Blog Archives
6 Spider-themed Heroes and Villains (Other Than Spider-Man)
Spiders are awesome! I know they can be terrifying, but they’re mostly in the world to help in humanity’s never ending war against the insects. So it makes sense that the greatest superhero of all time is Spider-Man!
Best Spider-Man movie ever? Yes.
But why let a perfectly good comic book character theme go to waste in a single character? Just because Spider-Man is so well known does not mean there can’t be other characters based off of spiders. Heck, Spider-Man has so many clones, off-shoots and hangers-on that I could make this list several times over based just on his friends, allies and enemies! That’s why I have challenged myself to come up with a list of spider characters who are not connected to Spider-Man! I am including the various Spider-Women from Marvel in this restriction as well, because that would also make it too easy.
So join me after the jump for a bunch of other comic book characters fashioned after spiders, characters who have very little link to Spider-Man!
The 6 Best Premiere Superhero Teams (That Aren’t the Avengers or the Justice League)
The Avengers and the Justice League represent the best of the best of their superhero universes. They are the heroes on the front lines of the fight against evil, drawing together their champion heroes and spear-heading their entire caped communities. So, of course, they’ve become shorthand for superhero teams from other universes as well.
Only one shall stand
Marvel and DC are not the only publishers in the superhero business. But just like we’ve got both Green Arrow and Hawkeye and both Superman and the Sentry, sometimes ideas and characters get copied across publishers. The same is true for superhero teams. Marvel has the Avengers, DC has the Justice League…but who does everybody else have?
Just for the fun of it, and because I love comics, I decided to look around and pick out the best Avengers/JLA analogues!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 6/14/14
Have you ever walked out of a movie? I haven’t, but I’ve stopped watching films if I’m at home and don’t like them. And now I can say I’ve walked out of a comic book. I want to like DC Comics, they have some great characters, but their current output is just…so, so bad.
The comic in question is Justice League United #2, smack dab in the middle of its Justice League Canada storyline, and the New 52 introduction of Adam Strange. I haven’t particularly enjoyed the series so far, but it was still on my review docket…then I had to stop reading halfway through because it was just so bad. I just couldn’t take it anymore. The dull, endless exposition. The weak, context-less banter between the characters. The generally crummy plot. The awkwardly cut and pasted panels.
Look at this!
How does that pass any sort of muster at DC Comics?! The banter between Green Arrow and Animal man is pretty lively, with the two characters nearly at each other’s throats, but NOBODY MOVES AN INCH FOR THREE WHOLE PANELS! They have the same smiles and faces, every single one of them, despite some pretty harsh dialogue. It’s insane!
There’s also a random Supergirl cameo that completely ignores the fact that she’s a Red Lantern these days.
Fortunately, we’ve still got comics like Lumberjanes, which easily won Comic Book of the Week for the best issue yet of this fledgling series.
So don’t expect a full review of Justice League United #2. My review stack is actually pretty light this week due to just crappy comics and a pretty busy week for me personally. I had this infectious Malware problem Wednesday night that just wouldn’t go away. I had to stay up all night cleansing my computer. It was madness, and left me a very tired Sean.
And for those interested, you can check out my reviews for Captain Marvel #4 and New Avengers #19 at Word of the Nerd. Both of those were pretty solid comics.
Comic Reviews: All-New X-Men #28, Astro City #13, Batman Eternal #10 and Lumberjanes #3.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 8/17/13
This was a big week for comics. Positively huge! And I’m not just talking about my pull list, which was equally as massive. I mean we’ve got the first issue of Infinity, Marvel’s next Big Event comic. We all know that Age of Ultron stank like rotting socks. So might Jonathan Hickman save the day with a big space and Thanos-themed event? Maybe! But what about the Superior Spider-Man side of things? There’s a two-part Superior Team-Up/Scarlet Spider crossover that’s a real treat. That’s big news.
Not only that, but we’ve got the end of the first big storyline in Thor: God of Thunder, as well as the start of a new storyline in Fearless Defenders. Yep, I decided to pick up Fearless Defenders again! And all of these are just the comics I decided to review this week. There were a ton of good issues I had to leave off due to time and space.
There were a lot of good comics this week, though mostly average to good, I’m afraid. I still think I’m suffering from some kind of comic book burnout. Nothing has really captured my attention in a long while. Everything just seems generally good. Oh well. Maybe it’s just something I ate.
Comic Book of the Week goes to Infinity #1. It wasn’t the best comic I read this week, but it pulls off a successful first issue for a Big Event. Of course, that’s what I said about the first part of Trinity War, and we all know how that’s turning out…
I love the cat Skrull
Comic Reviews: Astro City #3, Fearless Defenders #8, Infinity #1, Justice League of American #7, Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #2, Scarlet Spider #20, Thor: God of Thunder #11 and Wolverine and the X-Men #34.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 7/13/13
Welcome back, comic book fans, to another installment of ‘Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews’. What is ‘hench-sized’ you might ask? Well it’s…it’s…just this thing I invented! I think it has a nice ring to it. This week we’ve got a nice pile of good comics. I’m pretty sure I liked everything I read this week…though that may be because I keep dropping books I don’t like. Perhaps I should make myself suffer through some bad comics just to make my weekly reviews more diverse.
We’ve got the second issue of Astro City, which continues the fun of this classic series. Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and the X-Men all have fairly strong offerings this week. But the winner of Comic Book of the Week is going to be Justice League #22. It wasn’t the best comic of the week, but as the kick-off of Trinity War, Geoff Johns proves that Big Event comics can still be entertaining.
It’s on like Donkey Kong!
Comic Reviews: Astro City #2, Batman #22, Justice League #22, Superman Unchained #2, Superior Spider-Man #13 and Uncanny X-Men #8.
Henchman-4-Hire 