Reading Week 3 of 2019

During the 3rd week of the year I decided I was not only gonna track all my reading in one process, I also wanted a quick and easy rating for my weekly reading. I still want to use my letter grade for First Looks and other reviews but for my weekly reading I’m gonna simplify things down to Must Read, Read, and Skip.

From Kindle/iBooks/Audible:

• Shadow of a Dark Queen by Raymond E. Feist. Published by Harper Collins, 1994. I finished this off this week but pretty much covered it last week. I enjoyed it so I’ll give it a Read rating.
• The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes. Published by Drew Hayes, 2014. This has to be one of the longest titles of a book that I’ve read that is not some sort of non-fiction science or history text.  It’s also a very fun read.  I actually listened to this entire book in a single day and jumped online to purchase the next installment in the series.  
  Fred is just a normal accountant who happens to be a vampire who goes through a series of adventures starting with attending his high school reunion to fighting for the life of his girlfriend in Las Vegas, to defeating strange cults in the neighborhood.  And his uninteresting unlife sees him encountering dragons, werewolves, and all kinds of supernatural baddies along the way.  This non-stop string of tales hooked my quick and kept me engaged all the way.  I highly recommend this one and give it a Must Read.

From Marvel Unlimited 1963 and My Marvelous Year:

• Fantastic Four #2 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Published by Marvel Comics, 1962. This issue has a long history since it is the first appearance of the Skrull who show up throughout the Marvel timeline. It’s also the origin of the “missing skrull” theory since the final scene shows 3 happy Skrull cows and somewhere a missing Skrull is out there…I rate this a Must Read.
• Incredible Hulk #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Published by Marvel Comics, 1962. The origin of the Hulk is not the greatest comic but it tells a story that has lasted decades, I rate this a Must Read for anyone interested in learning about Hulk, the Silver Age, or either Stan or Jack.
•  Fantastic Four #4 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Published by Marvel Comics, 1962. The Fantastic Four take on Namor, the Sub-Mariner and while we learn his origin and he puts up a good fight I see this more as a Read rather than mandatory.
• Fantastic Four #10 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Published by Marvel Comics, 1963. Doctor Doom nearly takes down the team and proves he’s one of the best early villains in the Marvel Universe. I rate this a Read but it’s pretty close to a must.
• Amazing Spider-Man #1 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Published by Marvel Comics, 1963. This isn’t the origin nor does Spider-Man face his deadliest foe but this first issue of Amazing Spider-Man is definitely a Must Read.

From DC Universe:

• Suicide Squad Most Wanted: Deadshot and Katana #1 by Brian Buccellato and Victor Bogdanovic, Mike W. Barr and Diogenes Neves. Published by DC Comics, 2016. This split issue was not my cup of tea. Probably since I don’t know much about the Suicide Squad or any of the anti-heroes on the team, but I was not impressed with this issue. Perhaps I’d enjoy this better with the next issue of this limited series but for now I rate this as a Skip. We’ll see if I like the next issue before I decide if I read the whole series.

From Comixology:

• The Batman Who Laughs #1 by Scott Snyder and Jock. Publisthd by DC Comics, 2019. I was a bit skeptical about this one since I hadn’t read any of the Metal DC issues but this was really good. Batman and multiple Jokers – what’s not to like. I give this Must Read status.
• Battlestar Galactica Classic #1 by John Jackson Miller and Daniel HDR. Published by Dynamite Entertainment, 2018. This was a fun trip back to the original Battlestar Galactica and it was fun seeing Loren Green as Adama and a truly evil Baltar. I rate this a Read

From Marvel Unlimited New Releases:

• Spidey: School’s Out #2 by John Barber and Todd Nauck. Published by Marvel Comics, 2018. In last issue, Spidey faced off against the Shocker at the Stark Camp and this time around he takes on a science project. I rate this a Read.
• Champions #4 by Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos.  Published by Marvel Comics, 2017. The team is still trying to figure out who’s gonna be the leader when they’re attacked by Atlaneans. This who series is fun so I’ll give this a definite Read.
• Infinity Countdown Prime #1 by Gerry Dugan and Mike Deodato Jr. Published by Marvel Comics, 2018. I enjoyed seeing Wolverine kicking butt on Loki and as I saw the beginning of the Skrull in FF#2 I got to read about one in 2018 so that was pretty cool. I’m interested in seeing where this limited event goes so I rate it a Read

Overall Thoughts

This week I got through 13 books and ended up with 5 Must Reads and only a single Skip. Not too bad for the week but I don’t expect that this distribution will last. My favorite of the week is probably the Vampire book and my biggest surprise was Batman. Both of these books were really good and had me wanting more.

General | Reading Week 3 of 2019