Category Archives: Comics
Oh Hey, the Great Lakes Avengers Are Gonna Come Back
Marvel Comics is on a roll announcing some of their new team books for the post-Civil War II era. Seeing as how I’m not one of the big comic book news sites, I’m just not going to be able to add my 2 cents to every reveal. But when we find out that the Great Lakes Avengers are going to get an ongoing series, I’m there!
Alas, no Dina Soar
I love these guys, and I think they would be pretty perfect in this era of Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and Patsy Walker a.k.a. Hellcat. If incoming writer Zac Gorman can take the humor and awesomeness of those books and apply it to a team book like the GLA, it should be pretty great! I’ve never read anything he’s done before, but I’m confident he’s got some chops. Apparently somebody trusted him with the Rick and Morty comic.
In darker news, Marvel also announced a new Champions book in the same vein today. This one kind of annoys me, because it harkens to Marvel’s new, displeasing habit of having no patience anymore. Ms. Marvel, Miles Morales and Nova are all members of this new Champions book…even though their membership in the All-New, All-Different Avengers was supposed to be a big deal only a year ago!
Why get invested in a new team book if Marvel’s just going to futz the lineup less than a year later? Are one or two stories worth the investment?
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I Can’t Believe They Never Thought of the U.S.Avengers Before Now
Happy Fourth of July, everyone! To celebrate, Marvel Comics has announced the U.S.Avengers, a super-patriotic themed version of the Avengers to rise up after Civil War II! Looks neat, and I think I’ll give it a try when it comes out. It’ll be written by Al Ewing, with art by Paco Medina.
Proud to be an American Avenger!
The basic concept is that Sunspot gets his New Avengers team commissioned by the U.S. Government, which sounds pretty cool. I don’t remember if the government has had an officially sponsored Avengers team before. There was the 52 State Initiative, and the government has had various strike forces before, but a full-on Avengers team? Especially one this unflinchingly patriotic? Could be neat!
You can read more about it on Marvel.com.
Among the team, we’ve got Squirrel Girl, Red Hulk, Pod, Cannonball, Sunspot, and two new members: Danielle Cage from the future, as Captain America, and Toni Ho as the new Iron Patriot. She’s apparently the daughter of Ho Yinsen, the man who helped Tony Stark build the first Iron Man armor. He was pretty great in the movies.
Lookin’ sharp
Hopefully this patriotic version of Squirrel Girl won’t mess up her solo series, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. I’m sure Ryan North will know exactly how to incorporate it into his comic, which remains the funniest comic on the stands.
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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 7/2/16
Happy Fourth of July Weekend, fellow American hench-people! Here in America, we celebrate with picnics and blowing stuff up. And apparently a Captain America comic that got a lot of people riled up last month! That seems like a solid way to celebrate America’s birthday. Comics are a good way to celebrate anything!
Though I’m sad to say I had a busy week at work, so I didn’t get to as many comics as I normally like. I read a good pile, though. There were some gems, and some duds. And I’m really, really sorry to say that I’m just not gelling with the new Black Panther series. I want to support any attempt to diversify a comic book line, but the series is just going way over my head. It’s a fine comic, but it’s just not for me, sad to say.
Not that the rest of these are all that great either…though I did enjoy one last romp with Grayson. Comic Book of the Week by a long shot.
Dick Grayson and Harley Quinn need to team up more often
It’s just an Annual issue, though, so what does it really matter? Hopefuly the Rebirthed Nightwing will be even half as good as Grayson.
Comic Reviews: Captain America – Steve Rogers #2, Captain Marvel #6, Grayson Annual #3 and Spider-Man #5.
I’m Only In It For The Prowler
Yesterday, Marvel Comics unveiled their next big status quo shake-up, called ‘Divided We Fall’. It’s pretty dumb. Is this really Marvel’s new business model? Go from Big Event to Status Quo Shake-Up to Big Event to Status Quo Shake-Up every six months or so? Are they so desperate that they’re just going to chase that #1 issue sales bump over and over? It’s ridiculous and I absolutely don’t care. As long as you’re making good comics, I’ll keep reading and enjoying. You’re not impressing this henchman with these stunts.
And on any other day, I would have completely ignored this announcement and posted another funny Internet video. But then Marvel had to go and do the one thing that makes me give a damn: include one of my favorite obscure superheroes.
I suppose it’s good that Ms. Marvel is there, too
Can you spot him? He’s that purple guy with the green shape on his chest. That’s the Prowler, one of my all-time favorite obscure superheroes. I have a lot of these favorites, like the Mimic or the Spot. They’re obscure comic book characters who don’t really do much or appear very often, but for one reason or another, I love’em! I can’t point to any one story or series where the Prowler was particularly awesome, but he’s one of my faves nonetheless.
And here’s Marvel going ahead and using Prowler in their next big status quo shake-up.
So wherever they put him, whatever he’s doing, you better believe I’m buying those comics. I support my favorites, no matter how obscure. I hope it’s something cool.
If you care more about this new status quo shake-up, you can read an interview with Axel Alonso. I don’t know what the interview says because I haven’t read it. That’s how little I care about this new status quo shake-up. I just hope Prowler does something awesome.
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What about you henchies? Interested in this new thing? Do you still hang onto Marvel’s every announcement? Let me know in the comments!
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Comic Review: Teen Titans Annual #2
I am a huge fan of hyperbole. It makes everything better. So believe me when I say this is probably Scott Lobdell’s finest Teen Titans comic in the entire New 52 era. I’m not entirely sure why Teen Titans gets an Annual issue on this Fifth Wednesday with a total status quo change right around the corner, but whatever. I can go with the flow. I don’t mind reading new comics, especially when they’re this solid. I daresay, Teen Titans should have been like this all along.
Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.
Teen Titans Annual #2 gets to be Lobdell’s finest Titans issue for a few simple reasons: there’s an extended sequence of the Titans hanging out as civilians, the super-villain actually ties into an earlier comic that I liked, and there was some legitimate characterization and development. This issue isn’t about to break the mold or convince DC to not Rebirth Teen Titans, nor is it going to make me forget the past few years of crumminess. But considering we’re just killing time until Rebirth, it’s nice that Lobdell gets another chance to go out on a high note.
Honestly, I had completely forgotten about the unresolved plot thread in this issue. The Annual picks up from the encounter with Professor Pyg way back in December in Teen Titans #15. I liked that issue, and I like this one. That’s probably the best we can hope for with the Teen Titans, for now.
Join me after the jump for the full synopsis and more review!
Henchman-4-Hire 