Browsing: Review

Why are you standing around? Get inside! What better way to greet the new year than by watching hundreds of people plummet to their death? What? That isn’t how you ring in the good times? Whatever… And “Whatever” is kind of how I feel about this week’s installment of 52.

Or – “Sometimes Inspirado Strikes When It Strikes…” So, I’ve been emotionally devastated today. First, I watched the two-part finale of season two of Doctor Who. On top of the underlying theme of loss of humanity, lost family, and missed opportunites, I had to endure the most painful breakup I’ve ever seen. It saddens me to the very core to see Rose Tyler completely break down, and worst of all, The Doctor never even got to say… what he should have said. Top that off with a round of American Idol Karaoke Revolution in which Simon Cowell called me awful,…

Or – “You Wish You Had Madrox’s Problems…” As I look at my hold list these days, I find a bit of bias towards the product being put out by DC Comics over that by Marvel. I have my Marvel mainstays, but the Civil War crossovers are making most of the product that comes out of Da House of Ideas incredibly complicated and difficult to keep up with. But, as with my monthly Nightwing review (another one comin’ soon!), I realize that my tastes aren’t everyone’s tastes, and thus, I’m gonna dip a toe in the Sargasso Sea that is…

Or – “Cancellation Notice? What Cancellation Notice?” So, did you have a happy New Year? Mine was just a big bag of crazy, thanks for asking. Ten pounds of psycho in a four and a half pound bag, but boy did I eat well! And while I don’t make resolutions, per se, (because I don’t need anything to make me feel like I’m already a failure in a brand new year) I’m going to try and do three or four things differently in 2007, including give you more Spoilers bang for your mostly imaginary buck. Speaking of fresh starts, I’m…

5…4…3…2…1… It has been a strange year for the DCU, first many of the major superheroes have disappeared leaving second stringers to pick up the slack. One was in it for the fame and fortune, while another appeared on the scene wrapped in mystery. A dictator got married and softened, while a former president created new heroes with his Everyman Project. It was also a year where a tormented hero began a quest to find the answers, while cancer tore through one who asks a lot of questions. As the final seconds tick down to the New Year, an optimistic…

Otaku Batman goes through a lot each time he goes out, and when you think about it, there have to be bits and pieces of his costume, gear, and whatnot (Selina Kyle, we’re looking your way) lying all over the place. If someone were diligent enough, they could collect all those bits and pieces, and rebuild the entire costume. A complete costume – even damaged – should fetch a pretty penny, if you can find a buyer.

Or – “They Were Doing SO Well…” There’s an interesting thing about the way comic books are written… a time paradox that allows a character who was 8 years old in 1941 to turn 20 in 1984, then to spend another 20 years at college age before finally having the standard-issue 22-year-old’s “Who Am I And Why Am I Here?” identity crisis at the chronological age of 73. The only other occupation that has as slow a growth curve as DC superhero is probably “vampire,” and both by coincidence come with roughly the same wardrobe. Nightwing’s back with another issue…

Or – “This Is The Story Of Doctor Jekyll & Mister Pym…” What’s that, you say? TWO issues? Can we BE so lucky? Is it a Christmas miracle? Well, yeah, for some values of miracle, anyway. Specifically, the miracle that is Marvel’s bi-weekly schedule, combined with my own foolishness in not checking said schedule, combined with the natural delays of the holiday season, all conspiring to give us a hearty double dose of classic Avengers in a white wine sauce with a fried egg on top and spam. Never let it be said that the Major Spoilers reviewing staff don’t…

Clone Saga: Part 7 Talk about a wild ride. For seven issues, we’ve been treated to the Ultimate rendition of the Clone Saga served up by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. We’ve found out nearly everyone appearing in recent issues is a clone of Peter Parker, including Spider-Woman, and the person behind the cloning is none other than Doctor Octavius.

Happy Holidays It’s a winter wonderland in the DCU. Carolers are caroling, snow is falling, gifts are exchanged, and it is generally a good moment for all.

Or – “It’s Ron Mysterio All Over Again…” Ahh, the annual! Used to be, every summer, we’d be inundated with these things, most of which were either out of continuity or written by people so divorced from the core book that they might as well have been writing different characters. Why, back in the day, you could count on a big issue, with one story that kinda mattered but wasn’t very good, filled out with reprints you neither wanted nor cared about, as well as pinups probably drawn in half an hour to fill the page count. Meeeeemorieeeeees… Then came…

Or – “What Exactly IS A Human Robot, Anyway?” It’s a fine time to be a comics fan. Characters as wildly diverse as Detective Chimp, Spider-Woman, Machine Man, Nightmaster, and Animal Man are all back in the spotlight, and it seems like nobody’s favorite obscure character is going to stay obscure for long. Marvel and DC alike are delighting in revamping, reviving, and revitalizing guys that most people figured were long gone. Most impressively, they’re doing it in a way that manages to breathe new life without negating that which has gone before. Most of the cast of this comic…

Or – “You’ll Never Have This Much Fun With A Liefeld Character Again…” One of the great things about the Marvel Universe is that everybody has a story. Even someone who’s appeared as seldom as the Texas Twister or Stingray has backstory, family, friends and continuity. The cast of this book, f’rinstance, has ties to The X-Men, X-Force, The Avengers, The Defenders, Spider-Man, the awesome but completely forgotten “Lost Generation” miniseries, and, if this issue is to be taken literally, The frickin’ Micronauts. Last issue, the nextwave five were faced with no fewer than three different evil superteams bent on…

More characters do not mean it’s a better story You gotta love industrial competition. Linksys scoops Apple on the use of the iPhone, Zune tries mirror the success of the iPod, I-Gore gets stolen and renamed Mimic, the list goes on and on. However, Steve Jobs never dressed up in the skins of his enemies to kill his next victims, and last I looked, Bill Gates can’t carry a tune, although it would be pretty interesting if they did.