Welcome back to comic book review land! Just little old me reading comics and cranking out reviews because it’s what I like to do. I like reading and talking about good comics, like Batman and Amazing Spider-Man.

Comic Book of the Week goes to The Deadman #1 for a solid, entertaining start to this potentially wild new series.

Meanwhile, I really enjoyed Spider-Noir. It was a nifty series that accomplished everything it set out to do, I would say! And I made it to the theater to see The Masters of the Universe this week and I had a blast! Very fun film. Still haven’t seen The Mandalorian and Grogu, so fingers crossed my plans work this weekend. Oh! I did see The Sheep Detectives and that was also fun. Good, quality little flick. Seeing lots of movies, it seems.

Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #30, Batman #10, The Deadman #1 and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1.

Amazing Spider-Man #30
Writer: Joe Kelly
Artist: Pete Woods
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

No iconic costume yet for Spore, but there’s still time in the story!

Peter Parker is mostly helpless against Spore, but then Kintsugi shows up and saves the day. Peter reaches deep within himself and goes Super Spider Saiyan to defeat Spore, who is able to slither away to lick his wounds. Meanwhile, this strange man who showed up to help Aunt May at FEAST shows up at her house and reveals that he is the biological son of Ben and May Parker!

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

This comic is just good, straight forward Spider-Man storytelling. It’s not setting the industry on fire. It’s not reinventing the character. It’s just sorta fine comics, with solid artwork, a strong new villain and good Spidey writing. We’ve got action, we’ve got Peter in a tough predicament, we’ve got a protege superhero and we’ve got plenty of family drama from different sides. Aunt May’s secret son? Whoooaaaaa! That’s good soap opera nonsense right there. And that’s really all I’ve got to say about Amazing Spider-Man right now. I’d say it’s still a very good comic at the moment, delivering all you might want from a Spider-Man adventure. There’s just…it’s just not hitting the same magic that DC Comics is putting out these days, you hear me? Marvel is mostly just fine, and Amazing Spider-Man is a good showcase of that.

TL;DR: It’s a solid and entertaining Spider-Man comic, and the new villain is definitely working for me, but there’s nothing particularly magical about the series.

Batman #10
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Jorge Jimenez
Colorist: Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

If you want to talk comic book magic, there’s still some left in Matt Fraction’s Batman…though it’s no Absolute Batman.

After Police Commissioner Vandal Savage took out several bat-bunkers last issue, he’s all over the news claiming he has defeated Batman. So Batman spends a night fighting so much crime and needling Savage that the message is sent, complete with a big new Bat-Signal. Also, the Minotaur takes out Hugo Strange.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

This issue is a good example of Batman being a damn cool Batman. The Minotaur stuff still hasn’t amounted to much, in my opinion. Killing Hugo Strange feels hollow in 2026, the same way killing any comic book character feels hollow in 2026. But that’s not what’s important this issue. The fun of this issue is in having Batman kick butt and stick it to Savage, with some fun narration from Barbara Gordon. I haven’t read her prison comic yet, if it’s even out. But she’s fun in this issue. And Batman is fun as he sets up his new, drone-powered Bat-Signal. It’s quality Batman comic bookery, standing up and being awesome. Gotta love that sort of thing.

Ultimately, the issue doesn’t have a lot of heft to it on its own. It really is just about Batman making the statement, with some quality little character moments here and there. Personally, I find it a little funny that the Bat-Family is down to Robin, Signal and Stephanie’s Batgirl. But more power to them, I suppose. Bruce remains a strong lead character. I really liked the scene where he was at the Bat-Computer and was starting to figure out how to track the Minotaur — before deciding he would instead spend the night out on the town fighting crime. Both were fun. I like detective work in Batman comics.

TL;DR: Batman has some fun for once in a solid, entertaining Batman comic that still has some magic in its veins.

The Deadman #1
Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Artist: Martin Morazzo
Colorist: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Good Old Neon

I’ve never particularly cared about Deadman as a character, but I am very on board with DC’s current slate of new and intriguing comics. I should be reading more of them!

We’re introduced to Boston Brand, the Deadman, a custodian for souls. We learn about his world, his duties, his benefactor, his origins, his personality, his abilities, his ghostly friends and all sorts of unique corners of his existence. But that existence is now threatened by some weird serial killer guy and his ghastly demon allies, so the Deadman needs to step up!

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

This is just a nifty comic and a great first issue to kick things off. The writing and artwork do a great job creating a unique corner to superhero comics and we get a solid, all-encompassing exploration of just what The Deadman is about and why. It’s a really good introduction to the character for people who don’t know. Prince has a great handle on Deadman as a character, his personality and his style. And Morazzo seems built for this kind of comic. It’s not a superhero story with tights and fisticuffs. It’s more down-to-Earth, more slice-of-life, and that definitely works for the comic. I wouldn’t say it’s spooky, but the comic does a great job with ghosts and the setting.

I definitely like the vibes of this book. The creators clearly knew what they wanted to make with this comic. They had a vision and they’ve executed it pretty flawlessly, in my opinion. And that’s exactly what I feel people want from stories these days. It’s what I want. Something unique. Something bold. Something that actually plays with the space of comics, that tries to be something different and its own thing. This is what you get when you let new creators spread their wings and flex their muscles, even while still adapting a classic character — not to blow too much smoke up the comic’s butt. It’s a very good start. Let’s see where they go with it.

TL;DR: This first issue is the whole package in terms of setting up the main character and his weird world, and does a fantastic job of establishing the look and one of that world.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1
Writer: Marguerite Bennett
Artist: Andrew Lee Griffith
Colorist: Joshua Jensen
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire

It’s come to this. Power Rangers Prime failed, even though I liked it overall. So BOOM! is going to try to revive Mighty Morphin with a new twist. I’m willing to give it a chance.

Ten years have passed since the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers came to an end and Earth is under attack by Rita Rabiosa. Billy, who stayed at the Command Center to help the new Rangers, calls back Jason, Kimberly, Zach and Trini to fight the new threat, pulling them from their adult lives (Trini has a daughter!). They morph, they fight, they call their Zords, they get a little overwhelmed and then the issue ends with a tease about Tommy.

Comic Rating: 4/10 – Pretty Bad.

I feel this issue is a major overcorrection and I don’t like it. The issue is everything I felt the original BOOM! Mighty Morphin comic managed to avoid when it started out, which led to it becoming an absolute banger of a comic. This issue feels like BOOM! got scared with the less-than-stellar reaction to Prime and told the creative team to just play it as safe as possible and as close to the original, cheesy TV show as possible. There’s no depth. There’s no character development. We’re immediately thrust into the story with no build-up to how or why Billy decides to call back the original team after 10 years. There’s no real character development for the squad as they try to be Rangers again. They just do it automatically. No explanation for the new suit designs. No explanation for where the current Ranger team is, the ones that the issue mentions Billy stayed behind to help.

And the action we do get is pretty paper thin. We even get the Rangers making snappy/cheesy one-liners when they get into the cockpits of their Zords. The new Rita only appears on TV screens and maybe her voice. There’s no new Putty henchmen villain to fight. Just the bad guy generically taking over machinery and the Rangers fighting that. Very little to no effort is put into actually building or playing in the premise. And that’s not the kind of Power Rangers comic I want from BOOM!

Overall, this could be the point. Maybe the creative team is doing this on purpose. It’s not a terrible comic by any means. The Ranger artwork is great — though the human faces can be a bit iffy at times. So at least the overall look of the thing is solid. Can’t fault that. The Tommy tease is weird and definitely not a very strong hook, at least in my opinion. And I suppose not every fan wants to start slow and build to something. So maybe it’s an OK thing to just jump right into the action. I just feel, again, that that’s not what made BOOM!’s original MMPR comic work so well…but then it’s been, what, a decade since that comic launched? Maybe the fans want something new nowadays. I’m willing to stick around for a few issues to find out where this goes.

Now with the main review out of the way, I have one little nitpick that drove me up the wall. So Zach has become a defense attorney, which is cool. But when he gets teleported to the Command Center, he says something like “an innocent man has been charged with a crime” — how cliche can you get? It’s a popular Hollywood trope that defense attorneys are constantly representing innocent people charged with a crime. I’m sure it happens, but usually they’re defending people who did actually commit the crime. And unless you were teleported directly out of the trial, it’s fine. The court case can wait until the world is saved. It’s a very minor nitpick that just struck a sour note with me is all.

TL;DR: While the overall production is solid, the storytelling and character development is severely lacking for a first issue.

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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