2024 is picking up, but my DC orders got screwed for the week which means I haven’t had a chance to review most of those new comics yet! I tried to keep up and share my thoughts on some of the biggest titles from Marvel and a few of the indies and will try to add any DC titles I’m about to get in before next week.

As always, I hope you enjoy any book you picked up for this week’s NCBD! Let me know what you read and which ones were your favorites!

MARVEL COMICS

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #42

Is the Gang War event starting to go on too long? We’ve had a bumpy road over the past few issues in the event across the various titles and that trends seems to have also hit this week’s Amazing Spider-Man. We see what Wilson Fisk had planned for The Rose and Beetle, which was basically to just extract his son from the violence. Felt like a major copout after the cliffhanger from the previous issue. Spider-Man continues to serve as a minor character in his own series and this is the first issue where it felt like a detriment. I’m not invested enough in Beetle or Madame Masque enough to care about an issue where their face-to-face meeting is the main plot. We’ve still got a month and change worth of issues left in the Gang War event and we need some fresh angles to the storyline or these last few weeks are going to feel like a slog.

Rating: 6/10

AVENGERS: TWILIGHT #1

This was ok? You know you’re always going to get a well-written script from anything Chip Zdarsky touches but this debut issue failed to make me think this is anything other than an “Old-Man X” type of story that we’ve seen played out for other Marvel heroes. None of it felt new, compelling, or interesting to make it standout against other alternate-ending type stories already told. I appreciated the effort from Daniel Acuña’s futuristic approach to art even though it felt like a disparate feel from Zdarsky’s story about a senior Steve Rogers. I get that it was likely meant to evoke a sense of Cap being lost in his new surroundings, but I found it to be distracting. This is one story I may end up finishing in trades rather than picking up issue by issue.

Rating: 6/10

CABLE #1

When Marvel first announced this mini, I thought it was a bit out of left-field given where we are in the Fall of X timeline. Cable’s adventures in Children of the Vault were a fun side-quest and I wasn’t expecting there to be much more to his story. In came Fabian Nicieza to prove me wrong. While the story still feels like a side-quest to everything else going on in the Fall/Rise event, Nicieza crafts a fun, 90’s-style nostalgia continuation to Nathan/Cable’s Vault story. I loved the dynamic between Nathan & Nate Summers and Nicieza wrote some great dialogue between the two of them.

The art trio of Scot Eaton on pencils and Cam Smith with Victor Nava on inks, along with Java Tartaglia on colors, really bring the story to life with some awesome panels, especially action sequences. The opening scene of Nathan/Cable taking on a Stark Sentinel looked amazing and was made even better thanks to the onomatopoeia lettering work of Joe Sabino.

Part of me wishes this was combined with Children of the Vault into one, longer miniseries which would have allowed us to see some of the events that happened before this issue takes place. The issue covers off on things via exposition so nothing comes out of left field, but I’d love to have actually seen some of the events described. Even with this being only tangentially related to the ongoing fight between Orchis and the X-Men, this was a fun read in the hands of a very capable creative team.

Rating: 7.5/10

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #14

Oh shoot…are Tony and Emma actually becoming a thing?!?! Things got spicy and it didn’t feel contrived. I’ve loved these two together as one of Marvel’s premiere power couples and I wouldn’t hate seeing them together after Krakoa ends. These two actually only have a small role in this issue, with the majority of it focused on Ironheart and Forge looking the mission to build Tony’s new ships. I was shocked at how much I liked this pairing, especially during the character moments when Forge played more of a mentor role and helped Riri work through her relationship with the Ten Rings. Duggan moves the story along at breakneck speed to the point where it felt like someone pressed the fast forward button and we just jumped past things. For a series where it took multiple issues to tell the story of Tony & Emma’s relationship, we somehow get an entire fleet of spaceships built in the span on a few panels. Whatever Tony is planning is likely to have a major impact on the downfall of Orchis after its been mentioned in more than one of this week’s titles (the Firestar/Nimrod convo also occurs in X-Men #30). I’m looking forward to seeing this all play out.

Rating: 7/10

JACKPOT #1 (ONE-SHOT)

I just don’t get what Marvel is doing with Mary Jane’s new “powers” and Jackpot persona. They are literally the embodiment of a deus ex machina plot device that allows writers the ability to pull things out of thin air. Even aside from the randomness of her powers, how/where/when did MJ become trained in hand-to-hand combat or superhero agility?? There are a few scenes where she doesn’t use her powers but still manages to perform some Spider-Man ask moves that a normal person would never be able to do.

For being a Gang War tie-in, there is hardly any connective thread aside from MJ’s battle with Francine Frye’s Electro. It doesn’t even make sense how these two come to blows. This felt like Marvel’s attempt to remind us that MJ now has powers ahead of her upcoming series with Felicia/Hardy Black Cat. Given how this played out, I have no interest in continuing to follow along on her adventures until Marvel can explain her powers more and shows us there’s a deeper reason for it all.

Rating: 3/10

X-MEN #30

This wasn’t the best X-Men issue ever, but it gets bonus points for telling an interesting story about two characters who deserved a platform given the roles they were meant to be playing. I enjoyed this WAY more than both Fall of the House of X #1 and Rise of the Powers of X #1. What a great issue that gave background to two underutilized members of the X-Men team who were supposed to be major players in the post-Hellfire Gala plot. We get to see more from Talon and Synch’s time in the Vault, as well as the two on a present-day mission to retrieve something that could be a game-changer in the fight against Orchis.

Much like his story on this week’s Invincible Iron Man, Duggan slams the fast-forward button during the duo’s mission and their interactions with the High Evolutionary happen in the blink of an eye, which was a bit of a disappointment. However, I audibly gasped when we see what actually transpired via a flashback at the end of the issue. I wish we got to see more of Talon and Synch throughout Fall of X but hopefully they get more opportunities to shine while the rest of the team gets the spotlight in Fall of the House of X. Their relationship is really interesting and I loved spending more time with them.

I need to give a special shout out to Phil Noto for his art on this issue. It was GORGEOUS. Noto definitely has a style which looks amazing on cover art but doesn’t always lend itself to an entire issue’s worth of panels. Not this one. Every panel look absolutely stunning and I LOVED his version of “The Lovers” tarot card for Talon and Synch. And those initial panels of Scott being consumed by Jean’s Phoenix fire?? Divine. Simply divine.

Rating: 9/10

DC COMICS

JOHN CONSTANTINE: HELLBLAZER — DEAD IN AMERICA #1

John Constantine, the chain-smoking cynic of the occult, swaps London fog for Florida sunshine (albiet with an iconic double decker bus as his ride of choice) in the debut issue to Si Spurrier’s follow-up to his previous Hellblazer limited series. This first issue sets the stage for a road trip into the dark crevices of the American dream, promising equal parts magic, mayhem, and existential angst. Spurrier captures Constantine's sardonic voice perfectly, lacing witty one-liners with a healthy dose of jaded world-weariness. He deftly weaves the American landscape into the narrative, using its vastness and contradictions as a backdrop for Constantine's internal struggles. This gritty depiction of the darker aspects of the American experience are visualized perfectly by Jamal Campbell's designs and Jordie Bellaire's color palette.

Rating: 8/10

SKYBOUND

COBRA COMMANDER #1

You can read my full, spoiler-free review here.

I’m simply in awe at how much Williamson has made me feel fully invested in these characters in my first real exposure to them. It’s an ode to his own fandom for the G.I. Joe franchise and the respect he has for the decades worth of work that has come before him. Not to keep lumping the two together, but I can’t think of a better way for these Duke and Cobra Commander series to have kicked off and all roads lead back to Williamson and the amazing team of artists who have joined forces with him. The Energon Universe is one of the most exciting developments in comics in a very long time (it also looks to be quite the financial behemoth which is great to see), and Cobra Commander #1 is a wonderful addition to it.

Rating: 10/10

G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO #303

Serpentor-Khan’s bigger plans start to come into focus as a new alliance between he and the AI Revanche faction takes shape. I’m not fully bought in here to be honest. I feel like I need a few more issues to continue grounding myself in this new (to me) world because I still find myself trying to reference who is who when certain heroes aren’t mentioned by name directly. Larry Hama’s story doesn’t bridge the gap for G.I. Joe newbies the way Williamson has done with Duke and Cobra Commander, but hardcore Joe fans will probably love how much this new run leans into the franchise’s best attributes. There is also some wonderful artistry work going on Chris Mooneyham and Francesco Segala. Serpentor-Khan and members from the Revanche look amazing.

Rating: 6.5/10

IMAGE COMICS

THE DEVIANT #3

Another issue away from the main plot with more background being filled in for some of our secondary characters. Tynion’s writing is pushing a narrative hard and not letting the story take shape on its own. He’s definitely not using subtlty to let readers make connections in their heads, he’s telling us everything he wants us to take away and leaving no room for interpretation. I’d probably be leaving this for the traders if it weren’t for Joshua Hixson’s art and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou’s lettering knocking it out of the park every issue.

Rating: 6/10