Comics

Wolverine and the X-Men #5 – Review

Wolverine and the X-Men has been one of the most consistent of the X-books post-Schism.  I continue to enjoy it more than any of the others.  Perhaps Team Wolverine, as they like to call themselves, is just better coordinated than Team Cyclops.  X-Men Legacy focuses on the battle and action sequences at the school.  Both X-Men Legacy and Astonishing X-Men (once Marjorie Liu steps into the writer’s seat) focus on the adults that work at the school and their personal lives.  This allows Wolverine and the X-Men to focus on the students.  

So Wolverine and the X-Men seems to recapture what I enjoyed best about Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men – while the A-List X-Men are indeed around, we get to know the next generation of mutants.  As I mentioned in my review of the previous issue, I’ll probably be an old man before the current X-Men cede their positions to the new generation (if that EVER happens).  That’s just not the way the comics industry works, but I still think they should continue to have a greater focus on these younger X-Men.  They can tell new stories or retell the old ones with new twists based on the personalities and powers of THESE mutants.  

Fatale #2 – Review

I am still enraptured in the detective story of Fatale. Despite an artistic downgrade, confusing moments, and a lack in the stories balance, Fatale is a clichéd classic detective story saved by brilliant narration and characterization that keeps it feeling fresh.

Back in the fifties, the manipulative and unfeeling Josephine goes looking for Walter, her lover. He promised to keep her safe from her violent husband, a crooked cop exposed by Hank as being on the take in an article for his newspaper. But there is something even more sinister at work than just being on the take…

Smallville Season 11 Comic Book Series

Today it was announced that Smallville will have a comic book series to continue the story of where the television show left off last year on the series finale. It will show Clark Kent of Smallville try to get use to being Superman, but the series will also revolve around supporting characters like Chloe Sullivan, Oliver Queen, Lex Luthor, and Lois Lane. This will be very different from the characters from Dc comics and bring us the characters we know and love from Smallville.

The comic book will first come out on Dc Digital Comics and the release date of the first chapter in a digital format will be April 13^th, 2012. But don’t worry for those of you that do not want to get a digital copy you can get a printed copy available May 16th , 2012. There will be 12 chapters for the first story arc for us to enjoy in this series.

Scarlet Spider #2 Review

Scarlet Spider has been one of my favorite series from Marvel in a long time even though there has only been two issues I can tell this series is going to be great. I have been a Kaine fan for a while now. Ever since he had been in the series Spider-girl I have always really liked his character. I was happy to hear that he would be the new Scarlet Spider because it just made sense. The original Scarlet Spider was the clone of Peter Parker named Ben Rielly. So, I thought it was a great idea for the new Scarlet Spider to be the mishap clone of Peter Parker.

In this issue of Scarlet Spider we get to see Kaine wanting to leave Texas and continue with his new life and go to Mexico. But trouble in Texas brings him back to the state to save a girl that he left behind. After he saves the girl from a man for firepowers the town loves the Scarlet Spider and wants him to stay.

McDaniel Responds on Static Shock

Posting on his website, Scott McDaniel has responded to the comments made by John Rozum regarding the behind the scenes happenings of Static Shock and the reasons for that title’s failure. Rozum’s comments painted the picture that he had been marginalized as the series writer and much of the blame for Static Shock’s shortcoming fell on McDaniel and editor Harvey Richards. McDaniel has a different perspective on the matter and shares it in a lengthy post on his site.

“We found ourselves embroiled in petty arguments concerning dialogue. I thought his dialogue was overly wordy, passive and weak. He thought my dialogue was obtuse and clunky. Ahh, Crom, those were some days!

I am ashamed to admit to being provoked by the situation. I crafted most of the key characters, story points and conflicts, and he scribbles a few lines of dialogue. And along the way, he reminds me that he was the writer of the critically-acclaimed XOMBI series, as if I had forgotten his numerous previous reminders. It was maddening, for me and for him. I think at some point Harvey added a flak jacket to his expense report.“

The Incredible Hulk #5 – Review

Alright, I am just going to come out and say it: This book has ended up being really dumb. The struggle between genius Bruce Banner and the monstrous Hulk has been one of Marvel’s most enduring stories. There have been plenty of times when the character has teamed up with others and played as a straight super hero, but it was the rivalry between two sides of the same man that served as the core of the Hulk mythos. Originally, this was Stan Lee’s take on the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Now, I am not sure what it is.
  
I suppose the closest thing it resembles is a bad B movie. And I do not mean “bad” in the “so bad it’s good” sense that often characterize B-movies. This is bad in the “it takes itself way too seriously and ends up looking foolish for it” sense. My perception has always been that Hulk has been played very seriously or almost entirely for laughs. An epic struggle between man and monster is easy to take seriously when it is done well. It is also easy to laugh at the big dumb green guy with a good heart. I think the introduction of She-Hulk, who kept the green muscles, but swapped torment for sass, was the best example of the Hulk mythos being able to poke fun at itself. She did not belong in every story and could be played straight as well, but the mere existence of this character always seemed fairly tongue-in-cheek to me, without compromising the solemnity of the Hulk’s own personal journey.

Top 5 Worst Secret Identities: DC Addition

Some superheroes keep their identities hidden for their entire lives with no one the wiser, even their loved ones. Most of these readers scratch their heads at this because of how obvious the heroes duel-identity is. But who have the worst kept secrets that everyone in a comic could figure out if they were given a brain cell or weren’t blinded by convenience? Our ‘lucky’ winners below.

Bruce Wayne is an extremely intelligent and suave lady-killer, who many would least-suspect to be a crime-fighting superhero. Until he came out to the public as having supplied Batman with his utilities. Is it really that hard for a reporter to dig a little deeper and figure out that this playboy plays superhero at night? And even if they fail to uncover that relatively no-brainer mystery, Wayne is publically allying himself with Batman, meaning he will have a huge bull’s-eyes on his back telling his ‘heroes” respective baddies to come and get him as blackmail material for Batman. They could hurt Wayne’s loved one’s to get at Batman – and isn’t that the whole point of having a secret identity? Protecting your loved ones?