Talking About Comics

 Absolute Wonder Woman #6-10 Originally released in 2025 Written by Kelly Thompson Art by Mattia De Iulis (#6-7), Hayden Sherman (#8-10) Continuing where I left off, Wonder Woman has been dragged back to Hell. Here, she comes face-to-face with Hades, after an extended disarming scene where one of Hades's assistants underestimates how many pieces of Diana's equipment qualify as weapons. Issue six consists of flashbacks to Diana gathering one of her lassos from Prometheus using his blood, freeing him from his torment (at least temporarily) and getting Pegasus in the bargain.  Considering that Prometheus gave fire to humanity and was punished eternally for doing so, it seems fitting that he's helping Diana here to become a hero to humanity. This series could have easily just been a focused reboot of Wonder Woman like the original Ultimate Spider-Man, but being raised by Circe gives Absolute Wonder Woman some clear differences from her mainline counterpart.  Being able to use...

  Spider-Man/Superman #1 Originally released in 2026 Written by Brad Meltzer et al. Art by Pepe Larraz et al. An extra long crossover one-shot (roughly 70 pages in total) seems particularly fitting for Spider-Man and Superman.  The first story starts in the middle of events, with Superman and Spider-Man buried underground in a prison of metal, with Superman weakened by magic or Kryptonite.  As a result, the bulk of the story is about them having a conversation, which makes for some nice character building. It quickly turns out that they're in a really bad situation, to the point where the amount of overkill seems almost comedic. Not only has Lex Luthor teamed up with the Green Goblin to weaken Superman to the extent where the Venom symbiote can possess the Man of Steel, but when the Venom-possessed Superman breaks free, there are a dozen villains (including Brainiac, Doomsday, and Amazon, who are Justice League level threats on their own), Luthor and the Green Goblin amon...

  What-If: Annihilation Originally released in 2007 Written by David Hine Art by Mico Suayan and Rafael Kayanan The video game Marvel Cosmic Invasion released The Thing and Cyclops as DLC characters. As Ben was one of the characters that I wanted the most, I'm using this as an opportunity to read a What-If story based on the Annihilation event.  As this event was going on and the entire universe at risk, the heroes of America were locked in a civil war over registration. Nova is very quick to point out how utterly stupid and meaningless this is in the grand scheme of things, and even the Watcher seems to look down on them for doing this. Nova showing up and explaining the situation quickly gets the heroes to unite, though there's still tension between them. The Watcher breaks his oath of non-interference, given that refusing to act would lead to Annihilus's forces destroying all life outside of the Negative Zone, and gives the survivors of the first wave a doomsday weapon t...

Day of Vengeance #1-3 Originally released in 2005 Written by Bill Willingham Art by Justiniano (#1-2), Ron Wagner (#3) I'm continuing my lead-up to Infinite Crisis with Day Of Vengeance; all I know going into it is that it involves the magic side of DC.  The story starts with Jean Loring, ex-wife of Ray "The Atom" Palmer, who's locked away in Arkham Asylum and talking to a purple gem. Agreeing to some sort of deal with it, she becomes the new host of the mystical villain Eclipso. Three weeks later, the Spectre seems to have gone homicidal, or at least more than he usually is.  Normally, he's something of a spirit of vengeance, or the embodiment of God's judgment, but now he seems to be going out of his way to kill hundreds of sorcerers regardless of their alignment or what they've done. Meeting at a bar for mystics, it quickly becomes clear that nobody wants to take on the Spectre, and those that try (like the Phantom Stranger, one of the more powerful mys...

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #1-6 Originally released in 2006 Written by John Jackson Miller Art by Brian Ching Since May 4th, I have been playing a lot of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in my free time, and I finished that game for the first time earlier today, so I decided to read a comic based on that. (or at least one with that name)  Rather than covering the events of the game, this comic takes place in the backstory, during the Mandalorian Wars about eight years before the game starts. (to briefly summarize, the Sith (the setting's villains) convince the Mandalorians (a race of proud warriors) that going to war with the Republic would be a glorious battle) This first story arc focuses on a perpetually unlucky Padawan named Zayne, who feels annoyed that he seems to be stuck as a Padawan (and embarrassing himself in front of the masters) while his friends get to become Jedi Knights.  They even get a celebratory party and everything! Zayne picked a rather ...