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Written by Pat Vis

Amazing Spider-Man: Ends of the Earth One-Shot (Marvel)

Each summer there is a big Spider-Man event, and this year’s is Ends of the Earth. The basic premise has Doctor Octopus attempting to launch several missiles containing satellites which he claims,” will save the World.” This one shot occurs about halfway through the event and focuses on some side characters that Spider-Man brought in to help him out.

The book is split into two parts. The first of which is written by Rob Williams, and the second by Brian Clevinger. The parts read as two separate stories, and tonally they both feel different. Williams is definitely writing a darker with some deaths going on, while Clevinger’s part is a bit more of an upbeat super-hero fair. The art by Thony Silas is pretty solid, with the exception of when he decides to show massive boobage. If you haven’t been reading Ends of the Earth, then this book will be a bit harder for you to pick and understand what’s going on.

 3/5

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Written by Pat Vis

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #39 (Marvel)

Ideally a Spider-Man book should be a blend between action, drama, and comedy. Spider-Man is supposed to be the most relatable character that Marvel has. While the truth of that statement has fluctuated over years, for the last couple years, Spider-Man has been on a hot streak. A large part of this has been thanks to writer Dan Slott and his team of artists. Spider-Man Annual #39 is continues this hot streak but surprisingly without Dan Slott, instead Brian Reed and Lee Garbett bring an excellent issue to the table.

In Spider-Man Annual #39, Peter Parker is accidently erased from time (and therefore Spider-Man is too). Reed does an excellent job of balancing humor and drama in this issue. The humor is great, particularly a gag about an ice cream cone. The drama is also well done too, with Peter travelling through time, encountering people from his past. Garbett’s art also stands out. He handles the modern stuff well, but his art becomes even more exceptional with how well he draws the scenes that take place in the past.

5/5

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Written by Pat Vis

Over the years through my journey as a comic book aficionado, I’ve come across a lot of random comics, either through sale or giveaways. Sometimes I’ll read the old books I pick up, but a lot of the time it’s just a random issue of an old comic from before my time. This week we’ll be looking at some of those old comics. Let’s dig in!

Silver Sable & The Wild Pack #1  (Marvel Comics)

It’s time I let you in on a little secret; the early 90s was a very strange time for comics. This period was a major boom for the comic book industry. It wasn’t uncommon for #1 issues to sell a couple million copies a piece. The collector’s market was also booming at the same time, with people buying #1s assuming they’d be worth thousands of dollars down the road. Of course, this all collapsed upon itself (which led to some really weird stuff in the late 90s). I feel bad for any collectors who bought this #1, because I bought it (and four more issues of this series) for two dollars.

The first thing you’ll notice when you pick up Silver Sable is the cover; oddly enough it’s hard to miss. Again, this was the 90s, and gimmick covers were the bee knees. You’ll note that the Silver Sable herself is indented out and silver, as is the title of this book. It’s a weird effect and makes me think I should use this book for tanning on my patio. The book itself is alright, with my biggest complaint/notice being that Silver Sable is a very unpleasant character. She is constantly snappy and bitchy to other characters in the book. I know they’re trying to show a strong female character, but there are other ways than making her completely unlikable. Their idea of feminism is “Men are terrible” and “Stupid men!” and variations of such. It’s the definition of a straw feminist.

2/5

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Written by Pat Vis

Suicide Squad #9 (DC Comics)

Like I’ve said previously in this column, Suicide Squad isn’t a bad book. It’s a new take on the old Suicide Squad concepts: Six super villains work off their prison sentence by doing secret black ops work for the government. While the concept still works and, for the most part, is entertaining, this issue brought up some general issues I have with comics. Characters shouldn’t be announcing their powers as they use them. Not only does it sound silly, but it’s cheap way to explain a character to the reader. There are better ways to introduce us to a character than “Because of my lightening powers, I will use lightening to…”

Painful character exposition aside, issue #9 of Suicide Squad has Deadpool facing off against Resurrection Man. Aside from a couple pages of talking; this entire issue is a fight, which does make it exciting. Fernando Dagnino’s art never distracted me from action with awkward panels or odd pacing. Adam Glass writes an interesting enough story, but with this issue there really isn’t much going on. There are a couple plot twists, but they didn’t feel unexpected or even all that necessary.

3/5