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Magazine Archives for:
April 2014
Twilight of the (New) Gods Part 2
Death as a Beginning. Both Ragnarök and Final Crisis begin with the unthinkable: the death of a god. For Ragnarök, it is the death of Baldr that signifies that something is very wrong in the… [more]
Review of Arrow Season 2, Episode 19
“The Man Under the Hood” starts out strong, showcasing Team Arrow demolishing a research division of Queen Consolidated with copious amounts of C4 to prevent Isabelle and Slade from utilizing the research to further their… [more]
Buffy: Wolves At The Gate
After two big story arcs starting off Buffy Season 8, it’s really here at the third that the Slayer Army really gets “down to business”. Joss Whedon and his collaborators have set up the situation,… [more]
Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol #19, Addendum
This essay series will devote time and attention to intertextual themes in the first four issues of Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol (#19 to #22). [more]
The Winter Soldier as an Indictment of the Post-9/11 Military Industrial Complex
SPOILER WARNING… Much like Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier wants you to view the events through Steve Rogers’s World War II lens. The events are framed through the true evil… [more]
East of West #1-5: A Genre Mashup that Doesn’t Quite Work
The great thing about Westerns, as I often explain to those who don’t understand the genre, is that you can really “go there”. It’s a genre that contains within it the whole spectrum of that… [more]
X-Men: To the Outback & Beyond… Part 3
Continued Technically speaking, well rather chronologically speaking, the next issue to be addressed in this look back at my formative X-Men years would be #230. Since I already addressed that story here on the site, I… [more]
Mark Millar’s Superior: A Loving Tribute to the Super-Hero
“After all the deconstruction, Superior was planned as a RECONSTRUCTION of the superhero. A warm-hearted tribute to why we need them.” –Mark Millar, April 15, 2014 As longtime readers of Sequart may notice, I don’t… [more]
Daytripper: A Story of Life
Daytripper’s story follows the life of Brás de Olivia Domingos, the son of a famous Brazilian author. Living in his father’s shadow, he dreams of becoming a famous author himself and having his words live… [more]
The Grind: Nine to Five With Patton Oswalt’s Olympians
Truth be told, I have about three drafts sitting on my computer hard drive that constitute my attempts at writing this essay. I have never read anything like JLA: Welcome to the Working Week before,… [more]
Marvel Studios, Risk, and James Gunn
This month’s release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier has once again reaped both high box-office numbers and critical praise for Marvel Studios. Their formula for success has been to bring fan favourite characters to… [more]
Julian Darius on Martian Comics
Julian Darius, founder of Sequart Organization, has a Kickstarter up for a comics series called Martian Comics, to be published by his company Martian Lit. The first storyline was co-created by Sequart contributor Kevin Thurman.… [more]
“Forgive me, Superman. I’m not very good at losing.”: The American Superhero Comics of Mark Millar, Part 14
Continued from last week. Some in the UK fan community saw Millar as Morrison’s heir apparent on the JLA. But despite later claiming that he’d once turned down the chance to write the Justice League, Millar… [more]
The Politics of Captain America: The Winter Soldier
CHARLIE GIBSON: Do you agree with the Bush doctrine? SARAH PALIN: In what respect, Charlie? GIBSON: The Bush — well, what do you — what do you interpret it to be? PALIN: His world view. GIBSON: No,… [more]
Superhero Accessories: Part Three: Mo Bat-Money, Mo Bat-Problems
…continued from here. It’s worth noting that the original Klan and the fictional KKK seen in The Birth of a Nation were both begun by young rich white guys who lived in mansions. The hero… [more]
Review of Arrow Season 2, Episode 18
In just about any story, the hero has to be laid low before the climax. Doing so serves multiple purposes, it showcases that the hero is fallible and must struggle greatly to succeed while also… [more]
The Sandman Overture #2 Review
Written by: Neil Gaiman Art by: J.H. Williams, III Cover by: J.H. Williams, III Dave McKean Variant Cover by: J.H. Williams, III Dave McKean Rating: 9 (of 10) After two delays and much anticipation, the… [more]
Hannibal vs. Bates Motel: One Kills the Other
Sometime last year a friend of mine recommended I watch Bates Motel, a show about a young Norman Bates. For those of you who don’t know who Norman Bates is – we can’t be friends.… [more]
Twilight of the (New) Gods, Part 1
Introduction “This is the way the world ends…” William Blake. Ever since the moment humanity began to ask about its origins, we also began to wonder about our ultimate end, and what, if anything, comes… [more]
Thoughts on Amazon, Comixology and Digital Comics
The recent announcement of Comixology and Amazon merging has some people all in a flutter once again about the rise of digital comics. Other than the obvious advice (calm down), I think some historical and… [more]
Bugged Out!: Scarab Reconsidered 20 Years On, Part Nine
If you wanted to define the visual aesthetic of Scarab in one word, that word would probably be ugly. Everything from Glenn Fabry and Tony Luke’s covers to the title character’s costume/second skin design to the look… [more]
Manifest Destiny #6: Lewis and Clark’s Dreams
The most important part of this issue of Manifest Destiny, by Chris Dingess, Matthew Roberts and Own Gieni, is the passage where we get to see Lewis and Clark’s dreams. In historical terms, Meriwether Lewis… [more]
Sandman #75: How It Ends, and Begins
What made Shakespeare famous was his ability to pen adaptations. This salacious fact draws from his purloining of content from long dead authors, incapable of making too much of a fuss, though some noticed. Gaiman,… [more]
Aronofsky’s Noah: The Shaggy Dad
“NOAH!” “What?!” -Bill Cosby Darren Aronofsky’s Noah is a pretty intense comic book. That shouldn’t be too surprising to anyone familiar with his other work, particularly his films. But it bears repeating that, unlike the… [more]
Buffy: No Future For You
The next story arc of Buffy Season 8 once again hits on the main theme of this season and indeed the later seasons of the TV series: what does it mean to be a Slayer?… [more]