Dark X-Men: The Confession #1 review

‘I’m the worst.’‘No, I’m the worst.’‘TAKE ME!’ Scott Summers and Emma Frost have been keeping secrets from one another. He’s been sending teenagers off to murder the X-Men’s enemies, she’s been bedding down with Norman Osborn’s cabal. But today they share their darkest, dirtiest doings, in cheesy back and forth mental confessions. And, twisted pair […]

Justice League of America #37 review

Bridging the gap between Dwayne McDuffie’s prematurely curtailed JLA run and James Robinson’s regular series debut has been Len Wein. Yup, Len Wein, Seventies wunderkind, long absent from DC and Marvel. Can he cut it in the modern DC Universe? Too bloomin’ right he can. The last three issues of JLA are certainly old-fashioned in […]

Superman: Secret Origin #1 review

When I was a young Superman fan I was thrilled to learn that Clark Kent’s Earthday – the date of his arrival from Krypton – was June 18 . . . my birthday. This comic wipes out that piece of magic and reassigns the event to December 1. Knowing writer Geoff Johns’ love of the […]

M.O.D.O.K. Reign Delay #1

George Tarleton, aka MODOK, former head (ho ho) of AIM, has fallen on hard times. He’s unable to pay his minions and super-villain patron Norman Osborn hasn’t given him a plum position in his HAMMER organisation. Finally, sick of MODOK’s needy girlfriend-style answerphone messages, he makes him head of operations in . . . Erie, […]

Action Comics #881 review

(Setting aside the flattened cardboard box advertising some Star Wars nonsense that made my comic fall apart when I tried to remove it so I could, you know, actually READ the book . . .) I’ve not warmed to Thara Ak-Var and Chris Kent, the latest in a long line of Flamebirds and Nightwings. Thara’s […]

X-Men: Legacy Annual #1 review

I’ve not read X-Men: Legacy since the first couple of issues of the retitled Adjectiveless X-Men comic. It’s focus on Professor Xavier and totally rubbish villains meant it wasn’t for me. But there’s nothing to get me excited like a BOLD NEW DIRECTION cover blurb. It’s right up there with BECAUSE YOU DEMANDED IT and […]

The Brave and the Bold #27 review

This is one of the most predictable comics I’ve read this year. It’s also one of the best. J Michael Straczynski begins his tenure as writer of DC’s team-up book by dusting off Silver Age C-lister Robby Reed, possessor of the mysterious H-dial which turns him into a different hero every time, and sending him […]

Models Inc #1 review

Welcome to Models Inc. Then again, with Iron Man looming so large on the cover of my copy it could well be Model Zinc. All right, that’s a rubbish gag but I have to amuse myself somehow, as the comic itself wasn’t the most exciting. Millie the Model, a star of the Marvel stable since […]

Amazing Spider-Man #604 review

Amazing Spider-Man, I’ve grown accustomed to your pace. Three times every month we’ve been getting a consistently intelligent, witty, action-packed book that’s classic Spider-Man for the 21st century. Which makes it a bit of a bugger when the calendar arranges a fortnight’s break between issues of a particularly fine storyline. For that’s what Red-Headed Stranger […]

Adventure Comics #2 review

The Brainiac-Luthor team dominate the first few pages of this issue, attacking grunts, making deals . . . you know, the whole baddies bit. But once we leave West Virginia (‘mountain momma’) and join Conner and Martha Kent in Smallville, that stuff just fades into memory. For the Johns-Manapul team is far more persuasive than […]