I’m amazed. I’ve been skipping the superhero comics I normally read because they’re either rebooting AGAIN (DC’s Rebirth) or in the middle of a crossover event rerun (Marvel’s Civil War II). But here, Kelly Thompson and Paulo Siqueira manage to explain the point of the event to me while still giving me entertainment regardless of the stunt branding. Most importantly, I enjoyed the time I spent with this team of women and want to see more. There’s even a guest […]

A superhero team book rises or falls for me on the mix of personalities (not powers), and I really like the blend put together here. The characters are well-known, but not big or central enough to handcuff the creators. (Plus, A-Force came out of an alternate universe crossover, so who cares about continuity?) She-Hulk, always a favorite, and Medusa, queen with the magic hair, battle it out for leadership. Captain Marvel is the muscle, Dazzler (of all people!) is the […]

When you’ve been reading superhero comics for decades, many of them start blurring together. It’s easy for creators and readers to settle for the usual supervillain challenges, where costumed, powered characters duke it out without much real-world connection. But after a while, when you’ve read more than your share of those stories, it all becomes familiar and boring. That’s why I was so surprised and pleased to see what Peter David was doing with the recent run of All-New X-Factor, […]

Peter David’s run — and the title itself — ends on X-Factor with the recent #262. I found the series an entertaining read, combining heroics with old-school soap operatic complications as a diverse group of characters tried to work together in a superhuman detective agency. I particularly liked the personalities David gave the cast. I didn’t talk much about the recent storylines, because once you get into demonic wars and such, it’s hard to identify a good starting point, and […]

While reorganizing some comic boxes from the move — I should copy and paste that phrase to use over the next two years — KC found a good memory for me. Amazing Fantasy (Volume 2) #15 was cover-dated January 2006. According to the text page in the back, it was created to “revisit, revamp, or recreate… idle Marvel character names.” The lead story in the anthology was the introduction of Amadeus Cho, by Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa. Given the […]

Many many people have had the idea of doing an adult take on Archie and his gang, but few have executed it with so much skill and insight. Criminal: The Last of the Innocent uses the familiar characters of the gawky boy, his dopey friend, the girl friend who wanted to be the girlfriend, and the desirable rich girl in a noir-ish tale about murder and reinvention. Plus, with contrasting visuals of dark present day and brighter, simpler pages that […]