If you aren’t reading the Secret Wars Tie-In, A-Force, you really should. It’s worth for the banter in issue 5 alone (A-Force Issue 5 on Comixology).
Tag Archives: secret wars
Marvel Collector’s Corps: Secret Wars Unboxing
Although this is the third Marvel Collector’s Corps box that Marvel and Funko have put out, it’s the first one that I am doing an unboxing for. Back in July it was announced that this month’s theme was going to be Secret Wars. I’ve been knee deep reading comics for Marvel’s Secret Wars event, so a whole box dedicated to Secret Wars is right in my wheel house.
First lets get a rundown of all the items in the box:
- Marvel Collector’s Corps Secret Wars Pin
- Marvel Collector’s Corps Secret Wars Patch
- Secret Wars Funko Pop Tee
- Exclusive Marvel Collector’s Corps Secret Wars Issue 1 Variant Cover
- Ultimate (Miles Morales) Spider-man Exclusive Funko Pop Bobble Head
- Lady Thor Exclusive Funko Pop Bobble Head
First there is the Collector’s Corps Pin and Patch which look like they will be coming with every shipment.
This is only the third Collectors Corps box to be released but the first to have more than one exclusive Pop Vinyl figure. Based on the art on the box (which was revealed ahead of time) I had guessed correctly that one of the figures would be Lady Thor and was very pleasantly surprised to find not only Lady Thor but Ultimate Spider-man too.
I was also pleasantly surprised to find that they had altered the box to put a divider in order to prevent the figures from jostling around too much during shipping. This is a great improvement as the box for my Ant-Man figure from July got crushed during delivery.
Next is the T-shirt which is my favorite T-shirt to date. It is a Funko Pop Tees brand shirt with Captain America, Thor, Ultimate Spider-man, and War Machine. The Ant-Man shipment also had a Funko Pop Tees shirt so hopefully this is the type of shirt we will get going forward.
Last, and certainly not least is a exclusive Secret Wars Issue 1 Variant Cover with the Pop Thor on the front. It came in a poly bag with board so you don’t have to worry about it getting messed up during shipping. I’m not super worried about keeping it for resale so I’ll probably take it out of the bag but haven’t done so yet.
I’ve been receiving the Marvel Collector’s Corps boxes since they first started back in May just to get the Exclusive Hulkbuster Pop Figure. I kept it through the July box to see what the Ant-Man themed box would have and was a little underwhelmed when I got it. If this August box had been something other then Secret Wars I probably would have canceled. However, this has been my favorite box in the series by far and has got me much more excited about the series on the whole. On the website it says the boxes cost 25 dollars but after shipping and taxes it comes out to around 35 dollars, which is a lot. It does help that they only come out every other month but it’s still a high price for possibly only a single exclusive Funko Pop Figure. If every box is as good as this box I don’t see me canceling my subscription anytime soon!
Summer Pull List Cleaning
Source Hrjoe Photography
With DC launching their new DC You titles and Marvel finally announcing their plans for after Secret Wars I decided to do a little Spring Summer Cleaning of the old Pull List. To start off, here is what my current Pull List looks like:
Physical Books
- Wytches
- Angela: Asgard’s Assassin
- All-New X-Men
- Spider-Gwen
- Jupiter’s Circle
- Fight Club 2 (LS)
- Wonder Woman
- Batman
- Batgirl
- Gotham Academy
- Superman/Wonder Woman
- Jupiter’s Legacy (LS)
Digital Books
- Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman
- Catwoman
*LS indicates it is a limited series and not ongoing
My ultimate goal is to bring this list down to a lean mean 10. Fight Club 2 is a limited series but is coming out monthly so I consider it a number in my list. Jupiter’s Legacy is so infrequent that while it is on the list I don’t really consider it a “monthly cost”.
Here are the books I dropped:
- Wytches
- Angela: Asgard’s Assassin
- Jupiter’s Circle
- Gotham Academy
- Superman / Wonder Woman
These books aren’t bad but I find my self letting them stack up 3-4 months at a time with no desire to read them. I may pick them up as a trade later but as for now they are just costing me money. I never really enjoyed Jupiter’s Circle so it was the easiest book to drop. Jupiter’s Legacy has come out once so far this year so I feel pretty safe keeping it on my list. Wytches was ok but I’d rather read it collected 6 issues at a time in a trade rather than go monthly. Angela: Asgard’s Assassin and Gotham Academy were both pretty good for the first arc but I still lost interest. Superman / Wonder Woman has been good but it lost a lot of what I liked when they switched artists and it was no longer Tony S. Daniel.
Here are the new books I’m adding:
Physical Books
- Extraordinary X-Men
- Uncanny X-Men
- Old Man Logan
Digital Books
- Justice League: Gods and Monsters
- Justice League of America
This will have me pulling all of the main X-Men team books with the addition of the Old Man Logan solo book. I’ve been pulling All-New X-Men for a while now and while I’ve really enjoyed it, have missed out on crucial information by not pulling the other main X-Men Books. So with all of the Marvel books getting rebooted to number 1 it’s a good time to get in on the ground floor of all three main X-Men books at once.
The only ongoing new DC comic book that I’ll be adding is the new Justice League of America from Bryan Hitch. I’ve gone through the whole list of new DC books and this new JLA is really the only one that I’m interested in. I’ll be getting Justice League: Gods and Monsters but it is a limited series and will be ending on July 18th.
Secret Wars Game Plan
I decided to really jump right into the deep end with this summer’s Secret Wars event so it’ll mean buying a lot of comics and spending a lot of money. I’m not planning on going overboard and buying all the tie-in issues, so far I’m looking to spend between 60 to 100 dollars total for the whole event out of pocket. This means if the rest of the main series Secret Wars issues cost 3.99 just the main series will cost 34 dollars which leaves 26 to 66 dollars for tie-in issues which is approximately 9 to 22 issues.
Here is my plan of attack. I’m going to start by picking up the new Secret Wars main series and read them as they come out. That will give me the primary (convoluted as it is) story along with little glimpses of what is going on in the different Battle Worlds. So if they mention a Battle World that seems interesting I’ll pick up its tie-in issue. But if a particular Battle Work seems lame or covers something I don’t care about, I won’t pick up their tie-in issues.
There are some tie-in issues I’ve pre-ordered because I liked their original story (House of M, Civil War, Old Man Logan, etc.) and are already on my pull list.
I’m going to also read the original 1985 Secret Wars as homework along with Marvel’s “True Believers” first issues of tie-in books (some I have already read but it would be a good refresher) which include (which you can get on Comixology for 99 cents here):
- Infinity Gauntlet 1
- Marvel Zombies 1
- X-Men Alpha 1
- Civil War 1
- Planet Hulk 1
- Civil War 1
- House of M 1
- Wolverine 66
- Iron Man 225
- Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (2011) 1
- Age of Ultron 1
If by the end of its first issue I like the story I’ll read the rest of that story arc, and if I really like it I will possibly pick up the new Secret Wars tie-in issues. The new Secret Wars tie-in story arcs I am on the fence for or not interested in I’ll wait 6 months and read when they come out on Marvel Digital Unlimited.
The best way to go about reading these back issues is through Marvel Digital Unlimited, its 60 dollars a year or 10 dollars a month and has most back issues up until about 6 months ago. Marvel Digital Unlimited is like Netflix in that its an all you can read streaming service. There are apps for Android and iOS for the service and these apps are really the way this service is meant to be used. Marvel Digital Unlimited has a large back catalog so it includes the complete event and tie in’s for almost every Battle World in the new Secret Wars so you aren’t breaking the bank to buy them all.
I’m also going to attempt to read some of the recent Robert Hickman issues of Avengers that he’s been doing for the last 3 years that lead up to Secret Wars. All of these Avengers issues I’ll be reading on Marvel Digital Unlimited and so there will be a 6 month gap which I’ll just read them as they come out on MDU (Marvel Digital Unlimited).
We’ll see how this goes. I’ll post again at the release of issue 4 of Secret Wars which will be the halfway point and see if my plan worked and how I feel about the event in general.
Comic Books and Cats 
