Just like 2022, I bought comics from 13 different publishers in 2023. This time, 8 of the 13 each constituted less than 5% (Aftershock, Whatnot, Dynamite, Image, Vault, Boom!, Dark Horse, Mad Cave.) Scout was the only publisher besides Marvel to break 10%, with 12.6%, a drop from the 15% it managed in '22. It still did a lot better than 2022's #3 & 4 companies. Image and Vault both dropped to 3 books apiece this year (Vault would have done a little better if Lone ever showed up.)
In 2022, publishers #2-4 at least came close to equaling Marvel (54 to 51.) In 2023, even with publishers #2-5 (Red 5 and Blood Moon tied for 4th place), they're still behind Marvel 59 to 36. And early returns this year have not suggested that trend is likely to change. But maybe some books will catch my eye later in the spring.
Impossible Team-Up: Impossible Jones/Captain Lightning #1: A one-shot about semi-reformed thief Impossible Jones getting roped into guarding a mysterious rock from one of Karl Kesel's other creations, Section Zero. Captain Lightning not trusting Jones, and Jones knowing this and that he probably shouldn't trust her, adds a little tension to story, but it's overall an OK little one-shot.
It's Jeff! and It's Jeff!: The Jeffverse: They're technically both numbered as first issues, but it's all collections of Kelly Thompson and the Guruhiru team's online strips featuring Jeff the Landshark. Most of them are alternately adorable or hilarious as Jeff hangs out with either superheroes, various pets, or just random people. The latter usually terrified at first, but then more friendly once they figure out Jeff probably isn't going to bite their leg off at the knee. The Halloween costume strip in particular was pretty funny, both for how Jeff looks and how Kate Bishop and Gwenpool react.
Liquid Kill #1, 2: It was supposed about a group of lady soldiers invading an island to rescue their mentor, but the first issue focused on one member's backstory, and the second issue was more focused on the concierge at the party taking place on the island. Felt like I was wasting my time and money. Moral of the story, when all the company's solicitations focus more on who drew a given variant cover than anything about what's inside the book, it's a bad sign.
High Point: Vicenzo Carratu's design on the prison was cool. MJ and Felicia having actually become friends over the years is a development I'm in favor of.
I can't decide how I feel about Mary Jane having a slot machine-themed "H" dial. Is it crazy fun or crazy stupid? Might have helped if MacKay and Carratu hadn't gotten weirder with the powers she was pulling, akin to China Mieville's Dial H series. If you're gonna do it, do it BIG, or do it WEIRD.
Low Point: That much of the conflict stems from Black Cat's worry MJ's going to be mad Felicia's dating Peter Parker, as if MJ owns the guy. Especially after Amazing Spider-Man had spent months portraying MJ as wanting nothing to do with Peter.
The reframing of S'ym as some big, lovable lug that will deal honestly and fairly with a person, and is therefore a decent person to form an opposition to Maddy Pryor in Limbo. S'ym is a lying sack of crap that manipulated someone who thought they were just dreaming. He is not, "Ben Grimm, but Purple."
High Point: I'm oddly amused that Ortensia simply named her horse, "Horse." It feels like it was done as a sullen teenage act of rebellion, but it somehow fits her no-nonsense approach as an adult, too. Everyone kicking the crap out of the Plague Doctor, who has clearly been playing his cards close to the vest for a long time, has a certain entertainment value.
I don't know if it's Mapa or series colorist Sean Peacock, but the art's very good at being ominous, or using a bit of suggestion for effect. Corson's demon form being a barely outlined glowing white shape of pointed edges, the massive green shadow where Ortensia's alleged future lurks.
Low Point: I feel as though issue 3 could either be something I really like, or that really frustrates me. So at the moment, I'm mostly annoyed I haven't gotten my hands on a copy yet.
High Point: I know he's supposed to be commander of a ship, but Commodore Danny Planet looks like a doorman. The visual of Moon Knight getting his ass kicked by a doorman in #19 is another of those things that amuses me.
Rosenberg normally keeps the colors sharply divided, but she blurred and smeared them as time was running out for Moon Knight in #30.
The "dream worlds" issue (#24), and the spotlight issue on Tigra (#22.) Nice to see her get some focus as a capable hero, even if having her date Marc Spector is a terrible idea (which MacKay also did nothing with, so he might as well not even have bothered.)
Low Point: I never need an appearance by Venom (#23), but I wasn't fond of issue 27, where Marc uses the creepy guy from the first issue's sweat to allow he and Hunter's Moon to enter Vibro's comatose mind for answers. That's a goofy enough concept to be cool, but Sabbatini could have done more with the look of the mindscape, and it wasn't much progress for the number of pages.
Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #1-4: So, they killed Kamala Khan in Amazing Spider-Man, of all places. Then brought her back as a mutant with no mutation (yet), and she agrees to help the X-Men by attending a college run by ORCHIS, while trying to deal with this new revelation on top of everything else. Iman Vellani and Sabir Pirzada writing, Carlos Gomez and Adam Gorham as artist, although I never did figure out the breakdown of responsibilities between the latter, especially given the shift in art style from the dream sequences to the waking world.
High Point: Vellani and Pirzada capture the character's voice in her attempts to deal with all the different ways she's being pulled. The pressure she puts on herself, the questions about how being a mutant changes who she is. I mean, we saw all that when the character was first created and learned she was an Inhuman, but work with the hand dealt, eh? Likewise, the friendship between Kamala and Bruno, handled well. Kamala even helping the Omega Sentinel when she was trapped and damaged under rubble. Probably a bad idea in the longterm, but true to the character.
I'm sure we'll see movie-similar mutant powers eventually, but I appreciate those weren't the out for the battle against the Stark Sentinel in the last issue.
Low Point: Would have liked to see more about Kamala dealing with having died, especially with the fact none of her parents or most of her friends know anything about it. Some of the facial expressions were stiff and unnatural, trying too hard to look real and hitting that uncanny valley.
High Point: The bizarre nature of the arena. The shifting walls and floors, the smug animatronic guides. Bayleigh Underwood really makes it seem like a place a person would doubt their sanity after a short time visiting. It's a less lethal (and annoying) Murderworld, run by a trio of lunatics.
While I doubt these characters could sustain as much damage as they do before actually dying, the apparent goal is bloody violence, and Underwood fulfills that goal. People get sliced up, fingers bitten off, burnt, arms crushed. But everyone's trying to get something, whether it's money, fame or answers, and so everything it on the table for them. Whatever it takes.
Low Point: Thompson leaves several things unexplained or unanswered. The ambiguity is part of the point, I suppose, that J may never know if she was sent to shut this down, or sent to be killed by higher-ups that didn't like her snooping. But the constant allusions to what Naz did (which he insists he didn't), without ever actually telling us, got tedious.
Tomorrow, a lot of mini-series and scattered issues as we wrap up the remainder of the titles.
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