dark Horse production. You know, I was actually with Dark Horse at the very beginning: Dark Horse Presents #1, published in July of 1986. (Is that book really only worth $6? Shit!) And I have a certain fondness for this company. But I have to admit that I haven't bought much from them for quite some time. Groo wouldn't have been enough to bring me back this time...but Tarzan was. And I am rather fond of Sergio Aragonés. ** This story is extremely schizophrenic. Not only do we have a Groo story, we also have a story about Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragonés, and a third story about Tarzan in Africa. In this issue of the series, Groo and Tarzan finally meet up. Lending some extra weirdness to the situation, Tarzan (and the backgrounds) are drawn by Thomas Yeates in his realistic style, while Groo stands out like a sore appendage in Sergio Aragonés style. It seems pretty dopey, and I'm not really sure that I need to keep on with this series...but it could happen. To be honest, I am tired of Groo. It seems like there's really only one story there, and I got tired of that story about a decade ago. Maybe two. Possibly three. Yeah, as a matter of fact, it WAS three. One item of interest: part of this book (the Groo part) is lettered by Stan Sakai...the genius whose Usagi Yojimbo is currently being published by IDW. (And that book is definitely worth your time.)
Static: Season One #3: and now we come to the center of the doughnut. I've been hyped on this book from issue #1, and it just seems to be getting better with each successive showing. This time around, we get the first 12 pages of art courtesy of Nikolas Draper-Ivey, but then pages 13 - 20 are done by the OG ChrisCross (who did lots of work on the original Milestone Comics runs), and it does indeed make me want to jump. So the art is great, but really, the best part of this story are the three pages wherein Virgil Hawkins (Static) talks to his dad. Yep. This comic book spends 15% of its page count on a conversation. Because what's at the heart of this comic book isn't the big fight scene (though there is one--kind of--at the beginning of this issue). And it isn't really Static's powers...though we see them in use as Virgil starts to discover what he can do. Nope. At the heart of this comic book is a young Black kid who is scared and insecure and really, really smart. This book is still being billed as a 6 issue mini-series, and I have to say, that shit has got to change. Come on people now. If you like comic books even a little bit, this is the kind of book to support. First and foremost because it's a REALLY good book, but lots of other reasons, too. Throw down your $3.99. Do it do it do it do it do it now.
And then there were the electronic comic books I consumed this week.
As previously noted somewhere or other, I did re-read The Janus Directive storyline, courtesy of Hoopla. I was getting revved up for Checkmate #3 which, alas, has not yet shown up in my Holds Box (after selling out before I arrived last week). I was thinking hard about the Leviathan thing going on in the new Checkmate, though, and decided to see what Hoopla could do for me there. And? Turns out that they had Superman - Action Comics (2016-) Vol. 2: Leviathan Rising and Superman - Action Comics (2016-) Vol. 3: Leviathan Hunt. Not to mention Superman: Action Comics (2016-) Vol. 4: Metropolis Burning, which takes us up to Action Comics #1021...and get this, issue #1034 just came out a minute ago. That's practically a new comic book. Does Hoopla kick gigantically big ass or what? The only thing "wrong" with Hoopla is that it limits you to six checkouts per month, and I really am going to be needing more than that. Hmmm...I think there's a workaround. Shhh, don't tell. I don't like to cheat, but sometimes I really MUST.
So anyway, I checked out Volume 2: Leviathan Rising, and got to work on that. And surprise, surprise, surprise...Brian Michael Bendis did not annoy the shit out of me. (And this is the second time that that's happened in the past few weeks.) The story was clearly patterned on The Janus Directive...as was acknowledged in the artwork:
And speaking of The Janus Directive...somewhere along the line I found out that not only was Suicide Squad Volume 1, #26 now considered part of the story arc (as collected in Suicide Squad Volume 4: The Janus Directive (2016), but that there was also an unofficial-ish epilogue as well...the first four pages of Firestorm the Nuclear Man Volume 2, #87. I looked for a copy of that in the back issue boxes of The Great Escape and had no luck. Checked on ComiXology and... there it was. For a mere $1.99. It was also available from mycomicshop.com for a penny more, but (1) the shipping cost! & (2) the wait! But I don't buy from Amazon anymore, and ComiXology was Amazon. And then it occurred to me: my sister had sent me an Amazon gift card for my birthday, and I still had a couple of dollars on it. Would it let me buy this issue of Firestorm via Kindle? I gave it a try.
* Yes, I know that he appeared in Marvel Previews #7 in 1976, but he was introduced as "Rocky" then, so I maintain that the first appearance of Rocket Racoon was, indeed, TIH #271. Which I have, by the way, and am willing to sell to you for a bit less than the Record Price of $4,000. 🤙
** As a matter of fact, I DO have a copy of Destroyer Duck #1 (May 1982), which features the very first appearance of Groo the Wanderer. 🤙
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