Blog Archives

The 6 Characters on My Legion of Super-Heroes

Who doesn’t love tradition? It’s the week of San Diego Comic-Con, and since I’m not going (again) this year, I’ve decided to indulge in one of my favorite blog traditions: dream casting a superhero team! This year, we’re heading far into the future for my take on the Legion of Super-Heroes.

One incarnation of many

I’ve never been a big fan of the Legion of Super-Heroes, but I recently came up with a fun idea for what I’d do if I were ever hired to write a new Legion book. Hopefully someday that will still happen. And if it does, then you blog readers will have this insight into some of the major twists and mysteries that will drive my comic. I’ve done plenty of lists like this before on Comic-Con week, from the Justice League and the Avengers, to the Fantastic Four, the Thunderbolts and the X-Men. You can see a full list here.

This year, it’s my roster and plot for the Legion of Super-Heroes! Join me after the jump to get the whole scoop. And if you have a dream roster of your own, feel free to share it in the comments below.

Read the rest of this entry

Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 2/27/21

And so we’ve come to another week of new comic book releases and new comic book reviews! Gotta love it! Some solid comics this week, from X-Men to the last gasps of Future State.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Future State: Dark Detective #4 for a very strong ending to this fun little mini-series. I felt this one really captured what Future State seemed to be about.

Not now, Batman! She has a scathing Tweet to write!

Meanwhile, I’ve dropped U.S. Agent because it’s getting to be too much of a mish-mash for me. I don’t think I fully understand or appreciate what’s going on in that comic, and I’d rather let it go than try to hold on and badmouth it just because I don’t get it.

Comic Reviews: Future State: Dark Detective #4, Future State: Legion of Super-Heroes #2, The Union #3 and X-Men #18.

Read the rest of this entry

Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/30/21

New week, new comics, the same slowly churning stillness of our reality! But don’t let quarantine or coronavirus get you down too much, there’s still…good comics to read! Like more Future State! And a new issue of X-Men! Have you voted for the new team member yet?

Comic Book of the Week goes to Strange Academy #7! I dropped this series for a couple of issues, but the lack of titles this week led me to get caught up, and I’m so glad I did! This issue had a lot of great moments.

Don’t look under the sheet

Meanwhile, I finished the first season of Ted Lasso and I am in love! That is a great show! Worth blowing your Apple TV free sample — though more seasons are expected. WandaVision remains great. And I’m currently playing Watch Dogs Legion. So life is pretty good for me!

Also, in case you miss it, I’ve decided to take an issue off of reviewing Strange Adventures. The issue is fine, but I don’t know what we’re going to really get until the big finale. Perhaps I’ll pick it back up there.

Comic Reviews: Future State: Dark Detective #2, Future State: Legion of Super-Heroes #1, Strange Academy #7 and X-Men #17.

Read the rest of this entry

Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/23/21

Thankfully, I’ve got a much smaller pile of comics to read and review this week…mainly because I just skipped a bunch of Future State stuff. It’s already wearing thin, but there’s still The Next Batman to look forward to. And Power Rangers! And the apparent final issue of Legion of Super-Heroes!

Comic Book of the Week goes to the first issue of Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon. I wasn’t expecting a new Iron Fist series, but it’s here and it’s pretty fun.

Take that, zombie horseman warrior!

Meanwhile, have you watched Ted Lasso on Apple+? I threw it on as a whim and fell in love with the first episode! Such a fun program! I highly recommend it.

Comic Reviews: Future State: The Next Batman #2, Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon #1, Legion of Super-Heroes #12 and Power Rangers #3.

Read the rest of this entry

So They Never Did Anything With That Great Matter-Eater-Lad Redesign

This week, the final issue of Brian Michael Bendis’ Legion of Super-Heroes reboot came out and I enjoyed it. In fact, I ranked this series as my second favorite comic book series of 2020! Bendis and artist Ryan Sook, along with a plethora of additional artists, recreated the Legion and told a pretty fun story involving a bunch of fun characters. This 12-issue series is notable for how it insisted on using all of its characters, giving little moments here and there to pretty much everybody.

Except for Matter-Eater-Lad. He didn’t do squat for the entire series! I’m not even sure if we saw him eat anything on panel! What a waste of this amazing redesign!

The new definition of beefcake

Now, I’m no longtime Matter-Eater-Lad fan. Honestly, I’m not even much of a Legion of Super-Heroes fan. They’ve never been my cup of tea. But I was on board for this reboot and I enjoyed it. I especially loved the character redesigns provided by Sook and others. This is one great looking bunch!

And of the lot of them, I was tickled pink by the redesign of Matter-Eater-Lad. Check out this glow up!

Once upon a time…

From scrawny, nondescript dude in tights to that big, beefy, glorious god of a man up top. The new Matter-Eater-Lad looks like a fun time. He looks like the life of the party, turning swarthy into the new sexy. How can you go to all the trouble of redefining peak masculinity with a simple look and then not put it to good use?

And that’s all I really want to say. This reboot gave one hell of a character redesign to the beloved weirdo that is Matter-Eater-Lad, and then they didn’t do anything with him for 12 issues. We never saw his recruitment. We never saw him eat anything. He was only ever part of the same group shots as everybody else.

That’s a damn shame.

——————