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“Dark Avengers” #186 by Jeff Parker, Mirco Pierfederici and Neil Edwards continues the alternate-universe story which began a few issues ago, but at this point the title seems to be doing little more than treading water before the rumored cancellation hits. Lumbered with a largely uninteresting central cast, Parker seems to be focusing on alternate universe versions of familiar Marvel faces as a way of maintaining reader interest. There’s some suggestion that this isn’t an alternate universe at all, rather some altered or simulated version of the “real” Marvel Universe — but as plot points go it’s hard to make that one carry much weight. When “House of M” or “Age of Apocalypse” did the same story, it involved major changes across multiple books to make the premise viable. Whether “Dark Avengers” is trying to do a story along those (or similar) lines, the stakes don’t really match up – it’s the sort of story that shared universes actively harm. Even if the alternate universe setting i

“Amazing Spider-Man #686” by Dan Slott and Stefano Caselli is the latest chapter of the current Spider-Man event, “Ends of the Earth.” Unfortunately, this story hasn’t been quite as strong as Slott’s previous work, and when reading a book about Spider-Man, Black Widow and Silver Sable charging around the planet in a jet plane, it’s hard not to wonder what happened to the plan to make Spider-Man relatable. That said, Slott comes up with a twist at the end which makes it reasonably clear how this story ties into Spider-Man’s core theme, which goes some way towards redeeming the concept — but the execution remains fractious and slow-paced. For several issues now, it feels like the goal of destroying Octavius’ satellites hasn’t been advanced an inch. Still, even if you aren’t particularly enjoying the story, it’s a testament to the well-constructed scale of “Ends of the Earth” that last issue, when we were asked to accept the near-incineration of almost half of the planet, few people gue

“The Walking Dead” always has a fairly nice rhythm of horror, panic, and anxiety followed by quiet, recovery, and re-building. After the most brutal horror over the past few issues since perhaps since the Governor and the subsequent raid on the prison, we’re back into a period of quiet and, as always, it’s a much needed respite. Rick alternately waits by the bedside of his comatose son, tours the community making grand plans for re-building and the future, and re-connects with long time companions Michonne and Andrea, who are engaging in their own versions of recovery and re-building. Though “The Walking Dead” is the comic that years ago single-handedly brought me back to reading monthly comics, Robert Kirkman has not always been able to deliver for me. But that is the downside to being a largely great book; it’s hard to always be great. “The Walking Dead” does it with surprising consistency, and issue #86 on its own is a solid well-executed comic book about characters that readers

Deadpool is generally an annoying character. Let that be the preface that informs this review even further. I don’t like Deadpool as a general entity and I haven’t read much of his stuff. But I love Iron Fist; He’s right up there as one of my absolute favorite characters. I bought this issue purely for Iron Fist and I won’t pretend otherwise. I am also glad that I did because it reads much more like an Iron Fist story that Deadpool happens to appear in. I love that this issue is stand alone and doesn’t need anything else. The story obviously isn’t massively deep. They don’t try to cram an arc into 22 pages, but they do deliver one hell of a mission. Deadpool is on the hunt to kill someone and Iron Fist just happens to wander in. It’s an easy team up and a surprisingly enjoyable one. You don’t need to analyze or hold it up to the puzzle of continuity. You just need to point, laugh, smile, and be happy that your $2.99 invested in entertainment yielded results. Deadpool isn’t over-writt

Jonathan Hickman’s run on “Fantastic Four” has done for the franchise, in many ways, what Grant Morrison did for the X-Men in 2001. He has simultaneously modernized the book and distilled it to its essence. He has infused it with imagination but also built off the book’s decades of continuity (all of them, from Kirby to Millar). It’s been a spectacular accomplishment, all coming together in this storyline: “Three.” I suppose there’s kind of an advantage when you publicize a character’s death months in advance but don’t give any clues as to who it will be. Hickman takes full advantage of this arrangement by putting every character in the direst straits possible. It’s not fully apparent who will die next issue, but Hickman has gone to great pains to make it anyone’s guess. He also does a great job of making each character be in a position where, if they were to die, it would be a noble and completely non-arbitrary death. Johnny and Ben are fighting off Annihilus, Reed is trying to save

Reading this month’s issue of “Detective Comics,” it’s hard to avoid the behind the scenes drama that went on here. This was originally the issue slated for the return of Batwoman from Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III, before Rucka left the character and plans were made to move Batwoman into her own title. So it’s probably a safe bet that David Hine’s story for the next few months was put together on short notice. At the end of the day, though, all people are going to remember down the line is how the story itself was, not the creative decisions that brought Hine and Scott McDaniel together here. And reading “Detective Comics” this month, it feels like a good idea that just didn’t solidify into a strong finished product. The idea of merging flash mobs and a psychoactive drug is an interesting one, and when you make that drug a version of the Joker’s serum, well, this feels like the start of a classic Batman story. But just as soon as the idea appears, it starts to crumble. None of t

“Detective Comics” ranked high on my list of Top 10 comics of 2009. This certainly isn’t the “Detective Comics” it used to be. Obviously, Batwoman’s gone, and so is the Question back-up, and so are Rucka and Williams III and Hamner, and all the things that made this comic one of the best on the stands. But issue #866 isn’t even of the caliber of the recent Hine/Haun two-partner. No, this is a fill-in story that feels like it doesn’t matter at all. Because it doesn’t. Not within the story, not within the larger scope of the Bat-Universe, not anywhere. It’s just Denny O’Neil telling the story of a small, irrelevant tragedy, and Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs taking an opportunity to play around with a different style while showing the early days of Batman and Robin. The art is good, certainly. Nguyen is credited with layouts and Fridolfs handles the finishes, and it’s a bit more raw than their art usually is. A bit sketchier and more expressionistic. But that’s something that helps

This issue gives us the conclusion of the David Hine/Jeremy Haun two-parter about Jeremiah Arkham (aka the new Black Mask, aka crazy, crazy, crazy pants), and it also gives us the conclusion of the Greg Rucka/Cully Hamner “Question” co-feature. David Hine’s coming back in a couple of issues, but Rucka and Hamner and the Question are not. This is the end of the ballad of Renee Montoya, at least for now. I didn’t give the Question story enough credit when it first began. I foolishly denigrated the Cully Hamner artwork and failed to appreciate the Greg Rucka scripting, mostly because the Question co-feature shared the book with the extraordinary J. H. Williams III “Batwoman” serial. Next to that, almost anything would have fallen short. But once Williams left, the Question story became the main draw in “Detective Comics,” even when seasoned pros like Jock and Scott Kolins showed up to draw Batwoman for a few issues. And as skilled as Jeremy Haun is, he’s no match for Cully Hamner’s depi

It gets really frustrating when the Epson printer stops accepting the given command. There are various reasons that give birth to Epson offline error, which directly affect the printer work. Just like every other printer, Epson also faces offline issues that aren’t acceptable to the user. In order to resolve the offline issues, it’s important for all the users to ensure that they are using the correct method with the correct operating system.Apart from that, all the users should pay attention while accessing the printer to bring it back from offline to online status. This tutorial will help you get to know about the methods and the steps revolving around solving the Epson XP-8600 printer offline error.Method 1: Manually Disable the Epson PrinterIf you are a Windows user and want to make both devices work smoothly during the printing process, then follow the steps given in this method:First, select the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog box o