Black Manta #1 review

When is a spin-off not a spin-off? When there’s no mother book. Along with Ocean Master, Black Manta is Aquaman’s most famous opponent, and here he is with a six-issue mini-series. Black Manta’s son, Aqualad, is also getting a limited run. Meanwhile, the Sea King, who has a blockbuster movie sequel coming, hasn’t had so […]

Infinite Frontier #6 review

The final issue of this terribly enjoyable mini-series opens with a multiversal melee gone large as the JSA and Justice Incarnate go head to head for the fate of…actually, I’m not sure they know. The heroes do know that they’ve ended up on Earth Omega, where the bodies of the supposedly all-powerful Quintessence lie dead […]

Teen Titans Academy #6 review

This issue Red X… … doesn’t appear, isn’t mentioned, may as well not exist. This issue features a handful of The Roy Harper Academy students having a summer holiday adventure after taking a day trip outside New York. This issue is just great, because as well as the absence of Red X, it’s also without […]

Infinite Frontier #5 review

This one’s got it all! It’s a cliche but so far as DC event comics go – and when you’re talking DC events, you’re talking Crises – Infinite Frontier #5 has everything I want. There are revelations, as Psycho Pirate explains that he’s aiming to protect worlds from the effects of the continuous multiversal massacres […]

Aquaman 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super-Spectacular #1

The King of the Seven Seas swims again in a super-size special paying tribute to the many eras of his publishing history. Well, almost. There’s no nod here to his beginnings in the Golden Age, or the whimsical Fifties stories. Nope, the pages that could have gone to them are used to push a couple […]

Wonder Woman #778 review

I don’t keep up with variant covers but I can’t imagine that even the loveliest shot of Diana posing moodily would beat artist Travis Moore and colourist Tamra Bonvillain’s tremendous opening image for Wonder Woman #778. Wonder Woman in Bronze Age outfit and pals Siegfried and Ratatosk falling through a rabbit hole of multiple earths? […]

Action Comics #1034 review

DC’s original Superman comic truly lives up to its name this issue. At the Fortress of Solitude, Lois Lane and Warworld refugee Thao-La defend themselves against Mongul’s assassins. In the Atlantic Ocean, Superman, Supergirl and Superboy desperately try to end the Mexican standoff between the US and Atlantis over possession of a Warworld power cell. […]

Checkmate #3 review

DC’s super-spy mini-series begins in the aftermath of assassin queen Talia’s aborted escape from Leviathan. She’s murdered associates of the country’s leader, Mark Shaw, and Superman has come to take her to the US and prison. Afterwards, Shaw addresses his surviving partners. A few weeks later, members of the ad hoc Checkmate group discuss new […]

Superman: Son of Kal-El #2 review

That’s a striking cover from John Timms, I always like it when the Superman shield is incorporated into a design, and the upside down Metropolis cityscape screams “City of Tomorrow’. The globe is probably one element too many, though it’s relevant to the interior, while the lines behind Jon are just confusing… is it a […]

Superman Red and Blue #6 review

Cards on the table, I bought the first issue of this anthology because I love Superman. The promise of timeless material, stories unconstrained by current continuity, was irresistible. And I still haven’t read the darn thing. There’s something about the USP – stories in which the title colours are to the fore – that puts […]