For those who came in late: In previous installments of Comics 101, we’ve explored the origins of the 1940s Hawkman character, as well as his 1960s counterpart. When last we convened, the question was: How would Hawkman fare in the wake of DC Comics’ sweeping editorial restructuring of their universe? The answer: not well. Luckily, […]
For those who came in late: In previous installments of Comics 101, we’ve explored the origins of the 1940s Hawkman character, as well as his 1960s counterpart. When last we convened, the question was: How would Hawkman fare in the wake of DC Comics’ sweeping editorial restructuring of their universe? The answer: not well. Throughout […]
Julius Schwartz had found a formula, and he was not letting go of it. The DC Comics editor had spearheaded a revival of the publisher’s line of superhero comics, which by the mid ’50s had dwindled to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, with second-stringers like Aquaman and Green Arrow hanging on as backup features. Starting […]
The enormous feathered wings. The bare chest with the crossed straps. The freakish-looking beaked mask. “He fights the evils of the present with the weapons of the past.” There’s no two ways about it. In its purest, most visceral form, Hawkman is just plain cool. How then did DC Comics manage to screw up this […]
So I’ve lived in Los Angeles for almost twenty years now, and I had no idea the Batcycle was only 10 minutes away from my house. Allow me to explain. I had the pleasure last Sunday night of attending the premiere party for ’66 BATMAN MEETS THE GREEN HORNET, the new comic by Ralph Garman […]
Bryan Singer’s X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST was not a film I was particularly looking forward to, mostly because of how much I enjoyed Matthew Vaughn’s X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, and had been hoping to see Vaughn carry on with the adventures of his X-Men. Which is why FUTURE PAST came as such a genuine surprise, […]
Being a longtime fan of Marvel and DC characters is kind of like being a lifelong fan of your local sports team: there’s going to be long periods of time when your team’s not doing well, and you just have to live with it and wait it out till that day when fortunes change and […]
The 2014 WonderCon has come and gone, and once more it’s shown itself as my favorite convention of the year. With the right mix of comics dealers, vintage toy sellers, art galleries and a large and thriving Artists’ Alley and small-press area, and minimal invasions from video-game companies or Hollywood movie studios, WonderCon hits exactly […]
For even the most generous Marvel fan, it had to be admitted that AGENTS OF SHIELD had been a little…underwhelming. Not that it was entirely their fault. The expectations coming into the series premiere were sky-high, following the unprecedented success of THE AVENGERS in the theatres, the unexpected embrace of the Agent Coulson character as […]
The Marvel Studios movie machine just keeps rolling without a single stumble on the path, as evidenced by CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, an immensely satisfying film that is not only true to its characters and the source material, but turns over the tables on the world-building they’ve so successfully done over the course of […]
PREVIOUSLY, IN COMICS 101: When last we left our history of Marvel’s Black Widow, she’d made the journey from Soviet spy to super-villain to Avengers associate, and even been a card-carrying Avenger fir about an hour and a half before leaving the team once more to return to the West Coast and her relationship with […]
It’s a wild world we’re living in today, kids. A cinematic superhero-saturated world, where the headlines are filled with not only what superheroes will be coming to the silver screen this summer, but even the first, merest glances of next year’s superheroes are big news. Case in point: the Internet broke wide open yesterday with […]
I know I’ve been promising a return to the Black Widow history, but I’ve been running into repeated encounters with what Marvel used to call the Dreaded Deadline Doom. Meaning it’s either new Black Widow columns now, or new STAR TREK comics on the shelves in the summer. So, to hold you over until next […]
