Comics Reviews, ETC

Fantomex MAX #1 - Andrew Hope, Shawn Crystal

2013-10-17T23:22:03Z

Posted by: snickfic

(Hi, all! *waves* First time poster, and here I am ranting. Next time I will talk about a comic I like, I promise.)

Fantomex MAX #1 - Hope, Crystal
Wow. This was terrible. This is my first MAX title, which is Marvel's explicit content line - is that usually code for "fanboy wank fantasy"? Because this supposedly "retro, pulpy adventure" is retro in all the worst ways.

( at length )

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FF v2 #6 by Matt Fraction and Mike Allred

2013-05-28T02:51:20Z

Posted by: fairestcat

FF is the secondary Fantastic Four title. In the current series the original Fantastic Four - Reed Richards, Sue Storm-Richards, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm, plus Reed and Sue's kids Franklin and Valeria -- have gone off to have a family vacation through time and space. They planned to be gone for only four minutes (yay, time travel), but just as insurance against something going wrong they each picked someone to replace them for those four minutes. This being comics, of course the Fantastic Four diidn't come back in four minutes, and now the replacement FF: Scott Lang (Ant-Man), Jennifer Walters (She Hulk), Darla Deering (Ms. Thing) and Medusa of the Inhumans are running the Future Foundation and School. The school has about a dozen students who are a mix of mutants, humans, moloids (an underground race) and Uhari (an aquatic race).

( The whole series has been great, but issue 6 was where I fell compeltely in love )

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Morning Glories, vol 1-4, Nick Spencer

2013-05-27T03:49:56Z

Posted by: timetobegin

Morning Glories is a comic book series published by Image Comics. Described by writer Nick Spencer as "Runaways meets Lost," the series focuses on six "brilliant but troubled" new recruits at Morning Glory Academy, a prestigious prep school hiding "sinister and deadly" secrets

( MORE STUFF )

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Casanova Vol. 1: Luxuria - Fraction & Bá

2013-03-28T18:07:12Z

Posted by: merisunshine36

Summary: Casanova (our protagonist) is a thief/spy/grifter whose father is the head of an evil taskforce that maintans "peace and order" around the Earth. He turns on his family--and then there are spy games!

( sex, lies, and...more sex. A thirty-second lunch break review! )

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Gotham Central, Books 3 & 4: Rucka & Brubaker, Lark & Gaudiano

2013-03-21T00:27:08Z

Posted by: merisunshine36

Gotham Central is a multiple award winning series that focuses on the lives of the detectives and cops in the Gotham Police Department. (This review is for Books 3 & 4 of the series because I read those first). The art is gritty and real, the characters grab you and make you fall in love with them. It is also the single most depressing thing I've ever read since, oh, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.

( Read more... )

(mod: tags, please?)

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Introductory Artists Post: Aja, McKean, Rivera

2013-03-17T18:21:10Z

Posted by: bethbethbeth

As promised, I'm making an initial post to share some favorite comics artists, and I'd love for you to do the same.

Embed or link in the comments below - or make a separate entry as you please - and it's up to you whether or not you say much of anything about why you like the artist's work.

(Note: it struck me as I was checking over the coding for this post that all three works make extensive use of...the color brown. I swear I like other colors. Really!)

My first pick - and really only the second comics artist I ever took any notice of - is David Aja. A Spanish artist, who came into comics after some time as a professional illustrator and art teacher, Aja was probably best known until recently for his work on Immortal Iron Fist, but at the moment, it's his work on Hawkeye with the writer Matt Fraction that's drawing the most interest:

( A page from Hawkeye, issue 3 )

I mentioned that Aja was the second comics artist I took notice of. The first was Dave McKean.

McKean is known for many things, but for me, he's always going to be associated with Neil Gaiman's Sandman, which was the first comic series (or should I be saying "graphic novels?) I gave more than a passing glance to between my childhood and...last year.

( The cover of the Sandman volume 'Brief Lives' )

And finally (not that I couldn't include another half dozen favorites) is Paolo Rivera, who I met at New York Comic Con (2012) and...okay, I had absolutely no idea who he was when I met him (I had no idea who anybody was that I met at NYCC), but the prints on his table drew me in. This was the one I really wanted though:

( A mock-up of a movie poster for Captain America: the First Avenger )

Okay, so that's that, at least for the time being. Your turn!

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Three quick notes from Ms Mod

2013-03-13T13:17:06Z

Posted by: bethbethbeth

1. A review needn't be epic length. if you've read something recently (or even not all that recently) and you'd like to post a single paragraph response - good, bad, or mixed - that's perfectly fine.

2. I'm deleting the section of the community profile about off-topic posts. If we decide there's a burning desire for off-topic discussions at some point in the future, I'll add it back in.

3. This community has been - up to this point - pretty writer focused , but what I'd like to do now is encourage artist-centric reviews and commentary as well.

To give that a jump start, on Sunday morning (March 17), I'm going to make a post that asks you to embed or link a sample from one or two favorite comics artists (and if you're so inclined, to say a few words about why you like their work). After that, if you want to do an entry about a specific issue of a title that just talks about the art, that's fine.

* icon used in honor of this being release day for the first trade paperback of Hawkeye (by Matt Fraction and David Aja)

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Captain America Vol.7 #3-4, Remender & Romita, Jr.

2013-03-08T02:01:31Z

Posted by: merisunshine36

I am constantly surprised at how much I adore this run. I'm simultaneously sort-of dragging myself through Brubraker's CA, and it's becoming harder and harder to go back to it because this version of Cap is so much more fun.

( Read more... )

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Mara #1-2 - Brian Wood & Ming Doyle

2013-03-03T18:44:53Z

Posted by: merisunshine36

Mara was one of those comics that grabbed my eye and demanded that I purchase it, even though I knew nothing about the author or artists involved. I mean, just look at her face:

( spoilery review within )

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Saga #1-6, Vaughan

2013-03-01T19:09:14Z

Posted by: bethbethbeth

And now for something completely different, i.e., me fangirling a non-Marvel comic.

Before I get to the story itself, let's take a look at Fiona Staple's cover for the trade paperback:

It's beautiful.

So...there I was, standing in line early one Wednesday morning, new comic books in hand and ready for purchase, when the cover of the just-released first volume of Saga caught my eye. I started leafing through the pages, and when I reached the counter, my usual Wednesday morning comics pusher said, "Isn't Saga great?" I admitted I wasn't familiar with the title, didn't know Fiona Staples' work, and wasn't familiar with Brian K. Vaughan (hey, I'm still in my novice year of comics reading!). He side-eyed me, then said, "Buy it." Didn't even bother to tell me what it was about, just told me to buy the book, and I obeyed him.

( SPOILERS - sort of - for Saga 1-6 )

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Secret Avengers #1, Spencer and Ross

2013-02-18T23:58:32Z

Posted by: bethbethbeth

As a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the movies are what brought me back into comics after decades away), I couldn't help but feel just a bit excited about the new run of Secret Avengers (by Nick Spencer, art by Luke Ross). After all, its sensibilities were going to be grounded in a fusion of the comics world and the movie!verse, and would feature - at least initially - all characters familiar to viewers of The Avengers movie.

There's been grumbling from some comics-only fans, that the insertion of so many movie characters (including Agent Phil Coulson) is just pandering, but I've got to say that anybody who was expecting this series to feel like a coda to the film is going to have a bit of surprise waiting for them.

( SPOILERS FOR SECRET AVENGERS, ISSUE #1 )

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Avengers Arena #1-3, Hopeless

2013-02-10T16:40:24Z

Posted by: bethbethbeth

So...the summary of this series (mostly stolen from wikipedia) is as follows:

"Sixteen teenage superheroes are abducted by supervillain Arcade and brought to his latest version of Murderworld. The heroes are required to kill each other for Arcade's enjoyment." Generally speaking, it's a variant of stories like the Hunger Games trilogy or the manga Battle Royale, with even the cover of the premiere issue being an homage to the latter:

( So what did I think of it? Note: my comments are obviously spoiler-laden. )

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Young Avengers #1, Gillen

2013-02-03T17:03:45Z

Posted by: bethbethbeth

Kieron Gillen as a comics writer is a bit hit or miss for me. Despite liking him a great deal as his real world self (blog entries, podcast interviews, Q&A's at ComicCon), I love some of his comics writing (the Kid!Loki run of Journey Into Mystery, for example), but am left fairly cold by some of his other work (I tried with the current run of Iron Man, but...it ended up kind of boring me and I abandoned it).

However!

A few months ago, I read the main series of Allan Heinberg's 2005 Young Avengers and fell in love with these [mostly] super-powered teenagers who stepped in to fill the hero void left by the adult Avengers in the wake of Marvel's "Disassembled" storyline.

When a new run of Young Avengers was announced - to be written by Gillen - I was cautiously optimistic.

( SPOILERS for Issue #1 of 2013's Young Avengers )

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All New X-Men #1-6, Bendis & Immonen

2013-01-19T15:48:32Z

Posted by: salinea

In the aftermath of Avengers vs X-Men, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magik and Magneto are hunted fugitives who set themselves up as revolutionary mutants leaders recruiting among the newly powered mutants. At Jean Grey's School for Gifted Student, Beasts is undergoing yet another transformation - one he thinks will kill him - and decides that the best way to deal with the current Cyclops is to travel back in the past to bring the young versions of Xavier's students to confront Cyclops.

( Read more... )

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Captain Marvel, Issues #1 to #9, Kelly Sue DeConnick

2013-01-18T19:20:02Z

Posted by: bethbethbeth

Once upon a time, this was Captain Marvel:

Mar-Vell, as he was then known, was a Kree warrior (i.e., an alien), who came to Earth to observe (i.e., spy on) humanity as it transformed into a space-traveling race, and eventually came to like humans. For a variety of reasons (which I won't mention in case some of you don't want to be spoiled), Mar-Vell has shared his identity with a number of other characters, male and female, over the years, many possessing similar powers and similar (i.e., not always identical) names. Amongst the Marvel Comics "Marvels" was "Ms Marvel," the alter ego of US Air Force office Carol Danvers, who made her first appearance in the 60's. but acquired superhuman abilities - and her new Superhero name - by the time her first self-titled comic appeared in 1977. This was Ms Marvel then:

Now honestly, there's nothing wrong with a little skin showing when one performs their superhero duties (just ask the Hulk!) - and really (she said, editing the post *g*) - usually Ms Marvel didn't flash that much skin:

...but in 2012, when writer Kelly Sue DeConnick and artist Dexter Soy took over the character, Ms Marvel got brought up to date. She was given a name change (now Captain Marvel), a hair cut and a costume change...

...and became part of a really great new series.

( Some potentially spoilery commentary )

Note: There's an interesting (spoilery) interview featuring writer Kelly Sue DeConnick here if you'd like to get some sense of how Carol Danvers was (re)-shaped for this run.

BTW...are any of you Spider-Man fans? I'd love to see a review of #700 of "Amazing Spider-Man" and #1 of "Superior Spider-Man" if anybody's interested in putting something together.

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Captain America v7, Issues #1 and 2 - (Rick Remender & John Romita Jr.)

2012-12-30T22:58:15Z

Posted by: fairestcat

I posted this on tumblr and my dw right after issue #2 came out, but it didn't really get any conversation going, I'm hoping to have better luck here.

I loved Ed Brubaker's entire run on Captain America, and so was very nervous when I found out he was leaving the series. Brubaker's run and specifically the Winter Soldier arc was my gateway into the entire non-X-Men side of Marvel comics. I've been reading X-Men stuff for years, but had made the firm decision to not even peek into the rest of the universe for the sake of my wallet. And then I fell in love with Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes and...yeah. There went that one.

When Rick Remender was announced as the new writer for Cap and interviews and stories started appearing describing the completely different direction he planned to take the series in I became a bit more hopeful, but still decidedly trepidatious.

( Spoilers were quite pleasantly surprised. At length. )

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Hawkeye, #1 - #6 (Matt Fraction and David Aja)

2012-12-30T20:07:17Z

Posted by: bethbethbeth

I'll admit it: before this recent crop of Marvel superhero movies started to get released into the world, I had no idea who Hawkeye was.

Or the Black Widow.

Or even Captain America (although with him, I'd at least heard the name)

In fact, before this year, apart from two fairly recent encounters with modern-ish titles (Sandman and Fables), my only knowledge of comics ended decades ago with a few Archie comics bought with my hard-earned allowance and a stack of DC discards, given to me by an older cousin (Krypto the Super Dog was my favorite!)

But when The Avengers came out, I fell hard for Hawkeye. This was tangentially related to my fannish feelings for Jeremy Renner, but it definitely developed independently and intensified as I started to work my way through as many old Marvel titles featuring Hawkeye as I could find.

( And then came Matt Fraction's Hawkeye )

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Demon Knights, Volume One: Seven Against the Dark, Cornell

2012-12-29T00:48:59Z

Posted by: skjam

Subject: Demon Knights, Volume One: Seven Against the Dark, Cornell
Text:
The follwing is the review I posted on my new review blog, SKJAM! Reviews http://www.skjam.com which also covers things that are not comic books. Stop by!

Comic Book Review: Demon Knights Vol. 1 (Seven Against the Dark) by Paul Cornell, Diogenes Neves & Oclair Albert

( Assembling the team done well )

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Welcome Post

2012-12-28T20:39:09Z

Posted by: bethbethbeth

Welcome to Comics Reviews, ETC. a community created for reviews and discussions about comics (new and old, single issue and complete runs, digital and trade paperback). It's likely that Marvel and DC comics will get the most attention in this community, but posts about comics from all publishers (Dark Horse, Image, IDW, independents, etc) are absolutely fine.

(Initially, this community will concentrate on western comics; manga, etc may be added later)

If you want to include an image or two in your post - or add a reference a comics-related film/t.v. show - that's fine, but remember that the focus of this community is reviews and discussions of comic books, and all posts must reflect that.

POSTING GUIDELINES

* Subject Heading should include Book Title, Volume/Issue(s), Writer's Last Name.

* Once a specific comic issue/trade paperback entry has been posted, please keep all related discussion to the comments section of that entry. Needless to say, if you'd like to discuss a later issue (or issues) of the same title, feel free to post a new entry.

* Note to original posters: differences of opinion about the comics you're reviewing are going to happen and yes, you're going to see them as replies to your posts. Rebut those opinions or ignore them, but no deleting of comments, please. If you believe a comment is a flame (or contains hate speech, etc), please PM the Mod.

* Feel free to introduce your posts as you wish, but...ALL discussion of the book/series must go under a cut, since everything's going to be a spoiler to somebody, no matter how old the title is. Posts will be moderated to ensure the community remains spoiler free.

* (adapted from scans_daily) Any post that contains potentially triggery discussion - such as extreme violence/gore, sexual violence, abuse, self-harm, and offensive and oppressive content - must include adequate warning.

---> My own note: Because such warnings may constitute spoilers about the issues in question, I'm going to ask that all warnings appear below the cut, but with 15 blank lines between the warning and the main text of the entry.

( read more. No, really...read more!! )

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