Welcome
Welcome to From the Long Box!
On this site, I review comic books in my collection. The order of the reviews is randomly generated from my database of issues—mostly so that I don't have to choose specific issues to review, but also so that I may be pleasantly surprised by each issue.
Currently, my plan is to provide a new review each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We'll see how long I can keep up that pace. (Some reviews may appear slightly ahead of schedule.)
Recent Posts
Grendel is a character that I’ve always found really interesting, partially because of the visual design of the character (and the various iterative riffs on that initial design), and partially because it’s a striking creator-owned franchise. Matt Wagner’s Grendel comics sprawl out from an initial crime tale of a man driven to violent success to that of a global empire and cult. Grendel Tales covers some of those later stories; “The Devil In Our Midst” is a story that takes place in a remote Antarctic station, like a kind of Grendel-flavored version of John Carpenter’s The Thing–complete with Jonah (the Grendel) having virus-infested blood that (unknown to Jonah) causes one of the station residents to explode.
Alright, another Astro City post! After the original six-issue series, Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, and Alex Ross began a new volume whose second storyline has remained, arguably, their best: “Confession.” The “Confession” story arc deals with a young man, Brian Kinney, who heads to Astro City from a small town to escape the hardships he’d experienced there (mostly dealing with poverty while his father, a doctor, worked thanklessly–often without pay–to help his community).
Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run might be the greatest X-Men run ever. Yes, I know people will argue that the Claremont/Byrne or Lee/Kirby era might be (or “definitely is”) better. I know some will say that Joss Whedon’s steaming garbage pile is superior. But they are wrong. Morrison cranked up the strangeness of the X-Men and, following the stylistic shift introduced with the X-Men films, really took the characters to incredibly interesting places…although I will confess that having Xorn turn out to be Magneto was a letdown.
For today’s post, we’ll look at the first issue of Geoff Johns’ run on Green Lantern. As a new series, you might expect that the comic provides a lot of exposition & setup for the epic story to come. It doesn’t really do that much if at all. The cover, painted by Alex Ross in his realistic style, features Green Lantern Hal Jordan flying among the clouds on a bright, sunny day, reaching out toward the reader.
Hey, a Mark Gruenwald issue of Captain America! And part of “The Bloodstone Saga,” to boot! But how well does it stack up to my memory? My youngest brother, Patrick, is far more of a Captain America fan than I am. I think it’s fair to say that he, like me, really digs the Brubaker era most of all (which brought us the Winter Soldier and the assassination of Steve Rogers).
As I’ve noted elsewhere, I own more Green Lantern comics than any other title/franchise, so I suppose it’s not surprising that the random selection of the comics I’m reviewing would hit multiple GL issues so early. Green Lantern 046 is smack in the middle of Geoff Johns’ epic space opera run on the character, so this issue is pretty much 100% action–a stark contrast to the laser-focused character development of some other comics I’ve discussed recently.
Starman was a comic by James Robinson, Tony Harris, Peter Snejberg, and other assorted artists in the mid-90s that told the tale of a young man named Jack Knight. Jack was the son of Golden Age (1940s)-era Starman Ted Knight and the younger brother of short-lived Starman David Knight. (There were a few other heroes who went by the name Starman, as well, but the Knight family really “owns” the role.) Jack had the hero role thrust upon him when his brother was murdered one night; Jack avenged his brother and decided to protect his city as his family had done.
While I am a huge fan of Kurt Busiek’s Astro City comic, I never really found myself getting into his run on Avengers (the second or third volume) while it happened. (I think at the time I was really into Bendis’ Daredevil and Morrison’s New X-Men instead, since they were more blatantly and fully pushing back against some of Marvel’s status quo.) At any rate, in retrospect, this issue is fantastic, but not because it’s an Avengers comic.
Daredevil is a character I’ve always thought was great, and this volume (running from roughly 1998-2011 or so?) is absolutely incredible. A blind superhero whose existence is anathema to his sworn profession as a lawyer? Sign me up. Oh, he’s also a Catholic? and wants to protect his neighborhood rather than the world? Yeah, this is the recipe for an amazing comic. I happened to begin picking up this particular series when Brian Bendis took over on issue 26, and I followed it for several years (until the mid-60s issues) and have been trying to complete the run since then.
I think that this might be the newest of all the comics I’ve reviewed so far. Green Lanterns is a series starring Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz, two novice members of the Green Lantern Corps, each saddled with their own hang-ups about being a hero. They were paired up by Hal Jordan and tasked with protecting Earth while he went out into outer space to locate the rest of the Green Lantern Corps (as they had gone missing at the time).
About me
I am a long-time comic book fan and an assistant professor of rhetoric and composition. This blog is meant to be part nostalgic journey and part low-stakes writing activity/exercise.