Weekly Reader, August 26, 2024

[Perry]

As I doubt I will get a chance to read anything today, I figured I would go ahead and post this now. Yes, a little early to start this for this upcoming week, but hey, why not? 
With that said, a super small DC week, which translates to no new titles for me, combined with the usual and ever decreasing small Marvel week, means I should be able to get caught up with my Hoopla reads... unless they drop a huge lot this week or Jeff and/or Jimmy turn me onto another title
 and hey, maybe there will be a Geiger #5 this week?

Marvel Unlimited
Blood Hunt #2
Union Jack the Ripper: Blood Hunt #1
Ultimate Black Panther #4
Immortal Thor #11
Amazing Spider-Man #153
Amazing Spider-Man #154

DC Universe Ultra
Superboy and the Legion #255

Hoopla
(?) Geiger #5
Redcoat #5
Conan the Barbarian #15
Bear Pirate Viking King v1 (collects issues 1-3)
Minor Threats v1 - A Quick End to a Long Beginning (Collects issues 1-4)

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[Jimmy T]

I'll have that same Thor issue, but also

She-Hulk
Amazing Spider-man
& maybe Superior Spider-man -this title has run it's course for me

[Jeff]

Extremely small week for me so I'll throw in the new 3W3M Sourcebbok I got for being a member of Hickmans Substack site.  It's pretty big.


Marvel Unlimited
Ultimate Black Panther 4

DC Universe Ultra
Absolute Power: Task Force VII (2024) - #3 - JSA
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977-) 255
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977-) 256

Other
3W3M Sourcebook Vol 2


———————————————————————————————

[Jeff]

Marvel Unlimited
Ultimate Black Panther 4

DC Universe Ultra
Absolute Power: Task Force VII (2024) - #3 - JSA
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977-) 255
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977-) 256

Other
3W3M Sourcebook Vol 2


———————————————————————————————

Ultimate Black Panther 4 - transition issue as the story moves back to Wakanda.  Still enjoying this.  I like the villains Ra and Konshu.  They are interesting.

[Jeff]

Marvel Unlimited
Ultimate Black Panther 4

DC Universe Ultra
Absolute Power: Task Force VII (2024) - #3 - JSA
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977-) 255
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977-) 256

Other
3W3M Sourcebook Vol 2

———————————————————————————————

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977-) 255 - I know this was from 1979 but it read lIke a story from the '50's. Golly gee willackers. Thankfully it was just a one shot story and we'll be back on track next issue.

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977-) 256 - the fate of Brainiac 5.  A little cheesy but not horrible. 

[Jimmy T]

Marvel Unlimited

Amazing Spider-man 50 -pretty brawler of an issue! Ed McGuinness & Chip Zdarsky lay out a plot that was building for the last 18 issues; kinda really cool!

Spider-man 8 - I wish I really loved this. Why shouldn't I? Because it's Dan Slott, and I feel like he's writing a coloring book

Sensational She-Hulk - maybe more of a romance comic, a 'girl' comic, but I feel it's just a cool book to read about Shulkie. I've really really enjoyed Rainbow Rowell's writing on her 2 volumes

Immortal Thor - I didn't know Thor had that many siblings!! Fill in artist who's style apes the regular guy, but doesn't do it well enough. Still, BIG MYTHIC stuff going down! Cool!!

[Jeff]

Immortal Thor - I didn't know Thor had that many siblings!! Fill in artist who's style apes the regular guy, but doesn't do it well enough. Still, BIG MYTHIC stuff going down! Cool!!

Listening to you guys rave about Thor every month is starting to get me interested.  Is it worth going back and reading this run from the start?

[Jeff]

Marvel Unlimited
Ultimate Black Panther 4

DC Universe Ultra
Absolute Power: Task Force VII (2024) - #3 - JSA
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977-) 255
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977-) 256

Other
3W3M Sourcebook Vol 2

———————————————————————————————

Absolute Power: Task Force VII 3 - Really good issue and ties into the GreenLantern book.  I recommend reading this one especially if you read Green Lantern.

[Jimmy T]

Immortal Thor - I didn't know Thor had that many siblings!! Fill in artist who's style apes the regular guy, but doesn't do it well enough. Still, BIG MYTHIC stuff going down! Cool!!

Listening to you guys rave about Thor every month is starting to get me interested.  Is it worth going back and reading this run from the start?

I think so. I think it's only gotten better & better!

[Jimmy T]

DC Ultra

Task Force VII #3 - good issue! Nice art! Nice result! thanks for the recommendation Jeff!

[Perry]

Thought it was going to be an easy week for me, but man... I keep adding more and more

Marvel Unlimited
Blood Hunt #2
Union Jack the Ripper: Blood Hunt #1
Ultimate Black Panther #4
Immortal Thor #11
Amazing Spider-Man #153
Amazing Spider-Man #154
Hellverine #1 <-- Added

DC Universe Ultra
Superboy and the Legion #255
Superboy and the Legion #256 <-- Added
Task Force #3 <-- Added

Hoopla
Geiger #5
Rook #5 <-- Added
Redcoat #5
Conan the Barbarian #14
Bear Pirate Viking King v1 (collects issues 1-3)
Minor Threats v1 - A Quick End to a Long Beginning (Collects issues 1-4)
Crocodile Black #1 <-- Added
Thing on the Doorstep #1 <-- Added
Thing on the Doorstep #2 <-- Added
Thing on the Doorstep #3 <-- Added

************************************************************************

Thing on the Doorstep - Really surprised by this free borrow on Hoopla. I enjoyed the first issue so much so that I used a couple of my borrows to finish the story off. A retelling of an H.P. Lovecraft tale, this has art that I enjoyed and honestly wasn't expecting from a small press publisher. Blue Fox Publishing, out of Scotland, has my attention. I will certainly check out some more.



Crocodile Black - A new mini from Phillip Kennedy Johnson? Sure, I'll give that a shot. An interesting start, I love a murder to open up, and this has the benefit of a little confusion added in, on purpose, to have us questioning a couple things. Art is spastic, at times, but fitting of the story and pretty cool. Yeah, gonna give the second issue a go.



Minor Threats - Ha, while the end was a little bit... off... for me, I really did enjoy this story featuring a gang of villain misfits. Also enjoyed the Batman/Robin analogies, as well as many other DC/JLA and even some Marvel homages in the story... with varying degree of impact. Yeah, another title I will be watching for as I know there is at least two more minis out!



Conan - Artist Doug Brathwaite really shines in this battle filled issue. And that red head... uh-huh, just as I suspected. Can't wait for the next issue of this one

Redcoat - Not a surprise, of course, but we find out a lot more of who is doing what here. And still love the Appleseed stuff, Ha! And while this title has slid down the rung of Ghost Machine titles for me, since it's first issue's grand opening, I still love this title.

LoSh - I have realized that, sadly, I can't stand Gerry Conway's 70's writing. All of this, save for the Legion and Assassin's fight a couple issues ago, has been trash. I still am not a super fan of Paul Levitz writing, but jeez, he was so much better than this drivel. At least, I hope he was, that is how I remember it, as I do know I loved the Legion for a few years and this isn't that. In fact, this is the time, I do remember, that I stopped buying the Legion comics. I came back, for an issue or two, a few years later, but didn't stay on again until a few years after that, when I got lucky and found some amazing art by Pat Broderick, and then the even better look when Keith Giffen came aboard. Man, how many more issues of our Legion readthrough do we have until those issues?

Union Jack - Wow! While this wasn't "Bad", I have no idea who the characters are here. I expected that, somewhat, as Union Jack is based in England and I haven't read of him in a very long time, but you kind of needed to read the mini series "The Union", from what I gather, to know more about the characters here and... yeah... I didn't. Meh, it's fine, but I won't return. One thing I did like about it was the way they handled the cursing. There was no "#%@^$" shit like that (sometimes, to me, that symbol shit breaks up the flow of the sentence structure) but instead they just blacked out the cursing. That made it easier, again, for me, to read. I wish every book that was going to edit those words did the same

Blood Hunt - Man the art is crazy good here. The story, while surprising that it isn't Dracula behind this event, is seemingly going to be around Blade and Blade's daughter. I honestly have no connection to her nor do I care one iota about that character, thus making this a mini that is far less fun then it should be for me. I do enjoy the new creatures here though and it is still a beautiful book (I mean, duh, Pepe Larraz, yeah?) so I'm still in

Hellverine - No idea why I jumped to this title after reading Blood Hunt, but I did. Art work is cool, very crazy story and an ending I didn't see coming

Spoiler

The Hellverine is actually Daken

[close]

Ult Panther - I liked this. Like Jeff said, it's more of a set-up issue, but a good one! I do like the Ra/Konshu tandem

Thor - So Jeff, remember what I said about Thor having some really cool art? Erase that from your mind with this (and sadly, the next) issue as this artist is flat out horrible. It looks like Brathwaite layouts with a 10 year old doing the finishes and then an 8 year old inking. Pa'fucking'thetic!! And I get the joy of having to look at this shit art next issue as well? OH JOY!!! So pissed. And yes, like Jimmy said, couple of new (to me) characters as well. I knew of Laussa from the Angela mini, or whatever back in the day (and not a fan of her, but anyway...) but a few of the others... no idea. They were cool, I guess, but the art ruined their introduction. RUINED IT!! BAH!!! NOW I'M PISSED!!

Okay, calm down...


Amazing Spider-Man - Okay, both of these issues are pretty bad, and M.J. is a total bi-polar bitch in issue #153 (I mean, haha, truly) but I enjoyed seeing the Sandman and Spidey fight. One thing I found odd/silly/stupid/interesting... Peter's Spidey Sense went off, but it wasn't from immediate danger to him, it was from a Spider-Tracer had planted a few issues ago, located blocks and blocks from where he was at the time. What is THAT about? Ha.

   

[Perry]

Marvel Unlimited
Blood Hunt #2
Union Jack the Ripper: Blood Hunt #1
Ultimate Black Panther #4
Immortal Thor #11
Amazing Spider-Man #153
Amazing Spider-Man #154
Hellverine #1

DC Universe Ultra
Superboy and the Legion #255
Superboy and the Legion #256
Superboy and the Legion #257 <-- Added
Task Force #3

Hoopla
Geiger #5
Rook #5
Redcoat #5
Conan the Barbarian #14
Bear Pirate Viking King v1 (collects issues 1-3)
Minor Threats v1 - A Quick End to a Long Beginning (Collects issues 1-4)
Crocodile Black #1
Thing on the Doorstep #1
Thing on the Doorstep #2
Thing on the Doorstep #3

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Thing on the Doorstep - Finished this and I gotta say, I really enjoyed the entire three issue run here. I very good retelling of H.P. Lovecraft with good, creepy art that really fit and made the story.
8 outta 10 "Bent Neck Ladies"

Bear Pirate Viking King - This on the other hand... not so much. Really cool water color art, but so muddled at times it is very hard to see what is going on. The writing is also a little fragmentary... smooth at times and then jumbled and herky-jerky at times... lacking flow.
Meh, 5 outta 10 Grizzlies, Buccaneers, Pillagers and Rulers

Legion - This was... okay, not quite as bad as the last two, but when you get three 'less than fun' issues in a row, it makes the third one worse just by being in the same "yuk line-up" as the first two. Still, we plow ahead...

[Perry]

Wow, I missed Geiger, still not on Hoopla after two weeks, but yeah, I got this week done. No idea how. Ha

Marvel Unlimited
Blood Hunt #2
Union Jack the Ripper: Blood Hunt #1
Ultimate Black Panther #4
Immortal Thor #11
Amazing Spider-Man #153
Amazing Spider-Man #154
Hellverine #1

DC Universe Ultra
Superboy and the Legion #255
Superboy and the Legion #256
Superboy and the Legion #257
Task Force #3

Hoopla
Geiger #5
Rook #5
Redcoat #5
Conan the Barbarian #14
Bear Pirate Viking King v1 (collects issues 1-3)
Minor Threats v1 - A Quick End to a Long Beginning (Collects issues 1-4)
Crocodile Black #1
Thing on the Doorstep #1
Thing on the Doorstep #2
Thing on the Doorstep #3

************************************************************************

Rook - Another good issue for this series, which started slow for me, sort of by the numbers, but has evolved into a more interesting tale. Of course the art is and always has been stellar, but I find the main character more engaging than his first appearance.

Task Force - Yes, this was pretty cool, and thanks to Jeff for letting me know that it ties into a title I am reading... and gonna read soon (once the JSA return to full monthly  ). The art was very Scott Kolins like, without aping him, so that was cool. Oh,

Spoiler

I have no idea who the character Stich is, should I know her? And why was Dr. Light at the bar? Is he magic? I know they said the bar is now neutral ground (I thought it was always) but wasn't aware Dr. Light was magic related... if he is

[close]

I do have one minor gripe that I hate every time I see or hear it... It is when grown adults say
"You didn't hear/know about [XYZ]? What, are you living under a rock/where you on the moon?"
Bugs the hell out of me when adult characters say crap like that. It is comes off as juvenile and so damn condescending. Just say "You haven't heard about..." whatever, and leave it there. 

It didn't ruin the issue, far from it, I just hate when they say shit like that.
Okay, bitching session over.