This Week's Comics
My Pull List for November 27, 2024
Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate. Happy Thursday to those who don’t. Happy Black Friday Eve to those who celebrate that “holiday.” We now start what I like to call the “Holidaze” since I like making up words for things. That time of the year where all you see are ads designed to make you sentimental, and want spend money on gift for even for your worst enemy. Let’s take a moment to discuss the “It’s the thought that counts” and my feelings towards gifts at almost any time of year… then we’ll hit this week’s comics.
It’s The Thought That Counts- No really, it is…
Sue and I are big gift givers… OK maybe not. Over the years we’ve decided that instead of picking some calendar driven date to exchange or give gifts, that we just buy things for people (usually just ourselves) when we see them. I see a cool necklace with a cat on it, do I buy it and wait until Sue’s birthday, our anniversary, or Christmas to give it to her? No, I buy it and give it her then and there. Why? because, for me, it shows that I am thinking of her. Not that I need a reason to think of her. She does the same thing. Sometimes it’s silly stuff like fake LEGO sets from ALDI, other times it isn’t. Gifts around this time of year just seem forced. Especially if they are “corporate gifts.” By corporate gifts I mean things that you would send to a client… you know, the box of fruit or tower of treats. “Here’s wishing your division another successful quarter!” Things that are rather impersonal. Yes, you thought about me, but did you? Did you think about me, or did you see my name on a list and feel obligated to spend money on me? I’ll send people books, or stupid stuff, because I think they would like it, not because it’s Ground Hog’s Day. I’m fine with a simple card (something I am terrible about sending), or even an email/social media post. You don’t need to spend money on me. Sue and I often times will exchange things we made- for us that is much more important than something store bought.
Kids are different… to a point. Kids expect gifts or money for birthday’s and during the Holidaze. Then again, is it something I do all the time? Not really. My Grandfather was notorious for his “unique gifts” that tried to teach us something. It might be a book, or a puzzle, or just a card saying that a pair of goats have been donated in our name to a village in Haiti. As kids, we rolled our eyes, as adults I see what he was trying to do, and appreciate the effort. Especially when we weren’t very good at showing our appreciation for what we had. When I was a kid I would make an outlandish list for Christmas, and for the most part was enough of a spoiled brat to check off the list item by item on Christmas morning… ugh, I cringe thinking I was like that and as an adult, hate that I did that. Which may be why, I’m not into Holidaze gift giving now. Bah, Humbug!
This Week’s Comics:
Flash Gordon #4 - Flash and Ming are escaping the Planet of Death in the Warden’s ship (pew! pew! pew!- sounds of epic space battle). They end up heading to an outlaw outpost in hopes of getting what they need to repair their damaged ship. Hijinks ensue… Ming does what Ming does best. While the Automaton (Z-K002) left preparing the ship finds a curious blood sample that belongs to another human (not Flash). While I am still coming around to the redesign of the characters the story is interesting and one I’m happily;y willing to stick with it.
There’s also an advertisement for Comics Kingdom’s Flash Gordon comic strip that I have been enjoying for a while now.
Justice League Unlimited #1 - Welcome to the Justice League Air-wave, I hope you survive the experience. Sorry, those who read X-Men in the 80’s will remember that as a cover for welcoming many new members to that group. After Absolute Power, the Justice League invited pretty much everyone to their club. with chapter including the Titans, the JSA, etc. now they use the resources and powers of every hero to fight calamities everywhere. in this case iridium miners are attacked by some highly sophisticated hardware and part of the team goes out to save the night (it didn’t happen during the daytime). We find out a group of bad guys called Inferno are orchestrating most of this & that they might have someone on the inside.
DC Comics had in most of its issues a preview for Two-Face #1, Justice League was a few pages trying to hook us on “Hush 2” in Batman starting with #158.
Detective Comics #1091 - Immortal Batman? That is the issue. Should Bruce Wayne go through a process to become immortal? He’s showing his age, and is starting to think it might not be a bad idea. As he tries to find out why someone is gunning for young small time criminals/lackeys/henchpeople/goons etc. Is all this somewhat connected (you betcha).😉
Spider-Boy #13 - Bailey is heading to MAdripoor with Daredevil in order to save the world. This issue we learn a bit about Bullseye’s new partner, before we get to start the tournament to end all tournaments.
The Amazing Spider-Man #62 - You know, I’m getting tired of these weird stories that really don’t have much to do with the actual hero in the book. Spider-Man Spider-man does whatever a spider can… except that he’s now a sorcerer trying to stop evil creatures from whatever in the process he has to die. this will happen eight times… umm… can he go back to fighting ordinary bad guys and webbing them to walls? You’ve got The Flash in a zen garden for a bunch of issues, Captain America fighting in a mystical realm, and Spider-Man, Spider-Man doing whatever Doctor Strange can. I’m getting ready to remove this and a few others from my pull list. It looks like I’ve got about 6 more issues to deal with, and then I can see if things will go back to normal.
Action Comics #1077 - The Sun’s energy is being syphoned away into the phantom zone… which is a great way to stop global warming, but not really how it should be done. Superman is trapped in the Phantom Zone trying to stop Aether with the help of Mon-El. All the while Superboy and Super-man are trying to get the lost items from the Fortress of Solitude back… learning a bt about each other’s strengths in the process. What about the Supergirl story? We learn a bit more about her prisoner and why she must die.
Superman #20 - The time trapper is actually a highly evolved Doomsday? Doomsday the creature who was able to make even the most pompous jock think he was a comic book collector by killing Superman. Oh if I had a nickel for every guy who told me “I have Death of Superman” like I should be impressed. I might have enough money to buy the Death of Superman. So, Doomsday is talking to Superman and asking him to work together to help stop some future event. Superman and Superwoman (Lois has powers for the time being) go off to fight another Doomsday. I guess these things are like rabbits or tribbles. Someone dies *spoilers* and we wait to find out what’s next.
Batman-Santa Claus Silent Knight Returns #1 - Last Christmas, Batman and Santa Claus along with a bunch of other heroes saved the world & Christmas. This year we find out not all the monsters were caught and now they are ready for mischief even if it means getting on the naughty list. By the end of this issue, we have a bunch of members of the Justice League trapped, and Santa is teaming up with Robin to save Gotham City from who knows what.
Rogues Kingdom #1 - This was not from my pull list, it was actually a Kickstarter last year and patience pays off. The first issue in a Sword and Sorcery tale. Basically setting up the world and the characters. The world seems to be small kingdoms that, through treaties at peace. Each kingdom needs to have at least a mage on call and we start our story in the caravan bringing a new mage to Lumpland, hopefully before any neighbors decide to invade. Lumpland’s ruler has a daughter who seems to be a bit headstrong. Also in the caravan are a master swordsman of some renown and a thief both in a prison cart arguing. Hijinks ensue… actually the caravan is attacked with the order of “no prisoners.” So what will happen to everyone? Only time and a possible second issue will tell. Will there be a second issue? It’s Kickstarter, so only time will tell.