Giant Size Review # 6: The Women of All-New Marvel NOW

Marvel has a great history of strong, popular and well-selling female characters. Storm, Jean Grey, Rogue, Kitty Pryde... Wait, hold on a second. Those are all X-Men.

Review # 175: "Avengers - 'Red Zone' and 'The Search For She-Hulk'"

Goeff Johns didn't get off to the greatest start during his time on "Avengers," with a bland, slightly confused title with no confidence in its direction. That changed during the second half.

Review # 140: "She-Hulk by Dan Slott - The Complete Collection Vol. 2"

For such a lighthearted book, Dan Slott's "She-Hulk" sure does run the gamut of emotions. It's cheerful, it's sad and - in one case - pretty damn uncomfortable to read.

Review # 117: "Avengers: Absolute Vision Book 2"

At its heart, "Absolute Vision" is a pretty darn good - if basic - story. It has a slow burn that keeps you guessing, and paints Vision - a major character - in a way that makes him difficult to figure out. One moment he's stoic and robotic, the next he's smiling and speaking like a first-class politician. The synthezoid is clearly up to something, and while it's pretty easy to figure out on your own, reading as the Avengers clue in is entertaining.

Review # 114: "Fantastic Four - Doomed" and "FF - Family Freakout"

The fate of Matt Fraction's dual run on "Fantastic Four" and "FF" turns out to be an interesting case study on creative team changes. Yanked from the title to write "Inhumanity," his plots are handed to new scripters. One switch works well. The other does not.

Review # 110: "She-Hulk by Dan Slott - The Complete Collection Vol. 1"

Dan Slott isn't afraid to take risks at Marvel. He's taken Peter Parker out of Spider-Man's driver's seat for 30-plus issues, written more than one "Avengers" series anchored by Hank Pym (or a reasonable facsimile) and mocked his own audience. He definitely enjoys exploring the quirky corners of the Marvel U, so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that his work on She-Hulk is very good. Very good, indeed.

Review # 94: "Avengers: Absolute Vision Book 1"

A funny thing happened to the "Avengers" series in the 80's: it became historically insignificant. While big things were happening in the pages of, say.... Captain America (the emergence of US Agent), Iron Man (the rise of Jim Rhodes), Thor (about a million things written by Walt Simonson), and even West Coast Avengers (Hawkeye becoming a leader) nothing that happened in the central line stuck. Monica Rambeau, the Black Knight, Eros, Wasp as a leader and Doctor Druid barely register a blip on the collective consciousness of the casual fan.

Review # 92: "Fantastic Four by John Byrne Vol. 2"

If you look up a summary of John Byrne's career and come across the section on the Fantastic Four, you'll get a list of all the major changes he made to the title during his time as writer and artist. What you won't find is any mention that he peaked before any of those changes happened.

Review # 82: "The Sensational She-Hulk by John Byrne Vol. 1"

Several years before Joe Kelly made Deadpool famous by having the title character break the fourth wall, John Byrne did the same with She-Hulk in the 1989 relaunch of her title. The result is more quirky than funny, but it's very, very smart.

Review # 41: "Fantastic Four - New Departure, New Arrivals" and "FF - Fantastic Faux"

The Fantastic Four have been on a hot streak when it comes to writers lately. Mark Waid's forced departure led to a fan backlash that extended his stay. Jonathan Hickman stretched the team to its limits, bringing characters like Spider-Man into the fold. Unfortunately, the run of his successor is being cut short as the red hot Matt Fraction is leaving a double 16-issue arc to pen a series about the Inhumans. He will still be plotting, just not scripting.

Review # 27: "X-Factor - 'The Only Game in Town' and 'Secret Invasion'"

As we move on to Volume 5, something important has happened: In the first (and last) instance of Peter David's second run on X-Factor intersecting with a main X-Men storyline, Madrox and Layla were sent about a century into the future at Cyclops' request during the events of the excellent "Messiah Complex." In the end, Layla ends up trapped in the future and Jamie is left with a mark to forever remind him of what transpired. This, clearly, was going to have some major implications down the line but couldn't be rushed, which makes it as good of a time as any to shake things up for the team.

Review # 2: "The Trial of Yellowjacket"

Up until last year, my collection of comic trades and hardcovers was almost exclusively X-Men. Yeah, there was some Batman in there, "Watchmen," and a lot of company crossovers but outside of Marvel's mutants I hadn't really dabbled in very much else.