Supergirl: Identity
I'm seeing double: four Supergirls! Hang on, let me get my glasses.
It’s probably just a hang-over from my paranoid adolescence, but there’s something about being found reading a title like Supergirl in public that makes me somewhat embarrassed. It’s ridiculous, in theory, of course, that just because a title stars a female character that a man shouldn’t read it, but Supergirl, hell, most comics starring female protagonists, don’t do themselves any favours. Look at that cover. Now, on the one hand, it’s quite interesting juxtaposition of the modern iteration of Supergirl against the more traditional one that exists in old comics and the mainstream consciousness. On the other it’s a drawing of two stick-thin, mini-skirt-clad blonde supermodels floating in the sky.
Guess which is more common interpretation.
Justice League of America Archives – Volume 1
JLA! Starring: Batman! Superman! And some other people!
I like old comics. I like them for the window they provide into decades past, both for the comic book industry and society in general. I also like them in an ironic manner, marvelling at the madcap storytelling, art that is at times strange and naïve and the fact that they can often be unintentionally hilarious. Now, I’ve always been more of a Marvel guy than DC, especially with Silver Age material. Yes, the work of Stan Lee and co is just as nuts as anything DC put out when compared to modern comics, but of itself I find it more palatable, with more rounded characters, emotional drama and better visuals. DC stories always seemed to be more interested in showing off how smart the writer was than telling exciting stories.
Stargate Atlantis: Impressions
He's really worked on that Marcel Marceau.
I often get the feeling that working for Big Finish must be quite a nervous experience. There seems to be the constant worry that the BBC will rescind or not renew the Doctor Who license since the success of the BBC Wales series, or at least just completely undermine it by hiring the only living Doctor that’s not worked for Big Finish to do an audio series for BBC Books (see: Hornet’s Nest with Tom Baker).
Transformers: Super-God Masterforce
Super Pose DVD Cover Brawl Attack Punch!
While the US Transformers cartoon ended with the short, stubby and all round disappointing fourth season, The Rebirth (ironically a stillbirth) the Japanese version of the show diverged at the end of season 3 and produced three more full seasons with a distinctly more Japanese flavour. Masterforce is the second and perhaps the least Transformers-esque one of the trio.
G.I. Joe – The Rise of Cobra – The Video Game
Why does Snake-Eyes's mask have lips?!
I’ve avoided reviewing any video games on this blog before now because to really review a game you have to spend a lot of time with it, preferably completing it and while I spend a lot of time playing games, I rarely complete them or see their full depth (as shown by the fact that I clocked up over 100 hours on Disgaea: Hour of Darkness while only getting through about 2/3 of the story).
I’m going to make an exception today though, as I review a game I played for just under an hour and turned off in disgust scant minutes ago.
Uncanny X-Men: Rise and Fall of the Shi’Ar Empire
You know your cover sucks when the most interesting thing on it is the ampersand.
As far as inaccessible books go, this is pretty much near the top of the list. Not only do you have to have read the X-Men before to get it, you need to be familiar with a number of the less mainstream team members used here as well as the expansive space angle that’s been darting in and out of the series for a few decades now and you need to have read Brubaker’s preceding mini-series Deadly Genesis.
Spider-Man: Blue
Honestly, this is the best quality image of the proper cover I could find online. And I still can't be arsed to use my scanner.
Once upon a time, there was a comic book writer called Jeph Loeb and, incredibly, he wasn’t completely shit. Even more incredibly, he was in fact the same Jeph Loeb that inflicted Ultimatum, Ultimates 3 and Red Hulk on the world. You see, once upon a time, Jeph Loeb worked with the excellent Tim Sale and they produced worthwhile mini series. At DC they did some stories with Batman and Superman, while over at Marvel, they produced the colours series.
Doctor Strange: The Oath
Must... magic away... tomato stains...
Doctor Strange is a great character mired in his own former successes. Like a lot of popular comic book characters, he’s been unable to really evolve past the vision of his original creators. There have been changes, sure, but they’ve never stuck. Perhaps that’s for the best. Shoving Strange into a mask or making him a pseudo-Vertigo ‘mage’ aren’t the best of choices. The changes made in The Oath by Brian K Vaughan and Marcos Martin are ones I hope will stick around (although I already know they won’t).
Cable- Messiah War
Keeping the baby in a front holster I can just about go with, but painting a big X on there? You're just asking for trouble Nathan.
First off, that is not a helpful title. Not that it doesn’t go someway to describing this opening volume of Cable, but the issues collected call themselves War Baby, while a later crossover between Cable and X-Force is also called Messiah War. It might seem a bit picky, but when it comes to the names of collected editions, especially with inter-title crossovers, clarity is key.
Anyway, to the matter at hand.
Flashforward
Based on the novel by Robert J Sawyer,
Oh, so the second F is cutting over the O cos it's flashing forward. Groan.
Flashforward bases itself on this premise: everyone on the planet simultaneously ‘blacks out’, in which they experience two minutes from a day six months in the future. The same day, from the same future. Aside from the massive problems that ensue from everyone on the planet blacking out (traffic accidents, planes going down etc), you also have our motley cast angsting over what they’ve seen in their futures.
