"The End" Week: Black Cat #10!

Not picking on Jed MacKay, this was just next in the pile! From 2021, Black Cat #10, "Infinity Score, part 3" Written by Jed MacKay, art by C.F. Villa, color art by Brian Reber. I had this variant, that wasn't in the GCD, by Ema Lupacchino and Brian Reber.

Although this was the last issue of this series, it wasn't the end of the storyline: it would wrap up in Giant-Size Black Cat #1: Felicia was after the Infinity Stones, which were currently embedded in people, giving them powers, even if she didn't think much of them. Nick Fury was after her, as well as Nighthawk this issue: not the classic, but the new one from Coulson and Mephisto's Squadron Supreme! Nighthawk remembered the Heroes Reborn universe (not that one, the other one...man, comics sometimes) and Felicia from it. He tries to sway her, to bring back what he considered a better world; maybe with them as a couple? But, Nighthawk also uses the past tense, when talking about her mom, so no deal. (Which is weird, because Felicia is such a daddy's girl; I don't think I knew she had contact with her mom. I thought at best it was like Daredevil's mom, if not Bambi's...)

Fury isn't quite trying to murder Felicia--yet--but absolutely can't have those two working together, since he didn't want to "wake up living in the United States of Nighthawk or some damn thing." But, she's saved by Odessa, who I had not seen before: she forces Fury off with a rocket launcher. Odessa appears to be part of some guild, presumably thieves'? I don't know if it's the same thieves' guild seen in Gambit books, either. She's breaking some rules to help Felicia, who's trying to stall for time, that Odessa will probably cave and give to her; but there was at least one other miscreant with an Infinity Stone out there...(Odessa also seemed to have ninjas, who drop back for her and Felicia's conversation, like they did not want in on that drama!)

This wasn't bad, although not as good as Felicia's current book! After this series, I think she had multiple ones with Mary Jane, as Jackpot or just herself. Read more!

"The End" Week: Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #15!

This feels like a recent trend, or maybe just an accelerating one, as far as "last" issues goes: while ostensibly an ongoing series, a book might have a last issue, so it can kick off with the hype of a new number one. Which is hopefully still a thing? Marvel's acting like it, anyway. We saw the "end" of Moon Knight two years back with Moon Knight #30. (Eight variant covers! Sweet Khonshu.) Then, someone returned in a version of his costume, for Vengeance of the Moon Knight, which had more variant covers than the series had issues. (Although I wouldn't mind the variant for that last issue, which appears to be Godzilla giving Khonshu the business.) Next, Marc Spector returned, for Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu, which just got cancelled! Or ended. Either way. And I think this is somehow a fairly successful book? From 2025, Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #15/LGY #255, "The Haunting of the Wrecker, finale" Written by Jed MacKay, art by Domenico Carbone, color art by Rachelle Rosenberg.

In an earlier storyline, Moon Knight had been forced to buy an assist from the Wrecker, who then came to him for help with a ghost problem. Someone calling themselves "the Executor" had summoned the ghosts of the Wrecker's victims to haunt him, and both Moon Knight and the Scarlet Scarab get haunted by ghosts from their mercenary days. With the Wrecker possessed, Moon Knight thinks he's going to have to use the soul-eating Asgardian sword Ginnar (um, actually it's from Vanaheim) but the vampire Reese defuses the situation; in a clever fashion that I won't spoil here.

Unhaunted, the Wrecker is pretty pleased with himself, which pisses Marc off: despite the Wrecker's accusation that his hands weren't exactly clean either, they weren't the same. Marc was trying to get better, while the Wrecker was a remorseless psycho. He calls in an assist, to give the Wrecker the what-for; but after he says goodbye to the Scarab, Marc is tranqed and kidnapped!...to be continued in Marc Spector: Moon Knight #1 in February! MacKay was staying on as writer, but this feels like a smidge of a shake-up; to get Marc away from the support of his...supporting cast, and dig into him being crazypants again, judging by the preview.

So that post from 2023 had the then-most recent last issues of Moon Knight, Punisher, and Daredevil: surprisingly, Frank has returned, although I don't think he has a regular series back yet; and DD appears to be headed for another relaunch as well!  
 

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"The End" Week: Heroes for Hire #19!

I'm pretty sure sometimes you guys can tell, when I blog some random issue mid-year, that the last issue will turn up later. Like today! From 1999, Heroes for Hire #19, "Sold Out!" Written by John Ostrander, pencils by Pasqual Ferry, inks by Jaime Mendoza and Pasqual Ferry.

Like the earlier issue we mentioned, this starts conversationally, with Ostrander seemingly telling the reader since this was the last issue, maybe not everyone makes it out...? Nah! This was the conclusion of an adventure in Madripoor, which of course includes a Wolverine guest-spot; as the team faces the pirate Lionsmane, who was really a mutant Chinese general. He was planning on overthrowing the current Chinese government in the future, but currently didn't care if Madripoor was blamed for his acts. He also had gotten Shen Kuei, the Cat, to change sides: that might have been planned from the start, or maybe because this issue had Shang-Chi Ostrander didn't need the Cat anymore? Who can say?

Wolverine sees the Heroes as "flamin' amateurs," as he brings Madripoor's working-class thugs to defend it; but he does need Iron Fist's help with Lionsmane, since he had some degree of invulnerability and Wolvie's bone claws couldn't penetrate. But, while victorious, the Heroes get bad news back home, as Namor had told Jim (Human Torch) Hammond that he had sold Oracle, Inc. Namor had wanted to do more environmental-protection work with the company, but the Heroes for Hire weren't necessarily conducive to that; and he no longer wanted to funnel Atlantean wealth to a surface company, so he sold out to Stark-Fujikawa. ("Stark-Fujikawa" was maybe a throwaway line in Spider-Man 2099, but they tried to make it happen for a while! And I'd almost suspect Tony bought the company, to get his long-standing assistant Mrs. Arbogast back!) A corporate man tells the team changes were needed, like firing ex-cons Luke Cage and Scott Lang, as to not project the wrong image. Everyone quits immediately, which might have been the intention; although She-Hulk threatens legal action if their severance packages were messed with. The team goes their separate ways; no hard feelings.

Hammond also has a cat on his shoulder when he quits, and I had to check: this was long before he adopted Speedball's cat Niels; dude just likes cats! He also maybe didn't have his powers this series, but still tended to look like he was going to burst into flames at any moment. Read more!

Still more holiday reruns, but they probably get better ratings than that Kennedy Center Honors thing.

Man, I still didn't even get my Christmas figures out this year! And there were new Star Wars Black Holiday figures this year, too. They, and Marvel Legends, may be branching out past Halloween and into Valentine's Day now...I am going to make probably my safest prediction ever, and bet I can get a "Love You 3000" Iron Man for like ten bucks at Ross come June. The pink Ewok is a toss-up, 50-50 it lands there too.

I never did see those McFarlane Bat-Santa figures in-hand, either? Or get any of the other 1/12 scale Santa figures. Some year maybe.

Anyway, this maybe hasn't been the holliest, jolliest X-Mas of them all; but I do have a smidgen of hope for the future. Also, a figure that feels like it was pretty much made specifically for me is coming next week, so...it can't rain all the time, or at least that's what the Crow soundtrack taught me. Of course, now I live in like the rainiest part of the world that doesn't have outright monsoon season, and I'm pretty sure it's gonna rain on me driving all day.

Old Christmas re-runs after the break, and tomorrow, "The End" Week continues, since we had an early kick-off there. And the year-ender is coming! Merry Christmas, everyone! All the best.

It's not a perennial holiday classic...yet; but I rerun this one every Christmas: "How Deadpool saved assisted didn't wreck had Christmas." See how our production standards have barely incrementally changed in so many years! Although, Die Hard wasn't universally accepted as a Christmas movie back then, as it is today.

As usual, click to unwrap, er, enlarge. Not sure of the setup? The first strip's waaaay back here.





What the heck, you've been good this year...he says, based on nothing; so let's have another holiday re-run: "Jingle Bells, Blame Mattel..."

And for good measure, here's the 2015 Christmas strip, "Do They Know It's X-Mas Time at All?" Pool and Kurt had been in space for about 21 months at that point, so yeah, that plotline went on.

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Still another "The End" Week! Starting early this year, because...

It's once again about the last week of the year, where we traditionally get a big ol' pile of last issues for "The End" Week, but we're getting an early start, since this issue is actually set on Christmas Eve! From 2009, Punisher War Journal #29, written by Matt Fraction, art by Andy MacDonald. Cover by Ariel Olivetti.

What was this, the second volume of War Journal? We saw the conclusion of the original, with the other 80's Punisher titles, a few years back with "Countdown." This one is less high-stakes, as it's the night before Christmas, and Frank's outside a bar...the same bar he blew up in PWJ #4, now rebuilt. Frank knew some hardware had been stolen from the Tinkerer, and was waiting to see who had it. A collection of minor-league thugs are gathered in the bar, which one figures the Punisher would think nobody would be dumb enough to go back to. He had stolen a Stilt-Man suit, and thought they could form a new gang with it; except all of them want to be Stilt-Man. One, a cop-killer, pulls a gun on the others and nearly takes the suit; but is then outgunned by the bartender and kicked out of the bar, where he's immediately shot by Frank. No one notices.

While the gang decides on their new Stilt-Man, and Frank bides his time to kill them all, he is then interrupted by the Rhino, there to feed the Vulture's pigeons. Rhino had helped Frank in a previous issue, and was very much the idiot with a heart of gold; but more importantly was too big of a name for Frank to straight-up kill, so...Rhino thinks this is a Christmas miracle, that maybe Frank doesn't have to murder those guys: "You punish the guilty, Frank. Not the stupid." As the new-ish Stilt-Man lurches down the street (and he and the gang still don't notice the body outside the bar!) Frank grudgingly has to admit Rhino was right. (Would it have been hacky, if the new Stilt-Man then immediately, accidentally and repeatedly stepped on a busload of kids? Frank scowling at Rhino like "see?") 

Frank would get a relaunch, with a new Punisher series, tying into Dark Reign, as he tried to get past the Sentry, to murder Norman Osborn. C'mon, Frank, they wouldn't even let you kill the Rhino...

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"Fronkenstein."

This isn't the most Christmas-y of strips, but nothing to be done for that! I don't know if anyone else has done this, but I had this idea: what if Wolverine was haunted? Either the metal in his bones, the claws, or the whole package. I don't know if he's the psycho-killer Claremont once claimed--a lot of his kills seem to be either completely justified or because someone pushed their luck--but his body count was substantial: what if instead of haunting where they died, these ghosts stayed with him? Literally, instead of metaphorically. I may have somehow conflated DC's nth metal of Hawkman with adamantium, and wondered if they had similar properties against ghosts. Or maybe opposite properties, like adamantium holds them with it...Also, this is a two-fer for Darick Robertson references! Kurt ran into ghosts in his 2005 solo series, and Logan should be haunted by these guys: he killed a bunch of mobster little people (trying not to use the m-word, it may be considered a slur now) in Punisher #17, "Aim Low" with Garth Ennis! Logan gets swamped when he's got like three of them impaled on the claws on each hand...  

In the same vein as nth metal though, I lose track of Daimon Hellstrom, which might be because he's not always consistently portrayed in the comics. Which might even be addressed, in a run of Venom, of all places: Daimon apparently magically made copies or variants of himself, to investigate the upcoming demonic "Descent." The copies may not even be sure if they're the original or not; but it does give writers leeway to do whatever they want: this frees Daimon up for use as a contact for exorcisms as we saw in Avengers #23/LEG #723, although he had previously been seen as part of Baron Zemo's inner circle in Avengers Undercover #1. He was also briefly part of the Hellfire Club; although I think that plot was copied from Magneto's brief stint as part of the Club: join up as the White King, to maybe try to mitigate some of the Club's worst impulses. Oh, and of course "Fronkenstein" is from Young Frankenstein: since like Frederick there, Daimon sometimes tries to distance himself from his heritage. Sometimes.

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