April 27th, 2022

Caroline's Picks:

We Have Demons #2 - Training for Lam has officially kicked into high gear, she’s working hard to try and figure out what she believes in to activate her sword in battle, and she’s got a few great ideas, but none seem to hold and she just ends up more and more frustrated. Turns out her dad's old partner ‘Gus’ gives a good pep talk and soon she’s ready to jump into the mission full force, even if only for her dad's sake. The series takes a very unique delve into faith, what it is and how each person quantifies it on their own level. Faith is what makes their weapons work against the demons after all, and if the reader is to understand the struggle Lam is having we have to understand the new rules she is also learning her world operates by, how Halo and Horn both affect the world around them. Following this we learn more about Gus, and how Lam’s father saved him from the Horn, and we get a nice little introduction to each of the team members before they jump right back into action.
  
Blood Stained Teeth #1 - I’m a sucker (heh) for a good Vampire story. This starts off with a very important distinction between Vampires that are born and those that are made and what follows is their stories. Some Vampires turn for love, family, or hunger, some turn for money. Our main man Atticus is the latter, for an easy 10 grand he’ll happily turn you undead and let you stay undead for 10% of all your future profits (anyone else getting pyramid scheme vibes from him already?). When you’ve been around enough decades you need to get smart around your financial investments after all. But despite all this the public as a whole still doesn’t know that Vampires are real and walk amongst them. Now just take our David Bowie-esque superstar vampire who's just devastatingly bored of the Vampire parties and a dash of overprotective ‘First Borns’ and you’ve got a great mix of drama and danger to keep your attention the entire time.
  
Ghost Cage #2 - A declaration of love seems exactly the kind of hope our duo could use right now, buy Doyle’s ignoring his phone in order to do his job. Things aren’t looking good for the city, evacuations have begun but people are starting to get scared without the electricity they've grown so used to being constantly available. Doyle is already stressed out about work and the extra reminders that literally everything and everyone is riding on his success, and that without power people are likely to be dead soon aren’t doing much to calm him down or make him work any faster, or is it? Turns out Doyle is rather talented when it comes to making modifications to hardware, and after the changes Doyle makes to Sam things are looking better than ever for the pair, but did anyone else notice that Mr. Karloff looked like a hologram? Oh well, they’ve still got 4 more levels to go, 4 more monsters created by pure energy to defeat and attempt to survive.
  
The Amazing Spider-Man #1 - A whole new story has begun for our boy Peter, and there's definitely a cover for everyone in this bunch. Something happened, something traumatized Peter and aunt May is really starting to get concerned for Pete. He’s been shutting out everyone and after being confronted by his best friend it's time for a change, he certainly isn’t ready to put the suit on yet but being there for someone who needs him is something he can manage. Especially when his best friend is about to ask a villain mob boss for his daughter's hand in marriage. Maybe he is ready for the costume again, and a good thing too because he just so conveniently happens upon a group of baddies leaving the restaurant at the same time as him. Enter one quippy and thwippy fight later and this new Spider-Man hits all the right notes.

Diarra's Picks:

Rogues #2 - After years of retirement from crime, the Rogues are back together for one final score! Captain Cold devised a plan to sneak into Gorilla City and rob the ruthless Gorilla Grodd. It’s risky, but after killing guards while breaking Mirror Master out of rehab, they all know there is no turning back. While they search for the secret city, inside Gorilla Grodd is ruling with an iron fist. Sam Simeon aka Ape is in town in hopes to liberate the city from Grodd’s mafia style governing, but loyalty built on fear is hard to break. The Rogues are finally taking places for their fool proof plan, when Sam stops Cold for a few questions. This was not part of the plan, and to make things worse, authorities back home have noticed the gangs sudden disappearance. I’m rooting on the bad guys for this one, and I can’t wait to see how they get out of this one next issue!
  
Amazing Spider-Man #1 - Wells and Romita are back together to kick off this new Spidey run. I only read the last run when there was a tie-in, so I’m glad I get to start an ASM series at #1. This issue starts with a beat up Spider-Man who just finished a clearly traumatizing battle, and whatever happened keeps Spider-Man away for six months. As you can imagine, that had some negative effects on Peter Parker’s life. Aunt May is tired of the lies, debt collectors are hounding him, and MJ won’t even speak to him. But it’s not just the people in Peter’s world, recent events have caused a riff with the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. Feeling a bit isolated, Peter heads out as the lonely neighborhood Spider-Man and runs into White Rabbit and a few of her goons. He breaks up an arms deal and ends up fighting the recently dead bad guy Digger. Digger has had his run ins with gamma radiation, but a “green door” reference can only mean we might need to consult with Dr. Bruce Banner soon. Digger is making a big play for control of the city, which is just another fix added to Spidey’s to-do list.
   
Punisher #2 - Frank Castle has been recruited by The Hand to be the Fist of the Beast. Frank has been training hard in order to make up for his lack of martial arts/sword skills, but The Hand chose him for his natural fighting ability. We even get to flash back to Frank’s youth, and it appears The Hand have been watching them for awhile. The Hand is known to trick/blackmail people to get what they want, but they can give Frank what he wants the most, his family. They revived his wife, but he has more work to do to get his children back. Frank will do whatever it takes, and apparently it will take him fighting Ares! That’s right The Punisher vs. The God of War. I don’t know if Frank can learn enough Kung-Fu to defeat a god, but I know he’ll die trying!
 

Stone's Picks:

Punisher #2 - This issue makes Frank Castle seem like Michael Myers; especially the version from theRob Zombies films. This man has been completely unhinged his entire life. I don’t know much about Punisher's mythos, but I’ve always been under the assumption that he went cuckoo for murderpuffs because of his family's death. Nope, he’s always been a little nutso. There’s a real heavy Sith Lord vibe coming from this iteration of Frank as well. The way he’s posted up on his crimson throne clad in all black surrounded by red garbed ninjas parallels Darth Sidious and his Imperial Guard. We were also introduced to the leader of the Apostles of War. Can you guess what his name is?
  
Alien #11 - Jane and the other survivors arrive to hell at beta station and barely escape with their lives. Frightened beyond belief by what they witnessed at beta station, they make way to gamma station, the last possible safe haven. When they rolled up to gamma station and started chatting up the survivors I already knew it was going to turn out the way it did. We all know Weyland-Yutani simps for the Xenomorph and will do pretty much anything to study it. This issue showed the lengths of that, and I will say once more that I want to see these stories as a film or tv show cause they continue to be one of the best reads every week it comes out.
  
Amazing Spider-Man #1 - It’s a brand new era for the friendly neighborhood web-slinger, but it’s oddly familiar. Can’t Peter be doing good for once? Why does he always have to be nearing, or at, rock bottom? For the most part I enjoyed the issue. Tombstone is a likable character whose interactions both with Randy at the dinner table, and his crew at the business table, were some of the better parts and made for some fun dialogue. I think the big problem is there’s just too many things that are unclear. Problems with May, MJ, and the FF that just have too little information given. Sure, it’s a story and it’s suppose to build up to something but there’s just a lot of moving parts that have to be explained. Regardless, I await to see what Zeb Wells will do with Spidey leading into his 900th issue and beyond!