Tuesday, April 17 2012
Empire’s Long, Edgeless Kiss: “The Shade #7”
Empire's kiss is all consuming, and its work is to remove the edge and the edgy. And no one crafts this drama better than James Robinson in the pages of The Shade.
Monday, April 16 2012
‘Saga’ Gives Us Love Amongst the Genre War
The sheer scope of Saga is amazing, but the book's true achievement is how it doesn't transcend the genre of science fiction… it elevates it…
Thursday, April 12 2012
Global Powers 2: The Julian Assange of “Daredevil #10.1”
I'm going to say this carefully. Remember why you read comics? Because every so often, about once a decade, there's a book that entirely redefines a character. Daredevil #10.1 is exactly that book. Ok, here we go…
Wednesday, April 11 2012
Global Powers 1: The Elon Musk of “Amazing Spider-Man #683”
Whatever happened to the promise of Spider-Man, a hero who would eventually grow up to be ready for a new kind of tomorrow? Dan Slott found that Spidey we lost a long time ago, without our even realizing it.
Thursday, April 5 2012
The Quest for Fire: Joe Harris joins “Fury of Firestorm” in “Heatseeker”
Industry legend Joe Harris joins the creative team of Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men in issue #7's "Heatseeker", and the high drama of two boys' derailed future comes into sharp relief once again.
Tuesday, April 3 2012
Double-Meaning: Defining “Alien” in “Saucer Country #1”
Writer Paul Cornell and artist Ryan Kelly exploit both the denotative and connotative senses of the word "alien" to offer a superb, science-fictional meditation on extraterrestrials and immigration.
Monday, April 2 2012
An Equal Tomorrow: “Avenging Spider-Man #5”
It was Lincoln who reminded us that "…the dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present." And ironically, Lincoln who provides the most touching capstone to one of the best single issues of the year, Avenging Spider-Man #5.
Thursday, March 29 2012
Leviathan Inside: Political Philosophy, Evolutionary Psychology & the Hulk
It wasn't easy learning the concepts of evolutionary psychology and political philosophy when you were at college. But to marry these two very distinct concepts together in a single drama?…outstanding! Why hasn't Jason Aaron been nominated for a Pulitzer?
Tuesday, March 27 2012
Gods Use Me As a Hammer, Boys: Reading Tom Waits into “Wonder Woman #7”
This is psychologically the darkest Wonder Woman has ever been written, and series regular writer Brian Azzarello's genius lies in how he gets here by entrenching rather than disavowing definitive aspects of Wonder Woman's character.
Monday, March 26 2012
“Batman #7” is a Demarcation Line
There's a vast difference between historical revision and the dreaded retcon. Batman #7 is illustrative of the former, rather than the latter.
Thursday, March 22 2012
A Changeling Will Do You Good: The “Tiny Titans” Swansong
In the final issue of Tiny Titans, creators Art Baltazar address a psychic wound a generation old, by concluding a narrative arc that ran from the very beginning of the series.
Wednesday, March 21 2012
The Bastard Adventurer: ‘Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea’
Corto Maltese is not well liked and he is hard to kill. He's a bastard adventurer, more like Han Solo than Indiana Jones.
Tuesday, March 20 2012
Narrative Threads of “Blue Estate #10”: You’re Not Buying “Off the Rack”
There's a drawing together in this near-to-final episode of one of the most entertaining, highest acclaimed pulp-noir series of recent years. A drawing together that exceeds even noir giant, Elmore Leonard.
Monday, March 19 2012
The Far Darker Justice of a Love Set Free: Catwoman #6
Is Batman simply the worst boyfriend ever? Or is the question for this issue of Catwoman: is Judd Winick the greatest feminist?
Friday, March 16 2012
Route 66 Revisited: “Animal Man”, and Family in Tow
The two great modern myths are the safety and security of family, and the wild, freedom of the open road. In Animal Man #7 and in the issues preceding, writer Jeff Lemire tackles them both.
Thursday, March 15 2012
How Ann Nocenti Captures an Outlaw Superhero in “Green Arrow”
Incoming writer Ann Nocenti sets to work in defining Green Arrow, not as the unexpected freedom of being a superhero, but in terms of the limitations that constrain us all.
Wednesday, March 14 2012
Walt and Skeezix: Book Five 1929-1930
The humor and emotion Frank King wrings out of a few lines is staggering. To reread a strip and only look at Walt’s face is to see the character come to life.
Tuesday, March 13 2012
“MAD #514” Tackles Paucity, not Impoverishment
On the cover of MAD #514 the famous gothic window in the Grant Wood-original, American Gothic, is covered up by signage advertising an all-you-can-eat buffet, Melissa McCarthy wears a longtime MAD-mascot Alfred E. Neuman brooch, and there's almost no empty space between McCarthy and Gardell as Billy Gardell brandishes an oversized piece of silverware, rather than the more familiar pitchfork.
Monday, March 12 2012
Food for Thought: The Empty Calories of “Amazing Spider-Man #681”
In the dawning days of the 21st century, we've already made it to a point where healthy eating can be as delicious as comfort food. Why can't our comics be the same?
Friday, March 9 2012
Notes Written in the Sand: Neil Gaiman, Leslie Klinger and ‘The Annotated Sandman’
The Sandman takes readers through the kingdom of dreams, and Neil Gaiman, like a magnificently deranged Gnostic tour guide, spends as much time off-road, exploring the diversions, back roads, dives, and alleyways of his story, as he spends on the main highway.
