Browsing: Review

Damn, you gotta love paranoid mysteries that are fun for all ages! I love the Justice League animated series, and as much as everyone wants to see a live action movie featuring the line up of leaguers, it will never ever approach the coolness of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. One of the better characters to emerge from the JLU series was, without a doubt, The Question played by Jeffrey Combs (you may remember Mr. Combs from the Re-Animator movies). Unlike Vic Sage from 52 or the 1987 O’Neil run, the JLU Vic Sage sees a conspiracy around every…

Or – “I’m Not Sure How I Feel About The Overall Effect Of This Series…” Alpha Flight, as an entity, has had a difficult run. The original series wasn’t really effective when they were doing standard-issue superheroics, but didn’t quite gel when they went another direction. The second run was marred (in my opinion) by trying to turn it into an X-Men riff, and the third series’ tongue-in-cheek tone didn’t seem to go over with the readers, leading to the team being fed to a villain to up the ante for the New Avengers. Given the fact that most of…

Or – “An Interesting Take On The Law…” There’s a certain suspension of disbelief that comes with reading superhero comics… The plain fact is that the behaviors engaged in by even the noblest of superheroes is technically illegal. One of the great mysteries of Batman is how he manages to skip back and forth in the good graces of law enforcement while simultaneously dealing repeated beatings to Gotham’s criminal elements, speeding through the night with no lights on his Batmobile, and taking minors into hails of bullets. Even the stalwarts of the JSA run into this problem from time to…

Or – “Who AM Us, Anyway?” New Avengers is one of those titles with which I have a love/hate relationship… For every story beat that works, I find something that irritates the hell out of me. Even when Leinil Yu draws well (and some things he draws VERY well) there will be a panel where the legendarily beautiful Jessica Drew looks like Gimli with a hairlip. With the next big thing on the horizon (and the last next big thing only 3 issues into it’s 5 issue run) it’s time for Marvel to push us off in a new direction,…

Or – “Is That Really Going To Be His Hero Designation?” Ever since Owen Mercer joined the Outsiders during the One-Year-Later gap, I’ve been jokingly referring to him as Captain Boomerang, Junior. The reasons for this are twofold: first, there’s a proud tradition of calling a younger version of a hero by the Junior name (Captain Marvel, Jr. is the obvious one, but back in the day there was also Captain Battle, Jr. as well as Batman Junior and Superman Junior, the Super-Sons) and secondly, it’s a terrible, horrible, awful, really bad super-hero name. Worse than Bobo… Worse than Hard…

Or – “Thankfully, They Know New WARRIORS History As Well As New Mutants…” Internet wags, myself included, have made much of the fact that the New Warriors seem to be comprised entirely of Ex-X-Men. The somewhat bad news is, that trend doesn’t stop in this issue. Thankfully, though, we do finally see a glimpse of why a group of Xavier’s misfits would have the temerity to call themselves New Warriors, and while questions are answered, each secret uncovered creates two more in it’s place, like some mythical thing Veronica Sawyer’s eight-grade boyfriend would know about. And possibly the most important…

Or – “The Girl So Nice They Named Her Twice Seven Times.” The Legion of Super-Heroes was remarkably progressive, always a few steps ahead of it’s time, with a few exceptions.  One thing that was never a problem was finding strong female characters in the 30th Century.  Today’s Hero History subject actually joined the Legion under an alias (and an assumed gender) before taking a long-time supporting role.  She starred in one of the Legion’s EARLIEST romances, and when that one ended, was a part of one of the more controversial ones.  Always a soothing presence, she meshed well with…

Do not collect the secret decoder ring that explains this series Remember a few reviews ago when I mentioned Paul Dini had it bad for anything and everything Batty? Well the love fest continues this week as more Bat-verse characters make an appearance, and we see the return of the Suicide Squad. With several tie-ins required to make sense of it all, where does that leave the reader? Confused…duh…

Or – “Wrapping Up About A Dozen Plotlines In Two Dozen Pages Ain’t Easy…” I’m saddened to hear that Dan Slott will be leaving She-Hulk in the near future. In fact, the only thing that mitigates my disappointment is the fact that his replacement will be the superlative Peter David. I don’t know what Slott has planned for his last issue, but I can tell you that the setup to it is interesting… To make sure that the stories he wanted to make sure were told get told, he’s going to tell them ALL in this issue. Buckle up, ladles…

Or – “This Meeting of The He-Man Woman Hater’s Club Will Now Come To Order.” I’ve complained in the past about Brian Bendis’ take on certain Marvel icons, how his Captain America is a bit too casual and conversational, how his Doctor Strange talks more like a barber from Ohio than a man who has seen the depths of a thousand parallel planes, how his Reed Richards is an inattentive stereotypical absent-minded professor type with no social skills whatsoever… Essentially, Bendis has an ability to boil the characters down to a central essence, and make that essence seem real. With…

Or – “Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown” It was two o’clock. The wind outside had died down, and I knew the rain was soon to come. The rain… like some harsh mistress that keeps mocking me; for the coming rain means yet another day the landscapers won’t be able to work on my sorry excuse for a yard. The scent of whiskey still hung heavy in the air, and heavy on my breath, as I opened the tome that told the tale of Sand Saref. Sand Saref – what a dame. Word on the street is Frank Miller’s Spirit movie…

Or – “War Is About More Than The Field Generals…” It’s interesting to me that, for nearly the first time ever, we’re able to focus on Green Lantern action without having Hal or Kyle or Guy or John in the forefront. With Hal’s own title to cover Earth, Green Lantern Corps is able to show us another side of the Sinestro Corps conflict, an alien perspective using characters who’ve been around a lot longer than you might think. I find that (to me, at least) this portion of the war is as interesting (if not more so) than the more…

Or – “I Believe That It’s Time To Smash…” The Hulk has engaged the forces of the Marvel Universe, to their eternal dismay, and now a new and different Hulkbuster force is moving towards their date with destiny. The entire Marvel Universe is holding it’s breath in anticipation of what happens next… My prediction? Afternoon tea and reasoned discussion.

Or – “The New Order Ariseth… But Are They Any Goodeth?” It’s always challenging when a new team takes over an established title, but in the case of Supergirl & The Legion it’s doubly difficult. For one, this newest incarnation of the Legion has only been around for a short time and has pretty much only been handled by Mark Waid & Barry Kitson. Also worth taking into consideration: this version of the Legion is a THIRD distinct version of a team that many people have been following for decades. Keeping the characters distinct of the two previous incarnations has…