by Bob Bruno 

Final Issue. As the Defenders of the Earth (yeah, you heard me) beat back Ming’s forces across the globe, the Phantom prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice to close the portals between Mongo & Earth permanently.

Warning: Major spoilers for the issue follow.

by Bob Bruno

Thwarted in his attempt to rescue denizens of Subterranea, an enraged Superman rockets towards Tower Command to confront its mysterious Commander, a woman named Harrow.

Warning: Minor spoilers for the issue follow.

Greg Pak’s Superman encompasses much to love about the character. Using the New 52 to its full advantage, Pak gives us a Man of Steel with all of the ideals and optimism, but without the seasoning of his Pre-Crisis/Post-Crisis counterparts. This Superman, with a touch of arrogance and recklessness, is daring: Daring to save everyone; daring to take a chance on people; daring to trust; daring to do what’s hard and what’s right in the face of being criticized as naïve or weak. That combined with an exuberance for embracing his power, gives Pak’s Superman a welcome and compelling freshness, difficult to achieve and often absent from the character.

by Bob Bruno and Jake Douglas

Warning: Spoilers follow.

Bob: Hello everyone and Happy Hellboy week! Inspired, Jake and I have decided to do something a little different for our weekly review. Just so everyone knows, that at the time of writing this, Jake and I have only read up to the second trade, Wake the Devil. We're new to this universe, and neither have any idea where the story is going...

by Bob Bruno

Slowly recovering from the events of City Fall, the Ninja Turtles and their allies are ambushed in their Northampton hideaway by a warrior mutant named Koya, and her deadly team of highly-trained Foot Assassins.

Warning: Some spoilers follow.

by Bob Bruno 

The penultimate chapter of Jeff Parker and Marc Laming’s highly enjoyable Defenders of the Earth modernisation, adds just the perfect amount of real-world grit, while sacrificing none of the comic strip characters’ sense of fun or adventurism.

Following the dire events of last issue, with the portal between Mongo and Earth now open, Ming the Merciless uses the energies of the King’s Watch to force the Earth into a global technological shut down, as his armies arrive and poise to take the planet. Meanwhile, Flash Gordon, the Phantom and Mandrake the Magician push back against Ming’s infantry forces on the streets of London.

Jeff Parker employs here the tried and tested formula of separate individuals uniting to combat an alien invasion, a formula recently made famous by the Avengers.  What firmly and fundamentally sets this story apart however, and prevents it from ever being tired, is despite the colourful costumes this isn’t a story about superheroes at all… It’s about adventurers. These characters aren’t gods, monsters or super-soldiers, they’re three normal men and an illusionist, bare-knuckled, with horses, planes and handguns, fighting against an interstellar tyrant and his army of ray gun armed beast men, teleport devices and giant lizards. These practical aspects of the story alone are enough to put Kings Watch on a far different trajectory than both the Avengers and the Justice League. There was a wonderful line of dialogue in issue #3 spoken by the antagonist, Cobra, which was more than enough to sell me on Jeff Parker’s take: “We seem to be running into the toughest living obstacles. Fitting for such an undertaking.” A fascinating idea that from crises rise the greatest among us.

by Bob Bruno 

Scott Snyder takes a one month break from his rebooted Batman origin saga: Zero Year, and with the help of James Tynion IV, gives us an exciting glimpse into the soon to be launched weekly DC comic, Batman: Eternal!

Set in a near, unrecognisable future, post-some mysterious calamity befallen Gotham City, Batman and his newly costumed sidekick, Harper Row, invade Gotham’s only remaining nightclub in search of the possible key to setting things back to the way they were.

Snyder and Tynion employ a time-jump to an undisclosed point just beyond our present, where bolted-down cameras monitor every street, and Gotham City Police violently enforce curfew with machine guns and batons. We’re prompted to ask, what exactly happened to the city? What series of events took place to get us to this dire point? Purposefully light on exposition, the writers have masterfully crafted this narrative tease of things to come. Characters associated with the Bat-family appear in shocking new contexts that intriguingly jar against their present day selves. What hard or self-serving choices did they make? What circumstances could make them abandon themselves almost completely? Never overt, each page is sprinkled with clues to be sifted through, while lines of dialogue subtlety reference past tragedies that lie within our reading future. And Gotham Eternal’s final page reveal will be sure to satisfy a number of long-time fans and perhaps even quell some of the more vocal opponents to DC’s new 52.

by Bob Bruno

Utilizing his incredible talent for high-concept science fiction and voicing intelligent characters, Jonathan Hickman takes the concept of a superhero Illuminati, and runs it all the way down the field.

Under constant threat from Incursions and the inter-dimensional adversaries they bring with them, the Illuminati reconstructs Reed Richards’ invention, the Bridge, to gain intelligence on the Mapmakers and the their masters, the Sidera Maris. Meanwhile, the Sorcerer Supreme barters at the Sinner’s Market for even more power.

It’s writers like Hickman that remind us why it’s good to be an Avengers fan and a comic book fan in general. I like it when my heroes are challenged, especially in ways that don’t feel phony, forced or trite, and in this, Hickman has overwhelmingly triumphed with a story that’s gripping, and characters compelling. For those unfamiliar with the impetus of Hickman’s series long story arc, simply put: there’s a catastrophic problem with the multiverse. During cosmic events dubbed “incursions,” the dimensional walls surrounding a random pair of parallel Earths are weakened, forcing both planets into the same space until they collide, with the resulting energy unleashed from their destruction great enough to annihilate the entire parent universe. This problem is systemic and ongoing, incursions can strike any pair of Earths, at any time. The only reliable solution? Once an incursion begins, one planet needs to be destroyed before both collide.

by Bob Bruno


IDW’s TMNT series continues to draw from the best of everything that came before, while managing to distinguish itself as a successful comic in its own right.

Following their pyrrhic victory at the conclusion of City Fall, the Turtles, along with April, Splinter, Casey and an outcast Alopex, escape to the safety of April’s parents’ home in Northampton, in the hopes of regrouping and healing the damage inflicted upon them by the Shredder.

People have complained loud and aplenty about the New 52 reboot of the DC Universe, the second time DC Comics has opted to restart their continuity. Two times in, I can’t be certain, but let’s just say 76 years? The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the other hand, existing for less than half that time, have seen their continuity restarted fresh, again and again, through various movies, comics and cartoon series, and somehow, it never manages to be extraneous. I realised just the other day, that in regards to the many incarnations of TMNT: I’m currently reading the new IDW comic series, watching the new Nickelodeon cartoon, and rereading both the old Mirage and Archie series as IDW releases them in trades. Four separate Ninja Turtle continuities, all with essentially the same characters, some with stories similar to the others, but all strong, distinct and possessing of enough merit to stand on their own, and that especially includes the fantastic original work IDW is doing with the property.

by Bob Bruno 

Peter David’s new direction for X-Factor shows promise, but unfortunately fails to deliver upon its central premise.

In this first issue, Gambit, Polaris and Quicksilver, after some personal strife and misgivings, join an all-new, corporately owned X-Factor team. As quickly as they join, the team is despatched to deal with Doctor Terrance Hoffman, an AIM scientist responsible for the kidnapping of, and brutal experimentation on mutants to further his scientific ends. Among his current victims, to X-Men fans, includes a familiar face.

X-Factor is a title that has hosted several incarnations of itself since its inception: reuniting the original X-Men; a government sponsored X-Men team; a noir detective agency; and now, a corporate run superhero team. In this latest iteration, Peter David uses Gambit as our entry character into this world, initially finding him in the midst of a heist gone wrong, which serves as a quick reintroduction to the character and establishing his credentials as an expert thief. The cast selection alone makes for an interesting read, and Peter David certainly has some fun playing with a humiliated Gambit; a Polaris embracing her new role and power, blowing missiles out of the sky with a dismissive click of her fingers; and the group’s collective mistrust of Quicksilver, who still can’t overcome his damaged reputation. David also includes a humorous cameo by Wolverine, playing him against his character-type, appearing here as the strict, rule-orientated Headmaster of the Jean Grey School and having him browbeat Gambit for his methods.  The scene also slyly sets up this new team outside of the mainstream, an area in which Peter David has always been most comfortable operating.

by Bob Bruno


The ongoing stars of the New 52 turn in another masterful chapter of Batman’s modernised origin, as Zero Year continues!

Continuing the events of last issue, our neophyte Batman finds himself ambushed and surrounded by Gotham City Police, who put the effectiveness of his body armour to the test under a hail of gun fire, including a devastating shot to the head. Cornered, wounded, with his equipment damaged, his suit in tatters and his tactics constantly frustrated by a prepared and disciplined force, Batman desperately attempts escape while the plans of Zero Year’s true villain begin to unfurl.

In Zero Year, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo succeed in putting the Batman through his paces. Even in his present-day take on a character with a reputation for near-omniscience and unbeatable skill, Scott Snyder strikes the right balance between Batman’s ability and fallibility, with the balance tipped to the latter in this younger and more arrogant past incarnation. The challenges he faces in this story are genuine, and more than equal to the fledgling costumed detective, recently returned home from eight years of training, but with very little experience in the application of that training.