...finding out that actual homophobe Orson Scott Card's terrible, terrible version of Iron Man for the Ultimate universe has been retconned to be an in-universe licensed cartoon that everybody involved finds stupid and unrealistic ( Read more... )

I started reading the Avenging Spider-Man because Spider-man is one of my favorite parts of the modern Avengers, and the Avengers membership is one of my favorite parts of the modern Spider-man. I love his "Why am I here?" attitude, his weird Calvin-and-Susie chemistry with Spider-woman (and the way they kept getting stuck in the corner talking to ( Read more... )

Speaking as someone who likes shaggy dog stories, the first story arc in Justice League Dark feels like a really bad example of one. Five issues during which the world is being torn apart by the unhinged magic of a host-less Enchantress ends when someone gives her back her host ( Read more... )

I don't really know if any of these are up to the nerdiness standards of my previous reviews, but it works as a tagline.

Teen TitansI started reading DC Comics when Tim Drake was already Robin, so for me the moment when he first crystallized as a *particular* Robin and not just Robin was during the Zero Hour event when he met a time-displaced Dick ( Read more... )

Justice League Dark

I'll say one thing for the reboot: it really makes me appreciate en media res openings. This "gathering of heroes" thing is a lot to sit through again and again. One doesn't notice it so much when reading a collected edition, but it makes the month-by-month method seem a little slow. At least none of the books other than the ( Read more... )

People who study humor and the question of what makes something funny often suggest that comedy is about subverted expectations. I don't think all comedy can be classed as such, but there is certainly a class of comedy that is so. Set the audience up to think you're talking about one thing, then pull the rug out from under them. This is often a ( Read more... )

Just as a side note, it occurred to me last night that I've been praising Demon Knights to people for having a "woman-heavy" cast. On the team, there are approximately 4 women and 4 men, again depending on how exactly you count certain characters. The villains are a male and female couple ( Read more... )

Okay, I'm going to slap a spoiler warning on this one, because this comic ends on a major WHAM note that I'm going to be discussing, albeit obliquely. Also, the title of the book is "Detective Comics", and there is more of a mystery implicit in the plot than there was in Action Comics (not counting the accidental mystery of What The Hell Happened ( Read more... )

A Detective Comics review is still forthcoming, but since I've been paid to dig deep on it it's going to be a little bit longer in the coming. I'm also going to be comparing and contrasting it to Batman and Robin #1.

In the meantime, here are quick impressions of two of the other books to come out:

Stormwatch

When I read the new Stormwatch #1, ( Read more... )

Alan Moore wrote a story in Swamp Thing in which some military goons trying to kill the indestructible Swamp Thing pay Lex Luthor something like a million dollars for fifteen minutes of his time. (I wouldn't swear to either figure, but you get the idea.) He starts by telling them "Gentlemen, you don't know from invulnerable." and then outlines how ( Read more... )