Comic reviews for the week of 26/02/2014

Spoilers ahead for Lois Lane One shot 1, Hawkeye 15, Batman/Superman 8, Larfleeze 8, Adventures of Superman 10, My Little Pony: Friends Forever 2.  Big spoilers.  Do not click through until you've read these comics, especially Hawkeye and Adventures of Superman.

New Radio Bamf podcast

Another Radio Bamf recording is up here: http://wearearcade.com/?p=14039

In this episode we discuss Shulkie 1, Green Lantern/Red Lantern 28 (Supergirl becomes a Red Lantern!),Invincibles, Injustice, X-force and our special guest Andy Clift, creator of Bertie Bear, talks about his work and teaches us all about colour flatting.

Comics review for the week of 18/02/2014

This will cover Ms Marvel #1, She-Hulk #1, Batwoman #13 - 17, JLA's Vibe, Batman L'il Gotham #9-24, DC's Young Romance (2013), X-Men #11, Harley Quinn #3, Wonder Woman #28, Supergirl #28.  Clearly these will only be short reviews as I've read a lot.  Spoilers after the break.

House of M - Erik's global paradise (or not)

So I'm now reading the House of M tie-ins.  Some are better than others.  The Incredible Hulk ones are (so far) interesting.  In Incredible Hulk 84 we have some bizarre imagery:

That's the Australian government, looking suspiciously like Nazis.  In the House of M reality Erik Lensher is still a holocaust survivor.  I can't imagine him condoning the Australian's government's treatement of homo sapiens.  A view point supported by this entry in Secrets of the House of M:

Maybe I haven't read enough X-men but in my head Magneto is fighting for a fair deal for mutants, if homo sapiens are killed in this fight, fair enough, but he wouldn't approve of treating non-mutants like the Nazis treated their victims.

In this reality everyone is meant to have their heart's desire.  I don't buy that Magneto wants to enforce this level of suffering on humanity.

House of M

I've really enjoyed reading the House of M mini.  I read the main event first, and while a little confused as to the start of it, overall I thought it was great fun.  The preludes from Excalibur were shockingly bad.  For example, from Excalibur 11:

I honestly thought the floral wall decoration was part of Magneto's hairdo.  Which would be fine, but it's not.  This art is just dull and lifeless.

In contrast, we have in House of M 4, Emma Frost getting her memories back and becoming completely off the wall furious:

That's a much better piece of art.

 As for the rest of the tie-ins, most were fairly enjoyable, but only the Spider-Man ones, The Pulse 10 and Captain America 10 are worth keeping.

Secret War

A few images from Secret War before I start blogging House of M:

This series is really, really pretty.

Bendis' New Avengers - awesome poses

From New Avengers 56, I give you Mockinbird in the second panel from the top:

 

She is graceful and powerful.  And pretty damn flexible.

From New Avengers: Finale, I give you the main panel.  Now that's how you threaten a bad guy:

Bendis' New Avengers - Spider-man

I think these three pages from New Avengers 51, 52 and 61 respectively are really good showcases for Spidey's character.  Other fans may disagree, but to me, these stood out as key elements for who he is.

That will be the last of the New Avengers Posts.  Next up on my reading list os House of M and all it's tie-ins!

Bendis New Avengers - good art

Here's some pages I particularly like.

These 3 are all from New Avengers 23:

The layouts, the colours, the pencils *swoon*

From New Avengers 30:

The colours!  Dr Strange brings all the colours.

From New Avengers 39:

That's just a lovely page of Echo.

Wonder Woman Wednesday

I may have blogged this before, but it's always worth showing again.  It's by Lucy Knisley.

Bendis' New Avengers - babies!

Aw, these panels made me laugh.

From New Avengers annual 1, it's really the bottom half of the page that interests me - everyone's reaction to the child:

By the end of this series I was sick to the back teeth of double page spreads.  There seemed to be between 5 and 10 in every damn issue.  Enough already.

Also from the annual, it;s the little detail of Spidey and MJ in the left hand panel on the second row.  Namely, it's his spider sense going off at the possibility of him holding a baby.  Mate, I know how you feel!

Then, in New Avengers 49, Spidey discovers that babies don't smell too bad:

Bendis New Avengers - Iron Man

These two pages, from New Avengers 25, is the first time I've read Iron Man and understood why people view him as a hero.  Maria Hill also earned my respect in this pages.

Stark and Jarvis have been taken down by someone (I forget who) and a nasty bomb has been left a few feet from them.  Maria Hill arrives with a bomb defuser, but no real idea of the state of the situation.

Comic reviews

Over the last two weeks I have read X-Men 10, Forever Evil 5, Forever Evil: Rogues Rebellion 5, Green Lantern/Red Lantern 28 and World's Finest Annual 1.
Spoilers after the break.

Original Supergirl movie costume

I found this post over at CBR today, looking at Supergirl's movie costume and how it influenced the comic version.

The movie costume started as this:

Which gave us this:

But then the film went with this far more familiar version:

I love the headband costume.   That would have been great to see on the big screen.

Wonder Woman Wednesday

I believe these are from Adventure Comics 416.

Radio Bamf podcasts

I haven't done a plug for radion Bamf recently, so thought I should do one now.  I'm one of the hosts (I believe that's the right term!) and it's a weekly podcast about comics.  We cover the news and what we've read, occasionally do trivia and take questions.  Give us a listen, go on!

Details of the last few shows as follows (I think I have the topics right):
Episode 38: Happy New Year - http://wearearcade.com/?p=14032.  In this we covered what we got over the holidays, the something terrible kickstarter, forever evil, larfleeze and chew.

Episode 39: http://waabamf.podomatic.com/entry/2014-01-18T02_28_10-08_00. I rave about Sterling Gates' Vibe and Blue is the Warmest Colour.  We all discuss Sex Criminals (IIRC we talk mainly about porn in the woods and the letters pages).  News covered is Alan Moore and Peter Parker's return.

Episode 40: http://wearearcade.com/?p=14036.  This is a full house, with all 4 hosts there! I think I talked about Forever Evil: Rogues and Dan Slott's She-Hulk.  I may have talked Supergirl and I think we all discussed Hawkeye.  We also talked about the British Library's upcoming comics exhibition.

Episode 41: Breaking news - http://waabamf.podomatic.com/entry/2014-01-29T11_53_38-08_00.  All the news happened this week.  DC's solicits including Aquaman and the others, Teen Titans, the return of Wally West, Lex Luthor joins the Justice League and DC's tv shows/films. Marvel news was a  Spider-man weekly, Nightcrawler, Avengers Assembled, Marvel's film and TV news and Quicksilver's crappy movie costume.
Episode 42: Horror special - http://waabamf.podomatic.com/entry/2014-02-05T09_25_13-08_00 Special guest P M Buchan joins us to talk horror.  News is the Spidey and Bats/Supes movie, Earth 2 Batman ID is revealed.  This was the most recent one recorded on 3rd Feb.

Have a listen and enjoy!

Super Sexy Saturday

Isn't this the hottest thing you ever saw ?


That's Renee Montoya, aka The Question, depicted as the Queen of the Hunt.  I'm not sure who created this but I know I first saw it a few years ago.  It's amazing and I'd love it as a print.



EDIT 08/02/2014 - The original image can be seen here. It is by Shley77 and it is titled Artemis and the Nymphs, so it's not Renee at all, except for in my head.

Wonder Woman Wednesday

Ok so it's not Wondy, it's Marvel's Valkyrie.  But they are both mythic creatures and they both ride winged horses and if that above pane; can't inspire wonder in you I don't know what will.

From She-Hulk 34.

Coming out in comics: Thundra

This is from She-Hulk 34.  I'd not come across Thundra before, but I gather she's from a nation where men and women are at war with each other and she doesn't like men very much.

Whatever her story, it's always nice to see women in comics crushing on other women.

She-Hulk moments

So I finished reading Dan Slott's and Peter David's run of She-Hulk and I just wanted to share a couple of panels with you.

Awesome Andy is an android in love with Mallory Book. She doesn't return his feelings.  Andy has no mouth or vocal chords so communicates with his tablet.  The display in the last panel breaks my heart.  That is from She-Hulk 6 (Dan Slott).

 Then there's this:

I am such a sucker for team ups of awesome women. I know the art is a bit dodgy but I love the whole premise and layout of this.  I particularly adore Thundra - the redhead in the middle.
This is from issue 35 (Peter David).

Super silly Sunday

From She-Hulk 27.  Lol.

Happy Imbolc!

Imbolc altar, image taken from this website.

My favourite time of the year!  Imbolc is St Brigid's Day, the time of year when we notice the daylight lasting a little longer and the first bulbs start poking through the soil. Last year we had snowdrops in early January and snows in February.  This year I have yet to see a snowdrop, the weather has been exceptionally mild for winter and we have mostly had rain.  The temperature has stayed between 2 and 7 degrees for January, which I can just about cope with.

Brigid is the goddess of the forge, of poetry and of medicine.  Brigid means firey arrow and her day is a fire festival, a festival of light.  In her honour (and the season's honour) we should light candles and do something creative.  Brigid is also the goddess of childbirth so if you are pregnant or due to labour you could consider sending a few prayers her way.

I am going to be spending the day in London with family but I think I shall enjoy some sheep's milk cheese and biscuits on Sunday.  If I could I'd also have a beer as Brigid is known for turning water into beer.

Whether you celebrate the Celtic Brigid, the Christian St Brigid or the Chinese New Year I wish you a good weekend and health and happiness in the coming months.

Pendant showing Brigid with her fire aspect.  Taken from this Deviantart page.