The theme of this series so far is expansion and the first issue hit the point home even further as the team was split in two. The team is growing in size, the question will be how can Hickman balance the team and its members and keep things moving along without biting off more than he can chew.
Collecting three chapters previously seen in Dark Horse Presents, Night Shift is the first time the heavily pulp influenced Black Beetle has had an issue all to himself. Although I’m familiar with creator Francesco Francavilla’s work, I confess that I missed those earlier issues so this was my first meeting with the Black Beetle.
The Phoenix Four (Cyclops, Magneto, Magik, Emma Frost) powers seem to be all over the scale and uncontrollable. Cyclops isn’t able to focus his optic blasts (shown in the art by its chaotic style) Magneto’s power to control metal seems to have diminished greatly, and Emma can’t read minds or so she says. The only one that doesn’t seem to have been affected is Magik, whose powers might have actually gotten stronger.
The other side of Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers story featuring the Illuminati as the New Avengers. Hickman is telling such a big story with the Avengers that he had to split it up into two different books (much like Fantastic Four/ FF) and although the threats are different for each team, they are similar in size and scope.
Whilst the staple part of my comic diet consists of DC, Marvel, and Image titles, there is nothing better than coming across a gem of a title like this. Twisted Dark came my way after visiting MCM Expo at London in October last year where the writer, Neil Gibson, was signing all three volumes of the series. It is with much annoyance that it has taken me nearly three months to make a start due to a ridiculous backlog of titles. All my fault I suppose!
When we last left the Young X-Men, they were confronted by Beast (of our time), and brought to the future in order to maybe change recent events. The big questions are what will happen when the Young X-Men meet their future shelves, and what will Cyclops do when he sees Jean Grey.
With Brian Michael Bendis’ run on the Avengers, Marvel had to pick a worthy successor to take over one of its flagship franchises…and no one is more worthy than Jonathan Hickman. I for one have been on Avengers overload as of late, but still decided to take the plunge.
Avengers Arena doesn’t shy away from the fact that it’s completely lifting its story from books and movies (Battle Royale, Hunger Games) but what sets it apart from those stories is that all the contestants are super powered (for the most part) as these super teens are taken to an island by the villain Arcade and told to fight to the death for 30 days or else everyone will die.
I was a bit worried about All New X-Men when I first heard about it, time traveling Mutants in an already crowded X-Universe didn’t sound like the best idea. However, Brain Michael Bendis is at the helm of this one and although things still aren’t quite clear, he looks to be having these X-Men going in the right direction.
One of the best experiences being a comic book reader is picking up something you know practically nothing about. If it’s good then you’ve just found a brand new series to follow and if it sucks then hey, at least you only spent a couple of pounds on it! Deathmatch is one of those books where I knew it was coming but I didn’t know what I was going to get. All I knew was the premise: a group of super heroes and villains fight it out to the death.
The concept of comic book crossovers quite often leaves people thinking “oh no, not another one” which more often than not is a very justified reaction. Dynamite comics recently decided to crossover all their main pulp heroes, which sounds like a lot when you consider the amount of properties they have, The Shadow, Green Hornet, The Spider, even Zorro just to name a few. Although if you have been following any of these stories recently, this really has the potential to be something amazing.
Steve Rogers awakes sweating with distress pouring from his face. He has had a nightmare of days gone by, on a battlefield he understood and belonged to. He dreamt of fighting once again with Bucky by his side, but this dream ends differently, once the Nazi’s are all taken down, Bucky lies injured and in pain. He bids Steve farewell and slowly passes to a permanent sleep while Cap screams his name in the smoke and blood of the battleground.
When we last left Deadpool he was face down with half a face, courtesy of Abe Lincoln. Luckily for Pool, he has some unlikely friends and one of them comes to his aid…Ben Franklin?! Have I missed issues? Was there a 90’s Franklin/Deadpool teamup I haven’t heard about? Together Ben Franklin and Deadpool try and stop the reanimated corpses of the former founding fathers and may need some help from a certain Sorcerer Supreme.
A few months ago while I was looking over upcoming releases I made a speculative mental note to pick up the first issue of a mini-series loosely based on my favourite Marvel character. Not that I was expecting much you understand. The title sat low on my reading stack the following week and so I was not prepared for what was coming when I half-heartedly peeled back the cover to Space: Punisher #1.
Rick Remender promised he was going to change things up with Captain America and he has, this isn’t your father’s Super Solider. Although Remender is taking Captain America in a different direction theme wise, he is still the same character wise. The contrast in setting leads for a fantastic read as we see Cap in more of a sci-fi story as he travels through time itself.