Greg Rucka

Sam Wilson Captain America #7 doesn’t do much with its title character, but there is a great moment where Steve admits that he respects and trusts Sam despite having differences over what he should do as Captain America as Crossbones beats him up. It’s mostly Nick Spencer and Daniel Acuna’s tribute to the character of Steve Rogers while simultaneously a game changing moment in the “Avengers Standoff” crossover, but a few confusing moments aside, it’s worth picking up to see Steve Rogers written well and heroically even if you haven’t kept up with the “Standoff” storyline. And this exploration of Captain America’s qualities of courage, standing up for the little guy, and genuine care for the friends he made over the years extends to the backup stories of which the Whedon/Cassaday one is the highlight as they lay out the heart and soul of the character in nine fluid pages.

Narratively trying to follow Black Magick from point A to point B to point C and beyond may give off the impression that Rucka and Scott are moving slowly with the plot, only inching it along. That type of reading basically ignores the forming of the characters that is happening on each and every page. Rucka, always an economical writer, let’s Scott’s artwork tell so much of the story here as she visually fills in all of the elements of a life that reveals character. Whether it’s a flannel t-shirt tied around her waist when she has to cast some protection wards around her house or the fire extinguisher that seems to be placed to satisfy some municipal ordinance in some secret, shadowy lair, Rucka and Scott are shaping real lives for these characters that exist beyond the boundaries of the comic page.

Having comfortably presented many of the essential details to the world in which Forever lives, Rucka and company opt to play the ever challenging game of juggling multiple storylines at once, even more so than in the first five issues. In addition to the two aforementioned threads, these collection of episodes continue to delve into Forever’s past, with each issue spending the first two to three pages on her childhood and early adolescence when she trained mercilessly under the auspices Marisol, with whom she became good friends during this time.

Comic book readers love a good old, super elite character that takes charge of matters and, depending on the circumstances, takes no prisoners either. Wolverine, the Punisher, Batman, all of these and countless others have graced the pages of illustrated storytelling throughout the years, dishing out their own versions of justice because they were simply the better equipped, trained and lethal of the parties engaged in contests of skill and might.

Over the years, a number of comic books and graphic novels have made their way to television, from NBC’s Constantine to, most recently, the CW’s iZombie. The group appears poised to get a new addition, as Legendary Television has now acquired the rights to the graphic novel series Lazarus, with the intention to turn it …

For a few months, Batwoman, who had been recently revamped as a lesbian and former US Army cadet, headlined DC Comics’ flagship book Detective Comics. Kate Kane made her debut as Batwoman in 52 #7 and played a big part in the weekly series helping her ex-girlfriend Renee Montoya and the Question track down the followers of the Crime Bible.

Cyclops #2 Written by Greg Rucka Art by Russell Dauterman & Colors by Chris Sotomayor. Standard Cover by Alexander Lozano Published by Marvel Comics Picking up where the previous issue left off, Cyclops #2 finds the titular hero learning the ropes of space piracy from his dad, Corsair. Together, they journey to the planet Yrzt, …

Despite being created in 1963 and having been a stalwart member of the X-Men for most of the intervening fifty plus years, this is the first time Cyclops (aka Scott Summers) has ever received his own ongoing series. Much of what defines the character – his taciturn nature, his strong leadership abilities, his devotion to Professor Xavier’s dream of peaceful co-existence between man and mutant – works best (or at all) when placed in a group setting, able to be compared and contrasted with the other X-Men. This series aims to sidestep that issue by taking advantage of the character’s current unique status quo: there are actually two Cyclops running around the Marvel Universe, the “real”, present day one, and a teenaged version, plucked from the past and deposited in his future as part of Brian Michael Bendis’ All New X-Men.

Lazarus #6 Written by Greg Rucka Drawn and Lettered by Michael Lark with Brian Level Colored by Santi Arcas Forever Carlyle is not a woman. She’s a killer, a tool, a blade wielded by the powerful Carlyle family but she’s also just a little girl. She’s a girl who still naively believes in the words …

Lazarus #5 Writer: Greg Rucka Art & Letters: Michael Lark (with Brian Level) Colours: Santi Arcas Publisher: Image Comics Purchase: https://www.imagecomics.com/comics/releases/lazarus-5 That was one heck of a long wait. Yes it really hasn’t been that long, but c’mon. A day without Forever is like a day without breathing, it’s just bad for your health. If …

A few months back, I penned a rather vitriolic piece decrying the state of everyone’s favorite six-clawed murder machine, Wolverine, calling foul on his portrayal as a swaggering, invincible, unstoppable alpha-male sex symbol in most contemporary media. I’m sure many readers were wondering what my alternative would be, and this month’s theme of favorite Marvel …

Lazarus #1 Writer: Greg Rucka Art & Letters: Michael Lark Colour: Santi Arcas Cover: Michael Lark Publisher: Image Comics In 2003 Greg Rucka and Michael Lark teamed up over at DC for Gotham Central, a police procedural that told of the trials and tribulations that went on amongst the Gotham City Police Department. The series …