What is a Short Pants Review? While we’d love to give full reviews to everything, there just isn’t enough time in the day. So we’ve come up with Short Pants as a way of providing capsule reviews from our varied review writers, giving quick hits and short capsule thoughts about various comics we’ve read recently.

This time out, Nick covers Ex Machina #33, Angel After the Fall #2, Captain America #33, Daredevil #103, Umbrella Academy #4 of 6, New Warriors #7, and G.I. Joe America’s Elite #30.

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Writer: Marc Bernardin & Adam Freeman
Artist: Lee Garbett
Company: Wildstorm

Everyone loves to see action. It’s a simple and unavoidable fact that seems to be hard-wired into our brains. Sure, there are varying degrees of action; the good and the bad, the cheesy and the downright jaw dropping spectacle of watching a thirty car pile up with massive explosions while a hail of gunfire permeates every ounce of our senses. This latter definition of action is exactly what the first issue of The Highwaymen gave us. So really, what more could you want from a second issue? Well, how about doing all of those same things but doing them in even bigger and bolder ways. Non-stop, pedal Continue Reading »

Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Gene Ha
Company: Wildstorm

Yes, there are many things that make the first issue of The Authority an odd one. If you’re expecting the same hit and run, over the top action extravaganza of the first incarnation of The Authority book, be warned: That aspect isn’t here. Neither is there any mention or glimpse of the heroes that we are used to seeing. At least, not yet there isn’t. What is there is the oddness that Grant Morrison (Doom Patrol/WE3) usually brings, his calculated storytelling and Gene Ha’s (Top 10/Global Frequency) elegant artwork. None of which are bad, but they seem so different, so off the mark for an Authority story that it’s Continue Reading »

Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: J. H. Williams III
Company: Wildstorm

Warren Ellis (Planetary/Nextwave) loves to create bad-ass main characters for his books, doesn’t he? And while Elijah Snow and Spider Jerusalem were memorable, one might consider the interchangeable main character, in all his chain-smoking, rant-spouting, trenchcoat-wearing, ass-kicking glory, a bit of a cliche at this point. And if that is the case, if they are all so similar, how does he get away with doing it so often? The answer: Because he’s gotten so damn good at it and makes them so entertaining, that people don’t seem to care.
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Writer: Grant Morrison
Artists: Jim Lee & Scott Williams
Company: Wildstorm

It’s never a good sign when the flagship book of your line-wide relaunch ships a month late, and certainly the weakness of the opening books like Gen 13 and Wetworks hasn’t done the Wildstorm relaunch any favors. A shame that Wildcats #1 didn’t ship first, as it might have done much better in putting a strong foot forward for Wildstorm. The book is a lot of fun, taking some of the intelligent mature readers superhero work that Joe Casey did, adding in some of Morrison’s trademark crazy ideas and layering it with traditional superhero icing in the form of Jim Lee’s artwork. Wildcats #1 attempts to Continue Reading »

Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Talent Caldwell
Company: Wildstorm

The first question that really sounded in my head after reading Wildstorm’s re-launch of the Gen 13 title was: Where did all the funny go? In a book that had so much potential to do something different, all the story had to offer was a bland facsimile of an older book that didn’t have all that much going for it in the first place. And while I did have some love for Brandon Choi and Jim Lee’s upbeat and comedic teen drama meets dark government thriller, Gail Simone’s version completely loses me with a book that metaphorically paints everything in its path black. It’s a shame too, because the Continue Reading »

What is a “Hot Pants” pick? Quite simply, it’s a book that all four reviewers on this site believe is worthy of your time. It may or may not be one of our favorite books, but it’s that rare breed of comic that struck all four of us, with our different tastes, as a good read. Sleeper is our latest “Hot Pants” pick.

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Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Darick Robertson
Company: Wildstorm

Watch your backs, super heroes, you’re about to be reminded that for every action, there is an equal and impossibly brutal reaction. That’s how Garth Ennis (Punisher/Hitman) sees it at least, in his new, highly violent, in your face psychotic romp, The Boys.

Whether it was planned or by accident, The Boys seems, at least to me, to be Wildstorm’s answer to Marvel’s Civil War. A more extreme version, where the government hires the job of teaching the heroes the what’s what to a small band of Continue Reading »