Like iTunes and music, digital comics are a new way of interacting with the media and living with it.

I don’t buy music from Target, or Wal-Mart anymore, I get it from iTunes. Why? because it’s so easy.

I used to go to my local comic shop and get the weekly comics now I get them from a mail service. Why? it’s easier, and cheaper.

Now with digital comics it’s going to be even easier to get my books and cheaper. But there is problem, none of the books I read are digital. The big Two have not signed on with this idea yet. I’m not surprised however. Marvel is going a few steps closer with their online service and motion comics. DC is doing motion comics and they have some webcomics. Both have not really embraced the eventual destination of digital comics.

The upcoming Longbox app is going in the right direction. They are on the desktop and soon after will be on mobile devices. They working off of a iTunes like model, DRMs built in community, and so forth. Once I get my hands on the app I’ll give a full report.

Before I do that I wanted to voice my opinoin on what a digital comic service needs to be in order to succeed.

1) It needs to work cross platform and across all my devices.
this is key as I want to be able to read my comics at home on a big screen and on my iPhone.

2) Keep the prices low
I need to have a good reason to give up paper and the price is big. I had to cut my mail order in 1/2 this month and so going down to $.99 a book would keep me reading all books I fallow.

3) Be up to date with current issues
I don’t like to be behind the times, a week at most. Not 3 months like some of the titles on the Marvel digital comic service.

4) Marvel and DC need to support it.
No brainer here, most of my current books are from them. They get on board, it’s by by to paper comics.

I’d be ready to switch to digital right now if the above points would be reasonably met. Right now I’ll be looking at cutting back my paper dependency and looking to the future of digital comics with much anticipation.

Dark Hawk

The character Darkhawk as always been a fav of mine for a long time. But only because of the costume. It wasn’t till the storyline

league of losers in marvel team up that i saw chris powel as an interesting character. Then in loners another side of the character. He

has a an anger problem and is trying to change. Then in nova we find him working for pegasus trying to turn his life around. But as we find in this story that’s not going to be so easy. I liked the story very much and the art was good but chris’ expressions were kinda strange sime times. I also enjoyed the extra 1st issue of the original Darkhawk comic. That was a treat as I had never read it.

Writer: Peter David

X-Factor Penciler-Larry Stroman  Inker- Jon Sibal  Colorist- Jeremy Cox

She-Hulk Penciler- Vincenzo Cucca  Inker- Vincenzo Acunza Colorist- Barbara Ciardo

I was confused by the title of the crossover because on the cover its called “He Loves You” but on the inside of X-Factor its called the “Darwin Awards”. Fortunately the plots a very straightforward super hero meet up. But it did make me wonder why Marvel even bothered to put this one out. Mainly I think it was just so Peter David could crossover his two books and still be a part of Secret Invasion.

The storyline is just ok. Its a solid Peter David story but it wont blow you away. X-Factor is hired to find Darwin by his father who wants to get reacquainted with him. She-Hulk and her Skrull bounty hunting partner Jazinda are hunting down a Skrull “Talisman” that is connected to Darwin. In standard super hero fashion She-Hulk and X-Factor fight, after much property damage they reach an understanding and then team up to defeat the foe. Hopefully this will tie in to the bigger picture for the Secret Invasion event.

The art was very hit or miss. Most of the missing done by the X-Factor team. I usually enjoy Larry Stromans art but for these books it just felt rushed and a little sloppy at times. The She-Hulk team did a beautiful job. The art has a real clean animated look. My one little complaint is that they kind of took the Hulk out of She-Hulk. They made her look like a very tall green super model. Its a very little complaint cause I really liked the art.

Overall I cant recommend this crossover to anyone unless your a Peter David fan or need to have every Secret Invasion tie in. If your either one you will probably get these books anyway.

2 out of 5. Would have been 3 if the art were better in X-Factor.

Ok I know everyone is focusing on the big events right now but there is something brewing over in ff land that more should be paying attention to. The last few issues have been very solid not only in story but in art as well. Starting with the second earth story and the rampaging robot cap. In all of this super cool scifi stuff. We get some great bg on reed and sues start and how he really feels about her. Then we see johnny getting in with a bad girl. Ben is looking at starting something new and sue is reaching out to the public. Miller has been so great with these last few stories not only with the big stuff but also with the small stuff we see the four as people not just superheroes. But that was just the beginning. In the last two issues things have been picking up speed big time. Doom shows up demanding reed talk to him we fond that he has been defeated by this mysterious group of supers. They are awesome. They take down Grimm. Next johnny breaks up with his super villain Girlfriend and then we find out that she has been roving banks to fund the secret base of the new defenders. We also find that the Richards girl is getting super intelligent. I think her new nanny is the future her. Last we see the leader is the hulk. Johnny ex show up with daddy to capture him they fight and he ends up next to doom. Then we find that they have subdued Galactus. This is my favorite storyline running in marvel at this moment. It really is cool to see new faces in this story and the revile at the end of the second part was perfect. Can’t wait to see where this story goes.