I’ve been meaning to read this title for years, but it took the utterly amazing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie to finally mWhat's up, danger?
I’ve been meaning to read this title for years, but it took the utterly amazing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie to finally motivate me to get to it. And I’ve really been missing out.
The idea of a new Spider-Man could have been yet another cheap gimmick. Yet the old Marvel Ultimate universe allowed them to take some chances like killing off Peter Parker for realsies, and then introducing Miles Morales as the new kid under the mask. It turns out that actual consequences make for good drama in stories. Who knew?
Bendis did a great job of crafting a new character as well as coming up with a plot that mirrors the the classic Spider-Man origin story yet still has a fresh and original feel to it. Miles has many of the same qualities that Peter has, but he’s not just a clone of him. (Which is good because Spidey doesn’t have a great history with clones.)
I was also surprised to discover that the new Marvel movie version of Peter Parker pretty much lifted the idea of Miles’ best friend who knows his secret. Only steal from the best, even when stealing from yourself.
It’s a great take on Spider-Man, and I can’t wait to read more about Miles and his adventures.
I’ve been meaning to read this title for years, but it took the utterly amazing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie to finally motivate me to get to it. And I’ve really been missing out.
The idea of a new Spider-Man could have been yet another cheap gimmick. Yet the old Marvel Ultimate universe allowed them to take some chances like killing off Peter Parker for realsies, and then introducing Miles Morales as the new kid under the mask. It turns out that actual consequences make for good drama in stories. Who knew?
Bendis did a great job of crafting a new character as well as coming up with a plot that mirrors the the classic Spider-Man origin story yet still has a fresh and original feel to it. Miles has many of the same qualities that Peter has, but he’s not just a clone of him. (Which is good because Spidey doesn’t have a great history with clones.)
I was also surprised to discover that the new Marvel movie version of Peter Parker pretty much lifted the idea of Miles’ best friend who knows his secret. Only steal from the best, even when stealing from yourself.
It’s a great take on Spider-Man, and I can’t wait to read more about Miles and his adventures....more
I won a free advance copy of this from the publisher.
It’s hard to believe these days when multiple blockbuster movies and popular TV shows are based oI won a free advance copy of this from the publisher.
It’s hard to believe these days when multiple blockbuster movies and popular TV shows are based on superheroes, but there have been several points over the years when it looked like the comic book industry was swirling the drain.
1975 was such a time, but that hasn’t stopped Carmen Valdez from pursuing her dream of being a comic book writer in New York. Unfortunately, the closest she’s come so far is working as a secretary for the publisher of struggling Triumph Comics, and her boss has made it clear that he’d rather buy work from washed up male writers then give a young woman a chance. When a friendly colleague named Harvey asks her to help him come up with a new hero to meet a deadline, Carmen works with him to quickly develop a female superhero they call the Lethal Lynx. Harvey promises that if the publisher likes the new character he’ll give Carmen her share of the credit.
However, Carmen is shocked to learn that Harvey misled her and submitted several scripts she primarily wrote under his own name. Before Carmen can confront Harvey about this, the young man is murdered, and Carmen can only watch helplessly as the character she’s created becomes popular and is handed off to hacks. There’s a suspicious police detective who thinks Carmen knows more than she’s saying, and Carmen has another problem when a former friend she has a complicated history with shows up in New York. Eventually, Carmen thinks the key to figuring out who murdered Harvey and proving that she co-created the Lynx lies in Harvey’s shady history in the industry.
I started reading comic books as a kid in the ‘70s, and I’m a fan of the mystery/crime genre so no surprise that this book hooked me immediately. This feels like an authentic look at the comic scene of the ‘70s, and there's a distinct vibe that this is a grungy subset of publishing that isn’t respected, even by most of the people working in it. Alex Segura has worked a lot in the industry so the details feel right, and the references all come across as part of the detailed background rather than cheap wink-and-nudge references to make fanboys giggle.
There’s also a cool feature with actual comic book pages featuring Carmen’s Lynx stories scattered throughout the book, and artist Sandy Jarrell does a great job of making these panels have a cool ‘70s style. If they actually wrote and published a Lethal Lynx comic book, I’d be very interested in reading it.
The thing that really makes the whole book work is Carmen as a character. She’s the daughter of Cuban immigrants, a woman trying to break into an all male industry, and she’s got another secret that makes her feel like an outsider. All of these factors drew Carmen to comic book superheroes in the first place, but she’s also just a fan as well as a writer with a natural instinct for what makes a compelling character. This is as much a story about a young woman struggling to make her dreams come true as it is a murder mystery, and I very much cared about what happened with Carmen. Since there is no shortage of stories of how various comic book creators were cheated out of credit and money over the years, I was sometimes more worried that Carmen might never get her rightful recognition then I was that she wouldn’t find the killer.
It’s a quality mystery novel as well as a love letter to comic books, but even if you don’t care about superheroes, I think a lot of readers would find the story of a young woman trying to become who she’s meant to be in ‘70s New York enjoyable as well....more
Ed Brubaker delivers yet another great crime comic. This time we've got a lead character who seems to be inspired by literary characters like Travis MEd Brubaker delivers yet another great crime comic. This time we've got a lead character who seems to be inspired by literary characters like Travis McGee and Matt Scudder as well as classic TV detectives like Jim Rockford and Thomas Magnum. Great stuff set in the early '80s....more
More fun stuff with Jane Foster as Thor being caught up in the War of the Realms, confronting a couple of jerkface Shi'ar gods, and dealing with the PMore fun stuff with Jane Foster as Thor being caught up in the War of the Realms, confronting a couple of jerkface Shi'ar gods, and dealing with the Phoenix force. But not Jean Grey as the Phoenix, which was a relief. ...more
This is a story about what happens when a mutant marries a robot, and they try to retire from being superheroes to live ordinary lives in the suburbs.This is a story about what happens when a mutant marries a robot, and they try to retire from being superheroes to live ordinary lives in the suburbs. Guess how well that goes?
Pretty fun stuff that comes in the era when the goofy and the grounded were mixed together in Marvel comics. Like the idea that Wanda and the Vision would take a break from the Avengers and try to build a life together is something seems normal and down to earth, but then they always still wear their superhero outfits around the house and get attacked by demons before they can even unpack. ...more
I'm having a lot of fun going through these collections. The '80s tone where a lot of characters and costumes still had old school goofiness to them eI'm having a lot of fun going through these collections. The '80s tone where a lot of characters and costumes still had old school goofiness to them even as the plots started orienting around real world political and social issues is an interesting era that makes for some wild stories....more
I'm having a lot of fun with this Ostrander run. It's a great example of that late '80s stuff where they were sometimes mixing more serious political I'm having a lot of fun with this Ostrander run. It's a great example of that late '80s stuff where they were sometimes mixing more serious political topics with full on superhero silliness so Ronald Reagan is a supporting character as the Suicide Squad gets missions like trying to kill the leader of a South American drug cartel, but then there's another story that involves going to another dimension and battling weird demonic creatures.
Captain Boomerang continues to be both the most ridiculous and annoying character. I'm pretty sure that Amanda Waller just keeps sending him out on every mission hoping that he'll be killed someday. Fingers crossed.
There's also a couple of appearances by Batman, and the way he's portrayed here reminded me that DC was in the middle of that phase where he had to be an absolute asshole to everybody. Because it's gritty and mature!...more
Even if Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips never published another story together they are still going to go down in comic history as one of the great creaEven if Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips never published another story together they are still going to go down in comic history as one of the great creative partnerships of all time. Fortunately for us all, they keep doing new books, and this short graphic novel is one of their very best.
Elle is an addict at a fancy rehab facility who doesn’t seem all that interested in getting clean as she scoffs at other patients and flaunts the rules. As the title of this indicates she also romanticizes famous drug addicts and seems to have modeled her life on their behavior despite having an upbringing that is one giant cautionary tale.
That’s all I want to say about the plot of this one, and that short summary doesn’t do justice to the genius work that Brubaker & Phillips have done here. It’s just an amazing piece of art that is bigger than any label or genre that some might try to put on a crime comic. Check it out....more
The surprising thing about this for me is that ‘Suicide Squad’ is just the team’s nickname. Officially, it’s supposed to be known as Task Force X. So The surprising thing about this for me is that ‘Suicide Squad’ is just the team’s nickname. Officially, it’s supposed to be known as Task Force X. So this has obviously had to be put out by DC in the days before Marvel apparently got a copyright on the letter X.
I didn’t read this back in my ‘80s teenage comic book nerd days, but I’ve heard good things about this run by Ostrander for a while. James Gunn saying he was using this version as his template for the new movie was enough to finally put some on hold at the library, and I’m glad I did.
There’s a lot of fun to be had with the idea of the government using a bunch second tier super villains as disposable operatives in the DC universe. Sending this motley crew to wipe out a super terror cell or rescue a political prisoner in the Soviet Union has that realistic in a comic book sort of way mentality that I enjoyed in the better stuff of this era.
And that outfit that Captain Boomerang is wearing is something else!...more
Max Winter was a cowboy outlaw in his younger days. As an old man living in New York during the Great Depression he draws on his experiences as a writMax Winter was a cowboy outlaw in his younger days. As an old man living in New York during the Great Depression he draws on his experiences as a writer of pulp westerns. With money getting tighter and his mortality looming, Max decides to return to armed robbery in order to try and leave his wife something before he dies. Next thing you know, Max is part of a scheme to steal from the American Nazi movement.
Honestly, you had me at old outlaw turns pulp writer, but you throw in a scheme to rip-off Nazis, now we're talking about a Shut-Up-And-Take-My-Money scenario.
Brubaker and Phillips score yet again with this quick but powerful tale. The run these guys have been on is nothing short of astounding, and this one has some Unforgiven flavor with the old man trying to live with his violent past thing. First rate stuff all around that combines a cool story with an intriguing character done up with artwork that sets the tone of it all perfectly....more
Way back in the ‘70s when I was a kid who rode his pet dinosaur to school I started reading and collecting comic books. One of my favorites was a supeWay back in the ‘70s when I was a kid who rode his pet dinosaur to school I started reading and collecting comic books. One of my favorites was a super-sized Batman collection that featured his first encounter with Ra’s al Ghul, and I probably reread it at least a hundred times. Later, when I was in my 20s, a broken water pipe at my parent’s house soaked some stuff I had stored with them, and that comic was one of the things that was ruined. Oh, and that book which had sold for $2 originally now goes for around $150. More’s the pity.
I didn’t fully appreciate how important that book was in my journey to full blown comic book nerd until much later. Not only was it the introduction of a major Batman villain, but it also came at a time when Denny O’Neil was in the middle of rehabbing the Caped Crusader’s image after he’d become a symbol of camp goofiness. As a stupid kid all I knew of Batman came from Superfriends cartoon and Adam West TV show. So this darker, more adult version of crime fighter driven by childhood trauma was shocking to me.
I also didn’t realize until later how the Neal Adams art locked an image in my brain that became the default setting of MY Batman. To this day that’s what I measure all other versions against.
Revisiting the story after all these years was a treat, and I was shocked at how so many of the panels were burned into my brain. This has some additional early Ra’s stories as well, and while I still think the ones with Adams’ art are the best there’s a lot of fun stuff here courtesy of O’Neil’s writing.
There’s some dated ‘70s silliness to the stories, but this was an important transition phase from the days of Batman using a handy can of shark repellent to the super gritty Dark Knight Returns. It was a great stroll down memory lane for me, and I won’t be storing this copy under any water pipes....more
As an oversized hardcover comic collection with over 1000 pages, this is the kitten squisher to end all kitten squishers. Seriously, if you need some As an oversized hardcover comic collection with over 1000 pages, this is the kitten squisher to end all kitten squishers. Seriously, if you need some kittens squished, this would be the book you’d want to use for the job.
It’s taken me months to get through this thing, not just because of how long it is, but because it’s so big that I had to be in the right mood to sit at the kitchen table because it's not like you could read it while laying on the couch or in bed.
Another funny thing about this one, it’s a DC crossover event that was originally published in 1994. I’m much more of a Marvel fan than DC (Except for my boy Batman.), I think crossover events are generally stunts to boost sales that have seriously hurt storytelling, and this came out at a time when mainstream comics had gotten so bad that fans quit reading which nearly caused the entire industry to implode. And yet I asked for this as a gift last Christmas.
Why? I’m not really sure myself. I’ve been watching a lot of the DC television shows and cartoons they do these days so that has my interest up. Plus, Zero Hour was right about the time I bailed on reading comics back in the ‘90s so it’s kind of a time capsule to go back to. It just sounded like an interesting artifact to re-examine.
So how was it? Weeelllll….. As I said before, this was kind of a bad time for superhero comics, and there is an incredible amount of material about characters that never caught on who I”m pretty sure have been left to the discount bin in comic books stores. So there isn’t nearly enough of the major characters like Batman and Superman to suit me. Plus, this was yet another huge part of DC’s obsession with repeatedly trying to revamp their continuity and create a timeline that ‘made sense’ which is something they insist on doing once a decade that looks more and more like a fool’s errand every time they try. The plot revolves around a big timey-wimey crisis that is ending all of the DC realities as we knew them, and it’s pretty much complete nonsense, even by comic book standards.
The most interesting aspect is that because it’s about worlds colliding, we get a lot of different versions of characters over the years at times, like Superman running into a whole bunch of different Batmen or Catwoman getting a glimpse of her various incarnations. One of the best side stories involves the Tim Drake version of Robin meeting and working with the much younger Dick Grayson as Robin to catch a thief.
My favorite was an absolute gem of a Green Arrow issue in which the entire story is done without captions or dialogue and shows via clever structure of the panels two parallel stories in which GA pursues a criminal, but ends two different ways. I could have used a lot more like that one in this.
Overall, it’s a big mishmash of ‘90s DC characters doing a lot of different stuff so it’s not without it’s charms, but anybody who didn’t know anything about the characters’ histories would most likely be lost. It’s also going to be a fairly big investment so not recommended for casual fans unless you find it cheap or get it from a library.
Still, I had some fun with it, and it did take me back to the days when Superman had come back from the dead and Batman had recovered from a broken spine. Not a bad trip down memory lane overall....more
This is amazing in the way that it weaves together the weird history of Vision along with this new story of family and existence to come up with sometThis is amazing in the way that it weaves together the weird history of Vision along with this new story of family and existence to come up with something completely original and heartbreaking....more
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