While Jonathan Hickman’s “Secret Warriors” is an epic, high-energy espionage caper, and his “Fantastic Four” reconfigures its classic elements into something new, this first volume comes off as an attempt to tell one of the “big idea” stories that made him famous at Image in the context of the Marvel Universe.  The high concept here […]

This volume is a nice change of pace from the past few multi-volume epics that were the series’ stock-in-trade.  Instead we have a collection of three extra-sized issue-length stories (and a short eight-pager) that showcase Tony Stark’s past, present and future.  We also get to see what his “archnemesis” The Mandarin has been doing with […]

No, this was not an improvement.  Along with the previous volume, the story told here could’ve been done in half the space.  Just take out the pointless stuff about the new Daredevil, give Blade one good introduction scene, and set this up as the “initial strike” from the vampire population instead of the “final battle.”  […]

For all the dark clouds that have swirled around the series after its reported budget cuts and the firing of series developer/showrunner Frank Darabont, the season premiere felt like a logical continuation of what had come before.  In both a storytelling as well as a stylistic sense, because if you didn’t already know that Darabont […]

Garth Ennis did more than create one of the best comics I read last year with the first volume of “Crossed,” he created a franchise.  In a move that I haven’t seen since Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch gave “The Authority” over to the creative community over a decade ago, Ennis is letting other creators […]

Though the issues inside are labeled as parts of an arc called “Flambe,” this collection is not a continuous storyline.  It’s just five issues documenting more crazy weirdness in the life of Tony Chu, starting with the fallout from the writing in the sky that closed out the previous volume.  As it turns out, such […]

While the series’ current direction, which has sent The Plutonian off-planet to an intergalactic mental hospital, may seem like a necessary evil for what writer/creator Mark Waid has planned it’s still quite compelling.  In getting the world’s most powerful superhuman out of their hair, we find that the inhabitants of Earth have traded  the devil […]

I probably would’ve enjoyed this more had I not read Paul O’Brien’s review of it several months back.  Yeah.  He advertised major spoilers for it, but I went and read it anyway, so it’s my bad.  The issue here is that the ending is essentially a calculated anticlimax that takes a sharp left turn into […]

It probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that I have little affection for Todd McFarlane.  The man’s artistic and sales achievements on “Spider-Man” and “Spawn” mean less to me than his court battles with Neil Gaiman over ownership of Miracleman and the fact that he spends more time as a businessman than a comics creator […]

Another collection of “Hellboy” short stories?  That’s all right by me!  Even though I’m eagerly awaiting  “The Storm & The Fury,” which is the next major arc in the main Mignola/Fegredo storyline, this collection of one-shots and shorts will tide any fan over until it arrives.  These collections are an eclectic affair — as always […]