Caligula is an extract from two of Robert Graves’ historical novels, I, Claudius and Claudius the God, focusing on the mad Roman emperor as told from the perspective of his uncle Claudius. It’s one thing to read an historical account of Caligula by Suetonius, quite another to read a dramatized account by a skilled 20th century novelist.
Though an artist in his own right, Giorgio Vasari is best known for his histories of famous Renaissance artists. This is an extract from his three-volume Lives of the Artists looking at Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Filippo Lippi, and Sandro Botticelli.
Hey - hey, you! Yes, you! The one reading this review right now. Isn’t it weird to meet like this? My voice - or maybe your voice, or what you think my voice sounds like - is in your head right now. Right. Now. Inside your head. The most personal space there is. And even though I wrote this before you’re reading this now - maybe you’re reading this the same day, maybe a few days later, months, whatever - it’s like we’re talking across time, right here, right now. Scroll down to the next paragraph.
The Multiversity: Mastermen #1 is a fine Elseworlds one-shot. I’m sure a lot of you have read Mark Millar’s exceptional Superman: Red Son where Millar writes about what would have happened if Kal-El’s pod had landed in Soviet Russia instead of Kansas. Mastermen #1 is basically that but for the Nazis.
Grant Morrison’s already bloated-seeming Multiversity series gets even bigger with The Multiversity Guidebook, surpassing the lofty price-point of $4.99 per regular issue to $7.99! Well… this better be the best Multiversity issues yet, grumblegrumble… and it’s not! Damn you, Morrison!!
Alex, Gertrude, Karolina, Chase, Molly and Nico are The Runaways, hiding out from their newly revealed supervillain parents aka The Pride. Are murderous supervillain parents with seemingly unlimited resources the biggest threat to these teenagers? No, it’s a cute boy!! Ohmigod Topher is like so hawt, sploosh! As the girls’ bickering over the new kid on the block threatens to break up the group, a pair of Z-list heroes called Cloak and Dagger are hired by The Pride to track down the Runaways.
Jason Aaron hands over his popular Wolverine and the X-Men series to his Southern Bastards co-creator, Jason Latour – who proceeds to demolish the title’s legacy in a single volume!
Kieron Gillen’s Darth Vader #3 should be renamed Anything!: The Comic! with the subtitle: Bad Ideas, Part 3! Gillen’s Darth Vader series is taking place alongside Jason Aaron’s main Star Wars story set between A New Hope and Empire. Vader’s just discovered Luke has the Force and the series is supposedly Vader setting out to discover the boy’s identity. The iconic title crawl to this third issue even reminds us of this plotline.
Supreme: Blue Rose is the strangest superhero comic I’ve ever read.
Oh, Jonathan Hickman, New Avengers was supposed to be your good Avengers comic! So what happened? One word: Infinity. Boooooo!
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, aka Caligula (Latin for “little soldier’s boot”, a childhood nickname), if he’s known by anyone today, it’s for being the maddest emperor of Ancient Rome - and there were a few mental bastards! The impression stems from incidents like trying to make his horse head of the Senate and thinking he was a god who could talk to the sea.
Captain Marvel gets a new number one volume. Why? Because she’s now in spaaaaaaaace!
The “bloody” Benders were a small German immigrant family who settled in late 19th century Kansas, opened a grocery store/inn and began murdering rich lodgers and stashing the bodies across the prairie and in a ditch beneath the house.
X-Men comics fans like to talk about how underserved Cyclops is in the movies. He’s basically written as the bland good guy foil to Wolverine’s bad boy rebel in their rubbish love triangle with Jean. But in the comics? He’s a badass! And I’ll give them that, he is a much more interesting character in the comics. So ok, a solo title might be fun.
