Archive | Guest Columns

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X-Men vs. Avengers vs. Bear

Long before the mega-event Avengers vs. X-Men would usher in the age of Marvel Now, the two most iconic teams of the Marvel U went head to head in a similarly titled series: The X-Men vs. The Avengers. This crossover series was published in 1986, and written by Roger Stern with art by Marc Silvestri […]

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Buffyverse Versus

I’ve probably written more about Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel than anything else in my career. Even though I now make a living writing comics, my love for Joss Whedon’s Buffyverse far predates my interest in comics. I had a single box of superhero and horror comics that I loved as a little kid, […]

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A Different Side of Romance

Note: This article contains spoilers for Saga #1 – Saga #23. Ahh, romance. There’s nothing quite like the glee one feels at the beginning stages of a relationship. That euphoria, that high – it’s hard to top. It’s also hard to maintain. I don’t mean to say happiness doesn’t continue and that such feelings twinkle […]

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The World of Strangers in Paradise

I didn’t read Strangers in Paradise when it was being published as single issues. By the time I really got into comics, the series was already wrapping up a fourteen-year run. It was already a classic. It had been, for a long time, one of the books that I planned on eventually diving into – […]

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Watch Out! Here Comes the Spider-Gwen!

Well, we the fans asked and we received. After the astronomical success of Edge of Spider-Verse issue #2, fans flooded Dan Slott with letters and pictures begging for more of Gwen Stacy as Spider-Woman. Unlike in reality, death in the comic-book world is by no means an absolute. Over and over we see characters die […]

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 Do girlfriends and fiancees in comic books stand up for themselves this well now?

Golden Age Superhero Romance

In the beginning, and in fact before that, superheroes had girlfriends. It was a significant part of the story but virtually every history only looks at heroes as a group but the girlfriends (and occasional boyfriends) are treated almost as an afterthought. The evidence isn’t really happy with that assessment. The original super powered crime […]

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Confessions of a Brimper

The most romantic comic book being published right now is called Sex Criminals. A lot of folks have gone on at length about the Eisner-winning series by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky. Their book is a triumph for creator-owned comics and creativity in comics – I mean, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve […]

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True Love

There’s this Kevin Smith quote that I think about a lot. He was talking about Cop Out, the first film that he directed but didn’t write, and how it differed from his other work. He said, “The other movies – they weren’t films, they weren’t movies, they were just me ripping open my chest, pulling […]

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Buck to the Future

In 1979, while in the throes of both a whirling dervish of Star Wars mania and a feverish countdown until the 1980 release of the first sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, I was whisked away to the theatre to watch the latest sci-fi adventure to hit the big screens, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.  […]

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Welcoming the Future, Treasuring the Past.