This Week in Comics August 20, 2025
Yup! It's my pull list for this week. and maybe some miscellaneous ramblings.
I’ve been working on reorganizing my studio and my comic book collection recently. You think you know what you’ve got, and what you want, and discover that you might have more than you thought, and actually it’s less of what you want. My collection seems to inhabit the dollar bin. I also discovered that I really need to figure out what I want to keep and what I want to divest myself of. I know I tend to choose comics that speak to me rather than are those that will bring me financial gain. I’m nostalgic. I have a number of titles that I keep bouncing around in my head trying to decide if I want to keep them or not. I seem to be focusing on writers and artists that I’ve been collecting for a while - Tony Harris, James Robinson, Mark Millar, Kurt Busiek, Dave Stevens, Wolfman & Perez... just to name a few. Filling in holes in my Silver Age Flash run, and looking at titles that I like, but may be ones no one really knows or cares about like Sandman Mystery Theatre - a wonderful series set in the pre-golden age. DC Comics/Vertigo W: Matt Wagner & Steven T. Seagle A: Guy Davis (and others). Basically film-noir as a comic book.
Collecting is personal and while for many people it can focus on a return of investment, for me, it’s about characters, writers, and artists not always value of the comic. Sure, If I could stumble upon a first appearance of Bruce Nelson (Detective Comics #1) for a price I could actually afford 🤣 I’d go for it. This may limit my attendance at Cons, so I’ll focus on just those few issues I need, or artwork from people I admire. Collecting in the 70’s and 80’s does make collecting weird since the big boom in collecting kinda started afterwards with stories like the Death of Superman. If I had a nickel for everyone who tells me that they have a copy of Death of Superman I could probably buy a decent copy of Detective Comics #1 (First appearance of Bruce Nelson). So I’m going to go through the 5,000+ comics I have left after the first culling and get down to a manageable number ( don’t know what that actually is. One thing I do know is that most people in my family don’t care about my collection so I have no one to leave it to. Heck, the Dursley’s may want it just so they can look at the titles and laugh at how stupid I was as they use them for kindling. 🙄
Oh, I’m doing the same thing with my LEGO sets as I have drastically reduced my LEGO purchasing since I left the LEGO store. I’ll probably try selling both comics and LEGO at some small local get togethers in the near future.
This Week’s Comics
A small week for me, including a small dive in the dollar bin to finish off a series I seemed to be missing a section. So Not that many detailed reviews… as always I recommend any title on the list, but I’m not quite sure how to review some, without too many spoilers.
Ghost Pepper #2 Image Comics W: Ludo Lullabi A: Adriano Lucas We continue to learn about this world and what “really” happened to shape societies development and Ash’s role in it all.
Absolute Batman #11 DC Comics W: Scott Snyder A: Clay Mann The backstory of Bane.
Department of Truth #33 Image Comics W: James Tynion IV A: Letizia Cadonici The black hat comes calling and maybe you shouldn’t down five bottles of cough medicine at once.
Absolute Flash #6 DC Comics W: Jeff Lemire A: Nick Robles
Detective Comics #1100 W: Various A: Various
Superman Unlimited #4 W: Dan Slott A: Lucas Meyer & Rafael Albuquerque A one off with Superman-bat? I guess when Kryptonite is plentiful, bad things can happen to the guy with the “S” on his chest.
Los Monstruos #4 Dark Horse Comics W: James Robinson A: Jesús Merino
American Jesus The New Messiah #1-3 Image Comics W: Mark Millar A: Peter Gross Many people wonder what would happen if Jesus were to return now. Mark Millar tells the story of the second coming and who might actually be opposed to it. This was a nine comic series and I somehow ended up missing the middle. God obviously wanted to teach mankind a bit of a lesson.
Detective Comics #1100 W: Various A: Various In celebration of the 1,100th issue of Detective Comics DC released an extra-large issue with three stories. Each had a slightly different take on Batman and on various aspects of his (and Bruce’s) humanity. Lost & Found by Tom Taylor & Mikel Janín brought in the “Superman saves kitty in tree” type of story, with a batman twist to it. I really enjoyed how since we were dealing with the deaf community, the comic was “silent.” Next came Your Role in the Community by Mariko Tamaki & Arif Prianto Bruce Wayne gets seated at the wrong table at a community dinner and gets grilled over how all he does is write checks instead of doing something important to help the community with of course cut aways to Batman doing things to help the community and the people being honored at the dinner. Then The Knife and Gun Gun Club by Greg Rucka and Álvaro Martínez Bueno. A new Emergency Room doctor walks into the break room and leans about how things had changed after Batman began to fight crime. How instead of deaths, they were dealing with non-life threatening injuries. Finally The Fall by Dan Watters and Bill Sienkiewicz Batman’s thoughts as he plummets to save a murderer who has jumped off a building. Each story gives us a snapshot into the life of Batman/Bruce Wayne, the humanity of a character who does his best to hide his humanity. Well done.
Los Monstruos #4 Dark Horse Comics W: James Robinson A: Jesús Merino I’m not a massive fan of monster movies. I have enjoyed my share of “Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night…” but it’s not a genre I really follow. I do enjoy classic crime noir. I’ve read my share of Dashiell Hammett. I even have a black statuette of a bird in my studio. This is the final issue in the Los Monstruos arc. Our werewolf detective has found the missing vampire, and is confronted with the bad cops trying to silence her. There are a lot of plot threads that do indeed get taken care of in this issue, but there is room for a sequel. For those who haven’t read any of my other reviews of this series it takes place in a city inhabited by movie monsters. The time period is around the 1950’s and our hero has been sent to find the lost love of a regular guy for the mortal world. She happens to be a vampire. Not wanting to give too much away, all I can say is I hope to return to this place sometime soon.
Absolute Flash #6 DC Comics W: Jeff Lemire A: Nick Robles A little backstory on the Rogues. For those who have read the Flash since 1956 you know about the Rogues Gallery. Unlike Batman or Superman’s enemies, the Flashes enemies seem to be less like killers and more just crooks. In The Flash volume 2 issue #19 Wally West gets invited to the annual get together at a cheap hotel ballroom of the Rogues. This issue we flashback to how they were recruited after a failed mission that makes them all split up and try to hide from the military. The absolute universe does like to mess around with what we might consider canon, which is fine. We know what happened to Barry Allen, but now with an even further flashback we see the fate of Jay Garrick… I’m curious how either will play out in the end.
I’ve said this before and I will continue to repeat it. If you collect what you like and don’t worry about a return on investment you will be happy with your collection. If you always think about how much something is worth… I think you’ll end up pretty miserable chasing after the latest hot comic. A collection’s value requires two things- someone willing to sell, and someone willing to buy. Computers can determine a value, but you will need to find someone willing to purchase the collectible for that price… and most of the time they only exist in your imagination.
Had no idea you made Detective Comics #1 - congratulations! Yes, collecting is personal and overcollectig is a common illness! But one thing about you as a collector, you are organized! Most just have a drawer things go in until the wife (or husband) clearly states enough is enough and a thiinning of the herd commences. And I learned long ago not to ask a collector why they collect what they collect! Normaly results in a long conversation where you are definately the listener! But thanks for yiur thoughts!