The now seemingly endless wait for the next Marvel Cinematic Universe film has got me thinking about the larger Avengers property in the movies, and what Marvel Studios can do with it now that the long-simmering Thanos storyline has finally come to an end. And if you ask me, there’s only one choice: 1986’s “Under […]
Previously, in Comics 101: We’ve been discussing the original Stretching Sleuth in recent weeks, Jack Cole’s Golden-Age creation for Quality Comics, Plastic Man. When we left off, Plas had acquired a sidekick in the affable if dimwitted Woozy Winks, and his creator Jack Cole was just beginning a decade-plus run on the character that would […]
Time for a “Back-in-my-day” moment: when I was first reading comics as a kid, there were certain characters that I only heard about and fleetingly saw, since reprints were scarce, back issues weren’t readily available (this was before comic shops, mind you), and the notion of the Internet was about as realistic as the computer […]
Editor’s Note: It’s been pretty dark, tense times lately, I think we can all agree, and so I really felt like spreading a little goofy fun instead. Enjoy this lost entry from the COMICS 101 Archives: With Superman/Batman teamups on everyone’s mind these days, I myself have been thinking about a longtime favorite Batman teamup […]
With great movies like THE WINTER SOLDIER, CIVIL WAR and ENDGAME only days away, it’s easy to forget that Captain America didn’t always mean cinematic quality. Cap was in movie theatres as early as 1944, thanks to the 15-episode Republic Saturday-morning serial CAPTAIN AMERICA. Starring Dick Purcell, the serial pitted a shieldless Captain America (who […]
What do I love about Captain America? For one, he is a moral compass whose virtue extends beyond the confines of his book. Like all boy scout heroes, one can usually find their way if they’re willing to ask themselves, “What would Steve Rogers do?” It may seem a little naïve and childish, but having […]
By 1941, public opinion on whether or not the U.S. should get involved in the fighting in Europe was decidedly mixed. One place that wasn’t quite so conflicted was the comic books, particularly the comics published by Timely. Having already had a taste of success with Carl Burgos’ Human Torch feature and Bill Everett’s Sub-Mariner […]
For Those Who Came In Late: Last week, in response to the passing of writer Dennis O’Neil, we unearthed a lost entry from the COMICS 101 Archives exploring the early adventures of DC Comics’ Green Arrow, a.k.a. Oliver Queen, a bland if likable enough chap who bore a striking conceptual resemblance to DC’s most famous […]
So. We lost the great Denny O’Neil this week. I don’t know what i can add to the conversation that’s already out there about what a amazing writer and editor he was, and how much he contributed to comics as an industry and the culture as a whole. People who knew him better have already […]
To paraphrase the great George Carlin, all your house really is, is just a place to put your stuff. And since superheroes usually have some pretty cool stuff, and lots of it, their hangouts tend to be pretty sweet as well. But not always; for every Batcave or Fortress of Solitude, there’s a Hydrobase or […]
One of my favorite things about the San Diego Comic-Con is the “accidental discovery.” Sure, there are always plenty of things I’m looking for at the show, but oftentimes even better than that is the stuff I stumble across by accident, through sheer blind stinking luck. Such was the case a few years back when […]
So, for reasons I won’t get into here, I wound up watching the 1987 cinematic stinkeroo SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE over the weekend, for the first time since I saw it in the theatre upon its original theatrical release 33 years ago. And I have to admit: I didn’t hate it. I mean, […]
I keep a old-style comic-book spinner rack in my house, and I keep it packed full of old comics I’ve never read from the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, so I can always have the experience I had as a kid of walking up to the spinner and pluck out a brand-new comic. And when you […]
