Since the early 1960s, comics have been dominated by two major publishers, Marvel and DC. Despite both publishers being primarily focused on the same type of comics—namely superheroes—each has a distinct feel. While a reader may not be familiar with a particular character, if they are at all familiar with the Big Two, it is pretty easy to determine which publisher the book came from. The natural question then is, if both publishers are putting out what is essentially the same type of book, why do they feel so different? The best answer I have heard, and the one that I’m going to explore in this post, is the idea that DC characters are gods attempting to be man, while Marvel’s are men attempting to be gods. Continue reading
Category Archives: Comics
Saturday Review: Secret Wars #9
Secret Wars (Marvel)
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Esad Ribic
For those who haven’t been keeping up, the world ended. At least for a very short moment, until it was remade into Battleworld by God Doom. Then a bunch of other stuff happened and we all find ourselves in issue 9 of an 8 part mini-series. And no, that’s not a typo. Secret Wars #9 is the final chapter of an eight issue summer event (the term applies rather loosely at this point). Needless to say this was a fitting, if odd, ending to Marvel’s most recent universe reshaping.
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Filed under Andrew Hales, Comic Reviews, Comics, Saturday Reviews
Character Caretakers
I remember watching a documentary on the history of comics in which the host interviewed Denny O’Neil about “A Death in the Family,” the Batman story arch in which Joker kills Robin. O’Neil talked about a time that he had been asked by someone what he did. To his surprise, after he happily told the man that he was the editor of Batman, instead of engaging in a pleasant conversation about his job the man started yelling, in a rather upset tone, to those around him that O’Neil was the man who had killed Robin. It was this event that caused O’Neil to realize that writing comics was not just a profession. What Denny O’Neil had failed to realize was that not only was he a comic writer (editor at the time) but that he was also the caretaker of these beloved characters. Continue reading
Filed under Andrew Hales, Comics
Andrew’s Top 5 X-Men Villains
Last month I talked about my favorite heroes from my favorite title, X-Men. But where would heroes be without their villains. Bored, and stuck wearing uncomfortable costumes, that’s where. With that in mind, here are my top 5 favorite X-Men villains. Continue reading
Filed under Andrew Hales, Comics
Therefore I Geek 