I should warn readers that this review is not future-proofed – I have a bad record when it comes to this franchise…

Heeeey… Aceveda!

Most of the time ‘graphic novel’ is just a euphemism for ‘a book made out of old comics’. However, DC has something of a tradition of doing the GN thing for real…

Jai Nitz’s large format, black and white anthology returns with four more genre-crossing pulp stories. As with the first instalment, Nitz and co crack the hard-to-pull-off anthology format with what seems like little effort…

Not since Tim Burton’s ‘Batman Returns’ has there been such a vast gap between the aims of a feature film and its portrayal via merchandise and spin-off products.

In what sense this Bendis scripted Spidey centric treat is ‘Ultimate X-Men’ rather than, as it seems, ‘Ultimate Marvel Team-Up Volume 2′, is so unclear as to be opaque.

First things first – the beast is in good shape. ILM have created a Hulk that is convincing, and an effective amalgam of actor Eric Bana and the comic book character…

The UK’s Sci-Fi Channel has a bit of a coup here – three episodes of Joss Whedon’s sadly cancelled ‘Firefly’, world premiering in Britain while the Americans have to do without…

Seen ‘Hulk’? Need something to fill the yawning gap between now and the next Marvel movie, ‘The Punisher’, comes out next year?

Mark Millar has turned in something entirely untypical for Marvel, and in that sense it is a good opening statement for the Epic imprint. Unfortunately, in every other sense ‘Trouble’ is rubbish…

The criticism that a work of art might, whether intentionally or not, make Adolf Hitler ‘more human’ is a powerful one. That ‘Max’ avoids this is a small triumph.

The sense of original TV making that came in the first season has been lost. Why not show a bit more imagination with setting or plot?

‘Fortysomething’, a loose adaptation of Nigel Williams’ novel of mid-life crisis, is that great rarity of twenty-first century life – British television which is actually worth watching.

Pitched as a revolution in digital comics, ‘Necrowar’ is less a revolution, more a reinvention of mid-90s ‘2000AD’ strips…

You can never accuse Scott Allie of being afraid to put his footprint where his mouth is…

This is what going mad must feel like…

I have a soft spot for Adam Buxton. Yes, he’s the short one with the thick eyebrows and the captain’s hat who comes dangerously close to being “cuddly”…

Previously on ‘Doctor Fate’…

If I told you that ‘Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle’ lacks the discipline, restraint and skilled plotting offered by its predecessor, would you be tempted to run and hide? If so, please find a convenient large object behind which to secrete yourself.

Comebacks aren’t supposed to be successful. The Beatles posthumous singles didn’t hit #1; only I like ‘The Phantom Menace’; Theodore Roosevelt didn’t regain the White House in 1913 and ‘Never Say Never Again’ sucked very hard indeed.

This impressive collection brings together short stories, fill-ins and one-offs written by Alan Moore for DC Comics in the mid 1980s…

‘King of the world, ma. King of the world!’

Channel 4 is in a miserable, disheartening decline and as director of programmes Tim Gardam moves on, this seems like a good time to examine what has gone wrong…

Can America’s Best Comics carry on without Alan Moore? ‘Terra Obscura’ is the latest evidence to suggest that it absolutely should…

Who can resist a comic with the words ‘Super Fun Summer Special’ on the cover?

‘Birds of Prey’ comes to CNX (a cable channel seemingly programmed to my personal demographic) under a cloud of cancellation, having seen a spectacular decline in ratings during its brief run on the WB network…

This new publication comes triply blessed: not only does it concern a pet Shelf obsession, the city of London, but it’s available from our favourite comics shop, the inestimable Gosh!…

Imagine a fictional guidebook to America, with details and advice culled from modern fiction’s visions of the USA. Somewhere in the section on the East Coast, there would have to be a strong warning regarding the prosperous peoples of the region…

Marvel go where DC fear to tread these days, or so it often seems…

I love ‘Mad Max’. Well, to be fair I love ‘Mad Max 2′. Great stuff, but with one small problem, a problem that this film rectifies; a total lack of dragons.

I will confess to a sick love for the character of Hawkman. Not the pure, ‘Conan with Wings’ kick-ass Hawkman either. No. I like Hawkman because he’s a mess: because of, not in spite of, the horror of his continuity and backstory…

There was much celebration here at Shiny central when we learned that ‘Boomtown’ had been renewed. See, we’d heard it was ‘on the bubble’ with an even chance of not being picked up for a second year.

Despite the fact that across these episodes we have six writers and five directors there’s little really to distinguish them from one another, and in truth they form one four hour (ish) narrative, a culmination of the series as a whole.

A bit of a disappointment, this, after Evan Dorkin’s recent ‘Agent X’ two-parter…

Not strictly speaking a comic, but the nature of this publication means that it easily falls under the remit of our reviews section…

‘Powers’ has always equated superheroes with celebrity, and this fourth trade paperback gathers together the series’ inevitable story about a ‘manufactured’ team of superheroes, FG-3.

This movie really shouldn’t be as good as it is. One of the most cynical spin-offs ever devised, it stars a wrestler with almost no previous acting experience,

Ever since 1989 I’ve been complaining that the BBC severely lacks any kind of sci-fi and fantasy programming. This being the case, I suppose I should be grateful for whatever I get, but I’m not…

This new comic is so relentlessly masculine that I’ve had to hide the first issue from my weaker, more vulnerable colleagues, for the good of their health…

I’m used to sitting at home, hopping through cookery programmes and low-rent chatshows like ‘Loose Lips’ and ‘Des and Mel’ before desperation sends me the way of Bid Up TV…

It’s an odd experience to find popular opinion shifting around you whilst you yourself remain perfectly still…

There are people out there, mad and probably stupid, people, who believe that ‘Spider-Girl’ is an accessible, all-ages superhero title which will appeal to ‘the kids’.

If anyone ever taught the Wachowski brothers, writer/directors of ‘The Matrix Reloaded’, the lesson that ‘less is more’, then they certainly weren’t listening…

This isn’t a comic, it’s an opportunity.

This is not so much ‘Matrix 2′ as ‘Matrix 2a’, with 2b out at the end of the year and, as such, any final judgement will have to wait.

‘Otherworld’ would (assuming there’s no Lottery funded leek-farming and/or choral singing epic of which I’m unaware) certainly win any hypothetical award for ‘the most Welsh film ever’

Is this a good film? By any objective criteria, not really.

‘Full Frontal’ marks Steven Soderbergh’s return to Miramax after more than a decade and continues his transformation from indie-kid with a budget to onanistic student filmmaker wannabe…

A young bag-snatcher is shot in East London and a political researcher falls under a train at Green Park. As the camera follows the researcher’s employer, upcoming MP Stephen Collins it swiftly becomes clear they were having an affair.

This, my friends, is the reason that we’ve been starved of new ‘Blue Monday’ material for so long, why we’ve had to make do with occasional holiday one-shots…