Category Archives: Comics
My 6 Favorite Teams in Comics
Any superhero will tell you: you ain’t nothing until you join a super team! The Justice League and the Avengers only take the best of the best (usually). The Fantastic Four are practically royalty. And Empowered didn’t get any respect until she joined the Super-Homies! Sort of. Super teams are the bread and butter of the comic book industry. Why just have one superhero to a comic when you can have a dozen? Why not take a couple of solo superheroes and put them into a single movie together and make a billion dollars?
Makes sense to me.
A billion dollars! It still blows my mind!
Being the fully entrenched comic book geek that I am, most of the teams on this list are going to be kind of obscure. That’s on me. But perhaps some of you readers will learn something new about comics! I can only hope my lists do some good for the world. Join me after the jump to see my favorite comic book super-teams. And please don’t hesitate to share your own favorites in the comments!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/18/14
Holy cow, you guys, the Blob is back! The Blob! Not the Age of Apocalypse Blob, or skinny Blob, or powerless Blob, but the real, regular, normal, 616 Blob is back in all his glory in this week’s issue of Uncanny X-Men! With no explanation whatsoever, Brian Michael Bendis just brings back one of my all-time favorite comic book super-villains! And he’s great! Oh man, I hope Bendis has some fun plans for the character!
But the return of the Blob does not win Uncanny X-Men Comic Book of the Week on its own. No sir. Uncanny X-Men wins that title for an absolutely amazing Magneto story, which catapults him to maybe the most badass mutant on the planet these days. If his upcoming solo series is anywhere near as good as this issue, then we’re all in for a treat.
Fortunately, we’ve also got good issues of Thor: God of Thunder, Superior Spider-Man and some other titles this week. I even picked up Skyman #1 by Dark Horse!
But man, I’m so excited for the Blob!
I love the Hawaiian shirt, the sunglasses and the goatee; I love’em!
Comic Reviews: Amazing X-Men #3, Green Lantern Corps #27, Skyman #1, Superior Spider-Man #25, Superman/Wonder Woman #4, Thor: God of Thunder #17 and Uncanny X-Men #16.
Your New Justice Leagues!
Big changes are in store for the various Justice Leagues (there are more than one) coming out of the Forever Evil storyline, and I felt it might be fun to share.
First up, the bad news: Justice League Of Canada has been changed to Justice League United. If that’s not depressing, I don’t know what is. DC was gonna do something fun and weird, and instead they’re making it boring and generic. Though writer Jeff Lemire promises that the first story arc will indeed take place in Canada, in this announcement interview with USA Today.
They would have made Canada proud
Considering how much I’m loving Lemire’s Green Arrow, I might have to start picking this up. I was never happy with Geoff Johns’ Justice League of America, but then I don’t think that was ever actually its own comic. It was only ever the road to Forever Evil.
As you can see from that photo, the team is going to be Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Supergirl, Stargirl, Animal Man and the new Adam Strange. I don’t particularly care about anyone in that line up, though I am absolutely fascinated with the New 52 Martian Manhunter, and, like I said, Lemire’s Green Arrow is pretty great. Lemire is also going to introduce some new Canadian characters, so more power to him. The stories in JLU are going to focus a lot on outer space, according to the interview. And just a word to my readers, saying ‘outer space’ is just so much more fun that simply saying ‘space’. Unless you’re using ‘space’ as an adjective.
Speaking of team line-ups, the good news is that Lex Luthor is going to join the roster of Justice League, Geoff Johns’ flagship book. That’s actually pretty darn cool, in my opinion.
Too much green and purple
I can’t say that Johns has been writing the best Luthor in the pages of Forever Evil, but just the idea of Luthor on the Justice League is a fun one. He’s a new, Alpha personality, and no doubt he’ll have his own particular brand of heroism. Although why any of the other heroes would let Luthor join the Justice League is anyone’s guess. It’s not like he can force them to accept him, right? Anyway, I’m kind of excited to see what Johns does with this shake-up. And he’s adding Captain Cold too, so that’s kind of neat. You can read a deeper interview with Johns at Newsarama.
I actually kind of like what I’m seeing out of DC Comics…so surely it’s all going to be terrible in the end.
Holy Cow, Teen Titans has Been Cancelled!
The worst (best?) has happened as it seems that Scott Lobdell has driven Teen Titans into the ground. Announced by Lobdell himself on ComicVine today, Teen Titans will be cancelled at issue #30 in April!
Wow. This is fascinating news. It’s sad that I won’t be able to continue my popular Teen Titans reviews (ravagings?), but man oh man, how great would it be if DC Comics found something better to do with the title and the characters?
Lobdell explained that the last regular issue will be #30, followed by an Annual a week later, which will wrap up the series with a final battle against N.O.W.H.E.R.E., because Lobdell insists they’re the Titans’ arch-enemies. Groan.
I’m thrilled the DC is letting me wrap up the story on a high note as the TEEN TITANS square off against the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. in a final battle — bringing to conclusion the conflict that began in the first issue! I’m certainly going to miss writing the adventures of Red Robin, Wonder Girl, Bunker and the rest of the gang. But as a huge, life long fan of the title I’m very excited about the whispered rumors I’m hearing race back and forth between New York and Burbank. (Trust me when I say we haven’t seen the last of everyone’s favorite teen team adventurers.)
Let’s read between the lines for a moment. You’ll see that Teen Titans is being cancelled instead of just being handed off to a new creative team. With a title as marquee as ‘Teen Titans’, why wouldn’t DC just let somebody take over from Lobdell?
I think the answer is because Lobdell so greatly screwed up the team that DC has no choice but to burn it down and start fresh somewhere down the line. That is exactly what I think has happened. Ugh. Teen Titans is so bad. The characters have been all but ruined.
If only DC could completely erase everything Lobdell did to the Titans. But at the very least, now there is hope for something better. Hope with me, my friends. Hope.
Aquaman is Getting a Second Series!
We will soon live in a world where Aquaman has two ongoing series. It’s not a world where either one is written by Geoff Johns, buuuut we’ll just have to let that slide.
DC Comics announced yesterday the new series, Aquaman and the Others, to be written by Dan Jurgens and drawn by Lan Medina.
More Aquaman is a good thing
For those of you who don’t know, the Others are a new group created for DC’s recent relaunch. They are a group of people each entrusted with one of Atlantis’ ancient magical weapons, and Aquaman joined them for several adventures way back before the Justice League even formed. They’re not so much superheroes are just colorful people from around the world, like the Operative, a geriatric super-spy, or Prisoner-of-War, a hooded soldier carrying the souls of all his former comrades in his weapon. There’s also Ya’wara the jungle woman and Sky, who I don’t remember. Sadly, the coolest one, Vostok the cosmonaut, was killed.
Anyway, the series is going to be about some villain coming around to try and take their weapons – which was exactly the plot when the Others were introduced in the pages of Aquaman. I’m sure this time it’ll be better – I hope. I have no idea how Dan Jurgens is going to do, but I have to hope it’s going to be awesome!
Henchman-4-Hire 