It’s been a while since I have done a non-Big 2 book that wasn’t a manga, so I guess I better do that, or else I’ll fall back into my unfairly established reputation of hating indie books. I guess Fables doesn’t TECHNICALLY count because it is a DC property (but it should; it’s essentially an independent book that just happened to be published by one … Continue reading Stew’s Reviews: The Fix
I really just… can’t with modern day Marvel or DC. And that’s really frustrating. In an era where independent comics are proving they are capable of anything and everything–of telling any kind of story under the sun, from realistic coming-of-age dramas to sprawling sci-fi space operas–you know what I still want? Capes. I’ve grown up on Marvel and DC, and for me, comic books also … Continue reading Stew’s Reviews: Radiant Black volume 1
My wife was upset at me when I let it slip that I recently played the final season of TellTale Games’ The Walking Dead without her. She has never been much of a gamer herself, but she really enjoyed the character and story driven narrative of that series as it followed a young girl named Clementine through the zombie apocalypse. As the first three seasons … Continue reading Stew’s Reviews: Clementine
It’s hard being in charge of a multimedia empire. I mean… I assume it is. That’s not… I am not saying that I am that. In charge of one. Or having anything to do with one. But I can picture it! I have a podcast that comes out three times per month. I have a website that promises new articles every weekday. I stream some … Continue reading Stew’s Reviews: AdventureMan volume 1
Of all of Cyberforce, Heatwave was easily the most generic and plain. Hell, he’s virtually indistinguishable from Spartan over on WildC.A.T.s – he’s a Stoic Leader Guy made of technology with a Hair-Showing Mask and Blasts! With a jacket over metal, that damn mask, and his blasty ways, he was as “Captain ’90s” as possible, if not for the fact that three or four members of his … Continue reading Jab’s Image Deep Dive: CyberForce continued!
IMAGE CREATORS- MARC SILVESTRI:Marc Silvestri is probably #5 of the Image founders in terms of fame, which is a bit sad since he came first, and more or less popularized the style that would come to be known as the “Image Style”- taking Arthur Adams’s cross-hatched, detailed style and making characters into this slender, menacing, sexy figures with assloads of detail, fine lines, and metallic bands all … Continue reading Jab’s Image Deep Dive: Marc Silvestri & CyberForce part 1
Among Image’s early failures was the hero “WildStar”, who was created by people outside of the “Big Six” (Al Gordon & Jerry Ordway)- he had a four-issue Limited Series in 1993 (the year after Image was founded), but his ongoing book that followed was cancelled after three issues. Apparently behind the scenes, both creators each wanted more control over the final product, and lacking an … Continue reading Jab’s Image Deep Dive: The Maxx, Wildstar, Pitt, and Scud
Overlord exists as the first “Big Bad” in The Savage Dragon , though he’s very clearly drawn from the “List of Generic Super-Villain Cliches”- a big armored dude with a cape and a metal mask. I mean, it’s a big “Doctor Doom” thing and that’s it. He turned out to be a Mafiosi in his secret identity who realized that the “Freaks” of Chicago were soon becoming … Continue reading Jab’s Image Deep Dive: Savage Dragon’s Rogues Gallery And Others!
SuperPatriot- Most Prominent Dragon Ally?:Among the most prominent of Savage Dragon’s supporting cast is SuperPatriot, a masked cyborg superhero who dates back to World War II in that setting. His origin story is that he was a WWII soldier captured by the Germans, who used him as a guinea pig for evil scientific experiements- these ended up giving him super-powers. Escaping, he destroyed the base … Continue reading Jab’s Image Deep Dive: Freak Force, Part 2
I am a picky eater. That alone will cause some consternation with folks. People hate picky eaters like we’re some kind of blight on society. For transparency’s sake: I’ll try almost anything new that I have not eaten before. I don’t have a problem with trying foods, and I eat a lot more than just, like, chicken tenders or whatever everyone thinks picky eaters eat. … Continue reading Stew’s Reviews: Chew
Savage Dragon being based around the notion of the main hero fighting the “Suprefreaks” that make up Chicago’s supervillain community, it made sense to slowly gather good-aligned superfreaks to help out. The Chicago PD recruited various characters- the Detroit vigilante Dart, the abuse victim Horridus, and Ricochet & Barbaric were recruited by the Dragon. The elder heroes SuperPatriot & Mighty Man also join, as does Dragon’s … Continue reading Jab’s Image Deep Dive: Freak Force
Erik Larsen is a study in contrasts- he bailed on Marvel with the rest of the Image creators, yet retained working at Marvel for the longest out of all of them. He seems like the member with the least grievances with other creators and writers, yet has by far the most public grievance of anyone, with his feud with Peter David. And despite all of … Continue reading Jab’s Image Deep Dive: Erik Larsen / Savage Dragon
A shiny, metal, naked lady, The Engineer is the second “nigh-omnipotent” member of her team, nearly matching the Doctor’s versatility and having less of his weaknesses. Her predecessor was a member of “The Changers”, working for The High- he was killed when Henry Bendix dropped a viral bomb on the Changers’ base. In his dying moments, this Engineer sent all of his work to Angela … Continue reading Jab’s Image Comics Deep Dive: Authority Characters, Part 2
Apollo & Midnighter are obvious Superman & Batman analogues, created by Warren Ellis soon after he started writing StormWatch – they were part of an entire group of JLA knock-offs, but ended up being the only survivors. Apollo had been bio-engineered by SW “Weatherman” Henry Bendix with solar absorption powers, making him incredibly powerful- he was a black ops agent for Bendix who’d since gone underground after … Continue reading Jab’s Image Comics Deep Dive: The Authority Characters!
Superman Fights The Elite:In 2001, a year after Millar and Authority fans LOL’d through his team massacring parodies of the Avengers, Joe Kelly wrote the Superman story What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way? , a sensational book in which a team of obvious parodies of The Authority show up and act like… well, the Authority. Moralistic, hyper-aggressive, “We are heroes who will kill if we have to” … Continue reading Jab’s Image Comics Deep Dive: The Authority Continued!
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