blogging by Andrew Wickliffe
Shawn McManus
The Man Called A-X 1 (October 1997)
The Man Called A-X is a strange and awful thing. It’s pronounced “A 10,” but “A ex.” I wasn’t sure it mattered, but then the hard cliffhanger reveals it does matter. The comic is a near future thing with androids. Marv Wolfman definitely saw Universal Soldier. He tries to be very topical with the Gulf […]
MoreSwamp Thing 116 (February 1992)
Guest writer Dick Foreman tries a little hard to be precious, but the issue’s still a success. Foreman and Shawn McManus tell a traditional boys’ story. A kid with a crappy, absentee father discovers a Swamp Thing body and plants a still living tuber. The tuber grows into something magical–Foreman doesn’t mention it, but the […]
MoreSwamp Thing 111 (September 1991)
Collins shows off a lot this issue. She turns the comic into a domestic–it’s young parents Abby and Alec bantering about the baby. Unfortunately Collins dumbs down Abby–she’s just a mom now instead of a development of her previous self; still, Collins writes new Abby well. But then the couple runs across a swamp ghost […]
MoreSwamp Thing 32 (January 1985)
McManus is back for a guest spot. Moore wisely follows up the previous story (saving Abby from Hell) with an interlude. A group of adorable, friendly little aliens comes to Earth in search of a new home. It doesn’t work out. While Moore still manages to make the issue significant, some of the happier parts […]
MoreThe Saga of the Swamp Thing 28 (September 1984)
When I started rereading Moore’s Swamp Thing, I became worried every other issue I would proclaim it the best issue of Swamp Thing ever. If I were reading it at the time, it might be acceptable… but twenty years later not so much. This issue concerns Swamp Thing dealing with the ghost of Alec Holland. […]
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