The Tufts Daily

"The City Saga" really is a breath of fresh air for a superhero comic, allowing for moments of calm reflection and study. The climate feels less like our heroes are spoiling for a fight; rather they’re acting as anthropologists attempting to understand a unique pocket of their strange and wondrous world.

With the semester winding down and my number of columns growing slim, we’ll be accelerating the pace somewhat and running through a few issues in rapid succession. But first, here is one more single-issue week to transition us into a speed run of the rest of Hickman’s saga.

The first issue of “Brzrkr” is the comic book equivalent of a Rorschach test. To some, the Keanu Reeves-penned book (yes, that Keanu Reeves) will read as a charming attempt by a celebrity to break into a new medium. Others will see the Kickstarter-funded venture as Sal of comic review channel “ComicPop” put it on his Instagram, “the most blatant movie series pitch in comic book form I've ever seen." 

A good way to ease yourself into this portion of the Fantastic Four saga would be to accept the following: It’s going to get even weirder real quick, so best prepare yourself for the wackiest and strap in tight. In a total departure from last week’s entry, we begin with Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm going on vacation to the bizarre Marvel fixture, “Nu-World,” built as a backup Earth by the mad genius Ted Castle.

Welcome back to the column, friends! Last week we had what may be a Tufts Daily first, a story recap and review so massive it requires two parts to do it justice. In light of this, make sure you catch up with last week’s installment so you won’t get lost.  Despite tensions running high with […]

While larger artists have stayed afloat, beloved venues have felt the impact of the end of live shows. In Boston, multiple local venues have been forced to close doors due to economic losses following the cancellation and postponement of live music. One such venue is Great Scott, which has hosted shows in the greater Boston area for more than 40 years.

Will comic books go the way of arcade games and cable TV? In a sense, yes, but much in the way that TV packages have shifted with the demands of their audience, so too must comic books. Higher quality printing, fewer advertisements and free digital copies: these are the three elements that I would suggest to any comic book publisher looking to bring new readers in and draw old readers back.

It always impresses me when a writer can find a novel concept in long-running series with decades of lore and a tried and true premise like “Fantastic Four” (1961–). I chuckle even harder when that novel idea is both literal and figurative. The secret behind that riddle is the subject of today’s story arc, “Solve Everything” (2009). 

An interesting note that differentiates comic book storytelling is the “crossover event,” which, in the years since its debut in the pages of “Secret Wars” (1984), has become a way to “shake it up” and add some variety to universes. It is in one such turbulent period for the Marvel Universe that we begin our journey, with Hickman’s “Dark Reign: Fantastic Four” (2009).

The fact that there isn’t much connective narrative between episodes leaves the viewer with a confused portrait of a character they barely have time to know despite his name taking up half the title.