Category Mark Mitchell

Jan 17 2018

An Overdue Spotlight Turns on Laney Lan in New Super-Man 19

by Mark Mitchell

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, read on at your own risk!

When New Super-Man premiered, Laney Lan, the book’s Lois Lane equivalent (whose name my iPad always wants to autocorrect like she’s a local area network), was primed to play a prominent role in the series — Kenan Kong had goo-goo eyes for her, and her plucky reporting skills promised to help Kenan unravel the mysteries of his family. But somewhere along the way, series creator Gene Luen Yang seemingly lost interest in repeating the ideas of Superman beat for beat, or perhaps just couldn’t find room for Laney as the book began to sprawl. But as Yang prepares to relaunch New Super-Man as New Super-Man and the Justice League of China, Mariko Tamaki and Richard Friend’s one-off New Super-Man 19 circles back to turn a spotlight on Laney — maybe as a taste of a larger role in the story going forward, or maybe as a last hurrah for a character who never quite had a place.

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Jan 8 2018

Rogue and Gambit 1: Discussion

by Mark Mitchell and Ryan Mogge

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

Mark: There’s a thin line between romantic pursuit and creepy, unwanted attention, and fan favorite X-Man Gambit falls too often onto the “creepy” side of that line in Kelly Thompson and Pere Perez’s Rogue and Gambit 1.  Continue reading →

Jan 5 2018

Luke’s in Hell in Star Wars 41

by Mark Mitchell

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

Like pus from an open sore, a dangerous energy seeps into the universe in Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca’s Star Wars 41, escaping from the remains of the Jedi temple on Jedha. Luke has come to Jedha and the Cult of the Central Isopter looking for guidance in mastering the Force. Larroca and colorist GURU-eFX paint an evocative portrait of a planet in torment — Luke’s in Hell, basically, but that’s the point.

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Jan 4 2018

Feeling the Crossover Blues in Superman 38

by Mark Mitchell

This article contains SPOILERS! If you haven’t read the issue, proceed at your own risk.

I consider a Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason credit on a comic book to be a mark of quality, almost a guarantee that the book I’m picking up will deliver a good time. Such a strong track record makes an issue like Superman 38, an issue that pretty much misses every mark across the board, a bit mystifying. How to account for such a discrepancy?
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Dec 28 2017

The Guardians Frustrate in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps 35

by Mark Mitchell

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps 35

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

Through no fault of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps 35’s writer, Robert Venditti, the Guardians are deeply uninteresting characters. Supposedly supremely wise, they mostly manage to make Hal Jordan seem brilliant by comparison. Supposedly extremely powerful, their existence seems to be threatened with frightening regularity. All of this on top of the fact that they’re frankly unpleasant to look at, especially the more human they’re rendered. Continue reading →

Dec 21 2017

A Thrilling Heist Propels Star Wars: Poe Dameron 22

by Mark Mitchell

Star Wars Poe Dameron 22

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

I’m a sucker for a good heist story, and one of the fundamental elements that separates good heist tales from bad is clearly defining the roles of each team member. Knowing exactly what part every person plays orients the audience, and communicates the stakes of each individual moment. In a heist film, the heist is usually painstakingly laid out early in the movie, with the point man taking the players, and the audience, through every piece of the plan. But comic books don’t have the luxury of time afforded a two hour movie, and so it’s doubly impressive that Charles Soule and Angel Unzueta’s Poe Dameron 22 manages to create such a thrilling heist, with clear roles and interesting stakes, in the limited confines of a single comic book issue. Continue reading →

Dec 20 2017

A Satisfying “Ending” in New Super-Man 18

by Mark Mitchell

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, read on at your own risk!

New Super-Man has always been a messy book, and so it’s fitting that its “conclusion” should be messy as well. Clearly intended at one point to be the final issue of the series, New Super-Man 18 is Gene Luen Yang’s usual mix of strange pacing salvaged by strong character moments.

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Dec 18 2017

Monstro Mechanica 1: Discussion

by Michael DeLaney and Mark Mitchell

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

Michael: Leonardo da Vinci is the Renaissance Man: inventor, painter, mathematician, historian — you name it and the man probably had a hand in it. His influence on human ingenuity is vast and varied. In fact, in the Comics realm, da Vinci’s “bat-winged” flying machine ended up being a visual inspiration for comics’ most popular figure: Batman. In Monstro Mechanica, Paul Allor and Chris Evenhuis make da Vinci’s marvelous mind the object of desire among devious forces at work in Florence. And while there is the titular “Monstro Mechanica” in the form of da Vinci’s mechanical man, Allor and Evenhuis cast some doubt on whether or not da Vinci’s marvelous mind makes him hero or villain. Continue reading →

Dec 12 2017

Sith Versus a Killer Granny in Darth Vader 9

by Mark Mitchell

This article contains SPOILERS! If you haven’t read the issue, proceed at your own risk.

Charles Soule and Giuseppe Camuncoli’s revisiting of Jocasta Nu in Darth Vader 9 is what the Star Wars Expanded Universe has always excelled at — taking a throwaway character from the films and broadening the world around them. Continue reading →

Dec 11 2017

Batman: White Knight 3

by Mark Mitchell

Batman White Knight 3

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

The primary mystery of Sean Murphy’s Batman: White Knight (with an assist from Matt Hollingsworth on colors) is determining what exactly Jack Napier’s intentions are. How much of his stance against Batman on moral grounds is part of a longer con? And even if Napier is truly free of the Joker, he’s certainly willing to indulge in a little villainy if the ends justify the means. But then, the same can be said of Murphy’s Batman, and it’s the murky morality of most all the major players in Batman: White Knight 3 that makes this book so compelling. Continue reading →