So, What comics did you buy this week?

[Tom Foolery]

It’s been a couple weeks since I had back to back conventions last week, so I was doing more sorting/alphabetizing than actual reading.
Continuing with the T’s.

Thunderbolts 3-12. The most recent series had Bucky/Winter Soldier rescue the sentient cosmic cube, Kobik, from the Pleasant Hill prison town SHIELD had constructed for all the super villains by brainwashing them into thinking they were ordinary civilians. He recruits most of the original Thunderbolts team to help him with his new job as ‘The Man on the Wall’ which he inherited from the original Nick Fury before he “died” during the Original Sin event. Eventually he discovers Kobik is the one that turned “Steve Rogers” into a HYDRA agent just before Baron Zemo showed up and the series ended leading into Secret Empire. John Malin is the shittiest artist working today.

Transformers Til All Are One 11,12, and the Annual. Windblade’s ongoing came to a conclusion when Cybertron held elections and Starscream, prompted by Windblade to do the right thing, confessed to all the bad shit he’d done since he’s been in office. Windblade becomes the new leader of Cybertron. Starscream ends up in prison.

Optimus Prime 8-14. Ongoing political tensions as Optimus drags Earth into the coalition of Cybertronian colonies for its own protection. Rumble and Frenzy are selling Cybertron artillery to fringe anti-TF humans. Jazz is still facing the fallout of killing a human on live TV. And the “First Strike” event happened, but it was kinda cool since it was from the perspective of the characters left on Earth who didn’t know what happened other than that the Spacebridege stopped working. Since I didn’t know what First Strike was about, I was in the dark along with the characters.
Issues 15-21 “The Falling” Onyx Prime returns to Cybertron amd it turns out he’s....SHOCKWAVE, who instead of dying was blasted 12 million years into the past and has spent the last 12 million years manipulating ALL OF CYBERTRONIAN HISTORY. WHAT THE FUCK?!!? Awesome. He ends up destroying Prime’s body and the Matrix along with it, but his Consciousness(as well as Bumblebee’s) get uploaded into Pyra Magna’s body. Just in time for the final story arc, Unicron. But I’m waiting to read that later.
2017 Annual. Thundercracker makes a movie about Starscream’s life story. Hilarious. There’s a bit at the beginning of the comic that’s a “recreation” of the original Cobra ongoing where Chuckles and Cobra Commander die that is FUCKING HILARIOUS.

Next up, a bunch of TF vs various Roms, Visionaries, Star Trek, etc, a couple oneshots like the last Wreckers story, and then the Lost Light ongoing. After that, all the Unicron stuff.

[Tom Foolery]

Transformers Part II.

ROM vs Transformers: Shining Armor 1-5. Set during the height of the 4 Million Year War, ROM and his Solstar Knights come up against Cybertronians for the first time. They don’t know there are two different factions, so assume everyone is a threat. A Transformer named Stardrive who was raised on Rom’s Home world and joined the Knights becomes the central figure when Starscream realizes she has a unique Energon synthesizer built to keep her alive by solstar scientists. It’s up to Ultra Magnus and Bumblebee to stop Starscream and his Dire Wraith allies from turning the tide of the war by keeping Stardrive out of Decepticon hands.

Transformers vs Visionaries 1-5. I knew nothing of the Visionaries other than what I remember of the toyline from 30 years ago(hologram stickers were their schtick) so I had a crash course in their “lore” as I was also reading this, and also trying to figure out how a bunch of them ended up on Cybertron during a crossover event I haven’t read yet. Kup is killed during the series. That’s the most I got out of this series.

Bumblebee 1-4. Prequel series to the film set during the swingin’ 60s where ‘Bee is a secret agent in the UK teamed up with a Steed & Peel/James Bond type pair of Agents. Lots of goofy acronyms in this send up of 60s spy films. Clever fun, but ultimately forgettable.

Star Trek vs Transformers 1-5. The Autobots team up with the crew of the Enterprise as the Decepticons ally with the Klingons in this fantastic mini that’s drawn in the style and presumably set in the continuity of BOTH franchises animated TV series. Lots of fun.

Bumblebee: Go For The Gold oneshot. This is a prequel to a Bumblebee OGN called Win if You Dare that I’ve never seen or heard of. It looks like it is it’s own continuity separate from everything.

Transformers: Salvation oneshot. The end of the “Dinobot” trilogy that started in Punishment and Redemption. Sandstorm and the Dinobots have to set aside their differences to protect a new generation of sparks being held inside Trypticon by Bludgeon.

Requiem of the Wreckers oneshot. The Wreckers saga gets wrapped up as Springer and Verity battle Overlord and Tarantulas one last time. I’d have to go back a reread the Wrecker saga to get a better sense of what’s happened. I vaguely remember the earlier series, but it’s been awhile.

Transformers: Historia. The final TF comic. I was gonna wait and read this after Unicron, but I started flipping thru it and couldn’t put it down. It’s the recap of the entirety of the IDW-verse’s mythology in chronological order. Magnificent. It “spoiled” some stuff for me that I kinda already knew what happened (the “Rung” revelation was new) in these last year’s worth of comics, but helped with the bigger picture. Definite must read for sure.


Next up, the Lost Light series, and the final Optimus issues. And Unicron. And then it’s over. Sad face.

[anarky]

The last issue of Lost Light is simultaneously heartbreaking and optimistic. You'll see. It's fucking beautiful.

[Tom Foolery]

That’s why I left Lost Light until the end. I didn’t want to read it first and then follow it up with all those less impressionable minis.

[Tom Foolery]

I just finished Lost Light this morning. It was issues 5 thru 25. I won’t bother recapping each individual issue or story arc because this series was too tightly plotted and every issue and arc was part of every other arc.

I am emotionally drained right now. Between Getaway getting what was coming to him, Rodimus’ final speech to the Matrix Holders, thru that final issue and that perfect send-off to the Crew, to James Roberts afterward and Thank Yous after the story had concluded. I didn’t think this many emotions could be experienced simultaneously.

“Over to you.”

Next up, the final three issues of Optimus and the six issue Unicron finale. Which is going to be equally emotionally draining for different reasons. Might be a couple weeks, since this weekend is Endgame and next weekend is FCBD.

[jjreason]

FCBD Avegers & Spider-Man, along with Batman 68 & 69. As far as I know, these are my last new comics.... for now. I've been here before.

[Tom Foolery]

Finished Transformers:Unicron this morning. Wow.

Unicron 0. The FCBD comic from last year. Unicron is Unleashed after the events of the First Strike event and begins consuming the 13 Cybertronian colonies. LV-117, Gorlam, and Prion are eaten. Cliffjumper and a team are sent to Velocitron and are killed along with everyone there before Cybertron knows what’s happening. Optimus and other head to Elonia, home of ROM and the Solstar Order to stop...whatever it is. But it’s too much and they only save 2/3rds of the population thanks to a Spacebridge that Wheeljack operates(ensuring his own demise) before Elonia, too, is consumed.

Unicron 1. Other colonies are eaten; Eukaris, Arduria, Tseheishi, and Divisiun are wiped out, leaving Caminus, Carcer, Cybertron, and Earth as the remaining worlds. The entire Transformers fleet makes its next stand in the skies over Caminus as the spacebridge evacuation on the surface commences. Optimus, Arcee, and Bumblebee sneak into the heart of Unicron looking for a weakness but find no answers and only more questions. The Mistress of Flame sacrifices herself to ensure the evacuation and Caminus is consumed. After retreating back to Cybertron, Starscream shows up and says he’s got a plan...

Unicron 2. As Unicron approaches Cybertron, Starscream reveals his secret Decepticon Armada he’d been hiding for just an occasion led by Bludgeon. They catch Unicron in a stasis field and attack. Bumblebee mindmelds with Omega Supreme to learn the secret of Unicron before Omega succumbs to his injuries and dies. Unicron warps away and Bludgeon switches sides, revealing he’s been working for Shockwave secretly the entire time.

Unicron 3. Unicron arrives at Cybertron! Bumblebee and Arcee divulge the secret of Unicron, he/it was once the colony Antilla, forcefully “annexed” by Cybertron during its expansion millennia ago. Unicron is the 13th Colony! The result of a failsafe doomsday scenario enacted by an Antillan scientist who was salty about being invaded by giant robots. The remaining leaders debate on whether to fight or flee, and Starscream backs Windblade who has a crazy idea...Unicron begins to feed...

Unicron 4. Windblade and the Visionaries use the Talisman to begin warping everyone off of Cybertron as Carcer stages a last ditch effort to slow Unicron down by crashing into him/it, sacrifice Elita-1 and everyone on board. Cybertron is destroyed. The final stand will take place on the final remaining Colony; Earth.

Unicron 5. As Bludgeon and his traitorous armada bear down on Earth, the escaped Shockwave arrives with his Maximals, mad that his plan to destroy Unicron and Cybertron with the Talisman didn’t work. Battles pop all over as the combined heroes of Earth, G.I.Joe, M.A.S.K., ROM, and the TFs fight Bludgeon’s forces, while the three original Seekers sneak away carrying precious cargo, the Talksman, Optimus, and Arcee and head towards the approaching Unicron.

Unicron 6. As Unicron begins to decimate Earth, starting with Trypticon, the seekers land on Unicron’s surface. Starscream sacrifices himself to activate the Talisman so that Optimus and Arcee can make it back to the black hole at the center of Unicron. Bludgeon double crosses Shockwave amd reveals he’s actually working for Unicron. Soundwave, sacrificing himself in the process, begins the final phase of the plan by utilizing the Enigma of Combination to unite the souls of everyone living and dead and transmitting them to Optimus who has entered the black hole. Bolstered by this, Optimus confronts the scientist who started the whole mess and together they sacrifice each other to bring the menace of Unicron to an end. The battle is over. The survivors of all 13 colonies now able to coexist on the last world, Til All Are One: Earth.

The final issue of Optimus was an Epilogue, showing him interacting with various main characters at different times throughout history, while catching up with everyone post-Unicron.

I honestly don’t know how IDW and Hasbro are ever going to come close to topping this epic 12 year run of stories. Everything from the first seeds planted in Furman’s first Infiltration series, through the tight continuity of history from the first Primes, thru Megatron’s very reasonable motivations for starting the war, all building to Shockwave’s grandiose machinations, has been nothing short of brilliant. And they managed to work EVERYTHING into it, Micromasters, Beast Wars, Headmasters, etc. Shifting political agendas, actual character growth(I’m looking at you Soundwave. And you too, Megatron) this has been storytelling at its finest. The only stumble was them shoehorning the rest of Hasbro in there, but even that worked out in the end. I’m glad they decided to have a definitive ending, rather than just let it slowly play on like most unending comic universes where it would’ve been diluted by time and mediocrity.

I wish I could say i’ll find time to go back and reread it from the beginning, but I know me and that seems unlikely. But goddamn, what a ride.

[anarky]

Also that final shot of Soundwave seeing so many dead characters as he crosses over is fucking gorgeous.

[Tom Foolery]

I choked up at Bumblebee walking on the beach with Starscream.

[Tom Foolery]

Before starting in on the “U’s and V’s” I caught up on the two ongoing Star Wars books.

Star Wars 63-66. The Rebels go back to Sho-Torun to destroy the crucial Imperial supply hub amd get revenge against Queen Trios for betraying them. Complications arise. Only one more issue left in Gillen’s run on the series.

Dr. Aphra 30-32. Aphra comes to terms with 000 after they are proximity linked with bombs by Evazan. Issue 32 starts a new story arc where Aphra has taken in a sidekick and is looking for fabled Jedi artifacts.

Now Onto the U’s

Über:Invasion 7-17. The bulk of the second series shows the end of the invasion in America, the end of the conflict between Germany and Russia on the Russian front, and Battleship Maria executing Stalin and taking Russia out of the war, and the U.S. decimating Japan and killing their only Battleship Yamato. Gillen and Gete took a break from the series. There’s only four issues last, but I don’t know when they will come out. Ironically, I still haven’t read the first series although I’ve managed to find all but two issues of it. So I’m reading the end of the series before the beginning.

Ultimates2 8-10. The finale of the second series was an epic cosmic battle between the First Firmament and his Dark Celestials vs Galactus and his ragtag team of cosmic entities. Ewing is not afraid to go big with his storytelling and this book was fucking magnificent. Old School Marvel levels of cosmic introducing the six previous incarnations of the Multiverse, and throwing the Maker, High Revolutionary, and the original Ultimates in for good measure. I hope some of this gets followed up on in subsequent cosmic books, because it’s fantastic.

Vampirella 10. Didn’t read it. Only bought it because of the photo cosplay cover. Joanie Brosas. Look her up. Former Playboy bunny who does cosplay full time now. You’re welcome.

Venom:SpaceKnight 3-10. After leaving the GotG, Flash Thompson and Venom become “Agents of the Cosmos” a sorta cosmic do-gooder organization made up of cleansed symbiotes and their hosts. The minor problem with bouncing Venom around like this is that Flash doesn’t have a solid character foundation. So he’s just this generic smart ass hero guy with lots of pop culture quips instead of solid motivations for whatever’s he’s doing. Which makes him forgettable. Now, I’ve said and still maintain that putting Flash and Venom together was the most interesting thing you could do with both characters, and I didn’t read the majority of Venom’s previous series because Remender wrote it so maybe they did some solid character development in that book, but here it’s kinda generic alien space hopping adventures with his team of supporting cast including a giant space panda Assassin(and her cub), a suicidal Robot, an alien Medusa-haired warrior chick, and a Skrull with another Symbiote. I’m missing issues 11 and 12. And I read issue 13 a long time ago but had no context so didn’t know what was going on.

Next up is the next relaunched Venom series, as well as some Venom miniseries, Venomverse, Venomized, Venom, Inc etc.
then I think it’s on to the W’s Weapon X, What Ifs, Wolverines, etc

[Tom Foolery]

Spent $93 on comics today. Several $5, $6, and even a $10 comics in the pile did not help things.

[Tom Foolery]

Back with more Venom. Up next is Mike Costa and Sandoval’s 2017 ongoing.

Venom 1-6. The symbiote is back on Earth, but not attached to Flash. What happened is a mystery. It hooks up with low level crime thug and former Army Ranger Lee Price, who decides to use the symbiote to climb the crime ranks of Black Cat’s new criminal empire. This draws the attention of the FBI-anti symbiote task force including Eddie Brock. In an unsurprising plot twist, Eddie steals the symbiote and is reunited with it since...holy geez the Marvel Knights Spider-Man series from 2004? When Mark Miller gave the symbiote to Scorpion? Wow. Anyway, Brock is Venom again.
150. This leads to a big anniversary issue and reverting to Legacy numbering by adding up ALL the Venom minis from the 90s as if they were one long ongoing. Spider-Man guest stars.
151-153. The symbiote is rejecting its bond with Eddie since he was Anti-Venom for so long, so they go to Alchemax and ask Liz Allan for help in exchange for hunting down Stegron the dinosaur man and his colony of dinosaur people living in the sewers under New York using illicit Alchemax tech. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur guest star.
154 was a one off told from the perspective of the symbiote.
155-158. Lethal Protector. Venom becomes the unofficial protector of the Dino people colony after Stegron is defeated and must protect them from Kraven the Hunter. Mark Bagley came back to do this arc.
Venom, Inc was the crossover between Venom and Amazing Spidey, so I had to go dig those two ASM issues out of a different box. Lee Price gets out of jail, and goes to Philly to steal Mania’s symbiote(Mania was Flash Venom’s teenage sidekick symbiote from the end of the Remender series a few years ago) and enacts a plan to take over Black Cat’s empire by infecting them all with his new symbiote. Meanwhile Flash shows up and gets into a power struggle with Eddie over the Venom, but he’s doused with an experimental Alchemax chemical and becomes the new Anti-Venom instead. So Flash, Eddie, Spider-Man have to team up to free Black Cat and then they all team up to stop Price and his army of mafia symbiotes before they wipe out the five families of international crime. Pretty fun series.
161 was a one-off where Venom fights/teams up with Jessica Drew Spider-Woman.
162-163 was a crossover with X-Men Blue and the time displaced O5 teen X-Men as they head into space to rescue Cyclop’s dad from space pirates who use symbiotes. Didn’t bother reading the X-Men issues of the crossover.
164-165. The final two issues of the series, Venom is about to spawn again and needs to protect the “baby” from the anti-symbiote task force who want to attach it to Scorpion and experiment on it. With the help of Alchemax, they lie about the offspring being stillborn. This leads into the current Venom ongoing by Cates and Stegman.

Up next Venomverse and Venomized. Two minis/events about interdimensional Venoms from other universes.

[jjreason]

Doomsday Clock 10 & the hardcover Batman 80th anniversary book.

EDITED: and the Frank Miller Xerxes widevision hardcover. I'm 100 percent sure I'm the only human left supporting him at this point. Hopefully not a complete waste of $40.

[Tom Foolery]

Edge of Venomverse 1-5. A series of ‘oneshots’ focusing on different characters from different dimensions who have bonded with they’re universes Venom symbiote; X-23, Gwenpool, Ghost Rider, Old Man Logan, and Deadpool. At the end of each issue, each one is recruited by Captain America Venom just in time for...
Venomverse 1-5. Venom infused heroes from across the multiverse are recruited by Dr Strange Venom and Capt America Venom to fight a new threat from creatures dubbed “Poisons” which bond with symbiote fused people to create a “superior” version of the character, but kill the original person in the process. The 616 Venom is teleported to the alternate dimension to help fight the poisons before they realize they’re just using Strange to bring them fresh “recruits” so Strange sacrifices himself to send the surviving Venoms back home, leaving the Poisons without anyone to possess. Missing issue 3, but got the gist of the series.

Venomized 1-5. The Poisons find their way to the main 616 MU and Venom and the time displaced 05 teen X-Men have to warn/recruit the heroes of Earth before they get infected with Venom symbiotes the Poisons brought with them in order to possess them. Don’t have issue 5 so don’t know how it ends.

Weapon X. Ongoing from 2017. Someone(later revealed to be Reverend William Stryker) has restarted the Weapon X program and is hunting former agents as well as any mutants they can use their DNA to make killers to eradicate all mutants. The first four issues show Old Man Logan, Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike, Warpath, and Domino forming a team to stop Weapon X.
5-7 and the W.M.D. are part of a crossover event with Totally Awesome Hulk that ends up introducing Weapon H; a hybrid of Hulk and Wolverine. As silly and fanboyish as this sounds, these books are now HTF amd expesive on the secondary market. I’m missing two of the Hulk issues and issue 7 because they are $60 on eBay.
8-11 Weapon H breaks out of Weapon X, destroying it in the process and the team tracks him down. The mysterious former Navy Seal who was turned into Weapon H is searching for clues to his past. Eventually he gets his own ongoing monthly that lasted 12 issues.
12-14 The team liberates a Central American country from a dictator that is using Nuke pill fueled mercs to do his dirty work. The original Nuke Frank Simpson ends up being both antagonist and ally in bringing down the regime.
15-16. Two parter where Sabretooth continues his tradition of “celebrating” Logan’s birthday by trying to kill him.
17-21. Logan puts Sabretooth in charge and the team heads to Russia to fight Omega Red. Creed recruits Omega in exchange for them removing nanobots so he can kill his brother, the head of S.I.C.K.L.E(the Russian version of SHIELD). The Winter Guard also shows up.
22-27. The final arc of the series has Stryker return. He receives demonic eldritch powers, forcing Sabretooth and the others to have Azazel send them to Hell to kill Stryker. While there, Sabretooth is confronted by his monumental list of past misdeeds, including his and Mystique’s dead son Graydon. Victor sacrifices his ‘inverted’ humanity(he’s basically been a hero since 2014’s AXIS event) in order to resurrect his son from Hell and the series ends with him a feral killer once more.

Next up, the rest of X-23’s run as the All New All Different Wolverine. Then lots of X-Men books.

[anarky]

In addition to preordered copies of Star Trek vs Transformers and SW Adventures: Destroyer Down, I scored big at a used bookshop, getting collections of SW Adventures Vol. 4, Kanan Vol. 2, Lando, and Vader Down.

I also bought my first floppies in ages, Storms of Crait and DJ: Most Wanted, since Marvel is crazy inconsistent about including the one-shots in other paperback collections, and those appear to be unavailable otherwise.