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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 12/13/14

By the time you read this, I still won’t have my Christmas or Hannukah shopping done. What can I say? I’m a terrible procrastinator. I’m frankly amazed that I’ve managed to keep these reviews on time for the past few years. But don’t you fret, henchies, the various important people in my life will definitely be getting presents! I think the Steam Winter Sale is coming up…

If only I could hand out comic books as presents, but the only other person in my family who reads comics is my brother, and we share the ones I buy anyway. So I’m stuck just reading these comics without anyone to give them to for the holidays! Fortunately, December could be a very good month, with new issues of Amazing Spider-Man and Thor, and the debut of Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick!

Comic Book of the Week goes to one of my personal favorite comics right now, Batgirl, for another fantastic issue! This book is making waves, people! Wonderful, surf-worthy waves!

Elsewhere on the Internet, you can check out my review of Spider-Man and the X-Men #1. It’s…weird. Obviously things would have to change with Wolverine being dead and all, but I didn’t expect such a major shift towards silliness. But hey, maybe silliness is your thing!

Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #11, Batgirl #37, Batman Eternal #36, Bitch Planet #1 and Thor #3.

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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 11/22/14

This was a weird week for comics, and I mean that in the best way possible. It was another big week, stretching my wallet to its limit, but I actually found myself passing on a few of my usual reviews. Both Avengers and New Avengers came out this week, continuing Jonathan Hickman’s massive Multiverse story, but I found that both issues, while good, were far too dense to properly discuss. I would have confused myself. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the new issue of Harley Quinn was just too simple and weird to devote too much time. So I skipped it too!

But I do have some quality reviews for you henchies! Spider-Verse continues, and I’m still enjoying it – though check out my review this week of Spider-Woman #1 at Word of the Nerd for the storyline’s first major misstep.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Lumberjanes for a fantastic finale! But the big disappointment is Wonder Woman #1, which pretty much does everything I feared it would now that Azzarello and Chiang are gone. Adding to the weirdness this week is the new issue of Uncanny X-Men, which robs me of my hero, Cyclops.

You’re not the man whose action figure I bought!

Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #10, Batman Eternal #33, Batman and Robin #36, Lumberjanes #8, Uncanny X-Men #28 and Wonder Woman #36.

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A Bunch More New Comics!

Marvel revealed several new comics at New York Comic-Con this past weekend, and while Ant-Man was my clear favorite, I figured why not talk about the others? These blog posts are free, after all!

The Spider-Man books are going to get a lot more crowded in the new year. Following Spider-Verse, 2014’s big Spidey event, we’re going to get new ongoing series for both Silk and Spider-Gwen!

Everybody else is loving all the female-led books, right?

Silk is Cindy Moon, a new character from Amazing Spider-Man who has the double distinction of being bitten by the same radioactive spider that gave Peter his powers, and having possibly my least favorite superhero name of all time. Silk?! Really? I realize that both ‘Spider-Woman’ and ‘Spider-Girl’ are taken, but Silk? There were no other spider-related words you could come up with?

Anyway, I like Silk well enough in Amazing Spider-Man, so maybe her own comic will be fun. It’ll be written by Robbie Thompson and drawn by Stacey Lee. And at least she’s got a new costume!

Spider-Gwen (which probably won’t be is official name) will be written by Jason Latour with art by Robbi Rodriguez, and it will follow the adventures of the alternate reality Gwen Stacy with spider-powers. I liked her in her brief one-shot appearance on the Edge of Spider-Verse, so maybe she’ll be a lot of fun in an ongoing series. She’s definitely a darling already with the cosplay circuit, that’s for sure.

Of course, her costume is just plain awesome.

Outside the Spider-world, there’s also going to be Gamora, penned by Guardians of the Galaxy screenwriter Nicole Perlman. If you’re going to do a comic about the Guardians of the Galaxy, she’s probably the best choice for writer.

She likes knives

Not much else is known about this Gamora series at this time. I’ll give it a shot, but considering how much I hate the other comic versions of the Guardians of the Galaxy, I doubt I’ll stick around for long. I don’t know what my problem is, but I can’t stand comic book Rocket Raccoon!

What else…what else…oh yes! Operation S.I.N. is going to be a 1950s period piece that sees Peggy Carter and Howard Stark having fun spy adventures. This 5-issue series will be brought to us by Kathryn Immonen and Rich Ellis.

The very definition of synergy!

It’s also going to feature the ‘Man on the Wall’ guy that preceded Nick Fury from Original Sin. Considering how much I hate that whole concept, I doubt I’ll brother with this series – though Immonen is pretty amazing. Still, I have zero interest in anything here. Watching Peggy Carter’s TV show will be more than enough for me.

There’s going to be a Wolverines weekly series, which seems to be about X-23 and Sabretooth fighting over who gets to be the new Wolverine.

Does anybody else love AoA Sabretooth?

That could be fun.

And the big reveal was a new Secret Wars by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic! It’s going to be a year-long event that takes over from Hickman’s ongoing Avengers and New Avengers, currently undergoing their big ‘Time Runs Out’ storyline. Based on the preview picture, it looks like some kind of epic battle between alternate reality superheroes?

Everybody loves callbacks

That would make sense. Considering Hickman’s is currently telling an epic story about the death of the Multiverse, why not pit a bunch of Multiversal heroes against one another? Sounds like a solid comic book premise to me!

Though isn’t that exactly what Multiversity is doing?

Anyway! Those are the new comics from Marvel for the upcoming year. What do you henchies think about them? I’ll probably buy a few issues of each to see what they’re like.

I don’t remember if DC announced anything new at Comic-Con. Their loss!

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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 10/11/14

What a week to be a fan of comics! Not only is the New York Comic-Con going on this weekend, but the long-awaited debut of the new Batgirl hit the stands, and it easily slides into Comic Book of the Week. The comic is as good as I’d hoped it would be and more. If the creative team keeps this up, Ms. Marvel might have a little competition for my favorite comic!

It doesn’t help that poor Kamala Khan is rushed off to guest-star in this week’s Amazing Spider-Man. Crossovers and team-ups like this are so painfully forced, especially in this day and age, but writer Christos Gage gives it the old college try. He also manages to slip in a little fan ‘shipping for the fun of it!

But seriously, Batgirl definitely kicks butt!

She’s also an expert at threats!

Over at Word of the Nerd, you can check out my review of Axis #1. The big new crossover kicked off this week with an issue that felt more like the end than the beginning, at least in terms of spectacle – and that wasn’t a good thing.

Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #7, Avengers #36, Batman #35, Batman Eternal #27, Batgirl #35 and Captain Marvel #8. 

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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 9/13/14

A week after my birthday and I get all my presents! How else do you explain new issues of Hawkeye, Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel all arriving in the same week? I would be hard-pressed to name three other comics I enjoy reading more these days. So thank you, Marvel, for the belated birthday present. I understand you need to stick to Wednesdays.

And lucky for us, they’re all pretty good!

Though having to choose between Hawkeye and Ms. Marvel for Comic Book of the Week is tough. I think I’m going to have to give the edge to Hawkeye for another Kate Bishop issue by Matt Fraction and Annie Wu. It was the battle of the adorable protagonists, and Kate Bishop won by a nose.

Kate Bishop knows a good blog when she sees one

Kate and Kamala are both cutie pies.

Speaking of cutie pies, I decided to pay a visit to New Warriors again before the end, because it’s an issue that serves as a would-be epilogue to Scarlet Spider. Does it live up to that previous series? No. Is it still fun? I suppose.

And anyone who is interested can read my review of Death of Wolverine #2 over at Word of the Nerd. I’ve decided to review all four issues of that weekly series, and it hasn’t been too bad so far.

Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #6, Batman Eternal #23, Captain Marvel #7, Hawkeye #20, Magneto #9, Ms. Marvel #8 and New Warriors #9.

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