MARVEL COMICS
MOON KNIGHT: FIST OF KHONSHU #0
Surprise! This book was announced June 26 as arriving on July 3, a "surprise shadow drop" that follows from Blood Hunt #4 (June 26) and into Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #1 (Oct. 16). The reason why is the return of Marc Spector. In Blood Hunt #4, Khonshu is freed (I didn't know he was imprisoned, but OK, makes sense) and he unleashes an army of past Moon Knights on the vampires, including Marc Spector. It's the dead vs. the undead, and my money's on the Moon Knights.
Also, my money is on Marc Spector somehow sticking around when this over. He's got a TV show!
"The father, freed. The son, returned. Marc Spector, Jake Lockley and Stephen Grant hit the streets once more as Moon Knight, and he's making up for lost time,” writer Jed MacKay said. “The streets have changed since Moon Knight died, and I'm excited to explore how he deals with all-new threats to his territory along with fellow Midnight Missionaries Alessandro Cappucio, Rachelle Rosenberg and Devmalya Pramanik! Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #1 marks the 40th issue of our time with Moon Knight — and we've got plenty more that we're looking forward to sharing with you!
Week 10 in "Blood Hunt"
WEREWOLF BY NIGHT: BLOOD HUNT #1
Evidently there's a new werewolf by night (there really ought to be new ones all the time) who will have "new abilities." It's a teenager from a Hopi reservation in Arizona, who apparently can control his transformation (somewhat) by using earbuds to soothe the beast within. The Hopi angle is interesting, but my God, another teenager with super-powers and zero adult supervision? Join the endless ranks at Marvel Comics, young man, from Peter Parker to Rick Jones to Richard Rider to Rick Sheridan to Danny Ketch to Sam Alexander to the entirety of the New Warriors to Christopher Powell to ... sigh. Ol' granny's gettin' tired now. So. Many. Teenagers.
Anyway, don't get too attached, as the upcoming Werewolf by Night ongoing will star Jack Russell, as usual. Was he a teenager when he got started? I don't remember, but probably.
X-MEN: BLOOD HUNT — PSYLOCKE #1 (ONE-SHOT)
Just as Magik seems to be Russia's sole defender against vampires, Psylocke will be Japan's. The X-Men are getting spread mighty thin these days!
Also:
- BLACK PANTHER: BLOOD HUNT #3 (OF 3): T'Challa, still a vampire, pokes around an underwater Atlantean temple.
- BLOOD HUNT #1 (OF 5) 2ND PTG LEINIL YU VARIANT
- BLOOD HUNTERS #3 (OF 4): White Widow joins Dagger and Elsa Bloodstone. Also: Hellcow!
- DOCTOR STRANGE #17: Wong vs vampire Doctor Strange's body, currently inhabited by VIctor Strange's ghost.
- MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN #22: Vampire Miles vs. .... Deadpool?
- UNION JACK THE RIPPER: BLOOD HUNT #1 (OF 3) 2ND PTG BLOOD SOAKED VARIANT
Elsewhere at Marvel:
ANNIHILATION 2099 #1 (OF 5) features the last survivor of Xandar. That's actually a better premise than modern-day Nova, which has the same problem as the group that inspired it, the Green Lantern Corps: Too many characters with the exact same power set.
Also, I confess to having disliked Richard Rider since his introduction in the 1970s as an obvious attempt to replicate the success of Peter Parker. I know the character has grown up since then and forged a life off-planet, but that initial distaste still lingers. (As does his high school friend's habit of calling everyone "boychick," which I've never heard anybody use in real life. Maybe it's a New York thing.) Sam Alexander just seemed like a Xerox of a Xerox, so no joy there. I honestly wouldn't mind if the Nova Corps were wiped out in present-day comics, with a last survivor who isn't a teenager from Earth. That would be interesting.
LIFE OF WOLVERINE #1
Actually, this could come in handy.
SPIDER-MAN: REIGN II #1 (OF 5)
I read the first series, and what I remember about it is that the entire supporting cast is dead and Old Man Spidey is mopey and joyless. Why would anyone want to write a Spider-Man story with all the best parts removed? Moreover, why would anyone want to read it?
STAR WARS: INQUISITORS #1 (OF 4)
I'm actually kinda curious about these guys.
WOLVERINE: DEEP CUT #1 (OF 4)
I think I've read enough Sabretooth stories by Chris Claremont for one lifetime.
Also:
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1 is "Infinity Watch" Part Two.
MMW SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN VOL. 7 brings the series up to issue #91.
MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS #7 FACSIMILE EDITION
MARVEL ZOMBIES: BLACK, WHITE & BLOOD TREASURY EDITION TP: Is this actually Treasury size? Because I might get it just for the big ol' pictures.
VENOM #35 is a "Venom War" prelude. If you thought "Blood Hunt" had a lot of books, wait until this thing hits.
DC COMICS
Week 2 in "Absolute Power":
ABSOLUTE POWER #1 (OF 4)
"THE TRINITY OF EVIL HAS WON." Yeah, that's how this immense crossover begins. Failsafe and Brainiac Queen give Amanda Waller the ability to steal metahuman abilities from every hero and villain, and this PREVIEW at Comic Book Dispatch shows Superman getting shot by an ordinary ol' handgun. Also, Green Arrow is working for Amanda Waller. (If it's a trick, it's a convincing one.) Also, the Suicide Squad is targeting all the now-powerless big guns. Also, as you'd expect, a resistance begins to form led by, as you'd expect, Batman.
But it's masterminded by Mark Waid, who is, as you'd expect, puts a Silver Age concept to its best use (Amazo). I expect it'll be good.
BATMAN #150
Denys Cowan makes an appearance, which is very cool.
Meanwhile, you'd think an issue with this number would be the climax to a bunch of long-running storylines, but that all happened last issue. This is apparently a standalone, before the next Bat-era begins next issue. Also cool.
There's also an "Absolute Power" featuring a Bat/Cat team-up trying to steal something from Amanda Waller. Honesty, anything bad you do to that awful woman is OK by me.
Elsewhere at DC:
- BATMAN AND ROBIN AND HOWARD: SUMMER BREAKDOWN #1 (OF 3) is a sequel to Batman and Robin and Howard, which posited a kid in Damian Wayne's elementary school class who was better than Damian at everything, and Robin's jealous. Until, I expect, he learns a Valuable Life Lesson. Even if I was inclined to read a young readers books, that premise would turn me off. YMMV.
- DC is shipping two books this week in the new DC Compact Comics Edition format, ALL-STAR SUPERMAN TP and FAR SECTOR TP. (Smaller versions of books I already have? Not for these old eyes, brother!)
IMAGE COMICS
ALL THE THINGS WE DIDN'T DO LAST NIGHT (ONE-SHOT)
REVIEW: This is by Maria Llovet, whose Crave was an unexpectedly awesome read — and sexy as all get-out. It helps that her artwork is slightly exotic to American eyes — she's from Barcelona, with a different artistic tradition — but really, Crave was just super-naughty. Which, thankfully, was not all it was. The naughtiness was necessary, an extension of a transgressive story which nevertheless delivered a powerful moral lesson — and a warning. Highly recommended, especially if you enjoyed Gen V on Amazon Prime, with which it shares some superficial similarities. (I never got around to reviewing Crave, so now I have.)
This issue collects the three-part story originally published in Image 30th Anniversary Anthology, and here's what it's about: "Mamen is a young art historian who has become a jewelry thief because of a trauma from her past. Damon is a hitman tired of his bosses. Oblivious to their secret lives, they meet cute and promise to go on a date. But fate unites them before they planned, as both witness each other’s crime."
I read it last night, and it was a cute bit of rom-crime fluff. Like in Sex Criminals, our co-stars meet cute, then crime cute.
But then it just sorta ... ends. Llovet says in a text piece that this was originally planned as the intro to a much larger story, which explains the lack of climax. That project has been shelved, so I guess this is the last we'll see of Mamen and Damon. (Unless this sells really well, I'm guessing.)
That's OK with me. Especially since I was also (slightly) disappointed in the art. Crave was very well done — polished, professional and unique for the American market. This book seems like it was drawn by a much younger Maria Llovet, one who had not yet mastered her craft. (And I'll bet a dollar it was.)
I'm not slamming the book, as I mildly enjoyed it. I think that's because I read Crave and Last Night in the right order, by reading them in the wrong one. I read Crave, and fell in love with Llovet's work, and then read this lesser, earlier work after I was already sold. This book amounted to a mildly amusing reminder of what Llovet can do, raising my anticipation for her next project. Had I read All the Things We Didn't Do Last Night first, I might have been too unimpressed to have cracked Crave open.
FREE AGENTS #1
REVIEW: As a collaboration between Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, I should love this book. But I found it a bit like school.
The premise is that a bunch of veterans of some interdimensional war that is over are now stranded on Earth. They all live in a house together that has a secret area where all their high-tech equipment and off-world doo-dads are kept. In the first issue a leftover enemy robot-tank-thingie from the war shows up, so they go into action and take it down. A media representative (these guys from a bunch of other dimensions hate the media too, which I'm getting a little sick of) overhears one of them say something to the effect of "we're not soldiers any more, we're free agents" and they get tagged as the superhero team "the Free Agents." (Other Image characters are mentioned, so this is "in-universe" for Image's superhero books.) The rest of the book is about the various characters doing exciting things like going to diners and community college while complaining that they need to be not-soldiers any more, and mourning the death of their leader, who died in the last battle.
But then, spoiler, he shows up on the last page. That would be a great last-page surprise, for which Busiek is justly famed. Except that I was waiting for it.
See, the writers provided so much information on this guy that I knew he'd show up. We were told about his power set, which he demonstrated for us, in flashback. If this character was going to be one and done, he wouldn't have gotten so much panel time. So I don't feel bad about the spoiler; I think it reasonable that any comics veteran — especially a Busiek comics veteran — would have guessed the ending same as me.
But, OK, nothing's new under the sun, and I am vaguely curious how this character survived (because the bad guy will have, too, which immediately sets off a story arc) and alarmed about some of the language he's using. (He does not approve of what his unit has been up to, to put it mildly.)
In fact, that might be the only reason I come back. There are a lot of arguments against it.
One is that this first issue throws so much at you that it's hard to absorb. I say this as a 50-year veteran of comics. There are so many major characters that I lost count; I think maybe 10. They all have real names and code names, they all have different abilities (some of them pretty esoteric, so not especially visual) and some of them shapeshift, giving us more "characters" to remember. Plus they all use future terms (as does a computer V/O) which isn't always intuitive. Trying to remember all this was like studying for a test.
Worse, I didn't care for the art. It seems to come from the Bart Sears school of Exaggerated Musculature and Hyper-Rendered Everything. I had occasional trouble following what was happening with, and distinguishing between, characters, who (outside of three women) tended to blur into a mass of melanin-colored martial macho. (Which means some of the blame might go to the colorist.) It's very '90s Image, it's a bit ugly to me, and had it been a bit clearer, some of my complaints about the writing might have evaporated.
All that being said, I will be back for the next issue — it's Busiek and Nicieza after all — but my first impression is "meh." And I'll have to re-read issue #1 before starting #2, since I know I conflated some characters until realizing my error at almost the end, and don't really remember any of them. Which sounds like homework.
There's a Fantastic Four #25 homage below.
PUBLIC DOMAIN #6
REVIEW: I got a press release on this issue promising a new story arc. That sounded interesting, so I read it. New story arc or not, I still felt like I was arrifving in media res, and don't recommend the book as an introduction to the series. (The first five issues were published in 2022.)
The premise, as I picked up as I went along, is that two different old men claim ownership of a comic book character named Domain, and apparently they are both still publishing this character at the two different publishing companies they own. (I assume that, as the title would indicate, Domain has fallen into public domain.) Both older men (one a pushover, the other an a-hole) were apparently instrumental in the (Silver Age?) creation of Domain (a white, male, straight, uncomplicated hero) and are stuck in their ways, while the twentysomething writers and artists in their respective bullpens are pushing to make Domain more appealing to younger generations (i.e., more women, more POC, more LGBT, etc.).
Nothing like office debates to get the ol' blood racing. Public Domain is interesting, but not particularly engrossing. I think this would be boffo if you actually work in the comics industry, and in fact the series won an Eisner. That's like a movie about making movies getting an Oscar, which are voted on by people who make movies.
SCARLETT #2 (OF 5)
1949 HC
REVIEW: The premise here (which you have to kind of pick up as you go along) is that, in the far future, a cyborg clone of a 1949 female homicide detective in New York has come back in time to ... replace herself? The mechanics are unclear, but the 1949 gal, who seems unaware of all this, bleeds motor oil. (You'd think she'd have noticed this before.) It's confusing, especially when the story eventually mentions that there are many 1949s, as there are multiple versions of every year. The book doesn't really say why, but maybe it's because of all the time travelers have created multiple timelines, so this is just one of them.
Ultimately, it's not important. It's robot "Days of Future Past." I just rolled with it.
The story is about this detective (and did female homicide detectives actually exist in 1949 New York?) who is legendary among her peers, trying to catch a serial killer. She discovers that the only connection between the seemingly random victims is that most were going to die anyway from cancer or some other fatal affliction, diagnosed or undiagnosed. She leaps to the conclusion (possibly influenced by her future self?) that all of the victims were destined to die shortly before they were murdered, the healthy ones presumably from accidents. Oh, and she gets a sidekick in the form of a worshipful FBI agent, whose presence adds nothing to the narrative aside from giving our detective someone to talk to.
It's all pretty interesting. But none of it wowed me. Maybe I've read too many timey-wimey stories. I will say that the concepts involved are worth chewing over, since they're left to the reader to figure out.
The art falls into the same category — interesting, ultra-detailed and professional, but not eye-popping. It's by American artist Dutin Weaver, but has a distinct European feel. Nothing specific, but maybe a hint of Moebius, or the Spanish tradition. I liked it fine.
Elsewhere at Image:
- Three Image Firsts this week: IMAGE FIRSTS HELLCOP #1, IMAGE FIRSTS KILL OR BE KILLED #1 and IMAGE FIRSTS NOCTERRA #1.
DARK HORSE COMICS
CARTOONISTS AGAINST RACISM: SECRET JEWISH WAR ON BIGOTRY TP
"Arriving this July from Dark Horse Comics and Yoe Books is a powerful new book about cartoonists who fought against racism. Cartoonists Against Racism: The Secret Jewish War on Bigotry tells the remarkable unknown story of a Jewish organization that enlisted some of America’s most beloved comic book artists and cartoonists in a nationwide campaign against bigotry in the 1940s and 1950s."
That sounds pretty interesting, as most books associated with Craig Yoe are. I don't seem to have a review copy, though. Here's a PREVIEW.
CYBERPUNK 2077: KICKDOWN #1 (OF 4)
"With her foot on the pedal of the hottest ride in Night City, the daughter of a famed carjacker is out to fix the past." Not my thing, but maybe it's yours.
GRENDEL: DEVIL'S CRUCIBLE — DEFIANCE #1 (OF 4)
"A new story arc begins: Grendel Prime has returned to Earth, but things are not as he left them. The pockets of humanity that remain and the 'Necro Lords' that rule them have turned against the Grendels. Grendel Prime will need to hide his identity as he explores his suddenly hostile home planet."
Again, not my thing. Never cared for Grendel. But you may be an avid fan, so here's a preview.
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT
SPACE GHOST #3
REVIEW: I caught up on Space Ghost this week, a book I was highly anticipating. Maybe my anticipation was too high, because I was a little disappointed.
Not by the writing, although it is pretty by the numbers. Space Ghost is clearly a survivor of some catastrophe that killed his family (and his organization, whatever it was), and is now all grim and brooding and vengeful and Batman-y. He uses tech which appears to be from his pre-catastrophe days, and also appears to be unique, which gives him an advantage.
And we see Jan and Jace get orphaned, which you'd expect, since they weren't Space Ghost's kids even in the '60s cartoon, and they'd have to be orphaned to hang around this older man in a mask who isn't their father. They were just viewer identification then, and still are, pretty much. But anyone thinking through why Space Ghost would have two adolescents hanging around (and being endangered) would arrive at the scenario that writer David Pepose comes up with here. There really aren't very many ways to explain it, and he resorts to the most obvious one.
So none of this really surprised me, but that isn't a complaint. I didn't expect Alan Moore. This comic book is based on a '60s cartoon, and anything that varied from the simple premise of that cartoon would anger longtime fans (including me). So it's not going to be deep. It's not going to be an EYKIW (Everything You Know Is Wrong). No, the story is pretty simple and much in line with what I expected, and honestly, kinda hoped for.
So what disappointed me? Right, the art.
What really made Space Ghost memorable? Everyone knows: the Alex Toth designs. So Space Ghost should be awesome in the art department. Dynamite should have hired someone on the book with a Toth flair, like maybe Steve Rude.
But no, we have Jonathan Lau, who is pretty distant from Alex Toth in style and storytelling. Space Ghost isn't sleek; he's over-muscled. I don't know if it's that I simply don't care for this Lau's style, or if it's just too far removed from Toth. Short of psychoanalysis I'll probably never know. But the upshot is I don't care for it.
And that's a shame.
(Note Amazing Spider-Man #300 homage.)
THUNDERCATS: CHEETARA #1
The origin of Cheetara.
MORE COMICS
Ablaze has two "Artist Spotlight" books featuring artists I'm not familiar with: ABLAZE ARTIST SPOTLIGHT MANIX ABRERAS BANDED SET and ABLAZE CREATOR SPOTLIGHTJP ROTH BANDED SET.
Comic-strip collectors' alert! ALLEY OOP AGAINST OUTLANDERS COMPLETE SUNDAYS 1979-1981 TP, ALLEY OOP AND THE BEAST OF THE WOODS TP and ALLEY OOP MEETS FANG TP all ship this week.
ARCHIE SHOWCASE JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #19: CHRISTMAS IN JULY
BETTY & VERONICA SUMMER SPECTACULAR (ONE-SHOT)
BURST ANGEL VOL. 1 (OF 3)
CONAN THE BARBARIAN #12
DOCTOR WHO FIFTEENTH DOCTOR #1 (OF 4)
Here's a preview of the comic book series starring the new Doctor.
GFT PRESENTS SWIMSUIT EDITION 2024 (ONE SHOT)
Once again I must point out that Zenescope really knows its audience. "Story? Bah. Just gimme some half-naked chicks."
GUINEVERE & DIVINITY FACTORY #1
I've never heard of Pocket Jack Comics (which sounds vaguely dirty), but I like the description of this book: "Like Harry Potter, but slutty." I'm not much for Harry Potter, but I'm very pro-slutty. This particular sluttiness involves a stripper trying to become a wizard. Here's the KICKSTARTER.
HUMAN FLY #0
Australian publisher IPI resurrects the Human Fly, last seen at Marvel Comics. And in pretty much the same outfit, too!
LAKE GARY GN
REVIEW: I can't really recommend this. It reads like a comic strip, but a mediocre one. Like Liberty Meadows, it is a well-drawn strip that sets up a unique and interesting cast ... that never says or does anything particularly hilarious, interesting or surprising. And occasionally narratives are simply dropped, as if the writer just got tired of them. (He was usually a few steps behind this reader.)
This might work as a gag a day, but as a collection it left me unmoved. Nice art, though.
RIVERS OF LONDON: STRAY CAT BLUES #2 (OF 4)
ROGUE TROOPER: BLIGHTY VALLEY HC
Rob Staeger has launched the 2000 AD and more! The Rebellion comics thread, so I hope someone reads this and comments there!
SOUL TAKER #1 (OF 6)
This new effort by Tom Sniegoski sounds pretty interesting. It stars an old lady in a nursing home whose real name is Amaranthea — a soul vampire, the last of her kind. She sucks in just enough soul juice from the old farts around her to get by, without raising suspicion. But some old enemies resurface, so she has to go full vampire to fight them, all without ruining her cushy life.
I love re-imaginings of vampire, zombie, werewolf, mummy, gillman and Frankenstein myths. Yes, I love them, and my bookshelves are full of books, graphic novels and movies starring them. But, let's face it, the versions the public are most familiar with (Universal and Hammer films) don't hold up very well in the 21st century. Like superheroes and James Bond, they need to be reimagined every so often to be relevant for a modern audience.
I don't know if I'd find Soul Taker satisfying, but it's this sort of re-imagining that I have so enjoyed in books like American Vampire and Operation Sunshine.
YOU & A BIKE & A ROAD HC (Fantagraphics)
A cartoonist rides her bike across America while engaged in self-reflection. I'm sure this sort of navel-gazing is of interest to literature professors, but not to me. And didn't Fantagraphics do something similar recently with All My Bicycles? Here's a PREVIEW at Pen America, which looks like it was drawn by a third grader. And not a third grader with talent.
Replies
MOON KNIGHT: FIST OF KHONSHU: the first "Fist" series came out in 1985 and only lasted six issues! And there is an action figure of that Moon Knight coming out soon!
WEREWOLF BY NIGHT: Jack Russell inherited his father's lycanthropy when he turned 18!
HUMAN FLY: Don't care about a new series but would love to see the Marvel books collected!
PSYLOCKE: forty years of fan service!
ABSOLUTE POWER: I never understood why Amanda Waller is so untouchable! Who does she think she is, the Joker?
DC already did a story where all the superhumans lost their powers ages ago. "Act of God", I think it was.
Was it 1997's Genesis crossover?
Perhaps not.
Genesis dealt with a "Godwave" that indeed interrupted the powers of several characters, but I think the Baron is talking about a late 2000 Elseworlds by Doug Moench.
Yeah, that's the one.
CARTOONISTS AGAINST RACISM: SECRET JEWISH WAR ON BIGOTRY TP
That sounds pretty interesting, as most books associated with Craig Yoe are.
I don't recall seeing this solicited, but I was about to say that exact same thing.
SPACE GHOST #3
I have read the first two issues as well. I am just relieved it's better than the 2004 DC series (which was too dark IMO).
Dynamite should have hired someone on the book with a Toth flair, like maybe Steve Rude.
Sure, if you want to wait until 2050 to read the darn thing. His current Nexus series was supposed to be weekly in May... then it was bi-weekly. No issues at all shipped in June, and we're still waiting for #4 and #5. And he's publishing it himself!
MOON KNIGHT: FIST OF KHONSHU: the first "Fist" series came out in 1985 and only lasted six issues! And there is an action figure of that Moon Knight coming out soon!
Thanks for jumping in with this info!
WEREWOLF BY NIGHT: Jack Russell inherited his father's lycanthropy when he turned 18!
I did know this! But had probably forgotten. I wonder if this is still part of the lore. Anyway, Jack Russell was just as much a teenager as Richard Rider.
HUMAN FLY: Don't care about a new series but would love to see the Marvel books collected!
Me too. I was never a fan of Frank Robbins, who I associate with the title. But I'd like to see an HC on my bookshelf. Meanwhile, Robbins had a great career, so obviously there were a lot of people who had a higher opinion of him than I did, and they had money. Anyway, I ran across this:
Looks like a Blue Beetle swipe to me, but you never know.
PSYLOCKE: forty years of fan service!
You said it brother, not me.
ABSOLUTE POWER: I never understood why Amanda Waller is so untouchable! Who does she think she is, the Joker?
Agreed. Somehow, some people are untouchable at Marvel and DC. And life would be simpler if, er, someone just looked the other way while they fell off a roof. But obviously, some people have plot armor, and Amanda Waller seems to be one.
I have read the first two issues (of Space Ghost) as well. I am just relieved it's better than the 2004 DC series (which was too dark IMO).
I didn't read that one, and now I'm glad I didn't!
That is an odd one. The character is even clearly identified in the cover as (the Golden Age) Blue Beetle, yet the series is called "Human Fly".
Apparently this publisher has a reputation for putting out reprints of questionable legal standing; this specific issue is a 1958 reprint of 1947's "Blue Beetle #46".
Israel Waldman bought a bunch of the printing plates for previously printed comics. He owned the plates but not the rights. Here are some of the superheroes, in addition to Blue Beetle, that I.W./ Super published. In an alternate universe this would have made for a very impressive lineup in the earlier Silver Age. Just imagine these characters coming together as a "JLA" type team.
Interesting. I did not know that!
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