Heroes in Crisis

Xeens and Things: FUNNYBOOKSINREVIEWAREGO!!

June 11, 2019 // 1 Comment

So it’s time to get back to the funnybooks. After two weeks of talking movies, I’ve got a nice little backlog piling up, including the conclusion of Heroes in Crisis, the beginning of the end for Ed Piskor’s X-Men: Grand Design, and new issues of Stray Bullets and Criminal. But first, the comic I enjoyed most from the last two weeks… The Green Lantern 8 by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp Y’know, just about any issue of this book is likely to be filled with ridiculous [...]

The Breaking of Wally West: More Thoughts on Heroes in Crisis

May 7, 2019 // 2 Comments

So it’s one of those weeks when life’s getting in the way of properly tending the nerd farm, which means this’ll have to be quick. But after checking out the reader comments on last week’s review of Heroes in Crisis, I’ve been giving that book more thought. I started writing this as a response to couple of readers, in fact, but considering that time’s at a premium for me this week, I figured a short column on the subject would be just as good. First of all, [...]

Almost Beautiful: Heroes in Crisis Falls Just Shy of Greatness

April 30, 2019 // 4 Comments

So most of the nerd farm’s favorite comics came out in the last couple of weeks: East of West, The Wicked + The Divine, Criminal, Redneck, Gideon Falls, A Walk Through Hell… It’s been a virtual smorgasbord of funnybook goodness! But I’m not gonna have time to write about those, because I took so damn long dissecting one that was less pleasing… Heroes in Crisis 8 by Tom King, Mitch Gerads, and Travis Moore It almost worked. Almost. Tom King almost made this thing [...]

Beauty and Doom

April 9, 2019 // 0 Comments

So here we are again, reviewin’ us some funnybooks. This week, we’ve got deep fun in Grant Morrison’s Green Lantern, sheer insanity courtesy of David Lapham’s Lodger, pretty pictures from Heroes in Crisis, and weird mystery in the form of Fletcher and Kerschl’s Isola. But first, here’s some good old-fashioned doom from our ol’ pal Affable Al… League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Tempest 5 by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill It’s taken [...]

A Strange Definition of Hope: Family, Death and Denial in the Super Hero Set

March 5, 2019 // 1 Comment

So we’re back to our usual reviews of week-old funnybooks this week, with another deep dive into Tom King’s Heroes in Crisis, a farewell to Matt Wagner’s Mage, and whatever else we can manage to stuff in here before deadline. But first, here’s a comic that’s become an unexpected favorite… Daredevil 2 by Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto Often, a new series will start off in high gear for the first issue, then throttle back for the second, taking time to [...]

THE LIST, Part One

February 19, 2019 // 3 Comments

So I did some funnybook filing this weekend, organizing, bagging, and boxing what was probably the last six months’ worth of comics. And I made the decisions I always make when I’m doing that: what books go into the permanent collection, and what books get dumped off into the “maybe I can sell this” pile. Normally, the latter of those two groupings is pretty small. It’s generally for stuff I didn’t like, or stuff that I liked okay, but know that I’ll never read [...]

Lois, Jimmy, and Harley

February 5, 2019 // 2 Comments

So we’ve got a bunch of funnybooks to discuss, but it seems I’ve gotten distracted by Harley Quinn. First, though, here’s a little discussion of Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane… Action Comics 1007 by Brian Michael Bendis and Steve Epting The better of the two Superman books continues to be better, as Brian Bendis pulls the trigger on the Leviathan storyline he’s been developing in the background of this book since he took it over seven months ago. Now, this will [...]

More Heroes, More Crisis: FUNNYBOOKSINREVIEWAREGO!!

January 8, 2019 // 2 Comments

So after a few weeks of holidays and Doomsday Clock dissection, the review stack’s gotten pretty tall. But the amount of time I have to deal with it is still pretty short. So let’s see how much we can get done before deadline, shall we…? Heroes in Crisis 4 by Tom King and Clay Mann After last issue’s really quite affecting flashback to Sanctuary before the bloodshed, this issue returns to the aftermath, and to the frustrations I had with the series’ first two [...]

Pain and Beauty: FUNNYBOOKSINREVIEWAREGO!

December 4, 2018 // 2 Comments

So here we are again, leading off with some corporate spandex that I just can’t quite quit… Heroes in Crisis 3 by Tom King, Lee Weeks, and Clay Mann. I remain torn on this book, but the sheer quality of the writing keeps bringing me back. And I’m really glad of that, because this issue is quite good. It shows us Sanctuary before the murders, revealing something of how the place worked, and digging deeper into why some of the patients were there. Lagoon Boy, for instance, seems [...]

FUNNYBOOK BATTLE: Heroes in Crisis vs Action Comics!

November 6, 2018 // 0 Comments

So it strikes me that there are two dominant strands of super hero writing these days: the Iconic Take, and the Revisionist Approach. I know I’m over-simplifying there, and maybe stating the obvious, too. But I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. With long-running corporate franchise characters, writers tend to either look at what’s made them work in the past and polish it up for a new generation, or they look for conceptual weaknesses and try to explain or retcon [...]