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

Silver Surfer #2

A re-read from my collection.

Title: Silver Surfer
Issue: 2
Date: August, 1987
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Steve Englehart
Penciler: Marshall Rogers
Inker: Josef Rubinstein
Colorist: Marshall Rogers
Letterer: John Workman
Editor: Michael Higgins

I remember being hugely disappointed in this issue when I read it in 1987. With some more years to look back on it, I've gotten a better understanding of what was going on here, but it still feels like it could have been handled better.

For all of his history up to this point, Norrin Radd's love for his lost Shalla-Bal was the heart of his story. Surfer was all about the tragic romance, and this issue was all about sweeping that completely under the rug so that Norrin (or rather, Surfer) could be freed up adventures in space. Unfortunately, if you go with the HEA, then you really don't have any reason to have an ongoing series.

But even if it was necessary, this felt rushed and did a disservice to the character of Shalla-Bal, who had good reasons to break things off, but failed to do a good job of expressing them and so came off as not even trying.

There was some intrigue involving the Skrulls, because Skrulls are gonna Skrull, and that aspect of the story was well handled with a good buildup of future subplots. But the dismissal of one of comics' best romances (Seriously? We get one kiss and that's it?) remains a disappointment.

Rating: 4/10

The Punisher #5

 

Another re-read from my collection.

Title: The Punisher
Issue: 5
Date: May, 1986
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Steven Grant, Jo Duffy
Artist: Mike Vosburg, John Beatty
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Letterer: Ken Bruzenak
Editor: Carl Potts

This is the final issue of the five-issue limited series that was the Punisher's first series after he was introduced in the pages of Spider-Man and had occasional appearances in other titles.

Frank Castle has been trapped by a mysterious organization aiming to produce a brainwashed army of "Punishers" for an all-out war on crime with no regard for protecting innocent lives. The opening sequence has Castle in one of those ridiculously-slow-deathtraps, although the purpose is brainwashing rather than death. The result is pretty standard. Punisher escapes and takes on his old enemy Jigsaw, now dressed in Punisher cosplay along with a crew of jobbers. The rest of this is mop-up.

While the action never gets all that interesting, the character work here is pretty solid. Faced with his own crusade taken to its logical extreme, Frank Castle suddenly has doubts. The result is a bit at odds with where the story picks up in the two ongoing titles that follow this, but it does make a good conclusion to this arc, and really in some sense, it felt like a conclusion to the Punisher character itself. This was a good walk off into the sunset for Frank Castle, that still left a lot of moral ambiguity, but also gave Frank the chance to walk away from his obsessive crusade. It's almost disappointing that this isn't how things turned out.

Rating 6.5/10

Silver Surfer #1

Another re-read from my collection.

Title: Silver Surfer
Issue: 1
Date: March, 1987
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Steve Englehart
Penciler: Marshall Rogers
Inker: Josef Rubinstein
Colorist: Marshall Rogers
Letterer: John Workman
Editor: Michael Higgins

Silver Surfer escapes from the barrier that kept him trapped on Earth and mends fences with Galactus by rescuing Nova (the Frankie Raye version of Nova), who is a hostage of the Skrulls. Along the way, he gets some much-needed help from the Fantastic Four and teaches the Champion a lesson in not bringing one's fists to a cosmic-power-blast fight.

The artwork here is gorgeous, particularly on the space scenes, which are given plenty of, well, space. Surfer and Nova look great. The interaction with the FF is a bit on the wordy side, with a lot of recap that seems mostly aimed at catching readers up on developments in the FF book (wait... Alicia married WHO?).

The portrayal of Galactus is a bit too humanized for a being that really needs to be an unfeeling cosmic force, but it does serve the plot, and accomplishes the important main objective of this first issue. Surfer is now free to seek out new adventures across Marvel's cosmic settings. This was a solid reboot for the character.

Rating: 7/10

The Punisher War Journal #1

So, apparently there are some books that got stashed in the Random Box of Unread Comics that I have, in fact, read. But I haven't reviewed them, so I'll be giving them a reread. I don't think I've given this one a look since I bought in when it was released.

Title: The Punisher War Journal
Issue: 1
Date: November, 1988
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Carl Potts
Artist: Carl Potts, Jim Lee
Colorist: John Wellington
Letterer: Jim Novak
Editor: Don Daley

Frank Castle is on a mission, but life keeps getting in the way. In this case, life involves getting caught up in mob drama involving hitmen, kidnapped babies, and an exceptionally messy divorce.

This is a really cleverly constructed first issue, particularly the use of wordless panels at the bottom of the pages to retell the Punisher's origin story, as well as the character-building twist at the end where we discover the nature of Frank's mission.

It also reintroduces Microchip, brings in some new supporting cast, has a Matt Murdock cameo, and features a clever ending teaser for a bunch of upcoming stories. The only bit where it drags is in a wordy explanation that sets the stage for the mob drama. The action is solid and the art looks great. And Punisher fans will appreciate that there is no effort to soften Castle's approach to his work here.

Rating: 7.5/10

Captain America #233

From the Random Box of Unread Comics.

Title: Captain America
Issue: 233
Date: May, 1979
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Roger McKenzie
Artist: Sal Buscema, Don Perlin
Colorist: Nel Yomtov
Letterer: Rick Parker
Editor: Roger Stern

Steve Rogers is caught between Harlem mobsters and a gang of white supremacists wielding high-tech weaponry. To make matters worse, a mind-controlled Sharon Carter is leading the charge for the National Force.

The story quickly moves away from its political implications as the mind control aspect takes center stage and a villain gets a big reveal, followed by an extra bit of a twist to end things.

Steve shows some good emotion as he grapples with the possible fate of Sharon, but the use of generic villain tropes  (and traps!) detracts a bit in terms of keeping my interest.

Rating: 5.5/10

Marvel Comics Presents #29

From the random box of unread comics.

Title: Marvel Comics Presents
Issue: 29
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: October 1989
Writer: Howard Mackie, Don McGregor, Doug Moench, Mark Gruenwald
Artist: Rich Buckler, Bruce Patterson, Gene Colan, Tom Palmer, Paul Gulacy, Paul Ryan, Danny Bulanadi
Colorist: Andy Yanchus, Mike Rockwitz, Glynis Oliver, Paul Becton
Letterer: Bill Oakley, Joe Rosen, Tim Harkins, Janice Chiang
Cover: Dennis Jensen, Dan Adkins
Editor:Terry Kavanagh, Michael Rockwitz

Marvel's bi-weekly anthology series from the late 80's is a combination of short series of varying length told in one chapter per issue, and the occasional standalone story. There was a fairly heavy emphasis on X-Men characters in this series, with Wolverine appearing in most issues.

This one starts off with a Havok story, part 6 of 8, with the revelation of the villainess Plasma revealed as the "Living Pharaoh". Havok has taken a beating in the story leading up to this, so he's in no condition to take on Plasma, but he manages to escape. In the Egyptian desert, he's found by Wolverine, and a battle with some ethnic-stereotyped henchfolk riding hovercraft occurs. The word "infidel" gets shouted a lot as Havok and Wolverine squash the jobbers, setting up the looming confrontation with Plasma,

Next up is Black Panther in part 17 of 25 of a really interesting premise: T'Challa on seeking out his long-lost mother in apartheid South Africa. This is a pretty grim story with T'Challa dealing with his own failures, and a lot of focus placed on the corruption present in the street-level reality of South Africa. Definitely the best story here, although this segment only scratches the surface of the possible story. I'd be interested in reading more of this.

The third story is Coldblood, which looks like an attempt to soft-launch a new character. I'm not sure if anything more was ever done with Coldblood. The title character is a cyborg, in the process of escaping from his makers, I guess, who want to use him to do, well, evil cyborg things, I suppose. There is a lot of shooting and explosions. This was possibly influenced by The Terminator? It had some decent visuals, including a car crashing through, a Vegas casino, but the feel was pretty generic.

Last up was this issue's standalone story, featuring Quasar with a cameo by Man-Thing, who is involved in the plot, but doesn't actually do much. Quasar is tracking a strange energy disturbance and finds himself in Man-Thing's swamp in Florida. Jennifer Kale (inexplicably dressed in an armor-bikini; or maybe this is how she always dresses?) explains that the Man -Thing has been infected with something, and that something turns out to be a villain named Quagmire. Quagmire takes one look at Jennifer and goes into full-on attempted sexual assault mode. Quasar puts a stop to that, and quickly determines that while Quagmire is immune to Quasar's energy powers, he is fully punchable in the face. The weird body-horror setup with Man-Thing is not bad, but Quagmire is pretty disappointing as a villain.

Rating: 4.5/10

The Stand Volume 6: The Night Has Come

I bought this one here in Shanghai, probably at Boocup, but I didn't make a note when I got it.

Title: The Stand
Issue: Volume 6: The Night Has Come
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2013
Writer: Stephen King, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Artist: Mike Perkins
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino
Editor: Nicole Boose
Cover: Tom Coker, Laura Martin

The sixth volume of the trade paperback collections of Marvel's adaptation of The Stand is the final volume, covering the final confrontation between Randal Flagg and the forces of the Free Zone, plus all of the aftermath of that climactic scene.

This was a very strong adaptation that stuck closely to the source. I thought the look of the characters was great, the selection of dialogue worked, and the pacing was excellent. It felt familiar in a good way, an excellent revisit to a favorite story of mine.

I didn't read the previous volumes of the adaptation, but would definitely give them a look on the basis of this one.

Rating: 8/10

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

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: The Beginning

 Bought at Foreign Languages Bookstore, Shanghai, China.

Title: Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: The Beginning
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2018
Writer: Brandon Montclare, Amy Reeder
Artist: Natacha Bustos, Marco Failla
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer: VC's Travis Lanham
Cover: Amy Reeder
Editor: Mark Paniccia, Emily Shaw, Jennifer Grunwald

Reprints issues 1-12 of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.

I loved the original run of Devil Dinosaur as a kid, so this brought back all of the nostalgic vibes, in spite of it bringing Devil Dinosaur out of prehistory and into the modern Marvel Universe continuity. Nine-year-old Lunella Lafayette is a brilliant mind stuck and bored in a New York public school. She is also a carrier of the inhuman gene, and terrified of the transformation that could happen if she is exposed to the terragen mists, which have been activating the powers of other inhumans around New York. Devil Dinosaur is, well, a dinosaur, but he pretty much plays the big slobbering dog role in this story.

Add in a timeshifted tribe of "Killer Folk", a kree boy with big ambitions and some daddy-issues, and guest appearances by Ms. Marvel and (Amadeus Cho) Hulk for a fast-moving story that brings the Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur pairing into the ranks of Marvel's New York based heroes.

That fast pace does hurt things a bit. Interactions between Lunella and her parents come as generic fare, as do a lot of the school scenes. Lunella herself is a nice blend of snarky and clever, but the story doesn't do enough to show how brilliant she is. Devil Dinosaur is wonderfully expressive, but there is not much potential for character development there.

And character development is what this story needs. "Captain Kree" gets a simple, but satisfying story arc, and the interactions with Amadeus Cho and Kamala Khan show good potential, but need more space to grow.

The Killer Folk are not very interesting villains, but are used sparingly, and are mostly absent from the second half of this volume. I can't say that I am particularly eager for their inevitable return.

What I would like to see is more of Lunella Lafayette. She has great potential here, but in twelve issues, we are still seeing only the beginnings of that potential.

Rating: 6.5/10

Hawkeye: Rio Bravo

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

Title: Hawkeye: Rio Bravo
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2015
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Chris Eliopoulos, David Aja, Francesco Francavilla
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire, Francesco Francavilla, Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos, David Aja
Editor:Sana Amanat, Stephen Wacker, Jennifer Grunwald

Collecting the end of Matt Fraction's Hawkeye series, originally published in 2013-2015. There are a few gaps in the collection, due to the focus on Clint's storyline in this collection, so some issues focusing on Kate were skipped. The story as presented here is pretty coherent, although it does leave some loose ends.

Clint Barton deals with a bunch of personal problems, the biggest of which is the return of his brother Barney into his life, and the attempt by some mafia-types to force him out of the Brooklyn apartment building he owns.

Clint takes a beating as he rallies his neighbors against an onslaught of tracksuit-wearing goons reminiscent of WWE's Imperium faction. There are plenty of Marvel cameos in what is essentially a street-level story with a gritty look reminiscent of early Frank Miller Daredevil.

The story itself plays around with out-of-sequence plotting, and the opening dream/parody sequence involving a kids' holiday special lend a bit of surreal feel to the collection, but it picks up direction and momentum as it gets going. The relationship between the Barton brothers is at the heart of the story and it is well told with plenty of emotional impact, and something of a surprise ending.

While the villains' nefarious plot is a pretty generic one, the action and character interplay carried the story.

Rating: 7/10

Avengers Endgame Prelude

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

Title: Avengers Endgame Prelude
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2019
Writer: Will Corona Pilgrim, Jim Starlin, Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Paco Diaz, George Perez, Josef Rubinstein, Tom Christopher, Valerio Schiti, Phil Noto, Andrea Sorrentino, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, Arthur Adams, Kevin Maguire, Mark Bagley, Andrew Hennessey, Sara Pichelli, Filipe Andrade
Colorist: Dono-Sanchez-Almara, Max Scheele, Ian Laughlin, Richard Isanove
Letterer: VC's Travis Lanham, Jack Morelli, VC's Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso, Jennifer Grunwald

This trade paperback was released in anticipation of the Avengers Endgame film. It contains three parts: A complete adaptation of the film Avengers: Infinity War, a reprint of the first issue of the original Marvel series The Infinity Gauntlet from 1991, and a reprint of Guardians of the Galaxy #19 from 2015.

Much like DC's Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey (reviewed here), this collection has something of a thrown-together feel to it, like Marvel was fishing for relevant material in anticipation of the movie release.

The adaptation of Avengers: Infinity War has issues with pacing, and scenes that needed to be cut for space considerations. It fails to make the kind of visual impact that the film does, and the humor in the dialogue also falls flat when translated into the comic medium. The serious dialogue does work reasonably well, so that the emotional beats of the story still pack a punch. As a recap for people about to watch Endgame, it accomplishes the purpose of refreshing the major details of the story, but it doesn't do so in a way that is particularly memorable.

I read the original Infinity Gauntlet storyline when it was released and was not impressed with it at the time. That may have been partly due to having a bit of crossover fatigue after several years of collecting and reading major titles from the "Big Two", but upon rereading it, The Infinity Gauntlet still strikes me as a pretty dumb story. It's the story of how a person gets godlike power that go above and beyond the already godlike power of other established beings in a universe full of beings with godlike power. And then he proceeds to squander it all in a series of bad decisions, because there is no way for the heroes to ever win this scenario. It's Thanos' scenario to lose. And lose he does. Of course much of that nonsense happens later in the series. The first issue is mostly Thanos trying to decide what to do with his power and trying to impress his Lady Death, while Mephisto looks on with amusement and Silver Surfer tries to warn Doctor Strange of what is coming. The first issue ends with the Snap, and its immediate aftermath, mostly as felt on Earth.

While I was never a fan of this series, one thing that I failed to give it credit for was the art. George Perez knocks it out of the park, and rereading this now was worth it just to get another look at the visuals of this first issue. There is some spectacular and inventive "Marvel-cosmic" imagery, but also tremendous detail work on characters and their emotional reactions and body language.

The final part of this collection is a fairly goofy Guardians of the Galaxy story with Thanos leading a coalition of alien forces in an attack on Earth that is thwarted handily by the Guardians and multiple allies. It makes Thanos look like a chump, and he comes off the best of his villain allies. The story is very feel-good, but with this being released with Endgame on the Horizon, it felt a bit out of place to be jobbing out the MCU's #1 BBEG in what felt like an afterthought.

The story had some good laughs, nice visuals (with a big crew of guest artists brought in for Brian Michael Bendis' finale on the series), and even a tender moment or two between Kitty Pryde and Peter Quill, who I did not realize were a thing, but who apparently are.

So, a movie adaptation, a very pretty bit of history/nostalgia, and a goofy throwaway story with Thanos getting beat more easily than he probably should. Probably not necessary to get anyone in the mood for a movie that was already the one of the most anticipated of all time.

Rating: 4/10

Thor: Who Holds the Hammer?

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

Title: Thor: Who Holds the Hammer?
Issue: Volume 2: Who Holds the Hammer?
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2016
Writer: Jason Aaron, Noelle Stevenson, CM Punk, Don Glut
Artist: Russell Dauterman, Timothy Truman, Marguerite Sauvage, Rob Guillory, Rafael Albuquerque, Rick Hoberg, Dave Hunt
Colorist: Matthew Wilson, Frank Martin, Marguerite Sauvage, Rob Guillory, G. Gafford
Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino, Carol Lay
Editor: Wil Moss, Jon Moisan

This collection reprints Thor #6-8 from 2014, plus Thor Annual #1, and a classic What If? story from 1977.

The major story point covered here is the revelation of the identity of the new female Thor, which follows a battle between the Destroyer and Thor, who is joined by Odinson, Freya, and a whole crew of female superheroes from the list of people that Odinson thought might be Thor.

Destroyer, unfortunately, is not a terribly interesting villain, and the drama between Freya and Odin during the fight only helps matters minimally, as most of the action is just Destroyer no-selling everyone's attacks.

I did like the new Thor, and the revelation of her identity was a great scene, even if it followed a not-too-convincing red herring.

The rest of the book is the very definition of "mixed bag", with three stories from the Thor annual showing Thor in different eras. The future-Thor story was clever, if a bit simple. Noelle Stevenson's rendition of the present Thor was sweet while still capturing the flavor of some of the more humorous Norse myths. The story set in the past, penned by former wrestler CM Punk was a bit less subtle on the humor front, with Mephisto taking on Thor in a drinking contest, but it did have some funny bits.

The last feature is this collection was the reprint of the 1977 story What If Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor? This had a surprising number of plot twists, including one dubious one that attempts to give a satisfactory ending to the story's romantic elements and ends up just seeming... weird. But I did like Jane Foster as Thordis, who comes off as smart and serious in the superhero role.

Rating: 6/10

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

Black Panther: Battle For Wakanda

Bought this for the Kiddo at a bookstore in Hub Mall here in Shanghai.

Title: Black Panther: Battle For Wakanda
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2019
Writer: Brandon T. Snider

Another of the Mighty Marvel Chapter Books series. While it's a prose story, it is full of color illustrations, but unfortunately, the artists are not credited (at least I was not able to get the information from the Amazon or Goodreads entries for the book and, as noted below, the credits on the copy we bought were not in English). This is the, well, I guess the phrasing would be English language Chinese edition, which we purchased in China. All of the story text is in English, but the credits, copyright and publisher information, and there are vocabulary footnotes in Chinese, which seem to be aimed at English language learners.

The Chinese edition covers for this series look awesome, by the way.

The story involves a plot to stir up trouble in Wakanda every time T'Challa is off doing Avengers things with the Avengers, which is currently more often than usual because there is an imposter Black Panther running around sabotaging SHIELD installations and beating up SHIELD-agent jobbers.

T'Challa makes some questionable decisions in order to move the plot along, but it eventually builds into a big confrontation with Klaw back in Wakanda, and a chance for T'Challa to regain the confidence of his people.

Several Avengers guest-star, and Shuri gets a decent supporting role.

Those picky about continuity should note that this is based more on comic storyline than the MCU version, but like the Gamora book in this series (I reviewed it here), it definitely tries to play to fans who have seen the films, but have not read the comics.

There were some editing issues, including a mess of a pronoun problem at one point, and the plot left a fair number of unanswered questions.

Still, it did the flavor of the characters well, and hit the right emotional notes in the end.

Rating: 5.5/10

Black Panther: The Complete Collection Volume 1

I bought this at Boocup in the Kerry Center mall in Shanghai, China, last September.

Title: Black Panther: The Complete Collection
Issue: Volume 1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2015
Writer: Christopher Priest
Penciler: Mark Texeira, Vince Evans, Joe Jusko, Mike Manley, Mark Bright, Sal Velluto, Joe Quesada, Amanda Conner,
Inker: Alitha Martinez, Jimmy Palmiotti, Mark Texeira, Vince Evans, Joe Jusko, Mike Manley, Nelson DeCastro, Bob Almond
Colorist: Brian Haberlin, Avalon Studios, Elizabeth Lewis, Chris Sotomayor, Brad Vancata, Drew Yackey, Matt Yackey
Letterer: Richard Starkings, Comicraft Inc.'s Siobhan Hanna, Wes Abbott, Jason Levine, Liz Agraphiotis, Sharpefond, Paul Tutrone
Editor: Joe Quesada, Jimmy Palmiotti, Ruben Diaz, Tom Brevoort, Kelly Lamy, Frank Dunkerley, Greg Schigiel
Front Cover: Joe Quesada, Jimmy Palmiotti
Back Cover: Joe Jusko, Elizabeth Lewis

This trade paperback collects the Black Panther Marvel Knights run that started in 1998, covering the first seventeen issues of that series. It's all narrated through the eyes of hapless federal agent Everett K. Ross, who is in way over his head in just about every moment of every issue as he tries to do his job as T'Challa's US State Department liaison. Unfortunately for Ross, the King of Wakanda has lost his throne to an international conspiracy, and he is trying to solve a murder case in New York before he can return to Wakanda to set things there right.

The result is a wild and sometimes disjointed ride that involves a plethora of guest stars from Captain America to Luke Cage and Iron Fist to Hulk to Mephisto (!) to Hydro-Man to (no I am not making this up) Brother Voodoo.

The humor is snarky and fun, and the pacing is frenetic. There is a lot of political humor, some of it a bit dated at this point, but most of it still biting. The action scenes don't always measure up to the cleverness of it all, as a lot of the fight scenes get cut short for the sake of more cleverness.

MCU fans will enjoy seeing many of the characters who ended up as part of the Black Panther film, not to mention favorites from the Avengers films as well as the Netflix Defenders.

Several important elements are not resolved by the end of this volume and the cutoff point of 17 issues felt arbitrary.

Still, there is a lot to enjoy here, and as someone who had not read much Black Panther, this was a treat.

Rating: 7/10

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

John Carter, Warlord of Mars #28

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: John Carter, Warlord of Mars
Issue: 28
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 1979
Writer: Peter Gillis
Artist: Larry Hama, Ricardo Villamonte
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Letterer: Diana Albers
Editor: Roger Stern

John Carter, on a surveying mission over unexplored areas of Barsoom with his friends Sasoom Thil and Kantos, discover an abandoned city, and are soon faced with a series of unexplained phenomena.

This was the final issue of this run, and this story was a self-contained tale that left a fair amount unanswered, with plenty of potential for further exploration. Because of the lack of follow-up, the ending was a bit unsatisfying, although it worked in a missed-connection sort of way.

Typical for its time, this was wordy compared to how the same story might be told today, and while some of the excess of text was useful in filling in details about the comicbook version of John Carter's Barsoom, a lot of it felt like it could have been cut.

It's too bad that the character introduced at the end of this story didn't get the chance to appear in further books in this series, and I wonder of some version of her has been brought back in the various reboots of John Carter that have some up since this was published.

Rating: 5.5/10