By Sam Hurcom

What exactly is an autobiography? Traditionally it's an anecdotal, nostalgic reflection of one’s own life and career.  Okay, these days most athletes and celebrities knock out several autobiographies before they are thirty, riding the crest of popularity that befalls those who will almost certainly be confined to the archives of wash-outs and pub quiz tie-breakers. But for simplicity, we’ll stick to the traditional definition – an autobiography is written towards the end of life, reflecting on one’s achievements and personal triumphs.

So, what exactly is Hollis Mason’s autobiography in Watchmen reflecting on? Dressing up as an owl and battling thugs with the Minutemen? That’s certainly a big part of it. But, as with any of the master works produced by Alan Moore, there is a hell of a lot more going on below the surface. As Iain Thomson notes "...upon rereading Watchmen it becomes painfully obvious that the meanings of almost every word, image, panel, and page are multiple – obviously multiple."*

By Sam Hurcom

In the last few days, DC have announced that Batgirl is getting a bit of a makeover. So long the tight latex one piece and somewhat impractical high heel boots, hello a cool (dare I say trendy) looking tween, with Doc. Martins and a utility belt that could rival Adam West’s costume props any day of the week.

But it isn’t just a change in costume that DC have undertaken. It’s something a little deeper and, unfortunately, long overdue.

Over the last few decades, the vast majority of leading heroines and female super heroes have been depicted with ever larger breasts, skinnier waists and revealing costumes. You could say it’s become a bit of a comic book tradition. As a heterosexual twenty-something-year-old, I’m hardly the most frigid person when it comes to this subject. But it does seem to be becoming an ever more prominent (often totally over the top) aspect of the medium. And, as traditions go, it’s undoubtedly not a good one.

By Emlyn Roberts-Harry

When someone says ‘superman’, chances are that 99% of people will immediately think of a man in a cape flying through the sky. Superman is one of the most immediately recognisable figures on the planet, and it says a great deal about the talent of those who have written and drawn him over the years that he's remained so iconic.

But, as is the case with many of the most successful comic book superheroes, the real reason for his status is not his powers, but the psychology behind the character and what he represents. Essentially, he’s the personification of altruism, inspiring humanity to be the best that we can be. But it's remarkable that this is what we think of when we hear ‘superman’.

The word was coined by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in his work Thus Spoke Zarathustra, over 50 years before Action Comics #1 hit the stands. For Nietzsche, the superman (or ubermensch) is the man who is ‘beyond good and evil’, who frees himself from artificial, constructed notions of morality and stands above everyone else as a result.

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 Jade Lindley

Get excited people, DC has unveiled a new Bat-Symbol to commemorate 75 years of Batman! Over the years there has been so many different symbols which represented the relevant time of Batman, but which were your favourites?

by Jade Lindley

Are you sick of hearing about the same ol' villains from Gotham's Rogue Gallery? As awesome as it is reading up about The Joker, Penguin and Catwoman, one must ask, is it getting a little repetitive?

As a Batman comic reader since the age of 5, I have always been interested in the villains, and as I hit my teens I was interested in the psyche behind each one of Batman's adversaries. I wanted to know what drives them to do the evil things they do, and what runs through their mind in doing so. And as much as I do love the more well known villains who tend to be given the spotlight a little more, there is one villain which has stood out for me for years and that is Victor Zsasz. 

by Gavin Foo

 MOON KNIGHT #1
Writer: Warren Ellis
Art: Declan Shalvey
Colours: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Variant Covers: Adi Granov/Bill Sienkiewicz/ Skottie Young/ Katie Cook

Before we even begin this symposium - let us discuss the facts. 

Warren Ellis returns with an ongoing! Not counting OGN’s. A writer that can take a singular character or a team and dissect them into all the finer details, follow by expanding it in a billion brilliant tangents, and then converge them into a singular definitive point.

Declan Shalvey & Jordie Bellaire!!!!!!!!

Moon Knight - that crazy character you’ve always been curious about but haven't read yet… or simply hadn't found its ‘pocket’.

by Jake Douglas 

I like to think that when Batman runs into a smug 135 year old Sherlock Holmes in Detective Comics #572 and breaks off mid sentence after realising who he is, that he created a time paradox, resulting in a chain reaction that unraveled the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroyed the entire universe.

Outside of Sir Arthur Conan Doyles original mysteries, Sherlock Holmes has been thrown all over the space time continuum in books, films, TV and yes, comics. He has been tossed in with the likes of Fu-Manchu, the Predator, Jack the Ripper and Dracula. In some instances Sherlock has even faced the creepy characters that normally reside within Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. He has even been re-imagined to form entirely different characters like Gil Grissom from CSI, and Gregory House from... House. In the comics medium, whether it was intentional or not, Batman is Sherlock Holmes. You don't throw a comic book out there with 'The Worlds Greatest Detective' plastered all over it and expect for it not to garner comparisons. 

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 Gavin Foo

ABE SAPIEN #10

Writers: Mike Mignola / Scott Allie
Art: Max Fiumara
Colours: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Clem Robins

Man or monster? In this issue, we follow Abe Sapien further into his journey of self-reflection since he awoke from a lengthy slumber and absence from the BPRD team. Still dealing with the events of his shooting, Abe has now stumbled upon the town of Payton, Arizona.

After befriending J.J., the town’s resident lawman, the second part of this current arc opens with flames, destroying a possible threat that emerged from a bunch of dead horses. What follows is a bit of a celebration of sorts, Abe and J.J. having a chat over drinks, in which they share some personal stories. A side of Abe we haven't really seen before, the shift in his demeanour possibly a front for the darker issues he is currently dealing with.

Meanwhile, the more sinister elements in this arc reveal themselves in the forms of one Gustav Strobl - a seemingly immortal figure who first appeared in the pages of Witchfinder, one revived Agent Vaughn from the previous arc… and a couple of zombies. 

The shifts in tone and mood are highlighted well by colourist extraordinaire, Dave Stewart - with his signature reds bleeding out of the paper, which includes creepy floating tadpole creatures whilst Max Fiumara moves the story along through well paced panel work.

The issue ends with a ritual performed by the youngsters that have been camping out at the Payton golf course from issue #9, and more curiously, the frog that was placed in a cooler in that same issue, reappears and is put into an open grave, the final resting place of their (latest?) victim. - 8/10