Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 6/25/16
How did I get so lucky that all of my favorite comics come out in the same week? As a comic book fan, that’s great! As a comic book reviewer who is having a pretty busy week at work, that stinks! I managed to read a few of my favorites for sure this week, but I’ll be missing out reviews for the likes of Doctor Strange and Totally Awesome Hulk! I’ve also already blown my promise to try out some of the Rebirth titles, since I didn’t get around to reading Aquaman or Wonder Woman.
Guess I’ll just have to make due with the likes of Harley Quinn, Mighty Thor, Ms. Marvel, Power Rangers, and instant Comic Book of the Week, Power Man and Iron Fist! I should be so lucky as to have comics this good all in one week!
I’m sure Aquaman and Wonder Woman were fine too.
Comic Reviews: Detective Comics #935, Harley Quinn #29, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #4, Mighty Thor #8, Ms. Marvel #8 and Power Man and Iron Fist #5.
Comic Review: Teen Titans #21
Huh? Are we still here? Is this comic really still plugging along? Weird. We just got the new solicitations from DC Comics the other day that the Teen Titans will switch into Rebirth mode in September, so it looks like we’ve got a handful more issues to trudge through before the end. Writer Tony Bedard seems like he’s going to try and make the most of the time he’s got, and I’m not going to blame him for giving it the old college try.
Comic Rating: 5/10 – Alright.
After the extremely silly last issue, where Bedard proved he has little understanding of Internet memes, we pick up this issue with a battle between the Teen Titans and the Brain and Monsieur Mallah. They’re classic Titans villains, but not in the New 52, so I think Bedard is just having some fun — and he does. With theoretically nothing to lose or waste or cost, I think Bedard just decided to write a fun Brain and Mallah story. He delves into some interesting Mallah characterization that makes me think Bedard had a couple giggles writing this one.
As an issue of Teen Titans, it’s harmless. There’s nothing more to say or do with this team. We already know what happens next, and we’ve already seen that Tim Drake alone moves on to something bigger and better. So there’s no tension in what Bedard does to the team or the characters. We get a really pointless cliffhanger at the end of this issue, and I kind of want to roll my eyes.
But Bedard and artist Miguel Mendonca make the most of a meh situation.
6 Marvel Superhero Video Games I Want To Play
The big superhero video game news this week is that Spider-Man is finally coming back to gaming! It won’t be a movie tie-in or a kiddie game. Instead, it looks to be a return to glory with Spidey swinging around a digital Manhattan! They perfected the gameplay back with the now-legendary Spider-Man 2 game back on the Playstation 2. Surely the Playstation 4 era can do something just as good.
I’m OK with the white logo
Beyond the new Spider-Man game, word is also coming out of Marvel that they want to put more effort into their superhero video games. No longer will they churn out crummy movie tie-in games. It sounds like Marvel wants to do for their video games what they built for their movies. Perhaps the overwhelming success of the Batman: Arkham franchise has convinced Marvel that there is money and notoriety to be had in the world of video games!
This sounds great to me (even though I don’t own a Playstation 4, and likely won’t get to play the new Spider-Man game)! And I’m just the guy to offer Marvel a few suggestions for possible video games.
Justice League Logos for Everyone!
Today was apparently a big day for executive meetings I don’t get invited to attend. Justice League is the talk of the town, with the official movie logo and first synopsis revealed!
Looks fine.
And the synopsis seems pretty standard, too.
Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
Sounds all manner of reasonable, I’d say.
Though now we know that that the villain of the first Justice League movie will be Steppenwolf, which is…insane. But hey, maybe somebody knows what they’re doing. Maybe we don’t need Darkseid.
You can head over to Comics Alliance to see a full rundown of all the news that has come out about the Justice League and DC movies. There’s a ton of it, and I suppose it could be cool.
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Marvel is Doing Deadman
Not to be too cruel about the announcement of a new superhero, but there’s really no ignoring the obvious with the reveal of Mosaic. Marvel and their new creative team opened the Big Book of Super-powers and picked one that is so weird and unique it would be pretty special…if it wasn’t the exact same power as Deadman, a DC superhero. Not to say writer Geoffrey Thorne and artist Khary Randolph won’t tell a good story, but the powers are a little blatant.
Still, it’s not like this is the first time heroes or villains from the two companies have shared powers or concepts. Perhaps Marvel will make something awesome of Mosaic!
Superhero naming conventions are weird
The character debuted with an interview at Vulture. The creative team lay out the basics of his powers and personality. Mosaic is Morris Sackett, a professional basketball player who turns out to be an Inhuman. He gets the power to jump into people’s bodies and control them like a puppet. When he’s not in someone else’s body, he’s a free-floating ghost. Check out the interview for more specifics. I like the idea of a ‘celebrity’ becoming an Inhuman.
And you know me, I’ll try any comic book once. I’ll give Mosaic as much of a shot as I give any other comic. I can’t say as how I’m eager, but I’m always up for more diversity. I’m also quite curious what Marvel plans to do with this original hero. It’s not that often that Marvel or DC start a brand new comic with a brand new character. They usually prefer to resurrect a familiar brand name, like Ms. Marvel (which worked out spectacularly for them). So I hope Mosaic gets his shot…but I also know that it’s very, very, very rare for an original character to go the distance these days. Anybody heard from the Runaways recently?
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Henchman-4-Hire 