Y'all ever heard of this Galactus guy? Always running around in red and green, throwing gas bombs at the Fantastic Four? Yeah, that's classic Galactus. Dude does way more than just planet-eating.  We read all about it in his very first appearance in Fantastic Four #48-50. The Silver Surfer makes his first appearance too, spending most of these issues talking to a blind sculptor. Classic Silver Surfer. Then we move onto Thunderbolts #9, which was mostly an Avengers flashback. We spend a...

John Constantine is a badass. He's such a badass that his series is called Hellblazer. He's such a badass that he smokes and gets lung cancer and then tricks demons into cure his lung cancer for him. Wow, what a badass. We've only seen this guy in the pages of Swamp Thing, so we're reading Hellblazer #41-46 from 1991 when Garth Ennis took over writing duties. Then we finally say goodbye to the Elements of Doom in Thunderbolts #8. Next Time: The Fantastic Four meet Galactus for the first...

Spooky season is swampy season here at SOMFRC and we're back to Swamp Thing! We're reading volume 5 of Alan Moore's run with issues #51-56. Swamp Thing has no more world-ending catastrophes to worry about, but his girlfriend's being persecuted for being into plants! Nothing to do but take over Gotham, get into a fight with Batman, and then spend a cool time in space. Then we move onto Thunderbolts #7, where the team disobeys a direct order from Baron Zemo! Next Time: We check out Garth...

It occurs to us that we've never actually read an Iron Man comic, and with the recent dual-casting of Robert Downey Jr. as both Iron Man and Doctor Doom, we decided to take a look at Doomquest from Iron Man #149 & 150. The metal bros travel back in time to (friend of the show) the medieval era! Doctor Doom rides a horse and that's enough reason to read this comic. Then we move onto our long read of Thunderbolts with issue #6 which requires a periodic table to enjoy. Next Time: The Saga...

Whelp, we tried to will a Dazzler movie cameo into existence, but Deadpool & Wolverine was unfortunately Taylor Swift-less. Nevertheless, we still press on to read Dazzler: The Movie, the 12th in Marvel's Graphic Novel line from the 80s, in which Dazzler meets a lot of terrible men who promise her a fast track to stardom. Then we continue our long read of Thunderbolts with issue #5, which has a dude in the shadows! Classic! Next Time: Iron Man and Dr. Doom meet in DOOMQUEST (Invincible...

Watch out crooks, there's a new Captain America in town. And he's got a gun! Steve Rogers is dead and Bucky is taking over as we pick back up with Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America in issues #31-36. Then we continue reading the Thunderbolts with an interlude in the Thunderbolts '97 Annual as we learn all about how the team came together. Next Time: Dazzler: The Movie (Marvel Graphic Novel #12) (in four weeks)

We haven't read nearly enough Hulk on this show, so we're looking at a couple different stories by Peter David. First up is the wedding of Rick Jones from issues #417-419, in which Captain America gets very bashful about a bachelor party. Then we check out The Incredible Hulk: The End, a one shot about the last days of the Hulk's life. We'll tell you why it doesn't feel like a comic book! And of course, we continue our long read of the Thunderbolts with issue #4 in which they accidentally...

We're reading some detective comics this week! No, not the Bat. We're reading a lesser known PI published by Renegade Comics in the 80s: Ms. Tree, written by Max Alan Collins with art by Terry Beatty. We jump into the middle of the book and read issues #18-23 in which Ms. Tree deals with the death of her archnemesis... and kills a ton of people. We were expecting a little more noir and a little less Punisher. Then we continue Thunderbolts with issue #3 in which the former Masters of Evil...

It's another classic X-Men story! We're reading God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson from 1982, which served as the inspiration for the X-Men 2 film. We get to know the evil reverend, Stryker, who has made some... questionable life choices. But why didn't they make him a reverend in the movie?  Then we continue our long read of Thunderbolts with issue #2, which contains the ugliest statue ever erected to honor a superhero. Next Time - Ms. Tree: Heroine Withdrawal

It's time to go back to Fairyland! We loved the first volume of Skottie Young's I Hate Fairyland when we read it back in 2020, so we thought we'd check out volume 2. Will the art still manage to simultaneously be cute and grotesque? You know it! Also, we begin our next long read with Thunderbolts #1 by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley, with villains posing as heroes. How devious! Next Time: X-Men - God Loves, Man Kills  

April Fools! We're doing some weird comics today, because that feels like it makes sense. We wanted to read Peter Porker and we only picked issue #16 because it had Baron Zebro in it.  Then we read Avengers #200 because it's said to be one of the worst issues of all time, and it definitely deserves that accolade. And we finally end Earth X in issue #X, in which Spiders-Man wears a hard hat. The best thing in all these comics is the cool dinosaur that attacked Avengers Mansion. Next Time:...

With the passing of Akira Toriyama, we wanted to take a look at his most famous work, and one of the most popular manga/anime series of all time, the Dragon Ball series. We go back to the first volume from 1986 and it's not what we expected! Then we continue Earth X with #12 in which... uhh... we can't remember anything that happened. Did anything happen?  DID ANYTHING HAPPEN?? Next Time: April Fools Day where Carol Danvers marries her son in Avengers #200 + Spider-Ham meets Baron Zebro in...

It's time for us to visit the late 90s with Kurt Busiek and George Perez's relaunch of The Avengers! Who will be on the new roster? Will we remember any of the history that Busiek digs up? And is it ever a good idea to relaunch a book with an alternate reality story? Then we go onto Earth X #11 where we say farewell to the character with the best one-liners. Next Time: Dragon Ball, Vol. 1

Superman's still a fascist and now his best friend, Lex Luthor, is here to help him change the world in the 2nd half of Injustice: Year One. Will Superman kill again? He will; he'll do it a lot. It's true Superdickery. Then we continue to Earth X #10 where the Skull continues to be a major a*****e as Captain America and his forces attack. Next Time: Avengers (1998) #1-6 by Kurt Busiek & George Perez

When the Mortal Kombat team makes a video game based on DC comic book characters and you need to write the prequel story, what do you do? You turn Superman into a fascist, of course. We're reading the first half of Injustice: Year One from 2013, where Superman starts killing people, Wonder Woman supports him, and Batman don't like it. Then we move onto Earth X #9 in which the Red Skull has a pretty good line. Next Time: We finish Year One of Injustice (issues 7-12, or 19-36 digitally)  

We've been building up to the Death of Captain America for a few years now, and it's finally time to read the most memorable moment from Ed Brubaker's run in issues #25-30!  Find out if Cap's supporting characters can sustain the book without him! Also learn a lot about how secret psychic activation codes work. Then, we move on to Earth X #8, which continues to improve and also prominently features a werewolf astronaut. Coincidence? Next Time: Injustice #1-6 (or digitally #1-18 - the first...

Let's do some more Spider-Man. Why not? It's The Owl-Octopus War from 1982 in Spectacular Spider-Man #73-79 by Bill Mantlo and Al Milgrom. The Owl gets beat pretty badly, but we also have some great guests in the form of Black Cat, Boomerang, Biff Rifkin, Deb Whitman, Deb's terrible psychiatrist, Peter's weird professor, and Peter's decaying mental state as he falls passionately in love. And then we move on to Earth X #7 in which stuff actually happens! Someone was secretly evil, and The...

Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way first. We're reading Superior Foes of Spider-Man for this episode, but Spider-Man just isn't in this book. is the star of this short-lived comedy series and he's got a new Sinister Six that he's formed with four other D-list villains (that's right - these five make up the Sinister Six.). Join us as we follow the lives of these losers, and stay with us as we read Earth X #6 where Chewbacca joins the X-Men maybe! Next Time: Spider-Man - The...

It's been a while since we read something from the Marvel Graphic Novel series, so we're going back to read Emperor Doom, a story where Dr. Doom steals Purple Man's powers and takes over the world.  Doom actually does a pretty good job, until the Avengers screw everything up. It's really all Wonder Man's fault that world hunger is still a thing. Then we move onto Earth X #5 in which Uatu continues to be very mean to X-51. Next Time: The Superior Foes of Spider-Man #1-6  

We love our Spider-Comics here at SOMFRC, but we've somehow never covered Spider-Girl at all, so today we took a look at the birth of Marvel's alternate future MC2 universe to see what it's all about. Little did we know, we would become Spider-Girl Mayday Parker ourselves, and we would truly feel the relationship between her and her parents, MJ & Peter. Then we go back to our other alternate future storyline with Earth X #4. Hope you like vibranium! Next Time: Emperor Doom

It's only been about 10 years, but the Captain Marvel redesign of Carol Danvers has already become the most iconic version of the character. With a new movie on the way, we're looking at the first volume of Kelly Sue DeConnick's run where the new image was introduced, titled In Pursuit of Flight. It's not what we expected. At all!  Then we continue Earth X with issue #3 and... well... at least Spider-Man is in it. Next Time: We got to the MC2 with Mayday Parker in What If #105 +...

Spooks! Haints! Evil twins! Shrek! They're all here (except Shrek) in the second volume of Harrow County. We all enjoyed the first volume when we read it a few years ago, so we decided to jump back in to continue the story and see more of the excellently horrific art.  Then we continue Earth X with issue #2. Are we on board with this series yet? Will we ever be? Only time will tell. Next Time: Captain Marvel (2012): In Pursuit of Flight  

It's manga time! Until now, we've only covered manga adaptations of video games, but we're jumping into our first long-form manga with the wildly popular One Piece by Eichiro Oda.  We read the first volume to figure out just who this straw hat kid is and why this book has spawned a whole media empire. Then we get into the meat of Earth X with issue #1, in which we try to determine if Spider-Man is a cop now. Next Time: Harrow County, Vol. 2: Twice Told  

Swamp Thing! Do you still make our heart sing? We return to Alan Moore's classic series with Volume 4: A Murder of Crows, which collects issues #43-50 where we get some nice redesigns of Swamp Thing's flora. We also tie into the Crisis and meet lots of other heroes, plus we get some more insight into what John Constantine is like. Then we move onto our next long read with Earth X #0, which is set in the future... we think. It's hard to tell after this introductory issue. Next Time: One...