Thunderbolts #168 review

Luke Cage doesn’t just take the cover, he takes the spotlight this issue, complete with Bronze Age splash page legend (‘Carl Lucas was a felon going nowhere …’). The Thunderbolts director is busy rounding up pesky escapees from supervillain prison The Raft. Colleagues Songbird and Mach V, meanwhile, are confronted by the even more annoying […]

Justice League International #5 review

A recent edition of John Siuntres’ excellent Word Balloon podcast saw Marvel ‘architect’ Matt Fraction talk about the difficulty of writing 20-page comics. It’s not just a matter of cutting two pages from a 22pp story, apparently … Which confused me. As a kid raised in the days when all comics had just 17pp of story, 20pp […]

Action Comics #5 review

Krypton is dying and Jor-El sees just one way to save his family – sanctuary in the ethereal prison that is the Phantom Zone. Unfortunately, the criminals already there put paid to that idea, ending the hopes of survival for he and wife Lara. But their son can perhaps be saved, if a tiny, experimental […]

Legion: Secret Origin #3

In which Phantom Girl signs up, Invisible Kid shows up and a spaceship blows up. Said unfortunate craft is coming through a wormhole in United Planets space, and it’s assumed to be the latest assault from whoever attacked the planet Amatrom. Given its seeming size, Admiral Allon’s fleet is taking no chances and with the […]

Justice League Dark #4 review

Good Lord, this is dark stuff. Of course, the clue’s in the title, but I’ve rarely seen a non-‘mature’ book play with such disturbing imagery. Scalping, killer kids, women losing their heads … The opening serial of this DC New 52 series sees a bunch of supernatural players – ‘heroes’ might be overstating it, in […]

The Flash #4 review

How’s that for an eye-catching cover. It’s Flash using his newly discovered ability to see all possibilities in a situation. Sadly, last issue this led to a bout of over-thinking which was the death of him. Apparently. Unsurprisingly, Barry survived, his super-speed instincts kicking in and stopping a bullet to the skull from proving fatal. We don’t […]

Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #8 review

Dr Doom has the power of a god and he intends to rule all … benignly. ‘I shall make ours a planet free of poverty, disease and war.’ Former mutants will have their abilities returned, dead heroes will be restored. He doesn’t ask that the world’s peoples bow before him, just that they accept his rule once […]

Arak, Son of Tom

Hanging around Twitter this week, I was intrigued to see comic artist Tom Raney ask if anyone had any ideas for a character he could sketch for fun. I suggested an old favourite of mine who’s not appeared in DC Comics, if memory serves, since the Crisis on Infinite Earths in the Eighties – Arak, […]

Red Hood and the Outlaws #4 review

Continuing his quest to find the killers of the All-Caste, eastern martial artists who trained him after he quit as Robin, Red Hood Jason Todd turns up in a Colorado bar. Wingman Roy Harper, aka Arsenal, leaves Jason to it when he instigates a fight, apparently due to his liking for the ladies. As it […]

Legion of Super-Heroes #4 review

The conclusion to the Legion’s latest encounter with the Dominators begins with rogue Daxamite Res-Vir, aka The Renegade, breaking free of the inertron chains with which he’s been bound. Enraged, he attacks the Legionnaires but Chemical Kid overcomes his panic to save the day when, guided by Element Lad, he disrupts Res-Vir’s metabolism, bringing him […]