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5 (50) 4 (116) 3 (106) 2 (68) 1 (12) 3.6 starsAverage score of 352 user reviews
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Did They Not Get the Memo About the Revamp? 0
In this new Hawk & Dove relaunch, Sterling Gates appears to have completely missed the point of the big DC revamp while Rob Liefeld does his thing. It is a weak start to a series that doesn't show much chances of improvement. We know Batman has gone relatively untouched by the revamp. We know Green Lantern has as well. I think many readers approve of that and even more at least understand the reasoning. But what about Hawk & Dove? Inexplicably, they seem to have gone untouched by the bi...
3 out of 5 found this review helpful. -
The Enlisted Get the Spotlight 0
With Men of War, DC adds more variety to its line of books by giving us this well done military thriller set in a world of superheroes. Ivan Brandon and Tom Derenick do an excellent job of bringing us into the world of Joseph Rock as he becomes Sgt. Rock and showing us a military perspective on a world where beings with insane powers can make even the most powerful military in the world feel overwhelmed and helpless. This is the story of Corporal Joseph Rock, a soldier more interested in being ...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Wait. Does He Have Retired Ultimate Nick Fury as His Alfred? 1
Judd Winick and Ben Oliver get a gold star (or five) for their launch of the surprise Batwing series. DC's announcement that this new character would get his own series as part of the New 52 was met with a lot of skepticism, but Batwing wastes no time in proving that it deserves to exist. Kind of erroneously referred to as the Batman of Africa, Batwing is actually the Batman of Tinasha, a city in the Congo. So it is more like he has a Batman in Africa, rather than trying to be one superhero rep...
7 out of 7 found this review helpful. -
I am Gotham! GOTHAAAAAAAM. Sorry, Judge Dredd Movie Reference. 3
The controversial relaunch of Detective Comics by artist Tony Daniel has arrived, featuring a cat and mouse chase between Batman and Joker that would make for a fairly fun and exciting issue if not for Daniel burying it all under weak characterization and some pretty bad dialogue. For the record, I am someone who doesn't believe DC should have relaunched this and Action Comics with new number ones. But I don't really care that they did either. It was never something I felt strongly about one w...
6 out of 6 found this review helpful. -
Dude, Plants Are Messed Up. 1
Swamp Thing lives up to high expectations as Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette narrow the focus in on Alec Holland, the scientist who died and may or may not have become Swamp Thing before getting better. The mythology of Swamp Thing can be confusing, but you probably wouldn't realize that from reading this issue. By focusing on Holland, the story is grounded in such a way that it is easy for readers to step into the world and not become lost. One thing is for sure. Snyder did some research in o...
10 out of 10 found this review helpful. -
I'm a PC. 1
J.T. Krul's latest Green Arrow relaunch puts all its stock in high tech gadgets at the expense of character, leaving this feeling more like an issue starring Marvel's Hawkeye than Oliver Queen. On top of that, it feels like simply a standard superhero story with nothing new or unique to really say. Apparently, with his beard went Ollie's personality. The main hook of the new revamped Green Arrow mythos is that Oliver Queen now owns Apple, or technically that a division of Queen Industries is no...
4 out of 5 found this review helpful. -
When Reboots Attack 7
Look no further than Justice League International for the first trainwreck of DC's new continuity as Dan Jurgens throws a large assortment of characters at us while only letting us know that everything we thought we knew about them probably no longer applies. It is a bland mess of a first issue that inspires nothing but confusion, giving new readers hardly any answers and old readers nothing but questions. Let's get one thing straight and out of the way here. The only reason this book even has ...
4 out of 6 found this review helpful. -
And That Is When I Would Disown My Child. 2
Jeff Lemire's Animal Man steps up to the front of the pack as one of the DC relaunches that genuinely feels like it is aiming for the objective of a newer and better DC Universe. Even better, it succeeds by blending family drama and horror into its superheroics, making it one of the new titles out there with a unique and quality feel to offer readers. It's almost sad how Buddy Baker's family is being made such a pillar of what makes the character and this series interesting when comic creators ...
9 out of 9 found this review helpful. -
The Most Accessible Batgirl Is Not Wheelchair Accessible 7
Living up to most people's expectations, Batgirl is another damn good read brought to us by writer Gail Simone with the added bonus of some very appealing art from Adrian Syaf and his art team. But what about that other thing? That controversial thing? Let's just say... expect to enjoy yourself with this issue, but don't expect to be won over. To begin with, I should clarify where I come down on this issue. There has been so much said and written about it that I will keep it short rather than b...
11 out of 12 found this review helpful. -
So, They're Superheroes. 2
Stormwatch gets off to a misguided start as it aims for several targets at once and manages to be just off the mark on every one of them. It seems to be a book that isn't sure what exactly it wants to be. Despite the name, it's clearly not Stormwatch. It appears to prefer the Authority, but then it strangely decides it really liked Jonathan HIckman's S.H.I.E.L.D. and leans toward being that too. Stormwatch, in the new DC continuity, is apparently a covert organization that secretly weaves back ...
2 out of 5 found this review helpful. -
A Good Book But Still Just Iron Man 2.0 0
After a Fear Itself tie-in story that did not really go anywhere, Iron Man 2.0 returns to its main story dealing with a dead scientist managing to be a surprisingly dangerous and active terrorist threat. It is also a return to the quality of the series' first few issues, though also to the strange contradiction of the series. While the it is undeniably a well written title, it remains a less than ideal direction for its lead character, James Rhodes. The Palmer Addley situation finally kicks int...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Now, This Is More Like It. 4
The first issue of Angel & Faith scores big as it nails the tone and atmosphere that fans of the franchise enjoyed so much on television. It is a great beginning to Season 9 and indicates that they may have learned their lesson about the excesses of Season 8. Like I just implied, I was not a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8. It seemed to me that Joss Whedon allowed himself to fall victim to the enormous freedoms of comic book storytelling and lost touch with what made the tele...
7 out of 7 found this review helpful. -
This Is the Ultimate Universe I Have Been Missing. 2
The other relaunch, that of Marvel's Ultimate franchise, continues with Ultimate Hawkeye and continues to succeed at breathing new life into what I once firmly believed to be decaying zombie of a franchise. On a mission in Bangkok, Hawkeye suddenly finds himself in the middle of a superhuman proliferation crisis that will dramatically shift the world's balance of power in chaotic ways unless he can find a way to bring it under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s control first. It is a story premise that is both act...
3 out of 3 found this review helpful. -
Honestly, Green Lantern #9 Was Better. 0
The first of the 52 relaunches, Justice League begins to retell the origin of the Justice League but does so in a slow and relatively unimaginative fashion that leaves it falling far short of enormous expectations.This is supposed to be it. This is our introduction to the New 52 and the new DC Universe with all its new perspectives and new relevancy.So why is there so little in this issue that feels... new?For the most part, this issue merely retells the first meeting of Green Lantern and Batman...
4 out of 5 found this review helpful. -
Thomas Wayne Was the Star to the End 2
With a good twist on what we thought we knew about the Flashpoint timeline in this issue, Flashpoint manages to avoid having a conclusion that is altogether too predictable. It is an impressive accomplishment, given how we all knew from the first issue how this alternate reality story were end like most of them do.And Flashpoint does still do that. It ends with a character doing what it takes to set things right and bring about an approximation of the original timeline. It is something everyone ...
4 out of 5 found this review helpful. -
I Didn't Care to See the New Tron Either. 0
Batman, Incorporated becomes another casualty of the September relaunches as it comes to a sudden and unceremonious end with this issue. Even worse, it ends with perhaps the weakest issue of the short-lived series revolving around a story premise that became cliche and silly as far back as the mid-'90s. Rather than end with a bang or a whimper, this book ends with a groan. It is an issue of Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon fighting viruses in the virtual reality of Internet 3.0. Yes, it is that k...
2 out of 3 found this review helpful. -
Shooting a Woman in the Back. This Punisher Is Serious. 0
The body count rises in the second issue of Punisher's new ongoing series by Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto, who prove without a doubt that they get the character of Frank Castle. This is the Punisher in the Marvel Universe without excuses, without apology and without compromise. Rucka and Checchetto continue with their silent Punisher for another issue to great effect. This works so well because there is really nothing here that Punisher needs to say. Frank Castle does not really banter. Thi...
8 out of 9 found this review helpful. -
Damn Those Belgians. 2
Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic get off to a great start relaunching the Ultimates, reclaiming a lot of the intelligence and relevance that has felt lost for the past few years. It's funny that after ending one series starring Nick Fury that Hickman almost immediately ends up launching another one. This is not more of the same from Secret Warriors, though. In that, Nick Fury was was an old veteran who was moving into the final actions of a war he had been fighting for decades. Ultimate Nick Fur...
4 out of 4 found this review helpful. -
Ha. Blackhawk Was Goose. 0
Flashpoint: Hal Jordan comes to a solid end, though it does so by playing it safe in pretty much every storytelling regard. When I first saw this Flashpoint tie-in solicited, I was kind of horrified. A limited series starring Hal Jordan? The Green Lantern series barely finds it worth having him star in it, and that's when he has a power ring. This is Hal Jordan as nothing but Hal Jordan. For three issues. So this was surprising when it turned out better than expected. Now, really low expectati...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
So It's Britannia and the Resistance Now. 1
While the final issue of Lois Lane and the Resistance does move away from treating Grifter as the main character, that does not mean the focus shifts entirely back to Lois Lane. The tie-in ends much as it began with Lois feeling like a supporting character along for the ride rather than a lead character driving the story. If you were to jump into this limited series with the final issue and did not real the title of it, you could easily believe the character of Britannia is supposed to be the ...
3 out of 3 found this review helpful. -
At Least They End Their Run with Dignity 0
With a new Justice League coming next month, this Justice League must go, and it does so in by far one of the more solid and sincere issues of its run. As James Robinson has his unique team say goodbye, it's almost enough to make you forget that this was a team people drew more comparisons to Justice League Detroit than the JLA. It's a testament to how poorly planned DC's September relaunches must be that so many books have to end this way with one issue wrap-ups. That is, if they even get that...
3 out of 3 found this review helpful. -
Most Interesting Museum Ever 3
Tying into Schism, Generation Hope has its strongest issue yet and a better issue than the latest of the main event. The events of Schism, largely glossing over the Hellfire Kiddy Club, are told from the perspective Oya leading up to her major moment in the event, and this proves really effective at driving home some of the story elements of Schism as well as shining some new light on the Generation Hope kids. Generation Hope has not been a favorite of mine, even though I've enjoyed most all of...
7 out of 7 found this review helpful. -
Who Greenlit Some of the Decisions in This Series? 7
After getting off to a good start, X-Men': Schism turns left instead of right and trips itself up as a result with the focus turning to the new kids of the Hellfire Club. These evil children, Jason Aaron's new favored pets, don't quite managed to destroy the X-Men, but they sure do a number on the X-Men's big event. I said about Kade Kilgore in the first issue that this character could easily be what kills this event if Aaron doesn't handle it carefully. He has not been handling it carefully. N...
8 out of 8 found this review helpful. -
Secret Six Ragdoll Could Have Bent That Way 0
Concluding one of the more interesting Flashpoint tie-ins, Deadman and the Flying Graysons final issue is also its weakest. It stumbles to the finish but still does manage to at least nail the landing at the end, even if that final note is a strange one given that Flashpoint and this timeline is about to come to an end. J.T. Krul really made the most of an interesting concept with a traveling circus troupe in what remains of Europe comprised of not only Deadman and the Graysons but several othe...
3 out of 4 found this review helpful. -
Was It Really So Hard to Come Up with a Legit Reason for War? 0
Flashpoint: Emperor Aquaman makes the unfortunate move of exposing the greatest weakness of Flashpoint, which is the emptiness of the Aquaman and Wonder Woman conflict that does so much to shape the world. This is a story where Tony Bedard tries to give us a decent character study of Emperor Aquaman but is never quite able to get its footing on a premise that is overused and not compelling. As I've said in other Flashpoint reviews, DC has seriously dropped the ball on the conflict between Aquam...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
So Glad I Didn't Have to Read Spider-Island for This 0
Wasting no time, Nick Spencer and Emma Rios dive right into the characters of Cloak and Dagger and kick off what could very well become one of the best stories in the duo's history. Admittedly, there's not a huge amount of competition with these two rarely spotlighted characters. but that doesn't take away from the fact that this is a very strong started to their limited series. Characterization is where it's at with this story. Spencer has a very firm grasp on who Cloak and Dagger are, or at l...
3 out of 3 found this review helpful. -
Wait, Why the Hell Did We Not Get That in Blackest Night? 1
August is becoming a depressing month as yet another excellent DC series comes to an end. Bryan Q. Miller concludes his Batgirl run as best as he can, and while it is obviously rushed to an end, it still manages to be entertaining and satisfying as ever. It really needs to be pointed out what a miracle this book has been. This book had no business being... good. Every indication points to DC having had no clue what to do with the Batgirl mantle during Battle for the Cowl. They eventually threw ...
8 out of 8 found this review helpful. -
Really? ...Really? Really. 6
Five issues in, Fear Itself slows to a crawl as the Serpent, who rose last issue, seems to rise again. Or he continues to rise, depending how you wish to phrase it. The point is that the issue fails to move the plot far from where we were at last issue. There are a couple instances where developments emerge, but this issue is largely still at a standstill with the main story, where people with hammers continue to fight. Greg Land really should have been the artist for this event. Why would I sp...
7 out of 8 found this review helpful. -
If It Had to End, This Was How to End It 0
Secret Six ends in the only way it really could end and closes the door on a team Gail Simone has brilliantly handled in one form or another since 2005. This issue delivers a finale as powerful as any moment in the team's rich history, and it only made bittersweet by the realization that this really is the end of the Secret Six. For most of the team's run, it has been put into situations that were morally gray and complex. This time, they arrive at a situation that is very black and white. They...
3 out of 3 found this review helpful. -
If You Read Any Tie-In, It Should Be This One 1
With this final issue, Batman: Knight of Vengeance stands as the Flashpoint tie-in most worth reading. Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso tell a story that could have stood on its own as a very interesting Elseworlds tale but is made even better by its connection to Flashpoint. This, honestly, should have been the template for every tie-in. This tells the story of Bruce Wayne's death as a child in that infamous alley and the deterioration of both his parents as a result. At first glance, Thomas ...
5 out of 5 found this review helpful. -
Hard to Care About a Team I Never Knew 1
With my review of the first issue, I said Secret Seven was an bit of an inaccessible story for readers not already familiar with Shade the Changing Man but that it was also still a good story for what it was. Now, I have to take the latter back. This is really not such a good story, possibly due to being too big of a story for a three issue limited series. The story of the Secret Seven coming together and turning on one another is as broken as I guess some the characters themselves are supposed...
6 out of 6 found this review helpful. -
Six Issues Would Probably Have Been Better Than Five 0
Flashpoint closes in on its finale as the Flash pulls together the best Justice League he can get while Wonder Woman and Aquaman's war boils over. It's a solid issue but not the series' strongest. The pace picks up, making it feel almost like we are rushing toward the end somewhat faster than the story feels like it should naturally progress. Perhaps Flashpoint should have been a six issue story. The S!H!A!Z!A!M! kids, one of Flashpoint's best concepts, gets the spotlight in this issue. As with...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Just Punisher. That's All I Really Wanted. 2
Greg Rucka makes his big return to the Marvel Universe, bringing his very grounded and intelligent storytelling to a character it meshes perfectly with. Marco Checchetto joins him on art and really does a lot of heavy lifting as the issue is light on words yet remains heavy on story. Frank Castle tends to be a problematic character, and I think the reason is that writers tend to overthink him as a lead character. The Punisher is probably the most driven and focused character in comics, making B...
6 out of 6 found this review helpful. -
Nick Fury, Agent of None of Your Damn Business 2
With this final issue, Secret Warriors ties up its loose ends and makes the case that it could endure as one of Jonathan Hickman's strongest works for Marvel. It is the bar all future Nick Fury stories with be measured against. Pity those stories. Secret Warriors is a series that I have been reading from the very beginning but haven't been reviewing. Due complex nature of the stories. reviewing this one an issue by issue basis as it went on just did not seem like something I could do. Every iss...
6 out of 6 found this review helpful. -
Apparently Flashpoint Lois Is Not a Strong Female Character. 2
Those who were interested in the concept of Lois Lane as a main character and active participant in the resistance against the Amazons occupation of the United Kingdom are in for severe disappointment, because that is just not this book. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning seem to have decided that Lois isn't interesting enough to be a main character, and this book quickly becomes Grifter and the Resistance. Lois Lane is a piece of baggage that gets carried around this issue. There is really no charact...
3 out of 3 found this review helpful. -
Ditch the Kids, Jason Aaron. 5
The schism between Cyclops and Wolverine really starts to take shape this issue, but distracting from that is the development of Jason Aaron's new Hellfire Club which feels completely out of place in this story. This results in a story that feels at odds with itself. Part of it is an intelligent and believable handling of the X-Men's situation in the world while the other part involves a completely ridiculous and unbelievable new team of villains. As he did for the most part last issue, Aaron c...
10 out of 10 found this review helpful. -
Has Rob Williams Ever Read a Hulk Book? 1
Rob Williams draws Skaar: King of the Savage Land to a close and concludes a story that he really never seemed particularly interested in telling. The basic premise of this limited series is an interesting one. Skaar, son of the Hulk, comes to find that the Savage Land is a place that he can truly belong while at the same time Ka-Zar, king of the Savage Land, begins to come to terms with the idea that he may not be at home in the Savage Land as he used to be. It's a very character-centric prem...
6 out of 6 found this review helpful. -
No Jokes. Stupid. This Is Just Stupid. 4
Adam Glass got off to a bad start with the first issue of this limited series, setting up Heatwave as the baddest man alive with all the skill of a first time fanfiction writer. This, the second issue of the limited series, actually manages to be worse. Glass is in love with his version of Heatwave. Oh, is he ever in love. Even completely disarmed of his gear, Heatwave may as well be the most dangerous man alive. Why? Because Glass loves Heatwave. There is no justification anywhere in this stor...
3 out of 5 found this review helpful. -
Which Avenger Females Haven't Slept With Hawkeye? 2
Steve Rogers dispatches a team of Avengers to take on Nul, the Worthy that has possessed the Hulk, in another issue that may be light on plot but high on character and entertainment. A pattern to Brian Michael Bendis' Fear Itself tie-ins comes together with this issue. The previous issue focused on Red Hulk, and the latest issue of New Avengers focused on Mockingbird. This issue focuses on Spider-Woman, using Nul's rampage in Brazil as an action set piece. The lack of plot progression can't hon...
6 out of 6 found this review helpful. -
Forgetting Shadowland Already 2
Daredevil, the second of Marvel's new Big Shots Initiative, launches with this first issue and differs quite a bit from its preceding Big Shot, Moon Knight. Rather than presenting a new spin on the lead character, Mark Waid takes Daredevil back to basics without ignoring what has happened in recent years. Simply put, Waid just does Daredevil right. Waid had me less than enthused about his Daredevil relaunch with his talk about getting the character back to his fun, swashbuckling nature. It is n...
10 out of 10 found this review helpful.
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