Synopsis on the Goodreads website . . . . .
Venom co-creator David Michelinie returns to tell an untold tale of the Lethal Protector! Before Carnage and space gods, clones and toxins, and the revelation that he was a father, Eddie Brock was a down-on-his-luck reporter who had tried to take his own life and been saved by an extraterrestrial alien. Now, this all-new story set during Venom’s earliest days welcomes Michelinie back into the symbiote hive with open arms, as he and rising star Ivan Fiorelli unite to tell a new, horrifying story that not only revisits the wicked web-slinger’s past, but hints at what’s to come in his future!
Are you a Venom fan, but recent stories have become too complicated for you?Then, here’s a welcome throwback to those simpler days of Spider-Man comics in the early 1990’s, written by the creator of the Venom character.
Eddie Brock and the alien symbiote he wears both are still yearning to kill Spider-Man/Peter Parker for disgracing journalist Brock and abandoning the symbiote black spider suit. When he’s not doing that, Brock/Venom are trying to be do-gooders, coming to the assistance of victims of low level street crimes. Brock wants to reconcile with his ex-wife but she’s got a new fiancee and wants nothing to do with him.
Meanwhile, a slew of second-tier villains are hunting Venom, including Humbug, Hydro-Man, Blood Spider, Death-Shield, Styx and Stone, Blizzard, and Taskmaster. Venom is out to find out who contracted for all these hits, and tracking him down in the final issue. I”m not going to spoil it. Venom succeeds in geting his foe to stop, cancel the contracts, and lift the price on his head so that he can go on to further adventures.
The art is good. The story brought back nostalgic feelings for the comics world of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. THREE STARS.
#32 = AVENGERS 1,000,000 B.C. one-shot by Jason Aaron and Kev Walker (Marvel Comics, October 2022) In an Avengers issue during Jason Aaron’s time on the title - Iron Man time-traveled to the past and learned of these predecessors to the modern-day Avengers. In this one-shot Aaron fills in more of their history, referring to some epic battles, and then concentrating on the story of “Phoenix’s connection to the birth of Thor”. Nah, she’s just one of his symbolic/spiritual mothers. He’s not her actual son (but Odin did try).
The Prehistoric Avengers are All-Father Odin, The Starbrand (Hulk, for all intents and purposes), Agamotto/The Sorcerer Supreme, The Black Panther, The Ghost Rider, The Iron Fist, and The Phoenix.
Following their successful battle against Laufrey (King of the Frost Giants) and Hyve (Mother of Infestation from the Negative Zone), Odin puts the moves on Phoenix, only to be rebuffed. As he’s been portrayed before, Odin is a horn-dog, a classic conceited egomaniac and a incessant philanderer and misogynist to rival DJT.
To curb his continuing advances, Phoenix persuades goddess Lady Gaea (the Mother of Earth/Midgard) to marry him and bear his children. She gives in without any resistance (sucker). Naturally, Laufrey makes his revenge move during the birth of Thor. THREE AND ONE-QUARTER STARS.
#33 = VAMPIRELLA HELLIDAY 2024 SPECIAL by Frank Tieri with art by Mariano Benitez Chapo & Pasquale Qualano (Dynamite Entertainment, December 2024) Santa Claus has turned vampire. Now, when he slides down the chimney he has more in mind to eat than milk and cookies. It’s up to Vampirella to save Christmas, hauling around a mammoth candy-cane gun.
Fortunately, Santa isn’t the head vampire, so he can be saved to keep bringing presents to deserving children from the Nice List. The source of the vampire infestation comes from an unlikely place (no, not Vampirella).
This was a fun read, instantly forgettable, and came at just the right time of year when I’m in the festive mood. Good interior art. Love that cover by Jae Lee, a homage to the old Coppertone (“Tan, don’t burn”) magazine ads of the 1960’s and 1970’s. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
#34-#36 = AMAZING FANTASY #1000 by various creators (Marvel Comics, October 2022) Back in 2022, Marvel wanted to do something special to celebrate 60 years of Spider-Man stories. So they asked eight different creative teams to “add to Spider-Man’s web” and put out this over-sized commemorative issue. Spider-Man debuted in the pages of AMAZING FANTASY - - so, had he remained with that title this would be issue #1000. Why they couldn’t wait just a little longer until reaching Legacy #1000 in the AMAZING SPIDER-MAN title escapes my understanding.
I’m old enough to remember the pre-Spider-Man AMAZING FANTASY and it was a grab-bag anthology of cool monster and strange stories with some great art by Kirby and Ditko. Including a couple stories of that kind would have made AMAZING FANTASY #1000 more memorable for me.
I assume these short stories were meant to capture the essence of, or the things that made Peter Parker/Spider-Man special to the writers and artists. There are actually nine stories here, with the final one being a short excerpt of an unfinished Spider-Man story scripted by Marvel marketing employee Mike Pasciullo (who passed away earlier in 2022).
I was quite disappointed with the offering here. Only one story really clicked with me. Even the Neil Gaiman tale, “With Great Power”, didn’t work for me. It was nothing more than a memoir of Gaiman’s childhood introduction to Spider-Man comics and his later meeting with artist Steve Ditko. I’m not even going to mention the other stories here. They just aren’t memorable.
However, there was one single story in the entire collection that really moved me and left a favorable impression. That is “Sinister 60th” by Dan Slott and Jim Cheung. Slott makes full use of that 60th anniversary idea and has a 60-year old Spider-Man still web-slinging through the city, but at a slower pace. When he attempts to stop a street purse-snatcher he is shot multiple times and becomes unconscious. The EMT crew respect who he is and concentrate all efforts into saving him and getting him to the hospital asap instead of removing his mask. Likewise, during his hospital recovery the staff leave his mask on. Why? Because Spider-Man has saved so many lives and receives the utmost respect from these public servants that they maintain his identity and keep prying eyes and press away until he is strong enough to leave.
Overall, just a THREE STAR collection. Great for nostalgic purposes, but I was hoping for much more.
#37-#38 = FREDDIE THE FIX one-shot by Garth Ennis and Mike Perkins (Image Comics/Ninth Circle, December 2024) Synopsis from the publisher:
A twisted horror tale from Garth Ennis (the legendary creator of The Boys and Preacher) and Mike Perkins (Bat-man: First Knight, Swamp Thing)! Hollywood After Dark-werewolves, vampires, zombies, aliens, bogeymen, predators, and... things. They all have their kinks, and they all get in deep shit. They all call Freddie... to fix it. The horror-skewed intersection of The Boys and Ray Donovan. The debut offering from Ninth Circle, the creator-owned, creator-driven, horror showcase of standalone bone-chilling tales of terror and mayhem!
I enjoyed this debut from Ninth Circle, especially the art of Mike Perkins, very realistic and highly detailed. Who better to showcase the seamy, depraved side of monsters than Garth Ennis, who did the same for supernatural (Preacher) and super-heroes (The Boys). Why not give the same kind of dark treatment to classic monsters (werewolves and vampires)? Don’t they have nasty, sadistic and sexually-driven urges as well?
They do, and the Hollywood area After Dark seems to be a gathering ground for them. The story doesn’t make it clear if the monsters are now movie celebrities or just creatures of the night that want to keep their identity and presence under the radar. However, they need a fixer person to clean up their bloody messes when things get out of hand. Enter Freddie. Before the issue ends, he’s been on two clean-up missions, the last one involving a double-cross and the conflict of the story.
I have to believe that FREDDIE THE FIXER is a trial balloon, taking the temperature to see if there is an audience for more stories. I’d certainly come back, especially since Ennis omits several essential details and raises many unanswered questions.
To name just a few: who is Freddie, why is this London native now working in L.A., what’s the relationship between the monster in a jar he summons to do the dirty work of cleaning up the blood and body parts, how did he get into this line of work, etc? THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
#39 = RADIANT BLACK: THE STORY SO FAR by Michael Busutti and Kyle Higgins with art by Marcelo Costa, Eduardo Frigate & Thomas Daneluz (Image Comics, December 2024) This is a free comic in select comic shops. If you, like I, have heard much about RADIANT BLACK but haven’t checked it out yet - - - you need to find a copy of this. It will help you make a decision without risking any of your hard-earned comics money.
THE STORY SO FAR is an impressive endeavor. In just 13 pages it summarizes the first 30 issues of RADIANT BLACK and does it so well that I understand what is at the root of this mash of superheroes and science fiction. If I had to give the elevator pitch, I’d say - it’s a re-boot of the Green Lantern mythos with a Power Rangers sensibility and written with that young adult (teens to ’20’s) frame of mind. Readers of RADIANT BLACK may correct me if I’m wrong - but that’s the impression I received.
If that’s enough to whet your appetite, then proceed to put your order in for the six volumes in trade paperback of RADIANT BLACK plus Volume One of RADIANT RED and RADIANT PINK.
Will I be doing that? No. The only thing this Cliff Notes summary did for me was give me the plot. There wasn’t enough space and time to find out about the individual characters in detail. That’s essential for my plunking down money for superhero fare - - I have to be interested in the character or characters. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS for what this book accomplishes.
#40 = NEXUS: SCOURGE #1 of 2 by Mike Baron and Kelsey Shannon (Alien Books, December 2024) Do any of the older readers of this column remember NEXUS, the blend of superhero and science fiction that ran for over 100 issues from 1981 through 1997 and was released by four different publishers? (Not including a short revival in DARK HORSE PRESENTS 2012-2013).
I read just a little NEXUS back in the day, and could never really get into it. However, when I saw the familiar cover logo and costume and the name of Mike Baron, the original creator (with Steve Rude) and scripter - - then I had to check it out. I’m still on the fence about this, but since this series wraps up in another issue I’ll hang around for the finale. The first issue provides a little background on Nexus (Horatio Hellpop) who was given his powers by an alien and dedicated himself to tracking down “butchers and tyrants. And then he finds them, and he kills them.”
He has a family now, cheats at golf, and is a little disturbed when he gets a call from Headword about a new threat. Most of the issue is taken up with lots of chatter and backstory about the new threat (kind of a cosmic blob big enough to engulf worlds) but is enhanced by the creative art of new illustrator Shannon. Nexus doesn’t find his way to the next world to be threatened until the end of the issue. THREE STARS.
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