A Comic Book Fridge Moment #1

                                 Amazing Spiderman #692


The ultra annoying Spidey sidekick, Alpha. Hopefully Dan Slott will have worked this bad idea out of his system before too long.

Dude Looks Like A Lady

Amazing Spiderman #692

As Steve Tyler once said "Dude looks like a lady!"

American Vampires: Two of a Kind

American Vampire #18

Poor Pearl Jones, life with a mere mortal was never meant to be was it? The tender love story of the 2nd American Vampire and a mere mortal travelling musician, Henry Preston, came into being on a moonless night when Pearl's vampire tendencies were at their weakest. But despite Pearl's love for Henry, and whether she recognised it or not, there were other weaknesses at work here, ones that would outlive the ageing Henry. Skinner Sweet, an outlaw from the wild west, a killer and a thief who was turned by a gang of European Vampires during his attempt to evade the gallows, went on to cross paths with Pearl, infecting her to save her life and in doing so giving birth to an intense slow burn sexual tension that has been building for the last 28 issues of American Vampire and the strength of Scott Snyder's storytelling and Rafael Abuquerque's artwork shows no sign of letting up. What now for Henry Preston, his lover now giving in to the enigmatic Skinner Sweet in one explosive release of pent up passion? Issue 30 was a heartbreaker for sure, but with Skinner distrustfully eyeing the reader in the final panel, there's no doubting we'll be back for more!

American Vampire #30

Squid at the end of time

From the final issue of iZombie by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred. Gwen Dylan the grave digging zombie confronts an inter-dimensional squid monster with a ravenous appetite for souls. Mike Allred was the perfect choice of artist to depict her journey to the heavens, from the whacky town of Eugene, Oregon, where a colourful cast of characters multiplied over the 28 issue run of this comic. A were-terrier, a 1960s ghost, a band of paint balling vampires, monster hunters, an ancient Egyptian mummy etc. At times the fun became a bit too silly, but the art was always strong and Gwen was a strong lead who, if given the right story line, could have seen out her days in Eugene reflecting on the life she had left behind, eating brains and flashing on the memories of the recently deceased.

In comics..the Swiss army knife connection

Sporting a diamond encrusted baseball bat and a Swiss army knife, Csar and his stunted partner in crime 'Big Murder' grace the cover of this time traveling adventure/farce mini from Marvel. Much delayed, but great fun to read, the story has Spidey and Wolverine jumping back and forth through time and shadowed by villains Csar and Big Murder at the behest of a mysterious super villain.

In this issue our two heroes come face to face with Mojo, a megalomaniac psycho with the attention span of a gnat who has been playing 'Truman Show' with Spidey and Wolverine and broadcasting the results to the television hungry masses on his planet. Great fun comics, well written by Jason Aaron and nice pencils by Kubert.




In Terry Moore's Echo 29 we follow Julie Martin, NSB agent Ivy Raven, Dillon Murphy and Vijay Narayanan into the frozen wastes of Alaska as they close in on the top secret project that is the Phi super collider which could potentially bring about the end of the world. Julie Martin who has been fused with the ghost of Dr. Annie Trotter, an experimental physicist who was killed whilst wearing an experimental flight suit made of a strange and powerful metal, faces her penultimate challenge in the last couple of chapters of this brilliant tale from Terry Moore.

In the image below the gang find a ventilator shaft to the collider complex and Vijay cuts himself in an attempt to remove the lid with his trusty Swiss army knife. You can read an interview with Terry Moore about Echo here.

Got a light boy?

Jason and Ronnie square up to the Anti -Monitor in DC Comics Brightest Day 22. Only two more issues to go now and I'm not even thinking of the money that I've poured into this year long story line. In this issue we get to see Jason and Ronnie working as a team to unleash the powers of Firestorm to defeat the universe eating Anti-Monitor. Firestorm conjures up a giant kitchen match and hurls it at 'Monty's' head which has been encased in a ball of hydrogen. KABOOOM!!

The comic book page: Love and Hate part 1.

Love...

Silver age romance! Batman falls for the new bat on the block. Batwoman seals the deal in this panel drawn by rising star Chris Burnham from Grant Morrison's Batman Incorporated no.4.

Hate...

Following the horrific fallout from a bank heist in downtown Manhattan involving the new super villain 'Massacre', spiderman checks into his private clinic to have a bullet wound seen to. Now that he's without his 'spider sense' fighting crimes has become a different ball game all together! Misfired webs, inability to track spider tracers, no early warnings... looks like its time to suit up!

Spiderman is also still reeling from the recent death of Mayor Jameson's wife Marla, who was killed during the Spider Slayer's attack, making it hard to swallow these words of critisism from 'gun for hire' super hero Paladin.