michael lark | the m0vie blog

The Amazing Spider-Man – Grim Hunt (Review)

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Darren

This April, to celebrate the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, we are taking a look at some classic and modern comics featuring Spider-Man (and friends). Check back daily for the latest review.

Although not technically part of The Gauntlet, Grim Hunt serves as a climax to eight months of stories in The Amazing Spider-Man. It comes at the end of what has been a pretty tough slog for the wall-crawling web-slinging superhero, after a string of pyrrhic victories and out-and-out losses. In essence, Grim Hunt is the culmination of all the plot threads running through The Gauntlet, as the sinister plot against the iconic superhero enters its end game.

It also comes towards the end of the Brand New Day era of The Amazing Spider-Man, only two story arcs before regular writer Dan Slott would take over the series for the next stage of the character’s development. Brand New Day was a controversial era for Spider-Man fans, building off a clumsy continuity reset in One More Day and trying to balance the weight of the character’s history against bold new directions.

As such, Grim Hunt also serves as something of a meditation on the history of The Amazing Spider-Man, a reflection on editorial attitudes to continuity and character development – an astonishingly self-aware and reflexive story arc that feels like a commentary on the character and the way that comic book storytelling tends to work.

A shot in the arm…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Comics, daredevil, gauntlet, grim hunt, Joe Kelly, kraven, kraven the hunter, kraven's last hunt, kravinoffs, marco checchetto, michael lark, review, spider man, the amazing spider-man, the gauntlet | 15 Comments »

Gotham Central – On the Freak Beat & Corrigan (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Darren

To celebrate the release of The Dark Knight Rises, July is “Batman month” here at the m0vie blog. Check back daily for comics, movies and television reviews and discussion of the Caped Crusader.

If you ask me, Gotham Central is the highest quality Batman title that has been published in quite some time – if not the most consistent Batman comic book ever published. These final two volumes contain the second half of Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka’s celebrated forty-issue exploration of life within the Gotham City Police Department, providing one of the freshest and most compelling comic book stories ever told in either of the two major comic book publishers. Essentially the story of the ordinary men and women stuck in the superhero world of Batman, it’s a genuine comic book classic.

Taking a shot at the Batman…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: batman, Christopher Nolan, Corrigan, Corrigan 2, Corrigan II, Crispin Allen, dc comics, Dead Robin, Doctor Alchemy, ed brubaker, freaks, GCPD, gotham, gotham central, gotham city, Gotham City Police Department, greg rucka, infinite crisis, Kano, michael lark, Night of Vengeance, On the Freak Beat, Police, robin, The Dark Knight, War Crimes | 2 Comments »

Daredevil by Ed Brubaker Omnibus, Vol. II

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Darren

Still, it must have been nice for you, Murdock.

What?

To win this one. It seems like you really needed it.

– North and Murdock

There goes the whiniest superhero I ever met.

– Mr. Izo

I’ve said it before and I’ll likely say it again: Daredevil has had an amazing ten-year run under the stewardship of Kevin Smith, David Mack, Brian Michael Bendis and Ed Brubaker. It’s just been a really well-put together comic book which really works. one of the finest compliments of the book I’ve read, and one I sadly can’t take credit for, is that Daredevil mostly avoids the deconstruction which has been a fixture of many iconic runs, while also avoiding the pitfalls of nostalgia that typically define the reaction to deconstruction – instead, the book has found a third way: it has found a way to take the conventional tropes of the superhero genre, and use them to offer something relatively new and exciting, exploring the story potential inherent in ideas like a secret identity, or what happens when a vigilante creates a vacuum in crime. Ed Brubaker, who – if you ask me – has offered the most fascinating run on the character and has surpassed his work on Captain America, finishes his run here and closes a chapter in the life of the Marvel Universe’s most tragic superhero.

Stars in your eyes...

Note: This review will contain spoilers for the end of Brubaker’s run, if you aren’t already familiar with it. I’ll flag them beforehand, but consider yourself warned.

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: ande parks, black tarantula, comic books, cruel and unusual, daredevil, daredevil by ed brubaker, daredevil by ed brubaker and michael lark, daredevil by ed brubaker and michael lark omnibus, daredevil by ed brubaker omnibus, david aja, ed brubaker, graphic novel, greg rucka, lady bullseye, marvel, marvel omnibus, matt murdock, michael lark, return of the king, review, the blood of the tarantula, the hand, the kingpin, tragedy, wilson fisk | 2 Comments »

Daredevil by Ed Brubaker Omnibus, Vol. I

Posted on May 19, 2010 by Darren

It’s pretty tough taking over a beloved cult title from a run which certainly measures among its best. Daredevil has long been a testing ground for many an iconic comic book writer, but Brian Michael Bendis left the book seeming to have done the impossible. Depending on who you asked, he had either come extremely close to matching the seminal run by Frank Miller, or had simply left it in the dust behind him. So taking over from Bendis would be no easy task. Thankfully, Ed Brubaker is more than up to the task.