Batman: The Black Mirror

So it seems I’ve been off doing some other things for the last ten months, like reviving an internet show no-one watches, updating a public interest blog no-one reads, and writing stories that will never, ever be turned into award-winning screenplays. So I figured I’d better come back here and set this ol’ review blog up again, especially since this year is looking to be quite interesting in terms of new comic book releases.

The interest will mostly stem from DC’s hardcover and paperback releases of their “The New 52” stories, and while it’s true that I am most definitely looking forward to offerings like Geoff Johns’ next chapters of Green Lantern and (surprisingly) the reinterpretation of Superboy in Grant Morrison’s Action Comics, I remain fairly certain that the majority (or at least half) of the new content is only going to be marginally better than having your dog piss in your mouth on a Saturday morning when it’s been raining. Specifically the ones like Hawk and Dove, Batgirl and Catwoman all sound utterly stupid on paper, especially given the recent complaints that most of the female characters in the DCU have had their brains swapped for silicon implants.

So in the weeks leading up to the releases of “The New Fifty-Screwed” I thought I’d go back and look at a couple of somewhat-recent releases that I’ve really liked. It would be remiss of me to enter into a journey to DC’s reboot without shining the spotlight on Scott Snyder, and his you’d-better-bloody-give-him-an-Eisner-award run on the Batman books. I’ve heard bits and pieces about his current “Court of Owls” storyline that strongly evokes the same kind of layered, mythological take on Batman that Grant Morrison utilised for his Black Glove storyline, and if “The Black Mirror” is any indication of Snyder’s arc-writing prowess then I think it’s safe to say his Batman run will be heralded as one of the best ever written, standing alongside other legendary writers like Frank Miller and Jeph Loeb.

Admittedly I was hesitant to read “The Black Mirror” because it focussed on Dick Grayson’s Batman rather than ol’ Brucey, and to be honest the Grayson stuff I read in Tony Daniel’s “Life After Death” didn’t give me a strong liking for the character as Batman. Thankfully, though, Snyder does away with all that bullshit and delivers a stark, terrifying tale that bonds new Batman with old guard Jim Gordon in a combined story about psychology, failed parenting and the abyss gazing back with neon-black sunglasses.

The hardcover actually collects a few different stories together into one big eleven-issue arc, contributing pieces of a whole the same way a season of Heroes would do. The focus begins mainly on Grayson as he takes on The Dealer, one of the creepiest auctioneers you’re ever likely to meet and a collector of Batman villain paraphernalia, while at the same time Jim Gordon’s estranged son, James, returns after many years to show how he’s changed from his sociopathic tendencies and is really just a good little boy again. Once the Dealer gets taken care of the focus shifts primarily to Gordon and his struggles to accept – and, later, defeat – his own son as James’ insidious plans for Gotham are slowly revealed, culminating in a final issue that is as terrifying and chilling as any horror movie ending you care to name.

One of the book’s strengths lies in its accessibility; there’s a quick precede that outlines Batman Incorporated and where Bruce has toddled off to, which then dives straight into the story proper. I’d wager that you could pick this book up as a first-time Batman reader and have a pretty solid grasp on what’s going on; the narrative is presented in a manner that informs newcomers on bits and pieces of Bat-history without becoming heavy on exposition and reminiscence. There’s a wonderful balance struck between old and new reader accessibility.

The art shifts between the immeasurable talents of Jock and Francesco Francavilla between stories; the former is dirty and grungy, the latter is a bit retro and strongly reminiscent of Mazzucchelli’s art from “Batman: Year One”, used mainly in flashbacks to James Gordon’s childhood. The biggest highlight for me was towards the end of the initial Black Mirror story when Dick is trying to escape from the Dealer’s Mirror House with a gaggle of gas-masked baddies chasing him through a room that is quickly filling with poison gas; it was creepy, slightly surrealist and put you in a very tense and scary mood that few other comic books are able to replicate.

The dialogue is well-executed, although let down a little here and there when it feels a little forced. There’s a moment in the middle of the story when Jim Gordon’s talking to Barbara about James’ return, and their words don’t feel like father and daughter – more like a cop and a witness. At all other times they manage to nail it believably, though.

I hadn’t read anything of Scott Snyder’s before this book, so titles like American Vampire and Swamp Thing will be next on my list to check out. Overall, “The Black Mirror” acts as a wonderful standalone story and a good sign of how Snyder’s work on the current Batman arc may pan out.

STORY: 5/5
ARTWORK: 4.5/5
DIALOGUE: 4/5

OVERALL: 13.5/15

Facebook Review – Siege

Originally posted Sunday, August 29, 2010.

(Future Chris – since posting this review I have read Avengers Disassembled and Civil War, and thus have gained a much more fleshed-out understanding of the contents of Siege. I will be posting a review in context of these other series’ soon, but for now this comes before I read the others)

DISCLAIMER: I have not read the miniseries Avengers Disassembled, Civil War or Secret Invasion, and have only read portions of Dark Reign (primarily Deadpool, X-Men and Dark Avengers). I therefore approach this book more as a standalone than as part of the main story presented in the aforementioned series’. I have, however, read the cliff notes for each series, so I understand (mostly) what’s going on.

In my Cry for Justice review I stated I was trepidatious with approaching team books, such as Justice League or The Avengers. For me, it just feels like each character needs to have their own book with the occasional crossover to other events, giving them the ability to grow and develop as a character on their own. Keeping them in a weekly team series, however, can dilute that effect and simply make some characters seem like they are just there for the hell of it. Having these characters smooshed in for the sake of having a flashier cover page is like trying to cram peanut butter, fudge brownie and Baskin-Robbins cookie-dough ice-cream into a jam jar – it’s tasty, but largely ineffective at holding itself in correct proportions (I’ve suddenly made myself hungry now).

Whilst Siege is not, strictly speaking, an Avengers title, it may as well be. The main good guys are Thor and Captain America, as well as half of Marvel’s superhero population who’ve been in hiding for the better part of a year during Dark Reign. The final battle is a giant who’s-who smackdown of Marvel supes vs. Marvel villains, culminating in a rather spectacular bashing of Norman Osborn and The Void, the dark entity that had apparently taken control of The Sentry in Dark Avengers. By story’s end, the Dark Avengers are kicked out and the new ones (and by new I mean the originals, so technically they’re not new) are put on the job. The final shot – a truly, truly epic panorama of Wolverine, Luke Cage, Captain America, Ms Marvel, Spiderman, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Thor – is of Avengers. The heroes of the story are Avengers.

Come on, it’s an Avengers title.

This is where Siege failed a little for me; don’t get me wrong, as a story it works really well and I certainly enjoyed reading it. It is by no means a bad book, much the opposite. It does, however, fail on the “cross-over” aspect that was touted for Siege during its initial run in single issues, and instead just seems like a big Avengers smackdown. There’s Spiderman – and since when did he become a deadpan snarker, coz that was awesome – and Wolverine, with the latter making very small appearances, but apart from that there feels to be very little crossover, per se. Thor, Iron Man and Captain America were all Avengers anyways, so there’s nothing really new there. The X-Men barely made an appearance, though I suppose they had their big story with Utopia. There was no Deadpool – a major character through a lot of Dark Reign. The only real crossover element was the inclusion of Loki and Asgard, so if anything it’s a Thor/Avengers crossover, ish.

The aforementioned issue of smooshing characters in also has lack of appeal. For instance, there is a panel towards the end of Chapter 4 that has Iron Fist in it. He has no dialogue, does nothing drastic and has no discernible effect on the story. He’s just there as part of a reaction shot. This greatly disappointed me, particularly because Iron Fist is one of my favourite Marvel characters. They could have at least given him a snarky line, or indeed a regular line, or something. His purpose could’ve been served by any of the other heroes in the battle instead, without wasting the opportunity to tease us with Iron Fist then not give him anything. It feels like masturbation without the orgasm.

Another chief offender of this is Luke Cage. He really didn’t seem to serve any substantial purpose. He was there to utter a few lines of cliché dialogue here and there, but he felt largely superfluous to the story. Again, his purpose could have been served by another character instead, who actually did something meaningful within the story.

As I said though, this does not make it a bad book. Disappointment at lack of substantial crossover aside, there is quite a bit to like. For one thing, Spiderman makes some great quips throughout. Then there are the epic battles by the barrelful, with my personal favourite being Ares vs. The Sentry. So what if he got discombobulated in the process? It was fucking epic!

The best bit of the book, however, is one that had me both laughing and exulting inside. I’ll let you guys do the math – Captain America’s shield. Iron Patriot’s head. I never thought the words would be coming out of my mouth, but maybe Captain America isn’t so bad after all. In fact, I may even go so far as to say he’s pretty bad-ass.

Gotta say, I was really glad that I both picked this up at Comic-Con and managed to get it signed by Brian Bendis, the author and Olivier Coipel, the artist. Definitely worth the extra effort.

Overall, I was pleased with Siege. I went in expecting a lot more than I got, but what I got was still enjoyable. As comics go, you could do a hell of a lot worse (for more information, see Cry for Justice review).

7/10

Facebook Review – Justice League – Cry for Justice

(Originally published Sunday, August 1, 2010)

I picked up a lot of swag from comic-con this last month (for those who haven’t been reading my journal notes, go check out Chris and Damo’s Adventures in America for full lists of what was grabbed. Final photos up soon). So much so that I believe my comics addiction will be sated for at least the next few months. I believe the final tally was somewhere close to thirty individual volumes collected, from Scott Pilgrim to X-Force to Batman to Blackest Night, and even – unfortunately – Justice League. This weekly editorial will focus on those books that I got, and on how they’re either awesome, mediocre or plain craptastic.

Sadly, my first entry focusses heavily on the last of the three categories. Justice League: Cry for Justice, written by James Robinson, is the first Justice League book that I’ve read, and if this is the standard across most of the series then it will most likely be the last. Given that I’m wary of the two big team titles for DC and Marvel – Justice League and The Avengers respectively – this was an unprecendented purchase for me, but since it only cost me $8 at comic-con and was meant to heavily feature Green Lantern, my second-favourite comic book superhero, I figured it was worth a shot. I’d heard one or two people say some good stuff about it.

Those people are now dead, because I killed them for blatant lies.

Cry for Justice starts out fairly solidly – Hal Jordan is pissed that heroes are dying left, right and centre, so he takes off with Green Arrow to take down some baddies. Along the way they’re joined by Supergirl, Captain Marvel (who DESPERATELY needs a haircut), Congo Bill, Starman and The Atom. Their main target ends up being Prometheus, who has done some pretty bad shiz to a lot of people and needs to be taken down. On the way they have to deal with issues of superhero morality, most prominently torturing the bad guys to get what they want.

Sounds good, right? A bunch of powerful heroes taking on a villainous mastermind, focussing on violence from superheroes as a grey morality issue and showcasing a few of DC’s underdog superheroes as charging forces of good and awesome, right?

Wrong.

What we get instead is a sappy, over-hyped and over-bloated piece that tries – and fails – to hit the mark on the aforementioned morality issue, and that contains far too many instances of the word justice. The characterisations go all over the place, there’s a stupid subplot about Supergirl and Captain Marvel getting familiar that was squished in and totally unnecessary, the dialogue is far too clunky and awkward and there are so many double standards brought up in the piece that just make it both confusing and boring at the same time.

Robinson very much has a missed moment of awesome in this book – his initial purpose of superheroes trying to dish some pain to the baddies instead of waiting for them to come to him has a lot of good push to it, and would indeed make a fantastic story that could explore a much darker side of the pre-established superhero MO. It veers from this premise early on, however, and eventually just becomes all about them trying to kick Prometheus’s ass because he’s already done some bad stuff. The whole “going against collective villains” thing goes right out the window after the first couple of chapters, and really turns into what I view as a stock standard plot about heroes vs villains and how they’re apparently incorruptible. By the end of the story the heroes are alright, Prometheus has been pwned and all seems right with the world.

Except for the 90,000 dead in Star City. And Arsenal having his arm ripped off. And Green Arrow killing someone.

And therein is one of the biggest disappointments for me in this book – Green Arrow. The Emerald Archer has been a hero I wouldn’t mind reading some substantial stuff of someday, but his characterisation in this book made me want to punch him in the face. His double standard of “We can’t torture villains like Prometheus, but it’s ok the kill them!” was so utterly contrived. Granted, he had just lost 90,000 people from his city, but Prometheus had done bad stuff before then and yet still had ol’ Ollie defending his human rights and whatnot. The selfish act of being allowed to kill him when HE was wronged by Prometheus was so completely unheroic in every sense, it made me wonder if this is how Green Arrow is meant to be in his own series as well. For someone reading most of these characters and settings for the first time, it doesn’t exactly make me want to read more of Arrow’s stuff in particular.

The twists in this story are far too pedestrian. The reveal about Freddy actually being Prometheus felt lame. Green Arrow putting an arrow between his eyes felt predictable, once Star City fell. The fake Prometheus that was actually Clayface was RIDICULOUSLY underwhelming.

It feels like Robinson wanted to take all these shocking elements and smoosh them together into something resembling a story, but ended up just creating a random miasma of crapness. There’s so little exploration of real character, apart from Green Arrow. There’s no satisfying resolution. There are too many expected twists. There’s too much awkward dialogue. There are too many characters thrown in for no reason (such as Jay Garrick, AKA the First Flash. WTF was he doing in the story, chasing down all those random heroes and JSA members? I’ve still got no idea).

In short, Cry for Justice was highly disappointing. It’s reaffirmed for me the dangers of a team piece being far too non-streamlined and awkward, as well as having too many chaarcters there for little or no good reason at all, and it’s kinda turned me off attempting to read another Justice League piece anytime soon. If someone can point me to a genuinely good one I’ll have a go, but James Robinson does not get a gold star from me.

One final positive note would be the artwork – whilst the story was bad, Mauro Cascioli’s artwork was quite beautiful. It’s a style I’ve never seen in a comic book before, but I found it far more engaging than the written words on the pages.

3/10

Batman: Time and the Batman

While I stated in my previous review for Messiah Complex that I was not a particular Marvel lover, over the last few months I’ve expanded my reading list somewhat. Thanks to the excellent recommendations given to me by various internet friends, I’ve now branched out into reading further Marvel properties like Iron Man and Captain America.

I used to say to people that it was a sign of the apocalypse if I read a Captain America story. It was a second sign if I enjoyed it.

Now we are two signs closer to the end of the world.

I was going to review Winter Soldier, the first part of what has been heralded as a groundbreaking Cap run by Ed Brubaker, but I’ve been looking over the scant few reviews I’ve imparted to all five of my readers and I realised I don’t shit on graphic novels enough. I read the good ones, the nice ones, the ones that leave me with the heady feeling one gets whenever they see a superhero beat the snot out of some communist/Nazi/morally evil character that’s been running around pulling all kinds of shit for the past twelve issues. Winter Soldier fits solidly into this category, and as such I cannot review it. Yet.

No, I need to do some more naysaying and negativity with my reviews, and to that end I’m taking on a recent Batman title that may not have been bad, per se, but was quite lacking especially in comparison to the other titles in its run.

The title to which I’m referring is Time and the Batman.

I have become, in essence, a Grant Morrison fanboy. I stood in line for hours to see him at Comic-Con last year (and was denied the chance by an asshole of a DC coordinator who was obviously going through menopause that very weekend) with a copy of Batman RIP clutched tightly in my sweaty paws, and afterwards when a kindly young lady in the line ahead of me got him to sign it for me anyway I looked lovingly at that black texta scrawl on the front page and felt hugely satisfied, like I’d just gotten a blowjob from Black Widow.

I love his Batman arc, even if it is a bit hard to follow at times, I love his X-Men run, and I really enjoyed Final Crisis after the fourth or fifth reading of it. Grant Morrison subverts and twists the superhero paradigm six ways to Sunday, and it works really well in everything of his that I’ve read.

In Time, though, he’s hit a bit of a snag. I feel like releasing this as a graphic novel, rather than as part of an omnibus or as an extra in The Return of Bruce Wayne, has really been to the detriment of the readers if, like me, they expect more from a Morrison trade.

Don’t get me wrong, the writing is still sharp as ever. The beginning with Issue 700, following a murder mystery that spans three generations of Batmen and beyond, is a solid opener and can be read as a standalone story. I’ve always enjoyed the little sojourns Morrison takes into the future with Damian Wayne, and the third act of the story is no exception – the dystopic backdrop of Gotham heightened by the presence of a Batman who will kill you if you fuck up his day just makes for an awesome, gritty read, and it shows that even the most annoying of characters can find a purpose, eventually, that makes them awesome.

Following this is the two-part instalment “RIP: The Missing Chapter”, which bridges the gap between Bruce Wayne’s disappearance in RIP and his capture by Darkseid in Final Crisis. While I really enjoyed seeing him traverse the 30 days to Omega, it felt like it was really only half a story when it was shoved in with issue 700 and the rest. Granted, it’s supposed to kind of be that way, but I found that sticking in what is ostensibly a vital component to the RIP storyline with a story that is months after the event is a little jarring.

The final section, focussing on a one-shot called The Great Escape, is superfluous. Entirely and utterly. I found that this story was just shoved in for no adequate reason, and I was left confused at the ending somewhat. In this myth arc that Morrison has crafted so well for Batman this was just a story that didn’t need to be shoved in for length’s sake in a trade that is ostensibly used to continue that arc. He could just as well have left it for a Batman and Robin trade, or the upcoming Road Home collected edition.

Overall, I’m unimpressed by the choices for this trade. What seems to be one of DC’s biggest flaws is that they’re releasing smaller and smaller collected editions for quicker cash, in comparison to Marvel who may take a bit longer on some titles but end up releasing a 20-issue omnibus for more storytelling flow. Time and the Batman could have easily been grafted in parts onto other upcoming releases without losing much of the momentum Morrison has been building on.

While it did disappoint me in comparison to his other titles, however, it’s still worth reading for the overall myth arc. It’ll give you a bit more context for Return of Bruce Wayne, at any rate.

6/10

X-Men: Messiah Complex

After a lengthy hiatus of reading actual novel-type books (you know, the ones that’ve been around for a few dozen centuries longer than good ol’ comics) I’m back into reading some graphic novel-related material. The number of comics I have still to read from Comic-Con remains quite extensive, and I will be getting to them in due course. This week, however, I’ll be tackling one that I’ve had since April 2010 but haven’t had the chance to read fully.

Those who know me or follow my posts will know that I’m not a huge Marvel guy, and that the furthest I tend to get with them versus DC is the fact that they have X-Men. Ever since hitting up Joss Whedon’s Astonishing run and the wonderful work Grant Morrison did with New X-Men I’ve been getting further and further engrossed with the mutant misfits and their wacky adventures through time, through space and through several layers of dream-woven material in-between.

Near the top of the list of X-Men recommendations I received from friends was the 2007 seminal classic Messiah Complex, the first in a trilogy of stories that also includes Messiah War and Second Coming (both of which will be reviewed a little later on). I happened to find it on special for $20 at my local comic store way back, before I went to America, but was told that it wasn’t a good thing to read it without some preceding ancillary material (specifically House of M and Endangered Species) and by having the next two parts on standby.

To them, I say to sod that.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no doubt that the other stuff is important to the story (particularly Second Coming, which I will later rave about regarding how it’s now my second-favourite X-Men story of all time) but I was really, really eager to read it. I managed to find Endangered Species and some other stuff in the States, but I really didn’t feel like wading through Beast-angst and other such stuff without getting to the core masterpiece, which Messiah Complex most definitely is.

At its heart it’s a streamlined, relatively easy-to-follow story that almost any new X-reader can pick up and get straight into. Even without the opening paragraph of text that gives you the cliff notes on House of M and Decimation it’s made pretty clear what the backstory is throughout the first couple of chapters. There were very few moments where I was scratching my head going “Wait, why is that happening now?” or “What’s the significance of that guy turning up?” from not having read the previous instalments.

The novel follows the first mutant birth since the Scarlet Witch’s commandment of “No More Mutants” caused the world’s population of superpower lottery winners to plummet from thousands to a mere 180-ish. After trying to track down the child the X-Men discover that she’s been taken by time-traveling tech-head Cable – also known as Cyclops’ grown-up son from the future – in order to keep her away from a bunch of really nasty religious zealots and church militants who are hell-bent, in every sense of the term, on slaying the child like the demonic little mutant Antichrist they see her as.

This then gets compounded by Lucas Bishop – yet another time-traveler from far off mutant-dystopia-land – also trying to off the little girl, despite being allied with the X-Men. While later reading gives you clear insight into exactly why Bishop is trying to add a baby to his body count, it still left me feeling kinda pissed at the writers twisting him into a bad guy. During the latter half of Morrison’s New X-Men run, when they investigate Emma Frost’s shattering, Bishop was one of the characters I really enjoyed them showcasing. He seemed like a big black badass – if possible, the second role Samuel L. Jackson could’ve played besides Nick Fury – and he seemed like an intriguing, if slightly rough-edged, ally of the protagonists.

Now, however, he’ll go down in history as an attempted child murderer and the would-be assassin of Charles Xavier (not sure whether the resolution to this was a retcon or not, but it certainly felt like one after Complex ended). I hear he does further battle with the good guys in Messiah War – the one part of the trilogy I’ve yet to read – and I’m dreading that aspect of it a little. It’s not like they took a character I completely adore and turned them into an antagonist, but it still leaves a slightly sour taste in my mouth when I read that section.

Apart from this, however, Messiah Complex is utterly sublime from start to finish. The characters are written consistently, despite the fact that the story covers about three or four different monthly titles with a plethora of separate authors and artists, and the story is quite easily accessible to newbies like me. The character interactions are believable and fit well with the story, ranging from minor banter to big take-thats against Scott Summers and his faith-minded mission to secure the mutant child at the expense of a buttload of bodies.

This brings me to a big point that I’ll be looking at in greater detail over the next two parts – Scott Summers, Cyclops, the current leader of the X-Men. I’ve just got one question for everybody:

Who the hell put him in charge?

During his stint as a second-in-command during New X-Men and his new-installation as de facto leader during Astonishing, Cyclops was portrayed as something of a fallible, tortured soul with redeeming qualities underneath the Order-of-the-Phoenix-level angst and marital/relationship issues with Jean Grey and Emma Frost respectively (to be honest, I far prefer him with the latter, and not just because she cleans up nicely). Cyclops as an equal member of the team gave the story a different angle to follow, and it was an intriguing one at that.

Now, in mutantkind’s darkest hour, he’s just a massive penis with spandex and a Geordi La Forge visor.

I’m really disliking Scott from his antics here and in other stories like Utopia and X-Force, but not in a way that casts negative aspersions towards the writers. It’s obvious that he’s meant to be a huge dick, and the writers pull it off with just enough scant redeeming quality to prevent him from falling to whiny jerk-ass-level lack of story-wise redemption. It’s a credit to the varied team of writers that they manage to keep his douchebaggery consistent and believable throughout.

After I read this I went and examined some of the other material related to it that I picked up from Comic-Con, but found that a lot of seemed rather superfluous (Endangered Species in particular). This is the kind of book you can read with or without the supporting stuff and still have a pleasurable experience.

The varied forms of artwork can be a little jarring at times, but overall it detracts so minorly from the experience that I didn’t notice after a while.

All up, Messiah Complex is an excellent addition to any comic reader’s bookshelf and a definitive instalment in the X-Men mythos.

8.5/10

Why You’re Here – An Introductory Lesson to Surviving Sunday

Far back in the mists of 2010’s prehistory, I started a weekly column on Facebook called “Sunday in the Comics with Christopher”. The column itself was intended as a way of both being a catalyst for reading the insane amount of comics I brought back from my trip to San Diego and as the capability to review said comics for at least my own personal amusement, and the title was derived from Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George”. Given that my penchant for affixing witty named based on pre-existing titles is almost non-existant, it’s a wonder I even came up with just that.

After a while, however, the Facebook column dried up (after only about 8 weeks). This was due in part to a combination of lots of work in the real world and a distinct realisation that very few people on Facebook actually gave a crap about what I was reading. Given that the actual people that I know who enjoy comics could be counted on one hand (that’s real life people, not including internet citizens), I figured it’d be a good idea to give it a break for a while until I could come up with a format that could speak to a larger, more targetted audience.

And thus was born this blog.

I happen to run another semi-regular blog at dashiva-mindseye.blogspot.com, and this is my general, all-purpose web journal – political commentary, social goings-on, random scraps of my creative writing; all of it goes there. If you’re looking for updates on my writing projects or what I think of the Australian government’s policy on video game restrictions, then head on over there.

This blog is simply for comic book reviews. Graphic novels, one-shots, continuing series’, specific authors – all of that lives here. I will endeavour to release a new review at least once every week (I’ve already got a few in the can ready to go) and would greatly appreciate discussion, comments and feedback from people who read it. I assign scores based on how much I enjoyed the story, artwork and scripting, and I would greatly encouragement disagreeing with me in order to propagate a discussion. If you believe Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men doesn’t deserve a perfect score then feel free to say so – just keep in mind I may have to hunt you down and mount your spinal column on my wall.

I’ll post my first blog review here shortly, and in the coming weeks I’ll also tranpose my previous reviews from Facebook to here as well.

Also keep in mind I won’t always post on a Sunday 😛