The Wake #5 review

Trapped on an undersea research station, under attack by savage mer-creatures and with several colleagues gutted, marine biologist Dr Lee Archer probably thought things couldn’t get any worse. But the monsters turned out to have a daddy monster, a super-sized version with only one apparent thought – kill. As this fifth chapter of Scott Snyder […]

Superman Unchained #4 review

Superman and Wraith are defending Tokyo from an attack by the Ascension terrorist organisation. Lois Lane is in Nova Scotia with the mystery man who stopped her plane from crashing. And Jimmy Olsen is in an interview with Lex Luthor. Unfortunately for the Daily Planet snapper, it’s Luthor who’s asking him the questions, and to […]

Batman 23.2 – The Riddler #1 review

Most of DC’s Villains Month specials aren’t the work of the regular creative teams, they’re an opportunity for them to skip a month, thereby getting ahead of the production schedule. And while this doesn’t automatically mean we’re getting sub-par work from the subbing writers and artists, it does mean they tend to be divorced from […]

Superman Unchained #3 review

Superman and the mystery metahuman working for the US military are at one another’s throats. The stranger’s physiology is similar to Superman’s, but with decades’ more exposure to solar radiation. He’s stronger, knocking Superman from Utah to California; his aim’s good too, as he’s sent Superman to the spot where General Sam Lane runs a […]

Batman #23 review

Now this is all kinds of interesting … We’re still in Zero Year, when Gotham’s streets are enveloped by chaos and Bruce Wayne isn’t yet Batman. He is trying to be a hero, but in the early part of this issue he’s at the mercy of the Red Hood Gang. Its members bludgeon him, their […]

The Wake #3 review

Something wicked this way swims … A team of experts have been gathered by a government agent deep below the ocean off Alaska to study a strange creature who emits a haunting call. There’s a hunter, a folklore expert and a pair of marine biologists. The opening issues of this Vertigo series saw the team […]

Batman #21: Zero Year review

One of the biggest problems with DC’s New 52 revamp is the insistence that pretty much all our heroes’ exploits fit into a five-year period. When it’s a character whose story has basically begun again, such as Wonder Woman or the Flash, there’s no problem – stuff happened, but we have little idea what said […]

Superman Unchained #1 review

There are no chains from which Superman breaks free in this issue. A better title would be Superman Unfolded, by virtue of the worst gimmick any DC comic has ever offered the world. Worse than stick-on Lobo. Worse than cardboard Bat heads. Worse, even, than plastic ‘diamonds’ that wreck every other comic around them. It’s […]

Animal Man #18 review and Swamp Thing #18 review

Take the regular runs, add on a couple of zero issues. the odd annual and a snatch of Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE, and over the last year and a half we’ve had around 40 comics devoted to Animal Man and Swamp Thing’s struggle against Anton Arcane and the Rot. There have been many good moments, […]

Batman #17 review

Last month’s Batman Family titles pointed towards a tragic conclusion to the Death of the Family crossover, as the Joker – apparently a fan of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? -brandished a dome-covered silver platter, some unseen atrocity beneath. This wrap-up opens with the revelation that there’s no single plate, but one for each of […]