My pile of unread comic books is huge. So huge that I spent the last two Thanksgiving breaks whittling it down to a reasonable size. Those efforts are working; after spending a good chunk of the long Thanksgiving weekend reading I’m within striking distance of the Inhumans vs. X-Men crossover event from Summer 2016. That … Read more
It’s been largely a comic-book-free summer in Easton, Pa. thanks to Marvel’s Secret Wars. The publisher canceled all of their existing comic book titles in favor of new crossover Secret Wars books that revisited classic storylines (Civil War, Inferno, etc.) while creating a “battle world” for superhero smackdowns. I read none of it. Instead I … Read more
The comic book pile has grown large over the last few weeks, partly because I was busy with family and work, partly because I knew I’d have time to catch up during Christmas week. Topping it is Marvel’s crossover event Axis, in which the Red Skull (augmented by Charles Xavier’s brain … I kid you not) tries to take over the world.
My biggest problem as a fortysomething comic book collector is that I don’t have time to read the damn books. You’d think I would — after all, these aren’t novels — yet I repeatedly find myself with a six-month backlog of comics.
We’re in the lull between mega-events at Marvel right now, so I’m focusing my monthly pull on X-titles. Those titles are currently dealing with the aftershocks of the recent Avengers vs. X-Men crossover.
Last week was a light one for Marvel (or at least the Marvel titles I read) so I let Tony at Phantom of the Attic talk me into trying out a couple of other titles. In addition to my X-Universe standby – this week it was “New X-Men”, Part 12 of the Messiah Complex – … Read more
Looking back over my Top of the Pile columns, and considering what this week’s might bring, I found that I was in something of a rut — I’ve got my standard comics that I get every month — X-Men, Conan, Ex Machina, Batman — but I haven’t been venturing very far from that core. That’s … Read more
Despite the fact that I’ve been buying comics regularly for over a decade, I’ve only rarely reviewed them on Nuketown. That changes starting this week with the debut of my “Top of the Pile” column where I’ll be running down why I’m reading … and in what order. Almost every geek I know shuffles their … Read more
When Bryan Singer left the X-Men franchise to direct Superman Returns, I couldn’t help but feel a little dread. The first X-movie got off to an uneven start (mutagenic wave? killing off Senator Kelly?) but was ultimately satisfying. X-Men 2 succeeded on all fronts, evoking the comic books, introducing new characters, and telling a satisfying … Read more
The podcast opens with the old X-Men cartoon theme song in honor of X-Men 3: The Final Stand and the launches into a review of geek mom and geek parenting web sites. There’s no fiction review this time around, as I’m still slugging my way through George R.R. Martin’s A Feast for Crows but I … Read more