Things I Like and Dislike for the Week of December 18th, 2019

It’s that time again, where I tell you what’s really grinding my gears for the week of December 18th, 2019.

Some weeks it’s mostly likes, other weeks it’s dislikes.

So what’s grinding my gears this week?

Iron Man 2020

Alright, I got an advanced preview of Iron Man 2020 #1. I’m not a big fan of Dan Slott but I’m always willing to give writers a chance on new stuff, because I think that’s fair, right?

Now I know why I don’t read Slott’s work. Honestly, this was just a horrible read. I got bored about 4 pages into it and just couldn’t continue reading it. I just skimmed through the rest, reading what looked like what was highlights. I’m not an advocate of getting people fired but Marvel, if you’re reading this, you should think hard about keeping Slott on writing duties. I’m sure he could be you know, moved into the basement. He can keep his stapler too..  but please, please remove Slott on a character before he ruins yet another one.

The other thing that really bothered me was the armor suit Arno sports. I know it’s a regurgitated design but seriously, how would one actually utilize their arms with such huge gear looking joints on this armor?

Pete Woods art is great but man, they gotta do something about those gears….

For a book that has 12 variants coming out of Marvel alone, I’m sure there are shop variants as well, this is not a book I’d be promoting with it’s own launch party. I like Inhyuk Lee’s art but even his variant, the gears are huge..  WHY?!! Why so big? A few of the other variants don’t seem so bad and seem more realistic on something that would actually work and not get in the way.

For you all actually interested in this atrocity of a story, it’s on final order cutoff tomorrow (Monday the 16th).

Marvel Playing Speculators?

Is Marvel playing us speculators? With the recent Miles Morales Spider-Man #13 issue where we saw a debut of his new baby sister, we saw speculators start gobbling these books up.

Yeah, these went up on the secondary market on release day but was it truly collectors seeking these out or were speculators buying from other speculators and flippers, hyping this book for the future “potential” it carried?

Then you get Marvel in on the action to tease that it’s a character that could be used in the future…  it’s going to work too, even after the fact. There will be additional printings, you can count on that!

We need a list of heroes where they debuted as babies in comics to later become heroes to see how such firsts fair on the open market. Sure they become semi-key books but do we really see these command premiums over the issues they debuted as an actual action hero with their alter ego hero names?

Buy low, sell high..  don’t fall into the fear of missing out.

And since my local shop had a stack of these that no one was grabbing (I even showed up later that evening when plenty had a chance to grab them throughout the day), I’m giving away a copy I picked up to a lucky person who comments in this article. So it pays to read and pay attention. Same rules applies as usual, I’ll pick a random comment up until Wednesday.

Tynion on Batman

One would think with the Holidays I’d have more likes and not as many dislikes but sadly, it’s just a bunch of dislikes so far.

That extends to Tynion taking over Batman writing duties from Tom King. King just didn’t end up fitting well as a Batman writer in my opinion but after reading the first two issues that Tynion has put out, I must say, I’d take King back as writer.

There is literally a line that mentions “Bat-Nailpolish Remover”….   The only thing that would have made that line even worse is if Tynion threw in a “Holy” in front of it..

You’ll have to pick up Batman #87 to find out how Tynion squeezed in such a cheesy line..

Dustin Nguyen Artwork

Okay, so to keep this from being entirely all dislikes, I’ll point out a like for this week.

That goes to Dustin Nguyen’s FOC variant for Folklords #3. This is just an awesome looking cover on FOC tomorrow.


Not sure about the rest of you all but I’ve been having to pre-order these FOC variants that I’ve wanted as my local shops haven’t been ordering them.

That’s all this week. What’s grinding your gears this week? Tell us here or in the forums where anything goes 24/7.

74 thoughts on “Things I Like and Dislike for the Week of December 18th, 2019”

  1. Absolutely agree on your Slott take! Zero interest in 2020 from me.
    I honestly think people are wising up a bit to the “spec” stuff. I hear more & more “easy pass” on much of the books like MM.
    Regards.

    2. Thought Slott had a good run at first on Amazing, should have lasted 30-40 issues but it just kept going and going and getting worse and worse. Peter/Spidey was completely unrecognizable. I finally dropped the book after the 2nd or 3rd reboot to #1 after he pulled out the Spider-Submarine(?!). Why I waited so long is beyond me.

  2. That folklords 3 is sick.
    No mention on how freakin huge of a week DC has this week RIGHT before the holidays?

  3. Tynion seems like a good guy but I’m not excited for his run, either. Hope to be proven wrong but if it isn’t for me, I’ll save my Bat-funds for a while.

    1. Dropping Batman starting with issue 86 myself.

      Maybe I’ll pick up his run when they show up as 75% off at midtown….

      1. I’m not even gonna bother when they’re 75% off.. I’ve already read issue #86 and #87, both of those issues gave me enough reason to not even bother going forward.

  6. one of your better gear grinding articles in a while. Must have been those iron man 2020 gears. Missed out on MM but didn’t care. I’ll take a free one though. There can’t been a key issue every week, some of these keys look forced

  7. IM 2020’s gears are grinding YOUR gears! Man, those things alone is enough of a reason not to buy it.

    And btw, I believe there’s speculation that Mikes baby sister may be Spider Zero from The current Spiderverse series….but it’s just unfounded rumors to my knowledge…

      1. Spider zero is from the future, or an alternate future…so I thought.

        Regardless…it’s the Marvel U….they can do anything!

  9. Well written article, don’t totally agree with you on Slott, I personally enjoyed his run on Amazing Spider-Man. Maybe just off to a slow start. Give him a chance.

    1. Yup, if you like Slott, all power to you. Some like chocolate, some like vanilla and some even prefer strawberry.

      Some of his run on ASM was okay, it was after Superior Spider-Man it really started to get bad for me… His Silver Surfer run almost ruined Silver Surfer though for me.

  11. XMen 201 became a nice key back in the 90s when it was revealed Cable was Nathan summers. That being said; I can’t think of any other brith issue … maybe XMen 205 with hope summers?

    1. Just wait….someday Iron Gear Man will be in a movie and this book will skyrocket in value….!!

      ….for about a week…don’t blink or you might miss it…

  13. Vision & Scarlet Witch #12 seems to be doing pretty well lately based on birth of Wiccan and Speed. Picked one up in decent condition for a buck couple months ago wondering why it hadn’t already started to spike.

  15. I, like you, dislike the giant gears. Looks ridiculous.

    Always thought Arno could be a cool character as a foil to Tony. Possible villain.

    Hut that armor looks fugly.

  17. Wasn’t planning to drop Batman yet, but if its as awful as indicated, it wont take long. As for the week, looking forward to (finally!) reading the end of doomsday clock.

  19. Great article, even though its mostly dislikes. Think I’ll skip the Ironman 2020 and Batman series. Hope they return to Dark Metal Knights. Anyways if Spider Zero ends up being Miles Sister from a dimensional time warp then Spiderverse #1 would be the key with MM 13 being a minor key, like cable as a baby.

  20. Convergence Superman 2 has 1st baby Jonathan Kent, but he has powers and is now Superboy, of course. Miles new Baby Sister is just Miles Baby sister. I did buy it, but only for the nice Razzah variant cover! Personally, they can make Iron Man and others look as dopey as they want, but just cut it out with the VARIANTS!!!

    1. I think if you look at “popular” characters first appearances as babies, especially after they were already introduced, you can see this book had no real spec value…

      What’s the most expensive “first appearance as a baby” out there thats considered a “key” because of that and only that?

  21. The original Ironman 2099 Armor is great don’t know why you would change it and least they didn’t completely crap on the character by gender swapping and redesigning the whole character unrecognizable like Venom 2099.

  24. There are so many Marvels where there is 6 variant covers and the interior art sucks. Fantastic four, thor, and Hulk are prime examples.

    1. Which Thor you talking about? Not the current King Thor I hope.. Ribic’s artwork is awesome I think.

      Hulk’s covers are awesome but yeah, I’m not big on Bennett’s style for the interiors.

      1. did you see the art on FF? especially the rendering of Sue? it looks like a page from Michael Turner’s grade school sketchbook

    2. The art on Hulk is ass, I mean nothing against the guy, but I hated his art when he filled in on Amazing Spider-Man 20 years ago, and here he still is.

  26. I don’t read Ironman but Yea those gears are ridiculous. I don’t see the spec on Miles #13 either if anything it will be a side note to spider-verse #1 if it turns out she is spider-zero in another universe.

  28. Agreed on Slott. Glad to hear someone else express this. That sucks to hear about Tynion, but not a huge surprise. I don’t dig a lot of his stuff, but am currently enjoying Something is Killing the Children.

    1. Yeah, seems if he does have a good book it starts off good and then slowly starts to get worse. The Woods was good a few issues in, then it just got ridiculous. I just don’t see him as a top tier writer. Most of the prominent books in his list of being an author also have Snyder attached to them. It’s like, he’s a decent backup writer.. shouldn’t be doing it on his own.

  30. hel hell must be freezing over.i agree with you almost fully.the best work slot has done is amazing Spiderman in recnt memory.his fantastic four run was decent haven’t read past the thing marriage yet.not a fan of his ironman work.at this point what publisher is not playing to the spec market?and I will give batman a chance?i did like tom king at times including batman #84.and lets not forget batman birth of the deamon for 1st baby damian wayne witch has two printings maybe three printings.love ya guys blind adam out

  32. Nothing wrong with having more dislikes than likes in a week. Gotta call em like you see em!

  35. I commented but don’t need the #13. Grabbed a couple without any problem myself to store away in case something comes of this new younger sister as a big character…

  37. They did the same with the capt america cover, the gears just dont work, want a mech suit, put him in one, thoughtvthe cover for iron man and cap failed due to the gears. The hulk was gone better, but a near miss, almost didn’t work. Whatcha think?

  38. Publishers are in business to sell books and speculators are customers too. MM 13 isn’t necessarily bad because it is still one of a tiny minority of new books that jump in price. Market is a better indicator than people opinions. Understandable that people have doubts though. If demand is unsustainable, price corrections will occur.

  39. Slott is an egomaniac who wants the adulation, nothing more. He mines old continuity because he wants everyone to think he’s so fucking clever, then he ruins it with his juvenile humor and hoary plts because he thinks he knows better than anyone else. Hack!

      1. I can sense some but there’s a big difference I think or at least seen in how Donny Cates handles criticism of his work over Slott. Slott acts like a huge man child while honestly Cates is pretty easy going.

        1. I guess his 50 tweets about piracy were him being easy going? I sold all my books by him and stopped reading everything he’s writing after his childish twitter meltdown. lol

          1. Wasn’t that him defending creators when people read comics from sites that publish without consent the full issues? If so, I kind of side with Donny. I’ve talked to him numerous times in person, he’s a far cry from Slott from what I’ve read still from how Slott has responded to criticism of his work.

  42. A random comment!

    (I always read these. Very entertaining and sometimes profitable. Thanks for writing them)

  43. I’ve loved IM 2020 since I was a kid. The gears didnt bother me. The bad review does though. Slotts quality has greatly diminished in recent years.
    And he keeps blowing his deadlines and needs co-writers.
    I’ve already ordered the first couple Tynion Batmans. Oh well.
    I’ve stopped pre-ordering Boom books because of all the cool FOC covers that come out.

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