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

The Amazing Spider-Man: Spiral

Bought at Boocup, Kerry Parkside, Pudong, Shanghai, China.

Title: The Amazing Spider-Man
Issue: Volume 5: Spiral
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2015
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciler: Carlo Barberi
Inker: Juan Vlasco
Colorist: Israel Silva
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Editor: Nick Lowe, Devin Lewis

With the Kingpin out of the picture, New York's criminal gangs are in a war for territory with NYPD Captain Yuri Watanabe's Third Precinct as the top prize. This volume collects The Amazing Spider-Man #16-20 from 2014, and it follows up on a bunch of Spiderverse adventures by bringing Peter Parker back to his "Friendly Neighborhood" roots fighting New York crime.

The result is a rapid-fire succession of classic Spider-Man villains. Unfortunately, by "classic" here we generally mean third-rate. Admittedly, it's fun seeing Spidey score one-punch knockouts on guys like Hammerhead, Ringmaster, the Enforcers, Tombstone, and Crime Master. But nostalgia only goes so far.

The real heart of this story is a battle for the soul of Yuri Watanabe, who has gone back to moonlighting as the Wraith, and who has entered into a dangerous game of manipulation with the Negative Man. Did I mention there are a lot of villains in this book? Black Cat also shows up, fairly interesting in full-on heel mode.

But the theme of where to draw the line between "by the book" police work and vigilanteism is muddled by Peter Parker, longtime vigilante, trying to lecture Watanabe on where the line should be drawn. It doesn't help that the actual moment when Wraith crosses the line is not a terribly impactful scene. It helps even less that the confrontation between Wraith and Spider-Man is anticlimactic, and the final battle between Spider-Man and Negative Man is even more so.

This had fun pacing and that comfy nostalgic vibe, but it never rose to the level of seriousness that it was going for.

Rating: 5/10

Star Wars: Chewbacca

Second of two gifts I bought for the Kiddo at Boocup, Kerry Place, Jingan, Shanghai, China.

Title: Star Wars: Chewbacca
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: January  2016
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Phil Noto
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Editor: Jordan D. White, Heather Antos
Cover: Phil Noto

Classic spaghetti-Western stranger-comes-to-town story with Chewbacca crash-landing on a planet (between the events of A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back) and meeting up with a girl who has just escaped imprisonment in a gangster's mining operation.

Writing Chewbacca is an interesting challenge, as his dialogue is restricted to wookie growls and roars, which leaves much of the storytelling in the hands of Zarro the escaped mine-worker. Fortunately, Zarro is a lot of fun, a nice mix of youthful idealism and brash snark.

The villains are less interesting, particularly Jaum, the rather generic gangster boss, who never really feels like he has a chance against the good guys.

There is a bit of backstory and character development for Chewie, but the focus is mostly placed squarely on Zarro, with Chewie as the strong and (not always) silent type.

A couple of other characters who come in later in the story felt a bit underused: Sevox, a blind tinkerer who sees through the eyes of a protocol droid, and the Imperial star destroyer captain Commander Kai both felt like they had a ton of unrealized potential, and it would be great to see either or both of them get more of a spotlight in another series.

Phil Noto's artwork is lovely. He does a great job with Chewbacca's expressions and body language, and I love the look of Zarro. His supporting characters all have excellent and distinctive designs as well.

Rating: 7.5/10

Star Wars: Han Solo

This was a Christmas present I bought for the Kiddo at Boocup, Kerry Place, Jingan, Shanghai, China.

Title: Star Wars: Han Solo
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: January  2017
Writer: Marjorie Liu
Penciler: Mark Brooks
Inker: Mark Brooks, Dexter Vines
Colorist: Sonia Oback, Matt Milla
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Editor: Jordan D. White, Heather Antos

This exceeded all expectations, in spite of the story being a tiny bit contrived.

Trade paperback collection of a limited series. Taking place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, this has Han recruited by Leia to infiltrate a high-stakes spacecraft race while smuggling several rebel spies, at least one of whom may be a traitor.

What made this great were the original characters introduced for this series, something that can often be a weak spot in these adaptations. In this case the supporting cast was excellent, especially the mysterious space-racing veteran Loo Re Anno, who absolutely steals the show. Several other rival racers are fun characters, and there's also some good interactions with the various rebel spies and operatives that Han encounters.

There's good consistent character development for Han, as well. Nothing shocking, but a lot of little insights in his internal monologue that runs through much of the story.

Chewie and Leia get good moments as well, and the artwork is excellent, with some clever page layouts especially in some of the racing sequences.

This is a fun adventure perfectly suited to Han's character.

Rating: 8.5/10

Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal

Bought at the Eslite main store, Taipei, Taiwan, June 2019.

Title: Ms. Marvel
Issue: Volume 1: No Normal
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2018
Writer: G. Willow Wilson
Artist: Adrian Alphona
Colorist: Ian Herring
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Editor: Sana Amanat, Devin Lewis

Jersey City teenager Kamala Khan gains a set of shapeshifting powers and begins figuring out the whole superhero thing.

This is, in many ways, a fairly straightforward superhero origin story, with Kamala Khan as an updated Peter Parker, trying to do good in the world while she deals with the consequences of her new abilities and her sudden status as the mysterious neighborhood hero.

It's the details that make this work. The multifaceted supporting cast is terrific, and the main character is relatable. There are plenty of interesting bits of dialogue and interactions taking place between the super-heroics, and the book has a sly sense of humor and self-awareness. Having worked in Jersey City for four years, I also appreciated the use of the setting.

The only area I felt could have been a bit stronger in this volume was the villain, but he will hopefully get some more development as the story continues.

Rating: 8.5/10

Star Wars: Han Solo: Imperial Cadet #1

A Christmas gift to the Kiddo, bought at Merrymac Games and Comics in Merrimack NH.

Title: Star Wars: Han Solo: Imperial Cadet
Issue: 1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: January  2019
Writer: Robbie Thompson
Artist: Leonard Kirk
Colorist: Arif Prianto
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Cover: David Nakayama
Editor: Mark Paniccia, Tom Groneman

This series fills in the gap in Solo: A Star Wars Story where Han is in the Imperial military. Actually, the first nine pages just adapt early scenes from the film, which I found a bit frustrating, since Marvel already has a separate series adapting the film.

From there, Han gets the bootcamp experience, complete with a lot of silliness in which everyone insists on calling recruits by their number, rather than their name, and then no one seems to be able to stick to it.

We get glimpses of a few character that seem like they have some potential, but the interactions are hurried in order to fit in an action scene where Han tries to steal a TIE fighter.

I get that young Han is supposed to be foolish, desperate, and impulsive, but the whole scene makes very little sense, and the punchline it sets up is not a particularly satisfying one.

This was a glimpse into a chapter in Han Solo's life that I really didn't need.

Rating: 4/10

Darth Vader #1

The Kiddo picked this one out last summer at one of the Newbury Comics stores.

Title: Darth Vader
Issue: 1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: July 2016
Writer: Charles Soule
Penciler: Giuseppe Camuncoli
Inker: Cam Smith
Colorist: David Curiel
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Cover: Jim Cheung, Matthew Wilson
Editor: Jordan D. White, Heather Antos

This picks up directly from where Revenge of the Sith left off, showing us a newly-armored Vader who is still very much the young, angry man who was brought over to the dark side by Emperor Palpatine.

His initial quest is to gain a lightsaber of his own, and this apparently has to be done to old-fashioned way: by killing someone for it. Of course, with Order 66 already in the books, finding a Jedi may be harder than actually defeating one. As is usual at this stage in the saga, it's all pretty much a win/win for Palpatine.

There was a fun little callback (call-forward, really) to the climactic moment of Return of the Jedi, and the characters and setting look excellent. I didn't find myself all that invested in Vader as a lead character. He's still the whiny Annakin of the prequels here, and it looks like it's going to be a bit of a tall order for this solo (see what I did there?) series to make much of a change in that.

Rating: 5.5/10

Daredevil Noir

From from my unread books pile. I'm not sure where I got this one.

Title: Daredevil Noir
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2009
Writer: Alexander Irvine
Artist: Tom Coker
Colorist: Daniel Freedman
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Editor: Axel Alonso, Sebastian Girner, Jennifer Grunwald

Hardcover collection of the original four-issue series.

Set in Marvel's "Noir" alternate universe, this 1930s-era version of Daredevil has most of the classic elements readers will expect: Wilson Fisk, Foggy Nelson, Hell's Kitchen, and even a "Bullseye Killer".

This was a very well crafted story that stands on its own, and retains the heart of Daredevil's mythos. The action sequences were excellent, and the characters were spot-on. Foggy Nelson and the Kingpin were especially good.

Really, in many ways, this story could have been done in the standard continuity as easily as in this alternate world, and some readers may find that it is not enough of a departure. The changes made from the standard Marvel continuity didn't feel like much of a leap: Matt Murdock is an assistant to Foggy, a private investigator. Other than that, the biggest change is a new interpretation of Bullseye, and the addition of gangster Orville Halloran, and up-and-coming mobster who serves as an effective new villain.

The pacing of the story was a nice build to an effective conclusion, and I thought the climactic twists and action were effective, along with a really fun open ending in the final pages.

This is a good story that hits Daredevil's classic thematic elements through just enough of a different lens to make it feel fresh.

Rating: 8.5/10

True Believers: Star Wars: Lando #1

I can now say that I've been to comic conventions in three countries! This past Friday, I attended the Shanghai Comic Con with the Kiddo. We had lots of fun, and I brought back a small haul (working on a somewhat limited budget):

Those two Thor comics are promos for the con, and they're in Chinese, so I won't be reviewing them here. I found a vendor selling recent American comics and picked up three Marvel books. I also bought comics from two small-press creators. Those were also both English-language (actually one is bilingual, with all of the dialogue in English and Chinese).

You may have noticed that I have not been reviewing much in the way of standard-format comics since we headed back overseas. This has mostly been an organizational issue. I brought a stack of over 100 comics with me from the US to read and review. Some of those were new purchases over the summer, while most are from my supply of unread comics in storage.

I've added these items from the Shanghai Comic Con to that stack, and I'll be starting to review them on a regular basis, beginning right now.

Title: True Believers: Star Wars: Lando
Issue: 1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: July 2016
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Alex Maleev
Colorist: Paul Mounts
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Cover: Alex Maleev, Edgar Delgado
Editor: Jordan D. White, Heather Antos

What a fun book! This is a Lando Calrissian solo story (without Solo! Ha!), and it really nails Lando's personality as he charms his way into not even having to perform the heist he's originally set out to do.

Unfortunately, debts in the underworld of the Star Wars Galaxy tend to add up, and Lando sets his sights on one more job to get himself free and clear. Not surprisingly, he finds that easy money is never really easy, as the ship he steals is going to cause him a lot more grief than he had ever planned for.

This had some good character development that never felt like it got away from the Lando we know and love. It also heavily featured Lobot, who gets some good screen time as Lando's partner-in-crime. The setup of the new heist flows smoothly, and the final complications at the end set up when should be plenty of fun in the issues ahead.

Rating: 8.5/10

Darth Vader #21

Back to the random stack of unread comics. This is a fairly recent one that I got this past summer.

Title: Darth Vader
Issue: 21
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: August, 2016
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Salvador Larroca
Colorist: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Editor: Jordan D. White, Heather Antos

I am not ashamed to admit that the variant cover with the awesome action figure packaging design totally sold me on this comic. I love this cover theme! So much childhood nostalgia!

That being said, I knew nothing about the Darth Vader series going into this. Apparently it takes place between Episode IV and Episode V, and Vader is trying to get back into the good graces of Emperor Palpatine following the destruction of the Death Star. He is tasked with capturing Cylo, a mad scientist type who turned against the Empire (not to the rebel side, mind you, this guy appears to just be out for himself).

Meanwhile, there's a second plot involving Vader sending a pair of droids who are essentially heel versions of C3PO and R2D2 to retrieve a former ally of his who has gone into hiding.

The bad-guy droids are a little goofy, and it was odd to see Vader in a sort of solo-adventurer heroic role (although it's really no different than things he did all the time as Anakin).

There is also an issue of flavor that can be a problem for me with some Star Wars comics. Cylo's organic-mechanical ships didn't feel authentically Star Wars to me, for reasons I can't pin down to more than just "vibe". To be fair, I think that keeping the flavor of a tie-in when you're being asked to expand on the universe is really difficult. But the stuff involving Cylo still didn't feel to me like it fit.

That being said, the action was good, the dialogue was good, and the ending cliffhanger at least looked entertaining.

Rating: 5.5/10

Ms. Marvel #10

As promised, here is the new stack of to-read comics that I brought back to Vietnam from the US following our recent visit. The majority of these came from a box of pretty random unread comics in our storage unit, but I also attended two conventions and visited several comic shops during my time in the States, so there are some new items in this stack too.

Here is the new stack nicely organized...

...And spread out on the sofa.
















Today's review is a comic I bought off the rack at Double Midnight Comics & Games in Manchester NH. I've been hearing a lot of good things about the new Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, and this is my first chance to read a story featuring her.

Title: Ms. Marvel
Issue: 10
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: February, 2015
Writer: G. Willow Wilson
Artist: Adrian Alphona
Colorist: Ian Herring
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Cover: Kris Anka
Editor: Sana Amanat, Devin Lewis

This is part 3 of a four-part story entitled "Generation Why". The basic premise has a villain named the Inventor enslaving teenagers and using them as power sources (think The Matrix) to provide energy for his power-armor and other machines.

But when some of them are freed by Ms. Marvel, she discovers that they may not have been enslaved against their wills at all. What follows is a fairly interesting conversation on the role of the young generation growing up into an economy and an environment ruined by previous generations, who still view the teenagers as parasites, unwilling to work for the same materialistic goals that served in the past.

While a lot of it echoed some internet memes that I have seen floating around, it still made for a good discussion and gave a chance for Kamala Khan to share some of her philosophical ideas.

There was some action here as well, but it was mostly setup for a big final battle next issue. Oh, and Lockjaw from the Inhumans is a guest star here. Kamala Khan's origin apparently has her down as an inhuman, I would assume as a result of Marvel's pushing of the Inhumans as the new version of mutants that Marvel actually owns the cinematic rights to.

I loved Kamala Khan. She's thoughtfully written with a fun and distinctive voice and perspective. I was less impressed with the villain. The Inventor would have been more interesting if he'd matched Kamala philosophically, rather than doing generic villain-ranting while his teenaged followers handled the debating. Given the questions and issues raised here, a villain who could contribute more to the intellectual argument would have been a nice addition.

Still, I found this to be a clever, all-ages-friendly story, and I look forward to reading more of Kamala Khan's adventures.

Rating: 6/10

 

Miracleman #2

I was on vacation last week, and I set aside Saturday for some geeky wanderings. In the late afternoon, I stopped in at a friend's place for a horror movie party he was throwing. From there it was off to the Magic: The Gathering prerelease tourney for the new Journey Into Nyx expansion set.

But earlier in the day, I stopped by New England Comics in New Bedford MA, where they were having one of their big sales.

I picked up some Magic cards and supplies, as well as this comic.

Title: Miracleman
Issue: 2
Date: March, 2014
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: The Original Writer, Mick Anglo
Artist: Garry Leach, Don Lawrence, Mick Anglo, Steve Dillon, Alan Davis, Paul Neary
Colorist: Steve Oliff
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Axel Alonso

The main feature here is the reprint of Miracleman #2, itself a reprint from early issues of Warrior magazine. It's written by Alan Moore, credited here once again as "The Original Writer". The story introduces Johnny Bates AKA Kid Miracleman, now grown to adulthood, rich, powerful, and thoroughly evil. Mickey Moran is great here as he sees through Bates' suave lies, but Bates as the villain absolutely steals the show. Bates is the best rendition of the Superman-gone-bad concept ever, and this issue is just a taste of what is to come.

The writing has a poetic quality to it that really brings up the intensity level.

Following the main story is an flash-forward segment that appeared in Warrior, but I'm not sure if it was printed in the Eclipse Miracleman series. It's a time travel piece set in the midst of the battle against Kid Miracleman later in the series, and it flashes back to earlier events. It had some good moments, but will probably make more sense to reread later on.

Bonus features in this issue include a "Behind the Scenes" segment showing original pencils and b/w artwork by Gary Leach for the story as it first appeared in Warrior.

There is also a full Marvelman origin story from 1954, which was quite good in places, but also leaned a bit on the typically goofy side. Last up is a short Kid Marvelman story from 1955, which is definitely goofy, and features Kid Marvelman helping out some local kids and improving the attitude of a cop.

The reprint material is fun, and the main story continues to be awesome.

Rating: 8.5/10

Avengers Assemble #1

I did some comic shopping today at Newbury Comics. I picked up two book for me and two for the Kiddo. Since this is Kiddo week, here is one of the books I bought for my son.

Title: Avengers Assemble #1
Date: December, 2013
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Joe Caramagna, Rachel Lareau, Gregory Farshtey, Daniel Lipkowitz
Artist: Joe Caramagna, Leo Castellani, Christopher Jones, Rick Magyar
Colorist: Veronica Gandini
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Sebastian Girner, Jon Moisan, Mark Paniccia


Red Skull disintegrates Captain America! That is quite a start for a younger-readers book based on the Avengers Assemble animated series. Of course, Cap isn't dead. He's barely even "dead in the Marvel Universe", but the Red Skull does manage to switch bodies with him.

So, what evil schemes does Skull attempt while occupying the body of America's greatest hero? Does he infiltrate the Avengers or dismantle SHIELD from within? Um, actually, no. He immediately punches Tony Stark in the face and reveals the whole body-switching plan without so much as a prompt.Body-switching. You're doing it wrong.

The rest of the team mostly stands around and punches the occasional henchperson. Oh, and MODOK is involved in this too, although what he is actually contributing to the half-baked villainy is a bit unclear.

Ends with a cliffhanger. Woo.

This is followed by three backup stories advertisements for Marvel Lego toys, and a preview of a new Hulk comic that involves Rick Jones (nice to see him back!) as a blue hulk. The Lego comics are mostly terrible. One of them does make the point that heroes don't need to be super-powered and that there are real heroes serving as police, firefighters, doctors, and EMTs in every community. Which is awesome, but Sesame Street did the exact same bit considerably better in a comic I reviewed yesterday.

Rating: 3/10

X-Men #1

Back for the summer and hopefully beyond!

I had to drop this review blog for a few months when things got a bit too busy at the day job. Now that school is out (I'm a high school teacher), I've got the time. And I am certainly not lacking in unread comics.

For my big return to reviewing, however, I stopped by my local Newbury Comics to check out the recent releases. This seemed like a good one to start with.

Title: X-Men #1
Date: July, 2013
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian Wood
Artist: Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Cover: Olivier Coipel, Laura Martin
Editor: Jennifer M. Smith, Jeanine Schaefer


I picked up the "sketch-cover" version of this. The blank cover (that is available for drawing on) is made of a cardstock that helps the book hold together better, and the regular cover is underneath. Nice. I'll probably be buying more of these versions when looking at new comics.


This is the (upteenth) relaunch of X-Men, and it got a fair amount of attention in the press due to the fact that it features an all-female cast. Specifically, the team lineup is Storm, Rogue, Jubilee, Kitty Pryde, Psylocke, and whatever Rachel Summers is calling herself these days.


It's set at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning (for those not up on your X-Men lore, that's the current incarnation of Xavier's School), so there is a huge potential supporting cast. In a sense, this is not precisely an all-female X-Men team, but rather a comic about the X-Men as a whole that heavily focuses on the six female starring characters.


The story here concerns John Sublime, who is actually a telepathic microorganism who has the ability to possess human bodies. It seems Sublime has an even worse sister who has similar abilities with technology, and she's back on Earth and looking to make trouble.


There's a train-imperilment sequence that showcases the current X-Men working as a team, which they do quite well so far, and a lot of set-up for future plot, but the whole thing moves along with a reasonable mix of character development, suspense, and enough action to keep it from dragging.


Nothing shocking or groundbreaking, but a good solid X-Men story that does a great job of focusing on the new lineup without it ever failing to feel like the X-Men.


Rating: 7.5/10