Browsing: Review

If you are looking for the Major Spoilers reviews of comic books from the comic book industry, you’ve found it! The best and the worst comics are reviewed each week.

Or – “The Lacuna Between Golden And Silver Ages…” In my mind, the beginning of the Silver Age of Comics is marked by Showcase #4, the first appearance of Barry Allen, in late 1956.  (Some people mark it with the first appearance of J’onn J’onzz in 1955 or Captain Comet in 1951.)  But as with any of the nebulous ages of comics, true Silver Age story-telling didn’t kick in all at once, allowing certain characters to keep up their late-Golden Age antics for many years.  This is one of the most fondly-remembered issues of that weird negative zone of comics…

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Or – “Well, At Least Their Nethers Aren’t Haunted…” A recent discussion with Weekend Guy Chris at Gatekeeper Hobbies (Huntoon & Gage, Topeka!  Ask me about our New 52 first printings!) led to a strange exposition of a previous issue of Tarot: Witch Of The Black Rose, a title which I had never actually experienced. In the interest of seeing if the grass is really greener on the other side of the fence, I grabbed the latest issue in my regular stack of books this week. I have to say I did NOT expect what I got for my two-ninety-five…

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Or – “I Like To Think This Crosses Over With The Old KISS Series…” There’s something awesome and iconic about the world of Riverdale and Archie Comics.  They’ve successfully persevered through nearly eight decades of progress, changing with the times while maintaining the core of their portrayals.  I’m just worried that The Demon is going to steal BOTH Betty and ‘Ronnie from Arch. (Hey, if anybody can do it, Gene Simmons can…  Just ask Lois Griffin.)

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Or – “Sex & Violence And All That Other Fun Stuff…” My recent review of Bomb Queen got me thinking about adult themes in comics.  When handled well, they can mean the difference between Captain Atom and Doctor Manhattan.  When utilized poorly, we can be faced with ‘Sultry Teenage Super-Foxes.’  (I wouldn’t necessarily google that one.)  In the early days of Vertigo, Grant Morrison took advantage of the Mature Readers tag, channeled the spirit of the (then-recent) ‘Natural Born Killers,’ and went for broke with a story that I remember fondly to this day… **This Retro Review is Grant Morrison…

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Spider-Man and Daredevil are teaming up! At least they’re not beating the crap out of one another… but then again, it isn’t April, yet.

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Or – “The Alternate Universes Team…” Over the last few issues, X-Force has been dealing with issues in the reality known as the Age of Apocalypse.  Now that they’ve $&@ed that reality up as much as they can, it’s on to Otherworld!

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Tony Chu has been kidnapped for sex, and is being forced to use his gift in a new way. Meanwhile, Agent Colby has his own set of problems dealing with his new partner and the rest of the USDA.

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DC

Supergirl has escaped Mr.Tycho’s captivity with sunstone in hand, and is off to try and find her answers about Krypton. Discovering Argo City, and finding it is not the way she left it, she runs into someone who may hold more answers for Kara.

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Or – “Back In ’66, It Must Have Only Been The Penultimate Frontier.” As someone who grew up with the original Star Trek series every Sunday morning, I was happy to find that the new movie doesn’t negate all those cool stories (and all those awesome William Theiss costumes.)  “Operation: Annihilate!”, the original first season finale, was notable for two things:  The on-screen death of Kirk’s brother Sam, and the sight of the crew menaced by flying rubber novelty vomit.  Will the new timeline manage to be that awesome?

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DC

Deep beneath the city, the Court of Owls has Batman trapped. But he’s Batman… he’ll make it… won’t he?

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Or – “When They Say ‘Mature Readers,’ They Ain’t Just Whistlin’ Dixie.” When I began reading comics, during the late Pleistocene Era 1970’s, creators were in the midst of one of the periodic spasms of Adult Comics, notably in the form of Heavy Metal, which embraced more sophisticated story-telling, as well as overt sexuality, violence and some stuff that I’m pretty sure they still don’t have a word for.  30 years later, mainstream comics are once again embracing sanitized violence and fluidless off-panel sex (though the subject matter has, admittedly, gotten a bit more grown-up.) But where does a comic…

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DC

Still haunted by the sudden return to the walking world, Batgirl gets caught up with a new villain named Gretel. The mystery behind her and the numbers 338, with whom those she posses, seem to be obsessed with take Barbara on a hunt to save Bruce Wayne!

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