Tuesday, April 9 2013
Nothing Really Matters: Age of Ultron #4
Age of Ultron is a shooting gallery. Superheroes die. They die abruptly and horribly or in heroic last stands and the only reason they die is because every single one of us knows that, in the end, they can't die…
Monday, April 8 2013
Setting Trumps Story: Swamp Thing #19
After 18 issues of nothing but grand narrative storytelling, incoming regular writer Charles Soule takes Swamp Thing in the very necessary direction of figuring out how he works…
Wednesday, April 3 2013
Cosmic by Committee: “Guardians of the Galaxy #1”
Marvel's top talent, writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Steve McNiven, put together a good introduction to the Guardians, but is it a little too little for longtime fans?
Menace and Meh: Patrick McEown’s ‘Hair Shirt’
Patrick McEown excels at creating the rich imagery of nightmares and memory, but the waking relationships between the characters is tedious.
Tuesday, April 2 2013
I Can’t Tell You Who to Idolize: “Time Warp #1”
Damon Lindelof of LOST and Star Trek fame makes a spectacular comics debut in Vertigo's newest anthology, Time Warp…
Monday, April 1 2013
Of Crazy Coots and Headgear for Thing Suits: “FF #5”
The Future Foundation's present troubles with recalcitrant children, an ornery Human Torch and PR woes will pale in comparison to what’s over the horizon…
Wednesday, March 27 2013
We Don’t Need Another Hero: “Indestructible Hulk #5”
When I read World War Hulk, it occurred to me that the Hulk was the world's first superhero…
Tuesday, March 26 2013
Confronting the Self as an Idea, Time and Time Again: “Action #18”
Grant Morrison's almost magical insight into storytelling crescendos in his final installment of Action…what if the only real struggle was to confront the idea of yourself, over and again through time…
Monday, March 25 2013
A Solid Effort Despite Minor Grievances: “Justice League of America #2”
Even with one team-member missing-before-action and another laid up as a result of injuries sustained during pre-mission recon, Justice League of America #2 still manages a solid story…
Wednesday, March 20 2013
It Honestly Feels Like We Should Want to Want Better: “Thor: God of Thunder #6”
It's really difficult to right filler issues, especially when the story's focussed on villainy by way of atheism…
Tuesday, March 19 2013
A Man Broken Over Time: Wolverine #1
What if the problems with the latest reboot of Wolverine weren't with the creative team at all, what if they lay in the character itself…
Monday, March 18 2013
There Are Two Paths You Can Go By: Uncanny X-Men #3
Bendis crafts a beautifully vivid story about how Cyclops's two very different pasts (one as superhero, the other as murderer of his mentor, Professor X) threaten to jeopardize his current role as mutant rights activist…
Thursday, March 14 2013
A Child’s Scars from Bullying Are Laid Bare in a New Edition of Lynda Barry’s ‘The Freddie Stories’
Many of us will no doubt relate to this young boy’s impressions of being a very small outsider in a big, scary, mean world.
Wednesday, March 13 2013
Stand by Your “Infinity Gauntlet”: “Age of Ultron #1”
It's not that Marvel can't put out a good first issue to a megaevent like Age of Ultron, it's that in the past few years they haven't. But how much of the fault falls to the creative team and how much to the publisher…
Tuesday, March 12 2013
Who Is She to You?: “Red She-Hulk #63”
While there are some minor distractions, Jeff Parker and rotating artists Wellington Alves and Carlo Pagulayan deliver a solid vision of Betty Ross as the monster she once feared her ex-husband becoming…
Monday, March 11 2013
Under the Mask of the Psychopath: “Green Arrow #18”
Jeff Lemire's iconic reboot of Green Arrow continues this month as the second installment of "the Kill Machine" explores secrets from the past of Ollie's father, and his own…
Thursday, March 7 2013
The Homecoming Chance: “Hellboy in Hell #4”
Hellboy in Hell #4 displays Mike Mignola at his very best--in a house in Hell, hellboy enjoys a slow-paced conversation with witch-hunter Sir Edward Grey, the Kolchak to Hellboy's Mulder…
Wednesday, March 6 2013
Harry Potter with a Twist of Kill: Five Weapons #1
The sheer inventiveness of a young, unarmed genius stepping into a Hogwarts-esque school for the children of assassins singles out not only writer-artist Jimmie Robinson, but publisher Image as well…
Tuesday, March 5 2013
She’s Too Deadly For You: Hawkeye #8
Clint’s schoolboy crush on the exciting redhead who only makes his life more complicated is a indicative of the archer’s emotional instability and loose grip on his place in the world…
Monday, March 4 2013
Inviting Us In: “Saga #10”
I’m reminded of the sonic instrumental invitations of post-rock band Explosions in the Sky, namely their 2003 track “Your Hand in Mine.” It’s a fitting song for much of Saga…
