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Superman: Secret Origin (2009) #3
DC never did a formal adaptation of the first Superman movie, so Johns gives it a shot here, with some modernizing and some adjustments for comic book continuity. The result, I suppose, depends on if you like the first Superman movie. Even with the silly Lex Luthor is a power mad bad guy (from Byrne)–it… 📖
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Superman: Secret Origin (2009) #2
The second issue, featuring the return of the Superboy and the Legion (at least in an origin retelling) to continuity, works a lot better. There’s still some stupid stuff. Instead of coming up with something interesting to do with Lana, Johns just has her get mad at Clark and storm off. And then the Lex… 📖
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Superman: Secret Origin 3 (January 2010)
DC never did a formal adaptation of the first Superman movie, so Johns gives it a shot here, with some modernizing and some adjustments for comic book continuity. The result, I suppose, depends on if you like the first Superman movie. Even with the silly Lex Luthor is a power mad bad guy (from Byrne)–it… 📖
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Superman: Secret Origin 2 (December 2009)
The second issue, featuring the return of the Superboy and the Legion (at least in an origin retelling) to continuity, works a lot better. There’s still some stupid stuff. Instead of coming up with something interesting to do with Lana, Johns just has her get mad at Clark and storm off. And then the Lex… 📖
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Misery (1990, Rob Reiner)
So back in 1990, ignorant, bigoted book burning fundamentalist Christian psychopath women were screen villains on par with Norman Bates (by some accounts). Now they’re presidential candidates. Misery actually owes quite a bit, in its third act, to Psycho. Reiner is no Hitchcock and he doesn’t try to be. His success, directing the film, has… 📖
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Superman: Secret Origin (2009) #1
Geoff Johns’s point seems to be to do another Superman origin retelling, this time integrating parts of Superman (Johns used to work for director Richard Donner), the “Smallville” TV show (Johns occasionally writes episodes for the show) and some of the stuff John Byrne left out of his Man of Steel origin retelling back in… 📖
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Spider-Man: Fever (2010) #3
What a nice finish. I’m not sure if Spider-Man and Dr. Strange have any real comics history between them–besides being New York heroes who traditionally weren’t members of the Avengers–but McCarthy makes it seem like they ought to. Even with the discrepancies in the colloquialisms–one panel Spidey’s using seventies slang, then sixties in the next… 📖
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Spider-Man: Fever (2010) #2
Well, the first issue was certainly no fluke. Here, set entirely in some magic dimension, McCarthy lets loose with both the art and the storytelling… almost immediately finding the humanity in it all. He sets Spider-Man on a quest to kill a fly. Kind of a human fly (its soul is human). The story itself… 📖
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Spider-Man: Fever 3 (August 2010)
What a nice finish. I’m not sure if Spider-Man and Dr. Strange have any real comics history between them–besides being New York heroes who traditionally weren’t members of the Avengers–but McCarthy makes it seem like they ought to. Even with the discrepancies in the colloquialisms–one panel Spidey’s using seventies slang, then sixties in the next… 📖
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Spider-Man: Fever 2 (July 2010)
Well, the first issue was certainly no fluke. Here, set entirely in some magic dimension, McCarthy lets loose with both the art and the storytelling… almost immediately finding the humanity in it all. He sets Spider-Man on a quest to kill a fly. Kind of a human fly (its soul is human). The story itself… 📖
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Spider-Man: Fever (2010) #1
Maybe I don’t give Marvel enough credit. I mean, really… Spider-Man: Fever is a wacky book. It’s a good comic–but there are some pacing issues and maybe McCarthy could use a co-writer, but it’s also a really wacky comic. McCarthy’s art is a little mixed media, but it’s mostly sixties influenced figures over some very… 📖
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Spider-Man: Fever 1 (June 2010)
Maybe I don’t give Marvel enough credit. I mean, really… Spider-Man: Fever is a wacky book. It’s a good comic–but there are some pacing issues and maybe McCarthy could use a co-writer, but it’s also a really wacky comic. McCarthy’s art is a little mixed media, but it’s mostly sixties influenced figures over some very… 📖
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Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010, Lauren Montgomery)
Kevin Conroy has been doing the Batman voice for, off and on, almost twenty years. If his work in Apocalypse is any indication, he’s gotten a little tired of it. At least there’s only one aspect of a phoned-in voice performance. Some of it might be the awful script from Tab Murphy (probably taken verbatim… 📖
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Solomon Kane (2008) #5
Finishing this series–I’m somewhat convinced Guevara used the whole thing as an audition piece to Marvel, in case they ever relaunch Monster of Frankenstein–I can’t figure out, first, why I wanted to read the sequel or, second, how I could forget how awful the series ends. I mean, if the fourth issue was the high… 📖
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Solomon Kane (2008) #4
Allie does an all action issue and it’s easily the best Solomon Kane so far. He actually manages to surprise with the big revelation–the bad guy might be a were-bear devil worshipper, but there are four more demons flying around and, presumably, Kane will fight them. But Allie also makes everyone but Kane, his sidekick… 📖
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Solomon Kane 5 (February 2009)
Finishing this series–I’m somewhat convinced Guevara used the whole thing as an audition piece to Marvel, in case they ever relaunch Monster of Frankenstein–I can’t figure out, first, why I wanted to read the sequel or, second, how I could forget how awful the series ends. I mean, if the fourth issue was the high… 📖
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Solomon Kane 4 (January 2009)
Allie does an all action issue and it’s easily the best Solomon Kane so far. He actually manages to surprise with the big revelation–the bad guy might be a were-bear devil worshipper, but there are four more demons flying around and, presumably, Kane will fight them. But Allie also makes everyone but Kane, his sidekick… 📖
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The Mummy's Curse (1944, Leslie Goodwins)
The Mummy’s Curse feels like a Universal attempt at a Val Lewton picture. It’s from 1944, so Lewton’s modern horror pictures had already come out. It’s hard to believe Universal changed their approach to monster movies so radically between this picture and the previous Mummy entry. Curse is set on the bayou in Louisiana (Lewton… 📖
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Solomon Kane (2008) #3
Finally, the comic starts to get interesting. And how does it get interesting? Allie gets as far away from Kane as possible. Instead, he spends almost all of the expository dialogue scenes–and action scenes (there’s really not much action in Solomon Kane, it’s usually just a bunch of people talking, maybe some trickery if the… 📖
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Solomon Kane (2008) #2
I’m not sure I can think of another comic book as reread-unfriendly as Solomon Kane. Allie’s script is all geared for the revealing the mystery. Nothing interesting happens along the way, just the setups for the various cliffhangers. I suppose Kane not being a particularly dynamic character has something to do with, but he’s also… 📖
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Solomon Kane (2008) #1
I’ve read Solomon Kane before, but wanted to reacquaint myself before reading its sequel (I’ve also since seen the movie, which I have an affection for). I remember the series goes downhill. Or it goes uphill. I guess I don’t remember it very well. I did remember the Mario Guevara artwork pretty well… how it… 📖
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Solomon Kane 3 (November 2008)
Finally, the comic starts to get interesting. And how does it get interesting? Allie gets as far away from Kane as possible. Instead, he spends almost all of the expository dialogue scenes–and action scenes (there’s really not much action in Solomon Kane, it’s usually just a bunch of people talking, maybe some trickery if the… 📖
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Solomon Kane 2 (October 2008)
I’m not sure I can think of another comic book as reread-unfriendly as Solomon Kane. Allie’s script is all geared for the revealing the mystery. Nothing interesting happens along the way, just the setups for the various cliffhangers. I suppose Kane not being a particularly dynamic character has something to do with, but he’s also… 📖
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Solomon Kane 1 (September 2008)
I’ve read Solomon Kane before, but wanted to reacquaint myself before reading its sequel (I’ve also since seen the movie, which I have an affection for). I remember the series goes downhill. Or it goes uphill. I guess I don’t remember it very well. I did remember the Mario Guevara artwork pretty well… how it… 📖
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Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010, Paul W.S. Anderson)
Anderson is clearly getting bored with the Resident Evil franchise at this point–even though he returns to direct (I imagine it was because it’s in 3D). Afterlife has three distinct beginnings, something I’m actually unfamiliar seeing. Having too many endings is one thing, but having too many beginnings… doesn’t happen a lot. The problem is… 📖
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Stumptown (2009) #4
The last page of this issue threatens more Stumptown in a really cute way. It’s on the movie theater marquee, with letters missing. I say threatens because I’ll probably read it and not enjoy it and not get anything out of it. I think I thought of about six ways private investigator could have gotten… 📖
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Stumptown (2009) #3
Did it take me three minutes to read that issue? I’m not sure. There’s nothing worse than a boring all-action issue. I suppose we get to hear about the big secret behind Stumptown’s mystery, but it’s pretty boring. Rucka has no talent for making the mundane seem intriguing. Mostly what he gives the reader this… 📖
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Stumptown (2009) #2
I’m mildly tempted to use this space to discuss innovative private investigator storytelling, specifically The Big Lebowski and “Eyes.” If you hadn’t guessed, Stumptown–as a detective story–has failed to make an impression. Right now, with Stumptown, I’m concerned with two things. First, is Dex gay? Second, does she know the guy her brother works with–I… 📖
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Stumptown (2009) #1
Hmm. It reads well. Stumptown definitely reads well. Rucka doesn’t go cheap on content either, it’s a solid length read for a modern comic book. He introduces a lot of characters, some backstory… he gets a lot done here. I like this Matthew Southworth art too. They’re clearly going for a gritty, realistic feel and… 📖
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Stumptown 4 (August 2010)
The last page of this issue threatens more Stumptown in a really cute way. It’s on the movie theater marquee, with letters missing. I say threatens because I’ll probably read it and not enjoy it and not get anything out of it. I think I thought of about six ways private investigator could have gotten… 📖
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Sparta U.S.A. (2010) #6
Well… crud. Lapham explains a lot of the backstory–poorly and needlessly–and then fills the rest of the issue with a useless fight against the Nazis. It’s not even good exploitation–if he’d done football players versus Nazis, for example, it might be something. Instead it’s just a standard resistance, followed by some more fighting. I think… 📖
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Stumptown 3 (April 2010)
Did it take me three minutes to read that issue? I’m not sure. There’s nothing worse than a boring all-action issue. I suppose we get to hear about the big secret behind Stumptown’s mystery, but it’s pretty boring. Rucka has no talent for making the mundane seem intriguing. Mostly what he gives the reader this… 📖
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Sparta U.S.A. (2010) #5
With one issue left, there’s no way Lapham is going to be able to explain everything. Especially not after this issue, when he reveals the bad guy to be the Pied Piper. Well, I suppose he could reveal it all to be a dream of Colin Farrell’s, which would make it the greatest comic book… 📖
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Stumptown 2 (December 2009)
I’m mildly tempted to use this space to discuss innovative private investigator storytelling, specifically The Big Lebowski and “Eyes.” If you hadn’t guessed, Stumptown–as a detective story–has failed to make an impression. Right now, with Stumptown, I’m concerned with two things. First, is Dex gay? Second, does she know the guy her brother works with–I… 📖
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Stumptown 1 (October 2009)
Hmm. It reads well. Stumptown definitely reads well. Rucka doesn’t go cheap on content either, it’s a solid length read for a modern comic book. He introduces a lot of characters, some backstory… he gets a lot done here. I like this Matthew Southworth art too. They’re clearly going for a gritty, realistic feel and… 📖
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Sparta U.S.A. (2010) #4
Maybe Timmons just really wanted to draw swastikas? Lapham has gone far without explaining anything at all about Sparta‘s setting; it’s modern day but there aren’t any cellphones so far and there’s no internet. So when the bad guy shows up at the end with a bunch of Nazi stormtroopers, I’m not sure what to… 📖
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Sparta U.S.A. (2010) #3
Lapham doesn’t really increase the cast numbers here, but it all of a sudden seems a lot more complicated. The comic relies a lot on the logic of the place and Lapham’s plotting this issue concentrates the attention on that logic. He should be skirting over it, since it’s not particularly comprehensive… at least not… 📖
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Sparta U.S.A. (2010) #2
Well, I’m still completely confused–there’s a lot of magical stuff going on, fairy-tale type stuff (I think that’s Baba Yaga making an appearance in one panel)–but it’s really quite good. I’ve sort of ignored Lapham’s output since he’s slowed or stopped Stray Bullets (does anyone know for sure?), but there’s something really nice about Sparta… 📖
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Sparta U.S.A. (2010) #1
Talk about going into something cold. I had less than no idea what Sparta U.S.A. is about before reading this first issue–I also didn’t know the lead character is played by Colin Farrell (someone needs to hire artist Johnny Timmons to do licensed comics; if he can do Farrell without it being based on a… 📖
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Sparta U.S.A. 6 (October 2010)
Well… crud. Lapham explains a lot of the backstory–poorly and needlessly–and then fills the rest of the issue with a useless fight against the Nazis. It’s not even good exploitation–if he’d done football players versus Nazis, for example, it might be something. Instead it’s just a standard resistance, followed by some more fighting. I think… 📖
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Sparta U.S.A. 5 (September 2010)
With one issue left, there’s no way Lapham is going to be able to explain everything. Especially not after this issue, when he reveals the bad guy to be the Pied Piper. Well, I suppose he could reveal it all to be a dream of Colin Farrell’s, which would make it the greatest comic book… 📖