Comic Reviews by Walt

This was certainly THE largest single week of new comics for me in ages and definitely this year! But I consider myself extremely fortunate to be able to have weeks like this–spending this much on such a luxury item as comics. That said…it also sometimes feels a bit like a consolation prize of sorts: with no spouse/partner and no kids, money that would otherwise go into stuff related to that is thus "available" for frivolous spending. Win some, lose some, I guess?

Hard to believe we’re "already" to the 8th issue of Fire Power; but here it is!

Despite adding to an already large week, I opted to grab Deep Beyond #1 as it’s a #1, it’s Image, and I like its look. I think it actually qualifies for Bought it for the Cover. Then Chained to the Grave apparently has a local-ish (Ohio) creator, so I figured I could at least get the #1 and see if I get around to reading it and if I’m interested in more.

We have another facsimile edition from Marvel in Amazing Spider-Man #101…I believe the first appearance of Morbius. And then incidentally, two MORE facsimile editions, but from Image this time: Graphic Fantasy issues 1 AND 2! These reprint the old publications that had the earliest appearances of Larson‘s Dragon character that got tweaked and wound up as Savage Dragon when Image was launched. While expensive as single modern issues, beats the heck outta trying to track down the originals. Not interested in that, but these being available now as reprints? I’m glad to support the facsimile edition "thing."

And then I snagged several recent-back-issues of the X-persuasion in X-Force #s 15 & 16 (I snagged #14 a couple weeks back) as well as X-Men #17 (I recently snagged #16 on a non-regular buy). I’m still wavering on throwing in post-X of Swords and torn but figure I won’t feel the price as much if I snag stuff a little bit here and there rather than grabbing a bunch of issues all at once!

While I’ve pretty much bailed on DC, and particularly their Future State stuff, I figured I’d at least finish out Future State: Swamp Thing since it’s "only" 2 issues at $3.99 (ditto next week’s Future State: Robin Eternal).

At this point, the Warhammer 40k: Marneus Calgar is another mini-series that’s wound up at its penultimate issue where I have yet to READ the singles and now could definitely have just waited for the inevitable collected volume. Especially for the single-issue $4.99 price point. But at the same time, while it IS Marvel, I’m more interested in the Warhammer 40k angle as so few such comics based on games seem to be around.

Another factor on me wavering on the X-stuff is that I’ve been getting these Dawn of X paperbacks. With this 12th volume, we’re getting to the 10th issues of first-wave books and early 2nd-wave. I’m not sure how many it’ll take to get up to X of Swords or whether that story will be its own item (these all being paperback, I want a paperback single edition of the crossover OR let it be spread across 4 or so of these volumes!)

Finally, the Tom Taylor Hellblazer: Rise and Fall mini-series concludes, and it’s a few weeks delayed, considering I expected it and saw it on a list of current-week stuff closer to the turn of the year. I’m pretty much hoping I’m now done with DC‘s Black Label oversized issues. Especially as I think the collected volume for this series will be out in a couple weeks…I have GOT to quit buying into MINI-series!

And then we end on the week’s Comic Shop News spotlighting Radiant Black which I think is being written by the writer (or former writer? Beats me?) of Boom‘s first few years of Power Rangers. But this is coming from Image and NOT Boom…and something about it strikes me as a little bit Power-Ranger-y and I’m definitely interested in checking it out when it comes!

Filed under: 2021 Non-Review Posts, 2021 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: Black Label, Chained to the Grave, DC, DC Black Label, Deep Beyond, Facsimile Editions, Fire Power, Future State, Graphic Fantasy, Hellblazer, Hellblazer Rise and Fall, Image, Marneus Calgar, Morbius, Swamp Thing, Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, x-force, x-men |