Category Archives: Comics
6 Write-In Candidates for the X-Men
The polls are open! For the next week, comic book fans can head over to Marvel.com to vote on a new member of the X-Men! The idea was introduced in the latest issue of Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men comic: the team is going democratic. The residents of Krakoa will vote for who they want on the X-Men lineup. And to sweeten the pot, Mavel is having the fans vote for one of those members. I love this idea!
I absolutely love the idea of making the main X-Men team lineup dependent on a vote — both in-story and for the fans. This, along with Nightcrawler forming a mutant religion, is exactly the sort of strange and new idea I wanted to see in Dawn of X. You can keep your interdimensional swordfights and your ancient Apocalypse children, give me neat new infrastructure quandaries for how X-Men teams are formed! I’ve long been annoyed by what I call the X-Men Assembly Line for team rosters. This new idea is the bee’s knees!
If you go vote at Marvel.com, there’s a list of choices to choose from: Banshee, Polaris, Forge, Boom-Boom, Tempo, Cannonball, Sunsport, Strong Guy, Marrow and Armor. Longtime readers of this blog will know that I immediately voted for Strong Guy! But seeing as how I’m a rather opinionated fellow, I have a couple of suggestions for write-in candidates.
Join me after the jump for six(ish) characters that I think deserve a spot on the main X-Men team and a chance to get more character exploration in the new status quo!
Read the rest of this entryHench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/23/21
Thankfully, I’ve got a much smaller pile of comics to read and review this week…mainly because I just skipped a bunch of Future State stuff. It’s already wearing thin, but there’s still The Next Batman to look forward to. And Power Rangers! And the apparent final issue of Legion of Super-Heroes!
Comic Book of the Week goes to the first issue of Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon. I wasn’t expecting a new Iron Fist series, but it’s here and it’s pretty fun.
Meanwhile, have you watched Ted Lasso on Apple+? I threw it on as a whim and fell in love with the first episode! Such a fun program! I highly recommend it.
Comic Reviews: Future State: The Next Batman #2, Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon #1, Legion of Super-Heroes #12 and Power Rangers #3.
Read the rest of this entrySo They Never Did Anything With That Great Matter-Eater-Lad Redesign
This week, the final issue of Brian Michael Bendis’ Legion of Super-Heroes reboot came out and I enjoyed it. In fact, I ranked this series as my second favorite comic book series of 2020! Bendis and artist Ryan Sook, along with a plethora of additional artists, recreated the Legion and told a pretty fun story involving a bunch of fun characters. This 12-issue series is notable for how it insisted on using all of its characters, giving little moments here and there to pretty much everybody.
Except for Matter-Eater-Lad. He didn’t do squat for the entire series! I’m not even sure if we saw him eat anything on panel! What a waste of this amazing redesign!
Now, I’m no longtime Matter-Eater-Lad fan. Honestly, I’m not even much of a Legion of Super-Heroes fan. They’ve never been my cup of tea. But I was on board for this reboot and I enjoyed it. I especially loved the character redesigns provided by Sook and others. This is one great looking bunch!
And of the lot of them, I was tickled pink by the redesign of Matter-Eater-Lad. Check out this glow up!
From scrawny, nondescript dude in tights to that big, beefy, glorious god of a man up top. The new Matter-Eater-Lad looks like a fun time. He looks like the life of the party, turning swarthy into the new sexy. How can you go to all the trouble of redefining peak masculinity with a simple look and then not put it to good use?
And that’s all I really want to say. This reboot gave one hell of a character redesign to the beloved weirdo that is Matter-Eater-Lad, and then they didn’t do anything with him for 12 issues. We never saw his recruitment. We never saw him eat anything. He was only ever part of the same group shots as everybody else.
That’s a damn shame.
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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/16/21
We’ve got another giant pile of comic book reviews this week because I’m still dipping my toes into DC’s Future State. Some of the comics are good…most of the stories are pretty bland, if I’m being honest. But hey! New comics! Including plenty from Marvel.
Comic Book of the Week goes to Mighty Morphin #3 as it continues to be such a damn fine comic book! The drama just doesn’t stop!
Meanwhile, how about those first two episodes of WandaVision? They were pretty great! I wish I had the patience to wait for the entire show to drop, because those two episodes were clearly the tip of an iceberg, but I’m sure I’ll be fine waiting for each new episode week-to-week. It’s old-fashioned!
Comic Reviews: Marauders #17, Mighty Morphin #3, S.W.O.R.D. #2, The Union #2, Future State: Dark Detective #1, Future State: Green Lantern #1, Future State: Justice League #1 and Future State: Robin Eternal #1.
Read the rest of this entryDamian Wayne is a Dark Robin in New Ongoing Series!
Spinning out of this new Infinite Frontier thing that DC Comics is doing, Damian Wayne is going to get a new Robin solo series starting in April! He’s going to get a new costume and a new mission, having cut himself off from Batman and the Teen Titans.
Why he gets to keep the Robin name is anyone’s guess. I’m not thrilled about it, but I will dutifully report any Robin-based news on this blog.
The new series will be written by Joshua Williamson, with art by Gleb Melnikov. The series will have a new supporting cast, new characters and a lot of fights.
“Being a big fan of Damian Wayne, I’m really excited about getting him back on a hero’s journey,” says Williamson in the new series announcement. “Gleb is the perfect artist to tell this story as we show readers Damian’s growth, in a new adventure that navigates his legacy, his connections to Batman, Talia al Ghul, and kicks off an important story in the DC Universe.”
A quick synopsis says that Damian will take part in the League of Lazarus tournament to prove he is the best fighter in the world!
I’ll probably check this out. I had some mildly high hopes that Damian was finally moving on from the Robin identity. And I was slightly confused when Tim Drake resumed the mantle. I think DC Comics is ready to crown a new Robin, one who actually works alongside Batman again. But perhaps Damian is a popular character? And he’s got such a strong presence is multi-media.
Still, I think a really strong push for a new Robin would be perfect for this Infinite Frontiers thing. Do it fresh, like Tim Drake back in the late 80s. But perhaps that’s just me.
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