Fantastic Universes

2000 A.D . Encyclopedia Written by Scott Montgomery, Foreword by Matt Smith   Review by Tony Farina, with special thanks to Net Galley and Rebellion Publishing for the ARC.   So, the world's greatest comic magazine has decided to finally, give us a one-stop-shop for all the goods. Sure, the internet exists, of course, one could, if they wanted, find all the information presented in this epic, 336-page tome, around the web. That's still an option for all of y'all who think that encyclopedias are dead. For those of us who still have pocket dictionaries sitting on our desks and those who spent the extra money on a big tablet to make sure our digital comics were the same size and shape as a regular comic (OK, OK, Gen Xers, though I'm talking to you I also know I'm describing myself up there), this book is a dream come true.     Reminiscent of the 1980s classic Who's Who in the DC Universe , this book acts as both a reference tool and insightful commentary on each ch...

  "Mister Miracle: The Great Escape" Writer: Varian Johnson Artist: Daniel Isles Letterer: AndWorld Design Review by: Tony Farina DC Comics decided several years back to reintroduce a multitude of characters via YA re-imaginings. They started with the heavy hitters of course; Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman featured early on and those books were all bangers. Beast Boy and Raven also got three amazing release, which tied into each other, to cash in on their appearance on the show Titans. While I, personally, didn't love those as much, they were still solid. We hard-core fans kept hoping that eventually, DC would dig deep into the bench and start introducing the new YA fan base to some of our favorite characters. With this newest entry, our wishes have been granted.  Varian Johnson, Coretta Scott King, and award-winning writer and Afro-futurist artist, Daniel Isles, have pulled a fan favorite, Jack Kirby creation, Scott Free off the back bench and thrust him into the lime...

   By Fay Clark NEW YEAR WRAP UP TIME. I love starting the year off with a great list of books. These challenges helped me pick some amazing reads and I can not wait to tell you about them. If you ever want to keep up live feed style, you can catch it all on our Instagram  @FanUniverses . Challenge 1 - Read the newest book you purchased - The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer.  This was a totally random pick for me. I got this book because I thought the cover was beautiful and the premise sounded super interesting. Space groundhog day but with an epic sci-fi twist, oh and gay. I had no idea what I was in for, and yet this is probably one of the best books I've read in a while. I loved every second of this .  ⭐ ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5. Challenge 2 - Read a book you wanted to finish by the end of 2021, but didn't get the chance - Spiderman; Miles Morales, Wings of Fury by Brittney Morris.  Well, this one was a great choice. I love Mile Morales and I'm so glad people are f...

Writer Tom King and artist Gabriel Hernandez Walta created a strange premise for the old-school Avenger Vision. They gave him a family. On paper, Vision with family hijinks sounds ridiculous and cheesy, but instead, it turned out to be a haunting, character-defining master class on comic storytelling. Let's break down 2015's Vision series. "The Villainy You Teach Me" Writer: Tom King Artist: Gabriel Hernandez Walta Colorist: Jordie Bellaire Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles Review by Eric Lee Tensions are getting amped up for Vision and his family. Particularly, Virginia is in a lot of hot water. Her intervention in the previous chapter resulted in an innocent child being killed and a father in a coma. The story's title is borrowed from Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice". It is famously used when the story's main antagonist Shylock was put on trial and he had a sympathetic speech about how his Jewish nature became targeted by everybody, l...

   By Fay Clark I don't know about you, but second chances have served me very well. I did amazingly in my January reading. What a great start to the year. Now we get to move onto the second month, all about Looruve. Although this is an obvious choice I thought it would be very fun to theme around, and if you're like me... you don't read a lot of romance. Push the boat out Read a romance, there are plenty of fish in the sea to choose from! Challenge 1 - Read a Contemporary book. Challenge 2 - Read a Romance. Challenge 3 - Read a book that had Red/Pink on the cover. Challenge 4 - Read a book with a beautiful cover. Challenge 5 - Book of the Month this Feb has been chosen by our resident Teach Tony! Thank you for the lovely recommendation that actually works for most of the Challenges! Read "The Rosie Project" by Graeam Simsion. Really romantic dint you think. Why don't you got he extra mile and that yourself this month. Be in love with yourself first. That'...