Author Archives: Phil

About Phil

With 40 years of experience in comic reading, collecting and reviewing, English Professor Phil Mateer has an encyclopedic mind for comics. Feel free to ask Phil about storylines, characters, artists or for that matter, any comic book trivia. He will post your questions and answers on the AABC blog. His knowledge is unparalleled! He is also our warehouse manager, so if you are looking for that hard to find comic book, ask Phil!

Phil's Reviews — Stuff I Read and Put Back #38

The Immortal Iron Fist #9 — Writers: Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker; Artist: David Aja; The Immortal Iron Fist Annual #1 — Writers: Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction; Artists: Howard Chaykin, Dan Brereton and Jelena Kevic Djurdjevic I oughtta be getting this. Issue #9 continues the “7 Capital Cities of Heaven” martial-arts contest story, with some unexpected twists, and that leads into the annual, as Danny searches out an old friend of the 1930s Iron Fist, who has valuable information about his history. The annual’s flashback adventures to the 1930s have Brereton art, and his lush pulp style fits the … Continue reading

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Phil's Reviews — Stuff I Bought #37

World War Hulk #4 (of 5) — Writer: Greg Pak;  Penciller: John Romita Jr.;  Inker: Klaus Janson You have to admire how old-school this series has been — it doesn’t waste time trying to integrate or link to all the crossovers or related mini-series; it doesn’t care whether you’ve read them or not. Instead, it just bulls straight ahead, telling its tale and giving you all the action you need, as The Hulk sets up his Death Arena and rubs the Illuminati’s nose in exactly what they did to him. Great art, lots of punching, a sense of an actual … Continue reading

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Phil's Reviews — Stuff I Read and Put Back #37

Batman/Lobo: Deadly Serious #2 (of 2) — Writer/Artist: Sam Kieth As if to balance last issue’s parade of cheesecake shots, this issue is tilted more toward beefcake, with lots of full-panel Batman and Lobo poses. Kieth seems to be pushing the art, too, exaggerating even more than normal and letting design dominate any attempt at realism (exhibit A: look at the cover). As for the story, the plot aspects that were confusing in the first issue now, in the conclusion… make no sense at all. I’m sure that if I reread both books and thought about it, I could figure … Continue reading

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Phil's Reviews — Stuff I Bought #36

Justice League of America Wedding Special #1 — Writer: Dwayne McDuffie;  Penciller: Mike McKone;  Inker: Andy Lanning I thought this would be a piece of fluff like last week’s Black Canary Special, but with McDuffie handling the script after years of shepherding the cartoon through its paces, it’s a lot more than that. It turns out to be the first shot in a big fight between the Injustice League and the JLA, continuing into the next regular JLA book, and it’s very good. From the opening, an echo of the first Meltzer JLA except with Luthor, Joker and Cheeta dealing … Continue reading

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Phil's Reviews — Stuff I Read and Put Back #36

Moon Knight #12 — Writer: Charlie Huston; Penciler: Mico Suayan The climax to the second big arc, and you know, I’ve been reading this all along, and I have no idea what’s going on. Between all the flashbacks and the confusing narrative and the art (which is sometimes nice to look at, but always hard to follow), and the erratic publishing schedule, I can’t remember any of this. Wait — the girl’s a robot? The guy’s a robot? A cyborg? He was the sidekick, right? No, wait… ah, it’s not worth it. Maybe this is one of those books that … Continue reading

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