Tag Archives | Comics 101

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In Focus: The Jury of Super-Enemies

I think I’ve mentioned in these pages before that one of my favorite things about the San Diego Comic-Con is the annual back-issue crawl that fellow C101 columnist Chris Ryall and I make on Sunday afternoon. Quickly filing through aisles and aisles of quarter and dollar longboxes, it’s the most prime example of comic-book Darwinism. […]

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Cap Flies Air Gangster

I love comics. And specifically, I love old comics. And even more specifically, I love old comics I’ve never read before, because you absolutely never know what you’re gonna find. Case in point: this year at the San Diego Comic Con, I found myself trying to put together a full set of Jack Kirby’s 1970s […]

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My Favorite Universe

So I signed up for HBO Max a couple of months back,  mostly to get access to the new Wonder Woman movie. Much to my surprise, HBO Max has quickly become my favorite streaming service, thanks to its sizable backlist of classic films through the TCM hub, something most other services are sorely lacking. Another […]

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Never a Bridesmaid, Always a Bride

A few years back, it was big news all around when Clark Kent and Lois Lane finally tied the knot, an editorial decision DC stuck with for a decade or so, before kicking over their universe and starting again with the New 52. What no one seemed to make much mention of was that this […]

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Gloom and Doom

If you just signed up for HBO MAX for the Snyder Cut of JUSTICE LEAGUE, do yourself a favor and check out an overlooked original gem the streamer offers: DOOM PATROL, starring White Collar‘s Matt Bomer as Negative Man, Brendan Fraser as Robotman and Timothy Dalton as The Chief. Since Doom Patrol is just about […]

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In Focus: With Friends Like These…

Let’s take a trip back to the heady days of the Silver Age of Comics, when the most important thing was how ludicrously attention-getting the cover of your comic book could be, and figuring out how to make sense of it on the inside was clearly secondary. Case in point? SUPERBOY #96 (April 1962), “The […]

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And Harry’s Wild About Me

I caught Sam Raimi’s SPIDER-MAN on TV the other night, and enjoyed once more the way Willem DaFoe and James Franco perfectly captured the fractured relationship between Norman Osborn (secretly Spider-Man’s arch-enemy the Green Goblin) and his son Harry, Peter Parker’s best friend and roommate. I was recently inspired to go back and take a […]

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In With the Tide, Part V

Previously, in COMICS 101: It’s been non-stop Aquaman around these parts in recent weeks, as we’ve been exploring the past of one of DC Comics’ ironically both most famous and least respected superhero characters. Last week we took a look at Aquaman the family man, with his surprising (for comics) marriage to Mera and the […]

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In With the Tide, Part III

For Those Who Came In Late: In recent weeks, we’ve been looking at DC Comics’ resident King of Atlantis, Aquaman. Last time, we were introduced to the first and only member of Aquaman’s supporting cast, Aqualad. However, soon even more folks would be added to the cast, although admittedly some were better ideas than others… […]

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In With the Tide, Part II

Previously, in COMICS 101: When last we met, we had begun our discussion of DC Comics’ own King of the Seven Seas, Aquaman. After a somewhat low-key start as a response to Timely’s Sub-Mariner, the character got a new lease on life after moving to a backup spot in ADVENTURE COMICS, where Arthur’s backstory was […]

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In With the Tide

Sometimes, success is all about being in the right place in the right time. Take for example, the characters most people consider DC Comics’s “Big Five,” thanks mostly to decades of TV animation reinforcement. You got your Superman. Biggest gun in the arsenal, of course he makes the cut. Batman and Robin. Probably the most […]

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In Focus: Going to the Chapel (Again)

We’ve had some fun here at Comics 101 in the past with Lois Lane’s propensity to marry, particularly in the 1960s, when it seemed like Lois was walking down the aisle every other month. In fact, we’ve had so much fun with it that we decided to specialize this year at Comic-Con, seeing how many […]

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Flying the Unfriendly Skies

With all kinds of news about returning Spidey villains in the upcoming new Spider-Man film, it seems like the perfect time to dust off this entry from a few years back about one of my favorite rogues: The Vulture! It’s been a while since we’ve had a really good Spider-Man movie (if you don’t count […]

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Welcoming the Future, Treasuring the Past.