Fantastic Four #525–526 + #551–553 and #544–550 by Dwayne McDuffie & Paul Pelletier and Karl Kesel & Tom Grummett I like the Fantastic Four: stories about exploring the edge of narrative imagination and about family appeal to me. However, creators don't always get this mix right, resulting in some less…
I'm not sure I completely understood The Nines, the 'psychological thriller/drama' by writer John August in his directorial debut, but I did enjoy it. Here's what I thought it was: I think it was a meditation on the writing process, about the creator and his interaction with his creations, the…
Wolverine #26–32 by Mark Millar, John Romita Jr and Kaare Andrews This collection is the second half of Millar's run on Wolverine (the first half of which I enjoyed). It starts with the origin of the villain of the piece, Gorgon, in an effort to hype up his bad ass-ness.…
Checkmate #1–7 by Greg Rucka (1–5), Rucka/Nunzio DeFillipis/Christina Weir (6, 7), Jesus Saiz (1, 2, 4, 5), Cliff Richards (3, 6, 7) Even though Checkmate revives a previously used concept in the DC Universe (of which I have almost no knowledge apart from the John Ostrander Suicide Squad), these new…
Origin #1–6 by Bill Jemas, Joe Quesada, Paul Jenkins (plot), Paul Jenkins (script), Andy Kubert (pencils), Richard Isanove (digital painting) If you've read this blog before, you might have picked up on the fact that I entered the world of mainstream American superhero comics via the X-Men, specifically Chris Claremont's…
The dreariness of a bank holiday Monday in an English summer can have an affect on a person's mood. It certainly permeated through to my recent blogging attitude or, rather, my consumption of material. Don't get me wrong; I still enjoy comic books, films, comedy, books, but sometimes the product…
I was delighted when I heard that not only Hellboy was getting a sequel but also that it would be directed by Guillermo del Toro. Although the first film wasn’t a brilliant film, it was a brilliant adaptation of the comic book to film, with spot-on visuals and a perfect…
Written by Bill Willingham, art by various. One of the magical (if you'll pardon the pun) things about comics is that they can do just about anything: anthropomorphised rabbit samurai in feudal Japan, a barbarian aardvark, a former preacher with the voice of God whose best friend is a vampire,…
Captain America #1‒7 by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Michael Lark and John Paul Leon I have read some Captain America comics in my time, as well as comics with Cap as a central character in a team, but I've never really connected with the character. For this reason, I didn't…
By Mike Carey This is book 3 of the Felix Castor series, and Carey is maintaining the quality in this adventure of the London exorcist. The setting and threat level is perfectly balanced; I was slightly worried when I read that Carey was taking the character to the USA because…