By Jacob H Baxter

By our very nature, comic fans are a fickle and opinionated lot. We're more than happy to rattle off a list pertaining to the things we love about a specific character. We're also likely to, at the drop of a hat mind you, go on a tirade about why we hate a certain character. It’s like some sort of rooted core programming in our heads.

My opinions have often put me at odds with many of my fellow page turners. That’s perfectly fine. They have just as much a right to their opinion as I have to mine. However, some of my opinions have sparked some bigger flames than one might expect.

By Aaron Nash

Elektra, the assassin in red, is different from other so called ‘comic heroes’ in the fact that she isn’t really a good guy. But, then again, she isn’t fundamentally bad either, even if her morals are.

Beginning life as a Daredevil villain during the 80s, Elektra quickly became an incredibly popular character, so popular in fact that, after her death in issue 181 of Daredevil, Marvel decided to resurrect her, much to the disappointment of her creator, Frank Miller. 

For a while this run was the only Elektra that I had read.  Sure, she played a big part in a few of the large Marvel events over the years, most notably Secret Invasion, but none of this really grabbed me or made me want to read a stand-alone story with her in it. I liked the idea of the character, but for some reason just never paid much attention to her.

By Sam Hurcom

It’s hard to deny that the new Death of Wolverine is a brilliant comic. It follows the greatest of fundamental comic book rules: basic premise (Logan without the ability to heal) combined with mouth wateringly superb artwork (blessed be the hand of Steve McNiven). Throw in a snazzy hardcover edition with a few nice Director’s cut features at the end, and you wind up with a highly desirable collector’s piece, one that will certainly be sought after for generations to come.

But there is snag. Well, something that sort of dulls the excitement at least. We’ve seen all this euphoria before. Not so long ago, we all got a little over excited by the suspected death of a major Marvel hero. And that didn’t exactly pan out as we were promised.

By Aaron Nash

For those who have never heard of Jamie Madrox (much like myself before reading the series) he is the Multiple Man. A mutant capable of creating an almost limitless number of duplicates of himself. Sounds like an awesome power, doesn’t it? Well, it comes with a catch. He can’t control it. It simply happens when his body receives some kind of reasonable impact. It can be as simple as being punched or hitting a wall.  It also doesn’t help that each of these duplicates contain different segments of Jamie’s personality, which generally leads to chaos and arguments ensuing as he fights with himself (literally) to get jobs done.

After the semi-disbandment of X-Factor (the sister group to the X-Men), around the time of the events of House of M, Jamie Madrox decides to start up a private detective business in the aptly named Mutant Town (a place of refuge for some of the few remaining mutants after Scarlett Witch’s wish). He, along with his former X-Factor team-mates, Wolfsbane and Strong Guy, takes on all manner of cases. Nothing’s too big and nothing's too small, as long as it pays the bills.

By Emlyn Roberts-Harry

The latest controversy in the comic world is that Milo Manara Spider-Woman cover, and it's absolutely something worth discussing. On the one hand, it was a bad idea to run a clearly sexual, male gaze-guided cover, on a comic with a female protagonist, that’s aimed at a female audience. On the other hand, this is exactly the sort of thing you hire Milo Manara for. He’s very good at erotic art and the cover isn't a bad piece of work by any means - it just doesn't belong on this comic.

If it were the cover for a book of erotic art, no one would be complaining. The problem here isn't the art itself, but the context, and that's the main issue to focus on. To paraphrase ComicsAlliance's Andrew Wheeler, you wouldn't put a spaceship on the cover of a crime story, so you shouldn't put an erotic artist on a mainstream superhero book.

By Jacob H Baxter

Growing up, we take heed of the deeds and qualities of those we wish to be like. We strive to emulate the actions of those that we admire. We refer to these people as role models.

Perhaps people is not the correct operative word for that statement. Sure, I had quite a few role models that were people that I knew. I looked up to my cousin Michael so very much. He was the coolest guy I knew. Then, you have those people that are famous. Hulk Hogan was the be all and end all of heroes in my little eyes. But, is it possible to have a role model that is neither real nor a person? I say yes.

As a child, my number one role model was none other than the head Autobot in charge, Optimus Prime. An argument could possibly be made that he is a person. He displays very humanistic qualities; personification indeed. So, that is my case for representing him as a person. After all, isn't fiction nothing more than things that are not real, represented as though they are?

By Aaron Nash

Daredevil is one of those heroes that pretty much passed me by as I was growing up. He didn’t have the immediate draw of heroes like Spiderman and Wolverine. Not much seemed to happen, and the stories didn’t feature as much in the way of sheer spectacle as the other comics around. I didn’t exactly avoid reading his comics, I just didn’t go out of my way to read them - I guess the appeal of a blind superhero whose main power is to see was just kinda lost on me.

Then, in 2003, the Daredevil movie was released, and I started to think he might not be quite as boring as I first thought. After watching and enjoying the film, I decided to pick up the book Daredevil: Guardian Devil, by Kevin Smith. The story felt familiar, but much darker than the likes of Spiderman and X-Men. I absolutely loved it. 

By Emlyn Roberts-Harry

The latest rumour to come out of Marvel, now owned by Disney, is that they're planning to cancel all their Fantastic Four titles, including Ultimate FF, to try and hamper the chances of the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. The reason? There's apparently bad blood between Marvel and Fox, to whom Marvel sold the film rights in the late '90s when on the verge of bankruptcy.

Marvel CEO, Ike Perlmutter, is certainly in a position to enforce a decree like this. And, given the colossal multimedia success of the Avengers, it's understandable that Marvel would want to focus on them in its publications, since they're as popular now as the X-Men were in the '80s and '90s. But, leaving aside the fact that it's clearly an absurd idea to think that cancelling a handful of comics could impact a major movie's chances (given it's pretty clear that films boost the sales of the comics, and not the other way around) it would still be petty and short-sighted. 

By Sam Hurcom

Yes, I can already hear you, murmuring and sighing at the first glance of the title. ‘Why the hell would anyone deny that Stan Lee and ‘the King’ were anything but geniuses? Isn’t it bloody obvious?’

And of course, you’re right – at first glance it is bleeding obvious. With careers spanning decades, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created and developed some of the comic world’s most iconic characters and story lines, from Spiderman and Captain America to The Fantastic Four. So it’s easy to see why both are regarded as legends of epic proportions. 

by Gavin Foo

 STARLIGHT #2

Writer: Mark Millar
Art: Goran Parlov
Colours: Ive Svorcina
Letterer: Marko Šunjić
Cover: Bill Sienkiewicz
Variant Cover: Goran Parlov

Hopefully, you are one of those people last month who picked up the first issue - if not, you are missing out. Mark Millar has followed it up with an issue that is equally as spectacular.

Last month we saw the establishment of Duke McQueen, an American Air Force pilot who more than a few decades ago, was transported to another world and dimension, Tantalus - and promptly had adventures and saved that world. The issue though, was much about loss as he had just lost his wife, and reflecting upon where his life has taken him. Let it be said that he had a choice to stay but chose to return to his love on earth.