It’s Super Bowl Weekend! And I’m probably instead going to go see the movie American Fiction in an empty theater. It’s supposed to be pretty good. I also had a fun time reading comics this week, like the new Ultimate Black Panther and the new ThunderCats!

Comic Book of the Week goes to Sensational She-Hulk #5 for another very fun, character-based issue. I love what I love, and sometimes She-Hulk really delivers.

Meanwhile, still playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder, still having a ball. It’s a fun, simple game, which is what a traditional Mario game should be. I spent the past week watching all three seasons of Slow Horses on AppleTV+, and that show was good, solid entertainment. I hope Gary Oldman was having fun.

Also, if you haven’t seen yet, the latest volume of my self-published comic — Gamer Girl & Vixen — is coming to Kickstarter on Monday! I would love your support and I’ve no doubt you’ll love my comic!

Comic Reviews: Birds of Prey #6, Captain America #6, Sensational She-Hulk #5, ThunderCats #1 and Ultimate Black Panther #1.

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Birds of Prey #6
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Leonardo Romero
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

The regular artist is back and the story comes to a solid conclusion!

Megaera has possessed sin and everybody knows it, so the Birds are ready to finish her off if it means saving the world. But they’ve got a plan to use the urn to siphon a bunch of Magaera away, then maybe Sin can repel her. It sorta works, but the threat of the urn ultimately leads to Sin making a deal with Magaera to work together and be pals. She gets a new outfit because of it, and powers. The Birds teleport home and celebrate their victory, while Dinah gets a briefing from Meridian about this whole thing: turns out this was the 12th time they’ve tried this, because every previous time, they brought along Barbara Gordon and she was killed in the scuffle. Maps believes that another time traveler is trying to kill Batgirl and the Birds of Prey!

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

This was a good, solid ending to the opening storyline, with a great hook at the end for more to come. I’m glad that Future Maps isn’t a bad guy — yet — and I loved the twist that this was the 11th or 12th time the Birds had attempted this rescue, and that she just kept going back in time and trying different ways until they got it right. Fun twist! Everything you expect to have in a finale comes together here. The villain is on the verge of winning, our heroes unite for one big, final push, get a little help from the supporting characters, and then the day is saved in spectacular fashion. It was fun, exciting and full of character.

I really like the idea of Sin and Megaera teaming up. Part of it comes off like a loss…but then, like, there are worse superhero origin stories. And it’s not like Sin was a major character or anything. Now she’s sharing her mind with some otherworldly deity who is skilled in sarcasm. Sounds like a level up for this character! Hopefully she gets to be a permanent member of the team, if that final page tease is legit that the book will have a rotating cast. I think that could be fun! Keep a core of Black Canary, Meridian, Sin and Batgirl, and then add on fun new characters for each adventure. I’m fully on board with that!

Just be mindful of such extreme art switches between issues.

TL;DR: Solid, entertaining finale to the first storyline, with a lot of characters getting big moments to shine, and a fun new status quo set up going forward.

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Captain America #6
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artist: Lan Medina
Inkers: Medina and Belardino brabo
Colorist: Espen Grundetjern
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

The opening Captain America story comes to an end.

In the past, Steve and the gangsters defeat the bad guys, and then Steve heroically drives their bomb into the bay. He barely makes it out, and a doctor tells him he’s caused so much damage to his body that he doesn’t have long to live. Asmoday in the past decides to let Steve live in this misery rather than kill him outright. In the present day, Captain America fights the Emissary and Asmoday, and defeats them when Doctor Strange sends him the Eye of Agamotto. Then Steve has to clean up some Nazi graffiti around his apartment complex.

Comic Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.

I never really connected with this comic. It’s still well-made, with some strong moments here and there. But ultimately it’s just a story where Captain America beats up a bad guy. There was a ton of build-up to the demon that ultimately doesn’t go anywhere, in my opinion. And the demon existing in the past storyline as well doesn’t add anything to either story. The bad guys were the normal kind of bad in the past, and Steve’s heroism triumphs over them then. And the demon in the present day is easily defeated when Doctor Strange offers a trinket. Had this just been a Doctor Strange comic, there wouldn’t be this much hoopla. But Cap gets to be heroic, he gets to make his proclamations to the reader about kicking Nazi butt. And some solid messaging is shared. So it’s alright in the end.

TL;DR: This storyline wraps up in a fairly normal fashion, with some enjoyable superheroics and some strong messaging about always standing up to Nazis.

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Sensational She-Hulk #5
Writer: Rainbow Rowell
Artist: Ig Guara
Colorist: Dee Cunniffe
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Alas, the story where She-Hulk and her gal pals hang out at a club was sadly short-lived.

She-Hulk, Pasty Walker and Captain Marvel fight a bunch of demons until Patsy’s ex, Daimon Hellstrom, shows up to round them up back to Hell and leave her a little emotionally wounded (he didn’t cause this). The women commiserate and banter, and Jen tells Carol she’ll think about the offer to join the Avengers. When Jen gets home, she and Jack talk about when he died and when she went crazy and they put that past behind them quickly.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

I’ve said it before and I’ll gladly say it again all the time: I love superhero comics where the characters get to act like real people. So I very much enjoyed a second issue of Jen, Patsy and Carol hanging out at a club, even if it was mostly taken up by fighting demons. Rowell has a lot of fun with the dialogue, at least. They still talk and banter like real people as they fight demons, and then talk about Jen joining the Avengers. I love those types of behind-the-scenes conversations. They’re so much fun, and Rowell excels at that sort of dialogue.

Rowell also finds time to flesh out Patsy a bit more, which I like. Though Jack of Hearts remains an albatross around both this comic and the main character’s neck. We’re how many issues deep and he’s still afraid to let the other superheroes know that he’s around? Let’s get that storyline moving already. He’s not interesting as Jen’s secret boyfriend. But feel free to have a lot more conversations where Jen, Patsy and Carol talk about Avengers membership. The artwork is great, too, keeping everybody both heroic and grounded.

TL;DR: The follow up to last issue’s club scene is almost as much fun. If only there was more hanging out at the club and less expected superhero fisticuffs.

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ThunderCats #1
Writer: Declan Shalvey
Artist: Drew Moss
Colorists: Chiara Di Francia & Martina Pignedoli
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry

Here’s the big ThunderCats comic from Dynamite! I was never the biggest ThunderCats fan as a kid, but I’m sure I watched some episodes. I was a Ninja Turtles kid.

Thundera, home planet of the ThunderCats, was destroyed by the Mu’Tants of Plun-Darr, and so a bunch of them flee in a large ship. The pilot and leader, Jaga, dies when they arrive on Third Earth, leaving Lion-O and the rest of the familiar faces to carry on without him. Only there’s a twist: Lion-O was a child when he entered the stasis pod, but a malfunction in the pod has caused him to age to adulthood. Still, he’s their leader, and there’s some bristling with his mentor/general Panthro on what that means.

While out walking with the Sword of Omens, Lion-O is attacked by the arriving Mu’Tants, led by Slithe. There’s a big fight with everybody, and the ThunderCats destroy the Mu’Tant ship. But then Slithe slices through the Sword of Omens, shattering the blade!

Oh, and Mumm-Ra is out there, and possibly in conversation with ghost Jaga?

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

Right off the bat, I don’t think this is some grand, prestige comic book series. Honestly, it’s really similar to the new Transformers comic over at Image and Skybound. This is a pretty straight forward retelling of the general ThunderCats story. In fact, just this moment, after writing that previous sentence, I went to check the ThunderCats Wikipedia page to see what details lined up…and they all did. The Plot summary on the ThunderCats page is an exact summary of this first issue. The only possible twist is that the Sword of Omens shatters at this end of this issue, which I’d say is a good enough twist in the finale. Everything else is a pretty straight forward comic series, introducing all the characters, the setting, the motivations and the conflict.

I would say this first issue does a good job at setting up the series, but I don’t think it does anything particularly unique or special with the idea of the ThunderCats. I’m not saying it needed to do anything unique or special, but it would have been a really strong hook to keep reading. Otherwise, it’s just another iteration of the ThunderCats, driven by nostalgia alone. As a comic, there’s plenty of time to flesh out the characters in new and interesting ways, along with the plot, but I don’t see any hint of that yet in this opening issue.

TL;DR: This first issue is a fairly straight forward retelling of the classic ThunderCats origin story. It’s a good, solid comic, but doesn’t offer anything new or unique to this adaptation.

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Ultimate Black Panther #1
Writer: Bryan Edward Hill
Artist: Stefano Caselli
Colorist: David Curiel
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

In the new Ultimate Universe, the gods Ra and Khonshu rule Africa, and now that the Maker is gone, they’ve started using their Moon Knight soldiers to slaughter innocent people. Word of this is brought to King T’Challa of Wakanda, which is still a secret city, and he would rather gather intel than act. This annoys his sister, Shui, while his common law wife, Okoye, believes he is right. Then at a big celebration, a member of his inner circle declares herself with Moon Knights and suicide bombs T’Challa’s dad. So now he’s ready to go to war.

Also, elsewhere in Africa, Killmonger and Storm are a team who are already fighting the Moon Knights.

Comic Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.

So the thing about Ultimate Black Panther is that there’s nothing really ‘ultimate’ about this. There are no real twists or alternate takes on the material to hook a reader. This is about as cut and dry a simple Black Panther relaunch as one could get. We’ve got T’Challa as king of Wakanda and Black Panther. We’ve got Shuri, Okoye, the death of his father, some mysticism about the gods, and then Killmonger and Storm in the wings. And to give him a villain to fight, they’ve revamped Moon Knight, which warrants nothing more than a nod of name recognition. Ultimate Black Panther is just a staid Black Panther comic.

All that being said, it’s still a fine enough issue. The writing is strong, the artwork is great, the issue succeeds in a lot of world-building, some of it stronger than other parts. I really love what’s being done with Killmonger and Storm; they could be a lot of fun. I have no idea who the insider is that kills T’Chaka. The scene has T’Chaka and T’Challa up on a floating pedestal high above the people as part of an annual celebration of life (an event that is not foreshadowed at all earlier in the book). And with those two very important people is a third person, a woman in a hood. I flipped back through the issue a couple times but couldn’t find this woman anywhere else. So there’s no set-up for why she’s important enough to be on the dais with them or whether her suicide bombing is any sort of betrayal. But it’s the climactic ending of the first issue. So there are some holes in the storytelling.

But a solid foundation has still been laid. T’Challa is a strong character, though he so far lacks any defining or entertaining personality traits. He’s just a tough and firm king. The other characters are themselves. And then the artwork is really good. So yeah, good all around first issue, it just lacks any distinctive flair.

TL;DR: A strong enough debut issue sets up all the characters and the world, but unlike Ultimate Spider-Man, there’s little that sets this apart as a special interpretation of the classic Black Panther.

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The comics I review in my Hench-Sized reviews are just the usual comics I grab from Comixology any given week, along with a few impulse buys I might try on a whim. So if there are any comics or series you’d like me to review each week, let me know in the comments.

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