Comic Book Coffee Break #45

 Thanks for joining me on my Comic Book Coffee Break.  This week I'm having Starbucks' Pike Place roast, with cream and French Vanilla syrup. (I've been getting this more regularly after Eric and I visited the original Starbucks in Seattle.) 

Let's talk comic books!

I had bold ambitions last week and made good on a few. 

DC Comics

My only DC title this week was Green Arrow V.6: Trial of Two Cities by Benjamin Percy with art by Juan Ferreyra.  I'd been following a reading list of DC Rebirth and was making good progress.  Then I kept getting hung up on old stuff or digital originals. This was me getting back on track. I would generously call this run uneven, though truth be told none of these 6 volumes managed to rate about 3 stars. This one harkened back to the Mike Grell run quite a bit.  I'm a big fan of that run.  If you haven't read it, it's definitely worth it. (The Wonder Year is my all time favorite Green Arrow story.) If anything it made just want to reread that, but I still liked revisiting those themes and characters.  My favorite part about this was seeing the Mike Grell variant covers.  That was worth the price of admission alone. 

Marvel Comics

In the world of Marvel, I picked up Ta-Nehisi Coates Black Panther. I'd read book one of A Nation Under Our Feet a while back and didn't really care for it, but after reading some more of the author's work for Howe's Things, I decided to go back and finish this first arc. It's collected in a hardcover or as 3 trades. My feelings here didn't change much. It's like on Black Panther and pretty heavy on the talking. Interesting themes are being explored, but it doesn't make for interesting reading. I've learned I much prefer the authors non-fiction work, particularly In Between the World & Me. I don't think this will be a series I'll follow. (A while back I read the World of Wakanda spinoff and interviewed award-winning illustrator Alitha Martinez.  That was a very entertaining conversation.  She's fun.)

Finally, I finished Secret Avengers by Rick Remender V.3, art by Andy Kuhn. Talk about a book that evolves over the years. This went for a special ops Captain America book to Captain Britain guarding a portal to other dimensions while robot duplicates play out Shakespeare. While I wouldn't say I was all in on this ride, it did come to a pretty epic end. 

Next Time...

I've got a special Star Wars themed Quarter Bin. (Plus a new Star Wars Podcast!) Also, May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month so I'm going to let that guide my reading. I know for sure I plan to pick up some Cassandra Cain.  Other suggestions?  Let me know.

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You can find back issues of the video version of Comic Book Coffee Break here.

The audio version of Comic Book Coffee Break is over there. 

You can find me as the co-host of 9021 Here We G0: A 90210 Rewatch Podcast for the Radio Meanwhile Network. 

I also host Howe's Things, the podcast and radio show of the David A. Howe Public Library.