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Benton Grey reviews TMNT
Oct 15th
Howdy, guys! A while back I had heard that everyone’s favorite teenage mutants (no, not the X-Men, the green ones) were returning to comic books in a new series by IDW Publishing. That’s right, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were returning to the pulpy page. I was mildly interested in this, though I was mostly just happy to see another treasured 80′s property coming back in a manner that didn’t contribute to the defiling of my childhood that Hollywood has pushed to horrific new heights. I wasn’t terribly interested in buying the book, but the more I heard about it, the more my curiosity was piqued. Add to that the Turtle-mania that tends to grip me whenever I work on my own Ninja Turtles project, and I just couldn’t help myself. I had to pick up the first issue. I thought I’d take a bit of time and provide a review for anyone who might be on the fence about this series. More >
Highlight On: Project Superpowers
Feb 10th
Surprise, surprise. There’s a new highlight in town, and this time it comes to us from Benton Grey. Another surprise, it’s not 8 pages long or about Aquaman. Our little fishboy is growing up, ain’t he. What is he shining a light on this time? Well, it’s Project: Superpowers, so why don’t you give it a read and see if it interest you any?
Highlight On: The Middle Man Vol. 2
Feb 7th
The Middle Man Vol. 2
The Middle Man 2 #1 Cover
Forget the wackiness of Volume 1, it’s time for a whole new adventure. Wendy has successfully joined The Middle Man operation and has become his sidekick. Now, it’s time to train and obtain new information. What could possibly go wrong with that? Well, you should know by now never to ask that question. What could go wrong? How about having your sensei kidnapped by a gang of Mexican wrestlers seeking revenge? That’s not a normal thing is it? No, I didn’t think so.
Highlight On: The Middle Man
Feb 1st
The Middle Man Vol. 1
Cover by Les McClaine/Dean Trippe
Have you ever found yourself living in a world where things just seem out of the norm, and you’re the only one that notices? Well, what if you’re also completely un-shocked by the seemingly weird experiences, leaving one to believe that you had grown up with it and expected this sort of thing to happen more often than it actually does? No? You don’t have anything in your background that relates to the proposed hypothetical? That’s unfortunate, but it does give you a chance to live it vicariously through the eyes of Wendy, one of the main characters in Viper’s The Middle Man series written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and penciled by Les McClaine. Will this Buffy meets Men in Black series be for you? Check the review, you gosh darn crazies!
Highlight On: Reasonably Priced Comics
Jan 26th
Reasonably Priced Comics #1
Cover by Ionic
Can I just start out this review by saying that it’s nice when a company, especially a new one, honors its words right off the back. In this economy, keeping to your promises is like gold, and selling your product at $2.50 ($.99 for the high quality PDF download, which I happen to have) is something I can really get behind. This is an anthology series featuring three stories by various writers, but if you know me, then you know that I believe that most recent anthologies are really iffy. But I’m going to take my bias out of the equation and be as fair as I possibly can be because it’s the right thing to do. Also, I should probably judge everyone on their own merits, right?
Highlight On: Kid Houdini
Jan 26th
Kid Houdini & the Silver Dollar Misfits (FCBD)
Kid Houdini cover by Jack Lawrence
I found this book laying around in my bookshelf and because I want to bring attention to other creators and publishers out there, I decided to give this free comic written by Dwight Macpherson and drawn by Worth Cowell for Viper Comics a really good look. It also helps that this is marketed as an all-ages book. Finally, something the wee ones read. Yay! Going by the name and cover alone, I can expect to discover a story about a bunch of misfit children that may or may not deal with magic in a circus like setting. Am I right, or am I wrong? Well, let’s find out….
Highlight On: Killer of Demons
Jan 7th
Killer of Demons #1-3
Issue 1 Cover - Wegener, Strain
Ahh, I was totally gonna review this a while ago, but I never got around to it. Now that I have some free time, why don’t we take a look at yet another comic by scrivener Christopher Yost, drawn by Scott Wegener, that was written in 2009 and released through Image Comics. It’s called Killer of Demons, and if you couldn’t guess, it’s about a killer… of demons. It’s nice when a title actually reflects what’s going to happen in a book, isn’t it. Let me stop you right there and say this is NOT a miniseries for children, and it’s squarely centered in the teen/adult realm. Nothing wrong with that, right? Well, let’s crack open the pages and see what we have in store for us, huh?
Highlight On: The Legion of Superheroes
Jun 6th
It’s no surprise that my fellow modder and associate, John Jr., really loves his DC heroes, especially with several mods hosted on this site dedicated to them. While taking some time out of his schedule, JJ decided to write up a small passage about one of his favorite teams. Why don’t you take a gander, and you can find links after the tag. Enjoy!
Highlight On: Bucky Barnes
Apr 8th
The only constant in the world of comics is the illusion of change — anonymous
If the quote above is to be taken into consideration, then you wouldn’t expect anything shocking to happen in the world of comics. Well, a few years ago, the fan community was alarmed to find out that Captain America, aka Steve Rogers, was shot dead and he was going to be eventually replaced. Despite the fact that Captain America has died and has been replaced several times before, this particular instance struck a chord with people. Was it something truly unexpected? Was it the fact that Steve died in such a mundane way? Who knows, but it had fans taking sides and older fans spewing vitriol. Now that Steve is back and the mantle he once held is now secured by Bucky Barnes, I figured it’d be a great time to look at the transition the character of Bucky has made; and with that in mind, I sought out Brubaker fan, Murs of 47, to give us his thoughts. These… are his opinions and if you hate them… then he’ll be at the corner store on Monday. 
Highlight On: The Micronauts
Mar 16th
In the beginning was… Mego, and they made toys. They bought the rights to an awesome line and dubbed them The Micronauts. The first figure I bought was Time Traveler. He was released in different colors (I had the transparent blue one.) and came with the Ultronic Scooter. They had a very successful run, and as legend goes:
Marvel Comics writer Bill Mantlo’s son opened a new present, a line of the Mego’s Micronauts action figures. Bill Mantlo was instantly struck by inspiration to write their adventures. Convincing his editor-in-chief, Jim Shooter, to get the comics license for the toys, Mantlo was hired to script their series.”
“The Microverse – a subatomic solar system ruled by the tyrannical BARON KARZA! Aboard the starship ENDEAVOR, six intrepid fugitives flee the despots PHOTON PATROL by warping through SPACEWALL, a barrier on the fringe of the Microverse…a barrier never before broken!”