Normal service has finally been resumed. After a volume of short stories and a side story about the organization’s past, we finally get the next “proper” volume in the “B.P.R.D.” saga.  Regrettably, it’s a little underwhelming.  Picking up after the events of “The Black Goddess,” Abe, Liz, and co. decide to take the fight to […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Just when you think they’ve run out of “Hellboy” comics to collect, a new volume shows up featuring stuff you either forgot about or didn’t know existed.  This isn’t a proper volume of the series, but a collection of the two crossover mini-series featuring Batman and Jack “Starman” Knight in one and Ghost in the […]

… and my assessment that it looked like “Grumpy Old Retired Ex-Government Killers” turned out to be pretty spot-on.  Outside of the basic premise of having a former CIA “problem solver” be hunted down by the Agency, the filmmakers took nothing from Warren Ellis’ and Cully Hamner’s comic.  I’m glad that they both got a […]

This volume wasn’t as entertaining as the previous ones for the simple reason that it spends too much time hammering home the idea that Conan “isn’t ready for prime time” as a leader of men.  After the previous volume saw the man ingratiate himself into the court (and bedchamber) of Princess Yasmela of Khoraja, this […]

The latest Vertigo Crime graphic novel comes from a writer who is no stranger to Vertigo or crime.  Denise Mina writes crime fiction based in her native Scotland, but she’s best known to me for her thirteen-issue run on “Hellblazer.”  It was a good run, most notable for how John Constantine wound up saving the […]