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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 6/11/16
Huh, what a week. After a few comic weeks full of great and wonderful comics, we’ve kind of landed on a thudder of a week. Some fine comics came out, some enjoyable, some not so much. I read a bunch and generally had a good time. But this was kind of an off week.
Aquaman and Wonder Woman got the Rebirth treatment, but neither issue wowed me in any way. Flash has started Rebirth as well, but for some reason, I still can’t bring myself to buy a Flash comic. It’s fascinating to me how few DC superheroes I’m actually invested in. Where’s Robin Rebirth? I guess Tim Drake’s revival in Detective Comics will have to do!
But it wasn’t all bad news this week! We’ve got the first issue of the Gotham Academy/Lumberjanes crossover! It’s not as amazing as I’d hoped, but it’s still a sign of hopefully great things to come! And it definitely picks up Comic Book of the Week!
Something wonderful!
Now we just need a Lumberjanes/Unbeatable Squirrel Girl crossover and I’ll be all set!
Comic Reviews: Aquaman Rebirth #1, Detective Comics #934, Kaijumax #2, Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy #1 and Wonder Woman Rebirth #1.
My 6 Favorite LGBTQ+ Comic Book Characters
Last Friday was a great day for America and for equality everywhere! I’m a big fan of the stuff. The Supreme Court in the U.S. struck down bans on gay marriage across the country! It’s a pretty great time for freedom. So I’ve decided to use my List of Six to celebrate gay, lesbian and all LGBTQ+ characters in comics!
One of the most beautiful moments in comics in the past 10 years
It’s hard to believe that, only 10 or 20 years ago, this kind of open sexuality would have been verboten. Northstar, the first openly gay comic book character (I think), came out of the closet within my lifetime. But now there are a lot of characters like this, openly gay and openly beloved by comic book fans. So I’ve decided to run down the list of my six favorite LGBTQ+ characters in comics! Join me after the jump!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 5/9/15
Oy, I’m sick. I don’t know if it’s Spring Fever or Just a Fever or what, but I’ve come down with that cough and uggish feeling that’s going around. It’s definitely not dance fever, that’s for darn sure. Fortunately, I had a big stack of my favorite comics to keep me company this week.
We got new issues of Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Ant-Man and Amazing Spider-Man, as well as the only Convergence title I’m reading: The Question. Not surprisingly, seeing Greg Rucka and Cully Hamner reunite for a Renee Montoya comic wins Comic Book of the Week. I need this comic in my life on a full-time basis.
Like they need another smash in the head
If nothing else, Convergence at least allowed Rucka to return to one of his best characters, so I guess I’m grateful for that. The rest of the series blows, from what I’m reading around the web.
Speaking of the web, you can check out my review of Secret Wars #1 over at Word of the Nerd this week. I’d planned to add it to this article as well, but that sickness hit me like a ton of bricks. Sometimes the world just doesn’t want you to write about comic books.
Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #18, Ant-Man #5, Convergence: The Question #2, Spider-Woman #7 and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #5.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 4/11/15
I’m sorry, DC fans, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to tackle Convergence. I’d considered it, and I read a few of the issues this week, but I have even less interest in covering this beast than I do Batman Eternal Year Two. Now, I am nothing if not easily persuadable, so if there is a Convergence comic you’d like me to review, let me know in the comments. But on my own, these reviews are going to be few and far between.
Such as this week’s Question #1. Greg Rucka returning to Renee Montoya is a dream come true.
In the rest of the comic book world, we’ve got some great books! I highly recommend Kaijumax over at Oni Press, it’s a lot of fun. New issues of Ant-Man and Spider-Woman impressed. And Darth Vader #4 easily won Comic Book of the Week for being one of the most action-packed comics of the year so far. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to look at Darth Vader the same way again.
Elsewhere in the world, you can check out my review of SHIELD #4 over at Word of the Nerd. That series continues to delight.
This is also the first week in a year when I don’t have an issue of Batman Eternal clogging up my reviews! It’s a good feeling.
Comic Reviews: Ant-Man #4, Convergence: Question #1, Darth Vader #4, Kaijumax #1 and Spider-Woman #6.
The 6 Best and the 6 Worst Parts of DC’s New 52
The New 52 is over; long live DC Comics. After more than three years of sticking to their rigid, grim and gritty house style, the second biggest publisher in comics has decided to try something different — and I couldn’t be happier. I quickly soured to the New 52 and have barely hung on all these years later.
Get out of there Cyborg, you’re not Justice League
When DC rebooted their entire comics lineup in 2011 — including everyone from Superman and Batman to Green Lantern — they decided that the best way to reach fans was with dark, gritty comics aimed at teenage boys and young men. They published 52 comics a month and called the whole event the ‘New 52’. But comic book fans are prone to change, and nowadays we want a variety of different comics and styles, definitely not just grim and gritty. Marvel Comics, the biggest publisher, understands this and routinely beats DC in sales.
So starting in June, DC will abandon their New 52 way of thinking and will start offering new comics with new styles for new audiences. It’s a great plan! But before it’s gone, I wanted to take a look back at 6 things I liked and 6 things I loathed in the New 52. Hopefully DC can learn from this.
Henchman-4-Hire 