Happy St. Patrick’s Day (eve), everyone! I empathize for those who still have young kids and try to trap Leprechaun’s…and wake up to a messy house. Cleaning up the house is not something I look forward too after the little buggers run rampant (whether it be leprechauns or children) …especially with it landing on a Monday this year. Going to be a rough morning. But, what we can look forward to are the comics on FOC this Sunday, coming out in the next month or so!
COVERS
Fire & Ice When Hell Freezes Over #1 (of 6) (Dekal Variant)
Dekal doesn’t do many covers each month, but when he does he usually hits it out of the park. Here’s another for the Dekal fans (liking it for the St. Patty’s day green too!). Dirty D Cover-of-the-Week!
Ultimate Wolverine #4 (David Aja Variant)
Up there with Jeff Dekal is David Aja, in my opinion. He has that simple stile using solid colors and backgrounds (usually solid white). It’s almost like a negative space variant, but not quite. Not his best work here, but for a Wolverine cover I like it and picking up a copy for may Aja collection.
Geiger comes face to face with the unstoppable power of Ashley Arden, The Glowing Woman. Can he learn to control his abilities as she has, or will his growing power doom him and everyone he holds dear? Meanwhile, The Custodian returns-alive and more dangerous than ever. But what’s his connection to Junkyard Joe, and why is he back now? Secrets unravel, and the stakes have never been higher!
Lots of talk and praise for this series so far. The Glowing Woman has been on a few covers, but this might be the best one of her so far. And it goes along with the Geiger “half head/half skull” cover motif. So highlighting it here this month.
Eye Lie Popeye #4 (Video Game Homage Variant)
Issue #1 popped with it’s Mike Tyson Punch-Out video game homage. Could the Super Mario do the same?
REPRINTS
Image is pumping out more awesome Jason Howard 2nd Prints for G.I.Joe and Transformers titles. Still going with A & B Good and Bad Guys/Gals. So let’s highlight those first.
GI Joe #3 (2nd Printing – Stalker)
GI Joe #3 (2nd Printing Chameleon)
GI Joe #4 (2nd Printing – Clutch)
GI Joe #4 (2nd Printing- Cobra Viper)
Transformers #16 (2nd Printing – Blast Off)
Transformers #16 (2nd Printing – Trailbreaker)
Transformers #17 (2nd Printing – Thrust)
Of all these reprint variants, this one is likely the one that has spec value. This issue is the first appearance of Shredhead, and there his is on the cover! Checks a few boxes.
So hard to resist the shiny foil facsimile covers…This one is classic Neal Adams, and can be a bit pricey. So fax worthy for Adam’s fans.
FIRST APPEARANCES
THE JOKER AND MR. FREEZE MAKE THEIR ABSOLUTE UNIVERSE DEBUT–STARTING HERE! It’s about to get icy cold in Gotham City…as we reveal the connections between a young, up-and-coming scientist named Victor Fries, his history with the Ark M experiment, and what it all has to do with the mysterious Joker. A bombastic two-parter with a guest artist, the one and only super-star Marcos Mart n, starts here!
Looks as if the Joker makes a cameo at the end of issue #6. So don’t go heavy here. I expect a 2nd print variants with Joker on the cover to be announced soon. If you don’t already have this book on your pull list, it might be a good time because more villains will be making appearances in near term future issues.
Meet the three new symbiotes who could put the Spiders at the edge of their webs! Which of them has what it takes? Could it be the devious Venomouse? The disorderly Katie Power? Or a whole new Eddie Brock? Read and find out!
Some new variations of Venom Symbiotes, if you’re still into collecting such things.
INDY SPOTLIGHT
A 4-issue sci-fi epic in the vein of Heavy Metal , Dune , and Star Wars , yFu follows the story of Andre the Patcher (a planetary cyber-empath), and a young farmer named Eston’ya on the desolate world of Markap as they encounter the “yFu” goddesses – caretakers of the Yearning Tree, who may hold the key to restoring abundance to the universe, and wrench it from the clutches of the ancient, evil Cron.
Interesting comparisons. No variants or incentives that I’ve seen. Although I’m not sure if Devil’s Due is still with only Diamond.
BACK OF FOC
In 1982, a tranquil town becomes the backdrop for a series of eerie and unsettling events. During a routine evening patrol, Sheriff Depero encounters a chilling scene: a blood-soaked woman dashes toward him, screaming that her life is in danger. Horror stands at the gates of the city!
This was on FOC back in early February. Since then Keenspot appears to have moved from Diamond to Lunar, so this book is on FOC again.
PICK OF THE WEEK
And there came a day, unlike any other, when Doctor Doom ruled the world…and he needed an AVENGERS team all of his own! Kristoff Vernard, son of VICTOR VON DOOM, has been tasked with building the newest iteration of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! But who are these would-be heroes? And how did they come to be the SUPERIOR AVENGERS?
Part of One World Under Doom. New characters, starting out as a team, but I would not expected any immediate flip potential here. I’m sure the print run will be large, so this is a long term hold. Reminds me of Young Avengers, so for that reason this is the Dirty D Pick-of-the-Week.
Drek of the Week – But Could Still be Fun
Invincible Universe Battle Beast #1 (Blind Bag Variant)
This is a first-of-its-kind blind bag program. The blind bags will include a chance to get ANY of the solicited covers from A through I. However, there are rare SURPRISE issues that may or may not be related to BATTLE BEAST or the Invincible Universe that can be found in these blind bags. Those SURPRISE issues will not be publicly announced in advance of the issue release.
Blind Bags and chase covers are starting to become a thing in comic books. The Marvel Whatnot comic trading packs seemed to have kicked this thing off and was very successful. The trading card collectors market has been doing this for a long time with success, it was inevitable we’d find publishers jumping on the train. People love to gamble their money away, whether it be at casinos or on scratch tickets, or blind bags.
You may not know what Battle Beasts are, but make no mistake…there will be A LOT of these made and sold…people are talking about it and hyping it…and it’s likely a sign of things to come for comic books. So it’s highly unlikely you’ll get much of anything of any value in these blind bags. It’s essentially like a scratch off ticket. So for that reason this is the Dirty D Drek-of-the-Week.
But just because it’s drek, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have it’s entertainment value. I’ll be grabbing a few myself. So have some fun with it…pick up a few and open them if gambling is your thing…share on social media what you got. But do not break the bank on these.
Parting Thoughts
Happy St. Patty’s Day! Enjoy the week and your comics!