New Comics
Phil’s Reviews — Stuff I Bought #239
As a special end-of-year feature, we’re reviewing every single comic published this week! (Of course, since it’s a holiday week, there were only eight books, but still….): Amazing Spider-Man #700 — Writer: Dan Slott; Pencils: Humberto Ramos; Inks: Victor Olazaba There’s also a 16-page “Spider Dreams” story by J. M. DeMatteis, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Sal Buscema (an art team that turns out better than you might think), and an 8-page “Date Night” story with Spider-Man and the Black Cat, written by Jen Van Meter and with very cute, painted art by Stephanie Buscema, plus a 7-page letter column (with answers … Continue reading
Phil’s Reviews — Stuff I Bought #238
OK, people, there were a ton of decent books this week — a holiday bounty partly because there will be only a handful for next week (although Amazing Spider-Man #700, and Avenging Spider-Man #15.1, the next chapter in the story after that, will both be out) — so let’s get to them. Marvel’s many relaunches lead the pack; I had my doubts about Marvel Now!, but have to admit that reshuffling the creative teams and starting from scratch led to (a) a lot of satisfying conclusions to the old runs, and (b) a lot of intriguing beginnings to the new … Continue reading
Phil’s Reviews — Stuff I Bought #237
All-New X-Men #2 — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis; Pencils: Stuart Immonen; Inks: Wade von Grawbadger New Avengers #34 — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis; Art: Mike Deodato Two by Bendis, a beginning and an ending. The X-Men is the second issue, and after all the set-up of the first it actually takes off and offers an intriguing look at the teenage X-Men, brought from the past by a dying Beast to try to talk sense into the current Scott Summers. This is the very definition of “high concept,” of course, but, eye-rolling aside, it works very well — what fan can … Continue reading
Phil’s Reviews — Stuff I Bought #236
The Boys #72 — Writer: Garth Ennis; Art: Darick Robertson with Richard P. Clark The last issue of Ennis’s longest complete story since Preacher (he wrote more issues of Punisher, but that had no conclusion). Like Preacher, most of the action took place in the penultimate issue, leaving this one for codas, cleanup and relationship resolutions (at least, of those characters who are still alive), and while it’s hard to say much about it without spoilers, it’s nice to have Robertson back for the ending (although Russ Braun, who actually drew more issues, deserves at least a shout-out somewhere here), and … Continue reading
Phil’s Reviews — Stuff I Bought #235
Liberty Annual 2012 — Creators: Various This is the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s annual moneyraising effort; they’re a First Amendment organization whose primary purpose is to defend comic book retailers (and publishers and creators) from legal challenges when some local parent or prosecutor decides that a comic is obscene. To a journalism major like me, that’s a noble goal; they’ve kept a lot of people out of jail (or from losing their stores) just because they sold someone a comic book. As you might expect, a lot of comics creators appreciate their work, too, so these anthologies are always … Continue reading
