Category Archives: DC
6 Coolest Comic Book Ghosts
BOO!! Did I scare you? No? Oh well, I tried my best. I’ve never been much of a horror fan, either books or movies, but I absolutely love Halloween. I love it when society as a whole unites behind this sort of epic pageantry. All the kids in the world dressing in costume to get free candy door-to-door? Awesome! A day where it’s perfectly acceptable to wear a costume to work or to class? Sign me up! I’ve already bought the spooky pumpkin mask I plan to wear when I’m out and about on Wednesday. Not to mention the Batman tie I only wear on Halloween.
Or maybe I should just walk around wearing a sheet over my head. Because what’s more synonymous with Halloween than ghosts?
Witches, I guess…and Charlie Brown
And when we’re talking about science fiction and super powers, who better to use than ghosts? They’re spooky, mysterious, and often associated with horrible murder! Plus they have a ton of super powers. They can fly, pass through walls, howl, and wear pretty awesome sheets. So it should come as no surprise that ghosts are a pretty popular topic when it comes to comic books. For Halloween this year, I’ve put together a list of the 6 ‘ghoulest’ ghosts in all of comics!
The DC New 52 Reboot Has No Patience
So Clark Kent quit his longtime reporter job at the Daily Planet last week, in Superman #13. For some reason, major news outlets thought this was news, and it was splashed all over the Internet and mainstream media. I didn’t write anything about it at the time because I don’t consider this news. And not just because it’s a story in a comic book – that stuff is totally news worthy.
And while I don’t think it’s news, I do think it’s a symptom of a larger problem at DC Comics: They’ve had zero patience in this first year, telling big, important stories without taking the time to establish and grow their characters. They’re screwing themselves over in the long run with the New 52.
The perfect visual metaphor
I’ve wanted to write this article for awhile now, and it’s taken many forms. But the big deal made out of Clark Kent quitting the Daily Planet really underlines exactly what I think is wrong with the New 52: they’re publishing for the short term only. Their events and stories are all designed for immediate sales and popularity, with seemingly little thought put into what the comics will look like 5 or 10 years from now.
Join me after the jump for more, and a deeper exploration of what it really means for Clark Kent to quit the Daily Planet.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews
I’ve been wanting to do this style of comic book review for a long time, but I never end up reading all my new comics before the weekend. However, I’ve got some time on Wednesdays now, so I really want to start. My long reviews take awhile to write, and I can’t do one for every comic I read. So from this week forward (hopefully), I’ll be providing some shorter, quicker reviews on the week’s new comics.
I buy a large smattering of comics across both DC and Marvel, and a few Indy titles. If there is any comic you’d like me to review, let me know via e-mail or in the comments.
Let’s begin!
Amazing Spider-Man #696
Amazing Spider-Man #696
Writer: Dan Slott & Christos Gage
Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli
Phil Urich is one of my all-time favorite comic book characters. His brief series as the good Green Goblin in the 90s was the first comic book series that I ever bought and read with my own money. So of course his transformation into the villainous, perverted Hobgoblin was sad. I preferred him as a down-on-his-luck hero. But with a character as minor and obscure as Phil, I’ve mostly just been grateful that he’s even appearing anywhere. So I’ve been following his career as the new Hobgoblin, and it comes to a head in this issue, as original Hobgoblin, Roderick Kingsley, returns to New York City to crush Phil for good – and, of course, Spider-Man is caught in the middle.
I’ve mostly been enjoying Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man run. He brings a light-hearted feel to the wall-crawler, with brightly colored adventures and really personal stories. This one is no different. Peter Parker has just been outed as the man who builds all of Spider-Man’s gadgets at Horizon Labs, so the Hobgoblin kidnaps Peter for the Kingpin. They want to hold him hostage so that Spider-Man will turn over a special briefcase he’s holding, little knowing that Peter actually is Spider-Man. So it’s up to Peter’s boss, Max Modell, to bring the briefcase in an attempt to free Peter. But just as the exchange is about to go down, Roderick Kingsley attacks, determined to kill Phil.
In the chaos of the Hobgoblin War, Peter and Max escape with the briefcase – which holds a key to Norman Osborn’s entire Goblin arsenal!
Comic rating: 4/5: Good!
This was a fun adventure, and your typical Peter Parker in trouble story. The Hobgoblin War idea is pretty cool, as the characters look absolutely wicked under Camuncoli’s pencils. Seeing them battle is the highlight of the issue. Orange is always a great color for super-villains. I’m hoping Phil puts up a fight, and the idea that Roderick is threatening Phil’s girlfriend might bring some heroism out of Phil. One can hope. The Peter action was fun as he pulled off some web-slinging skill, while simultaneously trying to keep Max from deducing the truth. So yeah, entertaining story, fun characters and the hope that one of my all-time favorite comic book characters gets to shine.
Join me after the jump for more! Including AvX: Consequences, Batman Incorporated, Invincible Iron Man, Talon and Wolverine MAX!
Review: Teen Titans #13
You guys are probably not going to believe me, but the newest issue of Teen Titans is actually good! Really good! Delightfully good! Teen Titans finally does what I’ve been suggesting this entire time: it slows down, nixes all that frantic action and actually spends some time treating its characters like real people instead of ‘x-treme’ cartoons. Even as an issue filled with narration and flashback, it’s still fun to read. Wonder Girl spends almost the entire issue telling her New 52 origin story, with Red Robin and Superboy providing witty commentary. And I do mean ‘witty’. I had some actual smiles and chuckles reading this comic.
Teen Titans #13
What’s that? There’s almost an entirely new creative team on Teen Titans #13? Ooooooh, that would probably explain a lot.
Comic rating: 4/5: Good!
The overwritten sledgehammer of Scott Lobdell is gone! While he still provides the overall story, fellow longtime comics scribe Fabian Nicieza steps in with the actual script, and the difference is extraordinary. I’ve always liked Nicieza’s work, but here it sings. The trio of Titans are charming, funny and sound like real teenagers bickering and bantering. Even Wonder Girl’s origin story is fun to read, since it’s an entirely new tale, with absolutely no connection to the Greek Gods or Wonder Woman. That might annoy some longtime Cassie Sandsmark fans, but I’m not one of them, so I wasn’t bothered. My favorite character, Tim Drake, got a new origin with the reboot. So it’s the same with Cassie. But trust me, hers is pretty cool.
The brightly called and frantically kinetic pencils of Brett Booth are also gone, replaced by Ale Garza, who brings a more simple innocence to the team. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Booth, but seeing this issue, it’s clear that he was only contributing to the insane feeling of the previous Teen Titans issues. I said it in almost all of my reviews, but the New 52 Teen Titans was written and drawn as if they didn’t think the audience had any sort of attention span. The art and the writing were wild and wacky, full of motion and movement and everything one might think a teenager likes. But it made for a bad series that never took the time to get to know its characters.
Teen Titans #13 is exactly what I’ve wanted from this series. It doesn’t solve every problem, but it’s a step in the right direction. It definitely helps to flesh out Cassie’s character a lot more. I only wish the rest of the team were in the book, but sometimes it’s better to focus on just a few characters. You can get a lot done that way, as Nicieza and Garza have now proven.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
6 Best and 6 Worst Male Superhero Halloween Costumes
We are living in a golden age of dressing up as a superhero for Halloween. The success of the superhero film industry has made them the #1 choice for any Halloween party-goer or trick-or-treater. Heck, The Dark Knight alone had to have raised the Joker costume quotient by 2,000%! And I would hope to see a ton of Avengers costumes this year.
Exactly right
I did a List of Six last year about the best and worst female superhero costumes, and it’s been a pretty popular list this fall. So I decided to revisit the idea and do a list of the best and worst male superhero costumes. Being the nerd that I am, the list is based on two things: costume quality and accuracy. This isn’t about the most popular costumes. The girls’ list was also judged on sluttiness, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for men. Superheroes should be an obvious Halloween costume, because the heroes are wearing costumes themselves. So one would think that designing a Halloween costume should involve just recreating the superhero’s costume as accurately as possible.
Apparently not. But sometimes they get it right. All of these costumes were found online available for sale.
Henchman-4-Hire 