NEW COMIC BOOK WEDNESDAY - PART TWO

Good Afternoon Everyone and Welcome to Part Two of my New Comic Book Wednesday!

Yesterday in my post I covered what I believe to be some of the more interesting fare out there in the Comic Book world. The stuff from the independent publishers. They really are cranking out solid books every week and, honestly, the big publishers could stand to learn a thing or two.

That does however bring me to today where I will showcase and talk through my latest pickups from Marvel Comics. Now, everybody know who Marvel is, right? Yes? Good. They are one of what is considered the BIG 2, the other being DC. Marvel has their share of premiere characters and most of them you have come to see on the big screen (and smallscreen) over the last couple of decades. We are talking Iron Man, Spiderman, X-Men and the Hulk to just name a few.

So Here Goes Nothing!

So Fierce!

X-23 issues 1 & 2

by Marvel Publishing
As this post develops it may quickly become clear who my favorite Marvel character is and if not, well, I'll try to wait until the end to spoil it as they are not really, truly represented here although, their claw marks all over these books! I haven't been a big fan of what Marvel has done with some of its characters, killing them off or retiring them just so they can put someone different in the suit but give them the same name. That said I have always been a fan of Laura Kinney, aka X-23. She is the cloned daughter of, ahem,Wolverine! This is one of the few times one of these highly derivative creations actually doesn't start out just superseding the "parent" creation right off the bat. And I love her for it. She is her own and her story makes sense.

That said when Marvel decided to * Spoiler Alert * kill off Wolverine a couple of years ago they naturally moved Laura into his spot as The All New Wolverine. Donning the classic yellow and gold, I thought she did a fine job, great actually, and we got introduced to sigh her clone Gabby, aka Honey Badger. But this is a good thing! I love Gabby's teenage smarm and antics, oh, and she actually has a pet wolverine named Jonathan so that's cool! Sadly, after 35 awesome issues All New Wolverine was put to pasture. Thank goodness Marvel had the smarts not to throw away one of their better characters and have relaunched Laura again in her own book, seen above, X-23. Cant wait to get into this and see the continuing adventures of the All New.....ahem, X-23 and Honey Badger!

This is one tough dude.......

Old Man Logan issues 43 & 44

by Marvel Publishing
Here again, we have an example of taking a beloved character, namely Wolverine, and creating yet another iteration of them. This is fine really as this Wolverine AKA Logan is from an alternate reality future (really Marvel?). He came to be in Wolverine Vol. 3 issues 66-72 for anyone that's interested. It really is a great story and did so well that they of course had to find a way to bring him into the main universe. The books above are the 43rd and 44th issues of Vol. 2 of Old Man Logan. Vol. 1 having a much shorter run. For anyone wondering, yes, this is the basis for Hugh Jackman's film Logan, albeit loosely.

It's been a great read so far and has actually been getting better. It got kind of spotty for me around issue 13 and i may have, well, missed an issue or two............Man is this Logan tough, I mean, he's got essentially a whole other lifetimes pain and experience on the Wolverine that we are used to and that is saying a lot! However, time does get the best of everyone, with Logan's healing factor failing him, this has become quite the grit fest. It has me wondering if this to will soon be coming to a close? Sad.

AND LASTLY

Yes, these are in fact not the same series and yes, I will explain.

Weapon X issue 20 & Weapon H issue 5

by Marvel Publishing
What we have here is a book that begat another book. First, we'll start with the longer tenured Weapon X. This team was put together by Old Man Logan to hunt down and prevent some spec ops group from hunting down former members of the Weapon X program. Fitting. It features some of Logan's fiercest enemies from his past in Lady Deathstrike and Sabretooth, as well as, some of his good buddies in James Proudstar, AKA War Path, and Domino. Yep, the one from Deadpool 2! Now, that's a pretty awesome team. Logan leads this rabble through a handful of adventures of the special forces variety while they deal with personnel and personal issues amongst themselves. Some of it has been a treat. This also runs concurrently with Old Man Logan and all that beating he's been taking reflects here. He's banged up enough that a couple of issues ago he ceded group leadership to Sabretooth of all people! Awesome! It also features one of the infamous Sabretooth/Logan birthday battles just for the fun of it.

Somewhere along the way, this rough and rag tag group of weapons get entangled with yet another top secret organization hell bent on wreaking havoc using superpowered monsters. Enter Weapon H. This seems like it would be a fanboys dream. A character with the ability to turn into the Hulk, with adamantium claws and skeleton like Wolverine! I mean whats not to like, right? And yeah it was pretty cool and the issues did really well. His first appearance, not in Weapon X mind you, went for at least a second print. Did he need his own book? I don't think so. These companies tend to take any new character with even a modicum of success and try to launch them in their own vehicles. I feel it's a cash grab and as a fan and comic supporter I wish they wouldn't. This guy would have been just fine showing up every 6 or 7 issues and smash clawing things. Heck, he could have even crossed over some into Old Man Logan. SNIKT!

Well everybody, thanks for sticking around until the end of Part 2 of New Comic Book Wednesday! If you didn't catch the first post dealing with my indie pickups but would like to give it a go, here it is and for those of you that want to take a look at a bonus book I have posted featuring a killer Frank Miller Daredevil, here it is as well!

Thanks Again Everybody! And thanks @stevecronin for the idea!

Oh, you're still here. Any guesses as to my favorite character? Post 'em in the comments!