Will Nevin

Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.

Tomasi’s ‘Tec Run Wraps, and for Some Reason We’re Still Covering White Knight Stuff in a between-Holidays Bat Chat

Batman and Robin (?) swing in to save the rest of the Bat family from Hush, a new mayor of Gotham is elected and Bruce says goodbye to Wayne Manor in Detective Comics #1,033 from Peter J. Tomasi, Brad Walker, Andrew Hennesy, Dave McCaig and Rob Leigh. Meanwhile, Harley, Duke Thomas and FBI profiler Hector…

Read More

All the Lovecraft Easter Eggs in AfterShock’s Miskatonic #2

Miskatonicā€™s Magical Misery Tour continues with a trip to Arkham in AfterShock Comicsā€™ Miskatonic #2. Written by Mark Sable, penciled by Giorgio Pontrelli, colored by Pippa Bowland and lettered by Thomas Mauer, Miskatonic #2 finds our intrepid investigators on the run from the Dagon cultists, aiming toward deeper, darker corners of Lovecraft Country. We open…

Read More

The ā€˜Hopeā€™ in Second Coming: Only Begotten Son: Mark Russell and Richard Pace on Their New Volume

ā€œPeople donā€™t believe in God,ā€ says Jesus Christ in Second Coming #1, ā€œso much as they hope for a witness to their suffering.ā€ Thus began a series from writer Mark Russell and artist Richard Pace that surprised readers and critics alike. Far from the blasphemous screed the Fox News crowd assumed it would be before…

Read More

The Truth about Department of Truth Is … It’s Pretty Great. Catch up on Issues #1-3

What if reality was only as real as people believed it was? What if it could change depending on popular support? And what if the real breakout Image comic of 2020 was not a thing that purportedly had something to say about superheroes but actually had something to offer about the way in which conspiracy…

Read More

Batman #105 Wraps the Ghost-Maker Arc, PLUS a Look at the Bat Books Post-Future State

Welcome back to Bat Chat with Matt (and Will!). This week weā€™re back to just one book with the conclusion of the Ghost-Maker story, as Batman faces off with his foe and Harley has a heart-to-heart with Clownhunter in Batman #105 by James Tynion IV, Carlo Pagulayan & Danny Miki, Alvaro Martinez & Christian Duce…

Read More

Xavier Files’ Best Comics Of 2020

As we close out the year that was, the staff at Xavier Files wanted to take a moment to highlight our favorite comics from throughout the year. There were so many great books that we couldn’t list them all, but we wanted to give our team the chance to highlight an issue, an arc, a…

Read More

Doomed Planet. Desperate Parents. Last Hope. And Hey, Jesus, in AHOY’s Second Coming: Only Begotten Son #1

The infant Sunstar will grow up to fulfill his destiny as Earth’s most powerful superhero and roommate to Jesus Christ ā€” but first, he and his parents must endure the mundane and the tedious on the last night of the doomed planet Zirconia. Seek a friend for the end of the world in AHOY Comicsā€™…

Read More

A Mixed Black & White Bag and an Underwhelming Issue of Detective in This Week’s Bat Chat

Will Nevin: One week, I think weā€™ll hit on a book that we both like, that we can both praise and feel good about. This ainā€™t that week.   Matt Lazorwitz: This is a very ā€¦ meh week. ā€œDetectiveā€ was inoffensive water treading, and ā€œBlack and Whiteā€ was hit or miss, as most anthologies are. Detective…

Read More

The Phantasm Arrives in Canon as Batman/Catwoman #1 Washes the Taste of Batman #104 out of Our Bat Chatters’ Mouths

Will Nevin: This is a heckuva week, but for mostly the wrong reasons ā€” because while Bat/Cat #1 (I canā€™t believe Tom King resisted his urge to go there again) was overwhelmingly fine, Batman #104 is ā€” and I say this with as little hyperbole as possible ā€” an embarrassing look at when a comic…

Read More

A Bonus Bat Chat Catches Up on ‘Detective Comics’ and ‘White Knight Presents Harley Quinn’

Detective Comics #1,031 Welcome to a special holiday week Bat Chat! The Mirror inserts himself into Gothamā€™s mayoral race as he continues his anti-vigilante crusade, Damian makes a move to prove heā€™s smarter than Batman, and a Bat rogue makes his return in ā€œDetective Comicsā€ #1,031 from Peter J. Tomasi, Bilquis Evely, Mat Lopes and…

Read More

Why, Will: The Cowards of the Country

Everything is bad. And there are a few people to blame. The Splash When Iā€™m good and angry and I want to wreck someone and the facts fit the moment, I reach for something special. Itā€™s not ā€œassholeā€ (vague, common), nor ā€œbastardā€ (weak) nor ā€œmotherfuckerā€ (got a nice sound to it, but itā€™s not angry…

Read More

Why, Will: How Did Donny Do It? ā€˜Crossoverā€™ and the Magic of Fair Use

Beyond this point lie spoilers for ā€œCrossoverā€ #1. Ye be warnedā€¦ The Splash ā€œCrossover,ā€ the meta comic-book-about-comic-books from the mind of writer Donny Cates and artist Geoff Shaw, has a heap of stuff to talk about ā€” the merits of which have already been ably discussed by Big Boss Zack and Dan ā€œthe Manā€ McMahon….

Read More