Category Archives: Comics
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 8/8/20
I’ve had something of a crap week. Had a foible at work. The Fall Guys servers are failing left and right. The final episode of A Crown of Candy on Dimension 20 was merely fine. At least there’s some good comics to be had, like Far Sector, Strange Adventures and…
Empyre: X-Men #2 wins Comic Book of the Week, and not just because it features Multiple Man. I really am enjoying this helter skelter comic as it takes full advantage of everything Dawn of X has to offer.
Meanwhile, I can’t bring myself to keep reading the main Empyre series, so I’ve dropped it. Maybe I’ll read it and just not review it? I don’t know and I don’t care. In better news, I watched the first episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks and it was hilarious! That will be a fun new show to have. Umbrella Academy season two was great! Such a fun show. And I’ve started reading an honest to god book again! Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis. Fun so far!
Comic Reviews: Batman #96, Empyre: X-Men #2, Far Sector #7 and Strange Adventures #4.
Read the rest of this entryWe’re Getting that U.S. Agent Solo Comic After All!
This is some exciting news! Marvel announced today a new U.S. Agent mini-series to debut in November, written by Christopher Priest and drawn by Stefano Landini. I’ve been a big fan of the character as of late, specifically because of a Matthew Rosenberg-penned Force Works comic from a couple months ago.
U.S. Agent is such a rough and tumble character for such a rough and tumble era of America.
That’s what has me excited. Captain America has a lot of measures he needs to meet to be Captain America. But we are in a really shitty period of American history right now. And perhaps what we need is a really shitty version of Captain America to tell this story.
Here’s Priest describing the comic:
“‘American Zealot’ is a morality play told in five acts. John Walker has been fired. Or he quit. Depends on who’s telling the story. Now finding his way as a civilian government contractor, Walker is making more money and taking more risks as he can now venture into places sanctioned agents can’t always follow,” Priest began. “However, with limited official access to intelligence data, the now-former USAgent’s missions can and often do lead him into blind alleys he’ll need to MacGyver himself out of.”
He added, “I was thrilled to be invited back to Captain America until I realized it was this guy, Cap’s scowling, emotionally damaged misfit cousin. Cousin America. But USAGENT presents an exciting writer’s challenge to explore the myriad expressions and aspirations of the American dream, how that dream is fulfilled or not, through the eyes and voices of a nation often at war with itself. John Walker is a man often at war with HIMself, so Marvel knows no better a protagonist for this journey, this stumble, this Parkour carom through the many visions of the greatest nation on Earth.”
It sounds really cool to me!
And U.S. Agent is getting a new costume as well.
Looks great! This sounds like a really fun comic. And I like the idea of Marvel putting out these quickie 5-issue mini-series to test the waters for some of their characters. We don’t need a bunch of new ongoing comics that we know are going to get cancelled within a year. Tell some quick, contained stories and tell them well.
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And So the Wait Continues for The Boys Season 2
I’m currently in the middle of watching the second season of The Umbrella Academy and it’s great! Very much enjoying this show. So how about the other really cool, stylish, live action streaming show based on a comic book? The Boys returns to Amazon Prime on Sept. 4!
Looks great! Obviously, The Boys has gone way off the rails from the comic, and I am perfectly fine with that. The Boys TV show is telling it’s own story. I’m not so beholden to the source material that I’m going to be bitter. The show is a fun use of the characters and concept.
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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 8/1/20
Another week, another pile of enjoyable comics, proving that some aspects of life can get back to some semblance of normal. It’s good to have comics again. We’ve got nice issues of Power Rangers, Legion of Super-Heroes and even X-Men, kind of.
Comic Book of the Week goes to the first issue of X-Factor, possibly because I’m attached to the comic name, even if Multiple Man doesn’t appear in the issue at all. We do get Leah Williams writing the Blob again though! And an actually entertaining Daken!
Meanwhile, I’ve finally started my reread of the classic Milligan/Allred run on X-Force/X-Statix! I bought the first compendium volume and it is easily holding up after all these years. This comic was so insanely ahead of its time! I can’t even imagine how X-Statix would deal with Twitter.
Comic Reviews: Empyre #3, Legion of Super-Heroes #7, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #52, X-Factor #1 and X-Men #10.
Read the rest of this entryOne of My X-Men Wishes Came True!
The great thing about Dawn of X is that every single mutant character that ever existed has a chance of showing up in the pages of an X-Men comic. For a fan of obscure mutants, that makes every new issue out of the X-Men franchise a game of Where’s Waldo, in the hopes that some random Z-list favorite of mine will show up.
And one has! And he was on my list! A couple months ago, as Krakoa was really getting started, a did a List of Six for obscure mutants I hoped to see on Krakoa. This week’s Cable #2 brought forth one of those characters: Paulie Provenzano!
Turns out, Paulie — known here by his mutant name “Omerta” — is the father of the first mutant baby born. He’s partners with Stinger, another obscure Z-list mutant who was mentioned in another comic as being the first mutant to give birth. So mazeltov!
You can follow my earlier link for the scoop on who Omerta even is. He was an X-Man for a single storyline, and mostly served as a jackass homophobe who learned an important lesson about acceptance from Northstar. That storyline was one of my earliest attempts to start reading X-Men on a regular basis, so Paulie stuck with me for some reason.
Now to use my mutant-summoning powers for good! Bring forth the rest of my list! Where is Lacuna?! What about Abyss? Perhaps even…Shortpack!!
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