Category Archives: Reviews
Review: Marada the She-Wolf
Fans of swords, sorcery and tales of adventure will find a lot to love in the classic comics of Marada the She-Wolf, created by legendary comic book writer Chris Claremont. A serial from the early 1980s, Marada is Claremont and artist John Bolton’s attempt to create a badass, fantasy warrior woman in the vein of Xena or Red Sonja. She’s beautiful, honorable and good with a sword, and a collected edition of of her adventures released this month by Titan Comics goes a long way in establishing her as an exciting action hero – with one major caveat.
Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.
The collected edition of Marada comics features the complete run of the character across three issues, with a lot of behind-the-scenes materials. The story takes place somewhere in the middle of Marada’s heroic career, since she’s already a well-known character at the start. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Marada’s adventures did not continue beyond these three issues, so we only really get the first half of her adventure. The rest is lost to posterity. And I found the comic entertaining enough that I wish I could see what happened next.
Marada is a nomadic warrior princess who travels the world having adventures – which, frankly, is my dream job (minus the princess part). She’s the graddaughter of Caesar, and the story is set during the days of the Roman Empire. Marada’s tale takes her to the African Savannah, the Middle East, the high seas and even into demonic dimensions. She’s your typical heroine, and her adventures are resoundingly fun and filled with a great cast of entertaining supporting characters.
The best way to describe the art by Bolton is ‘classic’. This is exactly the kind of painted fantasy art I imagine when I think of tales from this era. All of the characters look like they stepped off the cover of a slightly-less air-brushed romance novels, but in a good way.
Not enough romance novels include demon killing
The pages look much cleaner in the actual book. These are just some scans I found online.
Unfortunately, Marada the She-Wolf was written and designed by men in the comic book industry in the early 1980s. Considering the problems some male writers have with female characters in this day and age, it’s no surprise that Marada is not exactly a strong, independent woman.
The collected edition is available on Amazon.com.
Join me after the jump for more review.
Review: Cataclysm: Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #1
Cataclysm is upon us. The Ultimate Universe has been chugging along for more than a decade now, and with Cataclysm, it looks like we might be at the end. We comic book fans don’t yet know what’s going to happen at the end, but all signs are pointing to some kind of cancellation of the Ultimate line. Or maybe a streamlining? Who can really say? All I know is that Galactus, Devourer of Worlds, has crossed the interdimensional barrier and plans on eating the planet Earth in the Ultimate Universe. All of the Ultimate heroes are scrambling to deal with the problem, including our much-beloved Miles Morales – which is a huge shame, since this means Miles’ book might be cancelled. It seems writer Brian Michael Bendis got the memo a little too late.
Cataclysm Spider-Man #1
With the first issue of this Cataclysm tie-in, Bendis proves that he fully intended to just keep writing Ultimate Spider-Man, regardless of whatever cosmic demigods decided to show up. That means this issue is even more bittersweet.
Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.
The last few issues of Ultimate Spider-Man were all about Miles teaming up with Spider-Woman, Bombshell, Cloak and Dagger for a wacky adventure against the Roxxon Corporation. This issue, despite being renamed and renumbered to tie-in to Cataclysm, picks up exactly where the last issues left off, following all four of those characters in the aftermath of their team-up. In all honesty, and some spoilers, Galactus doesn’t even show up until the very last page. This is less a tie-in than it is Ultimate Spider-Man #29. On the one hand, there’s nothing wrong with that, because I could read Bendis writing the daily lives of these characters until the cows come home. But if this is truly the end, if these characters are soon to be gone forever, then it’s kind of a waste of an issue. Bendis could have found a lot more to do in terms of Miles, his family and his friends reacting to the end of the world.
If you’re at all invested in Miles and his Amazing Friends, you should enjoy this issue. I know I did. The art by David Marquez is as amazing as ever. The pencils are a little sketchier than I’m used to, but the art remains top notch. Bendis’ writing is, likewise, a ton of fun to read. There’s a fantastic scene between Spider-Woman and the Ultimates, and solid scenes for the rest of them. It’s clear that Bendis has stories in mind for everyone. I just really hope he gets a chance to tell them to completion.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 11/23/13
The biggest draw of this week’s comics would have to be X-Men and Uncanny X-Men. Both are fresh of Battle of the Atom, and both get right down to business of telling entertaining X-Men stories. And the fact that both issues focus on lesser tiered X-Men is just a hoot. Let Wolverine have his solo titles, I want to read about Karima Sharpandar and Benjamin Deeds!
Not that the rest of this week’s comics are anything to scoff at. Avengers started to wrap up Infinity, while Wonder Woman is still in the early stages of her next story arc. One of the biggest issues this week is Batwoman, where new writer Marc Andreyko takes over from the bombastic team of J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman. Unfortunately, Andreyko’s Zero Year tie-in leaves a lot to be desired. But like I said, both X-books are strong. Comic Book of the Week goes to Uncanny X-Men for an issue focusing on new recruit Benjamin Deeds, and his oddly The Graduate-esque team up with Emma Frost.
Comic Reviews: Avengers #23, Batwoman #25, Uncanny X-Men #14, Wonder Woman #25, and X-Men #7.
Review: Scarlet Spider #23
I wonder if, when all is said and done, the theme of this Scarlet Spider series is going to be ‘failure’. I don’t mean that to be rude, because I’m a huge Scarlet Spider fan and I’ve really enjoyed this comic. But surely everybody going in had to know it probably wouldn’t last. There just isn’t a big enough fan base for the character to warrant several years of publication. New comics these days are lucky to last two years, and I’m grateful that we made it all the way into the 20s. But writer Christopher Yost had to have known his run would have an ending, and I wonder if he planned from the beginning on having Kaine fail as a superhero.
Scarlet Spider #23
It would be a bold stance on a series like this. Not everybody is destined to be the world’s greatest hero, and maybe a sadsack like Kaine just couldn’t cut it. If his final battle with Kraven is any indication, maybe he just doesn’t have what it takes.
Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.
The final battle between Kaine and Kraven is upon us, and it lives up to almost all expectations. Yost has been building this one for awhile, and I’m excited to see Kaine throw down with an established Marvel super-villain. He may be a second-stringer like Kraven, but at least he’s got the chops to be devastating. And Yost makes the stakes pretty damn high, with all of Kaine’s friends on the chopping block. But for all the fun of this final confrontation, I don’t think Yost went far enough. In the end, Scarlet Spider is still just a second-stringer itself, and it’s so close to cancellation that it just doesn’t matter. So Yost just couldn’t deliver as deeply tragic or as powerful an issue as I would have liked.
I would have hoped that a book like Scarlet Spider wouldn’t have the constraints of a normal Spider-Man comic. Kaine is hardly an important, long-lasting character. His supporting cast will probably never be seen again. The villains he faces aren’t very important. I feel Yost should have had a lot more freedom to really push the envelope. Instead, we get a comic where that seems like it might be the case, but where Yost has to pull back at the last second.
What a shame. But it’s an even bigger shame that this comic is coming to an end soon.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 11/16/13
The week after Marvel puts a new Thor movie in theaters, they put a new Thor comic on the shelves. I hope someone in their publishing division got a promotion out of that genius move. The comic even has Malekith in it! Talk about synergy! Marvel should also be grateful that Jason Aaron writes an awesome Thor. Who could have guessed that the Asgardian God would be such a hot commodity these days?
He’s not alone, we’ve got swell comics for Batman, Nightwing, Spider-Man and the X-Men. Though Superman and Wonder woman break the streak with their ho-hum attempt at romance. Oh well. Love isn’t for everybody. But it might be for the teenagers in the original X-Men. Those kids are all about feelings. The hilarious and adorable All-New X-Men #18 wins Comic Book of the Week with ease. Check out their fancy new costumes!
I wish I had a costume that cool
Comic Reviews: All-New X-Men #18, Batman #25, Nightwing #25, Superior Foes of Spider-Man #5, Superior Spider-Man #21, Superman/Wonder Woman #2, Thor: God of Thunder #15.
Henchman-4-Hire 