Batman and Robin #6

Batman and Robin #6
Written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Philip Tan
Published by DC Comics

Liam: Batman and Robin is one of the best comic books to read. The new Batman and Robin are really cool and even though they aren’t fighting any bad guys that I know the fight parts are great

Ethan: Nightwing is Batman now and Bruce Wayne’s son Damien is Robin. Nightwing is one of my favorite characters and I like the job he’s doing as Batman.

Liam: Batman and Robin have to take care of a bunch of different bad guys. There’s Jason who used to be one of the Robins but turned bad and calls himself Red Hood. And he has a partner who was the girl in the first Batman comic that got her face messed up by Pyg.

Ethan: And Flamingo is a bad guy that uses a gun and a whip and looks like he came from the circus. He kind of looks like the Joker in this comic.

Liam: Batman and Robin are trying to stop Red Hood and the girl from killing bad guys and Flamingo is coming to kill Red Hood because he doesn’t want the other bad guys to get killed. I like the trap that Flamingo set for Batman and Robin in the front of the issue. Red Hood still might be a little good because he doesn’t kill Batman and Robin but he takes their masks off and puts TV cameras on them and tells people that if they vote for Red Hood a million times he’ll show them all who Batman and Robin really are.

Ethan: I like when Robin tells everyone to get a life for trying to look at them

Liam: Batman and Robin escape pretty easy and then they go after Red Hood and the girl but they’re busy fighting the Flamingo.

Ethan: My favorite part is when Robin tried to take the rifle and Batman told him he couldn’t use it and he got all mad. Robin is really funny in the comic.

Liam: I liked that part, too. And later on Robin saves Red Hood’s life by shooting a rocket launcher at Flamingo. He’s just a little kid but he’s kind of crazy.
Even though he listens to Batman, Damien still thinks that Dick Grayson isn’t as good of a Batman as his dad was so he still tries to do his own thing.

Ethan: I thought it was cool that the good guys and the bad guys teamed up to fight the Flamingo because he was a bigger bad guy and they all needed to work together.

Liam: There are a lot of great parts in the story. Batman and Robin are always fun. I like how they talk to each other and sometimes argue when they battle the bad guys but somehow even when they’re fighting they always win. I like how all the good guys were telling the Red Hood that they’re better because they don’t kill and were trying to make him be a good guy again.

Ethan: The Flamingo looked weird in a couple pictures and he didn’t get to do much but I liked how the Red Hood got him at the end.

Liam: Sometimes it was hard to see what was happening in the pictures but I figured it out.

Ethan: I like Nightwing being Batman. I hope he stays Batman for a long time.

Liam: He’s really cool as Batman. And Damien is the best Robin, ever.

Rating: 9 out of 10

The Amazing Spider-Man #611

Amazing Spider-Man #611
Written by Joe Kelly and illustrated by Eric Canete
Published by Marvel Comics

I haven’t read Spider-Man for awhile. We get a lot of comics and I don’t have time to read them as much anymore and do everything else. But this issue of Spider-Man had Deadpool in it so I really wanted to read it because Spider-Man is awesome and Deadpool is awesome.

This issue starts with Deadpool pretending to talk on the phone to President Obama but it’s just a lie because his phone rings and it shows he wasn’t talking to anyone. The girl Kraven family hires Deadpool to keep Spider-Man busy because they have a secret plan going on and they don’t want Spider-Man in the area trying to stop them. Deadpool wanted to charge them two billion dollars for the job but they only paid him ten thousand and he was still excited about it.

Spider-Man has to fight this really lame villain who’s just a girl on stilts and he can’t stop laughing at how silly she looks. Deadpool helps Spider-Man out even though he doesn’t need it and then asks for his autograph. He said he looks up to Spider-Man and wants an autograph of their team up but the pen he gives Spider-Man is really a bomb. Deadpool and Spider-Man fight for awhile but Deadpool is pretty much just talking to himself the whole time and Spider-Man keeps saying how crazy he is. Deadpool did talk a lot more in this comic. He always talks to his imagination in his regular book but he did it a lot more here and it started to be annoying. I like the shorter jokes better.

The best part of the book is when Spider-Man and Deadpool go to a playground and start trash talking on each other. There are a bunch of kids playing basketball and they stop to watch the fight. Deadpool is making fun of Spider-Man’s mom and then Spider-Man starts making fun of Deadpool’s mom. Deadpool tells him that he has the biggest joke ever and it will make Spider-Man cry for days but his job ends before he can say the joke. I wanted to hear the joke. My favorite one was that Deadpool’s mom was so dumb she thinks Cheerios are donut seeds but all the jokes were good. It was fun to see them fight with insults instead of just another big battle.

The art was definitely strange in the comic. The stilt lady bad guy looked very weird and Spider-Man and Deadpool were drawn really different from other times. I kind of liked the different way they looked here and I especially like the way the artist draws Spider-Man’s mask and eyes. It looks really good. He draws a cool looking Spider-Man

The only part of the book I didn’t like was the Peter Parker parts. They kept going blah, blah, blah and I thought that was kind of weird. And there’s a part where a car splashes water on a guy next to Peter Parker. Peter Parker doesn’t get wet but the guy does so his kid throws soda on him. He should have webbed the kid up for that. The bad guy was kind of lame, too but it’s okay because this issue was supposed to be really funny with Deadpool and Spider-Man and it was.

It was a pretty good comic with a lot of funny parts but not so much action. In one part Deadpool says he’s going to meet Spider-Man again in Deadpool issue 19. I hope that’s true because I want to read that.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

The Site's One Year Anniversary

ONE YEAR....and COUNTING!!!

Last August I started doing comic reviews on my own site with the help of my dad. Now it’s been a year so we’re celebrating the site’s one year anniversary. I got to review over one hundred comics in the past year, visit the offices of DC Comics, and go to the New York Comic Con and Wizard World Philly and sit down with creators at their tables and do some work. I got to meet a lot of cool creators and do some interviews with them and a lot of them have sent emails and copies of their projects all signed and stuff. It’s really cool that a lot of people read and like the reviews. My brother, Ethan, started doing reviews too a few months ago and likes it a lot.

I thought it would be cool to talk to people who work in comics about what kinds of books they liked when they were kids and what comics they like now. A lot of different creators responded and gave so many great answers. I hope you like them.


1. Did you read comic books when you were a kid and if so what were some of your favorite comic books/characters

Fabian Nicenza (writer of Cable/Deadpool for Marvel, Batgirl for DC): I started reading comics as early as I could remember in Argentina, because my older brother was reading a magazine called Antiojito y Antifas. Then when we first came to the United States in 1966, I read Superman, Batman, Archie Comics, Hot Stuff and Richie Rich. Then I discovered Marvel Comics and Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers.

Daniel Way (writer of Deadpool and Dark Wolverine): I grew up being very poor so, even though comics at that time only cost 60-75 cents each, they were still a luxury. I did read a few, though. I remember a Spider-Man comic where he's fighting a guy named Sin Eater, where Daredevil interferes. I also read a Spider-Man comic featuring Puma. And I had an Iron Man comic that really confused me because it wasn't the "real" Iron Man--it was the other guy--the black guy?--with different armor.

Bill Rosemann (Marvel Comics editor): I began reading comics BEFORE I could read! My parents were nice enough to put comics into my hands at a very early age, right when I was figuring out what letters and words were, so by the 1st grade I was enjoying the adventures of my favorite heroes, which included Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers

Jeph Loeb (writer of Hulk, Ultiamtes): I read them all the time. I was mostly a MARVEL guy -- the Avengers and the Fantastic Four were my favorites. At DC I read Superman, Batman and oddly enough, DEADMAN!

Joe Quesada (Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics): Yes, I did. My dad, who didn’t read comics, introduce me to the world of Marvel and Spider-Man by buying me my very first Spider-Man comic. From that point I was hooked and read comics until I was about 12 years old. Up until that point, I loved everything Marvel and Spider-Man in particular. There were also cool offbeat characters like Deathlok and Conan, who I thought were the coolest things I had ever read up until that point.

Christos Gage (writer of Avengers Initiative from Marvel, Wildcats from Wildstorm): I did! I loved Godzilla, the Shogun Warriors, the X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man, and Captain America

Dan Slott (writer of Amazing Spider-Man and Mighty Avengers): When I was your age, my favorite books were MARVEL TEAM-UP, MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE, THE BRAVE & THE BOLD, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, and DETECTIVE COMICS.

David Liss (Author of The Devil’s Company and writer of the upcoming Daring Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special).: I actually came to comics a little bit on the late side -- when I was a teenager. My favorites were Batman, Justice League, Punisher, Daredevil, Grimjack, and Nexus.

Erik Larsen (Image Comics founder, creator of Savage Dragon): I did. I liked a lot of Marvel Comics. Fantastic Four, Hulk and Spider-Man plus the old Fawcett hero Captain Marvel.

Mike Raicht (Co-writer, Stuff of Legend from Th3rd World Studios): My parents picked me up the old Marvel Star Wars comics when I was about 5. But I started really getting into them at about 7 or 8 years old and I was a huge Uncanny X-Men fan. I loved Colossus and Kitty Pryde. Pretty much everything X-Men was cool. Although back then you only had to follow the one book which made it a lot easier. I liked Alpha Flight as well.Especially Guardian and Sasquatch

Kazu Kibuishi (Creator of Amulet and Daisy Kutter, editor of the Flight anthology series)
Yep! Garfield was actually my favorite comic when I was a kid. I was also a big fan of MAD Magazine, though mostly because of the art of Mort Drucker.

Tricia Narwani (Editor, Del Rey Comics and Villard): My childhood would have been so much better if I’d discovered comics sooner. Parents, do not deprive your kids of comics! Otherwise their lives will lack all meaning, as mine did, until I stumbled upon Neil Gaiman’s Sandman in a comic book shop in high school. Once you’ve gotten into comics, though, it’s like when Peter Parker was bitten by the radioactive spider: You’re changed forever.

Todd Dezago (co-creator of Tellos, Perhapanauts from Image, writer of Marvel Adventures Spider-Man): I read comics as a kid--and still do! I loved the Justice League and remember wanting to learn as much as i could about all of those characters! Though I was immediately a big Batman fan, in the JLA I liked many of the secondary characters; Red Tornado, Elongated Man, The Atom...I also loved Spider-Man--especially when he teamed up with other characters from the Marvel Universe--and then I would want top learn all I could about THOSE characters too!

Joe Schreiber (Author No Doors, No Windows and Star Wars: Death Troopers): I always loved X-MEN and SPIDERMAN, and later on DAREDEVIL...plus EC horror comic reprints (of course) -- like TALES FROM THE CRYPT and VAULT OF HORROR. I found 'em at a flea market in my old hometown and bought all I could find.

Tom Brevoort (Executive Editor for Marvel Comics): Yes, I started reading comics when I was six years old. My first comic was SUPERMAN #268, and early on I mostly read DC titles. My favorite super hero at the time was the Flash. Eventually, I moved into reading Marvel titles as well, beginning with the Fantastic Four.

Tommy Lee Edwards (artist of 1985, Wolverine): My comics reading started in the mid-to-late 1970's, with stuff like Thor and Captain America and Silver Surfer. I was about three when the interest began. When I was seven or so, Marvel debut the G.I. Joe comic in conjunction with the newly popular toys. I ate that stuff up every month. As I got older and in to junior high school, my interests shifted toward the "art" side of comics. I was drawn to books featuring creators I admired, such as John Romita JR, Walter Simonson, and Howard Chaykin.

Erich Schoeneweiss (Production Manager/Editor Del Rey and Del Rey Comics) G.I. JOE. In fact G.I. JOE #31 is the first comic I remember. I bought it off a spinner rack and must have read it a million times. I then subscribed to the comic but it took too long to deliver in the mail so I eventually convinced my parents to start taking me to the comic book shop. It was the stereotypical shop, everything was a mess and in long boxes, the owner stank and was weird. But I was able to get my new issue of G.I. JOE each month and that grew to X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Batman, and so on. I eventually had a $100 a week habit in my mid/late twenties and new I had to seek help.

Kenny Lopez (Cover Editor, DC Comics): I sure did. I loved Batman, Green Lantern, and the Justice League. Spider-man as well.

2. What are one or two of your favorite comics to read right now?

Nicenza: I enjoy several mature reader comics put out by Vertigo (DC) such as Scalped and Fables. For superheroes, I really enjoy Green Lantern right now, the Superman titles and Secret Six by Gail Simone and Nicola Scott, too.

Way: Two of the books I really like right now are Captain America and Sweet Tooth.

Rosemann: Aside from every of Marvel comic, my two favorite comics are Dark Horse’s B.P.R.D. and Vertigo’s Scalped. Oh, and did I mention I love all the books I edit, like Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, Thunderbolts, War Machine, Dark Reign: Hawkeye, Dark Reign: Hood, Marvel Zombies 3 & 4, Timestorm, House of M: Masters of Evil and Avengers: The Initiative? I do!

Loeb: I read a bunch of stuff. Really like what Geoff Johns is doing on GREEN LANTERN. Sterling Gates on SUPERGIRL. Bendis on the AVENGERS. Mark Millar on ULTIMATE AVENGERS and WOLVERINE (OLD MAN LOGAN). All great stuff.

Quesada: I’m enjoying a lot of stuff out there, but I guess right now I really love reading the thrice monthly Amazing spider-Man books, Thunderbolts and Wolverine: Old Man Logan.

Gage: I read so many, it's hard to pick just a couple. I really enjoy INCREDIBLE HERCULES and all the FABLES books.

Slott: THE INCREDIBLE HERCULES and ATOMIC ROBO

Liss: My two favorites right now are probably both by Robert Kirkman -- Invincible and Walking Dead.

Larsen: Scott Pilgrim, Invincible and the Walking Dead.

Raicht: I am having a great time following anything Green Lantern. Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, Doug Mankhe and the rest are doing some phenomenal work. I also pick up Batman and Robin because I love Frank Quitely's stuff.

Kibuishi: I really like RASL by Jeff Smith. Aside from that, I enjoy reading the Moomin books by Tove Jansson, and the Osamu Tezuka books that are being reprinted right now.

Narwani: “The Unwritten” by Mike Carey and Peter Gross is my favorite new series. It’s about a guy whose dad based a Harry Potter-like character on him when he was a kid...and it brings all kinds of amazing magical events into his life. And Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s “Batman and Robin” has me all excited about Batman again.

Dezago: I really enjoy reading the fun Marvel Adventures books--Marvel Adventures Spider-Man and Marvel Adventures Avengers--as well as the Brave and the Bold comic!

Schreiber: I don't read as many comics as I'd like to. Right now I like Geoff Johns' GREEN LANTERN -- I also like Brian Bendis' work on THE AVENGERS. And IRON FIST, with Duane Swierczynski writing it. That's one hot book.

Brevoort: It's not at all appropriate for you yet, Liam, but I really, really liked Darwyn Cooke's adaptation of PARKER: THE HUNTER that just came out. Also, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #600 was really good and really thick!

Edwards: I don't read any monthly comics right now, but still follow anything by my childhood favorites. I also read anything done by newer talent that I admire, or a friends' work. Recently, I read and enjoyed The Winter Men, Wolverine: Enemy of the State, and the latest David Mazzuchelli book (whatever it's called).

Schoeneweiss: So many comics aren’t written to be read as a comic but as the collected trade. So its frustrating that its hard to find just a good comic these days. Anything by Geoff Johns is a safe bet to be a great comic with a great cliff hanger ending. The Green Lantern book has been exceptional this year. And as much as I HATE what’s happened in the Batman books, I’ve really enjoyed Batman and Robin. Also, John Jackson Miller’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has been a great read for years now.

Lopez: The new Batman and Robin book, and Green Lantern. Old habits die hard.


3. What is your favorite thing about having a job making comic books?

Nicenza: Getting to write everyday and getting paid to do it has always pretty weird to me, but once the "dream come true" part becomes a reality, it's also a job. You have to do your job well to get paid to put food on the table for your family, so although it's really FUN work, it's still work.

Way: The freedom it allows me, in both my professional and personal lives.

Rosemann: I love the idea that the stories I help make not only might entertain a reader, but may also help them through a tough time by showing how heroes like Spider-Man or even Rocket Raccoon deal with bad situations. Marvel heroes don’t do the easy thing, they do the right thing…and that’s something we all can learn from.

Loeb: I love comics. I'm a fanboy -- so getting to make the thing I collect is the coolest!

Quesada: C’mon now, what do you think it is? Yup, I work in comics! Nothing can be cooler than that, seriously, can you think of anything? I spend my entire day, I mean my ENTIRE day, just coming up with ideas for our greatest characters and every once in a while, I find enough time to sit down and draw a few of them. It’s arguably the best job in the world.

Gage: That I get to get up every morning and make comic books, instead of doing something else I might not enjoy as much! I really feel lucky that I love my job so much.

Slott: Getting a chance to work with my childhood heroes-- and by that I mean BOTH my favorite comic book characters AND my favorite comic book creators.

Liss: My day job is writing historical fiction, so comics allow me to engage with an entirely different kind of storytelling. I love working in a world where the rules are so flexible and, in the truest sense of the word, fantastic. I also love the collaborative nature of working in comics. With fiction, you are entirely on your own. In comics, I am working closely with my editor and the artist, and I enjoy the give and take of the creative process.

Larsen: Everything. There's nothing that isn't fun. I get to write and draw all day long. What's not to love?

Raicht: I love finishing a story I've been working on and feeling like it has all come together. Especially when I get to see how the artist has interpreted the world we are working on together. Sometimes at the start of the process, writing the story can feel pretty daunting, so getting to the end and getting pages is in always awesome.

Kibuishi: There are so many great things about it that I can't pick just one! If I did have to pick one, it would have to be getting to meet so many wonderful people. Most of the people who I have met through this project have become very close friends, and they feel like family to me. I feel so lucky to get to be a part of it all.

Narwani: It’s like being a mad scientist let loose in a laboratory! As a fan, of course you have big dreams about the stories you’d like to read and the writers and artists you’d like to see collaborate, and as a comic book editor, you can actually make those dreams happen. Also, every day something cool and awesome and surprising from your talented writers and artists will cross your desk...and you’ll be one of the first people ever to see it. It’s a great feeling.

Dezago: Getting to tell my own stories about the characters that I love so much, that I grew up reading! It's fun to be able to hang out with Spider-Man and see him get out of the trouble that I come up with!

Schreiber: Well, I don't write comics (yet) but I think, like writing STAR WARS books, the big thrill comes from getting to play in an awesome sandbox of huge, iconic, well-known characters and make it your own in some way. Who wouldn't love to do that?

Brevoort: I get a lot of free comic books! And I get to work with a lot of talented people on all of these great, cool characters!

Edwards: I like making comics because I get to support my family doing something that I love. I love telling stories with pictures.

Schoeneweiss: Living a dream! When I got the box containing the SDCC exclusive copies of Talisman #0 we printed up and opened the comic to see my name in it…well, all I can say was it was an exciting moment. I think most creators or comics professionals have probably had that same feeling. Living a dream.

Lopez: Making comic books is the best job in the world. Hard to narrow it down to a favorite thing. For one thing, it's great getting to see the original art, especially back when I was hand-lettering and would get the pencilled art sent over. Also, knowing the stories before everyone else does. Finally, the really cool people you get to work with.

4. What cool comics would you give to a kid who wants to get into comic books now?

Way: I'm really impressed with the Marvel Adventure books, and what Andy Runton does in Owly is amazing.

Rosemann: Ultimate Spider-Man, Bone and Courtney Crumrin are all great places to start. Then, depending on which one of those you like, your friendly neighborhood comic store owner can recommend many more great reads. I always suggest that you not buy what’s “cool” or “hot”, but instead choose what most connects to you. Follow your heart and you’ll never be wrong. ‘Nuff Said!

Loeb: Those books I mentioned that I'm reading -- and of course THE HULK! HE RULES! Thanks Liam, I’m your biggest fan!!

Quesada: Well, that depends on their age. For younger kids I would say anything from our Marvel Adventures line or Marvel Illustrated line, have you read Wizard of Oz, wow is it good! For older kids, I would start them off with either Amazing Spider-Man or any of the core books from the world of Avengers. Books like New Avengers, Captain America, Thor or Iron Man. Aw heck, you know what, just go buy them all, you’re life will never be the same!

Gage: I love Owly. It's really an all-ages book in that people of any age can enjoy it equally. I'd probably also give them some Marvel Adventures comics, and the Marvel Essentials collection of Godzilla…still one of my all-time favorite comics!

Slott: Any of the books from the Marvel Adventures line-- and Amazing Spider-Man #600, of course. Congratulations on a wonderful first year, Liam and Ethan

Liss: I think it depends on the age of the kid. My daughter is eight, and she's already finding lots of comics that interest her -- Fashion Kitty, Babymouse, The Warriors. When she gets a little bit older, there will be plenty more. Kids today are lucky to have such a wide variety of graphic fiction to choose from.

Larsen: Bone, Captain Marvel Adventures and all of my old Marvel books from the
'60s. And Savage Dragon. You can't go wrong with that.

Raicht: I think Mouse Guard is a lot of fun, although it's not superhero stuff it is a fun little adventure. I also think Brian Vaughan's digest run on Runaways is a nice entry point for kids. It delivers everything a kid could want all on one team --aliens, mutants, time travelers, robots! Fun stuff. Of things I've worked on, I would gladly give a copy of The Stuff of Legend #1. Although there are some intense moments, I think parents and kids can have a fun time reading that one together.

Kibuishi: Besides Amulet?! Heheh. I would give them Bone, of course. Aside from that, there's Jellaby, Flight Explorer, and the upcoming Missile Mouse graphic novel by Jake Parker. I think young boys are really going to love that one.

Narwani: David Petersen’s “Mouse Guard” is one of the best comics series I’ve ever read. What kid is not going to be excited about The Lord of the Rings with mice?

Dezago: The Marvel Adventures Comics are always a lot of fun—I think. Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four, Marvel Adventures Superheroes, and the new Marvel SuperHero Squad is gonna be great!!

Schreiber: The classics -- SPIDERMAN, Ed Brubaker's CAPTAIN AMERICA, HULK...they're all great!

Brevoort: Actually, I just gave my nephews a stack of Marvel Masterworks volumes collecting the earliest Spider-Man and Fantastic Four stories this past weekend. But there are tons of great comics out there for kids. If I had to pick a Marvel book to pass on to a potential young reader right now, I'd probably go with HULK.

Edwards: I've learned through experience with my own children on this one. I'd probably expose a kid to certain iconic Spider-Man stories. I'd also recommend they read Tintin and Bone. I can't really think of a decent modern comic for kids off the top of my head, unfortunately.

Schoeneweiss: Well, Liam has shot down a number of my suggestions (I cried a little when I learned he hated G.I. JOE #21) so I don’t know that my opinion carries much weight. I do think Stuff of Legend is absolutely brilliant. Cool, with lots of action, but also a really scary villain and tragic consequences for the heroes. Its like a Grimms Brothers fairy tale, dark and scary but fun and exciting at the same time. And the art is gorgeous.

Lopez: Hmm, depends on the age. For little kids, Tiny Titans. For bigger kids, Jeph Loeb's and Ed McGuiness's run on Superman/Batman. I'd also have to say Blackest Night and the other Green Lantern books.

Amazing Spider-Man #600

Amazing Spider-Man #600
Written by Bob Gale, Mark Guggenheim, Joe Kelly, Stan Lee, Dan Slott, Mark Waid and Zeb Wells and illustrated by Mario Alberti, Mitch Brewster, Colleen DoranMarcos Martin, and John Romita Jr

This is one of the biggest comic books I ever read. The comic is huge. The main story is really, really long and I liked it because I didn’t have to wait for a bunch of issues to come out to find out the end.

Doctor Octopus is dying because he’s been beaten up so many times by Spider-Man and other super heroes so he has a new suit with extra tentacles because his arms and legs don’t work anymore. His new costume is very creepy. I thought it was interesting that even though he’s the big bad guy in this comic and he built all these robot things in New York that go nuts that he really wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. He thought that he was going to be helping people but it just didn’t work out. That’s different.

I liked that a lot of Spider-Man’s friends show up like the Avengers, Fantastic Four and Daredevil. He’s been around a long time and he is an Avenger so it’s cool when they show up in his comic to help out. The only thing I didn’t really like about the main story is that Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus really didn’t battle each other very much. Spider-Man spends most of the time fighting the robots that took over New York and having his friends help him but the real fight with Doctor Octopus is pretty short. I would like to see what happens now that Doctor Octopus is really angry with all this new power when he comes back.

The guy who draws the main Spider-Man story is one of my favorite artists. I usually like all of the Spider-Man artists but he does a really good job with how he draws Spider-Man in the costume and all the buildings and stuff. I remember that he drew Anti-Venom and made him look even cooler than Venom.

The other stories were pretty good, too. I liked how the one story showed all the different versions of Spider-Man and how he made the doctor crazy from talking about all his adventures. The story about Spider-Man’s car was funny, too. I don’t know if Spider-Man really needs a car and the one he used looked really weird but it was supposed to be sort of a silly story. The different fake covers that they did were a lot of fun. My favorite ones were the one with Spider-Man and Luke Cage’s sons and the one where it’s supposed to be Batman but they can’t show it.

My Rating: 9 out of 10 (Main Story: 9 out of 10)

Flight Volume #6

Flight: Volume 6
Written and Illustrated by Various
Published by Villard

I really like reading the Flight books because they have a lot of short stories by different writers and artists all in one big book. Most of the stories are really good and they’re all different from each other. Some of the stories can be funny or scary. Some stories have a lot of action in them and some are just crazy. Not all of the stories in Flight are good. There are some that I think are pretty boring or the art doesn’t look that great but mostly everything is really good. My favorite Flight book is Flight: Explorer. That had the best stories in it, I think. Pretty much all of them were really good.

I got to read the new Flight book, Volume Six, ahead of time which is pretty cool and this is another really good collection. I like getting the advance copies of books before everyone else. After the San Diego Comic Convention I’ll be able to review a book called The Complete Vader which is totally awesome but it isn’t a comic book. And we were able to get a very advance copy called an advance galley of a new Star Wars book called Death Troopers which doesn’t come out till October. But there is going to be a lot of cool Death Troopers and Star Wars and Flight stuff at the Comic Con so people should go check it out. I’m just going to review a few of my favorite stories from this book but there were only maybe one or two bad ones that I didn’t like.

The Excitingly Mundane Life of Kenneth Shuri is tied for my favorite story. It’s about a guy who wants to get a job as a ninja. Actually he already is a ninja but he can’t find a job and he’s really depressed that he has no money and has to take on different jobs that he doesn’t like. The best part of the story is when Ken the ninja has to take on a ton of other ninja warriors for a job. It’s a huge battle in the office building with a lot of action and crazy death scenes. The story looks more like a cartoon than some of the other realistic type of comic book art but that style makes it better. If it was drawn realistic it would probably look way too bloody. It is a funny story though and I liked how the writer ends this one.

Epitaph by Phil Craven was the shortest story in the book. I liked how it seemed like the story was taking place in outer space or something and the characters find a dead body. I thought for sure that it was going to end up being some monster story with the space guys getting chased around the whole time but it was a lot simpler than that. I liked what the guys did with the body near the end of the story, too.

Kidnapped by Rad Sechrist was probably my favorite story. One Samurai warrior’s girlfriend or wife was kidnapped and he’s fighting another warrior to save her. There is a lot of good action in the book and the art is really nice. It takes place in the woods in the winter time so there is a lot of snows and trees around them as they’re fighting. Both of the warriors are really tough and they keep fighting even with arrows shot into them and stuff. My favorite part of the story was the ending because it’s a trick ending. For a minute I thought that one warrior won but it was really just a fake out. Once I figured out what really happened it made the story even better.

The Zs and the Attack of the Early Birds by Richard Pose is more of a story for kids. A little boy is going to go fishing with his dad and has to go to bed early so he isn’t tired. Even the teddy bear tells him to go to sleep but the little boy says he wants to go look for worms instead and goes off on an adventure with the teddy bear following him. There are cool parts with the little boy getting attacked by the early bird for stealing the bird’s worms and then the army of the Zs goes after the boy and the bear. They all want him to sleep and he just wants to get away. I think the early bird was really funny. He just shouts and yells at the boy for everything he does. He’s such an angry bird. It’s a good story that is a lot of fun because of how the boy doesn’t like going to bed and the sleep monsters try and attack him to make him sleep.

There are a lot of other stories in this book that I liked like Fish N Chips and Jellaby and those two were in other Flight books, as well. These were my four favorite, though. I like reading super hero comics like Spider-Man and Deadpool but sometimes it’s fun to read a bunch of different shorter stories like they have in Flight.

My Rating: 9 out of 10

Hulk #600

Hulk #600
Written by Jeph Loeb, Stan Lee and Fred Van Lente and illustrated by Ed McGuinness, Rodney Buchemi, Michael Ryan, Salva Espin and Tim Sale
Published by Marvel Comics

Hulk is still one of the most fun comics I read. I think it’s great that they came up with another Hulk who is even tougher and meaner than the green Hulk and I like that there is a mystery on who he really is. I really thought that Red Hulk was going to be Samson but now I’m not even sure who he could be. Maybe the General who really hates the Hulk but he doesn’t have a mustache. Hulk with a mustache would be hilarious.

I like that Spider-Man was in this. Back when all the different Marvel characters were showing up in the book like Iron Man and Thor I asked Jeph Loeb if Rulk would ever fight Spider-Man and it was cool to see it finally happen. It’s funny that even Rulk is annoyed by Spider-Man’s dumb jokes. Spider-Man looks so small compared to Rulk but I’m glad that he didn’t get beaten real easy like all the other people who tried to fight him. This issue was good because it showed a lot of clues on who Rulk might be and I like how the reporter is trying to figure out the truth by investigating everything. It was strange that She-Hulk was so scared of Rulk but that’s probably because he’s so tough that even she is worried about what would happen if he came after her.

I thought that the big fight between Green and Red Hulk was really good. They’ve been battling in a couple of different comics and this really seemed like it could be the last battle and I liked the way Red Hulk came up with the win. It was an interesting way to do it instead of just beating on each other until one got knocked out.

I didn’t like the other stories in the comic as much as I did the Spider-Man big book. I don’t really like She-Hulk but I did like the way the Hulk looked in the last part of the comic with the Gray Hulk story. That was pretty good and I want to find the other issues of that story. I liked the short story that had Red Hulk and Green Hulk fighting too and the huge guy who shows up to stop them but can’t tell which one is the good Hulk because he is color blind. I think it was a cool idea that they showed all of the Hulk comic covers ever made, too. I wish they did that with Spider-Man.

My Rating: 8 out of 10 (Main story: 9 out of 10)

Blackest Night #1

Blackest Night #1
Written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Ivan Reis
Published by DC Comics

Green Lantern has been so awesome since I’ve been reading it. I like how there are a lot of different types of Lantern teams and each one has different moods. The Black Lanterns were talked about for a long time and this is the big comic book where all the Black Lantern zombies start coming out and try to take over everything. Now that all of the other colored Lantern teams have come out it’s time for the really evil team to join in and start trouble.

There were a lot of really great moments in this comic. The Black Hand is really creepy. He’s digging up the grave of Batman and using his skull to make Black Lantern rings. I don’t know why Batman’s skull makes the rings but it’s kind of cool that it’s happening because it probably means Batman will come back really angry and kick the Black Lantern’s butt for doing that.

I liked how all these things were talking place at different times. Green Lantern Hal is showing Flash all of the super heroes who died while he was gone and he also shows them that the Justice League is keeping all the bodies of the bad guys at their base so no bad guys can steal the bodies and do experiments. When those bad guys turn into zombies because of the Black Hand the Justice League base is going to be in big trouble.
And the other Green Lanterns are at their base in space when Black Hand brings back to life all of the Green Lanterns that ever died. I liked how every time the Black Hand said ‘rise’ it meant that the dead people were going to come back as zombie Lanterns. The art on the pages where all the zombies are coming alive with their rings was really well done. It was scary and cool at the same time. The blue Guardians fighting it out was really strange, as well. They’ve been doing everything wrong and not helping the Green Lanterns for a long time and now they’re all getting in trouble and they’re probably going to get killed because of it.

One of the best parts of the book was with Hawkman and Hawkgirl when they get attacked by friends of theirs who were turned into Black Lanterns. Hawkman is a really tough character and the battle between him and the Black Lanterns showed how tough the zombie guys really are because if they can take out Hawkman they are going to be really hard to beat. It was a really bloody battle and I thought it was cool that Hawkman and Hawkgirl tried to team up and fight the Black Lanterns together. I was really surprised by how the fight ended and what was said on the last page.

Green Lantern has turned into an even better book since the Black Lantern story started. I can’t wait to see how the Justice League battles their old friends and stops the Black Lanterns. I bet they’re going to have to team up with some of the evil Lanterns like the Red and Yellow to be able to stop them all.

My Rating: 10 out of 10

Ultimatum #5

Ultimatum #5
Written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by David Finch
Published by Marvel Comics

This comic is crazy. So much is happening from the beginning to the end. I like the idea that there is a different universe for all these characters so that things can happen and people can change sides or get killed in battles because it isn’t the real Marvel or DC so you don’t know if the people are going to come back or not. Some of the issues have been really good but I thought the last issue was strange with the way Nick Fury was getting Dr. Doom to help out and all that stuff.

This is the last issue of the story so everything has to happen fast and there isn’t a lot of time that’s wasted. I don’t know how to talk about a lot of the comic without ruining all of the surprises because there’s really like a major surprise happening on every page. The fight between Wolverine and Magneto was awesome. I thought it was really interesting how Magneto used Cyclops and Iron Man’s powers to his advantage. He knew he wouldn’t be able to beat Wolverine on his own because he’s so tough and can’t really get hurt so he takes over those other good guys to try and help himself.

I was really surprised at a lot of the stuff that happened. I know that big things happened in the Ultimate Spider-Man book but they never found his body so he’s probably alive. And he still has a comic coming out so I bet he’s safe. But there are a lot of really popular characters who didn’t survive in this series and this issue really gets nuts with major characters getting killed that I wouldn’t expect. The wildest part was probably the part that takes place in Dr Doom’s castle with the Thing.

The guy who draws the book puts a lot of extra detail in his work. The parts with Dr. Doom’s castle are really good. He draws Dr. Doom really good and makes his armor look very realistic and the castle parts look like they’re from a real picture or something. I like how he draws the Thing, too. He looks more like a scary tough monster that can take on the Hulk instead of a cuddly guy.

My favorite section of the book was when Nick Fury told Magneto the truth about everything that happened. Magneto thought he knew everything about the world and that his plan was the best, but Fury had all the information that nobody knew about. He pretty much beat down Magneto without even really fighting him. I liked that in a book with all of these massive fights Magneto loses just from the words that Fury tells him

My Rating: 9 out of 10

Mr. Stuffins #2

MR. STUFFiNS
Written by Andrew Cosby and Johanna Stokes and illustrated by Axel Machain
Published by Boom Studios

Liam: Ethan had a lot of fun doing reviews with me. When we went to the Philadelphia Comic Convention, Franco from the Tiny Titans comic said that he heard all about our reviews and said he was so happy that we liked his book. He even made a Robin sketch for Ethan and said that he would color it in or let my brother color it. So Ethan wanted to color it.

Ethan: I like that the guy knew who we were and liked our reviews. He drew a really good Robin picture.

Liam: You did a good job coloring it, too.

Ethan: I think it will be cool if next year at the New York Comic Con when you draw your pictures again if I am the guy that colors them in.

Liam: The New York show was a lot of fun. I liked getting to sit at the booths and do drawings for people.

Ethan: And next time I’m going to help you.

Liam: It’ll be fun. Mr. Stuffins is another really funny comic book that I never heard about. I got it at the comic store, not at the comic convention. It’s from the company that does the Muppet Show comic and the Toy Story Comic and books like that.

Ethan: I like that they do comics about those movies.

Liam: The story is about a teddy bear that has a secret micro chip in him that makes him super tough and super smart. Some bad scientists want to use the chip to make this robot they built super strong, kind of like an evil Atomic Robo. In the beginning of this comic the little boy is sleeping in his bed and Mr. Stuffins wakes him up because the bad guys are surrounding the house. Then they show the bear standing on the bed and he has two pistols.

The bad guys break into the house and attack the boy’s family. Mr. Stuffins tries to help the boy escape through the attic but there are people on the roof so he takes the boy downstairs instead. .

Ethan: I liked when Mr Stuffins goes downstairs and beats up all the guys who have guns and he starts a fire to get away. It looked funny when all the bad guy’s helmuts were getting smashed.

Liam: Mr. Stuffins was going crazy on the bad guys. He was kicking them and punching them and doing all sorts of moves and he’s yelling at the boy to keep running and stop crying.

Ethan: I liked when the bad guys cut the bear’s arm and his stuffing started to fall out.

Liam: That was a pretty cool idea. One of the funniest parts in the book was when Mr. Stuffins took the boy to a secret hideout to get away from the bad guys and he started to think he was dying because his battery was running out.

Ethan: That was the best part. I liked when Mr Stuffin’s nose turned red because it was his warning light. He looked funny.

Liam: And he started talking slower and slower until his battery wore off. I liked how it ended too and how the bad guys have that giant robot that they’re trying to turn into a weapon using the chip in Mr. Stuffins. I think it’ll be a cool battle if Mr Stuffins battles that robot in the next issue.

Ethan: The artist draws the teddy bear cute and scary looking at the same time.

Liam: It’s funny to see the bear doing all sorts of karate moves and battling humans. This was a really cool idea for a comic book and I hope they keep making more of them. This was a good week for comics because there were two books that I think were perfect.

Our Rating: 10 out of 10

Wizard World Philadelphia

We weren’t planning on going to the Philadelphia Comic Con but dad found out that he had to head down there for some work stuff so he asked us all to go. Me, Ethan, my mom and baby brother went down with dad on Saturday. Everyone except for dad was wearing different colored Lantern shirts, too. It’s a lot smaller than the New York Comic Convention but we still had a really good time.

We walked about the convention looking for toys and comic creators and stuff like that. Ethan liked getting his picture taken with people in costumes. He liked the Batman characters the best, like Joker, Harley and Two Face. There was a cool face painting area and Ethan and I got our faces painted. He got one like movie Joker and it looked really good. I had my face painted like Deadpool. The lady did a really good job of making my face look like Deadpool’s mask but it started to itch after awhile so I washed it off before we left.

I would have liked to have a table and get to do drawings with Ethan and talk to a lot more people like we did at the New York Convention but there we didn’t know that we’d be going so we weren’t able to. We did meet a lot of people who knew us. I got to see Dan Slott again, who writes Amazing Spider-Man. He is so nice and funny. He showed me and Ethan some secret pages of one of his comics but we’re not allowed to talk about it because the comic doesn’t come out for awhile. It looks so awesome, though. Dan liked our Deadpool and Joker faces a lot and we got some pictures with him that we’ll put up on the site later.

We got a lot of cool art and sketches. Bryan Brown does a comic about how he tried to do Mixed Martial Arts and he was good to talk to. Ethan asked him to do a Ghostbusters sketch and he drew Ethan as a Ghostbuster shooting Slimer that was really funny. One person we always run into at comic conventions is Antonio Clark. This is the third comic con that we saw him at and he remembered me and Ethan. He’s a cool guy and he always draws whatever we want. This year I asked for Deadpool and Ethan wanted Blade. I also got a very cool Deadpool print from Chris Uminga that is done in a cartoony style. It looks like how Deadpool would look if he was in Tiny Titans. He had a lot of cool art at his table but Deadpool was the best I think.



One of the best parts was meeting Franco who does the Tiny Titans comic. We told him that we love Tiny Titans and do reviews of it and he was like, ‘I know who you guys are. Thanks for saying nice things about my comic’. Then he did a really cool Robin sketch for Ethan and signed some Tiny Titans and Wolf Boy comics. He was really friendly and I like meeting people who work on comics and like our reviews.

Everyone had a really good time at the convention. Even our baby brother was happy when a guy dressed up as a stormtrooper came up to him and started playing peek-a-boo. He loved that and was laughing a lot. It would have been nicer to sit at a table and do stuff like last time but we still got to get a lot of cool sketches, comics and toys. The Philly con is a lot smaller than the New York one and a lot of the bigger companies didn’t have booths or anything like that so you had to go to the panels to see creators but I was still able to talk to a lot of the people I wanted to see.

Batman and Robin #1

Batman and Robin #1
Written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Frank Quitely
Published by DC Comics

Liam: My little brother, Ethan, read this comic and wanted to do a review of it with me. He’s done a couple of reviews before but it’s been awhile.

The Batman comic is finally getting back to normal. After Batman going crazy and then getting killed by that alien guy in the other series and then having the Battle for the Cowl story the comic is going to be about the new Batman and Robin. I like that Dick Grayson is the new Batman. He was Batman’s partner the longest and deserves it the most. I’m surprised that Damian is the new Robin though because he’s kind of crazy like Jason.

The car chase in the beginning of the comic was really good. I liked all the crazy bad guys trying to get away and then the new batmobile comes in with Batman and Robin chasing them.

Ethan: I liked the Toad guy. He looks like a real toad. I like how he was driving his car and the batmobile chased them and started to fly and grabbed the Toad’s car and dropped it in the river.

Liam: Yeah the new batmobile is awesome. I really like how it was able to use a magnet or something and pick up the Toad’s car and take it to the river and drop the car and all the bad guys in it.

Ethan: It was funny when the Toad was swimming away and got all wet. My favorite part of the comic is when the Toad climbs out of the water and Batman and Robin punch him at the same time and knock him out.

Liam: I think that was my favorite part, too. I like how they’re both punching the Toad the same way and his briefcase opens and all of the dominos are flying out. I liked how Batman tricked the Toad, too and blindfolded him and made him think that he was going to drop him off a very high building when he was really only a few feet in the air.

Ethan: I liked when Toad ripped off the blindfold after Batman dropped him and he started screaming at Batman and Robin.

Liam: It’s cool how the batmobile works kind of like a plane now and they fly away whenever they’re done. It’s a cooler looking car, too.

Ethan: I really like that the new base that Batman and Robin have. It’s a cool big office building with a new Batcave underneath it.

Liam: It’s like in the movie. I liked how the artist drew it so you could see into the batcave the way you’re looking at the comic. It’s neat that the batcave is in the middle of the city this time instead of out where it used to be. They’re probably be able to get out to stop criminals faster since they’re closer now.

Ethan: Damian is a real jerk to Alfred.

Liam: He’s a jerk to everyone. It’s funny that he tells Dick that he can become Batman himself and not have to be Robin. He thinks he’s the best hero ever and he really doesn’t do much. But he is good with building things, at least. I think that the only reason that Dick is letting Damian be his partner is because he's Bruce's son. He has to be nice to him for that reason.

Ethan: I like how Commissioner Gordon turns on the batsignal and Batman and Robin jump out of the batmobile plane and their capes turn into parachutes.

Liam: That was a very cool page. I like the way Batman and Robin are drawn as they’re parachuting to the ground and the batsignal is shining behind them. It looks really good.

Ethan: I like that in the preview for the next issue it shows Robin getting beat up and all bloody.

Liam: The previews show some pretty interesting things. This comic should stay pretty good for awhile. I liked in the end of the book with that Pyg bad guy. He looks really crazy and the people who are helping him look even crazier. I don’t think that Batman and Robin are going to have a problem with him, though. He looks like he’s just a regular human who wears a pig mask and doesn’t have any powers or anything so Batman will probably kick his butt.

I really like the art in this book a lot. The artist draws the bad guys really creepy, especially the monster people at the end.

Ethan: Yeah.

Liam: He draws things like cars and buildings and stuff looks really well, too. I like that he does a lot of detail like putting wrinkles on the costume and everything. It makes the characters look more real when they’re drawn like that and not everything is so perfect.

Ethan: I liked the cover.

Liam: The cover was real good. It looks like Batman is kind of looking at Robin and smirking because he knows that Damian thinks he’s so awesome but he’s really not. I liked this comic a lot. It’s good to see Batman and Robin fighting together.

Ethan: I hope they fight the Joker or Croc soon.

Liam: I bet they will. This is going to be a really cool series.

Our Rating: 10 out of 10

Nova #25

Nova #25
Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and illustrated by Kevin Sharpe
Published by Marvel Comics

Nova is a really cool character. I like his costume a lot and he has awesome powers. He can pretty much take on anyone he wants because he has all this cosmic power and he is stronger than a lot of other people. I started reading the Nova comic during the Skrull story and it was really good. I never heard of Nova before that but the cover looked cool and I started reading since that issue. He reminds me of Green Lantern who is a great character because he has a lot of adventures in space and he listens to alien bosses and there are a ton of other creatures and humans who have Nova costumes and powers.

In the earlier comics the creature that lives in Nova’s head left him and was making up all these other Nova people without the main Nova knowing. The Worldmind creature was making Nova mad by doing all the sneaking around and when Nova started to get angrier the Worldmind took all of his powers and without his powers Nova will die. A friend of Nova’s called Quasar gave him wristbands that would help him have a lot of power again so he could fight Worldmind and save his life. He’s not a Nova anymore though because the wristbands gave him new powers and a new costume. He is still really, really powerful though. And Worldmind is more powerful too because he merged with a living planet.

So in this comic Nova and the Worldmind are battling pretty much for the entire comic. Nova says that Worldmind is crazy and needs to be stopped and Worldmind says that he’s doing the right thing. Worldmind is worried that Nova is going to win and sends out all of his Nova corps to battle for him and kill the good Nova. They are all under mind control so they can’t stop listening to him even if they know it’s wrong. The real Nova is too tough for them and he is able to get inside the machine that controls the Worldmind and get all of his powers back.

Nova is a really great comic. I sort of knew that he was going to get his powers back or something because they couldn’t just kill him but I liked the way he had to battle Worldmind and the army of Novas to win. There was a lot of good action in the book and the artist draws all the Nova characters really good. All of the explosions and space stuff was drawn well, too. I like all of the little things the artist puts on the page like scratches on the metal part of the costumes and all of the little rocks and pieces that break off when something blows up. One of my favorite parts of the comic was at the end because it looks like there is an evil Nova who is going to be coming after the good Nova soon. His costume is darker and he has red eyes. I like the idea of a good and evil Nova battling and hope that’s what happens soon.

My Rating: 9.5 out of 10

New Avengers #53

New Avengers #53
Written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Billy Tan
Published by Marvel Comics

I think Spider-Man and Luke Cage should have their own comic book. They are so hilarious together. The first couple pages of the comic just take place in the Avengers jet plane and that could be very boring for a comic but the Spider-Man and Cage parts are really funny. Spider-Man is apologizing to Cage because they found out that Cage’s wife used to love Spider-Man when they were all in school together and the more Spider-Man keeps talking the more Cage is getting angry. The best part is when Spider-Man jokes that since Cage and Iron Fist broke up he wants a shot at Iron Fist and Cage screams for them to hurry up and land the plane.

I don’t really like all of the magic stuff. I don’t think Doctor Strange is that cool and if he’s supposed to be an expert he really doesn’t know what’s going on because he’s been looking for that magic eye for a couple issues and he still has no idea who is going to have it. The only part of the magic story that was kind of interesting was when Hood broke into the devil guy’s house and started to battle him. I like that Hood thinks he’s so tough with that huge monster inside him but the devil guy pretty much just kicked his butt. Doctor Strange and Hood are kind of the same because they both stink as characters and can’t do anything right.

The action in the comic was really good. I liked how Wolverine jumped out of the plane and the woman with the gold mask started shooting at him and he wasn’t getting hurt by it but Spider-Man still tried to save him. And then there was a really cool fight with Spider-Woman and the girl with the mask where they do karate with smoke covering them. The best part of the battle was when the bad girl takes a woman hostage and Captain America saves the hostage.

There was a lot of good action and a lot of funny parts in the book. Even Captain America was funny when he was yelling at Spider-Man for calling him Bucky Cap all the time. I like that Spider-Man annoys a lot of the people on the team but he’s a great hero so they let him stay on. The art was really good and I like how Captain America is drawn with the shiny suit and the guns and shield. The fight with the Hood and the devil guy has a lot of cool art, too. I like how the flames are all over the place and how creepy the artist makes the Hood in monster form. I just wish the magic stuff was more interesting.

In the end it was a pretty good comic all around. Luke Cage, Spider-Man and Captain America are all awesome. I wish that Ronin did more. He’s the leader and he’s not really in the comic but maybe next issue. I am glad that the eye found a new magician so maybe the magic story will be over soon but I have no idea who the guy is that has the new powers except that he looks kind of strange. I want to see the Avengers team up and go on more battles, especially Norman Osborn’s team, instead of chasing magic people around.

My Rating: 9 out of 10

Two for Dad

My dad asked me to mention two things on my site. First he's all excited that Marvel is probably bringing back the Spider-Man clone or something. I don't get why Ben Reilly is so cool but he thinks he's great. There is a comic coming out in the summer that is going to have information about something to do with the clone so he wants me to mention it. And he likes the cover.



Marvel Spotlight #1
by John Rhett Thomas
It's the summer, which means it's time to hit the beach with some summer reading! And that means adding a little SPOTLIGHT to your fun in the sand and surf! This month, we'll check in on all the events that are making Summer '09 a season to remember: The original Human Torch is back, and he isn't the only one returning; there's a new Fantastic Four and a new creative team on DAREDEVIL; the REAL Clone Saga is laid bare; and more. If we add anything else to this issue, we'll have to include a complimentary parka to help you make it through December! SPOTLIGHT is your Summer Events HQ with exclusive content you won't find anywhere else — so buy one for yourself, and one for your friendly neighborhood lifeguard!

32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99

Existence 2.0 is a comic that is being made by a friend of his. I can't read it because it's supposed to be for grown ups (like Walking Dead or Kick Ass) but he says that it looks cool and wanted people to know about his friend's comic. It comes out in July and you should buy it when it comes out because this guy could be writing Spider-Man or Batman some day. His twitter is here http://twitter.com/nickspencer.



EXISTENCE 2.0 #1 (of 3)
story NICK SPENCER
art RONALD SALAS
cover TIM DANIEL
JULY 1
32 PAGES / FC
$3.50

Self-absorbed physicist Sylvester Baladine finds his consciousness transferred into the body of the hitman who just killed him! Things don’t seem too bad until his daughter is kidnapped by the same people who "killed" him. Now, he's forced to dig up his past and solve his own murder…inadvertently making himself a target once more.

The Amazing Spider-Man #594

Amazing Spider-Man #594
Written by Mark Waid and illustrated by Barry Kitson and Mike McKone
Published by Marvel Comics

This issue finally has the big fight between Spider-Man and the new Vulture. I like how Peter decided to start being Spider-Man all day just to get Jameson mad. It’s been really funny how he tried to make a truce with Jameson after he became mayor and Jameson has this team of police out looking to take Spider-Man to jail or kill him. The new Vulture looks a lot tougher than the old man one, too but he hasn’t really done much in the story so far so this was the part of the story I really wanted to read.

Spider-Man and the Vulture started fighting in the last issue and when Spider-Man ripped off the Vulture’s mask he spit acid on Spider-Man’s face. The acid burned through his mask and made Spider-Man go blind. In the beginning of this comic they’re still fighting. Spider-Man’s mask is ruined and his eyes are drawn all weird because they’ve been burned. I like how the artist makes the costume look damaged with the eye piece broken and cracked and parts of his shirt ripped. I didn’t think that being blind would matter to Spider-Man because he has his spider sense that warns him about problems and I was right because when the Vulture tried to finish him off he used his spider sense to dodge his attacks and fight back. Spider-Man still had problems figuring out where things were and wasn’t really able to attack the Vulture but he did use his spider sense to keep from getting being up or killed.

What I didn’t like about the issue is that I think they wasted time in the prison. Spider-Man goes to visit the old Vulture to find out if he’s working with the new guy and the old man doesn’t really tell him anything important. I thought it was weird when Peter went back to his apartment and ran into his roommate’s sister. She is supposed to be taking care of the place and tells Peter that she’s been helping for a long time but he was away with the Fantastic Four so he didn’t know what was going on. The whole time they were talking he wasn’t wearing any clothes because he took off his wrecked costume and he didn’t really seem to care. The only other thing I didn’t like is that they keep spending a lot of time with Aunt May and Jameson’s dad. Now it looks like they’re getting married. I think it’s funny that Peter and Jameson will be related but they spend too much time on the boring characters like May and her boyfriend and people like that. I wish there would have been more going on with the Vulture or Jameson’s attack team.

The end battle was really good. I like how Spider-Man and the Vulture had a big battle in the baseball stadium and everyone started getting mad at Spider-Man even though he’s the hero. I think that a lot of the regular people in the comic are kind of dumb because they’re calling Spider-Man names and blaming him for things when it was really the Vulture’s fault. The best part was the move Spider-Man made at the end to finally stop the Vulture. I know he’s really strong but I was surprised that he did that move but I think it was because he got so mad at seeing Osborn at the game that he didn’t realize how much strength he was using.

I liked the art in the book a lot. Spider-Man and the Vulture were drawn really well. The new Vulture looks really scary and nothing like the old guy. Even the regular people are drawn well and all of the stuff around them like buildings and the baseball stadium looked good, too. The cover was good, too. I liked the giant mattress that Spider-Man was swinging over. There was a lot of action and the fight with Vulture was really good. I think he’s a pretty tough bad guy but Spider-Man was able to beat him easy in the end. I just hope there is less of Aunt May and Jameson in the next issue.

My Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Green Lantern Corps #36

Green Lantern Corps #36
Written by Peter Tomasi and illustrated by Patrick Gleason
Published by DC Comics

In the regular Green Lantern book the main Green Lantern, Hal is working with other Lanterns to try and find out who the Orange Lantern is and to stop him from killing other Lanterns. This comic is a little different because it shows all of the other Green Lanterns instead of Hal Lantern and it’s pretty much about Sinestro and the Yellow Lanterns. In the Green Lantern comic Sinestro was captured by the Red Lanterns and they said they were going to find and kill his daughter. Sinestro escaped and now the Red Lanterns are looking for him to kill and the Green Lanterns are looking to capture or kill him and the Yellow Lanterns want to save him because he is their leader.

This comic starts off by showing that Sinestro found his daughter who is now a Green Lantern. Sinestro is telling her the story of how he is her dad. He used to be a Green Lantern, too and when he was still a good guy he had a baby. The baby looked pretty funny because it had pink skin like Sinestro and liked playing with the green rings. I like when Sinestro and his little girl both flew with green rings. When Sinestro started to go bad his wife took the baby away and let it live with another family. The old guy who looked after the girl was funny looking because he had white hair and a mustache with the pink skin. It looked silly. Sinestro snuck into her room and put a mark on her face so he’d always know where to find her and now he wants her to become a Yellow Lantern like him.

My favorite part of the book was when the special Green Lantern, Sodam, was fighting the big huge Yellow Lantern. He has all these special powers but the little blue guys in charge weren’t letting him use it. I can’t believe it. The monster guy is really tough and wears a yellow ring on each of fingers. That has to be a lot of power that he can put out. Sodam Lantern’s fight with him was one of the best parts. I also really liked a couple pages where the artist shows all of the Green Lanterns fighting a bunch of Yellow Lanterns and some Red ones in space. It was a massive battle and looked really cool in the comic. I think it’s great that there are so many different colored lanterns and all of the people who wear rings can look so different and I like the different types of aliens who are lanterns.

Some parts were a little confusing because there are so many different people in the book but the main story was cool. I was surprised that there was so much about Sinestro and his daughter in the beginning of the comic and think it would have been better if they showed more of all the lanterns fighting in space. I loved the picture of Zombie Superman in the comic book for the Blackest Night story. That’s going to be such a great comic book.

My Rating: 8 out of 10

Twitter

I guess I'm going to be twittering once in awhile. Some people said I should try it and that it'll be fun. I'm not sure if that's true but I'm going to try it.

Here is my twitter address if you want to follow those.

http://twitter.com/LiamGtheKid

Deadpool #10

Deadpool #10
Written by Daniel Way and illustrated by Paco Medina
Published by Marvel Comics

This issue had a really great cover with Bullseye in his Hawkeye costume ready to shoot an arrow at Deadpool who is attacking him with a knife and a gun. I really like the way it was drawn and it got me excited about the comic. Deadpool is one of the best comics and I liked the Hawkeye book too so putting them together to fight is a good idea.

In this issue Norman Osborn is really mad because Deadpool stole his credit card in the other story because he didn’t get any money for the information about the Skrull Queen. Osborn tells all of his bad Avengers that he wants to take him out and sends Hawkeye to go kill him. I don’t know how the story is going to end but Deadpool is probably going to win. And even though I like Deadpool and don’t think they’ll let him get killed in the story I thought it was kind of weird that Osborn only sent Hawkeye after him. He has Wolverine’s son and the Venom Spider-Man on his team, too and those guys are really powerful. If he really wanted to kill Deadpool he should have sent more than one guy after him.

Deadpool breaks into some guy’s house and orders pizza and then eats all the pizza and then says that he was hired to kill the guy who delivers the pizza. The strange thing is that Deadpool says he only got 500 dollars to go after the pizza guy. I can’t believe he would go after someone for that kind of money. It doesn’t seem like a lot. The guy who owns the house was scared that he was going to get killed and promised to give Deadpool all his stuff if he let him live. One part was really funny when Deadpool was yelling at the guy he was robbing for not folding the seats of his car down and making things easy for him. His feelings were hurt that the innocent guy didn’t help Deadpool rob him quicker. When Deadpool gets back to the house the guy is dead and there is an arrow in him and Deadpool thinks the guy killed himself with an arrow but it’s really Hawkeye who tracked him down.

I like the fight between Hawkeye and Deadpool. It took a long time to get to their fight but it was the best part of the book. They’re both really tough and are very good with weapons and fighting so it was a pretty even match. I thought it was really funny when Deadpool shot his gun a bunch of times and then asked Hawkeye if he was dead yet. They have a really cool fight between a door and each of them are taking turns punching through the door. I like how the artist drew those pages because it’s funny when you look at them how they’re punching each other through the door and then Deadpool drops the grenade on the other side of the door where Hawkeye is standing. There are a bunch of pages in the book that have a lot of good art like the page with the bad Avengers and I like all of the poses that he draws Deadpool in. And when they’re fighting Deadpool is saying a lot of stupid stuff again because he’s nuts and it’s making Hawkeye angrier at him. I think the ending was funny, too. You can’t really take the comic seriously because Deadpool’s powers make it so he can’t die so even when he gets hurt it’s like a big joke.

I think that the next issue is going to have a longer fight with Hawkeye and Deadpool so it’ll probably be better but I thought this issue was very good, too. I liked all of the art and there were a bunch of funny parts in with Deadpool doing dumb stuff that made me laugh and the action was good. I just wish they got to the fight sooner.

My Rating: 9 out of 10

Amazing Spider-Man #593

Amazing Spider-Man #593
Written by Mark Waid and illustrated by Mike McKone
Published by Marvel Comics

In the last comic Peter Parker went to his Aunt’s home to change out of his costume because he was working as Spider-Man for several days and was starting to smell and needed to shower and wash his costume but he found out that Aunt May was dating Jameson’s dad and got all grossed out. In the beginning of this comic he is in the shower all mad saying that he has to wash his brain to get that thinking out of his head. I think it’s a funny idea that the person who is like his mom is in love with the dad of the person who makes him angry all the time. But Jameson does like Peter Parker, just not Spider-Man so it isn’t all bad.

I really like the idea that Peter is staying as Spider-Man the whole day every day just to make Jameson angry. I don’t think it’s bad because when Jameson got to be mayor Spider-Man tried to make a truce with him and instead Jameson sent a SWAT team to shoot him down. Spider-Man isn’t doing anything wrong. He’s actually doing a good job because since he is Spider-Man all the time he is able to stop a lot more bad guys and help more people. It’s just funny because Spider-Man is in the news all the time and that make Jameson really angry. I also like that the people in New York are starting to stick up for Spider-Man. I don’t get why all the people would be against him since he’s always out there doing good things and saving their lives so this part was really good. One of my favorite parts was when the SWAT team used a new weapon that was able to knock Spider-Man out for a bit and they were ready to arrest him but then regular people were sticking up for him and telling the SWAT team to leave him alone. I liked that. I also like on the next page that there was a loud guy talking on his cell phone and annoying all these other people on a bus so Spider-Man webbed his mouth shut. It’s funny to see him use his powers like that and the people on the bus were really happy when he made that guy shut up.

In this issue Spider-Man finally gets to fight the new Vulture who is a little different from the other Vulture. The new one is red and he isn’t as old as the other one and he is a lot creepier. When Spider-Man takes his mask off the Vulture has a really long and pointy nose, red glowing eyes and a face like a zombie creature and it looks like he could just bite Spider-Man’s head off. I don’t think Spider-Man knew how strong this guy was because the Vulture kicked his butt. He ripped up his costume and then made him fall from the sky onto the ground after spitting acid on his face. Spider-Man says he’s blind on the last page but I don’t think he will be. I think his powers are going to help him get better and even if he was blind his spider-sense would let him know where things were.

It’s another really good Spider-Man issue with a little more fighting in this comic and it was still funny like the issue before. Spider-Man should be fighting a lot of bad guys and being funny too and this comic he was doing both. I want to see him beat the Vulture up real bad in the next issue though.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Green Lantern #40

Green Lantern #40
Written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Billy Tan
Published by DC Comics

There were two stories in this comic. The main one was about the Green Lanterns going after one of their own guys who was going back to his home world and he was attacked by Orange Lanterns. The little blue Guardians know that there is an Orange Lantern and they kept it a secret because they’re tricky and always lie to the Green Lanterns about pretty much everything. They do their own thing and try and make up all the rules and then they change the rules whenever they want. In other issues they were mad that Green Lantern Hal got a blue ring but now they want to know how it works and they’re acting like they’re his friend but they really only want it for themselves.

When all the Green Lanterns get to the planet where their friend is the Orange Lanterns attack. There is really only one Orange Lantern because they are very greedy and don’t want to share. The main Orange Lantern wants all of the rings so when he finds someone he takes them over and when they die they become like a ghost lantern but they’re part of the Orange team. They’re really creepy and powerful. They gang up and take the one Green Lantern and pretty much eat him up and when they do that he turns into an Orange Lantern. I really liked the way the artist drew all of the Orange Lanterns, especially on the one page where the Green Lantern gets turned into one. He looked like a scarier version of the Hobgoblin from Spider-Man comics. Another one of my favorite parts was when the main Orange Lantern finds Hal and gets crazy when he sees that Hal has a blue ring too. He just screams ‘I want one’ and is ready to attack him. I like how the Orange Lantern holds the battery close to him all the time like a little kid that doesn’t want to share.

I didn’t think the Orange Lanterns would be that tough because they’re really just the one guy but so far they’re beating everyone that they fight. The ghost Orange Lanterns basically just gang up on everyone until they kill the person and take their ring and turn them into one of them. I like how the artist makes all of the Orange Lanterns look really scary. Some other lantern teams have humans and friendly looking creatures but all of the Orange Lanterns are ugly and scary looking. I thought that the Red Lanterns were tough but the Orange Lanterns might be even more powerful because they attack all crazy and stuff. The good thing is that the other lantern teams are strong too and they really only have to attack the main guy and if they beat him he won’t be able to control the ghost Orange Lanterns.

The second story was more cartoonish and it was about how one of the Orange Lanterns, Glomulus, became that was. He was a little alien creature who kept stealing food until one day he got caught by one of the Orange Lantern’s ghosts and became an Orange Lantern, too. It was a real short story but I liked how they showed all the rings that the Orange Lantern collected around his base. I liked how the comic also showed one of the Purple Lanterns which is the all girl team. The main girl used to want to hurt one of the Green Lanterns but now that she has the ring she only feels love and is good now so it looks like the Purple Lanterns will be on the good team.

Green Lantern is a great comic. I like all the pages that show the whole team of Lanterns getting ready to fight and how all of the Lanterns listen to Hal because he’s their friend instead of trusting the blue Guardians. The story with all the different types of colored lanterns is really fun and I like how in the Free Comic Book Day Green Lantern comic they showed a lot of pages about each of the different Lantern teams. I liked seeing everyone who was on the team and all of their names and powers and it even talked about what their weaknesses were. The guy in charge of the zombie Lanterns shows up in the book too and he is starting to dig through graves trying to bring back old dead superheroes into his own zombie Black Lanterns. That is going to be a great story.

Rating: 10 out of 10

The Free Comic Book Day 2009 Recap

Free Comic Book Day 2009 Recap

Free Comic Book Day is great because you can go to the comic book store and there are tables full of all these different comic books from different companies and you can get whatever you want for free. They do it once a year on Saturday usually after a movie about comic books opens like Wolverine did this week. We went to the same comic book store that we always go to but this time they had some extra tables out to hold all the free comics and it was a lot busier than it is at other times. The other cool thing is that there were guys from the 501st who dress in Star Wars costumes like Stormtroopers and Stormtrooper pilots. Their costumes are really well made and me and my brothers took some pictures with them.

I probably picked up about 10 different free comics but there were a lot more than that. I just got the ones that looked the most interesting. Some of them were a little boring and some of them were really good. I think they do Free Comic Day to thank people for reading comics and spending money and to get other people to try comics. I’m not going to do long reviews but I am going to pick the 5 best free comics that came out. These are the comics that I think would be good for people my age or who don’t usually read comics.


Atomic Robo
Red 5 Comics

The Atomic Robo book was very good and had three different short stories. The Atomic Robo short story was the best one. Robo is on an island fighting a dinosaur who has a machine gun and is trying to kill him. I read the regular Atomic Robo books and like them a lot. Robo is a robot who works with the army to fight bad guys and this one was a little bit different because he’s fighting an evil dinosaur but I like the things were a little different. The second story in the comic was about a whole army of robots. It has nothing to do with Atomic Robo but it looked okay. I thought the last story was pretty good, too. It’s about two brothers who kill monsters and I liked the battle they had with the huge monster in this issue. I think that this comic had 3 pretty good stories that show a lot of different comics that the company puts out. I think a lot of people who don’t read comics would find good things to like about these characters and stories.


Owly and Friends
Top Shelf Productions

I read some Owly comics that I bought at the New York Comic Con and thought they were okay but I usually like comics with words in them. When the comics don’t have words I think they make it a little too much for kids. Owly is drawn very cute but his stories are over very fast because there aren’t words. There are 5 short stories in this comic and they’re all pretty good, too. My favorite one was Johnny Boo. There were two Johnny Boo stories and I think it was cool that the writer let his kid write part of his story. You could tell which parts his kid wrote and drew and that was neat. The other stories were interesting, too but I’m definitely going to try and get more Johnny Boo comics. There were two of those stories and I liked both of them. I think that this is a good comic for people who don’t usually read comics because there are a lot of different stories that kids will like and the grown ups won’t be mad about.


The Avengers
Marvel Comics

This comic was different from all of the others because it was just one full story. I liked it because it is just like the regular Avengers comics that I’m reading with the team the way it is now and how they’re battle Osborn’s evil Avengers. I think that other people that don’t read comics will be able to figure everything out because Spider-Man explains it in the story. At first I was kind of annoyed because Spider-Man was talking a lot and saying things that everyone already knows like that Iron Patriot is Norman Osborn and the other Spider-Man is really Venom but he only did that because people would be reading the book that don’t know that stuff already. The story was pretty exciting and it was about both Avengers teams getting ready to fight over some creatures that were powerful enough to hurt Thor. The Avengers teams are able to beat the creature and then they want to go after each other but Thor warns Osborn that if he doesn’t leave he’s going to go after him. I was disappointed that the Avengers teams keep meeting but they never really fight but I guess they’re saving it for the regular book later.


Bongo Comics Free For All
Bongo Comics

The Bongo Comics book had a lot of different short stories. The main story was about the Simpsons and Bart and Milhouse getting free comic books with their Krusty burger meals. I like how part of the comic was a pretend Krusty comic and Bart was mad because the story was so dumb and was just about different types of food like fries and hamburgers battling. There was a pretend coupon for a free Krusty burger or soda, too but you have to buy a huge order to get the free stuff. I didn’t really like the Futurama story because I don’t watch the show but the other Simpsons story was good, too. It had Homer and Bart as superheroes and they get zapped by a raw which turns Homer young and Bart old. I think that anyone who watches the Simpsons television show will like the comic because it’s just as funny. And people who like Futurama will probably like that comic, too if it’s like how they make the Simpsons.


Green Lantern: Blackest Night
DC Comics

A lot of people know who Green Lantern is but I bet most of them don’t know that there are all these other teams of different colored lanterns so I think it was a good idea to talk about that in this comic book. The first story is about Green Lantern and Flash talking about how all their friends have died and they hope they come back, especially Batman. Flash and Green Lantern both died and came back to life and they think that their friends will be able to come back too. And then the story shows the head of the Black Lanterns digging through the graveyard and he says the Black Lantern oath about how he is going to make his team of evil Lanterns out of dead heroes. If Batman becomes a zombie Black Lantern that’s going to be big trouble because he’s pretty tough without powers. If he had a ring I don’t think anyone can stop him. I think it’s an easy comic for people to read because they show every different colored Lantern team at the end with all the members and their powers and weaknesses. It’s easy to figure out what’s going on and I liked the page with all of the superhero hands coming out of the ground to become Black Lanterns. That’s going to be a great story.