Comicon Takes Free Comic Book Day 2024!

Free Comic Book Day is like a holiday to geeks, and this year it falls on another geek holiday — May the Fourth. Your intrepid Comicon.com reviewers decided to get together and review the FCBD 2024 titles, and give our takes on as many of them as possible. So sit back and enjoy our thoughts!

Energon Universe (Skybound/Image) Created by Daniel Warren Johnson, Robert Kirkman, Joshua Williamson, Ryan Ottley, Lorenzo De Felici, Jason Howard, Annalisa Leoni, Matheus Lopes, Mike Spicer, & Rus Wooton

This one is a monster.

In one thirty page special, we get to see the future at all three Energon Universe flagships, and each one comes with a major reveal. In Transformers, the future of the Decepticons is teased. In Void Rivals, Hot Rod makes his debut and hints at a specific mission. And in GI Joe, an unexpected face joins the Joes, while some of Hawk’s plans for the GI Joe team are revealed.

Each one is a fun short, with a decently satisfying beginning-middle-end. The GI Joe short is most satisfying as a complete story, while Transformers was definitely the most exciting for a “what’s next?!” tease (maybe if I was more of a fan of Hot Rod, I would have liked Void Rivals more). The best part of all three though is the art, with each of the three art teams really delivering, and in the case of Ottley and Howard, makes me hope to see them both on each franchise later on down the line.

Rating: 9/10

Absolute Power (DC Comics) By Mark Waid, Mikel Janin, Trish Mulvhill, Ariana Maher

I often judge FCBD specials on whether they tell a satisfying story or are really just glorified previews. This prelude to DC’s big summer event is neither, but it’s a little more the latter if I had to choose. Really this is just a short to show how fall Waller has fallen, and that a few heroes have joined her- willingly or not. Failsafe is a frightening presence, but otherwise this is just fine outside of a haunting two page spread near the end by Janin.

Rating: 6.5/10

MAD FCBD Edition (DC Comics) By The Usual Gang of Idiots (including Sergio Aragones, Al Jaffe, Kerry Callen, Don Martin and more)

Entirely a book of reprints of old DC Comics gags, this issue was like a sentimental warm hug. This is a great reminder of MAD at its height was, and what it did well. Like all MAD gags, not all of them land, but many of them do. It’s always great to see Aragones strips, and seeing Martin and Jaffe’s contributions made me smile. If you grew up on MAD, you’ll love this book.

Rating: 9/10

Jonny Quest (Dynamite) By Joe Casey, Sebastian Piriz, Lorenzo Scaramella, Taylor Esposito

I loved the 90’s Johnny Quest reboot, but haven’t watched much of the original. Even though I didn’t see Jesse Bannon here I still enjoyed this quite a bit, because it definitely skewed closer to New Adventures, with Jonny and Hadji being more directly involved in the action. The story mixes classic Quest action with modern scifi, giving us the team stuck after an accident and using their ingenuity to survive, but then there’s a twist. Piriz and Scaramella’s art nails the feel of the original designs, and overall it’s a lot of fun. The bonus Thundercats and Space Ghost previews are nice to have, but I almost would have preferred another Quest short.

Rating: 7.5/10

Doctor Who (Titan Comics) By Dan Watters, Kelsey Ramsay, Valentina Bianconi, Comicraft

Titan continues their streak of fun Doctor Who adventures that dance between the raindrops of the show. This full length story (probably the most actual story pages outside of maybe DC’s MAD special) features Fifteen and Ruby being drawn to the execution of an infamous highwayman gone awry. Watters captures the voices of both characters as we saw them in the Christmas special, especially Gatwa’s performance. The art is out of the norm- feeling a lot more like Euro comics than American- and it really adds to the feel.

I’m excited to see this creative team is the team we’ll see for the upcoming new ongoing series. I’ll be picking it up.

Rating: 9/10

Hellboy/Stranger Things (Dark Horse Comics) By (Hellboy) Mike Mignola, Mark Laszlo, Dave Stewart, Clem Robins, (Stranger Things) Derek Fridolfs, Jonathan Case

We get another untold tale of Hellboy’s history (this time 1983) and a between the scenes vignette in the Stranger Things-verse. The Hellboy short is as fun and gorgeous as always, with a mysterious fortune teller and a glimpse at HB’s future. The only downside to it was that all the glimpses of the future were moments we’ve already seen. The Stranger Things short is a fun glimpse at the friendship between Jonathan and Argyle before season 4 took place, with a great indie comics art style.

Rating: 8/10

Barkham Asylum (DC Comics) By Yehudi Mercado, Saida Temofonte

Outside of their main release, DC usually just releases the first 15-20 pages of a couple of their YA OGN releases. The first of these is the younger readers Barkham Asylum. The YA line leans heavily Batman, but this story of one of Joker’s pet dogs and a stray cat getting pulled into an adventure is a very fun and unique take on Gotham, giving us more than just a weird spin on Batman. Mercado’s art is gorgeous while cartoony, and the two main characters are very fun takes on the talking animal leads (think super-villainous Bolt). Even better, the snippet is actually satisfying as its own thing.

Rating: 8.5/10

Barda (DC Comics) By Ngozi Ukazu

Another snip from an OGN, this preview of the upcoming release is a surprising take on DC’s Fourth World. Taking the story of Big Barda prior to her escape from Apokolips with her eventual husband, and turning it into a YA dystopian romance adventure, a la the Hunger Games, makes way more sense than you’d think. This excerpt- again a completely satisfying first chapter on its own- introduces Barda, the Female Furies, Granny Goodness, and most importantly the prisoner that becomes Scott Free. I was extremely pleasantly surprised by this and it may have been enough for me to pick up the OGN next month.

Rating: 10/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW Publishing) By: Juni Ba, Fero Pe, Luis Antonio Delgado, Nathan Widick | Paul Allor, Andy Kuhn, Ronda Pattison, Nathan Widick

Have you ever wanted to see a Ninja Turtle comic with a shadowy vigilante fighting crime in a city full of towering buildings? Well, good news! That’s just what the intro story of this special delivers, ahead of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Nightwatcher series launching in the fall. This intro story serves as a teaser intro for the series which comes from Ba and Pe, starring the still mysterious character. Some just classic good vigilante monologuing in captions as they take down masked criminals (pretending to be mutants as they rob an abandoned bank). Pe and Delgado have the saturated, dark, detailed, and ominous tone down and hopefully this is what the main book feels like.

A perfect companion for such a serious story is one that is just pure fun, and that’s what the second story “Splinter’s Day Off” delivers. For anyone that misses the dynamic of the father rat and his four turtle sons, this story is right up your alley. Kuhn and Pattison really go all out for the exaggerated whimsical visuals, presenting a very warm feeling story, just wrap yourself in it like a blanket. Sometimes, just sometimes, a little nostalgia is good for the soul and is quite the delicious meal. 

Rating: 9/10

Blood Hunt/X-Men (Marvel Comics) Jed MacKay, Gail Simone, Sara Pichelli, David Marquez, Edgar Delgado, Federico Blee, Travis Lanham

Another two for one deal. A teaser of sorts for the same week launching summer time event Blood Hunt and an intro piece for Uncanny X-Men, one of the center pieces of this summer’s X-Men relaunch. Both give the reader a flavor of sorts for the big stories they are connected to, one giving more of a firm picture than the other. 

With the Blood Hunt piece, MacKay mostly checks in with a handful of characters as things are going down. Essentially little vignettes with Spider-Man (Peter), Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, Blade’s daughter Brielle, and the OG vampire himself Dracula. Not really essential reading for the event, just little extra bits to chew on if one wishes. 

Secondly is the Uncanny X-Men bit from its creative team, focusing on Jubilee and the aftermath of Krakoa’s fall (a story still not quite over yet). One’s mileage will greatly vary with this story, one of those that a reader will either really like or dislike with a smattering of folks falling in the middle. Bible verses, an oppressed minority hiding in the shadows trying to “play nice”, bigotry, a new mutant prison, some cameos, a dollop of nostalgia, and a familiar yet altered foundation being built. Basically, it will either solidify one’s decision to check out the upcoming relaunch, or do the opposite. 

Rating: 7/10

Monster High (IDW Publishing) By Jacque Aye, Siobhan Keenan, Rebecca Nalty, Kielamel Sibal

Created in 2010, Monster High was a fashion doll line that has expanded into its own franchise, including a web series and a recent Nickelodeon series. Now the ghoulish characters have made the leap to their very own comic book series, with this FCBD special as a teaser intro of sorts. Overall the story is very short, only featuring the main character Frankie Stein and their father Frankenstein’s Monster. Keenan and Nalty deliver a very fun colorful, but also ominous, artistic vision that just feels fun and right for such a story. As a first time audience member for anything Monster High related, it’s a very solid easy to follow first intro. Typical school age teenager beats wrapped up in a monstrous pun filled (Eeekspresso, Maul vs Mall, etc) wrapping. 

Rating: 8/10

The Valiants (Valiant/Alien Books) By Ryan Cady, Al Barrionuevo, Nobi, Ezequiel Inverni, Aj Ampadu, Emiliano Correa, Yasmin Govoni

Remember the Valiant universe of titles/characters? Well they are getting another sort of relaunch push after sort of falling off the past few years (big corporate shake ups, buyouts, and failed media pushes will do that). As the title of the issue points to the first story of this book is a little ten page setting the scene preview for the upcoming three-part The Valiants prestige series which leads into a Valiant 2024 ‘event’ in August that sees numerous books getting minis featuring familiar characters (and in some cases creators). The second story teams up Roku and Ninjak and forces them on a mission with tension and threats of the two fighting one another, it is in the title after all. A fine little piece for those that really love or are familiar with the characters and have interest in seeing them again. 

Rating: 7.5/10