The Flash #1 review

Barry Allen’s back at work with the Central City Police Department, the Flash is patrolling the streets and there are some familiar, yet fresh, antagonists in town. It’s fair to say that the first issue of this reborn book moves at a fair clip. The opening pages, mind, make Barry look a bit rubbish, as […]

I swear, Medusa makes this !@&* up

Here’s a scene from the latest Fantastic Four, #577, by Jonathan Hickman and Dale Eaglesham: ‘Black Bolt has a saying …’ Yeah, and the Hulk likes to do needlepoint. Still, what can you expect from a woman too mean to fork out for sign language lessons for her hubby?

Spider-Man: Fever #1 review

Spider-Man meets black whimsy in this story written and illustrated by Brendan McCarthy or, as he playfully styles himself here, ‘McMarvel’. A mystical tome* Dr Stephen Strange purchases by mail order (ha!) turns out to be linked to extra-dimensional spider-demons and when one breaks through into the Marvel Universe it’s thrilled to come across Spider-Man; […]

S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 review

High concept, low expectations about sums up my attitude to this series prior to reading this first issue. I’d not been able to get into writer Jonathan Hickman’s Secret Warriors, featuring S.H.I.E.L.D. mainstay Nick Fury, so thought a story focused on the organisation’s heritage might not be for me. But recent issues of Fantastic Four […]

Flash Secret Files and Origins 2010 review

It’s ironic that some of the momentum surrounding the return of Barry Allen has been lost due to the time it’s taking to get his new series up and running. He showed up alive in Final Crisis in 2008; starred in a six-issue mini-series, Flash: Rebirth, that took almost a year to appear; had a […]

She-Hulk Sensational #1 review

It’s the 30th anniversary of She-Hulk’s first publication and while she doesn’t have an ongoing to celebrate the fact, Marvel have been generous enough to provide a one-shot. I wouldn’t have bothered, what with most of this $4.99 publication being irrelevant or reheated. First off, Gary Frank’s cover, coloured by Emily Warren, is a beaut. […]

Superman #698 review

There’s some kind of comic book law that says that as soon as a writer divests themselves of teething problems on a book, they’re off it. At the moment it’s happening with Gail Simone on Wonder Woman, and here it is again with James Robinson. In my review of last issue I mentioned that I […]

Wonder Woman #42 review

It’s alien invasion time on DC Earth … actually, that’s not quite right, it’s alien feeding time as a shipful of space scavengers prepare to unleash some predatory little buggers on the citizenry. Before that, though, there’s a scene establishing the nature of the threat, via a visit with members of the Green Lanterns Corps. […]

Cloak and Dagger #1 review

Cloak and Dagger are a study in contrasts: light/dark; female/male; white/black; rich/poor; covered/flashing … goodness me, that Dagger girl really is flaunting it – outside of fan art I can’t recall the shapely slits of her costume ever being quite so slitty (I said slitty). She’s positively Emma Frosting, here. No wonder the Young X-Men […]

Blackest Night #8 review

Phew. That was a busy comic. Black Hand, Nekron and the Anti-Monitor no longer a threat, a horde of dead heroes brought back to life, the revelation that macho pilot Hal Jordan quotes Latin poetry … it’s certainly a page turner. And also a page lifter, given the presence of a flappy foldout showing just […]