Review: Blackhawks #1

I’m too old for GI Joe.  I missed the 80′s toy craze by a few years.  My younger brothers were into it.  But for me, it was Star Wars and the Superfriends.  Blackhawks #1 owes a lot to GI Joe.  But then GI Joe borrowed from just about every military-minded action story ever written.  So, I suppose turnabout is fair play.

Review: Voodoo #1

This book is going to get me in trouble.  Last week, I defended Catwoman and Red Hood and the Outsiders against pretty much everybody.  In fact, my defense of Starfire has been linked to every comic book forum I know of just so people can shoot holes in it.  (I stubbornly stand by my argument for these books!  Political correctness be damned!)  Voodoo #1 arguable has more T&A than both of those books combined.  And I liked it too.

Yeah, I’m never going to get rid of that dirty old man label, am I?

Review: The Savage Hawkman #1

I haven’t been fair to The Savage Hawkman.  I’ve been poking fun at the book for months.  There’s something about dubbing Hawkman “savage” and then making him all spikey that is just hysterically desperate.  It’s almost like DC is hoping that readers will mistake Hawkman for Wolverine with wings.  Little did I know when I was cracking those jokes that I was on to something.

Review: Fury of Firestorm #1

I know this will be hard to believe, but sometimes I am wrong.  Heck, I’m wrong a lot.  This is easily verified because I go on record here with alarming regularity.  So, when I’m wrong I try to make a point of coming clean.  All this is build-up to me saying: I was wrong about Firestorm.

Review: All-Star Western

Jonah Hex has long been a staple of the DC Universe Western.  In fact, when Westerns went out of style – both in comics and in mainstream American culture – Hex was the only Western hero DC still published semi-regularly.  And with the Western seemingly coming back in fashion (the very popular True Grit, No Country for Old Men and 3:10 to Yuma films, as well as upcoming TV shows like Hell on Wheels (AMC), Gateway (TNT), Hangtown (ABC), Ralph Lamb (CBS) and others), now seems like a good time to highlight him and hope to hell that the hilariously horrible Jonah Hex film hasn’t hurt his reputation.  It shouldn’t have – no one saw it.  And it’s a good thing DC took that chance, because All-Star Western is one of the best debuts of DC’s New 52.

Review: Aquaman #1

There’s a lot to like in Aquaman #1.  I think the book delivers a lot of what Aquaman fans want from a first issue.  Geoff Johns and company go to great pains to make Aquaman cool.  And they largely succeed.  Unfortunately, Geoff Johns does this will all the subtly of a sledgehammer to the skull.

Starfire in Red Hood and the Outlaws #1

With all the controversy and split between how to view Starfire (either a strong female or a bimbo mainly), I decided to ask one of my college professors for thoughts on Starfire’s portrayal.

Review: Flash #1

SPOILER WARNING!

Review: Justice League Dark

Justice League Dark #1

There’s a lot going on in the wonderfully busy Justice League Dark.  Rather than going for the slow-burn that Johns took in Justice League a few weeks back, Peter Milligan has introduced us to all the books major players, set up a major bad guy, and raised the stakes considerably.  Milligan has an uphill battle to fight with this book, dealing as it does with characters even casual fans will have never heard of, but for the most part he has crafted a confident, unsettling debut that, unlike most books of the relaunch, might actually move a bit too quickly.

Review: Batman the Dark Knight #1

This week David Finch and Paul Jenkins gets to work on the Batman centered issue and oddly I had no expectations in any regard going into this one.

SPOILER WARNING!

Review: Teen Titans #1

Putting aside my annoyance that the last group of Teen Titans (volume 3) had their history completely erased… Well this issue is pretty darn good.

Spoiler Warning!

Review: Green Lantern: New Guardians #1

Green Lantern: New Guardians #1

One of the hardest things DC’s relaunch has had to deal with is the issue of past continuity.  Some books have just thrown you into already-running storylines (Green Lantern) or expected you to pick up twenty or thirty characters you’ve never heard of without much of an introduction at all (Legion Lost), while others (Superboy) have given you whole new origin stories, essentially resetting the entire character.  And, at least for me, it’s always been better to err on the side of the reset – pretending we know the character in question is presumptuous enough when you’re relaunching 52 titles, but pretending like your entire audience will know the storyline you’re continuing?  Well that just seems like arrogance.  Green Lantern: New Guardians, which stars Kyle Rayner, hedges its bets, opening with an extended origin story for Rayner, but don’t be fooled – it’s very much a continuation of the ongoing plot from the last few years of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps comics.

Review: I, Vampire #1

I, Vampire #1

When DC first announced the New 52, the fan community had a number of burning questions.  Among them: “What on Earth is this ‘I, Vampire’ and why is it being published?”  Even with the awesomely eclectic collection of ‘Dark’ titles DC announced alongside it, I think I, Vampire stood out to people as a particularly odd addition to the new DC Universe.  Initially, I wasn’t sure what to make of it either, but once I read writer Joshua Fialkov’s excellent crime-thriller Tumor, it jumped up on my list of titles to get excited for.  And I have to say: it was worth the excitement and the confusion.  I, Vampire #1 is an excellent new book.

Review: Superman #1

Superman #1

Growing up, I was never much of a comic book reader.  I didn’t grow up with Superman, didn’t grow up loving the Man of Steel, and so when I finally did start reading comics late in high school, and get really interested in comics in college, I never understood the adulation he got, his place in the pantheon of All-Time Pop Culture Greats.  I thought he was boring.  Who cares about an hero who can’t get hurt?  Who can do everything?

What’s New in the DCU – 09/28

It’s Tuesday.  The day before new books hit the shelves.  Let’s look at what’s in store for the new DCU:

All-Star Western #1 - I have never read any of Gray and Palmiotti’s Jonah Hex, but I have heard good things.  Truth is, I’ve never been a fan of the writing team or the character.  And I’m not much of a fan of westerns either.  So, this is kind of a tough sale for me.  But, in the spirit of the relaunch, I’m giving everything a try regardless of my personal biases.  I’ll split the difference and give this one a neutral rating.

Level of Anticipation – 5 of 10 

Retrospective: Teen Titans vol 3 (part 8)

Time for another Retrospective!  Issues 55-78.  For the few who have kept up with my Retrospective, I’ll be going at these issues a bit differently.  Mostly I’m going to try to go through each arc rather quickly.  This is mostly for the next few arcs I didn’t find that enjoyable.

DC New 52 – One Sentence Reviews, Part 3

By now you should know the drill … I provide one sentence reviews of each of the New 52 titles.  Each is scored out of five and at the end I’m going to have a cumulative leader board (averaging the scores of each title) to show which are consistently excellent, which are on the rise, and which are circling the drain.

In Part 3, I take a look at the batch of DC comics that became available on 21 September.

There could be spoilers ahead (although I try to avoid them).

Retrospective: Teen Titans vol 3 (part 7)

Looking into issue 50-54.  Issue 50 is a collaboration between McKeever, Johns, Wolfman, and Dezago.  This is also Johns’ last work on Teen Titans and after this issue, McKeever takes over by himself for a while.

My Take On Detective Comics #1

 

Writer and Art: Tony Salvador Daniel

Inks: Ryan Winn

Colours: Tomu Morey

Lettering: Jared K. Fletcher

Cover: Tony Salvador Daniel

DCnU Timeline v2

After skipping last week due to a general lack of info, I’m here with an updated version of my first Timeline!  Version 2 has a couple updates and one change from version 1.