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I just finished reading The Darkhold: Iron Man by Ryan North (W) and Guillermo Sanna (A) and I. am. screaming. This issue is, without any doubt, the best Iron Man comic that's been published in years. Years. Forget the next installment of the Cantwell run (which also dropped today); just buy The Darkhold, and buy it in job lots so Marvel gets the freakin' message. In The Darkhold, North starts at Tales of Suspense #39 -- but then takes Tony's dependence on that original metal chest plate to a whole new level. Buckle up, because this g ..read more

This past month, Marvel updated – and aggressively marketed - its Marvel Unlimited app, adding exclusive digital “infinity” comics that are optimized for phone screens. As a long-time subscriber to Marvel Unlimited, I did in fact download the update — and I have some thoughts. First, beware: the new app is not compatible with all devices. While I had no trouble downloading it onto my phone, I’m now unable to use Marvel Unlimited on my Samsung 4. This is a bit of an inconvenience to me because, being an older lady, I now have trouble reading on itty-bitty screens. Keep in mind: according to th ..read more

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Posts (including that aforementioned discussion regarding politics in the Captain America comics) will still appear on this blog from time to time, but for the next few months, I plan on devoting most of my energy to developing my Iron Man fan comic and working on a possible book idea. See you on the flip side!  ..read more

And, unfortunately, that's all I have ready for this post. But the next should be pretty chock full. In addition to some comic and book reviews, I also plan to share an essay on the abuse of Captain America. Hope you'll stop by on the 17th for the fun ..read more

Let's open this post with the review: Yesterday, I started - and rapidly finished - Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary, which is absolutely outstanding and thus earns my highest recommendation. Indeed, I don't think I've been this excited about a book in quite some time. How shall we describe the premise of Weir's third novel? Well, I read it as an offspring of a marriage between The Martian (reviewed here) and my favorite first contact narratives (like, for example, James Cambias' A Darkling Sea, reviewed here), .  Like Mark Watney, the protagonist and point-of-view char ..read more

Western Comics: Capsule Reviews As it turns out, I don’t have much to say about May’s offerings from the Big Two, so this column will focus on three four-star independent graphic novels I read in the past month — one recent release followed by two online recommendations. T-Bird & Throttle vs. the Moon Men Writer/Artist: Josh Howard (How Rad Comics, Superhero) A YouTube commentator I regularly follow has described this book as the anti-Watchmen, noting that it is a reconstruction (rather than a deconstruction) of the superhero. Said reviewer, in my view, got it exactly right. The first v ..read more

Here, we talk about the incredibly stupid marketing campaign for the Hellfire Gala, dive deep into Way of X #1, and then finish the broadcast with my favorite title: Iron Man ..read more

Western Comics: Capsule Reviews Marvel Captain America #28 Writer: Ta-Nehisi Coates Artist: Leonard Kirk This comic quickly became infamous on social media for its gratuitous - and not at all disguised - swipe at one of the writer’s prominent philosophical opponents, but I’m not going to use this space to comment on that bit of controversy (other than to state the obvious: it was bad writing). Instead, I’m going to focus on what this comic gets wrong when it comes to the personality and motivations of Steve Rogers. As I wrote in a longer blog post on this particular issue, Steve didn't embrac ..read more