by Adrian J. Watts on February 9, 2013, no comments
The panel above is from (Uncanny) X-MEN #6, from 1964. The fellow with the blue speech bubble is Mastermind, one of Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. But looks closely at what he’s saying. That damn mutie freak is talking to himself! He must be insane. It wouldn’t be surprising – Mastermind’s power is to create powerful, [...]
by Adrian J. Watts on February 6, 2013, no comments
What you see above is a panel from (Uncanny) X-MEN #6, from 1964. It features the Sub-Mariner, sitting on a throne in one of his undersea castles, where Magneto is searching for him. (If you don’t believe it is under water and won’t look up the issue for proof, look only at the blue-skinned (water-breathing) Atlantean on [...]
by Adrian J. Watts on January 16, 2013, no comments
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis Penciller: Mark Bagley Publisher: Marvel Comics (Ultimate) Note: This TPB collects Ultimate Spider-Man Vol.1 #s 1-7, and was read as an eBook via Google Play Books. That was great. And lousy. Back when Marvel’s Ultimate line first launched, I picked up #s 1-3 of Ultimate Spider-Man in a special collection. I really, really liked those issues. Since then, I had read [...]
by Adrian J. Watts on January 14, 2013, no comments
Writers: Mike Carey and Mark Millar Penciller: Jae Lee Publisher: Marvel Comics (Ultimate) Note: This TPB collects Ultimate Fantastic Four Vol.1 #s 19-20 and Annual #1, and was read in the form of Ultimate Fantastic Four HC Vol.2. This was not good. In fact, it was bad. Very, very bad. We’ll start with the art. All of the characters have flat faces [...]
by Adrian J. Watts on January 13, 2013, no comments
Writer: Sean McKeever Penciller: Mike Norton Publisher: Marvel Comics Note: This review covers the limited series Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt #s 1-6. This is a tough one. The art is lovely and shiny, exactly the sort of art I love for superhero comics. At no stage does the art let us down. It is so, so very pretty. The writing, [...]
by Adrian J. Watts on January 13, 2013, no comments
Once again, the covers of Avengers Arena lie about the contents. In this case, there are two covers – an “iconic” fiery cover, which is fine; the second cover shows Juston Seyfert’s Sentinel zapping Cammi. Nothing even remotely resembling this happens in the issue. Cammi sees the Sentinel while spying from the treetops, but never interacts with [...]
by Adrian J. Watts on January 9, 2013, no comments
After initially being put off by it, I am now addicted to Marvel: Avengers Alliance on Facebook, to the point of planning work, meals, other hobbies and sleep around it. (Seriously – I adjust my alarm clock to make sure I wake up when a long remote ops deployment is finished so I can re-depoly ASAP.) [...]
by Adrian J. Watts on January 7, 2013, no comments
Writer: Jonathan Hickman Penciller: Steve Epting Publisher: Marvel Comics Arguably my favourite run of Avengers was the early-mid-1990s one by Bob Harras and Steve Epting. (I say arguably because it depends on what particular aspect I am looking at – Roy Thomas’ West Coast Avengers and Roger Stern’s Avengers get right up there, too.) Epting, for those who don’t know, was the penciller during [...]
by Adrian J. Watts on January 5, 2013, no comments
Writer: Christopher Yost Penciller: Paco Diaz Luque Publisher: Marvel Comics Note: This review covers the limited series X-Men: Emperor Vulcan #s 1-5. Wow! This is simply amazing. I’ll get the one drawback out of the way quickly: this follows directly on from the limited series X-Men: Deadly Genesis and an arc in Uncanny X-Men, both of which I read when first published, years and years [...]
by Adrian J. Watts on January 3, 2013, no comments
Writer: Warren Ellis Penciller: Adam Kubert Publisher: Marvel Comics (Ultimate) Note: This TPB collects Ultimate Fantastic Four Vol.1 #s 13-18, and was read in the form of the Ultimate Fantastic Four HC Vol.2. This reeks of BENDIS!. This story arc centres on the Fantastic Four encountering the Ultimate version of Annihilus, who here is known simply as “Nihil”, which he explains is [...]