God Loves, Man Kills is a well that’s hard to return to. This doesn’t stop it from happening, however.
The most successful of these returns, 2003’s X2: X-Men United
Even it took liberties with the material, but this is to be expected. [Read more…] about X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills — The Extended Edition Review!
Reviews
Teen Titans: Beast Boy — Graphic Novel Review!
Teen Titans: Beast Boy is a strange creature. Where its titular lead is constantly changing and shifting, the young adult graphic novel from Kami Garcia, Gabriel Picolo, Rob Haynes, David Calderon, and Gabriela Downie remains stuck in a very familiar shape. Equal parts coming-of-age teen drama and superhero origin story, Beast Boy offers a beautifully drawn but bland experience that does little to stand out from the crowd.
Following up on 2019’s critically and commercially successful Teen Titans: Raven
Legion of Super-Heroes Volume 1 by Brian Michael Bendis & Ryan Sook Review!
An incredibly important part of revitalizing interest in a franchise is a big opening – the kind that keeps people talking for a long time after it releases. When Morrison did it with the X-Men in 2001 with E is for Extinction
The Man of Steel by John Byrne | The Definition of Superman, But Not the Meaning
In 1986, John Byrne did the seemingly impossible: he remade the most famous comic hero of them all. The Man of Steel mini-series (tMoS) was the new, public unveiling of not just Superman but, in a larger sense, the entire DC post-Crisis universe. Now, DC has finally made an omnibus collecting all six issues of that seminal mini, along with Byrne’s entire Superman run from 1986-88 (plus his brief return in 2011).
But seeing Byrne’s work collected changes it for me. It seems almost impossible now that one of comic’s most troubled creators could have saved Superman. Or that a story so filled with humanity could doom him. But this amazing and flawed mini-series masterpiece, like its creator, is filled with contradictions. And like both, my opinion has changed as I’ve gotten older. [Read more…] about The Man of Steel by John Byrne | The Definition of Superman, But Not the Meaning
Batman: Three Jokers by Geoff Johns & Jason Fabok | The Comedy Rule of 3s
A little more than five years before Superman first saw print, America had already seen his kind of celebrity in Babe Ruth. Like Superman, Ruth wasn’t the first ballplayer (superhero), but in a sense, he created baseball (superhero genre.) He was the stuff of legends. And nothing was more Ruth than when he called his shot in the 1932 series held here in Wrigley Field.
Now, we are here, in an America long past that Game 1, and Action Comics #1. And now, Geoff Johns has called his shot.
A little more than five years ago, Johns revealed in the pages of Justice League: Darkseid War that the Joker didn’t have one real name, but three. This was Johns pointing into the stands, declaring the impossible. I’m going to make a massive change to one of comic’s bedrock dynamics, Joker and Batman. The move seems to say: And even though you know I’m going to do it, you’re going to be amazed when you see it. [Read more…] about Batman: Three Jokers by Geoff Johns & Jason Fabok | The Comedy Rule of 3s