Much like “Ultimate Comics Hawkeye” I suspect that this mini-series owes its existence to a desire to get as much product featuring the title character out into the marketplace in time to tie in to his movie.  While this is also written by Jonathan Hickman, it’s not part of a larger storyline and does a […]

I wasn’t planning on turning this into “Jonathan Hickman Week” around here, but that’s how things wound up being shipped to me.  While I have one more Ultimate title of his to talk about tomorrow, and even taking into account how much I enjoyed “Ultimate Comics Ultimates,” this is the one you should shell out […]

I don’t think the market was exactly clamoring for a mini-series featuring Ultimate Hawkeye.  Were I a betting man, I’d say that the whole reason we got this when we did is because Marvel wanted some Hawkeye product in the bookstores in time for the arrival of “The Avengers” movie.  Even though it comes to […]

I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting much going into this.  Though writer Jonathan Hickman has amassed a strong body of work over these past few years, there were reasons to be wary about this.  Its critical reception could best be described as “muted,” sales were lackluster compared to previous volumes, and as the teasers for […]

With this, Mike Carey’s six year, seventy-five issue run on the title comes to a close.  It would’ve been nice to say that things end on a high note, but this volume is more “not bad” than anything else.  As with many of the writer’s stories on the title, this one addresses some plot threads […]

(Or, “Raise ‘Dem Bones” if you’re going by the title of the opening issue.) Alan Moore’s run on “Swamp Thing” is rightly regarded as a watershed moment in comics.  Not only did it pioneer the idea of the “retcon” or the “Everything you know is wrong!” school of thinking and do it well, but it […]

This is Paul Cornell’s other contribution to the New 52 after the “finally got its act together at the end, but since he’s not writing it anymore why bother” Wildstorm import “Stormwatch.”  It’s also a much better fit for his style, allowing for plenty of humor that tweaks the conventions of the genre (not quite […]

I’ve been looking forward to reading this ever since the book was launched earlier this year to almost deafening acclaim.  On paper, it sounds like a project destined to fail:  a relaunch of a character created by Rob Liefeld who nobody remembers from a creator whose best-known work had to be license-rescued from another publisher […]

This volume was  solid… and not a whole heck of a lot more.  In the wake of Abe Sapien slipping into a catatonic state following his shooting in the previous volume, Kate and Johann find themselves on a plane to Russia after the dead start rising north of Moscow.  However, that’s not the only surprise […]