Monday 28 March 2011

One week hiatus.

Due to various factors the blog will be delayed by one week.

Check in next Monday for a review of 'Morning Glories: Volume One'!

Monday 21 March 2011

Superman: Earth One

Superman: Earth One- By J. Michael Straczynski


In 2009 award winning writer J. Michael Straczynski left Marvel Comics, for whom he had been writing since 2001, and began working for rival company DC. Straczynski’s stint at Marvel was highly successful, his long run on Spiderman is considered by some fans, including myself, to be one of the best Spiderman runs ever and the same can be said for his Thor run, which in my own humble opinion is one of the best runs on any ongoing series in the last decade.

And what of Straczynski’s work at DC? Well, between leaving Marvel and coming to DC something appears to have happened to Straczynski, as if a part of himself were lost along the way. Straczynski took over writing duties for both Superman and Wonder Woman’s monthly ongoings and by god was the comic community excited. Then they came out.

Monday 14 March 2011

Avengers Assembled: Part Two

Secret Avengers - Volume 1: Mission to Mars- By Ed Brubaker

Secret Avengers - Volume 1: Mission to Mars

Those of you who read and paid attention to part one of this review may have noticed that despite Steve Rogers forming an Avengers team he wasn’t actually a part of it, his successor as Captain America, Bucky Barnes, was. So now you might be asking yourself, ‘Well then, what’s Steve doing?’ The answer is simple, not all the threats to the world can be punched in the face by the Avengers, some of them have to covertly punched in the face, hence the Secret Avengers.  

Designed to be a shadowy black-ops counterpart to the Avengers, the Secret Avengers are a pre-emptive strike force, eliminating potential threats before they get out of hand and New York becomes a battle ground for the thousandth time. Just behind the main Avengers book this title was the second most exciting book in the re-launch as far as I was concerned and unlike Avengers this book hasn’t let me down.

Monday 7 March 2011

Avengers Assembled: Part One

In early 2010 Marvel published the 4 issue event ‘Siege’, a story that ended an almost decade long saga of storylines, largely focussed on the Avengers, which had begun with ‘Secret War’ back in 2004. The villains that had tormented the Marvel Universe were vanquished, at least for the moment, and the Heroic Age began. 

Along with the arrival of the Heroic Age the various Avengers books ended and the Avengers franchise was re-launched, heralding the first time in over five years that new readers come begin reading Avengers books without fear of stifling amounts of continuity. In this two part first review I’ll be looking at the first volumes of each of the four current Avengers ongoing series, Avengers, New Avengers, Avengers Academy and Secret Avengers.

The problem is that this jumping on point is only of any use if any of the new books are any good, so the question I intend to answer is “are any of the Avengers books worth reading?”


Avengers Volume 1- By Brian Michael Bendis