bwilliams

January 3, 2012 10:41 pm I am enjoying Scott Snyder's run on Swamp Thing and Bat Man. I think what is irritating though is where certain critics and fans have anointed him as the second coming and he has yet to really prove that. Bat Man to me is a book that is building momentum each issue...I literally had the chills reading the last one and I felt like for the first time I was reading something new in the Bat Man universe...like someone is really trying to expand the mythos rather than stand on the shoulders of Kane, Robinson and Finger. Is his Bat Man better than Dark Knight Returns, Bat Man Year One or Killing Joke? NO. But it's encouraging. I think the same thing can be said for Swamp Thing. I loved the Len Wein/ Bernie Wrightson stuff back in the seventies...and then I loved it again when Alan Moore rebuilt the character from the ground up in the eighties. Snyder seems to create solid and plausible foundations from which to launch his tales...Swamp Thing is dragging a bit...there have been some pretty horrific sights so far to behold but...the book is called Swamp Thing and I'm eager to see the title character jump in the plot sooner than later. Swamp Thing was originally a comic about a heroic/tragic monster whose wide range of exploits revolved around the eventual hope that he could reverse the effects of the scientific accident that transformed him into a sentient super powered plant. Snyder can do his own thing and add his spice to the stew but I believe in order to truly entertain Swamp Thing purists and newcomers...he's got to at least incorporate these core elements. If he doesn't...it's really not Swamp Thing. That being said...I believe he's up to the challenge and so far...his stories in Swamp Thing are wonderful, bizarre, grotesque and fresh. There just hasn't been a lot of "Swamp Thing". That's a concern.

November 18, 2011 9:01 am Wasn't completely buying into the Snyder hype for the first two issues. I was entertained and actually enjoyed his Gates of Gotham stuff...but wasn't blown out of the water like everyone else. Then Issue three happened. I was completely sucked in by the 13th floor and the whole nesting custom of The Court of Owls. The pictures of the Owl families were haunting and caused chills I seldom experience while reading a comic book. This is hot. Give it up for Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo.

November 18, 2011 8:08 am @ Cormac...first of all the logic in my statement about well written and well drawn is this; Brian Michael Bendis might write a wonderful murder mystery style story in the pages of Daredevil and that story might in turn be well drawn by Alex Maleev or whoever but it doesn't necessarily ring true for the character of Daredevil. I read Daredevil because I'm interested in the character of Daredevil. The same applies for Black Panther. If you are going to produce a BLACK PANTHER book then do so...don't channel eighteen other characters because you don't know what to do with Black Panther. @kenochalek...I understand where you are coming from with that statement. I meant that it pains me to see my preferred universe of characters stumble so blindly in the dark with their core source of entertainment...their comic books. The fact that I'm enjoying DC Comics more right now is not necessarily a problem. Good comics are good comics. It just bothers me that Marvel seems to have lost their complete swagger...and there's really no reason for that to happen.

November 17, 2011 8:39 pm I am actually thrilled that BLACK AMERICAN/PANTHER, THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR is sleeping with the fishes. I enjoy Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's fantastic sci-fi, super-hero vision of the Black Panther...not this second rate BAT MAN YEAR ONE garbage. It might be well written and well drawn but it's not Black Panther. If you want to read some dope BLACK PANTHER...check out Christopher Priest's run. Cerebral, fun and mythology expanding stuff. Ghost Rider is just a ridiculous mess. How can you go wrong with a comic book about a flaming skeleton that rides a hellspawned chopper?! Madness. It all goes back to Marvel letting a select bunch of uninspired hacks lead them in making decisions with their characters. I am a Marvel ZOMBIE...but I am stating for the record that my Marvel purchases have truly been chopped down to one book...DAREDEVIL by Waid. The rest of the books I'm buying are by DC...and for the first time in my life, I can honestly say I'm enjoying DC way better than Marvel. And that kind of makes me sad.

September 22, 2011 8:19 am Wonder Woman should be EPIC SUPERHERO STUFF...FUN...ACTION...THRILLS. This is more Azzarello madness, a mishmash of half baked ideas from a guy who has proven himself to be somewhat capable on certain books...but chalk this joint up as another serious misstep for Wonder Woman. The art is decent but the writing is bad and the dialog...painful.

September 15, 2011 1:15 pm Green Lantern was marginally entertaining because Geoff Johns seems to have a hard on for Sinestro and really plugs into that character. But for Christ's sake...his Hal Jordan is a douche bag of the highest order. This is sacrilege to treat Jordan in this manner...I don't care how down on his luck he is right now...cut him some slack...he aint Peter Parker. B-

September 15, 2011 1:08 pm Ultimate Spider Man was surprisingly very good to me. I never read many Ultimate Titles before except the Millar-Hitch Ultimates...I was attracted to this Ultimate Spidey Revamp for the sheer novelty and idea of having a Black Spider man mag in my collection. I was surprised. Bendis usually grates on me like steak knives on a chalkboard. I still feel like he gets all of his notions of how black folks interact from COPS and Law and Order but I was entertained and not insulted. A-

September 15, 2011 1:00 pm Rushed, disappointing garbage. The art is a hot mess. The writing is poor and run of the mill. There is no magic and wonder that Kirby originally endowed this title with. I guarantee that this book will be cancelled before it hits twelve issues. I hate to be the dissenting opinion because I love the character Etrigan and thought it was a clever plot twist to explore Jason Blood's history during medieval times. I wanted to enjoy it. But it seems DC has chosen to "dumb" down it's product considerably in certain titles. This is one of them.