Very good week for comics this week! Nothing Absolute or Midnight for me to check in on, so instead it’s just a bunch of very enjoyable normal superhero comics, like Amazing Spider-Man and a new Venom relaunch!

Comic Book of the Week goes to Legion of Super-Heroes #2 for another very fun adventure that throws us right into the deep end of this new Legion relaunch.

Meanwhile, it’s the final week for my comic book Kickstarter! Cover Bard #1 hit its funding goal on Friday to get printed copies, then everybody can read a comic I wrote myself! Help me prove to the world that I can put my money where my mouth is, and write comics as well as review them. Check out the campaign page or check out this look at the issue to get an idea where it’s for you.

Also, I didn’t really care for the Street Fighter movie, despite being so hyped for it all year. Just kind of a mess of a movie.

Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #1001, Legion of Super-Heroes #2, Venom #1 and Iron Man #10.

Amazing Spider-Man #1001
Writer: Joe Kelly
Artist: Pepe Larraz
Colorist: Federico Blee
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

The milestone issue is in the past and now we move on to the rest of the story with Ravage, a name I still hate.

Ravage has successfully stolen the memories of Peter from Aunt May’s mind, and she’s otherwise mentally fine. So when she wants to leave the hospital, and Cormac offers to put her up at his mansion, the staff, authorities and Ric are all super fine with that. Only Peter knows that he’s really a super-villain, and Peter can’t exactly tell everybody that fact. So with Aunt May in the lion’s den, Peter seeks out advice and help from Norman and the Scarlet Witch, the current Sorcerer Supreme. Then he just goes to the mansion to fight Ravage anyway.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

What I like about this storyline is that it’s very personal to Peter, in that Aunt May has literally been stolen from him. I don’t necessarily know if that type of story has been done before. Honestly, it probably has, but maybe not in this way? Not to this degree? I don’t know. I really don’t care if it’s been done before. I only care about how it’s being done now, and Kelly does a great job establishing the emotional stakes for Peter. His enemy has resources and standing that Peter can’t touch, and his enemy has taken the most precious thing in the world from Peter. That’s good superhero conflict and it keeps this story humming along nicely.

What I don’t like is my ongoing general sense of Amazing Spider-Man largely just being fine. It’s got great artwork, because Pepe Larraz can deliver. But everything else around Peter is pretty much just run of the mill. There’s a new bad guy (with a stupid name) and so Peter touches base with some of his superhero allies and then goes to fight him. Considering some of the other comics I’ve read this week, I think I’m just getting more and more bored with Amazing Spider-Man being the same old Spider-Man. None of the changes Kelly has brought to the world have really piqued my interest here in the long run. He’s kind of just…Spider-Man going through a Spider-Man story.

TL;DR: The emotional punch carries a lot of heft in this story, but everything around it still feels very run-of-the-mill.

Legion of Super-Heroes #2
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Hayden Sherman
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Second issue easily keeps the baton going from the first, diving us deep into this new Legion lore.

Brainiac One-of-Five and Matter-Eater Lad escape from the Presuaders, the militaristic police force of the United Planets. Dawnstar looks to be the lead enforcer, and we get a Porcupine Pete cameo! Fun! Anyway, they kill the civilian witnesses. Brainy and Matter-Eatery don some Persuader uniforms to hitch a ride to the Lightning Twins’ planet because both they and the Persuaders are after Mekt Ranzz, who killed R.J. Brande. Mekt has been filling his siblings in on all his superhero adventures, including meeting Superman and joining his Legion. He wants to teach them to be superheroes, and takes Garth out on some crime-fighting. But Ayla doesn’t trust Mekt one bit and rats him out to the Persuaders.

Comic Rating: 9/10 – Great.

This series isn’t wasting any time in throwing us right into the deep end and I very much enjoy that. Last week, I complained that a few of Marvel’s new Midnight comics spent a little too much time with just set-up in their debut issues. This new Legion of Super-Heroes is exactly the opposite. We are deep, deep into the lore and the characters and the conflicts, and it’s great! And I get it. These are different comics telling different stories. I understand that. These review are just my own take on comics in this day and age. And in 2026, I like to be thrown right into the deep end, to really have the ball already rolling. I’ll also grant that having so much thrown at us so quickly might be a little confusing. I’m no Legion Expert, but I know enough. I think Williamson is doing an excellent job keeping the story going without getting too bogged down, while still throwing all sorts of fun and fresh concepts at us.

It’s very clear that Williamson and Sherman have done the work is building an entirely new Legion mythos out of the pieces of the old. Persuader and Emerald Empress, of course, were famously members of the Fatal Five, and now they’ve got new roles woven into the fabric of bureaucracy. And while we’ve obviously got our three main Legionnaires at the forefront of the storytelling, I was also able to recognize the likes of Dawnstar and Porcupine Pete. Legion lore is filled with characters, so I love seeing them pop up in interesting and new places. That will really help flesh out the world. And, so far, everybody is written well and looks great. We’ve got the mystery of Mekt’s Legion growing, we’ve got the fun of Brainy and Matter-Eatery, we’ve got the weirdness of Saturn Girl; so many intricate pieces fitting together to form this grand, entertaining tapestry of a new Legion of Super-Heroes.

And I’ll just be waiting for my personal favorite Legion characters to show up.

TL;DR: With its second issue, the new Legion relaunch gets bigger, deeper and even more exciting. This is a well-thought-out new world, readily and eagerly using classic elements to build a new comic.

Venom #1
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Tommaso Bianchi
Colorist: Yen Nitro
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles

Both Venom and Eddie Brock have been going through all manner of ups and downs for years at this point, and I didn’t read any of it. But I’m always happy to check out a new #1 issue and I do generally like Venom.

After years apart, Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote are back together and want to be a superhero again. They fight the villain Hazmat and wrap him up special delivery directly to New York City Mayor Luke Cage, even if they have to fight their way through the entire NYPD to get to City Hall. Luke agrees to talk, but he and other city superheroes are wary of Venom. Venom tells them all to go fuck themselves.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

This is a good, solid start to a new Venom comic with some truly phenomenal artwork but no real fancy hook or reveal at the end. That’s fine. This appears to be just a normal, back-to-basics relaunch and, considering all the Venom/symbiote retcons in recent years, it doesn’t need a big to-do. Just give me Eddie Brock as Venom being the Lethal Protector. And it works! He’s not lethal; they don’t kill anymore. But Venom as a somewhat off-kilter superhero still works just fine. He’s got his allies, he’s got his enemies, he’s got people doubting him, and he’s got the symbiote always on his mind. It all comes together nicely as an introduction to what this Venom is likely going to entail. He’s the one superhero that all the major superheroes just don’t like, and he doesn’t care what they think. This issue conveys all of that nicely.

Though the best part of the issue is the artwork.

I don’t know if I’ve seen Bianchi’s work before at Marvel, but their Venom, with Nitro’s colors, looks so damn good! Venom is big, the blackness of the symbiote is like a dark void, and Bianchi adds all sorts of little tendrils and bits of ooze just spilling off Venom all over the place. So the main character looks gorgeous and is a commanding presence on every page. That’s a good look for a comic, and a good look for Venom.

TL;DR: Solid writing and phenomenal artwork lead to an enjoyable back-to-basics Venom relaunch.

Shorter Reviews

Iron Man #10 by Joshua Williamson, Carmen Carnero, Nolan Woodard and VC’s Joe Caramagna

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

I generally like what’s going on with Iron Man, and this is another fine issue that keeps that general attitude going. Happy Hogan is back from the dead and that’s fine by me. I’m always complaining that Amazing Spider-Man doesn’t have a good supporting cast, so if Williamson wants to bring back a classic Tony Stark supporting cast member that sounds great to me! Happy brings a new attitude to the comic and we get a major leap forward in the general plot about something being up with Tony. And we get plenty of cool superhero action. It’s all just kind of generally good and enjoyable. So I think I’ll keep reading.

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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