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New X Men 144

Thu, Dec 8, 2016
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.

Captain America 358

Fri, Dec 2, 2016
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).

Avengers (1998) 062

Thu, Nov 24, 2016
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 075

Tue, Nov 22, 2016
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.

Doctor Strange 072

Tue, Nov 15, 2016
First, a note: my random number generator seems to keep pointing me to issues numbering in the 70s. An interesting trend so far. Okay, so, more Doctor Strange! And this time, it’s from the 1970s-80s series (a predecessor to the series discussed in my earlier Doctor Strange review). The cover to Doctor Strange #072 shows Doctor Strange, with an absolutely metal beard, wrapped in the tentacles of some green Lovecraftian creature whose limbs and cilia are writhing about.

Marvel Comics Presents 072

Thu, Nov 10, 2016
Marvel Comics Presents (or MCP) is a series that interested me for the longest time: it was an anthology comic that tended to have four stories (each 8 pages) of varying length, by which I mean that one story might have 8-10 parts, another might have 4-6, another might only be a single 8-page story, and so on. So a reader was likely to get some really fascinating story turnover in any given collection of issues.

Namor, The Sub-Mariner 014

Wed, Nov 9, 2016
Namor, The Sub-Mariner was the first comic for which I ever had a subscription (my subscription was from issue 18-29). I don’t recall all the details about this, but I know that we had some sort of postal issue that prevented me from getting an issue or two initially, so my dad and I called Marvel. It turned out that they were having a Christmas party at the time, and Stan Lee himself picked up the phone.

Cable 011

Wed, Nov 2, 2016
Today’s review features Cable, a character that, along with Deadpool, has somehow managed to survive the ‘90s boom that spawned him. I was never fully sold on the extreme nature of the Liefeld X-Force, but I suppose I get why Cable remains interesting to many. He was, for some time, the consummate 1980s action hero ideal, a “mystery man” and “tactical badass” that speaks directly to the fantasies of the stereotypical superhero comic consumer.

Master of Kung Fu 071

Sun, Oct 30, 2016
Shang-Chi, the master of kung fu, is one of Marvel’s greatest martial arts characters, and one who was born during the company’s 1970s-era efforts to exploit the martial arts movie craze (although I admit I’m a bigger fan of Shang-Chi frenemy Shen Kuei, “the Cat”). This series is definitely a reflection of that time, and it’s Doug Moench’s magnum opus (although, sadly, this particular issue doesn’t feature Paul Gulacy, whose work meshed excellently with Moench, although the artist here, Mike Zeck, also does a solid job with the kung fu/espionage style the book goes for).

Journey Into Mystery 646

Fri, Oct 28, 2016
Journey Into Mystery was the comic in which Thor first appeared, and it’s awesome that Marvel revived this title in order to make space for Asgard tales (the “Tales from Asgard” in the back of older Thor comics were great, but wayyyyy too short to enjoy thoroughly). I remember buying this comic from a dollar bin in 2014 or maybe 2015. The cover alone made it worth the price: Lady Sif looks totally badass, striding directly toward the viewer in a suit of battle armor—mostly practical, too!