Miles Morales

Welcome back, comic fans of the River City! Welcome to RVA Comic X-Change, Issue Lucky Number Thirteen! Only good things come in a baker’s dozen, and we’re just one of them.

This week we’ve got a good handful of goodies just for you coming out in the next two weeks. We’ve got some feminism for you, some romance, and because I can not think about anything other than Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame right now, naturally I have some good Marvel goodness to tide us over. Fasten your capes, grab your beverage of choice, and let’s dive on in.

Lumberjanes #59 by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, and AnneMarie Rogers

Lumberjanes is one of those series that I had heard about for awhile, but never got the chance to check out until now. Following the story of five girls spending the summer at a scout camp, strange creatures and the supernatural pop out at every turn. Naturally.

Kim Possible Adventures Trade Paperback by Michael Stewart, Abby Denson, John Green, and others

Yes, you read that correctly. John Green of Young Adult novel fame, author of Paper Towns and The Fault in Our Stars among others, dug his meaty grips in on this classic series. Following the adventures of the Disney Channel heroine, this one finds Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable bringing Rufus the naked mole rat with them as they jump into the comic world.

Avengers: No Road Home #2 by Al Ewing, Mark Waid, and Jim Zub

With Avengers: Endgame in just over two months, I’m digging my hands into everything. This week the Avengers go toe to toe with Greek mythology as they battle Nyx, Queen of the Night. However Hawkeye’s fate lies conveniently in her hands.

Black Widow #2 by Jen and Sylvia Soska and Flaviano

My favorite Avenger has yet another series in time for the penultimate MCU film of this current arc. Color me blessed. Natasha Romanoff walks into nothing but trouble in part two of this five-part series.

Love Romances #1 by Jon Adams, Dennis Hallum, and Gail Simone

Are you a love story junkie who knows Valentine’s Day is never enough for you? Samesies. Lucky for us, Marvel has us covered with a new anthology series asking, amongst other questions, can robots fall in love? Well, can they, Marvel? Can they?

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #3 by Saladin Ahmed, Javier Garron, and David Curiel

Did you also leave your theater’s showing of Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse with an intense desire to scoop up any comics featuring Miles Morales? Um, duh — of course you did. Lucky for you, so did I. Miles finds himself in some Scooby Doo-esque hijinks this week, but lo and behold, who is our convenient guest star this week? Captain America, you say? Ah, yeah.

Unstoppable Wasp #5 by Jeremy Whitley and Gurihiru

Ant-Man is the most underappreciated of the MCU film franchises, and I won’t rest until Luis has his own comic series. In the meantime, Nadia Van Dyne (daughter of Hank Pym, but not Janet Van Dyne… hmm) has a pretty solid series of her own to tide me over. Just when she thinks she has hit the rockiest of bottoms, it gets worse. She finds out she and her father have more in common than she realized. Awkward.

So many good things to tide us over until Brie Larson dones the red, blue, and gold for Captain Marvel in only seventeen days. And there’s only sixty-six days until we find out what happened to our beloved meddling kids in Avengers: Endgame. But who’s counting? (Me. I am.)

Good afternoon, comics fans! Welcome to not only the first Comic X-Change issue of the new year, but the big whopper – Issue Number 10! For such a special issue, and to kick this brand new year off right, I decided to reach out to one of my very best comic friends and gurus, Kevin Smith of Third Eye Comics in Mechanicsville.

This issue, we’ve got some good hearty amuse-bouches for you to appetize your palate after the holidays. Kevin is bring us some big hitters to watch for in the lands of Marvel and DC, and then I’m going to close us out with the big topic my brain can’t shut up about – Stranger Things Season 3. Let’s get down to business, y’all.

“Miles Morales: Spider-Man #2” by Saladin Ahmed and Javier Garron

“Previously [Miles Morales] had taken over one of the Spider-Man books that Peter had started years ago, but now he has one all to himself.” said Smith.

“The Immortal Hulk #12” by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett

“[Bruce] Banner was killed about three years ago in Civil War II, and thought to have been gone for awhile, and had been brought back,” said Smith. “Marvel’s taking The Hulk back to his origins, the way he was back in the 60s when he was created, where Banner and Hulk are more of a Jekyll and Hyde creature now.”

“Web Of Venom: Venom Unleashed #1” by Ryan Stegman, Juan Gedeon, and Kyle Hotz

“I’m really enjoying this because [Venom writer Donny] Cates has decided to take Venom and, instead of just being one character, [write] the mythology and the history of the symbiotes,” said Smith. “[He’s] taking them back literally to the dawn of time.”

“Heroes in Crisis #5” by Tom King and Clay Mann

“DC has created this super secret place called Sanctuary,” said Smith. “Someone has gone into the Sanctuary, somebody has found the video files of the heroes where they take their masks off and confess what happened.”

“Die #2” by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans

“This is something best described as the kids from Stranger Things, mixed with the kids from IT, mixed with Jumanji,” said Smith.

On January 1st, Stranger Things fans were gifted not one but two wonderful presents, and just as we thought the holidays were winding down to a close. Both the official release date poster artwork (above), and a new trailer that also confirmed the official release date, were released as we rung in the new year. We still have just under another six months to go before all of our questions are answered in eight new episodes, but let’s take a look at some things.

“One summer can change everything.” So the new season will take course over the course of the summer of 1985, which we kind of figured when the first teaser came out and showed Mother of the Year Steve Harrington working his new summer mall job. The final episode title is “The Battle of Starcourt,” so while it’s safe to assume that the mall is where the showdown with the big-bad is going to play, is it centered around July 4th? What specifically about July 4th is so crucial?

Also, why are four of the kids stoked for the fireworks, while El and Mike are the only ones wigging out?

Let’s also backtrack a little bit more and dig deeper into theory land. A month or two ago, David Harbour posted on his instagram about shaving his mustache. While this in and of itself is innocuous enough given that he has been filming Hellboy and probably has a new project to work on, something else feels weird. He did go into a long speech about how Hopper was the greatest role of his life…

Now granted, he could just be generally excited that filming is over, and ready to see how fans react to the new season. Or you could be me, dig much deeper, and question if Harbour just released a backdoor spoiler. Is it a possibility that beloved asshole sheriff Chief Jim Hopper dies this season?

Guess we’ll find out in another one hundred and seventy-seven days. But who’s counting?

RVA Comics X-Change: Issue 13

RVA Comics X-Change: Issue 10