Daily Ramble 37: Holding and Hulking

I did a bit of reading today and both involved raising people from the dead. A wonderful read from Lish McBride called Hold Me Closer, Necromancer is the real deal as the main character, Sam, tries to figure out what is involved with being a Necromancer. The other reading I did deals with a Hulk who’s apparently been dead and returned to life. They’re both good reads so far and I’m sure I’ll recommend them once I finish the stories.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

by Lish McBride

Sam is a normal college dropout who works at a fast food restaurant who’s thrown into a world of witches, were-hounds, fey, and necromancers when he inadvertently smacks a potato into a guy’s car. It turns out the car was owned by a local supernatural big wig and once he gets close to Sam he realizes the burger flipper is an undocumented necromancer. Up to this point in his life, Sam had no idea of his hidden talents but apparently his mother and uncle did. In the first part of the book I read through Sam is confronted by Douglas, the big wig mentioned earlier, who wants to ‘join forces’ with the novice and train him in his new powers or…he’ll just kill him and take his power. Sam has a week to decide. What follows is an adventure unlike anything Sam has encountered before and one where he learns his mother is a witch, his coworker is reduced to a reanimated head, and he needs to find his uncle who helped hide his powers not only from others but from Sam himself.

It’s a fun book and I’m enjoying it quite a bit. The tone is pretty light even though they’re dealing with necromancers and death and I get a feeling similar to the one I had when I read John Dies at the End, though that story is a bit more mature oriented. So far the characters are well defined and I’m enjoying the world that Lish McBride in Seattle. I can’t wait to see where things go.

Hold Me Closer, Hulk

Along with getting started reading McBride’s book, I got back to reading Marvel Unlimited. I had been having some issues downloading comics and connecting to my account but I finally got things working again today. Needless to say, I’ve fallen way behind in my weekly reading while I couldn’t download things.

Anyway, I started by continuing the Avengers weekly story in Avengers #686, No Surrender part 12, written by Jim Zub, Mark Waid, and Al Ewing. I didn’t real most of the first 10 parts but the past couple have been interesting. The idea is that the Earth has been taken by some powerful entities to be a gameboard for their ultimate contest. While I’m sure the first 10 issues had plenty of battles, most of the fights I’ve read have involved the Hulk. He’s back (since I guess he was dead for a while) and kinda outta control. One of the contestants, The Challenger resurrected Bruce Banner and set him loose with a goal of capturing the final game piece from Avengers Auxiliary Headquarters. The green beast has already pounded the Red Hulk into submission and now he faces off against Wonder Man before Hercules, Thor, and Rogue show up to help out. It’s a pretty crazy fight and the outcome is surprising.

I’m gonna have to go back and start from the beginning some time.

Daily Ramble 37: Holding and Hulking