Detective Comics #621 (DC, 1990) by Norm Breyfogle, Steve Mitchell, Adrienne Roy, Todd Klein, and Alan Grant

What do Flashpoint Beyond, Starhenge, and the Dead Lucky have in common?  Nothing, really. And that’s the beauty of this series for me. The breadth of what I can read and get out of it changes week-to-week.  This week’s books cover quite a wide swath of what comics are in today’s market which makes for a fun feature even if I can’t say I enjoyed them all. Well there’s really just one I didn’t…

Spider-Man 2099 #13 (Marvel, 1993) by Rick Leonardi, Al Williamson, Steve Buccellato, George Roussos, Rick Parker, and Peter David

A nice mix of characters and ideas I am familiar with but not following and things completely new to me in this week’s picks. Any week where I get to read a book with Phil Noto art is a good week. I am enjoying the big events at Marvel and DC right now, but it is nice to jump into these one-off issues and free myself from the compulsion to read every chapter to enjoy a comic book. The Variants…

Hawkeye #6 (Marvel) by David Aja, Matt Hollingsworth, Chris Eliopoulos, and Matt Fraction

Welcome back to another edition of No Context Comics. A look at three new issues of comics this week that I do not read. What will we learn this week? Anything? Is there a reason for doing this? Is there a reason for doing anything? I don’t know but I just had $10,000 of student loan debt forgiven which shaves about a week of payments off my very worthwhile loans that requires me to scramble for…

Checkmate #1 by Alex Maleev, David Stewart, Josh Reed, and Brian Michael Bendis

“The first thing you need to understand is that it’s going to come at you fast, and you’re gonna freeze. You’re gonna feel fear–real fear, the kind that rattles your bones. Because there will be nothing else standing between it and all that you know. When that happens, I want you to remember this: You are the wall.” This monologue opens Vault Comics’ We Ride Titans. With a disorienting cacophony…

Welcome to what I hope is a new regular feature at Urbane Turtle! In this column, I’ll be diving into 3 books already in progress. There are very few rules here—they just have to be a comic I am not currently reading, not a number one, and if I can help it, not an anthology series. There’s an old saying “every issue is somebody’s first” but that rarely applies in today’s insular comics market.…

I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that Al Ewing is one of the best writers active in comics today, and one of Marvel’s most gifted storytellers of all time. His work on Immortal Hulk alone, a deeply personal look at trauma, faith, and identity, through the elevated lens of the superheroic, cements his legacy at Marvel. His creator-owned series, We Only Find Them When They’re Dead tackles…

I, a lifelong TMNT fan (see proof below) recently had the chance to chat with Ninja Turtles writer Tom Waltz to look back on his run on the recent dystopian miniseries The Last Ronin, and ahead to the upcoming Armageddon Game storyline at IDW. This was a very exciting opportunity for me and I was thrilled with how it turned out. Read the interview on CBR here. A little Urbane Turtle

The secret identity has been an indelible part of the superhero mythos since Superman first landed in 1938. Little more than children themselves, and writing for a primarily young audience, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster saw the inclusion of mild-mannered Clark Kent as part of the power fantasy of the Superman character. To the world at large, you might seem meek or mild, or bullied, but inside is…

Thor vol. 2 #85 (2004, Marvel) by Andrea DiVito, Laura Villari, Randy Gentile, and Michael Avon Oeming

Take Urbane Turtle on-the-go offline when you download the collected works of Urbane Turtle Year One. The Collected Works includes some of my favorite pieces of comics criticism and analysis from the first year of Urbane Turtle, including the only place you can read my undergraduate thesis on Superman. This features writing about House of X, Amazing Spider-Man, Strange Adventures, Teenage…

Infinity Gauntlet #1 (Marvel, 1991) by George Pérez, Josef Rubinstein, Tom Christopher, Max Scheele, Ian Laughlin, Jack Morelli, and Jim Starlin

Catwoman (vol 5) #30 (DC, 2021) by Fernando Blanco, Jordie Bellaire, Tom Napolitano, and Ram V

Detective Comics #661 (DC, 1993) by Graham Nolan, Scott Hanna, Adrienne Roy, John Constanta, and Chuck Dixon

The Good Asian #6 (Image, 2021) by Alexandre Tefengeki, Lee Loughridge, Jeff Powell, and Pornsak Pichetshote,

The Sandman #4 (DC, 1989) by Sam Kieth, Malcom Jones III, Robbie Busch, and Neil Gaiman