Browsing: Review

Or – “You Know You’re Tough When You Can Fight A Wendigo In Your Underwear…” She-Hulk is one of those series that tends to avoid most people’s radar, with only the occasional mention by the fan press or internet to remind the non-readers that it’s still out there, and that’s really too bad. In any given month, one issue of She-Hulk will give you more for your entertainment value than many of the top ten “Hot Books.” I’ve never walked away from an issue of Dan Slott’s take on the green giantess wondering why I was looking forward to it,…

Or – “Things Are Just About To Get (More) Interesting…” I’ll say it again: I don’t see why Birds of Prey isn’t DC’s best-selling title. There’s something for everyone here. The main characters have years of history, tying into JLA, into Batman, into the New Gods, even to the old Charlton comics. (Speaking of which, if Renee Montoya does what it looks like she’s gonna do, I’d love to see HER in BoP, wouldn’t you?) If you’re a continuity buff, it’s in there for you. The plots are always involving, the action fast and interesting, with aspects of Action/Adventure, Cloak…

Or – “Superheroes Make For Some Interesting Fathers…” As a parent, I find it interesting how the superheroes treat their kids. The poster child for this is, of course, Franklin Richards, whose mutant abilities have popped him up and down the power charts like a whore’s drawers. Young Frankie’s parents only refer to him when they want to hurt each other by calling their spouse neglectful, only to return to their experiments/flirtations-with-fishmen the moment their ire cools. The Vision and The Scarlet Witch’s children were wished out of existence, we’ve seen recently the toll that an absentee Batman father had…

Or – “This Is The Dawning Of The Age Of Aquarius!  Aquaaaariuuuuuuus!” Eel O’ Brien is a character who has seen a lot of incarnations, even as comic book characters go.  Originated by Quality Comics back in Dubya Dubya Two, O’Brien became one of the most visually memorable characters of the Golden Age, not merely able to stretch, but change his shape completely, even create complex machinery or be cut into pieces without losing his cohesiveness.  The Eelster disappeared in 1956, when a foundering Quality Comics finally went under, but he certainly wasn’t forgotten.  At some point, DC Comics acquired…

I could go for a little bite, how about you? Kids tend to be pretty messed up, especially when it comes to guilt. Whether it is the guilt of stealing, telling a fib, or some other negligible action, it can really mess with a kid’s mind. No one is more messed up than Osiris over killing a member of the suicide squad. What’s a demi-god to do? Any other guilt ridden kid would run off to confession, and everything would be cleared up with a couple of prayers, but I don’t think that’s going to work here.

Or – “Ohhh OHH! Thunderbolts ARE GO!” That is one uuuugly Venom. He actually looks like Sludge from the late, lamented Ultraverse, doesn’t he? This issue really amps up the volume on the violence, and gives us our first actual glance of the Thunderbolts in action, and I gotta tell you… Somebody in the government owes somebody in the private sector a HUUUUGE apology. I’m talkin’ huge. We do get to see the “Big Guns” concept in action on a villain scale, and it’s a bad scene, on a par with taking the brown acid. It’s your trip, man, but……

Or – “Why Do Ya Do Me Like You Do, Do, Do?” “Mary Sue: A pejorative term for a character who is portrayed in an overly idealized way and lacks noteworthy flaws, or has unreasonably romanticized flaws. Characters labeled Mary Sues, as well as the stories they appear in, are generally seen as wish-fulfillment fantasies of the author.” Why would I start off with THAT definition while reviewing Civil War: Frontline? Two words: Sally @#(*ing Floyd. From day one of this series, Sally has been an unusually annoying and omnipresent character, the central figure telling the “behind the lines” stories…

Or – “A Book You Can’t Judge By It’s Cover…” Okay, I’ll say it. The Alex Ross covers for Justice Society have been bad. Really bad. And this month’s is creepy beyond creepy, with Maxine Hunkel looking remarkably like a young Olympia Dukakis, holding down her dress like Marilyn Monroe (showing a pretty adult amount of leg, hip, thigh and an apparent lack of supportive undergarments), with her hair floating up in the air. And while I understand that Alex Ross=Ratings, making the Dale Eaglesham covers (which have all been superior compositions, actually REPRESENTING what’s inside the issue, an archaic…

Because hey, can’t leave a saga hanging now can we? One of the problems that comes with of having a day job (or two) is some things fall through the cracks until it is time to update the inventory in ComicBase and you suddenly remember, with dread, you forgot to review the final two parts of the Ultimate Spider-Man Clone Saga. Fortunately, for those of you who have been anxiously awaiting the final two issues, you now have an excuse to run down to the local shop and pick them up from the “why didn’t you buy this issue two…

Or – “Back When Princess Python Was A Credible Threat… To Pastries.” There are few conditions in the English language that have more entertaining (and insulting) euphemisms than mental instability… Going ape, barmy, batty, berzerk, bonkers, certifiable, crackers, cuckoo, daft, delirious, demented, deranged, flaky, flipped out, haywire, insane, lunatic, mad, mental, moonstruck, nuts, positively fourth street, psycho, screw loose, screwball, touched, unbalanced, whacko, and let’s not forget “speed-dialling the bozophone” and “full-blown-wackaloon.” Granted, these are all very insensitive to anyone who has these sorts of imbalances, no matter how much fun they are, especially since the reality of the breakdown…

Or – “This Is The End, Beautiful Friend… The End.” I admit it. I initially only bought this title because of the presence of X-51, aka Mr. Machine, Sir MacHinery, Machine Man, and Aaron Stack. One of Kirby’s lesser-known creations, the big purple guy with the taillights for eyes first bowed in the 2001: A Space Odyssey series in 1978, and has never actually had a run that lasted more than 12 issues consecutively. His “Space Odyssey” run was three issues, his first book, titled Machine Man, ran 19 issues, but there was a break of almost a year between…

Or – “The 1970’s Never Looked So Good.” The arrival of an issue of Astro City is one of those rare treats, like a Peanut Buster Parfait, or perhaps seeing your favorite movie on cable on a Saturday night when you’re up anyway, and there’s nothing else on but Skinemax.  It’s quite sad that this kind of quality requires long-term slaving by master-level comic industry craftsmen to create, making the wait between issues much longer than the norm.  Busiek and Anderson’s masterpiece is knee-deep in history, dealing with one of the darkest periods in Astro City’s past, an era of superfreaks, backstabbers,…

Ralph beats the Devil The big build-up of Ralph’s journey to be reunited with his wife finally reaches its climax. And as suspected, all is not as it seems. Spoilers ahead!

Or – “Then The Door Was Opened And The Wind Appeared…” I really meant to pick up this series from issue #1, but I chose not to go in on Wednesday the week that #1 shipped. By the time I arrived for the Friday night closing shift, Mystery Theatre #1 was waaay gone, like a Ginger Baker drum solo in a dusty basement full of beatniks and hipsters. Most interestingly of all, nobody within a thirty minute radius had it either, which means that there’s a lotta love out there for Wesley Dodds. This pleases me, as kids today have…