Tops and Bottoms 28/2/2024

Morning,

It is almost the end of February and we are inching towards some warmer weather. The rains will stop, the Sun will shine, everyone will be happier and people will stop using social media. One out of those four will probably happen. But we can hope for more. My Well-being Seminar begins at 9.30am!

Meanwhile over at the Awesome Comics Podcast we had a three amigos episode. We’ve had a couple of months of great guests and it felt good to take pause and have a chuckle. We tackle some interesting areas from Comics Creation to so-called journalism. Have a listen and make your own minds up if we got it right.

I’m back on the road and have been at a conference that, in part, discussed the scary prospects of the use of Artificial Intelligence in politics and warfare. At one point in the conversation someone asked the totally genuine and serious question – “In all this, what happens to humans.” Strange times my friends.

In other catastrophic news there is a comic shop about 20 yards from the hotel I’m staying in. But it doesn’t open on Mondays and has been closed by the time I got there at 5.35pm! Keep strong Tony!

And so to the task at hand.

Tops.

I don’t know why this surprised me again but Ultimate Spider-Man issue 2 was really strong. I’d even put it as better than the first as, unlike the first issue, it had a lot of action featuring the title character. You really feel the personality of the cast and especially an older family man Peter. There’s a warmth and humour to Hickman’s writing here that I’ll admit I’ve missed in his more recent work.

Whilst Gang War rages across numerous Spidey titles in the 616 this is a welcome uncomplicated and well constructed single issue.

Couldn’t be a better time to add it to your pull list.