I’ve been numbering my entries, picking up where I left off with the I LOVE COMICS 3000 CHALLENGE as one of the participants on the Captain Blue Hen Facebook page. This started as a challenge from friendly comic shops in Ohio and Texas, originally as the 1,000 Comics Challenge, then the 2021 Comic Book Quarantine Odyssey, and then I Love Comics 3000 - - all goals met by the group of Captain Blue Hen customer participants. I’m curious to see how long it takes me to read that many comics. My journey began with the 1,000 Comics Challenge on approximately March 15, 2020.
#604 THE AUTUMNAL #1 (Vault Comics, September 2020)
I agree with Matt Lowder's review (see Run The Comics 5K Facebook page) that this holds a lot of promise. I thought the scene with the mother and daughter in the principals’ office was very telling and well done. Those two are so much alike, it explains much about the characters by showing them in action. I didn’t like them at first, but I’m starting to warm up to both. Especially now that they are in the same peril. Horror without a protagonist that you worry about just isn’t as effective. The sidewalk chalk images are plenty scary. FOUR STARS.
#605 STILLWATER #1 (Image Comics, September 2020) Compared to The Autumnal (and both are horror-themed) I actually disliked the two buddies who serve as main characters for this issue. That is, until they went into action and showed some compassion, courage and heart. This is small-town provincialism taken to the bloodiest extremes. Talk about outsiders being shunned. Hoo. This little town has a secret that is deadly for strangers to learn about. FOUR STARS.
#606 FREE COMIC BOOK DAY: JACK KIRBY, THE EPIC LIFE OF THE KING OF COMICS (Ten Speed Press) is the personal project of Tom Scioli, who tells the history of Jack through comics panels. This previews the early days of Jack in a full-color biography of an icon of comics history. The full story was released in July 2020. FIVE STARS.
#607 PLUNGE #6 of 6 (DC Comics/Hill House, October 2020) Joe Hill wraps up his tale of cosmic horror, heavy on the nods to Lovecraft mythos, in glorious, Godzilla-sized, dramatic fashion. Wow. This even comes with a happy ending, provided you don’t read the (subject to interpretation) last 2.5 pages. I need to pull out my other copies and read this straight through. There’s so much to digest. FOUR AND ONE-HALF STARS.
#608 BATMAN: THREE JOKERS BOOK ONE (DC Comics/Black Label, October 2020) Even if the story was lousy, I would still love this for the great Faber art. But the story is good with an interesting premise and a mystery to solve. I like the nine panel pages that Johns employed so well in DOOMSDAY CLOCK. My only beef is this would have been so much better to see this art in the oversized pages of most of the other Black Label books. FOUR STARS.
#609 THE BATMAN’S GRAVE #10 of 12 (DC COMICS, November 2020) Speaking of great art in a Batman book,Hitch is knocking it out of the park here. I don’t mind so many text-free panels when the visuals are so marvelous. Alfred gets the upper hand on a break-in in a delightful scene in this issue. Good stuff. FOUR STARS.
#610 SYMPATHY FOR NO DEVILS #1 (Aftershock Comics, October 28 release date, F.O.C. Monday October 5) There’s a lot to unpack here in Issue #1. I was fortunate enough to read the pdf retailer preview sent to comic shops. In a world that appears civilized and a little more technically advanced than our present globe, citizens go about their business day dressed in appropriate attire. The only difference is that there are monsters and/or aliens in the business suits, and only one “human” living on the planet due to a lucky charm. Main character Winston Wallis strikes me as a cross between Doctor Strange, Doctor Who, and Sherlock Holmes. This is a mix of classic detective fare and fantasy. Wallis is investigating the death of the biggest monster in town, but may need to watch his back. Not sure how enthused I am about this yet, but willing to pick up Issue #2 to learn more. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
#611-#614 MILLAR & McNIVEN’S NEMSIS #1-4 (Marvel/Icon, 2012) If Mark Millar could only write one ultra-violent comic, then NEMESIS would win out over KICK-ASS and several other series by him. In fact, the cover blurb on Issue #1 reads "Makes Kick-Ass Look Like S#!T”.
A longer review of this series was posted to the blog on October 3.
#615 SPIDER-MAN NOIR #1 (Marvel, May 2020) New York City 1939. War is coming and Nazi agents are lurking in the city shadows. Nicely colored in black & white and sepia tones to give things that old-time detective/gangster movie feel. The mystery here involves a cicada stone valuable enough to kill for. Peter Parker (a.k.a. Spider-Man) teams up with Dr. Huma Bergmann, a Byzantine curator to travel to Cairo to track down her sister’s killers. Nice build-up, a little lean on action except for great opening scenes, and a little too obvious with trying to recreate vintage movie dialogue and Spider-Man mission references.Still, I’ll hang around a little longer. THREE STARS.
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