Action Comics #1026 review

Under Brian Michael Bendis, these last two years, Action Comics hasn’t strictly lived up to its name. And I’ve not minded a bit. It’s been hugely enjoyable but it’s the quieter moments that steal the show – the Lois/Clark chats; the Daily Planet conversations; the clandestine meetings of Robinson Goode and Marisol Leone. Not this […]

Metal Men #11 review

It’s the Metal Men vs Pink Venom! Well, that’s what it looks like in the penultimate issue of the latest maxi-series starring the world’s most human robots. Series creators Dan DiDio and Shane Davis are nearing the end of their story, with the Metal Men trapped in the Dark Multiverse. The world of Plutonium Man […]

Fantastic Four #25 review

Since at least Jim Shooter’s tenure as Editor-in-chief in the Seventies, Marvel Comics has been built on the illusion of change. A shocking romance here, a change of identity there, the destruction of the Savage Land, No More Mutants… pretty much everything gets reversed, but it’s often fun while it lasts. There’s one corner of […]

Superman: Man of Tomorrow #17 review

Something weird is going on at Metropolis General Hospital. Purple energy seeps out of the building and a force field stops anyone entering. Inside, the patients and staff have been taken hostage. The copter cops saved, Superman is able to get information from police chief Maggie Sawyer. They’re dealing with someone named Dax, a powerful […]

Superman #26 review

Superman is falling to the ground. Or perhaps he’s flying upwards in the vertiginous opening to this issue’s chapter of the Never Ending Battle. It’s hard to tell, but this is undeniably an exciting, eye-grabbing moment. Even as a stranger reaches for his throat, Superman reaches out with his mind, ever hopeful that this is […]

Injustice Year Zero #8 review

The Joker, newly empowered by an ancient artefact, has taken his abuse of sidekick Harley Quinn to new levels. The psychologist turned villain knows one person can provide the emotional support she needs. But first, Poison Ivy needs to be released into the wild. Requiring a bolthole, Harley takes them to her sister’s home, where […]

The Flash #763 review

Two weeks ago, I was jubilant that finally, after more than a decade of Barry Allen’s motivation to fight crime being the murder of his mother, he’s moved on. Departing writer Josh Williamson set aside the Geoff Johns obsession with parental tragedy. Today, new writer Kevin Shinick’s first issue opens with these panels. Oh, Kevin. […]

Sholly Fisch, Where Are You?

There aren’t many comic book writers who get me to try anything. Sholly Fisch is one of them. I first came across his work on Scooby-Doo! Team-Up, DC’s most consistently excellent series of the last decade. Grant Morrison liked Sholly’s sharp, funny, scripts too, getting him a gig writing back-ups for his New 52 Action […]

Climb ev’ry mountain with Defenders #101

It’s podcast time again, as Rob Kelly invites me to his lakeside holiday home to talk Defenders. The Fire and Water Network legend’s Mountain Comics show has a simple idea – he looks back at a book he bought while on vacation in the Poconos with his family as a kid. And this time, the […]

DCeased: Dead Planet #4 review

If you’re going to New Genesis, be sure to have a haircut and shave beforehand. In the latest issue of DC’s zombie saga, Scott Free arrives on the scene like this… And sets off for the world of his birth like this… The change goes unremarked. To be fair, companions Wonder Woman, Superboy, Mary Marvel, […]