Reviews of books, comics, movies, and other random stuff.
[One Marvel, one DC, both published the previous Wednesday, plus a random indie from whenever I feel like it, each reviewed quickie-style: 1 Minute=bad, 10 Minutes=good. Connections, if any at all, may be forced purely for the experience.]"The best laid plans..." sometimes go awry, and in this case, it's Marvel's fault as I wasn't interested in anything they published this week. As such, it's a double dose of the Distinguished Competition, with Identity Crisis #7 and Batman: Gotham Knights #60 hooking up with Devil's Due's Mu #1 for an immensely satisying group session.First up, arguably the most anticipated comic book…
With Marvel not publishing a single thing of interest to me this week, I decided to throw an extra $3 towards an indie comic I'd never read before and let me preface its review with this offer: the first person I don't know personally to leave a comment here, I'll mail it to you, bagged and boarded, postage-paid, completely free of charge. Someone involved in its creation would be ideal, actually! I told someone recently that when it came to indie comics, if I didn't have something nice to say about a particular title, I simply wouldn't review it. The…
[One Marvel, one DC, both published the previous Wednesday, plus a random indie from whenever I feel like it, each reviewed quickie-style: 1 Minute=bad, 10 Minutes=good. Connections, if any at all, may be forced purely for the experience.]Since it's our first time, I'll kick this format off comfortably with two regulars and a newcomer I'm already fond of: Gotham Central #26, Spectacular Spider-Man #22 and The Lurkers #1. Much like the real thing, it's a bit of an awkward mix that ultimately makes for a pleasurable, if highly subjective, experience across the board.Gotham Central, one of my Top 5 Comics…
There is something simultaneously appealing and frustrating about Ernesto Quiñonez's second novel, Chango's Fire, a marked improvement over his highly-flawed debut, Bodega Dreams, but in the end, still something of a disappointment. This time, the problem lies in his biting off more than he can chew with too many subplots rolling around what is essentially one man's coming-of-age story at its heart. He's inexplicably combined the systematic burning of Spanish Harlem, insurance fraud, organized crime, gentrification, Santeria, pseudo-socialism, illegal citizenship papers, a shady government agent and a few other random nuggets into a muddle-headed plot that rests precariously, and unsuccessfully,…
At first glance, Ezra appears to embody many of the things I dislike about comic books these days: multiple variant covers, scantily-clad women for no apparent reason, too little story and a late shipping schedule. And yet, despite all of that, when I saw it on the stands today, I was happy to finally see it after what felt like months of waiting. You see, Ezra, Sean O'Reilly's highly-appealing, blue-tinted, medieval mercenary, has what I refer to as the Drew Barrymore Appeal. Against all odds, no matter what she does, no matter how ridiculous - ie: marrying Tom Green -…
To say I was skeptical about Marvel go-to-guy Brian Michael Bendis' New Avengers seemingly self-serving reload would be quite the understatement. Based on the ill-conceived complete disaster that was Avengers Disassembled, and it's half-assed epilogue/retrospective in Avengers Finale, I was fully prepared to hate it on sight. Boy was I wrong! After the requisite - and, thanks to its brevity, sad in that wow, that really was lame kind of way - first page recap of the Disassembled disaster, Bendis starts things off with a shadowy meeting between a silhouetted figure and a thug who turns out to be Electro.…
When the New Mutants re-appeared on the stands 20 months ago, I was just returning to comics after a 15-year hiatus and welcomed the sight of a familiar face to ease me back into the monthly habit. Joshua Middleton's beautiful cover art featuring some of the women from the original lineup drew me in, and Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir's patient, nuanced introduction of the first mutant of the new generation, and their reintroduction and use of a tortured Danielle Moonstar as the story's anchor, kept me glued through to the last page. The closing dialogue sealed the deal for…
