Browsing: Review

Or – “Beware My Power… Making My Exes Go Crazy.” Perhaps more than any other concept, Green Lantern illustrates the kind of changes that have befallen the comics industry since it’s inception back in the Golden Age. The original Green Lantern was Alan Scott, a train engineer who found a magic langern, a quintessentially Golden Age origin. As the influence of Superman waxed and waned, G.L. Scott became first INSANELY powerful, then depowered, then eventually stopped appearing in HIS OWN BOOK (replaced by Streak the Wonder Dog) as superheroes lost their lustre. One of the first concepts revived in the…

Or – “How Do You Follow Up A Nigh-Perfect Issue?” X-Factor. The term can be used to refer to many things… It was an album by Iron Maiden, it’s the name of Simon Cowell’s internation version of ‘American Idol’ (“Dear Supreme Being: Respectfully, please get Sanjaya off my TV set. He makes my brain hurt, and not in a good way. I would never wish him harm, but the boy barely has the talent to have breakfast without injury. Save him from us all. Love, Matthew.”), it was the nom de guerre of an excrable wrestling tag team based mostly…

Or – “If They’re Really A Secret Six, Why Are They So High-Profile?” That look on Lady Blackhawk’s face, my friends, is known to scientists and students of non-verbal communication as the “Skunkeye” ( also called “Stinkeye”), and it is used to imply that the subject of your scrutiny is so suspicious as to actually reek of illegitimacy. It’s commonly seen in singles bars, at all-you-can-eat buffets, and on the face of David Letterman. “But, Matthew,” you’re asking, “why is Babs Gordon’s dark doppelganger, her nemesis from college, the wicked and abusive power-mongering manipulator Spy Smasher sitting alongside Zinda, Babs’…

Or – “He Wasn’t Always A Huge Tool. Once, He Was A Huge Tool With A Tom Selleck Haircut.” With all the verbal beatings heaped upon Senor Antonio Stark in recent weeks, I decided it was well past time to look at something that predates his characterization as a “futurist” (which seems to be synonymous with the characterization of Batman in the Morrison and Waid eras of JLA: the man paranoid enough to act in a manner completely contrary to heroism in the name of preparation), as well as a time when comics in general were simpler. The occasional would-be…

Or – “Behind The Curve Is Where I’ll Be…” Okay, so I admit it. I’ve been dragging my feet on recapping this title. I was of the opinion that I wasn’t going to cover it at all, until I managed to stay on my daily schedule long enough to actually exhaust what was in the review bag (though not buying last week’s comics due to budgeting catastrophe may have been in large part responsible, as well.) The honest truth is: I’m a big Frank Cho fan. I’m a conditional Brian Bendis fan (though I enjoy him better on his self-created…

Let’s take a breather for a minute With all of the insanity that has been happening these last couple of weeks, it’s probably a good time for everyone to take a bit of a breather, come to grips with what has happened, and catch up with some loose storylines. Heck, there may even be a revelation or two thrown in for good measure.

Or – “There Are Eight Million Stories In The Checkmate City…” I actually remember the FIRST time I read a number 12 issue of Checkmate (and I refuse to believe it’s been nearly 20 years, either), an Invasion Aftermath extra written by Paul Kupperberg, with art by Steve Erwin (not the late Crocodile Hunter, mind you) and Al Vey. I liked that series, with it’s attempt to meld the soopahero and spy genres, although I didn’t read it until years after it’s cancellation. (I was completing my run of Suicide Squad at the time, and the crossover issues were compelling.)…

Or – “Y’know, I Loved Kingdom Come As Much As The Next Guy But, C’MON!” With this issue of JSA, it’s official… It IS just me. I’ve had long, involved conversations with the folks at work (including both my fellow counter monkeys, as well as several customers) and to a man, nobody but me is bothered by the amount of Alex Ross in the issues of JSA thus far. They DO agree with me that his covers are less attractive than the variants by interior artist Dale Eaglesham, but aren’t bothered by the obvious thumbprints of Mr. Ross all over…

IGN Entertainment and Top Cow have announced readers can now purchase download-to-own comic books via IGN’s Direct2Drive on-line service. The high resolution PDF file can be printed out, using your own paper and ink, or read on your computer. Top Cow plans to offer over 400 titles throughout the next year. Currently available are issues of Witchblade, The Darkness, Tomb Raider, and Rising Stars. Prices are not too bad, with most issues costing $1.99. Is it worth it? I tested the service out earlier today.

Or – “What’s In A Name? You Wouldn’t Ask If Yours Was ‘Hortense.'” In the DC Universe (or, to be honest, the streamlined and updated DC/Quality/Fawcett/Charlton/Etc Universe), the name “Manhunter” has carried with it a bit of a stigma, for some reason. The first Manhunter (from Quality Comics) was Dan Richards, a police officer who put on the mask to clear a friend’s name. He was retconnedly brainwashed, and later murdered by a later claimant to the name. Paul Kirk, the second Manhunter, had an abbreviated run in Adventure comics, was trampled by a Rhino, cloned, killed, cloned, killed, cloned,…

Or – “Strange Days, Indeed… Most Peculiar, Mama.” Of all the mysteries left unsolved in the wake of the time-jump caused by 52, the question of what happened to the Outsiders has been the most maddening, partly because their change in status quo was so dramatic, and partly because Judd Winick has insisted on giving us absolutely nothing to go on, not even an oblique hint. Even now that they’re revealing the events that filled the one-year-gap, certain questions remain maddeningly unanswered (notably the whole “Grace isn’t what she seems” issue), and Winick is probably going to hell for it.…

Or – “Where Ya Want The Fake Cake Fulla Snake?” One of the joys of being a comics geek are the moments where you get to say “I know this story!” or “I remember where this happened!” ‘Earth’s Mightiest’ continues it’s quasi-“Behind The Music” look at Avengers #58 through 61 (so far) and gives us the full Paul Harvey (that’d be… The REST Of The Story) on the decision to allow a previously murderous synthezoid to join up, on the impromptu wedding of Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne, on the reasons why intelligent men (not to mention the Vision’s…

Or – “The Secret of 52 Is…  Gardner Fox Was A Frickin’ Genius.” There are those who find the Silver Age of comics ridiculous, and the situations laughable.  They cite simpler art, weird stories, and a general lack of realism as sticking points, whereas I cite them as the main selling points.  In those days, the language of comics was still in it’s formative years (after all, the time difference between the debut of Superman and the debut of Barry Allen as the new Flash was a mere 15 years), and every story essentially came from whole cloth.  And nowhere is this…

How to bring a man-god down Last week Black Adam discovered the Mads of Oolong Island were behind The Four Horsemen project that resulted in the death of his wife and brother-in-law. Having the power of seven gods should be enough to make anyone mess his lab coat, but not these crazy bunch of bastards.