Another batch of firsts and lasts...

ALTERED REALITY ORIGINS: MS. MARAUDER by Jarrett Melendez, Mike Vosburg, Dylan Andrews, Ian Chase Nichols, Joe St. Pierre and Chris Campagna. AR Comics is back with another book in their growing line of show exclusives. This one, exclusive to the 2018 Colorado Springs Comic Con, stars Ms. Marauder in four tales set during four different times. The art throughout is great and Melendez’ story is entertaining and ties each chapter together well. Just another piece of the AR Comics Universe.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 by Nick Spencer and Ryan Otley. Our web-slinging hero is back in another new #1 (unless you’re a Legacy numbering guy, and then it’s #802). After having endured everything Dan Slott through at our hero, Spencer tries to get back to Ground Zero with this issue. He’s rooming with Robbie Robertson’s son and Fred Myers, who is also the villain Boomerang. He works for the Bugle. He’s trying to get his life back on track with Mary Jane. And then, it hits the fan. He loses his college accreditation, gets fired from the Bugle, embarrasses Aunt May and, to top it off, Mysterio is back, along with a very special last page surprise! And someone is pulling Mysterio’s strings too. Spencer’s story is fun and Otley’s work echoes Mark Bagley, which means it doesn’t look like his work on INVINCIBLE. All in all, a good first issue. While you’re at it, find the BEHIND THE SCENES book for this. It’s free and contains the pencil work for the issue; always fun if you want to scan them and try inking on your own!

ARCHIE MEETS BATMAN 66 #1 by Jeff Parker, Michael Moreci and Dan Parent. Just when you thought there were no more crossovers for Archie, here’s comes another. They’ve already met The Ramones, Sharknado and been torn apart by Predators. Well, Siren is using her vocal talents to mess with the fine folks of Riverdale and that means it’s time for the Caped Crusader and the gang to help out! Featuring guest appearances by Posion Ivy, Bookworm, The Penguin, The Joker and Catwoman. Tons of Sixties fun!

ASGARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1 by Cullen Bunn and Mateo Lolli. Well, since the Guardians are no ore, at the moment, Marvel has put a NEW team together. Led by Angela, you remember her, she was in SPAWN, they are made up of Valkyrie, The Destroyer, Skurge the Executioner, Thunderstrike (Eric Peterson…formerly Thor) and Throg (yes…the frog Thor). Together they run afoul of Nebula, who is causing havoc now that her sister has killed Thanos. And, to top it off, Kid Loki is back in the game. Kind of fun, not a great deal of catching up for anyone who missed the stories involving the Fearless Defenders, but there is a nice piece explaining who these characters are. Art looks great and the overall team is a nice mix of Asgard related heroes.

ASTONISHING X-MEN ANNUAL #1 by Matthew Rosenberg and Travel Foreman. Confusion reigns as the team, along with X, who is really Charles Xavier, travel to Lago, New York, where things get weird really quickly. It seems Lucifer, remember him from the original X-MEN series way back when, has taken over the town and the transplanted kids have to stop him. A bit on the long side, but a nice nod to a classic villain that hasn’t been seen in ages.

BATMAN KINGS OF FEAR #1 by Scott Peterson and Kelley Jones.  DC unleashes another Batman mini-series which is probably not in continuity, but it’s drawn by Kelley Jones, so that makes it worth picking up. Batman apprehends the Joker and brings him to Arkham, where one of the doctor’s berates him. The villains team up and Batman goes wild! In the end, Scarecrow gets loose and now Batman must face his fears. The story is okay, but the art is tremendous!

CABLE #159 by Lonnie Nadler, Zac Thompson and German Peralta. It’s the end of the comic road for Natahn Summers as the storyline and this book come to an end. Nathan faces his past and corrects a mistake, while doing his best to keep hope live…pun intended. In the end, it all falls kind of flat. Next stop: EXTERMINATION.

CATWOMAN/TWEETY & SYLVESTER #1 by Gail Simone, She Fontana, Walter Carzon and Inaki Miranda.  Three witches make a bet that involves cats and dogs, which brings Catwoman, Tweety, Sylvester and a host of cat and dog heroes and villains into the fray to save their lives. Tons of guest stars populate this one-shot tale. In the back-up, it’s a quiet night at Tweety’s house when Sylvester tries to get in and Catwoman tries to bust in. Hilarity ensues!

COVER #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack. Bendis and Mack, long-time collaborators, team up here on this this tale of a comic book creator who is being courted/stalked by the CIA. It’s a strange, sometimes confusing concept, that contains much of Bendis’ wit throughout. But the real star here is Mack, who drifts seamlessly through a variety of styles throughout. This is another winner in the Bendisworld line.

DIE! DIE! DIE! #1 by Robert Kirkman, Scott M. Gimple and Chris Burnham.  How crazy is a book that starts off with major bloodshed and a guy getting his nose cut off? This crazy! And then, it only gets weirder with intrigue, Presidents, kill orders and more. And of course, there’s that nose! This is not on par with Kirkman’s work on THE WALKING DEAD or INVINCIBLE, but it sure is crazy fun. And Brunham’s artwork smokes!

THE DREAMING #1 by Simon Spurrier and Bilquis Evely. The King of Dreams has gone astray and that has put everyone is The Dreaming on edge. Continuing from  the recent Sandman one-shot, this title seeks to enhance the Sandman Universe and, fear not, almost all of your favorite characters from that Universe make an appearance or are promised to. It’s a fun story and Evely’s art is great. While not for everyone, it will certainly appeal to Gaiman’s fans.

EDGE OF SPIDERGEDDON #1 by Jed MacKay and Gerardo Sandoval. Meet Hobie Brown, the Spider Man of Earth-138. Actually, if you read any of the Spiderverse stories, you already know him. Well, he’s back, teamed up with this world’s Hulk and Captain Captain Anarchy to fight against Kang the Conglomerator. While the book is weird and kind of funny, you have to love a book where the last line comes from a Mohawk wearing Hulk quoting Motorhead. Hey…”I don’t want to live forever”!

EXTERMINATION #1 by Ed Brisson and Pepe Larraz. Welcome to the new big mutant event! How do you deal with the time displaced original X Men? You bring in a villain to eliminate them. Not just write them out of continuity-kill them off! Wel, the body count starts here with the kidnapping of Bobby Drake and the deaths of Bloodstorm: the vampire alternate universe Storm and…Cable? And they have been  killed by a young Nathan Summers, who is here to correct the timeline. Wow! I thought this was going to be a hackneyed “event book”, but there is enough going on to make me want to come back for more. When it is all said and done…we’ll have a new Uncanny X-Men title. Hopefully…just ONE X-Men title!

FANTASTIC FOUR #1 by Dan Slott and Sara Pichelli. After far too long, Reed and Sue and back…sort of. Well…they’re not here yet, but they do appear as they try to come back to our planet and eventually give a sign that they’re returning. Plus, Ben finally proposes to Alicia! And, if that wasn’t enough, Doctor Doom is back to rule his kingdom. And his face is scarred again. What? He was just fine and dandy in the last IRON MAN run. Yeah…it’s been a long time coming and hopefully the tea of Slott and Pichelli can bring them back to greatness.

FARMHAND #1 by Rob Guillory. After CHEW, what the heck do you do for an encore? THIS! It’s a lovely tale of family relations, Stem Cell Research and farming. How do those relate? Well, it’s all about growing and harvesting body parts. And I do mean growing and harvesting. Need a new liver? We’ll harvest it off one of our trees. New arm? No problem! This is just so much silly fun and then there’s a twist! Guillory has done it again!

HARLEY QUINN/GOSSAMER #1 by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Sholly Fisch, Dave Alvarez and Pier Brito. Here we have another DC/Warner mash up book, this time with Harley rescuing Gossamer from a crate and making the hairy creature her pet/friend. Eventually, she seeks his real master and all sorts of hilarity ensues. In the back-up, we have more of a traditional Warner Brothers take, where the Doctor, who Harley thinks might be Huge Strange, is creating Gossamer for his fiendish devices.

HEY KIDS! COMICS #`1 by Howard Chaykin. Chaykin, in his usual biting way, takes a team of comic creators from 1945 to 2001. It’s a twisted, sometimes confusing tale that obviously pays homage to and references some of the greatest in comic’s history…although they have all been greatly fictionalized. But, if you know your comics, you can kind of figure out who is who. Typical Chaykin fun!

HUNT FOR WOLVERINE: DEAD ENDS #1 by Charles Soule and Ramon Rosanas. Leading into the RETURN OF WOLVERINE, this one-shot wraps up the multiple mini-series, which had teams of Marvel heroes going out to find the Ragin’ Cajun. But the book spends the first half explaining what happened in those mini-series, which feels like Marvel has cheated everyone who read those books and shelled out their hard earned cash for them. In the end, it turns out a villain named Persephone is to blame and she has Wolverine all tied up.

INFINITY WARS PRIME #1 by Gerry Duggan and Mike Deodato Jr. It all starts here. Well…not really. It actually all started in the INFINITY COUNTDOWN series and connecting books. But the whole prelude to war, the fight for the Infinity Gems, starts here. Loki discovers multiple universes exist and he’s in them. Adam Warlock, who has recently worked with Kang, dies and is resurrected thanks to the Time Gem. And Thanos? Well, he loses his head over it all…quite literally!  This is an interesting first strike that lays out a lot of bread crumbs for readers to follow, if they like, through the next 24 chapters, counting all of the connecting titles, which includes some interesting Mavel hero mash-ups. All of this ends in December with the final five books.

INFINITY WARS #1 by Gerry Duggan and Mike Deodato Jr. Well…after months of the lead up, here it is. The holders of all the Infinity Stones meet to discuss what to do when Thanos comes for them. But they also earn that Thanos is dead. Loki meets with an alternate version of himself, who dies at the hands of the soul-eater of worlds. Requiem arrives with the head of Thanos and is revealed to be Gamora, who wants the stones so she can be whole again. Then she kills Star Lord. It’s an action filled first issue, but I must say I saw Gamora as Requiem coming a mile away, what with her whining over the COUNTDOWN issues about not being whole and…well: she IS Thanos’ daughter and all.

THE JOKER/DAFFY DUCK #1 by Scott Lobdell, Brett Booth, Joey Cavalieri and Luciano Vecchio. Another round of DC/Warner Brothers specials rolls on with this fun little jaunt. In the first tale by Lobdell and Booth, Daffy goes to work for The Joker, until he discovers that Mr. J. is really bad, and he sabotages his plans. In the back-up, Daffy is hired to play psychiatrist for The Joker and it’s a great tour de force with Fourth Wall breaks, shots at Dan DiDio and the whole comics genre. Four dollars’ worth of mindless fun.

LEX LUTHOR/PORKY PIG #1 by Mark Russell, Brad Walker, Jim Fanning and John Loter. The DC/Warner Brothers team ups roll on with this one-shot. In the first tale by Russell and Walker, a destitute Porky goes to work for Lex, who has teamed up with Dr. Sivana and Professor Ivo, to corner the pharmaceutical market. But Porky never figures it out and ends up being the new pig in jail. In the back-up, Porky meets with Lex and finds out that Lex has a plan designed to take down Superman. Porky throws a wrench in those plans and all ends well.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 by Margaret Stohl and Carlos Pacheco. In what is being called the definitive origin of Carol Danvers, Carol goes back home and visits her family, with less than desirable results. In the process, we get to see her abusive father, meet her mom and brother and learn that maybe she is much more influenced by the Kree than we have been led to believe. It’s a bit preachy and a bit predictable, but it does have its’ moments.

MR. and MRS. X #1 by Kelly Thompson and Oscar Bazaldua. The cat is out of the bag: Colossus and Kitty Pryde didn’t get married , but that not-wedding turned into a marriage for Gambit and Rogue. Beginning with their wedding, and an unexpected guest, we head to the honeymoon where they get interrupted by an important mission. I was surprised how much fun this title was! There are some killer bits of dialogue and it feels like a Mutant marriage of REMINGTON STEELE and MOONLIGHTING. All, in all, I liked it a lot!

OLD MAN LOGAN ANNUAL #1 by Ed Brisson and Simone DiMeo. Just how much money CAN Marvel mine from this franchise. In a departure from the regular series, this is set in the Wastelands with Logan running into a supposedly dead Frank Castle. All he wants to do is take his name, his memories and his reputation back from the gang of thugs calling themselves The Punishers. All Logan wants is to save some kids from them. They team up and face off against the gang. Totally not a fan of this, especially since this hole continuity should have been erased after SECRET WARS. So…give me my OLD MAN HAWKEYE and let this thing go!

PEARL #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos. Bendis’ first creator owned title is here and it’s the tale of…I’m not really sure. Pearl is tattooed gun for hire. That’s about it, but it’s a beautifully illustrated, winding tale tat involves some interesting characters and some mystery. With that, I’m looking forward to seeing where this all goes!

PUNISHER #228 by Matthew Rosenberg and Guiu Vilanova. Marvel wraps up this run of the adventures of Frank Castle as War Machine Punisher. Frank continues his attack on the remnants of Hydra, but also has to fight Iron Man and Rhodey, who wants his armor back. In the end, it looks like Frank may end up working with Bucky and Natasha…stayed tuned. Next up: a NEW Punisher series by Rosenberg and Szymon Kudranski.

THE PUNISHER #1 by Matthew Rosenberg and Sxymon Kudranski. Frank Castle is back, out of the War Machine armor, and back on the streets to take don crime, specifically Baron Zemo. But he is also targeting The Mandarin, and that leads to one heck of a cliff hanger. The story is compelling, and the art is amazing. I never thought I would be writing a glowing review over a Punisher title, but Rosenberg is firing on all cylinders. Ultra violent and lots of fun!

SANDMAN UNIVERSE #1 by Neil Gaiman, Simon Spurrier, Kat Howard, Nalo Hopkinson, Dan Waters, Biquis Everly, Tom Fowler, Dominike ‘Domo’ Stanton, Max Fiumara and Sebastian Fiumara. For Gaiman it is never say never again as he writes the story behind this multi chapter introduction to four new titles set in the Endless Universe. In September and October, we get the new Vertigo series for THE DREAMING, HOUSE OF WHISPERS, LUCIFER, and BOOKS OF MAGIC. Despite the different creative teams for each chapter, the book has great continuity, we get some of the classic characters and some new ones and, if you were a SANDMAN fan, you’ll be all over this. But be aware: he doesn’t really appear in the book, which is why this is a great jumping on point for the other series.

SCARLET #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. Continuing from the Marvel Icon series that was published infrequently between 2010 and 2016. It tells the story of Scarlet Rue who has gone against a corrupt America and brought about a new American Revolution in a dystopian future. The story is a bit confusing if you haven’t read the previous, especially with all the Fourth Wall breaks, but it feels right and Maleev’ art is top notch.  

SILVER SURFER ANNUAL #1 by Ethan Sacks and Andre Lima Araujo. Set in the earliest of the days of the Silver Surfer, the former Norin Radd must do Galactus’ bidding or else his planet is lost. But this leads to a conflict of conscience for our hero and he also learns of Galactus’ wrath for betrayal. An interesting, if not overly long tale, that adds some nice notes to the legend of the Silver.

THANOS LEGACY #1 by Donny Cates, Brian Level, Gerry Duggan and Cory Smith.

Spoiler: Thanos is dead, yet he seems to be able to tell this tale from the grace. In it, Cates has him explain how he went and resolved the issue of future Thanos. But wait: isn’t the Cosmic Ghost Rider trying to do the same thing in his mini-series. I’m confused! My head hurts! Especially when he visits the devil, tells him to leave Castle alone (meaning he can keep the Rider from being born) and then finds out about Hela’s wedding. But before he can do more, Gamora kills him and cuts off his head. So Eros shows up with the Rider and…to be continued! WHAT? Are you kidding me? And then, we get a silent back-up by Duggan and Smith that tells a tale of a young Gamora and lends a bit of why she has come to hate her father. Overall, recommended for fans of the Mad Titan. Be sure to look out for the variant cover by legend Gorge Perez.

UNITED STATES VS. MURDER INC. #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming. The teams responsible for POWERS hit a major home run with this title, which involves a young girl who gets revenge for her father’s murder and then is trained to be a hit girl for the mob. It’s dark and twisted and hits all of those classic notes Bendis and Oeming are famous for. The art is quirky, but if you liked it on POWERS, you will love it here.

WEB OF VENOM: VE’NAM #1 by Donny Cates and Juanan Ramirez. Cates has embraced Venom and that has led to this one-shot, which tells the tale of how Rex Strickland came into contact with the symbiote back in 1966 Vietnam. It is actually a pretty weak story that only works because it ties the symbiote to the current story, and also brings in Nick Fury…the RIGHT ONE…and a government conspiracy. In its’ own way, it ties into continuity and gives a little needed back story.

WEST COAST AVNGERS #1 by Kelly Thompson and Stefano Caselli. Kate Bishop moves to the West Coast and starts a new team, made up of Clint Barton, America Chavez, Gwenpool, Fuse and Kid Omega. Oh yeah: there is a 60 ft. Tigra who shows up too! The story is fun, with some great moments that hearken back to the feel of FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE. And Caselli’s art fits perfectly! This is such dumb fun that I am hooked right out of the gate!

VENOM: FIRST HOST #1 by Mike Costa and Mark Bagley. Venom is hot right now, especially with a new movie coming this Christmas. So, why not have a new mini-series telling a tale of a symbiote during the Kree/Skrull War and bringing it all into present day. Costa’s story is good but Bagley’s art shines throughout! If you’re following the regular series, this is the perfect tie-in. If you’re not, you’ll probably want to skip it.

X-23 #1 by Mariko Tamaki and Juann Cabal. Flying out of ALL NEW WOLVERINE, it’s the further adventures of Laura Kinney and her sister Gabby, better known as Honey Badger. X-Men fans should be thrilled to see the Cuckoos back and that may also mean we see more Cockoos than we figured on. I wasn’t reading the previous series but this one, with Tamaki at the helm, has major promise. The dialogue is fun and the action is sweet. Add into that a few plot twists and this has the makings of being one of Marvel’s better books.