Category Archives: Comics
6 Popular Superheroes That Do Nothing For Me
If I ever become a professional comic book writer, my dream project would be Robin, the Boy Wonder. Not Batman, not Teen Titans, but simply Robin. I am probably the biggest Robin fan you’re ever likely to meet, which might seem weird to some, considering Robin is one of the most maligned and disliked comic book characters of all time! But that’s simply the way I role. When it comes to comic book characters, I tend to like the more obscure, secondary characters. You can even check out my list of my 6 favorite comic book characters and see what I mean.
Though I actively hate dogs in stupid clothes
But I got to thinking and realized that there aren’t many comic book characters that I actively hate. Not even Damian Wayne. However, there are a lot of comic book characters, especially some classic, all-time greats, who I simply don’t care about. Weird, right? I love obscure, secondary characters, but don’t care for hugely popular iconic characters. I can’t tell if that makes me more or less of a total geek. But I look at some of these amazing characters and the most I can muster is a shrug and a “meh”. No thanks, not for me. Here are 6 popular comic book characters that I just don’t care about, one way or another.
Perry Bible Fellowship Does Galactus
Marvel Comics teaming up with The Perry Bible Fellowship may be one of my favorite pop culture team-ups of the modern age.
For those of you who don’t know, The Perry Bible Fellowship is this amazing, hilarious comic strip by a guy named Nicholas Gurewitch. There’s no single plot to the strip, simply joke after joke after joke. And for those of you who are already fans, I have some added, personal trivia for you! The Perry Bible Fellowship got its start in the comic section of The Daily Orange, the student-run newspaper at Syracuse University.
And what other comic strip ran in The Daily Orange right alongside The Perry Bible Fellowship? Why, my very own Falmouth University, of course! Granted, Gurewitch’s comic was much better, and he’s had a ton more success than me. But I still like being able to say that my meager little comic ran alongside one of the greats in its original run!
And then Gurewitch went on to actually draw comic strips for Marvel Comics! Brilliant stuff.
I like to tell myself that if I ever met him again, he’d totally remember my comic and tell me he was a fan. I can dream, can’t I?
Review: Teen Titans #9 and The Culling
For anybody who eagerly reads my Teen Titans reviews, I’m apologize that this is so late. I have been dreading The Culling storyline, which is a crossover with two comics that I don’t read: Superboy and Legion Lost. I’ve been dreading The Culling because, quite honestly, Teen Titans has been a bad comic book, especially in the build up to this crossover. And I simply don’t want to have to buy Superboy or Legion Lost. Plus the rest of the Internet has been pretty negative about The Culling. So I just kept putting off actually reading the damn thing.
Teen Titans #9
Now that I’ve read it, I’m somewhat relieved to say that The Culling wasn’t so bad. Writer Scott Lobdell has finally answered pretty much all of my questions about N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and has actually provided a reasonable explanation for everything that’s happened so far.
Unfortunately, one has to sacrifice character development, personality and more than a few brain cells to enjoy this action-oriented story.
Teen Titans #9 rating: 4/5: Good. The Culling rating: 3/5: Alright.
What can I say? While I was reading The Culling (at least the parts I bought) I was enjoying myself. The comic is almost entirely climax, with the Teen Titans finally facing off against everything N.O.W.H.E.R.E. has to offer. The big threat that has been building since Teen Titans #1 – and spent most of that time in the frustrating shadows – finally comes to a head in a big way. And the Teen Titans band together, kick some ass and save the day, while facing some bittersweet truths in the process. If I was more invested in these characters or these villains, this would definitely be a satisfying conclusion to the entire Teen Titans opening story arc.
But once you get past the action, there’s nothing left. The characters all blend together, with few, if any, unique personalities. There is no character growth or any real emotional bonding between any of them, which has been a problem with Teen Titans since the start. Despite knowing N.O.W.H.E.R.E.’s master plan, they still remain a largely stupid opponent, with far too much reach and power to fit comfortably into the DC Universe.
Though I will say that the art remains pretty good. More after the jump.
The Gay DC Character is a Green Lantern That Nobody Knows and is Also From an Alternate Dimension
The superhero grandpa
The rebooted Alan Scott is gay.
Out of the five human Green Lanterns, the one who is least important, who has nothing at all to do with the recent movie or the current cartoon series, who isn’t even connected to the Green Lantern stories that have become so popular, is the character DC revealed as gay. Not only that, but Alan Scott only exists on Earth 2, an alternate dimension that is completely separate from the main DC Universe.
Why the hell was DC Comics making such a big deal out of this?
They couldn’t have picked a more complicated character to explain to the mainstream media. Alan Scott doesn’t have anything at all to do with the Green Lantern movie from just last year, and in fact has an entirely different backstory; plus he’s part of an alternate reality. If they were really looking for a positive gay role model character, they picked one of the absolutely least consequential characters possible.
I realize that the news initially broke because a fan asked DC a question at a comic-con panel, rather than a big DC press release, but then DC went and milked the reveal for all it was worth. And today they launched a huge media blitz revealing that one of their “iconic” superheroes was going to be rebooted as gay. Now that we know that Green Lantern Alan Scott is the gay character, I just think it reinforces how silly this publicity stunt was in the first place.
More after the jump.
Review: Mimic and the X-Men #4
What the hell is this supposed to be? Where’s my Mimic? If I’m going to buy a comic starring the Mimic, one of the greatest and coolest X-Men of all time, I expect him to be in more than 5 panels, and I expect him to get more than one line. But nooooOOOoooo! Apparently someone else has a better idea. Someone named Christos Gage seems to want to focus on Rogue for some reason. As if anybody cares about Rogue when they could be reading about the spectacular and handsome Mimic!
Mimic and the X-Men #4
Instead, Mimic seems to have something of a glass jaw when it comes to Avengers vs. X-Men.
Comic rating: 3/5: Alright.
For those of you coming in late, the Mimic is one of my favorite comic book characters of all time. And recently in the pages of X-Men Legacy, writer Christos Gage has plucked Mimic out of the mothballs, dusted him off and put him in the regular cast of the comic. For the first time in 40 years, he’s a member of the X-Men again. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I’ve added X-Men: Legacy to my review list – only I prefer to refer to it as Mimic and the X-Men. Because I really only care about Mimic’s role in the comic.
And based on this issue, he doesn’t have much of a roll at all. It’s a tragedy.
Henchman-4-Hire