August 22, 2018- CURSE WORDS SUMMER SWIMSUIT SPECIAL #1, DARTH VADER #20, DAREDEVIL #607

Moving right along through August… we have the Curse Words Summer Swimsuit Special! Interior art by guest artist Joe Quinones, colors by Addison Duke, letters by Crank! and cover A by Ryan Browne and cover B by Joe.

So, yeah. This issue was Team Curse Words’ nod to the strange, amazing swimsuit special issues that Marvel would put out in the 90s. Total cheesecake, especially the X-Men issues. They were fun, but very much an artifact of their era. So, why not drop our crazy cast of evil wizard jerks into a similar situation? We couldn’t think of a single reason why not, and here we are.

The story here is a done-in-one, although it’s designed to work as a pretty direct sequel to our last seasonal interstitial issue, the winter Holiday Special. These issues sort of track the burgeoning relationship between Wizord and Ruby Stitch, before everything goes to hell (literally and figuratively.) Will we do another one? I don’t know! They’re always fun, but we’re starting to look toward the end of the story we’re telling (Curse Words has always had a planned endpoint - we’re not cancelling or anything,) and another special might not be in the cards. We shall see!

And then… it’s another scary evil wizard, the Dark Lord of the Sith himself, in Darth Vader #20.

Art and cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli, inked by Daniele Orlandini, colors from Erick Arciniega and Dono Sanchez-lmara, the cover was painted by Elia Bonetti, and letters from VC’s Joe Caramagna. 

This is the second part of the FORTRESS VADER story, which as of this writing has only one additional issue out, #21. So, we haven’t gotten to Mustafar yet in this issue, although the arc is, in fact, about Vader’s construction of his castle on that burned-up world. Issues 19 and 20 are both deeply related to how it all happens, though, and once it’s all done, I think you’ll see the throughline, and why I made these choices for the story. Vader is finding himself in a galaxy that may or may not have a purpose for him any longer, and he is… not dealing with it well.

And finally for this week, it’s Daredevil #607! Art and cover by Phil Noto, colors from Matt Milla, and letters by VC’s Clayton Cowles.

This issue is the second part of the “Double Vision” arc, which reintroduces Mike Murdock to the Marvel Universe. It’s also the issue where the reason Mike’s physically “real” now is explained. This was tricky to figure out, since there never really was a Mike Murdock - jerkwad brother to Matt. He was just a dumb secret identity Matt briefly tried out in the 60s to throw people off the scent that he’s Daredevil.

I always thought there was potential in Mike Murdock, though, and reaction to this little three-parter has, ahem, seemed to have proven me right. People really dug this story, which was gratifying. I was sure I’d get some heat about the way Mike came to be, involving the strange reality-altering powers of the Inhuman Reader… but nope! People rolled with it. Comics, you know?

Okay… on to the next week!