SoraRabbit Short Hop 019: SoraRabbit's Comic Book Night Part III

Welcome back to my Comic Book Night series! It’s been a long time since I’ve made an installment of this and since I’ve been reading a huge amount of comic books lately, and started a new comic-related series on my main blog, I figured it was time to revisit this one. For those who are new to this, I set aside an evening to catch up on recent comics and write mini reviews of the comics that I read that night. This time I actually spread it out over two evenings, so there’s a bit more here to cover. Let’s get started!

(Credit: Zeb Wells, John Romita Jr, Marvel Comics)

Amazing Spider-Man #23 (Legacy #917)

Amazing Spider-Man has been a constant for much of my life, through ups and downs, through annoyances so great that I’ve quit reading a few times… I have read every single issue of Spider-Man since 1995 or so, and someday I will go back to the beginning and fill in the gaps in my reading. (Which is large portions of the 70s and 80s.) That said, I’ve really not been enjoying this new creative team. I mean, the writing has been fine, and the art is done by the excellent John Romita Jr… but somehow as a whole, it’s just not grabbing me. Dan Slott’s run was legendary, pulling the series out of multiple low points. Nick Spencer’s run had its pros and cons, and I did enjoy some of it. It’s just a sad fact that for the past several years, ASM has not been exciting me the way it used to. (Say what you will about the Clone Saga… you never knew what to expect month after month.) I think I’m mainly just tired of long, drawn-out mysteries that take years to reveal. They have been overusing this format on ASM for the past few teams and it’s really running thin.

Thoughts: This issue was okay. Spidey is scrambling to save Mary Jane after she was stranded in another dimension by some obscure villain who was trying to resurrect a God. Spidey is frantic to get her back and he’s making increasingly bad choices. (Like picking a fight with the Fantastic Four and knocking Captain America on his ass with his own shield. Yeesh, settle down, Pete.) On the bright side, they’re finally getting around to explaining the current mystery that was set up a year ago in Issue 1 and it’s… eh. (I guess I could say underwhelming?) They’ve been teasing the next two issues will be SHOCKING and I’m just over it. Every team tries to reinvent Spider-Man and leave their permanent marks on it and I’m tired of it. So, so tired. I’m hoping the next creative team makes Spidey fun again.

(Credit: Dan Slott, Mark Bagley, Marvel Comics)

Spider-Man #7 (Legacy #163)

Speaking of fun Spidey, I LOVE this series. Dan Slott returned to tell another Spider Verse story and the art has been provided by my personal favorite Spidey penciller, Mark Bagley. They have been weaving (pun obviously intended) a great Spider Verse tale bringing in old Spideys, new Spideys, and a lot of evil wasp people.

Thoughts: This is the end of the arc, and it seems the series is continuing, which I wasn’t sure if it would. Also they’re going to have a new Edge of Spider Verse series to showcase some new characters. This issue was a bit rushed… it felt like it could have used about five more pages or so. It also ended on a really strange note that I still can’t figure out, but my understanding is that that will be explained in the Edge series. (I’ll just say a new character was introduced in a bizarre way that gives me a headache to think about.) All in all, this one was a lot of fun and introduced some cool new characters and gave me a couple of genuine laughs. (Spider Buggy: “I’m the best parallel Parker.“) It’s good to have a series that remembers why Spidey is such a fun character and I hope ASM takes some cues from this. As the main Spider-Man title, it should do better. Until it does, at least we have this series to hold us over.

(Credit: Emily Kim, Kei Zama, Marvel Comics)

Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clones #2

Spider-Gwen is one of the characters that got me back into collecting comic books, and quickly became one of my favorite Marvel characters of all time. I’m sad that she no longer has an ongoing series, but she’s had three great miniseries over the past year that have somewhat filled the void. In the first one, her symbiotic costume went haywire and her universe’s Mary Jane became Carnage. In the second series a crazy content creator accidentally caused time paradoxes in which mashups of Gwen and other superheroes like Captain America and Wolverine were created. This one has to do with five clones that are a mixture of classic Spider-Man villains like Doc Ock and Sandman being mixed with Gwen’s DNA.

Thoughts: This was a good issue. Doc Ock-Gwen and the regular Gwen work with her universe’s Reed Richards (who’s a snarky child genius with no super powers, by the way) to track down the source of the clones as they battle and try to rehabilitate Sand-Gwen. I’ve really been enjoying the miniseries, but I’m hoping after Across the Spider Verse comes out, Marvel will give Gwen her own ongoing series again. She has plot threads that still need resolving! (Also, Marvel, I’m still hoping for that Spider-Gwen and Gwenpool team up. Pleeeease? Put my two favorite characters into one comic. I’ll buy every variant cover, I promise!)

(Credit: David F Walker, Dave Wachter, Marvel Comics)

Planet of the Apes #1

I’ve been enjoying the recent licensed comics Marvel has been putting out. It started with Ultraman, then Alien, Predator, and now Planet of the Apes. All of these titles have been faithful to the source material but not afraid to take their own slant and expand on the licenses. When I first saw an ad for this series in one of my other comics I was taken by surprise. It was an unexpected choice. I’m a big fan of the original Planet of the Apes film series… I have a full set on Blu-ray. (I haven’t seen the modern remakes yet.) So I knew I had to get this one.

Thoughts: This was a good start to the series. It was a little exposition-heavy and I didn’t like that it kept jumping back and forth across the timeline… that’s a confusing way to introduce someone to a new story world. It caused me to flip back and forth repeatedly to review the captioned year and place the events in the correct order in my mind. Other than that, I’m liking the premise and the main character. And the art is great. This take on the story is set during a global pandemic, so it’s chillingly familiar. Basically human corporations genetically created what they thought would be a cure for Alzheimer’s and it ended up making apes super-smart and causing a disease that killed most of the human population. The apes were blamed for this because the government didn’t want to take the rightful blame, but the apes could have the answer for a cure for the disease. Unfortunately a terrorist group is trying to wipe them all out. It’s a clever and fresh look at the original premise. This series has a lot of promise and I’m looking forward to reading more.

(Credit: Chip Zdarksy, Ramon K Perez, Image Comics)

Stillwater #18

I talked about this series in my first Comic Book Night post, and here we are, at the end of the story. Here’s a brief recap: a curse was placed on a town so that anyone within its borders never grows old or dies and recovers from every injury. There’s been a power struggle going on for much of the series and the neighboring town of Coldwater has been dragged into it. Now the fate of the two towns and their people must be decided.

Thoughts: This was a pretty good series. As the final issue, this one races along to wrap up as much as possible while still leaving it open-ended for possible continuation. I won’t go into details for fear of spoiling the ending, but I will say that it still took me by surprise even though it did end in one of the two ways I speculated it might. Definitely worth a read if it sounds interesting to you.

(Credit: Chris Tex, Santtos, Aftershock)

Samurai Doggy #5

I started getting this series because I love the title and the opening pages of the first issue involve a dog being assassinated and her puppies kidnapped. This is a fantastic setup for a samurai tale of revenge. This series is an interesting amalgam of a samurai story, cyberpunk, and anthro animals drawn in a manga-influenced style.

Thoughts: I’ve been enjoying this series although I wasn’t entirely sure about it with the first issue. It’s a fast read and I believe it’s ending with the next issue. It’ll be interesting to see if it comes back for a second chapter. This issue gets around to the point quickly, picking up after the big fight scene in the previous episode and finally bringing Doggy face to face with one of his lost brothers. The reunion goes pretty much as I expected as they’ve insinuated that his siblings have all been brought up to be evil. I’m looking forward to the next issue.

(Credit: Matt Kindt, Tyler Jenkins, Dark Horse Comics)

Hairball #1

This one was a spontaneous purchase. I saw it on the wall and liked the cover. I’m glad I took a chance on it. It’s a creepy and interesting story. It reminds me a lot of a similar comic I got recently called The Closet. Both series deal with the traumas of childhood told with a supernatural slant.

Thoughts: I really liked this comic. It seems somewhat simple so I’m wondering where it’s going and how many issues it will be. (I suspect three, maybe four at the most.) The simple art reflects the inherent creepiness of the story well and the story and characters are well-written. I’m really glad I picked it up.

(Credit: Meghan Camarena, Melissa Flores, Emma Kubert, Image Comics)

Radiant Pink #4

The Massive Verse continues going strong! Radiant Pink is one of my favorite Radiants (followed closely by Yellow. Hopefully he gets his own miniseries next.) The concept of a streamer superhero is a good one and there is a lot of potential there. Every miniseries following one of the Radiants has been different and adds flavor to the universe as a whole.

Thoughts: This series has included a romantic comedy aspect and also deals with past heartbreak, trust issues, morality, and the practice of overextending yourself to the point of losing yourself. In fitting with Eva’s random and quirky nature, this series has been more comedic than the others along with the more serious subject matter. The biggest thing to happen in this issue is that Eva finally meets her robot! (All the Radiants are bonded to alien robotic lifeforms that live in a strange realm called Existence.) There is only one issue left in this series and I can’t wait to get it.

(Credit: Sean Lewis, Todd McFarlane, Javi Fernandez, Image Comics)

King Spawn #21

I’ve talked about this series in previous posts, so I won’t elaborate much here. It’s the sister title to Spawn and the current state of things is chaos. All the various factions (Earth, Hell, Heaven, and Greenworld) have been fighting over control of the Dead Zones (portals to Heaven and Hell that can act as staging areas for armies) and Spawn currently controls half of them. (He lost several recently to a surprise player from his past.) One faction is trying to manipulate Spawn into ruling Hell and he may either be manipulating them back for his wife’s soul or caught in the thrall of the Hellthrone… it’s kind of hard to tell with Spawn, since he plays his cards close.

Thoughts: This is still my favorite of the three Spawn companion series, although they’re all great in their own ways. This issue continues a story arc that brings back three long-absent characters: Cyan, Sam, and Twitch. I love Sam & Twitch and hope they get their own ongoing series again. We’re nearing the end of Year 2 of Spawn’s Universe and I’m very happy that it’s still going strong. I look forward to further expansion in the future.

(Cferdit: Peter David, Rick Leonardi, Marvel Comics)

Spider-Man 2099 #1-3

I’ve been meaning to fully read the Marvel 2099 stories for a long time. Seeing the new Across the Spider Verse trailer made me decide to finally jump in. I’m going to read all of it like I did with Ultimate Marvel and Secret Wars.

Thoughts: I’ve read these issues before, but it’s been a very long time. These issues tell the origin story of Miguel O’Hara, an arrogant scientist working for the corrupt company Alchemex in the far future of the Marvel Universe. He tries to quit for moral reasons but his boss drugs him with an addictive designer drug that has no cure. In an attempt to purge the drug from his system he tries to “reboot” his genetic code to an earlier state but a jealous coworker sabotages the experiment, imbuing him with Peter Parker’s spidery DNA. This, as expected, gives him powers and puts him on the radars of the corrupt corporations that run the future world. As an introduction into this future world it’s pretty good— they don’t go overly expositional, settling on filtering the information a little at a time, focusing on the main character’s story and letting the world come into focus around him. It’s a nice way of doing things. I’m excited to start this new journey.

Edit: It’s a few days later and I’ve read Doom 2099 #1 & 2, Punisher 2099 #1, and Ravage 2099 #1, so I’m well on my way now. The latter of those is a later Stan Lee creation and it’s kinda bonkers. An environmental agency bureaucrat becomes kind of a vigilante garbage man trying to stop pollution. It’s an awesome concept.

(Credit: Gary Frederick, Werner Roth, Marvel Comics)

X-Men #42-43

Yeah, it’s official and I can’t deny it anymore. I’ve become an X-Men fan. A lot of the blame lands on Jonathan Hickman, whose incredible House of X and Powers of X stories drew me in and fascinated me. (I covered those issues here.) Still, I avoided continuing to read the relaunched main titles, only picking up Planet-Sized X-Men and Inferno 1-4 because the hype was huge on those. No, the main blame has to be on Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who did the original run of X-Men starting in 1963. They created entertaining, flawed, and real characters and some truly batty stories that kept me reading. By the time I got to the introduction of the Sentinels and Juggernaut, I knew I’d give in and read the rest of the Mutant saga. While my foray into Marvel 2099 is stalling me from fully picking up on the 2019 Dawn of X issues, I do still read an issue of the original X-Men series every day.

Thoughts: These particular issues involve the seeming death of Professor X and the long-awaited return of the villainous Magneto, who had been held prisoner in space for dozens of issues. These old issues are a lot of fun, but they do take me a weirdly long amount of time to read through. Maybe because of how densely they’re written… every panel is packed with words. Still, I was hooked with the first issue and each subsequent issue has brought new surprises. My favorite of which was the time when the team fought Frankenstein’s Monster, who turned out to be an android created by a mutant alien. Man, comics are great.

(Credit: Jonathan Hickman, Leihil Francis Yu, Marvel Comics)

X-Men #1 (Legacy #645)

Okay, here we go! At the end of Comic Book Night 2 I had a bit of extra time and was too hyped to sleep, so I finally brought up 2019’s X-Men #1 on Marvel Unlimited and started reading. I have officially pulled the trigger. There’s no going back now.

Thoughts: This issue was so cool. It jumped right into the action, showing a raid on the seemingly fragmented Orchis group, which are the current big bads of the X-Men world. This raid allowed each member of the team to showcase their power and show how well they work together as a team… even including their former arch-nemesis Magneto in a vital role. I am so excited to read all the books in this new era of X-Men, and I’m slowly getting used to admitting I’ve become a fan of the long-suffering Mutants. It’ll be a long journey, but I plan to read everything current as it comes out while I slowly catch up from the back end starting with the 60’s issues. (I only have about 600 issues in the mainline series to go, not including the hundreds of other X-titles, miniseries, events, and one-shots. I can do this! It will take me years, but I can do it.)

Smart apes? This is becoming a theme for this post. (Credit: Jonathan Hickman, Leihil Francis Yu, Marvel Comics)

And that’s my comic book night(s) for this time around! Although I’ve been reading comics every day lately, it’s fun to just carve out a whole evening to catch up and try new series. I will definitely keep doing this as time goes on. I hope you all have been enjoying this series. They’ve been fun and easy to write, and so I think I’ll keep it going. I will see you eventually with Part 4, but before then I’ll be back with other stuff. Thank you all for reading, I appreciate you all. Until then, watch out for apes. They’re usually smarter than you think. And I, for one, welcome my new ape overlords.

Sam and Twitch are the best. (Credit: Sean Lewis, Todd McFarlane, Javi Fernandez, Image Comics)