Brandon and I are taking the opportunity to revamp and streamline the site a little, playing around with the format of the strip and blog section to hopefully allow for quicker updates and more reader interaction. In other words, we’re desperate for readers. Seriously, how’re we gonna sell T-shirts and stuff with, like, 10 people reading the comic every week? That’s a bad business model, people! If Brandon and I wanted to go broke, we’d open up a comic book shop!

(Ooh, that one stung a little, didn’t it? That’s called the sting of truth)

So basically, we’re doing a New 52. Only with no renumbering, no retcons, and no stupid collars or excess lines. Okay, so it’s not very much like the New 52. Except we will have a slight moderate generous horrific increase in exploitative sexism. Whatever it takes!

Anyway, we hope to be back up and running as soon as possible. You can keep an eye right here for updates, and/or follow Josh and Marissa on Twitter. Considering the change in status quo we’ve just introduced, you can expect both of them to have a lot to say about a great many things very soon.

https://twitter.com/#!/JoshCritic

https://twitter.com/#!/MarissaCritic

Thanks for following us this far, and we hope to entertain you even more through 2012! Maybe even make a shocking announcement or two.

(And tell your friends about us. Seriously, I wanna get in on this T-shirt racket)

If I could only use one word to describe this book, it would be beautiful.

The art is beautiful. The story is beautiful. The language is beautiful. The symbolism is beautiful. The design is beautiful. The layouts are beautiful. The calligraphy is beautiful. The narrative is beautiful.

The way it all comes together is beautiful.

http://www.habibibook.com/

AQUAMAN #1: Do you think Aquaman is lame? If so, this issue spends a good deal of its page count telling you how wrong you are. Which might feel like a bit of a waste to readers who liked Aquaman to begin with, but maybe it was necessary, I dunno. Still, it was well drawn and well written, so I’m looking forward to #2 as long as they got it all out of their system.

BLACKHAWKS #1: Yeah, I don’t know about this. Not a great introductory issue for the characters, the purpose of the organization, or even the type of threat it was formed to face. I might revisit the first trade if there’s good word of mouth, but I’m out for now.

BRILLIANT #1: (Here’s a book Josh wouldn’t review!) A decent opening and central premise (using science to create super powers in “the real world”) devolves into a bit of a mess of an introduction, where Bendis’ Mamet touches are particularly clear and yet ineffective. Whether I pick up the next issue will depend entirely on if I remember this book exists a month from now, which is not assured.

FLASH #1: This was really good, which surprised me a bit. The visual storytelling was just fantastic; I saw more out of Manapul in this issue than I had in the entire last series. The plot was solid superhero fare, and featured a thankfully less grim Barry.

THE FURY OF FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MEN #1: First of all, fuck you, title, you’re “Firestorm” from now on. Second of all, the book has an intriguing premise in these”Firestorm protocols”. But the villains are so far rather generic and uninteresting, the conflict between Jason and Ronnie feels a bit forced, and the end of the issue feels rushed and confused.

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #1: Good setup. Not enough John Constantine for me, but plenty of Shade.

NEW AVENGERS #16 POINT ONE: Hope you were dreadfully missing Norman Osborn in the year since he’s been away, because here we go again.

TEEN TITANS #1: That’s three up and three down for Scott Lobdell; maybe I’ll try him again the next time he makes a comeback. (This wasn’t terrible, but I don’t have enough interest in the Titans anymore to work up the strength to think about the continuity implications of this apparent scorched-earth reboot)

ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #2: I still feel like we’re learning more about Miles’ supporting cast than him, but at least what we’re learning is interesting. I really like his father, and find myself hoping he isn’t the sacrificial family member that teaches this new Spider-Man about power and responsibility.