I ended up at 119 new comics purchased in 2023, which down 20 from last year, but still 12 up from 2021. The total should have been higher, but there were a lot of things solicited that never showed (Black Jack Demon, Lone, an Impossible Jones one-shot), others that are running late (Space Outlaws, probably that Grit n Gears one-shot), and a couple things I either couldn't find or couldn't find at a price I would pay. Still, I'm about where I was in both 2016 and 2019. Maybe 10 books/month is my level.
Marvel went up slightly in total books (59, up from 54), but that translated to a big jump in percent (49.58, up from 38.85). DC held steady at 9 books, but still increased from 6.47% to 7.56%. It was the other publishers who took the hit, going from 76 comics down to 51. Even if all the things that didn't show had arrived, the total would still only be 60.
High Point: Issue 7, where Doom tries again and again to devise an outcome to the attack on New York that caused the team to split up that doesn't turn out worse than Richards. I do like how North writes Doom, even when he's playing him more straight than he did in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.
T-rex Dr. Doom in issues 12 and 13. I honestly was not enthused for the "Dino-Earth" issues, but I ended up enjoying them fairly well, even if it doesn't feel like it makes a bit of sense if I pull at any threads. I had higher hopes for issue 10 (the aforementioned horror issue), and I was satisfied. Leandro Fernandez' people look strange even when we aren't looking at them through alien eyes, but for the period where we are looking at them through alien eyes, it's very effective playing at how disturbing the FF could seem to someone else.
Unlike some people (Zeb Wells), North didn't drag the mystery of why everyone was mad at the FF out for 2 years, getting it out of the way in just 4 issues.
Low Point: While I appreciate North not dragging the mystery out, I don't need another story where Reed unilaterally makes decisions that impact everyone without consulting them, but you can't be mad because he's sad about it, really! Also, issue 5, where the Salem Seven reverse their molecules and Reed reverses it by stretching 4th-dimensionally and spinning the entire team like a centrifuge? Yeah, that didn't make a lot of sense to me.
High Point: I think I've said this most every year since I started reading Giant Days, but I love Sarin's art work. So expressive, so good at exaggeration for comedic effect, and to different levels. If all the story needs is for someone to look brilliantly, disgustingly cheerful, Sarin can do that easy. But if one of the judges need to be shifted into some shadowy, negative-space horror as she verbally dissects a contestant's cake, Sarin can do that, and it all works. None of it looks out of place or strained.
I don't watch cooking shows in general, let alone contests, but the different challenges and the contestants creations were pretty funny. The movie-themed cake, where the bus driver does an homage to Speed, while the nerd tries to sum up the first 3 phases of the MCU in one baked good, were pretty funny.
Low Point: It didn't feel like much of a mystery, in that I don't think Allison was really encouraging us to try and solve it alongside Shauna. So I was, much like the nerdy character, reduced to trying to play the odds on which trope Allison would use for the killers' motivation. Probably an issue of my expectations more than Allison's writing, but oh well.
High Point: While writer Angel Fuentes never explains exactly how Screw Driver or Razorfist perceive music from the future, I did get a laugh at what it was Razorfist saw that drove him to decide humanity needed to go. It was just so unexpected.
At least a few people standing up to the bigoted, self-serving hypocrite of a preacher at the end was encouraging. Along similar lines, Maple's inflection and childlike nature feels like blatant manipulation to make the reader want Screw Driver to look after her, but damn it, it works! Screw Driver's halting, deadpan delivery makes some of the lines funnier than they would be otherwise. Not all of them are meant to be funny, but humor's tricky.
I like the design for the Apis, the mechanized insectile horse Screw Driver rides, and Nahuel SB's able to use Screw Driver's body language and movements to compensate for an inexpressive face, give him a comical, almost pathetic air in the early issues, when he's just on the run.
Low Point: Especially in the smaller panels, the Nahuel's coloring overwhelms their lines ad muddies up the art. I think issue 3, where Screw Driver goes through La Tortuga's group like a scythe, is meant to show he's not just a comical figure, but it threw me a bit, because I expected the bandit crew to be a bigger deal and then they were just, done.
High Point: Alex Lins' art helps foreshadow the big change to Patsy at the end of issue 4 (which blessedly doesn't stick) in how they draw Patsy's costume. The gloves looking closer to the paws of a cat, with the claws growing out of them. The sash flicking and curling like a tail.
Um, Patsy's not married to Tony Stark? Look, this thing was straight garbage, it's slim pickings.
Low Point: I don't get what Cantwell was going for here. Patsy's mother's ghost is hanging around their old house. Patsy's always had something demonic in her that frightened her father away? She was actually kind of a scumbag in high school, but nobody would believe it?
The book ends on Patsy in a room at a mental hospital, muttering the same phrase over and over again. Except, still muttering the phrase, she throws on her costume and jumps out into the night. What the hell is that supposed to mean? A dangerously unstable person is running around in a costume? We've already got Deadpool for that. Patsy's internalized this as some truth, but now she's mopey and depressed? End result, Cantwell is firmly on my "avoid list" for writers.
Immortal Sergeant #1-3: The I Kill Giants team bring a story of a bitter, hateful, shithead cop who doesn't want to retire and wants to solve some unresolved murder, and is generally abusive to family. if his son, who Kelly writes as a pushover that gets berated by everyone, had actually punched the sergeant in the face when it was offered, I might have stuck around. But the cop was such a miserable shit, and was not getting enough pushback. I'm not paying money for the sensation of watching an asshole get away with it.
Kind of a rough ending there, but that's 2 days down. Tomorrow, more mini-series, mostly, plus the one other ongoing series I bought.
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