It’s time for Weekend Reading 71Δ here at Stately Beat Manor! In a shocking twist of fate, we’re going to be spending our weekend shut up inside, lost in a good book.

As always, The Beat team hopes that you’ll share your reading plans with us, as well! Give us a shout, either in the comment section here or over on social media @comicsbeat!

Weekend Reading 71Δ
Weekend Reading 71Δ: Icon & Rocket and The Captain’s Table

AVERY KAPLAN: This weekend I am excited to check out Icon & Rocket: Season One #1 by Reginald Hudlin, Doug Braithwaite, Scott Hanna, Andrew Currie, Brad Anderson, and Andworld Design… and I managed to score the really incredible Reina Koyano Variant! As far as prose goes, I’ve got ahold of the first book in the Star Trek crossover prose series Captain’s Table, War Dragons by L.A. Graf, featuring a story about Captain Kirk and Captain Sulu… with a cameo by Cadet Tuvok? Be still, my Starfleet heart!

Weekend Reading 71Δ
Weekend Reading 71Δ: The Invincible War

TAIMUR DAR: Last weekend, I ended up being way more swamped than I anticipated with our ComicCon@Home coverage so I didn’t get to do much reading as I had hoped. So I’m making up for the lost time. Still continuing my deep dive into John Ostrander’s original Suicide Squad in anticipation for the James Gunn movie and in the midst of the second volume “The Nightshade Oddysey.” And like Avery, I’m also checking out the first issue of Icon & Rocket: Season One. I’m also going back to where I left off with Robert Kirkman’s Invincible and starting the “The Invincible War” storyline.   

Weekend Reading 71Δ
Weekend Reading 71Δ: Naming Monsters

DEAN SIMONS: Things have been a bit hectic and stressful of late (and will be for at least another few weeks) as I prepare to put my things into storage ahead of moving. Nearly everything is in boxes, or about to be put in boxes – including much of my ‘To Read’ pile of the last three or four years. That said, I have set aside a few things that I hope to get to over the weekend: Hannah Eaton’s Naming Monsters, and Oji Suzuki’s A Single Match.

BILLY HENEHAN: Yesterday, Michel Fiffe posted an Avengers house ad by Keith Giffen from 1995 for a story that would evolve (devolve?) into The Crossing, which is universally accepted as a low point in Avengers history. Not to spoil a 26 year old story, but The Crossing revolves around the premise that Tony Stark has ALWAYS been an agent of Kang, and has been working behind the scenes to thwart the Avengers time and again. Avengers sales were hurting at the time, and editorial was doing anything they could to replicate the hold X-Men had on readers. “X-Traitor? Well, say hello to the A-Traitor!” This storyline helped pave the way for the Avengers to leave Marvel-616 in Heroes Reborn, and was quickly retconned out of existence by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco in Avengers Forever after the heroes returned to the main Marvel universe. By the time The Crossing saw publication, Giffen was no longer associated with it. But the discussion that started yesterday on Facebook and Instagram had me itching to read the story, something I’ve avoided for a quarter of a century. I pulled up the prelude issue of Iron Man in Marvel Unlimited late last night and my eyes feel like they’re burning already. Pray for me, dear reader.