Venom #10-#13, #13.1-#13.4, & #14 Written by Rick Remender, Rob Williams, & Jeff Parker Art by Lan Medina, Tony Moore, Lee Garbet, Sana Takeda, Julian Tedesco, Nelson Decastro, & Terry Pallot Published by Marvel Comics Continuing from his first story arc as well as being tied up in the “Spider-Island” event, Flash Thompson a.k.a. Agent …
All-New Invaders #13 Written by James Robinson Art by Steve Pugh Published by Marvel Comics With James Robinson’s focus on assembling the modern roster of the Golden Age team, the Invaders, issue #13 comes off rather strange. Simply, it’s an entire issue with mostly dialogue between supporting characters of the series. It’s not bad as …
Superior Iron Man #3 Written by Tom Taylor Art by Yildiray Cinar Published by Marvel Comics Superior Iron Man continues with its excellent character inversion of the beloved Tony Stark. The meat of the issue is mostly a single conversation between the titular “hero” and Daredevil. It’s a direct follow up from the last installment …
First and foremost, The Gutters was a twice weekly webcomic that made fun of various aspects of the comics industry. It took the comics news of that week and spinned into something hilarious and self-contained with a rotating cast of artists, including ones you might know like Annie Wu (Hawkeye), Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan), Joe Eisma (Morning Glories), Nick Bradshaw (Wolverine and the X-Men), and even comics legend Neal Adams, who pencilled a heartfelt tribute to the late Joe Kubert in 2012. The humor of The Gutters is highly topical. However, in the tradition of the best MAD Magazine strips or SNL sketches, it can act as a nice time capsule to 2010 when people were arguing whether Steve Rogers or Bucky Barnes (or Clint Barton) should be Captain America, or 2012 when the circle of snark around Before Watchmen and if it was doing irreparable damage to comics was going on.
Cullen Bunn is unique. If nothing else can be said about him, he is certainly unique. The Empty Man shows the full extent of Bunn’s ability. The series focuses on two detectives as they struggle to sort out the mystery surrounding a series of suspicious deaths and murders. The deaths are connected by the strange hallucinations experienced by the perpetrators, as well as their last words “The Empty Man made me do it”. The Empty Man is unpredictable because it follows so very few tropes. Nothing like this series has been seen before, and readers will be asking themselves the same question over and over: Who is the Empty Man? (Or “What the F*ck?”).
2014 was an incredibly rewarding year to be a comics reader. Veteran creators, like Grant Morrison, Kurt Busiek, and Matt Wagner continued to churn out some of the best work of their career while new creators, like Noelle Stevenson, Babs Tarr, and Tula Lotay had very strong starts. Marvel and DC published their fair share of events, including Original Sin, …
Wolverine is dead to begin with. How permanent is his death remains to be seen. For the time being though, Wolverine’s possessions have been collected and his last wishes read. The Jean Grey School for Higher Learning will never be the same. As his replacement, Wolverine has chosen Spider-Man to fill the position of Guidance Counselor for a rather erhm, Special Class of mutants.
Superior Iron Man #2 Written by Tom Taylor Art by Yildiray Cinar Superior Iron Man leads right off from Tony Stark getting the entire city of San Francisco addicted to a new form of Extremis, which enhances one’s physical condition and charging it $99.99 a day. The city is thrown into chaos as people fight …
All-New Captain America #1 Written by Rick Remender Pencilled by Stuart Immonen Inked by Wade von Grawbadger Colors by Marte Gracia Published by Marvel Comics The point of All-New Captain America #1 is to show what new wrinkles Sam Wilson, the artist formerly known as Falcon, brings both physically and mentally to the role. In the time-honored Marvel superhero tradition, he …
There are many of definitions of comics out there. One French theorist Thierry Groensteen decided to not define comics, but instead create a system for them. Part of this system is the frame. The frame is a panel and its boundaries including the margins and gutters. The frame has various (actually six) functions. One of the functions of a frame …
In Captain Marvel #9, Kelly Sue DeConnick and David Lopez switch gears from space opera to rock opera in space involving variations on the traditional fairy tale. DeConnick inverts gender roles, writes about 75% of the issue’s dialogue in rhyme, and reinvents the character of Lila Cheney (who I previously thought was a Dazzler knockoff while showcasing Captain Marvel’s ability to inspire heroism and self-sacrifice in other people. Artist David Lopez adds a lot of the humor to the proceedings with his penchant for expressive faces. He also spaces out his panels in a way which reflects the rhyming scheme of dialogue before bringing out creative layouts and speed lines for the big third act battle. Colorist Lee Loughridge adds to the musical flavor of Captain Marvel #9 by contrasting the colors of the musical notes with the rest of the panel. He also adds a bit of pop to the teleportation and other dramatic scenes.
Jumping out of the pages of Marvel’s still ongoing event Avengers & X-Men: AXIS, Superior Iron Man marks a new status quo for the armored hero. Tony Stark was hit by a mental wave created by Doctor Strange and the Scarlet Witch, altering his personality into slightly sinister version of himself from his pre-superhero days.
Big Hero 6 Written by Robert L. Baird, Daniel Gerson & Jordan Roberts Directed by Don Hall & Chris Williams USA, 2014 If kids needed their own version of the Guardians of the Galaxy, they now have it in Big Hero 6. Hopelessly irreverent with an emphasis on brain over brawn, this gang of self-appointed …
If you were a fan of how Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn balanced the comedy of a Weapon Plus reunion between Deadpool, Wolverine, and Captain America with real character growth for Deadpool in “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”, Deadpool and Captain America will be a treat to read. Duggan takes Deadpool seriously as a character while peppering his script with puns, pop culture gags, and silly, but chuckle worthy jokes about Wolverine’s grooming. Scott Kolins’ figures aren’t as sharp and well-defined as Declan Shalvey’s in “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”, but he is skilled panel architect, who can turn a mundane elevator ride into an opportunity for humor and character reflection. Kolins adds layers to the comedy with sight gags and slapstick, like when Captain America beats up an AIM.
First Appearance Avengers #54, July 1968 (unnamed cameo), Avengers #55, August 1968 (full appearance) Nicknames and Aliases Crimson Cowl, Ultimate Ultron, Mark 12, Ultron Pym Powers and Abilities Ultron is an artificial intelligence capable of learning and evolving. To wit, he builds increasingly stronger and more powerful bodies for himself, usually comprised of some form …
Because the characters exist in the public domain, there have been countless comic book iterations of classic horror icons Dracula and Frankenstein, including “official” versions of both characters which exist within the respective Marvel and DC Universes, versions which interact with each company’s superheroes. But through the years, those heroes have also encountered and battled one-off iterations of the horror monsters, independent of the “main” characterization.
In Death of Wolverine, Charles Soule, Steve McNiven, Jay Leisten, and Justin Ponsor had the tough job of killing off one Marvel’s most popular characters in a way consistent with his legacy of his character. Death of Wolverine #4 contains the actual “death”, and Soule, McNiven, and company stick the landing. Except for Doctor Cornelius’ supervillainous monologues, Soule’s script is terse and minimalist. Wolverine doesn’t say much, but he does a lot in keeping with his early characterization in Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s Uncanny X-Men where he would be the one still scrapping and fighting even after the Hellfire Club had taken out the other X-Men. In this last story, Soule examines all the different sides of Wolverine from lab experiment and animal to soldier, superhero, and samurai. And Steve McNiven’s art continues to be a treat from his landscape portraits of the Nevada desert to Wolverine’s last, visceral hand to hand battles. Inker Jay Leisten tightens his lines and elucidates the details of Cornelius’ lab as well as the lines on Wolverine’s determined faces. Colorist Justin Ponsor continues to be one of my personal favorites as he sets a different mood for each scene from a washed out brown for one final flashback of Weapon X to the sterile environment of Cornelius’ lab and one last walk in the sunlight.
What is it? Civil War is a 7 part major cross-over event and tie-in series that was first published in 2006 and written by Mark Millar with Steve McNiven on pencils. One Sentence Description: Iron Man wants order and Captain America wants freedom, but what they both get is a fist fight. What’s it all …
Thor #1 Written by Jason Aaron Drawn by Russell Dauterman Colors by Matthew Wilson Published by Marvel Comics Thor #1 has a cinematic feel to its writing and art that will ease new (and lapsed) fans into the status quo as well as shutting up people, who said “female Thor” was a gimmick. (They’ll probably still complain.) Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman open up the …
Death of Wolverine #3 Written by Charles Soule Pencilled by Steve McNiven Inked by Jay Leisen Colors by Justin Ponsor Published by Marvel Comics Even if Charles Soule’s script reads like a compilation of the best solo Wolverine stories all rolled into one miniseries, Death of Wolverine #3 is another shining example of why Steve McNiven is one of the best …
Pittsburgh Comicon: The Legends Panel The Players: Bill Sienkiewicz -Classically trained painter known for his work at both DC and Marvel, particularly Elektra: Assassin. Sienkiewicz has won more awards than I can count (without taking off my shoes and socks at least) Joe Rubinstein -German-born artist most famous for inking the 1982 Wolverine series, …
After years of rumors, 20th Century Fox has officially confirmed that they will be producing a film based on the popular Marvel character, Deadpool. The Hollywood Reporter and Fox’s Twitter account confirm the news and that Ryan Reynolds will be reprising his role as the “Merc With a Mouth”. Reynolds was one of the few …
Captain Marvel #7 Written by Kelly Sue DeConnick Art by Marcio Takara Colored by Lee Loughridge Published by Marvel Even if it’s basically a “bottle issue” set inside Captain Marvel’s ships, Captain Marvel #7 has Kelly Sue DeConnick’s characteristic humorous dialogue and strong characterization mixed with simple, expressive line-work from guest artist Marcio Takara (BOOM’s Incredibles comics, The Flash), who also has a …