Reviews 11 - The Malta Comic Con

The Flash – Chain Lightning review by Raphael Borg

Comics, ReviewsJuly 13, 20200Comments

The theme of legacy in Mark Waid's run on the Flash took front and centre; from the anxiety of leaving the master's shadow, to growing into one's own, the run reaches its poetic end in "Chain Lightning", where Wally West reaches into the iconic Flash's bloodline, Barry Allen, striving to preserve it from an equally…

Rather interestingly, Paul Jenkins' "Prelude to Schism" - as the name suggests - is an interesting case in which a prelude far more outshines an event than the event itself. I would daresay even it has very little to do with this selfsame event book. Taking place just before an unspecified siege upon the island…

Green Lantern Corps review by Raphael Borg

Comics, ReviewsJuly 6, 20200Comments

Rather than focus on one single member of the corps, Patrick Gleason and Dave Gibbons' Green Lantern Corps dispersed its focus among its members creating what is best described as "Apocalypse Now", "We Were Soldiers" or even "Jarhead" in Space. It elevated the corps' status from one of a peace-keeping force to one of a…

Batman: Arkham Asylum review by Raphael Borg

Comics, ReviewsJune 30, 20200Comments

I don't usually promote Batman graphic novels as they get quite enough exposure without me trying to. However, this is by far one of my favorite books both as a Batman book as well as Grant Morrison one. Not only it has the same metaphysical quality one would expect from a Morrison narrative, but the…

Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight review

Comics, ReviewsJune 24, 20200Comments

How do you bounce back from failure on an extraordinary scale? How do you do so when extraordinary expectations are pushed upon you when burdened with power limited only by your imagination? In spite of it being seen through a lens of character assassination by some, when read in retrospect in particular this Green Lantern…

Young Avengers review by Raphael Borg

Comics, ReviewsJune 22, 20200Comments

As a writer, Allan Heinberg managed to recapture what Marv Wolfman did before him in Teen Titans once again; the essence of being a teenager in their time. And this in spite of not having been one for some time themselves, regardless. However, the search for identity, the identification of the self with another, the…

Final Crisis review by Raphael Borg

Comics, ReviewsJune 19, 20200Comments

Leave it to Grant Morrison to write about something as headache inducing as a murder mystery centred upon a multiversal godlike presence and the side effects of its dying body falling through time itself. As headache inducing as it might sound, having read through it, one easily appreciates Morrison's typical metastructural thinking and way of…

Mark Waid’s Flash review by Raphael Borg

Comics, ReviewsJune 19, 20200Comments

Anxiety is a killer. As someone who is regularly on the receiving end of such an overwhelming truck of an emotion, it is somewhat cathartic to actually read about it on page as written by someone who clearly understands how you feel. It resonates with you, and somehow makes you identify with it on a…

Dennis O’Neill’s Green Arrow and Green Lantern review by Raphael Borg

Comics, ReviewsJune 19, 20200Comments

Legendary comic author Dennis O'Neill passed away leaving a legacy behind that I am glad I have sitting on my shelf. This volume marks the reinvention of Green Arrow, making him the socially conscious, Errol Flynn-esque modern-day Robin Hood much loved the world over as recreated by O'Neill and artist Neil Adams. It is largely…

All-Star Superman review by Raphael Borg

Comics, ReviewsJune 19, 20200Comments

The greatest lie that has been told about any comicbook character is that Superman is boring. This book by, once again, Grant Morrison partnered with Frank Quitely, puts that idea to rest by putting Superman in an entirely new situation: Superman is dying, and what he does as a consequence of this is nothing short…