Manga and Comic Reviews
I wouldn’t say that the stories Grant Morrison has been writing on “Batman & Robin” have been genre-redefining masterpieces. Really, the biggest thing he has accomplished with this series is getting me to take Dick Grayson seriously as Batman’s replacement and likewise for Damien Wayne as the new Robin. That said, the stories contained in […]
Vol. 4 of this series that’s ostensibly about kids training to be astronauts begins with a scene of something that’s been in woefully short supply. We get to see Asumi, Kei and Marika actually training to be astronauts! The scene of them trying to move in a giant pool of water in their space suits […]
In case you hadn’t already heard, this volume has been such a success that writer J. Michael Straczynski will be stepping down as scripter for “Superman” and “Wonder Woman” to focus on getting the second volume out ASAP. For a title that was shrouded in so much secrecy and murk prior to its release, that’s […]
I appreciated the first volume of “Bakuman” more for what it represented than what it actually did. The last thing I’d expect a “Shonen Jump” title to be is a character-driven story set in the real world about two kids trying to make it as manga creators. That was enough to hold my interest despite […]
Note to whoever wrote the text to the back cover of this volume: Vikings trying to survive the winter while a plague ravages the countryside isn’t “survival horror” unless there’s some actual horror. Usually involving zombies. In Raccoon City. But I digress… This fourth volume of Brian Wood’s ongoing saga about the struggles of Vikings […]
While “Slam Dunk” continues to get better and better, the Takehiko Inoue series that got me to give that series a chance isn’t. In fact, these last few volumes of “Vagabond” show that as the series is winding down it seems poised to go out with a whimper than a bang. Though the series continues […]
I’ve been increasingly suspicious of the back-cover quotes on DC’s hardcovers ever since Ed Brubaker said some glowing words about “The Chill” earlier this year. Maybe he really did like the worst entry in the Vertigo Crime line, but I can’t look at these things and take them seriously anymore. Then “Superman: Earth One” arrives […]
… and I enjoyed it. It didn’t really grab me, in the way that something truly fresh and exciting tends to do, but it was a faithful adaptation of the comic’s beginning. Not slavish in the way that “Sin City” and “Watchmen” set out to be as there were some additions to the shootout that […]
The last time I talked about this series, I said that it hadn’t become the great Shonen Jump title that everyone else said it was. Since then, it has made some great strides in that direction. Thug turned basketball man Sakuragi Hanamichi will never stop being an idiot, but his self-proclaimed genius as an athlete […]
In case anyone was wondering whether or not my favorite comic from last year has lost a step, let me assure you that it hasn’t. Mangaka Naoki Urasawa (with Takahashi Nagasaki in tow) continues to spin an absolutely riveting tale as he slowly parcels out information about the conspiracy at its heart. Things kick off […]