For Those Who Came In Late: Last week, we introduced you to Spidey’s supreme homewrecker, Marvel’s answer to Old Scratch himself, Mephisto. We took a look at Mephisto’s first appearance in the pages of THE SILVER SURFER, and a supremely creepy Mephisto tale from John Byrne in the pages of FANTASTIC FOUR. However, the Mephisto […]
Ladies and Gentlemen…the Curriculum Vitae of Wanda Maximoff. The Scarlet Witch. Daughter of Magneto. Founding member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Birthed in the caves of Wundagore Mountain by a super-strong half-cow mid-wife named Bova (this seemed important to tell you) and imbued with mystic energies by the God known as Cthon. Deemed a […]
Not all comic-book superheroes derive their powers from radiation, toxic spider bites or mutated DNA strands—some are legitimately magical. Now, when I refer to magic, I don’t mean your standard pull-a-rabbit-out-of-a-hat-at-a-birthday-party magic, I’m talking otherworldly hocus-pocus. The kind that involves cheating death by joining your soul with Cthulhu’s next of kin. Challenging mythical creatures […]
Of the handful of Doctor Strange stories I read for Blastoff’s month of Sorcery and Magic, I connected most to The Oath by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin. It showed a Doctor Strange using his medical past as well as his magical skills to solve a problem and save his friend. As far as […]
So, magic is pretty much the coolest. It wasn’t until looking back on this Swamp Thing arc that I started to ask myself why so many of the most iconic and defining stories in geek culture deal with the use of magic. Harry Potter. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Hell, the Marvel and DC Universe […]
In the 1940s comics had established certain patterns. If a writer and artist were told to come up with a stage-magician crime fighter, as opposed to a costumed crime fighter, as opposed to a hard-boiled detective magical crime fighter, they pretty well knew what to do. Like magical characters, generally, there were three main sources […]
When it comes to magical and mystical bad guys in the Marvel Universe, there’s one who’s head and brimstone above the rest: Mephisto: With that in mind, let’s take a look back at the debut appearance of Marvel’s answer to Old Scratch himself. Back in 1968, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Stan Lee had finally given a solo […]
When you’re thinking about magic in comics – as folks who frequent such a website may be inclined to do – Swamp Thing is probably not the first book you think of. With folks like Doc Strange, Zatanna, and… well, pretty much the entire cast of Sandman running around the comicsphere, a slow-speaking Earth elemental […]
Despite often facing mystical foes throughout its history, the Justice League had always been lacking in any sort of sorcerous firepower, not having an in-house wizard or sorcerer among the membership. This would change in 1978, when Zatanna the Magician was inducted into the JLA. Zatanna was no stranger to the League, having guest-starred in […]
This month’s theme is “Sorcery and Magic,” which calls for an all-new banner from our Artist-in-Residence Elena Casagrande! Click the image to see it at full size!
Once upon a time they were numerous, and popular, and had significance in the history of comic books. Then, presto, they were all but gone, sucked into the black hole of the comic book Dark Ages. Outside of nostalgia pieces, only one remains and DC is trying to change even that. Yes, categories of heroes […]
In 1963, as Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were laying the groundwork for what would become the Marvel Universe, there were other books still being published by the company as well, remnants from the company’s days pumping out sci-fi and monster comics in the late ’50s and early ’60s. As Marvel editor Stan […]
