Tonight wasn’t supposed to be about web-slinging or skull-cracking. Instead, this was going to be an evening spent taking a family portrait at a creepy house to pay the bills. Before Peter knows it, it turns into a night where he must face off against 99 of his fiercest foes one after the other. This underlying premise makes Spider-Man: Fight Night sound a fever dream, and it kind of is for better or worse.
Thought to have been dead for quite some time, Lady Deathstrike makes a mysterious return in X-Men Vol. 2: Muertas. This time, she and her new Sisterhood are out to modify their bodies into the ultimate killing machines. Can Jubilee, Storm and the others put an end to their devious plot before it’s too late?
Over the years, Batman has overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. But in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, he faces his most imposing challenge yet: Father Time. No, that’s not the name of a B-list villain, but the actual passage of time itself. In this book, a 55-year-old Bruce Wayne dons the cowl for the first time in a decade in order to protect Gotham once again from evildoers. Does he still have any gas left in the tank?
I don’t know if “courage” is the right word here, but it surely took some effort on my part to give Sex Criminals a chance. Despite the fact that it’s not a story that exists for the sake of arousal, and the fact that it’s nominated for best ongoing comic series of the year, overcoming the stigma that comes with the subject matter wasn’t easy. Even after buying the book and deciding to read it on the train, it got immediately weird to read this when Steff left my side and a stranger sat beside me. Going forward, I’ll probably read this at home, but I’ll gladly keep reading the series if it can sustain this level of quality.
Still reeling from the chaotic events that took place during the Battle of the Atom, the time-displaced X-Men and Kitty Pryde complete their side switch in All New X-Men Vol. 4: All Different. They don’t get much time to settle down though, as a distress call from Florida takes them to a modern X-Men member in need and the evolution of a past threat.
Up until his appearance in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Iron Fist was an unknown quantity to me. Even in that game, his presence is scarce, as he’s widely recognized as being one of the worst in the game. Still, his appearance in that game was enough for me to try out Iron Fist: The Living Weapon #1. This issue establishes the troubled past of Daniel Rand while throwing him in the mix of a conflict with ninjas. It’s by no means bad, but I don’t think it’s all that great, either.
The war against Cassandra Nova may be over, but there’s still much work to be done if you’re one of the X-Men. In New X-Men Book 4, the team is split up into different parts of the world to help bridge relations between man and mutant. This book in the series bucks the trend of tight casts and focused stories for shorter arcs and way more characters. The more, the merrier, right? This sadly isn’t the case here.
After a disturbing John Sublime diversion took precedence in Book 2, New X-Men Book 3 shifts the focus back to Cassandra Nova. Having taken over Professor X’s body before heading off to space with Lilandra, she begins her latest assault on mutant kind with unthinkable weapons at her disposal. Have the X-Men finally met their match?
Sporting a smile that only a mother could love, the cover of Joker by Brian Azzarello has always caught my eye, even before I began reading comic books. Giving it nothing more than a glance for years, I finally decided to act on it for three reasons:
After reading it, I’m not sure what to make of a book that seemed like a sure-fire hit.
As an peripheral fan of Spider-Man, I never thought much of Kraven. Watching him on the 90s Spider-Man cartoon, I always saw Kraven as a second-rate villain meant to fill in the gaps between Green Goblin and Venom stories. Released as a six-issue event spanning three different Spider-Man comic lines, Kraven’s Last Hunt is meant to represent the Russian hunter’s finest hour. I haven’t read enough Spider-Man to say otherwise, but this might also be one of Peter Parker’s best as well.
In Third Person 