Thanks to the success of comic book movies, the back issue market has been enjoying a resurgence. As a speculator, it’s been fun trying to anticipate and out maneuver all the rumors. I’ve been stocking up on certain books and…
Flash Comics #86, DC Comics, August 1947
It’s been a while since we visited the Golden Age. It was Undervalued Spotlight #172 to be precise, not that I’m trying to plug that post or anything.
Read MoreUndervalued Spotlight #191
The Death of the Family storyline crossed over into Batman, Detective Comics, Batman and Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, Catwoman, Teen Titans, Suicide Squad and Red Hood and the Outlaws. Each title had their star "Bat-Characters" match wits against the evil and diabolical Joker, whose ultimate plan was to get rid of Batman's allies, who in Joker's mind were weakening the Dark Knight and keeping him from being the hero that Gotham (and the Joker) desperately needs.
Read MoreDeath of the Family… bring your wallet!
There are very few praises I will sing for Mark Waid, and while this may sound as though I’m preparing to lambaste the current Daredevil scribe once again, I’m not. To his credit he has been a driving force behind the comic book industry's evolution as it steps towards its digital age, understanding what it is we're on the precipice of and making an effort to embrace it. A second point I give him credit for is the crux of this post he made in 2009 on the very necessity of the comic book editor.
Read MoreRighting the editorial ship
Superboy #68, DC Comics, Oct/Nov 1958 Superman turned 75 back in June and it got me thinking a bit about old Sups and his current situation. Here’s the hero of heroes, the grand daddy of them all and yet we…
JLA/Avengers #1, Marvel Comics, (September 2003) This comic features the 1st meeting of the Justice League of America and the Avengers. Considering how big the Avengers are and how big the JLA will most likely be this is a book…
Heroes for Hope Starring the X-Men, nn, Marvel Comics, (December 1985) Some of the defining events of the 1980s were surely the massive famine relief efforts initiated by Sir Bob Geldof. If you remember Sir Geldof put together a British…
Justice League of America #200, DC Comics (March 1982) The Justice League has been a hot property since Justice League #1 launched DC’s New 52 back in August of 2011. The title has stayed hot and it can only get…
Omega Men #3, DC Comics (June 1983) Now and again Undervalued Spotlight fans will email me with suggestions for future posts. Last week I received an email from Dave with a list of 3 books he felt should make the…
The background in a comic is a place where nothing happens. In comics, a lot of the background space is often sacrificed in order to tell the story with dialog and narration AKA: the words. The background is also occasionally…
DC comics hosted its first of three all-access panels at Fan Expo in Toronto August 24, featuring a host of the company's brightest creators as they chatted with fans for the better part of an hour
Read MoreFan Expo | DC creators present the future at all-access panel
Hot Wheels #1, DC Comics, April 1970 The Mattel Toy Company introduced Hot Wheels in 1968. Their first salvo of 1/64 scale die cast cars included 16 models including the Corvette, Mustang and my favorite the VW Beetle. The company…
On the heels of its first two Before Watchmen titles, Minute Men and Silk Spectre, last week DC released the third entry in its set of prequel stories plotted before Alan Moore's infamous Watchmen series. The Comedian follows suit comparably to the previous Before Watchmen books in their portrayal of the principal characters' lives leading into Moore's work, and while each has added considerable layers to pre-existing elements of the plot and the respective character histories, inevitably they suffer from the same affliction inherent to the premise of these tales
Read MoreThe Comedian #1
The doomsday clock has finally struck midnight and the Watchmen prequels are finally upon us. From general observations it would seem nuclear war didn't accompany the release of the first issue of Cooke's Minute Men mini-series, nor has a similar catastrophic event occurred upon the release of Silk Spectre #1. Aimed to expand the past leading up to Alan Moore's seminal Watchmen, a number of creators have thrown their names into the figurative, perhaps literal, fire of fan's scorn upon attaching themselves to these projects, including Watchmen editor Len Wein who provides the Curse of the Crimson Corsair back-up story.
Read MoreSilk Spectre #1
This week hosts Chris Owen and Walter Durajlija review May’s stellar comic book sales numbers, they also hit on topics that include DC title cancellations and additions, Disney green lighting the second season of the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, Walking…
From 2006 forward, Grant Morrison's name has been synonymous with Batman. Through the main title and his definitive Batman tale, to the depths of certain oblivion through time, back to the re-ascension of Bruce Wayne to the mantle of the Bat, Morrison's Batman opus has garnered a fair and justified amount of acclaim over the last six years. His name was missing, however, from the new crop of "New 52" titles in Fall 2011 when DC relaunched its titles. Moving several months forward, we find Morrison has returned to finish his Batman Inc. story, it leading the way for DC's second wave of "New 52" titles.
Read MoreBatman Incorporated #1
When DC relaunched its line of comics in September 2011, noticeably absent were any titles featuring the classic JSA characters of Golden Age infamy. Even still, at a DC panel at Fan Expo 2011 in Toronto, Canada, it was acknowledged that before long fans of classic versions of Green Lantern, Flash and Superman would get their fill. After many months of anticipation, fans of the characters received the first issue of Earth 2 #1 last week as it thundered onto store shelves and into our loving hands.
Read MoreEarth 2 #1
The horror genre in comics can easily be divided into two categories. In one group we have stories which are formulaic, largely unoriginal and don't really offer anything to the medium. Contrarily, there are comic horror stories which push the storytelling possibilities of the medium and take it new places or adapt it to new environments. Fan favourite writer Dan Abnett hopes to provide the latter over the course of his new eight-part series through DC's Vertigo imprint with his horror tale, The New Deadwardians.
Read MoreThe New Deadwardians #1
Hawkman is one of DC's more notable characters that has never quite caught on with comic fans beyond its core base. Most recently Carter Hall figured into the company's Brightest Day maxi-series, before mostly fading to obscurity prior to the "New 52" relaunch in Sept. 2011. Prior to its first issue, the series was touted as featuring Hawkman in a more violent comic with a vicious tone unseen in previous iterations.
Read MoreThe Savage Hawkman #7
Wonder Woman has traditionally been a character unlike most within the mainstream superhero genre of comics. Where the heroes themselves are commonly viewed as gods in the metaphorical sense, Wonder Woman literally lives among them, standing beside the likes of Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, Athena and Ares. Yet without a true antagonism the character's books has always felt a little hollow outside the Justice League books.
Read MoreWonder Woman #7