Al Ewing - COMICSXF https://comicsxf.com The comics criticism you crave Wed, 01 Apr 2026 12:16:56 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://i0.wp.com/comicsxf.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/cropped-orange-favicon-2.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Al Ewing - COMICSXF https://comicsxf.com 32 32 107498702 Venom #256 kills a major Spider-Man cast member (HOORAY!) https://comicsxf.com/2026/04/01/venom-256-kills-a-major-spider-man-cast-member-hooray/ Wed, 01 Apr 2026 19:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=56428 The serial killer Torment is following the path of the Death Spiral, and it's led straight to Dylan Brock, in Venom #256.

The post Venom #256 kills a major Spider-Man cast member (HOORAY!) first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 56428 The Mortal Thor #7 makes us think about Kyle MacLachlan (PREVIEW) https://comicsxf.com/2026/02/19/the-mortal-thor-7-makes-us-think-about-kyle-maclachlan-preview/ Thu, 19 Feb 2026 23:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=56045 Sigurd Jarlson is alive and on the run ... but he has a weakness his enemies can exploit. Find out more in our exclusive preview of The Mortal Thor #7.

The post The Mortal Thor #7 makes us think about Kyle MacLachlan (PREVIEW) first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 56045 An Absolute twofer as we review DC’s Absolute Evil #1 and Absolute Batman #13 https://comicsxf.com/2025/10/19/absolute-evil-1-absolute-batman-13/ Sun, 19 Oct 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=54550 In a heavily guarded room, five people gather. They are rich, or powerful, or both. They discuss the secrets of the world, and their growing discontent as superhumans are manifesting. And they will form an alliance strangely like one we have seen before, but completely different in a key way. Absolute Evil #1 is written...

The post An Absolute twofer as we review DC’s Absolute Evil #1 and Absolute Batman #13 first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 54550 The King in Black is back: Knull to get 5-issue miniseries in January from Ewing, Waltz, Ramirez https://comicsxf.com/2025/09/17/king-in-black-miniseries/ Wed, 17 Sep 2025 15:17:57 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=54159 Just as Marvel’s heroes are known for their feet of clay, their villains are as well. Magneto’s mustache-twirling evil of the Silver Age has been tempered by his past as a Holocaust survivor. Loki tends to operate more in shades of gray since appearing in the MCU. Heck, even Thanos has gotten some sympathetic backstory,...

The post The King in Black is back: Knull to get 5-issue miniseries in January from Ewing, Waltz, Ramirez first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 54159 Knull, the King in Black, is back in Venom #250, which renumbers the series https://comicsxf.com/2025/06/16/venom-250-knull/ Tue, 17 Jun 2025 01:36:14 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=53060 Remember Knull, the god of the symbiotes, whom Donnie Cates and Ryan Stegman rammed down our throats and into our hearts so well he got his own linewide crossover a few years back and just appeared in the third Venom movie? Well, he’s back, and he’s here to harass the All-New Venom, Mary Jane Watson....

The post Knull, the King in Black, is back in Venom #250, which renumbers the series first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 53060 Ms. Marvel Shermans her way through X-Men history in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (not that one) https://comicsxf.com/2025/06/01/giant-size-xmen-1/ Sun, 01 Jun 2025 10:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=52883 Ever since she discovered she was a mutant, Kamala Khan has been balancing her previous life as Ms. Marvel with her role as a leader in the new community, but her conflicted identity has come at a deep personal cost. Now, pulled into the distant past by an unhinged villain with deep ties to mutant...

The post Ms. Marvel Shermans her way through X-Men history in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (not that one) first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 52883 Thor is dead, long live Thor in Marvel’s Thor #1 https://comicsxf.com/2025/05/20/thor-1-announcement/ Tue, 20 May 2025 19:16:32 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=52738 The Asgardian gods live in cycles. They live, they fight, they die, they do a Ragnarok, they come back. Such is the POWER OF STORIES(TM). So it should come as no surprise that, even if Al Ewing’s Immortal Thor ends with the Odinson dying, the subsequent volume, already announced, starts with the hero’s return. The...

The post Thor is dead, long live Thor in Marvel’s Thor #1 first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 52738 Meet Absolute Black Hand, Brainiac and Mr. Freeze as our DC Absolute coverage continues https://comicsxf.com/2025/05/18/absolute-greenlantern-superman-batman/ Sun, 18 May 2025 09:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=52604 Welcome back to Talking Absolute…, where we focus on the storylines, controversies and themes that have captured our imaginations in the Absolute DC titles each month. Today, we’ll be covering the first half of May and three new issues. Guest artists, surprising alternate origin stories, villains in starring roles: Absolute DC has sprung some surprises...

The post Meet Absolute Black Hand, Brainiac and Mr. Freeze as our DC Absolute coverage continues first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 52604 Al Ewing saves the day in Detective Comics Annual 2025 https://comicsxf.com/2025/05/09/detective-comics-annual-2025/ Fri, 09 May 2025 12:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=52542 Two self-contained Batman stories in one big issue. In his first Batman story, Al Ewing tells a tale of murder and math. And in the backup, one of Batman’s youngest fans teams up with the Dark Knight to investigate something going very wrong in his school. Detective Comics Annual 2025 has a main story written...

The post Al Ewing saves the day in Detective Comics Annual 2025 first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 52542 Examining the 2nd wave of DC’s Absolute line: Flash, Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern https://comicsxf.com/2025/04/04/absolute-flash-martian-manhunter-green-lantern/ Fri, 04 Apr 2025 12:14:49 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=52158 Jake Murray: Let me start off with the coldest take since Dr. Victor Fries took up his nom de guerre: The first wave of titles in DC’s Absolute line have been pretty damn successful (that’s Absolute Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman for the dozen or so uninitiated). Let me stun you with another ice-cold blast...

The post Examining the 2nd wave of DC’s Absolute line: Flash, Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 52158 Metamorpho #3 shows why fab freakiness is in https://comicsxf.com/2025/03/03/metamorpho-3/ Mon, 03 Mar 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=51864 Welcome, freaks and freakettes, to our inaugural coverage of Al Ewing and Steve Lieber’s Metamorpho: The Element Man. We’re picking up with last week’s issue #3, in which Simon Stagg’s caveman consigliere Java embarks on a globetrotting espionage mission with the shape-shifting Urania Blackwell, aka Element Girl. Will Metamorpho, the Freak of 1,001 Changes, take...

The post Metamorpho #3 shows why fab freakiness is in first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 51864 Battle Of The Atom: New York Comic Con Super Special 2024 https://comicsxf.com/2024/10/28/battle-of-the-atom-new-york-comic-con-super-special-2024/ Mon, 28 Oct 2024 12:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=50628 This is a New York Comic Con super special featuring Pepe Larraz, Kieron Gillen, Al Ewing, Declan Shalvey, Spencer Ackerman, Jackson Lanzing, David Marquez, Josh Cassara, Gerry Duggan, Chris Condon, and Justin Mason!

The post Battle Of The Atom: New York Comic Con Super Special 2024 first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 50628 Thor becomes Hercules’ stepdad, we think, in our EXCLUSIVE preview of The Immortal Thor #15 https://comicsxf.com/2024/08/29/immortal-thor-15-preview/ Thu, 29 Aug 2024 18:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=49960 Immortal Thor #14 (LGY #775 – mazel tov!) ended with the Odinson absorbing the power of Zeus in combat, leaving the latter a smoking husk of a god. Does that make Thor Hercules’ dad now? Is that how that works? Because I would read a comic about Thor becoming Hercules’ stepdad, parking his Camaro in...

The post Thor becomes Hercules’ stepdad, we think, in our EXCLUSIVE preview of The Immortal Thor #15 first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 49960 Al Ewing makes zombies play chess, bake in our EXCLUSIVE preview of the 2000AD Sci-Fi Special https://comicsxf.com/2024/06/25/harlem-zombos-preview/ Tue, 25 Jun 2024 14:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=49401 Goddammit, Al Ewing. It’s a phrase I’ve found myself saying so many times. Not because he did something to anger me, but because he is such a brilliant wizard who understands that comics is an inherently silly medium that also is inherently capable of doing powerful things. Like having a team of zombies play a...

The post Al Ewing makes zombies play chess, bake in our EXCLUSIVE preview of the 2000AD Sci-Fi Special first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 49401 DC’s 2024 Pride Features YA Stories and Rachel Pollack Tributes https://comicsxf.com/2024/06/11/dcs-2024-pride-features-ya-stories-and-rachel-pollack-tributes/ Tue, 11 Jun 2024 15:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=49206 Who’s afraid of a little trans history? Maybe you should be: comics’ trans elder flowers, posthumously, in one of DC’s Pride specials, while the other looks to younger readers with stories about queer teens. DC Pride: A Celebration of Rachel Pollack, writing by Rachel Pollack and Joe Corallo, line art by Scott Eaton, Tom Sutton,...

The post DC’s 2024 Pride Features YA Stories and Rachel Pollack Tributes first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 49206 Krakoa waves goodbye, and all that’s left are Ashes in X-Men #35/Uncanny #700 https://comicsxf.com/2024/06/05/xmen-35/ Wed, 05 Jun 2024 13:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=49150 All good things must come to an end, and as good of a thing as the Krakoan era has been for mutantkind, its time has come at last. The tragedy and triumph of FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X, the madness and mystery of RISE OF THE POWERS OF X, they have all come to...

The post Krakoa waves goodbye, and all that’s left are Ashes in X-Men #35/Uncanny #700 first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 49150 Roxxon Presents: Thor #1 is very good at showing us how very bad comics can be https://comicsxf.com/2024/04/17/roxxon-presents-thor-1/ Wed, 17 Apr 2024 14:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=48590 From the company that brought you Roxxon Body Gel™, and the immersive Roxxspexx™, comes a brand new adventure starring their very own mascot, the Mighty Thor! Watch as he fights Loki and his lies of global pollution and the idea that corporations are not to be trusted! But is there something more sinister going on...

The post Roxxon Presents: Thor #1 is very good at showing us how very bad comics can be first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 48590 Resurrection of Magneto #4 Ends The Series And An Era On A High Note. https://comicsxf.com/2024/04/10/resurrection-of-magneto-4-ends-the-series-and-an-era-on-a-high-note/ Wed, 10 Apr 2024 16:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=48525 “I will try again. It is all I can do.” In 2019’s X-Men #1, the first comic post HoX/PoX, perhaps Magneto, floating above the fray while ripping the roof off of the (then, supposedly) last Orchis facility on Earth, adorned in glowing white, his power easily overwhelming his opponents…perhaps he was a new god. Those...

The post Resurrection of Magneto #4 Ends The Series And An Era On A High Note. first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 48525 Thor F’s up a rich guy’s stuff in our EXCLUSIVE preview of Immortal Thor #9 https://comicsxf.com/2024/03/28/immortal-thor-9-preview/ Thu, 28 Mar 2024 18:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=48398 Marvel is a subsidiary of a global megacorporation. Al Ewing is a wizard who knows what his readers want to see: a superhero sticking it to the richos who own megacorporations. And because there is not currently a fifth Thor movie in the planning stages, Disney will let Marvel let Al Ewing do what he...

The post Thor F’s up a rich guy’s stuff in our EXCLUSIVE preview of Immortal Thor #9 first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 48398 Resurrection of Magneto #3: If No One Else Got Me, I Know Al Ewing Got Me https://comicsxf.com/2024/03/20/resurrection-of-magneto-3-if-no-one-else-got-me-i-know-al-ewing-got-me/ Wed, 20 Mar 2024 17:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=48311 Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely Buddha There is nothing so common to the human experience as fear. The fear of what could be, might be…what if. What if it all goes wrong? What if the plans go awry? What if I fail? What if I’ve already failed?...

The post Resurrection of Magneto #3: If No One Else Got Me, I Know Al Ewing Got Me first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 48311 The evil ones confront Storm in our EXCLUSIVE preview of Resurrection of Magneto #3 https://comicsxf.com/2024/03/14/resurrection-of-magneto-3-preview/ Thu, 14 Mar 2024 18:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=48227 Pure evil in X-Men comics has taken many forms over the years. The Shadow King. The Adversary. Annihilation. They’re the villains who can’t be turned or reasoned with, more force than foe. The ones who manipulate events from the shadows and return like clockwork every few years to remind the light that the darkness exists...

The post The evil ones confront Storm in our EXCLUSIVE preview of Resurrection of Magneto #3 first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 48227 Resurrection of Magneto #2 is good science fiction https://comicsxf.com/2024/03/05/resurrection-of-magneto-2-is-good-science-fiction/ Tue, 05 Mar 2024 15:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=48093 Magneto faces the sins of his past — and opens a door via a seemingly-forgotten key — in Resurrection of Magneto #2 written by Al Ewing, drawn by Luciano Vecchio, colored by David Curiel and lettered by Joe Sabino. Alone in a darkened room, illuminated only by mistakes, an old man finds himself unable — unwilling...

The post Resurrection of Magneto #2 is good science fiction first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 48093 Resurrection of Magneto #1 leaves us awestruck https://comicsxf.com/2024/01/26/resurrection-magneto-1/ Fri, 26 Jan 2024 17:49:46 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=47788 On Krakoa, resurrection from the dead was as easy as completing a circuit. But Krakoa fell. The time of easy miracles is over, and only the hard roads are left. Now, it falls to Storm to bring the X-Men’s oldest enemy home. But after all he did, and all that was done to him, can...

The post Resurrection of Magneto #1 leaves us awestruck first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 47788 X-Men Red #18 concludes the series with promise both met and unfulfilled https://comicsxf.com/2023/12/14/x-men-red-18-concludes-the-series-with-promise-both-met-and-unfulfilled/ Thu, 14 Dec 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=47422 How would you describe a perfect day? Perfect —  like “good,” like “ok,” like “no good,” like “very bad” — is subjective: an appreciation based on a range of experiences. Perfect, reasonably, might look vastly different among different peoples.  And yet, so many different people hold on to the idea of objective perfection — the...

The post X-Men Red #18 concludes the series with promise both met and unfulfilled first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 47422 Apocalypse assembles his Planeteers in X-Men Red #17 https://comicsxf.com/2023/11/08/apocalypse-assembles-his-planeteers-in-x-men-red-17/ Wed, 08 Nov 2023 14:30:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=47078 Floating dead-center in the eye of the Mutant Kaiju Kaorak (a not so subtle re-arranging of Krakoa), Storm floats, irises electric blue, electricity teeming from her hands, threatening Genesis with the good time of a fight. This is as audacious as it is silly: this manifestation of mutant cooperation, teeming for a fist fight where...

The post Apocalypse assembles his Planeteers in X-Men Red #17 first appeared on COMICSXF.

]]> 47078