SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! We’re back for another look at the latest issue of the current Legion of Super-Heroes series — that is, issue #3 by Brian Michael Bendis, Ryan Sook, Travis Moore, Wade Von Grawbadger, Jordie Bellaire, and Troy Peteri. This month, we get more sense of the new status quo for Rimbor, we see…
The Comics Classroom: THOR and the Eternal Return
Thor is a character who has long held a unique place in graphic/textual history as both a “comic” character — he was the creation of Stan & Larry Lee and Jack Kirby for Journey into Mystery #83 in 1962 — and as a religious/mythological figure. Few beings of genuine religious and mythological status (in the…
Comíx Latinx: The Pulse of Comics of Color in 2019
“Why Professor Latinx?”, a kid asked the other day. The moniker blazed across the front of my T-shirt. “You know how ProfessorX uses his high-tech Cerebro device to locate the planet’s supercool peeps — you know, us mutants — well, I keep my low-tech brain devices (eyes and ears) plugged into the pulse of what’s…
Transmyscira: Party Like It’s 1999 With LOIS LANE
I want to go back to 1999. – Charli XCX, 1999 In Russia, a journalist critical of the government has been found dead. Meanwhile in the United States another journalist — in the midst of a personal scandal — is expelled from the White House and loses her press pass for asking pointed questions about…
A Holiday Special Edition: The Rise and Fall of TITANS’ Lian Harper
It’s Christmas, that special day of the year that also happens to be my birthday. And for my birthday I decided to do a little follow-up to my article on Roy Harper — one focusing now on his daughter Lian. With the end of DC’s “Doomsday Clock” in our rearview mirror and DC’s rumored “5G” plans…
A Bird with Broken Wings: Hector German Santarriaga’s JULIA
Perhaps one of the most terrifying things to do is to explore the deepest and darkest aspects of human beings. See how far a person can go to expand the limits of existence itself and avoid the terror — the precautions — and watch reality as cruel as it can be. It is an act…
Learning to Love the Legion [Bonus]: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #2
SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! Welcome back, Legion fans! This month, we’re on to the second issue by Bendis, Sook, Von Grawbadger, Bellaire, and Sharpe — and things are starting to come together for this new Legion run. After last month’s premiere issue, this one feels a little more explanatory. We open where we left off, with…
The Fall of Roy Harper: How ARSENAL’s Navajo Origins Disappeared from the Page
It was Thanksgiving again, a holiday I loathe because it seems to pride itself on the way it brings out the worst in families. God knows I can’t help but tense up whenever discussion of my own family’s plans for Turkey Day starts. That’s not even me getting into the idea of a holiday being…
Anatomy of a Panel: Ezra Claytan Daniels and UPGRADE SOUL
Ezra Claytan Daniels is comics creation in the 21st-century. From his self-published debut sci-fi comic The Changers and his mini comic Are You At Risk for Empathy Myopia? to his Upgrade Soul and his cocreations BTTM FDRS (with Ben Passmore) and the Afrofuturist animation The Golden Chain (with Adebukola Bodunrin), Ezra has been redefining the…
KIRBYOLOGY!: Peanut, Dumpling, and Big Daddy
Who needs Small, Medium, and Large when Jack Kirby gave us Peanut, Dumpling, and Big Daddy? … So I’m going to be talking about Jack Kirby at a conference for word nerds. In January, I’ll be taking a trip to New Orleans for the American Name Society’s annual conference and giving a presentation called “Baron…