This Week in Comics: 5/16/2012

This week in comics, the Avengers and the X-Men settle their differences via walk-off (with special guest judge David Bowie!), Image wows with Dancer #1, and I confuse the plot of a major event comic with that of Zoolander to mildly comedic effect. Very mild.

Let’s dance!

This Week In Comics: 5/9/2012

This week in comics, owls get pissed at Batman, the Punisher fights zombies but stubbornly refuses to get at all groovy, and Vertigo drops a new anthology of sci-fi shorts.

Okay, he gets a LITTLE groovy.

This Week In Comics: 5/2/2012

This week in comics, Action Comics #9 explores the multiverse, the Avengers and the X-Men do SOMETHING with each other, I can’t remember what, and DC’s New 52 New 6 officially begins with Dial H, G.I. Combat, Earth 2 and Worlds’ Finest.

I don’t have anything clever to say about the cover. This was just my favorite issue this week.

This Week In Comics: 4/25/2012

This week in comics, the “Rise of the Vampires” crossover concludes, “The Omega Effect” crossover concludes, and probably some other event somewhere concludes.

If there's one thing DC knows, it's this: People like bats and sparkling vampires. Two birds? Meet one stone.

This Week In Comics: 4/18/2012

This week in comics, Wonder Woman #8 takes us to the underworld, the Avengers and the X-Men hit each other some more, and

It's important to point out that this is the greatest cover in the history of comics. Basically.

Review – Alabaster: Wolves #1

My pick of the week, Alabaster: Wolves #1, makes monster-hunting cool again in this nifty post-apocalyptic adventure.

Review: Demon Knights #8

Demon Knights #8 gives a fascinating, not-entirely-trustworthy backstory to two of its most interesting characters.

This Week in Comics: 4/11/2012

This week: Avenging Spider-Man #6 kicks off a mini-crossover in Marvel, Dark Horse brings us a post-apocalyptic Western with Alabaster Wolves #1, and much more!

Guardian Angels never looked so evil...

Review: Superbia #1 (of 4)

For a little while, at least, Desperate Housewives was a pretty friggin’ good show.  I know the rough demographics of the comic reading audience, and presumably that audience doubles as our readership here, so I suspect I won’t get a lot of support on that statement, but I’m pretty comfortable saying it’s true.  In its first season, at least, it was a heady combination of suburban soap and darkly comic whodunit.  With compelling characters and a simple, interesting plot, it was an easy show to enjoy.  Now, I mention all this because, in my opinion, Desperate Housewives meets the Justice League is the easiest elevator pitch for Boom! Studio’s excellent new mini-series, Superbia, a book that looks easy to dismiss but conceals some pretty fascinating stuff just beneath the surface.

Review: Green Arrow #7

Green Arrow #7

Green Arrow #1 was my vote for Worst Comic of the New 52.  It was also the first book I dropped.  I thought I’d be writing off Green Arrow for the foreseeable future, but after a few issues, DC decided to change up the creative teams on a number of titles, Green Arrow included, and with new writer Annie Nocenti (a respected veteran writer of the 80′s and 90′s) coming in with #7 to shake things up, I thought I’d pick it up and see what she was bringing to the table.

Review: Action Comics #6

Action Comics #1 gave us rowdy, unruly teenage Superman, a crusader for Truth, Justice and the American Way who hadn’t yet managed to learn how to temper his passions with diplomacy.  And it was fascinating.  Six issues into the series, and Morrison and his creative team are still finding new ways to look at the younger Superman, whether its in the simple, touching back-up feature by Sholly Fisch or in the main adventure, which finds us following an older, wiser Superman as he faces a threat to his past selves.   And while neither story is perfect in this particularly-weak issue of Action Comics, I still find myself enjoying and even recommending t he book for its shameless sense of fun and the rock-solid grasp it has of its main character.

Review: Wonder Woman #5

Wonder Woman #5, cover by Cliff Chiang

Wonder Woman is too many things to too many people.  Inevitably, any attempt to do a bold declaration of “This is what Wonder Woman stands for” turns out to be fairly divisive.  She is an ambassador of peace, but she is also a great warrior and military strategist.  She is chosen by the goddess of love, but no love interest will ever be worthy of her in the eyes of her fans. The contradictions continue, and help explain (I believe) why there is no one definitive Wonder Woman story for her fans.  Perhaps my favorite part about Brian Azzarello’s current run on Wonder Woman is that he doesn’t delve deep into Diana’s character and lose himself in that particular hall of mirrors.  No, under Azzarello’s pen, Wonder Woman is a supremely confident action heroine fighting massive, horrific enemies who see humans more as ants than people, a superhero trying to beat back the tide of a horror film.  It probably shouldn’t work.  It so does.

Review: Green Lantern: Emerald Knights

 

Review: Green Lantern: Emerald Knights

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Review: Brightest Day #11

Review: Power Girl #16

Review: The Amazing Spider-man #644

Review: Justice League of America #49

Review: Birds of Prey #5

Bummer.

We’re all big Gail Simone fans here at read/RANT.  Personally, I viewed the return of Gail’s Birds as the best comic book news I’d heard in years.  And yet, somehow I hadn’t gotten around to writing a BoP review since the book’s relaunch.

This week, I was determined to fix that.  After the first arc, I was sure this issue would kick off another can’t-miss adventure the way this month’s Secret Six #25 did.  But, it didn’t quite work out that way.

Review: Brightest Day #9

Spoilers!

Review: Justice League Generation Lost #8

Spoilers!!!