‘Comics’ Archives
Thunderbolts #110-121
In the next few days, I'll be reading the various Avengers-related titles during the Dark Reign period. However, before I do that I need to catch up on this Thunderbolts run by Warren Ellis, which is the basis for the whole Dark Reign stories. Norman Osborn is in charge of Thunderbolts, and he transforms them into a group of superheroes who [...]
Amazing Spider-Man #589-600
Catching up on Amazing. Issue 589 is a standalone story about Spot and the Russian mob. Nothing fancy, but good. Dan Slott writes the next two issues with Barry Kitson on art, starring the Fantastic Four. The adventure takes place in the Macroverse, but what's interesting here is the explanation that Peter knows about Mephisto's mindwipe. [...]
Wednesday Comics
I'll skip all comments about the format, everybody is pretty much in agreement that it was an interesting one. Let's get to the stories. There are 15 stories in this 12 issue series, and to me they are pretty evenly distributed in terms of quality. The good, the bad and the meh. I first started to read each issue every week, then stopped at [...]
Adventure Comics 1-6
This is where some of the stories in Legion of 3 Worlds are continued, and it looked like Johns was going to put any other plot thread not related to Flash or Green Lantern in this book. There are a few different stories in this series, the main one is about Conner. He's trying to find his identity after his resurrection, since his DNA is half [...]
Legion of 3 Worlds
This is really a continuation of many Geoff Johns storyline in the past few years. The main one is the Legion story in Action Comics. But he also revisits Superboy from Infinite Crisis and Sinestro Corps War, as well as the JLA/JSA crossover. I am not familiar with the convoluted Legion history, but all I had to know was that there are 3 [...]
Violent Cases
This is the first collaboration between Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. It's a short GN that stands the test of time. I've always liked stories that deal with the power of dreams/memories (something Gaiman explored in depth with Sandman), as long as they're not too confusing or without emotions. The narrator in this story resembles Gaiman himself, [...]
Daredevil v2 #056-081 by Brian Bendis & Alex Maleev
Bendis and Maleev are back for the second part of their epic saga. They picked a perfect place in the story to take a break, because the first arc "King of Hell's Kitchen" takes place 1 year later. Matt has really cleaned up his district, nobody dares to do crime in his territory. However he only pushed the problems to different areas, which is [...]
Daredevil v2 #051-055: Echo by David Mack
After 25 issues, David Mack comes in to give Bendis and Maleev a rest, before they continue their epic run. Mack previously wrote an arc drawn by Quesada, and drew an arc wrote by Bendis. This time he both writes and draws, so it really feels like a "David Mack" comic, like Kabuki. There's not much plot in this arc. Echo comes back to NY to [...]
Daredevil v2 #026-050 by Brian Bendis & Alex Maleev
This is the run I've been wanting to read for years. To me, this was the peak of Bendis writing skills, before he started writing Avengers. Here he is reunited with his collaborator on Sam & Twitch, Alex Maleev. I loved that series, so I was happy to see them together on Daredevil. Their run is mainly a crime comic, smoothly mixed with [...]
Asterios Polyp
This is the most buzzed about GN of the year, I'm glad I got to read it before the end of the year. There are many other more intelligent and articulate reviews out there, so I urge you to read them after you finish this book. Before I started reading this, I thought it would be a philosophical/psychological essay more than a story. A little [...]
Daredevil vol2 #20-25: Playing to the Camera
This next arc is written by Bob Gale, with art by Phil Winslade and Dave Ross. This story focuses on Matt's day job as a lawyer. In fact, not only is Matt working as a lawyer, but he's helping his client sue Daredevil! That's a great idea that brings to many interesting situations. Daredevil hires a lawyer but keeps his identity secret. He's [...]
Daredevil vol2 #009-019: Parts of a Hole & Wake Up
Issues 9-14 are Parts of a Hole, written by David Mack with continuing art by Joe Quesada (minus the fill-in issue 12). This introduces Maya Lopez who is the perfect mate for Daredevil. Her powers are to mimic any physical activity by just looking at someone else. So she can mimic someone playing piano, acting or fighting. This is not a [...]
Daredevil vol2 #001-008: Guardian Devil
Another series that I've always wanted to read is Daredevil. Ever since Quesada started Marvel Knights, this series has been well reviewed. I actually read a few story lines, but I never went beyond 3-4 arcs. So I thought I'd start from issue 1, even though it's been recently changed to the old numbering. This first story arc is the one that [...]
Incognito
Brubaker and Phillips take a break from their Criminal series to bring us something closer to their previous collaboration on Wildstorm's Sleeper. This is a noir story in a universe populated with superheroes. A killer of the super-villain society was presumed dead, but in reality he was in a witness protection program. However he hates his new [...]
Back to Brooklyn
This is a pretty typical mob story about a mob guy betraying his "family" and going to the police looking for a new life. Predictably he goes against the whole organization by himself, trying to save his family from his evil brother. It's nothing new but it's done well. This being written by Garth Ennis, it's very violent and it's supported [...]
Pyongyang
This is a great travelog in comic form by Guy Delisle. It tells of his unique experience in North Korea, an experience that's worth telling and worth reading about. Since this is a recounting of his stay in Korea, there isn't a plot to this story, it's more a series of interesting scenes about the Guy's life in a foreign country. There [...]
Locke & Key: Head Games
It's been more than a year since I last read the first Locke & Key mini-series. While the first mini was a prologue, this mini starts the story proper, already giving us a lot of back-story into the character of Dodge. My memory is very short, so I must admit I forgot about many of the details of the first story. So when I started to read this [...]
I Kill Giants
I've been meaning to read this story for a long time, but I never had the time, and although it seemed like a story I enjoyed, I didn't think it'd be that good. How wrong I was!! This is a great story about a young girl who's lost in her own fantasy world. She is a Giant killer, and she is preparing to fight them with her weapon. That makes [...]
Flash v2 #142-162 by Waid/Augustyn/Pelletier
Waid and Augustyn return to Flash after a year off, and they are fully charged. It all starts with Wally and Linda's wedding, which was fun to read until Linda was inevitably taken away from Wally. I knew something would happen during the wedding, but I didn't know that her memory would be taken too. This is the start of a long story line that [...]
The Life Story of Flash + Other Stories
Before I delve into Mark Waid's last run on Flash, here are some one-shots and mini-series that may or may not be connected to the regular series. But the most important story here is without a doubt The Life Story of Flash, by Waid/Augustyn and Gil Kane. This is a mix of comics panels with prose, chronicling the story of all the flashes, but [...]