Even though Bendis has been setting up a lot of things in his run so far — Mystique kidnapping and replacing Dazzler, the sentinel attacks from unknown sources, tension between Scott’s team and S.H.I.E.L.D. — I wasn’t sure if he was actually going to pay off on any of that or if things would have […]

Despite having died in his first storyline, original “Grendel” Hunter Rose has had quite a prolific publishing afterlife.  Among the miniseries and anthologies chronicling his exploits, the character even found the time to take on Batman in a two-part story from original creator Matt Wagner.  I mention “Batman/Grendel” because without that precedent, this miniseries pitting […]

With the final issue of Matt Fraction and Howard Chaykin’s “Satellite Sam” due out any day now, the setting for the second series has already been announced.  It’ll be jumping coasts to L.A. and instead of focusing on the making of a sci-fi TV show, the action will be centered around a western.  I’m honestly […]

For me, “Battle of the Atom” was the most underwhelming “X-Men” crossover in recent memory.  Even though it had some interesting ideas, there weren’t enough to sustain what was basically a fourteen-issue fight scene.  There was plenty of nice art, however.  So the idea that Bendis is revisiting the characters he created for that arc […]

Who here remembers the good old days when “Civil War” was being serialized?  Specifically, the delays between issues that caused corresponding tie-in issues to be delayed themselves in order to not spoil the events of the main series.  Like the Punisher’s dramatic return to the Marvel Universe after spending some time away in MAX-land with […]

I forgot to mention it in yesterday’s rundown of September’s solicitations, but this title is wrapping up its run with issue #24.  That makes this the next-to-last volume and you can see the rush to wrap things up in the main story.  First, we get a flashback illustrated by the title’s cover artist, Nathan Fox, […]

Something to consider:  “Batman” by Snyder and Capullo has been one of the best-selling titles in the industry since the start of their run with all forty issues selling over 100K each.  Yet Snyder has made more money with his creator-owned Image title “Wytches.”  That being the case, it’s not hard to imagine a future […]

Between the first volume of this and “The Fade Out,” Ed Brubaker has made his way back into my good graces after his lacklustre end years at Marvel and the never-quite-as-good-as-it-should-have-been “Fatale.”  That’s still the case in this second volume of the adventures of spy-on-the-run Velvet Templeton, even though there’s a plot twist towards the […]

This series has been on the cusp of being really good for a while now.  Holding it back has been the supernatural mystery of the revivers and some storytelling that doesn’t surprise as often as it should given the subject matter.  With vol. 5, writer Tim Seely makes some big strides towards addressing these issues. […]