Restores my faith in comics
924869
At a time where my interest in mainstream comics has been in decline, discovering 'Royal Blood' could not have happened at a better time. It gets my highest possible recommendation.
4667254
I admire the open mindedness of the guest editor, Jeff Smith. I was surprised with the wide range of mediums found and the narratives that accompanied them. Each excerpt carried its own weight. A few required me to overcome my own artistic biases, but that is what I found so pleasing about the collection--feeling that I left with a broadened and more informed perspective on comics.
1596109
When they announced they were giving Peter Parker a sister, I was worried. After some of the retcons over the last ten to fifteen years in Spider-Man's history, they've given me little reason to trust them. But I picked this up on a whim because I wanted some actual Spider-Man comics, and I was pleasantly surprised.

As I began to read I became more and more into the book, its writing was solid, its action was good, its art was beautiful. I checked my prejudice against the idea at the door and decided to just see if they could make it work. And for a while they nailed it perfectly, delivering an excellent Spider-Man story.

Unfortunately, I had to pump the brakes on my hype train after about the halfway point. After a truly great fight scene they start to solve the mystery and it starts to trip up a little bit. It never gets bad, it's always a good solid read, but it can't maintain the awesomeness of the first part.

If you like Spider-Man, you should like this. Maybe you'll even love it. But it's a solid read that's great to look at, a worthy addition to any Spider-fan's library.
4108494
I am just getting into Batman, for comics for that matter, and while I have a subscription for comics, I'm not sure if I would call myself a collector. I mention this because other reviews have mentioned other Batman titles that I am not familiar with so that perspective escapes me. However, for those of you who are seasoned with The Batman's written history and not just what the movies convey about Bruce Wayne and his alter ego(and for those of us who are not in tune with him beyond Christian Bale and his predecessors), Scott Snyder is providing such an explosion of smiles to my face! YouTube introduced me to DC's New 52 & Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. With so many titles existing on Batman, it is very overwhelming to say the least when determining what to enjoy, especially based on what one can afford that doesn't make you regret buying. There are no comic book shops close to my home, and again, I consider myself a novice to comics, but part of my history is that of a freelance illustrator, primarily portrait work, nothing like the art of most comics. Surprisingly, I find this medium that my hands can no longer perform, gives me a mental stimulation and an outlet that doesn't make me question, "What if....." due to my disability. That is refreshing, because it has taken me nearly seven years to find this. All of that is to say, whatever Scott Snyder is writing, pick it up, especially the new Batman. The Gates of Gotham was exceptional, with artwork that I felt fit perfectly with so much history being revealed. Obviously the writing was on point, and provides some insight to how Snyder writes Batman now. I highly recommend B:GoG, and I believe you'll enjoy it, as well.
2807793
Considering how much tribute the current comics industry pays to the Golden Age of its past, it's amazing how much is overlooked and how often we forget the real glut of comics being produced at the time. Redressing the issue somewhat is Supermen! The First Wave of Comic Book Superheroes 1936-1941, which compiles some of the lesser-known lights of the time. The biggest surprise might be how good these stories are, even if they failed to take off in the way that, say, Superman did.

Speaking of Superman, his creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, kick off this collection with a story about their mysterious "occult detective" Dr. Mystic. The rest of the stories run the gamut from fun to frivolous and include some of the biggest luminaries comics has to offer: Will Eisner, Gardner Fox, Jack Kirby, Jack Cole, Basil Wolverton, and a host of others, some of whom never attained the recognition they deserved. The styles incorporate the building blocks of comic art today, and the stories represent the superheroes, aliens and monsters, and mystic forces that drove the marketplace.

Bestselling author Jonathan Lethem provides a foreword to the book, properly cataloguing the scope and impact these stories had. Putting the works into context is helpful, but it's the Notes section at the end, written by editor Greg Sadowski, that is truly fantastic. He documents each story included in this collection and provides the history, background, and explanations needed to understand the stories in the proper context. His studious efforts are worth the price of the book alone. Tucked away in the back, they are missed until you reach the end of the book, at which time it's difficult to avoid reading the notes and backtracking to read the stories again, now armed with new information to better your enjoyment of them.

These stories deserved another look and more attention. Sadowski has done an admirable job of making Supermen! The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941 not only reverent, but exciting and fun as well.

-- John Hogan
1755613
Full disclosure: my basement's got over 40,000 comics.  There's little in the superhero genre that I haven't read in the past 35 years and Marvel has been a good sized part of that.

My wife and kids gave me this book for Christmas 2010 and it's sweet.  I love looking at the pictures with my three year old son and telling him all of the characters names, secret identities and whether they are good guys or bad guys.  I like the inclusion of character art from every era and as we browse through the book together it's a lot of fun to see all of the information that's in here.

But, as I dig deeper and actually *read* the book my enthusiasm lessens.  It's clear that the selection and weighting (especially for the "Updated and Expanded" portion) reflects more about 2009 Marvel politics and sales than it does the actual history and characters.

There are 2 and 3 page spreads devoted to throwaway 'events' from the past few years while concepts that rewrote the entire Marvel canon such as Heroes Reborn are reduced to a single sentence buried in an entry for Onslaught.  As much space is dedicated to the last 5 years of post-disassembled Avengers history as to the previous 40!

The selections seem to pick and choose characters, plot lines and emphasis based on whether or not Marvel had a solid relationship with the creative team as of this update.  Everything touched by Brian Michael Bendis is given a place of honor (there are 78 unique entries in the Index referencing 2008's 'Secret Invasion') while everything Grant Morrison brought to the X-Men between 2001 and 2005 is completely missing (there are no entries for Xorn, Beak, Phantomex, etc.).  Guess who was writing at least 6 monthlies plus all of the 'events' in the Marvel Universe in 2008/9 and who wasn't working for them at all?

This book came out at $40 new and is listing near $80 used as I write this.  That's way too much to charge for something that falls this flat.  That kind of money buys a lot of full color back issues if you just want something fun for the kids.  For anything more than a casual fan you'll get more history by picking up a half dozen 'Essential' books with material from the 60's and 70's.
4540668
A while back a friend had advised me that I needed to read "The Walking Dead" comics. I'm not a comic person, but he insisted I needed to read them because we were talking about the, then, forthcoming show on AMC. So at his suggestion I did. Loved the series. Picked up every possible issue, and was hooked. Having finally had that "oh, I see... not all comics are what I grew up with" moment I asked about some others, and blew through Y! The Last Man, Transmetropolitan, and a few other "ended" series so I could read a beginning/middle/end without having to wait for new issues (like I was with TWD). Being on a kick at that point I started looking for more recommended series, and found this book EX-HEROES by Peter Clines.

It's not a graphic novel. It's your standard book, but it was on the top of a lot of people's favorites at the time who were reading things like I had listed above. So I took a chance and picked it up not even reading what it was about. It's a good thing, because had I read it... I probably wouldn't have given it a chance. Coming in fresh I was quite surprised at how good this book was, and the sequel recently dropped.

EX-HEROES is a geeks dream. It's about Superheroes battling Zombies. What? I know... I said it. Superheroes, and Zombies. That would've normally kept me away from it, but like I said... I had jumped in blind.

Turns out it's actually quite well done, and interesting.

What Clines did here is nothing short of amazing.  He took two "character" types that would normally only meet up in the newest issue of Marvel and created a story that was so engaging I went through it in a single day.  You care about these characters, you want to know who they are, why they are, and what makes them tick.  You worry when they battle it out, turn the pages hoping they find resources for "The Mount", and you read each page anxious to see where the story goes.  Then... you get an amazing ending that just screams "BRING ME TO THE BIG SCREEN BECAUSE THIS WOULD BE AMAZING!".  The best part is you have a beginning, middle and end!  So often stories have an ending that feel's like it was designed to be an easy lead into a new story, and that you've only read a small portion of the arch the author was really planning.  When the Ex-Heroes story is over you're anxiously awaiting the sequel, but feel very satisfied with this chapter of the "EX-" universe closing.

TL;DR - Zombies and Superheroes taken in a direction we haven't seen before... seriously, and done well on top of it all!
3052410
i have hated marvel for over a decade.  haven't bought a monthly for... well, a decade BUT i have been buying the omnibus collections when they include letter pages like SPIDEY 1-2, UNCANNY X-MEN 1-3, NICK FURY: AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D., ETC.  but with james robinson (my 2'nd favorite writer) tackling the new NICK FURY ON-GOING, i am going to do it!  i'm pre-ordering the first issues.  this lead to my buying every reecent marvel trade that might catch me up.  this one sounds like a sure-fire need.
2797201
This is a great collection, well worth reading. The art work is incredible, especially that of Todd McFarlane, and I thoroughly enjoyed the story arc. I hope Marvel can someday regain some of its former glory.
1253562
I haven't read comic books in many many years, but loving this show, I felt the need to reintroduce myself.
This collection really captures the spirit and unique humor and style of the show, but it's easy to forget these are just quick comic stories  and sometimes they seem to end quicker and more suddenly than expected.  But a fun and silly collection that can help ease the addiction or withdrawal periods between binge watching every season, again.
758879
A 'Superb' Book,allows you to read the 'Old' Comics,without having to pay a 'Fortune' for each Comic !!!!
4437785
I was very pleased when I heard that this volume was coming up, and that it would pick up where the Legion of Super-Heroes Archives finished. So after pre-ordering it a few months back, I started a re-read of those 12 Archives - which was quite an enjoyable task - so that I would be at the same stage as this new volume came out.

I was also looking forward to this new volume, as it co-incides with when I was 16/17, and thus has fond memories attached to when I first read some of these stories - plus there were a couple of stories I had never read! So, yes, I did enjoy this read and it goes on the shelf next to the LSH Archives. And, yes, I do hope that they continue to produce more volumes!

First, I did notice that this new volume was not of the same quality (as in paper, binding, reproduction) as the Archives had been, or at least so it seemed to me. Perhaps this makes it a little cheaper, so it isn't really a complaint, more of an observation. Though I am puzzled why they just didn't continue with the Archives??? This new volume, being volume 1 doesn't make a great deal of sense as it isn't really the start of a new era, and in fact some of the sub-plots from the last Archive are still being continued.

However it is a good collection of stories - and I hope those who are new to the Legion have means of reading the stories that came before.

I am also glad that they didn't go the way the Golden Age Omnibuses seem to be going as they now enter into material not covered in Archives. Not only are they quite expensive, but I have to purchase an Omnibus that has over 50% material I already own in Archives if I want to continue those collections :(
4781156
My first exposure to Transformers comics came a few years ago, with Dreamwave's G1 series, but I've been a fan since I was 8. I have basically the entire line of RiD figures, as well as a healthy smattering of Armada, Energon, and Cybertron figures.

Anyway, I've gotten back into comics in a big way over this last year, and IDW's TF series has been a big reason for that. I LOVED Infiltration and the storylines that followed, but the Spotlights made me a little hesitant. I mean, these were stories written about characters I knew, like Ultra Magnus, and Hot Rod, I got that, but then there's Nightbeat. I mean, who the heck IS that, I thought to myself. That, and the fact that these looked like they were just random stories, and all the research I did didn't reveal anything about where they fell chronologically.

But, all my fears were assauged upon opening up this nice little TPB, because it works. Everything about it works. The plots, the scripts, the dialogue, the artwork, it all works. It ties in nicely with what I've read of the IDW-verse so far, and it didn't make me feel confused at all and wondering what the point of that was, unlike certain things I've read. *Koff* She-Hulk World War Hulk tie-in! *Koff*

Each story is solidly done, and you can tell Furman has fun with each of these=the Nightbeat story in particular is pretty evident. Furman just loads that story with narrative tension. Overall, this is a good trade, and it's worth getting along with the rest of IDW's line.
504966
A really like the comic. It was my first time buying any kind of comic and its not going to be the last
4808825
I'm currently reading through all of Valiant's stuff.  I picked up this hardcover because I didn't think I'd care much for a comic book based on Voodoo mythos and I just needed an intro on Darque for the new Book of Death series starting next month.  While the story had a lot of common super hero elements (which I'll leave out for no spoilers) and not many surprises (save for issues 0/10), it was put together in a way I found rather enjoyable.  I'll definitely be finishing the series now.
3841665
How many times have you been told that comics are for kids?  How many times have you thought that they are against God?  Did you ever think to write a book about it.

God can be found in all things - as it is said in the word of God - All things work for the good.

Comics are man-made and have many mistakes and misinterpretations, but as Greg Garrett says in this book, alot of the stuff they got right, IS THE IMPORTANT STUFF.

Look at superman... all powerful, yet he never kills.  He does not use his power to take over the world and make it as he sees fit.  Look at wolverine.. do you only see the savagery of him, or can you see the spiritual underlining that makes this character so good.. that he is canstantly battling the wild side in him - that is afraid of losing to his BEAST.  This book has them all, and many you probably have not heard of.

It does a wonderful job of letting the reader know the comic story that he is using as example and explaining the spiritual depth of the comics.  That you don't always have to take things at face value, but you can see what this can be used in the service of Christ.

I would recommend this book to any comic reader - or even if you just enjoyed the X-men and other marvel movies recently.

as well this book goes into describing the change that comics went through after 911.  Especially the difference in Captain Marvel.  As he decided to stand up for peace on the homefront - and still looking out for others.
1264059
I grew up on this stuff. I literally grew up on Wolverine and my favorite artists were Byrne, Cockrum, and Buscema, so that is very nearly comic heaven in one book for me. But if this volume doesn't carry those associations for you, well then you get here the first classic run of Chris Claremont's vision of a stand-alone Wolverine, you get classic Buscema which now that's he's long passed carries on great significance, and you get noir extravagance that tests our disbelief (come on, Wolverine wearing a patch makes former friends not recognize him - but it's as classic and now laughable device as Clark Kent's glasses - Wolverine's patch is up there approaching Superman's glasses now) followed by Goodwin's more captivating prose and more complex storylines. You get to see Wolverine as the outright killer strangely mixed with morals and a code of honor as well as a Wolverine that interplays with Dardevil, third-world political machinations, and even the Celestials. It makes for a rather heady volume. What I actually found most interesting is just how different artists can look in different circumstances. This is the first essentials volume I purchased because I actually prefer Buscema in black and white. I was first introduced to Big John in the Savage Sword of Conan black and white oversized mags, so this seemed like a wonderfully natural return for me. But then seeing him inked by Klaus Janson, Al Williamson, and then Bill Sienkiewicz was quite an experience. It gave a whole new tonality to the artwork that I didn't appreciate or understand as a child. And Byrne was at times barely recognizable when inked by Klaus Janson (who had his own style very heavily influenced, I believe, by Frank Miller - or sometimes I wonder if it was vice versa). I do not appreciate, however, Nghia Lam and Jason Rodriguez covers; they look like Yugio gone mad at the Marvel bullpen, but, if that's your thing, more power to you; people like me can go back to the glossy-covered trade paperback versions of the collected Wolverine run if this offends us. These are hardnosed stories, the collection includes a Hulk story that many comics writers and artists still go back to for fun and inspiration today, and I just can't say how much this collection is the first one that made me believe that black and white on pulp paper for full price is worth it. This entire production is truly reminiscent of what noir should be, which is what I think these folks had in mind to begin with. (And don't miss the Casablanca riffs; I didn't get those when I was a kid, either. Lol.) Anyway, this is all very well done, and I'm going to throw a cliche but wholeheartedly meant "Excelsior!" out there on this one.