Category Archives: Robin
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.
Who Needs a Live Action Justice League Movie
When we can have one made out of LEGOs instead!
Despite the mouthful title of LEGO Batman The Movie: DC Heroes Unite, this is going to be a full length LEGO Batman movie, based off the recent video game (which I sadly have not played). It’s going to star Batman and Robin teaming up with the entire Justice League to take on the Joker and Lex Luthor!
So why even bother with a live action Justice League movie? There’s no way it’ll be as good as this. Heck, why bother with traditional animation anymore? All future superhero movies should be made out of Lego.
We’re living in a golden age of superheroes
Green Arrow for Injustice Game – Still No Robin
The makers of Injustice: Gods Among Us continue to reveal their fighters at an agonizingly slow pace. The latest is Green Arrow.
The game comes out in April, so I suppose the developers still have plenty of time. But can you really tell me that they don’t, at this point, already know all the fighters who are going to be in their game? I guess I’m just being impatient. As long as they let these reveals trickle out like they are, they’ll continue to grab headlines on geek sites.
The previewed box art has also revealed Green Lantern and Joker – but they were kind of obvious choices.
But I just want to know if the game is going to feature Robin! And I’ll keep saying this in the hopes that one of the developers reads my blog, but what would be a cooler match up in this type of game than Batman vs. Robin? The teacher vs. the student! It’s classic! Nightwing is in the game, sure, but he’s not Robin anymore. People know Robin. People know the Dynamic Duo that is Batman and Robin. A fight between the two of them still holds a lot of oomph behind it!
So make it happen, NetherRealm! Don’t make me tell you again!
Also, speaking of Green Arrow, look for my review of the first episode of Arrow later today or this weekend.
Henchman-4-Hire 