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DC Comics celebrates 80 years of Green Arrow with 100-page anniversary issue

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July 7, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

I’ve been a fan of the DC Comics character Green Arrow and his partner in fighting crime Black Canary for four decades, but the Robin Hood-inspired superhero with bow and arrow has been around for twice that long. This month he gets the red carpet treatment in a tribute anthology issue, the Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular. The anthology provides 12 stories reflecting creators known for their Green Arrow work like Mike Grell, Phil Hester, Ande Parks, and Jeff Lemire, plus stories by new writers and artists in the style of the character as published in the decades since 1941, when Oliver Queen first saw newsstands. Some things are missing, like no story featuring the artwork of Neal Adams, whose art was synonymous with Green Arrow and Green Lantern for so long (although he drew a variant cover for this issue) or Jim Aparo, Rick Hoberg, Scott McDaniel, Cliff Chiang, Jock, or Freddie Williams II from later points on the Green Arrow timeline. There are no stories by Judd Winick, Brad Meltzer, or Kevin Smith, and creators Mort Weisinger and George Papp are of course long gone, as is Denny O’Neil, who does get a tribute story. But there is plenty Green Arrow fun for fans to love–nice homages, especially to the Golden Age incarnation of Green Arrow and Speedy, and two stories that will take readers right back to their favorite eras of Green Arrow.

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Fantastic Four–Dozens of artists join in for 60+ variant covers for today’s re-launch

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August 8, 2018

Today writer Dan Slott and artist Sara Pichelli are bringing back the title Fantastic Four to Marvel Comics with a re-launch beginning with part one of a new Issue #1 story, “Fourever,” arriving at comic book stores today. Marvel Comics sidelined the team of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm since the end of its Secret Wars series. Now fans of the team and “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” will find out what they’ve been doing since then. We’ve gathered the dozens of cover options available for this issue, shown below.

As Marvel states in its marketing materials for the new series:

A void no other team can fill. And it’s time for the world to move on. But can it? A life-changing decision by the Thing! A momentous declaration by the Human Torch! A clarion call-to-arms that summons Doctor Doom! And a signal in the sky that heralds the return of hope to the Marvel Universe! All this, and Alicia Masters adopts kittens! So cute! Plus, the Impossible Man!

Marvel has amped up its cover artists yet again for the variant covers for this latest of several recent renumberings of main titles. So you’ll find covers from Alex Ross, Artgerm, Art Adams, Adam Hughes, Steve Epting, Sara Pichelli, Esad Ribic, George Perez, Mark Brooks, Skottie Young, Simone Bianchi, Joe Quesada, Eric Powell, Humberto Ramos, Nick Bradshaw, Mike Wieringo, Jack Kirby, John Cassaday, Emanuela Lupacchino, Walt Simonson, Rob Liefeld, Jen Bartel, Will Sliney, Mike Mayhew, Bill Sienkiewicz, and many more–more than 55 including virgin art and blank covers, most new, some pulled from archives of artists of the past, plus some homages to comic book covers from the past.

Bonus stories will be included in the issue by Simone Bianchi and Skottie Young. New Fantastic Four pins and backerboards will also available at some comic book stores today.

Take a look at all these covers we spotted:

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Marvel’s Jessica Jones returns to Netflix this week with her own episode posters

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March 6, 2018

Straight from her stint last year as a member of the motley band of vigilantes in the Netflix series Marvel’s The Defenders, Krysten Ritter is bringing her brooding heroine back this week for Season 2 of Marvel’s Jessica Jones. Netflix just released 13 new posters to advertise the show, each created by a woman with a design specific to each episode, featuring directing and writing credits, the episode title, and a hint at the subject of the episode. Most feature vintage pulp novel style cover art. But don’t look too close–a few may tell you more than you want to know before you watch all 13 episodes this weekend.

Like the recent series of variants created by several artists for the first issue of Archie Comics’ Betty & Veronica and Josie and the Pussycats comic book series, the posters provide an opportunity for several creators to attack one subject from different viewpoints. These projects showcase the artists, and fans, in turn, are rewarded by being able to find new inspiration in each impression of the character–and select their own favorites.

The international comic book artists providing cover illustrations for the posters are (in order of episode) Stephanie Hans (Batwoman, Black Widow), Jen Bartel (Jem and the Holograms), Elizabeth Torque (The Mighty Captain Marvel, Elektra), Kate Niemczyk (Mockingbird), Colleen Doran (A Distant Soil, Sandman), Erica Henderson (The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl), Audrey Mok (Josie and the Pussycats, Heroine Chic), Joyce Chin (Red Sonja, Vampirella, Hellcat), Jenny Frison (Wonder Woman, Revival, Xena), Amy Reeder (Madame Zanadu, Batwoman), Ema Lupacchino (Bombshells United, Supergirl, Green Lanterns), June Brigman (Power Pack, Brenda Starr, Mary Worth), and Annie Wu (Hawkeye, Black Canary).

So which is your favorite? Can you identify the logo styles or art influences that inspired each cover? If you read our reviews of pulp crime novels here at borg.com, you’ll have no problem identifying the poster for Episode 213.

Check them all out, in order:

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