Friday, 20 July 2007
The return...
After a long absence I am finally back. With exams out of the way and the summer ongoing (no sun though :( ) it's time to get back to blogging. Expect reviews and news shortly!
Tuesday, 1 May 2007
The Big Weekend
It begins Thursday! This weekend is big deal for us comic book fans. Not only does Thursday give us 4 action packed CEs but there is the release of the long-awaited Spider-Man 3 and this Saturday is Free Comic Book Day. So here's the schedule:
Thursday: Astonishing Spider-Man Vol 2 #2, Avengers United #79, Wolverine and Deadpool #136, anf Fantastic Four Adventures #25.
Friday: Spider-Man 3 out in cinemas, and the game also out on all formats. Got my Wii copy on preorder. :)
Saturday: FCBD offers a Marvel Adventures special and Phil Jimenez' first pencils on Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Swingshift. Other things to look out for are Umbrella Academy, Transformers: The Movie Prequel, and Astounding Wolf-Man #1.
Sunday: Read the comics and play the game!
Thursday: Astonishing Spider-Man Vol 2 #2, Avengers United #79, Wolverine and Deadpool #136, anf Fantastic Four Adventures #25.
Friday: Spider-Man 3 out in cinemas, and the game also out on all formats. Got my Wii copy on preorder. :)
Saturday: FCBD offers a Marvel Adventures special and Phil Jimenez' first pencils on Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Swingshift. Other things to look out for are Umbrella Academy, Transformers: The Movie Prequel, and Astounding Wolf-Man #1.
Sunday: Read the comics and play the game!
Wednesday, 18 April 2007
18 April Releases
This week it's a packed week, with four (count 'em) CEs in good newsagents and WH Smiths.
Panini are offering Essential X-Men #151 featuring parts 2-4 of Golgotha, MWOM #55 with the continuing Ghost Rider and Defenders stories and the start of Beyond!. Also the first issue of the second volume of Astonishing Spider-Man kicks off with Breakout parts 1 and 2 and the conclusion of Carnage.
Titan have Superman Legends #2 with the continuance of all stories.
Panini are offering Essential X-Men #151 featuring parts 2-4 of Golgotha, MWOM #55 with the continuing Ghost Rider and Defenders stories and the start of Beyond!. Also the first issue of the second volume of Astonishing Spider-Man kicks off with Breakout parts 1 and 2 and the conclusion of Carnage.
Titan have Superman Legends #2 with the continuance of all stories.
Sunday, 15 April 2007
Marvel Legends #5 Review
Firstly, sorry I got it wrong. The Iron Man and Thor stories conclude next issue, not this one. Now I got that out of the way...the review:
Captain America #5 - this issue was told almost primarily via flashbacks. The premise is we would see the beginnings of Alexsander Lukin and his campaign against Cap. We do, but not much else is revealed. The issue basically sees Cap and the Invaders help the Russian resistance against the Nazis. It also points out why Lukin hates Red Skull. It's a good issue, with a change of art by Daredevil artist Michael Lark though more progression could have been offered of the main story. Otherwise 8/10.
Iron Man - better than previous efforts, and actually quite enjoyable. Less unecessary dialogue and everything pretty much made sense. A change of regular artists from Chen to Martinez is not as polished but does the job well. 7/10
Thor: Bloodoath #5 - this was a fun issue as always, with a bit of a Deus Ex Machina device integrated as an apple - that must be a first. The art is beautiful as always, accompanied by the brilliant colours. 8/10
Overall 8/10.
Captain America #5 - this issue was told almost primarily via flashbacks. The premise is we would see the beginnings of Alexsander Lukin and his campaign against Cap. We do, but not much else is revealed. The issue basically sees Cap and the Invaders help the Russian resistance against the Nazis. It also points out why Lukin hates Red Skull. It's a good issue, with a change of art by Daredevil artist Michael Lark though more progression could have been offered of the main story. Otherwise 8/10.
Iron Man - better than previous efforts, and actually quite enjoyable. Less unecessary dialogue and everything pretty much made sense. A change of regular artists from Chen to Martinez is not as polished but does the job well. 7/10
Thor: Bloodoath #5 - this was a fun issue as always, with a bit of a Deus Ex Machina device integrated as an apple - that must be a first. The art is beautiful as always, accompanied by the brilliant colours. 8/10
Overall 8/10.
Wednesday, 11 April 2007
Out Tomorrow: Marvel Legends #5
Issue 5 hits shelves tomorrow with Captain America's ongoing conituining, plus the final parts of Thor: Bloodoath and Iron Man: Mask in the Iron Man. Not a big fan of Iron Man's story but this is one of the strongest CEs.
Tuesday, 27 March 2007
Monday, 19 March 2007
Thursday, 15 March 2007
Further Titan Nasties.....
The good thing about Batman Legends #4 is that they have included the 6-page fold out spread of the batcave. The bad thing is they included All-Star at all. At the end we simply get told it will return later this year. Wow at least someone is confident. Secondly, the letters suck. There are only 2, both positive. They even like Frank Miller's writing. Thirdly they desperately want you to buy Superman Legends so much that they have cut Superman/Batman from BL and stuck the last 2 parts in SL. w00t for Titan. Yay.
Tuesday, 13 March 2007
The Evils of Titan
Wow I've been gone from this a while (lots of uni work) but I was drew back when I saw the announcement of a JLA Collectors' Edition from Titan. Not only content with stealing the success of Panini's Batman Legends, Titan are now attempting to launch their own successful run on the UK market. Launching shortly are both Superman Legends and JLA Legends. I've never thought Legends was an entirely appropriate title anyway, seeing as it doesn't really convey much. The fact that the stories being printed are far from legendary negates the whole concept entirely. What Titan have failed at is establishing a good selection of material. They seem to want to be up to date printing entirely new stories some of which are so delayed that they mess up their own title. Where Panini succeed is they print comics from 2-3 years ago. No comic (expect a Kevin Smith one) is ever delayed that much so they can churn out the material with no worries. Anything they do print that's recent is generally a mini series, or a self-contained arc. Titan have already reached issue 4 of All-Star Batman and Robin and issue 5 isn't even out yet. How they will deal with #4's 6-issue pull out spread is also anyone's guess. Well we'll see on Thursday.
Collectors' Edition has always referred to the comic's goal to present material worth collecting. Not only modern stuff but classic comics. Under Panini's banner BL displayed a nice selection of the biggest modern tales along side the biggest classics, as well as rarer ones. Titan have 3 stories, All-Star is delayed (and a load of rubbish), Batman is only a few months behind the US and Batman/Superman is an obvious way to attempt to gain Supes fans. Incidentally this is their next CE. Well hey! Whaddya know? Now, I'm a massive Supes hater, so I obviously want this to fail, and I have little doubt that it won't. Superman isn't designed to have a UK following. I don't know whether he has held a UK comic book but if he has it was an obvious failure. SL will supposedly print All-Star, For Tomorrow and Last Son. Any Superman fan is likely to have all them anyway.
JLAL (god that sounds awful) will likely print the only-up-to-issue-6 JLA series, JLA: Classified and possibly Grant Morrison's realaunch from a few years ago. Which is stupid, they could get classics in ther. Still it sounds a lot better than Superman does.
The problem with all this is that WH Smith will be turned into a comic shop. Some may argue this is a good thing. Me, I see it as flooding of the market. Panini has 7 CEs plus Ultimate Spider-Man/X-Men. Titan will have 3. That's 11 comics. £2.60 a piece for Titans, £2.50 for Paninis (x2 for Spidey). There aren't many people who usually buy the CEs who could afford that. A lot of buyers of US comics probably don't get that many a month. Sure they are more expensive, and a CE has more stories, but they are 2 years old. This will cause people to pick and choose. One company will lose money another will possibly gain. Both could lose. It's speculation but this could burst the bubble.
Evil might be a bit strong but I don't like this at all.
Collectors' Edition has always referred to the comic's goal to present material worth collecting. Not only modern stuff but classic comics. Under Panini's banner BL displayed a nice selection of the biggest modern tales along side the biggest classics, as well as rarer ones. Titan have 3 stories, All-Star is delayed (and a load of rubbish), Batman is only a few months behind the US and Batman/Superman is an obvious way to attempt to gain Supes fans. Incidentally this is their next CE. Well hey! Whaddya know? Now, I'm a massive Supes hater, so I obviously want this to fail, and I have little doubt that it won't. Superman isn't designed to have a UK following. I don't know whether he has held a UK comic book but if he has it was an obvious failure. SL will supposedly print All-Star, For Tomorrow and Last Son. Any Superman fan is likely to have all them anyway.
JLAL (god that sounds awful) will likely print the only-up-to-issue-6 JLA series, JLA: Classified and possibly Grant Morrison's realaunch from a few years ago. Which is stupid, they could get classics in ther. Still it sounds a lot better than Superman does.
The problem with all this is that WH Smith will be turned into a comic shop. Some may argue this is a good thing. Me, I see it as flooding of the market. Panini has 7 CEs plus Ultimate Spider-Man/X-Men. Titan will have 3. That's 11 comics. £2.60 a piece for Titans, £2.50 for Paninis (x2 for Spidey). There aren't many people who usually buy the CEs who could afford that. A lot of buyers of US comics probably don't get that many a month. Sure they are more expensive, and a CE has more stories, but they are 2 years old. This will cause people to pick and choose. One company will lose money another will possibly gain. Both could lose. It's speculation but this could burst the bubble.
Evil might be a bit strong but I don't like this at all.
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