Author: Brad Hawley

Godland: Hello, Cosmic!

Godland: Hello, Cosmic! Volume One, Issues 1-5 by Joe Casey (author), Tom Scioli (artist) & Bill Crabtree (colors)

Godland is a fun, and funny, story about Adam Archer, an astronaut who gains super-heroic powers during a mission to Mars. It’s a playful comic, and even though its playfulness is based on a parody of older comics, knowledge of them isn’t essential. To be more specific, the visual style is based on older artists like Jack Kirby, who drew large, solid people with exaggerated perspective. If you aren’t familiar with Kirby,

December 28th, 2012. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Atomic Robo and the Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyne

Atomic Robo and the Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyne Volume One, Issues 1-6 by Brian Clevinger (author) & Scott Wegener (artist)

Atomic Robo is a fast-paced story about a robot who was invented in 1923 by the great mad scientist Nikola Tesla. Therefore, though the story is set in the present, Atomic Robo looks like people in the 1920s thought a robot should look like. He’s roughly humanoid, with large clunky-looking arms and legs and large blue eyes with functioning metallic eyelids that the artist uses to express much of Robo’s emotions.

December 14th, 2012. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |

Batman: The Dark Knight #0

Batman: The Dark Knight #0, “Chill in the Air” by Gregg Hurwitz

Batman remains my favorite character in comics much the same way the sonnet remains my favorite form in poetry: I know what to expect, what the conventions are, and I like to see an author play artistically with those expectations to produce a mixture of familiarity and surprise. Today’s review focuses on a Batman story I read recently that does both of these things by building off the familiar initial murder that shaped Bruce Wayne and offering a new look at his shifting philosophic view as it was influenced as a young man by his memories of his father’s words and by his professors at his boarding school.

Planetary: The Fourth Man, Volume 2

Planetary: The Fourth Man, Volume 2 by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday

Having just written a review of Volume 1 of Planetary by Warren Ellis, I didn’t think I’d feel any need to write a review of Volume 2; however, I just finished reading Planetary: The Fourth Man, Volume 2 again and feel that it certainly deserves a review of its own. Please read my first review to get a full picture of the complex nature of this profound yet quickly-paced comic book.

Planetary: All Over the World and Other Stories, Volume 1

Planetary: All Over the World and Other Stories, Volume 1 by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday

Planetary: All Over the World and Other Stories, Volume 1 by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday is for the reader who has a nostalgia for the space explorer- and Doc Savage-style pulp fiction along with a love of futuristic and science fiction settings. Three main characters make up the mysterious group called Planetary. Elijah Snow is about 100 years old, looks like a fit 40-50 year-old, can lower the temperature of a room by walking into it (hence his name),

Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer & Rags Morales

Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer & Rags Morales

Over the years, the DC universe has undergone a series of crises — Crisis on Infinite Earths, Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, and Final Crisis. Out of these four, arguably the best written and most significant, and certainly my personal favorite, is Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales. It’s about the death of Sue Dibny,

August 31st, 2012. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter

Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter adapted and illustrated by Darwyn Cooke

The Hunter (Book One), starring Richard Stark’s Parker, by Darwyn Cooke is one of the best graphic adaptations of a novel you could ever get your hands on. The main character is as tough as they come. Women shudder and men cower when Parker passes — even if he’s in a good mood, which is rarely. But wait until he’s in a bad mood. Like in this book. Like when he wants what’s his. And somebody else has got it.

August 17th, 2012. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |

Captain America Vol. 5: “The Winter Soldier”

Captain America, Vol 5.: “The Winter Soldier” (Issue 1-14) by Ed Brubaker

There has been a long-standing rule for writers of Captain America: his sidekick Bucky must stay dead because his death is central to understanding the character of Captain America in the present. The basic story is that Captain America takes a teenaged Bucky under his wing in his fight against Nazis in World War II. In an explosion that nearly kills Captain America, Bucky Barnes dies. When Captain America is found years later preserved in the ice and is brought back to life,

Reading Comics, Part 9

Brad Hawley continues his series on How to Read Comics. If you missed the previous columns, be sure to start with Part 1: Why Read Comics?
(Or find the entire series here.) Reading Comics, Part 9: The Avengers

by Dr. Brad K. Hawley

The latest superhero movie, The Avengers, is perhaps the best big-budget comic-book based film Hollywood has produced so far (however, there are certainly quieter, lower-budget films that offer solid competition for best adaptation of comic to screen: Ghost World by Daniel Clowes,

July 13th, 2012. Brad Hawley | Comics, Reading Comics | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |

Reading Comics, Part 8

by Dr. Brad K. Hawley

Now that we’ve discussed the reason why there can be multiple #1 issues for the same comic book title (different volumes, or series) and have seen how valuable Wikipedia is in finding current publication and reissue information on comic books, we need to consider reviews of trade collections and purchasing options.

July 6th, 2012. Brad Hawley | Comics, Reading Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

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