The Pull List

Okay, the final post for June...Good thing it's a Wednesday!

AMAZING SPIDER-HAM 25th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL
Words: The Swinester Six & Crayfin's Last Bunt: Tom DeFalco, Why Not Have Spider-Man Be A Human?: Tom Preyer
Pictures: The Swinester Six: Jacob Chabot, Crayfin's Last Bunt: Adam DeKraker, Why Not Have Spider-Ham Be A Human?: Agnes Garbowska

Why don't we have more books like this? Spider-Ham has been an under the radar favorite of mine for years. I look forward to the day I see a solicit for Essential Spider-Ham, Volume 1. There should be enough to fill at least ONE volume..right?
Anyway, this one-shot features three stories and are actually pretty funny.
First up is The Swinester Six where Spider-Ham's 6 deadliest foes team up to take down the porker. Also in this story is a recap of Spider-Ham's origin, which I never actually knew: Aunt May Porker was a wanna-be scientist and was trying to invent an atomic powered hairdryer. Something went wrong and she was irradiated and for some reason bit a spider. That spider became Peter Porker, a pig with the powers of a spider...or maybe he's a spider with the powers of a pig...I dunno which but it's funnny!
The second story is a take on another classic tale: Kraven's Last Hunt. Only instead of Spider-Ham fighting on his own, he actually has to team up with Swiney-Girl, his daughter.
Finally the short Why Not? tale in which The Assistant Watcher has to watch a tale in which Spider-Ham becomes Spider-Human. Ducktor  Doom changes him but the end result, while very tasty, isn't what the Ducktor expected.
It doesn't matter if you've ever read a Spider-Ham comic or not, if you're looking for something different you need to try this!

DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #892
Words: David Lapham
Pictures: Shawn Crystal

Guest-Starring Satana!
DPT-U is a great idea and one of my favorite hero books every month. Great covers and interior art I think this book has the most potential of any of the current Deadpool books. Certainly more than Deadpool Corps.Seems the daughter of the Devil got herself in a bad situation. While in Vegas she was swindled out of her soul by a group of dorks. Doctor Strange was not available but apparently Deadpool is listed in the same book as the good doctor so he gets the call.
The shocker in this issue isn't so much the fact Deadpool has sort of a soul but rather he has a plan that actually makes sense: Since it's a soul these dorks want and it's her soul Satana wants back...why not MARRY Deadpool! That way her soul is his and once the dust clears she will get it back. Okay, maybe not the best plan especially when you consider the dorks are actually some of the biggest demons in the Marvel Universe, including Dormammu and Mephisto!
Defiantly an issue that remembers the fun that is Deadpool!

DOOMWAR #5 of 6
Words: Jonathan Maberry
Pictures: Scot Eaton

More of the same. Good thing this issue gives something interesting with the arrivals of Deadpool AND War Machine!
Doom is waging war against everyone and everyone has decided it's time to deal with Doom once and for all.
This issue moves the story a nudge as Reed and T'Challa find out where Doom is keep the stolen Vibranium and Doom becomes a...humanitarian?! Yeah, things get a little wacky which is par for the course when Deadpool shows up...and promptly gets his neck broken by Doom!
Artwise..it's not bad but those covers by John Romita, JR ROCK!!!

FABLES #6: SPECIAL EDITION
Words: Bill Willingham
Pictures: Mark Buckingham

This special reprint offers readers a chance to enjoy the first chapter of the long running series' second storyarch: Animal Farm. It was the first time we'd been introduced to The Farm, a place where the Fables who can't pass for human live.
But while it's for the best it seems the inhabitants aren't to happy with it. There is something of a revolution starting that will eventually claim the lives of one of the Three Little Pigs and involve the shooting of Snow White!
Re-reading this issue only reminded me, like I needed to be, why I love this series which is soon to hit it's 100th Issue later this year!
This reprint issue is only $1 and anyone interested in checking this series out shouldn't pass this chance up!

GREEN LANTERN #55
Words: Geoff Johns
Pictures: Doug Mahnke

Guest-Starring Lobo!
Yeah, pretty much that's all I needed to buy this issue. Any chance to see The Main Man in action I'll take it. Add to that a fight with Atrocitus, holder of the Red Ring of Rage, and you have double the reason to buy it!
Needless to say it's a knock down drag out between FOUR Lanterns and Lobo. And needless to say even the four of them together can do little to stop the Last Czarnian. When the fight is over Sinestro thinks he knows why but he couldn't be more wrong. For all that he is, Lobo is a very smart man. He never does anything unless there is a reason and the reason for hunting down Atrocitus is very interesting indeed, especially when the person who put the hit out is revealed and even more awesome is what Lobo's fee for the job was!
There is also a variant cover for this issue that I will be hunting down!

MARVEL ZOMBIES 5 #4 of 5
Words: Fred Van Lente
Pictures: Fernando Blanco & Felix Cruz

Zombies by way of computer virus. This is by far my favorite issue of this series.
Howard, Aaron and Jackie end up in a world where robots pretty much run things. Even the people are mostly robot.
Aaron's ex Jocasta is everywhere and it seems she's the source of this strain of Zombism.
Seems with humans trading in wetware for hardware the robots are becoming little more than spare parts for them. Jocasta has figured out a way to introduce a virus which makes humans eat not only each other but even themselves! And it isn't just flesh that mutates as we learn when Aaron defeats this realities Arno Stark aka Iron Man 2020...when Arno's armor cracks open Aaron finds the armor was actually eating him from the inside out...very squishy.
I don't know if any fall out from this will be made known but I'd sure like to see how these events effect Aaron, especially the whole having to kill your ex thing.

THOR #611
Words: Kieron Gillen
Pictures: Rich Elson

Fall out from Siege continues!
The Asgardians are still picking up the pieces of Siege. The fallen have been tended to, Loki's sacrifice was not ignored.
But before Thor and the others can begin their next quest, rebuilding Asgard, they but first aid Hela who is under siege herself.
Before things went south, Loki made a deal with Mephisto in order to get a place where Hela could take in the souls of the fallen Asgardians. In exchange for this 'land deal' Loki turned over the Disir, ancient Asgardian women who had the taste for the flesh of their fellow Gods and who were cursed to never find piece in death and to never eat anything else but the souls of fallen Asgardians IF they wandered from Asgard, Valhalla or Hel. Places they NEVER wander from. These demon ladies are hungry and now they share the same realm with Hel where the fallen Asgardians from Siege now reside and they want to feast! Now, Thor and his fellow warriors need to fight for the souls of their fallen brethren!

Congratulations to Matt & Libby!

My very good friends, Matt and Libby, tied the knot this weekend, Saturday, June 26 to be exact, so I'd like to take a moment and Congratulate them. Matt is a dear friend of mine, one of the few I consider more of a brother than a friend. His now lovely Bride Libby has become just as important to me in the short time I've known her, she's more a sister than friend.
I wish them nothing but the best and hope they have a long and happy life together.
These pictures were taken by a mutual friend of ours in front of our town's best comic book shop: Nostalgia, Ink.

Good luck you two.
I love you both.

Now hurry back from your Honeymoon. I'm getting bored over here!

Minor Changes...

While looking through the options of Blogger I noticed a few new things I can add to my posts. So, at the bottom of every post from now on you will find buttons to share posts that you like on, for example, Facebook. Also there are 3 'ratings' things, I guess...? Anyway, I put them up as well. I doubt they will get used but what the heck, you never know until you try, right?

As always, I thank the people, few though they may be, who read this comic book blog. As always, any suggestions or ideas feel free to contact me.

Thanks for reading!

The Pull List X2

Yeah, last week was a bit nuts for me...So, I'm going to cover last and this week's pulls right now:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #633
Words: Zeb Wells
Pictures: Chris Bachalo & Emma Rios

Shed, Part 4 of 4: The Lizard has freed the lizard part of people's brains allowing them to act on their basest of instincts. Man fights man, the dominant male gets the female, that sort of thing.
Spider-Man, being one the most underrated brains in the Marvel universe, figures out using Dr. Connors' serum, which he used to suppress The Lizard for some time, will help him fight off The Lizard's influence.

He also hopes that injecting some of it into the Lizard itself will help Connors come back. It almost works. The Lizard gets his first taste of humanity, even helps Spidey, but takes off because it's to much for him to deal with.

Later, we see Peter trying to make sense of everything that's bee going on. He goes to the one person he's usually been able to talk to: Aunt May. She's still under the influence of Mister Negative though but seems to be fighting it off.
Overall, this Shed story was great. I would recommend it to anyone when it comes out in trade!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #634 & 635
Words: Joe Kelly
Pictures: Michael Lark & Stefano Gaudiano

Grim Hunt, Parts 1 & 2: The Gauntlet has ended and the family of Kraven the Hunter have finally played their big hand.
The writing fits this as does the artwork, which is dark and moody, much like the legendary story, Kraven's Last Hunt.

It's apparent not everyone is going to survive this story. We'll be down a few Spider-Characters after this. But, it will be worth it. Kraven's family is NUTS. They kidnapped Madame Web and forced her to tell them how to locate the other member's of the Spider-Family.
They forced Spidey to go through the Gauntlet in order to weaken him and make him easier to kill.
They almost killed Kaine, a clone of Peter Parker.
They actually DID kill Spider-Woman III (Mattie Franklin) in an attempt to bring back Kraven's son, I believe...who came back as a half man/half wolf thing that ends up eating corpse.

That was part one.
Part two, things get worse as Spider-Girl, now called Arana, is hunted. Spider-Man and Spider-Woman II try, and fail to save her as Ezekiel, the presumed back from the grave to help spirit is revealed to be Chameleon who has lead Spidey straight into the hands of the Kraven family. By this point he is to weak to continue and is overtaken quite viciously.
When the story ends, we see Spidey on an alter with a knife in his chest and Kraven The Hunter crawling out of his grave.
Can it get any worse? I don't know how but this story is very dark and almost miserable to read. You get a feeling of total helplessness as you watch Spidey go through this hell. And I have a feeling it WILL be getting worse.

Also in these issues are two back up features, an attempt to make the price increase from $2.99 to $3.99. It really doesn't as the Kain Vs. Kraven story could easily be a one-shot and the two page Stan Lee story, while fun, is pretty pointless.

AVENGERS #2
Words: Brian Bendis
Pictures: John Romita, Jr.

Continuing from last issue's revelation that the Next Avengers, the children of some of today's Avengers, will take over the world and eventually destroy the universe, our Avengers try to figure out a way to get to the future.
They seek the aid of the former Marvel Boy, who now apparently wants to be called The Protector, who has knowledge of time and has access to the tech of the Kree Empire.
Time travel stories can be a pain but sometimes they can be fun. Like this issue's double page spread showing possible futures of Marvel, which included MC2 and 2099 as well as Guardians Of The Galaxy, Death's Head II (don't really know why) and some others.
Before the Avengers can rally themselves they are attacked by, of all people, Wonder Man who is keeping his promise to never again allow the Avengers from forming. He's bitter.
The most surprising part, though, was the appearance of... Well, if I told you it wouldn't be a surprise and I wouldn't want to face any of his Horsemen.
Overall, this is how the Avengers should be. They are fast and exciting. For $3.99 a month they better be. I also have to admit, not the Marvel reads this, but if your books weren't so expensive I would be getting The New Avengers as well.

DEADPOOL #24
Words: Daniel Way
Pictures: Carlos Barberi

DP is still in Vegas and is still trying to do the hero thing. He's been reunited with his old sidekick The Weasel and now dons the armor of Wildcard (it's Vegas, remember?)
Thing is, what side is Deadpool REALLY on? He fights some b-grade villain called the Grizzly and causes a lot of damage which makes the city hate him...so, he trades armor with Weas and make it seem as it Weasel has turned and is helping Grizzly and takes off with a lot of money

Personally, I think Deadpool is on HIS side, as usual.
I have to also say, Deadpool fatigue is setting in. This series is beginning to suffer from all the other books and I've already dropped Deadpool Corps. Merc With A Mouth ends next month and Marvel has announced a Lady Deadpool book. I'm passing on that and plan to just stick with this book and Deadpool Team-Up.

DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH #12 of 13
Words: Victor Gischler
Pictures: Bong Dazo

The penultimate issue shows DP and Co. still trying to escape the Zombieverse.
Right now, of the recent Deadpool books, this is the funniest and also has the best covers. I'll be sad to see it go but you have to set a limit on how much Deadpool you really need.

Not much more to say about this issue, good jokes, fun art and the adventure continues as Marvel spews out so much Deadpool it even eclipses Marvel Zombies...even though they are in this book as well!

FABLES #96
Words: Bill Willingham
Pictures: Mark Buckingham

Rose Red continues to learn more of her past as we find the first of many run in's her and her sister, Snow White, have had with Princes.
Years ago the sisters helped a Prince end a curse and the Prince in turn promised to marry Snow White.
The King, as well as Snow's mother, didn't want this. The King wanted Snow to die, instead her mother sent her away in the middle of the night to stay with her Aunt, the Queen of a far away land and who loved being the "fairest of all."
Rose was told Snow walked to a river in the dead of night and drowned, killing all desire to live within the young Rose.
Snow would eventually live the events we know as Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, though we've not been told the full story, and ends up in the arms of Prince Charming.
They marry and when Snow's mother hears of this she finally tells Rose the truth. Rose then travels to be with her sister but not to be happy, to get some measure of revenge for the lie she felt she had been living all these years.
As much as I love the standard Fables stories, I love these origin stories even more. It's great to see how all the characters are connected.
4 for issues until Fables #100 is out!

FANTASTIC FOUR #580
Words: Jonathan Hickman
Pictures: Neil Edwards

The main story in this issue is Franklin, Leech and Johnny Storm going to Arcade's toy store and getting into a good old fashioned fight with the villain, while teaming up, sort of, with the impossible Man.
The sub-story, which I think is far more interesting, is the grouping of smart kids and Dragon Man, put together by Reed Richards.
He gave them an assignment, something they can do to prove themselves and what they pick is a doozy!
Curing Ben Grimm is something Reed has been trying to do since the first issue. These kids think they might have both failed and succeeded in curing him. Confusing? Yeah, I thought so too until it was explained. Reed had been trying to cure Ben but the cosmic changes in Ben's DNA prevent it. These kids have figured out a way to turn those powers off for a short time.
So, what this means is, if this experiment works, Ben Grimm will be human again! The failure part? It will only be for one week every year. Naturally, Ben jumps at the idea and I begin to think this could make for some very interesting stories in the future!

Total number of comics: 5157

Classic Marvel Figurine Collection #10

#10: Doctor Doom

Favorite Covers #10

Ghost Rider, Volume 2, Number 1

Cover Date: May 1990

I've said it many times here: This is where my comic book collection began. This was the very first comic book I collected and  the last 20 years and 5100+ comics I've collected all come from this book. 

Even beyond that, I've always loved this cover. It's what caught my eye when I decided to look at these comics at my local shop, Nostalgia, Ink, where at that time I was only buying GoreZone and Fangoria Magazines. I was really into horror movies in those days (back before everything was a lame ass remake of the good stuff) and the flaming skull, chain and spikes caught my eye. I had no idea where it would lead but these last two decades of collecting comics is something I wouldn't trade for anything.

So, Ghost Rider is my favorite character, this is my all time favorite comic and it's Comic Book #1 in my collection.

Gimmick Covers 1

After talking with a friend on Facebook I've decided to start posting all the various 'gimmick covers' I have in my collection. These I will be doing in order and will ONLY be gimmicks. Variant covers or second printings with changes made to the covers will not be included here. I'm talking holograms, foil, embossed, etc.
Starting with 'A' we have:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #365

Cover Date: August 1992

In 1992 Marvel Comics had quite a few Spider-Man comics. At least three were going at this time. This year they celebrated Spidey's first appearance in AMAZING FANTASY #15 in 1962. They did this with 'hologram covers.' This issue's hologram was made from that first appearance cover.

The Pull List

Sorry. Nothing new came out for me this week. I had to fall back on a variant cover:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #603 

70th Anniversary Variant

Classic Marvel Figurine Collection 9

#15: Thor

The Pull List

I, Zombie #2
Words: Chris Roberson
Pictures: Michael Allred

The first issue was the set-up. This issue we learn a little more about this new world from Roberson and Allred.
Gwen, our zombie, needs to eat brains once a month in order to retain her humanity. She works as a grave digger which gives her access to the freshest possible brains, and it also prevents her from having to kill living people, which generally leads tot he mess of making another zombie. She eats the brains of the recently dead.
The downside is she also gains the memories of the owners of said brains.
The introduction story centers on such memories. She's eaten the brains of a man who was murdered. The memories drive her to try to find out who murdered the man and bring that killer to justice.
We also have a group of vampire chicks, like a blood sucking sorority, who have night time paint ball contests. They use this to lure guys into the woods and drain them of their blood. For the most part they only take enough to sustain themselves without killing their victims or turning them into vampires as well. This works pretty well, apparently, until one of the chicks goes off on her own and starts to kill.
We also have the wolfman...sort of. He's in love with Gwen and two of his friends are about to be killed by the rogue vampire.
Good fun, good art and a real nice take on the Vampire, werewolf, zombie groupings. I can't say how much I enjoy this series, other than I was planning to wait until the trades started coming out but the cover of the second issue plus the pure fun of the first drove me to dropping Deadpool Corps and replacing it with I, Zombie. A good decision I think.

Changes: Dropping and Picking up titles

I've decided to drop Deadpool Corps and start getting iZombie from Vertigo.

This was something I was considering for a while now. Why? Because Deadpool Corps is the weakest of the Deadpool books. The story is not really that interesting, including the portrayal of The Elders, and the art by Rob Liefeld is just plain bad. I'm not really going to miss it. Will I get the trade? Maybe. If I can find it cheap at a convention. But this series will not be missed.

However, Vertigo's newest title, iZombie is highly entertaining and well worth collecting. I was originally planning to get it in trade but after taking it to Matt's and after he read it and we talked about it I decided to collect it. The art by Mike Allred is top shelf as always and the story is fun and very entertaining.

The Pull List

What? TWO in one week? Well, as I said before I wasn't able to get all the books I had from last week so that became YESTERDAY'S post. Today, I have a whopping ONE title to talk about. But what a book it is:

THE THANOS IMPERATIVE #1 of 6
Words:Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Pictures: Miguel Sepulveda

This is it. The return (again) of THANOS! The Mad Titan! Hell yeah! This guy is bad ass!
Okay, geek crap out of the way let's look at the book...

This is an event book in the Cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe. Let's break this down:
The story starts with Annihilation. Annihilus from the Negative Zone decides the 'positive' universe is growing and taking over his 'negative' universe. At the end of that, Drax, a character from the 1970's fulfilled his whole reason for being by finally killing Thanos. A fist through the back and the Mad Titan comes face to face with his heart.
After many decades of trying to be with his beloved Mistress Death, Thanos finally gets what he wants. He gets to die. No one knew at the time how big a deal that really was.
The next event was Annihilation: Conquest. Here we see the return of Adam Warlock, long time enemy and sometime associate to Thanos and the being who eventually became the tyrant Magus in a timeline that was erased years ago when Warlock went to his then future to kill himself thus preventing the Magus from coming to be and creating the Universal Church of Truth which would have gone on to enslave countless planets in the universe.
But was Adam really cured of the Magus? His first costume in this series was similar to that which the Magus wore.
This was followed by the War of Kings in which the Inhumans, leaving earth after the crap they went through during the Secret Invasion, took over the Kree, their creators, and made war with the Shi'ar.
This ended badly when the Inhumans king Black Bolt unleashed his power in an attempt to kill the Shi'ar leader, Vulcan. The result was a rip in time/space, the very fabric of our universe.

During Realm of Kings, the Guardians of the Galaxy discovered the Fault, as it became known, was a gateway of sorts to another reality where Death was destroyed and life runs rampant. It becomes known as the Cancerverse and there are evil doubles, doppelgangers if you will, of our universes finest heroes.
This universe is infested with these Cthulu looking things, tendrils and slime and all kinds of gross. In the Infinity War, the Magus made evil doubles of Earth heroes and villains. They showed him in another reality looking down at tendril and all kinds of slime, much like the ones here. It makes me wonder if this is the same thing. It would be nice to have something to connect to The Infinity War. Infinity Gauntlet has been referenced all over the place.

Anyway, in Guardians and Nova we learn that these things in this Cancerverse are wanting a new universe to continue to grow in. Our universe. But first Death must be destroyed. This is the problem. It seems the Universal Church of Truth was created anyway, who knows how, and they found a cocoon floating in space. Now, anyone with a passing knowledge of these things knows that Adam Warlock goes into such things when he needs to repaid his mind and body. The Church thought this was him and figured if they captured it they would have control over Warlock and would be able to re-create The Magus.
The problem was Adam Warlock had already come back during Annihilation: Conquest but before he was found in the event he was traveling through space and happened upon the lifeless body of Thanos, murdered by Drax. Warlock, understanding the need for Thanos in the grand scheme of things, placed him in a cocoon in hopes of fixing the death.
Warlock would go into his own cocoon after Galactus unleashed a wave of cosmic energy which would destroy the Annihilation Wave and countless innocents as well. The sudden death of so many beings was more than Warlock could handle so he retreated into his cocoon.

Warlock would succumb to the Magus and would join forces with the things of the Cancerverse. He was charged with killing the Avatar of Death: Thanos. He failed and in the Thanos Imperative: Ignition one shot he was seemingly destroyed by the Cancerverse version of Mar-Vel.
So the stage is set: Beings from another reality are here to take over but first they must destroy death. Thanos is living death. He loves it, worships it and delivers it to anyone he wishes. As long as he's around, death is around. In this first issue everything begins to come to a head: They are here and they want to kill death and take over. The Guardians and Nova have to rely on Thanos to defend this universe. Thanos, meanwhile, is having a lot of problems. It seems such a large influx of life in the universe is causing him pain.
In another part of the story, the Inhumans, the Kree and the Shi'ar are running for their lives. Before he was destroyed, the Magus transported entire planets of Church believers and ignited them, this ripped the Fault open completely and created the door the Cancerverse needed to come over.
There is a question as to whether or not the Inhumans and the others survived...but their possible destruction drew the attention to a certain Silver skinned Surfer. Rumor has it he and his boss will be involved.

this has the makings of a massive events on the level of Annihilation and The Infinity Gauntlet. Issue one shows how you set it up, the writers know what they are doing, they actually know how to construct this kind of story and while the War of Kings/Realm of Kings was lacking in my opinion, this more than makes up for it!

Favorite Covers #9

The Haunt Of Fear #14

August 1952

My friends know how much I love EC Comics, publisher of this series and the ever popular Tales From The Crypt. EC is the only publisher I love more than Marvel Comics and Chaos! Comics.
each comic featured 4 different stories and featured some of the best art of all time, and the best are of the 1950's.
The horror titles, The Haunt Of Fear, The Vault Of Horror and Tales From The Crypt (formerly The Crypt Of Terror) featured story tellers known as the GhouLunitics: The Crypt-Keeper, The Vault-Keeper and The Old Witch.
This EC is the very first original EC I ever owned and even though it isn't in the best condition it is still one of my most prized comics.

Classic Marvel Figurine Collection 8

#22: Ghost Rider

The Pull List

Here are the rest of the books from last week:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #37
Words: The Spider and The Shield: Karl Kesel, Make Mine Marvel: Kurt Busiek
Pictures: The Spider and The Shield: Paulo Siqueria, Make Mine Marvel: Pat Olliffe

If done right, Annuals can be fun. Sometimes they are part of events other times the tell untold stories of our favorite heroes.
This one is the later. It not only has two stories from Spidey's past and both are fun in their own way, but the book itself is 'set' in the past.
First up, "The Spider and The Shield", telling the tale of Spidey's first meeting with Captain America. It's a little out of whack with the references to computers and the internet but if you look at this as sort of a 'what if?' or even consider Marvel Time vs. real time it is still fun. I'm sure some nit pickers will trash this story but it is pretty much out of continuity and doesn't impact anything so just take it as a fun story.
And, it's always fun seeing Spidey play the part of fanboy.
So, you have the two heroes teaming up to save Sandman from a group of Rogue Scientists who are trying to kill Sandman because, they claim, he will kill 27% of the world's population. Naturally, Cap and Spidey don't agree and try to stop them. In the end it was the interference of the Rogues what gave Sandman the power to do the deed but he was still stopped, thanks to Spidey's quick thinking, and the whole thing was set up to...impress a girl? Only in a Marvel Comic.
"Make Mine Marvel" is billed as a story from the series Until Tales of Spider-Man a series from the 1990's that told stories from the early days of Spider-Man's career. the original team was brought back for this one and it did give it a feel of the '90's style' of Marvel. we have Spidey trying to stop the human Top, who is looking for a new name while trying to steal a device of some sort. What is the device? We really don't know, the joys of these stories set back in the early days is things don't always need to be spelled out. All we know is if the Human Top wants it then it can't be good.
Spidey ends up saving a few lives, one of which is Stan Lee, and ends up getting into a deal with Marvel Comics to get a series based on him. This draws the venom of JJJ who uses Wertham-style tactics to attack Marvel and eventually the Human Top attacks Spidey in Marvel's studio. All this leads to Spidey backing out of the deal in hopes of not endangering the health of Lee and his staff as well as the business he runs. Lee, ever the thinker, then decides to STILL tell Spidey's stories but by using new reports as source material. So, now we know how the Spider-Man comics got started.

DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH #11 of 13
Words: Victor Gishler
Pictures: Bong Dazo

Deadpool's adventures in the Zombieverse continues! It's time to go home, that's the thought of our 'hero' as he tries to evade the Zombie Amazing Friends, minus Zombie Spider-Man that is.
Things go from bad to worse as Deadpool has to race to save Betty and AIM Bill from becoming a frozen dinner for Zombie Iceman. How does he do it? Simple; Blow up a blimp and find a motorcycle. Anyone can do that, right?
While all this is going on, Professor Veronica (Betty? Veronica? How come I just got that?) and her survivors try to fight off Zombie Absorbing Man. Only thing is, they apparently didn't try hard enough. It's going to break Deadpool's heart to find out his hot babe is now a cold Zombie.
But, with this series coming to an end soon, I'm sure he'll get over it.

DOOMWAR #4 of 6
Words: Jonathan Maberry
Pictures: Scot Eaton

I'm not really sure what to say about this. Maybe I'm missing something but this series seems to be going nowhere fast. Out of four issues things have progressed at a snail's pace and for what? I can't figure it out. This series was supposed to be all out war against Doctor Doom and it's turned into a war against boredom.
But then I got this issue and from the cover I felt I was in for some fun.
Boy, you know how much I hate it when a cover have nearly NOTHING to do with an issue? I mean, yeah, Deadpool IS in this issue and I'm eager to see how Doom deals with someone like him...but Deadpool doesn't show up until the last two or three pages. Why put him on the cover?
For the rest of the issue we have the Fantastic Four and Wakanda's Warriors fighting robots they knew they could never beat...then Doom puts a new mask on and any progress the heroes had made was...ended? It doesn't make much sense but I'm willing to finish this out just the same.

FANTASTIC FOUR #579
Words: Jonathan Hickman
Pictures: Neil Edwards

Alright, so the last few issues may not have made much sense at the time, what with all the jumping from place to place and introducing new cultures and re-introducing the Negative Zone's Annihilus to the Marvelverse, but I think things are coming together now.
Reed founded a group, a think tank of sorts, called Singularity. It was supposed to be for smart, forward thinking people. Lately it's become stupid...to put of bluntly. Reed has realized this and he resigns.
Meanwhile, apparently Sue has been talking to one of the new cultures, Old Atlantis about something interesting while Reed welcomes a boy to the Baxter Building to be part of something special.
The smart Moloids now living in the Baxter building are learning things fast and one even finds a connection between the locations of the new cultures and the frequency that opens the portal to the Negative Zone.
This all comes to a head when Reed talks to the now insane Wizard and let's him, and us, in on who the boy from the beginning of the issue was: A young clone of the Wizard himself! We also find out that Reed has been gathering some of the smartest kids from the new cultures and has formed a new group: The Future Foundation.
So...what's next and what does Nu-Earth have to do with any of this?

MARVEL ZOMBIES 5 #3 of 5
Words: Fred Van Lente
Pictures: M.W. Kaluta, Kano and Tom Palmer & Felix Ruiz

Reality hopping, zombie fighting adventures with Arron Stack, aka Machine Man, Howard The Duck and the Indian girl who's name I'm to lazy to look up at this moment, continues!
Now we are in the land of King Arthur. It seems a certain Black Knight has found a book which has unleashed an evil upon the land, an Army of the Undead of Darkness and it's up the the three Chosen Ones to fight them and win.
I know, it sounds familiar but the book in question is the Darkhold and the Army of Darkness has little to do with the movie of the same title....although according to Howard these zombies are 'Possessed Type-834... a "Raimi"' which I thought was funny because I was thinking these things were acting like the demons/zombies in Sam raimi's Evil Dead trilogy.
So, you have the crusades, which is where the Black Knight fits into this, and you have the holy rollers thinking everything not Christian is evil and must be destroyed. These people target those who worship Thor and Odin. The murdered innocents come back as part of the Army of Darkness.
Cut to the end: the trio end the siege of the undead and prepare for their next mission: a world with a version of Machine Man AND Jocasta. As they leave the leader of the Crusades is confronted by Thor...if only we could see that beat down!
While not the best of the series, this was still a fun read.

Also from last week I picked up:

MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS: MARVEL ZOMBIES #1
Yeah, another reprint of the legendary first issue that began a great franchise! This time offered as part of the Marvel's Greatest Comics line which let's readers try the first or important issues of comics for just $1!There have been others but this is the first I managed to snag.

ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR, VOLUME 8:
This volume reprints Fantastic Four #160-183, Fantastic Four Annual #11, Marvel Two-In-One Annual #1 and Marvel Two-In-One #20.
I love the Essential line. It's a great way to see the books of Marvel's past without having to shell out hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of dollars to own them.