Crisis in Infinite Titles, Part 1

If you’re a comic book fan today, chances are you’re really into Infinite Crisis. It’s the biggest and best thing going in superhero comics right now. If you’re not reading it, you should be. The thing is, there’s so much going on right now that’s seemingly unrelated. That’s where this series of articles comes in….



What’s bigger than an alien invasion?

Nothing calms down the anger of waiting an extra month for a comic than finally opening it up and finding that time went into making one of the balls-to-the-wall best issues ever. Buy Ultimates 9. Every page, every frame is worth the price. This is a series that is unafraid to do things as big,…



RIP Spider Man

Well, it was done in possibly the least meaningful way, in a storyline that probably was thought up in a five-minute “Oh crap, Spidey sales are lagging and House of M is over so what the heck are we gonna do?” session. Check out the last splash page of Friendly Neighborhood #3. Iron Man carrying…



And Ronin is…

New Avengers #13, which goes on sale this morning, November 30th, finally reveals the identity of the mystert character who has benn running around the book recently. As if you couldn’t tell by the title, I’m planning to spoil it in a bit. If you don’t want to know who it is, stop reading. Please…



Marvel’s Pony Express rider shot by savages

Eager to check out the newest run of Wolverine, I went to the comic store today to pick up issue 36, as well as plenty of other literature. On the shelf sat issues 33, 34 and 35, but no 36. I asked the owner who said he’d been bugged about it all day by customers,…



X-Men 3: The One Where They Break the Franchise

Many things agitate me. I’m just one of them types. But as far as my nerdery is concerned, nothing has irked me more than what I keep hearing about the Brett Ratner’s entry into the X-Men movie franchise. First it was the dismissal of Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler in favor of … Beast. The Kelsey…



“Subplot” is not a four-letter word

I recently bought a set of the first two years of West Coast Avengers. I’ve been reading the series when I’m not reading the new comics of the week or a new trade I got. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the storytelling, given Marvel in the early 80s wasn’t exactly the pinnacle…



Howling Hell

Next week, the second issue of Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos hits shelves. I won’t buy it. Chances are, you won’t either. Best as I can tell, it’s a pile of junk. Normally, a book this silly looking – it seems to feature a team of monsters Nick Fury sends out to fight something, for some…



Where have all the new villains gone?

Over the past 15 years in mainstream Marvel and DC comics, I could only come up with one decent new villain. An afternoon of thinking, and all I could come up with is Hush, who I consider to be a borderline major villain.



Reggie Hudlin is an idiot

Don’t read Marvel Knights Spider-Man #20. By all things good and holy, I implore you: Let this piece of crap remain unopened. So the story starts out with Spidey and two people dressed in the original Iron Man suits (one grey, one gold) breaking into Castle Doom. Once inside, it’s revealed that the two Iron…