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superhero

Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 8

Issue #10 “Sex and Death” Writer: Jamie Delano Art: Richard Piers Rayner and Mark Buckingham Colors: Lovern Kindzierski Letters: Todd Klein Cover: Dave McKean With the ultimate goal of self-preservation, the consequences of John Constantine’s… [more]

The Super-Heroics of Frank Miller and Alan Moore, Part 6

The Tragic Villains of Miller and Moore Moore and Miller’s approach to writing is always comparable and yet vastly different. Miller is hard-boiled crime writer and Moore delves deep into culture and vast concepts with… [more]

Kevin Smith & Joe Quesada’s Daredevil: The Comic that Saved Marvel

Joe Quesada is the savior of Marvel. Simply put, without Joe Quesada coming in the late ‘90s to create Marvel Knights, Marvel Comics would be a defunct company. While many editorial decisions made by Quesada… [more]

Unashamed: In Which Concluding Remarks are Made and a Book is Announced, Shameless? The Superhero Tales of Mark Millar

I hate to break a promise, even if it’s made to no-one but myself. Yet things have changed since I typed “to be continued” at the foot of the last section of Shameless? to be… [more]

The Flash Season 1 Episode 8 Review

One of the exciting things about bringing two superheroes together is seeing how they interact with one another. Most of the big, marquee heroes have their own distinct outlook on the world; Superman is optimistic,… [more]

Arrow Season 3 Episode 8 Review

One of the things that the creative teams of Arrow and The Flash truly excel at is understanding the inherent appeal of superhero stories. The writers on the shows just get why so many people… [more]

The Tribes of Fans: How Tribalism is Pulling Comics in the Wrong Direction

We have reached an interesting (and exciting) point in comics history.  For the first time in, well, ever, women are almost neck in neck for comic book readership.  This year there was even market research… [more]

Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 7

Issue #8 “Intensive Care” Writer: Jamie Delano Art: John Ridgeway Inks: Alfredo Alcala Colors: Lovern Kindzierski Letters: John Costanza Cover: Dave McKean Although the series is still very early on, the characterization of Constantine has… [more]

The Super-Heroics of Frank Miller and Alan Moore, Part 5

Optimism Ultimately, there are two types of stories: tragedies and comedies. There are no inherent requirements for tragedies or comedies. In the days of Shakespeare tragedies ended with death and comedies ended with weddings. But… [more]

Jorge Borges in Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol #22, A Companion Reader

One final look at the intertextual themes in the first four issues of Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol (#19 to #22). [more]

“The Characters Remain Unaware of My Scrutiny, but Their Thoughts are Transparent”: The Multiversity: Pax Americana #1

Whether he explicitly stated it or not Pax Americana is to be Grant Morrison’s Watchmen Redux. Of course it is so much more than this as well. During the initial drafting of this article Pax… [more]

Grant Morrison, Watchmen, and the Art of the Polemic

In order to criticize a movie, you have to make another movie. —Jean-Luc Godard A few years ago I stopped reading monthly comic books.  It wasn’t an ideological decision—just a reader’s.  Most of the comics… [more]

Our Feature Presentation: How Superhero Films Have Changed Trailers

What’s the perfect kind of pleasure? Oscar Wilde quipped that a cigarette is most exquisite due to its leaving one unsatisfied afterwards. The having of it immediately leads to wanting another. Now Hollywood has taken… [more]

Why I Am Thankful: How Sequart Has Changed My Life

I’ve played a large role in discouraging personal writing in posts on Sequart in the past months, only because how we feel and who we are intrudes on objective analysis of a text or work.… [more]

The Super-Heroics of Frank Miller and Alan Moore, Part 4

Late ‘90s to ‘00s Superhero Work In the middle of the 1990s Alan Moore did something that confounded everyone, he agreed to work with Rob Liefeld. Liefeld was a bold creator and entrepreneur and his… [more]

“New Paradigms for the Super Hero Team Structure?”: On Skrull Kill Krew #1-5 (The American Superhero Comics of Mark Millar, Part 45)

Continued from last week. No-one could accuse Morrison of being blind to Skrull Kill Krew’s satirical potential. In 1995, he spoke enthusiastically of the book’s capacity to discuss the likes of “catastrophy in the 20th… [more]

AMC’s Comic Book Men: Is This True Representation?

We need to have a conversation about geek culture. Sorry to put it that way, but I’m sure many would agree that modern geek culture has reached new heights of mainstream popularity, and we need… [more]

Confessions of a Paranoid Humanities Scholar: On Big Hero 6 and Interstellar

A couple of weeks ago I parked next to an SUV covered in decals all warning about the coming “zombie apocalypse.”  I chuckled, largely because I’ve never had a moment’s worry about zombies.  But there… [more]

The Flash Season 1 Episode 6 Review

The moments that work in “The Flash is Born” mostly occur around the edges of the central plot. The main focus of the episode isn’t a total bust, but it is pretty standard material featuring… [more]

The Super-Heroics of Frank Miller and Alan Moore, Part 3

Early 90s Superhero work I have been alluding at various points the real-life history of my two subjects in my past articles, but context is vital in understanding the next period of superhero writing for… [more]

“Until It Destroys Your Brain”: On Skrull Kill Krew #1-5 (The American Superhero Comics of Mark Millar, Part 44)

Continued from last week. Not everything in Morrison and Millar’s rebuffed pitches to Marvel went to waste. The former’s dogged belief in the quality of the Apocalypse 2099 proposal would have only been strengthened by… [more]

Conversations with Creators: Ramón Pérez

Conversations with Creators is a collaborative interview series designed to understand the processes and inner workings of the artist, their creations, and how their work impacts the comic booking industry. Each meeting is candid and… [more]

Superman Goes to the Symphony: Michael Daugherty’s The Metropolis Symphony

One of the old adages about writing says that you should write the thing that scares you—so here goes.  For this week’s column, I want to take a look at a piece of classical music. … [more]

Arrow Season 3 Episode 6 Review

One of the issues that Arrow can sometimes struggle with is in adequately developing its one-off characters. This week that means the man attempting to frame Ted Grant, his vigilante ex-sidekick Isaac, comes off as… [more]

Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 4

Issue #5 “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” Writer: Jamie Delano; Art: John Ridgeway; Colors: Lovern Kindzierski; Letters: Todd Klei; Cover: Dave McKean “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” marks the first issue of the series that… [more]