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Sara Century

Monsters, Mayhem, and Marvel Horror in The Rise of the Midnight Sons

July 29, 2021 by Sara Century Leave a Comment

Ghost Rider #31, written by Howard Mackie, art by Andy Kubert, Joe Kubert, and Gregory Wright, lettering by Janice Chiang

Lilith (the Mother of All Monsters!) has risen from her slumber, and a new group of antiheroes form to challenge this age-old threat. They are the loosely connected Midnight Sons, and each one of them will play a role in fighting off the demonic Lilith and her many horrifying children.

With an influx of scary villains, extreme action sequences, and earnest looks into a reluctant hero’s tortured inner world, the early days of the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider era infused contemporary superhero comics with a sort of hyper-violent neo-noir sensibility. This created a series that suited the overall vibe of Marvel Comics while featuring a uniquely sensitive and conflicted hero. Leading into Rise of the Midnight Sons, we’re following the path carved out by Danny Ketch’s earlier appearances, making this a rare crossover that successfully juggles the introduction of many new premises while remaining entrenched in a sense of undeniable history. [Read more…] about Monsters, Mayhem, and Marvel Horror in The Rise of the Midnight Sons

Filed Under: Featured, Marvel Reviews Tagged With: darkhold, Ghost Rider, midnight sons

The Power Pack (Don’t) Grow Up (And That’s Fine) In The Power Pack Omnibus

July 2, 2021 by Sara Century Leave a Comment

Power Pack #44, cover art by Jon Bogdanova, written by Jon Bogdanova, art by June Brigman, Russ Heath, Hilary Barta, and Glynis Oliver, lettering by Joe Rosen

Louise Simonson might be best known as co-creator of seminal X-Characters like Cable and Apocalypse (with Chris Claremont, Rob Liefeld and Jackson Guice), or perhaps as one of the key writers of the “Death of Superman” story, but those accomplishments are still only part of the work she’s done in superhero comics. After editing various Marvel books for years, Simonson was inspired to create a new team in the Power Pack, which featured four super-powered siblings (Alex, Julie, Jack, and Katie Power) who gain their superpowers from a horse-like alien (called Kymellians, at war with the Snarks) named Whitey. In collaboration with the great June Brigman, Marvel’s first-ever preteen superhero team was formed.

Power Pack Classic Omnibus remains a unique book all these years later, and though it was ostensibly aimed at children, the stories often leaned into fairly adult subject matter. After all, Power Pack #27 saw the children appear in the Mutant Massacre, where they worked to stop Sabertooth’s murderous rampage across the Morlock tunnels while witnessing the attempted annihilation of an entire community of mutants. Yet the greatness of Power Pack is in how it mixes incredibly heavy subject matter with the endearing dynamics of a family that truly loves one another. The worse things get, the more the Power kids come through for each other, and that’s largely what continues to define the team here in the latter days of their ongoing.

Collects: Power Pack (1984) #37-62, Excalibur (1988) #29, Power Pack Holiday Special #1, Power Pack (2000) #1-4, Fantastic Four (1998) #574, FF (2011) #15, Power Pack (2017) #63, Power Pack: Grow Up! and material from Marvel Super-Heroes (1990) #6 and Marvel Fanfare (1982) #55 [Read more…] about The Power Pack (Don’t) Grow Up (And That’s Fine) In The Power Pack Omnibus

Filed Under: Featured, Marvel Reviews Tagged With: power pack

Heroes Reborn: Avengers (1996) Retrospective!

June 27, 2021 by Sara Century Leave a Comment

Avengers #1, written by Jim Valentino and Rob Liefeld, art by Rob Liefeld, Chap Yaep, Jon Sibal, Marlo Alquiza, Ashby Manson, and Extreme Color, lettering by Steve Dutro

Get on your pleather pants and floral print tops, losers, we’re going back to 1996. Mainstream comics were undergoing a strange, tumultuous time in the aftermath of the creator-owned explosion of Image Comics. Trying to stay on top of the sales charts had led to some pretty cringeworthy stunts, and frankly, what’s one more among friends? The X-Men’s long-building threat, Onslaught, had just seen most of the publisher’s non-mutant hero populace transported to a pocket dimension created by Franklin, the occasionally terrifying child of Sue and Reed Richards. In this world, many stories that had once taken years to build and deliver were smooshed into a much smaller number of issues. After a quick introduction, plots were completely derailed, and within about a year, we were back to the 616 with a general “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” attitude about the whole event.

Heroes Reborn: Avengers undergoes at least three major creative lineup changes in twelve issues, which may give you a decent idea of how disjointed and weird this series is, even when completely divorced from the greater Heroes Reborn context. It might also go without saying that this series, which barely manages to eek out a single coherent plotline over the course of a year, doesn’t age great, but it still somehow isn’t the worst thing printed in 1996 (here’s looking at you, Amalgam Universe). [Read more…] about Heroes Reborn: Avengers (1996) Retrospective!

Filed Under: Featured, Marvel Reviews Tagged With: Avengers, heroes reborn

Best New Graphic Novels: The Impossibility of Closure in I Walk With Monsters

June 7, 2021 by Sara Century Leave a Comment

Even amid a new renaissance of A+ horror content, some books still manage to stand out as especially good. I Walk With Monsters is one of those books that tells its story so well that it almost becomes a masterclass in how to create a perfect horror comic along the way. Focusing in on two “hurt people that hurt people,” I Walk With Monsters is a story of revenge that never sums up even a shred of sympathy for its villains. Rather, it shows us how our heroes are so often more complicated than we want them to be. [Read more…] about Best New Graphic Novels: The Impossibility of Closure in I Walk With Monsters

Filed Under: Featured, Reviews Tagged With: best new graphic novels

Swamp Monsters & the Counterculture in the Man-Thing Omnibus

May 28, 2021 by Sara Century Leave a Comment

You might know Man-Thing as “basically another Swamp Thing,” and that is fair—to say there’s a resemblance between the two is to say that water is wet. Yet while there is significant crossover in origin and concept, each character tends towards different kinds of stories, and so have remained unique enough that their similarities matter less. Though Swamp Thing has far overshadowed Man-Thing for most comic readers, Man-Thing has his own epic, career-defining run with writer Steve Gerber.

Man-Thing Omnibus collects Man-Thing’s first appearances as well as most of Steve Gerber’s classic run on everyone’s second (or third) favorite fictional marsh creature. Though this story begins in familiar territory, it transforms in no time to include Satanists, alternate dimensions, weird sword-and-sorcery characters out of nowhere, and, of course, one highly cantankerous cigar-smoking duck named Howard. Buckle up! [Read more…] about Swamp Monsters & the Counterculture in the Man-Thing Omnibus

Filed Under: Featured, Marvel Reviews Tagged With: man-thing

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  • Extra Issues – Dykes to Watch Out For (1983)
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