Reading Week 2 of 2019

During the 2nd week of the year I decided I was gonna track all my reading in one process. I figured that reading a comic is pretty close to reading a novel or a science textbook so I might as well cover everything together.

From Kindle/iBooks/Audible:

• Shadow of a Dark Queen by Raymond E. Feist. Published by Harper Collins, 1994. I didn’t finish this book yet but I figured out how to listen to it through iBooks and the built in text-to-speech of Siri on my iPhone. It works pretty well and I’m enjoying the story even if Siri mispronounces things here and there.
  This seems to be kicking off the next battle in the Rift War as we are seeing the lizard people marshal their forces and preparing to march. We’re introduced to new characters – Erik and Roo who are likeable enough but they’re not Pug and Thomas. I think this is a nice shift though since the characters in previous installments of this series have always been super powerful or high nobility while these guys are pretty much common soldiers.

From Marvel Unlimited New Releases:

• Spidey: School’s Out #1 by John Barber, Todd Nauck, and Rachelle Rosenberg. Published by Marvel Comics, 2018. Peter Parker has been invited to participate in Stark Camp but of course things can’t be that simple. As he makes new friends and begins work on his science project, he’s forced to thwart an attack by the Shocker.
• X-Men: Red #2 – The Hate Machine Part 2: Trinary by Tom Taylor, Muhmud Asrar, and Ive Svorcina. Published by Marvel Comics, 2018. Jean Grey is running the X-Men again and she wants to make the world know that mutants are on the same side as humans. the problem is, not all mutants like humans and the ones who don’t are causing a bunch of trouble (some of the humans aren’t helping either). After the events in the first issue, the team ends up in Wakanda under the protection of Black Panther but they can’t sit still as mutants are hunted down. So they head out to India to rescue a mutant named Trinary and end up in a battle against a sentinel.
• Immortal Hulk #2 by Al Ewing and Joe Bennet. Published by Marvel Comics, 2018. Reading some of the early days of the Hulk…as in when he first came out in 1963, it’s clear he was following in the steps of Marvel’s monsters which were all over the place back then. This title is a nice homage to that time and those comics and I think it’s appropriate since we’ve got an immortal Hulk joined with the very mortal Bruce Banner. The Hulk is fully in control of the duo right now and he exerts that control whenever the sun goes down. This is a fun title.

From Comixology:

• Die #2 by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans. Published by Image Comics, 2019. The world is getting fleshed out and I am enjoying this more and more as decisions are made and we learn about the nature of the characters, their abilities, and what they were like years ago when they first started this game.
• Criminal #1 by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Jacob Phillips. Published by Image Comics, 2019. This seems to be somewhat of a continuation of previous titles but it works well as a standalone as well.
• Bitter Root #2 by David Walker, Chuck Brown, ands Sanford Greene. Published by Image Comics, 2019. The Sangeryes have been fighting demons, monsters, and the Jinoo forever but the evil was not contagious before…it looks like things have changed and this could be really bad.
• Sabrina by Nick Drnaso. Published by Drawn and Quarterly, 2018. I finally finished this story off this week and I have to say it was an interesting read and I really enjoyed it. The art wasn’t intricate or anything but the concepts were moving and the storytelling was superb. It really highlighted how crummy people can be in today’s society and how that is amplified by the 24 hour news cycle and the internet.

From Marvel Unlimited 1963 and My Marvelous Year:

• Fantastic Four #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Published by Marvel Comics 1961. The granddaddy of all comics, this is the beginning of Marvel’s Silver Age featuring the origin of the Fantastic Four and the seeds of the great universe that is to come.
• Amazing Adult Fantasy #7 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Published by Marvel Comics 1961. This is a fun gathering of stories that fall in the Golden Age of Marvel that give a decent idea of what the comics were like before the FF showed up and things started changing.
• Tales of Suspense #46 – Iron Man faces the Crimson Dynamo by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Don Heck. Published by Marvel Comics 1963. The Crimson Dynamo targets Iron man with his electricity suit.
• The Amazing Spider-Man #5 – Marked for Destruction by Dr. Doom! by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Published by Marvel Comics 1963. Spider-Man is first recruited by and then attacked by Doctor Doom and this one is action packed!

Overall Thoughts

Looking at the 11 comics I finished this week (I did not finish the book yet), I think I got a pretty good and diverse selection. I ended up with 2 selections that I rate an A and taking the average for the week, I ended up with a B+…not too bad for the 2nd of the year.

General | Reading Week of 2019