Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: the first Saturday of every May is Free Comic Book Day, an annual celebration when comic shops nationwide offer no-strings-attached goodies as a form of community outreach in honor of that time-honored medium where words and pictures dance in unison on the printed page, whether in the form of super-heroes, blood-soaked horror, all-ages cartoon characters, licensed merchandise, or what-have-you. It’s one of the best holidays ever for hobbyists like me who’ve been comics readers since the days when drugstores sold them for thirty-five cents each and comic-book movies were made on a budget of about $35 each.

Each year comic shops lure fans and curious onlookers inside their brick-and-mortar hideaways with a big batch of free new comics from all the major publishers and a bevy of smaller competitors deserving shelf space and consideration. I observe the holiday by getting up early, venturing to one or more comic shops as soon as they open for their occasion, picking up samples, and spending money on a few extra items as my way of thanking the proprietors for their service in the field of literacy.

Saturday, May 2nd was the 25th edition, which came with a minor cosmetic wrinkle — a holiday schism caused by rights issues. After last year’s FCBD fans witnessed the operational demise of Diamond Comic Distributors, the monopoly that kept the majority of the comic-shop biz running and owned the Free Comic Book Day trademark. One party acquired those rights in the ensuing asset-divvying free-for-all and lined up about half the comics companies out there that hadn’t collapsed in Diamond’s wake. All the other publishers aligned under the new insignia of Comics Giveaway Day, an identical event on the same day with the same purpose and results, minus the long branding history. So we celebrated Free Comic Book Day 2026 and Comics Giveaway Day 2026.

This year I scaled back my FCBD consumption after last year’s self-indulgent smorgasbord in which I got all 45 titles and took weeks to read and eventually write about them. By then the moment had passed and no one cared. I’m lucky if any MCC readers care the next day, let alone a month later. Among the most obvious lessons here are: (a) every reader can find a comic somewhere out there to like; but (b) not all comics are for all readers, not even for amateur comics reviewers using it as an excuse to practice their li’l hobby; and (c) if you’re gonna write about what you read, you have to balance the time spent on each. (Cheers to Past Me for showing a smidgen of restraint and “only” writing about 21 of the 45.)

So this year I cavorted in moderation within boundaries, some self-imposed. Saturday morning I drove with my wife Anne (who’d bowed out for 2025) from Indianapolis’ west side up to the north side and visited Comic Carnival — Indy’s oldest comic-shop brand, which often stocks myriad works and curiosities that my usual shop doesn’t. They’re good people I’d visit way more often if it didn’t necessitate a road trip every time. (Don’t ask how much I spent on gas that morning.) They didn’t order all 48 titles among the two free-comic camps, but I didn’t want all 48 anyway. The posted grabbing limit was six per customer, which works out to 12 titles total between Anne and me. We each bought some stuff as well, including a Star Trek trade that Anne had been seeking for years. We left as rather happy customers and shall return someday yet again.

(While we were on the north side anyway, we also took advantage of the moment to grab snacks from the only physical Krispy Kreme location in central Indiana. As always, we’re all about multitasking on our road trips.)

Some comics generously featured brand new stories. Some contained excerpts from upcoming or previous works. A few were, at best, ad pamphlets. Per my own annual tradition, my reading results came out as follows, ranked subjectively and upwardly from “No thank you” to “Buy More on Sight”:

12. The Greatest American Hero (AMP Comics). Ralph Hinkley and the suit are back! Gen-Xers well recall the prime-time superhero spoof-drama about a schoolteacher who’s given a superpowered suit by aliens, only to lose the instructions and just barely save the day every week through sheer luck and affordably brief special effects. I loved it for about ten minutes when I was 8 until its one joke wore thin. But every IP must be revived, so it’s Ralph’s turn. Once you get past the pretty David Mack cover painting, his homecoming is utterly depressing: the aliens bring him back to Earth after decades in space, whereupon he reunites with his estranged, now-adult son who’s none too impressed by his deadbeat dad, his refusal to divulge anything about those decades, or the suit he thinks is fake. Ralph’s preschool-age granddaughter is a tad more welcoming, but she can’t save the book alone, which is mostly an inert game of talking-heads ping-pong with virtually none of the series’ humor or William Katt’s klutzy charm. Also dampening this first impression: the credits misspell the artist’s name.

11. The British Are Coming: The Graphic Edition, Vol. 1 (Ten Speed Graphic). As longtime MCC readers could guess, this educational history project caught Anne’s eye first — non-sequential excerpts from an adaptation of the 2019 book The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Pulitzer Prize Winner Rick Atkinson. Typical of most comics about history, the art is much more interesting when bringing the narrative wartime action to life than in the static illustrations accompanying the pages of textbook exposition and reams of unabridged primary-source quotes. Too many panels focus on reproductions of contemporaneous paintings or expressionless crowds standing still, like a bunch of introverted museum docents patiently waiting for us to keep moving.

10. Alien/Predator/Planet of the Apes (Marvel Comics). Marvel’s still all-in on its sister company Fox’s various enduring sci-fi franchises. Of the shorts here, Alien reveals one scientist’s latest project to combat the xenomorphs is, um, he’s invented superhumans (not exactly what Alien: Earth is already about, but we’re in the same area code); a Yautja meets space MMA fighters, with predictable results and rush-jobbed art; and the apes get only the last four pages — two of them intentionally derivative (drink whenever a PotA story uses the word “madhouse”!), but then Greg Pak and Alan Robinson reveal the next miniseries’ secret premise and the fan-service points towards something potentially preposterously entertaining. Or we’ll just learn how to write “Take your stinking paws off me” in a new language.

9. DC Next Level Sampler (DC Comics). I skipped Marvel’s prelude to their next Major Crossover Event, but grabbed their Distinguished Competition’s rapid-fire appetizer tray of six new series: Lobo (Jorge Corona’s gonzo energy is a smart artistic match), Batwoman (picking up from previous stories I haven’t read, but DaNi’s art is an intriguing turn), Deathstroke the Terminator (whose new #1 I nearly bought, if I hadn’t already been over budget), Fury of Firestorm (8-year-old me is ENRAGED that the cool science hero is now an idiot, a monster, or an idiot monster), Zatanna (I fell away from Jamal Campbell’s previous miniseries, but the pages are still gorgeous), and Barbara Gordon: Breakout (unfinished, but I love seeing more from Amancay Nahuelpan, whose indie book Calexit was amazing). I’ve lost interest in current DC inter-book continuity and most superhero teams in general, but I dig some of the risks they’re taking with the standalone books.

8. Ultimate Oz Universe, Vol. 2: Into the Outerlands (AWA Studios). I cannot and will not track all the Oz reboots ever — the derivative, the nihilistic, the wacky, the expensively bloated, et al. This alt-timeline moves beyond the one world-famous film into L. Frank Baum’s numerous other creations within his wide world (quite a few of which I recognize from when I used to read his books to my son way back when), but eschews all-ages whimsy for attempted YA epic-fantasy. Mike Deodato Jr.’s overly realistic precision has suitably embellished other books, but here he does no favors to Baum’s fanciful facades with his staunchly dramatic tone. Fortunately our adapter Fred Van Lente (Action Philosophers!, Incredible Hercules) has never been one for grimdark pretensions; he and co-writer Larry King (not that one) keep the dialogue and characterizations much lighter. (I was delighted to see the Gump, though the Sawhorse looks so bizarre.) But 60 demerits for the intro by AWA CCO Axel Alonso that perpetuates Return to Oz erasure.

7. Jem and the Holograms/My Little Pony Flipbook (BOOM! Studios). I was never a big Jem fan (which aired early weekday afternoons in Indy in the ’80s, so I saw a bit), but gave this a look-see based on the surprisingly strong creative team of Kelly Thompson (currently killing it on Absolute Wonder Woman) and Sophie Campbell (having her own fun right now on Supergirl), but this excerpt only has time to reveal the uncomplicated secret origin of Jem’s holograms (as opposed to The Holograms). It looks keen but not necessarily aimed at me. On the flip-side Katie Cook oversees tales of pop culture’s favorite superpowered ponies — two reprinted gag strips (which are what they are) and a portion of “The Return of Queen Chrysalis” that throws in a flurry of references and earns quite a few laughs. I’ve seen an episode or two, not gone full Brony, but as an old Powerpuff Girls fan, I get what everypony else sees in them. Maybe someday I’ll wander deeper into their stable.

6. Flash Gordon #1 (Mad Cave Studios). Previously on Free Comic Book Day 2024, Jeremy Adams, Will Conrad and Lee Loughridge kicked off the big hero’s relaunch by blowing up planet Mongo, and it seems things haven’t calmed down yet. This black-and-white preview of the next chapter (sorry, Loughridge!) starts like Saw (a grungy room with two prisoners and a corpse with a surprise), segues into old-fashioned adventure-strip action (laser-pistol fights! Our Hero fighting through fatal wounds! Armed henchmen who couldn’t hit a brick wall shooting point-blank!), then ends on a cliffhanger that busts yet another of the serial’s storied traditions. Space opera is alive and well and looking nifty. (Also included is a three-page snippet of Ray Fawkes and Russell Olson’s take on The Phantom, still going since last year’s debut.)

5. The Future Is ****** Annual 2026 (Rekcah Comics). The bleeping is theirs, not mine, but in my head the real title is The Future Is Asterisks. A real-life infosec company (I looked them up!) started their own comics company just to promote their line of work and gave away this year’s most generous one-shot. Comics pros Fred Van Lente (him again!), Juan Gedeon (Venom, Jurassic League), Brennan Wagner (Grendel) and others collaborate toward that goal with a 24-page done-in-one about four hackers in an augmented-reality competition in near-future West Dakota (uh, I have questions) where they choose hats in a Deadwood setting and plow into the increasingly dangerous challenges as they come. Naturally if they die in the simulation, etc. etc. But wait! There’s more: puzzles of varying difficulties (e.g., the Morse code on the cover), a GI Joe-style PSA about online safety, a how-to guide for breaking into the infosec field, an online-course catalog, a now-hiring ad, and QR codes leading to still more extras. So it’s an extremely thorough recruitment ad and it’s a satisfying chunk o’ comics.

4. Conan: Tides of the Tyrant King (Titan Comics). Jim Zub’s fourth annual FCBD tale of everyone’s favorite barbarian sets the stage for a forthcoming time-warping event between Robert E. Howard creations. That was also the premise of his last two FCBD specials, but Zub’s reached even farther back into the REH catalog for this latest team-up: Conan meets WWI hero Sailor Steve Costigan! And he hosts a rough-‘n’-tumble launch party here with guest artist Jesus Merino! If someone reminds me when the time comes for its premiere later this fall, I really might have to check this out.

3. Deicidium: Omens (Image Comics). In the only entry bearing neither FCBD’s nor CGD’s seals of approval, Ram V and Evan Cagle — the chief masterminds of DC’s recent, staggering New Gods reinvention — along with Anand RK (Blue in Green, Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma) show off their next, creator-owned venture, which is also about gods, but who might not be new and might not be as irritating as Orion. Not all the workings are clear just yet, but this is quite the whetting taste of wonders to come.

2. Mister Magic: The Graphic Novel (Ten Speed Graphic). Another book-to-comic adaptation, this one of the 2023 YA novel by Kiersten White, which slightly preceded the similarly premised 2024 film Late Night with the Devil — each of them centered on a forgotten TV show that ended abruptly and whose never-aired, suppressed final episode may or may not have been disrupted by a fatal supernatural disaster. Thirty years after that trauma split them apart, the kiddie show’s Mouseketeer-esque troupe reunite as adults, though one of them has repressed all her memories of it and has been kept sheltered from the outside world ever since, until now…when things are presumably about to get really weird. The ace team of Scott Peterson (the longtime DC writer/editor, not the murderer) and artists Veronica and Andy Fish (Archie, the underrated Blackwood) capture my full attention as they unsettle us early on, foreshadow the creepiness in store, and quickly lament the long-term consequences of overprotective parenting.

1. Dungeon Crawler Carl (Vault Comics). Dragon Con 2025 hosted a panel or two about this property, and a couple succinct mentions have flitted through my social feeds, but I have absolutely no idea what this actually IS, and I refuse to Google it before writing this paragraph. It was the only FCBD item that compelled Comic Carnival to post a “limit 1 per customer” sign next to its stack, so I presume it’s a highly anticipated (or even “hot”) adaptation of the fan-favorite whatever, published or released by whoever, and its original form sold a substantial number of whozits however such units were sold. The version at hand previews a manga-riffic black comedy about this one guy who’s standing feet away from his Seattle apartment with his cat when aliens steal the entire city from right behind them. Like, ALL of it. Then an unseen announcer tells him the city’s been turned into one giant game show and the only way to get all his possessions back is to enter its new form, an 18-level dungeon. Hilarity ensues! Adventure might too, except nobody told him he could prep for it first and he wanders in with absolutely no equipment and no pants. As an aging retro gamer (I am thiiis close to finishing OG Oblivion‘s Shivering Isles DLC by summer), I was floored by the serious moments and saluted the hilarious gags (especially the sequence where he keeps earning increasingly silly achievement trophies). I pay this the highest possible compliment for a Free Comic Book Day release: I pre-ordered the upcoming graphic novel from my local shop before I finished typing this paragraph.

…

…and that’s the reading pile that was. Lord willing, see you next year, if we can still afford gas for the drive by then!