Spectacular Spider-Man 70

The Great Cloak & Dagger Hunt!
By Bill Mantlo, Ed Hannigan, Al Milgrom
Sep 1982

- the return of Cloak & Dagger plus Silvermane (Part 2)
- Silvermane is dead, killed by Dagger, or so it seems, but his doctor is able to transfer his brains and organs into a bionic body
- Peter has another encounter with Deb Whitman who knows his secret, although he doesn't know she knows
- battle in the subway between Spidey, Silvermane, Cloak and Dagger; C&D are still eager to take him out of the picture
- SM brings the roof down which allows sunlight to shine down into the subway tunnel; the sunlight seems to recharge Dagger enough to fry SM's body; it seems like he is dead, but is he?

- this is Silvermane's first appearance since his body was broken in Amazing Spider-Man 180 in that fight with GG at RCMH
- unclear what affect Cloak has on a runaway subway train after he attempts to save or stop it by having it pass through him
- Silvermane reminds me a bit of the Terminator in T2 (1991)
- Once again Spidey tries talking Dagger out of killing SM and leaving Cloak; he is unsuccessful in both attempts
- why does Spidey only appeal to Dagger?
- just before they disappear Cloak hints that he and Dagger's association is a mutual decision and that he doesn't have some sort of hold over her; what's up with Spidey assuming that Cloak is manipulating Dagger?

Hellblazer 178

Red Sepulchre (Part 2)
By Mike Carey and Macelo Frusin
Jan 2003

- things start to become a little clearer
- Scrape, a fence and/or antique dealer was murdered; at the time he was trying to get his hands on something way out of his league; he borrowed money from others who want the item for themselves, "it" is the titular Red Sepulchre
- Constantine knew Scrape and was hoping to get some information from him about Gemma
- now john knows who killed Scrape and also is holding his niece: Domine Fredericks
- John tries reaching out to Angie S for some help dealing with the people holding Gemma but AS didn't care for his attitude when they parted ways at the end of the previous arc
- Clarice, Albert, and Packer - 3 individuals who were also eager to get their hands on the RS; they get hit by DF's men, Packer is killed; Clarice uses his body in a magic ceremony to try and learn something
- meanwhile John meets with Fredricks   And agrees to help him, although it isn't clear what DF needs help with, because DF is still holding his niece
- it turns out that DF's men were a little too hasty when they killed Scrape and the man selling him the RS without learning what the RS looks like and they need John's help to pick through a haystack of boxes to find it

Avengers (1963) 89

The Only Good Alien…
By Roy Thomas, Sal Buscema, and Sam Grainger
Jun 1971

The Kree-Skrull War (Part 1)

- Vision, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Rick Jones hunt and capture Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) who has escaped from the negative zone
- CM has been in the NZ far too long and has picked up a lot of radiation which they fear may cause a chain reaction and blow up the Earth
- CM breaks into the Baxter Building and uses some of Reed Richards equipment to free Rick Jones from the NZ but Annihilus briefly escapes; the Avengers show up and send him back to the NZ
- but then CM takes off in the Quinjet but soon crashes it which is where the issue opened

- great moment on page 4: Strangers in a Strange Land
- the whole scientific theory about why CM has to be captured and deradiated seems silly but maybe it was a real concern in the early 70s
- slightly convoluted way of telling the story, why?

4/22

Hellblazer 177

Red Sepulchre (Part 1)
By Mike Carey and Macelo Frusin
Dec 2002

-Constantine traipses around London looking for Gemma (his niece) and clues as to what happened to her, he talks to a number of old associates and works some magic in the process
- a number of people thought he was dead and are not particularly happy to see him alive

- not the easiest book to just jump into, the slang and dialogue aren't the easiest to follow; I often find myself rereading words just to make sure I got the full picture of what was said and by them
- at its core it feels like a hard boiled crime story and I'm familiar enough with themselves catch the drift of what's going on and what direction the story might be headed
- the art in this chapter has a very different feel to it than the previous one, much thicker lines
- this is just the opening segment of a 4-part story; it didn't exactly suck me in but I didn't hate it and I'm gonna keep reading it

4/21

Wolverine (2003) 25

Enemy of the State (Part 6)
By Mark Millar, John Romita Jr, Klaus Janson
Apr 2005

- I have mixed feelings about the way that parts of this story were told off panel
- no Elektra in this part but I've got a feeling that she will be back in the next story
- Wolverine sneaks into the X Mansion, forces Rachel Summers to take him down to Cerebro, tries forcing her to use it to kill POTUS but she turns the tables on him by figuring out how to telekinetically disable the bomb he has with him by reading Reed Richards mind, with a little help from Cerebro
- then the whole X Mansion is after him; he kills some SHIELD agents and Northstar but in the end, with some help from Captain America, W is captured and sedated
- Baron Strucker gets executed by Gorgon, off panel

- overall not crazy about this story, it seems to try to encompass a little too much

All-Star Squadron 6

Mayhem in the Mile-High City!
By Roy Thomas, Adrian Gonzales, and Jerry Ordway
Feb 1982

- while waiting for the stars to align, the origin of Quetzalcoatl, search for the lost pyramid of Kukulkan, JL Stephens, Indiana Jones
- Shiera, Shining Knight, and Hawkman break free; Q sacrifices the Nazi general instead of Shiera because the time is right
- Q heads for Mexico City where all Hell is breaking loose; a giant pyramid erupts out of the ground, Mexicans of strictly Indian blood obey Q's orders and start killing those of mixed ancestry
- Q and some of his men try to kill the Mexican President but Robotman and Liberty Belle are there to prevent him from getting killed, then it turns out that the Q they have just defeated is a double
- the real Q arrives and heads for the pyramid where he attacks the All-Stars that are there (JQ,FB,TA,DM) but gets burned when he tries flying off with FB, crashes and burns
- final page shows Baron Blitzkrieg saying something along the lines of 'now it's my turn'

- no explanation as to what the deal is with the duplicate Q
- how far is it from Merida to Mexico City? 815 miles, today, according to Google Maps
- lots of flag waving about the close relationship between Mexico and USA
- on the whole not great

4/19

Wolverine (2003) 24

Enemy of the State (Part 5)
By Mark Millar, John Romita Jr, Klaus Janson
Mar 2005

- Wolverine vs Daredevil in DD's apartment and Wolvie brought some friends, a couple dozen ninjas; but it is all a trap; Elektra is on a nearby rooftop with a sniper rifle and a bunch of SHIELD agents but then Gorgon shows up and takes out the SHIELD agents by turning them to stone
- Elektra vs Gorgon - they battle on the roof, in the snow with blades
- Daredevil gets the upper hand in the fight, tries talking Wolvie back to the good guys side but Wolvie remains resolved to follow orders until he falls backwards and is impaled on a sword, then he begins to see things clearly again but Hydra isn't ready to let him go
- Wolvie starts to explain what Hydra, the Hand and the Dawn of the New Light have planned, he figures that they will teleport him out of there and they do but before he vanishes he tells DD that they have a hit planed on POTUS
- DD points out that Wolvie failed in his mission but it turns out that DD wasn't the target but the bait, the final page is a splash page of Elektra on an altar, presumably about to be killed or sacrificed by the baddies

- loved the twist at the end, made what seemed like a very straight forward story seem like much more than that
- so far this seems like an Elektra story in much the same way that Batman Year One is often described as a Jim Gordon story

4/15

All-Star Squadron 5

Never Step on a Feathered Serpent
By Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler, and Jerry Ordway
Jan 1982

-the Mexican adventure (Part 1)
- the Justice Society decide to disband and in their civilian identities join the armed forces
- before enlisting Hawkman announces he will be making a trip to Mexico to visit his fiancée, Shiera Sanders; the Atom and Dr. mid-Nite insist on accompanying him
- in the Yucatan region of Mexico, a unit of German soldiers meet with a Mexican known as Quetzalcoatl (or the Feathered Serpent) who has plans to conquer Mexico and has taken Shiera Sanders prisoner
- in NYC, Johnny Quick and Robotman thwart an attempt by a couple Nazis to blow up the Statue of Liberty and then head to Danette Reilly's apartment where they meet up with Liberty Belle, Shining Knight, Hawkman, Dr. Mid-Nite and the Atom
- Danette has a dream in which she remembers her brother's bodyguard tell her about a secret closet in her brother's apartment, which is where she is staying; in the closet she finds her brother's costume and realizes he must have been the mystery man known as Firebrand, before he enlisted in the Navy
- She tries on the costume, then fire starts shooting out of her hands, she doesn't understand gets dizzy (maybe because of all the smoke in the room) but then the All-Stars come to the rescue and put out the fire
- the next day all 8 head to Merida in Mexico to meet up with Shiera only to discover that she is missing
- the All-Stars quickly get split up, Hawkman and Shining Knight head off to a nearby pyramid where they fall into a trap that almost kills them, when they wake up they see that the Feathered Serpent is about to sacrifice Shiera on the altar of the pyramid
- the other six, including Damette who is once again wearing a modified version of her brother's costume and declares that she is the new Firebrand, get lured into a warehouse where they battle some German soldiers whom they ultimately defeat thanks in large part to their newest teammate

- loving it all over again although I do find it tough to read it with fresh eyes

4/14

Hellblazer 176

High on Life (Part 2)
By Mike Carey, Steve Dillon, Jimmy Palmiotti
Oct 2002

- Angie lives, John and his sister take her to the hospital; Angie's attackers have done this before, to other women but the others didn't survive
- John gives Angie a bit of his own blood which revives her long enough to find out what she was up to when she was attacked and what she discovered
- John pays a visit to the old woman on the top floor, who's sons are the ones who attacked Angie and would have killed her
- the old woman isn't forthcoming but John is able to figure it out based on what he finds in her cubbord, she is living vicariously through the memories of the murdered women via bits of flesh that her sons bring back to her
- the woman has drugged John but he manages to fight back against her sons and destroy a ward that kept the ghosts from invading her home, the ghosts take the old woman down but John only survives thanks to an intervention by Angie
- John leaves Liverpool and heads to London to find his niece

- got a bit lost in some of the lingo or slang
- good story but not great, maybe not the best jumping on point
- liked the art and visual storytelling by Steve Dillon
- not sure why they keep calling Constantine Collier

4/12

Wolverine (2003) 23

Enemy of the State (Part 4)
By Mark Millar, John Romita Jr, Klaus Janson
Feb 2005

-Wolverine has been very active as an agent of Dawn of the White Light leading numerous attacks
- big focus on Elektra as she advised Fury on how to deal with a superhero who was killed by the Hand and then later a solo fight she has with hand on a rooftop
- summary on page 1 seems to be providing details that are not in the story itself
- Emma Frost uses an idea of Elektra's to try and track down Wolverine using precognitive mutants and Cerebro
- Elsbeth Von Strucker, the Baron's wife
- signs that Wolverine hasn't completely gone evil: stopping to pet a dog, saving a woman from an scrape attempt
- Wolverine and the Hand come for Daredevil

- beautiful visual storytelling, especially the big fight scenes with the Hand
- rooftop scenes, mostly fights, are great and definitely a callback to Miller's run on Daredevil
- if Wolverine is the star then Elektra is the number one supporting character of this arc

4/12

Hellblazer 175

High on Life (Part 1)
By Mike Carey, Steve Dillon, Jimmy Palmiotti
Sep 2002

- John Constantine goes to visit Cheryl, his sister and winds up investigating a few suicides that happened in the building where she lives
- there is some powerful, magical force at work in the building
- John gets help from a local, Angie Spatchcock who is a waitress and more?
- Cheryl is distraught over her daughter who has gone to the US for college and no longer communicates with her; Cheryl has turned to alcohol and tranquilizers to ease her depression
- Angie gets attacked while doing some solo sleuthing and carved up by a couple men, how far they would have taken it is unclear because Constantine and his sister and brother-in-law turn the corner on their way home from the pub and chase off Angie's attackers

- first time reading HB
- second time reading Steve Dillion drawn comic book, the other one was Punisher Max (Jason Aaron)

4/11

Punk Rock and Trailer Parks Part 6

Part 6

- Otto drowns his sorrows over the death of Wes by drinking which leads to a disastrous performance at the Bank on the night that a musical rep is there from Stiff Records looking to sign them to a record deal, the agent is in thick front row and Otto unintentionally pukes on him, which leads to him getting kicked out of the Ottos
- Otto recovers, goes to the prom with Becky, who is still pregnant
- the Bank closes, Ruby gets a job at an adult bookstore
- Otto graduates and hits the road

Wolverine (2003) 22

Enemy of the State (Part 3)
By Mark Millar, John Romita Jr, Klaus Janson
Jan 2005

- Wolverine continues with his surveillance of the Baxter Building, lots of back in forth inside his head as he makes notes about the FF before Reed's devices detect him
- Human Torch hits him first but W strikes back using the buildings fire suppression system
- nice moment between Reed and Sue, where he tells her about a machine he had created to mimic himself and she questions if she is talking to the real Him or the machine
- Wolverine also tussles with the Thing and Mr. Fantastic but as W figured Invisible Woman gives him the most trouble, cuts off his breathing and turns him temporarily blind but he manages to escape with some help from Hydra
- a bit of misdirection, I thought his mission was to kill the FF but it turns out that the Hand and Hydra wanted data from Reed Richards lab, and W accomplished that mission
- Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs) moment after the second fight between HT and W; EMTs think they have HT bandaged up but it's actually Wolverine; it was kind of obvious what was coming
- a few glimpses inside Hand or Hydra HQ from where Gorgon and Baron and Strucker are directing things; apparently AIM is also involved and Wolverine's next stop will be Stark Industries
- still good but this issue wasn't quite as much fun as the first two

4/7

Wolverine (2003) 21

Enemy of the State (Part 2)
By Mark Millar, John Romita Jr, Klaus Janson
Dec 2004

- Wolverine vs Elektra aboard the ship
- Wolverine continues to get orders from a voice inside his head
- Wolverine chops his way through some SHIELD agents before Elektra steps in, it seems that she has him on the ropes but Wolverine rigged some explosives to blow a hole in the side of the ship
- Wolverine gets sucked out into the Atlantic but survives the experience, fights with sharks
- the ship sinks but Elektra avoids drowning unlike the SHIELD personnel thanks to a containment or HazMat suit that she finds
- Nick Fury Elektra and many others meet aboard the Helicarrier 24 hours after Wolverine escapes, they believe that Wolverine has been programmed to take down (kill) other superheroes so that they can be subsequently be resurrected as the servants/assassins of the Hand
- brief glimpses inside the Xavier School and Baxter Building, the latter is being evacuated, only the FF are sticking around, a force field is erected around the building but it is too late because Wolverine is already inside

- love the art
- more splash pages
- Wolverine vs SHIELD agents
- Wolverine gutting a shark
- Wolverine hiding in an air duct in the Baxter Bldg about to strike

- so many great moments
- Wolverine vs Elektra
- Wolverine vs the Sharks
- quiet moment aboard the Helicarrier as Air Force One arrives
- Wolverine hiding in the air ducts of the Baxter Building

- nice mix of dialogue and silent storytelling
- Elektra reading Ulysses
- Elektra used to work for the Hand

4/5

Titan 2

By François Vigneault
Sep 2015

Part 3: Hard Headed Woman

- João shares a drink and then makes a deal with Phoebe, they will work together to improve things on Titan and in return she gets to leave when he leaves
- João gets a little tipsy offers to walk Phoebe back but she turns him down, he can't hold his liquor the way she can
- After sneaking out of the human sector, Phoebe goes to a mix match (fight) with a couple of gal pals (Sonja and Ramona), where she is outed by Cyrus as having been mixer (one of the best) before going soft and giving it up

Part 4: Terra

- Joans takes João to see Mngr Cheng, who is sick and comatose
- João gives a presentation suggesting that in order to improve things on the station he will need to prove that they have become more efficient; towards that end he suggests having the humans and Titans wear monitoring equipment; neither side seems happy about the prospect
- after the meeting, still unsure about how the union will vote on it, João shares a drink with Phoebe, later they go back to her quarters where first she shares her record collection with him and then they share a kiss

Punk Rock and Trailer Parks Part 5

Part 5

- Otto and his friend hang out with the band with whom Otto will be singing but their rehearsal is a bust because the guys can't get the instruments tuned up right
- Otto's uncle winds up in an open grave when he drives home drunk on his tractor, falls asleep, and drives into a graveyard instead of their trailer park; he isn't harmed but after that Otto has to drive him around
- the band debuts with Otto on lead vocals; the night is a great success; Teri Workman is there but she doesn't like the music; Otto gets over Teri and goes home with Ruby who works at the bank and is much older than Otto
- Otto fools some of the bullies at school with a recording of a fart
- Otto's buddy Wes goes swimming late one night and disappears

Wolverine (2003) 20

Enemy of the State (Part 1)
By Mark Millar, John Romita Jr, Klaus Janson
Dec 2004

- a boy in Japan is kidnapped, he is the son of a chauffeur and the kidnappers mistakenly believe he is the son of the chauffeur's boss; Ichiro, the boy's father, is the cousin of Mariko, Wolverine's ex-wife
- Wolverine travels to Japan to help out but winds up getting almost killed after a battle with undead ninjas; in the end it is a mutant named Gorgon who takes him down
- Wolverine is found half alive in South America, he wakes up on a SHIELD ship in the South Atlantic Ocean in a hospital bed, his body is healing itself but he has lost an eye and is wearing bandages over most of his body
- he starts hearing voices in his head, giving him instruction, telling him to do things, like kill the doctor attending him, which he does
- the issue ends with Wolverine out of bed, in uniform, and about to fight Elektra
- Nick Fury and Kitty Pryde also appear in this issue
- love the art, couple of double page spreads plus a wrap around cover plus 3 splash pages
- this is all set up but I like what I'm seeing and reading so far
4/1