Comics

Comic books have developed from throwaway stories into an American icon. Over the years, they went from simple pulp fiction to campy silliness and finally into legitimate literature. Groundbreaking works such as Watchmen showed the medium’s versatility and demonstrated to the world that comics can be viewed through the same critical lens as film and prose.

I love comic books for many, many reasons. While I enjoy stand-alone stories like Watchmen and Y: The Last Man, I particularly love the mainstream superheroes that have become American icons, such as my personal favorite, the Incredible Hulk. This section features my thoughts on comic books and their related media, combining nerdy rants with history lessons on some of America’s most enduring characters.

• Crowning Moments of Awesome: Examining my favorite moments in comics.
  • The DCAU
  • The Incredible Hulk
• The Dark Knight Trilogy: Analysis and breakdown of one of the greatest superhero film series of all time.
  • The Importance of a Symbol
  • Elemental Forces
  • Alfred
  • The Rogues Gallery
  • The Why of Batman
• My Favorite Panels: A look at my favorite one-panel moments.
  • An Alternate Origin for Wonder Woman
  • Lex’s Realization
  • Sonja is Everybody’s Type
• Superhero Evolutions: An exploration of individual heroes and how they evolved in both look and style over the years.
  • Renee Montoya
  • Roy Harper
  • Superman
• The Golden Age Superman was a Badass Vigilante: The original Superman simply had no time for bullshit.
  • Part One
  • Part Two
• ThunderCats, No!: ThunderCats: The Return gives us a lesson on how not to handle a popular children’s franchise.
  • Part One
  • Part Two
• The Best Plot Twist that Never Happened: A look at one of my favorite readings of All-Star Superman.
• Captain America Punching Hitler was Once Controversial: How Jack Kirby and Joe Simon bucked a pro-Nazi trend in America with Captain America.
• The Definitive Superman vs. Luthor Encounter: A moment of awesome from All-Star Superman.
• Green Lantern in “The Leap Year Menace!”: Hal Jordan once almost caused a nuclear catastrophe in an attempt to get out of a marriage proposal.
• Hal Jordan and Barry Allen: Destroyers of the Universe: Remember when the Green Lantern and the Flash destroyed history?
• The K-Metal from Krypton: The greatest Superman story never told.
• Lessons Learned from the Silver Age Green Lantern: Truly, Hal Jordan is a…unique…hero.
• My Favorite Comics, Sans Superheroes: My favorite books to read where there’s nary a spandex-clad crimefighter in sight.
• My Favorite Superhero Casting Jobs (so far): My take on the best jobs in superhero film casting, as of 2021.
• The Original Death of Superman: When Lex Luthor killed the Man of Steel.
• Out of Character is Serious Business: In a decades-long continuity, what really counts as out of character?
• Successes from the New 52: DC’s 2011 reboot bombed, but it still left a few gems behind in its wake.
• Superman’s Secret Identity: Glasses and a necktie work better than you think.
• The Weirdness of Golden Age Batman: The debut of Batman’s titular comic had some strange behavior from the Dark Knight.
• When Superman Defeated the KKK: Superman showcased how powerful media and entertainment can be when he took on the Ku Klux Klan.
• Why is the Hulk My Favorite Character?: What makes a person a fan for life?

Image: Marvel Comics