Review: Blood Hunt + FCBD Blood Hunt

The covers on these two comics alone are enough to warrant a pick up from me and after listening to a podcast talk about how great it was, I was determined to pick it up. Now I actually picked these up at two different shops on Free Comic Book Day(FCBD). I got the FCBD version at my usual shop, I Want More Comics; then the first issue I picked up at Hero Headquarters. Why did I get them at different shops? Well the FCBD version was available at my usual shop but not the first issue. When I went out a second time to get some issues for a friend of mine I found this variant edition. I also didn’t notice until I got home that the variant edition I picked up was in fact a wrap- around cover. This was the only issue left that I managed to get, so finding out that it was also a wrap-around cover was an added plus.

Now I said going forward I was only going to be collecting Poison Ivy, Deadpool and Wolverine WWIII because I also got two mystery boxes of comics that I want to go through. However this Blood Hunt storyline is making me really think about adding it to my comic list.

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

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Thought this was a cool and clean spread for a title open.

Cover & Story - Free Comic Book Day Blood Hunt 1*

As mentioned before the covers on these two books are freakin’ sweet. I’ve always been a big fan of vampire stories and movies like Blade, Twilight and Underworld. So seeing superheroes up against vampires is like a match made in heaven for me. On the FCBD cover the superheroes featured are Spider-Man, Daredevil and two members from the Fantastic Four, Sue Storm and Reed Richards. There is another character wielding a sword that we later find out is Blade’s daughter, Brielle Brooks. It’s a really neat cover that does a good job showcasing a horde of vampires. 

The story for this one is pretty short; we are shown four different areas that are dealing with something called “darkforce.” In Manhattan we have Spider-Man fighting off some being that ends up exploding into what I can only describe as a tornado of darkforce matter. Next Reed Richards and Sue Storm are alerted of multiple dimensional breaches and are worried that it might be the darkforce dimension. Daredevil is then seen fighting off a slew of vampire in Hell’s Kitchen; and Blade’s daughter Brielle Brooks is also fighting some vampires when she stumbles upon none other than….

No way! Dracula is in this? Of course!

Cover - Blood Hunt 1 Variant Edition

So this cover was quite a surprise when I got home. I didn’t realize it was a wrap-around and since it was already a cover I really liked, I was pretty stoked to check out what’s on the back. Similar to the FCBD version, this cover features a variety of superheroes on the cover fighting a butt ton of vampires. Thor, Captain America and Scarlet Witch are on the front; on the back we’ve got Doctor Strange, Spider-Man but in a different color suit than the FCBD version, Blade and I want to say Iron Man. Also on the front of the cover we have a vampire ripping the face off some skull, not sure if it’s supposed to be a known superhero but it looks pretty badass.

To start off, I was a bit lost with what the panels were talking about in regards to each one having a “Sundeath” along with a time. It looked like the numbers were all counting down but I couldn’t be sure because on the following page we jump back to a higher number than before. It begins with Scarlet Witch and Iron Man trying to get a sense of what is going on. They determine that there are reports of other superhumans exploding into darkforce portals. Next we got Hunter’s Moon and Tigra, two characters I am unfamiliar with, but they get jumped by another horde of vampires. 

What I really liked was an inclusion of a key players sheet that named off all the characters we need to know starting with Avengers; Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, Thor, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Vision and Captain America. The Midnight Mission consists of Hunter’s Moon and Tigra, while the last group is unnamed but is made up of Spider-Man, Blade, Doctor Strange, Clea and Doctor Doom. After that we get some more pages consisting of panels showing an apocalyptic world ruled by vampires with the “Sundeath” time. Then Spider-Man shows up and is fighting vampires and asks the question, “What would Blade do?” Well Blade shows up, says he has a plan and needs Spider-Man. All the Avengers are fighting their own separate battles but Blade is able to contact them and says he has information and that they all need to meet up.

This panel of Thor with a wooden stake through his head is wild!

Well that ends up being a huge ambush by Blade and the Avengers are all beat to shit by a bunch of villains called the Blood Coven. Thor gets whooped, Vision gets stabbed, Iron Man gets his suit taken apart, Captain Marvel endures excruciating pain, Captain America gets tossed across the room through a wall, Wanda is being overpowered. It’s all hands on deck and the Avengers are losing badly. Thor gets what I can only assume is a wooden stake, right thru his head. Black Panther gets struck down and the Blood Coven says they have to keep the world symbol alive, meaning Captain America I think?... 

I sensed something was going on with Blade, but a part of me wonders if someone is controlling him…

We cut to Bleeker Street and come upon Doctor Strange and Clea frantically trying to assemble a formula that would fix everything. But they are visited by Blade, who tells them there is someone who is uniting the vampires to compete against the Avengers. Doctor Strange thinks it’s Dracula but Blade tells him no, it’s someone else (considering the ending of the FCBD Blood Hunt, we see Dracula meeting Blade’s daughter Brielle and fighting alongside her). We land on the last page and BAM! Blad stabs Doctor Strange from behind and says, “It’s me.” WOW! What an ending and awesome artwork to tell this story. I’m really tempted to get the next issues.

Overall 5 / 5

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Review: Ms. Marvel Beyond the Limit #1

Our issue today? Ms. Marvel, Beyond the Limit! I picked this up at the same time I got Poison Ivy mainly because of the new Ms. Marvel show on Disney+. Click the link If you want to check out Poison Ivy’s review. A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

This was my choice for picking up some women led comics, plus I wanted to get a bit of head start in understanding who Ms. Marvel is before getting into the show. For instance I would have loved if I read a series of Moon Knight before watching the series just so I could get a better understanding beforehand. Now this is a mini series of only 5 issues but I felt that because it’s so short I would be able to get a quick overview of who she is, but that didn’t seem to be the case especially with this first issue, but more on that later. Let’s start with the cover.

Cover So this issue is slightly different than the other ones I have chosen because all the others were on the new issue rack and drew me in with their covers. This issue was in the back of my comic book store in the cardboard file cabinets. Also for some reason the M’s aren’t marked so it took me a couple minutes just to find what box started with Ms. Marvel. As for the actual cover design I’m a big fan. Ms. Marvel is featured front and center but also surrounded with 5 other poses/versions of herself. In some of the poses her limbs are extended so it’s cool to see a bit of her abilities before getting into the book. It doesn’t hurt that the cover is yellow which happens to be one of my favorite colors to use, especially in cover design.

There are panels like this that I don’t understand, did she already do all these things?

Story The comic starts with Kamala visiting her cousin Razia’s place for a little vacation that her parents had suggested. During their little breakfast meal together it’s apparent that Kamala’s cousin is a brilliant physicist. They discuss some a wormhole possibility that could travel to other dimensions and something called the Polchinski Box, which I’m not sure if this is some foreshadowing or not. Bruno is mentioned but we find out that Kamala and Bruno have kissed which led to some awkward consequences. Going back to talking about other dimensions and universes, Kamala mentions that there is some sort of closed system that exists and that’s how she is able to borrow matter from her future self and able to return it to her regular present self. It’s a bit confusing but it seems as thought she is trying to further understand where her powers come from and if other versions of herself exist. Razia tells Kamala to check out the bean in downtown Chicago, which leads us to the image above. While looking up at the bean, we find out that Kamala’s powers were activated by an ancient alient mist and morphed into Captain Marvel.

The story telling seems a bit spotty and skips certain aspects

While gazing at the bean and thinking about her powers, she bumps into some random dude and remembers she had to meet her cousin for lunch. She rushes to the campus, as she arrives she hears a crash and someone yelling, “Noooo.” Kamala finds Razia knocked unconscious but catches a glimpse of someone in a trench coat trying to get into a big wall safe. We finally see her abilities as she extends her arm and apprehends the burglar. As this happens, he drops some type of cube and screams, “What have you done?!” He darts off as Kamala puts the object he was trying to steal back in its spot.

This was pretty cool and I hope we do get to see more versions in this series.

But while Kamala is holding onto the object to place it back in its spot, she sees a bunch of different versions of herself. The object then gets extremely bright but Kamala is able to place it back. This next part is what kind of irked me a bit. Kamala goes and checks on Razia, somehow she is able to determine that Razia will be ok and nothing major happened to her. She then just leaves! She calls 911 and then goes to catch her airplane?? Like what??

Your cousin was just assaulted and then her lab was almost robbed. How do you just leave that? She gets in taxi cab and just sends a text to Razia to let her know she’s headed to the airport and that she had a good time. Kamala arrives home in Jersey City, then the narration mentions everything is ok with Razia? Again, I’m just not sure why all of that was just glossed over. While home, Kamala notices her parents acting a bit out of place as well as she hears a rustle outside of the window. She seriously cannot understand what is going on, her parents are dancing? She even thinks their bodes have been hijacked by aliens. All of sudden Kamala is in different clothing, her parents dancing, petals everywhere and loads of people outside singing and dancing.

She’s not sure what is going on and decides to change into her suit, except her suit is completely different. But before she can even wonder why, she gets knocked to the ground and is on the verge of being trampled by an elephant. Then we get a full page of Loki atop an elephant. Ok, things just started getting interesting.

Loki? Did not expect them to show up!

Overall Rating I give this a 3 out of 5 rating. I’m a little lost in terms of what is going on and maybe that’s the point. But I would have liked just a bit more information at the beginning. I just picked up issue #2 so hopefully we find some things out soon.

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Review: X-Men Class of '92 House of XCII

Behold, the first X-Men comic on Coffee, Cannabis and Comics. This is one of the issues I picked up when I first went to my local comic book shop and with issue #2 coming out shortly I felt it was a good one to do next. For this one I smoked Sugaree Mama from my local shop, Callie’s Shoppe while reading and while writing this post. A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

At the beginning when I was trying to figure out what comics I wanted to read or start reading, I had in the back of my mind to find a X-Men comic. Part of it has to do with the version of Wolverine that is featured in this run. So leading into the cover, here are the main things that stood out to me and got me to pick it up off the shelf.

Cover On the cover of this issue we have Professor X/Charles Xavier in the front of the group. Behind Professor X we then have Cyclop/Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Magneto/Erik Lensherr and Wolverine/Logan. It was pretty dope to see them all on the front together. I wish the hover wheelchair that Professor X looked a bit cooler but his Cerebro mask looks dope(at least I think it’s his cerebro mask)

But what REALLY drew me in was the way Wolverine was illustrated. I absolutely love this version of him with his yellow spandex costume and huge winged mask. Reminds me of the cartoons from awhile back.

I’m really digging this punk ruck neon color intro page.

Story We are brought right into the action in the first page of the comic with the X-Men fighting the Sentinels(pretty much mutant hunting robots) Storm, Jean, Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit and Rogue are all kicking ass but also trying to not blast the walls because they are actually out in space! WTF! As we see in the spread below, Trask is mad at himself for renouncing his campaign against the mutants. But Wolverine seems to be hell bent on revenge. But we don’t know why and who they are grieving about. All of the sudden, Gambit throws his whole deck and blows a hole in the station. We don’t know who’s dead but Jean said she can’t sense Rogue, Beast or Gambit anymore. Right then, Cyclops/Scott is obliterated by a Sentinel.

Wolverine is so badass!! Man I love this illustration and seeing him go ham!

Trask is found by Wolverine and Wolverine talks too much shit that it allows time for Trask to send his data to another research facility. Jean can sense Trask’s relief and realizes they are too late. Rogue tells Jean to “Call him, Jean. Tell him the mission is in his hands now” but we don’t know who “him” is. The next panel we see Magneto destroying the station after saying “You have my word, Ms. Grey. Magneto shall end this.

I thought this illustration was great to show the power that Wolverine possess.

Meanwhile we are brought to Earth and end up at the Krakoan Embassy, New York City. Psylocke is giving a tour to someone and they are talking about if the X-Men are gone who will defend the people rush their doors. Psylocke sends a telepathic message to Cable asking for help. Cable sends three of their finest and they fight the angry group of people outside. As they are walking ,there is a huge explosion in the sky and they wonder if the X-Men were successful in destroying the newest Sentinel program.

The next spread shows Professor X with the group and Magneto. They talk about completing the mission and then that the Resurrection Protocols worked all thanks to The Five. Wolverine is pissed as someone died but was not brought back. They let him go grieve in his own way. We then get an explainer about Krakoa and that its a refuge for all mutants.

Then at the end we find out who was killed and not brought back, Jubilee. They didn’t know how to back up mutant minds using cerebro when she was killed; but we also find out that it was her death that united them all so she needed to be kept hidden/thought to be dead.

At the very end of Issue 1 we see Jubilee, has she been hiding this whole time??

Turns out that she was able to escape death at the last second but if she dies now, everything will reset. She then says that they needed to make sure the Orchis Protocols don’t come online, cause if they do everything will end. We then see Wolverine sniffing the cave and thinking it’s possibly Jubilee.

Overall Rating I give this a 4/5. The action, the illustration and the colors were all so good. It was a thrill to go through each page but I found myself having to Google quite a few things because I didn’t know back story on it all.

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Review: Wolverine, PATCH Issue #2

Welcome back to Coffee, Cannabis and Comics. If you missed the review of PATCH issue #1 you can check it out here. A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

I’ve gotten to experience the excitement of going to the comic book shop to pick up the next issue only to be disappointed when it’s not there. That was fun, for all of 5 seconds. After walking around for a bit and trying not to get interested in another series, I headed out for another shop in downtown Denver called Mile High Comics. It was freaking huge and slightly overwhelming at first. But once I walked around the entire place and figured out where things were it was a bit easier to digest. Eventually after about 15 minutes or so, I found issue #2 of PATCH. Stopped at my local dispensary as well and for this issue I smoked some Ice Box Pie from Billo and that is where we begin…

Cover Now this cover is completely opposite of issue #1. The cover on issue #1 was primarily dark/black featuring PATCH/Wolverine in a suit, giving me major 007 vibes. On issue #2 we see him with his clothes shredded, his hair disheveled and his claws fully out engaged in a fight with Beth in front of a sunrise(sunset?) background. Beth is also featured on the cover of the first issue, but only her head is visible. She and her brother are mutants with enhancements, just like PATCH. Also one thing to note, the #1 issue I own of PATCH is a second printing.

Looks like we’ll be getting these S.H.I.E.L.D. dossier’s with each issue, great way to recap the previous issue.

Story Love that they did a S.H.I.E.L.D. Dossier again as the opening spread. It gave me a quick overview of issue 1:

At the end of issue 1 PATCH encounters Beth and her brother Gimel, enhanced Russian mutants, that proceed to beat the shit out of PATCH. Leaving him for dead, or so they thought. He gets back up and follows the trail of blood left behind by Beth. Issue 2 opens up with PATCH searching through the wooded area for the two that attacked him, then he notices the SHIELD Helicarrier still up in the area above the area he’s investigating. On the Helicarrier, a soldier mentions something about the mutants not showing up on radar anymore and vanishing.

The text “wip wip wip” is so well placed and written that I can imagine this entire scene perfectly

PATCH is getting attacked once again but by a tribe native to the land, meanwhile a KGB agent Major Tatiana Nemikova shows up to meet with the Prince. The man who hired PATCH in the first place.

It seems like everyone is spying on everyone at this point. Because S.H.I.E.L.D. is spying on the land overhead, Archie and Tyger are also flying around spying on General Coy, who seems to be up to something in the area that PATCH is investigating. Anyways something is going on, the natives of the land are scared of everyone but also investigating why the monkeys of the forest are being kidnapped.

This panel was freaking crazyyyy

Things seem to be all over the place. General Coy and his men happen upon PATCH and the natives but after realizing they are not enemies they seem to be working with each other now. A gun fight ensues, natives are shot down as their bow and arrows prove no match for the guns the army had. BUT THEN PATCH gets back up and starts slicing and dicing the group of soldiers. We are blessed with this badass panel of PATCH’S claws uppercutting a soldier. Again I love how the text is treated across these big action panels.

PATCH and the surviving natives end up reaching a cave and out comes the Russian enhanced mutants. As they take care and help PATCH regenerate, a new character appears. Jean!

Overall Rating I give this a 4/5. There was a bunch of action and awesome panels but I was lost for a second with the different groups. It took me reading a couple times to understand who was all in play.

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Review: Wolverine, PATCH Issue #1

Hi there and welcome back to Coffee, Cannabis and Comics. If you missed my last post about my first comic book experience you can check it out here. Before we begin, let me give an overview of how I will be reviewing each comic issue, starting with Wolverine PATCH, issue #1.

My plan is to do a short snippet of the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Now let’s get started on this comic book review. I picked this issue up because since growing up with Hugh Jackman playing an awesome Wolverine, I wanted to experience something different. Almost like the last movie Hugh Jackman did Logan. I also visited my local dispensary on the same day and picked up some concentrates to enjoy while reading my comics. For this issue I smoked Slurricane by Billo, it was nice indica that helped me relax and appreciate the art on each page of this comic. 

Cover At first glance this cover piqued my interest because Wolverine is in a suit. Then I noticed he was wearing a patch and that the issue was called PATCH. Other than Wolverine I didn’t know anyone else on the cover; but that didn’t really bother me. I was more interested in Wolverine and this other side of him. I did a quick flip through the pages and decided to add it to my basket. The art style does a great job showing character emotions, action and is easy to follow along.

The SHIELD Dossier was a great little overview before reading.

Story What I thought was pretty freakin cool was the S.H.I.E.L.D. Dossier that is included in the very beginning of the comic. It gave me a quick overview:

Wolverine is currently living incognito under the alias Patch in Madripoor(I thought this was a real city, but it is in fact a fictional island located in maritime Southeast Asia according to marvelfandom) His base of operations is at the Princess Bar that he co-owns with Tyger Tiger and remains a powerful ally but because he sometimes goes off on his own, S.H.I.E.L.D. has him on their radar. 

Seems like everyone is wearing a patch these days.

It opens up with Patch chillin in the Princess Bar and being approached for a job to handle out in the mountain reserves. Patch isn't even remotely interested but upon hearing of CHA-CHING, he decides to check it out. So he heads out with his partner Archie Corrigan and proceeds to make me fall out of my chair laughing. Why? Well to stay out of  S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar and to avoid Nicholas Fury, Patch just jumps out of the f***ing plane and crash lands in the forest and cracks all his bones back into place. It ended up being my favorite panel in the entire book. 

This whole spread was awesome. Love how the sound effects are overlayed the image.

As he’s walking and wondering why he hasn’t come near the site yet he gets jumped. Beth and Gimel who I don’t know if they are mutants or enhancements. Turns out they are both, they beat the crap out of Patch and leave him for dead. Now while all of this is going on, Archie and Tyger think there is something else going on with someone named General Coy in the area where Patch just went. It ends with Patch regenerating and following the trail of blood left behind by the two who jumped him. 

Overall Rating on Comic Geeks I gave this issue a 5 out of 5 stars. I was informed right in the beginning of what was going on, who was involved and then thrusted into action. The art was compelling and the writing was easy to digest as well. Be sure to look out for my review of Wolverine Patch issue #2.

If you’re a cannabis consumer like me and like to keep track of your consumption, be sure to check out Chronicle below.