Well, wasn’t War of the Realms good? It was a roller coaster of a ride, but I enjoyed every page of it! As the bi-weekly issues came out, I was the first in the queue to get my copy. I do still have some reservations with the number of times in the last few years that great swathes of America and the world have been decimated by clashes between super powered behemoths, but all I can say is it’s great that Damage Control are working overtime as New York always looks normal in every issue of Daredevil I read!
Damage Control were first introduced in 1988, in the pages of Marvel Age (Marvel’s monthly news comic) as an explanation as to how various cities were miraculously returned to one piece just weeks or months after major set clashes between good and evil or heroes and Gods. In the next five years there followed three four-issue miniseries chronicling some of their major clean ups and, more recently, a three-issue miniseries tied into the planet shattering World War Hulk confrontation. It always did, and still does, bother me that so much destruction happens during nearly every confrontation or battle in comics, be it from Marvel, DC, Image or IDW, so I loved the fact that Marvel introduced the idea of this super efficient team going round cleaning up after all of our heroes have finished their battles.
Thor is, and has always been, my second favourite comic character/series, from his jaw-dropping cosmic adventures to the confrontations with Gods from pantheons unheard of (on checking, most actually existed in myth). Stan Lee’s verbose and eloquent scripts would often send me to check the dictionary and I have great affection for Walt Simonson creating the daft but wonderful Thor Frog and the iconic Beta Ray Bill.
The current mammoth Thor run by Jason Aaron has introduced fantastic, mind-stretching plot lines filled with stupendous characters such as Gorr The God Butcher and his Necrosword, plus, of course, the wonderful Jane Foster as Thor. Seven years ago – yes, seven! – Aaron introduced All-Father Thor presiding over Asgard as the Universe dies. Now he is ending his run with a four-issue miniseries titled King Thor. The Necrosword is back, but this time wielded by Loki! God (no pun intended), I love this sort of stuff!
Stunt of the Month
Robert Kirkman kept it very quiet that The Walking Dead was ending with issue #193 – the comic world at large only found out that this amazing series had reached a natural conclusion when the issue hit our hands on Tuesday 2nd July! Acts like this rarely fail to create a ‘buzz’ around a comic, but one of the downsides to this type of event is that, being unaware of such a landmark issue, comic stores around the world seldom have enough copies to cope with the demand caused. Reprint copies of The Walking Dead #193 will be in store at the end of July. If you want a copy, do let us know!
Reading Tip for the Month
The Walking Dead is ‘dead’. Long live Charlie Adlard! He is working on Vampire State Building (Ablaze Comics) written by Ange-Renaut. Horror fans, check it out. Speculators, it may be worth a punt on issue #1 and #2.
Mission for the month:
Summer is now here and spring flew past! Make sure you get out and enjoy the weather and the light. Read your book in the park, on a riverside bench, or in your back garden/yard.
