Recent Comics & Current Events
I usually don’t like it when comic books become overtly political. I realize that’s not a universal opinion. Paul O’Brien of “X-Axis” and “House to Astonish” has chastised X-Men comics for not reflecting current eve
Read more…The Teen Titans Project, Part XXXI:
The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful (2011)
Two years ago, I started re-reading all of my Teen Titans comics in chronological order and I decided to blog about it. I didn’t realize at the time that it would t
Read more…The Teen Titans Project, Part XXX:
Milestones and Villains (2010)
Storylines don’t always end neatly with the change of the calendar year. That’s why I’ve occasionally fudged the numbers, holding back a December issue until the next column or in
Read more…A Short, Strange, Surprising Trip
{A Trade Paperback Review of Strange Girl Omnibus}
The most interesting book I’ve read this year is Strange Girl. It’s not a perfect book. Author Rick Remender admits as much in his prologue when he
Read more…Recent Developments & Recent Reviews
Warning! Danger! Spoilers Ahead! Turn Back Now!
Low #12-13 by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini (Image)
Rick Remender returned to creator-owned comics in 2013-14 with three new titles for Image. Black Sci
Read more…The Teen Titans Project, Part XXIX:
Deathtrap and Undead (2009)
By 2009, the Teen Titans were a successful franchise with two ongoing titles yet the comics themselves were maddeningly mediocre. When I looked back on 2008, I realized
Read more…The Teen Titans Project, Part XXVI:
One Year Later (2006)
The Teen Titans of 2006 can be divided into two very distinct sections. In the first third of the year, Teen Titans continued to be heavily impacted by the over-arching story of the DC Un
Read more…The Teen Titans Project, Part XXV:
The Pay Off (2005)
Teen Titans entered its second full year on top of the world. Geoff Johns and Mike McKone had molded the older heroes of The New Teen Titans with the younger heroes of Young Justice into a su
Read more…
The Teen Titans Project, Part XXVII:
Changing of the Guard (2007)
By 2007, the Teen Titans had been involved in DC’s company-wide story for about a year and half. With Infinite Crisis now out of the way, the Titans were able to retu
Read more…The Teen Titans Project, Part XXVIII:
Expansion (2008)
DC had tried to expand the Teen Titans into a franchise before. Fans first floated the idea in the late ‘70s after Bob Rozakis introduced the Titans West but the Titans couldn’t sustain one
Read more…New Number Ones
It’s been awhile since I wrote a review column about current comics so it seemed like a good idea to put one together about all of the new launches debuting this month.
Axcend #1 (Image): I was a little iffy about picking this one
Read more…The Teen Titans Project, Part XXIII:
Faerber & Pelletier & Peyer & Kitson (2001-2002)
I love Jay Faerber. Noble Causes was a superhero soap opera with a plot that barreled ahead like a freight train. Dynamo 5 was a wonderfully dysfu
Read more…The Teen Titans Project, Part XXIV:
The Next Generation (2003-2004)
It was bound to happen eventually. In 2003, the founding Titans finally passed the torch to the next generation.
For two decades, DC’s writers and editor
Read more…Catching Up with Old Friends
I’ve used this analogy before: reading comics can be like catching up with old friends. My favorite comic book characters have been part of my life since I was 10 or 12 years old. That’s longer- way longe
Read more…A Foot in Each Camp:
Indies & the Mainstream
About a year ago, I read a book about the history of pop music in the age of rock ‘n’ roll: “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah: The History of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyonce.” In the introduction, aut
Read more…The Teen Titans Project, Part XXII:
The Slow Exodus (2000)
The latest version of The Titans had gotten off to a good start in 1999. Devin Grayson and Phil Jimenez paved the way with the instant classic JLA vs. Titans mini-series. Then, Grayson
Read more…The Teen Titans Project, Part XXI:
Neo-Classicism (1999)
The story of the next volume of The Titans began in late 1996 when Grant Morrison and Howard Porter introduced a new version of JLA (cover date January 1997). Morrison’s JLA ev
Read more…The Big Twist of Broken World
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
The serial nature of comic books can make it the perfect medium for cliffhangers and twist endings. Well, you can add another title to the list of great twist endings: Boom’s Broken Wo
Read more…Lost in Time (Chrononauts and Ei8ht)
Time travel has been a staple of science fiction since H.G. Wells wrote The Time Machine in 1895. The concept has waxed and waned in favor over the past 120 years, but it’s always there as a playground for imag
Read more…The Teen Titans Project, Part XX: Starting from Scratch (1996-1998)
I sometimes feel like I’m the only one who remembers Dan Jurgens’ Teen Titans fondly. Everybody else seems to have forgotten it entirely- including DC. By 1996, the Titans franch
