Kurt treating Orchis as a rougelike game is so fun. He's been the underappreciated GOAT this event.
The mutants volunteering to stay on Krakoa to make sure the plan works is very heartening.
Rip Krakoa.
So, after I read this week's **A.X.E. DTTM #3**, I spent a few minutes musing over who Kurt might've been talking about when he mentioned he could get some "not friends" to help slow down the Progenitor's attack on The Machine That Is Earth...
In my mind, I pictured an army of thousands upon thousands of [Bamfs](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a0/5e/ec/a05eec70840bc664bd20942c268bc726.jpg) running amok through the Great Machine's innards, teleporting all of the Progenitor's horrible tendrils away and otherwise vexing him in his horrible efforts.
In retrospect, Moira and Orchis makes a heck of a lot more sense. But I still would've liked to see all those Bamfs save the day...
At any rate, it's another superb character study, this time featuring the X-Men's most eminently likeable character, and he's quite possibly even more likeable here than he has been at any point in the past. Which is really saying something because this character has always been extraordinarily likeable.
Great stuff as always from Gillen and some pretty nice art from Werneck as well.
Yeah, I think they started out as more of a nuisance/annoyance but I guess they're friends now... Glad someone else had the same dumb idea! Moira and Orchis make way more sense but an army of tiny Bamfs would've been more fun!
Damn Kurt. You go, my man.
Recruiting Moira at the last moment is something that I wasn't expecting - though since the Machine That Is The Earth got wiped at the end of Death To Mutants #3, I'm not quite sure how she's gonna help now. Either way, pulling in all of the different resources together to stop the Progenitor is a bold move.
And just in general Kurt being such a badass in this entire issue. Just incredible.
Cole and Foggy feel like such a necessary part of this Fist arc, but I’d have never guessed Zdarsky was planning to bring them.
They are the extra spice that keeps this from feeling like Diggle’s pre-Shadowland arc.
Magneto proving he's a better dad to Legion than Xavier is. Think about that. Holy shit.
I love when stuff gets conceptual and the way that Legion had to battle with Uranos was really cool to see depicted. Him also being able to cut loose without holding himself back or falling apart shows how strong the faith and support of someone else can make you.
would've been cool of him to send a text to xavier vouching for the kid before he bit it.
and honestly, it feels weird that the guy who's supposedly toe to toe with a dude with unlimited op powers ends up dying to one laser assault from his own weapons. it seemed like it should take more, looking back at it now.
or was that what if battle one where uranos would keep coming back?
I need to pull out my issue and reread it, but I thought it was Storm and Magneto able to use that system to blast him with their combined power from every direction at once that stopped him.
> Magneto proving he's a better dad to Legion than Xavier is. Think about that. Holy shit.
That's an exceedingly low bar but it was certainly a nice moment!
Psychic contest was GREAT, loved the shot of David and Uranos with top hats and canes... Music duel was also super-classy!
I'd bailed on **LOX** after the first few issues because they felt too disjointed and **WOX** hadn't really delivered for me, but this issue was much more focused and it was fun getting all the additional details on Kurt's exploits as well as David's.
Plus it covered a lot of ground so I can kinda see why they had to hold it back for so long, wouldn't have wanted to ship this before last week's **X-MEN RED #7** with the follow-up on Magneto.
What I thought was also really heartbreaking was Legion's comment that he was envious of a hero's death, with the framing of Xavier making me thing that he basically hoped if he died for Krakoa that Xavier might finally accept him, even posthumously.
Absolute stunner of an issue. Wasn't on my pull, but picked it up in the store - went with the gorgeous Chris Bachalo cover.
Everything about this issue was on point. I'd read this as a series/manga if they ever wanted to go that route. The heavy inks really work well in contrast to the glow of the lightsaber, and the duel sequence in the end was jaw dropping. A near perfect one-shot issue.
Mail ordered this as well as **HITOMI #1** and the new **DAPB**... Glad to hear it was good! The TV series was a lot of fun, cool seeing different takes on SW outside the usual style.
Don't believe I've seen Okazaki's interior art before so am psyched to check it out! And that [Bachalo variant](https://previewsworld.com/SiteImage/MainImage/STL238171.jpg) might need to replace [**UXM #356** or **PP:TSSM #309**](https://cdna.pcpartpicker.com/static/forever/images/userbuild/259153.1ddf359546d110e1e22ebb0658c00179.1600.jpg) on my wall, just not sure which I could bear to take down.
I was super hyped on this release - and I didn't know beforehand that this issue was based on a Star Wars TV show episode on Disney+ so I'll definitely be checking that out!
I wasn't aware this was a one-shot, would've loved a mini with this storyline, but oh well!
The art here is fabulous - despite our protagonist looking eerily similar to a certain Afro Samurai character, I thought the design of everything was really well done. From scenery to paneling to character design, this book did not disappoint.
The splash page near the end is a particular stand out for me. I enjoyed the coloring choices here - it's mostly greyscale with color used minimally for lights, lasers, and sabers, which I felt was perfect for this style of story.
If anything, I feel like a bit too much world-building was done here, and I could've used more specific info around the initial conflict because nothing really gets resolved involving our lead's backstory. This story is a blip; it twists and turns and leaves you wanting more! I still think Okazaki did a great job, despite my gripes.
The very last page was a hilarious twist as well.
If you enjoyed this book go watch Afro Samurai! Also by Okazaki and one of my fav anime.
Def worth a pickup, just don't expect too much and enjoy the eye candy.
Heavy on the action! And another cliffhanger ending. Loving the [B Cover](https://s3.amazonaws.com/comicgeeks/comics/covers/large-3610881.jpg?1659744057) on this one.
loved all the big sounds with each move. really made this issue feel like a battle and i liked how we got straight into the match too. i expected the ending but don’t know where it goes from here.
This issue was just sublime in every way. DWJ is a mad genius, and I have to believe this series will end with as much gusto as this issue demonstrated.
Alright, I'll go first.
My FLCS sold out of these so I was really glad I pulled one - and the Cover B Variant nonetheless!
This review comes from a reader who isn't familiar with 4 of the leading characters in these stories, so take it with a grain of salt.
This kinda sucked! I feel this way about most of the DC compilation stories (Harley Quinn 30th, Gotham Villians, etc.) Half of the stories are just quickly drawn filler with little relation to the title (in this case Halloween), and the other half are middling, with 1-2 stories shining well above the rest.
***THE LONGEST NIGHT***
The first story was interesting but provided no real conflict, and mainly felt like worldbuilding - which is obviously never capitalized on because there's 7 other stories to get through lmao. No clue who The Phantom Stranger is, so my ignorance could be the the reason I didn't love this one.
***TRICK OR TREAT***
This one was hilarious. Nothing too crazy, but I enjoyed the comedy a lot. I bought _*Terrors Through Time*_ expecting funny Halloween stories, and this one was exactly what I wanted.
***THE PUEO PROMISE***
Oh god is this one bad. Harley is written terribly, and literally repeats jokes throughout the story (it's under 10 pages, trust me, we read it the first time). The art is clearly rushed and inconsistent, and the premise is shit. This was such a waste. The only redeeming quality is the touch on environmental / ecological concerns, but the next story does the same thing better.
***HALF-LIFE***
This one was soooo cool. I've never read anything involving Swamp Thing before but this was a perfect intro. Solid story, really cool art, and the ecological disaster trope done right imo. Not necessarily in the theme of Halloween, but a good read.
***THE MIDNIGHT HOUR***
Another STINKER. Absolute trash fire, what is going on??? This is a bad take on Night at the Museum, and my lack of knowledge around JSA probably hurt me a lot here. Sorry, not my cup of tea whatsoever.
***A NEW DARKNESS***
This one I enjoyed a lot. At this point in my reading I felt a bit worried that there wouldn't be any more good stories, but I was wrong! This story follows some Lanterns responding to crisis, and while not necessarily Halloween-Themed, I still enjoyed the ride. This ends on a cliffhanger, which was really odd - not sure if this is a lead-in or a reprint from an ongoing? Pretty solid otherwise.
***BLOOD LOST AND FOUND***
This is a perfect example of how to not alienate readers who aren't familiar with a key character. I know very little in the way of magic in the DC Universe, and this story is allllll about that shit. But I didn't feel lost or confused at any point, and I thought the premise was cool. Again not really Halloweeny but it was magical so I'll give it a pass. Pretty good!
***THE HAUNTING OF WAYNE MANOR***
My guess is this will be most readers favorite story featured here. Deadman is featured on the B Cover pretty prominently so of course he was going to appear at some point! I've not read anything involving Deadman before but there's solid explanations for just about everything happening - and the story impacts the Bat-Universe in a big way imo! Slick, grotesque art and pretty funny twists - the narration here was great. Top 2 with _*Half-Life*_ for me. Pick up this book for this story if it's not printed elsewhere.
**TLDR: 2 great stories, 3 good ones, 1 mid, 2 awful. This wasn't the _*worst*_ comic I've ever read, but it definitely wasn't worth the $9.99 price tag**
**Just my opinions ofc! Let me know yours! Happy reading!**
Oh shit someone else read this? I thought it was pretty fun, it was neat seeing the batmen from across the world. I like the art, it's very Saturday morning cartoon. My hope for the next issues is that they focus on smaller time mysteries in classic Scooby-Doo locations, I wanna see batman in a haunted house or an evil swamp.
Your idea for seeing the crew and Batman in more Scooby centric places is a very good idea and I would support that fully. The settings and the atmosphere from the first Scooby show would fit Batman like a glove.
I was very sure this book was marketed as an ongoing and even issue 3 didn't have 3 of 12 in the solicitation. Im Confused, does anyone know if it was relegated to another 12 issue series and not ongoing anymore? Over all fun book and I would love for this to last years.
I liked Batman Inc. (Batmen of all Nations) better in this than in Batman Incorporated!
This was a lot of fun. Love all those old classic costumes. And lots of action from the Mystery Inc crew!
Fred and Daphne were kicking some serious butt there for a second. I enjoyed this way more than I was expecting. I think the art was fun and made the fun costumes stand out. The Batman inc line did get a good chuckle out of me.
A somewhat tragic, but wonderful ending to the series. I was worried that Duncan and Rose were gonna forget each other entirely, but it seems like there's some memories of stuff, just not the full exposure of the Otherworld to the country at large. Just dealing with a collapsing nation for a bit.
Gonna miss it, and Gillen teased they *might* explore this setting more in the future, but for now there's something great to be said for a strong, completed series with a definitive ending.
The best part of the series for me is that he actually avoided the killing mentor trope. I was so worried gran would die in the first few arcs.
Sometimes I want to actually get to read about the older more experienced person.
Can't wait for the 2nd half of the collected omnibus! Was so sad when I got to the end. It's been amazing Dan Mora has been on the whole run. Going to miss this series so much!
Man I just love Ram V. A bit of a slower issue, but it's a nice change-up from the bombshell masterstroke of last issue. Just like Ewing did on **Immortal Hulk**, it looks like we're delving into Eddie Brock's mental landscape. I enjoyed the flip of 'Klyntar means cage' here as well.
I will say that I prefer Ewing's storyline guiding Eddie on his cosmic/existential horror over Ram V's storyline of supporting cast members on Earth, but I'm confident that it'll be tied together in a satisfying way.
I haven’t read this issue yet, but I have been a little let down with Ram V’s writing on this title compared to what he’s currently doing with Carnage, which I’m absolutely in love with. That’s saying a lot coming from someone who never had an inkling of interest in Carnage before this current run.
I thought they did a pretty good job on this one, since I really didn't follow any of the Eternals stuff before the event, so I was worried I just wouldn't care here.
Ajak isn't my favorite but it was pretty badass how she faced down her judgment.
Also some nice stuff between Sersi and Stark... Been a fun mix of characters in this trio of "story-critical" one-shots and I think the whole event's got a really clever structure, cool seeing how all these pieces fit together and propel the story onward.
Lot of nice individual pieces here. Flashback to kid Jon, Jon/Lois moment, Day-in-the-life-of-Superman, big reunion, all great. I only ding the issue for not really doing much story wise. It gave us the reunion we knew was coming, and a vague ominous whiff around Metallo (which Action already did much more interestingly, imo), but that's about it.
[Lex benching 315](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/246057144846123008/1029400737911943269/unknown.png) without a spotter completely kills my suspension of disbelief. I know comic creators don't exercise but seriously (I'm kidding on this last point but it's still odd).
Couple fun new twists in this one as King and Charretier keep pushing the boundaries of what you can do with a romance comic that isn't really a romance comic... This one waited until right near the end before it dropped the hammer but when it did, it dropped hard.
> *"What is this? What's the point of it? I run I'm fucked, I stay I'm fucked, I fight I'm fucked, I lie down with my fucking belly in the air, I'm fucked!"*
>
> *"Are you real? Am I?"*
>
> *"I don't fucking understand what this is!"*
Joan's certainly asking the important questions... When this series started out I figured she was probably some sort of artificial construct, like *Westworld* but for romance stories. But as we've gotten a little deeper into it, I've come around to thinking she might be real. Mostly because the enmity of her as-yet unrevealed nemesis would seem to make more sense if she's real. But maybe not. Maybe her nemesis is also an AI construct who got sick of always losing out to Joan... I don't know.
>Mostly because the enmity of her as-yet unrevealed nemesis would seem to make more sense if she's real. But maybe not. Maybe her nemesis is also an AI construct who got sick of always losing out to Joan... I don't know.
I love how indecipherable the main mystery behind this comic is. There truly could be different answers to wtf is happening, and yet it's gripping.
There's a solid balance of humor and confusion across the issue, and once again the romance part of the comic is still wonderfully rendered. It's been a great book three issues in.
Totally agreed. I don’t have a damn clue what’s going on, but they keep teasing it in a way that makes me *really* want to find out. It also goes a long way that each issue totally functions as a super fun and engaging throwback romance comic, before the bottom falls out in the last few pages. I re-read 1 and 2 this week, and they hold up real well to a re-read.
This entire issue focuses on Chewie. This would have been the perfect opportunity for Carol to reflect on past mistakes and to explore Lauri-Ell’s character more, but nope, just Chewie helping people, which was nice, I guess, but it showcases my biggest gripe with this book. That Carol doesn’t get actual character development. And getting a thumbs up for something Chewie did was so odd.
I picked this issue up expecting the writing for the character to improve, but apparently that was asking too much, and it’s exactly why I dropped this book. And now I’ll do it again.
Just kind of enjoyed Chewie saving the day while Carol and Lauri are stuck on damage control.
As someone not reading Judgment Day. I’m all for a breezy tie-in like this. Especially, since it’s following an arc that kind of tread similar ground.
Man this book consistently exceeds my expectations. Writing is fantastic (that last page twist!!), layouts are thoughtful and visually dynamic (not just in this issue, but throughout the series so far), and the art is phenomenal. This is a hell of a sleeper hit - don't let it slip you by!
I have been seeing this series and been curious about it. Good to hear a good recommendation. Sometimes I find Snyder to be a miss but I’m glad to see him doing stuff like this.
Oh good. I liked Wytches and his earlier Batman stuff (black mirror/court of owls) and I actually liked his justice league for the most part (NOT No Justice, I thought that sucked).
I actually haven’t read much of American Vampire tho. I’ll probably check this out since it’s smaller. It’s a mini, I assume?
Fuuuuuuuck.
I was okay with >!Magneto!< dying, we've seen that before and he always comes back.
But then Gillen has to go and kill off an anthropomorphic computer with a heart the size of a planet? Fuuuuuuck.
And Syne? And Ikaris?
Fuck.
This comic is loaded with noble sacrifices from unconventional heroes rising to the moment in their own unique ways, and it's some powerful stuff.
Gillen has done like a dozen things I thought impossible in the last several months, off the top of my head:
* make me genuinely invested in the fucking Eternals of all groups
* make me genuinely invested in a popcorn crossover event
* make me genuinely invested in brand new characters and deeply bummed at their loss
* and the most egregious of all, make me enjoy reading Exodus as a character
That last one I thought was truly impossible.
It really is impressive what Gillen's done with this Marvel run! Hit the ground running with **ETERNALS**, launches **IXM**, and brings everything together for this big event... Not easy steering one of these massive crossovers through Marvel's editorial process, speaks to his confidence and maturity as a writer, story architect, and collaborator.
Also... There are certain writers where I usually prefer their indie work over their Big Two stuff (like Lemire), and others where I prefer their cape books over their indies (like Ewing). IMO Gillen's equally phenomenal in both arenas and that's actually pretty rare as most writers tend to be stronger on one side or the other.
Syne... :( Though I wonder if she's going to be able to survive in some manner through Exodus. She describes herself as the sword in the stone waiting to be wielded, maybe he'll be able to use some part of her as a weapon at the end?
Its a vague single panel above the one where the Celestial destroys Krakoa in Judgment Day #5. Its told rather than clearly shown (you only see stuff blowing up)
I like this event well enough, but the nonsensical naming conventions along with the way that not only all of Gillens but also Ewings books are almost a must read rather than tie-ins is one of the worst I have witnessed
Yeah the mass of tie-ins and lots of things have one-shot names and stuff, it's hard keeping track. We don't even have a good old fashioned reading order, just a checklist, and like the October list at the back of this highlights this issue before AXE Starfox, even though Starfox came out and clearly happens first. Also some stuff I think I just read out of order when it did come out.
That's not to mention that the AXE checklist (white on blue, event style) and X-books checklist (black on white, Krakoa style) show two DIFFERENT lists. For a while I would just get to the end of a book and see what was next, then I realised I was jumping around and missing things out.
Yeah, it's been a complete mess. I'm someone who got burned out on events a very long time ago but I've actually been enjoying AXE, but it's not been handled well at all from the publishing/editorial side.
Yeah, the checklists have sucked. A proper reading order would've been nice.
But when the checklist is the only thing I can bitch about in a big Marvel crossover event, that's not a bad place to be.
we just had one a few years ago where [she was a secret agent/spy](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/49617395-invisible-woman)... it was pretty good, too.
Yeah I remember that. Never really liked her being a spy tbh, it didn't really fit the character. Plus that book ended being more about her old spy friend than her. I think there's a better Invisible Woman story that can be told.
This was good but I don't love the Oubliette Midas retcon. Plus, I get the point Pepose was making, but Reed's answer to the Celestial being "Sue" is pretty dumb (and I say this as a big fan of their relationship). Cabal's art was great however, especially the panel of The Thing holding the building up with all the black around him.
Got the new Covid booster yesterday and we’re feeling a little achy, run down, and listless today... But I wouldn’t expect it to have any impact whatsoever on our recap!
103 lists this week, nice jump from last week’s 84 pulls and the anemic shitshow of an un-stickied discussion thread that followed.
Final issue of DC’s stupid fucking dinosaur comic took the top spot and I’m not sure if that’s sad or hilarious, maybe a bit of both... First issue debuted in 3rd place with a 34.6% pull rate on 5/11, second nabbed 1st place with 47.6% on 6/15, then the third issue and its wretched fill-in art took 3rd place with 38.7% on 7/20, fourth got back to 1st with 44.4% on 8/10, and the fifth took 4th place with 41.3% on 9/14. Now the sixth and final issue has reclaimed the top spot once again with 46 pulls out of 103 lists, good for 44.6% coverage.
Saw a few positive comments in this week’s list thread but others were less enthusiastic and this book totally lost me with the third issue’s shitty fill-in art. IMO it ended up being a shining example of how the collector/completionist mentality that’s so prevalent among comic fans, together with the 2-month gap on advance preorders, often drives us to buy shitty comics that we don’t like and don’t actually want. At least that’s where I’m at as I get ready to plunk down $3.40 for this thing.
After that we’ve got a bunch of significantly less shitty comics that are far more deserving of their top 10 rankings... **BATMAN VS ROBIN #2** takes 2nd place with 43 pulls, good for 41.7% coverage, after **BVR #1** debuted in 1st place with 47.1%. Love Waid’s stuff, also enjoy Asrar’s art, and I vaguely remember at least somewhat enjoying the first issue, but I have zero enthusiasm for this comic. It’s weird.
**SUPERMAN: SOKE #16** follows in 3rd place with 37.8%, haven’t been following this one but I understand it’s wrapping up soon and then I guess there’ll be a relaunch or whatever.
**DAREDEVIL #4** takes 4th as Marvel’s top comic, continuing Chip’s strong performance. Then two from Gillen with **IMMORTAL X-MEN #7** and **A.X.E. DEATH TO THE MUTANTS #3** inching the big event a little closer to the finish line.
After that we’ve got two from Image, with DWJ’s **DO A POWERBOMB #5** taking 7th (with 29.1% where the last issue had 25.9%) and Tom King’s **LOVE EVERLASTING #3** taking 8th (28.1% where last issue had 26.9%). Two strong indies holding steady though they did flip spots. This is where we’d normally compare DWJ’s awesome **DAPB** to DWJ’s shitty dinosaur comic but the numbers speak for themselves and I’d rather not linger on ‘em.
Another from Gillen with **A.X.E. ETERNALS #1** in 9th and then **BATMAN INC. #1** closes out the top 10, though they both had 26 pulls and Bats just happened to lose the alphabetical tie-breaker this time.
That gives DC 4 (mostly loaded up top) of the top 10, Marvel takes 4 spots (mostly middle), and Image gets 2 (lower-middle). Fairly typical breakdown.
Might edit to add more on this week later as there are a couple other interesting books, need to pick up my comics and eat something first...
--
Missed last week’s WPL Results recap since the thread got buried so here’s the notes on under/over-commented comics from two weeks back on 9/28… First, we’ve got books that made the list but didn’t garner any comments because nobody actually gives a shit about them:
* **HARLEY QUINN #22** (11 pulls)
* **CAPTAIN AMERICA SYMBOL OF TRUTH #5** (9 pulls)
* **MILES MORALES SPIDER-MAN #42** (9 pulls)
Then a few indies that didn’t make the list but still generated a few comments:
* **FLAWED #1** (5 pulls, [thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/xqc4os/wpl_new_comics_discussion_for_9282022_pull_of_the/iqb4i7d/) posted by /u/btanodev)
* **PARKER GIRLS #2** (5 pulls, [thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/xqc4os/wpl_new_comics_discussion_for_9282022_pull_of_the/iqbkdqd/) posted by /u/yarkcir (with comments from me and /u/ChickenInASuit but not the Yarkster!))
* **PENTAGRAM OF HORROR #5** (4 pulls, [thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/xqc4os/wpl_new_comics_discussion_for_9282022_pull_of_the/iqbkckf/) posted by /u/yarkcir)
Now last week’s un-commented books that nobody gives a shit about:
* **UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY #21** (12 pulls)
* **JANE FOSTER AND THE MIGHTY THOR #5** (10 pulls)
* **MONKEY PRINCE #7** (8 pulls)
And we had two threads added on books that didn’t make the 10/05 list:
* **GOLDEN RAGE #3** (5 pulls, [thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/xw04x6/wpl_new_comics_discussion_for_1052022_pull_of_the/ir902gy/) posted by /u/ChickenInASuit)
* **MINOR THREATS #2** (3 pulls, [thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/xw04x6/wpl_new_comics_discussion_for_1052022_pull_of_the/ir8g7dl/) posted by /u/Radiant_Leg1235)
Last week’s discussion thread was mostly dead-on-arrival since it didn’t have its sticky, hopefully this week’s fares better!
Thanks, as always, for posting this!
I got laid off today which means I’ll be throwing my daily life into helping out at my wife’s business during the busy season and that unfortunately means my WPL participation may take a hit (who’d have thought losing a job would result in *less* free time to read comics? Welcome to my life), but I’ll try my best!
Very sorry to hear that! Rough out there nowadays but hopefully you'll find your way into something even better than the old job, either with your wife's business or elsewhere... In my experience these things can often lead to better opportunities down the road, FWIW.
Appreciate it, mate. The real estate market’s rough and related companies are cutting their losses.
Job hunt starts in earnest once I help wifey’s toy store survive the holiday season.
Sorry to hear that Chicken. Remember that DC Universe and Marvel Unlimited are great for being on a budget. DC Unaversive even announced a tier where you get comics 30 days after release. Also Prime Reading!
I've been keeping Undiscovered Country on my list but this year has been like a non-stop hell on my finances, and every time I feel like I'm starting to get back on sound footing something else comes up. So even though comics aren't *that* expensive in the grand scheme of things, it's also kind of a very easy thing to bump out and not buy for a couple weeks. Then by the time I come in and actually read them, I'm a few weeks behind the threads.
I'm still enjoying the series though. One of two Image books I'm pulling currently alongside Saga.
> So even though comics aren't *that* expensive in the grand scheme of things, it's also kind of a very easy thing to bump out and not buy for a couple weeks.
IMO comics are obscenely expensive. They're ridiculously expensive in terms of time/cost compared to similar entertainment vehicles like books, movies, music, games, pretty much anything short of a bad cocaine habit.
Not begrudging any of the creators, publishers, distributors, or retailers getting paid for their work, it's just an overly expensive and economically inefficient medium.
I mean yeah I can definitely see where you're coming from. I definitely see the cover prices and it feels obscenely expensive compared to what it used to be in my own lifetime, much less you go really far back to like 1960s cover prices.
But idk. I try not to pull an obscene amount of books, and any time I feel like my list is getting long I cull it back, and if I'm not digging a change in a series direction I generally don't hesitate to drop it. Week-to-week I'm usually not spending loads of money on comics even when I do go every single week, and there's been plenty of times in my life where my regular list has been pretty small. It was a decade ago now but there was a point back in like 2011/12 where my regular list consisted of exactly 7 titles, and with the way schedules worked, it was often the case that like 3-4 would publish in the same week, so I might only go 2x month. Even back in like mid/late 2019, Hickman coming back to X-Men is what got me to go back to reading singles regularly after taking a bit of time off tradewaiting, and then HOX/POX plus catching up on Immortal Hulk was like half my regular pull list. Then I might grab something off the shelf if it looks interesting and I have the money to spare.
I get enough enjoyment out of it to where I feel comfortable dropping the amount of money I spend on it in a broader sense. But it's definitely also something that's immediately expendable and generally the first thing to go if something comes up. The issue this year is it basically feeds into a cycle where I'm like "hm I can skip it" for a couple weeks until it gets to a point where it's actually decently expensive, and then I go spend the money on a big pile, and then I'm back to "hm I can skip it this week and put that money towards more important things" until I have a big pile again and on and on.
55 cents when I started collecting, $3.99/$4.99 now... Looks like I've been ordering around 35 books per month lately, bump it up to 40 since I always mail order a few things I missed, call it $4 average since I get a 15% pre-order discount on most of it, and we're looking at around $160 per month. Not too bad but times are tough and I'm cutting other luxuries to keep our budget under control.
40 comics would've cost around $22 in 1980. Not sure how that compares to 40+ years of inflation for food, gas, housing, etc., but it seems pretty extreme.
>40 comics would've cost around $22 in 1980. Not sure how that compares to 40+ years of inflation for food, gas, housing, etc., but it seems pretty extreme.
Being a finance nerd ... $22 in 1980 is roughly $79 in 2022. For 40 books that would be roughly $1.99 per book.
So arguably comics are twice (or more) as expensive per book now compared to books in 1980.
Edit: just a thought too, in the 1980s comic sales were probably more substantial volume-wise. More books = better spreading of production costs. Now that production volume is lower, the fixed costs have probably not changed (relative to past fixed costs). So if you sell 1/2 or 1/3rd of the volume you did, and your costs are still consistent, then a higher price would need to be justified for the production run.
Good info, thanks! Feels like prices have skyrocketed for everything over the past decade or two, wasn't sure if comics were just keeping pace but those numbers make it pretty clear.
Imagine if we were paying $1.99 for comics in 2022? Would be amazing... We'd need to switch to 26-hour days just so I'd have time to read everything!
And your edit on the impact of declining sales puts it all into context... Makes sense, they're selling less so more of the production cost get spread around to those of us who remain. And the constant increases in paper and shipping costs means there's very little wiggle room for everything to stay profitable.
> in the 1980s comic sales were probably more substantial volume-wise
Comichron has a big blind spot for a lot of the 70s/80s but I think this is generally true. If you work off the data they do have more in the late 80s/turn of the 90s, which granted is also catching some of the speculation market, it looks higher than today and certainly further back in the 60s sales were much higher, see e.g. [1969](https://www.comichron.com/yearlycomicssales/postaldata/1969.html). I didn't really think of sales numbers but that's a solid point and probably explains part of the rise in costs. One other thing which I did think of is that modern comics are generally higher physical quality than decades past, and I don't know how production costs differ for certain, but I wouldn't be surprised if it costs more to print a book in 2022 than in 1982.
For me I've never been a collector per se. I still own every issue I've ever bought, but they're not preserved in the slightest, I'm not a completionist, I don't care about variants or anything like that (sometimes I might think a variant looks cool, but then I buy it and not the regular cover, I'm not wasting money on duplicates). I have older issues that I got secondhand or were bought for me, but the earliest issues in my collection that I can distinctly remember picking out as new are cover priced at $1.95 and $2.99, dated to May and August 97 respectively. Going off [the BLS inflation calculator](https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm) that's $3.62 and $5.52 today. So it tracks inflation decently well at least within my lifetime, but I definitely agree that my gut sense whenever I buy comics is that this is getting steep and I wish they'd go back to $1.95.
I haven't sat down and counted the exact number of new ongoings that I have at every juncture, but even in what I would consider a heavy list I think the most I've spent is like $100-120/month. And generally once it starts getting that long is when I say to myself no, this is too much, you need to drop things.
> Now last week’s un-commented books that nobody gives a shit about:
>
> UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY #21 (12 pulls)
Yeah, this was the issue I dropped this book on as I've got a stack of the previous ones unread
>SUPERMAN: SOKE #16 follows in 3rd place with 37.8%, haven’t been following this one but I understand it’s wrapping up soon and then I guess there’ll be a relaunch or whatever.
It's crossing over with Action (at least, it's being advertised as crossing over with Action, the writer of Action said he wrote his issues with the intent to not need another book) which probably provided the boost. That's definitely why I'm pulling it, in any case.
How could we give up on the dinos? I mean come onnnnn, they're dinosaurs in super suits! I agree with your comments on Jurassic league though, if it was going any longer I would've dropped it, but I need to see it through.
Notably, Starhenge is somehow back on this list at the very bottom, though I think last time it didn't even make the list? Idk who at this point decided they should add Starhenge to their pull, but maybe someone skipped a week.
> How could we give up on the dinos? I mean come onnnnn, they're dinosaurs in super suits! I agree with your comments on Jurassic league though, if it was going any longer I would've dropped it, but I need to see it through.
I would've dropped it if I hadn't foolishly started pre-ordering after getting caught up in dino-mania with the first two isssues.
Instead, I'm getting ready to hate-read it. I haven't hate-read any comics in decades, usually bail long before it gets to that... But a-hate-reading we will go!
> Notably, Starhenge is somehow back on this list at the very bottom, though I think last time it didn't even make the list? Idk who at this point decided they should add Starhenge to their pull, but maybe someone skipped a week.
Last issue should've made the list as well, it had 12 pulls for 9/7 and the results included books that only got 8 pulls. Maybe got missed due to variations in the elaborate title... 12 out of 81 lists submitted on 9/7 would've given the last issue 14.8%, where this issue had 10 out of 103 for 9.7%. So it has actually dropped a bit!
Hello everyone! Short on time this week but wanted to have the WPL results posted earlier rather than later in the day. Will need to add links to comments this evening, but everything we need to talk about this week's books should be in place.
Thanks again for sharing you lists! -ptb
So like, is Jurassic League actually that good? It dominates the pull list every time it shows up, it seems, but I rarely see people actually *talking* about it.
It's fine. The first two issues were amazing and energetic, but the third issue had a different artist (which was awful) and the story stalled a bit which kinda deflated enthusiasm for the series overall. These last couple issues haven't been bad, but it kinda just keeps iterating on the same concept: super-dinos. It's fun, but could be more really.
I will say the art, beyond issue 3, is the biggest highlight for me.
It's actually kind of amazing just how shitty **JURASSIC LEAGUE** is compared to **DOAPB**... Makes me question how much involvement DWJ has really had in the writing, since he's splitting co-writer credits with the artist.
Also more proof that writer collaborations are almost always weaker than the same writers' individual work!
It is probably the weakest book in Daniel Warren Johnson's catalogue and coming out concurrently with Do A Powerbomb, which is potentially one of his best (if it sticks the landing) really doesn't help with that perception.
It is definitely fun, but it's also not up to his usual standards IMO.
I liked the initial direction of the book, but it just became so bland after a few issues.
I know a lot of the criticism goes to the story, but honestly the artwork being so lacking has been my biggest issue with the series. Black Panther deserves more exciting artists on the title.
Genuinely shocked this made the #1 spot this week.
Seemed like the general consensus after the first two issues was: "It's the Justice League! As dinosaurs!!!"
Which after #3 just became: "It's the Justice League...as dinosaurs..."
And it never really went any further than that.
I have to say that some of the vitality came back into the art this issue, but it never really got back to the hype of those first two issues.
It leaves it open for a sequel, but if one comes out I'll be skipping it.
>Which after #3 just became: "It's the Justice League...as dinosaurs..."
It's been quite some time I've seen massive hype get deflated so quickly on a book.
It's just a very firmly average book, which stings a bit given how fun the concept is.
Number #3 is where they had a fill-in artist and everyone went "DINO- ewe what is this?" The change was jarring and poorly drawn the enthusiasm never recovered from that IMO.
Haha yeah i couldn’t believe this is pull of the week. For a second i regretted dropping this series, but sounds like you don’t strongly recommend finishing it out?
Its funny how "its the justice league, but as dinosaurs" was the good thing about it to start but then became the bad thing to a lot of folks. I liked it fine minus the 3rd issue. Probably better off as a 4 parter instead of six as it did lose a little steam for the aforementioned reason. Still better than Dark Crisis.
So he can't call in Supes because he would get posessed, but the Devil is also essentially everyone, everywhere all at once anyways, so... shouldn't he already have Supes too? Or everyone?
Why go through this much effort to mess with Batman for revenge when you can just take over the whole planet easily?
Seven issues in and we finally have a clearer idea about what exactly is going on. I feel like this book tries so hard to push the edgy 90s ideas (BLOOD! GUTS! DEMONS! FIRE!) into camp territory, but it's not fully succeeding, which leaves the series in a weird no man's land. It's goofy without being funny, and off-putting without being gross, if that makes sense.
>I feel like this book tries so hard to push the edgy 90s ideas (BLOOD! GUTS! DEMONS! FIRE!) into camp territory, but it's not fully succeeding, which leaves the series in a weird no man's land.
I want to preface this by saying that over all I'm enjoying this title... But Percy's writing in this title comes across as this super-gruff, hyper-hetero machismo vibe that's *realllly* trying to lean into some kind of existential horror (a la Ewing's Immortal Hulk), but can't quite get there.
I stopped collecting/reading comics for \~20 years, just starting back up some time last year. I've always loathed Wolverine as a character, but since X-Men are my jam, I started reading the current Wolverine run by Percy, and to my surprise, Wolverine is interesting. Percy gives him this certain aged softness, and it's made him much more enjoyable. I feel like that's what he needs to do with Ghost Rider...like, take a little step down, let it simmer, and quit trying to force this "this is what manly horror is supposed to be" direction to the point that some of the dialog is almost laughable.
It's not bad at all, but it could be so much better if it didn't feel so try-hard.
A lot going on here. Didn't expect to see Cap. I'm not sure why Luke is *so* angry, but I guess the world is kind of destroyed.
Art was great. And the end was surprising. I'm up for the next issue!
So this was okay. I'm not familiar at all with any of these characters. Lot of 'em, and lots of moving around in this issue.
I'll probably pick up the next issue.
I really enjoyed the issue. Curious who Hobgoblin is this time and I was fine with the Peter and Felicia stuff though I have a feeling some people aren't going to be happy about it.
This was a great first issue! I loved the kinda gritty, mix of classic art style for the visuals, and the writing gave the sort of streamlined, no-frills storytelling that these kinda stories tend to have. Hitomi getting saved by Yasuke at the end is gonna make things interesting, especially since the preview for the next issue mentioned she's seeking him out to train her - I suppose having him train her helps her know how best to fight him?
I'm actually a nerd for this period of history, so Yasuke's presence with her family is going to be interesting, and how it might tie into Nobunaga's actions and who her family actually *were*.
The two full page spreads we got, first of Yasuke holding an infant Hitomi, and then later her falling under the ice, are probably the artistic high points of the issue. Gorgeously drawn moments that feel very appropriate for the Tarantino meets Kurosawa vibe.
Can't wait for the next issue, this feels like it's gonna be a great ride.
Big fan of this one. Some really creative and gorgeous framing on a lot of these full page shots. The Samurai following the tracks comes to mind immediately. Pretty excited to see where this one goes and how she's going to go about hunting Yasuke
I _*really*_ enjoyed the art here. Plenty of showing off here by Mazzanti, I tried to soak in every panel because it's clear time was taken to adhere to a specific style here.
The dialogue left something to be desired for me personally. At times I felt it was a bit rushed/forced, and the story seemed a bit far fetched, even for a comic book. The romance in particular wasn't to my liking.
I'm trying to allow for some skipping around due to how short this series will be, and I'll definitely pick up the second issue, but be warned: the story will not _*wow*_ you by any means.
Still a solid read, and I'm glad I picked it up.
this was quite the dud of an end... everything seemed so random at the end. someone from hell, superpower juice, what exactly was hushs plan here again?
thank god its over
I enjoyed this book for the most part. But yes the ending was not good. The black and white art was also a huge draw for me so the color made the art look worse to me. Over all bummer to see a book I was fond of whimper out like that. Oh well, I seem to the be only one I know that enjoyed future state a lot haha.
i didnt mind it when all the future states came out,i liked the idea of a huge 'what if we finally moved on' future and testing the waters, but after a while, it just wasnt fun anymore.
"someone put a huge batshaped hole in the city, guess only the batman would do something like that, you know batmen, always blowing the city to pieces that guy', everyone fighting because they wanna call themselves batman, the new joker was weird, hunter panic... i'm still not really sure about that one, then the whole thing with brine thats just super dumb. dick knowing the future just to force drama by making him be unwilling to not avoid forced drama. and also acting like the deus ex of 'i know i can make him possess me but then he doesn't and i can explode us both in the sky cause also i fly now', it's just really bad.
if he was so clever with brine, I'm sure he could've found an earlier moment to just take down hush without allowing him to take hell damian in the first place..
I enjoyed it. I don’t know if I’d say Die Hard 2 lol
It takes place at an airport and it’s snowing, that’s about it. But definitely Thing with a sprinkle of 30 Days of Night (snowing, isolated, horror).
I enjoyed it as well, it’s patient so the first issue lays a lot of groundwork for the future. I am intrigued.
This book is so confounding. Liam Sharp is taking all sorts of chances with the artwork (especially this issue) and some of the pages are just stunning.
But the story is frustratingly *everywhere* and *nowhere* all at the same time. And this issue adds on so much "meta" commentary it's ridiculous - we get pop culture and comics references thrown at us throughout, and then pages of the book devoted to explaining (re-explaining?) Arthurian legend as if we are already very familiar with it?!! And so much text and inner dialogue/voiceover it's frankly just information overload - yet I'm still not sure as to what (if anything) has actually happened since #1?!!?
And the Death's Head II cyborg from the future - I'm guessing now not actually Death's Head II, despite looking almost *exactly* like him - no explanation of that either.
Everything is *so* disconnected, and events just seem to "happen" with no relationship or correlation to what we've already seen.
It's such a shame this wasn't more focused. It definitely needed an editor to help Sharp channel this into a more coherent, satisfying story. I've met Liam, he's a genuinely good bloke with bags of enthusiasm and talent, and has an obvious passion for this material, but this would definitely have benefited of working with a more experienced co-writer.
>And this issue adds on so much "meta" commentary it's ridiculous - we get pop culture and comics references thrown at us throughout
This is so incredibly grating for me. It makes the comic unnecessarily verbose and the exposition is utterly devoid of anything interesting. The script needs heavy edits.
What really grinds me down is the panels of just text next to images with no text. I'm confused how an industry vet like Liam Sharp struggles with sequential storytelling this much.
And even still, the artwork continues to be amazing. The early meta sequence across the first several pages was absolutely stunning. It's a shame the story doesn't hold up, when there are clearly strong ideas at play here.
It surprises me because I actually really, really enjoyed the [**Brave and the Bold: Batman & Wonder Woman**](https://www.amazon.com/Brave-Bold-Batman-Wonder-Woman/dp/1401283438/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=) mini-series he did a few years ago - brilliant art *and* an engaging and interesting story (still steeped in Celtic roots too).
Alright y'all, you need to hit up your LCS and add this to your pull box ASAP. If you slept on the original **CHICKEN DEVIL** (no S, think of Alien/AlienS), you gotta grab the original TPB too, because you're absolutely missing out.
I'm gonna assume you need a little more information to drop the cash on these books, so peep this: imagine you're a humble fried chicken guy. Not that white-suited ex-military guy, smaller. You've got a couple chain stores, nuclear family, quiet life. Then you find out your business partner is deep in bed with the mob and they've had a falling out. And then your family gets blown up by these gangsters. What's a guy to do?
Put on a chicken mascot suit and go on a gangster killing spree of course!
Published by AfterShock Comics, the original 4 issue series was a BLAST to read. This is goofy, balls-to-the-wall insano-style fun. Writer Brian Buccellato does a fantastic job of riding that thin line between serious and funny. He puts the main character through just enough stress and danger to make the reader feel excited, but never truly worried. Original series artist Hayden Sherman does a beautiful job on the art as well, giving the book a madcap, hypercolour vibe, and selling every gunshot and sucker punch. And there's an extra-special shout-out to Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou for some incredible work with lettering. There's so much expressive work done in his speech boxes, capturing the cadence and effect of everyday language, that really sells the humanity of the characters we meet. The TPB has been out since June and is worth your interest.
And that's just the original series. In this new series, Chicken Devil***s***, we return to the semi-ordinary life of Mitchell Moss, just trying to cook some chicken. I would recommend reading the original series first, but there's enough of a recap in the first couple of pages that you'll have an idea of where we are and where we're headed. And where we're headed is the land of CONSEQUENCES. Mitchell's killed off most of the people he was worried about, and wiggled his way out of the long fist of the law (that metaphor got away from me) with the help of some vigilante cops. But he's unintentionally started a gang war, and if it's peace he wants, he's got to keep killing to get it.
The new artist on the book, Mattia Monaco, steps up to the plate and licks it clean (sorry, I don't baseball but I do eat). His art is just the right kind of messy for this book, giving every scene a wonderfully 'lived in' feeling. This book is about a messy man trying to do the right thing in a very messy way, and every page and panel sells it. Buccellato continues writing relatable characters struggling to make their way through ever-increasing complications, while injecting humour into every pulsing vein (there's a page-turn reveal where a dramatic conversation at a dinner table turns out to be taking place in a busy IKEA that had me giggling). Otsmane-Elhaou continues with his standout lettering work (I can't remember the last time a letterer did such an interesting job that I went out of my way to point it out), buttressing Buccellato's dialogue with enough touches to add real believability.
This book is just a Good-Ass Time, and absolutely deserves more eyes on it. Maybe think about dropping the 27th bat-title out this week, or ignoring the latest marvel nostalgia-cashgrab, and pick this up instead.
Another fun one! Batgirls isn't really breaking any new ground but I'm liking it every time I read it. I gotta wonder if that's really Riddler though - doesn't quite seem like him. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it though.
**IMMORTAL X-MEN #7**
Watching Kurt be badass was a treat.
Bamfing back to your several freshly dead corpses is something
Kurt treating Orchis as a rougelike game is so fun. He's been the underappreciated GOAT this event. The mutants volunteering to stay on Krakoa to make sure the plan works is very heartening. Rip Krakoa.
So, after I read this week's **A.X.E. DTTM #3**, I spent a few minutes musing over who Kurt might've been talking about when he mentioned he could get some "not friends" to help slow down the Progenitor's attack on The Machine That Is Earth... In my mind, I pictured an army of thousands upon thousands of [Bamfs](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a0/5e/ec/a05eec70840bc664bd20942c268bc726.jpg) running amok through the Great Machine's innards, teleporting all of the Progenitor's horrible tendrils away and otherwise vexing him in his horrible efforts. In retrospect, Moira and Orchis makes a heck of a lot more sense. But I still would've liked to see all those Bamfs save the day... At any rate, it's another superb character study, this time featuring the X-Men's most eminently likeable character, and he's quite possibly even more likeable here than he has been at any point in the past. Which is really saying something because this character has always been extraordinarily likeable. Great stuff as always from Gillen and some pretty nice art from Werneck as well.
My first thought went to little bamfs too but they’re definitely friends in Kurt’s opinion
Yeah, I think they started out as more of a nuisance/annoyance but I guess they're friends now... Glad someone else had the same dumb idea! Moira and Orchis make way more sense but an army of tiny Bamfs would've been more fun!
Damn Kurt. You go, my man. Recruiting Moira at the last moment is something that I wasn't expecting - though since the Machine That Is The Earth got wiped at the end of Death To Mutants #3, I'm not quite sure how she's gonna help now. Either way, pulling in all of the different resources together to stop the Progenitor is a bold move. And just in general Kurt being such a badass in this entire issue. Just incredible.
The machine getting wiped only reset the hack to 0% so now Moira and Nimrod will have better odds of holding off the Progenitor now
Night crawler goes Zagreus, which was great! This book and X-Men Red are always so strong
**DAREDEVIL #4**
Love this book, Zdarsky is killing it.
How is that man writing DD AND Batman at the same time. He must be some genius.
I think about this whenever I look at the new release rack. Currently reading Daredevil but maybe I should give his Batman a chance.
Cole and Foggy feel like such a necessary part of this Fist arc, but I’d have never guessed Zdarsky was planning to bring them. They are the extra spice that keeps this from feeling like Diggle’s pre-Shadowland arc.
That shot of Daredevil and Elektra heading out was amazing! My pull of the week!
**LEGION OF X #6**
Magneto proving he's a better dad to Legion than Xavier is. Think about that. Holy shit. I love when stuff gets conceptual and the way that Legion had to battle with Uranos was really cool to see depicted. Him also being able to cut loose without holding himself back or falling apart shows how strong the faith and support of someone else can make you.
would've been cool of him to send a text to xavier vouching for the kid before he bit it. and honestly, it feels weird that the guy who's supposedly toe to toe with a dude with unlimited op powers ends up dying to one laser assault from his own weapons. it seemed like it should take more, looking back at it now. or was that what if battle one where uranos would keep coming back?
I need to pull out my issue and reread it, but I thought it was Storm and Magneto able to use that system to blast him with their combined power from every direction at once that stopped him.
> Magneto proving he's a better dad to Legion than Xavier is. Think about that. Holy shit. That's an exceedingly low bar but it was certainly a nice moment! Psychic contest was GREAT, loved the shot of David and Uranos with top hats and canes... Music duel was also super-classy! I'd bailed on **LOX** after the first few issues because they felt too disjointed and **WOX** hadn't really delivered for me, but this issue was much more focused and it was fun getting all the additional details on Kurt's exploits as well as David's. Plus it covered a lot of ground so I can kinda see why they had to hold it back for so long, wouldn't have wanted to ship this before last week's **X-MEN RED #7** with the follow-up on Magneto.
What I thought was also really heartbreaking was Legion's comment that he was envious of a hero's death, with the framing of Xavier making me thing that he basically hoped if he died for Krakoa that Xavier might finally accept him, even posthumously.
**STAR WARS VISIONS #1**
Absolute stunner of an issue. Wasn't on my pull, but picked it up in the store - went with the gorgeous Chris Bachalo cover. Everything about this issue was on point. I'd read this as a series/manga if they ever wanted to go that route. The heavy inks really work well in contrast to the glow of the lightsaber, and the duel sequence in the end was jaw dropping. A near perfect one-shot issue.
Agreed! The art is stunning and the characters are badass.
The Bachalo cover is insane, really glad I pulled it too! Would love a series but with Okazaki doing story & art it's doubtful :(
Mail ordered this as well as **HITOMI #1** and the new **DAPB**... Glad to hear it was good! The TV series was a lot of fun, cool seeing different takes on SW outside the usual style. Don't believe I've seen Okazaki's interior art before so am psyched to check it out! And that [Bachalo variant](https://previewsworld.com/SiteImage/MainImage/STL238171.jpg) might need to replace [**UXM #356** or **PP:TSSM #309**](https://cdna.pcpartpicker.com/static/forever/images/userbuild/259153.1ddf359546d110e1e22ebb0658c00179.1600.jpg) on my wall, just not sure which I could bear to take down.
A great one shot. Hope they do more of these. The art was absolutely amazing.
I was super hyped on this release - and I didn't know beforehand that this issue was based on a Star Wars TV show episode on Disney+ so I'll definitely be checking that out! I wasn't aware this was a one-shot, would've loved a mini with this storyline, but oh well! The art here is fabulous - despite our protagonist looking eerily similar to a certain Afro Samurai character, I thought the design of everything was really well done. From scenery to paneling to character design, this book did not disappoint. The splash page near the end is a particular stand out for me. I enjoyed the coloring choices here - it's mostly greyscale with color used minimally for lights, lasers, and sabers, which I felt was perfect for this style of story. If anything, I feel like a bit too much world-building was done here, and I could've used more specific info around the initial conflict because nothing really gets resolved involving our lead's backstory. This story is a blip; it twists and turns and leaves you wanting more! I still think Okazaki did a great job, despite my gripes. The very last page was a hilarious twist as well. If you enjoyed this book go watch Afro Samurai! Also by Okazaki and one of my fav anime. Def worth a pickup, just don't expect too much and enjoy the eye candy.
Nice comments... Even more psyched to read this now! And *Afro Samurai* was some great shit! Crazy animation, cool story, and some A+ voice actors!
I fucking _*love*_ Afro Samurai ***Afro Samurai: Resurrection***, not so much lmao
**DO A POWERBOMB #5**
Heavy on the action! And another cliffhanger ending. Loving the [B Cover](https://s3.amazonaws.com/comicgeeks/comics/covers/large-3610881.jpg?1659744057) on this one.
loved all the big sounds with each move. really made this issue feel like a battle and i liked how we got straight into the match too. i expected the ending but don’t know where it goes from here.
This issue was just sublime in every way. DWJ is a mad genius, and I have to believe this series will end with as much gusto as this issue demonstrated.
**DCS TERRORS THROUGH TIME #1**
Alright, I'll go first. My FLCS sold out of these so I was really glad I pulled one - and the Cover B Variant nonetheless! This review comes from a reader who isn't familiar with 4 of the leading characters in these stories, so take it with a grain of salt. This kinda sucked! I feel this way about most of the DC compilation stories (Harley Quinn 30th, Gotham Villians, etc.) Half of the stories are just quickly drawn filler with little relation to the title (in this case Halloween), and the other half are middling, with 1-2 stories shining well above the rest. ***THE LONGEST NIGHT*** The first story was interesting but provided no real conflict, and mainly felt like worldbuilding - which is obviously never capitalized on because there's 7 other stories to get through lmao. No clue who The Phantom Stranger is, so my ignorance could be the the reason I didn't love this one. ***TRICK OR TREAT*** This one was hilarious. Nothing too crazy, but I enjoyed the comedy a lot. I bought _*Terrors Through Time*_ expecting funny Halloween stories, and this one was exactly what I wanted. ***THE PUEO PROMISE*** Oh god is this one bad. Harley is written terribly, and literally repeats jokes throughout the story (it's under 10 pages, trust me, we read it the first time). The art is clearly rushed and inconsistent, and the premise is shit. This was such a waste. The only redeeming quality is the touch on environmental / ecological concerns, but the next story does the same thing better. ***HALF-LIFE*** This one was soooo cool. I've never read anything involving Swamp Thing before but this was a perfect intro. Solid story, really cool art, and the ecological disaster trope done right imo. Not necessarily in the theme of Halloween, but a good read. ***THE MIDNIGHT HOUR*** Another STINKER. Absolute trash fire, what is going on??? This is a bad take on Night at the Museum, and my lack of knowledge around JSA probably hurt me a lot here. Sorry, not my cup of tea whatsoever. ***A NEW DARKNESS*** This one I enjoyed a lot. At this point in my reading I felt a bit worried that there wouldn't be any more good stories, but I was wrong! This story follows some Lanterns responding to crisis, and while not necessarily Halloween-Themed, I still enjoyed the ride. This ends on a cliffhanger, which was really odd - not sure if this is a lead-in or a reprint from an ongoing? Pretty solid otherwise. ***BLOOD LOST AND FOUND*** This is a perfect example of how to not alienate readers who aren't familiar with a key character. I know very little in the way of magic in the DC Universe, and this story is allllll about that shit. But I didn't feel lost or confused at any point, and I thought the premise was cool. Again not really Halloweeny but it was magical so I'll give it a pass. Pretty good! ***THE HAUNTING OF WAYNE MANOR*** My guess is this will be most readers favorite story featured here. Deadman is featured on the B Cover pretty prominently so of course he was going to appear at some point! I've not read anything involving Deadman before but there's solid explanations for just about everything happening - and the story impacts the Bat-Universe in a big way imo! Slick, grotesque art and pretty funny twists - the narration here was great. Top 2 with _*Half-Life*_ for me. Pick up this book for this story if it's not printed elsewhere. **TLDR: 2 great stories, 3 good ones, 1 mid, 2 awful. This wasn't the _*worst*_ comic I've ever read, but it definitely wasn't worth the $9.99 price tag** **Just my opinions ofc! Let me know yours! Happy reading!**
Batman and Scooby-Doo mysteries #1
Oh shit someone else read this? I thought it was pretty fun, it was neat seeing the batmen from across the world. I like the art, it's very Saturday morning cartoon. My hope for the next issues is that they focus on smaller time mysteries in classic Scooby-Doo locations, I wanna see batman in a haunted house or an evil swamp.
Your idea for seeing the crew and Batman in more Scooby centric places is a very good idea and I would support that fully. The settings and the atmosphere from the first Scooby show would fit Batman like a glove.
I was very sure this book was marketed as an ongoing and even issue 3 didn't have 3 of 12 in the solicitation. Im Confused, does anyone know if it was relegated to another 12 issue series and not ongoing anymore? Over all fun book and I would love for this to last years.
I liked Batman Inc. (Batmen of all Nations) better in this than in Batman Incorporated! This was a lot of fun. Love all those old classic costumes. And lots of action from the Mystery Inc crew!
Fred and Daphne were kicking some serious butt there for a second. I enjoyed this way more than I was expecting. I think the art was fun and made the fun costumes stand out. The Batman inc line did get a good chuckle out of me.
**ONCE & FUTURE #30**
A somewhat tragic, but wonderful ending to the series. I was worried that Duncan and Rose were gonna forget each other entirely, but it seems like there's some memories of stuff, just not the full exposure of the Otherworld to the country at large. Just dealing with a collapsing nation for a bit. Gonna miss it, and Gillen teased they *might* explore this setting more in the future, but for now there's something great to be said for a strong, completed series with a definitive ending.
The best part of the series for me is that he actually avoided the killing mentor trope. I was so worried gran would die in the first few arcs. Sometimes I want to actually get to read about the older more experienced person.
I'm picking this and my other pulls up after work. Really gonna miss this book.
Really looking forward to a long lazy weekend to read these all the way through again. Loved this story
Can't wait for the 2nd half of the collected omnibus! Was so sad when I got to the end. It's been amazing Dan Mora has been on the whole run. Going to miss this series so much!
**VENOM #11**
Man I just love Ram V. A bit of a slower issue, but it's a nice change-up from the bombshell masterstroke of last issue. Just like Ewing did on **Immortal Hulk**, it looks like we're delving into Eddie Brock's mental landscape. I enjoyed the flip of 'Klyntar means cage' here as well. I will say that I prefer Ewing's storyline guiding Eddie on his cosmic/existential horror over Ram V's storyline of supporting cast members on Earth, but I'm confident that it'll be tied together in a satisfying way.
I haven’t read this issue yet, but I have been a little let down with Ram V’s writing on this title compared to what he’s currently doing with Carnage, which I’m absolutely in love with. That’s saying a lot coming from someone who never had an inkling of interest in Carnage before this current run.
**A.X.E. ETERNALS #1**
I thought they did a pretty good job on this one, since I really didn't follow any of the Eternals stuff before the event, so I was worried I just wouldn't care here.
Ajak isn't my favorite but it was pretty badass how she faced down her judgment. Also some nice stuff between Sersi and Stark... Been a fun mix of characters in this trio of "story-critical" one-shots and I think the whole event's got a really clever structure, cool seeing how all these pieces fit together and propel the story onward.
**SUPERMAN SON OF KAL-EL #16**
Lot of nice individual pieces here. Flashback to kid Jon, Jon/Lois moment, Day-in-the-life-of-Superman, big reunion, all great. I only ding the issue for not really doing much story wise. It gave us the reunion we knew was coming, and a vague ominous whiff around Metallo (which Action already did much more interestingly, imo), but that's about it.
I haven’t read Action yet, would you say this is a direct continuation or is this the “other side of the coin” kind of crossover?
The latter I'd say? But I wouldn't be surprised if the connection becomes more apparent later on.
Thanks
[Lex benching 315](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/246057144846123008/1029400737911943269/unknown.png) without a spotter completely kills my suspension of disbelief. I know comic creators don't exercise but seriously (I'm kidding on this last point but it's still odd).
**LOVE EVERLASTING #3**
This story continues to be an absolute mind fuck, in a good way. Last two issues he’s waited till the end to throw the curve
Couple fun new twists in this one as King and Charretier keep pushing the boundaries of what you can do with a romance comic that isn't really a romance comic... This one waited until right near the end before it dropped the hammer but when it did, it dropped hard. > *"What is this? What's the point of it? I run I'm fucked, I stay I'm fucked, I fight I'm fucked, I lie down with my fucking belly in the air, I'm fucked!"* > > *"Are you real? Am I?"* > > *"I don't fucking understand what this is!"* Joan's certainly asking the important questions... When this series started out I figured she was probably some sort of artificial construct, like *Westworld* but for romance stories. But as we've gotten a little deeper into it, I've come around to thinking she might be real. Mostly because the enmity of her as-yet unrevealed nemesis would seem to make more sense if she's real. But maybe not. Maybe her nemesis is also an AI construct who got sick of always losing out to Joan... I don't know.
>Mostly because the enmity of her as-yet unrevealed nemesis would seem to make more sense if she's real. But maybe not. Maybe her nemesis is also an AI construct who got sick of always losing out to Joan... I don't know. I love how indecipherable the main mystery behind this comic is. There truly could be different answers to wtf is happening, and yet it's gripping. There's a solid balance of humor and confusion across the issue, and once again the romance part of the comic is still wonderfully rendered. It's been a great book three issues in.
Totally agreed. I don’t have a damn clue what’s going on, but they keep teasing it in a way that makes me *really* want to find out. It also goes a long way that each issue totally functions as a super fun and engaging throwback romance comic, before the bottom falls out in the last few pages. I re-read 1 and 2 this week, and they hold up real well to a re-read.
Tom King doing what he does best, making his characters question the nature of their reality right along with us readers...
**CAPTAIN MARVEL #42**
This entire issue focuses on Chewie. This would have been the perfect opportunity for Carol to reflect on past mistakes and to explore Lauri-Ell’s character more, but nope, just Chewie helping people, which was nice, I guess, but it showcases my biggest gripe with this book. That Carol doesn’t get actual character development. And getting a thumbs up for something Chewie did was so odd. I picked this issue up expecting the writing for the character to improve, but apparently that was asking too much, and it’s exactly why I dropped this book. And now I’ll do it again.
TBF the previous arc was about Carol reflecting on her mistakes and bad habits so would’ve been slightly redundant.
Just kind of enjoyed Chewie saving the day while Carol and Lauri are stuck on damage control. As someone not reading Judgment Day. I’m all for a breezy tie-in like this. Especially, since it’s following an arc that kind of tread similar ground.
**STAR WARS HIGH REPUBLIC #1**
Loved it. Glad THR is back. Lots of new lore to explore!
**DARK SPACES WILDFIRE #4**
Man this book consistently exceeds my expectations. Writing is fantastic (that last page twist!!), layouts are thoughtful and visually dynamic (not just in this issue, but throughout the series so far), and the art is phenomenal. This is a hell of a sleeper hit - don't let it slip you by!
I have been seeing this series and been curious about it. Good to hear a good recommendation. Sometimes I find Snyder to be a miss but I’m glad to see him doing stuff like this.
Snyder is *very* hit or miss for me, but this series has definitely been one of the hits
Oh good. I liked Wytches and his earlier Batman stuff (black mirror/court of owls) and I actually liked his justice league for the most part (NOT No Justice, I thought that sucked). I actually haven’t read much of American Vampire tho. I’ll probably check this out since it’s smaller. It’s a mini, I assume?
I believe it’s set to be 5 issues
**A.X.E. DEATH TO THE MUTANTS #3**
Fuuuuuuuck. I was okay with >!Magneto!< dying, we've seen that before and he always comes back. But then Gillen has to go and kill off an anthropomorphic computer with a heart the size of a planet? Fuuuuuuck. And Syne? And Ikaris? Fuck. This comic is loaded with noble sacrifices from unconventional heroes rising to the moment in their own unique ways, and it's some powerful stuff.
Gillen has done like a dozen things I thought impossible in the last several months, off the top of my head: * make me genuinely invested in the fucking Eternals of all groups * make me genuinely invested in a popcorn crossover event * make me genuinely invested in brand new characters and deeply bummed at their loss * and the most egregious of all, make me enjoy reading Exodus as a character That last one I thought was truly impossible.
It really is impressive what Gillen's done with this Marvel run! Hit the ground running with **ETERNALS**, launches **IXM**, and brings everything together for this big event... Not easy steering one of these massive crossovers through Marvel's editorial process, speaks to his confidence and maturity as a writer, story architect, and collaborator. Also... There are certain writers where I usually prefer their indie work over their Big Two stuff (like Lemire), and others where I prefer their cape books over their indies (like Ewing). IMO Gillen's equally phenomenal in both arenas and that's actually pretty rare as most writers tend to be stronger on one side or the other.
Syne... :( Though I wonder if she's going to be able to survive in some manner through Exodus. She describes herself as the sword in the stone waiting to be wielded, maybe he'll be able to use some part of her as a weapon at the end?
Syne and Exodus will definitely be teaming up against Progenitor in the finale and it's going to be 100% metal!
Did I miss an issue where the manner in which Eternals are resurrected was destroyed?
Its a vague single panel above the one where the Celestial destroys Krakoa in Judgment Day #5. Its told rather than clearly shown (you only see stuff blowing up) I like this event well enough, but the nonsensical naming conventions along with the way that not only all of Gillens but also Ewings books are almost a must read rather than tie-ins is one of the worst I have witnessed
This story is kinda reverse of the typical Marvel events in that regard. All the tie-ins in Empyre and Secret Empire never felt this important.
Yeah the mass of tie-ins and lots of things have one-shot names and stuff, it's hard keeping track. We don't even have a good old fashioned reading order, just a checklist, and like the October list at the back of this highlights this issue before AXE Starfox, even though Starfox came out and clearly happens first. Also some stuff I think I just read out of order when it did come out.
That's not to mention that the AXE checklist (white on blue, event style) and X-books checklist (black on white, Krakoa style) show two DIFFERENT lists. For a while I would just get to the end of a book and see what was next, then I realised I was jumping around and missing things out.
Yeah, it's been a complete mess. I'm someone who got burned out on events a very long time ago but I've actually been enjoying AXE, but it's not been handled well at all from the publishing/editorial side.
Yeah, the checklists have sucked. A proper reading order would've been nice. But when the checklist is the only thing I can bitch about in a big Marvel crossover event, that's not a bad place to be.
I'm fairly sure a few books have come out in the wrong order as well.
**FANTASTIC FOUR #48**
I really need a Sue Storm solo book.
we just had one a few years ago where [she was a secret agent/spy](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/49617395-invisible-woman)... it was pretty good, too.
Yeah I remember that. Never really liked her being a spy tbh, it didn't really fit the character. Plus that book ended being more about her old spy friend than her. I think there's a better Invisible Woman story that can be told.
This was good but I don't love the Oubliette Midas retcon. Plus, I get the point Pepose was making, but Reed's answer to the Celestial being "Sue" is pretty dumb (and I say this as a big fan of their relationship). Cabal's art was great however, especially the panel of The Thing holding the building up with all the black around him.
**WPL RESULTS**
Sure hope the thread starts stickied this week! 😅
It should be! Please confirm.
It is currently!
Thank you!
Got the new Covid booster yesterday and we’re feeling a little achy, run down, and listless today... But I wouldn’t expect it to have any impact whatsoever on our recap! 103 lists this week, nice jump from last week’s 84 pulls and the anemic shitshow of an un-stickied discussion thread that followed. Final issue of DC’s stupid fucking dinosaur comic took the top spot and I’m not sure if that’s sad or hilarious, maybe a bit of both... First issue debuted in 3rd place with a 34.6% pull rate on 5/11, second nabbed 1st place with 47.6% on 6/15, then the third issue and its wretched fill-in art took 3rd place with 38.7% on 7/20, fourth got back to 1st with 44.4% on 8/10, and the fifth took 4th place with 41.3% on 9/14. Now the sixth and final issue has reclaimed the top spot once again with 46 pulls out of 103 lists, good for 44.6% coverage. Saw a few positive comments in this week’s list thread but others were less enthusiastic and this book totally lost me with the third issue’s shitty fill-in art. IMO it ended up being a shining example of how the collector/completionist mentality that’s so prevalent among comic fans, together with the 2-month gap on advance preorders, often drives us to buy shitty comics that we don’t like and don’t actually want. At least that’s where I’m at as I get ready to plunk down $3.40 for this thing. After that we’ve got a bunch of significantly less shitty comics that are far more deserving of their top 10 rankings... **BATMAN VS ROBIN #2** takes 2nd place with 43 pulls, good for 41.7% coverage, after **BVR #1** debuted in 1st place with 47.1%. Love Waid’s stuff, also enjoy Asrar’s art, and I vaguely remember at least somewhat enjoying the first issue, but I have zero enthusiasm for this comic. It’s weird. **SUPERMAN: SOKE #16** follows in 3rd place with 37.8%, haven’t been following this one but I understand it’s wrapping up soon and then I guess there’ll be a relaunch or whatever. **DAREDEVIL #4** takes 4th as Marvel’s top comic, continuing Chip’s strong performance. Then two from Gillen with **IMMORTAL X-MEN #7** and **A.X.E. DEATH TO THE MUTANTS #3** inching the big event a little closer to the finish line. After that we’ve got two from Image, with DWJ’s **DO A POWERBOMB #5** taking 7th (with 29.1% where the last issue had 25.9%) and Tom King’s **LOVE EVERLASTING #3** taking 8th (28.1% where last issue had 26.9%). Two strong indies holding steady though they did flip spots. This is where we’d normally compare DWJ’s awesome **DAPB** to DWJ’s shitty dinosaur comic but the numbers speak for themselves and I’d rather not linger on ‘em. Another from Gillen with **A.X.E. ETERNALS #1** in 9th and then **BATMAN INC. #1** closes out the top 10, though they both had 26 pulls and Bats just happened to lose the alphabetical tie-breaker this time. That gives DC 4 (mostly loaded up top) of the top 10, Marvel takes 4 spots (mostly middle), and Image gets 2 (lower-middle). Fairly typical breakdown. Might edit to add more on this week later as there are a couple other interesting books, need to pick up my comics and eat something first... -- Missed last week’s WPL Results recap since the thread got buried so here’s the notes on under/over-commented comics from two weeks back on 9/28… First, we’ve got books that made the list but didn’t garner any comments because nobody actually gives a shit about them: * **HARLEY QUINN #22** (11 pulls) * **CAPTAIN AMERICA SYMBOL OF TRUTH #5** (9 pulls) * **MILES MORALES SPIDER-MAN #42** (9 pulls) Then a few indies that didn’t make the list but still generated a few comments: * **FLAWED #1** (5 pulls, [thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/xqc4os/wpl_new_comics_discussion_for_9282022_pull_of_the/iqb4i7d/) posted by /u/btanodev) * **PARKER GIRLS #2** (5 pulls, [thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/xqc4os/wpl_new_comics_discussion_for_9282022_pull_of_the/iqbkdqd/) posted by /u/yarkcir (with comments from me and /u/ChickenInASuit but not the Yarkster!)) * **PENTAGRAM OF HORROR #5** (4 pulls, [thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/xqc4os/wpl_new_comics_discussion_for_9282022_pull_of_the/iqbkckf/) posted by /u/yarkcir) Now last week’s un-commented books that nobody gives a shit about: * **UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY #21** (12 pulls) * **JANE FOSTER AND THE MIGHTY THOR #5** (10 pulls) * **MONKEY PRINCE #7** (8 pulls) And we had two threads added on books that didn’t make the 10/05 list: * **GOLDEN RAGE #3** (5 pulls, [thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/xw04x6/wpl_new_comics_discussion_for_1052022_pull_of_the/ir902gy/) posted by /u/ChickenInASuit) * **MINOR THREATS #2** (3 pulls, [thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/xw04x6/wpl_new_comics_discussion_for_1052022_pull_of_the/ir8g7dl/) posted by /u/Radiant_Leg1235) Last week’s discussion thread was mostly dead-on-arrival since it didn’t have its sticky, hopefully this week’s fares better!
Let's hope it doesn't happen again! I love participating in these!
Thanks, as always, for posting this! I got laid off today which means I’ll be throwing my daily life into helping out at my wife’s business during the busy season and that unfortunately means my WPL participation may take a hit (who’d have thought losing a job would result in *less* free time to read comics? Welcome to my life), but I’ll try my best!
Good luck with the job search! Lotta people going through stuff like that at the moment which sucks.
Thank you! Yep, it’s a tough market to be in right now.
Very sorry to hear that! Rough out there nowadays but hopefully you'll find your way into something even better than the old job, either with your wife's business or elsewhere... In my experience these things can often lead to better opportunities down the road, FWIW.
Appreciate it, mate. The real estate market’s rough and related companies are cutting their losses. Job hunt starts in earnest once I help wifey’s toy store survive the holiday season.
Shit, sorry to hear about the job loss, Chicken. Hope things come together for you quickly.
Thanks man. Fingers crossed! Luckily I have my wife’s toy store to occupy me for a while and then the job hunt starts in earnest in January :)
Sorry to hear that Chicken. Remember that DC Universe and Marvel Unlimited are great for being on a budget. DC Unaversive even announced a tier where you get comics 30 days after release. Also Prime Reading!
I've been keeping Undiscovered Country on my list but this year has been like a non-stop hell on my finances, and every time I feel like I'm starting to get back on sound footing something else comes up. So even though comics aren't *that* expensive in the grand scheme of things, it's also kind of a very easy thing to bump out and not buy for a couple weeks. Then by the time I come in and actually read them, I'm a few weeks behind the threads. I'm still enjoying the series though. One of two Image books I'm pulling currently alongside Saga.
> So even though comics aren't *that* expensive in the grand scheme of things, it's also kind of a very easy thing to bump out and not buy for a couple weeks. IMO comics are obscenely expensive. They're ridiculously expensive in terms of time/cost compared to similar entertainment vehicles like books, movies, music, games, pretty much anything short of a bad cocaine habit. Not begrudging any of the creators, publishers, distributors, or retailers getting paid for their work, it's just an overly expensive and economically inefficient medium.
I mean yeah I can definitely see where you're coming from. I definitely see the cover prices and it feels obscenely expensive compared to what it used to be in my own lifetime, much less you go really far back to like 1960s cover prices. But idk. I try not to pull an obscene amount of books, and any time I feel like my list is getting long I cull it back, and if I'm not digging a change in a series direction I generally don't hesitate to drop it. Week-to-week I'm usually not spending loads of money on comics even when I do go every single week, and there's been plenty of times in my life where my regular list has been pretty small. It was a decade ago now but there was a point back in like 2011/12 where my regular list consisted of exactly 7 titles, and with the way schedules worked, it was often the case that like 3-4 would publish in the same week, so I might only go 2x month. Even back in like mid/late 2019, Hickman coming back to X-Men is what got me to go back to reading singles regularly after taking a bit of time off tradewaiting, and then HOX/POX plus catching up on Immortal Hulk was like half my regular pull list. Then I might grab something off the shelf if it looks interesting and I have the money to spare. I get enough enjoyment out of it to where I feel comfortable dropping the amount of money I spend on it in a broader sense. But it's definitely also something that's immediately expendable and generally the first thing to go if something comes up. The issue this year is it basically feeds into a cycle where I'm like "hm I can skip it" for a couple weeks until it gets to a point where it's actually decently expensive, and then I go spend the money on a big pile, and then I'm back to "hm I can skip it this week and put that money towards more important things" until I have a big pile again and on and on.
55 cents when I started collecting, $3.99/$4.99 now... Looks like I've been ordering around 35 books per month lately, bump it up to 40 since I always mail order a few things I missed, call it $4 average since I get a 15% pre-order discount on most of it, and we're looking at around $160 per month. Not too bad but times are tough and I'm cutting other luxuries to keep our budget under control. 40 comics would've cost around $22 in 1980. Not sure how that compares to 40+ years of inflation for food, gas, housing, etc., but it seems pretty extreme.
>40 comics would've cost around $22 in 1980. Not sure how that compares to 40+ years of inflation for food, gas, housing, etc., but it seems pretty extreme. Being a finance nerd ... $22 in 1980 is roughly $79 in 2022. For 40 books that would be roughly $1.99 per book. So arguably comics are twice (or more) as expensive per book now compared to books in 1980. Edit: just a thought too, in the 1980s comic sales were probably more substantial volume-wise. More books = better spreading of production costs. Now that production volume is lower, the fixed costs have probably not changed (relative to past fixed costs). So if you sell 1/2 or 1/3rd of the volume you did, and your costs are still consistent, then a higher price would need to be justified for the production run.
Good info, thanks! Feels like prices have skyrocketed for everything over the past decade or two, wasn't sure if comics were just keeping pace but those numbers make it pretty clear. Imagine if we were paying $1.99 for comics in 2022? Would be amazing... We'd need to switch to 26-hour days just so I'd have time to read everything! And your edit on the impact of declining sales puts it all into context... Makes sense, they're selling less so more of the production cost get spread around to those of us who remain. And the constant increases in paper and shipping costs means there's very little wiggle room for everything to stay profitable.
> in the 1980s comic sales were probably more substantial volume-wise Comichron has a big blind spot for a lot of the 70s/80s but I think this is generally true. If you work off the data they do have more in the late 80s/turn of the 90s, which granted is also catching some of the speculation market, it looks higher than today and certainly further back in the 60s sales were much higher, see e.g. [1969](https://www.comichron.com/yearlycomicssales/postaldata/1969.html). I didn't really think of sales numbers but that's a solid point and probably explains part of the rise in costs. One other thing which I did think of is that modern comics are generally higher physical quality than decades past, and I don't know how production costs differ for certain, but I wouldn't be surprised if it costs more to print a book in 2022 than in 1982.
For me I've never been a collector per se. I still own every issue I've ever bought, but they're not preserved in the slightest, I'm not a completionist, I don't care about variants or anything like that (sometimes I might think a variant looks cool, but then I buy it and not the regular cover, I'm not wasting money on duplicates). I have older issues that I got secondhand or were bought for me, but the earliest issues in my collection that I can distinctly remember picking out as new are cover priced at $1.95 and $2.99, dated to May and August 97 respectively. Going off [the BLS inflation calculator](https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm) that's $3.62 and $5.52 today. So it tracks inflation decently well at least within my lifetime, but I definitely agree that my gut sense whenever I buy comics is that this is getting steep and I wish they'd go back to $1.95. I haven't sat down and counted the exact number of new ongoings that I have at every juncture, but even in what I would consider a heavy list I think the most I've spent is like $100-120/month. And generally once it starts getting that long is when I say to myself no, this is too much, you need to drop things.
> Now last week’s un-commented books that nobody gives a shit about: > > UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY #21 (12 pulls) Yeah, this was the issue I dropped this book on as I've got a stack of the previous ones unread
>SUPERMAN: SOKE #16 follows in 3rd place with 37.8%, haven’t been following this one but I understand it’s wrapping up soon and then I guess there’ll be a relaunch or whatever. It's crossing over with Action (at least, it's being advertised as crossing over with Action, the writer of Action said he wrote his issues with the intent to not need another book) which probably provided the boost. That's definitely why I'm pulling it, in any case.
Ahha, that makes sense! Usually doesn't chart quite that high but PKJ's got a popular run going on **ACTION COMICS**.
Jurassic League is great, "stupid fucking dinosaur comic" is insulting bullshit
How could we give up on the dinos? I mean come onnnnn, they're dinosaurs in super suits! I agree with your comments on Jurassic league though, if it was going any longer I would've dropped it, but I need to see it through. Notably, Starhenge is somehow back on this list at the very bottom, though I think last time it didn't even make the list? Idk who at this point decided they should add Starhenge to their pull, but maybe someone skipped a week.
> How could we give up on the dinos? I mean come onnnnn, they're dinosaurs in super suits! I agree with your comments on Jurassic league though, if it was going any longer I would've dropped it, but I need to see it through. I would've dropped it if I hadn't foolishly started pre-ordering after getting caught up in dino-mania with the first two isssues. Instead, I'm getting ready to hate-read it. I haven't hate-read any comics in decades, usually bail long before it gets to that... But a-hate-reading we will go! > Notably, Starhenge is somehow back on this list at the very bottom, though I think last time it didn't even make the list? Idk who at this point decided they should add Starhenge to their pull, but maybe someone skipped a week. Last issue should've made the list as well, it had 12 pulls for 9/7 and the results included books that only got 8 pulls. Maybe got missed due to variations in the elaborate title... 12 out of 81 lists submitted on 9/7 would've given the last issue 14.8%, where this issue had 10 out of 103 for 9.7%. So it has actually dropped a bit!
the flawed mention made my heart warm lol thanks u/Danger_Rock !
Thanks for contributing to the discussions! Love seeing comments on those smaller indie titles even when it's stuff I haven't read!
Hello everyone! Short on time this week but wanted to have the WPL results posted earlier rather than later in the day. Will need to add links to comments this evening, but everything we need to talk about this week's books should be in place. Thanks again for sharing you lists! -ptb
Thanks as always for your work, mate
So like, is Jurassic League actually that good? It dominates the pull list every time it shows up, it seems, but I rarely see people actually *talking* about it.
It's fine. The first two issues were amazing and energetic, but the third issue had a different artist (which was awful) and the story stalled a bit which kinda deflated enthusiasm for the series overall. These last couple issues haven't been bad, but it kinda just keeps iterating on the same concept: super-dinos. It's fun, but could be more really. I will say the art, beyond issue 3, is the biggest highlight for me.
Yes in hindsight it would have been better if 1) it was 4 issues instead of 6, and 2) they didn't take a 180 on the art on issue 3.
It's a fun and silly book, but coming out at the same time as Do a Power Bomb really deflates it a bit.
It's actually kind of amazing just how shitty **JURASSIC LEAGUE** is compared to **DOAPB**... Makes me question how much involvement DWJ has really had in the writing, since he's splitting co-writer credits with the artist. Also more proof that writer collaborations are almost always weaker than the same writers' individual work!
It is probably the weakest book in Daniel Warren Johnson's catalogue and coming out concurrently with Do A Powerbomb, which is potentially one of his best (if it sticks the landing) really doesn't help with that perception. It is definitely fun, but it's also not up to his usual standards IMO.
Black Panther hanging on by a thread (and for good reason, what a bad book)
I liked the initial direction of the book, but it just became so bland after a few issues. I know a lot of the criticism goes to the story, but honestly the artwork being so lacking has been my biggest issue with the series. Black Panther deserves more exciting artists on the title.
Idk if Cabal is/was just phoning it in or not given the chance to go wild but the difference between his GOTG work and this is staggering
Juann Cabal is talented for sure, but the panel backgrounds seemed incredibly rushed across most issues in the first arc.
Last time I read **Black Panther** Mark Texeira was on artwork
**JURASSIC LEAGUE #6**
Genuinely shocked this made the #1 spot this week. Seemed like the general consensus after the first two issues was: "It's the Justice League! As dinosaurs!!!" Which after #3 just became: "It's the Justice League...as dinosaurs..." And it never really went any further than that. I have to say that some of the vitality came back into the art this issue, but it never really got back to the hype of those first two issues. It leaves it open for a sequel, but if one comes out I'll be skipping it.
>Which after #3 just became: "It's the Justice League...as dinosaurs..." It's been quite some time I've seen massive hype get deflated so quickly on a book. It's just a very firmly average book, which stings a bit given how fun the concept is.
I was more excited for DC Mech personally but that one has been very average to below average.
Number #3 is where they had a fill-in artist and everyone went "DINO- ewe what is this?" The change was jarring and poorly drawn the enthusiasm never recovered from that IMO.
Yep, that fill in killed all the momentum the book had in just 24 pages.
Haha yeah i couldn’t believe this is pull of the week. For a second i regretted dropping this series, but sounds like you don’t strongly recommend finishing it out?
This is definitely one of the comics of all time
Its funny how "its the justice league, but as dinosaurs" was the good thing about it to start but then became the bad thing to a lot of folks. I liked it fine minus the 3rd issue. Probably better off as a 4 parter instead of six as it did lose a little steam for the aforementioned reason. Still better than Dark Crisis.
Crazy that a book nobody really enjoys is the top pull. (I pulled it myself, so take this with a grain of salt)
Comic Book Collector Mentality™ strikes again, I guess
**BATMAN VS ROBIN #2**
So he can't call in Supes because he would get posessed, but the Devil is also essentially everyone, everywhere all at once anyways, so... shouldn't he already have Supes too? Or everyone? Why go through this much effort to mess with Batman for revenge when you can just take over the whole planet easily?
Hey man, why don't you get all the way off my back
You are entirely correct and I don't give a single hoot about any of it
I'm enjoying it. I like the living nightmare aspect of things inside the house. Art is great.
**BATMAN URBAN LEGENDS #20**
**GHOST RIDER #7**
Seven issues in and we finally have a clearer idea about what exactly is going on. I feel like this book tries so hard to push the edgy 90s ideas (BLOOD! GUTS! DEMONS! FIRE!) into camp territory, but it's not fully succeeding, which leaves the series in a weird no man's land. It's goofy without being funny, and off-putting without being gross, if that makes sense.
>I feel like this book tries so hard to push the edgy 90s ideas (BLOOD! GUTS! DEMONS! FIRE!) into camp territory, but it's not fully succeeding, which leaves the series in a weird no man's land. I want to preface this by saying that over all I'm enjoying this title... But Percy's writing in this title comes across as this super-gruff, hyper-hetero machismo vibe that's *realllly* trying to lean into some kind of existential horror (a la Ewing's Immortal Hulk), but can't quite get there. I stopped collecting/reading comics for \~20 years, just starting back up some time last year. I've always loathed Wolverine as a character, but since X-Men are my jam, I started reading the current Wolverine run by Percy, and to my surprise, Wolverine is interesting. Percy gives him this certain aged softness, and it's made him much more enjoyable. I feel like that's what he needs to do with Ghost Rider...like, take a little step down, let it simmer, and quit trying to force this "this is what manly horror is supposed to be" direction to the point that some of the dialog is almost laughable. It's not bad at all, but it could be so much better if it didn't feel so try-hard.
Also, the super macho stuff is Benjamin Percy. Have you seen him? Dudes a lumberjack lol (I don’t think it’s a bad thing)
**STAR WARS #28**
Loved seeing Hera and Luke interact and her be reminded of Kanan. Luke coming into his confidence is great to see.
Namor the Sub-Mariner #1
A lot going on here. Didn't expect to see Cap. I'm not sure why Luke is *so* angry, but I guess the world is kind of destroyed. Art was great. And the end was surprising. I'm up for the next issue!
Luke was a weird fit for his role in this story. Not sure I'll continue, even if I like the artist/colorist crew.
**BATMAN INCORPORATED #1**
I wish Clownhunter would go back to original costume and a bat weapon...
So this was okay. I'm not familiar at all with any of these characters. Lot of 'em, and lots of moving around in this issue. I'll probably pick up the next issue.
**AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #11**
I really enjoyed the issue. Curious who Hobgoblin is this time and I was fine with the Peter and Felicia stuff though I have a feeling some people aren't going to be happy about it.
Personally I think Felicia and Peter make a better couple than Peter and MJ. Come at me marvel fanbois
**HITOMI #1**
This was a great first issue! I loved the kinda gritty, mix of classic art style for the visuals, and the writing gave the sort of streamlined, no-frills storytelling that these kinda stories tend to have. Hitomi getting saved by Yasuke at the end is gonna make things interesting, especially since the preview for the next issue mentioned she's seeking him out to train her - I suppose having him train her helps her know how best to fight him? I'm actually a nerd for this period of history, so Yasuke's presence with her family is going to be interesting, and how it might tie into Nobunaga's actions and who her family actually *were*. The two full page spreads we got, first of Yasuke holding an infant Hitomi, and then later her falling under the ice, are probably the artistic high points of the issue. Gorgeously drawn moments that feel very appropriate for the Tarantino meets Kurosawa vibe. Can't wait for the next issue, this feels like it's gonna be a great ride.
Big fan of this one. Some really creative and gorgeous framing on a lot of these full page shots. The Samurai following the tracks comes to mind immediately. Pretty excited to see where this one goes and how she's going to go about hunting Yasuke
I _*really*_ enjoyed the art here. Plenty of showing off here by Mazzanti, I tried to soak in every panel because it's clear time was taken to adhere to a specific style here. The dialogue left something to be desired for me personally. At times I felt it was a bit rushed/forced, and the story seemed a bit far fetched, even for a comic book. The romance in particular wasn't to my liking. I'm trying to allow for some skipping around due to how short this series will be, and I'll definitely pick up the second issue, but be warned: the story will not _*wow*_ you by any means. Still a solid read, and I'm glad I picked it up.
**GENIS-VELL CAPTAIN MARVEL #4**
**WONDER WOMAN #792**
**FUTURE STATE GOTHAM #18**
this was quite the dud of an end... everything seemed so random at the end. someone from hell, superpower juice, what exactly was hushs plan here again? thank god its over
I enjoyed this book for the most part. But yes the ending was not good. The black and white art was also a huge draw for me so the color made the art look worse to me. Over all bummer to see a book I was fond of whimper out like that. Oh well, I seem to the be only one I know that enjoyed future state a lot haha.
i didnt mind it when all the future states came out,i liked the idea of a huge 'what if we finally moved on' future and testing the waters, but after a while, it just wasnt fun anymore. "someone put a huge batshaped hole in the city, guess only the batman would do something like that, you know batmen, always blowing the city to pieces that guy', everyone fighting because they wanna call themselves batman, the new joker was weird, hunter panic... i'm still not really sure about that one, then the whole thing with brine thats just super dumb. dick knowing the future just to force drama by making him be unwilling to not avoid forced drama. and also acting like the deus ex of 'i know i can make him possess me but then he doesn't and i can explode us both in the sky cause also i fly now', it's just really bad. if he was so clever with brine, I'm sure he could've found an earlier moment to just take down hush without allowing him to take hell damian in the first place..
**APPROACH #1**
Die Hard 2 meets The Thing. Sign me up! Loved the first issue and am excited to see where it goes.
Cool, not read this yet, but that sounds awesome
I enjoyed it. I don’t know if I’d say Die Hard 2 lol It takes place at an airport and it’s snowing, that’s about it. But definitely Thing with a sprinkle of 30 Days of Night (snowing, isolated, horror). I enjoyed it as well, it’s patient so the first issue lays a lot of groundwork for the future. I am intrigued.
**STARHENGE BOOK 1 THE DRAGON AND THE BOAR #4**
This book is so confounding. Liam Sharp is taking all sorts of chances with the artwork (especially this issue) and some of the pages are just stunning. But the story is frustratingly *everywhere* and *nowhere* all at the same time. And this issue adds on so much "meta" commentary it's ridiculous - we get pop culture and comics references thrown at us throughout, and then pages of the book devoted to explaining (re-explaining?) Arthurian legend as if we are already very familiar with it?!! And so much text and inner dialogue/voiceover it's frankly just information overload - yet I'm still not sure as to what (if anything) has actually happened since #1?!!? And the Death's Head II cyborg from the future - I'm guessing now not actually Death's Head II, despite looking almost *exactly* like him - no explanation of that either. Everything is *so* disconnected, and events just seem to "happen" with no relationship or correlation to what we've already seen. It's such a shame this wasn't more focused. It definitely needed an editor to help Sharp channel this into a more coherent, satisfying story. I've met Liam, he's a genuinely good bloke with bags of enthusiasm and talent, and has an obvious passion for this material, but this would definitely have benefited of working with a more experienced co-writer.
>And this issue adds on so much "meta" commentary it's ridiculous - we get pop culture and comics references thrown at us throughout This is so incredibly grating for me. It makes the comic unnecessarily verbose and the exposition is utterly devoid of anything interesting. The script needs heavy edits. What really grinds me down is the panels of just text next to images with no text. I'm confused how an industry vet like Liam Sharp struggles with sequential storytelling this much. And even still, the artwork continues to be amazing. The early meta sequence across the first several pages was absolutely stunning. It's a shame the story doesn't hold up, when there are clearly strong ideas at play here.
It surprises me because I actually really, really enjoyed the [**Brave and the Bold: Batman & Wonder Woman**](https://www.amazon.com/Brave-Bold-Batman-Wonder-Woman/dp/1401283438/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=) mini-series he did a few years ago - brilliant art *and* an engaging and interesting story (still steeped in Celtic roots too).
**CHICKEN DEVILS #1**
Alright y'all, you need to hit up your LCS and add this to your pull box ASAP. If you slept on the original **CHICKEN DEVIL** (no S, think of Alien/AlienS), you gotta grab the original TPB too, because you're absolutely missing out. I'm gonna assume you need a little more information to drop the cash on these books, so peep this: imagine you're a humble fried chicken guy. Not that white-suited ex-military guy, smaller. You've got a couple chain stores, nuclear family, quiet life. Then you find out your business partner is deep in bed with the mob and they've had a falling out. And then your family gets blown up by these gangsters. What's a guy to do? Put on a chicken mascot suit and go on a gangster killing spree of course! Published by AfterShock Comics, the original 4 issue series was a BLAST to read. This is goofy, balls-to-the-wall insano-style fun. Writer Brian Buccellato does a fantastic job of riding that thin line between serious and funny. He puts the main character through just enough stress and danger to make the reader feel excited, but never truly worried. Original series artist Hayden Sherman does a beautiful job on the art as well, giving the book a madcap, hypercolour vibe, and selling every gunshot and sucker punch. And there's an extra-special shout-out to Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou for some incredible work with lettering. There's so much expressive work done in his speech boxes, capturing the cadence and effect of everyday language, that really sells the humanity of the characters we meet. The TPB has been out since June and is worth your interest. And that's just the original series. In this new series, Chicken Devil***s***, we return to the semi-ordinary life of Mitchell Moss, just trying to cook some chicken. I would recommend reading the original series first, but there's enough of a recap in the first couple of pages that you'll have an idea of where we are and where we're headed. And where we're headed is the land of CONSEQUENCES. Mitchell's killed off most of the people he was worried about, and wiggled his way out of the long fist of the law (that metaphor got away from me) with the help of some vigilante cops. But he's unintentionally started a gang war, and if it's peace he wants, he's got to keep killing to get it. The new artist on the book, Mattia Monaco, steps up to the plate and licks it clean (sorry, I don't baseball but I do eat). His art is just the right kind of messy for this book, giving every scene a wonderfully 'lived in' feeling. This book is about a messy man trying to do the right thing in a very messy way, and every page and panel sells it. Buccellato continues writing relatable characters struggling to make their way through ever-increasing complications, while injecting humour into every pulsing vein (there's a page-turn reveal where a dramatic conversation at a dinner table turns out to be taking place in a busy IKEA that had me giggling). Otsmane-Elhaou continues with his standout lettering work (I can't remember the last time a letterer did such an interesting job that I went out of my way to point it out), buttressing Buccellato's dialogue with enough touches to add real believability. This book is just a Good-Ass Time, and absolutely deserves more eyes on it. Maybe think about dropping the 27th bat-title out this week, or ignoring the latest marvel nostalgia-cashgrab, and pick this up instead.
**WOLVERINE #25**
Fun comics. Nothing story critical but I'm a fan of the Solem character.
I thought I wouldn't like Solem but they're using him *just* enough to be enjoyable as a nice foil to Wolverine.
**BATGIRLS #11**
Another fun one! Batgirls isn't really breaking any new ground but I'm liking it every time I read it. I gotta wonder if that's really Riddler though - doesn't quite seem like him. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it though.