It had been a minute since I'd pulled out Polica's 2012 debut Give You the Ghost. I don't really know all that much about this group/performer, and I'd forgotten how much I like this album. Above is the stand-out track, but really, the entire record plays like a cohesive whole. In the interim since I've checked in with Polica - yeah, it's been a minute - they've released quite a few records. I'm just starting to go through them now.
NCBD:
Another big pull list this week. Jesus Marvel, take my money:
As I suspected, we're closing in on the end of Nick Spencer's run on AMS, and looks like a lot of great stuff is happening. While I've been reading this, I've also been re-reading my old school, 80s Spidey comics, and I can kind of see how the current, post Brand New Day continuity is winding its way back to the one I grew up with. I don't love all of it - I especially don't like the retconning of Ned Leeds and AMS #289 which is HOLY in my opinion - but I can live with all of it just out of curiosity as to how this will land and, subsequently, how the new iteration of the title that kicks of at the end of the summer will play out.
I bought the first issue more out of resale ideology, but I'm curious enough that I might pick this up.
Another one that I'm not certain I'll actually be buying, but I'm curious enough to consider it, simply because I still love Flash Thompson in a Symbiote suite, and if I can't have him in Venom, I might just follow him here. Honestly though, at a glance, all these other Symobiotic characters feel superfluous at best.
Loving this book and this issue probably wins for the best cover this week.
The finale to what has been an eloquent and downright beautiful exploration of how human beings relate to their own mortality.
Yet another that I'm not entirely sure I'm interested in buying. I'm looking forward to the upcoming Netflix series - I'd be looking forward to it more if there was Hordak or a Slime Pit involved - but the prospect of a comic based on what has historically been a completely under-represented and almost ignored property from my childhood looks pretty good on 'paper' at the moment.
The first issue didn't blow me away, but I'm interested enough to try number two.
Still digging this weird SciFi/Horror/Action mash-up.
Anything Declan Shalvey has a hand in I will read. I'm stoked that the artist of one of my favorite series (Injection) is also a kick-ass writer!
Thus far, this alternate "What If?" book has my attention. I adore the OG spidey black costume, even before it became Venom, so this is cool to see.
YES! Summer camp slasher - 'nuff said!
I almost forgot about this series; I feel like its release has been a touch sporadic. No matter, three issues left after this one. Aquatic Horror never felt so good.
This series is gorgeous. Really digging it, and if I can get my hands on this variant cover, all the better.
Loved issue #1, let's see how #2 is.
Marvel is really monetizing Spider-man these days, but I've become a sucker for Nick Spencer's take on the book, even if it is jam-packed with more plot than you can shoot a web at.
Playlist:
Prédateurs - Les Discrets
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Zeal and Ardor - Wake of a Nation
Christopher Young and Lustmord - The Empty Man OST
I stumbled across the record by the band Vreid two days ago and quickly went from being impressed by their ability to conjure and own a lot of old school metal tropes to completely blowing my mind by moving through a network of decidedly non-metal elements to flesh their sound out into a pretty unique beast. Listen to the track above, then go on and hit play on this.
I kept thinking the Apple Music algorithm had moved me onto another band. The album does that, slowly incorporating other, decidedly non-metal ideas into its progression in a way that makes it a journey, which is very cool, and apparently exactly what I needed.
NCBD:
Okay, so I actually went and bought every back issue The Comic Bug had on the shelf for this newest Amazing Spider-man series, which means I have now read issues 49-64. I say this, because despite the storyline feeling a bit weighed down by plot threads - I mean, there are a f*&king LOT of them - I've kind of fallen for this book. There's a very Uncanny-Xmen-Chris-Claremont feeling at how writer Nick Spencer sets up future plots/reveals via one and two-page asides. This creates some serious Gottasees that build over the course of, in some cases, a lot of issues. Case in point, who was the extra corpse that Carli Cooper found among the bodies Kindred exhumed? They drop this with a two-page scene in issue 57, and we still don't know, going on 8 issues later! It's stuff like this, and a mounting idea that Spencer seems like he might be setting up to undo the "Brand New Day" stuff from back in 2008 that pushed all the old-school, Peter-and-Mary-Jane stuff aside in favor of streamlining Spidey for younger readers. Either way, I'm super intrigued at where this is all going.
One issue left after this. Love this series, and love its covers, especially this one.
The first two issues were so much fun, how can I not come back for more? I'm still not jumping on the Carnage train, however, the stories in the second issue of the titular symbiote's Black, White & Blood book felt like horror films, which is super cool to see a major "Fan Favorite" like this treated that way.
Another penultimate issue for a mini-series that I'm currently following. Short and sweet, and even if we don't hear from Pendermills, this and 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank have cemented Tyler Boss as someone whose work I will follow.
If you didn't know Larry Hama is writing an Iron Fist comic, don't feel bad, neither did I. I'm new to the character, however, I jumped at the chance to pick up a new, finite Hama project and so far, so good.
This book definitely skews a little more "classic Image" than I normally like. That said, I'm digging it and will follow it for the time being.
Playlist:
Deftones - Ohms
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Vreid - Wild North West
Boy Harsher - Careful
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Card:
Death is just the beginning, right? It's funny, yesterday my interpretation of the Queen of Disks was so on the nose that I'd used the words "Responsibility" and "Culpability" in discussion probably five times by 9:00 AM. I'm curious if my standard reading for Death as Change or Metamophasis will be as on the nose.
