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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 12/10/16

Everybody having a good holiday season? I’m almost done with my Christmas shopping, have my fingers crossed that a few of my online shopping orders arrive before the holiday, and am dealing with a ton of snow on the home front. But at least the latest changes to Pokemon GO have added a bunch of Charmanders in the downtown area for some reason…

Anyway, I’m just rambling because I can’t think of what else to talk about. We got some middling to OK comics out this week, like Champions. Harley Quinn has its first issue after last issue’s mind-blower, but it doesn’t live up to the excitement — still good, though.

I’m gonna give Comic Book of the Week to Nightwing #10. I’m a little hesitant, as you’ll see why, but I like the potential it puts forth. Plus, there’s a new gorilla character!

More sentient gorillas!

More sentient gorillas!

The latest issue of Clone Conspiracy was also out this week, and aside from a pretty overblown Big Twist, there still isn’t much to write home about. It’s like Dan Slott has this story he wants to tell, but he’s struggling to find ways to include conflict. It almost seems like more of a talking heads story, but there’s no way they can just do that for a Spider-Man Event. Better resurrect a bunch of random, old school Spidey villains!

Comic Reviews: Champions #3, Harley Quinn #9, Nightwing #10 and Unworthy Thor #2.

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The Definitive Robin Costume Ranking

Happy Thanksgiving, comic book lovers! To help make your Turkey Day a bit more palatable, and because most of the Internet is probably shut down today, I’ve decided to have a lot of fun by ranking all of the comic book Robin costumes! I am a huge Robin fan, and his costume is a pretty notorious hallmark of the character.

1940 was a hell of a year

1940 was a hell of a year

Fortunately, Robin has been through quite a few changes and retcons over the years, producing a whole wardrobe of different outfits, styles and designs. Robin has had almost as many costume changes as Batman! And from hundreds of different highly skilled artists. So I looked up as many as I could find and decided to rank them from my least to most favorite.

This list is as ‘definitive’ as I felt I could get featuring in-canon comic book costumes from throughout DC’s nearly 100-year history. If I’ve forgotten any, let me know in the comments and I’ll find a place for it. But I’ve left out the Elseworlds costumes, the movie, cartoon and video game costumes, and most of the one-off alternate reality costumes. Maybe I’ll throw all of those into a second list somewhere down the line.

For now, join me after the jump for the Definitive Robin Costume Rankings!

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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 11/19/16

Oof. What a crummy week for comics. I don’t know if it’s just me, but this whole week was kind of a dud. And I even read some of my favorite comics! Squirrel Girl! Hellcat! Wolverine! I don’t know what happened, but everything just felt kind of…flat. They were all still pretty good, but there just seemed to be something missing. Some magic…

As such, I’m not even sure which comic to award Comic Book of the Week. I kind of want to just not give it to anybody. But I’m not ready to set that precedent, so I’m gonna give it to Infamous Iron Man #2 because it has the most potential.

I'm still not buying why he modeled himself after Iron Man

It’s a good look for him

My actual reviews are going to be kind of light this week, because after reading a bunch of comics, I just didn’t feel like reviewing them. Plus sometimes I skip over storylines, like I’m currently doing with Patsy Walker and All-New Wolverine. Both are fine, but eh…also, the fill-in artist they got for All-New Wolverine was just bad. Like, make you question what Marvel was thinking bad.

Still, we got a handful of comics to check out this week.

Comic Reviews: Infamous Iron Man #2, Jessica Jones #2, Nightwing #9, Thanos #1, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #14.

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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 11/5/16

Welcome to the last batch of comic book reviews before the possible ending of the world! I’d like to think we had some truly amazing comics in these, our final days, but they were mostly alright — except for two utterly outstanding comics.

Not only did Harley Quinn mostly stick the landing of their excellent rock & roll story, and not only did Unworthy Thor finally bring about the return of Beta Ray Bill, but writer Dennis Hopeless delivered the Spider-Woman issue he’s probably been waiting years to bring us. The man is brutal. Comic Book of the Week by a mile.

Thumpety Thump Thump

Thumpety Thump Thump

Also, if you live in America, be sure to vote on Tuesday!

Comic Reviews: Champions #2, Harley Quinn #7, Nightwing #8, Spider-Woman #13 and Unworthy Thor #1. 

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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 9/10/16

Anybody else get real lazy on a vacation? And I don’t mean a vacation where you go on an awesome trip and have great adventures. I mean a staycation, where you largely spend the time sitting at home playing video games, reading comics and occasionally venturing out to catch Pokemon. That’s the kind of vacation I just had, and it was pretty neat. But man, did it take a lot of effort to actually write comic book reviews this week. But I got it done!

Some quality comics this week, including Iron Man, Nightwing and Doctor Strange, even. But Comic Book of the Week easily and handily goes to Harley Quinn #3, for bringing joy and romance to all of comics! There is no better relationship these days than Harley and Ivy!

What was she going to say?!

What was she going to say?!

They are a shining beacon in all of comics. If only Nightwing was this much fun. Or Iron Man. And the new Supergirl Rebirth would have greatly benefited from some of that charisma.

Comic Reviews: Doctor Strange #11, Harley Quinn #3, Invincible Iron Man #13, Nightwing #4 and Supergirl #1. 

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