Comic Reviews by Walt

I’ve long since given up the notion of accounting for every week of new comics in 2020. But for lack of posting lately, it’s time to get something new up, and what better than to fall back onto a simply “topic” of the current week’s haul of new stuff?

So, I dropped Batman about a year ago or whenever it was—with the end of King’s run. End of a lengthy run, the title obviously would tread water and MAYBE only get to #100 before yet another renumbering ,blah blah blah. I felt vindicated after Punchline blew up. But when I found first print copies of several issues including “that” Punchline issue, I figured screw it…so deep in, why not just go to #100? Buuut….here we are with #101 this week. And I’m incredibly annoyed with DC at this point, with so much this year, but…I feel like I almost “have to” “support” their keeping a title going into TRIPLE DIGIT numbering. I mean…when was the LAST TIME that ANY modern DC or Marvel title crossed into triple digits LEGITIMATELY. And I do NOT count Action or Detective in that. So here we are with ostensibly an altered status quo…and legit FUNCTIONING AS a new #1, though actually being #101. We’ll see how it goes, and how long til I drop the title again after all.

Speaking of triple digits…TMNT #110. After #50, issue 51 had felt like a new #1 with the monumental events of #50…but still the series continued its numbering. All the more with TMNT’s #101 feeling like a whole new series. While it took awhile after #50 for my interest to really rebuild, I’m not getting that this time around. All the more with a Jennika mini-series having just finished and already a Jennika II announced…no other character/mini has gotten TWO goes in just a few months. While I have no real SOLUTIONS myself, this “mutant town” thing is getting old REALLY fast—it doesn’t feel like it’s actually, honestly GOING anywhere. Sure, there are a bunch of new mutants, sure the Turtles are now running a dojo to train new mutants (huh…sounds like an X-thing). But 10 issues in…where’s stuff with Shredder? Where’s more/actual fallout of stuff with Splinter? Of the TMNT that’ve been around for 34 years more than Jennika AS “ninja turtles”?

Stillwater #1 caught my attention somehow…and unlike too many other #1s I’ve bought intending to try, it was one that I actually read. And it was enjoyable enough, I figured I’d watch for #2 and if I caught it without it selling out/without my missing out on #2 casually/easily from the LCS, I’d get it. So…here we are. And hey…it’s not something annoying from DC nor Marvel, so it has that going for it as well.

Ah, but then Marvel—we have a True Believers issue featuring Taskmaster. And honestly…it’s the cover that got me. I can’t actually place the cover image…but I recognize it. And for “only” $1, it was easy to just add it to my stack.

Finally, Catwoman. Added to my pull list because I wanted to support the writer…when I thought Blake Northcott was THE new writer. Turned out she only had a 2-parter. But hey…because of that, goosed the numbers a bit otherwise.

And then, because it was a value-priced at less than the price of certain Marvel anniversary-ish issues, and at the price of only two bare-bones regular “floppy” Marvel single-issues (while containing TEN ISSUES’ contents), snagged Deadpool Classic vol. 1 finally. Honestly, for the price, I bought it because I couldn’t remember if I owned the thing already or not. Turns out I did not, and thus, it’s an even better value as being a new volume to me! And I’m leaning toward the Deadpool Classic line being my next series to kinda dive into. I’m stalled out on the "Classic" GI Joe: A Real American Hero (vols. 9 to 11 yet missing) and had my eyes on this series years ago. And since the various volumes are all out, it’s not like most DC series where there’s a fixed, finite run to BE collected, but having to wonder how many volumes the series will get this time before being cancelled withOUT collecting one whole run. I’m quite put off from modern Deadpool (and Venom, and Harley, and Joker). But ‘90s stuff? THIS is where it’s at! All the more for bargain pricing…

Filed under: 2020 Non-Review Posts, 2020 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: avengers, Batman, Catwoman, Deadpool Classic, Joker War Aftermath, new comics, Ninja Turtles, Stillwater, Taskmaster, TMNT, weekly haul, weekly hauls |