2016 Comic Challenge 224 Jughead #08

TITLE-Jughead #08
PUBLISHER-Archie

So Archie and our titular hero are lost in the woods with a bear right behind them. Thankfully Mr Weatherbee is around and starts leading the guys out of the woods.

But there seems to be someone  in the woods that hates the Bee. And keeps setting traps for him. Finally we find out it is one of the Mantle family. One who use to bully the Bee back in high school.

Finally the 3 guys make it out of the woods. Archie thinks he is at the all teen girls camp. But turns out that camp got changed into a younger kid camp a few years back.

Overall this was a decent little story. Kind of sucks it is Zdarsky's last issue. But at least Derek Charm is staying on handling the art chores.

Jughead #08 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 223 Battlestar Galactica Gallery Special

TITLE-Battlestar Galactica Gallery Special
PUBLISHER-Realm Press

While I do remember when Realm had the BSG comic book rights,I never read an issue until this one.

There is 2 stories in the issue. The first is about Boxy's daggit trying to fins Boxy. This story is a nice change of pace from what I was expecting.

The second story has Galactica under attack from Cylons. During this 3 of the Galactica's pilots are missing. We cut to a planet and see that Starbuck has crashed on it. He wanders around and finds the crashed Cylon ship that shot him down. Starbuck ends up fighting the Cylon ship's pilot. Not long after that a Cylon raider makes an emergency landing on the Galactica's landing bay. When the pilot gets out we discover that it was Starbuck piloting the ship. And the Cylon pilot is Boomer. The story ends with us finding out that all the other missing pilots have been converted over into half Cylon creatures.

Really this wasn't bad. Both stories were decent. The art is nice. Kind of glad I didn't spend the cover price of almost 4 bucks for this.

Battlestar Galactica Gallery Special gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 222 Galactica 1980 #01

TITLE-Galactica 1980 #01
PUBLISHER-Dynamite

Sure I watched the Galactica 1980 tv show and it kind of sucked. So Dynamite took the idea behind the series and made it into a much better story.

Galactica has sent out the now fully grown Boxy and another Viper pilot. They find an old NASA space probe. Using the info inside it they discover where Earth is.

Of course they arrive and get attacked. Which almost causes an all out nuclear war to start.

While back on the Galactica Doc Zee has taken over.

Galactica 1980 #01 gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 221 Moon Knight #05

TITLE-Moon Knight #05
PUBLISHER-Marvel

Lemire is joined by a shitpile of artists to create the final part of the New Egypt story.

Marc is confronting Moon Knight at the top of the structure. When Moon Knight runs thru a door with Marlene.So Marc pursues them.

Each door he goes thru is a trip to a different reality. With each reality drawn by a different artist. It is kind of like a tour thru the art history of Moon Knight, well if you skip the Stephen Platt era. BTW what the fuck happened to S.PLatt?

Moon Knight is revealed to be Khonshu.And he wants control of Marc's body. Marc refuses and jumps to his death. Then he wakes up. Seems he is an actor named Steven. And is working on an Egyptian themed film.

Yeah Lemire has hooked me I will be back next issue to see where the hell he takes this intriguing series.

Moon Knight #05 gets a Buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 220 Captain America #319

The issue starts off with Cap fighting Backlash. Backlash keeps running his mouth and that causes his downfall.While Backlash is being led away by the cops he mentions that someone has been going around killing lots of lower level super villains. I had noticed that in various Marvel comics I was reading at the time that someone,who's appearance changed each time,was killing off villains. Shooting them with explosive bullets and shouting "Justice is served!"

Cap thinks about this super villain killer and remembers that someone a few months back tried to kill the Constrictor. "Scourge,He called himself.I never was able to get any leads on him."

Then we see Sidewinder of the Serpent Society,if a title has Gruenwald writing it odds are good the Serpent Society will appear,holding the corpse of Death Adder. So that is another villain that Scourge has taken out.

Next scene is set in the so called Bar with no name. A bar for costumed super villains. Seems a bunch of the villains are forming a group to not only protect themselves from the killer but also capture/kill Scourge.

There is a nice interlude that mostly seems to be in the story to remind the readers that at this time Steve Rogers was doing the artwork for the 616 universe's Captain America comic. Yep Cap was drawing Cap for at least a few years in his own title.

We cut to the former Firebrand at the Bar with No Name. He is bragging to the bar tender about how he has been going  to all the Bars with No Names,I guess it is a very exclusive franchise,and has talked to over 100 villains. 50 of which are suppose to show up to the bar soon.

Now I normally do not do this ,but this is a comic that you should really not know the ending when reading it. So

SPOILER SPACE






































Most of the rest of the issue is a build up to the final  few pages. We see the former Firebrand getting all kinds of  high tech scanning equipment brought into the bar. To make sure Scourge can't sneak in.

Let us see who all showed up. There is 18 in total,including Gary Gilbert the former Firebrand.

Steeplejack,Shellshock,Cyclone,Mind-Wave,Ringer,Hell-Razor,The Grappler,Rapier,Mirage,Jaguar,Turner D. Century,The Vamp,The Cheetah,Bird-Man,Commander Kraken,The Hijacker and Letha. As you can see this is a group of  jobber super villains. Before this issue I had heard of  maybe 7 of them.

They start to talk about how to deal with the problem of  Scourge and this happens......

Yeah! That is how you end an issue of a comic and make me haunt the K&B Drugs to get the next issue.

Captain America #319 gets a BUY!

2016 Comic Challenge 219 Old Man Logan #08

TITLE-Old Man Logan #08
PUBLISHER-Marvel

This ended up being a nice change of pace issue. Logan still thinks the villain uprising is gonna happen. With this getting worst at night. So Jeanie,I am guessing this is a Jean Grey from the past,is trying to cheer Logan up.

The entire issue is the two of them visiting various sites of battles during the uprising.So Jeanie can show him that it isn't going to happen. While doing this we get lots of details,most of which never before revealed,of how the final battle between the villains and the heroes went.

Lemire keeps writing fun stories. The art team keeps the book looking dark and moody.But also never making it look muddy.

Old Man Logan #08 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 218 Crossed Badlands #100

TITLE-Crossed Badlands #100
PUBLISHER-Avatar

Yeah I know  I never posted a review of issue 99. Really because while it was good all I had to say about it was what I had been saying for the past few issues. This story seemed to be building up to this big reveal.

Well we don't get that. In this extra long issue there is the normal length story. Then the rest of the issue is piles of Jacen Burrows art.

The issue starts off 13 years after issue 99. Smokey and the human are sitting on a porch. Smokey's two wives show back up with supplies and stuff. It looks like my prediction this being the start of the smart Crossed we are seeing in Crossed +100 is right. Then a few pages later I find out I was wrong. Smokey's kid and wives turn on him. Thinking he is dead after a long fall into a river,the family heads up north. Where a supposed community of humans are. On the final page we see Smokey climbing out of the river. He grabs his ax and I assume he is heading off to kill his family.

Yep after what 5 issues of build up we get a total shitball ending. Nothing is resolved. I figured they would do something much bigger for the final issue of this series. Maybe they wanted it to end like how the original Garth Ennis story ended. Who knows.

Crossed Badlands #100 gets a pass.

2016 Comic Challenge 217 Swamp Thing #129

TITLE-Swamp Thing #129
PUBLISHER-Vertigo/DC Comics

Anytime I find issues of Swamp Thing for cheap I gotta grab them. So I have ended up with a bunch of random issues of the post Veitch run.This issue is written by Nancy A. Collins.And Scot Eaton,Kim Demulder handling the art.

Seems in the previous issue Swamp Thing fought a creature made of toxic waste. Which infected Swamp Thing. So now he is up in PA and trying to make his way back down to Houma LA. But he can't travel through the green cause he is afraid he will infect it.

Back in LA,Abby is getting use to her new home.Plus we see a female Swamp Thing looking on.

To wrap the issue up we see Swamp Thing confronted by the female Swamp Thing.Then the issue ends with us wondering what the fuck will happen next.

Sure it is hard for anyone to follow up the earlier runs of Alan Moore or Rick Veitch. I did enjoy the issue. But part of that is because I got this issue for a quarter.

Swamp Thing #129 gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 216 All Star Squadron #01

TITLE-All Star Squadron #01
PUBLISHER-DC Comics

Back when this series started I wasn't reading much superhero stuff from DC. Sure I read the horror and war anthologies they published,but if I wanted some superhero comics I was a die hard Marvel fan.

Then I saw the above cover on the spinner rack at K&B Drugs in Pascagoula MS.Something about it caught my eye and I had to have it.After just one issue of this Roy Thomas written series and I was hooked. From then until DC had the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover I tried my best to get ASS every month.

Over the last 20 years I have been slowly acquiring every issue of the series.Never spending more than 2 bucks an issue,hell most of the time I was getting them outta 50 cent boxes at cons.

Starting the night before the Pearl Harbor attacks,we have Hawkman running into Plastic Man.After a bit of bickering they end up teaming up to fight some flying insect like villain.

The Shinning Knight is out on his winged steed.Flying over a new island with a volcano. He lands to check it out.Then finds out that Per Degaton has a secret base here.

The rest of the issue details the attack on Pearl Harbor.Which is when the first Firebrand dies. And then a bunch of mystery men goto the White House. Were the President asks them to team up as the All Star Squadron.

They head out to the west coast. Per Degaton has an underwater aircraft carrier. Which launches a bunch of Japanese Zeros into the California city.

It has been at least 8 years since I read this issue. Roy Thomas' writing holds up really well. Sure if you aren't use to early 80s comics it will seem kind of wordy. Rich Butler's pencils are decent. IIRC Jerry Ordway takes over the pencils fairly early on in this series.

All Star Squadron #01 gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 215 Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #06

TITLE-Chilling adventures of Sabrina #06
PUBLISHER-Archie

Hey 2 issues in 2 months!!! Does this mean that this excellent series is back on a regular schedule? I guess we will find out in 30 days.

Most of this issue is side stories. The first one is the origin of the two snake familiars. Lots of little references to all kinds of stories and folklore.

Then we get a long ass original for Salem.Seems he was living in Salem and crossed some witches. Who turned him into a cat. Once the witch trials started his owner was trying to escape. And Salem is given a mission by Satan. He has to protect Sabrina. And maybe one that is over he will be human again.

The art is gorgeous as always. Plus hey only had to wait 4 weeks for a new issue. That is a major plus.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #06 gets a Buy.