Category Archives: Comics
The 6 Most Awesome Comic Book Presidents
Hail to the Chief, baby! President’s Day was this past Monday, so I’ve decided to celebrate by showcasing some of the coolest and weirdest fictional presidents in comic books. Surprisingly, the Commander in Chief rarely plays a big role in comic books. I know Marvel Comics usually likes to use the real world POTUS whenever he’s needed, and DC Comics throws up a stand-in whenever a superhero interacts with the Oval Office. But where’s the fun in any of that? Especially when Marvel uses President Obama in a terrible story with the Chameleon, to support the evil Norman Osborn or to indirectly order the Avengers to attack the X-Men in Avengers vs. X-Men. What’s up with that, Marvel?
Of course, comics have also given us Barack the Barbarian!
I hope the White House has every issue
Hopefully that will be the title of his eventual movie biography. Sarah Palin plays Red Sonja. So clearly the real President has a place in comics, but what about the fictional Presidents? Who are the characters that the writers make up for their story? That’s who I want to explore! So here are the 6 coolest (and sometimes creepiest) comic book presidents.
Review: Dead Space (The Graphic Novel)
The fine people at Titan Books have sent me a new stack of graphic novels, this time based on the Dead Space video game series. I’ve never actually played the games, but I’m more than happy to review good comics when I get them. We’ll start with the collected edition of Dead Space, written by Antony Johnston and drawn by Ben Templesmith. The series was first published as six separate issues in 2008. It’s a prequel to the first game, telling the story of the original Necromorph outbreak on the planet Aegis VII. I can’t say how well it ties into the first game, or what fans of the series might think, but I can say that it’s a pretty cool story, playing out like your typical space monster movie.
Dead Space
If you’re a fan of the Dead Space video game series, I think you’ll enjoy this prequel adventure. Non-fans might enjoy this gripping and claustrophobic monster tale, drawn with some very moody art.
Comic Rating: 4/5: Good.
This graphic novel plays out exactly like a good old fashioned monster movie, especially one in space. A far-off, isolated space colony discovers something mysterious and alien, it slowly starts to drive people insane and then finally everything explodes in gore, guts and reanimated corpses! That this graphic novel is a prequel instead of just an adaptation of the video game is a good idea. It tells its own story, and for fans of the series, I bet it would make a nice companion piece.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Dead Space games, they’re a series of third-person, survival horror shooters starring space engineer Isaac Clarke. They typically involve exploring dark and spooky environments that get more and more wicked and dangerous as the Necromorphs start taking over. It’s a fairly popular series, I believe, with Dead Space 3 released earlier this month. And like most good video game franchises these days, there’s a whole wealth of backstory to discover and pour over as you play. I know the first Dead Space game is littered with various tidbits of information about the breakout, and it appears that writer Antony Johnston has taken some of those clips and turned them into their own fascinating story.
This kind of comic is right up my alley. And there are two more Dead Space graphic novels to review at a latter date. For now, let’s explore Dead Space, which you can find on Amazon.com.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 2/16/13
Do you like Batman and the X-Men? Because those are the only comics that came out this week! Or at least, they’re the only comics on my pull list this week (if we don’t count Scarlet Spider). But wow, what a great week for Batman and the X-Men! Death of the Family ends in Batman, with a sort-of epilogue in Batman and Robin. The Internet is crowing about the finale of Scott Snyder’s Joker story…but I just don’t get it. Sorry. I guess it went right over my head. Still entertaining though.
The real treasure this week is the first issue of Brian Michael Bendis’ Uncanny X-Men, debuting Cyclop’s new team of mutant revolutionaries! I have very much been looking forward to this comic, and it does not disappoint! Uncanny X-Men #1 easily wins Comic Book of the Week!
Pax Utopia
Comic Reviews: Batman #17, Batman and Robin #17, Uncanny X-Men #1, Wolverine and the X-Men #25.
Review: Scarlet Spider #14
Apparently, not only is Scarlet Spider going to be steeped in Clone Saga lore, but writer Chris Yost is also going to cover another mostly hated Spider-Man story: The Other. Why? Who knows. Seems like a silly course of action to take on a series like this. I don’t know the numbers that Scarlet Spider is pulling in, but I have to imagine any series starring Kaine is in constant danger of being canceled. So why try something so risky as to have Kaine tap into his inner spider from The Other? It’s a weird story choice, but this is an alright issue.
Scarlet Spider #14
Scarlet Spider #14 also features possibly the first in-panel appearance of Ben Reilly in, like, a million years. That’s got to count for something, right?
Comic Rating: 3/5: Alright.
I’m just not sold on this exploration of Kaine’s inner-spider. When writer J. Michael Straczynski first introduced the idea of Peter Parker having some kind of totemic connection with arachnids, it was a neat idea that led to some really good stories. Then the writers took it a little too far with The Other, which featured Peter Parker dying, his body being turned into a cocoon and all manner of other strange transformations. It was intended to give Peter some new powers…but the writers immediately moved on and ignored all of those new powers almost completely. Nobody particularly liked The Other and it had no lasting effects.
Until Scarlet Spider came along. I realize that Kaine pretty much has all the powers that Peter did in the wake of The Other, but that doesn’t mean The Other was a good story or needs to be revisited. Especially not so early into Scarlet Spider’s run. I’d rather see him being an awesome hero at this point, not having an existential crisis of person.
But this is probably neither here nor there. Personally I’m against the whole general idea, but Yost hasn’t steered us wrong yet with Scarlet Spider, so I should definitely give him a shot. At least the art is better in this issue.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Is Damian Wayne Going to Die?
Is DC Comics going to kill Robin in an upcoming issue of Batman Incorporated?
There’s no official word yet. This is all just speculation. But if you read the signs, read between some lines and maybe jump to a few conclusions, it looks to me like DC plans to kill a 10-year-old boy!
Though he is kind of a jerk
Damian Wayne is the son of Bruce Wayne and his enemy Talia al Ghul. He was created by superstar writer Grant Morrison and introduced in Batman #655 in 2006. Talia raised the boy in secret and trained him in the ways of the League of Shadows. But when Damian finally met his father for the first time, he switched sides and became the new Robin. You know, of Batman and Robin fame? Damian had a lot of rough edges, but he made for a compelling protagonist. Here’s a kid who was raised to be a killer, but he wants so badly to do good and make his father proud as Robin.
But is he now doomed?
I’ve never been particularly happy with Damian as Robin. He stole the mantle from the previous Robin, Tim Drake, who is one of my favorite comic book characters. But Damian has grown on me. He’s had a lot of good stories and he’s definitely been coming into his own lately as the Boy Wonder. Still, the evidence is pretty strong. Join me after the jump to see for yourself.
Henchman-4-Hire