Remembering Darwyn Cooke

Darwyn Cooke, the award-winning comic book creator, passed away recently on May 14th. He was 53. There were never any reports of him going through health complications as I recall, but suddenly his wife Marsha Cooke announced he was receiving palliative care following a bout with aggressive cancer.

Marvel Unveils Spider-Verse, Featuring "Every Spider-Man Ever"

Marvel recently teased an image of Spider-Man in his traditional red and blue costume with several webbed silhouttes beside him. In a live press call on Monday, Superior Spider-Man writer Dan Slott and senior editor of the Spider-Man title Nick Lowe announced a new Spider-Man event called Spider-Verse that will feature "every Spider-Man ever." Yes, including Spider-Ham!

Recommended Reading: Captain America: Winter Soldier

Before the movie opens in Philippine theaters on March 26, I recommend reading the comics that the film is based on. Written by Ed Brubaker with art by Steve Epting, this story introduces the Winter Soldier and also started what eventually became a historical run for the creative team on Captain America comics.

Spider-Man Gets the Year One Treatment with Learning to Crawl

With the impending return of Peter Parker in the relaunch of his flagship comic book The Amazing Spider-Man in April, Marvel plans on expounding more on Peter's early days as the wall-crawler. In May, the publisher will release 5-issue a limited series called Year One: Learning to Crawl by Dan Slott and Ramon Perez.

Comic Review: The Punisher #1 (All New Marvel Now!)

Writer: Nathan Edmondson
Art: Mitch Gerads

Our favorite one-man crime killing machine starts anew as Marvel relaunches an all-new Punisher ongoing series. Nathan Edmondson and Mitch Gerads breathes new life into Frank Castle by moving him west to Los Angeles, and also a new drug cartel as a target.

Edmondson does not waste time setting up the status quo in this debut issue. He makes Frank more sociable, giving him a full supporting cast that he seems to be interacting with for some time making this a total opposite of the Frank we knew from Greg Rucka's run in the previous volume.

End of an Era: Captain America #19

Writer: Ed Brubaker
Penciller: Steve Epting

It has been almost 9 years since Ed Brubaker started writing the relaunch of Captain America's fifth volume. Along with Steve Epting, the title became an instant critical success when it launched. Looking back, I can say Brubaker's Captain America is one of Marvel's best comic book runs in the past decade. Before this I found the character pretty boring, but Brubaker hooked me in with this title.

Throughout Brubaker's run, he had done a lot of things to the title, including bringing Cap's sidekick Bucky back from the dead, killed Steve Rogers, made Bucky take the mantle of Cap, and then resurrecting Steve Rogers. With last week's issue #19, Brubaker bids farewell to the title.

Real Iron Man

With The Avengers movie out, I've been seeing a lot of Avengers-related stuff in my news feed on Facebook. However, one thing really caught my eye - a cosplay video of Iron Man. So what's so special about it? There are lots of cosplayers of Iron Man out there at conventions, but this video is special. This guy actually created a mechanical Iron Man suit! It's awesome!

Click this link to check it out.

Review: Green Lantern Corps #1

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Artist: Fernando Pasarin, Scott Hanna

It was disappointing that Peter J. Tomasi's run in "Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors" was just so-so considering his run on the previous "Green Lantern Corps" was a very fun read. He understood the GLC, giving each member their time to shine whenever possible, complete with interesting stories.

I actually liked Tony Bedard's run on "Green Lantern Corps" more than Tomasi's. But it's interesting to see Tomasi back on the title and see what his plans are now that Kyle Rayner is out of the book.

Review: Batman #1

Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion

Green Lantern titles are the only comic books I read in DC Comics. I get a few collected editions DC's big events from time to time. But when DC announced they will relaunch everything in their line-up, I thought it would be a perfect jumping on point to other titles.

I always wanted to get into Batman, as he's probably the only other superhero I care about in the DC Universe. And with this "New 52" relaunch, I'm sure glad I picked this title up.

Review: Green Lantern #1

Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Doug Mahnke

Based from the past interviews and statements from DC, only the Batman and Green Lantern books are left unchanged in "The New 52." As the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

This first issue is a direct continuation of Johns' recent "Green Lantern" run. The status quo is all the same. It really feels like it should have been "Green Lantern" #68, but instead we get a #1 issue with a fresh start from all the chaotic madness from the recent stories.

Justice League #1

Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Jim Lee, Scott Williams

Well, it's finally here. The first title to debut from DC's much talked-about line-wide relaunch is now here with Justice League #1. And since it's out, it has gained a lot of attention. I have friends talking about it, wanting to reserve a copy in the local comic book store. Was it able to live up to the hype? Will new readers want this? Is it a good introduction into the new world of DCU?

Green Lantern Infographic

You've probably already seen the Ryan Reynolds-starred "Green Lantern" movie and wondered, "what the hell is Green Lantern about again?" Well let's face it, one of the reasons why that movie didn't go so well is because of the information overload the movie relayed to the audience. Even fans like me thought it was hard to keep up with all the character developments in the movie.

Luckily, I stumbled upon a Green Lantern infographic while browsing Newsarama and decided to share it. It's a good way to familiarize yourself with the Green Lantern universe, if you're still interested. The Green Lantern universe is fascinating and thrilling. However, it's very big and convoluted for new readers to easily understand the concept of the whole character. This infographic explains the background, history and other important things to introduce you into Green Lantern.

Review: Amazing Spider-Man #648

Story: Dan Slott
Art: Humberto Ramos

"Brand New Day" is over, and "Big Time" starts. Now, Dan Slott is the sole writer of the book, with artists rotating between Humberto Ramos, Marcos Martin, and Stefano Caselli. With this, I hope the storytelling and flow between stories become more consistent compared to when the book had several writers.

This issue features an all-star cast - Avengers, Sinister Six, the supporting cast of Spider-Man appear in the book. Slott has laid the groundwork on this issue that will play out as time goes by.

Review: Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #4

Story: Peter J. Tomasi
Art: Fernando Pasarin, Cam Smith

I guess the cover of this issue says it all - Sodam Yat is back! He gets a major development in this issue but it pretty much doesn't meet up with the what the cover says.

Tomasi's work on "Green Lantern Corps" was really outstanding. But I gotta admit his work here is not that good compared to that. He gives most of the book to Guy Gardner, trying to make him likeable. But that's the downside of the book, sadly.

Review: Amazing Spider-Man #647

It's been three years since the "Brand New Day" era began, and now the web-heads braintrust are putting an end to it with this issue. After the very controversial arc "One More Day," many fans dropped the book, but some fans still supported "Amazing Spider-Man" despite of the big retcon Marvel did. I'm one of those fans.

Anyway, "Amazing Spider-Man" #647 is the final issue in the "Brand New Day" era of the book. And just like "Amazing Spider-Man" #600, all of the web-heads, or braintrust, each contributed a story. Since some of the stories aren't really connected with each other, I'm gonna review the stories individually.

Review: Brightest Day #13

Story: Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi
Art: Adrian Syaf, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Vicente Cifuentes

"Brightest Day" has finally reached its halfway point with issue #13. And because Hawkman and Hawkgirl have been absent from the book for a couple of issue already, it's not surprising that almost all of the issue is dedicated to them, with the last two pages about Deadman and Dove.

One good thing about it is the story flows throughout the book consistenly. And because of that, we get to read almost a full story about the characters, instead of little chunks of story like in the previous issues.

Review: Amazing Spider-Man #646

Story: Mark Waid
Art: Paul Azaceta, Matthew Southworth

This issue wraps up the final arc on the Brand New Day era of Amazing Spider-Man, "Origin of the Species." Dr. Octopus has hired several of Spider-Man's deadliest villains to kidnap Osborn and Lily Hollister's baby.

Lizard has captured the baby from Chameleon, and has taken the baby to his underground lair, although it is unclear why he wants the baby aside from the fact Lizard hates Osborn.

Review: Amazing Spider-Man #645

Story: Mark Waid
Art: Paul Azaceta, Matthew Southworth

Origin of the Species is the final arc on this Brand New Day era of Spider-Man, and the team of Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta are going all out with this one.

Basically, Doc Ock hired Spider-Man's most dangerous villains to kidnap Norman Osborn and Lily Hollister's baby. With the combined goblin blood of Norman and Lily, Doc Ock believes that the baby could cure his current illness. But of course, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man won't let that happen.

Review: Green Lantern Corps #53

Story: Tony Bedard
Art: Tyler Kirkham, Batt

Bedard's "Revolt of the Alpha Lanterns" arc just finished last issue, and it proved Bedard to be a great writer for the book. Here comes the first chapter of his new arc, "The Weaponer," and it doesn't fall short to his previous story.

The issue focuses more on the tandem of Kyle Rayner and Soranik, who's role would be essential to the story later on. Judging from this issue, the story seems to build up from the "Sinestro Corps War" as it focuses on Sinestro's relationship with the Weaponer of Qward.

Review: Green Lantern #57

Story: Geoff Johns
Art: Doug Mahnke

Johns is slowly revealing each of the seven colors' entities per issue. Last issue, it was Ophidian taking over Hector Hammond, this time it's the Predator, though the Predator is already known.

The focus of this issue is more on Carol Ferris than Jordan and Larfleeze. It picks up where the last issue ended - Ophidian. After a little battle with the two, Ophidian-Hector runs away and goes for Carol in Las Vegas, where Jordan and Larfleeze follow suit.