Browsing: Review

Or – “How To Escape Certain Death With Style & Grace (And A Chainsaw Hand.)” The problem with prequels is as simple as it is obvious. As soon as this series began, we knew where it was going to end, with Palpantine taking over as Emperor. We knew that the plague would take over the entire world, we knew that no one would survive, so we needed a charismatic lead and a good story to carry it. Ash Williams fits the first bill, and his desperate travels through this Marvel Universe have ably (and entertainingly) provided the second. Now, with…

Or – “If Somebody Doesn’t Believe In Me, I Can’t Believe In Them.” I’ve been all over the map in my responses to the various issues of the Loners, and with this issue, I’m starting to understand why… There’s much more than six issues worth of story in these characters, and the writer is desperately trying to shove in as much as possible, and give each of them their own moment in the sun. The problem I’m finding is that we’re not dealing with a TEAM, we’re dealing with a disparate group of individuals who don’t really have anything in…

Or – “Feeling The Love For The Post-Reboot Squad…” There are a couple of reasons that I chose to go with this particular Legionnaire.  The first is a sense of innate laziness, in that her history isn’t nearly as long as some of the other candidates (Brainiac 5, notably.)  The second is that, sometimes, I feel like the old guy ranting into a vacuum about how comics were better when I was a boy, uphill, both ways, through thirty feet of snow, and the starving children in Romania don’t even HAVE comics, you ungrateful whippersnappers!  Though thoroughly modern and original…

Don’t you feel like we’ve been here before? It’s not everyday a superhero dies – it’s more of an every other month thing. But one thing is for certain, in the DC Universe, if there is a major crisis looming, it’s a sure bet a Flash is going to die. In the wake of Infinite Crisis, and the repercussions of One Year Later, Bart Allen (aka Impulse, aka Kid Flash II, aka The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive) had a very rough time trying to fill the very big shoes of his grandpa Barry and Uncle Wally – fans didn’t…

Or – “Teenage Superguys… Don’t Do It!” The original lineup of the New Warriors reportedly came about when two editors flipped through the Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe, picked a few characters who hadn’t been seen in a while and slapped together a team out of them. So far in the new series, we’ve seen a mysterious masked man and two mutants depowered by the Decimation. There may be as much untapped potential in the former Beak and Winddancer as there was in Namorita, Firestar, Marvel Boy, and Speedball. Add in the man called Nova, fighting well beneath his…

Or – “Continuing The Difficult Task Of Rebuilding A Sympathetic Anthony Stark…” When Captain America #26 came out back in May, I complained about the fact that the story referenced the wonderful words that Sam Wilson (The Falcon, pictured above in his swingin’ 70’s green and gold original costume, complete with extra-groovy bird of prey medallion) said at Captain America’s funeral without actually telling us what those words were. Some have argued (Tom Grice among them) that this makes the moment more poignant by letting us all write our own eulogies, but part of me felt that it was short-changing…

Or – “I Find Myself Really Missing The Giant Disco Collar…” Various revamps of Iron Fist throughout the years keep altering the original costume and I don’t really understand why. Not only is it one of the most unique and interesting designs in comics, it’s not designed to be a superhero suit, it’s the customary garb of the fist of K’un L’un, a martial artists costume. In the 90’s-era run of Hero for Hire an issue featuring Deadpool had the merc with a mouth mocking the yellow slippers, and while it was funny, it irked me. Stop messing with the…

Or – “Proof That Not Every Licensed Property Is A License To Print Money… It’s the 4th of July, American Independence Day, and here at Stately Spoilers Manor East, I’m preparing for a campout, purchasing sparklers for young Molly, and wondering if the 231st Anniversary is celebrated with Adamantium or Prometheum. 25 years ago this month, give or take a few days, I was on a boy scout campout, and my ever-awesome cousin Elwood had brought with him a comic book he picked up at the local Duckwalls. G.I. Joe had recently been a HUGE hit for Marvel, followed quickly…

Or – “This One Should Be Mighty Interesting…” I’ve long been a Garth Ennis fan, dating back to his run on Hellblazer, a cornerstone of my pull list for nearly 20 years now.  I’m approaching today’s recap with trepidation (and not a small sense of excitement) simply because of the fact that most of what I enjoy about Garth’s work is his unerring sense of where the line of propriety is drawn.  ‘Course, he matches that with a boundless joy of not only crossing the line, but gleefully finding that point so far beyond good taste that it almost crosses…

Sean Wang Scores a Hit It seems the more I work, the further I get behind. A month or two ago, Sean Wang sent me a copy of his Runners: Bad Goods trade paperback. I’m just now getting the chance to sit down and review this awesome trade, and can’t recommend it enough.

Or – “The First Real Moments Of The New Legion Era…” I admit it… Like many nostalgia buffs, I’m terrible about change. I got a new car recently, and have been complaining about it steadily ever since, even though the previous vehicle hasn’t run in over a year. They added a channel to my movie tier six months ago, and I’m still getting used to the addition. So, when a writer I love AND an artist whose work has defined the Threeboot Legion to date have left the title, I can’t be sure how much of my response is coming…

Or – “More Than Just Another Pretty Face…” As I continue with these Hero Histories, I find two things to be true… First, the dang things seem to get longer every time, no matter how much I try to limit myself or edit (and trust me, each one feels like I’ve slashed it to the bone! Lord help me when I get to Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, who’ve appeared in 85% of the Legion stories to date.) Second, I’m always amazed at how consistent the characters have stayed, even after decades of stories. Today’s subject has always…

Or – “Where it all began…” This week Major Spoilers celebrates its first birthday! Woohoo! While Major Spoilers may be one year old this week, my love of comics began way back 1981. We were on a family vacation – you know the kind of vacation where you pack everyone into a camper and travel the highways and byways of this great country seeing the sites. I believe it was the summer we did the old west tour of Deadwood, Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Tetons, and of course Frontier Days in Cheyenne. It was on one of the many…

Or – “How To Juggle A Dozen Plots And Make It Look Easy…” The petite brunette there in the middle is Jennifer Walters, formerly known as the She-Hulk, proving she can still ‘bring it,’ as The Rock would say. Tom Grice recently took me to task for my adversarial stance during my review of Avengers: The Initiative #3, needling me about my “Dan Slott better bring his A-game” snotty remarks, saying that I was unnecessarily hard on that book. Tom is (say it with me, Spoilerites!) WRONG, Sir! WRONG! My defense is threefold: First, The Initiative is relying on a…