Standoff: Assault on Pleasant Hill Omega #1 review

Baron Zemo is out to get the upper hand in Standoff: Assault on Pleasant Hill Omega. He’s dispatched Kraven the Hunter to trap Cosmic Cube kid Kobik in the hope of reshaping reality to match his Nazi worldview. A young-again Steve Rogers rallies the various Avengers teams to take on the dozens of super-villains just […]

Avengers Standoff: Assault on Pleasant Hill #1 review

Don’t judge this book by its cover. Certainly, little imagination has gone into that first page – is it meant to be a Shield file? – but inside, well, that’s another matter. The book opens with Bucky, the Winter Soldier, taking over a Shield helicarrier to grab information pertinent to a case he’s investigating. It’s […]

Ant-Man #1 review

I’m Wally West. I’m the Flash… It worked 20 years ago and it works today, the first person superhero comic narration. And given that Wally West isn’t around right now – well, not the real guy – I’m happy to see Scott Lang aka Ant-Man borrow the schtick. Especially when it’s Scott Lang as written […]

Marvel Now! Point One #1

This oversized issue sets the scene for, or gives the flavour of, some upcoming Marvel launches. So let’s just launch into its contents. In a prelude to the Guardians of the Galaxy, we meet the future Starlord on the day young Peter Quill’s life is shattered by strange visitors. Brian Michael Bendis provides an affecting, […]

Jimmy Olsen #1 review

Now this was worth waiting for. Nick Spencer’s take on Jimmy Olsen debuted in Action Comics last year when the book was running a back-up strip. After four superb instalments as previously praised here, also here and here the Jimmy Olsen’s Big Week serial was curtailed as price and page count fell. Well, here’s the rest of the story along […]

Supergirl #60 review

Supergirl has four ne’er-do-wells to fight this month, and a new enemy pulling the strings who could prove more dangerous than any of them. For Parasite, Silver Banshee, Kryptonite Man and Metallo teleport in courtesy of a new phone app, Flyover, developed by a Harvard guy so far known only as Alex. The name’s appropriate in […]

Action Comics #896 review

Crivvens, there’s a lot going on this issue as the Secret Six bids to protect Lex Luthor from Vandal Savage. The immortal villain, you may recall, is trying to decipher the meaning of a prophecy that Lex will make him very happy. He’s focussing on Lex’s knowledge of the mysterious black spheres, which is the […]

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 review

The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents are a curious property. More a creative success than a cash cow, they had a short-lived run in the Sixties and ever since then, comics companies have fallen over themselves to bring them back. No new take has taken. Now it’s DC’s turn, and this first issue gives us … a headache. Well, […]

Action Comics #894 review

Lex Luthor is used to getting what he wants. But what happens when you meet someone over whom you have no power, someone you can’t threaten, someone who wants nothing from you? Someone who’s not really someone at all, but a concept – Death. That’s the fix Lex finds himself in this month, as his […]

Action Comics #893 review

If anyone had told me years ago that Superman’s Action Comics would one day be a split title shared by Lex Luthor and Jimmy Olsen, I’d have laughed. But it’s happened, and I do laugh. But not at the notion, at the results. For the two strips in this issue are among the funniest DC […]