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: Batman Fortress #1

I’ve been on a bit of Batman kick lately after watching the movie on HBO Max starring Robert Pattinson plus listening to the Spotify Original Batman Unburied, which just ended last week. If you’re curious about it, check out my review of the first episode. Because of this recent interest in Batman, I was thinking to myself “I should read a Batman comic.”

A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Before heading to my local comic book shop, I also made a stop at my local dispensary to pick up some wax. I always place my order ahead of time and just go pick it up, I went with some live badder called Banana Punch, Ice Box Pie and Miracle Mango wax all from Billo. After the dispensary run I stopped at the comic book shop and took a look at the current Batman runs. There were quite a few but many of them were already deep into their issues released and I wanted to follow along with new series. In comes Batman: Fortress, which came out towards the end of last month (May 24) poses a very important question right on the cover, “Where is Superman?"“

So let’s dive into my first Batman comic.

Cover Here are a few things I like about this cover; one of them being the outline of Batman paired with some of the headlines indicates to me that we are going to have a lot of dark and crazy shit going on. “Where is Superman?” we see on the main monitor above Batman’s head, what does it mean? Is he dead? What’s going on? All of these questions made me itching to find out more. Not to mention, I feel like Superman always just shows up and cleans house. So the thought that he is currently missing and Batman has to handle this city-wide power outage himself was another reason why I ultimately chose this issue. Though because I picked up this issue a week after it came out, I was unable to get a view and any of the variant covers. Next time though.

The opening spread shows the burglars inside of Wayne Manor.

Story Our story starts with pure darkness, Gotham is experiencing a total blackout. The stage? Wayne Manor, some dim-witted criminals think they can take advantage of this blackout and rob Wayne Manor. Phew, are they in for a surprise, me too. As these idiots make their way into what they think is an empty mansion, they get their asses handed to them by Bruce Wayne and his butler, Mr. Alfred Pennyworth. Yes, we get to see Alfred whip out some of his former British Special Forces skills and take out one of the would be burglars. The panel at the end actually makes me crack up! The dude is just laying there with his arm like backwards LMAO what?! Go Alfred!

I busted out laughing when I saw the guy that Alfred beat up is all mangled on the ground.

After whooping some ass, Alfred lets Bruce know that the blackout seems to be far worse than what they think. Thinking it was just Gotham, we get a shocked Bruce and then cut to the next page. Detective Gordon is trying to get the Batsignal working unsuccessfully but then they manage to get it on with the help of a few police squad car batteries. Which seemed to piss one of the other detectives but Gordon doesn’t care. He needs the Batsignal on so he can get some help to the people of Gotham. But right as they get it lit, Gordon is told that Arkham Asylum has had a mass breakout, the Joker has escaped.

We get back to Wayne Manor/Batcave with Bruce and Alfred discussing the current blackout event. After seeing multiple cities across the globe experiencing the same blackouts, they come to the conclusion that it must be some sort of attack on the earth. Bruce tells Alfred to alert other members of the league to assemble at HQ and in the meantime, he is wondering where the hell is Superman?

Batman! BAM! We see Bruce suited up as the Batman and talking to Gordon. Gordon is letting him know the severity of the situation. They’re able to use landlines but power and radio comms have all been knocked out. Also the new electronic locks for Arkham seem to be useless since the backup generator took too long to turn on and a lot of the city’s worst criminals escaped before the generators came back on. Batman lets Gordon know of making some modifications for their radios to get some lines of communication going.

Now the next part has been the topic of discussion in the comic community. See the spread in question below.

This has cause some controversy because apparently Batman must deal with all looters to help Best Buy make its profit margins.

For the next couple pages, Batman goes on a fighting spree and starts beating the shit out of everyone. As he is doing all of this, we are told that Batman doesn’t have time for looters in the sense that many of the places being looted all have insurance and they are at the bottom of his priority list. Instead he puts on the mask to stop the BIG FISH “the predators that lurk in the dark waters, feasting on the innocent, the defenseless… the ones who get off on the misery and suffering of others.” Which is a very important line in this entire stretch. It’s not that he doesn’t care for looters, there are just far more important things going on. All while this inner dialogue is going on, Batman stops Penguin from strangling a woman and Joker from taking over a school bus and a bunch of criminals in a dark alley.

It’s these sick bastards that Batman is after, his priority is not looters.

Cut back to the Batcave and Batman fills Alfred in on a very “crimey” night in Gotham and then asks if he has found anything out from the scans he was running. There seems to be some type of “warship” over the Indian Ocean, we don’t know what though. Batman still has no clue where Superman is but the league is waiting for him at headquarters.

Peep the “I survived the blackout” tshirt that Batman got Alfred.

Overall Rating As far as my first Batman comic, I think this was a good choice. I enjoyed the storyline so far, there was a lot of action, a couple funny parts and a big sense of mystery still. Excited for the next issue. I gave this a 4/5 on Comic Geeks.

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