Category Archives: Comics
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 10/4/14
Welcome to a week of firsts! I don’t know if it’s divine intervention or some kind of back room deal, but both Marvel and DC delivered a huge number of new starts and #1 issues this week, which sounds to me like a solid foundation for this week’s reviews. There were so many firsts I couldn’t even get to them all, but I think I picked a nice smattering of titles.
We’ve got #1 issues for the new Thor, Gotham Academy, Guardians 3000, Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier and Lobo, some of which are really good, some of which are mediocre, and at least one of which is the worst comic I’ve ever reviewed in this column! I also included the new Captain America issue, which debuted Sam Wilson as the new Cap!
Thank Stephen Colbert
Comic Book of the Week goes to Gotham Academy for being both adorable and mysterious in pretty much equal measure. That’s a good start for any comic.
I’m going to warn you fine folks in advance though…be careful of my reviews this week. You know I’ve been sticking it out with Batman Eternal since the beginning, but this week…man…I get a little ranty. Keep reading if you dare…
Comic Reviews: Batman Eternal #26, Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier #1, Captain America #25, Gotham Academy #1, Guardians 3000 #1, Lobo #1 and Thor #1.
I Hate When I’m Right – All-New X-Factor Cancelled
Writer Peter David announced earlier this month that All-New X-Factor will be cancelled by issue #20, something that didn’t really make the news until Bleeding Cool brought it up unofficially. Well now it’s official, according to PAD.
I hate to say I told you so…but I told you so. It didn’t last a year.
This is disappointing news for many reasons, but what’s there to say? It was nice of Marvel to let PAD continue X-Factor, but this All-New X-Factor version never possessed even an ounce of the spark or energy that bolstered the previous team. I saw it in the very first issue, and it remained a problem throughout the series. Heck, I even stopped reading. The comic just wasn’t very interesting.
But I’m not gonna rub any more salt in the wound. This is just sad news.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 9/27/14
I don’t know what to tell you, henchies, but this week was kind of a busy one for yours truly. Couple that with a rather low key week of releases and I’ve only got four reviews for you! I know! I feel like I let you all down. But man, there were just some boring comics put out this week. I just couldn’t bring myself to read the latest issue of All-New Ghost Rider.
But we’ve got new issues of Batman Eternal, Cyclops, Storm and the excellent New Avengers, which easily wins Comic Book of the Week. If you’re a fan of Doctor Doom, you should be reading New Avengers. I’m giddy with excitement over that guy.
Though while we’re here, I was hoping I could ask you readers for some feedback on my Hench-Sized Reviews. I’m always looking for ways to improve this feature, but I’m not sure what you guys and gals like or dislike. Personally, I’ve started to feel like I put these reviews together on an assembly line. It’s efficient, but is it worth reading?
What do you folks think? Do you like that I include a synopsis? Would you like more review? I know I don’t talk about art much, but I could. Are these things even constructed very well? Are they getting too long?
Any feedback would be much appreciated, even if you only stumbled upon this page, or you don’t comment very much. I can only get better if you fine readers let me know how, so please, jump down to the comments and let me hear it!
Comic Reviews: Batman Eternal #25, Cyclops #5, New Avengers #23, and Storm #3.
Review: Saga #23
Leave it to writer Brian K. Vaughn to break my heart several issues ago, then pull out a comic like Saga #23 and TOTALLY REDEEM HIMSELF!
Saga #23
I knew to trust Vaughn with his story. I knew he wouldn’t lead us too far astray, that everything was being done for a reason. I held out hope that he was going somewhere important with all of this, and finally, in Saga #23, we start to see what he’s got planned. And, as expected, it’s completely unexpected.
That’s the great thing about Saga: I have no idea what’s going to happen next, and I love it!
Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.
Mostly, I love it. I’m a sucker for always falling in love with characters and not wanting anything bad to happen to them, whereas Vaughn understands that bad things have to happen to characters; that’s what makes a story a story. It’s too his credit that he’s created such an amazing cast. I’ve just got to suck it up and keep trusting him to write one hell of an adventure. But man, some of the events of this issue are probably going to be heart-breaking all over again.
After several issues of scenery building, setting up the Circuit, Marko’s flirtations, and The Crazy Janitor, Saga #23 starts crashing all of them together in the usual glorious ways. Vaughn plays with our expectations in a way that proves he knew exactly what he was doing, and the ending hits us simultaneously with joy and fear. With an extra dash of excitement and mystery, of course.
It’s no Saga #19, but wait until you see how Vaughn twists our assumptions about that issue as well. This volume has been a bit low key in the grand scheme of things, but Vaughn is no less a master of his craft.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
The 6 Best Bird Superheroes
That’s right, it’s come to this: bird-themed superheroes. Everybody loves birds, right? They can fly, so that puts them one-up on us puny humans. They’ve got feathers, which are pretty neat. They poop everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. Birds. They’re…well they’re birds.
And apparently they make for solid superhero inspiration!
I should just stop right now, list complete
I’ve already tackled sports, fire, ice, cats and Canandians in my Lists of Six, why not birds? Cats eat birds, so it kind of comes full circle. And if jetpacks are never invented, some kind of bird-harness would be our next best bet for flying – though I’m sure our arms will get tired! Zing! Anyway, bird superheroes are a thing, and at least six of them are better than all the rest!
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