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Four Color Opera
Posts by Justin Hickey
So, what constitutes a great “run” of comics? Is it when superstar artists and writers commit to one whole year of monthly stories? Is it when a single iconic writer scripts for four or five artists across several years? How about six issues of white-hot comics mastery by unknown talent? Of course, it could be [...]
Read MoreNot really sure how to start this post–but I should’ve written about Chris Claremont months ago. His creatively robust Uncanny X-Men run (between 1975 and 1991) set industry standards for about two decades, and provided the background against which modern writers forged a different, though not necessarily better, era. Most would call Claremont’s writing florid [...]
Read MoreLong before manga publisher Viz dope-slapped American pop culture with the juvenile juggernauts Pokemon and Naruto, they gave us the racy Crying Freeman. From 1986, this is a comic series that sits like a juicy stromboli among the publisher’s more recent, fruitier offerings. In other words, it’s full of stuff that’s really bad for you: [...]
Read MoreI’m a big fan of delayed gratification. Like when rewards elude me, or when my schedule keeps pizza, television and the girlfriend just out of arm’s reach (pizza and Arianna hate me right now; television never loved me). My brain grows radioactive with desire. The anticipation of release cranks exponentially tighter. Then, suddenly– –I’m finally, [...]
Read MoreI’ve been steering clear of featuring brand new comics, since recapping them takes up more space than it’s worth. But I’m proud to make an exception for this week’s Batman and Robin, an issue of mourning for Damian, Bruce Wayne’s latest teen sidekick. Damian was a different kind of Robin, however, since he was actually [...]
Read MoreOnce upon a time, Captain America was a werewolf. Do you really need to know any more? Why, yes. You certainly do. This here prime cut of absurdity, straight out of the day-glo 90s, marks my first post of a comic story that’s “so bad it’s good,” a phrase better applied to films. It hails [...]
Read MoreSuch is the noir humor of Slam Bradley, the pugilistic private eye whose 1937 Detective Comics debut beat Batman’s first appearance by two years. In 2001, writer Ed Brubaker (Sleeper) artist Darwyn Cooke (The New Frontier) got him standing for another round, this time to hunt for the supposedly dead Seline Kyle. You might know [...]
Read MoreWell, a comic called Skullkickers couldn’t go unexplored forever. But I sure did avoid the Image publication, written by Jim Zub and drawn by Edwin Huang, as if goblin guts ran from its pages. The reason for such negligence? The simple answer is that I already own and read too much, and could continue this [...]
Read MoreThere’s the strapping, Teutonic Kevin Plunder, also known as Ka-Zar, Lord of Marvel’s Savage Land! In the mid 1960s, the company’s founding brethren, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, salvaged his exclamatory name from a pulp character who was originally Timely Publications’ answer to Tarzan. Lee and Kirby made Ka-Zar (the son of a British anthropologist, [...]
Read MoreIn 1975, a group of mutants whose comic had been long-canceled found fresh success with Giant Size X-Men. Writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum (during what comic historians call the Bronze Age) dialed back the camp and infused the concept of weird, outsider heroes with more realism. This meant that international characters like the [...]
Read MoreWithin the comics industry, creating characters that are alternate riffs on the icons (like Superman and Batman) has become a craft of its own. I examined this phenomenon in another post, but wish to revisit it because some riffs are so smashingly successful that it’s hard to envision the comics landscape without them. Astro City, [...]
Read MoreSuperheroes and magic are two of fiction’s most persnickety elements. Precise working rules for each need to be established clearly, or any hunt for genuine drama will turn up snipes. For much of the 2000s, Marvel Comics worked hard to ground their characters in realism and bring them to wider audiences (primarily moviegoers). While the [...]
Read MoreWelcome all! The Four Color Opera has joined Open Letters Monthly, and I’m thrilled to wish us many entertaining trips together, over rooftops and under streetlights. Whether this is the first, fifth, or hundredth time you’ve visited, please know that this blog is about great comics and graphic novels, regardless of genre. But you’ll notice [...]
Read MoreThis blog, originally dedicated to superheroes and their weekly shenanigans, has morphed into a catch-all for the best comics I can find. And as you’ve likely noticed, I’ve chosen to ignore the dross that irritates me. While full-on bashing is easy fun, it’s nevertheless an advertisement for creators whom I’d rather didn’t get any. Here [...]
Read MoreRiding glorious momentum and addictive panache, The Amazing Spider-Man just reached issue 700. After such a milestone, a character and his creators can go (narrative-wise) wherever they’d like. So, it’s with balls that could chase Indiana Jones that superstar writer Dan Slott takes Spidey back to the 1990s- the era of clones, alternate identities, and [...]
Read MoreThis in reply to a young monk asking, “I seek the King of Dreams. Am I going the right way?” The exchange comes in the middle of an astounding dream sequence, across pages of silent, exquisite narrative. We witness the monk traverse a midnight void on a sparkling bridge. Or is it a river, for [...]
Read MoreThe idea of Image Comics revisiting their roots in 2012 was a great, splashy red one. Classic early runs of The Savage Dragon and Spawn were bloodier than comics had ever been. And gleefully so. But twenty years later, current Image titles like Revival and Danger Club tweak genre tropes and prove a helluva lot [...]
Read MoreSo, we’re still here. Mankind deserves to be ripped from the garden we’ve despoiled and chucked into frigid space, but we’re still here. The ancient Mayans (and their modern day horde of capitalist proselytizers) were wrong. Whoops. Next year, when Bravo launches a program called Look What This Idiot Bought, many of us will vie [...]
Read MoreOn the cover of the new Justice League there’s some squawk about a “Bold New Era” beginning. Only fifteen issues in, DC surely doesn’t mean to imply that they were faking it during the ostentatious New 52 relaunch, right? Well, not quite. But the first story arc, written by Geoff Johns (The Flash) and drawn [...]
Read MoreOr in the case of Ken Garing’s Image title Planetoid, devour it with your eyes. A bi-monthly that’s just four issues in, this series captivates like a flaming streak across some dark expanse. It tells the tale of space pirate Silas, whose ship dies while passing a world that strongly bleeds electromagnetic radiation. Crashing, he [...]
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