Batman Incorporated #1 review

The Batman – Dread Creature of the Boardroom! That’s what I was expected from a book called Batman Incorporated. That’s not what I got, but I like what’s there. Namely, a murder mystery involving Mr Unknown, the Batman of Japan; Batman and Catwoman acting as partners in every sense; the best fight scene a bat-book […]

Knight and Squire #2 review

I can’t remember the last time, while reading a comic, that I paused at every other panel to share a moment with my non-comics reading pal Steve*. That’s how it was with this issue, which sees Beryl – Squire in civvies – on hand as a newsagent sends a rubbish supervillain packing. It seems that […]

Ant-Man and Wasp #1 review

Hank Pym, Earth’s Scientist Supreme and head teacher of Avengers Academy – Wasp. Eric O’Grady, shady SHIELD agent turned mercenary and Secret Avenger – Ant-Man. Putting these two together for a mini-series sounded like a gimmick based purely on their names. Which it is, obviously. It’s Ant-Man and the Wasp, but instead of original Ant-Man […]

Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #3 review

In which the storyline doesn’t advance much in terms of resolution, but the character dynamics are a joy. At the end of last issue, the Young Avengers, hoping to track down the missing Scarlet Witch, were in Transia and apparently about to meet Dr Doom. That’s pretty much where we are at the end of […]

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, […]

Amazing Spider-Man #648 review

It’s the new Spider-Man era, same as the old Spider-Man era … which is fine by me. Brand New Day gave us the most consistently high-quality run of Spidey stories in a decade, and the latest sequence, tagged Big Time, looks set to continue in a similar vein. That’s similar, not the same, for the […]

J Michael Straczynski quits, what next for Superman and Wonder Woman?

Suffering Sappho, talk about faster than the proverbial speeding bullet … 8 March 2010: DC Comics announces that J Michael Straczynski is the new ongoing writer of Superman and Wonder Woman, aiming to bring them renewed popularity. 10 November 2010: DC lets us know that the writer generally known as JMS is stepping away from the […]

Batman Confidential #50 review

Today: Batman’s run-in with the Justice League during Identity Crisis, sort of. Seven years ago: Batman attempts to solve the disappearances and murders of women in Gotham City A few years before that: a pre-Batman Bruce Wayne is tracking a mysterious figure who has laid waste to a Chinese village. A couple of years later: […]

Amazing Spider-Man #647 review

And that’s it, the experiment of publishing Amazing Spider-Man three times a month ends here, behind an impressive cover by Marko Djurdjevic that’s a hangover from the storyline that ended last issue. Oh well. So do we go out with a bang? Let’s see what this 72pp issue has to offer … ‘Another Door’ is […]

Doom Patrol #16 review

Horror writer Brian Keene visits Oolong Island, and brings a long-lost member of the Doom Patrol with him. Step forward Ted Bruder, formerly Fast Forward but usually referred to as Negative Man II for his less than sparkling personality. Once he could see 60 seconds in the future, but lately he’s been falling between realities, […]