It’s December and that means a big, fat stocking stuffer from DC Comics. These 80pp giants are notoriously iffy so far as quality goes, but there’s usually a gem or two. Let’s take a look at the 2017 edition, which kicks off with a very merry cover from Andy Kubert and Brad Anderson.  The framing […]

It’s a busy day for the Justice League. In space, a massive alien fleet is heading straight to Earth. On Earth, ‘YouTube jihadists’ have taken nuns hostage, and an earthquake threatens a coastal community. It takes the entire League in three shifting groups to tackle the situations… and for one member, it leads to a […]

I reviewed the first of DC’s New Talent Showcase giants last year and my big complaint was that the stories weren’t self-contained. Most were set-ups for arcs we’d likely never see. And we never did see continuations. So how is the 2017 peek at the abilities of the young writers and artists from DC’s Talent […]

First it was Goldie.  Then some nameless Apokoliptian pooches.  And now… no, I can’t tell you what poor critter writer Peter J Tomasi offhandedly offs in Superboy and Robin’s first Annual. Let’s just say he’s a member of the DC Rebirth Legion of Super Pets, fried in flashback by horrible Red Lantern killer cat Dex-Starr.  […]

It’s Zatanna’s first day at magic college and she meets four other new students. There’s Pia Morales… June Moone… Sebastian Faust… and Davit Sargon They’re sent on a scavenger hunt by the Dean, Rose Psychic, where they find that even considering they’re at a school for gifted youngsters, something weird is going on.  They learn […]

It’s easy to revere a dead parent you never met, but Superman has now encountered a man claiming to be Jor-El. And for all his excuses, Mr Oz has done monstrous things. And if Jor-El is Mr Oz, what does that make Superman? Does the Kryptonian apple fall far from the Scarlet Jungle tree? The […]

It’s seven years since Adrian Veidt scared the nations of the world into ending an apparently inevitable slide towards Armageddon. His fake alien invasion killed three million people and hospitalised tens of thousands, but it worked. With a common, if imaginary, enemy, world leaders rallied and peace reigned.  For awhile. It’s 1992 and Ozymandius’s grand […]

Feeling peckish? Fancy a midnight snack? Then pop along to Ryan Daly’s Midnight: The Podcasting Hour, where we talk about The Gourmet, a cracking little story by Steve Skeates and Bernie Wrightson. It appeared in Plop #1, DC’s experimental magazine of weird humour, in 1973.  Here’s the link to the episode or why not subscribe to this […]

The family has moved to Metropolis but Jon Kent and dad Clark are back in the countryside, with their friends Damian and Bruce Wayne.  They’re testing Jon’s powers, which are kicking in by the day.  The kind-hearted Superboy wants his pal to share the experience of flight, providing a poignant moment.  A few weeks later, […]

The first family of Metropolis are on Apokolips and in big trouble. Superman has been dragged into Lex Luthor’s scheme to save his skin, pegged as the prophesied saviour of Apokolips. Lois has been co-opted into the Female Furies, where survival depends on remaining in Granny Goodness’s bad graces.  And Jon? He’s alone in the […]