For a short time, I had a comic book review blog "Comic Book Focus". In a tribute to that site, it will be used as the name of a feature on "Science Fiction Times". The focus will be on short reviews of individual issues.
Batman Annual #1
Written by Scott Snyder and James T. Tynion IV
Art by Jason Fabok
Annuals used to be one shot summer blockbusters. Sometimes the events of it would carryover into the regular title but you could read it as a one and done story. DC seems to be returning to that format with this issue.
If you are not familiar with comic books, or at least the Daredevil movie, and you hear “Kingpin” you probably think of the bowling/comedy movie. While I like that movie, it is not the first thing that pops up when I hear the name. My memories go further back to my childhood.
By the time I started picking Spider-Man comics off the spinner rack, and yes I am showing my age, it was the Gerry Conway era. It was a great time to be a Spider-Man fan. The only down side was that it only appeared once a month. Fortunately Marvel was reprinting the old issues in Marvel Tales. Those reprints were my first experience with the Kingpin. The storyline I started reading featured a gang war between the Kingpin and Silvermane over a stone tablet. Why was the tablet worth fighting over?
I am planning on putting up short reviews of the comic books I read each week. Sometimes the comics will be new ones and other times they will be ones that have been on my "to be read" stack. This week's reviews include...
Alpha Flight #.1
Hulk #34
The picture to the left is promotional art of Alpha Flight by John Byrne.
