Mr. Spider-Woman

I finally had a chance to watch Deadpool & Wolverine on Disney+ last night. I was able to remain mostly unspoiled. I realize the point of the movie was to bring Deadpool and Wolverine together but I was expecting more than a barrage of jokes and bloody fight scene after bloody fight scene. I found the movie confusing. I have not seen any episodes of Loki and don't know much about the TVA. Why does the TVA keep dropping people into the Void? Why didn't the TVA step in during the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness? Is the universe the bulk of the movie set in the same universe as the first two Deadpool movies (and Logan)? So Wade and Vanessa really did break up after all they went through in the first two movies? Wade gave up being Deadpool to become a car salesman? Are the various Marvel characters who ended up in the void (Elektra, Blade, Johnny Storm) the same characters from their respective movies? If so, I hate what they did with Johnny Storm. I enjoyed the two Fantastic Four movies. If not, I'm still not a fan of what happened to the character. And I don't understand how he survived falling out of the sky and seemingly breaking his neck. Wolverine's crawling around with his claws was weird. Gambit was ridiculous and over the top. There were way too many characters, too many villains. Why were all the Deadpools working for Cassandra Nova? Why was she bald? Ultimately, I was disappointed. The first Deadpool is a fantastic movie. Deadpool 2 isn't as good but still enjoyable. Deadpool & Wolverine left me unsatisfied with too many unanswered questions and a weak plot. I'm glad other people enjoyed it but I don't see myself rewatching this any time soon. EDIT: One last thought: how does Deadpool & Wolverine fit into the MCU? We only see Earth-616 briefly. Is there a Deadpool in the Earth-616 universe?

This isn't about the big fancy collections, and I'm not sure if the same thing happened to other titles, but it bothers me that Marvel released four hardcovers collecting most but not all of Dan Slott's Fantastic Four (Volume 6) run. I bought them, assuming Marvel would finish out Slott's run, but the fourth hardcover came out in December 2023 and there's no sign of a fifth. I can finish the run with the last two trade paperbacks but I'd much rather have all 46 issues in hardcover. Maybe sales were low. Or maybe Marvel didn't want to put out a hardcover with just six issues or mix Slott's final issues with the two David Pepose wrote. Now that I think about it, those two Pepose issues haven't been collected either in hardcover or TPB.

I think it's MJ Holding that stocks Walmart. I wonder if MJ Holding asked to downsize how much product they stock at the Walmart near me or if Walmart decided to take away shelving units in the collectibles aisle. Either way, it's a lot of empty space where Walmart could put something else. I think at one point there were stacks of bottled water next to the trading cards. Now there's nothing.

I'm still ever-so-slowly chipping away at my Silver Age Sgt. Fury collection, which will never be complete because I'll never be able to afford #1.

Fantastic Four (Volume 1) #371 [April 1993] It's not a great picture but this isn't much of a cover to look at. My existing copy was discolored along the spine with a straight edge. Sun shadow, I think that's called. Found this in the wild to replace it. Fantastic Four (Volume 3) #4 [April 1998] Fantastic Four (Volume 3) #49 [January 2002]

I haven't seen comics at my local Walmart in months. I checked and I posted about seeing the 7 for $10 bundles back in April. Nothing since then. Not even a place where they could be. The collectibles aisle has been reduced from six or seven shelving units to three. Mostly MTG, Disney Lorcana, Pokemon, and sports cards that seemingly sit forever. It's a far cry from pandemic days when nearly everything sports flew off the shelves. That's probably why store management decided to downsize. Stuff just isn't selling. The weird thing is, they totally removed three or four shelving units rather than stock them with something else.

Star Trek: Generations (January 1995) Fantastic Four Volume 3 #2 (February 1998) Marvel Adventures Flip Magazine #2 (September 2005)

So close to being caught up. Latest scans: Even as a low grade collector I'm not happy with my copies of #54 or #57 so will probably try to upgrade to slightly higher low grade copies eventually.

I'm almost caught up, here's another batch of scans: #46, #47, #49, #50, #51, #52 #52 appears to be missing the IND. distributor code as well unless it was printed in black and is hard to see. Notice that #49 has the code printed in white on a black background so clearly Marvel could do that.

I'm lucky, I have a room just for my collectibles that doubles as an office so my comics are pretty close to my scanner. Here's the next batch of scans from my FF collection: #34, #38, #39, #42, #43, #44 Try as I might, I can't find the IND. distributor mark printed on the cover of #43. Also, another post or two and I'll be caught up to where everyone else is.

This thread inspired me to restart my scanning project, starting with my low-grade Silver Age Fantastic Four collection. Here's the first batch, a few of which I may have shared already: #7, #25, #26, #28, #32, #33

You're not wrong, that #24 is pretty darn white. Not quite as bright as the #54 with the washed out scan but probably the closest to pure white I've seen.

Thanks for replying and sharing the other picture. I figured it was the scan because the red in the Fantastic Four logo didn't look quite right, either, but thought maybe for some reason the cover to this issue is prone to browning due to a shockingly white cover. I don't think I've ever seen a Silver Age Marvel comic with a pure white cover.

Is it just the scan or is the cover on this book multiple degrees whiter than all the others?

Looooooow grade but affordable for me. Not actually new this week but I just stumbled upon the pictures I took a while back to share here.

This was the first "big" purchase of my comic collecting career. I paid $18 for it around 2000 or so. Maybe a few years before that, maybe a few years after that. And $18 was a lot of money to me as a kid. The cover is fully detached. Here's one of the comics my mom gave me in the mid-1990s when I got into comic books. She collected Marvel for a few years circa 1966-1968. #50 was the earliest FF in her small collection. I also have #53, #58, #66, and #70 from her. They were in rough shape when I got my hands on them and sadly I don't think I was as gentle with them as I should've been. I didn't know anything about bags and boards back then. I can remember little pieces chipping off.

Babylon 5 #1 (January 1995) Babylon 5 #2 (February 1995) Babylon 5 #7 (August 1995) Babylon 5 #10 (November 1995)

Technically these came out of a $0.50 bin, not a dollar bin.

I just finished reading through this and I really enjoyed the look back at what was my early collecting days. I think I started seriously collecting around 1995/1996. I definitely recognize the look (trade dress?) of many of the Marvel covers you've posted. I think the only comic you've posted that I bought myself when it came out is Captain America (Volume 3) #6 with Cap as a Skrull. I do also have the Starship Troopers miniseries you posted the first issue of and the entire Earth X limited series, but bought those long after they were published. What's most interesting to me is that when I switched from subscribing through Marvel to subscribing through Direct Comic Book Service (DCBS), I branched out from a strictly Marvel pull list and starting buying a lot of books from DC and other publishers. Scrolling through the DCBS website looking at all the covers and synopsis was a ton of fun, much like your experience with the Westfield catalogs. Sometimes I was hoping to buy something that turned into a big book later on but probably the only time that worked out was Spider-Man Noir. I'm looking forward to continuing to see what books you unbox. I don't think you've posted any Fantastic Four issues yet, though. I hope there are some waiting to be rediscovered.

The Walmart closest to me had maybe 10-12 of the 7 for 10 bundles. I saw Eternals, Darth Vader, Edge of Spider-Verse, maybe a Venom cover.

Oh wow, I had no idea. I love weird giveaway/promotional comics like this.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #25 (January 2006)

I went back to the antiques mall where I found the Dell TV tie-ins I posted earlier hoping to find more. No such luck. But I did find this beauty:

I wholeheartedly agree with everything you've written.

I'm happy with my beater readers. They're the best I can afford. I do get a little jealous looking at nicer copies though.