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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 8/29/15

I don’t know why this happens, but it always seems like my favorite comics all come out in the same week. It’s a nightmare for the wallet but a celebration for reading! This week, we’ve got new issues of Ant-Man, Spider-Woman, Lumberjanes, Grayson, We Are Robin, Harley Quinn and more! It’s great!

Comic Book of the Week goes to Batgirl #43 for another nearly perfect issue. Batgirl is everything I could possibly want from a superhero comic these days, and the creative team pulls it off so effortlessly.

Batgirl vs. a tiger!!

I hope DC keeps this team and this direction around for a long time to come.

Comic Reviews: Last Days of Ant-Man #1, Batgirl #43, Cyborg #2, Grayson #11, Harley Quinn #19, Justice League of America #3, Lumberjanes #17, Ninjak #6, Spider-Woman #10 and We Are Robin #3. 

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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 8/15/15

I am very pleased to announce that the first two issues of Gamer Girl & Vixen are done! We’ll be sending them off to the printers soon, so anyone who ordered a copy through our Kickstarter will get them this fall. But we’re also going to be offering the digital issues online in this upcoming week! I can’t wait until people are actually reading my comic!

As for regular comics, we’ve got a bunch of winners this week, from Superman to Batman to Starfire!

Comic Book of the Week goes to Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, yet again. I’m like a broken record at this point. I want to give other books a chance, but nothing touches me like Squirrel Girl these days!

I will never be able to say the word ‘nuts’ the same way again

Over at Word of the Nerd, I continue my coverage with Secret Wars #5. We’re past the halfway mark of this big series, but for some reason, writer Jonathan Hickman decided to take a breather to remind people of some of the backstory. Odd choice.

Comic Reviews: Action Comics #43, Batman #43, Gotham Academy #9, Starfire #3 and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #8.

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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 7/25/15

Only one week until Boston Comic-Con! That’s my first comic-con of the season, where I’ll be shaking hands and kissing babies in the name of Gamer Girl & Vixen! Anybody else going? I could buy you a hot dog!

As for comics this week, we’ve got some good ones! Cyborg #1 makes its big debut at DC comics, though it’s about four years late. Still, it looks like a good start, though I would have liked more. I also checked out the first issue of Kate Leth’s Power Up and was equally wishing she’d gone just a bit further in her debut issue. Alas.

As for really good comics, we’ve got new issues of Spider-Woman and We Are Robin, both of which are sizzling. And the new issue of Uncanny X-Men is a Goldballs spotlight issue! I’m beside myself with glee.

Comic Book of the Week, however, goes to Grayson #10 for its downright gorgeous artwork and fun style!

Why do we all not live there?

Artist Mikel Janin is going place! Heck, I’m not even sure why DC is keeping him on Grayson when he could be drawing Wonder Woman, Superman or anything else!

Comic Reviews: Cyborg #1, Grayson #10, Power Up #1, Prez #2, Spider-Woman #9,  Uncanny X-Men #35 and We Are Robin #2. 

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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 6/27/15

It’s another solid week for DC Comics! After the mess of Convergence, they have come out smelling like roses with new comics, new directions and a new sense of fun. I only hope Marvel has the same kind of response to Secret Wars, though Marvel was doing fine before they started their summer-long crossover.

This week sees new issues of Aquaman, Batgirl and Grayson, and the debut of We Are Robin, the comic I was most looking forward to with DC’s new rebranding. Does it live up to the hype? Mostly. It’s a relatively sparse first issue, but it starts laying some important groundwork.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Batgirl #41. No big changes here, just more Batgirl goodness.

Go with him if you want to live

Comic Reviews: Aquaman #41, Batgirl #41, Grayson #9, Ninjak #4 and We Are Robin #1.

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‘We Are Robin’ to Star Duke Thomas and Friends

One of the most interesting new comics coming out of DC this Spring will be We Are Robin, a series that was shrouded in mystery when it was first announced. What’s with all the kids on the cover? What about Tim Drake, Dick Grayson or Jason Todd? Who is Robin?

Well the shroud is off and the questions have been answered in USA Today! We Are Robin is going to star Duke Thomas and a whole movement of Gotham teenagers rallying behind the mantle of the Boy Wonder!

Where can I get that jacket?

As much as this kind of goes against everything I love about Robin…I’m actually kind of excited by this news! It sounds like a really awesome comic and a neat twist on the whole concept of Robin.

Personally, of course, I much prefer the idea that Robin is a single individual: the squire to the Dark Knight, the apprentice of the World’s Greatest Detective. But I’m definitely down to check out Lee Bermejo’s We Are Robin when it launches in a few months. Maybe it’s because I’m still annoyed that Harper Row didn’t get to become the new Robin, and we’re still stuck with Damian Wayne. Maybe I’m just more open to new and fascinating comic book ideas. Whatever the case, I’m totally on board.

Bermejo mentions in the article that he’s partially inspired by movements like what happened in Ferguson, Missouri last year.

“There’s that element of this particular moment we’re passing right now, and with a book like this you have a chance to comment about certain things and bring them into the Bat-universe in real interesting ways. With ideas and big concepts, teenagers can get really passionate about that stuff and it can be their whole life. That was something interesting to me, that this thing could be bigger than just one guy jumping around in a domino mask.”

Bermejo says he wants to take the very idea of Robin and play around with it. And that maybe there are a lot of kids in the streets of Gotham who could be helping Batman out there.

Specifically, the series will star Duke Thomas, a kid that Bruce Wayne first met in Zero Year, and who recently reappeared during Batman’s fight with the Joker. And when all DC comics jumped 5 years into the future last fall, it was Duke Thomas who was serving as Robin, in costume.

Nonchalantly out of context

So maybe We Are Robin is just the next part of Duke Thomas’ journey. We shall see. But no matter what this title brings, I am definitely excited. There are big things ahead for the Boy Wonder(s)!

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