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The Weekly Haul: Week of February 27, 2019

Posted on March 1, 2019 by Walt

February ends with a rather small-ish comics week…but we have the ending of The Price, the newest Batman/Flash crossover (after 2017’s The Button) as well as the final triple-digit issue of Detective Comics!

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Detective Comics #999 is out…leaving us just a handful of weeks away from the second DC* title to hit the coveted #1000**.

(* you do recall that DC Comics takes its name from this title, right?)

(** albeit with a 52-issue gap for the New 52 run slotted into place)

The Price wraps up, and I feel like the first three chapters of this–in under a month–have covered more ground than Heroes in Crisis itself! And I have got to get my Action Comics issues pulled together and catch up on my reading, with this Leviathan Rising story that apparently spills into a huge special issue and a couple of spin-off titles later this year.

It’s the completist in me that keeps me getting Heroes in Crisis. Plus, wanting to be able to speak of it from experience and not just take issues with it because of clickbait-articles and such at Bleeding Cool. I’m grudgingly interested in where it winds up, and the true fate of Wally, and to see if there’s really anything to the story, as I do feel like so far it’s basically a ton of flashback, random talking, and hardly any PLOT. It’s also been relatively contained…I know several other comics have tied in but I don’t recall seeing any "logoed" issues with the Heroes in Crisis "branding" or ones that take their identity FROM being a tie-in. The Flash/Batman crossover this month seems to be the largest "tie-in" so far, and a Green Arrow issue last year dealing with Roy’s memorial. I may have missed something earlier in The Flash as I opted out on the post-Flash War stuff with the various Forces.

Like Action Comics, I need to get my issues of Die!Die!Die! pulled together and read. Yet another month where I thought I would have gotten to it, and so I get another issue rather than fall behind if a binge-catchup really does it for me. That said…I’m much more willing to buy like this for something from Image than I would be from say, Marvel, on principle.

Finally, I won’t pass up a 25-cent Aspen sampler. Or most any brand-new 25-cent comic, for that matter.

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I posted this photo to Twitter the other day, but with so few new comics, how about an extra photo for this post?

Here’s what all the Walmart DC 100-Page Giant*** issues look like, brought together!

(*** That I’m aware of existing as of end of February, 2019.)

There are also some of the double-the-price-of-100-pagers 80-page specials that I’ve gotten over the past couple years. The Target-exclusive DC Primal Age and more recent Man and Superman issues are not here, though.

Somehow, it’s already the end of February/start of March 2019! Time is flying…

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Filed under: 2019 Non-Review posts, 2019 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The Weekly Haul: Week of February 06, 2019

Posted on February 11, 2019 by Walt

February starts out with a medium week. Not huge, not tiny. Though it’s another with an issue missing from the week before, picked up amidst the bunch!

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While I despise the $3.99 price point AND that DC is NOT doing digital codes with the books regularly/predictably, I think I’m pretty much ‘sold" on the Wonder Comics stuff, at least for checking out the first issue or two for each of the titles. This week had Young Justice #2, which was a no-brainer for me, given the way I enjoyed the first issue. This one didn’t hit me quite the same way, but was still enjoyable in itself!

We get the first chapter of The Price [of Justice] in Batman #64, beginning a 4-issue 2-per-title crossover with The Flash, written by the writer of The Flash (rather than Tom King, the regular on Batman).

From the previous week is the $9.99 Mysteries (of love) in Space, a giant-size special playing off the classic Mysteries in Space title. As a sucker for these giant-size issues, I snagged it. Where I’m "ok" with DC doing $10 issues and NOT OK with Marvel is that DC has the decency to have them be standalone issues and NOT part of a regular series. Get the special, don’t get the special…one isn’t "penalized" by a gap in their collection or feeling "forced" to buy the issues!

Adventures of the Super Sons is over the halfway point of its run; GI Joe: A Real American Hero sports one of THE highest-numbers in American comics (coming behind Spawn‘s #294 or so) and I’m giving these Marvel Action books a chance, if only for the "novelty" of being major Marvel properties published by IDW (and thus semi-immune to gated/ratioed/EXCESSIVE variants and crappy continuity stuff).

Finally, I tend to follow Blake Northcott‘s work, so of course snagged her Aspen Visions: Fathom issue. I think this is a one-shot, but time’ll bear that out, I suppose.

I missed the Man and Superman giant-size special, but hopefully it’ll be back in stock this upcoming Wednesday.

…Which will itself hopefully not be too huge a week, as I’ve had a couple other huge non-comics purchases within the current paycheck, and another planned for the next!

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Filed under: 2019 Non-Review posts, 2019 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The Weekly Haul – Week of June 20, 2018

Posted on June 21, 2018 by Walt

This was a mixed week, and included a rather unexpected purchase on my part!

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For one thing, I seem to have missed Executive Assistant Iris from Aspen twice. And where I’d meant to get the new issue of that, I actually bought the new Fathom #1 instead, because of getting the 25-cent Primer.

Then there’s X-Men Gold #30. I haven’t touched the series since #1, and had zero intent to–even with the wedding in question. But I’d discovered a major spoiler on Bleeding Cool that made me decide I very definitely wanted to get this issue. This doubles in the unexpected category for the cover: this is an extremely RARE example of my opting to buy a variant over a standard cover. Given the spoiler, it’s this bagged variant that has the image that I wanted. I may well talk about the issue later, but not passing the spoiler along for now.

Then there’s the new Man of Steel and Batman issues for the week…getting us ever closer to the end of Man of Steel and the return of ongoing Action Comics and Superman titles, and leaving us with the very next issue of Batman being the 50th…and "the wedding issue."

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I also opted to partake in a sale, with three $34.99-cover-priced books for $6 apiece. I don’t do much Marvel these days, but for this sort of pricing, and the material in question…very much worth it, ESPECIALLY considering each was a mere $1 more than a standard Marvel #1 issue.

Nothing huge beyond that…definitely a simple-ish week!

Next week looks to be a bit bigger…hopefully not in a major sticker-shock sort of way!

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Filed under: 2018 Non-Review Posts, 2018 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The Weekly Haul: Week of February 28, 2018

Posted on March 2, 2018 by Walt

This week’s another moderate-sized week…certainly not tiny, but not as big as some. Of course, part of that came from leaving several titles that I’ve bought out of habit but I’m so ridiculously far behind on actually reading that the issues–if I opt to catch up–will probably be bargain-bin-fodder by the time I’d get around to where I’d be ready to read them anyway.

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Action Comics #998 means we’re a mere TWO ISSUES from the big #1000! I’ve been looking forward to The Terrifics for awhile, and glad to see it finally make it out. I think one thing I like about it over the likes of Silencer and Damage is that it actually uses characters I’ve read before, albeit in a new way…WHILE introducing other stuff. Then there’s Detective Comics #975, another title approaching #1000. THen the latest issue of the 6-issue Demon: Hell Is Earth mini. The latest TMNT issue–#79, chapter 4 of Invasion of the Triceratons. And a 25-cent Primer issue from Aspen. 25 cents, of course I’m gonna snag it!

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Then there’s GI Joe: A Real American Hero #s 248 and 249…the “A” covers. I’d snagged #s 246 & 247 a couple weeks back on a whim, so finding an actual “A” cover in stock (as opposed to a “B” or “RI” cover!) for #248, got that AND the latest new issue in #249…just ahead of the big #250 issue!

And while the cover alone would have caught me anyway, knowing ahead of time from a TwoMorrows Facebook post last night that the new Back Issue deals with editors, I was interested in it for content and so went in actually looking for the issue.

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And then there’s the new issue of Previews, which partly showcases on its cover the reason I’ve once more dropped Marvel–they can’t even make it 6 months from real-world-release to announcing the NEXT “Big Thing” or “relaunch” or renumbering-but-it’s-not-a-reboot or whatever. (Whether it’s an actual EVENT series or “just” an initiative…it seems like they are entirely incapable of real-world-time having one thing actually finish before announcing/rolling out the hype-machine on the next thing!)

That said, it’s a new big catalog of comics coming up, and a sort of time capsule for down the road.

And that, for now, is that…the weekly haul to close out February 2018!

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Filed under: 2018 Non-Review Posts, 2018 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

All New Fathom #1 [Review]

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Walt

all_new_fathom_0001All New Fathom Part 1 of 8

Writer: Blake Northcott
Pencils: Marco Renna
Digital Inks: Mark Roslan
Colors: John Starr
Letters: Zen
Editors: Vince Hernandez, Gabe Carrasco
Design & Production: Mark Roslan, Peter Steigerwald, Gabe Carrasco
Cover: Marco Renna, John Starr
Cover Date: February 2017
Cover Price: $3.99

I don’t usually go for comics like this. I’m not a fan of these scantily-clad female leads, running around in bathing suits and–from the outside looking in–seeming to be more flash than substance. But, having followed the writer on social media for a number of years, I’d decided when it was announced that she’d be writing a new iteration of the series, I’d at least check it out…all the more as a female such character in this case being written BY a female, and not just another book to be lumped together, written by a guy about some visual/eye candy.

I then managed to forget the thing was due out this week, until–via social media–I saw her post about it being out, which brought it back to my attention…and I was ok with paying out $3.99 for the issue, as it’s at least NOT DC or Marvel and all that.

So what did I wind up with, for that $3.99?

For one thing, I felt like this was a lengthy read. I did not feel like I just turned a couple pages and was at some to-be-continued or like the issue was too short.

I had no idea what to expect, really…having never (That I can recall) read an entire issue of Fathom or Soulfire or such. The opening page puts us right into the heart of the action, as our heroine–Aspen–is mega-uppercut-punched out of the ocean into the coastal city and does battle with the guy doing the punching. While she fights him–and his mysterious weapon, trying to keep any civilians from being killed–we learn that the narration is from AFTER the battle (so she won), telling her friend about the fight. Finally, she reveals what she’s learned about the mysterious weapon that had been used against her, and how that plays into stuff going forward.

I wasn’t overly impressed with the cover, as I’m not really familiar with even the title character, let alone any supporting cast (new OR long-since-established). The main cover’s not bad, but seems rather generic to me (as opposed to indicating the battle that took place in the issue).

Visually, the issue felt like what I would expect from "an Aspen book" even if I can’t quite quantify what that is, exactly…except that I suppose this looks like it belongs with or fits right in with prior books from the publisher, and so does not look like an oddball or out of place piece that happens to be published by Aspen. The characters all look quite believable, and as much as is possible for a woman basically in a bathing suit, I felt like the issue avoided unnecessary or overly-gratuitous imagery…I didn’t feel "dirty" paging through the issue! I was also reminded a bit of Witchblade, and will be interested to see how coincidental (or not, or far off) that works out to be in coming issues.

Story-wise, I enjoyed how down-to-earth this felt. I figured as a #1 issue, new series and new story, this would feel like just some opening chapter, and just throw a bunch of introductory stuff at me and leave me not really knowing what the heck was going on. However, I found that I got a complete story, really, even as stuff is thrown wide open for subsequent issues! We’re introduced to the title character, her situation, others involved with her, a bit about her background/where she comes from, while seeing the character in action and interacting with her friend. There’s a healthy dose of real-world commentary…particularly in "seeing" how the character is reacted to across various media.

Ultimately, I just enjoyed this issue, and I’m quite glad that I bought it. I checked it out solely based on the writer, and I’m left with an honest interest in getting the next issue to see how things play out.

While it by no means gets into over a decade of "history" with the title character and such, this is still an excellent jumping on point, and one of the stronger, most complete and worthwhile first issues I’ve read in quite awhile.

If you’re a fan of Blake Northcott‘s writing, or Aspen (the character), or the publisher or such, I suspect this will be a fitting bit of enjoyment as well. I’m looking forward to the next issue, and seeing how stuff advances and continues to play out!

Filed under: 2017 Posts, 2017 Reviews, Fathom (Aspen Comics), INDEPENDENT/SMALL-PRESS PUBLISHERS | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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