Welcome back True Believers! You know coffee and comics are two of our favorite things—and they go together so well! Thus, each week in this space we offer the top five comics we are enjoying with a cup of our coffee. We also love our community and want to know what you are reading and what Coffee 'n' Capes coffee you are drinking. Share your reading and drinking choices with us at supers@coffeencapes.com.
And. here. we. go:
FEATURED COFFEE:
This week's featured coffee is Merv Pumpkin Spice. Fall is here, that time when our dreaming is full of leaves on the ground, a chill to the air, and pumpkin spice coffee. Merv Pumpkin Spice is the perfect blend of pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg to bring your morning, or afternoon, cup of coffee that touch of fall we love.
This limited time only roast is best enjoyed on crisp fall mornings, day dreaming while sipping and reading your favorite comic books, or walking through the park. Merv Pumpkin Spice—a hauntingly good medium roast. You might even say it’s dreamy.
On to the comics!
5. Black Cat #9 (2019)
I don’t know how it is wherever you are, but here in Illinois at ye ol’ Coffee ’n’ Capes headquarters, it is chiiiily today! Grey sky, blustering wind, the hint of rain not far off…it truly feels like Halloween is almost here. Thus there is no better way to kick off this week’s Top 5 Comics with Coffee than by having Black Cat cross your path. Issue #9 is the pick because it takes a break from the big Black Cat v. Odessa Drake war. (Who?? I don’t really know either, honestly. Though the narration keeps telling me she’s deadly dangerous.) Instead we get a Felicia Goes to Madripoor! story from writer Jed MacKay and artist Kris Anka. Black Cat has to steal a precious painting that sources tell her belongs to…Mr. Patch! Only she doesn’t know who Mr. Patch really is. Can you imagine? It's kinda cute, really. She should have looked at the cover art for a clue. Is it bad luck for a Black Cat to cross paths with a Wolverine? I say no way! It’s a fun team-up; you should check it out. (N.B. We have a pretty special Black Cat #10 ratio variant for sale but that’s from 2021. Why there are two different series so close together, is something else I don’t really know.)
4. Hellions #11 (2020)
Holy geez but does this issue just scream Halloween time. First, the name of the book (and team) is Hellions. Next, the story thus far has Arcade manipulating Mastermind into trapping the team in their own personal nightmares. Nightmares that could kill them. The place is called Murderworld, after all. Now in issue #11 writer Zeb Wells and artist Stephen Segovia give us one of the most maniacal, mind-bending fights of all time: Psylocke vs. Betsy Braddock! For 50 years! Wait, what? Actually we don’t get quite enough of the struggle between those two. But it is there as it has been for years, slowly coming to a rolling boil. At some point it will explode. Anyway, this issue and this team have plenty of mayhem to make for an enjoyable October read. I mean, just look at how creepy that cover is!
3. Werewolf by Night #1 (2020)
There is never a bad time for a good werewolf story, but mid-October feels like the perfect time. It seems Disney/Marvel agrees, if you’ve watched the new Werewolf By Night special on Disney+. This book is not that story, but rather a reboot of sorts that tells the tale of Jake Gomez not Jack Russell. In this version written by Taboo and Benjamin Earl with art by Scott Eaton, Jake is a Hopi teenager living in Arizona. Teen wolf Jake inherits the family curse, is feared by the locals, and hunted by Red Wolf, now a U.S. Marshal. Fortunately for Jake, he has Granny Rora and his good friend Molly to help him navigate it all. Will “emo-wolfboy powers” be enough when nefarious activities begin taking place at the pharmaceuticals plant where Jake works? Check out this book to find out!
2. Something is Killing the Children #17 (2021)
As I promised two weeks ago, October means more Something is Killing the Children. Erica’s origin story continues here in issue #17. (Bonus! We get St. George’s origin story too. Not the Order, the actual St. George. Well, you know, “actual.”) She’s 12 years old, she’s just seen her parents and her best friend killed by a monster. An actual monster, which she now knows are real. And she now knows monster hunters, the Order of St. George, are real too. Will Erica survive initiation? James Tynion IV is a fantastic writer and his artist partner Werther Dell’Edera matches the tone and vibe just perfectly. The use of shadow, the indistinct lines, the expressive eyes. All of it just works so well. These are tortured people, the Order. With all the hunting, killing, death, and secrets, how could they be anything but tortured. Yet the storytelling and art are so fantastic I always want to know and see more. Can their hiatus be over already?! No? Ok. I guess we’ll have to keep rereading these first 26 issues. Savor this one.
1. Eight Billion Genies #1 (2022)
What if everyone on earth, all at the same time, received their own personal genie who would grant one wish? That’s exactly what happens in this incredibly well-done and entertaining book written by Charles Soule with art, colors, design and multiple covers by Ryan Browne. For what would you wish? Money? Fame? Love? Superpowers? For Santa Claus to be real? For the moon to be carnivorous? (Who even thinks of that??) It is all available thanks to eight billion genies (hence the title) suddenly appearing and announcing their ability. And, yeah, it goes about as well as you’d expect: basically all hell breaks loose. The world gets pretty spooky—some people even become undead. All that makes this not just a terrific book, but a terrific book to read this week as Halloween crawls ever closer.