This Week in Comics September 3, 2025

My Pull List for the week and miscellaneous ramblings

So I now work Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Not a big change, but we shall see how not having me unpack and organize the week’s comics will impact Monday’s pulls. Last week was a bit of a mess, but not too horrible although alphabetizing to the second or third letter seems to be a challenge. I have hope - kinda 🙄 but only time will tell.

Tariffs and the economy have started impact supplies, prices on bags and Mylar sleeves jumped this week. I only see it getting worse. I considered adding a “Thank you Tariffs” or something similar, but being Indiana and our overwhelming redness decided not to.

I mentioned over on Bluesky how many a Comic Shop ignore awards being given to comics and graphic novels. I started to try to locate some titles as awards are being announced and note them where I can. Sadly, small shops can't always carry everything all the time 🙄

As I’ve said, I’m going through my collection, which is a long process. As someone mentioned on Thursday “Who do we leave this stuff to?” I don’t have kids and no nieces or nephews have interest in anything about me or my comics (my fault, just as much as theirs). When I went to the small local comic show, there was someone there getting rid of his collection $1 a book, because he had come the realization that his kids didn’t care about it. They even asked him to start disposing of it. So I pair down, while trying to complete a few titles… but what about recent stuff? That’s the big question. Also I ask myself am I wasting my time organizing these books instead of drawing? That may be the case. However there are some really good stories being told… and some that are really pretty meh. Your mileage may vary.

My Comics

• JSA #11 DC Comics W: Jeff Lemire A: Diego Olortegui

• Absolute Green Lantern #6 DC Comics W: Al Ewing A: Jahnoy Lindsay We start to understand how things are organized in this world when it comes to colors.

• Batman #1 DC Comics W: Matt Fraction A: Jorge Jiménez

• Star Trek Red Shirts #2 IDW Publishing W: Christopher Cantwell A: Megan Levens

• Absolute Superman #11 DC Comics W: Jason Aaron A: Carmine Di Giandomenico “You are making me angry! Very angry indeed!” So what happens when Superman gets angry? In the Absolute Universe? It’s darker than you could ever imagine.

• TexArcanum #2 (of 4) Dark Horse Comics W: Christopher Monfette A: Miguel Martos Learning more about Avery Belle as he goes out to figure out who is killing people at a solar farm… and what about the weather?

• Phantom Road #15 Image Comics W: Jeff Lemire A: Gabriel H. Walta All the flashbacks are starting to make more sense as the threads come together.

• The Amazing Spider-Man #11 Legacy #975 Marvel Comics W: Joe Kelly A: John Romita Jr. & Pepe Larraz

• Flash Gordon #11 Mad Cave Comics W: Jeremy Adams A: Will Conrad Flash takes the war to Ming… or does he? Yes, Flash Gordon Savior of the multiverse. I do like the comic, but I will say, I’m getting tired of multiverses.

• Resurrection Man Quantum Karma #6 DC Comics W: Ram V A: Anand RK & Mikę Perkins This got really deep… I need to go back and reread the entire series to make sure I understood everything. Whatever happened to fighting bank robbers & muggers… ahhh simpler times.

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I added these Thursday, because I thought they looked interesting:

• The Adventures of Lumen N. #1 Dark Horse Comics W: James Robinson A: Phil Hester

• Hellboy in Love #1 (of 2) Dark Horse Comics W: Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden A: Alex Nieto after reading the hard cover compendium as my pretty much my introduction to Hellboy, I saw this and have been considering picking it up… as I am learning it does not disappoint. I guess the thing that is nice, is that it is a two issue story, not something that I don’t know when it will end.

• Star Trek Voyager Homecoming #1 IDW Publishing W: Susan Bridges & Tilly Bridges A: Ángel Hernández I wasn’t a Voyager fan, but decided that with the end of the other Star Trek series, I’d give this one a go (I’m already enjoying Red Shirts). It looks like there isa bit of an adventure that slides in before the crew makes it back home. Interesting villains.

I guess I better start off this whole thing with Batman #1. New creative team and a big push from the publisher. Even with Hush2 still going on in Batman, they’ve launched a new one will a bazillion variant covers and a poly bagged version which contains foil versions of various variant covers by random artists (no I was not asked to contribute. The big thing I saw posting on Wednesday were people opening their multiple copies to show everyone what they got… I (stupidly) decided to buy one also because I am a lemming.

There were a lot of new people who dropped by the shop Wednesday just to pick up Batman #1. Kind of the the run on any major new comic “event.” Speculators hoping to win big. I had a call asking if we would sell 10 poly bags - we limit two of the same title to each customer. Then we had someone who came in and bought a cover A & a poly bag, but had the regular issue bagged & boarded- they even asked us to tap it shut before leaving. When asked what cover they wanted in the poly bag- they said they weren’t going to open either… ever. Another person hoping that they can retire on their “Death of Superman” or Princess Diana Beanie Baby. 🙄 To each their own, I enjoy reading comics, not investing in them. The investors are the ones who ruin by inflating the prices making it hard for a real collector to complete their collection. By the end of the day Thursday we were completely out of the poly bags and many of the variants. I think we still had the Jim Lee on on the rack and some of the ratio variants behind the counter. I’m guessing the ratio variants just weren’t as hot as anticipated. While I liked the “Bat Gizmo” wrap around cover, I just didn’t need to spend the uncharge to get it.

Batman #1 DC Comics W: Matt Fraction A: Jorge Jiménez Yes, I opened it and actually read it! Hard to tell what has continued from the previous run. Sometimes new creators start fresh, other times they just continue with what was. It looks like a bit of each. Former Commissioner Gordon is now a beat cop. Vandal Savage is still Police Commissioner. This was not a “Socko!” “Biff!” “Wham!” story which was a nice way to start off. A new character in the form of an Arkham Doctor treating “Killer Croc.” Batman seemed more grounded in this story, after all the craziness that made me consider dropping the title just a while ago. I am actually looking forward to seeing where Fraction & Jiménez take this… then again I had high hopes for the relaunch of Amazing Spider-Man only to be let down after the first amazing arc.

The Adventures of Lumen N. #1 Dark Horse Comics W: James Robinson A: Phil Hester I seem to be a sucker for some writers and James Robinson is one of them. Turn of the century (I’m old, so 1901 not 2001) story dealing with a young girl in India and her currently unknown fate. As with many first issues, it is setting the scene and helping us understand the world in which the story takes place. We start off with two mysteries, one gets solved by the end of the first issue leading to more to come. by the end we know who Lumen (our main character) is, but that knowledge now leads into the story itself… It’s going to be a fun ride.

The Amazing Spider-Man #11 Legacy #975 Marvel Comics W: Joe Kelly A: John Romita Jr. & Pepe Larraz I’m still wishing we would go back to the first arc in which Spider-Man was dealing with earthly issues. I’m still not a fan of JR Jr. on Spider-man- his artwork just doesn’t seem to convey to me the essence of Spider-man (a skinny geek), his characters all look more like they should be in a boxing ring. At least some things are starting to make sense. With who is Spider-Man, and who is Peter Parker. It looks like I should have been following another event if I really wanted to know what was going on. Something I do hate about crossover and “universe spanning” mega secret crisis war thingies. I just really hope that we go back to Pepe Larraz artwork once we return to Earth… yes, that’s a spoiler.

JSA #11 DC Comics W: Jeff Lemire A: Diego Olortegui It’s the end of the world as we know it… maybe it’s time to get the band back together. With help the team finally pulls together even the ones lost in multiple other dimensions. It looks like it was a lot easier than it could have been, but then again they did have a mole keeping them from working together. The JSA reunites for one last concert as the team confronts Ragnarok and things that make H.P. Lovecraft famous. How will they single handedly save the world? Also that stupid little question that always pops into my head with these kid of things- where are all the other heroes? Don’t they see what’s going on? Are they going to show up to help? It was like in the 80’s and Teen Titans were dealing with Trigon… Ummm… JLA? Where are you? With Absolute Power’s creation of a unified super hero force where is everyone else? I’m thinking Superman is having a quiet dinner with Lois discussing their future, maybe it’s a double date with Batman and Catwoman.

Star Trek Red Shirts #2 IDW Publishing W: Christopher Cantwell A: Megan Levens And the death toll rises. Will the Romans be able to gather the data and escape the planet or will there be enough of the Security team left to stop them? Miller seems to have decided that running away is a good tactic if he wants to stay alive. Sadly just as we start to learn more about a character, they end up alien food. No one is safe, except maybe the Romulan spies, but then again, ingenuity might save the day- if we are talking about the U.S.S. Ingenuity that happens to be in a nearby sector. Just kidding, the U.S.S. Ingenuity won’t be built until long after this mission is over.