SoraRabbit Short Hop 012: SoraRabbit's Comic Book Night
Welcome back to another SoraRabbit Short Hop! I’m trying something a bit different with this one. A little experiment. We’ll see how it goes.
So currently I’m not making any money at content creating and I have a day job. (Well, second shift, but you know what I mean.) Work has been super hectic lately, leaving me burned out and stressed. I feel like I’m falling more and more behind on my projects, so after a particularly rough couple of work days, I decided to take a four day weekend to recuperate and catch up on my real work— this blog and my upcoming YouTube channel. For the first day I didn’t get much done. It was over 100 degrees here and I was exhausted from work, so I ended up just doing some stuff around the house. My plan for the evening was simple, though. Read comics and listen to music and do nothing else. I had a tidy little stack of comic books from the last two weeks that I wanted to get through, no other plans for the night, and was ready to de-stress.
On a whim (which, as I’ve established is my current way of gathering content) I’ve decided to take you through the night with mini reviews of what I read. This will give you an idea of the kinds of comic books I enjoy and hopefully introduce you to new comics you may not have thought about giving a chance to. Obviously spoilers follow for the comics I’m covering. Each heading is in bold, so you can easily skip a section if the spoilers concern you. Here is SoraRabbit’s Comic Book Night!
(Credit: Chip Zdarksy, Ramon K Perez, Image Comics)
Stillwater #8
Typically, when reading comic books that I’ve picked up from my near-weekly trips to the local comic book store, I start with the comics that Cocoashade also reads. This is just in case she gets the urge to dive into her stack and read a few issues. (Her stack is growing constantly since she’s too busy to read, but I got her to read a few this night.) So, following that logic I started with two comic books that we’re both reading and one I thought she might like to try.
Stillwater is written by Chip Zdarsky, a writer that I’ve recently gotten into. He’s done some work on Jughead and the fantastic Spider-Man: Life Story among many others. Stillwater is the story of a mysterious small town where no one ages and no one can die. A reason for this hasn’t been given yet, but it’s still early in the story. Issue 8 took a break from the action to fill in the backstory of one of the side characters, Tanya the Sheriff. We get to see how Tanya came to the town and ousted the previous Sheriff, which explains a lot of the tension we’ve seen between the characters so far.
Thoughts: I enjoy stories focused on single characters because it can expand on them in interesting ways, making you care about a character you normally wouldn’t give much thought to. Although it seems like this is delaying the overall story and the previous issue ended with an interesting reveal, I feel like this issue is bringing in some interesting threads that can be followed later in the story.
(Credit: Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Salvador Larroca, Marvel Comics)
Alien #4
Next up was Alien #4, another one that Cocoa also reads. Alien is a license that Marvel just recently got and there has been a lot of excitement surrounding the comics. This is for good reason. The story is unfolding gradually but at a good clip, revealing more as it goes on.
The story of this series is that Gabe, a retired security officer, is sent up to a space station to find his son Danny and recover a sample of the Xenomorphs that are running amok in the space station, killing everyone who was aboard. With Issue 4, the story is continuing at a decent pace and we finally find out Danny’s fate. The Alpha Xenomorph is revealed, and it is enormous and imposing. We also get more clues about what happened to Gabe in the past— a story that has been teased throughout all four issues and seems to be about to be told in full next issue.
Thoughts: The Alien comics are atmospheric, with a well-crafted story. It melds sci fi and horror well with a genuinely emotional and tense plot. My only complaint is that the artist is trying a little too hard to make the humans (especially Bishop) look realistic, which gives it an uncanny valley feel. The art definitely takes away from the experience of the comic. He does a fantastic job with the Xenomorphs, though!
(Credit: Paul Tobin, Andrea Mutti, Aftershock Comics)
Bunny Mask #1
Bunny Mask is a new comic that I got on a whim. (Because bunny!) After I read it, I immediately messaged the comic store to add it to my pull and slipped it into Cocoa’s stack. She’s decided to keep reading it too. Bunny Mask is a horror/supernatural comic dealing with trauma, insanity and mysteries. The eponymous Bunny Mask is a strange— likely insane— woman who may or may not be a woman who supposedly was killed by her psychotic and delusional father fourteen years before. Bee’s father was convinced he was communicating with a being known as the Snitch. The Snitch convinced him to chip his daughter’s teeth, kidnap someone who was checking up on her truancy from school, and force them both to dig in a cave where he was looking for “secrets”. The father is killed in a newly-revealed chamber of the cave by the sudden appearance of Bunny Mask. In current day, Tyler (the man who was forced to dig) discovers Bee all grown up and producing bunny-related art. Meanwhile, two police discover her body in her father’s cave. To be continued!
Thoughts: The story is still too new to gauge, but as a hook, this issue was fantastic. It told the traumatic events of fourteen years prior before time jumping to current day and ending with the reveal that Bee— thought to have survived and used her trauma to start a successful art career— is actually dead in that cave. So who is calling herself Bee? I really liked this story. The art is interesting, the story is well-told, and the character of Bunny Mask is certainly memorable. I’m looking forward to seeing how the story continues.
(Credit: Saladin Ahmed, Carmen Carnero, Marvel Comics.)
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #27
You knew I couldn’t do a comic book post without having something about Spider-Man, right? (I caught up on Amazing Spider-Man earlier this week.) I’ve mentioned in a post and on Twitter how excited I was to learn that Miles was getting his own Clone Saga, and so far it has not disappointed. Miles is dealing with three unique clones of himself, each with their own powers. The ruthless Selim who leads the clones and wields blades… Shift, the soft-hearted shapeshifting clone… and Mindspinner, who has lethal psychic powers and a more spidery form. Last issue Miles, in a fit of rage, destroyed the lab that was keeping the clones from dying. He didn’t know he was dooming them and has promised to help them, but Selim is pissed and has sworn to spend his remaining days torturing Miles, starting with killing his mother in front of him and kidnapping his baby sister.
Thoughts: The Clone Saga is bringing in multiple threads from Ahmed’s run, making sense of the overall story and bringing it all to a head with emotion and tension. I was not a fan of the Assessor story arc, where Miles was kidnapped, tortured, and broken. I thought it was sad and seemed gratuitous, especially considering all Miles had already been through. But this story actually builds on that arc and makes it worthwhile. I’m a little disappointed that Ahmed has decided to make it cut and dry who’s real and who’s the clone… I think the story could have been better served if Selim had mentally tormented Miles with the possibility that Miles has all along been the clone with implanted memories. But maybe that would be retreading the classic Spider-Man Clone Saga a bit too much. Disappointment aside, I can respect the writer’s choices. This has been a great arc and I’m excited to see where it ends up.
(Credit: Vita Ayala, Farid Karami, Marvel Comics)
Night-Gwen #1
This is a comic I didn’t get around to from last week. It’s a one-shot that ties in to the recent Heroes Reborn event at Marvel. I didn’t find the event interesting, so I skipped it, but I had to snag this issue. It’s got an alternate reality Gwen Stacy in it, so of course I had to get it. In this reality where the Avengers never existed, Gwen is a psychiatrist at the Ravencroft Institute but she is also the superhero vigilante, Nightbird. Gwen has to juggle her work, personal life, and superhero life in a familiar balancing act. People who interact with her have started turning up dead, and it appears the Jackal is behind it. (For those not familiar, the Jackal is a former college professor named Miles Warren who was obsessed with Gwen Stacy and caused the whole Spider-Man Clone Saga to happen.)
Thoughts: They hint throughout the issue that Gwen is in a romantic relationship with Misty Knight, but they never come right out and say it. (They’re referred to as “friends” but clearly going on dates, holding hands, arguing over who pays, etc.) This could either be tactful writing, or wimping out, depending on how you interpret the omission of overt romantic classification. Marvel has many LGBTQ+ characters nowadays though, that I don’t see why they would wimp out here. Due to that, I’m leaning more towards the idea that they just wanted to not draw attention to that aspect of the story since it’s not really the point. (The two of them were cute together, by the way. I ship them.) My other problem with this is that there is no effort to explain Gwen’s powers or affiliation or anything to do with that side of her character. She’s just suddenly in a suit in a secret base. (A Gwen Cave?) Alrighty. Her powers and origin were probably mentioned in the main Heroes Reborn series. Other than those complaints, it was a solid story and a nice twist on the Jackal and his obsession with Gwen. I really liked the twist with the Jackal. See, the Jackal traditionally and confusingly has multiple clones of himself to the point where he can’t always remember which one was the original. In this comic, the Jackal was actually Flash Thompson in a Jackal costume. He was killing everyone (starting with the real Jackal) who he believed was a barrier between him and Gwen’s affections. It was a cool curveball playing thematically with the whole clone angle. This entire concept of Gwen as a Batman-esque superhero reminds me of the Arach-Knight comics they did a while back where Spider-Man was Moon Knight. A creative reinvention of a character bringing in aspects of another character. If this was a full series, I’d totally pick it up monthly. (It’s no substitute for my other much-missed Gwen comics… Gwenpool is long over and Ghost Spider has been cancelled. There hasn’t been a new issue of the Gwen Stacy miniseries in over a year. So at this point I’ll take what I can get.
(Credit: Peach Momoko, Marvel Comics)
Demon Days: Mariko #1
Next in my stack was Peach Momoko’s latest installment of the loosely-knit Demon Days series. Now this is a really cool series that combines traditional Japanese folklore about onis and yokai (demons and spirits) and modernizes them with an X-Men twist. The characters are based on known mutant and non-mutant characters from Marvel comics, but a sort of alternate reality take on them. This installment is about Wolverine’s love interest Mariko and puts her in the role of daughter of an oni who has lost her memory. Kuroki— otherwise known as Black Widow— is a spy in her household, working for another offspring of oni, Ogin (who seems to be Emma Frost). Ogin wants to drink Mariko’s blood to stay young. She also wants something else from her that is in Mariko’s memories.
Thoughts: Peach Momoko’s art is beautiful and the book is manga-style. (Although it’s read left to right in Western fashion.) The story was a little hard to follow at first, since it’s given with no setup or explanation, but it does make sense as a whole. I spent most of the issue trying to figure out who Mariko’s mutant counterpart was, before caving and looking it up online. That’s where I learned she’s not a mutant, just mutant-adjacent. (I don’t know how I forgot the character from the film The Wolverine. She was a kickass character in the movie.) This was Part One and I’m looking forward to seeing the continuation.
(Credit: Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, Mark Bagley, Marvel Comics)
Venom #200
This is a massive book. (92 pages!) It’s actually issue 35 of this run, but legacy numbering puts it at 200 and so it’s a huge milestone. Note that the writer and artist I put in the credits above are actually only the main ones and the cover artist. Since it’s an anniversary issue, there were many people involved, including one of my personal favorites, Mark Bagley. (That’s his cover I got, even though the standard cover was cool too.) This is also the epilogue to The King in Black storyline and the last issue in Donny Cates’s run. In brief, the god of the symbiotes, Knull, tried to invade Earth and was stopped by Venom. Eddie Brock, the human half of Venom, is now essentially a god and connected to the hive mind, directing the symbiotes all throughout the galaxy to try and make up for the damage Knull caused. He’s also trying to be a single dad to a moody teenager while dealing with the physically-draining task of managing an entire race of aliens. In backup stories that are seamlessly woven into the main story, Flash Thompson (Peter Parker’s former bully and previous host of the Venom symbiote) has come back to life and is dealing with the newfound hysteria surrounding aliens in general and symbiotes specifically. Humans are understandably terrified that another invasion could happen and many symbiotes chose to stay on Earth and bond with willing human hosts. Eddie’s son Dylan is bullied at school and dealing with the loss of his own powers (it’s a whole thing, but basically he was immune to Knull and could destroy symbiotes since he was immaculately conceived by Venom due to his feelings of love for his ex wife? I dunno, it’s a little confusing.) Anyway, it all culminates in the Venom Symbiote bonding with Dylan to create the newest incarnation of Venom.
Thoughts: This issue was cool, and a nice endcap to my Venom experience. (I’ve decided to stop getting the comic after this issue but I will likely read them on Marvel Unlimited years from now.) It had some nice twists. I was surprised to see Brock aged up due to the strain of being a god. I especially like seeing Flash back… it was sad when the Red Goblin killed him. I like the angle of humans being suspicious and terrified of symbiotes now. That’s sure to inspire some interesting stories. Although there were three stories in this book, they were fit together with no breaks and worked well as one super-long issue. The only downside was that the issue mainly concerned itself with setting up future storylines than with concluding things. (The Maker is planning on invading… some day. As in… let’s wait for the next multi-series event.) All in all, it was a much more satisfying anniversary issue than Issue 150, which for a time turned me off from the Venom comic because it was terrible. See, I preferred the previous run where the symbiote was unwillingly helping a wannabe mobster while wanting nothing more than to keep being a hero. That was all interrupted by the return of Eddie Brock. I wasn’t happy about Brock being back and the weird romantic twist to the relationship between him and Venom. (That was bizarre and uncomfortable and thankfully it’s been dropped over time.) But anyway, that was Issue 150. Issue 200 was much, much better. And now I can bid Venom a fond farewell for now.
(Credit: Gerry Duggan, Pepe Larraz, Marvel Comics)
Planet-Size X-Men #1
Next we have another big issue (although not nearly as big as Venom was.) I’ve already discussed my feelings about X-Men in a previous post and never really planned to read more after the epic House of X/Powers of X story. But the marketing for this issue made me sufficiently curious that I decided to pick it up. Marvel compared this to Giant-Sized X-Men and stated that it would change the Marvel Universe forever. Sure, okay. The last time they said that about X-Men it actually happened, so I wasn’t skeptical. Here we are, nearly two years after the storyline that set the mutants on a new course with huge, sweeping changes, so I suppose it’s fitting I check back in with them and see how it’s going. Everything appears to still be in place. The mutants still live in their own sovereign nation on the island of Krakoa (which is itself a mutant) and some new advancements have happened. Due to some recent event that I’m not entirely clear on the specifics of, the twin island of Arraka has returned, adding an additional 500% landmass and millions more mutants to Krakoa, which understandably worries the other nations of the world. The mutants are also running out of land to produce their medicinal exports. Magneto’s solution to these problems? Terraform Mars and claim it for mutantkind, teleporting the island of Arraka and all its inhabitants to the surface of the newly-hospital planet. And then they open an diplomatic embassy of sorts where they plan to solve the problem of war.
Yeah… for real. That’s what they do in this issue.
Thoughts: It’s truly a sweeping change. There is now another habitable planet in the Marvel solar system… but it’s for mutants and diplomats only. Giving the mutants their own planet, but leaving the core mutants on Earth on Krakoa is a logical move. It opens up more story options. The fact that the mutants, all working together, can terraform Mars in a few hour’s time is stunning and should probably scare the shit out of the humans. If they can accomplish this, what’s stopping them from conquering Earth? So yeah, it’s a good concept and the issue itself was fairly enjoyable, if a little dry and mechanical. It was mostly concerned with how they did things rather than why and what fallout there will be. When you get right down to it, though, it was a setup issue… setting up the newest X-Men status quo shift. The end of House/Powers was more significant, I think, but this did the job it set out to do. Comparing it to Giant-Size X-Men, though, is a stretch. Giant-Size brought the defunct X-Men comic back from the dead, introduced many fan-favorite characters, and launched the X-Men into a popularity that has lasted for decades. This issue just relocated some of the mutants and set up the next few year’s worth of stories. So on its own it was a little flat. I don’t regret getting it, but it doesn’t make me excited to see more.
On a side note, though, I am very happy that Marvel has allowed the island of Krakoa to continue. You all know how I feel about the almighty status quo snapping things back to how they used to be over and over in a vicious circle. Honestly I thought Krakoa would be destroyed within a year. Thank you for proving me wrong, Marvel. (Update: As I was finishing up this post I learned about an upcoming miniseries called Inferno, which may or may not be the end of Krakoa and ties directly into House/Powers, revealing more secrets about Moria’s past lives. Guess who’s getting MORE X-Men comics? Sigh.)
(Credit: Erik Burnham, Dan Schoening, IDW Comics)
Godzilla Monsters & Protectors #3
Next I read the new issue of IDW’s latest Godzilla series. This has been a fun series, if a little cartoony. It seems to be angled for younger readers, but contains all the kaiju-battling, city-destroying action you would expect from a Godzilla title. In this quirky story, a young Youtuber named Cedric is making vlogs telling the story about the time he helped save the world from Godzilla. See there’s this evil environmentally-dangerous corporation that’s pissed Gozilla off, Mothra is concerned about it, and chaos ensues.
Thoughts: This is a cute, enjoyable comic. The previous IDW Godzilla books were more serious (if a little over the top) and this one is more grounded. It’s light-hearted and modern. There’s an app that warns people of Godzilla attacks… his battles are live streamed… and kaiju are designed by corporations to battle him. It’s uber-modern. But not annoyingly so. It’s not my top title that I currently get, but I do have fun with it and will follow it through to the end.
Pose as a team, because shit just got real. No one’s gonna get that reference. (Credit: Todd McFarlane, Greg Capullo)
Spawn #80, 81
By this point it was around 1 AM and I still had an issue of Radiant Black to read. Instead, I decided to save Radiant Black for the next day and read a couple issues of Spawn. As mentioned in my latest post I’ve been reading my way through Spawn in anticipation of Spawn’s Universe. When I collected it as a teen, I got up to around issue 54 or somewheres thereabouts before stopping. Now I’m racing towards the climactic Issue 100. I’m really digging it. It’s evolved over the course of the 80 issues from a 90’s era superhero comic laden with gratuitous cross-overs to what it is now… a gothic supernatural horror urban fantasy. I know many readers were turned off by this evolution, but I see it as the natural progression of the character and story. Although Radiant Black #4 left me shaken and I’ve been dying to see what happens in Issue 5, I also really needed to find out what happens in Spawn. Issue 79 ended with one of the supporting characters— a sweet alcoholic bum named Bobby— near death, poisoned by a social worker with a dangerous warped sense of morality and civic pride. Sadly, these two issues made no mention of Bobby’s fate, so I have to assume the lovable lunkhead is still alive somewhere. Probably drunk and getting into trouble.
Instead the issues concern themselves with former cops turned private investigators Sam and Twitch and their investigation into the ongoing murders of homeless people. Spawn, suffering from a supernaturally-heightened sense of empathy, wants to put a stop to these killings. The twist comes in that several spree killings have all been related, in that the murderers were all possessed by the ghost of serial killer Billy Kincaid, who wants revenge on Spawn for killing him waaaay back in Issue 5. Kincaid kills people through possession, then kills the murderer, damning them to hell for his crimes. It’s a very creative way to gather souls for the devil Malebolgia.
Thoughts: Finally bringing Kincaid back after all this time is great. (Last we saw he was in hell, dressed up like Spawn. A fat little Spawn.) McFarlane is very good at tying things together and telling a fantastically dense and involved story. The downside of that is that things get lost in the shuffle (poor Bobby) and the plot threads can take a very long time to get resolved. I like the characters of Sam and Twitch and their promotion to Spawn’s informal partners in these issues really helps give them more to do than complaining about conspiracies and investigating things that are only tangentially connected to the overall story. Also in the issues leading up to these, Spawn is finally slowing down and listening to Cogliostro, the mysterious old man who’s been taunting him with riddles for most of the series. I like Capullo’s art, but McFarlane seems to have stepped down from inking, at least on these issues. The difference is glaringly obvious, but maybe that’s just because I’ve read nearly 50 issues in the past couple of weeks.
(Update: Issue 83 shows Bobby alive and well, as friendly and helpful as ever.)
How could you not like Bobby? He’s good people. (Credit: Todd McFarlane, Greg Capullo)
Anyway, that was my comic book night, and the 11 issues I read. The next day I read Radiant Black #5 and it was amazing. I’m loving Radiant Black. If you like Ultraman or Power Rangers, give it a look!
I hope you enjoyed my mini reviews. If you liked this format, let me know and I’ll do more of these. This was a fun, easy post to write. Also, if you’d like to see posts about any of the comics I mentioned above, let me know. I’m always open to suggestions. Until next time, thank you for reading. I appreciate you all!
