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AICN COMICS! @$$Holes At Christmastime!!
Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
See what happens? I’m so late I get to run two columns in one day. Dig in!!
Cormorant here, you four-color connoisseurs, and we've @$$holes have crowned this latest review column with a delightful list of holiday gift suggestions from the comic book world. Not only is there something for every deviant taste out there, but Vroom Socko has taken it upon himself to provide ordering links for damn near all of 'em! Now you have no excuse not to investigate! Comic for Christmas, baby!
ULTIMATES #12
Written by Mark Miller
Illustrated by Bryan Hitch
&
SUPREME POWER #5
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Illustrated by Gary Frank
Reviewed by The Comedian
“You think this letter on my head stands for France?” – Captain America, ULTIMATES #12
“No, it stands for asshole.”
I can’t take credit for that particular rejoinder - that goes to Vroom Socko. But that sentiment pretty much sums up everything that’s horribly wrong about Ultimates #12. It’s not a total waste of time. The action is good but the characterizations are appalling. “No shit,” you say. “Get it through your thick skull that these aren’t The Avengers,” you say. Done and done. But it seems to me like The Avenjerks are actually devolving into even bigger douchebags than they were in the first storyline where it took them five issues to fight the Hulk and sell a bunch of crummy DVDs. Since most of you have probably read this issue already I’ll skip the obligatory plot summary. Not that you even really need it since nothing’s really happened in this book for the past six months. Which makes the recap pretty easy.
The Avenjerks have FINALLY begun the battle with the Ultimate Skrulls that they’ve been preparing for since almost a year ago. Thor opens up shop on a fleet of alien ships. Iron Man saves Phoenix, Arizona. And Captain America does a dead-on impression of the jackbooted thug Millar parodied him to be way back in The Authority 3 and 1/2 years ago. The fight between him and Herr Klieser is a pretty dull exercise in shitty exposition that a 7th grader could write. But that’s not really what bugged me.
What bugs me is that this is what Mark Millar thinks an “American” is, a jingoistic creep who kicks weaklings in the face and chops people in half with his shield. Sure, Klieser was the bad guy and in the earlier incident at the end of the Hulk storyline Banner had just killed hundreds of people. And NO, this isn’t the “real” Captain America we’re talking about anyway. My problem with this characterization is not simply that it’s lazy, cynical and sadistic, or even that it’s boring. My problem is that this guy, this “Super Soldier” who has all this clout and experience would surely have to be little smarter and more complex than they’re portraying him. He’s just a brutish jerkwad. And if he’s the “Super Soldier” it sort of makes sense in the context that Millar goes to great pains to make all the other military characters total creeps too. So basically, since Cap is the perfect soldier that also makes him the biggest douchebag. He ruins a great human scene with Iron Man with this same bullshit. Believe you me, I’m one of the biggest left-leaning, liberal minded people you’ll ever meet and this shock value, cynical, negative portrayal of the American military SICKENS ME. This isn’t Deconstruction of Superheroes, The Modern Age or The American War Machine. This isn’t even a big budget Jerry Bruckheimer popcorn fest anymore. It’s garbage, garbage that takes three fucking months at a time to come out.
Two years and two storylines later I was right. This book would have been a lot better as an Authority spin off called “The Americans”.
Of course, luckily for most of us there is a series being put out by Marvel that is an intelligent and entertaining deconstruction of classic heroes. Supreme Power uses the Nu Marvel pacing to its advantage since each issue actually has a point to it. Each issue does in fact feel like an episode of a made-for-HBO series. Sure it’s five issues in and the Squadron Supreme still hasn’t formed yet. At least they didn’t spend the first four issues sitting around discussing who’d play them in a movie. Straczynski is actually weaving a story here. All the characters in this book are cleverly deconstructed versions of their DC counterparts minus any deconstructionist cynicism. Sure they’ve done a lot of “Big Bad Government” stuff with Hyperion, but the character himself has gone from being creepy to being a big gullible, likable schlep that you feel sorry for. Nighthawk is one of the most-clever twists on the source material done in this kind of piece in a long time. In the real world, a rich white kid who watched his parents get blown away would probably just spend the rest of his life on a therapist couch or boozing it up with the Hilton Sisters. Making the tragedy a hate crime, the blindest and stupidest of misanthropic expressions, gives it a little more weight and levity at the same time, at least for me as a Black reader. I also like how they’ve set up the other aspect of the Batman allegory; the fact that Nighthawk isn’t just the only non-powered one and the only one that’s a hero by choice. But more importantly he’s also, as of now, the only one who doesn’t have to answer to anyone. I can’t wait to see the riff they do on The World’s Finest a few issues from now. This issue in particular wasn’t all that thrilling. I guess the showbiz riff is now an obligatory part of any deconstruction piece. The Blur and Spectrum are cool but I really wanted to see more stuff with Nighthawk or Hyperion. I’m more interested to see what’s going to happen once all these characters meet up than I could ever be about how many aliens Ultimate Hulk will rape and/or eat three months from now.
HALO AND SPROCKET: WELCOME TO HUMANITY (TPB)
Writer/Artist: Kerry Callen
Publisher: Amaze Ink
Reviewed by Cormorant
Hey, lookee here – I got a review quote listed on the back of the HALO AND SPROCKET trade paperback! Now how'd that go again? (cue harp music and screen blur)
"…a surreal blend of wonky fantasy with heartfelt reality…"
"…whimsy with a touch of subversiveness."
--AintItCoolNews.com
Alright, so I'm not mentioned by name, but I'm more than happy to let the recognizable AICN website take top billing. I didn't get into the no-pay online reviewing biz for fame and fortune (stop that laughing, you bastards!) – I did it because I love the hell out of the comic medium and wanted to find a direction for my enthusiasm, to try to direct folks to stand-out material they might otherwise miss. Well I've been fortunate enough to have a few books and house ads peppered with my quotes, but just for the record, the HALO AND SPROCKET quote is the one I'm happiest about. The reason? I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the disparity between HALO AND SPROCKET's relative obscurity (I wonder how many retailers didn't even order it?) and it's amazingly high level of quality (think CALVIN & HOBBES).
Did I just dare to invoke CALVIN & HOBBES? The patron comic strip of the modern age? You bet'cher ass I did. Now just imagine that initial year or two of CALVIN & HOBBES' run, when it was only in a few papers and relatively obscure to most of America…wouldn't you have loved to have championed it first? To have been among those lucky readers to've seen it when it was breaking out in all its brilliance? That's a little how I feel for landing a quote on the HALO AND SPROCKET trade. If this all sounds like an absurd level of hyperbole, let me note for the record that I don't think writer/artist Kerry Callen can draw quite as well as CALVIN & HOBBES' Bill Watterson, but the writing level is already there, and the clean-line art is still plenty easy on the eyes. You should give it a look. All you need to know before reading the following vignette is that the book's about a cute young woman (Katie) living with an angel (Halo) and a robot (Sprocket). And it's funny.
Click here for a sample story.
Still love that one. It nails everything that's great about the series, from the keen observational humor to the recurring theme of logic versus emotion to *ahem* Katie's cuteness in her sleepwear. Pretty cool, huh? Why not try another one? Click here for a little four-pager that was part of Slave Labor Graphics "Free Comic Book Day" anthology.
Starting to catch on to the tone? Like CALVIN & HOBBES, this series is laugh-out-loud funny, and also like CALVIN & HOBBES, it shoots for a gentler tone of humor for the most part. It's actually a welcome break in a SOUTH PARK world. I happen to dig SOUTH PARK, but I also love Warner Brothers cartoons and old FAR SIDE strips and the DICK VAN DYKE SHOW (was Mary Tyler Moore hot then or what?). HALO AND SPROCKET comes from a similar tradition of mixing the innocent and the absurd, and does so with about the best comedic timing I've ever seen in comics.
Specifics: the HALO AND SPROCKET trade collects all four issues of the miniseries of the same name. Each issue usually had two or three vignettes, giving this collections a total of about a dozen of 'em. There's also several one-pagers, a series of guest-artist pin-ups, and even a few behind-the-scenes pages in the back - pretty sweet for a mere thirteen bucks! Among the ridiculous topics of the various shorts: Katie's giddy delight in overlapping two boxes of butter crackers so that the labels spell "butt crack"; Sprocket's observation that when Katie's got a sucker in her mouth, she's in effect just drinking candy-flavored saliva ("I don't want to know that!"); and Halo's conversation with a telemarketer ("May I ask your age, please?" "My age?! I AM A SUBSEQUENT CREATION MANIFESTED FORTH FROM THE LAST CELESTIAL EVENT POINT, ETERNAL AND UNMEASURED!").
Another favorite has the trio visiting Katie's friend and her young son who just lost his tooth. The kid tells Sprocket that he's hoping for a visit from the Tooth Fairy, and in typical robot fashion, Sprocket takes him at his word and goes on to ask the kid if he can get money for other body parts. "Like fingernail clippings? Will a fairy give you money for those? You should bite off some and put them under your pillow." Later, Sprocket reasons, "It is possible, of course, that it has to be something that comes from your head. Try putting some solidified mucus under your pillow, too." Still more sage advice: as Sprocket leaves, he warns the kid not to sleep with his hands under his pillow, calmly noting, "Having no hands for the rest of your life isn't worth a dollar…" Last panel: darkened room, hilariously terrified kid with eyes as big as saucers.
So that's the style of humor the book traffics in, but as with any kind of visual humor, you really need to see it in action to take in the sharp-as-a-Ginsu comic timing. I recommend bugging your local retailer to order you a copy – hey, it's his job to order stuff for you to buy, and the trade should readily be available. Alternatively, you could keep things simple and just nab it from Amazon.com. For my part, I see HALO AND SPROCKET as the kind of comic Bill Watterson might have produced had he transitioned to the format after retiring from comic strips. If memory serves, it was an idea he actually entertained – after all, the comic book offers so much more room for unfettered artistic _expression than the regimented comic strip – but apparently he decided to continue his recluse gig and just go make paintings for himself. Bummer, but I say more power to 'im - guy definitely earned his rest. Still, that's cold comfort to we CALVIN & HOBBES fans, and if you're looking for something to fill that empty hole left in your life when the strip pulled a Jimmy Hoffa, let me tell you - you could do a lot worse than HALO AND SPROCKET.
P.S. Even those mainstream whores at WIZARD magazine love HALO AND SPROCKET. Personally I hate those guys, but on those rare occasions where I find myself recommending the same titles (CATWOMAN, SLEEPER, etc.), you better believe the book is something special. HALO AND SPROCKET is something special.
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN # 50
Brian Michael Bendis: Writer
Mark Bagley: Artist
Marvel Comics: Publisher
Vroom Socko: Ultimate Reviewer
I remember when the Ultimate line was first introduced. The very concept gave me very cold chills, with visions of Heroes Reborn and Spider-Man: Chapter One flashing before my eyes. Not wanting to further soil my memories of Stan and Jack, Steve and John, and all the work they did, I initially refused to buy the line. Then one day, I was visiting one of the finer bookshops in the area, and I came across a used copy of the first Ultimate Spider-Man TPB.
I figured what the hell.
Long story short, Ultimate Spider-Man is one of the most consistently enjoyable books I get. Bendis and Bagley are an amazing team, and while their Peter Parker may not be the definitive version, it is the most approachable one. This Peter is just as real feeling, as nuanced as any person I know. I find myself rising with his highs and dropping with his lows. And man, does he have some lows. (You people should see the gleam Bendis gets in his eye when talking about the horrible things he’s going to do to Pete. Sadist.)
This anniversary issue has an extra fifteen pages in the book and an extra .75 cents on the price tag. Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing this become a permanent situation. Bendis is, after all, a wordy motherfucker, and the extra space would be welcomed. Here, at any rate, it works. The first third of the book features a break-in perpetrated by the lovely Black Cat, with the second third being one fun Spider vs. Cat fight, and the rest of the book focused on Pete and MJ. Is the pacing perfect? Well, the break-in sequence could have been shorter by a page or so. There’s also the matter of the issue's ending.
The last few pages feature a confrontation between Peter, MJ, and MJ’s father. This bit really needed to be set up better. The only time we’ve even heard about Daddy Watson was for one panel in issue #32 and half a page here. It’s a good scene, don’t get me wrong, but it just needed more buildup.
Actually, what really makes that scene work is the dichotomy between jackass Craig Watson and caring May Parker. I absolutely love Aunt May. (Not in that way you pervs.) She continues to be the brightest light of the supporting cast, and here you see that light is being reflected off hard polished steel. I would not want to fuck with this woman.
This issue also marks the return of the letter column. Now I know that everyone in comics and their mother has a message board, and that creator/fan interaction is at an all time high, but there’s just something refreshing about turning the page and seeing comments from fans in the book itself. It adds a touch of class, whimsy, and involvement to the book, and its presence is more than welcome.
Out of all the Ultimate books, Spider-Man is the best. Not because it feels like an honest love letter to Stan Lee and John Romita. Not because the dialogue feels so natural. Not because the art is so damn good. Not because it has a letter column again. All those factors are there, but the real kicker is probably the hardest bit to pull off. The book just seems real. I’m not talking about it feeling like it’s in the real world, that’s something that never works. No, what Bendis does here is comparable to what Peter Jackson did with Lord of the Rings; he’s taken what is essentially a fantasy world and made it believable. It doesn’t necessarily have to be our world, as long as it feels like a real world.
That’s why this book is so damn good. That’s why the taste of Heroes Reborn flavored bile is now less than a memory, and Chapter One is all but forgotten. Not every book deserves to see fifty issues, but Bendis willing, Ultimate Spider-Man will someday hit one hundred and fifty. And I’m going to be there for every single issue.
AUTOBIOGRAPHIX (TPB)
Writers & Artists: Various, including big names like Frank Miller, Will Eisner, Sergio Aragones, etc.
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Reviewed by Cormorant
Autobiographical comics. They're all angsty, right? Every one of 'em about schmucks who can't get laid, who hate their job or their ex, and who generally have nothing even remotely upbeat to offer we the readers. Well, far be it from me to overly generalize, but that's the truth.
And so it was with some hesitation that I approached Dark Horse's AUTOBIOGRAPHIX, a collection of autobiographical shorts from some of the industry's best and brightest: Will Eisner, Stan Sakai, Eddie Campbell, Frank Miller, Paul Chadwick…guys like that. Big guys. The names were what wrangled me in, though I almost missed 'em as a result of the somber Will Eisner cover that failed to play 'em up. Eisner's a great artist, legendary even, and the cover's printed on a beautiful, crisp stock of paper, but ugh - the morose colors and drab image just speak to the autobiographical clichés I expected.
But the book surprised me. This was no downer. Hell, some of these stories were actually funny and lighthearted. Matt Wagner's six-pager, for instance, is an exuberant lesson in how to cook chicken parmigiana – kick ass! Wagner, he of GRENDEL and MAGE fame, literally walks you through all the ingredients and steps, pining over the smell of garlic along the way, chastising the reader for a presumed fear of getting messy during the cooking, and generally doing a damn fine job of conveying his love of cooking. I thought his art was a little spartan in the piece, but we won't take off more than a few points for that…
So these are all short stories – two pages, four pages, eight pages…really, nothing longer than that. They're quick, punchy, and to the point. Dark Horse senior editor Diana Schutz has one of the shorter ones in her capture-a-moment reminiscence of visiting a jazz club. It's only three pages, but Arnold Pander's inky, textured art captures the atmosphere instantly, and that third page of the bandleader cracking a beaming smile as his group hits its groove…ah, there's the power of comics in an instant!
Honestly folks – this is some fun stuff. For instance, even the most ardent post-DK2 Frank Miller disappointees will have a hard time dismissing his hilarious opening yarn, a tongue-in-cheek remembrance of his cameo in the Daredevil movie as a guy who gets killed by a pen to the head. Miller writes of his arrival on the set: "The first thing I did was kick Ben Affleck's ass." And sure enough, there he is doing just that (a boot to Affleck's face, technically), courtesy of his SIN CITY style! Miller's poking fun at his own hyperbolic approach as much as anything else with the piece, but most of the others in the collection stick to the facts. Sergio Aragones (GROO) gives a witty accounting of the day he met Richard Nixon, Linda Medley (CASTLE WAITING) reflects on kids and playgrounds as she and a friend (lover?) hit the playground as adults, and two talented Brazilian comic creators I've never heard of write about an unnerving confrontation with a street gang in Paris. What else? Bill Morrison (one of the bigwigs with the SIMPSONS comics) earns some serious laughs with his self-deprecating tale of youthful obsession with the Batman TV show in the 60's. Dino-illustrator William Stout relives the tension of a day when, drawing portraits at Disney Land in the late 60's, he had to draw a kid with only one eye. And Paul Chadwick…my own personal choice for the all-time best short story writer in comics…he turns in the strongest piece in the book, a tale of his art student days and the strange happenings of the art community apartments where he stayed.
But they're all good. Damn good, and totally accessible. In fact, AUTOBIOGRAPHIX is almost a primer in autobiographical comic for people who think they'd hate the genre. I urge you to give it a try if you're one of those people. There are only two or three artsy-fartsy stories, and they're the weakest of the bunch ('cept for Jason Lutes' piece, which is terrific), and you can easily ignore 'em and enjoy the many other entries. There really is something to the intimate, personal nature of autobiography when it's done right, and I salute Dark Horse for bucking the "poor me" angst trend with a variety of stories of all types. Readers brave enough to crack the gloomy cover will be pleasantly surprised.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #21
Writer: Robert Morales
Artist: Chris Bachelo
Publisher: MARVEL
Reviewer: Ambush Bug with a bit of The Comedian thrown in for good measure.
AMBUSH BUG: I could go on and do another review complaining about the overuse of decompressed storytelling and the annoying “paced for trades” policy that inundate each and every Marvel title these days…
THE COMEDIAN: But you’re not going to do that, are you, Bug?
BUG: No.
COMEDIAN: Well, you just did.
BUG: Did what?
COMEDIAN: You just complained about the slow paced storytelling policy that all of Marvel’s books seem to have.
BUG: Right. CAPTAIN AMERICA #21 is guilty of this too. Once again, we, the people, are treated to an intro issue that could have been told in three pages. There are at least four pages in this issue alone that sport one single panel and none of the images are splash page worthy. They are, in fact, filler in order for this snail-paced issue to have the proper 22-pages to fill out a normal comic book.
COMEDIAN: You’re still doing it.
BUG: Once again, Marvel has shat forth another issue that promises a big payoff two or three issues down the line, but until then the title character (if he or she actually appears in the intro issue) mopes around and waits for the editors and the author to dole out said action, however lackluster or wrong for the character that action may be. Yes, folks, I could ramble on and on about how crappified this whole Nu Marvel situation is, but I am getting pretty sick of repeating myself…
COMEDIAN: As am I.
BUG: …so let’s just say that CAPTAIN AMERICA #21 is exactly what I have come to expect these days from Marvel, the non-comic book comic book company.
THE COMEDIAN: WRONG!!!! I liked the issue.
BUG: Anything else? This is supposed to be a @$$hole Two-In-One review.
COMEDIAN: Keep talkin’, Bug. I’ll chime in soon enough.
BUG: Okay. In this issue, Captain America gets involved in a Guantanamo Bay-type situation taking place in…Guantanamo Bay. Captain America, in costume, stops some crooks, meets a chick who looks to be a quarter of his age, has a car chase/gunfight out of costume, and then finds himself hip deep in Gitmo bitness involving detainees who have been held because of their possible involvement in terrorist activities. There was a lot of action in this book, I’ll give it that. But my problem lies in the entire concept of pitting the good Captain against such “ripped from the headlines”-type challenges.
COMEDIAN: I genuinely found the story they're setting up to be pretty interesting. It seems like Morales isn't trying to preach about America so much as use the real world context as a backdrop in the service of the story.
BUG: Well, at this point, I wish to pose a question then - Whatever happened to the metaphor in comics? Down to his core, Captain America is a living, breathing symbol of America. Right now, some of the big brains at Marvel think it’s a good idea to have Cap take on Saddam or Osama, and tackle tough issues from today’s headlines head on. Back in the eighties, he did exactly what he is doing now, yet the stories had one thing: metaphor. Take, for example, Mother Night and the Sisters of Sin. These old-school freak jobs took on Cap numerous times. They were agents of the Red Skull. They had campy powers. They wore nuns habits. All and all, pretty goofy, right?
COMEDIAN: Right.
BUG: Wrong. Mark Gruenwald understood Cap. He took this iconic ideal of what America was and pitted symbolic foes against him. The Sisters of Sin were not just a bunch of evil chicks. They represented the all of the Jim and Tammy Fayes and all of the PTL scandals of that time. Those stories were a comment on the state of America. Cap's stories were able to deal with problems that America was facing without literally spoon-feeding it to the audience by having Cap take on those problems directly.
COMEDIAN: Nope, you’re wrong, Bug. I STILL think Cap can work in a real world context. As long as he stays true to his character, a bright shining example of everything America could/should be about AND a confident one too. Rieber and Austen wasted so much time turning Cap into a bewildered, indecisive, hand rung ninny. Especially during Austen's bizarro conspiracy-laden, shitty 4th season X-Files run on the book. I say you can have Captain America fighting as many eco-terrorists, sex slave traders, drug smugglers and white collar criminals as you want as long as he's still Cap. I HOPE that's what Morales is going for here.
BUG: I hope so too, but I doubt it. Ultimately, I think it boils down to two things. Number One: The writers of CAPTAIN AMERICA and the editors behind them have no imagination anymore so they turn to today’s headlines and start copying and pasting Cap in there somewhere, which leads me to believe that (Number Two) Marvel thinks its readers are so damn stupid that even the thinnest veil of metaphor has to be thrown out faster than a pitch from Rob Liefeld. Does Marvel think that its readers are so dumb that they have to have Cap take on literal representations of poverty, terrorism, racism, and any other -ism that plagues America? It seems so. Want an example of a metaphor that worked recently?
COMEDIAN: No.
BUG: Too bad. Check out the last issue of the “Kang War Saga” in THE AVENGERS by Kurt Busiek. I reviewed it right here.
COMEDIAN: Shameless plug, Bug.
BUG: This issue came out after the events of 9-11. Instead of throwing the Avengers at Ground Zero, Busiek and co. had them suffer major losses in the end of their year long war with the time villain, Kang. This issue dealt with loss. It dealt with fallen heroes. It dealt with a menace that wasn’t easy to defeat and the ramifications that occurred in the aftermath. It was clearly a book about 9-11, but it didn’t have to say it. The writer respected the readers enough to let them form their own associations between a tragic fictional story and tragic real life events. The writers and editors at Marvel don’t seem to have that type of respect for the reader when it comes to their take on CAPTAIN AMERICA.
COMEDIAN: Well, I still liked it. I’ll be giving it a chance. But what’d you think of the art?
BUG: You call that art? What the hell happened to Chris Bachalo? I remember looking at his art on SHADE THE CHANGING MAN and marveling at the beauty of it all. Bachalo still does great panels, but I swear the man couldn’t tie one panel to the next if his life depended on it. Every time I look at one of the guy’s action scenes, I am thinking that there is a panel in between that slipped off the page and fell behind the desk. Pretty pictures are not enough. The have to tie together in some way and make some sort of sense. Bachalo’s art fails to do this.
COMEDIAN: I wasn't floored by Bachalo's art and I hope he's not going to give Cap that shitty Batman nose for the rest of the run. But it felt like New York to me and that's saying a lot.
BUG: Sure, some of the exteriors were well done, but all in all, I didn’t like Bachalo’s scattershot, cartoony, and non-sequential scribbles.
COMEDIAN: So to sum up. I liked it.
BUG: And I didn’t.
CHEAP SHOTS!
Superman/Batman #4: This is the kind of book that grown up fans like us wouldn't like but would be THE PERFECT book to give to some 10 year old. The art, the iconography - a perfect means to get some unsuspecting 5th grader hooked on comics. Sure, the storyline is asinine. The President Luthor storyline has been asinine from the get-go. That WTF moment where he kissed Amanda Waller was hilarious and the Kryptonite Steroid bit looks pretty retarded too. Still, a kid would really dig this book. – The Comedian
HULK #64: Yet another crap issue with beautiful art. Hack-job writer Bruce Jones has outdone himself with this one. This issue sports one of the single most embarrassingly stupid scenes I have read in a long time. Doc Samson (misspelled as SAMSOM in the intro page for the fourth issue in a row!!!!!!! That Axel Alonso is ON THE FRIKKIN' EDITORIAL BALL!) creates a long range rifle out of a rifle barrel and a handgun by tying the barrel to the end of the handgun barrel. In order to accomplish this, he tells the Abomination's wife to take off her shirt to tie the barrels together. So she's standing there topless while Samson whittles the gun together. The kicker is that Samson was wearing his lightning bolt shirt the entire time and could've used that instead of degrading this poor woman. This comes after last issues strip tease by the secret agent chick in order to distract the Hulk. Tell me again why chicks don't dig comics? - Ambush Bug
PLASTIC MAN #1: Speaking as a fan of the Jack Cole Plastic Man, I thought the story was okay and Kyle Baker is a fun artist, BUT if all the characters look like cartoons doesn't it cheapen Plas? Nobody (other than Kelly) really has done any justice to this character since Cole. I always hate it when they waste him as Jim Carrey w/Superpowers because to me Plas works better as a serious hero who just happens to have goofy powers. I also like Cole's Plas because he's essentially got a double secret identity since the cops are hunting Eel O'Brien. So they don't know that Plas is Eel and the crooks don't know that Eel is Plas. Baker's bringing that back too I see. I'll give this book a try but I'm not floored by it. – The Comedian
STAR WARS: EMPIRE #13: I guess it had to happen – a told-from-the-Empire's-point-of-view story that shows some honorable officers amongst the Imperials and some borderline terrorist behavior from the Rebels. Shades of gray on both sides, right? Well the story's competent, the art actually a bit above average, but to interject some purely subjective criticism: STAR WARS should never be about moral relativism, goddamit!!! The rebels are good! They blow up the bad guy Imperials who are bad! Any attempt to introduce shades of gray to a franchise that was once an unabashed update of old cliffhanger serials simply reveals how far off track Lucas has taken things. -Cormorant
THE CREW #7: Damn, I'm sad to see this one go. Priest's team of urban crimefighters is gone before it could even get started. Priest cleverly combined his truly original Casper Cole (The White Tiger and former Black Panther) character, with Rhodey from Iron Man, and a wily street spy named Junta, and did the impossible by making the black Captain America from that crap mini-series THE TRUTH into an interesting character. Sure it took seven issues to get the team together, but Priest made every issue count by adding fascinating character details and all-out action to every page. This issue brought a lot of closure for the characters, but I would've loved to see where Priest would've taken this group had he been given the chance. – Ambush Bug
FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE #6: The original run that most of us grew up on had more action. This series has been more about the jokes than the action and since the jokes are hit or miss most of the time that's not necessarily a good thing. Giffen and DeMatteis work better when they're not trying to be funny. That's when they actually are. The little bits, the character moments when the real humanity shows, like Beetle on the phone with Babs last issue and his argument with Booster this issue - that's the good stuff. But when they're trying too hard to be funny (the J-lo robot, all the stuff with G’Nort) they lose big time and it comes off too sitcomy. That said I really loved seeing J'onn, Batman and Wally in this issue being written the way they used to be. The bit with Wally and Bea was hilarious and all the bits with J'onn made me wish they'd have used him more in this series since he was the heart and sole of the original run whether he'd ever admit to it or not. If they're going to bring Guy back for the sequel I don't see why Kelly can't give them J'onn too. When Fire hugged him it made me miss the old series even more. What else does he have to do in JLA other than build stupid dream machines that cock-block Batman? DC sucks for not letting them be The Superfriends. That would have made this series so much funnier. – The Comedian
THE @$$HOLE CHRISTM@$$ LIST
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“Oh sweet! The ‘Life-Sized Blow-up Antonio Banderas Love Doll!’ What a cool Christmas present!”
--Eric Cartman, SOUTH PARK
Happy Holidaze, everybody! Vroom Socko here. Just as we did last year, we @$$holes have managed to come up with several gift ideas for the comics reader this holiday season. Excluding the Village Idiot, (who’s busy addressing all the @$$hole Christmas cards,) we’ve managed to cobble together quite a list. All of these books are ideal for any comics fan, and many are a good idea for non-comics readers too. After all, what better time than the holidaze to create a new reader of them there funnybooks?
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Cormorant
THE COLLECTED PALEO – Combining both my love of cool dinosaurs and hardboiled survival tales, THE COLLECTED PALEO delivers the goods like some bastard child of Mickey Spillane and "Walking With Dinosaurs." Probably my single favorite comics surprise of the year, and you can get more details in my full review of the trade here
PHOENIX: A TALE OF THE FUTURE – This is a weird 'un, but a great 'un. It's manga, it's sci-fi, it's epic, it was created in the late 60's, and it's the work of the creator of…Astro Boy! Strange? Yes, but also one of the most mind-blowing graphic novels I've read in the last decade – truly an experience. I called it "Disney meets 2001" in this review, to which I direct you for the "big picture."
TOTAL SELL-OUT – When our own Vroom Socko interviewed Brian Bendis a few months ago, Bendis called one of my reviews a "dickhead review," but I'm told my review of TOTAL SELL-OUT – in which I called the book ideal bathroom reading – actually went over quite well. Cool! I loved the book then, I still love it now, and I think it'd make a kick-ass Christmas present for all those smartass, hipster friends you've got who're a bitch to shop for. Truly laugh-out-loud hilarious and nicely-priced ta boot. Full review here.
WHITEOUT – This is the collection that introduced me to Greg Rucka's excellent writing, and y'know what? It's still my favorite work from him. Long story short, it's the tale of Carrie Stetko, U.S. Marshall, charged with solving a murder at an Antarctic military base. She's got two weeks before 90% of the base's personnel have to clear out for winter, and paranoia, violence, and some real nasty frostbite ensue. Steve Lieber's art is brilliant, unforgiving, and – just in time for winter - colder than a witch's tit. Lizzybeth did this keen write up last year, so check it out.
Lizzybeth
If, like me, you're snowed in this weekend, you're probably thinking about picking up some nice long reads for this winter. Here's some Mega-sized trades for you and your comic-loving loved ones:
Palomar: I've already raved about this trade collection here, so let me just sum up: save yourself ten years worth of collecting and pick up this 512 page collection of the complete Gilbert Hernandez "Heartbreak Soup". Ambitious, literary, and heartfelt, this is a volume to treasure.
Kabuki: Circle of Blood: The most bloody-minded of David Mack's independently-published Kabuki storylines, this trade should be required reading for DAREDEVIL fans unfamiliar with Mack's other work. Here we see the origins of female assassin/media figure Ukiko, whose mask covers the scarred word Kabuki carved into the flesh of her face, and how she came to be expelled from the Noh and to lose the little finger on her right hand (in one of the more shudder-inducing sequences of recent comics). The black-and-white art may seem less complex than his current multimedia-explosion of pages, but many of his images here have a power that he has yet to replicate in later work. 272 pages.
The Collected Box Office Poison: In my experience, the degree to which people love this series once they've come into contact with it is directly related to how much they tend to like people in general. Agree? Disagree? 608 pages of funny, endearingly characterized comics goodness.
A RIGHT TO BE HOSTILE - A BOONDOCKS TREASURY: More on the humorous side, but without requiring that you turn off your brain to enjoy fully, is this BOONDOCKS collection, an overview of four years of newspaper strips. The strip pushes every uncomfortable button in the American psyche (well okay, reading in tandem with HOTHEAD PAISAN would push every button) with its brutal confrontations of race politics in America. It's not without its missteps, but you have to admire the guy for trying to live up to trail-blazing comic strip predecessors like Berkeley Breathed while every other goddamn Sunday cartoonist appears to be in a coma. Best of all, it's really, consistently, laugh-out-loud funny. 255 pages.
Ambush Bug
Dear Santa:
Every year I ask for the same thing, but it never arrives. So this year, instead of asking for the same thing I do every year, I'm going to look at something already on the shelves. How about PLASTIC MAN ARCHIVES VOL. 1 through 5?
Ever since reading the first issue of the new PLASTIC MAN series, I've had an insatiable urge to read more about that pliable punster. Jack Cole's art is an inspiration, twisting Plas to the limits of cartoon wackiness. Today, many creators and readers forget about the comic in comic books. This gorgeous hardcover would remind them that not everything has to be grim and gritty or deconstructive to be entertaining. Each volume is fifty bucks, but they look to be worth every penny. So pretty please, I promise I'll be good this year. I know I wasn't an angel last year, but I blame Sleazy G for most of it. Give that guy a lump of coal and send me the works of Jack Cole instead.
And while you're at it, big guy, I'll give you a suggestion for your own special comic book treat. Read THE GOON: NUTHIN' BUT MISERY Trade Paperback. There is nothing like THE GOON on the book shelves today. It combines horror, adventure, and goof-ball comedy with ease. Eric Powell improves with every issue and this trade perfectly illustrates this guy's every evolving talent with the word as well as the pen and inks. This trade collects the four issue GOON miniseries and COLOR SPECIAL from Exploding Albatross Funny Books. If you like psychic seals, killer octopi, laughing dead men, drunken werewolves, and feisty guys named Frankie (and really, folks, who doesn't?) then this is the trade for you. It's pretty cheap at $15.95, so have at it.
Sincerely yours and patiently waiting for my Jodie Foster NELL with voice chip action figure,
Ambush Bug
Sleazy G
If you've got a friend who likes mainstream Marvel-style excitement, your best choice is probably Brian K. Vaughan's RUNAWAYS. This year at WizardWorld Chicago, it got recommendations from almost everybody on Marvel's panel. That's because it's one of the most interesting, well-written books on the stands this year. This tale of teenage kids on the run together after discovering their parents are a supervillain team is beautifully illustrated, fun, and has enough danger and characterization to keep even the newest comics readers interested. Sadly, Marvel's plan to publish the Tsunami books in trade collections is currently on hiatus, which could really damage this book's chances. I say get in the Hanukkah spirit--buy the eight issues published thus far and give them to somebody one issue a day. It's a fantastic book that needs (and deserves) all the support it can get, so help out a great title and give somebody something they'll really enjoy.
A lot of people seem to think it's a good idea to buy a comic adaptation of something somebody liked to try and get them interested in comics. They theory is that if they like the comic adaptation of PREDATOR II enough it'll lead them to buy more comic books. There are a lot of comics adaptations out there; adaptations of books (I AM LEGEND), movies (a bajillion STAR WARS books), TV shows (CSI)...heck, even operas (P. Craig Russell's RING OF THE NIEBELUNG). Thing is, I don't really think the theory has ever really held up. People who don't already understand comics tend to view the comics adaptation as being a pale imitation of the original source material. Knowing that, why not come at things from the other direction? If you have somebody on your gift list who really liked a movie that was an adaptation of a comic, or has expressed interested in an upcoming one, why not get 'em the source material? Your indie fans will love the work of R. Crumb or Daniel Clowes' GHOST WORLD graphic novel. Fans of blockbusters might enjoy an X-MEN collection. In anticipation of this spring's movie releases, there are also plenty o' ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN collections out there, not to mention tons of high-quality HELLBOY material. Rather than show them a watered-down adaptation of something they liked better, I say go with a comic that lets them see the movie was just a glimpse of a far richer, deeper world in the original source comics. That'll do a lot more to earn and keep new fans.
If you know anything at all about people in the goth/industrial/darkwave/whatever scene, you know that the stuff Neil Gaiman did in DC's SANDMAN series is virtually considered Holy Scripture. People who have never read any other comic books ever have tattoos of Death and wear t-shirts out to the bar with a portrait of Death on them and get Death painted in white on the back of their black leather jackets and like to dress like Death (even some of the guys) and... Well, you get the idea. There's an ugly underside to the scene, though, which is this: a lot of those people are also fascinated by the work of Brian Pulido from back when Chaos! Comics was still in business. They actually bought into the whole Lady Death/Purgatory/Other Chicks With Impossible Breasts fad. Why? Well, mostly the whole death/black latex/Hell thing. Lucky for you, these folks are easy to shop for: a buncha this crap *has* to be available for like 10 cents an issue by now. You'll feel like you woulda been better off spending the three bucks on a month-old issue of READER'S DIGEST, but they'll think you bought them something edgy and cool.
Superninja
Catwoman: Selina's Big Score. Whether you're a Catwoman fan or not, this story is for anyone that loves crime noir. Written and illustrated by Darwyn Cooke, this book is a little piece of perfection. If you haven't read it yet, ask for it. You won't be disappointed.
Squadron Supreme. See how the late and greatly missed Mark Gruenwald paved the way for Marvel's Supreme Power. It's a Marvel take on the JLA, with its own unique twist. Give it to your cynical friends who need a reality check as to how deconstruction should be done, or that old friend who is sick of Nu-Marvel.
Iron Wok Jan #1. This manga story about two Japanese protégée chefs battling to be the master of Chinese cuisine is for everyone! Don't let the wacky setup fool you. Give this to someone you want to see a whole lot more of. Because, they WILL become addicted to it. Manga crack, and you're the source.
Vroom Socko
If you, or someone you know, is a fan of the book Fables, then this book might be up your alley: The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales. No, it’s not a comic, but I don’t doubt that this is a book Bill Willingham has on his shelf. With over twenty fairy tales annotated and analyzed almost to death, this tome has enough info to enlighten several of the lesser known residents of Fabletown.
My favorite Bendis book, my absolute fave, is Fortune and Glory. I know Buzz recommended this one last year, but it’s worth repeating. It’s the funniest, craziest skewering of Hollywood, as well as an adventure of an outsider peeking behind the curtain. It’s just a massively fun book.
But if you’re only getting one gift this year, If you had to pick one comic to give somebody, make it Blankets. The book hasn’t even been out six months, and it’s already heading into a third printing. This is the single best comics experience of the year, and instantly became one of the top five comic books I’ve ever read. The praise for this book has been universal, and overwhelming. If I could, I’d buy a copy for everyone on my list. I’d buy a copy for everyone reading this. No comic library is complete without this book. Hell, no library PERIOD is complete without this book.
There you go, plenty of gift ideas for the coming season. Of course, if you’re planning on getting something for any of us, well we pretty much take the Sally approach: just send money.
Merry Christmas, you @$$holes.
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I hate first posters
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I need to get out and buy more comics. I suck.
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A$$Holes, you are one of the few reasons to come to this site. What do any of you think of NYX?
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Dec 11, 2003 8:16:27 AM CST
That line from Ultimate Cap was the best thing I've read in mont
by vikingkitty
In fact, it made me want to go out and buy three or four more of the issues, just to show my support for a comic book character that sounds like an actual human being, a proud AMERICAN human being at that. Sure, that kind of self-assurance and positive "can do" attitude is scary to liberals, but so what?
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Bitchbitchbitch..where's the Hulk?.. bitchbitchbitch..*Hulk appearance for the entire book doing "Hulk" things*.. *cue crickets*.. what a great waste of space.. Regardless, funny how the cliche "it's no wonder that women aren't into comics" arguement is touted, while doing the best "Comic Book Guy" imitation.. the irony was not lost, honestly.
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this run on hulk is boring as al hell, and I'm sorry, when you go 2 issues without Hulk being in it, it shouldn't be called Hulk
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I am far from a liberal and I find the anti-conservative, anti-American rhetoric in the Ultimates distasteful, but that line by Cap when fighting the Skrull was The Best Comic Book Line Ever. Miller probably meant it as a slam at Americans, but it was an incredibly cool line and if he meant it that way, it had the opposite effect he intended.
I do agree that the bit with the soldier shoving the kid away was stupid, blatantly and distastefully anti-military and anti-American. -
Thanks for another fun year of reviews and rants. May the best be yours this season. Oh and Sith42? That thwapping sound you keep hearing is me bitch-slapping your momma for putting such an ill-mannered and utterly pedantic boob into this world. I've tasted cheeses sharper than that ghetto excuse you call wit, fool.
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i'm pretty conservative these days but i'm really not offended by the Ultimates. I can see Miller's left leanings and how he just wants to rip into the military but i think he really does keep it to a minimum. Still one of my favorite comics despite the horrible schedule and the hit or miss issues.
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I know a lot of reviewers on this site tend to bash Marvel for their pacing and lack of traditional comic book storytelling, but fact of the matter they seem to be the ones that are putting out the most successful written books. Their book relies far more on storytelling than art, unlike most DC lately. (Except for Teen Titans, all around good book that surprised me.) Really I love entertainment and enjoy reading this site but at times I feel you reviewers are a little overbalanced on your reviews. Millar has revolutionized the Avengers hands down done it is a great book even if it comes out once a year. At least you recognized Ultimate spider-man. Oh and Bug Captain America had Fights introduced characters and emoting art, I thought it was great and your opinion maybe your own but I definitely feel your way off on this one.
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Sure the characterizations are pretty skewed but I love reading the Ultimates. It's just so over the top and ridiculous that it appeals to the same part of me that enjoys Verhoeven's Robocop. Like the Cap line in the latest issue, you have to laugh at it. It really was wonderfully outrageous. And Tony Stark puking in his helmet and all that? Jeez, that was fucking cool too. And not just because it was ridiculous and undermined the heroism of Tony Stark's character (though it's always fun to see stuff like that that you know will really upset hardcore geeks who need to get out more) but because it really provided me with perspective and an awareness of the "stakes." It helped give me a really true feeling of how fucking insane it would be to fly around in a suit of armor and stop a giant spaceship from hitting a city. But that's what's great about Millar and Hitch, they craft a book that makes you recognize the scale being in the Marvel universe again (or a version of it). Things feel threatening, and huge, and awe-inspiring again like when I was a kid reading this stuff. Well, for me at least, I know for some of y'all it's just poopy.
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And God bless DC for putting it out as a monthly. I mean, check out the first issue's total homage to Crumb's "stoned again" strip on page 19. Talk about an overt Acid reference if ever there was one.
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That was inspired! Thanks for taking the effort, and happy holidays to all the @$$holes!
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Thank you for helping me to see the error of my ways. From now on, I shall no longer 'masterbate' to my comic books. Instead, I'll jack off to your hilarious post because, more than men in tights, bad grammar, spelling and incoherence really get me off.
Clearly comic books are not for you, might I instead suggest something from the 4th grade vocabulary section? -
..."you're the worst character ever." ;) Seriously, though: don't give up because of one banning. Just ask Mortsleam and a couple of us TL@'ers--it's hardly a death sentence. A new name--even an obvious derivation on the old--is all it takes. It does suck to have all history of your existence on the site for years erased, but oh well...
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No, when I say you might want to check out a 4th grade vocabulary book, I mean you might want to check out a 4th grade vocabulary book. Apparently your reading comprehension skills are a bit off, too. Equally hot.
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Oh my GOD did that issue SUCK! It sucked SUCKED SUCKED!!!!! Art, writing, coloring, even the feel of the paper SUCKED! Is Marvel TRYING to kill this book?
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It was not a good comic, and not an amazing series, but do you realize that the reason Captain America is characterized like a 1930's American Male is because he's a 1930's American Male? He's only been in this century for a short time when #12 takes place. People never seem to get that.
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...apparently he's been in the present long enough to note that today, when Americans want to joke about a less-militaristic society, they go for the French.
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Literally a waste of paper. How many pages was it? The artist had an average of two panels per page. The art and storyline was textbook Kricfalusi and that style is soooooo old. Can't there be a single cartoon that doesn't try for Kricfalusi-syle? That's what this book is ... a cartoon ... and the reviewer nailed it when he said that the supporting characters shouldn't look as weird as Plastic Man himself. This book was unfunny and a complete waste of everything. I'm surprised it was greenlit.
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I always love to read what Vroom has to say. I enjoy the Ultimates, but it isn't Millar at his best or anything. Just a fun read. I foolishly thought it was a pro-Bush type portrayal intended to be positive, and I still enjoyed it. But Supreme Power? Now THAT is the bomb, as good as the original Gruenwald series, which I still have from WAAAY back when. Two questions: Much bashing of Johns' Avengers run recently, now storyline completed, only one more Johns issue: Which Avenger is he going to kill off on his way out? And did this conclusion raise or lower your opinion of Johns' run on the book? Discuss.
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...it's not that Cap is written like he stepped outta the 30's. The problem is that in ULTIMATES he's a fascistic, jackbooted asshole. Cap always fought because he had to, but looked for other options first. This Cap is a dumbass and a thug. It's pretty obvious, really. Not a single sentence he spoke in #12 is in keeping with Cap's character. I know, I know--"but this is the ULTIMATE universe, it's SUPPOSED to be different." Fine, but have you noticed that Iron Man, Wasp and Giant Man are all very close to their characterizations in the normal series? As is Black Widow? Hell, even Thor is more in character--you'd expect a millenia-old god to have learned a few things by now. Not Cap, though--he's just a big dumb prick who doesn't know how to do anything but punch people in the gut. Well, whoop-dee-shit. Everybody saying "that's the *real* Cap, and he represents *today's* America!" is completely missing what Millar is doing here. He's purposely painting the American people, government and military, including its heroes, as utter bastards, and not in a good way. The soldier pushing the little kid, Cap insulting an ally of our country, Cap yelling insults and then cleaving someone in two with his shield--just wrong. Not to mention the sheer retardosity of an alien so strong that being impaled on the nose of a jet that crashed into oil tanker, blowing him up, isn't enough to kill him. If THAT didn't do it, how the fuck was his body fragile enough to be cut in half by Cap's cutesy little frisbee? Not a fuckin' chance. Millar is writing at a far lower level than he's capable of. Why? Because he knows the readers of this title are so stupid that they'll just look at it and go "dude, that was COOL!" and forget what just happened three panels previous. What pisses me off is I know he can do better, but I also know why he isn't. Don't you guys get it yet? He's laughing at you. Don't thank him for the priviledge of making his house payments for him.
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...why "The Ultimates" is so hated here at AICN. I consider the book - in spite of its glacially slow distribution schedule - to be one of the best takes on superheroes since the first ten issues or so the "The Authority." The Captain America character's classic line regarding the "A" on his forehead
made me laugh out loud. It was a perfect "movie line" and one that would bring the house down if "The Ultimates" is ever adpated for the big screen. I totally disagree with the idea that the new Cap is some sort of neo-Nazi tricked out in the stars and stripes. This new Cap is harder edged because, quite simply, this ain't the 60's anymore! This new century of ours demands an America that wrings its hands less and kicks ass a lot more and that's what we're seeing here with this new take on the Avengers. Lest any fans forget, Tony Stark /Iron Man also had a great moment in this issue
when, after attempting to deflect a spacehip from collidng with Phoenix, he vomits into his suit and experiences a moment of harrowing self-doubt ("I'm not as smart as everyone thinks I am - my God, nobody is!" Fantastic line). Far from detracting from his heroism, the moment heightens it by portraying Stark not as a "superhero" but as a human being trying to summon the courage to do an impossible job.
My only criticism is that the character recovered just a little too quickly from the trauma of his gargantuan feat, something that cheapened the scene just a bit for me. Lately, there seems to be a philosophical tug-of-war among comic book aficionados on whether such publications should, indeed, remain "comic books," (i.e. chronicling the larger-than life adventures of characters in a four color world that has remained virtually unchanged for sixty-plus years) or begin to evolve into something else. For the past twenty years or so, comic book writing has begun moving towards a greater complexity and sophistication, so much so that the classic icons of our childhood are gradually beginning to outgrow their own spandex - uncomfortably so. Case-in-point: "Selina's Big Score." Now considering the entire noir/detective genre, SBC may not have been the greatest or most original story (but damn good nevertheless) but it took the Selina Kyle character light years beyond her Catwoman persona, so much so that it almost seems ridiculous, now, having her acting alongside a guy who dresses up like a bat. Mind you, I love the fantastical elements that define our beloved icons, but I'm at a point where I wonder what would happen if, say, DC were to take its basic characters and put them into the real world. Yes, that's right, ULTIMIZE them! They would retain their basic powers and abilities but without the garish costumes or "comic book" situations that we fans have grown accustomed to over the past few decades. I think it would be an interesting experiment that might yield some fascinating results for both comic book creators and readers alike. -
You're right, the Tony Stark stuff was good. He's still a partier, he's cavalier and snotty, and he's all of those things to hide his own deep-seated fears and insecurities. It's also one of the only things Millar is doing well. Cap, though, is the real problem. Not the 60's any more? True. But Cap wasn't created in the 60's. The real crux of the matter, quite simply, is this: even at our worst, Cap has always fought to represent the best of what America can be. He was there to defend the innocent, the weak, the scared and hopeless. He has fought for civil rights, he has fought against factions of our government or military who chose to take advantage of the American people, he has stood up and said "this is not what America was meant to be." He has fought eternally and determinedly for freedom and equality. Cap is the single greatest symbol Marvel has in its stable. There is a reason he and Superman are the two big hitters in JLA/AVENGERS, and that reason is because of their symbolic status as representatives of all that is Good and Right. They're supposed to be the inspiration, the moral center, of their respective universes. Instead of Millar using that in ULTIMATES to savage the negative aspects of America by having Cap rebel against them and topple them, he has taken the easy way out. Having Cap be an ignorant, thick-skulled bully is Millar's way of taking cheap shots at America's attitude towards the rest of the world. It's really the simplest, dirtiest, most pointless way of going about it, and it tarnishes the name of one of the only heroes who deserves to remain pure. If he wanted to take the intelligent, respectful route, he would have had Cap stand up and tell Fury and the President and everyone else exactly what they were doing wrong and why and then fought to fix our reputation as a country. Millar didn't do that because it was easier to sit back with a smirk on his face and write a self-serving mockery of the character. The fact that his readers accept it and don't even see what he's doing just plays right into his hands and encourages him to keep piling on insult after injury. Don't you guys get it? Cap is supposed to represent our best, not reflect our worst. He's doing it because he knows he can get away with it, but that doesn't make it right, and somebody needs to stand up and say so.
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It's odd, and maybe I'm alone here, but I just don't see the dumb-ass character of Cap that people are complaining about in The Ultimates. I've enjoyed the series from the start, tho I confess it's more to do with Brian Hitch's stunning art than the concept itself. I've found it frustratingly slow moving, but at the same time I understand that at least artisticly speaking, these mothers must take quite some time to put together.
But back to Cap... I guess my take on him in the Ultimates is slightly different. First, this is a guy who, in Ultimate continuity, is maybe a month or so away from having woken up from the 1930's. He hasn't gone through all those experiences and whatnot that mark the "classic" Cap as the stalwart partiotic symbol of all that's best of America. This guy is human. He has foibles, insecurities and all the rest of those things that mark real people. He's balanced out by having a sense of honour and decency (his outrage over Hank's assaulting of Janet pym for example)
Second, he's a soldier... and sorry to burst bubbles, but soldiers are not supposed to be "nice" people. They are trained to be tough, decisive and, when need be, kill. We may not like it, but there it is. He's nowhere near being the BIGGEST douchebag of this crew, nevermind all the characters in the book. I do find Millar's approach to some of the military personell (case in point the guy who shoves the kid out of the way for no discernable reason) to be questionable. However, I'm sure there ARE people like that who populate military and even police forces. I would just like to see a little balance out of this. Can we also see the decent human beings who are honestly trying to do their best? I'd like that, myself.
I'm certainly not saying the book's perfect, but it's by no means a terrible read.
Just my 2 cents of course
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I agree with you there Rifferus. I see Millar's Cap as still definately the fish out of water. He really hasn't been out of the 40s for a long time. I think that MM is going to drop a huge bomb when Cap realizes that the US government is not quite the same as it was during WWII. He hasn't had a lot of time to really process a lot of information; he is still assimilating. This is a totally different world than what he was used to, and it will take time for him to wake up to the fact that out government and society is just plain dirtier than it used to be. Yes, he is a super SOLDIER. Yes, he is an absolute bad-ass. And yes, the France line is completely in character coming from someone who saw France surrender to the Germans. I also believe that had Cap seen that soldier's actions, he would have beaten his ass. I just think that Millar is writing Cap as a man who probably has a huge awakening coming. He's following orders now because he's used to that, but I really believe he's a bit more than a thug. Then again, I could be completely wrong and Millar is just an anti-American asshole. Which, of course, is his God-given right.
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Actually, I'm very respectful of your point of view, SleazyG, yet I still find myself having to vehemently disagree with it. I suppose the point I was trying to make was that the Cap character as seen in the Ultimates is simply a reflection of how, as Americans, we want to see ourselves NOW: tough, decisive and unhindered by the neurotic self-doubt that has characterized us in recent decades. Being an older - MUCH older - comic book reader,I'm very much aware that Cap is not a creation of the 1960s and I was simply trying to point out that even the stalwart
Captain America of the 1940s is now significantly passe. Was Millar attempting to mock both character and reader with this new Steve Rogers? You betcha! But I think the laugh is on Millar himself. In spite of his cheap shots at America and its military, the writer has managed to create characters that are still as courageous, committed and devoted to duty as their past incarnations. Even under the grime of their humanity, the "superhero" still shines through. Also, my compliments to Mr. Rifferus for an eloquent and effective defense of the Ultimates version of Captain America. -
My dad was in the military and he said the biggest jerks he's ever met were in there. He states, "All the jerks you knew from high school, that's where they went." He saw some soilders do horrible things to other soilders when he was in the military. They're not saints.
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Dec 11, 2003 8:52:46 PM CST
Okay Homer Sexual, I'll give you my thoughts on Avengers #75...
by vroom socko
In our next column. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** **** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** All right, all right, I'll quite with the tease act. I'l go into greater detail in my upcoming review, but here's a taste. Horrible issue. Horrible conclusion. Pointless to the extreme. And since the promo art for the arc following Johns departure shows She-Hulk prominently, and given his condition at the end of the issue, five'll get you ten that #76 features Jack of Hearts initial decomposition.
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I first came across Bachalo with the obvious Death mini-series, and then Generation X. I realise this is all like 10 years ago now but he used to be one of my favourite artists - fine lines, super detail, kinda like Brian Bolland or maybe Jim Lee but clearly a very recognisable, unique style of his own. The recently, with his work on New X-Men and Cap, he seems to have gone stupidly cartoony, thick lines and so on. Still pretty good, but nowhere near as good as his older work. Is this all a recent thing or has it been a gradual change? Do you reckon his old style just took too long?
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...which is why my dad (an Airborne Ranger) always did everything he could to convince my brother and I not to enlist--not that he needed to: not my style. That's still missing the point, though: first, there's no way that has anything to do with who Captain America is. He should NEVER be representative of what we are; he's meant to be representative of all we COULD be. As for the soldier pushing the kid--I even coulda bought it if the kid was Iraqi or Somalian or some shit. But he wasn't. He was Arizonan. American soldiers on American soil who fuck with American citizens--a KID, for god's sake--are WAAAY the fuck outta line, and so is Millar's characterization here.
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Dec 11, 2003 11:35:30 PM CST
Aw, who cares about ULTIMATES anyway? That's a pussy-wimp comic
by dave_f
But seriously folks, I became disenchanted with ULTIMATES somewhere around issue 6, and while the ridiculous praise it receives irks me a bit, I can't work up the enthusiasm to even slam it anymore. But my subject line was only half joking. You *really* wanna be a hip reader? Try reading a comic that's not in Diamond's Top 10. Hell, try something that's not in the Top 100. Ain't nothin' wrong with the men-in-tights, but honestly, to devote TalkBack after TalkBack to 'em when there's so much more out there...it speaks to an almost pathological conservatism in comic book readers. Miller, Quesada and others have championed comics as this subversive medium in the past, but I'm having a hard time seeing how we're being subversive by clinging, tick-like, to a genre rooted in juvenile adventure. Now...having completed the chastisement portion of this post, may I good-naturedly suggest HALO & SPROCKET and AUTOBIOGRAPHIX to you hepcats out there in the audience? I'm not pimpin' my own reviews so much as the books themselves, 'cause frankly, they're better and more innovative than anything else reviewed in this column. And, goddammit, friends, I want to TALK about these books instead of watching the love/hate relationship with Mark Millar play out for the umpteenth fucking time. Izzat so much to ask? Don't *you* guys want to talk about some different comics too?
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Alright - we've made *our* holiday recommendations, so first off...whatcha think of 'em? And second, what do *you* mugs want and/or recommend as far as comics 'n' graphic novels for the holidays?
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Not that I don't see the resemblance, but couldn't Baker's style just as easily be described as 40's/50's Warner Brothers cartoon style? I profess a general ignorance when it comes to Baker's body of work, but my impression is that this guy's influences are far-reaching. Recently saw some stuff, for example, that was a clear homage to the NEW YORKER cartooning style. That, to me, doesn't suggest a guy whose beholden to modern trends. I agree PLASTIC MAN came across kinda flat, but I bet Baker was thinking more "Tex Avery" than "Ren & Stimpy" as he worked it up.
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Dear Harry Knowles:
Please consider removing this series of articles from your site. I do not wish to read reviews written by the same people who bitch at the local comic book store for hours on end about how Cap's suit isn't tight enough this week. This is a MOVIE SITE! If I want reviews for comics (and I don't, they're freaking comic books for fuck's sake) I'll go to a comic review site. If I want "cool" movie news, I'll stop by here... although this is becoming more and more of a review site as well. Sigh. No offense to the writers, keep doing your thing, free country and all. But I'd appreciate it if AICN didn't have articles like these. By the way, I'm a comic book fan and a geek. -
Please delete KneelBeforeZod's post. It's harshing my mellow.
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Ass the lastVamp and KneelbeforeZod. Boys, i realise being is high school is a testing time. stress from tests, new horizons to explore, the onset of puberty.and as these things happen other things become uncertain- your sexuality expecially. BUT dont worry! Dont question those late night thoughts you have about wanting to eat cheese filled sausages. feed the desire. Maybe you should meet up with each other??? Surely a bit of brown hole hooliganism might get rid of vampys obvious fascination with trouser banditry. and zods sphincter tightness might get a release with a bit of anal archeology...Fortune and glory boys! you dont have to hide behind veiled references vampy. let it out. Be that brown dot dabbler you so desire to be. Stand proud and dabble with gay abondon!!!
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You wonder when you read a bad review if the guy writing it even knows what a comic book is?
The main thing is If you pass on a great book like Ultimate Spiderman your an idiot. And to call bendis wordy compared to the thousands of writers who are just hacks that us loyal fans prey for an excellnt writer with a great artist to come togeather in one book is a miricle. As for the Ultimates It is about time Marvel did a great book with those guys also to anyone who thinks ultimates are to racey Don't get wanted which is one of the best new books out there. A personal note to ass the lastvamp- Get off your mother quit picking your nose after it's been in your ass and take your inbred Redneck backwards ass to another site a$$hole. -
Since my Ultimate Spider-Man review was quite the positive one, I have to wonder why you're complaining about it. I love the book, even though I had some minor complaints. Nothing and no one is above criticism. And Bendis IS a wordy motherfucker! I LIKE that he's a wordy motherfucker! Nowhere in the review did I say that his being a wordy motherfucker was a bad thing! And I'll give you one more; damn near every character Millar writes is an asshole. Which can be fine as well; sometimes I want to read a story about an asshole. But sometimes I don't, and sometimes I resent seeing a character I've grown up with become an asshole. I'd comment further, but the rest of your complaints seem to have been proofread by a diseased lemur, and I can't quite discern your point. Oh well, I'm sure it was a heartfelt one.
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Despite the negative reviews of the Ultimates in @$$hole comics over the past year I've stuck with it as I've enjoyed the series.
That was, until #12. This review nailed everything that was wrong with this issue. I was stunned to read Cap. America spouting xenophobic rubbish I would have expected to hear from the nazis he's fighting.
I can't understand how a soldier who would have fought alongside the Free French and resistance forces in WWII could have uttered such a bigoted remark. This isn't the Cap that I admired and it's not a comic I'll keep collecting. -
Unlike most "Nu Marvel" books, where everything is spelled out as if the reader is a five year old who needs some proseletyzing (sp?), Millar allows different readers to interpret the character differently, based on their own prejudices. Apparently, to liberals, he's an evil jack booted thug and to conservative's he's a "can do" man's man, and their views on the character seem to pretty much mirror their views on the country.
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I'd say the style change started in the 2nd Death miniseries (The Time of Your Life), was in full swing during his latter Gen X run and fully made by the time he worked on Uncanny with Seagle. I think he peaked in his old style during his X-Men AOA Generation Next miniseries.
I would attribute it to natural style evolution and the increased demand for volume of work -
I agree with a lot of whats been mentioned in the review and comments here. Whenever I see something like the soldiers knocking the little boy down it just makes me wish someone like Jesse Custer was there to kick the crap out of them. People get away with behaving like assholes too much in this book for my liking. It needs to be balanced out by a few characters with a more solid grasp on their morality.
That's why I hope volume 2 focuses more on Thor's pov.
BTW Whatever happended to Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch exactly? -
How the fuck is it "xenophobic" to say the French are surrender-prone? Particularly for someone who, from his own perspective, watched them surrender to the Germans just a couple years ago?
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The French are fucking useless, it's a continuity throughout past and present. It does not make Millar or Captain America xenophobes. On the contrary, it is a case of Cap calling it as seen.
Toute le Monde, vive le France indeed! -
...or is Harry really fat?
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Everything said in these reviews has been said about the same titles over and over again. Huk is boring? We get it. You think Ultimates suck? Yeah we get it. If they suck so much review something else or try adn think of something new to say about these titles. Or else get someoen who is actually adept at critically looking at comics and speaking about them to do these reviews. I come back reading this shit every week hoping that you guys will make it better, yet you don't.
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You'd better censor all the posts Coromant doesn't like, he might start crying.
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Dec 12, 2003 1:23:53 PM CST
It's really depressing how much time and energy is wasted over a
by lizzybeth
Also, I would like to point out the extra a$$hole edition that snuck onto AICN this week ---http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=16646 --- with guest appearance from a ms. Dupont.
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...arguing about comics is what we do here (as you well know) and if this particular Talkback tends to focus on "The Ultimates," well, so be it. Ultimates gets such a bad rap from the @$$Holes that I just thought it was time for a few of its supporters (myself first and formemost) to step up and respond to the thrown gauntlet. It's by no means a flawless book, yet the contempt heaped upon it by so many critics is, I believe, completely undeserved. Beside, Lizzybeth, it's FUN to argue comics, yes? Some of the most intelligent writing and incisive comments here on AICN seem to come from the comic book people. I don't know why that is, but I enjoy the heck out of it. In addition, whenever you guys touch upon a subject that sparks my interest, I love drawing these discussions out a bit. I remember when, not too long ago, an @$$Hole Talkback used to go on for miles, but now they seem to be so darn short lately. I enjoy talking comics with my fellow geeks and I'm always interested in their opinions and points of view even when different from my own. Finally, Happy Holiday Season to all my geek brothers and sisters out in cyberspace. May 2004 be your best year ever!!
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"Oh my GOD did that issue SUCK! It sucked SUCKED SUCKED!!!!! Art, writing, coloring, even the feel of the paper SUCKED! Is Marvel TRYING to kill this book?"
I think this book was Chuck Austin's way of saying, "So long chaps, I'm off to write the big red S, so kiss my beautiful white butt." Plus, we got the pointy- nosed elves back.
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What in any way made you think I was against Ultimate spiderman I love the book and bendis too. Learn to read. Not every thing miller writes is and asshole. and I like the Ultimates too. and as far as wordy read JLA/avengers. Read things before you think I am critizing.
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Dec 12, 2003 7:01:47 PM CST
Xenophobes are people who are paranoid about being conquered...
by boomstick81
... and don't trust anybody. Making fun of the French because they easily surrender is not xenophobia.
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xenophobe (n)
A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples. -
Anybody out there reading Fables? That is one consistently entertaining book. Willingham and co. are really turning out some awesome stories and giving very interesting characterizations on all the old fairy tale personas. Supreme Power is great. I'll miss the hell out of Bone when it's done. I'm trudging through Cerebus all the way to the bitter end. Man, has that comic become almost unreadable; but I'll finish it, dammit! Only three more to go! Y the Last Man rocks. But hey, superheroes are fun too when done well. The Ultimate universe is great. And Hellboy. Can't forget about pamcakes. I have read and do read a pretty eclectic mix of comics. Just like my mixed taste in books and movies. If it entertains, I'm all for it. If it entertains with skill, even better.
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I never claimed YOU were against Ultimate Spidey; I was wondering why you seemed to be bitching about people not liking it when the review I wrote was a positive one. I like Bendis too. Hell, I interviewed him, for god's sake. In anyt case, I love the book, you appear to love the book, so why all the attitude? You're the one who posted " You wonder when you read a bad review if the guy writing it even knows what a comic book is?" under a heading of "So Called Comic Reviews," then went directly into a rant against people who don't like Ult. Spidey. If that wasn't directed towards me, then who was it intended for? And my reading comprehention level is quite adequate, thank you very much. Perhaps the problem is in the clarity of your writing.
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I'm a conservative, and I think Miller's Cap is a jack-booted thug. I don't see how his behavior can be interpreted as simply a "can-do" soldier. He's not rank and file and as the first issue made clear - a leader that could rally the troops. I wonder what those soldiers would think about him kicking a man when he's down? Or some of the things he did in this issue? Who would want to follow this guy? His leadership qualities seem to consist of being violent and reactionary but being too simple and/or naive to get the "big picture". I don't think Cap's man-of-out-time is really being explored here at all. Millar is just using him, none too subtely, as the character was originally designed: propoganda. But in this case, it's to espouse his own political views about America.****Anyway, it's issue #12 and what has really happened? Not much plot advancement to be found. Millar's nasty characterizations could be somewhat forgivable if stuff actually happened, or even a moment or two of moral clarity to balance it. But almost all of Ultimates has been Millar creating situations to dirty up the characters or push them to extremes, without lending them any likeable qualities. This is just like the crap Ennis writes in Punisher - shock value, tabloid crap. If that's not the case, then I submit stuff would've actually happened by now.
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Yeah, I am loving the Fables. It's one of my favorite titles right now. Willingham's take on fairytales in a modern setting actually inspired me to seek out fiction of the same sort. I discovered a whole sub-genre in fiction of modern twists on fairytales (The Bloody Chamber being a good one), although it's much darker and twisted than what Willingham's shooting for (often heavily erotic - shocker, that one :P). Willingham has this uncanny ability to not be capable of telling a bad story. I'm looking forward to his take on the JLA, with DC's editorial decision to rotate creative teams by story arc.
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Please provide the @$$holes with a list of titles that can be reviewed, along with your special needs. I would hate to feel like we're making you uncomfortable. What can we do for YOU, Hellpop?
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Dec 13, 2003 10:33:49 AM CST
So the @$$holes hated another Ultimates issue, but who cares wha
by thesumofgod
Ultimates issue 12 delivered the goods and then some, for me anyway. Over-the-top, cynical and heartless? No shit. But its still one of the best comic books EVER. And American soldiers ARE douchebags, by the way. Sure, they saved the world a zillion years ago, but they've been dry-raping peace and prosperity ever since before my father was even born. Nowadays, they just wanna "get revenge for 9/11" by blowing up innocent "brown people" overseas.
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TheSumOfGod, you're a vile, worthless waste of flesh. Do the world a favor and put yourself out of our misery, you pitiful wretch.
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I always appreciate positive feedback. Thank you for your encouraging comments. I love you too.
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I agree totally. As far as I am concerned, there hasn't been a bad issue of Fables. Willingham has a great grasp of so many diverse characters, and all of his portrayals come from a real "where would they be now" approach. There are SO MANY places a writer could go with this series, and I can't wait to see what's coming up. And before I forget again, I can't believe I left Planetary off my list of favorites. This series has a real sense of history, wonder, and love of comics and sci fi, combined with great characters and great dialogue. And John Cassiday is one of my favorite artists working today. He can do gritty, futuristic, or beautifully detailed works of art. The issue with Snow and Jakita in the offices of the Four comes to mind, as does his insanely detailed interior of the shiftship. Great stuff.
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I am hoping for Mignola's Art of Hellboy, the last four (or five) Transmetropolitan collections (I have through Year of the Bastard) and/or the first four 100 Bullets trades. And since this is a wish list, I suppose I'll make a wish. I would love for marvel to do a collected Star Brand from the old 80s New Universe. I know this probably caused a big old belly laugh, but hear me out. The New Universe sucked big time. In my opinion, Star Brand was the only one really worth anything (Justice was a cool concept too, though). It was the first superhero book that I had read up to that time (I had only been really reading comics since the very late 70s) that dealt with a character who really wasn't the best choice to have these incredible powers. He used them to very briefly to sneak a look at his girlfriend (who he was cheating on) while she undressed. He had to learn his powers as he went along. He made a big old mess just as often as he really helped someone. Other nations wanted his powers. Hell, he blew up Pittsburg. Along with the rest of the New U, it went downhill at the end, but for a while there it was one of my favorites. Of course, I haven't read it in a loong time, so it may totally suck now. It was just cool to see this fellow who wasn't really a very good guy try to do the right thing as he saw it. And the issue where he met all the comic creaters (John Byrne was one) who totally ripped on his lame costume was fun. Just my two cents. And, as a side note, it's good to be able to come here to read and post where most everyone can express diverse opinions without others being ridiculously asinine if it doesn't agree with theirs. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part respectful debate seems to be the norm here in the comic book forum. Kudos.
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Just to let you know, you arn't the only one with mucho respect for the New U. Starbrand did in fact rock. I liked DP7 and PSI-FORCE too. Sure there were stinkers. MERC and KICKERS INC. come to mind. But I liked the way the titles functioned together and told a broader story. DC is giving this a shot with their new FOCUS line. It'll be interesting to see how that pans out.
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Hmm...I havn't heard alot about Focus. It sounds interesting. Too bad I really can't afford any new titles right now. House payments will cut a lot of fat off your budget. And yeah, Psi-force was good. As was DP7. I liked the big guy who had terrible muscle cramps every time he added mass. That was an interesting take on the strong-man of the group. Man,I have read some stinkers in my time. Kickers Inc., Merc, friggin' Team America, for God's sake. Although, if someone could come up with a new MAX twist on the Marauder, it might be cool. Sort of a bad-ass manifestation that pops up in different situations. But, since he was linked to those specific riders, it probably wouldn't work. Who wants to see "Lobo" again? Plus, that would be a little too close to Ghost Rider. But man, I remember thinking "holy crap!" when Starbrand blew up Pittsburg. Who saw that coming?
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If anyone wants to get me the big Neal Adams Deadman hardcover, that'd be nice. The new Promethea hardcover wouldn't be bad either.
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I need to dig out my back issues of STARBRAND. One of these days, Marvel will realize that some of that New U was good and put the core titles into a giant trade. I remember being shocked when Starbrand tried to get rid of the Brand onto a dumbbell (what symbolism) causing a gigantic explosion that destroyed Pittsburg. I think that was the moment I realized that I really liked the New U because I felt that there were no lasting ramifications in Marvel and DC at the time. Everything always went back to status quo after a few issues. This was the issue when I reallized that there was no status quo in the New U and things would never be the same. Did you pick up the New U prologue in QUASAR a few years ago? Gruenwald did some fun stuff with that character. Giving him the Starbrand as well as the Quantum Bands was a pretty fun idea.
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O. K. Must have been a misunderstanding apoligies all around. I still don't think Bendis is that wordy.
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No, I didn't pick that stuff up. I remember vaguely hearing about it, but I didn't get it.
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I would like to see some books like Planetary, Teenagers From Mars, Silent Forest, and hell, even Cerebus #300 when it comes out get reviewed. There is only so much Marvel/DC superhero stuff I can take!
Brain melting, must read good stuff or I will die... -
heh heh, how can I take a goading seriously from someone who calls themselves, and no doubt believes he is a, super ninja . . .
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*sigh* and as it is, thats not my job . . nor would i pretend that it was. My job, as is all talkbalkers, is it point out how you guys suck, and how you could better do your reviews.
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Dec 14, 2003 6:04:44 PM CST
Hey, I Loved The ULTIMATES Until The Last Couple Of Issues...
by buzz maverik
I don't hate 'em now...that's too fanboy. Fanboys only see black and white. Millar could be good again and probably will...but the last two issues were poorly written. Issue 11 killed me: "I'm a Skrull and we don't have personalities. Now, for no reason, I'll tell you our entire plan like a meglamaniacal supervillain. Of course, it seems like if I had no personality, I'd just kill you now, but I'm not writing this turd, now am I?"... My whole problem with Millar's current take on UltimaCap is that it's based on trendy Eurotrash politics. It's not character. The France line is both pandering and insulting. Boys, Mark thinks he's smarter than you..okay, he IS smarter than you but he still doesn't need to go around pointing out your stupidity! He can watch all the CNN he wants, read all the lefty papers, watch all the American movies and T.V. but he'll never make it feel true! Ya know, James Ellroy writes about characters whom he disagrees with all the time, but he understands them. He shows us how they see themselves. But the real reason I didn't like ULTIMATES # 12 was dialogue like (and I'm paraphrasing here but barely): "Die!" "No!" Such writing! Better to have no dialogue than such dead, cardboard stuff. I read the issue in the store because it just looked so bad so I didn't catch the Iron Man stuff but wasn't the helmet puking a gag from TWISTED TOYFARE THEATER? As for why we keep saying the same kind of things about the ULTIMATES and the HULK, well, they keep putting out the same kind of crap. If they put out better issues, or at least a different kind of crap, we'd say something different. Remember, just because you love comics, that doesn't mean all comics are good. Free your minds...and free Chong!
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Dec 14, 2003 6:09:38 PM CST
Dear Harry, Could You Please Replace Your Comic Book Reviewers W
by buzz maverik
I luuuuv comic books! If something has been made into a comic book, it's a-okay with me! These so called @$$holes need to start liking what's popular and what I read! This whole thing of them telling us what they really think has to go! They should write reviews like those other reviewers who want to be pals with comic book creators and get jobs at Marvel and DC. Yer pal, Buzz.
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Dec 19, 2003 6:47:57 AM CST
Ambush Bug shouldn`t review comics anymore. He`s a typical brain
by chien_sale
I mean, Kurt Busiek? Busiek...? And he`s anti-New Marvel,meaning anti-quality too? What a dush bag! Fuck you!
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