Martin Skidmore - Review

Cyclops 1

This suffers the same fault as most other recent one-shots, in that it is utterly inessential, not being a notable or pivotal moment in Cyclops’ life, but what it achieves that the others don’t is being thoroughly entertaining, a virtue you don’t find in so many Marvel comics these days.

My New York Diary

It’s easy to not notice just how superb an artist Doucet is. The autobiographical confessional form, pretty common these days, has appealed to a lot of limited artists – often to good effect, nonetheless – as well as some all-time comics greats, most obviously Robert Crumb. Doucet’s rather cramped drawings with figures with huge heads can look simple or even awkward, until you pay some attention.

Captain America 615.1

This is certainly the best of the .1 issues I’ve seen so far, which actually isn’t saying much. It tells a story, complete in one issue, which along the way tells us where Steve Rogers is right now, and sets up a key emotional theme for the immediate future.

Showcase Presents The Witching Hour 1

Who writes the blurbs for these things? This features art “from a host of comics legends including Alex Toth, Bernie Wrightson, Jack Sparling, Pat Boyette and George Tuska,” a selection that slips steeply away from the legendary. In case you think that really is the best list they could pull, here are a few more artists featured inside: Kirby, Adams, Infantino, Gil Kane, Cardy, Morrow, Williamson, Sekowsky, Wood, Grandenetti, Aparo. I think I’d have mentioned one or two of those ahead of, for instance, George Tuska.

Junji Ito

Junji Ito is the creator of the best, scariest, most memorable horror tales I have seen in any medium.

FF 1

I buy a lot of things just to review, including lots of first issues. It’s a while since I’ve enjoyed any of them as much as this.

Thor 620.1

I’ve seen various approaches to the .1 jumping-on-point issues so far: just exposition to bring readers up to date; leaving the main character out of it completely; and a comedy single-issue story. This is closest to that final approach, except there is minimal attempt at comedy here, as far as I can tell.

Captain America & Crossbones 1

I am thoroughly sick of these pointless one-shot comics from Marvel – though despite saying ‘ONE-SHOT’ on the cover, there is a ‘next issue’ ad at the end, that being for Cap & Batrock, who apparently has a ‘k’ now. I know there’s a Cap movie this summer, so I figured that that must feature Crossbones, but not according to the IMDB cast list, so I’m at a loss to know why this comic exists.

Sigil 1

Everything about this feels far too glib. We have a schoolgirl who might as well be Buffy mark II, struggling at school, traumatised by her mother having recently died. She has strange dreams, and when attacked by some bullies at school, demonstrates superpowers then finds herself time-travelling to some pirate ship, under attack by some superpowered evil pirates.

Avengers: The Children’s Crusade: Young Avengers 1

This is a weird one-shot, in that it seems like issue 5 of the current Children’s Crusade series, explaining Iron Lad (aka young Kang) appearing at the end of issue 4 thereof. It’s also a weird title, in that the team and book were previously entitled Young Avengers before the bizarre new title.