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Supergirl (2005) #42
I love how Kara’s got a backpack for traveling between New Krypton and Earth. It’s a fantastic detail. The issue opens on a low point—the revelation Sam Lane served under Sergeant Rock—but it quickly recovers. First it’s Kara telling Lois about killing Superwoman. It’s an excellent scene, even if Lois is being a bit of… 📖
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Supergirl (2005) #41
It’s another fast issue. Gates doesn’t reveal all about Lucy Lane being Superwoman (she dies so I figure it’s safe to spoil) but it’s pretty clear Sam Lane was having his daughter murder people in order to frame Superman. Did Thunderbolt Ross ever go that far? The problem with Supergirl so far is the villains,… 📖
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Supergirl (2005) #40
Okay, I did not expect that reveal for Superwoman’s identity. Gates does manage to reduce his supporting cast by at least two and maybe three here, so it’ll be interesting to see if he uses that opportunity to finally get Supergirl running on its own. But what he does with the Superwoman reveal is nice… 📖
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Supergirl (2005) #39
This issue is a very fast read. It’s solid, because it should be a fast read–it starts with Superwoman revealed to be a villain and continues to get Supergirl up to speed on that point. Gates manages to get in some decent moments. The way he establishes Lucy Lane isn’t particularly bad, just a jerk.… 📖
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Supergirl (2005) #38
Some revelations this issue. Well, for me anyway. First, Superwoman works for Thunderbolt Ross (sorry, Sam Lane–again, who ever said Johns’s Superman: Secret Origin was better in terms of continuity revising than Byrne’s Man of Steel? Not me). Second, she’s not Kryptonian. Do these revelations have anything do with Supergirl? I mean, the book’s called… 📖
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Supergirl (2005) #37
This issue’s a little bit better. There’s a lot of down time with Supergirl (why she wears make-up, I’m not sure–it’s a big Gates is a guy writing a female character moment) hanging out with Superwoman. The development of Supergirl being her mother’s pawn is a little weak and Gates doesn’t spend any time trying… 📖
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Supergirl (2005) #36
Ah, so it’s Supergirl’s mother who’s a psycho nut… Interesting choice. There’s some very nice Igle art this issue. He’s got a lot to do here–battle scenes, talking heads scenes, a memorial service. He does fine work. Maybe a little fast on Supergirl’s father dying, but still… nice work. As for the writing, Gates is… 📖
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Supergirl (2005) #35
Did anyone complain about Cat Grant being revised into a mean-spirited harpy? I mean, she’s the villain of this series. Well, maybe her and Supergirl’s parents. I’m not sure if Gates is going for it, but it’s very difficult to assume they’re benevolent. Being a New Krypton crossover, Gates has some goofy stuff in a… 📖
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Superman: New Krypton Special (2008) #1
Someone has pointed out Johns casting Lois Lane’s dad as a jingoistic, sadistic supervillain really just is… you know, the Hulk, right? I mean, someone besides me. It’s so startlingly uncreative, one has to wonder. This New Krypton Special does raise a couple interesting ideas—one is the People of Kandor being, well, basically stupid jerks.… 📖
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Supergirl (2005) #34
So now Superman has another LL in his life? This issue is my first Supergirl in a while (I wasn’t going to read the Ian Churchill stuff, sorry). Before I get to the writing, a moment on Igle. Igle manages to make the issue feel both iconic and human. He’s got these very cinematic talking… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #130
Wow, so Presents dropped Shane Oakley’s Stiltskin, one of the best things it’d published, before it finished? Swell. For a replacement, we get the endless Wanted Man, from McEown. McEown is a good cartoonist, though his writing is self-indulgent and seems only to serve putting topless little cartoon girls in his story. It’s a waste… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #129
Wow, Kelley Jones likes the phallic symbols doesn’t he? The character’s called The Hammer, but it doesn’t look like a hammer on his head… Anyway, it’s fine. Nice artwork, some decent scenes. The ending flops though. Stilkskin continues, this issue turning its dwarf protagonist into a porn star. It’s a change from Oakley, who didn’t… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #128
Wow. Dave Cooper’s Dan & Larry might be the most horrifying thing I’ve ever read. Cooper is creating this psychotic, awful version of the standard cartoon buddies. One’s a duck, the other’s a… something or other. And he does awful, awful things. Great art, amazing ideas… it’s awful and strange and wonderful. Metalfer is a… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #127
The issue opens with Brereton’s finish for The Nocturnals. It’s charming and light, which is totally at odds with the visuals. I guess if I’d known more about it, I would have had an idea where it might go. Some great art. Metalfer does not get any better this issue—Manoukian and Roucher somehow make their… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #126
It’s another big issue of Presents and a decent one. Brereton’s The Nocturnals looks real nice and reads well. He introduces a bunch of characters, but the protagonist’s plot is compelling. It’s often very funny. Schutz has a one page thing (art by Mireault and Bottenberg); it’s okay, if not special. Hedden and McPhillips have… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #125
It’s a fantastic issue. Zero Boy and Pander’s Jack Zero finishes up here, with a mildly unpredictable ending. The sensitivity the two give to the story is amazing. They manage to be both revisionist and iconic in their approach to the Western genre. It’s one of Presents’s best stories. Brereton starts a Nocturnals story. The… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 125 (October 1997)
It’s a fantastic issue. Zero Boy and Pander’s Jack Zero finishes up here, with a mildly unpredictable ending. The sensitivity the two give to the story is amazing. They manage to be both revisionist and iconic in their approach to the Western genre. It’s one of Presents’s best stories. Brereton starts a Nocturnals story. The… 📖
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The World Is Not Enough (1999, Michael Apted)
Denise Richards is not convincing as a nuclear physicist. That statement made, Apted might get her best performance ever in this film. It’s still awful. Her lack of charisma is painful; one has to wonder how Brosnan and Apted were able to put up with it, given the rest of the film’s considerable accomplishments. The… 📖
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The Invincible Iron Man Annual (2010) #1
Fraction opens with an Immortal Iron Fist reference, then the Mandarin kidnaps a movie director and his wife, holding them hostage until the guy makes a movie of the Mandarin’s life. The Mandarin is a megalomaniac—Fraction does a fantastic job making every single scene with the character disturbing. A couple factors drive the issue. First,… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents Annual (1998) 1997
For a Presents annual (or oversized special), this one has a lot of solid work. Pearson’s Body Bags is a fun diversion. The art’s great and the story moves. It gets a little visually confusing, but it’s good. And Verheiden (with Marrinan) finally produces a decent installment of The American. It’s a thoughtful story, very… 📖
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The Invincible Iron Man Annual 1 (August 2010)
Fraction opens with an Immortal Iron Fist reference, then the Mandarin kidnaps a movie director and his wife, holding them hostage until the guy makes a movie of the Mandarin’s life. The Mandarin is a megalomaniac—Fraction does a fantastic job making every single scene with the character disturbing. A couple factors drive the issue. First,… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents Annual 1997 (February 1998)
For a Presents annual (or oversized special), this one has a lot of solid work. Pearson’s Body Bags is a fun diversion. The art’s great and the story moves. It gets a little visually confusing, but it’s good. And Verheiden (with Marrinan) finally produces a decent installment of The American. It’s a thoughtful story, very… 📖
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Bottle Rocket (1994, Wes Anderson)
It’s sort of hard to differentiate this Bottle Rocket from the subsequent feature. It looks like Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson had been working on parts of the script for a while (a handful of scenes appear verbatim in the feature) and, in a lot of ways, the short plays like an extended trailer. As… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger (2010) #8
Cornfields. It ends in a cornfield. I’m not sure there’s anything more perfect. Well, obviously, not being canceled would be more perfect, but for what they have to do… Langridge and Samnee end it beautifully. The issue does not play like a final issue (I’m assuming Marvel did not give them time)—the big bad is… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger (2010) #7
It’s hard not to be depressed. And not just because Langridge ends on the series’s first (and last) real cliffhanger. This issue is the second-to-last Thor: The Mighty Avenger. Langridge opens the issue with Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beeker (I suppose Samnee does have something to do with it). Things weren’t working out in the… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger 8 (February 2011)
Cornfields. It ends in a cornfield. I’m not sure there’s anything more perfect. Well, obviously, not being canceled would be more perfect, but for what they have to do… Langridge and Samnee end it beautifully. The issue does not play like a final issue (I’m assuming Marvel did not give them time)—the big bad is… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger 7 (February 2011)
It’s hard not to be depressed. And not just because Langridge ends on the series’s first (and last) real cliffhanger. This issue is the second-to-last Thor: The Mighty Avenger. Langridge opens the issue with Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beeker (I suppose Samnee does have something to do with it). Things weren’t working out in the… 📖
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Sour Grapes (1998, Larry David)
Sour Grapes has its moments, unfortunately all the funny ones belong to Orlando Jones. Jones is one of the peripheral characters, maybe the only successful peripheral character in the film actually. As a precursor to David’s far more successful “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Grapes shows how necessary a proper delivery method is for David’s humor. Here,… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger (2010) #6
The issue ends with Thor and Jane’s first kiss. I wasn’t sure it was going to because Langridge was hinting at it a couple times and it didn’t happen. The last few pages, leading up to the kiss, are some great talking heads stuff. Except Samnee doesn’t just do talking heads, he does these medium… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger (2010) #5
Langridge ought to write the Marvel story bible on how characters should be portrayed. His Namor is at once more regal and more human than any other portrayal I’ve read. Langridge’s Namor isn’t the mass anarchist (or a jerk) and it makes for a great guest appearance. Interestingly, in the same issue, we’re treated to… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger 6 (January 2011)
The issue ends with Thor and Jane’s first kiss. I wasn’t sure it was going to because Langridge was hinting at it a couple times and it didn’t happen. The last few pages, leading up to the kiss, are some great talking heads stuff. Except Samnee doesn’t just do talking heads, he does these medium… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger (2010) #4
This issue, featuring the Warriors Three—they’re checking up on Thor for his father, unaware he doesn’t remember the details of his banishment—might be the best issue of Thor yet. It’s hard to say. It doesn’t do much with the Thor and Jane romance, which Langridge is pacing beautifully, but it’s just such a joy… one… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger 5 (December 2010)
Langridge ought to write the Marvel story bible on how characters should be portrayed. His Namor is at once more regal and more human than any other portrayal I’ve read. Langridge’s Namor isn’t the mass anarchist (or a jerk) and it makes for a great guest appearance. Interestingly, in the same issue, we’re treated to… 📖
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The Thomas Beale Cipher (2010, Andrew S. Allen)
The Thomas Beale Cipher is, no doubt, a precious little film. It appears to use a technology similar to rotoscope, except instead of animation over the actors, Allen uses cutouts of patterns and various textures. The movement allows for it to appear three dimensional. As with most precious items, the style begs examination over the… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger 4 (November 2010)
This issue, featuring the Warriors Three—they’re checking up on Thor for his father, unaware he doesn’t remember the details of his banishment—might be the best issue of Thor yet. It’s hard to say. It doesn’t do much with the Thor and Jane romance, which Langridge is pacing beautifully, but it’s just such a joy… one… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger (2010) #3
It’s a Thor comic, but it’s kind of Henry Pym’s issue. Giant-Man and the Wasp guest-star this issue and Langridge goes far in giving them their nicest portrayal in many years. Flashbacks to Pym’s past bookend the issue; Langridge uses them to give the character a resonance totally unrelated to the events Thor’s experiencing in… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger (2010) #2
As much as I love Samnee’s art—and Mighty Avenger is, to some degree, all about Samnee’s art (he manages to capture the wonderment factor of superheroes, a lost art… even though it’s set in Oklahoma)—one cannot ignore Langridge. The issue opens with a great summary of the previous issue, then it continues a few hours… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger (2010) #1
Langridge’s approach is to make Jane Foster the lead, something I wasn’t expecting, but it makes perfect sense. Recasting Thor as a mute homeless guy (at least in her view) for half the issue was a little more questionable. As is the scene with Thor defending a woman’s honor against a ruffian… the joke, it… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger 3 (October 2010)
It’s a Thor comic, but it’s kind of Henry Pym’s issue. Giant-Man and the Wasp guest-star this issue and Langridge goes far in giving them their nicest portrayal in many years. Flashbacks to Pym’s past bookend the issue; Langridge uses them to give the character a resonance totally unrelated to the events Thor’s experiencing in… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger 2 (September 2010)
As much as I love Samnee’s art—and Mighty Avenger is, to some degree, all about Samnee’s art (he manages to capture the wonderment factor of superheroes, a lost art… even though it’s set in Oklahoma)—one cannot ignore Langridge. The issue opens with a great summary of the previous issue, then it continues a few hours… 📖
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger 1 (September 2010)
Langridge’s approach is to make Jane Foster the lead, something I wasn’t expecting, but it makes perfect sense. Recasting Thor as a mute homeless guy (at least in her view) for half the issue was a little more questionable. As is the scene with Thor defending a woman’s honor against a ruffian… the joke, it… 📖
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They Only Kill Their Masters (1972, James Goldstone)
I don’t know if I can think of a more mild mystery than They Only Kill Their Masters. It’s a solid vehicle for James Garner, giving him a lot of leading man stuff to do and a fair amount of internal conflict. But it’s so slight, so genial, it doesn’t leave much of an impression.… 📖