Free Comic Book Day 2024

Free Comic Book Day! It’s officially been two years since I first started my comic collection, launched a comic website with a blog. I now have roughly 140 or so comics in my collection and it’s climbing, slowly but surely. This time I managed to scoop up a few comics for myself and my two boys got some comics for kids. I missed out on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle issue but I did manage to get the three I was going for which were Image Comics Energon Universe, DC’s Absolute Power and Marvel’s Blood Hunt. The most recent stack episode from the Comic Book Club podcast talked about Energon Universe and how G.I. Joe, Transformers and Void Rivals are all in one universe. I was definitely intrigued because if you recall, at the very end of the last Transformers movie, Rise of the Beasts, they alluded to a partnership between the Transformers and G.I. Joe sector. So I had to pick that one up being a Transformers fan, though I am not sure what Void Rivals is.

The other issue I will be reviewing besides Energon Universe is DC’s Absolute Power, I’ll cover the FCBD Blood Hunt along with the first issue review of Blood hunt. Now as I said, I am only two years into collecting comics, I am fairly new and don’t know much about existing story lines or important events, so I had no idea what to expect. Really I just saw Superman, Batman and another cool looking Batman on the cover and figured this should be good. Besides these few comics, I also bought another copy of X-Men ‘97 so I could use it for a crafts project and a Deadpool & Wolverine themed comic box. Remember gang, don’t just pick up the free comics but also purchase a couple things to help support your local comic shop.

A little different with this review since it’s two books. I’ll be reviewing the cover art, but I’ll just touch on the story instead of a full review:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Cover - Energon Universe

What I really like about this cover is its creativity. Megatron looks menacing even though we only see his red lit eyes. He’s got a smoking gun that he most likely just shot off and the ground below him is crumbling with electricity. The orange and yellow colors combine to make a very rich and bright background that illuminates Megatron from behind, with a tiny bit of a machinery/Cybertron peeping through at the top. The title is very creative with the stars in the dark black space, but to me this is the only part I wish was done a little differently. I like the idea but with the machine looking graphics behind it, it doesn’t stand out as much. I think that title treatment would stand out a bit more had the yellow and orange background been extended to the top.

Story - Energon Universe

Overall I like this one but I think if I had read some of the Void Rivals line, I’d understand this issue a bit more. They do a good job at the beginning showing the three titles, Transformers, Void Rivals and GI Joe but I wish there was just a snippet of text that explained each one. The book starts off with some AWESOME action sequences of none other than Optimus Prime and Megatron. Colors, action, text treatment, all of it looks epic at the start. 

This opening action spread is beautiful with its choice of colors

Optimus bests Megatron and as he’s holding onto the ship for dear life, Starscream comes by to “help.” Megatron calls out to Starscream and then BOOM! Starscream blasts Megatron off the ship. Next we get brought to a story of some odd looking creatures and an Autobot named Hotrod but honestly it didn’t make sense to me. Finally we get the GI Joe story which is some high powered action sequences just like the beginning. Pretty much we see Duk wanting to recruit someone named Anastasia Cisarovna, but Colonel Hawk is completely against it. In the end this was a fun little issue to just see the action panels, but I don’t think I can see myself picking up a Void Rivals issue, but definitely interested in knowing where the story is headed for Transformers and GI Joe. Overall 4/5

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Cover - Absolute Power

Having touched on this cover a bit already we know that there is Superman and two Batmans on it, but it also features a few more characters. Amanda Wallace, who I only remember from the Suicide Squad movies. Then Wonder Woman and one other character that I have no idea who it is but they look like some sort of android. I’m just now realizing that this cover has the same yellow and orange color background that the Energon Universe cover has, maybe that’s why I was so drawn to it. The treatment of the title, Absolute Power could have used a bit of love since it looks like word art but other than that it’s a pretty dope cover with how the characters are laid out.

Story - Absolute Power

Holy shit this issue. Again, I had no clue going into this and man I am so glad I got it. What I really appreciate from the book is in the back they have profile spreads on some of the characters. For instance the two that I didn’t know on the cover were Failsafe, the cool looking Batman but is really a cybernetic killer and genius-level tactician with near-indestructible frame. Oof. Then the other was in fact, the House of Braniac, a superintelligent alien hive mind, whose primary focus on the collection and storage of data, power and culture. Another big oof. 

Ok, definitely need to read up more on Failsafe cause he looks freakin awesome. Reminds me of Batman Beyond.

Essentially the story starts with Failsafe and Amanda Wallace trying to achieve something with the use of electro-metas but we don’t know what exactly they’re doing or why. They bring in a super named Haywire, or Dylan Moore, to a small observation room with a metal ball figure in the middle and ask him to shoot it with all the electric power he has. Well long story short, they drain him til he ‘pops.’ It’s pretty wild. We’re shown a vision of the future thru another super named Dreamer, but it’s not good; Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest of the Justice League look to be in shackles. The final story in the back we see Superman approaching a robbery of some sort. The criminals get scared about going back to prison, so one of them shoots their gun at Superman. I’m expecting the bullets to bounce off and kill them or something, right? Absolutely Wrong is what this issue should be called, because I was so off. Superman gets hit by the bullets, sees blood and the final shot we see is Superman falling to what we can only presume will be his death. Phew. What an issue and it was free! Overall 

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Review: Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII

Besides DC’s Poison Ivy the only other issue I currently have pulled is Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII. With the new animated season of X-Men ‘97 on Disney+ and the Deadpool & Wolverine movie coming out, this title is a hot one to pick up. From what I read on ComicGeeks, there are 15 cover variants for this issue! I picked up the regular print as well as a $5 variant, I chose this one because the illustration style looks like it was done with colored pencil. Not entirely sure but I love the texture it has.

I picked this up because I’m a big Wolverine fan, in fact one of the first comics I’ve collected is the Weapon X series that ran from 2009-2010. As well as the Wolverine Patch run in 2022. Both of these give very similar vibes to the same Wolverine portrayal in this issue. So as a reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Cover

The regular cover is almost a bit of a summary of what the entire comic is about. Wolverine and Deadpool against what seems like the world. To be honest, of the available variant copies at my local comic shop, I like the regular print the most. You can clearly see Wolverine’s claws and Deadpool’s swords dripping with blood and both of them covered in bullet wounds. It’s really fucking sweet, pardon my French. As I mentioned earlier regarding the variant cover, it has a certain styling that is a mix of watercolor and color pencil, I just wish the colors were a bit more vibrant.

It starts off giving us a few panels in a horizontal view, so you have to rotate the comic book to view. 

Story

So I already planned on getting this issue, but after hearing on the Comic Book club podcast how great this issue was I rushed to pick it up before Free Comic book day on the weekend. I didn’t realize how much I’d enjoy this issue. 

We see a dope ass progression of what we’re told is Wolverine's bloodline? I’m not really sure because it’s interrupted with a message of a flight getting ready to touch down in Vancouver. Wolverine talks about taking on some job that involves him eliminating the threat, that he is called only when it’s a scum of the earth type that can’t be helped. Wolverine suits up, in his old school yellow and brown and goes to meet this “threat.” 

Upon arriving he encounters Deadpool and who I can only assume is named “Summer?” I’m not entirely sure as it seems like he’s having a conversation with Wolverine and Deadpool but isn’t making any sense. But we get to see some sick ass fight scenes, Wolverine and Deadpool take turns trying to eliminate the threat. It’s really funny when Wolverine enters the scene and Deadpool says, “I’d recognize the sound of that sextuple puncture wound anywhere! There’s also a funny panel where Deadpool is riding the shoulders of Wolverine. Classic banter and badass fighting, just what I need.

The yellow and brown suit is starting to grow on me, I think I just don’t like the illustration style from the 90’s animated show.

They take care of the threat, Deadpool invites Wolverine to hang out but Wolverine brushes it off. After a night of drinking at the bar, Wolverine heads to where Deadpool told him he was staying. We’re then taken to a new part of the story as Wolverine is now searching for Deadpool after being left a burner phone. Wolverine ends up in Russia, of course, to some building and it’s full of people in nice attire celebrating his arrival. What? Deadpool got an upgrade and fights Wolverine?! Holy shit. Pretty dope ass illustrations and gets me excited to pick up the next issue.

Overall 5 / 5

Going into this I already sorta knew what to expect but was still happily surprised with the funny banter between Deadpool and Wolverine. Paired with the awesome fight scenes and blood splatters, this comic just had everything you’d expect from this duo. The plot and writing seemed a little jumpy but I understand having to explain so much with little real estate. Can’t wait for the next issue.

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