Review | 47 Ronin

Adapting history always carries with it an element of risk, and that risk is even greater when dealing with a beloved story such as 47 Ronin. The tale of loyal samurai who avenge their master's death has been adapted countless times in books, movies, plays, and even opera. So while there is quite a bit of source material to draw from, anyone who is interested in reading the story potentially knows it well. To make an adaptation such as this work there needs to be a great deal of care and respect for the story, and I'm happy to say that every page of 47 Ronin is filled with both.

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#4 | Amazing Spider-Man 100-102 & Marvel Team-Up 3-4

This is a battle where I was definitely going to lose something (mmm…). My love of comic reading and Spider-Man vs. the raging hormones of a 15 year old me about to enter high school with all those girls. There was not enough time for both and the girls were winning. Reading comics was starting to feel a bit juvenile and my interest in them was beginning to wane. It didn’t help that my favourite title Spider-Man had been going through weak or flat spot (for me any way) in its run (issues #83-99) for a while with a couple of exceptions. Even the 2nd return of the Green Goblin, the drug issues (#96-98) hadn’t lifted me out of the doldrums as those books felt like drug story sermons to me back then. I was however holding out for a special issue #100, and that is where our Arcs and Runs tale begins today.

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Thunderfist Three Ways: Karn, Bachle, Steele

“Thunderfist,” what a great name for a superhero. E. T. Leagault came up with this early in 1942 after having being the sole writer and artist for Cy Bell and his one title at that time, Wow Comics which featured two other Legault creations, Dart Daring and Whiz Wallace. The first issue of Wow Comics was cover dated September, 1941 and came out on the stands after half-dozen issues of Better Comics and a couple of issues of Lucky Comics issued by Maple Leaf Publications out of Vancouver had already been in the hands of lucky kids across the country.

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The New Marvel Ident

With the release of Thor: The Dark World, Marvel introduced to us their new ident. Without getting too deep, an ident is basically an animated logo that, as the name suggests, help to identify a product, service or the company itself.

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Spoiling the secret of Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Did you catch Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe on TV last week? In case you missed it, let me recap very quickly. It was essentially a State-of-the-Union address from Marvel Studios, explaining how the Marvel Cinematic Universe came to be, how we got to today, and where it is going into the future. All 3 waves of Marvel films were summarized, as well as the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show and the Marvel One-Shots (the special features on the Marvel Blu-Rays).

It was exceptional television. Except for one thing...

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Undervalued Spotlight #194

Journey into Mystery #85, Marvel Comics, October 1962. Last Saturday evening my kid decides we should all watch Thor 2; I wanted to watch the Habs/Senators game. So Thor 2 starts and I kind of like it, I actually thought it was better than the first one. Near the end of the movie my kid mumbles something like “I really like Loki, he’s smart and crafty”. Woah!

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St. Patrick’s Day Special: Spider-Man’s Green Villains

It’s St.Patrick's Day. The only day of the year when the world goes green, and actually means it. We all want to be Irish today and if we’re not, we can pretend we are and go to the pub to celebrate anyway. All this green gets me thinking, not about money, but about comics, and a question. Why are all of Spider-Mans villains costumes green?

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Marvel Unlimited: Now with Sound!

Recently, at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival Marvel announced some additional features that will be coming to its Unlimited service, most notably the use of sound effects and additional DVD-like commentary as you read. This expands on their Augmented Reality (AR) app that can be used to access additional features while reading a paper copy.

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