Manga and Comic Reviews
If it wasn’t clear in “New Avengers,” this volume makes it clear that Al Ewing has stepped up to take the mantle of Marvel’s “Big Ideas” guy after Jonathan Hickman left post-”Secret Wars.” While “Ultimates” may have been the name for the Ultimate Universe’s version of the Avengers (as well as a thoroughly mediocre teen […]
All of the “X-Men” titles I’ve read so far from Marvel’s latest relaunch have done a good job of offering up familiar yet fun takes on the ideas and characters that have populated the franchise over the years. This version of “Uncanny X-Men” is a bit different from its peers in that it’s basically an […]
With this, we’ve finally caught up to Viz’s original release of the series. That arc, “Stardust Crusaders,” showed “Jojo’s” finally hitting its stride and cast a shadow over the deluxe edition releases of the first two parts of this title. “Battle Tendency” has been on an upward trajectory over the course of its four volumes, […]
Right now, “Injection” artist Declan Shalvey is busy doing back-up stories for “All-Star Batman” and a “Nick Fury” serial for the “Civil War: Choosing Sides” miniseries. I mention this because, while they’re raising his profile, they’re keeping the artist from working on the next volume of this series. While Warren Ellis has said that Shalvey […]
Abe’s ongoing series hasn’t been the brightest spot in the Mignolaverse, creatively speaking. Actually, let’s not mince words: For the majority of its run, “Abe Sapien” has embodied some of the worst characteristics you can find in Mike Mignola’s writing. There have been plenty of vaguely cryptic hints about the title character’s role in the […]
Between this “Extraordinary X-Men,” and “All-New Wolverine,” it seems that the direction for the franchise in the wake of Bendis’ run has been to embrace the familiar and return to what has worked before. That means lots of character-driven drama between teams with defined members and actual fights against established members of their rogues’ gallery. […]
David Walker and Ramon Villalobos’ “Nighthawk” series was cancelled this week. There was a bit of an uproar about this as it was apparently a well-liked series that dealt with white-hot social issues as the title character headed to Chicago to confront its gang violence problem. Unfortunately, while the people who want their superhero comics […]
The aftermath of the American Civil War isn’t the last place I’d expect to see as the setting for a manga, but it’s pretty close. “Sacred Beasts” kicks right off with its high concept: In the face of losing the war, the Northern States resorted to using “forbidden arts” to create unstoppable soldiers based on […]
Robert Kirkman has joked in the past that his dream with “Invincible” was to hand it over to other creators at some point and have it live on in much the same way that Marvel and DC titles do. That one day he would pick up the latest issue of the title, from younger creators […]
There will be no review of Garth Ennis’ and John McCrea’s “All-Star Section 8” here. I was planning to do one, and it would’ve focused on how it was pretty much what you’d expect: Ennis bringing in DC’s heroes for one more kicking with as much bathroom humor as he could get away with in […]