Kerrpow!

April McLean couldn't remember much anymore. She could remember something that felt like a life: water. Sunlight, love. Her mother was definitely there, her father she was less certain of. Everything felt like it was slipping away in the shadows....Shadows...there was something about that word...The thought was gone before she could finish it. She tried again to focus on the things she knew she could remember. Her name was April, she was, or at least had been 17 years old. She was a student? At Coal Hill Academy? She could remember the idea of a prom. Did she have any friends? She could remember people she’d spent time with, but only the vague shadows of them...there was that word again. She shook it away. There had been Monsters, she could see flashes of them in her mind. Things from another world. Teachers who weren’t teachers, flowers that ate flesh. An old man with a blue box...a stone Angel...the images burned bright in her mind, but she had no idea what they were supposed

Recently I've become increasingly obsessed with Aquaman. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly why this is, although I blame a combination of The Big Bang Theory and his reported appearence in Dawn of Justice. Whatever the reason, I have been thinking about Aquaman far more often than I would consider to be healthy. This led me to begin reading his stories in search of an answer to one of the oldest questions in comic books: Is Aquaman really as cool (or as uncool) as people say he is? I decided to dive right in(pun intended) by reading any Aquaman book I could find which, in my case, was volume 5 of the current series titled "Death of A KIng". As far as introductions go, this was perhaps not the best choice.  "Death of A King" opens with Aquaman feeling increasingly isolated. After the events of the previous volume, which saw the army of Atlantis rise up to attack Boston, he is mistrusted by humans who see him as too Atlantean and mistrusted by atlanteans who

All the way back in 2010, I wrote a blog post detailing my complex relationship with the world of Naruto. Now, seven years later with the publication of the Manga's final ever volume, I thought I would gave my thoughts on the series overall as well a mini review of the final volume. As I mentioned in my previous Naruto blog, my primary introduction to the franchise was through the Ultimate Ninja Storm video games, where I was impressed by their use of cell shaded graphics to perfectly recreate the style of the anime. Given this introduction, it would be logical to assume that my main experience with the franchise would be through the anime, but in fact I've seen very little and what I have seen hasn't impressed me.  Instead, I was encouraged by friends to read the manga and it was there that I found myself being pulled into Naruto's world. However, despite my enthusiasm I cannot claim to be the series' biggest fan. The world may be fantasic but the  plotting of seve

  I honestly did not know what to expect when I began reading The Killing Joke for the first time a few days ago. As an ardent comic book fan, I already knew the story by reputation: One of the many master stokes of the legendary Alan Moore, it is invariably found on " top 10" lists and is held up as one of the finest ever Batman stories. In my imagination, I had always envisioned it as similar in tone to many of the other titans of the Comics world, perhaps something with the sweeping bombast and action of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. What I found was something much smaller in scale but nonetheless very finely crafted. Described in the most basic terms, The Killing Joke is an Orgin story for The Joker, telling the story of a  failed comedian who, after botched criminal endeavour and a exposure to toxic chemicals, becomes the most iconic comic book villan of all time. As with much of Moore's work however, the true substance of the story lies in the way the

I like Sons of Anarchy. That is not a particularly controversial statement, in the seven years that the show was on television it garnered a sizeable following and it's easy to see why: the show's narrative is pure crime fiction of the most enjoyable kind. The assorted characters that inhabit the titular outlaw motorcycle club are the friendly, likeable, family orientated face of the criminal underworld, in a world full of bad guys, they are the least bad. As you might imagine, the show trades heavily on the mythic status of real outlaw clubs such as the Hells Angels. The more I watched the show, having always had a certain fascination with the world's criminal subcultures, I found myself drawn towards researching the real crimes, exploits and history of outlaw motorcycle clubs, specifically within the UK and the part of it I call home: the city of Leicester. At first I didn't think I would find anything. Like most midlands cities, Leicester has suffered in our post ind

Happy Monday everyone! About three weeks ago, Marvel sent a chill down the spine of every good Fanboy and Fangirl by announcing the films which will feature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the near future. Dubbing  the announcement  "Phase 3", (In line with the tradition of naming each new raft of films as phases in the over arching, and now highly successful, plan to build comic book continuity into their films.) they unveiled not just one or two tentatively scheduled projects but a massive concrete timeline of Named and dated films, going as far forward into the future as 2020! among the films announced were several introducing characters into the MCU for the first time, such as Black Panther, Doctor Strange, and Captain (AKA Ms) Marvel. like most fans, these announcements filled me to the brim with excitement. (particularly in regards to Captain Marvel but I'll say more about in a bit.) However, the more I thought about the Herculean task of bringing Phase 3