Why is Thor boring?

Martin Skidmore — 19-Oct-11

Thor is one of Marvel’s oldest and most powerful characters, and a prominent member of the Avengers. He was also fortunate up to 1982 in having stable creative teams. Why, then, did he rarely arouse interest in fans in the 1970s?

Overview: Lone Wolf and Cub – the First eleven issues

Martin Skidmore — 10-Oct-11

Lone Wolf and Cub, or Kozure Okami in Japanese, is one of the big success stories of manga. I intend to try to explain why I think this is one of the finest few comic series I’ve ever seen.

So-Called Critic: Sinner 4

Martin Skidmore — 12-Sep-11

If you were asked where, in comics, you might look to find out what New York City’s like, you might reasonably struggle for a satisfactory answer. Carlos Sampayo and José Muñoz are strange choices for this non-existent contest. Argentinians who, at least when their Joe’s Bar and Alack Sinner stories were created, had never so much as visited New York, their vision must surely arise from fiction, perhaps mostly from American movies, and thus can’t be taken wholly seriously. Nonetheless, their portrait seems far more persuasive than even those of the city’s most talented and devoted natives, like Frank Miller or Will Eisner.

Captain America 1

by Ed Brubaker, Steve McNiven, Mark Morales ; Marvel Comics

Martin Skidmore — 21-Jul-11

I am a huge admirer of Brubaker, and he’s done a lot of his best work with Cap, so I had high hopes for this, but I am slightly deflated after reading it. It does a great job of introducing the essentials of the character, thankfully eschewing a millionth showing of the origin, but flashing back to WWII, showing him with the Avengers, bringing in Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan and Sharon Carter, giving him some action as Steve Rogers and finally as Cap.

Gobs 1

by Richard Moore ; Antarctic Press

Martin Skidmore — 19-Jul-11

Some goblins build a pub. No, seriously, that’s it. That’s all that happens.

Marvel Universe vs Wolverine 1

by Jonathan Maberry, Laurence Campbell ; Marvel Comics

Martin Skidmore — 18-Jul-11

A title like that, I thought this would just be some fairly lightweight all-action adventure. Then again, I suppose Mark Millar’s tremendous Wolverine: Enemy of the State more or less fulfilled this title as well, and was entirely serious. One note is that this has to be a What If alternate world story (not that it states that), since a few heroes have already been finished off in this first of four issues, and I bet there will be lots more.

Vengeance 1

by Joe Casey, Nick Dragotta ; Marvel Comics

Martin Skidmore — 15-Jul-11

I’m a highly intelligent person who has read fucking thousands of Marvel comics over the years, so I don’t often find I read a comic mostly centring on existing characters and end up with not the slightest idea what is going on.

Mysterious Ways 1

by Jason Rubin, Tyler Kirkham, Sal Regla ; Top Cow

Martin Skidmore — 14-Jul-11

This is an odd comic, in that it seems to set up one kind of storyline and genre, then on the last page tell us that it isn’t that kind of thing at all.

All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes 1

by Paul Jenkins, Carmine Di Giandomenico ; Marvel Comics

Martin Skidmore — 13-Jul-11

This strikes me as a total disaster area of a comic. First, purge your mind of any previous knowledge of the All-Winners Squad, more or less the same as the Invaders: this lot has no Torch (though is that supposed to be him on the cover?) or Sub-Mariner or Whizzer, though it does have Cap and Bucky. We see them from 1944 in mostly army uniform with a bunch of other soldiers who wear masks.

Witchdoctor 1

by Brandon Siefert, Lukas Ketner ; Image Comics

Martin Skidmore — 11-Jul-11

Our hero here is a mystical doctor, taking a pseudomedical approach to the supernatural, here dealing with the traditional possessed kid. He wears a white coat and talks about parasitical infection by demons, and comes accompanied by a paramedic and some sort of weird anaesthesiologist, a mystical girl.

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