The New DC Explosion – The Great Ten?

So DC has announced the first ten of its 52 planned new #1s. I’ve little doubt most of you will have seen the list, noted the creative teams and eyeballed the images, so how about some drive-by gut reactions, based on precious little? I’ll start, please join in. Wonder Woman #1 by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang […]

Abin Sur: The Green Lantern #1 review

Abin Sur has always been a bit of a nobody to me. He’s the dead Green Lantern, the chap who existed only to pass on his ring to Hal Jordan. Here, after 50 years and about a zillion flashbacks in which all he does is die, the maguffin becomes a character. For in the reality […]

Batman: Knight of Vengeance #1 review

Batman: Knight of Vengeance. It’s difficult to type, never mind say, without assuming a Christian Bale growl. We’re in the grim and gritty corner of Flashpoint here, have no doubt, as the Batman – Thomas Wayne – battles criminals in his own way. Not for him the shiny tech and clean fighting styles of his […]

World of Flashpoint #1 review

DC gets in on Marvel’s events act with a mini-series extrapolating on the world in which its latest crossover is set. Difference being, this is good stuff. The star is Traci 13, a teenage magic user who’s been knocking around the edges of the regular DC Universe for years. Here she tries to make sense […]

Flashpoint #2 review

Yo ho ho, me hearties, it’s Deathstrokebeard and his merry pirate band. Clayface, Icicle, Electric Eel, Machiste, the Fisherman, they are indeed a motley crew. And more than faintly ridiculous in their pirate togs. Still, as Gypsy Rose Lee learnt, you gotta have a gimmick. Especially in a crossover event. So it is that in […]

The New DC Explosion …

… let’s hope it’s more successful than the last one. In the Seventies, DC Comics published a slew of new titles, with more pages, over several months in a bid to gain back ground from Marvel. But early sales weren’t great, wobbly executives cancelled many of the new titles and a few old ones, and […]

Xombi #3 review

This comic book is amazing. It has a hero who can’t die. Roman Catholic nuns with super-powers. A schoolgirl whose metahuman abilities are fueled by by faith. A kick-ass rabbi. A philosophical ghost. An immortal villain. Back-seat golems. And more. All in 20 pages. And while the story reads like the X-Files on steroids, it doesn’t feel at […]

Strange Adventures #1

Creating compelling tales of the imagination, it’s not rocket science, is it? DC managed it for a couple of decades, in the middle of the last century. And now, via the Vertigo imprint, they dip another toe into the water, with a collection of stories ‘suggested for mature readers’. That means tits and swearing, kids. […]

FF #4 review

There are few super-teams that can’t be improved by the addition of a traitor. The Avengers had one in Iron Man, thanks to Kang’s time manipulations. The JSA suffered All-American Kid, aka evil Karnevil (should have been a stunt cyclist). Heck, at times it’s seemed like the Legion of Super-Heroes’ entire raison d’être is to be infiltrated. […]

Action Comics #901 review

There was outrage in sections of the US media recently as a story in Action Comics #900 saw Superman renounce US citizenship. Comic readers knew that as a standalone short in an anniversary issue, David Goyer’s tale would likely never be followed up on. And here we are just a month later, with President Obama making a personal […]