Friday, December 23, 2016

Crabs, Assemble!, Part Eighteen: Marvel Premiere Classic, Vol. 86: Avengers: West Coast Avengers- Lost in Space/Time

Kang again!!! (Not really Kang, but Rama-Tut, who is just as bad as Kang...In fact, ISN'T he Kang in some way/shape/form...? Ugh. I hate time-travel stories........)

If you've ever suspected that women were inferior to men in every way, but lacked proof....your day has come.

The Christmas Spirit, by Brian James Freeman

Adam Tanner, former drug addict, rock 'n' roller, and general all-around hellraiser, is now a dedicated family man, reflecting back on the good samaritan who saved his life and persuaded him to change his ways. A devoted husband and father, Adam and his perfect family are decorating the house for Christmas when a neighbor stops by with some...unsettling news.

Brian James Freeman's short story THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT makes for good holiday reading if, like me, you love the holiday, but want a little darkness mixed in with your Christmas cheer. Freeman does a great job of fleshing out his characters before giving them a kick in the nether regions.

A fun way to spend a little pre-holiday reading time.
Six out of ten devil heads!
👿👿👿👿👿👿

Monday, December 19, 2016

Crabs, Assemble!, Part Seventeen: Marvel Premiere Classic, Vol. 80: Avengers: West Coast Avengers- Sins of the Past

Slightly more fun than the last volume...

I'm a sucker for many things. Among them:

I often enjoy reading/watching a good "Making of" more than I enjoy the film itself.

I love big hardcovers that have random "take-out" objects in them.

There are more, but those two, in particular, directly influenced my buying this book.

Crabs, Assemble! Flash-Forward: The Vision, Vol. 2: Little Better Than A Beast

A modern-day classic...?

Enter...KANG! Enemy of entertainment!

Strange.

Crabs, Assemble!, Part Fifteen: The Avengers: The Legacy of Thanos

A choppy, uneven read that closes the books on a few large pieces of The Marvel Universe.

Crabs, Assemble! Flash-Forward: The Vision, Vol. 1: Little Worse Than A Man

In which we leave the comforting, nostalgic comics of yesteryear and venture into the realm of critically-acclaimed modern graphic novels.....

Crabs, Assemble!, Part Fourteen: Avengers: Vision and The Scarlet Witch- A Year in the Life

I passed on this when it was first released, because I vividly remember this mini-series from when I was a kid, and I remember it being not too good.

Fiscally responsible decision.

Fast-forward nearly six years. I am with my wife and kids at Universal's Islands of Adventure, having a ball. I decide to stop into the comic store near the Spider-Man ride, and three terrible things happened:

Crabs, Assemble!, Part Thirteen: Marvel Premiere Classic, Vol. 64: Avengers: West Coast Avengers- Family Ties

This is where the AVENGERS marathon starts to go off the rails.....

Crabs, Assemble!, Part Twelve: Marvel Premiere Classic, Vol. 44: Avengers: West Coast Avengers Assemble

Go west, young Hawkeye!

Crabby Movie Review: The Monster

I'm a monster movie fanatic. I will watch anything that has a monster in it. I count the days until the release as soon as I catch wind that a monster movie is coming down the pike. So how did this movie get made and released without me ever hearing a peep about it?

Crabs, Assemble!, Part Eleven: Doctor Strange Versus Dracula: The Montesi Formula

Yeah, technically NOT an AVENGERS book, but.....

Superman: American Alien

I've slowly started to realize, after over four decades of reading comic-books, that continuity is not my master, and I've accepted that the best stories are often ones that are either out-of-continuity, or occupy some nebulous space in continuity. Max Landis' SUPERMAN: AMERICAN ALIEN is just such a comic.

Crabs, Assemble!, Part Ten: The Avengers: Absolute Vision, Book 2

The Vision's plan for world conquest comes to fruition....is there any coming back from this for the synthezoid Avenger....?

Crabs, Assemble!, Part Nine: The Avengers: Absolute Vision, Book 1

The Stern/Milgrom/Sinnott team starts firing on all cylinders, as The Avengers start what may be their greatest era.

Crabs, Assemble!, Part Eight: The Defenders Epic Collection, Volume 6: The Six-Fingered Hand

What better way to kick off THE DEFENDERS EPIC COLLECTION than with their greatest adventure...?

Crabs, Assemble!, Part Seven: The Avengers: The Trial of Yellowjacket

A perfect collection...?

Crabs, Assemble!, Part Six: Marvel Masterworks, Vol. 234: Ms. Marvel

The Avengers marathon continues, now with added rape and incest!

The Last Days of Jack Sparks, by Jason Arnopp

I'm always down for demonic possession in my entertainment, and having thought Grady Hendrix's MY BEST FRIEND'S EXORCISM was one of the best novels of the year, I was very excited to read Jason Arnopp's THE LAST DAYS OF JACK SPARKS. All of the blurbs by well-known authors, and the raves I've heard from people that I know (And whose opinions I trust...) only served to ramp up that excitement.

Crabs, Assemble!, Part Five: Essential Avengers, Volume 9

The final group of AVENGERS comics to be collected in the late, great ESSENTIAL format....sob.

Crabs Assemble!, Part Four: The Avengers: Heart of Stone

The Avengers, illustrated by George Perez AND John Byrne....It doesn't get any better than that.

Batman, Volume 9: Bloom

A fill-in superhero fights the bad guy, and the city gets wrecked. (Wait, which book is this....?)

Crabs Assemble!, Part Three: Marvel Universe by John Byrne Omnibus

My mega-Avengers-marathon continues, in a roundabout way....

Six Scary Stories

A mixed bag of short horror-fiction.

Crabs Assemble!, Part Two: Wolverine Epic Collection, Volume 01: Madripoor Nights

If I hated this series 28 years ago, why am I buying it again....?

Suicide Squad #2

So bad it's good....?

All Star Batman #2

Batman and Two-Face continue running an all-star gauntlet...

Sixpack and Dogwelder: Hard-Travelin' Heroz #1

Section Eight returns! Or is that Section Five...?

The best comic I've read all year....?

UFOs Over America: Scariest Cases, by Joseph Flammer

The truth is out there....?

DC Super Hero Girls: Finals Crisis

The Cartoon Network short subject gets an original graphic novel.

All-Star Batman #1

Five bucks for thirty-two pages....? Oy.

The "Rebirth" keeps on rebirthin' with the umpteenth SUICIDE SQUAD #1 of the past decade.

Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe, by Robert Matzen

“What is it you want, Hitler? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon, Hitler. ”

Deathstroke: Rebirth #1

OK, now THIS is more like it.....

Remember when first issues were accessible...?

Crabs, Assemble!, Part One: Marvel Masterworks: Ms. Marvel, Volume 1

Over the (Most likely...) next several months, I will be undertaking a MASSIVE reading marathon of Marvel's AVENGERS. I'm insanely behind in my comic reading, but that sometimes has a nice little side-effect: Collected editions will come out that fill holes in my unread books pile(s), so I'll put the new books in chronological order with the old books, which sometimes ends up yielding a massive pile of collected editions and/or floppies that scream out to be read together, in order, straight through. So, this is the first book (Actually, it's the second....MARVEL UNIVERSE BY JOHN BYRNE OMNIBUS was to be the first, but then I impulsively bought this book, which takes place before AVENGERS #181, so I had to read this first. Curse my continuity-mad mind!!!) of (So far!) a monstrous 27-book marathon. Join me, won't you....as we step back into the 1970's....?