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Spider-Man by Roger Stern: Unstoppable Highs & Unfinished Business

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What’s a great run on Spider-Man without adversity, for both its hero and its creator?

Under the pen of Roger Stern from 1980 through 1984, Spider-Man met some of his greatest physical and emotional challenges while his author left behind a legacy of unfinished business. [Read more…] about Spider-Man by Roger Stern: Unstoppable Highs & Unfinished Business

Nightwing Vol 1: Stepping Into The Light Review

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Fandom is an interesting beast. Especially Big 2 fandom. Because of the nature of these characters as superHEROES, there’s often more emphasis on the idea that these characters have to be heroic, as near-flawless as one can make them. There’s a defensiveness that comes out when someone who doesn’t regularly read comics tweets “Batman would do more good if he spent his money on social welfare.” When someone implies that by not actively fighting any and all injustice in the world, Superman is not really a hero. There’s a refusal to allow these characters to have flaws baked into their concept, because, for some people, this ruins the idea of a superhero.

I reject this idea. I believe that any and all superheroes, just by nature of the choices they’re making, are flawed individuals at best and should be allowed to be (for lack of a better term) messy. I don’t want mistakes or moral ambiguities in characters retconned away, I want them to be explored and confronted to deepen the story’s complexity. I’m not interested in characters being pure or perfect.

Tom Taylor does not write for me. [Read more…] about Nightwing Vol 1: Stepping Into The Light Review

SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT – The Man of Steel, Redefined

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Comic books are a medium defined by constant evolution, by stories that are told and retold over the decades for new generations of readers. But how does a writer build on a story after it grows so popular, it becomes mythic? How do you redefine an icon?

To many, Superman is the face of American comic books, a character so timeless and iconic that his legacy can be felt through a single page. The character has undergone plenty of changes in his 83-year history, moving from a champion of the people to a wholesome all-ages hero to a conflicted but ultimately incorruptible figure. But by the early 2000’s, DC Comics was looking to redefine the character again, replacing the origin told in John Byrne’s classic Man of Steel series and finally bringing Superman into the 21st century. This new take on the character would arrive in the 2003 miniseries Superman: Birthright, created by writer Mark Waid along with artists Lenil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, and Dave McCaig. While the 12-issue miniseries celebrates and modernizes a number of points from the Man of Steel’s history, Waid and his team also used Birthright to redefine the character of Superman; examining his identity in a new, more cynical era, and how it shapes him, his chosen family, and eventually the world at large.

 You can watch the full video retrospective on the series here: [Read more…] about SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT – The Man of Steel, Redefined

The Other History of the DC Universe Review!

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The Other History of the DC Universe is an interesting little project. Part social history, part love letter, part fanfiction – and I don’t mean that derisively. One of the strongest (and depending on who you ask, most problematic) aspects of fan fiction as a medium is the tendency to obsess over the moments where canonical works might cut away. Sometimes this tendency can produce some eye-rolling moments, but the same all encompassing love that inspires someone to write about what Sulu was doing while Kirk and Spock were down on Talos IV, is dripping from every issue of this series. If you pick up nothing else from reading this series it’s that John Ridley absolutely loves DC Comics. [Read more…] about The Other History of the DC Universe Review!