Talking About Comics

The Tomb of Dracula #10-13 Originally released in 1973 Written by Marv Wolfman Art by Gene Colan This past weekend was EVO, a big fighting game tournament, where the last characters were announced for the base roster  of Marvel Tokon, including Blade.  While I'm familiar with the characters in this team, it seems like as good of a reason as any to go back to Blade's introduction, where instead of wearing black leather like in the Wesley Snipes movies, he dressed like this: Blade comes across as a cowboy cop, refusing to do things by the book. (Quincy Harker had been intending to follow the vampires that Blade killed back to Dracula, but Blade's intervention ruined weeks of planning, while Blade didn't care) He's a loose cannon, but he gets the job done! As it turns out, Dracula is on a boat with actors, princes, and various other celebrities.  He has his own plans for what to do on that ship, though first, he's going to have a snack. Blade tracks Dracula down to...

  Action Comics #252 Originally released in 1959 Written by Robert Bernstein and Otto Binder Art by Al Plastino I'm going to watch the Supergirl movie today, so it seems fitting that I cover her first appearance. (I already covered the comic that it's based on, Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow, in my previous blog) In a bit of a surprise, Supergirl's introduction is in the shorter back-up story; instead, the main story is the introduction of a long-lasting Superman villain, Metallo. John Corben is convinced he committed the perfect crime. After being caught stealing from his employer, he killed the employer, wiped his fingerprints off of the gun, and made it look like a suicide.  Moments after thinking this, he gets into a car crash that is almost fatal. A professor finds him, and in what comes across as an example of the sunk-cost fallacy (the idea that you've already come this far and put so many resources into something, so you can't back out now), he replaces Corben...

  Maximum Carnage part 3 The Amazing Spider-Man #380, Spider-Man #37, The Spectacular Spider-Man #203, Spider-Man Unlimited #2 Originally released in 1993 Written by David Michelinie (Amazing), J.M. DeMatteis (Spider-Man, Spectacular), Tom DeFalco (Unlimited) Art by Mark Bagley (Amazing, Unlimited), Tom Lyle (Spider-Man), Sal Buscema (Spectacular) Last time on Maximum Carnage, Carnage had set up headquarters in the Statue of Liberty as New York City descends into chaos.  While Carnage is torturing Venom, Spider-Man is working with a hastily-thrown-together team of Avengers (Captain America, Firestar, Iron Fist, and Deathlok) to put a stop to Carnage and his crew non-lethally. Once Shriek is knocked out, her maddening effect on the population wears off, leading to a great Captain America moment that makes his inclusion in this crossover worth it. Eventually, Shriek recovers, and is freed with the help of Demogoblin and Doppelganger, but with the heroes working to undo Shriek's ...

  Green Lantern #1-7 Originally released in 1960 Written by John Broome Art by Gil Kane My main familiarity with Green Lantern comes from the Geoff Johns run, so I wanted to try out another era for the character. (In this case, the Silver Age) Despite the numbering, this isn't the first issue that Hal Jordan appeared in as the Green Lantern, since he was in several issues of Showcase before this. It's been a year since Hal became the Green Lantern, though the issue recaps Hal's origin as the Guardians Of The Universe try to fill in the gaps of what they know. The art can be kind of wonky at times, with perspective making it look like Abin Sur either has a gigantic head or baby-like hands.  Also, the writing accidentally makes Abin Sur come across as more than a little sexist, though I'm assuming that comes down to the standards of the time. The way that a Green Lantern is selected, at least as it's described here, seems inherently flawed.  Candidates are chosen base...