Author: Graeme McMillan

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I Pick Myself Up And Get Back

Like some fading action hero staring into the distance in the dimly-lit room at the midpoint of a movie, I’ve been realizing that I don’t heal as quickly as I used to — although, while the action hero’s moment of awareness would have been heralded by surviving a set piece that likely involved no shortage of gunfire, a shattered window or two and likely a fall of a couple of stories at the very least, mine came about because of a random gardening accident.

It’s been weeks since I accidentally got a stone embedded in my ankle thanks to a weed whacker run amok, and although it was certainly pretty deep in there — the amount of blood that gushed forth when I prized it out was enough of a giveaway about that — I’m still surprised that it hasn’t entirely healed over just yet; I looked down in the shower today to see the scab still formed and wondered how long I’d be stuck with this unlikely addition. It made me think about the fact that I still have the ghosts of scars from the animals clawing at me, too, even though those are even older, and I got to thinking about how the body changes and starts prioritizing what to work on as you get older.

(I can still get out of bed every morning without pain, and my back hasn’t given out on me yet; I’ll take both of those things over more elastic skin any day, I admit.)

At the dinner with the team before San Diego Comic-Con this year, there was a moment where I looked down and realized that my left hand was bleeding. I had (and still have) no idea whatsoever how it had happened — there was nothing that I could have cut myself on anywhere near me, as far as I could see, but there I was, with a big bleeding gash on my hand. I made a joke to everyone else as I wandered away to ask a waiter for a band-aid or two, but even then, I thought to myself, is this just something that happens now? Am I just going to start bleeding for seemingly no reason?

That cut is still on my hand, too, and occasionally it still sends a sting up my arm to remind me of that, out of nowhere. There are things you don’t think about as your body ages, and there’s something almost welcome about that, in a way. It’s nice to still be surprised, 50 years in.

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Still Around The Morning After

I had a thought, the other day, upon realizing that a bunch of comics I’ve been buying in back issues lately aren’t ones that I collected back in the day, but ones that I read from the collection of my best friend in high school; I realized that I had inherited the issues originally when he quit reading comics himself, and I thought, back when he outgrew comics, just like everyone else at the time except for me and the other shy, painfully quiet loners I’d see at the local comic book store.

I thought that, and then I realized that… that probably doesn’t happen anymore. At some point in the decades since I was a teenager, buying and reading comics became, if not mainstream then at least not something that is a topic of open derision by your peer group. I’m almost nostalgic about the whole concept now, looking back.

I remember the point when I thought to myself, oh, I’m a comic collector now, and I can even remember the specific comic book issue when I realized that I wasn’t just reading comics off-handedly; it was something that was specifically an active interest, something that I wanted to do and do intentionally. (That was Uncanny X-Men #185, by the way, by Chris Claremont and John Romita Jr.; I don’t know why that issue was the one, but it was. It still took ten months for me to call myself a collector, though; I didn’t do that until I bought Uncanny X-Men #195.)

Throughout my late teens, I remember that buying and reading comics was a particularly solitary activity, that I’d find the stores and go there myself or drag along a friend or even family member despite their obvious disinterest. It was something that I kept to myself, as much as I’d occasionally attempt to convert people I thought could be like-minded and easily convinced. It rarely worked; for the most part, it was something I did and kept to myself.

There’s really is something I almost miss about all of that. As lonely as it was — and it was! — there was also something… exciting about feeling as if I spoke a secret language that no-one else around me understood, or the thrill of realizing that other people could understand, when that connection was made. The world is different now, where everyone doesn’t just recognize Spider-Man and Superman and Batman, but Metamorpho, Shang-Chi, and Moon Knight, as well. How did that even happen?

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Those We Leave Behind

I’ve been getting very self-conscious when it comes to checking out of a hotel room recently. Not the act of checking out itself, I should explain: the whole process of going to the front desk and making small talk to answer the questions of how was your stay and I hope you’ll be coming back again soon? isn’t something that particularly bothers me. (Honestly, I find the small talk at check in more uncomfortable, for some reason; chances are I’m here for work and I don’t really care about the minibar, I promise.) Instead, I’m talking about everything that happens before I actually leave the room for the last time.

There’s an obvious finality to closing that door for the final time that leaves me wracked with doubt: Have I packed everything? Am I sure that I’ve packed everything? Maybe I should check the bathroom one more time, maybe I forgot my toothpaste. The older I get, the longer it takes me to leave a hotel room, because I’m increasingly convinced that in doing so, I’ll leave something of great value behind. Never mind that I rarely have anything of great value in any hotel room I’m in, beyond my work stuff; I become anxious at the idea that anything left behind would suddenly become valuable, retroactively.

All of this was in my head as I checked out of my hotel in San Diego the other week, only for the regular check-out process to be interrupted by a couple literally running into the lobby of the hotel and immediately rush to the elevators, where one of them jumps in and the other runs back to the desk, all-but-yelling “Do our keys still work? Do they?” They’d left something — a vape, as it turned out — in their room and it was apparently of the most upmost importance that they retrieve it, to the point of mania.

I watched the couple’s utter panic with no small sense of amazement, but also relief: no matter how fearful I might be of leaving something in a hotel room, I’d never be that bad, after all. As I’m thinking that, the wife turns to the woman at the front desk and says, conspiratorially, “It’s like this every time. I don’t think we’ve left a hotel without having to rush back in and scream in years.”

Sometimes, all you need is the slightest hint of perspective to set you straight.

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The Movies of July 2025

The list below doesn’t show that I saw Superman twice in the theater — I really liked it! — or that the Billy Joel documentary was somehow five hours long over two separate but connected movies. (The first one was really good, the second less so, in part because there is genuinely just less material in his whole “I am successful and ruining all my relationships because no-one wants to fully address that I’m a self-sabotaging alcoholic” thing, as evidenced by the number of people offering variations on, “it’s really hard to be a success, no-one knew what he was going through” for two hours.) It is however, an accurate reflection of the movies I watched last month, including the fact that I went on a Soderbergh/Clooney kick mid-month because I didn’t have good wifi in my hotel room for San Diego Comic-Con but the three movies were on TV over a handful of nights.

(Also, you can thank Jeff Lester for me watching Charlie’s Angels, but it was great. The Shrouds, less so.)

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The Comics of July 2025

The curse of Comic-Con strikes again, and then some — having a lack of wifi in my hotel room at SDCC this year (don’t ask; it was very frustrating) meant that I couldn’t read anything on Marvel Unlimited, DC Universe Infinite, or any other cloud-based reader for a full week, putting me slightly behind my reading totals of the past few months. Still, it’s not about how many comics, right? Right?

Anyway: I transitioned out of reading Fantastic Four before the movie came out — honestly, the movie hype might have overloaded me on the characters? — and opted in, instead, to revisiting some of Al Ewing’s Marvel stuff from the past few years and related stories, which is how I ended up both a Defenders and Guardians of the Galaxy rabbit hole at the end of the month… although what brought me to both Avengers vs. X-Men and Avengers vs. X-Men: Versus, I really couldn’t tell you.

Anyway: Here’s what I read comic-wise last month, delayed just a little because I wanted to complain about The Fantastic Four: First Steps first.

  1. Captain America (2025) #1
  2. All-New Venom #8
  3. Avengers (2023) #28
  4. The Immortal Thor #25
  5. Empyre #s 1-2
  6. Fantastic Four (2018) #21
  7. Iron Man (1968) #226
  8. Captain America (1998) #13
  9. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes II #3
  10. Green Lantern Corps (2006) #2
  11. Iron Man (1968) #s 227-231
  12. Empyre #3
  13. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #s 284-285
  14. Captain America (1998) #s 14-15
  15. Iron Man (1968) #232
  16. Empyre #s 4-5
  17. Fantastic Four (2018) #s 22-23
  18. Empyre #6
  19. Empyre Aftermath: Avengers #1
  20. Empyre Aftermath: Fantastic Four #1
  21. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #286
  22. The Ultimates (2024) #13
  23. Fantastic Four (2018) #24
  24. Captain America (1998) #s 16-18
  25. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #287
  26. Iron Man (1968) #233
  27. Avengers (1963) #120
  28. Captain America (1998) #19
  29. Defenders (1972) #13
  30. Green Lantern Corps (2006) #3
  31. Eternals (2006) #1
  32. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #288
  33. Transformers (2023) #s 19-22
  34. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #289
  35. Captain America (1998) #s 20-22
  36. Fantastic Four (2018) #25
  37. Iron Man (1968) #234
  38. Avengers (1963) #121
  39. 2000 AD Prog 2441
  40. Archie Meets Jay and Silent Bob #1
  41. The Power Fantasy #10
  42. X-Men (2024) #19
  43. X-Men: Hellfire Vigil #1
  44. The Amazing Spider-Man (2025) #7
  45. Where Monsters Lie #1
  46. Blood Squad Seven #1
  47. DC All In Special #1
  48. Challengers of the Unknown (2024) #s 1-5
  49. The Question: All Along The Watchtower #1
  50. Lucas Wars OGN
  51. Drome OGN
  52. Fantastic Four (2018) #26
  53. Avengers (1963) #122
  54. Captain America (1998) #23
  55. Captain America (2017) #695
  56. The Question: All Along The Watchtower #s 2-3
  57. Marvel Fanfare #7
  58. Where Monsters Lie #s 2-3
  59. Local Man #1
  60. The Question: All Along The Watchtower #s 4-6
  61. Iron Man (1968) #s 235-236
  62. Defenders (1972) #13
  63. Avengers (1963) #123
  64. Where Monsters Lie #4
  65. Fantastic Four (2018) #s 27-28
  66. Captain America (2017) #696
  67. Justice League: The Atom Project #1
  68. Action Comics #1064
  69. Superman (2023) #13
  70. Void Rivals #s 7-12
  71. Star Trek (2022) #19
  72. Thundercats (2024) #1
  73. Avengers (1963) #124
  74. Captain Marvel (1968) #s 25-27
  75. Captain America (2017) #697
  76. Fantastic Four (2018) #s 29-30
  77. Fantastic Four: 4 Yancy Street #1
  78. Fantastic Four (2018) #31
  79. X-Men/Fantastic Four (2020) #s 1-2
  80. Fantastic Four: Prodigal Son #1
  81. Fantastic Four: Marvels Snapshots #1
  82. X-Men: Marvels Snapshots #1
  83. The Legion of Super-Heroes Annual (1982) #1
  84. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #290
  85. Fantastic Four (2025) #1
  86. The Fantastic Four: First Steps #1
  87. It’s Jeff: Infinity Paws #1
  88. X-Men/Fantastic Four (2020) #s 3-4
  89. Fantastic Four (2018) #32
  90. Captain America (2017) #698
  91. Superman: House of Brainiac Special #1
  92. Action Comics #1065
  93. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #291
  94. Void Rivals #s 13-18
  95. Captain Marvel (1968) #s 28-33
  96. Avengers (1963) #125
  97. Captain America (2017) #s 699-700
  98. Iron Man (1968) #237
  99. Fantastic Four (2018) #33
  100. Defenders (1972) #14
  101. Marvel Legacy #1
  102. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #s 292-293
  103. Superman (2023) #1
  104. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #294
  105. Superman (2023) #2
  106. Fantastic Four (2018) #34
  107. Iron Man (1968) #238
  108. Superman (2023) #s 3-4
  109. Captain America (2017) #s 701-704
  110. Iron Man (1968) #s 239-240
  111. Steelworks #s 1-6
  112. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #295
  113. Green Lantern Corps (2006) #s 4-6
  114. Avengers (1963) #126
  115. Defenders (1972) #15
  116. Avengers (2016) #675
  117. Uncanny Avengers (2015) #s 26-27
  118. The Spectre (1992) #54
  119. Final Crisis: Resist #1
  120. Avengers (1963) #127
  121. Fantastic Four (1961) #150
  122. Uncanny Avengers (2015) #s 28-30
  123. Avengers (2016) #676
  124. Iron Man (1968) #241
  125. Fantastic Four (2018) #35
  126. Avengers (2016) #677
  127. Iron Man (1968) #242
  128. Avengers (1963) #128
  129. Defenders (1972) #16
  130. Superman (2023) #5
  131. Superman Annual (2023) #1
  132. Iron Man (1968) #s 243-244
  133. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #s 296-297
  134. Avengers (2016) #678
  135. Fantastic Four (2018) #36
  136. Avengers (1963) #129
  137. Iron Man (1968) #245
  138. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #s 298-299
  139. Giant-Size Avengers #2
  140. Avengers (1963) #130
  141. Avengers (2016) #679
  142. Marvel Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes & Rivals #1
  143. Fantastic Four (2018) #37
  144. Iron Man (1968) #246
  145. Fantastic Four (2018) #38
  146. Avengers (2016) #680
  147. Iron Man (1968) #s 247-248
  148. Avengers (1963) #131
  149. Void Rivals #19
  150. G.I. Joe (2024) #9
  151. Avengers (2016) #s 681-684
  152. Contagion (2019) #s 1-5
  153. Iron Man (1968) #s 249-250
  154. Fantastic Four (2018) #39
  155. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #300
  156. Fantastic Four: Reckoning War Alpha #1
  157. Avengers (2016) #685
  158. Iron Man (1968) #s 251-253
  159. Avengers (2016) #686
  160. Superman (2023) #6
  161. Fantastic Four (2018) #40
  162. Iron Man (1968) #s 254-257
  163. Avengers (1963) #132
  164. Giant-Size Avengers #3
  165. Avengers (2016) #687
  166. Superman (2023) #7
  167. Superman: The Last Days of Lex Luthor #1
  168. Avengers (2016) #688
  169. Fantastic Four (2018) #41
  170. Fantastic Four: Trial of the Watcher #1
  171. Avengers (2016) #s 689-690
  172. Quicksilver: No Surrender #s 1-5
  173. Avengers: No Road Home #1
  174. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #301
  175. Beyond! #1
  176. Fantastic Four (1998) #544
  177. Inhumans Prime #1
  178. Absolute Green Lantern #1
  179. Beyond! #s 2-6
  180. Fantastic Four (1998) #s 545-546
  181. Absolute Green Lantern #s 2-3
  182. Superman: The Last Days of Lex Luthor #s 2-3
  183. Superman (2023) #s 8-9
  184. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #302
  185. Fantastic Four (2018) #42
  186. Avengers: No Road Home #2
  187. Iron Man (1968) #s 258-260
  188. Superman (2023) #10
  189. Fantastic Four (2018) #s 43-46
  190. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #303
  191. The Legion of Super-Heroes Annual (1982) #2
  192. Marvel Comics #1000
  193. Defenders (2021) #s 1-3
  194. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #304
  195. Iron Man (1968) #261
  196. Fantastic Four (1998) #547
  197. Avengers: No Road Home #s 3-4
  198. Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #1
  199. Supergirl (2025) #3
  200. Batman & Robin: Year One #9
  201. Superman (2023) #28
  202. New History of the DC Universe #2
  203. Justice League Unlimited (2024) #9
  204. Justice League: Dark Tomorrow Special #1
  205. JSA (2024) #s 9-10
  206. Batman (2025) #1
  207. Absolute Green Lantern #s 4-5
  208. Superman Unlimited #3
  209. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #41
  210. Titans (2023) #25
  211. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #s 305-306
  212. Imperial #2
  213. Metamorpho: The Element Man (2024) #s 1-2
  214. Superman (2023) #11
  215. The New Adventures of Superboy #50
  216. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #307
  217. Iron Man (1968) #s 262-263
  218. Defenders (2021) #s 4-5
  219. Defenders (2011) #1
  220. Fantastic Four Fanfare #3
  221. The Insurgent Iron Man #10
  222. The Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #308
  223. Defenders (2011) #s 2-3
  224. Iron Man (1968) #264
  225. Metamorpho: The Element Man (2024) #3
  226. Letter 44 #1
  227. Free Comic Book Day 2022: Avengers/X-Men #1
  228. Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe #1
  229. AXE: Judgement Day #s 1-6
  230. AXE: Avengers #1
  231. AXE: X-Men #1
  232. AXE: Eternals #1
  233. The Brave and the Bold #200
  234. Batman and the Outsiders (1982) #1
  235. Roxy: Romance Reborn #1
  236. Letter 44 #s 2-7
  237. Avengers (1963) #133
  238. Avengers: No Road Home #5
  239. Defenders (2011) #4
  240. Fantastic Four (1998) #548
  241. Royals #1
  242. Guardians of the Galaxy (2020) #1
  243. Annihilation: Scourge Alpha #1
  244. Guardians of the Galaxy (2019) #1
  245. All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #1
  246. Demon Knights #1
  247. Superman (2023) #12
  248. Action Comics #1065
  249. Superman (2023) #s 14-15
  250. Spider-Man vs. the Sinister Sixteen #1
  251. Amazing Spider-Man (2025) #8
  252. GODS: One World Under Doom #1
  253. Uncanny X-Men (2024) #18
  254. West Coast Avengers (2024) #9
  255. Assorted Crisis Events #5
  256. Ultimates (2024) #14
  257. Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) #19
  258. All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #2
  259. Royals #2
  260. Defenders (2011) #5
  261. Demon Knights #2
  262. Incredible Hulk vs. Quasimodo #1
  263. Secret Six (2025) #s 5-6
  264. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #38
  265. Justice League Unlimited (2024) #6
  266. Royals #s 3-4
  267. Archie: The Decision #1
  268. Duke (2023) #s 1-4
  269. Royals #s 5-6
  270. Defenders (2011) #6
  271. All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #3
  272. Avengers vs. X-Men #0
  273. Batman (2025) #2
  274. All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #s 4-9
  275. Iron Man (2012) #1
  276. Avengers vs. X-Men #1
  277. All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #10
  278. Defenders (2011) #7
  279. Royals #7
  280. Fantastic Four (1998) #549
  281. Fear Itself #1
  282. Avengers vs. X-Men #1.5
  283. All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #11
  284. Royals #8
  285. Duke (2023) #5
  286. Cobra Commander #s 1-2
  287. Avengers vs. X-Men #2
  288. Avengers vs. X-Men: Versus #1
  289. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest Annual #1
  290. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #39
  291. Justice League Unlimited (2024) #s 7-8
  292. Avengers vs. X-Men #s 3-4
  293. Avengers vs. X-Men: Versus #2
  294. Avengers vs. X-Men #5
  295. Avengers vs. X-Men: Versus #3
  296. Avengers vs. X-Men #6
  297. Superman (2023) #16
  298. Cobra Commander #s 3-4
  299. Defenders (2011) #8
  300. All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #12
  301. Avengers vs. X-Men #s 7-9
  302. Avengers vs. X-Men: Versus #s 4-5
  303. Avengers vs. X-Men #s 10-12
  304. Avengers vs. X-Men: Versus #6
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Cynicism in the Face of Adversity

So, I finally saw The Fantastic Four: First Steps, a movie that might have done better in its opening weekend if Marvel hadn’t opened it at exactly the same time as San Diego Comic-Con, where roughly 160,000 of its target demographic were too busy to go find a movie theater anywhere closeby. I was at more than one Marvel panel that weekend where someone on stage would ask, “Hey, who’s seen Fantastic Four? Oh, huh, less than half the room,” as if it was a surprise. Sometimes, I think people forget that there’s a limit to pop culture obsession even for people spending thousands of dollars on a convention weekend away.

Anyway, First Steps was… fine, I guess? I couldn’t help but feel as if it had the bad luck to open two weeks after Superman, a movie that was far more charming, coherent, and successful at convincing the audience that it was hopeful and optimistic and sincere — in a world where this had been the first superhero movie anyone had seen after, say, Thunderbolts or Deadpool and Wolverine, I’m sure it would’ve played differently for a lot of people, me included.

There’s one line in the movie that hit such a sour note that it’s still in my head days later: Reed Richards explaining how hard it is to be him by saying that his genius allows him to identify threats and work out “ways to hurt them before they hurt us.” I heard that and I just thought, nope, that’s not a hero, that’s the entire basis of this being a more optimistic story/world down the drain. It was one line that immediately made everything surrounding it feel more cynical and cold, and also made me feel somewhat sad about the movie and everyone involved in its creation: This is what a selfless, old-school hero looks like to you? This is what you got from all the Reed Richards in all the comics? Really?

What I love about the best Fantastic Four comics is the sense of adventure, discovery, and potential that’s on display — and, honestly, there’s little of that on display in the actual movie, with what’s there basically being a surface-level step back from outright cynicism and a muddy aesthetic. Superman made me believe in Superman; The Fantastic Four: First Steps made me believe that Marvel Studios is going to work out how to keep being Marvel Studios no matter the project.