I think I've mentioned before that I always try to be reading one Marvel comic. Daredevil ended recently and I was pretty sure I didn't want to be on board when it started up again (although I looked through Man Without Fear #2 on Wednesday and I'm starting to think I was a bit hasty). I wasn't sure what I was going to try out in its place. I was thinking about just not getting any Marvel comics for a while because every time I read a Marvel comic, it gets really bad or it gets canceled.

But I picked up Captain Marvel #1 this week and I looked through it and Alpha Flight is nowhere in sight and that seemed like a good sign so I bought it.

I loved the 2012 series! I didn't read much of the 2014 series, but I didn't like what I saw. And the 2016 series - I read it for four or five issues and it was SO DULL! Ugh!

But I really like the latest Captain Marvel #1! Carol is back in New York, fighting a monster with one of her super-hero buddies (in this case Spider-Woman) and there are guest stars galore! Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Rhodey. And a cameo with a new super-hero named Hazmat who is learning to cope with her powers. I liked that segment, especially where she said "Gosh, you're old" when Carol mentioned merit badges.

At the end, Carol rushes into an interdimensional gateway after Mahkizmo, who has abducted a female journalist. The "next issue" box gives the impression that Carol will be leading an all-woman rebel band against the patriarchy of the planet Machus. Well, hopefully, this won't go on too long as I would like to see Carol in New York hanging out with Spider-Woman, She-Hulk, Hellcat and whoever.

I almost forgot to mention that the Amanda Conner cover is a real stuner!

I'm really glad I gave this a chance! Hopefully, they will wait a while before messing up the continuity with an unwieldy cross-company cross-over. That's the kind of thing that makes it easy to give up a title.



And I picked up a couple of reprints. I got the facsimile edition of Marvel Presents #3! This was the first issue of a Guardians of the Galaxy regular feature after they guest-starred in several issues of Marvel-Two-In-One and The Defenders. I had never read this one before. (Although I had the Marvel-Two-In-One issues and some of the Defenders appearances.)

I read two or three pages and I thought "This is awfully wordy for a 1970s comics." And then I remembered "Oh yeah! Steve Gerber!"

Gerber was apparently kind of done with the Badoon subjugation of Earth because the reptilian conquerors are wrapped up pretty quickly and handed over to the Sisterhood of the Badoon, leaving the Earthlings free to remake their world. This is very boring for the Guardians. (What could possibly be interesting about remaking a world where humanity has been enslaved by lizards for centuries?) So, at the urging of Starhawk, they decide to take off for other worlds and other stars.

But it's more of an epilogue and a prologue than an actual story. I don't know if I would have kept reading Marvel Presents if I had read this when it first came out.


I like the Al Milgrom/Pablo Marcos art. It makes it look very very mid-1970s Marvel. And since it's a facsimile edition, it has all the ads and the text pages and stuff from a 1976 comic book! Including an ad for Son of Origins of Marvel Comics!



And I also bought the True Believer reprint of Fantastic Four #62. I had a hankering for some Lee/Kirby/Sinnott FF. This has actually been on sale for a few weeks, but I passed it over for True Believer reprints of FF #2 and FF #18 and FF #36.

Of course, I've read this a bunch of times! But it's nice to have handy cheap copies of some of the classics. This is the one where Reed is trapped in the Negative Zone and the only one who can save him is … Triton! For some reason. Because maneuvering in the Negative Zone is just like maneuvering in the ocean!

I was a bit disappointed because I forgot that Blastaar isn't in it that much. He sneaks through the portal behind Triton and Reed and skulks around and meets the Sandman and starts plotting the subjugation of the Earth, which should be easy because they are all such puny creatures. Ha ha ha ha ha!

This is actually a pretty good story, sort of at the end of Lee and Kirby and Sinnott's great run from #44 to about #65. We're just a few issues past the epic adventure with Dr. Doom and the Silver Surfer and we're in those issues with the Sandman and Blastaar. I was just a little disappointed because I saw Blastaar on the cover … and I thought the FF would be fighting Blastaar!

Turok #1.

Written by Ron Marz. Art by Roberto Castro. Cover by Butch Guice.

The story begins in the Old West. The US Cavalry has captured Turok's brother Andar and Turok is trying to rescue him. To escape the soldiers Turok & Andar go thru a portal in a canyon and find themselves in a lost land inhabited by dinosaurs.

The return of the classic Turok! Marz retells the origin of Turok in this issue. It was a decent relaunch. The art was good and the story was familiar. Hopefully next issue kicks things into high gear.

7/10.

Have you read the previous volumes of Criminal?  Because they are outstanding and well worth the read.  

This was an excellent issue...but that's pretty much a given with Brubaker and Phillips.  And...an essay about Blood Simple.  I really need to watch that again.  

I only read the first issue...and it was just okay but the delays killed any interest I may have had.

I read it up to #6 or #7 and I've been liking it quite a bit! A lot more than I thought I would.

I say this as a Watchman fan who thought Before Watchman was pretty much across-the-board awful except for Silk Spectre, most of Minuteman and one issue of The Comedian.

I'm more inclined to believe that Johns is the reason for the lateness. Johns is one of the head honcho's in DC and is more busy with other things. They need a Jim Shooter to kick ass and get those books done. 

Sounds like Ron Marz then.