Those 1990s Comic Characters That Got Me Collecting Again

I started collecting comics, like, for real about 7 years ago. I “collected” in the sense that I bought them off the grocery store spinner when I could as a kid, and that I had subscriptions to Amazing Spider-Man and Green Lantern (v3) for a time. I would occasionally buy a back issue excitedly (Morbius, […]

100 Bullets, Legion of Super-Heroes, and Artistic Choices

I’ve been alternating comic reading, despite appearances, with watching things lately. I’ve mostly been plowing through this, 100 Bullets, which I started late last year (volumes 1 and 2 of the Deluxe Editions, which I read most of on a train in California) and finished in a reasonably quick run over the last two months […]

Black Panther: World of Wakanda

Holy shit this was bad. There’s really no other way to open this. There’s a boatload of problems: Ta-Nehisi Coates’s tendency to only reluctantly explain things in the primary Black Panther is inverted for some embarrassingly clumsy dialogue that explains “too much” and an unexpected return of thought balloons, to make us think they never could […]

Ka-Zar (1997)

Mark Waid came into town a while ago. He gave an entire presentation at a local university and did a Q&A, then later went to a local shop and did a signing. I’ve got my copies of Kingdom Come and his Captain America run signed, amongst many other bits and pieces (like Empire!). I always liked most […]

Infinity War (No, Not the One I Love)

I’ve been telling people for months I won’t see this. Not even for free. Not even getting paid to see this. In truth, I’ve been gently poking at interviews and trailers in-between. There are heartening moments, here and there. The Russos seem to have solid ideas. The trailers remind me of all the characters I do like […]

Annihilation: Conquest [Part 2 – Wraith, Nova #4-12, Annihilation: Conquest #1-6] (2008)

In the aftermath of Annihilation, I abandoned the Marvel cosmic universe. Admittedly, I wasn’t steadily reading comics in general at the time, but certain events, once chronicled in the etchings of the web at large¹ made it clear how I felt about those books. As such, I never really followed the adventures of the characters revivified […]

The Ray #1-6 (1992)

Let’s get it out of the way: yes, I decided to read these after I finished watching Crisis on Earth-X (which was fun, but mostly tweaked some animalistic part of my brain when they used the Crisis on Infinite Earths lettering for the title, though a number of other bits were fun). Still, I picked these up (and […]

Annihilation: Conquest [Part I – Annihilation: Conquest – Prologue, Quasar #1-4, Starlord #1-4] (2007)

In 2002, the Marvel cosmic line was very thin. Englehart put the Avengers into Celestial Quest as an end to his own “Celestial Madonna” storyline in late 2001, but all major series had ended by that time (Silver Surfer, the longest running, ended in 1998). It was a taste, before Jim Starlin–architect of many of the […]

The Uncanny X-Men: Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire [#475-486] (2006-2007)

By far the most unexpected of stories to appear in my quest to collect and read the mid-oughts Cosmic Marvel stuff (basically Thanos –> The Thanos Imperative), this is a 12-issue storyline from Ed Brubaker’s run on Uncanny. It’s not that the X-Men and space don’t mix (the Shi’ar obviously, then we have the Starjammers, the Brood, Binary…), […]

Silent War (2007)

I developed an affection for the Inhumans a while ago, largely, I think, on an appreciation of the Kirbyesque aesthetics of, particularly, Black Bolt. There’s also something appealing in the stoic limitations Blackagar suffers as a result of his powers. There was probably also at least a hint of backlash underdogging, as the “Inhumans will […]