Good Day Fellow Comic Lovers and Pop Culture Devotees! 

It’s time yet again for this week's comic reviews and previews with a little spec on the side. After a tough Buffalo Bills loss yesterday I was happy to sit down and finish reading the latest comics I had picked up. 

So many new and exciting comics have been dropping every week. It’s such a great time to be a comic book fan. Remember, all these books and many many more can be purchased or ordered at POP ROC. With Fall and Winter around the corner there is no better time than now to pick up some reading material before our long hibernation begins.

This week I reviewed “Tales of The Human Target #1”, “Army of Darkness vs Re-animator #1”, “Midnight Suns #1” and “Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories #1”.

Tales of The Human Target #1

Published by DC Comics

Written by Tom King

Pencils by Kevin Maguire, Mikel Janin, R. Albuquerque and Greg Smallwood. 

Rated M for Mature

Available now!

A one shot that weaves together three separate stories between Christopher Chance and the JLA International and serves to be a prequel to the first 6 issues of The Human Target main series which will continue with issue #7 in the last week of September. For better or worse, Christopher Chance will take his disguises and jobs to the limit and ends up in some sticky situations with Booster Gold, Fire and Green Lantern AKA Guy Gardner whom detail their personal encounters with Chance prior to the murder mystery unfolding in the main series! 

I loved this one shot! If you’ve read The Human Target before, you know you are in for some great dialogue, good characterization and top notch sense of humor. Tom King nails the classic 70’s Hollywood noir and detective shtick with this book. Christopher Chance is a mix of 007, Sherlock Holmes and Fletch. He’s classy, well educated, charming and has a way of figuring things out unlike most detectives. He plays the role of the potential target or victim himself. Hence, The Human Target! The story weaves three first person accounts together around how each of these JLA members meet Chance for the first time and their impression of him and their encounter. Being it’s one of these characters who will eventually try to murder Chance (In the disguise of Lex Luthor) it’s awesome to get a little more background on these potential suspects before the main story picks up again in issue #7. By the way, Booster Gold is just hilarious! I love the way he is written by King going all the way back to Heroes in Crisis (which I also recommend). He’s just a fun character to read and his story in particular with Chance is a delight! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Definitely worth diving into this book and if you like it be sure to catch up on any back-issues of The Human Target main series before issue #7 comes out this coming week! Grab this book! 

Army of Darkness vs Reanimator #1

Published by Dynamite Comics

Written by James Kuhoric

Pencils by Sanford Green and Nick Bradshaw

Rated T for Teen

Available in POP ROC now for .50 cents!!

This .50 cent reissue is a mash-up of two the gnarliest 90’s B horror movies ever! Ashley “Ash” Williams taking on deadites and demons aided by no other than your favorite, the Re-animator, Dr. Herbert West! Ash is back and released from jail to fight what might be his toughest foe from the underworld yet! 

What’s not to like here folks?? Ash freaking Williams vs Dr. Herbert West?! If you have watched either of these classic horror movies you can probably imagine what you’re signing up for. (If you haven’t watched either or both you should!!) Two movies that I have routinely watched every Halloween for countless years. I don’t want to date myself but it’s a long time. We’ll leave it at that. The comic has all the classic Ash dialogue mixed with some very campy and cartoony art and a newly unleashed ancient mega demon. Add The Reanimator to the story and you're packing in another quirky and fun element that just takes this comic right over the top. Is it unbelievable and cheesy? You betcha! Is it awesome? 100%! Check it out folks! For the price of two quarters at POP ROC while supplies last, why not?? P.S. How awesome is that cover by Gabriele Dell Otto! He’s one of the best and one of my personal favorites

Midnight Suns #1

Published by Marvel

Written by Ethan Sacks

Pencils by Luigi Zagaria

Rated T for Teen

Available now!

Yes folks, it’s Marvel back with yet another new and crazy team up! This time we have Blade, Wolverine, Magik, Spirit Rider and Nico Minoru. The team is brought together after a student at Strange Academy has a vision seemingly foreshadowing the end of the world. Facing demons and the unknown while all seeing this vision themselves, they aim to prevent this end of world prophecy that could have lasting implications for Strange Academy, the Sorcerer Supreme and the universe itself. 

While reading this book I found it interesting how closely related to Strange Academy it is. I almost feel like reading that would benefit you with some background but it’s not entirely required as the story and plot still seems as though it will be self-contained to this book. A few unique and B level superheroes brought together here that while I’ve not read a lot about in the past seem appropriate for the story. Magiq and Nico seem to be a large focus of the plot in this book so I believe we will come to know them really well over time. Wolverine may be the oddest choice of the bunch not being any kind of magical user and/or not having any prior history with the occult or demonology. Spirit Rider, a Ghost Rider of sorts, adds another element of experience here as having dealings in both the spiritual and physical world. 

I really loved the idea behind this though. Everyone across the realm and universe suddenly has this same end of the world vision and it all starts with one particular student at Strange Academy. This is what brings our team together and brings them to the Academy where this prophecy starts to unfold. Wolverine is the only member on the team that didn’t see the vision for reasons I’m sure we will learn later. There is also a surprise cameo at the end of the issue that I don’t want to give away but sets up the next issue. I honestly can’t wait to read it for that reason alone! Something is about to go down here and it’s going to be big! Anyone sensing a theme lately with all the new Marvel books? Crazy team-ups and lot’s of demon hunting! Many of them with a much darker tone than recent events. Maybe it’s the season, maybe it’s the end of year but something big is coming and I have a feeling this will all tie into the next big Marvel event! Looking for something new? Check this out! The art is solid and it’s an easy read. I think it’s going to be a fun one! 

Star Wars: HyperSpace Stories #1

Published by Dark Horse 

Written by Amanda Deibert

Pencils by Lucas Marangon

Rated All- Ages

Available now! 

This all-ages star wars story is set just after the Clone wars and has a lot of familiar faces. In short, Senator Padme has been kidnapped by the forces of General Grievous and Obi-Wan and Anakin are sent to rescue them by the Jedi Order. They arrive to an ambush by General Grievous and his troops and have to fight to save Padme and the group of Republic citizens with her. Grievous believes that Padme holds some special device or item that will benefit him and he is not going to give them up easily. 

While this comic appears to be written for the younger crowd it’s a short and fun story that puts our Jedi’s in the middle of a battle against one of our favorite Star Wars villains. It’s very basically written and functions almost like a new episode of the Clone Wars even though it’s set some time after that series. The writer Deibert makes good use of her characters and the dialogue between both Anakin and Obi Wan feels familiar. It’s visible through Anakin's actions especially that he is not one to follow the lead and often hastily makes decisions without thinking first, clearly foreshadowing his path to the dark side. While the story is a quick read it had just enough meat on the bones and this would make a great choice for a younger kid who’s into Star Wars or The Clone Wars. It’s not that it’s not worth picking up as an adult but there are so many Star Wars books available right now that it would be worth reading one that has a little more heft or weight like Darth Vader or the main Star Wars comic. Any of which can be picked up or ordered at POP ROC!

PREVIEWS

WhatNot Comics Preview

Published by Whatnot 

Written and penciled by Various

In stores soon!

You read that right folks! Whatnot, one of the newest sales and bidding marketplaces on the web is getting into the publishing game with their own line of comics! 

The preview contained a sampling of a few new comics coming soon. The first being a little action-comedy by the name of “Alpha-Betas”. It’s Rick and Morty meets Ready Player One in this first person shooter player, rated M for mature, team battle title and it had me laughing out loud over the few pages I got to read. I’m really looking forward to reading the whole issue. They also have a Wesley Snipes created and written title called “Exiled” which you can see a preview of the main character above. If you guessed it was the John Wick/Blade looking gentleman you would be right! This looks to be an action lover's delight and I’m excited to see what Wesley Snipes brings to the table. Reach out to POP ROC to see when these titles are being released and don’t forget they can be added to a weekly pull list if you wish! Look for full reviews on these titles when they hit shelves coming soon! 

That wraps up this week’s Corey’s Comic Corner blog but I wanted to leave you with a little Pop Culture factoid…

Something wild happened earlier this evening around 7pm that will go down in history as a first. 

The asteroid exploding mission of our beloved Bruce Willis and his crew of misfits in the movie Armageddon in 1998 moved beyond fiction into the real world as NASA’s planetary defense team sent a DART. (Double Asteroid redirection test spacecraft) aimed at the asteroid Dimorphos and successfully landed it for direct impact! 

This test was conducted in the event an asteroid is headed for earth. Fiction no more folks! Armageddon just became a documentary! Well sorta, this spacecraft was unmanned but they broadcasted the whole event live and it was a true sight to behold. Amazing! This will be a pop culture trivia question soon enough, which leaves me with a few final words to end this blog.

Hey, you never know….and this is not an endorsement for the NY Lotto! 

Thanks for reading and please stop into POP ROC soon for more fun, conversation, food, drinks and just a good time among friends…..

Corey Newell

“Just a guy who loves comics”

Corey Newell is an Independent blogger, Dad, Dork, Comic Nerd and Pop culture lover hailing from Spencerport, NY