Mark's Epic Blog of Randomness

 By Mark Rodriguez Last time, Raphael was grounded for breaking one of Donatello's inventions and stays home while the others go to check out a food festival. He gets a call from Mona Lisa to help her investigate someone constantly breaking a new museum exhibit night after night. They encounter a mummy, who is actually mutated bandages named Bakari who explains he continuously breaks the device to prevent the release of a mutant villain named Ptah. Bakari was so busy fighting off Raphael and Mona Lisa who first thought he was a bad guy, that now he got them on the same page, Ptah has finally escaped into the modern world. "Mystery at the Museum Part 2- That's a Wrap for Ptah" opens with Leonardo, Michaelangelo and Donatello returning to the lair a little past midnight. They call out for Raphael and say they came home late since they checked out a 'Stormy the Dog' movie. Michaelangelo says they saved him a slice of pizza, while Leonardo says it was six slices....

 By Mark Rodriguez Spider-Boy follows the trope of 'he was there all along, we just couldn't see him'. He was somehow displaced from our reality... and now he's back and he's adjusting to it. He has his own series and has been appearing in the new Superior Spider-Man mini-series. Let's see what this Trick or Read tale brings us.  The issue opens with Spider-Man and Spider-Boy facing off against a villain with a bowling ball for a head called Gutterball. Despite looking silly, he is armed with two big guns and is shooting towards people at the bowling alley. Spider-Boy says he fought him before, but the villain doesn't recognize him.  Spider-Man leaps in for a punch, but Spider-Boy warns him that the villain's head is an Indestrct-O-Ball. Spidey hurts his hand upon landing a punch on it, while the villain gloats being unaffected. Spider-Boy goes low and legs weeps the criminal, saying he was setting him up and knocking him down. Spider-Boy throws Gutterba...

By Mark Rodriguez It looks like Halloween Comicfest has been replaced by Trick or Read.... and while last year Dark Horse, IDW and Kodansha released free comics alongside Marvel during the spooky season, this time only Marvel offered a small sample. Out of the five books released this year, Jupi and I only grabbed three. I went for the Venom one, so let's check it out. "They Fight" opens with Eddie Brock facing off against a red monster named Bedlam. Sometime earlier Eddie was separated from Venom, and the symbiote attached itself to his son. Eddie was sent to limbo where he became Bedlam, but the forces with the hellish dimension tore them apart. Now Eddie faces Bedlam in a small town run by gangs. Eddie tells Bedlam the only way out for him will be in chains. Bedlam says the only way out for Eddie will be in a coffin. The two throw punches, and the larger monster grabs Eddie's head and slams his face into the floor. Bedlam asks Eddie if he likes apples. Bedlam slam...

By Mark Rodriguez This min-series turned out to be an anthology of Black Widow running into several heroines of the Marvel Universe through different stages of her life. So far she had an encounter with the Enchantress when she was a still a girl training in the Red Room, she worked with the Wasp in the early days of her being an Avenger, and she was sent to investigate Miss Marvel when she first made her appearance. This time she'll be running into Storm. I bought the first three issues over at Bent Wookee during one of the Free Comic Book Days and figured I'd eventually find issue 4 down the line. I actually find it while combing through the long boxes at a comic shop called 'Stories', so let's check it out. The story opens in current day New York as the Black Widow is telling Storm to make it rain as hard as she dares to. Just then Widow sees a figure crawl out of the sewers, which is exactly what she was waiting for. Several green men crawl out of the sewers and...

By Mark Rodriguez Originally written on Saturday, April 6, 2013. Keep in mind, these were our thoughts as they were back in 2012 when the show was new and was written shortly after seeing the episodes after their initial broadcast. At the time we had zero way of knowing what to expect. This is an awesome episode that accomplishes so many things at once. Some focus on Xever, some focus on April, and Baxter breaking out of being Shredder's lackey to becoming his own villain again. Let's begin. This episode starts with the Turtles staking out The Kraang stealing an Endo-Particle Disruptor that could cause some serious damage. However, Baxter, Dogpound and Fishface are also planning to steal it for themselves. Baxter tries to lead them, but the mutants insult him and say he's lucky they let him live. The Turtles and the mutants jump in at the same time to attack the Kraang... and as you can tell, all shell breaks loose. Considering that this is the short scene played before the...

By Mark Rodriguez Originally written on Saturday, March 16, 2013. Keep in mind, these were our thoughts as they were back in 2012 when the show was new and was written shortly after seeing the episodes after their initial broadcast. At the time we had zero way of knowing what to expect. The episode opens, oddly enough, with Leo cooking ramen for his bros. Not only are the Turtles NOT eating pizza, but it's the first time we see someone other than Mikey or Splinter making food. I guess they take turns and whenever it's Mikey's turn it's always pizza related. As the Turtles enjoy their ramen, a roach crawls around the table and Raph freaks the hell out. He chases it and tries to smash it with his sai, but Don runs in and stops him. He has actually outfitted the roach with a mini-surveillance camera and plans to use it to sneak inside the Kraang's base to find out their plans. Using the spy roach, the Turtles discover that the Kraang are ready to move onto 'phase 2...

 By Mark Rodriguez This mini-series seems to be a bit of an anthology series as Black Widow encounters different Marvel women at various stages of her life. In the first issue she encountered Enchantress when she was still a young girl training in the Red Room. Last issue she worked alongside the Wasp when she was still new to being an Avenger. This time she'll cross paths with Miss Marvel, so let's see what happens. The story opens with the Black Widow checking out the Great Sky Hotel, in Ashood Israel, where apparently Miss Marvel stayed. There are no traces of her, and Widow realizes that Marvel is a professional like her. She monologues to the reader that Nick Fury assigned her to investigate Miss Marvel, which makes her a little uncomfortable. Black Widow has no super powers, and has always used the fact that an enemy will underestimate her as an advantage. Fury understands her full potential, which Widow sees as losing that advantage. Just then a truck speeds down the str...