Category Archives: Comics
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 4/20/19
By this time next week, I will have seen Avengers: Endgame and all will be right in the world. I can’t wait. I’m very excited. Let’s hope I’m not too excited!
Until then, we’ve got to read some fun comics, like Guardians of the Galaxy and the final issue of West Coast Avengers! The War of the Realms also continued this week! But Comic Book of the Week goes to the big, climactic issue of Tony Stark – Iron Man for a solid, enjoyable story.
Kids are jerks
Meanwhile, my skimming of new Uncanny X-Men issues reaffirms my correct decision to drop them. More characters I like are dead. Though if my brother is reading this, he might be slightly pleased to know that the original Pyro has been stealth returned to the living…though apparently as a one-note bad guy. I’m working on a larger Pyro article, I promise.
Comic Reviews: Guardians of the Galaxy #4, Magnificent Ms. Marvel #2, Tony Stark – Iron Man #10, War of the Realms #2 and West Coast Avengers #10.
Ms. Marvel is Getting a New Uniform; I Don’t Like It
Marvel Comics has announced that Ms. Marvel will get a new costume redesign to go along with some outer space adventures she’s going to have in her new comic. The redesign was announced alongside the new comic solicitations this week.
I don’t like the new costume.
Hopefully it’s not a symbiote
Judge for yourself, obviously, but I think it’s way too busy. It’s got all this new metal and all these new design features. It’s garish and tacky.
Because she uses so many shoulder bags?
Ms. Marvel’s original costume is pretty much perfect. And the old adage of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” definitely comes to mind.
But at the same time, costume redesigns are quite common in comics. Kamala isn’t immune to that sort of thing. But man, this redesign stinks. Another old adage — “Keep it simple, stupid” — also comes to mind.
This isn’t just me bitching about a change in a comic. A lot of recent costume redesigns have been great. Carol Danvers upgrading to that cool Captain Marvel suit was perfect. And the Spider-Woman redesign led to me reading her comic, which easily became one of my favorite comics of the past 10 years. I am a Spider-Woman fan to this day because that sweet costume change got me interested in the character.
We’ll see how this Ms. Marvel change goes…
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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 4/13/19
Comic release schedules have morphed into a weird track for me. How is it that all of my current favorite comics come out in the exact same week, forced to battle it out for Comic Book of the Week? Nearly any of the comics I read this week could have trounced some of the garbage I read other weeks.
As much as I’ve been loving Wonder Twins — and this week saw another stellar issue — an old champion has revealed it still has legs and comedy chops! Unbeatable Squirrel Girl wins Comic Book of the Week for a really fun and funny tie-in to War of the Realms!
Russell Dauterman, eat your heart out!
Meanwhile, the new issue of Batman featured interior art by Amanda Conner, one of my favorite comic book artist of all time. I’m quite pleased with the issue, which sees the bachelor party of Catwoman, wherein she and Lois Lane party at the Fortress of Solitude. Unfortunately, I did not review the issue because Batman remains trapped in a weird dream prison thing, so I’m finding each individual issue difficult to grade. Fun stuff, though.
Comic Book Reviews: Go Go Power Rangers #19, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #43, Unstoppable Wasp #6, Wonder Twins #3 and X-23 #11.
X-Statix is Coming Back!
Because true genius never dies, X-Statix are going to return for a special one-shot in July! Giant-Sized X-Statix #1 will reunite original creators Peter Milligan and Mike and Laura Allred! And some of the classic team members will be back too — even though most of them are dead!
There’s not too much information out just yet. Newsarama has an interview with Mike Allred, and they claim to have an interview with Milligan coming soon.
Bleeding Cool also revealed some sketch designs for potentially new characters.
Those look pretty cool!
Whatever the case may be, I’m excited. I was a slow convert to X-Statix when they originally came out, but once I was in, I was really in and read through to the end. So I’m excited to see this revival, even if it’s short.
They’re back and more alive than ever for this special one-shot! But what new threat is so grave that only the most famous mutant celebrities can fight it? And who is the new U-Go-Girl? Only the original X-Statix creative team Peter Milligan, Michael Allred and Laura Allred know for sure!
I also hope we’ll finally see the return of long-lost character Lacuna, one of my favorite characters from X-Statix. She’s also one of the few to survive the end of the series, and I’ve been waiting forever to see if Marvel ever uses her again.
Of course, knowing my luck lately, she’ll probably come back and be killed immediately.
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Forgotten Characters: Phantazia
Whatever happened to Phantazia?
There are a bajillion different mutants in the X-Men corner of comics, and I’m sure more than a few have been left by the wayside over the decades. But what about Phantazia? She looks cool and she was a female member of the Brotherhood of Mutants before it was cool!
Phantazia is one of those weird characters who pops up in a specific role, gets used in the background a couple of times and then disappears almost completely. But you can’t deny that she has a really cool look. Purple is a badass super-villain color.
So what became of that cool looking female member of the Brotherhood? Join me after the jump to find out!
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