Corey's Comic Corner Edition 20 - Review of The Ends #1, Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1, Black Cloak #1 and The Avengers, War Across Time #1
/COREY’S COMIC CORNER
Welcome back for another week of reviews, recommendations, pop culture talk, slightly deep thoughts and overall hijinx…
It’s a beautiful and sunny winter day here in the ROC area. These are the kind of winter days that pretty much nobody really minds. There’s just something serene about standing outside and letting the hot sun warm your face while you take deep renewing breaths of that cold crisp air. There is no better way to start the day! Take your coffee. Take the dog. Close your eyes and just take it all in for 5-10 minutes. Try it.. Trust me! Winter can be long and the days are obviously short. Getting that little extra shot of vitamin D first thing in the morning to start the day will leave you feeling fresh, energized and ready to conquer the day. On top of that, mornings like these are far and few between so take advantage of it when you can! With the holidays in the rearview mirror it’s a long stretch of weeks now before we can officially start thinking about Spring. Thankfully we are at least starting to add back a little sunlight each day but it will be a while until we really notice a big difference in our afternoons..
COMIC BOOK REVIEWS
“This week I had a chance to read The Ends #1, Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1, Black Cloak #1 and The Avengers, War Across Time #1.”
THE ENDS #1
Published by Bad Idea
Written by David Lapham and Maria Lapham
Pencils by David Lapham
Rated M for Mature
Available now via pre-order only
The second to last new offering from Bad Idea part 2 part one is a new weekly book from husband and wife team David and Maria Lapham. The book set both in modern and WWII times explores the effects of war on our culture and the soldiers who fought them.
The first issue of The Ends is set up to reveal the characters and central plot of the story here that will unfold over 3 issues. At its heart, It’s a story about WW2 and how that has shaped the generations that have followed it. Whether it’s work ethic, respect, love, responsibility, mental health, ignorance or family. War in general has affected many of our families somewhere along the way either directly or indirectly. This book brings into focus the many horror’s and unfortunate circumstances that come with our freedoms and in the first issue Lapham drives home these issues with a very detailed and bleak look at one of these circumstances specifically. They do a great job of dialing up the tension with both the story and the art as they weave from one time period to the next. It’s very smooth though and everything flows right up until the end where they leave you with a cliffhanger! On that note, I’m very curious to see what the next issue brings. As with many Bad Idea books I just hope 3 issues is enough to flesh this story out completely. We shall see!
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1
Published by Marvel
Written by Cody Ziglar
Pencils by Federico Vicentini
Rated T for Teen
Available now!
A new ongoing Spidey series for our fan favorite Miles Morales. As he continues to share the Spider-Man mantle with Peter Parker he also continues to dive into a world where his personal life is starting to Mirror parts of Peter’s tragic backstory as well.
As we all know, every Iteration of Spider-Man has his own share of painful loss and tribulations. This generally means a lot of heartache and time spent questioning everything in their lives. That time has now come for Miles as we see him struggle with his decisions. He’s grown angry and bitter as well as careless with his foes and he’s clearly facing some kind of identity crisis. He’s no longer pulling his punches. He’s talking back to his teachers. You can immediately tell this will be a more grounded and personal storyline for Miles and the writer seems to have a good grasp on how these everyday issues will affect him. Ziglar also does a great job of filling in the back story while also keeping a healthy dose of action in the story. The art is great! The pencils are sharp and detailed and you can tell Marvel has put a lot of resources into this book. Even the pages are thicker than usual! It’s a very fleshed out story and a great introduction to this new chapter for Miles Morales. I personally can’t wait to read the next issue!
The Avengers War Across Time #1
Published by Marvel
Written by Paul Levitz
Pencils by Alan Davis
Rated T for Teen
Available now!
The Classic Avengers team is back in a modern take done the old school Marvel way. Kang the Conqueror has been throwing everything he can at The Avengers and this time he believes he has the ultimate weapon. The Incredible Hulk!
I loved this issue! It’s just everything I remember about reading Marvel comics when I was younger. It has an old fashioned way of writing, art and story that just feels like it’s from a much simpler time. Honestly, it’s refreshing to have a Marvel comic book on the shelf that’s just simply fun and easy to read. Nothing deep. No hidden social commentary. No need to read 14 other books to get the full story. It’s just The Avengers versus the Hulk the whole issue and that’s good enough for me. Even the paper has that old cheap, thin and crispy feel to it. I dig it! The writing and the art are perfect for this book and It’s a comic I can’t recommend enough, especially if you were a fan of Marvel in the early days.
Black Cloak #1
Published by Image
Written by Kelly Thompson
Pencils by Meredith Mcclaren
Rated M for Mature
Available now!
Immensely popular writer Kelly Thompson and her all female team bring her deeply stylized and In depth writing style to Image for her first sci-fi, murder mystery romance story. Set in the last city at the end of the world where war and the struggles of the past are no longer an issue and yet somehow things are worse than they could ever be.
Wow! First off, there is a lot going on in this first issue. It’s triple the length of a normal issue which is great for the money but at the same time it can be a lot to digest. I had to read it through a couple times to fully grasp it all but once I did it was worth it. Thompson does her best to set up the story, background, characters and everything else and doing this right would certainly eat up a lot of pages. I’m not complaining. What she has fleshed out thus far though looks and feels huge and it seems like it will be worth all the added details in the end.The art is very sharp and bleakly colored which makes sense as a murder has occured. There is a lot of dialogue and the issue is paced very well for being so long. It actually moves along swiftly as you work your way towards the huge twist at the end of the issue which I was totally not expecting. It’s an interesting story thus far and it may not be sure what it wants to be but I'm curious to see what happens next. Especially with all the time and details Thompson has put into it to begin with.
MOVIE RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK!
My movie recommendation this week comes in the way of a new series on HBOMAX which has been taking the pop culture world by storm as of late. What started as a top selling Sony Playstation game, followed by a sequel and a comic has now turned into a multi million dollar per episode series on HBOMAX. If you guessed Last Of Us you’d be right! This video game adaption is currently being billed as a must watch new show for 2023 and so far critics and fans are loving it.
Distributed by HBOMAX
Written and executive produced by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann
Rated M for Mature
Available now on HBOMAX
After playing both of the games and being a huge fan of the property in general I was super impressed at how well the first episode was set up and pulled off. They have fully realized this world! The characters and setting seem as though they were ripped right out of the game. I can’t wait for the second episode and If you are a fan of action adventures or thriller dramas this is definitely a show to watch!
That’s all I have for this week folks! As always, drop us a line and let us know if you have read any of these comics or if you have watched The Last Of Us. We’d love to hear from you! Until the next time. Stay cool and keep it real! We’ll see you on the flipside…
- Corey Newell
“I’m Just a guy who loves comics and stuff”
⁃ Independent blogger, dad, dork, comic nerd and pop culture lover hailing from Spencerport, NY