Category Archives: Comics
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/27/18
I think I might have been in a bad mood this week. I don’t think I was. I had a pretty nice week. Saw some movies. Did some work. Had lots of good times. But none of the comics this week really spoke to me, not Amazing Spider-Man or Batgirl, and definitely not Doomsday Clock!
Comic Book of the Week is going to be the new Detective Comics, for a big important story, but one I felt got a little too big. Still good, at least.
The best Batman and Robin
Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #794, Batgirl #19, Detective Comics #973, Doomsday Clock #3 and Marvel Two-in-One #2.
Multiple Man Did Not Really Return…Yet…Again
A couple weeks ago, I got super hyped up because the dead Multiple Man made a cameo appearance in Phoenix Resurrection – The Return of Jean Grey. At the time, we didn’t know what these cameos meant and I got my hopes up that Jamie Madrox would finally come back to life!
Well the latest issue explains that all these dead X-Men cameos are just weird manifestations of the Phoenix. At least Multiple Man looks cool in red.
It’s at least a close visual proximation
Also, while we’re on the subject, why did they pick Colossus for the one-panel fight against Madrox? Strong Guy, Multiple Man’s best friend, is in that same group of X-Men fighting off these dead Phoenix manifestations. Not that this comic needs to address those characters in any way, but for a single throwaway panel, it would have been nice!
Looks like we go back to waiting for Multiple Man’s eventual return to comics.
In good news, Bleeding Cool ran an article a couple weeks ago about Marvel trademarking the name ‘Multiple Man’, so that’s got to be a good sign!
Also, while we’re on the subject of Phoenix Resurrection – The Return of Jean Grey, I really, really dislike Old Man Logan. He is just such a horrible character inserted into the regular Marvel Universe. It’s like everybody is just pretending he’s regular Logan!
On this page, Young Scott Summers has volunteered to go in and confront the Phoenix. But Old Man Logan talks him out of it for one specific reason:
He’s still not wearing a costume!
Are you kidding me?! She’s not your Jean Grey either, you stupid alternate reality character! I know this is being pedantic and nitpicky fanboyish of me, but the fact that everybody keeps treating Old Man Logan like he’s regular Wolverine really sticks in my craw. Did I miss some issue where he tricked everybody into thinking he was regular Wolverine, just really old? Do they not know he’s from an alternate reality?
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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/20/18
Comics! We’ve got comics! So many comics! There are a bunch of cancelled titles out there, but I’ve still got plenty to read. In fact, this week features some of my favorites, like Power Rangers and Mighty Thor! We also get the new Harley Quinn creative team!
Unsurprisingly, Comic Book of the Week goes to Tom King’s Batman. That guy is killing it on this title! And artist Joelle Jones is back to draw Wonder Woman, so everything is pretty much perfect.
That’s how Batman works
Meanwhile, in other comic book news, Marvel announced the upcoming wedding of Colossus and Kitty Pryde. I have zero interest in this union. My introduction to the X-Men came through the 90s cartoon show, where both characters were absent. So I’ve never had any investment in their relationship, unless you count Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men, but I don’t remember that series for Kitty and Colossus.
But hey, if that’s what Marvel wants to do, more power to them, I suppose. I’m sure some fans are happy.
Comic Reviews: Batman #39, Harley Quinn #35, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #23 and Mighty Thor #703.
Jubilee’s Long, National Vampire Nightmare is Over!
Once upon a time, back when Twilight’s popularity was already waning, Marvel Comics had the stupid idea to revitalize their own vampire characters. They turned characters like Dracula into modern hunks, tried to come up with all new vampire lore, acted like these vampires were going to be a big deal in the Marvel Universe going forward, and basically made fools of themselves. Then they roped the X-Men into this madness.
I”m sorry for making you remember
The only real consequenceof this legitimately stupid story endeavor was that Jubilee was turned into a vampire. She had lost her regular powers on M-Day and was just kind of hanging around for a bit with nothing to do, so Marvel turned her into a vampire.
That stuck around for years afterwards, even as the vampire fad mercifully faded away. Jubilee was a vampire in every comic she showed up in, including random ones like Patsy Walker a.k.a. Hellcat.
You were too good for this world, Patsy Walker a.k.a. Hellcat
Wild stuff, right? And just so, so dumb. What business does Jubilee have being a vampire? It’s not like they really focused much on her even being a vampire. Writers gave her a magical amulet that let her go out during the day and just ignore a bunch of other vampire stuff. It was an albatross around her neck.
Fortunately, using the comic book magic of the Phoenix Force, Jubilee was restored to her old self in the latest issue of Generation X this week.
At least she never gave up the yellow coat
Hooray for that! Normally I’m not a big fan of taking crazy steps to retcon the world back to the status quo, but this is one instance where it was the right choice. Jubilee as a vampire was dumb. Jubilee as Jubilee is great!
Our long national nightmare is over. Praise the Phoenix!
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The Top 6 Ground and Earth-Based Comic Book Characters
Everybody needs a hobby. One of mine is this blog, for which I’ve tried to post every day for more than five years now. That’s pretty impressive. But I think I’m going to peak this year, because this is the year that I summon Blog Captain Planet. It starts with a list on the coolest superheroes with the power to control the ground beneath our feet.
We all know what it is
Coming up with ideas for these Lists of Six every week can be kind of tough. And sometimes I’ll fall back on an easy choice, like a list of superheroes with similar powers. I once did fire, then water and wind…which leaves Earth and heart! Then I will summon Blog Captain Planet!
Join me after the jump for the top six comic book characters who control the dirt!
Henchman-4-Hire