People like to say the X-Men have the most complicated backstory and continuity in comics. And that might be true. For Marvel Comics. But at least a tie for messiest history would have to be DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes, the teen team from the future. And that’s not even factoring in that we’re on our…
The original version of this piece appeared on my blog, The Matt Signal, on Aug. 23, 2013, shortly after news broke — and stink rose — that Ben Affleck would be playing Batman in a yet-to-be-named live action movie. Seven years later, we find ourselves in a similar situation, so I think it’s time to…
Each week, Xavier Files staff offer their recommendations for what to read. New DC comics come out Tuesdays, everything else Wednesdays. Batman: Three Jokers #1: No one picked this, but it feels silly to ignore the elephant in the room of this week’s releases, DC’s long-threatened Black Label Bat-mini by writer Geoff Johns and artist…
There was once a dark age. A time when there was no internet. A time when the knowledge of comic book characters’ backgrounds could not be found in wikis, but in the memories of fans and in specially printed comics. Comics called handbooks or guidebooks. This week, DC released a guidebook to its “Dark Nights:…
Each week, Xavier Files staff offer their recommendations for what to read. New DC comics come out Tuesdays, everything else Wednesdays. Dan’s Pick Wonder Woman: Dead Earth #4: Daniel Warren Johnson wraps his DC Black Label series about Diana waking up in, and bringing hope to, a post-nuclear future overrun by giant monsters. ($6.99) CHECK…
Next Saturday, Aug. 22, is DC FanDome, described in a press release as a “24-hour, immersive virtual fan experience which brings the universe of DC to life and features the stars, filmmakers and creators behind its biggest films, TV series, games and comics.” (Notice how comics are last.) It’s like many of the virtual cons…
Each week, Xavier Files staff offer their recommendations for what to read. New DC comics come out Tuesdays, everything else Wednesdays. DAN’S PICK: Undone by Blood #5: Will Ethel Grady Lane get revenge for the murder of her family? Find out in the conclusion to this AfterShock series by co-writers Zac Thompson and Lonnie Nadler,…
Each week, Xavier Files staff offer their recommendations for what to read. New DC comics come out Tuesdays, everything else Wednesdays. ZACK’S PICK: Giant-Size X-Men: Fantomex #1: Remember that time Jonathan Hickman casually mentioned in an interview that the version of Xavier we saw in HOX/POX was the version that had commandeered Fantomex’s body? Man,…
“We’re made up of all the things that happen to us. The good things fill your heart. But the bad things, and what we choose to do with them, really make us who we are,” says Casey Brinke, cosmic EMT, in Doom Patrol #5. “I’ll keep choosing love.” And then she lights the match that…
High noon in a desert town. Two men face off, hands on the butts of their holstered revolvers. [Grote’s note: Heh heh, butts.] A blur of motion, a crack of gunfire, and one (or both) falls. This scene is a hallmark of the American Western, a genre that was popular in comics throughout the 1950s…
Each week, Xavier Files staff offer their recommendations for what to read. New DC comics come out Tuesdays, everything else Wednesdays. CORI’S PICK (BUT REALLY EVERYONE’S, BUT MOSTLY CORI’S BECAUSE SHE’S REVIEWING IT THIS WEEK, BUT MAN, WE ARE ALL VERY EXCITED): X-Factor #1: After a tantric, monthslong wait, Leah Williams and David Baldeon’s series…
Dracula, as created by Bram Stoker, is one of the most written about and filmed literary characters. As with Sherlock Holmes, it feels like everyone has a Dracula story. Sometimes they’re comedies (Mel Brooks’ “Dracula: Dead and Loving It”), sometimes they’re rooted in history (Elizabeth Kostova’s novel “The Historian”) and sometimes they’re… odd choices (“Blade:…
Big, big news that I am proud to break this week. Let’s get right to it. Today (July 20): DClassified: Week of Announcements Begins After last week’s news that DC will be releasing Rorschach, a 12-issue maxiseries by writer Tom King and artist Jorge Fornés that represents a mystifying return to the Watchmen well, the…
Each week, Xavier Files staff offer their recommendations for what to read. New DC comics come out Tuesdays, everything else Wednesdays. DAN’S PICK: Chu #1: Tony Chu’s criminal sister Saffron steals the spotlight – and other stuff – in the debut issue of this prequel to John Layman and Rob Guillory’s classic Image series “Chew.”…
Comics are a visual medium, a combination of written words and pictures. But movie adaptations have taught us that comic book stories, whether superhero, crime, biographical or otherwise, can be translated to other media. But even before there were superhero serials on the big screen, comic books were translated to another medium: radio plays, whether…