I Read Comic Books discussion

Happy Halloween Month! Reading anything spooky to get in the spirit? Maybe some cozy witchy vibes?

Tell us all about what you're reading this month in the thread below!

As always, if you'd like to check out what the IRCB crew is reading, take a peek at the Top of My Pile posts over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ircbpodcast

Last week's adventures in comics.

Young Alfred: Pain in the Butler ★★★★★
This is how you do a comic for kids. It's a flashback story to when Alfred went away to servant school. It's fun and smart with terrific art by Sam Lofti.

Clark & Lex ★★★
A middle school story about a Clark Kent with powers who is kind of a jerk. He's very full of himself. He gets invited to be part of a contest to be an intern for the Daily Planet over the summer which quickly and very obviously becomes something else. Clark and Lex become friends and Lex does a heel turn that isn't earned.

The All-Nighter Season Two ★★★
This is very much a middle volume. Other vampires start using the superhero loophole while the bad guy also builds an army in secret. You can see this isn't going to last long before the Takers arrive again. The story may have well ended "To be continued".

The Black Bestiary: A Phantasmagoria of Monsters and Myths from the Philippines ★★★★
A prose book from the creators of Trese in the vein of World War Z. It's part Monster Manual of the Philippines, part untold stories of monster hunters. It's written as if by a long time monster hunter in the area, giving accounts of stories of encounters he's been told.

Survival ★★
30 Days of Night done poorly. Some Russian vampires with no rules come to Alaska and meet survivalists who aren't at all threatening.

Parker Girls Omnibus ★★★★
The Parker Girls from Strangers in Paradise are hired when an employee steals 10 million from a tech billionaire. Meanwhile his wife shows up drowned on the beach. So they start looking into things and uncover so much more going on. This one gets pretty wild.

Hellsing, Vol. 1 ★★★
This was OK. It felt very 90's. Big on action and short on story. It's about an organization in the UK that hunts down and kills vampires with the main vampire hunter also being a vampire. There's some odd rules. If you're not a virgin and get bit by a vampire you become a ghoul instead (which in this is really just a zombie. It has no will of its own.)

Ultimate Invasion ★★★★
The Maker gets free and creates a new universe where he has meddled and prevented most of Earth's heroes from becoming heroes. It's done well and I'm curious to see what Hickman has in store for the Ultimate Universe.

Tales From Nottingham ★★★
Some ancillary stories set in the Nottingham universe. None of them are essential. I may have liked this more had it come out sooner after volumes 1 and 2 as it may have connected to those stories more then my memory did.

Confetti Realms ★★★
This was fine. It's yet another comic about being queer and a teenager. (This in itself is no longer enough. It also needs to be good.) This one's set over Halloween. 4 teenagers get portalled to another world where teeth are currency, yet everyone still has a full set of teeth. If teeth were currency everyone would be getting mugged and have their teeth pulled out. A lot of it just seemed odd just to be odd instead of having a purpose in the story. The kids have to get 5 molars to leave because "reasons".

Lovesick ★
This has every trigger you can imagine. It's extremely nihilistic and depraved. It's about a woman who talks people into coming onto her private internet show where she proceeds to murder them and eat them with the caveat being that they are asking , no yearning, for it. I kept waiting for some kind of story to develop but it seemed to be more about how many different fetishes could be put on display more than anything else. If seeing people get off while covered in blood and gore is your thing, this may be the book for you.

Danny Ketch: Ghost Rider ★★★
It was nice to see the writer of the 90's Ghost Rider, Howard Mackie, back in the saddle again. The story is fine, but nothing special or of impact like all of these other Marvel flashback series.

Halina Filipina: A New Yorker in Manila ★★★
A Filipino American goes to the Philippines for the first time to get in touch with her heritage where she meets a man with some self-esteem issues. Strangely the passages with few words were the strongest scenes. There are some sections where there is a lot of untranslated Tagalog. I found those very frustrating but I also didn't care enough to pull out my phone to translate them either. It's a decent enough rom-com story but too long at 225+ pages.

Wanted ★★★★
f you've seen the movie, just throw that completely out the window. The comic it's based on is far different. I decided to revisit it 20 years later before reading Big Game where Mark Millar is crossing over all his characters. This is about Eminem. He's working a deadend job. His girlfriend is cheating on him with his best friend and he knows about it. He's just too weak to confront them. Then his dad who he's never met dies and he gets thrust into a hidden world of supervilliany. That's where Halle Berry comes in as The Fox. She helps this kid throw off any moral implications and become an amoral asshole as he wades into this world.

Nightwing, Vol. 5 ★★★★
Nightwing and the Titans take on Neron for the soul of a little girl. There's also a backup story with Nightwing training Superman and they investigate some sabotage and a murder attempt at the circus. Then Bruno Redondo returns for another inventive issue with the whole issue through Nightwing's eyes. You only see his limbs and reflection. It's good stuff. I'm sure it'll get nominated for Best Single Issue at the Eisner's.

Planet of the Apes: Fall of Man ★★★
Fits right in with the rebooted Planet of the Apes movies by Matt Reeves. Solid stuff. Dave Wachter's art is great.

Batman - One Bad Day: Penguin ★★★★
The penguin is down to $5 and needs to retake his criminal empire.


Batman: War Games, Book Two ★★★★
War Games is much better as it goes on and becomes more about the batfamily's downward spiral. Black Mask is great in this.


Minor Threats, Vol. 1: A Quick End to a Long Beginning ★★★★
It's not an original premise, but Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum do make it stand out. Artwork by Scott Hepburn is great too. Essentially Robin is killed, causing Batman to lose it. It's up to the lowest of the rogues to find the Joker before Batman kills them all.


Do a Powerbomb ★★★★
I loved Daniel Warren Johnson's art as soon as I saw it.


Invincible, Compendium Two ★★★★★
I've switched to the compendium on Hoopla. It's a thousand pages. Unfortunately, the behind the scenes commentary is not included, which would have been great after all the alternate universe Invincibles appear.


Hajime no Ippo, Vol. 1 ★★★
A famous boxing manga from the 1990s. It's fun, but nothing to write home about in this first volume.


Thor, Vol. 1: The Devourer King ★★★★
Donny Cates takes over after a historic run of a character, but it's good this time.


Nightwing, Volume 4: Second City ★★★
Nightwing goes to Chicago to find Tony Zucco.


Justice League, Volume 1: Origin ★★★
There's a lot wrong with this, but Jim Lee's art is great and it reads fast. Except for Cyborg, all the characters are more like mascots than people.

Unfortunately, that Thor run peters out. Cates has had some personal issues and dropped off the book before he finished. It was great up until then though.

This week's episode of the IRCB Podcast is Episode 387 | Teeth: A Tail For Your Face. The second in our 2-part series about Transformers! Mike, Kara, and Kate talk about Transformers comics, the problems with digital comic licensing, and more!

Here's what folks read:

- Mike: Immortal Thor (2023-) #1, Ultimate Invasion #4
- Kara: Star Wars: Kanan, Vol. 1: The Last Padawan
- Kate: The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor

Check out the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to hear our thoughts on what we read! Or listen now at https://ircbpodcast.simplecast.com/ep...

Chad wrote: "Unfortunately, that Thor run peters out. Cates has had some personal issues and dropped off the book before he finished. It was great up until then though."

That's a shame. At least Al Ewing's run is right after that.

Today's trip to the LCS.

The Plot Holes #2
Abbott 1979 #1
Alien Annual
X-Force #45
Doctor Strange #8
Immortal X-Men #16
Shazam #4
X-Men #27
Birds of Prey #2
G.O.D.S. #1
Transformers #1

Last week's adventures in comics.

Kick-Ass: The Dave Lizewski Years Book Two ★★★★
Formerly Hit-Girl #1-5 Is there anyone who draws children worse than John Romita Jr.? Hit-Girl is supposed to be 12. She looks like a bobblehead version of a 5 year old girl. Even with that said. this is great. Mindy is trying to navigate Middle school while taking out the Mafia and training Kick-Ass, all while trying to hide what's she's doing from her parents.

Kick-Ass: The Dave Lizewski Years Book Three ★★★★
There are some major changes to tone down some of the over the top graphic violence between the original Marvel edition and Image rerelease. I'm not a fan of Millar censoring himself even if the changes did make it a more palatable story. Overall it's still an interesting story, even neutered. Kick-Ass joins the first superteam while Hit-Girl tries to appease her stepfather and live a normal life.

Kick-Ass: The Dave Lizewski Years Book Four ★★
Kick-Ass goes a step too far, because most of this book is just a slog. There's enough content for about a 3 issue series dragged out to 8.

Cages ★★
Finally got around to reading this after letting it set on the back burner for years. Yes, McKean was the cover artist for Sandman and the artist for Arkham Ayslum which made a mint for him and Grant Morrison. But he's a very divisive artist. And not all that skilled of a writer. This is 500 pages long and there's enough story here for less than half that. It suffers from the flowery verbal diarrhea that a lot of the early Vertigo comics did.

The Many Deaths of Barnaby James ★★★
This was odd, because it wasn't so much about Barnaby Jones. The first issue is. Then the perspective changes to a new character with each issue and the book gets darker and darker with things like cannibals and slavery involved.

By the Horns Vol. 2: Dark Earth Part 1 ★★★★
By the Horns is back! Magic hasn't returned with the death of the sorcerer that was bottling it all up. Things are getting worse on the continent so time for a new quest to save this realm. Elodie has to find a way to go to the other continent where her unicorn friends went with others on her trail who blame her for the continent's problems.

By the Horns Vol. 3: Dark Earth Part 2 ★★★★★
Yes, this series is terrific. Markison Naso and Jason Muhr have only made great comics so far. Go read By the Horns and then go find Voracious as well. This is about the badass fighter Elodie, her telepathic wolf-pony, some unicorn friends and Evelyn the floating eyeball as they try and find pure magic so they can save their continent where the blight from a lack of magic is expanding.

Cosmic Detective ★★★
The story is pretty much what I expected once this got going with few surprises. It's about a detective who is investigating the death of a God. The writing isn't great. What is great is David Rubin's art.

After Lambana: A Graphic Novel: Myth and Magic in Manila ★★★
An urban fantasy set in Manilla. It takes course over the span of a night. A boy finds out he has some kind of supernatural plague around his heart that is going to kill him after meeting up with a man who is from another land or dimension who becomes his guide. Basically the Filipino version of Faerie I think. They walk around the city all night finding out more about what has happened to him.

The Magic Order, Vol. 1 ★★★★
This is Millar's best idea he's had in years, perfectly executed by Olivier Coipel and Dave Stewart. Yes, it's a simple concept. Evil magicians start murdering good ones in order to obtain an all-powerful book.

The Magic Order, Vol. 2 ★★★
The plot is a lot like the first one. A bunch of oppressed, old magicians are rising up to challenge the new leadership of the Magic Order. You get the Eastern European and British gangster versions of magicians. Things get bigger even as more macguffins are pulled out of their asses to solve things.

Midnight Western Theatre ★★★
This is about a monster hunter and a reluctant vampire traveling from town to town righting supernatural wrongs in the Old West.

Ghost Roast ★★★
A kind of fluffy YA book about a teenager who can see ghosts while working for her ghostbuster father who thinks all spirits are evil but has never seen one.

Know Your Station ★★★
A murder takes place on a space station for billionaires. One of the help is left in the lurch to figure out who did it while she's also suffering hallucinations from weaning herself off drugs. There's too much going on with the side plots and not enough with the main plot.

Love Kills ★★★
Helena is a loner vampire who meets a human chef who helps her when her old coven comes after her.

Specs ★★★★
A new spin on The Monkey's Paw. It's the Eighties and Ted is the only black kid in this small Ohio town. His best friend Ken is secretly gay and in love with Ted but never told him. They find an ad for a pair of X-ray specs in the back of an old comic and the specs mysteriously show up on their porch in the middle of the night. They discover that the specs grant small wishes. But when their high school bully finds them in the woods one day, something bad happens and that's where the story turns darker.

Bettie Page Unbound ★★★
Bettie gets sent to other dimensions where she replaces Red Sonja, Vampirella, Dejah Thoris and Tinkerbell while looking for some Macguffins to keep Cthulhu from invading our dimension.

Bettie Page Unbound Vol. 2 ★★★
Dynamite finishes up its Bettie page run with Bettie getting stuck in an Invasion of the Body Snatchers scenario with some alien bees.

Playthings ★
It's about a mother whose daughter is abducted by toys. It's got kind of a Five Nights at Freddy's vibe to it. The art is terrible. I couldn't tell what was happening in half this book. I think the artist's uncle may be the publisher of Scout Comics or something because he needs a lot of practice.

Red Sonja Vol. 1: Mother ★★★
Red Sonja finds a kid with fire powers who wants Sonja to be her mother. She's pursued by a bunch of different nefarious bad guys looking to make use of the child's powers.

Hi, I'm currently reading The Life of Captain Marvel

I have a few others in my to-read list but mostly likely read some more Captain Marvel or some Mrs Marvel.

Today's trip to the LCS.

The Hunger and the Dusk #3
World's Finest: Teen Titans #4
The Devil That Wears My Face #1
Avengers #6
X-Men Red #16
Wolverine #38
House of Slaughter #18
Zomvikings #1

This week's episode of the IRCB Podcast is Episode 388 | Gambit Will Show You Anything Under That Trench Coat. Danny, Tia, and Kate take over the show this week to read and discuss Gambit comics, per Mike's request. And Tia's cat Holiday makes a background appearance.

Here's what folks read:

- Danny: Transformers #1, House of El: Book One: The Shadow Threat (House of El, Daredevil: Born Again
- Kate: Hollow
- Tia: Haunted Girl #1

Check out the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to hear our thoughts on what we read! Or listen now at https://ircbpodcast.simplecast.com/ep...

I read Accidental Czar: The Life and Lies of Vladimir Putin. It is interesting how that guy made it to the position he is in. Unfortunately nothing useful in there about how to make him change.

On a lighter note, I read Barack Hussein Obama. It was on a nearby library shelf, but is a completely different sort of book. It is just meaningless, surreal shorts about some guys named Obama and Joe. While I like odd stuff, this was too far out for me.

Roughneck by Jeff Lemire was a perfectly fine story about a brother and sister who are now adults but still broken from their upbringing.

Delicates by Brenna Thummler is a follow-up to "Sheets". I think it improves on the first one. This story is mostly about trying to fit-in in HighSchool. (Does anyone ever fit in?) I think it has the right blend of dark and light. Includes bullying and thoughts of suicide.

And I have finally got around to trying "Sweet Tooth". It is kind-of a standard post-apocalyptic thing, except for the mutant children. Liking it so far.

Ed wrote: "I read Accidental Czar: The Life and Lies of Vladimir Putin. It is interesting how that guy made it to the position he is in. Unfortunately nothing useful in there about how to make..."

I got Roughneck and read it a few years back. It was a decent read. It was nice to read a GN with a First Nations protagonist

Devon wrote: "It was nice to read a GN with a First Nations protagonist"

There's quite a few Canadian comics with that scenario. Most are historical comics about how poorly they were treated. I read two of them this year. There was a horror comic by a First Nations creator too. That was pretty good because they all used First Nations mythology.

Lots of Doctor Who Hoopla borrows in last week's adventures in comics.

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Vol. 1: Terrorformer★★★
Contains 2 pretty generic stories featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Clara.

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Vol. 2: Fractures★★★
Two more OK stories with Clara and the Twelfth Doctor. Morrison gets the voices of the characters down. The art though especially in the first story suffers from same face.

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Vol. 3: Hyperion★★★★
After a one off story with Charlotte Bronte, the Hyperions have taken over Earth in current time, leaving the Doctor, Clara and a fireman to save the day. The Hyperions were pretty cool, sentient suns who eat a solar system's sun and move on to the next one.

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Vol. 4: The School of Death★★★★
I really liked the main story about a remote elite private school in Scotland. It had a Village of the Damned crossed with Invasion of the Body Snatchers vibe to it.

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Vol. 5: The Twist★★★★
George Mann takes over the writing for this volume and I dig it. It's the first volume after Clara's demise. The Doctor is travelling by himself when he meets a female bass guitarist in the future.

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Vol. 6: Sonic Boom★★★
A companionless Doctor has some ho-hum adventures. First he heads to King Louis XVI era France where Cardinal Richelieu is taking over humanity.

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Time Trials Vol 1: The Terror Beneath★★
These stories could be a bit more original. They tend to all be very similar with just a alien swapped out. The punk bassist Hattie returns for a story set in the English seaside with some seaweed monsters mucking about.

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Time Trials Vol 2: The Wolves of Winter★★
Bill finally joins the comic. They go back to the Viking era and fight Ice Warriors along with some other older Whovian villains. I did like how it tied into a story from the 7th Doctor. Then there's a dumb 1 issue story about Bill getting lost in an alien supermarket.

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Time Trials Vol 3: A Confusion of Angels★★★★
Finally in the last volume, we get a longer story that builds off elements of the series. You've got two different angels and the Judoon mixing it up in what starts as a spooky stranded spaceship story.

King Of Spies★★★
Millar does his version of old James Bond. He finds out he's going to die soon and goes after all the evil bastards who've been protected by the British government. It's, of course, crude and bloody like Millar's other stuff. It also feels like the one minute elevator pitch of a movie that's he's become known for since starting Millarworld.

The Magic Order, Vol. 3★★★
Volume 3 seems to be all set up for the future. It also has the weakest art as some Italian artist I wasn't familiar with takes over.

Scarlett Couture★★★
Kind of a modern day Charlie's Angels. It's about a group of mainly female spies working undercover at a modeling agency.

Avengers, Vol. 1★★★
Starts off a bit lackluster compared to Jed MacKay's other Marvel work. It's fine. Part of it is these new villains aren't all that interesting. Mackay does bring over the creative team from Black Cat to work with him.

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor, Vol. 3: Conversion★★★★
This is exactly what I was missing from the 12th Doctor's run. I'd much rather have these larger stories with original companions than trying to squeeze everything between episodes and have it all try and make some kind of sense.

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor, Vol. 5: The One★★★
So much better than the previous volume. The story problems I had have been rectified. Seems to be headed in a good direction now.

Chad wrote: "Lots of Doctor Who Hoopla borrows in last week's adventures in comics.

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Vol. 1: Terrorformer★★★
Contains 2 pretty generic stories featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Cl..."

That's some list! I absolutely love Doctor Who, Tom Baker is my favourite doctor. Do you have any 4th doctor graphic novels that you would recommend?

Lewis wrote: "That's some list! I absolutely love Doctor Who, Tom Baker is my favourite doctor. Do you have any 4th doctor graphic novels that you would recommend?"

Yes, I read it last month. There's only one out from Titan Comics. There may be more some older ones in the U.K from other publishers. Gaze of the Medusa It is on Hoopla if you can access that through your library in the U.K.

Long ago when I was in junior high, a kid from school moved in down the block. He found out I also watched Doctor Who on PBS and unveiled a remote control K-9 he was building and a Tardis that unfortunately was not bigger on the inside. It was the coolest thing.

I'm quite behind in my reading for this month, but it looks like my TBR will be getting larger! Some interesting looking picks thus far this month!

Currently reading

Today's trip to the LCS.

Justice League Vs. Godzilla Vs. Kong #1
Incredible Hulk #5
Crypt of Shadows #1
Big Game #3
Big Game #4
Batman / Superman World's Finest #20
Fables #160
Invincible Iron Man #11
Nightwing #107

This week's episode of the IRCB Podcast is Episode 389 | Don’t Let Some Boy Get His Fangs in You. Kait and Brian visit Mike for his birthday and they ended up recording a podcast talking about comic books. Wow!!

Here's what folks read:
- Mike: Uncanny Spider-Man (2023-) #1, Chainsaw Man chaps. 143-145
- Kait: Witch of Thistle Castle Vol. 1, Star Wars: Leia, Princess of Alderaan - Manga, Vol. 2
- Brian: Bloodline: Daughter of Blade

Check out the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to hear our thoughts on what we read! Or listen now at https://ircbpodcast.simplecast.com/ep...

---

I've been reading a lot of individual chapters of various manga on KManga. While I like the variety, it does make it hard to get a sense of a series when I have to wait to have tickets to read more chapters and can't just binge a volume. It also makes it hard to log volumes on Goodreads since there are no consistent clear markers for when a volume ends!

Blacksad ★★★★
This is a noir-style detective story using anthropomorphized characters and involving real-world historical events. The art is good and I like the use of which characters were which animal. All the female characters looks pretty much the same, which was a bummer considering the variety of body styles with the male characters.

Paul is Dead ★★★★
The art in this is appropriately psychedelic considering that it's about the Beatles. This story takes a "what if" perspective about a real conspiracy that Paul McCartney died and was replaced by a double. The story is very eerie but the book itself was well done.

Batman: Under the Red Hood ★★★★
This wasn't a good as the movie, but there are some good parts that weren't included. First, Doug Mahnke is able to draw a huge variety of expressions on Black Mask's weird skull head. Second, I like Red Hood's scene with Onyx.


Nightwing, Volume 5: Setting Son ★★★
Not bad, but not worth reading. Tie-in stories with Zero Year and and Batgirl. Finishes the Marionette plotline with the Mad Hatter.


Grayson, Volume 1, Volume 2 & Volume 3 ★★★
Nightwing as James Bond attempting to out a secret society of spies. Mikel Janin's art has nice compositions and volume 3 his tries some interesting panel layouts.


Identity Crisis ★★★★
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There's some clear problems though.


Thor, Vol. 2: Prey ★★★★★
Donny Cates turns Thor's world upside down as Mjolnir seems to work for everyone but the Thunder God. Nic Klein brings it again with the art. And even Throg gets to make an appearance.


Batman, Volume 8: Superheavy ★★★
Bruce returns from death with amnesia, causing Jim Gordon and the GCPD to take up the role of Batman. Mr Bloom is a cool villain.

Last week's adventures in comics.

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor, Vol. 6: The Malignant Truth ★★
I've just decided I don't like Si Spurrier's writing. These new daleks basically just spout gibberish the whole time. Spurrier has them talk and talk and all I hear is Charlie Brown's teacher. I swear Spurrier was an early 90's Vertigo writer in a past life. He loves to drone on and on and yet say nothing.

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor: The Sapling Vol 1: Growth ★★★
Rob Williams finally claims the lead writer role with Alex Paknadel in tow. The Scream are back, specifically a Scream so Scream-like that even the Scream can't remember him.

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor: The Sapling Vol 2: Roots ★★★
This very much feels like a placeholder volume as the story with the Sapling doesn't get advanced at all. Their's some decent stuff here though. The Ood return. There's a good 2 part story on a deserted space ship and then a not at all interesting story at a renaissance fair that feels like a tryout issue.

Spawn Origins, Volume 1 ★★★
I haven't read Spawn since I originally picked the single issues up off the local comic book shop's new release shelf each month back in 1992. I was dreading going back to reread this but Sam had this terrible idea of a Spawnoween buddy read and I had a Humble Bundle of Spawn trades I'd been sitting on for 6 years but never read, so said "Why not? I like to punish myself." It surprisingly wasn't all that bad.

Al sells his soul to the devil so that he can return to his wife and, of course, the devil screws him over. I do like how he can't remember what happened and it continually gets worse as he slowly begins to figure things out. Because it's not from the big two, McFarlane can go to much darker places and doesn't have to hold back. (See Issue #5 with Billy Kincaid the child murderer.) He's never been a good scripter and that shows here (There. are. so. many. words.), but he is a terrific artist.

Spawn Origins, Volume 2 ★★★
These volumes are split so strangely. It begins in the middle of an Overt Kill story and ends in the middle of the the return of the Violator.

In the midst of that is a bunch of mostly terrific guest written issues. Issue #8 is by Alan Moore and follows Billy Kincaid through Hell after the child murderer got his comeuppance in #5. It's messed up. Then Neil Gaiman creates Angela and Medieval Spawn. I don't think this issue is in later editions of this collection after McFarlane lost his legal battle over the character and Gaiman gave the character to Marvel as an extra F.U. Issue #10 is definitely missing from all editions because Dave Sim refused to have this crossover with his character Cerebus collected. But go seek it out, it's really cool. Even if Sim has turned into a complete misogynistic turd of a person later in life. I thankfully bought it off the shelf when it came out. The last guest issue is by Frank Miller and it is awful. It's about some generic stupid turf war between two gangs and there's 4 or 5 references to the Cerebus issue which isn't included that get annoying real fast.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming with #12. Spawn finally remembers who killed him and goes after Youngblood. This one has a cool ending to it. Issue #14 is the first part of a new Violator story and a strange place to stop the book.

The difference in storytelling between the guest writers and McFarlane are readily apparent here. McFarlane uses way too much exposition and it really bogs down the story at times. You'd think an artist would tell a story through the art, but it was the 90's, not today. They also did a terrible job with any two page spreads. They didn't remove the gutters so all two page spreads are presented completely separate as if a magician sawed them in half.

Spawn Origins, Volume 3 ★★★
McFarlane only worked on the first of these issues outside of inking some of Capullo's work. After finishing up the Medieval Spawn / Violator story, McFarlane goes to work on Spawn / Batman while Grant Morrison and Greg Capullo step in for a 3 part Anti-Spawn story and then the letterer writes a two part story with a Houdini who has learned magic and a nuclear bomb.

Spawn Origins, Volume 4 ★★★
The first thing you need to know is that Spawn #19 and #20 from the last volume actually came out after issue #24. McFarlane fell way behind on the book while doing the crossover with Batman. Rather than resolicit the books like a normal person he skipped them and gave them to his letterer to write and Greg Capullo to draw who has already been stepping in here to keep McFarlane on schedule. Back in the day some of these Image books would take a year to get an issue out and then still be garbage.

The first four issues are about all these factions, the CIA, the mafia, Overtkill, etc. mistakenly going after Terry. Then issue #25 was this cool thing Image did where all the original Image artists switched books for a month and Marc Silvestri does the art. (I think McFarlane drew Cyberforce that month. I found a CBR article about the switch.) Issue #26 is more setup.

Spawn Origins, Volume 5 ★★★
After fighting the Curse, Spawn goes off screen in the middle of this for the Angela series and is returned to the deep South. There are tales of child abuse and racism before Spawn returns to New York to face the Redeemer and some other stuff with the angels and Heaven. It's all fine. Greg Capullo continues his takeover of the art, mimicking McFarlane for the most part.

Spawn Origins, Volume 6 ★★★
Volume 6 is a bit all over the place. There's a confrontation with Wynn and the stuff with the police captain is suddenly all swept under the rug without explanation. The last two issues introduce the Freak and Cy-Gor. The two issues seem disjointed though as 37 ends on a cliffhanger that's forgotten about in 38. The art still looks fantastic, even with McFarlane drawing very little of it at this point.

Spawn Origins, Volume 7 ★★★★
A really funny and terrific Christmas issue. Then the Curse comes in and messes Spawn up. Things between Chief Banks and Sam and Twitch FINALLY come to a head. There's another terrific issue where Spawn meets a kid who collects comic books. I'm really surprised at how much I'm liking this. McFarlane is only inking issues at this point with Greg Capullo and Tony Daniel doing all of the art.

Spawn Origins, Volume 8 ★★★
For a longer volume most of the plots don't get advanced. Yes, Terry goes through some things but I think it could have been done better. We do find out what's up with Spawn's costume and why there's always worms crawling through Spawn's face now. Still not all that great.

Then it's combined with bad editing. Tony Twist is a hockey player who didn't like that McFarlane named his scumbag mafia boss after him and sued. The character was renamed Vito Gravano but there was at least two instances here where it was missed and he was still referred to as Tony Twist. If you don't know about the change, I can see where you'd be confused. I guess Chris Pronger didn't care about his name being in Spawn as he also played hockey.

Spawn Origins, Volume 9 ★★★
Spawn starts off in Hell. There's a bizarre crossover with Savage Dragon where nothing is explained about how he also got to Hell and then he just has disappeared the next issue. Then an even darker version of Spawn returns to Earth and he teams up with Terry to kick their investigation of Jason Wynn into high gear as they go on the offensive. It's about frigging time. This has gone on forever. Kind of like Cy-Gor who has been travelling for about 20 issues on the hunt for Spawn and still hasn't found him.

These collections are put together so shoddily. This one has the creators and issues listed for the last volume. They just copied and pasted it in and then forgot to change it. You can't tell me that McFarlane can't afford to hire a proof reader even though he can pay $3 million for a baseball. The extras at the back continue to be pencil and ink drawings of covers which would be fine except they are only a quarter of the page with the background being a half size pencil drawing. They look so crappy and lo res. I've completely stopped even wasting my time with them.

Batman: The Long Halloween
This was the book chosen by the local library for their graphic novel book club this month. I enjoyed it more than I expected, at first I wasn't too into it because I didn't care much about the mob-like people, but as more characters I like and know showed up I started to enjoy it a lot more.

Eerie Tales from the School of Screams
This middle grade horror-ish book surpassed my expectations for creepiness and the ending was great.

The Bad Doctor
This is kind of a weird one. The doctor has super bad OCD but won't get help, even though he medicates others with the same condition. He's not the most likable guy either. Kinda shitty to his wife, doesn't feel like he actually cares a lot about his patients, super obsessed with bike riding.

Today's trip to my LCS.

Immortal Thor #3
Fire Power #28
The Plot Holes #3
Something Is Killing the Children #34
Dark X-Men #3
Void Rivals #5
Predator Versus Wolverine #2
Uncanny Avengers #3
Uncanny Spider-Man #2

This week's episode of the IRCB Podcast is Episode 390 | Go Look At A Real Boob. Recorded LIVE on Twitch! Mike, Danny, and Kara discuss Booster Gold Vol. 1: 52 Pickup! A commissioned on Patreon by our good pal Keith!

Here's what folks read:

- Mike: The Council of Frogs, Sports Is Hell, Universal Monsters: Dracula #1
- Danny: Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees #1, Star Wars: Leia, Princess of Alderaan - Manga, Vol. 1
- Kara: Vampirella Vs Dracula issues 1 through 6, Justice League International, Vol. 1

Check out the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to hear our thoughts on what we read! Or listen now at https://ircbpodcast.simplecast.com/ep...

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Grim Vol. 2: Devils and Dust ★★★★
Volume 2 has the same great art and characters I loved in the first volume. A lot of characters and lore were introduced in this volume, but it felt like it was all just setup for whatever happens next. I feel like I also would have benefitted from re-reading volume 1.

Last week's adventures in comics.

Spawn Origins Vol. 9-20 ★★★
Spawn actually wasn't bad through issue #100 in vol. 17. But it's pretty clear once Spawn beat the bane of his existence there's no real plan going forward. Greg Capullo leaves after issue #100 and Angel Media replaces him on art. His art is just awful. It looks more clowny and cartoonish than scary, like it's being reflected in a funhouse mirror. Medina's grasp of human anatomy seems to be filtered through lots of magic mushrooms. Thanks to Sam for suggesting this terrible buddy read that I'm now taking as far as I can stand like I'm playing a trick on myself for Halloween. I may not be sane by the time I reach the other end of this nonsense.

Spawn: The Dark Ages Complete Collection ★
I found something much worse than Spawn, Medieval Spawn. This series is pretty awful. It's mainly just kind of boring with some gross art.

The Secret Service: Kingsman ★★★★
Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons attempt at creating their version of James Bond. The main character is a poor English kid living in public housing. His uncle gets him out of trouble from time to time and after his latest screw up, tells Eggsy that he's really a spy. His uncle ships him off to spy school to learn along with a bunch of upper crust Brits. In the background a rich nerd is kidnapping his favorite famous people before depopulating the world.