Fantastic Four/Giant-Sized X-Men Free Comic Book Day 2025 #1

Picked this up at Most Excellent Comics and Games in Enfield CT USA on Free Comic Book Day 2025.

Title: Fantastic Four/Giant-Sized X-Men Free Comic Book Day 2025
Issue: 1 
Date: 2025
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Ryan North, Jason Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Chip Zdarksy
Artist: Humberto Ramos, Iban Coello
Colorist: Edgar Delgado, Brian Reber
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna, VC's Clayton Cowles
Editor: Martin Biro, Annalise Bissa, Tom Brevoort

Free Comic Book Day freebie just in time for the upcoming FF film. The Fantastic Four story is adorable, featuring alien children engaging in some very familiar spooky fun and accidentally "summoning" the Fantastig Four from Earth. Johnny has... a mustache, apparently? Anyway, this was adorable.

The second story was a reboot of the New X-Men, previewing a, well, reboot of Giant-Sized X-Men #1. This was just Cyclops beating everyone else up in the Danger Room, and is probably the kind of thing that will generate a lot of outrage on the internet because Scott makes everyone from Logan to Ororo to Thunderbird (remember him?) look like jobbers. Oh, and Ms. Marvel is in it, just to give it a bit more of an update, I guess. She's apparently already made the team, so is saved the indignity of getting beat up by Cyclops.

The last story is Wolverpool and Deadverine, and it's just trying so hard to be even more meta than meta. This story has never "meta" fourth wall it didn't want to break. Nice to see a two-panel appearance by Ox, though. 

Rating: 5.5/10

Star Wars: Allegiance

Bought at Boocup, Kerry Parkside, Shanghai, China.

Title: Star Wars: Allegiance
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2019
Writer: Ethan Sacks
Artist: Luke Ross
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Editor: Mark Paniccia, Tom Groneman
Cover: Marco Checchetto

This was really odd. It's a prequel to Rise of Skywalker, but it's very clear that the writer of this story had been given no information on the plot of Rise of Skywalker, and so in hindsight, it reads like the prequel to what everyone expected Rise of Skywalker to be, rather than the prequel to what we actually got.

No mention of Palpatine, of course, because, well, that would have been a spoiler at the time this was released.

The result is a rather uneven mixing of two separate plots. Finn and Poe (with BB8) try to retrieve some weaponry for the Resistance and end up hunted by bounty hunters. And Leia visits Mon Cala with Chewie, Rey, 3PO, R2, and Rose on a diplomatic mission.

Complications of the usual sort arise in both scenarios, and there are a few good moments for some of the characters, along with a fair amount of wasted potential. I'm always here for Rose getting to be part of the action, and was happy to see her shine in a few places, but much like in Rise of Skywalker itself, she still spent too much time standing around with nothing to do. I also thought there was a bit too much playing into the hothead side of Rey's persona. Leia came off as a good diplomat, but we expect brilliance out of Leia.

The story also leaned a bit heavily into tired cliches. Trial by combat? Really?

The crew of bounty hunters introduced in the Poe/Finn subplot were the most interesting people in the story, although that was due in some respect to novelty.

Rating: 4/10

Bitch Planet: Triple Feature #1

From the stack of comics I bought at Double Midnight Comics in Manchester NH last year.

Title: Bitch Planet: Triple Feature
Issue: 1
Date: June 2017
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Cheryl Lynn Eaton, Andrew Aydin, Conley Lyons
Artist: Maria Frohlich, Joanna Estep, Craig Yeung
Colorist: Marco D'alfonso
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor:  Lauren Sankovitch
Cover: Valentine De Landro

This is an anthology series set in the world of Bitch Planet, a patriarchal future in which "troublesome and offensive" women are imprisoned on an off-world penitentiary.

In the three stories in this collection, the only part that actually takes place in the Bitch Planet prison is a flashback sequence. Instead, the focus here is life under oppressive patriarchy, and acts of resistance and defiance.

All three stories were powerful, but all of them felt like they could have used a bit more breathing room. I haven't read the Bitch Planet main series (Yet! It's on my list!), so I don't know if there is any crossover of characters, but the lead characters in each of these stories had the potential for her own major plotline.

This is clearly a great companion piece for fans of the main series, but not as good a jumping-in point for new readers. That being said, I did jump in here as a new reader, and it did leave me intrigued enough to want to read more.

Rating: 7.5/10

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story #6

Another summer purchase by the Kiddo.

Title: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Issue: 6
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: November 2017
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Emilio Laiso
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Editor: Heather Antos
Cover: Phil Noto

We somehow missed getting #5. Here are links to reviews of the rest of this series: Issue #1, Issue #2, Issue #3, Issue #4.

Rogue One concludes at a frantic pace with a desperate running battle to get the Death Star plans off of the planet Scarif and into the hands of the Rebel Alliance. The pacing of the comic captures the frenetic feel of the action in the film while managing to downplay a couple of the plot contrivances that weaken the story.

As with some other Star Wars comics I've read, the medium does not do a very good job with space battles, especially when small panels become necessary to cover all of the plot and dialogue. Lack of page space also hurts some of the ending scenes.

Rogue One has a few really big moments at the very end, and this issue could really have used 3-5 more pages to give them the treatment that they really deserved. Instead, much of the finish (I felt like one scene worked and two failed badly) does not live up to what we saw on the big screen.

Rogue One is a good story that packs its strongest emotional punch in the scenes covered in this issue, and it's an important moment in the overall Star Wars saga. This comic delivers on some of that emotion, but could have done better.

Rating: 5.5/10

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story #4

Kiddo was buying all Star Wars all the time this past summer!

Title: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Issue: 4
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: September 2017
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Emilio Laiso
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Editor: Heather Antos
Cover: Phil Noto

The fourth issue of Marvel's adaptation of Rogue One covers some of the film's most iconic lines, including "Rebellions are built on hope!", and the naming of the Rogue One callsign.

Mon Mothma gets a nice scene in this issue, which is cool since she is a character who seems to get overlooked quite a bit. This issue also features Vader, plus a lot of setup for the action that will comprise the last two issues.

The pacing was good, and the art was solid, especially on Jyn's expressions and emotions.

Rating: 6/10

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story #3

Another of the Kiddo's purchases over the summer.

Title: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Issue: 3
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: August 2017
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Pablo Villanelli
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Editor: Heather Antos

I reviewed issue #1 here, and issue #2 here.

The third installment of Marvel's adaptation of Rogue One covers the escape from Jedha and ends cliffhanger-style on Eadu.

A lot of the focus in this issue was on the tensions between the characters as hidden agendas come to the forefront and conflicting interests threaten to shatter the tenuous trust that has built up between the group of rebels Jyn Erso has found herself in the company of.

The key scenes here worked better on film because the actors were able to give more subtle emotional cues than it's possible to get in the comic medium, in spite of a valiant effort by artist Pablo Villanelli.

The adaptation remains faithful to the film, but the pacing of this issue and the abrupt cliffhanger made it feel very fragmentary.

Rating: 5/10

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story #2

The Kiddo picked up several Star Wars comics at various shops around New England this past summer, including most of the individual issues of Marvel's Rogue One adaptation.

Title: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Issue: 2
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: July 2017
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Emilio Laiso, Oscar Bazaldua
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Editor: Heather Antos

The second issue of Rogue One covers the action that takes place on Jedha. The main focus of this part of the story is to introduce Chirrut Imwe, Baze Malbus, and Saw Gerrera, and to expose Jyn Erso to the secret message left for her by her father, Galen Erso.

There are some street-level skirmishes, but most of this issue is setup for what is to come.

Jyn looks great throughout this issue, and the art team does good work with Baze and Chirrut as well. The story pacing is handled well, and it felt like it moved along at a comparable rhythm to the film.

This was a well-made adaptation, and it did an effective job with a good story, even if it did not add much for those who had seen the movie.

Rating: 6.5/10

Journey To Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Captain Phasma #1

Got this one at Merrymac Games and Comics in Merrimack NH.

Title: Journey To Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Captain Phasma
Issue: 1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: November 2017
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Marco Checchetto
Colorist: Andres Mossa
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Cover: Paul Renaud
Editor: Jordan D. White, Heather Antos

This story fills in the gap of how Captain Phasma manages to escape the destruction of Starkiller Base after being tossed into a garbage chute by the Resistance.

The action and artwork are quite good, but I feel like the fans (myself included) really want to see more character development for Phasma, and the brief interactions she has with people in the midst of the mayhem of Starkiller Base falling apart don't really give enough of that.

Fortunately, the seed is planted for an ongoing story, where more of Phasma's character can be revealed as she attempts to track down a possible traitor to the First Order.

There was nothing really original or surprising here, but it fills a gap in the story and was a good setup for possibly more interesting events to come.

Rating: 6/10

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Volume 1: Squirrel Power

I bought this at a book fair at my school in Shanghai.

Title: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
Issue: Volume 1: Squirrel Power
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2015
Writer: Ryan North, Steve Ditko, Will Murray
Artist: Erica Henderson, Steve Ditko
Colorist: Rico Renzi, Christie Scheele
Letterer: VC's Clayton Crowles, Brad K. Joyce
Cover: Erica Henderson
Editor: Jon Moisan, Jake Thomas, Wil Moss

Trade paperback collecting the first four issues of Squirrel Girl's first solo series, plus her debut appearance from Marvel-Super Heroes #8 in 1990.

Doreen Green, who has all the powers of a squirrel along with all the powers of a girl, is moving into her college campus in New York City. She's dealing with the usual issues: Annoying administrators who mess up schedules, a new roommate, Kraven the Hunter, Whiplash, and, um, Gaslactus.

This was amusing from start to finish, with Doreen's roommate, Nancy, almost completely stealing the show. There was also an awesome discussion about non-gendered pronouns between Doreen and Galactus,

The art is a perfect fit for the story and pacing, and Doreen's common-sense approach to dealing with villains is a winning formula.

The backup story is Doreen's debut appearance from 1990 where she takes on Doctor Doom. It does not go well for the Monarch of Latveria.

Rating: 8.5/10

True Believers: Daredevil: Practice To Deceive #1

I'll be doing a recap of 2017 soon. In the meantime, here is my first comic review of 2018! This is one of the comics I bought at the Shanghai Comic Con in October.

Title: True Believers: Daredevil: Practice To Deceive
Issue: 1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: September 2016
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Matteo Buffagni
Colorist: Matt Milla
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Cover: Bill Sienkiewicz
Editor: Charles Beacham, Sana Amanat

Bringing back the classic Daredevil & Elektra vibe... No matter how many hoops need to be jumped through to do it.

So the backstory here is that Matt Murdock somehow managed to do some sort of mass memory wipe that conveniently rebooted his continuity so that he's back to having a secret identity. Apparently he wasn't all that good at keeping secrets the previous time around. So we've got the classic Matt Murdock, struggling attorney (prosecuting attorney this time!) by day, and Daredevil, masked vigilante by night.

Elektra shows up, oblivious as everyone else that Matt and Daredevil are the same dude (really, if she can't figure this out in the first three seconds of hand-to-hand combat with him, she should turn in her assassin card... or should I say... HAND it over). She asks Murdock to arrange a meeting with Daredevil, who shows up expecting to talk, and Elektra commences with the beatdown.

Oh, and Daredevil has a sidekick! His name is Blindspot. No, really. He basically appears to have all of the annoying qualities of Jason Todd, with none of the good qualities of Tim Drake or Dick Grayson.

He lasts all of a couple of panels with Elektra while Daredevil just kinda cringes.

Finally, Elektra reveals a big dramatic plot development to end it all, none of which required all of the fighting. Apprarently she was just annoyed and had decided she needed to waste some time hurting Daredevil before getting to the point.

And I'm not really sure what the point of all of this was. But I will add half a point for the always-awesome cover work by Bill Sienkiewicz.

Rating: 3.5/10

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story #1

The Kiddo picked this one out at one of the Newbury Comics locations when we were in the US this past summer.

Title: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Issue: 1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: June 2017
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Emilio Laiso, Oscar Bazaldua
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Editor: Heather Antos

First of all, let me just say that I LOVE these action figure variant covers. So much fun!

This is the first issue of the official adaptation of Rogue One. It moves at a pretty fast pace to get to the point where present-time Jyn Erso is introduced and then takes its time a bit more from there.

The fight scenes look good, and the story becomes more focused in the second half of the issue, with the adaptation making some good choices in what to emphasize or cut.

This is competent and visually appealing, but there is a limit to what a comic can do adapting a film, and the result is something that never gets much past feeling like it's a competent adaptation

Rating: 5.5/10

Star Wars #33

Our travels in the US continue. We spent last weekend in Annapolis MD, where we attended my cousin's wedding. In addition to wedding-based activities, we toured the US Naval Academy, saw Spider-Man: Homecoming (loved it!), and stopped by Capital Comics, where the Kiddo picked out this recent Star Wars issue.

Title: Star Wars
Issue: 33
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: September, 2017
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Salvador Larroca
Colorist: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Editor: Jordan D. White, Heather Antos
Cover: Mike Mayhew

This takes place between episodes 4 and 5, with Luke and Leia are stranded together on an uninhabited island located on a mostly-ocean planet.

Making the wise decision to completely ignore any potential awkwardness resulting from this scenario, the story focuses on Leia, whose narration adds some depth to her character while at the same time explaining how the Princess ended up with some wilderness skills.

This is a nice interlude without a lot of major plot implications. The visuals are good and the insights into Luke and Leia are interesting. There are enough twists to make a decent self-contained story.

Rating: 6/10


 

Ant-Man Prelude #2

From my Free Comic Book Day haul. This is the second of the two books I purchased at the Free Comic Book Day event, as opposed to official FCBD giveaways.

Title: Ant-Man Prelude
Issue: 2
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: May, 2015
Writer:Will Corona Pilgrim
Penciler: Miguel Sepulveda
Inker: Bit
Colorist: Jay David Ramos
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Editor: Mark Basso, Emily Shaw

Set "years ago", this story features an early mission with Hank Pym wearing the Ant-Man suit and infiltrating a Hydra base in East Berlin during the Cold War. This is an official Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-in, so it exists in Marvel movie continuity.

This issue was mostly a showcase for Ant-Man's powers, and we get to see pretty much all of them in use as he avoids various security forces en route to, well, basically him beating up some Hydra goons in a minor bit of tie-in with the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Exactly what is really accomplished when all is said and done is left unclear, so the whole story falls a bit flat at the end. The action is good, but as far as raising interest in the movie goes, there isn't much here that we didn't get a look at in the trailers. It was fun to see Pym interacting with Howard Stark and Peggy Carter, but I would have liked more character development and background, to make it feel like this book really added something to the experience of watching the Marvel films.

Rating: 5.5/10

The Sensational Spider-Man #33.2

This is another book that I picked up on Free Comic Book Day from New England Comics. It's not an actual FCBD giveaway, just a random comic from the box of extra freebies at NEC.

Title: The Sensational Spider-Man
Issue: 33.2
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: October, 2012
Writer: Tom DeFalco
Penciler: Carlo Barberi
Inker: Walden Wong
Colorist: Antonio Fabela
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Cover: Simone Bianchi
Editor: Tom Brennan

I haven't really read much from Marvel during this timeframe, so I have no idea what is up with that numbering system.

NYPD detective Carlie Cooper finds herself in the midst of a case involving human trafficking, immigration, elements of the Russian mob, and the new incarnation of the Vulture.

While Cooper pursues the case through her channels, with help from Peter Parker, Spider-Man is going after the bad guys using his own methods. This story didn't duck the complexities of the human trafficking and immigration issues, and it had a pretty interesting cast of minor characters, all pursuing their own agendas.

Detective Cooper is particularly interesting as she grapples with issues of what is right versus what is the law.

Rating: 7.5/10

Avengers Assemble #1

Title: Avengers Assemble #1
Date: 2012
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler: Mark Bagley
Inker: Danny Miki
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Editor: Alex Alonso, John Denning, Lauren Sankovitch, Tom Brevoort

This is the (cute!) Newbury Comics cover variant. The team looks like pretty much the lineup from the upcoming movies (and Hawkeye spends most of his scene contemplating his own mortality! Uh, oh!). For the six or seven of you out there who haven't seen the trailer, that would be Cap, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hulk, and Hawkeye.

We open with the formation of a rather lazily designed villain team based on the signs of the zodiac. Conveniently, they are also named the Zodiac. Apparently they all have star-sign-related powers, and they are after some unknown maguffin which will give them even more powers.

Aquarius steals the thingy from the Army in a battle that Hulk gets involved in. The thingy then ends up in Latveria, where Clint and Natasha are doing some covert... um... taking out of sentries, I guess. It's never really explained what they're doing there, but they end up hijacking the truck carrying the thingy ("The Ark has been put on a truck." "WHAT truck?"). This brings in Zodiac member Taurus, and the Avengers retaliate with Iron Man and Thor. Brawl. To be continued.

The rest of the book is the same preview pages for Avengers vs. X-Men that appeared in the X-Men Vs. Avengers Program Guide.

I liked the fact that the Zodiac were depicted as inexperienced with their powers. That was fun. But the entire Zodiac concept is just such lazy writing that it raises the goofiness factor of this book to the point that it detracts from the story.

Rating: 4.5/10