All the news that's unfit to print
Today is Halloween. It is a lot better Halloween than last year as it is much more possible to actually do stuff. That said, I still encourage everyone to take preventative actions against COVID-19 if they are going trick-or-treating/attending a party/etc. I hope everyone has a lovely and spooky holiday!
Lego is a big property. It's toys, theme parks, video-games, movies, and more. As far as an IP it has a lot to offer. Therefore, I am intrigued to hear that the Image imprint Skybound will be publishing a Lego comic in the near future. It will be an original Lego property that the company owns outright (not a brand they license from someone else), Ninjago. I am not that familiar with Ninjago but from what I understand the kids these days love it. The thing that interests me the most about this is if it goes well what else Lego might have Skybound publish for them. I'll be keeping my eye on all this for sure.
My mother is a huge fan of Prince and I am fond of his works too. I was quite sad when he passed some years ago, but his jams live on in their awesomeness. I don't really collect statues or such (no space or budget for them), but I admire some of the ones with amazing quality. PCS Collectibles is going to be releasing an extremely impressive statue, a 1:6 model of Prince with his purple motorcycle. It is a gorgeous statue and would make a lovely present for a fan of Prince...if you have $795 just laying around somewhere. I do not have that much extra scratch to drop on a statue, so I'll just admire it from afar. Now, if they came out with a statue of OutKast I would maybe really need to squeeze some pennies together to afford that, but we shall see.
I always give Tom King a chance. Ever since I read, "The Vision," I eagerly pick up whatever comic he is writing. Whenever one does that you're guaranteed amazing art and a story that either astounds you ("Omega Men," is another good example) a decent if flawed read ("Strange Adventures,") or an absolute mess ("Heroes in Crisis," springs to mind). King always gives it his all, however, and he and Greg Smallwood have something quite intriguing with this first issue of, "Human Target." This is a Black Label book so it is out of continuity, which makes sense as it follows Christopher Chance, a man whose whole gimmick is almost dying for people others are targeting...and now he's actually dying.
I won't spoil too much about who might have put Chance in the position of nearing death as when the possible suspects are revealed is when the book really clicked into place for me and became a comic I eagerly await the next issue of. Also, I won't spoil much as it seems this comic isn't on stands everywhere until next week. DC has had a very messy release schedule due to the paper shortage so some stores are getting stuff early, some late, and so forth. I've seen, "Human Target," #1 on some shelves but not on others. I can say that when it is supposed to be on sale everywhere next week you should pick it up.
King can run hot or cold, and here he seems to be running red-hot with a killer idea and a fantastic partner in the form of Greg Smallwood. Smallwood is among my favorite artists to draw Moon Knight and he excels at any task he's given. When drawing a variety of heroes and villains in the DC-Universe during this issue Smallwood continuously astounds. I can't say for sure that, "Human Target," will end as strongly as it has begun, but if it does, I'm eager to go on this wild ride.
5 out of 5 stars.
Officially known as the Gateway Arch, it is also referred to as, "The Saint Louis Arch." If you're a local and you're driving past it with someone you know it is mandatory to simply point at it and say, "There's the arch." However you refer to the landmark, it is 56 years old today! The last piece was put in place on this date, October 28th, back in 1965. For those wondering, construction started February 12, 1963, so that day is notable too in the arch's history.
I've been up in the arch and it provides a beautiful view of the region. If you ever have the chance to go up in the arch and don't mind a somewhat claustrophobic ride up in a weird egg-shaped elevator I'd recommend checking it out. Happy birthday, Gateway Arch!
MCU movies have morphed into required viewing for many. Even the less amazing ones are watchable, with, "Thor: The Dark World," being decent enough and the way too long runtime of, "Avengers: Endgame," being possible to withstand with a break or two as there are some standout bits. The latest Marvel flick is, "The Eternals," and it is getting reviews that range from average to a bit above average. The AV Club outright says it is, "Just another Marvel movie," for better or worse. Perhaps such a big team would be better served with a Disney+ show to introduce them? I don't know, but I'll still see it because it's a Marvel movie. It may not be among the most successful MCU films, but it will still probably make a lot of money too.
It isn't like Marvel movies can't still be inventive and weird. The oddly-somewhat-disliked-by-many movie, "Doctor Strange," astounded me in how off-kilter and odd it was. "Wandavision," was a Disney+ show as opposed to a movie but was utterly fantastic. I've heard that, 'Shang-Chi," is a hoot too and I plan to see it as soon as it is streamable on Disney+. Once I see, "The Eternals," I can offer my thoughts on where it goes right or wrong, but for now it seems that it is simply, "Okay," or, "Good," instead of, "Great," according to those who have seen it already.
America is facing of shortage of basically everything, and paper is included in that. It is not just toilet paper--remember when we all freaked-out about that the first time? Actual paper like for books and comics are in short supply and this has affected comic-book production. DC has delayed a number of titles at various points already a few weeks here and there due to a lack of supply. Manga has taken a hit. No publisher seems immune.
One really big piece of news is that Image Comics will not be doing second/third/etc. printings of their comics from this point. They'll do a first printing of a new title along with its variant covers and that's it. Now, one could point out stopping ratio variants could help with stores over-ordering these first prints to the point where comics will just sit around in their effort to get a rarer variant, but that is its own argument.
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| The supply chain is affecting everything. |
The main thing is that for now Image will release a comic, and that's it until it is collected in a trade paperback. This could make some popular titles a bit more rare and folks might have to turn to eBay/Mercari/Whatnot/etc. for a new comic if they don't preorder it from their shop and find it sold out everywhere. One could say this is a cynical move by Image to boost orders for debut issues of books, and it maybe is slightly, but the bigger concern is the actual scarcity of paper which lends this some legitimacy. I can already see how crazy this might get if a hot comic has a single printing and gets allocated (e.g. stores don't get all the copies they ordered due to shortages). Lord help us all then.
It sounds like an affront to nature, but the popular sunflower seed brand known by my name, David, has created a flavored seed designed to resemble bacon mac and cheese. I saw a little bag when we were browsing Five Below the other day and my curiosity got the better of me so I bought it. Unlike that time I sampled wasabi on a lark (that stuff is nasty), I was quite pleased with bacon mac and cheese flavored sunflower seeds.
First off, the interior seed is still a normal sunflower seed, it is the outer shell that has the flavoring. Instead of sucking simply upon the salted shell before cracking it open, you suck on a surreal cheddar-ish flavor with a hint of smoky bacon. It is fascinating how pleasant it actually is for something some strangely artificial. I honestly thought after trying this I'd spit it out with disgust, but man if it isn't a treat. I guess taking a chance on a weird food idea sometimes pays off, unlike when I actually gave mustard an attempt in grade school and almost vomited from how awful it was. Anyways, look for these in your local grocery store.
I played and loved the strange monster game, "Carrion," on the Nintendo Switch. It is a twist on most games as you play the actual monster. It finally has been released--oddly without much fanfare--for the PlayStation 4/PlayStation 5. I cannot recommend, "Carrion," enough if you like the idea of a horror game where you're the horror, solving some fun environmental puzzles whilst engaging in action-packed combat. I hope we get a sequel at some point!
The other day a friend and I agreed "Immortal Hulk," issues #1-#25 are a masterpiece of storytelling. Full of philosophy, body horror, and general weirdness I loved reading it. The comic was written by the amazing Al Ewing and had art often by the now-disgraced Joe Bennett (more on that later). My friend and I also agreed on how issues #26-#50 were at times a bit slow or meandering, but still managed to entertain a great deal. With its finale completed, we're left with one of the best runs of a Hulk comic ever. This is arguably up there with the original stuff by Lee & Kirby, what Peter David gave us in the 1990s, and the Planet Hulk/World War Hulk stuff by Greg Pak.
"Immortal Hulk," gave us a Hulk who was smart, scary, and either wanted to save the World, destroy it, or thought destroying it would save it. We saw different personalities of Bruce Banner/the Hulk, witnessed all kinds of fights and surreal imagery, dug deep into psychology, and in the end--sorta a spoiler--got to watch Hulk yell at God (or some version of him/her) about life and why the Hulk even exists if all the Hulk seems to do is annihilate all that exists around him. It was a fabulous run.
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| Bennett's art was often amazing. He, unfortunately, is hateful. |
The one stain on this majestic comic would be that as these issues unfolded more and more was revealed about the comic's usual penciler, Joe Bennett. I turned out he had previously posted a number of homophobic, antisemitic, and generally offensive comments and drawings. It started being apparent there were problems as early as issue #43 of, "Immortal Hulk," itself which contained questionable imagery, encouraging folks to dig deeper and find some really unsavory stuff about Bennett. As more was learned Al Ewing said he would never work with Bennett again and Marvel said they were cutting ties with Bennett after, "Immortal Hulk." One could be a little snarky and point out Marvel waited until, "Immortal Hulk," was done to finally drop Bennett, but I said I could be snarky, not that I would be.
Controversy with Bennett aside, "Immortal Hulk," was a wonderful series that utterly amazed me for half its run and still was pretty great for its back-half before closing strong. I look forward to the inevitable omnibus in 2022 or 2023 and will save my pennies up for it. Now we get to see what Donny Cates and Ryan Ottley have in store for us in their unenviable position of following after this amazing run.
5 out of 5 stars (for the entire run).
