Cannes' Female-free Directors Line-up Criticized

With each new issue of this Mad Hatter story arc (yep, still going on) things get worse and worse. The weight and intrigue is gone and all that is left is a little tale that should have ended a very, very long time ago. Also, another person close to Batman gets murdered. And what appears to be hundreds of Gotham citizens are murdered. These pages are packed with melodrama. It's all just death and angst, like a bad hardcore band trying to write their first ballad. Continue reading…

This seems like a really poor time for a side story involving the Batman of Japan. We are ready for the end of Batman Inc. We are ready to see how years and years of stories come together in an epic finale. It's almost done, so pulling us aside for a quick little adventure right now is just plain mean. We are this close, DC! Just give us what we have been waiting so very patiently for. Pretty please. Continue reading…

More than the time period in which it's set or the fact that the star is a direct descendant of Han Solo and Princess Leia, what sets the new volume of Star Wars: Legacy apart from the rest of the Expanded Universe is its aesthetic. It's a novelty simply having an artist as talented and versatile as Gabriel Hardman on board a Star Wars comic in the first place. Whereas many artists excel at either character designs of technology but not both, Hardman is equally adept in both areas. Legacy is the rare comic to take its visual cues and sense of style almost wholly from the original movies rather than the prequels. This vision of the Star Wars Universe looks just like it used to -- dirty, seedy, and home to the worst sort of scum and villainy. Continue reading…

My main recurring complaint regarding the current Deadpool series has been the surprisingly tame and, at times, even limp humor. The book has enough going for it that this flaw has never been a deal breaker, but it's still not a welcome trait in a Deadpool comic. Fortunately, issue #10 makes some inroads as far as delivering a more wacky and amusing Deadpool. Unfortunately, that renewed focus comes at the expense of plot progression. Continue reading…

As Young Avengers winds down its first arc, writer Kieron Gillen drives home the point he's been building towards for the past five issues. The greatest teen genre stories use their fantastical settings to explore the truth of lived experiences. Young Avengers, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer before it, isn't just an awesome tale about superpowered teens kicking a righteous amount of ass. It's a metaphor for what it feels like to be that age, to be pulled in a million different directions by what people want you to be -- a vision that's often misaligned with the future you want for yourself. Or as Kate Bishop says, "This machine is powered by teenage delusions. METAPHOR!" Seriously, few books have writing this witty and self-aware. Continue reading…