Tagged: Comics

Comic Covers of the Week: The Sensationally Savage SHE-HULK!

It’s no secret that She-Hulk has been one of my all time favorite comic book characters since the 1980s! Being that we are currently in the midst of her very 1st streaming series it only seemed appropriate to showcase a couple of my favorite covers from the original ‘Savage She-Hulk’ and ‘Sensational She-Hulk’ from the 80s. First we go SAVAGE! A brilliant cover illustrated by the legendary Michael Golden from 1980!

Next we go SAVAGE again with a sweet cover from iconic Hulk artist Dale Keown. This cool epic cover features her transformation into a grey ultra “Hulked out” version of the character, more in line with the more recent hefty beefy less feminine She-Hulk. A great one from 1989!

Comic Cover of the Week: All of a Sudden Everyone Loves MORBIUS?!!

MORBIUS!!! He’s suddenly all the damn rage! The C-list Marvel anti-hero is now generating major hype and I find it kinda hilarious that at all the Youtube/Nerd sites out there all supposedly so excited for their favorite character…….MORBIUS to hit the big screen!! Let’s face the facts here, to most except for die hard Marvel fans Morbius isn’t exactly anywhere near a household name. If I didn’t know otherwise I’d think they’d all been big fans for decades, it’d be like if I was claiming to be a die hard “Batroc The Leaper” fanatic. Most of these Youtubers/Nerd sites are simply told what to be excited about, and yeah contrary to popular belief, many of them didn’t have a damn clue who this “Living Vampire” dude was a couple months ago. But hey who am I to comment though, as John Campea would refer to me as simply a “Hobby Blogger”. Well due to all the sudden love for Morbius I thought it’d be cool to showcase a cover to for all of those big pop culture MCH hyping sites, who probably still think Morbius is some brand new character, here’s a classic cover, that actually features ‘Blade’ in his old school duds all the way back from 1974, Adventure Into Fear #24!

Comic Book Cover of the Week: The Christmas Witching Hour!!

Here’s a super sweet old school comic book cover from waaaay back in 1973! This super spooky Christmas horror issue of ‘The Witching Hour’ urges us to “never kill a Santa Claus” a truly classic cover filled to the brim with holiday horror. This largely forgotten horror anthology comic series ran for nearly 10 years from 1969-1978. Clearly inspired by the legendary EC comics ‘Tales from the Crypt’ this issue features some truly frightening Christmas horror imagery, particularly impressive for the era it appeared in…

Boy Oh Boy… ‘Iron Fist: Season 2’ Is On The Way?!

I’d been curious for a while what was going to happen to everybody’s least favorite Netflix dud superhero series ‘Iron Fist’. Well turns out we’re going to get a sequel to one of the most boring superhero adventures I’ve ever seen! Yeah, Iron Fist season one was truly a challenge to sit through, how the hell they were able to make a superhuman kung fu master with a glowing fist a bore is beyond me. So they’re gonna give this shit another whirl and the fact that they haven’t given up on it all together leads me to believe that they just MUST have some sort of redemption coming for our spoiled lil’ slightly annoying millionaire Danny Rand. Filming is set to begin soon and we’ve even got a new Iron Fist Season 2 promo pic!

I’ll check out the first episode when it hits BUT if things don’t get awesome within the span of that single episode I’m out!! There’s not much revealed thus far except that it’s rumored the incredibly lame “Steel Serpent” will return (whoopdeedoo) and that also the other villain will be a character called Tanya Parker, who’ll become a female assassin character from the pages of Marvel comics. In order for Iron Fist to capture anyone’s attention anymore on Netflix a few things need to happen. 

FIRST, As I mentioned earlier the first episode of season two has got to be fucking amazing. Period. If it starts off with some boring ass plot with Danny “Bland” Rand involved in some corporate BS at Rand Enterprises that no one gives a damn about it’s over. They need to start off with a big bang in episode one doing something we haven’t seen before in any of the Marvel Netflix stuff and they need to do it damn quick! No more boring ass shit like this please:

 

SECOND, the action better be off the rails this time around! I really couldn’t believe just how terrible the martial arts were executed in the first season. For a show who’s main character is a superhuman martial arts prodigy we got some serious boring ass, terribly executed, bland action sequences. This show needs to set the superhuman kung fu dial to eleven and bring us the most insane action sequences we’ve seen on the small screen. They should be taking notes on past movies from the likes of Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan & Tony Jaa, they need to watch ‘The Raid’ the night before filming. Seriously, it’s time to go the distance with Netflix Marvel, they’ve got the budget, so bring in a real kung fu choreographer and amp up the kung fu to crazy new heights. That alone will bring in the fans. A true spectacle is what this show needs badly. Check out this clip and seriously imagine Danny Rand doing some shit like this:

 

THIRD, I have a truly wild ‘n crazy idea Marvel…..PUT IRON FIST IN HIS DAMN COSTUME! Geezus, Marvel has got a lot to learn, when doing a show about a superhero, don’t be afraid to feature said superhero and his villains in their damn costumes from the comic book! What an idea huh?!!! Danny Rand was pretty damn boring in season one, make the dude a bit more compelling in season two and on top of that, I have an idea what might make him even more interesting-his fucking costume!!! The character will become so much more than some boring rich spoiled white dude if you give him his superhero duds. Even just adding the mask to his look generates a ton of excitement, imagine for a moment a new Netflix Batman series, but in it, Batman doesn’t wear a costume, it’s just Bruce Wayne running around town beating up bad guys in a Lexus he calls “The Batmobile”….are people gonna dig that?

 

LASTLY, tell a better story, the first season was fucking painful. Waaaay to long. Cut his show down to six or eight episodes tops. Give us a short, sweet action packed kung fu adventure. No more board room meetings and plots involving his lames ass corporation. Go to interesting places, leave the city behind even, I’m kinda tired of the setting of all these shows in New York, It’s getting sorta played out at this point. Let’s see some fantastical shit go down, as his character allows for things to go off the rails a bit more than say Jessica Jones, Cage & Daredevil. This shit isn’t rocket science, watch a couple rad kung flicks to see what will make this show work!!!

 

What do you think would make Iron Fist an interesting show? Am I way off base here or what?  At this point I think I’d rather watch this Iron Fist fan film! Way better kung fu action-seriously.

 

Creepy Comic Cover of the Week: The Sinister Scarecrow!

It’s October and we’re getting closer every day to Halloween 2017! That means “all things creepy” are totally on the table! Today I thought I’d post one of my favorite creepy comic covers from waaay back in my childhood (1983 to be exact), another awesome cover from the master Mike Zeck! I always loved this cover as it really resembles something straight out of an 80’s horror flick. Captain America is seen here totally defenseless, broken, chained up & being ravaged by angry crows while the legendary villain ‘The Scarecrow’ approaches!  Not to mention being chained in some sort of “Freddy Kruger” type boiler room. This is such a great era of Cap, Zeck never lets down with his stunning classic cover artwork and interior penciling. This one is a great blast from the past and a perfect addition to October’s Creepy Comic Book Cover of the week! They just don’t make em’ like this anymore…

R.I.P. Comic Book Legend, Len Wein….

Today we got the sad news that comic book legend Len Wein passed away at the age of 69. Len was most well know for co-creating The Swamp Thing, X-Men’s Colossus, Storm, Night Crawler oh and another character you might know… yeah, just a guy called ‘Wolverine’.

Those are some serious heavyweights. He worked closely with the likes of Berni Wrightson & Alan Moore as well on The Watchmen. He made an incredible footprint in the world of comics, thanks Len for all of the amazing adventures you’ve taken us all on…RIP

 

 

 

Is Marvel Comics Exploiting Diversity?

I’ve been seeing an increase  of stories recently online & on social media about Marvel Comics and it’s continuing sales slump. Most of the articles bring up the hot topic of diversity, some say that Marvel’s record low sales of their comics books are simply because of rising cover prices & lack of fresh new ideas for their characters. Others say that it’s directly due to it’s attempt at diversifying it’s star characters by changing their race, gender & sexual orientation. Most of their popular character’s titles have had a bit of a revamp lately, for instance Wolverine is now female, so is Thor, so is Iron Man, Cap is black, the Hulk is now Korean-American etc. etc. You get the point. Could these changes really be the reason why sales are down? Do people just simply hate diversity in the Marvel Comics titles?

I really doubt that it’s really that simple, though rising cover prices and lack of fresh ideas definitely doesn’t help their low sales. What I see personally happening is a bit of a trend within Marvel Comics that feels a bit insincere. I honestly don’t really mind that the traditional characters have been replaced but I do feel Marvel’s move to make all these changes to their most popular titles feels as if they’ve been exploiting diversity to make a quick buck. What I’m saying is that it feels like Marvel is just trying way too hard to be current on these topics rather than crafting interesting stories. I don’t believe you can simply take all of your money maker superhero titles, simply change their identities and expect them all to suddenly bring you boatloads of cash because you finally decided to make them more diverse. It’s just not that simple folks. Continue reading →

Comic Book Review: Black #3 Continues The Conversation…

I just checked out issue #3 of Black Mask’s controversial new series “Black” which tells a unique superhero story where only black people have superhuman powers. I’ve been pretty intrigued with the series so far & it’s interesting spin on the superhero genre. The series is produced by an all black team focusing on the continual racial tensions rising in our country. It tackles some tough scenarios where blacks are brutally abused and killed by white people and with all the media focus these days covering the racial divides this book fits in nicely with the current conversation that has been finally addressed and put into the mainstream.

That being said so far each issue has had a very similar theme and the tone of the book is dark and clearly angry. It reminds me a bit of the vibe that the X-men once had as mutants dealt with discrimination from the public who feared their superhuman powers and differences from “normal” humans. Issue #3 continues the story of an evil corporation looking to exploit the the superhuman powers of the teams main character by way of tissue sample. It makes you face some things you might not want to address normally in a comic and it’s likely going to start conversation in the comic book world amongst readers of all skin colors. So far I find it a solid read with some pretty sweet artwork to boot.
Continue reading →

Doom Patrol #1: A Comic For A Dangerous Human?

It’s been a long time since I picked up a DC title, a very very long while. However something inspired me to give Doom Patrol #1 from new DC imprint ‘Young Animal’ a shot. Young Animal is supposed to be like the edgier, quirkier, “indie” feel of the DC universe. It’s also self proclaimed as ‘comics for dangerous humans’. I guess what made me gravitate to try it was one of the several covers done by a personal favorite artist of mine, the legendary Brian Bolland and yearning for a cool superhero title to get into. So was this the answer I have been looking for? Is this storytelling really for “dangerous” humans?!

I’d say this was a decent first issue, more cute honestly than dangerous but still an entertaining and at the same time, empty read overall. It wasn’t the type of debut that punches me in the gut or anything and honestly I’m not quite sure I will be back for seconds next month. It’s got some sweet art by Nick Derington and some really unique covers to choose from. The story is a bit confusing and wierd, which I assume is on purpose. I mean this is the new hip and quirky Young Animal comic book right? So it better deliver the goods!

The story follows a young “quirky” (yeah that word again, I know) EMT named Casey Brinke and her partner as they rush across town in an ambulance to save a man’s life. It’s got an interesting moment where her partner analyzes the possibility of a separate universe happening inside of a gyro he’s eating. There’s also random explosions that happen around Casey who’s for the most part un-phased by the occurrences. There’s then a couple other random characters one hanging out inside of a abandoned building near a pile of bricks and another scene where a man in the woods is playing a keyboard. Then there’s a meeting of business men and women who’re from another planet talking about meat and Robotman being busted up into pieces by a garbage truck. There’s more random stuff that happens as well an I’m sure it will eventually make some sense and i’m probably not cool enuff to get it all. But you get the picture.


The book and new DC line is headed by Gerard Way from the band My Chemical Romance, a band I really just can’t stand. I really wasn’t a big fan of his Umbrella Academy either. That being said I could still see this new ‘hip’ Young Animal line of Comics likely taking off, but for me thus far it just isn’t my cup o’ Joe. It might all click later down the line – Sometimes it’s hard to get hooked off of a debut issue &  I’d be willing to give the next couple issues a shot, but with the high price of comics I’m sure I could find something else to take a risk on.

Comic Book Cover of the Week: Adventure the Dungeons with Peter Hsu!

Back in 1986 a cool little series came out from Aricel / Adventure Comics for those D&D nerds called The Adventurers! It was a great comic book jam packed with swords, sorcery, monsters galore and yeah…ninjas. My brother collected this series and though I was a Marvel & DC kid at the time I’d often sneak his much more daring and graphic indie comics any chance he’d leave the house. It was interesting as a kid learning that there indeed was more out there than the “big two”. This rad cover is from the first issue of The Adventurers by Peter Hsu and make no mistake each issue had incredible painted covers. I’m going to have to dig these out again cuz I’m feeling the need for some serious adventures lately!