Alienation, paradoxically, is one of the most universal human emotions. It is no great leap of logic that led to the fictional aliens of literature and cinema being appropriated as metaphors and megaphones for creators to opine on the subject of alienation to their audience. And as popular culture’s most well known alien, it likewise…
“There came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth’s mightiest heroes found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, the Avengers were born – to fight the foes no single superhero could withstand! Heed the call, then – for now, Avengers Assemble!” These are the iconic lines which preamble innumerable issues…
The Ultimates is a name which carries heavy expectations. Just as Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight redefined the character of Batman for thirty years since (in large part for leading to Year One, upon which Batman Begins had its foundation, and more recently being the main influence behind Dawn of Justice and the DC Cinematic…
“And God saw that the wickedness of Man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made Man on earth, and it grieved Him in His heart.” These words, taken from the sixth chapter of Genesis,…
It’s the scene from Attack of the Clones in the arena on Geonosis where the small cadre of surviving Jedi are encircled by the Seperatist droids, their slaughter imminent, when a laser blast suddenly streams from above, Yoda having arrived with an army of clones in tow to rescue our heroes. It’s the scene in…
Superman has been around since June of 1938, for over seventy-seven years. For at least the last twenty, and almost certainly longer, many critics and commentators have questioned whether the big blue boy scout is still relevant in the current age, suggesting that he may no longer be a hero with a place in the…
With regards to form, very little separate the comic book or the graphic novel from its close cousin, the children’s book. The former is told entirely through pictures, with writing superimposed over the illustrations themselves, whether in the form of dialogue balloons, thought bubbles, or narration boxes. The later alternates between writing and illustrations, with…
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. And he’s a fucking bad-ass! The most wonderful time of the year is finally upon us. The fully decorated Christmas tree in my living room, up since the day after Halloween, will certainly attest to such. So will this week’s publication of Klaus #1, Grant Morrison’s gritty reboot of…
The idea of a Cyborg solo-series was sound: a Detroit-based hero with cybernetic enhancements who “never asked for this.” Vic Stone could have been DC’s very own Adam Jensen, and his book could have been just as serious an exploration of the transhumanist themes implicit to the character in comics as Human Revolution was in…
Often when the works of a great writer become inaccessible to later generations, whether due to differences in language or changes in culture, subsequent writers engage in a process that is a strange admixture of adaptation, appropriation, inspiration, and translation. Such is extremely common among the works of Shakespeare. The Taming of the Shrew was…
The Hub City Review 