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AICN COMICS!! @$$holes on SPIDER-MAN, SUPERMAN, ULTIMATE X-MEN, and The Best of PUNISHER!!
Hey @$$holes, Village Idiot here.
Okay, so we're a little late this week. But with so many comics to talk about, and what with Senior Prom coming and all, it was easy for us to fall a little behind.
But what we lack in timeliness, we tried to make up for with good grammar, proper punctuation, and the following:
- Corm's explaination of how AQUAMAN might be one of this years Most Underappreciated Comics (that's in color and isn't a bitterweet slice of life where people talk about their feelings).
- The Comedian's latest look into Mark Millar's oeuvre with a review of MARVEL KNIGHTS: SPIDER-MAN #1. (Come home, Mark. All is forgiven.)
- A SPECIAL FEATURE where Buzz puts down the comics and reads an actual book, THE COMING OF CONAN THE CIMMERIAN. Luckily, it's a book with a lot of pictures.
- An even SPECIALER FEATURE where select @$$holes talk about the comic highlights the lastest 4-color hero to make it to the big screen, THE PUNISHER.
- And other good stuff too.
Time's a wastin'! Let's get to it!
(Click title to go directly to the review)
ACTION COMICS #814
AQUAMAN #15-17
MARVEL KNIGHTS: SPIDER-MAN #1
NIGHTWING #92
THE COMING OF CONAN THE CIMMERIAN
RUNAWAYS Vol. 1: PRIDE & JOY
ULTIMATE X-MEN #45
Cheap Shots!
@$$terpiece Theatre: THE PUNISHER
ACTION COMICS #814
Chuck Austen - Writer
Ivan Reis - Pencils
Mark Campos - Inks
Published by DC Comics
Reviewed by Village Idiot
"Look out die-hards. With me and Greg and Brian, Superman's about to get interesting. (laughs). Now I can have both X-fans AND Superman fans hating my guts and shredding me online. Can't wait. (laughs)."
- Chuck Austen, Comic Book Resources, July 30th, 2003
I don't know if this review qualifies as "shredding," but I didn't like ACTION #814 so much.
But first, a little context. I'm sure you've heard this one before, or at least a version of it.
Once upon a time, there were two young guys from Cleveland (one originally from Canada), who were interested in creating a newspaper comic strip. After years of batting around ideas, they finally came up with a concept that worked: a pulp hero that wasn't just strong, but superstrong. With this added feature of superstrength, they were able to take the wish-fulfillment aspect of heroic fantasy to a whole new level. Never before had coping with the frustrations of the world been so easy and satisfying: This new character could not be bullied because he was the King of Bullies, and he was on our side. You know how you always wished there was someone to smack the wife-beater around? Now the wife beater gets smacked around. And you know all those crooked politicians? Now the crooked politician encounters uncorrupted physical force. Villains? Now the villains have the wings torn off their airplane, so they can meet the crash they deserve. Now all the bad people get what's coming to them, good and hard, with a steely-eyed squint and wisecrack or two to go along with it. It was the ultimate adolescent power fantasy.
But it was still an adolescent power fantasy. There was little about it that spoke to a morality higher or nobler than frontier justice and might makes right.
But as time went on, the character began to change. Some of this was by editorial decree, making the character less violent and more acceptable for children, the primary audience. A war came about that required all facets of American society to pull together, perhaps making the character a little less independent or rebellious. Perhaps there was some maturation going on with the writers themselves. Whatever the case, the character grew stronger, both physically and morally, almost in tandem. Frontier justice and might makes right weren't quite good enough anymore, gradually replaced by a more principled idealism, including a humanist's respect for law and dignity. The wisecracks gave way to a gentler humor (sarcasm, after all, can be a bit petty). The eyes were no longer quite so squinted, but more open, friendly. This wasn't a muscle that was flexed in every story, of course: the business of the character was still fun adventure stories. But he was no longer the King of the Bullies. He seemed better than that.
Most historical analyses of Superman will stress the nuances of the character that change from decade to decade, showing how the character reflects the prevailing zeitgeist of whatever era he's in. I've tried to take a much broader view here, explaining what I think to be a primary distinction in the character's history, and further, how this affects the character's value. Simply put, Superman evolved into more than just an adolescent power fantasy. He transcended that, becoming an paragon of modern (and yes, perhaps Modern) virtue. Still quite human in many respects; never unchallenged, usually physically, but often psychologically or morally; but most often representing the best within society, and most significantly, the best within ourselves. I would argue that this evolution of Superman is what resonated so strongly with the world; that this quality, rather than being an alienating factor, is actually key to his durability and uniqueness even today. More than any other comic book character, Superman inspires us to become better people. This is the difference between the 1938 Superman and what he evolved into -- and what the character continued to be, more or less, for the last 60 years.
So in ACTION #814, Superman suckerpunches Darkseid.
I suppose that isn't so bad in itself; after all, Darkseid is a really bad guy, and sometimes you need to take the advantage where you can get it. But after suckerpunching him, Superman seems to gloat about it. In fact, amidst all the violence in the issue, Superman seems to do a lot of gloating. And mocking. And being sarcastic. At one point, he threatens to take a subway hijacker's gun and give it "a guided tour of [his] intestines." After the ax that Steppenwolf uses to beat him over the head with collapses, Superman says "Steppenwolf? Hello? Indestructible?" When Darkseid threatens to kill him, Superman replies "Been there, done that." This Superman is one sassy bitch.
He also seems to take a lot of joy in being Superman; but since so much of the issue is violent, it's as if he's taking joy in the violence. (Writer Chuck Austen seems to try to cover all the bases in the book, tackling one crime, one rescue and one supervillain slugfest; but somehow the rescue seems a little upstaged.) With both his glib demeanor and enthusiastically violent attitude are combined, this Superman felt off-model. Or really, on-model -- 1938's model, with a more contemporary snark. The Golden Age Superman by way of Joss Whedon.
None of this is too surprising since in an interview given to CBR last year, (an interview that amounts to a pre-emptive rebuttal of this very review), Austen has described his preference for the Golden Age Superman, and the emphasis on "adolescent gratification through power fantasy." Austen knows what he's doing. The problem is that what he's doing may be coming at the expense of something better, like the Superman that I mentioned earlier. And if that's the case, I don't think the trade is worth it.
That said, I need to be careful that I don't overstate my criticism here. I think that Austen is more off by degree than substance. Superman is confident, but should he be cocky? Superman is aggressive, but should he revel in violence? Superman has a sense of humor, but should he be snarky? I think Austen takes things far enough in these directions in a way that's not outrageous, but more disappointing.
What makes the situation all the more disappointing is that the issue had so much going for it visually. Ivan Reis' art was very sharp, very pretty, and a lot of fun. Superman works so well with art that tends towards realism, and a guy like Reis has been a long time coming. Art Adams also put together a great cover, one with so much energy, you can almost hear it crackle. Even the old ACTION COMICS trade dress is back, and looking fantastic. But it wasn't enough.
I've spoken with folks online who really liked this comic, and it's not hard to understand why. We live in a pretty postmodern world these days, and for many people, the adolescent power fantasy is easier connect with than Truth, Justice, and the American Way. This seems to be the path of least resistance that Austen is choosing to follow for Superman, and from the interview I've linked to, he indicates that it's the only one he's capable of. But I don't think comics are just about easy connection; I think they can be about aspiration as well; I think there's something to be said about the connection made on that level. It's a matter of emphasis, and I think Austen is emphasizing in the wrong direction. Nevertheless, there will always be characters to act out the adolescent power fantasy, in fact, I think they're a dime a dozen. But really, there's only one Superman.
AQUAMAN #15-17
Writer: Will Pfeifer
Artist: Patrick Gleason
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewed by Cormorant
Wait a sec.
Say it ain't so!
Frickin' AQUAMAN has a good writer?!
It just might be the case, folks. It just might be.
Now I'm gonna hedge my bet just a bit as I wait to see how the story resolves, but right as of this moment? Right as of this moment, writer Will Pfeiffer is seriously impressing me by making the most famously difficult superhero in the DC pantheon...interesting. Pfeifer hit the sand running by sinking San Diego into the sea with an Irwin Allen-level earthquake in issue #15. There's something both ballsy and blackly humorous about an arc that opens with a drowned zoo panda floating by the camera. But the alien-ness of that opening image was more than just a lark. It was the keynote for what Pfeifer and talented artist Patrick Gleason would be doing with the book: playing up the exotic nature of the underwater environments. Playing up the mysteriousness and deadliness of the sea. Look, here's another page. Cool, huh? A sunken city of dead people. Definitely something you don't see everyday, but it's the chief setting for this entire arc, so get used to it.
Pfeifer's taking a slow-burn approach that's been occasionally frustrating as a serial read, setting Aquaman to the task of playing investigator into this unearthly disaster. In the first issue he found a lone survivor who swam to the surface only to mysteriously suffocate, having apparently "gone native" while trapped below - literally, this poor kid grew thin gill-slits without knowing it and had no clue he'd die in open air. Issue #16 revealed another survivor, this one a cute twenty-something girl - yes, she can live! Aquaman caught her before she suffocated on land, took her to the JLA Watchtower to pop her in a water tank for observation (Aquaman, you sly dog), and eventually discovered through the Martian Manhunter's telepathy that the girl was part of a large group of survivors trapped in a hollow beneath a crapload of collapsed buildings and debris.
This was revealed, incidentally, in a terrific point-of-view flashback from the girl. Through her eyes we saw her with her boyfriend at the San Diego Zoo weeks earlier, followed shortly by the impact and violence of the first massive wave crashing down on them, and finally a succession of sinking shots as she's dragged down to the depths of the ocean. I was much impressed with the immediacy of the POV envisioning of the moment of the disaster, turning what could have been a by-the-numbers flashback into something terrifying.
But again...it's been a little slow-burn, despite the novelty of the scenario. Aquaman's seemed overly passive in his response in the first two issues, and you don't want your heroes to seem passive. As of this latest issue, though, I'm beginning to think the build-up might have been worth it as Aquaman uses his newfound information to track down the survivor enclave and set into motion a wholly unique rescue scenario. The survivors have somehow made it through weeks in their strange new environment, but they're terrified, they're starving, and once Aquaman frees them by hefting what appears to be a massive bridge section (a great and needed moment of physical resolve), he's also got to contend with their unwittingly suicidal instincts to swim to the surface.
This is where the book really has some fun. Aquaman commands a swarm of sharks to block off the surface, warning two fleeing kids meaningfully: "Those sharks won't hurt you. They're here to keep you safe, believe it or not. Of course, you've both got a lot of cuts and scratches...there's bound to be at least a little blood in the water. Right now the sharks are obeying my commands...but there's a limit to my control..."
They kids swim back – fast. And Aquaman's subsequent interaction with the survivors is memorable too. He's comforting, but he doesn't sugarcoat the bizarre nature of their survival: "This means you can never leave the ocean. You can never go back to the surface." And I wonder – since Aquaman's been ousted by the people of Atlantis, is it possible Pfeiffer is setting the stage for a strange new kingdom for him? A unique bridge between underwater civilization and American life? I'm intrigued, and the environment of the sunken city is consistently fascinating, one of the best elements of the book. There's a scene where we see scuba divers bringing food to the newly-evolved water-breathers and patching them up on a former San Diego boulevard now eerily illuminated with emergency light pylons. It's typically great work from the artist – detailed, shadowy, convincing - and it sold me on Pfeifer as a guy who's going to bring something truly unique to AQUAMAN. I've griped a little about the seeming passiveness of our hero, but seeing him as an investigator, as a rescue operations guy, as the one hero who can handle a situation like this...it's refreshing, even if the book took a little while to ease readers into the scenario.
So for the first time ever, yep, I'm onboard AQUAMAN. Good writing, good art, unique environment, strange atmosphere, and a humans-become-water-breathers mystery that, as of the end of issue #17, looks like it'll have some creepy reveals shortly. I even like the cute water-breather babe who somewhat contrivedly sets about helping Aquaman in the issue. The loner hero thing is all well and good, but he needs a sounding board, and maybe, just maybe, he needs a girlfriend who's not Atlantean royalty.
This book deserves the attention of superhero fans. Not only is it out-innovating recent DC relaunches like TEEN TITANS and OUTSIDERS that've focused blandly on the return of old villains (Zzzzzzzzzzzz...), but how can you not want to see how such an underdog title sets itself up for a comeback?
MARVEL KNIGHTS: SPIDER-MAN #1
Written by Mark Millar
Illustrated by Terry Dodson
Published by Marvel Comics
Reviewed by The Comedian
Two weeks ago I gave a less than favorable review of a bloated, over hyped soufflé disguising itself as a modernized Avengers story. I took a lot of the usual heat in talkbacks about what a senile, toothless old pansy I was for not digging a story whose epic-climax involved tricking the Hulk into destroying an Alien fleet by baiting his insecurities about his sexuality. Sorry if the righteous heroism in that was lost to me. My main beef was that I knew Mark Millar was capable of so much more. I'd seen him do real stories with real characters that were layered and entertaining in previous issues of ULTIMATES; Iron Man, Cap and Betty discussing Hank beating Janet in the Galaxy Diner for example. Hell, I'd even seen it in "The Nativity" storyline from THE AUTHORITY 4 years ago that was the genesis of this whole mess. Luckily for me and everyone else it didn't take but a few weeks for Millar to prove me right. MARVEL KNIGHTS: SPIDER-MAN #1 was awesome.
When it comes to Spider-Man stories the easiest parallel can be drawn to Superman, his DC counterpart. They're counterparts in the sense that they're the flagship heroes of their respective universes not merely because they're the most publicly recognizable but also because they each represent the quintessential philosophies of each of those universes and how they contrast one another. Superman is the DC universe. He's pretty cut and dry as far as what he stands for and what he believes in. His powers and the world he inhabits aren't necessarily realistic or remotely believable but that's the point, it's a fantasy and the fantasy is entertaining and elaborate enough in and of itself that we can excuse the implausibility of it all. That's what the DC Comic experience is all about. Spider-Man is in contrast of course Stan Lee's quintessential everyman who "has to take the bus" and horribly fumbles his way through interpersonal relationships despite the fact that he can bench press the bus. That's what the Marvel Comics experience is all about.
Unfortunately for both of these characters the past 15 or so years have seen creators wasting them in their regular series with silly gimmicks that had nothing to do with these basic principles. Fandom had become bored with the both of them and pretty much written them off because of all the misfires and the general consensus that there wasn't much else that hadn't already been done with them. I know that JMS and Paul Jenkins have done their part to remedy this over the past few years with Spider-Man and poor Kal is still somewhere on a rack in some shop being ignored by most of fandom rehashing cheesy silver age plots involving bottle cites.
Millar's Spider-Man really works for me on that essential level because he nails the everyman bit. The pacing is of course "for the trade" but the meat of characterization and story are filling enough. The characterization is spot on especially in the scenes between him and Aunt May and the scene with Peter's google-crazed students. The bit with Aunt May's Iron Man tapes didn't even ring as nod-wink cynicism or a hipster way dirtying her up (Millar and Dodson already blew that wad last year). It was just funny and quirky. Some of the dialogue in this issue is a little cheesy and "easy" like "Who's your daddy now, Mr. Osborn!" But it's forgivable. The crowd in the opening is obnoxious but these kind of ungrateful morons have been plaguing misunderstood heroes for decades.
Dodson's pencils are fantastic and he's surpassing Adam Hughes the same way that Hitch eventually surpassed Alan Davis. I look forward to the next eleven issues of this series and I hope they can keep up this level of consistency. At the very least we'll get cheesecake shots of The Black Cat and maybe they can wrap up that whole miniseries with a simple throw away line or something.
NIGHTWING #92
Devin Grayson: Writer
Manuel Garcia: Artist
DC Comics: Publisher
Vroom Socko: Back Ally Reviewer
This is my "WHY?" title.
Twenty-odd days out of the month, I find myself wondering why I still buy this book. After all, the current arc is a bit, shall we say, derivative. The past ten issues or so could be easily described as BORN AGAIN LITE. Blockbuster, the lord of crime in Blüdhaven, has learned the true identity of Nightwing, and has been systematically destroying every element of his life. Nightwing, of course, has been fighting back, as well as fighting a bit dirtier than usual.
I also find myself wondering just why Nightwing continues to tolerate the actions and presence of the Tarantula, a gun crazy vigilante who's not only bloodthirsty, but is admittedly indebted to Blockbuster. How Dick is even willing to work alongside her is baffling to me. For god's sake, she killed the chief of police!
The thing is though, that one Wednesday a month when I actually pick up NIGHTWING, I wonder why I'd even consider dropping it. Not only is new artist Manuel Garcia kicking absolute ass on his first issue, but writer Devin Grayson has a great handle on the various supporting characters, as well as Dick himself. Also, almost every closing page from the past year or so has me either going "what the fuck!" or giggling like a madman. This issue had me doing both.
This book is really the Chinese food of my pull box. It's a fun ride while I'm reading it, but it doesn't last after I've finished. And I really don't have a helluva lot to say about it, now that I think about it. But for those few minutes I'm reading it… man what a good book.
THE COMING OF CONAN THE CIMMERIAN
By Robert E. Howard
Illustrated by Mark Schultz
Published by Del Rey / Ballantine Books
A Buzz Maverik Book Club Selection
Now, we bring you a segment for our more sophisticated readers, who know that there is more to life than comic books, who can appreciate classic literature. We bring you .... BUZZ MAVERIK'S BOOK CLUB.
Hang up your leather jackets and put on your smoking jackets. Put the tallboy back on ice and pour yourself a snifter of brandy. Hide the bong back under your comics and fill your Meerschaum with an aromatic blend of Virginia Cherry Briar, Turkish Breeze ...and a glob of hash oil, because who the hell are we kidding here?
After all, why should Oprah have all the fun?
Our selection this week is a somewhat recently released collection of the first thirteen Conan the Barbarian stories written in the 1930s by Robert E. Howard, the greatest pulp writer who ever lived. Yes, yes, Hammett, Chandler, even Fitzgerald and Faulkner contributed to the pulps, but Howard was a true pulp writer in that he never transcended the pulp magazines of his era. He may have, had he not died at age 30 from a suicide over a mother complex that made Elvis look like a cool, rockabilly badass ... but while spoil Conan because of that?
These stories are untouched Howard, the way they were written, the way most of them appeared in the pages of Weird Tales . Sure, we true fans own all the books with the Frazetta covers, but they were heavily edited by L. Sprague De Camp and full of posthumous collaborations. To be fair, De Camp at least got Conan in a way that August Derleth never got Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Howard sort of believed that he channeled the spirit of Conan when he wrote. I only wish the spirit of Conan had been around when the posthumous collaborators were at work. Then, we'd have seen some sword and sorcery, boy!
We may know Conan from the comics, from der Ahnoldt moobies (in which Ahnoldt was really playing Kull; I dunno who Kevin Sorbo was playing in the stupid KULL movie), from the TV series or from the De Camp tainted books, but this is our first crack at Howard's Conan. We see the barbarian hero in stories jumping back and forth from his days as a beleaguered king (his first appearance was in a rewritten Kull story called THE PHOENIX ON THE SWORD if you're wondering about the significance of the broken sword in the movie) to his time a young thief (THE TOWER OF THE ELEPHANT, perhaps my favorite story in this collection) to ale guzzling, wench gnawing mercenary, to wild pirate (THE QUEEN OF THE BLACK COAST; again the movie didn't invent Conan's lover returning from the dead to strike at one of his foes).
This Conan is more human than any you might have met before. He gets scared. He considers fleeing some circumstances. He's smarter, considerably more amoral. And the great thing is that when Howard was less inspired, and writing for the easy dough, the Conan stories usually feature a good and an evil naked chick who both dig Conan. Conan is the kind of guy who would pooch both Snow White and the Wicked Queen.
How do these compare to the old books? I dunno. I didn't feel like getting my old books out of the garage and looking them over. I know I was glad to get these stories in their original forms, thrilled that they're back in print. In particular, I liked the wonderful illustrations by Mark Schultz and the essay "Hyborian Genesis," full of background information, by Patricia Louinet.
So, come read tales of the days of high adventure!
RUNAWAYS Vol. 1: PRIDE & JOY
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Adrian Alphona
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewed by Cormorant
Here's the deal with the new RUNAWAYS trade:
Firstly and most importantly, it's only eight bucks for a FULL DAMN SIX ISSUES, making it the single best superhero buy you're going to find all year. Period.
It's digest-sized (manga-sized if you prefer), and while I first thought this was a great idea to attract the manga crowd, now I'm concerned that hardcore Marvel types might pass it up because they'll think, "Ahh!! Crazy manga shit!", and manga fans might pass it up because they'll think, "Ahh!! Crazy American superhero shit masquerading as manga!"
But you know what should convince ALL parties to give it a shot? That beautiful, sexy eight dollar price point. Flip through the book. Look at that crisp dialogue from Y: THE LAST MAN's Brian K. Vaughan, the stylish art and character designs from Adrian Alphona, poised to become this generation's Kevin Maguire (only better). You're getting all that for only about $1.30 an issue and you think you there's even a remote chance you're going to walk away from Marvel's best debut of 2003 unsatisfied? Aw, hell no!
Our own Sleazy G wrote an excellent overview of the series when he reviewed issue #13 of the ongoing series. If you've somehow missed the unprecedented critical praise for this series you can sample for ONLY EIGHT BUCKS, go read Sleazy's review. He hits all the high notes. But for those who might, for whatever reason, still be holding out on the series, I'm going to focus on some highly specific reasons you're going to want to get onboard, namely...
- A kid gets offed in the very first issue, so you know it's no wussy teen superhero book. There are plenty of light moments, but the stakes are real.
- The leader of the Runaways is an African-American kid named Alex who defies all the stereotypes. That might not seem like much, but outside of Jakeem Thunder over in JSA, can you think of any other notable young, African-American heroes? I can't. Alex is a great character.
- There's also cute Goth chick in the group who teen readers can lust over, and having once thought Kitty Pryde was about the cutest fictional character ever, I know the value of such things. I mean, the Goth girl is a simply a good character too, but c'mon...I'm just saying what we're all thinkin'...
- The parents of the kids are revealed to be part of an evil cabal that's essentially a supervillain organization, except...they don't look like standard supervillains – they look like something...original! What a concept! They're made up of mutants, time-travelers, and black magic users, and their costume designs from Adrian Alphona are, each one of 'em, unique to their origins. I see the design qualities I like in Japanese RPG's like FINAL FANTASY, but without the over-designing such games sometimes fall prey to.
- Speaking of costumes, the kids themselves actually dress in current styles. It's a sad truism that so many superhero books have kids wearing what they wore when Kurt Cobain was still kickin', but RUNAWAYS ain't one of those books.
- RUNWAYS is unpredictable. From one issue to the next, good luck guessing the direction it'll go. It's ostensibly got a road-trip vibe, a quality I always like, but there's no set status quo, which is even better.
- In an early interview for the book, Brian Vaughan wrote of his inspirations for the series: "If any outside sources influenced me, it was probably the His Dark Materials novels by Philip Pullman, which reminded me that the best 'children's stories' are usually dark and complicated and very adult. Young readers like to reach beyond their grasp, so it's best to aim high." See, now there's a guy who gets what he's doing.
- Sample exchange of dialogue from the scene where the kids spy on their parents and find them in full cult gear for their evil ceremony:
"Check out those costumes."
"Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yeah, our parents are totally gay."
- And the last and perhaps greatest overlooked quality of RUNAWAYS...
(DRUMROLL)
It's not another goddamn Spider-Man or X-Men book!
Hey, I could keep this up all day folks, but in the end the one thing I'm trying to get through is that this trade would be worth your money at a standard fifteen bucks – for a mere eight, it's a no-brainer. In the interest of being a hardboiled critic, I'll levy one charge against it: the lower quality paper on the trade doesn't bring out the colors as strongly as the glossy paper on the regular book. And, uh, that's about it.
RUNAWAYS is wholeheartedly recommended to fans of BUFFY, TEEN TITANS, STAND BY ME, HARRY POTTER, conspiracy stories, road trips, the Marvel Universe as an unashamed setting, classic Spielberg suburbia movies, eight dollar graphic novels, and the somehow comforting notion that maybe, just maybe, parents really are pure evil.
ULTIMATE X-MEN #45
Brian Michael Bendis: Writer
David Finch: Artist
Marvel Comics: Publisher
Vroom Socko: Anti-Mutant Protester.
It seems, sometimes, that I'm the official Bendis Booster among the @$$holes. What can I say; he's one of the best writers working in comics today. In particular, the initial few issues of the current ULTIMATE X-MEN arc have been some of the best X-Men books I've read in a long time.
Unfortunately, the latest issue is one of the worst.
Don't get me wrong, there's a good moment or two in this issue, particularly the interaction between Wolverine and Angel. But the bulk of the story just doesn't work. First of all, there's the six pages of talking heads. Now, most of the time I enjoy these moments from Bendis, because they're being used to illustrate an effective point. For example, look at the monologue Milla has at the beginning of the previous issue of DAREDEVIL. That's a touching scene, showing a classic moment from DD's origin from a new perspective, while also giving us insight into Milla's character. But here, here we get no new information, no new insight. All this section really is is a rehash of the entire previous issue. Now, does anyone honestly think that in this day and age of "Wait for the trade," that anyone's going to be buying the next to last installment of an arc who hasn't read the previous issues? There's nothing in these six pages that couldn't have been told in two.
Then there's the second half, where the President is introducing his new team of mutants on the steps of the Capital Building. This group, of course, is led by Emma Frost, who in the previous issue was garbed in a white smock-like outfit that managed to look creepy, sexy and cool all at once. Here she's now wearing a white variation on Janet Jackson's Superbowl outfit, and I doubt even another "wardrobe malfunction" would make this look anything but yawn worthy. Last issue had an Emma Frost that had a look we'd never seen on her before. This is just more of the same old same old. Sure, this is just a small sticking point, but it's a point nonetheless.
But then, there's the uninvited guests that arrive at the ceremony, as a Sentinel appears out of nowhere to attack the collected mutants. That's right, a 100-foot tall robot appears OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE! Anyone who's ever been to D.C. can tell you that if a 100-foot tall robot were heading for the Capital Building, you'd see it coming. It also doesn't help that once the Sentinel shows up, the whole thing becomes a mess. Finch's art, up until this point, was damn fabulous, but when things start blowing up everything becomes confusing. Excluding one member, I completely lost track of all of the New Mutants, not to mention the President. Perhaps if there's been some more space to clearly illustrate this section, the story might have benefited. If only there had been four more pages to clearly define the action…
I'm still a Bendis fan, and I still enjoy his dialogue, and I still love the initial chapters of this arc, and I'm still going to read the finale. But this issue is easily the weakest comic he's written since his work on Elektra. Unfortunately.
Cheap Shots!
WHAT’S MICHAEL? – THE IDEAL CAT (TPB) - I dearly love this manga, and I say this as someone who tries to avoid ever using the word “dearly.” But WHAT’S MICHAEL is just that endearing. For the newbies, this is the latest in a series of funny-as-hell manga volumes from Dark Horse featuring vignettes surrounding a cat named Michael. I think my favorite shorts are the “realistic” ones with observational cat-humor, the best one in this volume featuring a Japanese couple vying manically to have their cat perch on them to avoid doing chores (“He’s sleeping so comfortably.”). But the more bizarre anthropomorphic stories are great, too, like the Warner Brothers-esque visual face-off between a vampire and the curious cat who locks eyes with him when he inadvertently uncovers it in peeling back the bedcovers to bite a sleeping woman. You have to read it to get its greatness, but read it you must! No comic book artist has ever more perfectly captured the nature of cats. – Cormorant
STAR WARS TALES #19 - Anthologies are a tricky business, especially one like
this. You're just about guaranteed to get several crap stories mixed in with
one or two good ones. This volume is no exception. There's several clunkers,
one okay one about the lightsaber Luke lost in Cloud City, and one pretty
good one featuring the main character from that other trilogy Lucas had a
hand in. Then there's the gem of the issue. Written and drawn by PVP creator
Scott Kurtz, it's a mad cross between Star Wars and The Breakfast Club. Not
only is it funny as all hell, but it somehow seems natural for a guy like
Han Solo to say stuff like "Blast doors short out all the time. The universe
is an imperfect place." Definitly worth checking out. - Vroom Socko
KNIGHTS 4 #4 - You know what? I liked this issue. KNIGHTS 4 is, of course, the spin-off Fantastic Four book featuring stories originally planned for the mainline FF title when Mark Waid was temporarily fired. Everyone's been praising the art on this new series (it really is astonishingly good - and the coloring, yowza!), and writing off the story because it's a contrived "FF goes broke" arc where the group has to find “real jobs.” That remains a somewhat fair criticism, but this latest story - a Reed-centric one - features a good confrontation with mob boss, Hammerhead, and a surprisingly heartfelt conversation with a suicidal jumper. If it were the only FF book, I'd be more critical of these character-centric pieces, but as an optional sister book to the main title? Actually kind of pleasant. - Cormorant
INVINCIBLE #10 - Image's teen superhero book is nearly always a nice surprise, and the page spoofing Bendis/Maleev/Chaykin-style repeat panels had me laughing out loud...BUT...a few elements brought this issue down for me. For one, I’m not big at all on the Marvel/DC/Watchmen/Powers analog characters that occasionally pop into Kirkman's otherwise only moderately analoged pastiche universe. They seem like cheap gags. I’m also concerned about what a single, particularly violent scene means for the series. I like that this is a book that's generally managed to be "all-ages” yet still very smart and witty, but while the scene in question was undeniably meant to startle, it felt wholly out of place. - Cormorant
HACK/SLASH #1 - This is a guilty pleasure book from the guys at Devil’s Due Press: a slickly drawn and produced exploitation comic about a girl who hunts movie-style slashers in the mold of Jason, Freddy, Michael, etc. It’s deliberately cheesy and deliberately gory (our lead mows through a legion of undead pets to get to the slasher manipulating ‘em), but it manages to occasionally evoke the sly wit of a BUFFY or a SCREAM. I liked the simple explanation of “Slashers” in this world: “It’s a type of undead, I guess...sort’ve like a vampire or zombie. They’re so full of anger that they don’t wanna die. They hate love, youth, sex...things they miss from life.” Simple and effective! This is pretty lowbrow stuff, but its self-aware sense of humor and strong art make it well worth a look to genre fans who’re still looking for more blood after KILL BILL Vol. 2. – Cormorant
FALLEN ANGEL #10 – I hope you’re all going to pick up the trade of this series when it comes out. Peter David’s moody, violent, unpredictable, character-rich meditation on good and evil is one of the coolest books DC’s put out in ages, and I want everyone caught up and reading new issues alongside me so we can have a good TalkBack on ‘em. In the latest: God gets flipped off, a shard of the cross on which Jesus was crucified is burned, a nun’s piety is treated with hardboiled resolve, and Hitler advises our lead on the virtues of chaos in what I can only interpret as an advocacy of liberal theory. Kind of nice to have some escapist entertainment with a little meat on its bones, eh? - Cormorant
THOR: SON OF ASGARD #3 – Very traditional quest-story stuff in this mini that focuses on a young Thor adventuring alongside his fellow godly youths, Sif and Balder, but the art from Greg Tocchini makes it worth a look to fantasy fans. It’s stunning design work, packed with lots of neat monsters and exotic fantasy locales, and even the coloring sets it apart. Check out a page from the first issue as a sampler. – Cormorant
Punisher War Journal Entry 6459: Last night's stakeout proved to be successful. Tonight the heads of the five families will meet and I'll be there to dole out—
Greetings! Welcome to another edition of
PUNISHER: *CHA-CHIK* Who said that!?!
Holster that weapon, Franky boy. You can't shoot me. I'm the Moderator, the invisible, omniscient, and lonely voice of reason haunting the halls of @$$hole HQ.
PUN: What the hell do you want?
MODERATOR: Well, last Friday, THE PUNISHER, starring Thomas Jane, was released in theaters and the @$$Holes want to celebrate it by honoring you. Frank Castle. The Punisher. Judge, jury, and executioner of the guilty. Cursed by the death of your family and waging a one man war on crime. We @$$holes love comics and in @$$terpiece Theater, the 'Holes talk about comics they would recommend to those who loved the movie and want more, or those who hated it and want to see Frank Castle done right. Some of these comics haven't seen print in years, so check the back bins at your local comic shop or bug Marvel to get these great recommendations reprinted.
PUN: Wait a minute. What is an @$$Hole?
MOD: The @$$holes are a group of avid comic book fans who buy comics, read comics, and then write reviews about them on the Internet.
PUN: They write comic book review...
MOD: Yup.
PUN: ...on the Internet?
MOD: They've even reviewed a few PUNISHER comics. What do you think of that?
PUN: I think you're lucky I punish the guilty and not the stupid.
MOD: Well…a-heh…let's get started then with our recommendations. First up is Cormorant.
CORMORANT: "The U.S. sent this chopper down to wreck coke factories. Let me show you how it's done. The preceding is one of my all-time favorite Punisher moments. It's a straight-up action/adventure cliché of understated bad-assery, but the story surrounding it had a surprising tone of sophistication. The year was 1987; the writer was Mike Baron of indie-superhero NEXUS fame; the artist was Klaus Janson, whose inking is probably responsible for at least a third of what folks loved about Frank Miller's art in the '80s; and the story was the opening two-parter to the Punisher's first ever ongoing series. Had the series continued with the same level of craft, I'd probably have read it past issue five. Now if you can believe it, this story marked the first time I'd ever heard of crack cocaine. Remember, it was still an emerging drug in the mid-'80s. But there it is on page one. An undercover Frank Castle (already more sophisticated than Ennis's "he just KILLS" interpretation) follows a crackhead back to the crackhouse that supplies him, gives the audience a quick overview of how crackhouses can be fortified to withstand small arms fire, then proceeds to crack that mutha open with a shoulder-fired rocket launcher. He dusts the survivors with his Uzi, and boom, he's started up the ladder in the best Drug War action movie never committed to film. Castle goes undercover again later in the issue. He's playing at being an up-and-coming runner looking to muscle out a rival coke smuggler who's an old grudge from his Vietnam days. Through the issue's terse narration, more than a little like Miller's punchy dialogue from DAREDEVIL, we know he's mixing lies and a little truth to play the role, but he gets busted. I learned another something here: "Bolivian Telephone," a quick and dirty means of electric shock torture that Castle is shortly thereafter subjected to. "There are other places we can attach these wires..." his captors warn him. Holy shit! I think it was precisely there that I realized the character had officially grown past his days as a Spider-Man villain who sometimes used rubber bullets! And Janson's art really lets the reader taste the grim 'n' gritty. He's "French Connection" sophisticated in the talky scenes, all bone-crunching "Die Hard" dynamism when the action explodes. And Castle's got an ace up his sleeve, so we're about to see the latter. See, prior to going undercover, Castle affixed razor-sharp diamond slivers under his fingernails and he's been working on the ropes the whole time he's been tortured. He forces himself to vomit, counting on the bad guys wanting him to talk rather than choke to death on his own vomit, and when they lean his chair forward so he can cough it up...he springs. What follows you're just going to want to *read* for the full effect. And the second issue? Oh, baby. Issue #1 was all foreplay by comparison. Issue #2 has Frank going 100% Rambo on a cocaine plantation in Columbia. The sophistication is still there, from Frank bluffing about going merc to an old 'Nam buddy ("Maybe you saw my ad in SOLDIER OF FORTUNE?") to the realistic execution of a DEA agent, but the action overwhelms all. Automatic-fire shotguns, helicopter gunships, the diamond-tipped fingernails to someone's wrist artery. Shit, you didn't think Garth Ennis invented nasty moves for The Punisher, did you? Y'know, these issues could really stand a trade paperback collection. Hey, Marvel, if your Punisher movie doesn't tank all interest in the character, howzabout it? First five Baron/Janson issues? Hey, I'll buy 'em again just for the purty format. |
MOD: WOW! Sounds like some cool stories. What'd you think of that, P-Man?
PUN: I wish I had those diamond fingertips right now. I don't have time for this.
MOD: Aww, you'll have plenty of time to prepare while Vroom Socko tosses out a few blurbs about one of his favorite PUNISHER series.
VROOM SOCKO: "I've got a bad rap as a senseless killer. Let me point out that I am a very sensible killer." That's my favorite Punisher line of all time. The funny thing is, it's from a comic where Ol' Frank Castle doesn't actually appear. Instead, it's part of the internal narrative/technical treatise that is THE PUNISHER ARMORY. We're talking ten solid issues of The Punisher talking about all the different weapons and training methods he uses in his war on crime. One of the surprising things about this series is the accuracy of the information presented. Writer/artist Eliot R. Brown knows his stuff when it comes to guns, as well as tech in general. (Brown also worked on the famous OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE, as well as giving Tony Stark a similar rundown in IRON MANUAL.) This was one of the first places I heard the names Casull, Taurus, and Sig-Sauer, for example. Hell, some of the information on knives has informed my own purchasing decisions. The really creepy entries, however, are for the unconventional weapons in his arsenal. Like the .38 Frank bought for his wife, or his son's cap pistol, or the personal effects bags of his family. There's some creepy psychological stuff going on between the lines here. That, and some cool ass guns. |
PUN: That's reminds me. I'll need the RPG for tonight. Tonight they will feel my—
Buh-naners!!!
MOD: Well, look who's here! It's the @$$holes' beloved mascot, Schlepy!
PUN: Is that a monkey?
MOD: It's not just any old monkey. It's a monkey with a special hat that allows him to talk. Schlepy is here to do a review of THE PUNISHER movie that was released last week. Go, Schlepy, go!
SCHLEPY: Schlepy go see PUNISHER movie starring Boogie Night Guy. Movie stink like Schlepy's diaper after Big Burger Tuesday. No monkey in movie at all. Movie need more monkey. Director put palm tree in New York. Schlepy been to New York. No palm tree there. Punisher carry around fire hydrant a lot. Schlepy don't understand. Why Disco Man so chunky now a days? Did he quit dancing? Schlepy fell asleep and dream of old PUNISHER movie with Rocky 4. Old PUNISHER movie is far better because it had Lou Gosset-icity. In new PUNISHER movie, there is no Lou Gosset-icity. |
PUN: Is the monkey guilty of something? Tell me the monkey is guilty of something.
MOD: It's guilty of going to see THE PUNISHER and paying full price for a ticket.
PUN: Good enough. *CHA-CHIK*
MOD: Run, Schlepy! Run your stinking monkey @$$ off!
SCHLEP: Buh-naners!!!
MOD: Okay, calm down, Castlevania. He's gone. Let's lend an ear to Ambush Bug and see what he has to say.
AMBUSH BUG: Y'know, before Garth Ennis' recent MAX relaunch, I really had to think hard about the last time someone got the Punisher right. I really hated Ennis' cartoony take on the character during his Marvel Knights days. Sure the kiddies seemed to love the Bumpos and the Russian transvestites and the Wolverine mutilations, but I didn't. Beneath it all, I could just see ol' Garth grimacing in disgust for the character as he put him in one ludicrous series of events after another and I hated the series for doing so. Now that Ennis is treating the character with respect in the mildly entertaining BORN series, the newly relaunched and MAXed-out PUNISHER series, and the excellent THE END one shot (reviewed by our very own Cormorant in last week's column, natch!!!), it seems that right now is the last time I liked the way Frank Castle, the character, was used to tell a decent story. But before that, I seem to recall a series that wasn't really accepted or lauded by many as anything spectacular, but in my twisted mind, it really was an interesting take on the Punisher. MARVEL KNIGHTS Vol. 1 was supposed to be a non-team book, throwing together characters who usually worked alone on adventures that required all of their skills to survive. Starring Daredevil, the Black Widow, Dagger (of Cloak &… fame), Shang Chi Master of Kung Fu, and the subject of this article, the Punisher, MARVEL KNIGHTS was a truly interesting concept that ultimately failed to sustain its coolness for the duration of the fifteen issue series. The thing that intrigued me the most was the way writer Chuck Dixon cleverly used the Punisher in this series. When Frank stumbled onto something that was too big to be taken down with a shotgun or pack of C-4 explosives, he manipulated those who usually do handle this stuff to do it for him. This series cast Frank Castle as the Grand Manipulator, pulling the strings of street wise do-gooders, to continue his war on crime. The coolest part of all is that Daredevil, Black Widow, and the rest didn't even know they were being played most of the time. Yes, there are shades of Batman in that concept, but it really worked for me, placing the Punisher firmly in the confines of the Marvel Universe without taking away the strengths that made the character work on his own. Dixon wrote the Punisher as intelligent, meticulous, and downright devious in his methods, but also highlighted the fact that he was dedicated to do whatever it took to enact his brand of justice on those he deemed guilty. The problem with this series is that it would have made a much cooler miniseries. Frank's manipulations worked once, but to have him continue to fool these heroes into doing his job would've made all of the characters seem inept and ineffective. I suggest you pick up MARVEL KNIGHTS Vol. 1 #1-4, depicting the first arc of the series, when the concept was fresh and Dixon's heart was in the book. In those issues, Dixon took the character seriously and made him more than just the cartoon joke that inspired the newly released movie. |
MOD: Damn that series sounds like a good-un. What'd you think, P. Shiddy?
PUN: I think the only reason you're breathing is because I can't see you.
MOD: That's because I'm the @$$Holes' invisible voice of reason, you silly goose. Let's hear what Sleazy G has for us.
SLEAZY G: I first jumped on board the Punisher with the first issue of his first ongoing series. From the very beginning, what I always liked about Frank Castle was how removed he seemed from the rest of the Marvel Universe. Don't get me wrong, I love the Marvel U - it's just that Frank Castle was a regular guy, with no X-genes or exposure to radiation or superpowers. He was just one incredibly pissed-off but well-trained guy seeking to rectify the problems other heroes didn't even notice. Whether it was serial killers or crack dealers or the mob, if they were turning up in news stories, they were turning up dead in the pages of THE PUNISHER. That book in the mid to late 80's served as a kind of cathartic wish fulfillment for the readers. If there was a teflon don in the news, his crew got taken apart. I'll never forget the two-issue storyline where he flies to a tropical island in the middle of nowhere to take out a Jim Jones-level cult leader who's convincing his followers to off themselves. On the flip side, of course, I'll never forget the story where Frank Castle was turned black through some scientific means for a month and then gradually lost the pigment like he'd just over-tanned a bit - but that's a whole 'nother story... Obviously, The Punisher is hardly a "realistic" character. He'd never have survived as many woundings as he has over the years, and the cops could never let somebody like this walk the streets. That said, he's far more realistic than anyone else in the Marvel U, and when he's put anywhere near any of the other characters it takes something away from Frank. Garth Ennis recently realized that for all the fun he was having with Spidey and DD going up against Frank Castle, it wasn't what was best for the character. Since he re-launched THE PUNISHER, the book and character are both back on track, focusing on a hard, lonely man who is a dispassionate killing machine. The only time he shows any real emotions is when somebody makes the mistake of bringing up his dead family to him, which is clearly a bad idea. This is the core of who Frank Castle is: a guy who had everything that mattered taken away from him and started a personal crusade so that he would never have to stop punishing those responsible or anyone like them. Which is why, naturally, my favorite Punisher story has to be the cruelest, most brutal, most realistic Punisher tale ever told: ARCHIE MEETS THE PUNISHER. I have no idea what the editors at Archie comics were thinking when they allowed this to happen, but it's a true classic. It might just be one of the best inter-company crossovers ever published. The Punisher scenes and dialogue are dead-on, completely appropriate to the character. Naturally, the same can be said of the Archie scenes, with Jughead getting into his usual tight spots. The story of Frank Castle traveling to Riverdale to pursue a criminal who looks just like Archie works surprisingly well, as does the idea of Frank going undercover as a gym teacher. The story is far better than it ever deserved to be, and the Punisher scenes are drawn by the late, great John Buscema. There's even a final panel that hints at a potential sequel that, sadly, never came to pass. Now, I admit I'm kinda joking here, but only kinda. It really is a good story, funny and serious in all the right places, with art that matches both characters' traditions. Oh, and the logo is killer: the white Punisher skull with Archie's eyes and nose on the top half. This one is a true overlooked classic. Sure, I'm praising a book that kinda flies in the face of what I said made the character great, but I think it's one of the exceptions that proves the rule. If you can track this down, it's well worth a couple bucks because it's so damned fun. |
PUN: Listen up. The next one who speaks up with a stroll down funnybook memory lane dies. I've got a war on crime to get back to and you're all keeping me from it.
MOD: Well, aren't we a little testy. I tell you. We dedicate an entire special feature to you and this is the thanks we get. Corm didn't even get to ring in with his ESSENTIAL PUNISHER recommendation, but I guess the readers will just have to check out that truly excellent trade paperback featuring the Punisher's earliest appearances themselves because Mr. Hasty-Pants has stuff to do. I have half a mind to become visible and give you a swift kick in the danglers. In fact, I think I will—
BLAM!
PUN: @$$Hole.
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wow!my first ever post
do i get pushed around like the stereotypical new guy should?
any way i just want to throw out my opinion of 4
i like the down to earth tales of the FF,
now i realize fantastic four is in essence a Cosmic title and im not averse to cosmic titles,they just arent my thing,and this title proves FF works when you take them away from space or the negative zone,just like ron marz and gerard jones in some way proved green lantern could work without being a space opera.
having said that Be kind(please) -
Apr 22, 2004 6:38:14 AM CDT
archie meets the punisher sequel: "stay out of riverdale!"
by acne scarface
archie, jughead & crew pull up in a suv, across the street from a riverdale bar that frank's cold-lampin' in front of. suddenly...ARCHIE: "Break yoself, fool!" PUN: "Shit, it's Archie!" (machine gun fire) ARCHIE: "Riverdale, muthafuka!" PUN: (struggling) "Lousy...riverdale...punks..."
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you wont get pushed around, just told your wrong about everything by some fuck who thinks the matrix is the greatest movie trilogy of all time...oh wait THIRD!!! WOOHOO!! Anyways, yea...matrix 2 and 3 suck. But thats off the record, the record is, no1 gets pushed around, just told there completely clueless and wrong etc...etc, until you make a joke about how, if sam raimi wanted to stay true to the comics, he would have cast elton john as dr. octopus in spiderman 2, and then all will be well. well thats what happened to me anyway lol cyaaaa!! and welcome to aintitcoolnews, where nazi talkbackers reign supreme!
hey, seeing as im third, i might as well say, this guy is a PLANT! yea thats right, he enjoyed these issues, when no1 shud enjoy anything according to the talkbackers on this site. he is so totally a plant. im a plant too, im a vicus....a jizz free vicus. -
I agree that the art was great. And I was intrigued by that cover, and by Chuck Austen, who is talented but infuriating. And I was deeply pissed off, because THIS ain't my Superman. This ain't ANYBODY's Superman. Way too much property damage for dealing with petty crooks. Way too much attitude. Now we know why Hawkeye and Green Arrow are nonpowered characters, because Supes sounded more like Hawkeye. And, another thing, Mr. Austen, sir -- Clark Kent has been set up as an award-winning journalist. Forget the fact that, if he gets "demoted" for whatever mysterious reason you have in mind, every competitor the Daily Planet has is going to go after him. How can this guy be so slow on the uptake about someone else in his cubicle!? I don't know where you're going with this, because it makes no sense at all, and I'm not going to find out because the rest of the issue turned me off completely.
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Apr 22, 2004 8:28:30 AM CDT
Hey, I'm right in the middle of "The Coming of Conan the Cimmeri
by rev_skarekroe
It's good, but I hate the art. It's as though the artist read the stories years ago, and illustrated them from memory, getting descriptions confused in his head. Some of the tales are a little iffy in places, too: CONAN: By Crom, I just killed half your crew single handedly, Pirate Queen. What do you say to that? PIRATE QUEEN: Oh God, I SO want to fuck you right now! CONAN: Right on. sk
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I agree 100% with the review of Marvel Knights:Spider-Man. This story was fantastic and the art was top notch. Great cliffhanger! And while I know it's a 12 issue story, this particular arc is only 4 issues long. So I don't really get your gripe about the pacing. It seems nowadays, people want everything done in a single issue...Which brings me to Marvel Knights:Hulk 70. A single issue tale?!?!??! AND the Hulk appears?!?!??! Believe it true believers. It was all right, but I can't wait for the issues when Iron Man shows up. And lastly, Marvel Knights:4 is one of THEE best drawn comics out there. The Invisible Woman is worth the price alone. And I've never seen the Thing look more powerful. Truly great stuff.
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Has anyone reviewed or have been reading ol' finhead lately? It's really great stuff. Erik Larsen has also mentioned a team book consisting of Spawn, Savage Dragon, Witchblade, Invincible, and others coming out by the end of the year. What do you guys think?
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Static. I guess.
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Or at least, you're both right and wrong. I found this one to be the best of Bendis's run here, and had they shaved a few pages off the set-up and added it to the action (like you said), it would be close to perfect. I loved the little character moment between Wolverine and Angel in the beginning, in the never-used danger room, and more importantly, I LOVED how it was a set-up that eventually paid off in the action, later in the issue. *** The recap & the set-up to the action, sure it was too long. Exchanges like Cyclops/Fury's: "my brother?" "your brother" "he's what?" "he's on their side" "he's what?" "he's on their side" "my brother?" "your brother" "Alex?" "Alex" "He's on their side?" "he's on their side". Okay, that was exaggerating a little, but only a little, and that kind of thing smacks of "amatuer playwright trying to be Mamet" and Bendis is way, way, way better than that. However, in the same set-up, I loved Fury's response to Charles' asking if he thought he was being mind-controlled: "If you were controlling my mind, I wouldn't hate you this much and disagree with you all the time". Again, that quote is not verbatim, I don't have the book in front of me, but it's brilliant. It's too bad with Bendis you have to take the good with the bad SO often--where is a whip-cracking editor when you need one? *** As far as the sentinels go
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It's always hard to tell which week stuff came out since this is like the only online place that reviews comics after they have come out. Anyhow, My Faith In Frankie finished up quite nicely. Deep Sleeper continues to kick ass. Bite Club sucks, no pun intended. 1602 finished up finally and I'm not sure how I feel about that one, but I'll turn around and sell the series on EBAY for over a hundred like I did with Origin and that'll make me feel better:) And Chosen still has my interest and it'll be interesting to see how that shapes up. This week buy The Walking Dead and maybe The Goon, otherwise save your money.
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The set-up for a sequel was kind of, ugh. But it was actually refreshing to see a time-travel-parallel-universe story to end with something other then the usual destruction of the universe. Is anyone else just twidling their thumbs waiting for reload.
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oh come one @ssholes...
1. Return to big nothing (graphic novel). Mike Zeck art and the punisher at his most badass. THIS should have been the movie.
no mention of the first limited series? no mention of the greatest marvel comic of all time "Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe"? How about the time that Frank had that punk ass spiderman dead to rights but was still using those gay rubber bullets! He could have killed daredevil too!
the armory was a cool concept. I even liked the "Iron Manual"
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Bendis writes the worst Wolverine in the history of Wolverine. I love his work on Ultimate Spider-Man, but he is just not right for X-Men (and especially not Wolverine). He's come along and turned him from a complete badass to a complete pussy. His dialogue (the semi-realistic, almost-trying-to-hard-to-be-realistic dialogue Bendis is known for) is completely ANTI-Wolverine. It goes against everything he stands for.
But back to him being a pussy. I can understand wanting to "redeem" him after his little fit of homicide, but Bendis has gone beyond that. He really has made Wolverine a pussy. He's completely changed, gone from night-to-day. I think Bendis should have at least TRIED to create a smooth transition from Millar's run. But he didn't. I was really looking forward to Bendis' run on Ultimate X-Men when they announced he was going to be doing it, but now I'm REALLY looking forward to him leaving. He's completely wasted our time from start-to-now and hasn't even tried to explain the hanging threads left by Millar. Please Bendis, I know you have a lot of work on your hands, but try a little bit harder. -
Apr 22, 2004 4:15:32 PM CDT
"Suckerpunched" vs "Punked": Illustrative semantics and the "Sup
by village idiot
One of the things that I wanted to get into with my ACTION review, but it was just too ancillary, was a little discussion of perspectives Superman's fight with Darkseid. In the story, Superman tricks Darkseid into thinking that Superman will say something to him, when he instead suprise punches him. In my day (Generation X), this was called a "suckerpunch," and was usually considered a cheap, low way of fighting, and not particularly cool. However, I've noticed in some discussions that some readers (Generation Y?) saw the move *not* as a suckerpunch, but as a "punk." As in "Dude, did you see the way that Darkseid *totally* got punked?! YEAH!" I wonder whether there is something to be made from this; if it could speak to attitudes brought to the issue, or perhaps values reinforced by the issue, how a more adolescent power fantasy may hold more cultural cachet right now. (While I still maintain that Superman should be more the antidote than a presenting symptom.) Whatever the case, the idea of Superman getting that much closer to Trucker Hat/Aviator Glasses Wearing sensibility brings to mind the casual (*really* casual; I'm mostly being silly here) idea that Superman is being retailored for "mooks." Perhaps becoming "Super-mook." And now the idea of McG directing an Ashton Kutchner Superman doesn't sound so crazy anymore, does it?
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If you aren't checking out this one (and She-Hulk too, by the way!) you're missing out on some damn fine comics. These books are waaaaaaaaay better than average, and I've read a LOT of "average" and worse the past few months!
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I thumbed through that issue and the smart-ass comments from the "Big S" really turned me off to it. Superman is Superman not only because he is stronger but because he is BETTER. The "Dude" I saw in those pages was a smart-aleck jerk and that aint Super, man!
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Yeah, I'm surprised SheHulk#2 didn't get a cheap shot this week. There were more clever ideas in the average panel there than most entire books have. But will the book last, or is it based on a gimmick that will get old fast?
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A wonderful, fun book. We meant to review it, but sometimes these things fall through. Take me, I meant to review FABLES this weekend. Instead I got really, really, really, really, really, really really wasted. Shiftless & unreliable or just succumbing to the vast pressures endured by internet comic book reviewers, you be the judge. But don't fuckin' judge me, man.
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...of villains who know Bruce Wayne is Batman.
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Yes, as a former employee with Blockbuster, I can attest to the fact that they're indeed evil (really), but unless I underestimate their resources, the worst they can do at this point is hit up Bruce Wayne for Batman's late fees.
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I heard feu Tom Cruise is planning to produce it.
I'd love that! -
Cormorant, I couldn't agree with you more. Fallen Angel is one of the coolest books on the stands right now. The characters are multi-layered, the "hero" will torture the hell out of you for information (if you are a "bad guy"), and there is so much that is still just out there waiting to be revealed. Where exactly is Bete Noire? Where did the Angel come from? Are there actually good and bad guys? This book is just soaked with shades of gray. The closest parallel would be the spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood. Nameless hero comes to town from parts unknown and begins to kick any ass that needs it. I don't really care if we never find out where the Angel comes from. She's such a cool character anyway.=====Does anyone else wish we could get a do-over on Ultimate X-Men? I really haven't been overly impressed with the series since it started. From the beginning, this book has been overloaded. Too many characters, too much "socially relevant" commentary. Remember when any book with X-Men on the cover had some sense of fun and adventure? What the hell is wrong with having some superheroes actually battle some villains? Moral ambiguity is great in a book dealing with new characters (Fallen Angel), but the X-Men have a history of kicking ass. Let's have a little please.
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I enjoyed his art on Punisher and Daredevil.The art he did on Batman LOTDK Gothic was excellent.
Does he draw anything nowadays?.Sorry for my ignorance.
I only buy collected stuff nowadays(it's the future of comics)as the 15 covers and tin foil trading card,7 xmen or batman or whoever 3 times a month with donkey and carrot storylines that never get resolved but introduce a hot(lame) new character that might increase the collectors price by 50p(cents)put me off for years(had to get that off my chest sorry to all) -
satansteve,where you insulting me?i didnt understand a word u where saying,thanx for intelligently noting i was wrong,(pretty much the only understandable statement i got out of your tirade on the new guy)but why was i wrong,i mean im not saying im right,i realize a lot of people wont agree with me,but.....ahhh forget it,geez,i might put some of this space to use,i've been collecting runaways since #1,i agree the storys are great,and adrian alphonas art is outsanding,actually the only bone i would pick the shit out of would be that sloppy artwork by the guest artist on the cloak and dagger story,as for 1602,it was a nice tale,it just felt too,....i dunno...subdued,perhaps if it wasnt overhyped and crept up as a sleeper title it would have made more of an impact,but then again how can you not hype neil gaiman writing the main marvel characters.in closing,this goes back out to satansteve,im planting a big target on my back just for you to rant about again,i really hate marvel(most of it anyway),and i really love d.c.
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Picked up the TPB and issue 1 of Spidey and def. Thumbs up. Fuck, I wished I'd been following Runaways before, this series is awesome. and the new Spidey is sweet as hell.
Everyone must buy the Runaways trade. I'm sure that book could use the support. -
I think you'll find it's pretty *common* to not understand a word other TalkBackers are saying, but don't let that stop you from posting! Always good to see someone else onboard RUNAWAYS, a title I see as poised for mainstream success if more folks would just *try* the dang thing. It's certainly a more fun and, really, more modern, teen superhero book than the increasingly disappointing TEEN TITANS. Speaking of which, an issue or two back in TEEN TITANS, did anyone think it was just a horrible, horrible transition when we cut from Brother Blood actually *biting off* the jewel on Raven's head...to the BOING-BOING-BOING wacky antics of Robin and the other kids driving the Batmobile? That was...uh...that was actually pretty awful. ******* Regarding the guest-artist for the Cloak and Dagger story on RUNAWAYS...you really didn't like him? Alphona's art might define the series, but as guest artists go, I thought Takeshi Miyazawa did a terrific turn. He captures youth quite nicely in his own style and his draftsmanship's rock-solid. Sloppy? You crazy, mon! I can see objections to him on a purely stylistic level (i.e. "I don't like that manga look!"), but I can't see questioning his craftsmanship. I do think it was disingenuous of Marvel to use *his* art on the cover of the trade, though. It was a clear bid to lure the manga audience, but it's a slap in the face to Alphona, whose work dominates the series. ****** Agreed about 1602, though. I thought Gaiman had some nice '60s-style energy early in the series - more than many of Marvel's current-setting books, in fact - but panels and exposition became increasingly cramped as it progressed, and it lost a lot of its energy. Kind of went out with a whimper, and if Marvel's planning to let other creators write and draw spin-offs of the series as a SANDMAN-esque franchise...I think they'll find reader interest minimal.
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Ugh, on that note, I just gotta say I hate that guy's art. I've seen pics of Namor, which did nothing for me, but then again...it was written by Jemas. lol
The only full issue of Miyazawa I've read was an issue of Uncanny a while back. Way too cartoony for my taste and I like manga. Then again, since the particular arc was dark and came off Phillip Tan's kick-ass art, course it was gonna be a letdown.
I'm really digging teen Titans though. The newest issue, 10 was sweet, though Superboy's heat vision was a little too "Cyclops" for me. But Robin in Teen Titans rocks.
Robin: "Raven's not our friend, she's a supernatural weapon. If she needs to be stopped, we've got to do it because Starfire and Cyborg won't."
Impulse: "You're hanging around Batman too much."
I can definitely see Robin butting heads with the older members for leadership soon. But hopefully after Raven's back, Johns will unleash some new villains.
Oh well. That's my rant.
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Apr 23, 2004 2:13:35 AM CDT
Austen's SUPERMAN? Mixed feelings, but a few of 'em are...wait f
by dave_f
I think fellow @$$hole Village Idiot made a strong case for the "kinder, gentler" Superman being the pinnacle of this fictional character's evolution as an icon. At the same time, I've seen THAT incarnation taken to an extreme in recent years too. With so many of the Superman books featuring stories about how "important" the character is, how he's such a meaningful symbol, he's lost a lot of his fun and energy over the years. He's either perceived as a passive, milquetoast hero or a brainless Dudley Do-Right in need of an asskicking from Batman (a disturbingly recurring scenario, that one). I agree that Austen went a little overboard in retrofitting Supes with his full-on, roughneck Depression-era persona, but in *contrast* to years of the polar opposite...I liked it. If enjoying watching the bad guys "get theirs" from a character perceived as a muscle-bound pushover is juvenile...well, I can live with that. Supes needs some fun, needs some spirit back in him - yes, even if it IS a little juvenile. What can I say? If he's only bullying *bullies*, I don't see too much of a problem. Based on just this one issue, I equate Austen's ACTION COMICS a little with Morrison's NEW X-MEN on the level that I might not like every element of the reinterpretations in question, but god DAMN do these properties need a modernizing shot in the arm. And maybe a little extremism is called for. Waid's action-lite, character-heavy BIRTHRIGHT series sure ain't gonna make Supes cool again, much as DC was clearly hoping fans would embrace it as a sort of "Ultimate Superman." Getting back to Austen's first ACTION...yep, I actually quite enjoyed Superman's overuse of force against the crooks holding up the monorail thingee. Austen has no sense of restraint, but that doesn't mean he can't pace an action scene quite nicely sometimes, and when the thug threatens to shoot a hostage in front of Supes, I loved the instant cut in the next panel to Superman tackling this schmuck right out of the window into the open air (it was a raised monorail). This isn't *just* the personality we saw in the '30s - this is also something of the personality we saw on the excellent Superman animated series of the '90s. I'm thinking specifically of Superman grinning as he wound up to clock the crap out of a plane hijacker in the Superman/Batman movie by Dini and Timm. I like seeing a Superman who thugs might be a little afraid of, who they realize might not always treat them with kid gloves and a wink. And Darkseid? This is a character who, unlike Dr. Doom, has very little true honor. Doom, at least pre-Mark Waid, had some real honor and truly loved his people. Darkseid is a tyrannical, murderous despot who enslaves an entire planet with pure malice. He's tried to kill Supes and his friends any number of times. The basard *deserves* a sucker punch, and he deserved the relentlessly unapologetic aggression from Superman that followed. Anyone else sick of the face-offs where scumbags like Darkseid lose, but are allowed to walk away clean because the heroes are afraid to press their victory? I know I am. Again...Austen went a little far, to the point that Darkseid wasn't treated as the formidable foe he should be, but I appreciated the concept of the scene. And VI, I don't think you need to worry about Supes being "retailored for mooks." Not to any significant degree, anyway. DC never seems to have ANY far-reaching, coherent plan for Superman. Right at this very moment, we have Waid's BIRTHRIGHT giving us a touchy-feely, very post-SMALLVILLE reinterpretation; Rucka's ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN which will apparently focus more on Clark than Superman, but in a seemingly traditional way; Azzarello and Lee's SUPERMAN which promises to be curiously dark; and SUPERMAN/BATMAN which is Silver Age gentleness and honor from beginning to end. These multiple interpretations existing in the same universe are something of a problem themselves, but I've found that DC's iconic heroes are much better suited to reinterpretations than Marvel's idiosyncratic ones. DC's current approach to Supes seems to be, "Don't like THIS version? While why don't you try this OTHER one?" The humanist, paternal, Richard Donner, Great White Father iteration we all like is almost certainly safe. My *biggest* beef with Austen's story was simply Clark's cluelessness about his demotion (as mentioned in a previous post). I *am* a fan of Clark as uber-klutz outsider, but ultimately that's an act, and to play it as if he's *really* clueless...not cool.
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Apr 23, 2004 2:16:58 AM CDT
And speaking of Superman...VI, have you seen KILL BILL Vol. 2 ye
by dave_f
I won't get into specifics yet, but there's an extended bit about Superman's dual identity in the flick. These kinds of moments are kind of rote coming from Tarantino nowadays ("Let me tell you what Madonna's 'Like A Virgin' is REALLY about..."), but it was reasonably entertaining. A very cynical interpretation of the character, as befit the speaker in the scene.
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but im afraid i'll open up by saying i really didnt like miyazawas artwork for runaways,for the following reason.i think runaways works because it only loosely sticks to the manga sensibilitys its supposed to convey because its a tsunami title(is marvel still sticking with that),Let me redefine sloppy,i call miyzawas art grassroots manga,it is manga but its basic manga and much like kia ayasima(sp?)on uncanny x-men-whos artwork i found terrible and ditto for his costume designs-it just doesnt have a place on a mainstream title.Remember when joe madureira kicked off this whole manga style art with uncanny x-men,he started with american pencilling sensibilitys and slowly layered them with manga techniques,so by the time he left uncanny to do battle chasers he had developed his own style,that is the manga i like in comics,its still manga,but theres enough action/detail/lack of a better word to compliment the writing,remeber it doesnt matter how good the writing is on runaways or any other title,if the artwork looks like junk you find yourself just skimming over the book.
as for cormarants words on teen titans,i disagree,remeber johns,as with a number of the top talents working in comics today,writes multiple titles,keeping this in mind teen titans never dissolves into utter crap,one isssue might not be at the same standard as another but he still writes a consistantly good book.
and as for 1602 i didnt mean to give the impression i dint like it in my last post,i thought it was a great read,although now that you mention it it did kinda fizzle out quietly in the end,but still,if it was shorter and we didnt know the characters where marvels,id go as far as to say this is the kind of tale one of the characters could have told in the worlds end story in sandman.
sorry if this post was to long,and of course its open to critique,these are just MY opinions after all,but as always,remeber, be kind. -
but i type fast when i have stuff to say and lack of spelling or grammar makes way for that.
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Not that I take a mere two posts discounting his work to be anything more than anecdotal, but I don't get the distaste. HacocZer0 dismisses him as too cartoony, but if anything, he was probably *less* cartoony than the series' regular artist. Here's a sample page of his RUNAWAYS work so folks can see what I'm talking about: http://www.newsarama.com/Marvel/Runaways11.jpg See? Detailed and boasting a touch of manga flair, but hardly a huge break from Alphona's tone-setting work on the series. ****** To Mr.^J: Okay, if you're a big Madureira fan, then I think we've reached the point where we just have to agree to disagree about styles. I don't actively dislike Madureira - even bought a few issues of BATTLECHASERS when there were no other fantasy comics on the market - but I think his leaving the industry to pursue video game design work did indeed speak more to where his talents lay. His storytelling skills are just so-so - sometimes even bad - and he's far too over-reliant on the flash and glam of character designs and pin-up shots. In other words, his stuff reminds me of early Image art. If I'm looking for the best in American comic art that reflects manga style, I'll have to go with the guy who *really* set the precedent way back in the '80s: Art Adams. Madureira might've kicked off the modern movement, but he couldn't have done it if Adams hadn't opened the door. As a general rule, though, I don't much like traditional superhero books that ape manga stylistic affectations, because they never seem to get that so much of what makes manga *manga* is the storytelling...not the big eyes, motion lines, and panty shots. There are a few exceptions, though. I like Francisco Ruiz Velasco of LONE WOLF 2100, for instance. Obviously I like Miyazawa. Humberto Ramos was interesting before he took his stuff to its current ridiculous extremes (dear god, the waif eyes!). I also like Ed McGuiness, recently of SUPERMAN/BATMAN. Strictly speaking, he's not a hardcore manga stylist, but his artistic repertoire includes the manga flair for exaggeration, movement, and youthful cartoonishness.
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Ya gotta take the Punisher recommendations as a fun, cursory look at personal favorite stories, man, not a definitive "Best Of." And incidentally, I was planning to cover the first PUNISHER miniseries as part of my ESSENTIAL PUNISHER write-up, but I ran short on time. Hey, cut me some slack - that mofo of a trade is 25 issues long! But that first miniseries was indeed some great stuff. On the other hand, I'm a little scared of Punisher fans who fixate on his badassdness at the expense of the regular Marvel characters. You start getting into the "he coulda killed Spider-Man" hypotheticals and I have to wonder what you're even doing "hangin' out" in the Marvel setting. Plenty of books and movies out there that focus on straight-up vigilantism with no costumed do-gooders at all.
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Ive been reading for a long time but havnet posted in a while mostly because i got tired of all the little trolls on aicn.i had to post today because its long overdue for me to say that i love the @ssholes!this is one of the columns i look forward to the most and what keeps me coming back to this site.by the way i loved the links to the old GI Joe covers a few columns back!Man i was in nostalgia heaven!Keep doing that and i promise to keep coming back for more.couple of things off the bat,Im loving Superman/Batman more and more with every issue.Wether it be the great art or the pretty decent story im so hooked!Ultimate marvel is cool for me too!Did wolvie really pop that poor mutant kid?!GODAMN! Samuel L.Fury is a cold bastard!I liked broken city but please stop giving azzarello these project that keep drawing him away from 100 Bullets!Ive re-read the trades so many times for my fix that its not even funny!Liked runaways but its not really my thing so i gave it up.30 days of night is great!If you havent done so,pick it up!The punisher movie was lame story wise but tell me that dude is not a perfect punisher!I pictured him and Hugh jackman doing a punisher/wolvie thing!That would be tight!I was kinda bummed at harry's smear campaighn tho.Oh well at least the leaugue still gives me unbiased comic reviews.Finally,i forgot who wrote the review for action comics(and im too lazy right now to check)but that last bit about others being a dime a dozen but only one superman was great!Choked me up a bit since im a huge supes fan.The reason i keep coming back.oh and welcome mister j its fun here and if theyre not kind when they reply fuck em,i got your back.
"Im trying to talk comics and you bring up chicks and romance" -
I at one time preferred looking at Bryan Hitch's pre-fame work over seeing more super-polished Alan Davis pages. I still have a fetish for crosshatching, but I'm very much over Hitch in his current form. I'm sick of playing "Spot The Photo Reference," I'm sick of dingy looking characters, I'm sick of the "widescreen" spreads, and I'm sick of him taking longer than Brian Bolland to turn in 22 pages. Davis' work is sweet, accessible, timely, and--oh yeah, seminal, as opposed to still being derivative as fuck. Speaking of which, the only time I didn't find Terry Dodson's work an eyesore was when Al Vey assimilated his pencils Layton-style in the first few issues of Mantra. His work is the anemic coupling of Hughes and Mark Buckingham (who's himself a painful watered-down Chris Bachalo). Perhaps Dodson could produce something as lovely as an AH! cover if he cut his workload similarly, but the fact remains Hughes has been drawing in a style he perfected for years longer than Dodson's been masterbating to it, much less aping it. Finally, there's that remark about some forgettable no-name manga shit artist looking better than Kevin Maguire, which deserves the asthetic argument equivalent of rubbing a dog's nose in it's unwanted leavings for befouling the air that I breathe. Dear God people, rein in these wildly inaccurate ejaculatory assertions if you want your opinions to be taken seriously.
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Apr 23, 2004 4:51:11 AM CDT
I'll ejaculate my assertions wherever I damn well please! (Re: K
by dave_f
First off, Xavier, you seem to be under the mistaken impression that RUNAWAYS artist Adrian Alphona is a manga artist. He ain't, but I can understand the confusion. Marvel's promoting RUNAWAYS through a manga-style format, the guest-artist we've been arguing over in this TalkBack *was* a manga guy, and I did mention that Alphona's costume designs had some manga visual flair to 'em. But stylistically, the guy's got more in common with Disney's animation style (and maybe a touch of Terry Moore of STRANGERS IN PARADISE) than manga and/or anime. Honestly, I'm surprised to see anyone taking umbrage with comparing him favorably to Maguire, a talanted artist no doubt, but one who's been mostly just a cult-fave since his JLI days. And I *like* Maguire, but his biggest visual hook - those great facial expressions - are also something of a detriment in my book because I find they're *overly* emphasized. The pointed exaggeration distracts from the storytelling to me - big no-no in sequential art - and once you move beyond the facial expressions, he's merely an above-average artist with a low-output. Alphona's stuff has some of his same qualities of exaggeration, but I find his storytelling more dynamic than Maguire's, his facial expressions similarly spot-on but better integrated with the art as a whole. Better action sequences too. I think history's gonna bear out newcomer Alphona as a real A-list talent, and even if you prefer Maguire, you're sheltering your little mind if you think you can dismiss Alphona as a "no-name manga shit artist." Criminy! I think you could teach ME something about hyperbole with that BS.
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damn,marco xavier got me thinking about artists and my head started spinning and when my head starts to spin my mouth starts to run,so allow me to run my mouth on artist,it goes something like this(mind the spelling and keep your hands inside the window at all times)
......mike weiringo on robin and senstaional spidey,bachalo before he got a little cartoony on anything quirky like shade the changing man or death the high cost of living and the satart of his run on genX,hell,bachalo after he got cartoony on x-men and the end of his run on genX but not captain america,brian bolland on the killing joke and anything else for that matter,frank miller doing batman in the eighties,frank miller doing anything in the eighties,george perez....period,adam hughes....period,darryl banks on HIS green lantern,joe quesadas ninjak,ash and x-factor days,phil jiminez on the invisibles,steve dillon on preacher,john romita jr-most of the times,steve skroce up until he did gambit,sam keith on hulk and the max,j.scott cambpell initially doing gen13,jamie hewletts artwork for the gorillaz,john cassaday....maybe,humberto ramos at the start,and now again,jack "king" kirby...indefenitelly,tom raney who should be doing x-men if he could bring himself to do more then 4 issue runs,gene ha ,who should have been alex ross's interior artist instead of some hack and alex only doing covers,whichever kubert brother did hulk before peter david left ,adrian alphona,scott kollins and eduardo risso for now,and ahhhhhhh thats enough for now....be kind -
You know i shouldn't have laughed, but i did. Monkeys get me every time. those cute little bastards.anyway, Schelpy's (sp?) review of the punisher is about the best review i have read in a long while. Can we see the monkey do more reviews in the future?
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Apr 23, 2004 7:59:47 AM CDT
Is Schlepy Still Around? I Thought We Called The Damn Extermina
by buzz maverik
That's it! I'm putting my traps back out (I don't give a crap if Cormorant accidently stepped in one the last time and lost half his foot!)! I'm rolling out that tank of surplus Killer Gas from Gulf War I! Damned Schelpy!
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Yeah, he was awesome at the beginning of the gen-x, then as the manga influence entered his work more and more he devolved into such garbage, and now when I see his work I think "what a waste of talent." Guess that shows where my tastes lie as far as the manga stuff goes. But I didn't feel Miyazawa was too manga. In fact, a casual comic book reader I know couldn't even tell it wasn't Alphona. *** Okay, I'll admit it, I'm a literate enough guy, but I just thought 1602 was so dumb. I dropped it after issue 3--did it get any better? Am I alone here? It was one of those deals that I thought was a great idea, until I actually saw it executed, then realized it was a terrible idea (you know, like a Star Wars prequel). I loved those covers, though.
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Finally, the actual words written by the author, without the additions of others. Pure Howard!
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Interesting thoughts on Austen's take on Superman. I had to pause though when you stated "Darkseid is a tyrannical, murderous despot who enslaves an entire planet with pure malice. He's tried to kill Supes and his friends any number of times. The basard *deserves* a sucker punch, and he deserved the relentlessly unapologetic aggression from Superman that followed. Anyone else sick of the face-offs where scumbags like Darkseid lose, but are allowed to walk away clean because the heroes are afraid to press their victory? I know I am." Were you uninitentionally drawing a conservative-based parrallel to the Iraq or at least implying that Austen is, or am I reading too much into this?
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I hate going back to this (actually: no I don't). Here is another trip down memory lane with one of my all-time favorite childhood covers. I was fairly obsessed with this cover, this issue, and this series...such a great format, putting together a team based on skills for a 1 or 2 issue standalone story. Plus, people died in "Special Missions", and they didn't so much in the regular Joe title--if Joe was PG then this was PG13. Anyway, here it is:
http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=fullsize&issue=35586671450%202
The first issue's cover was great as well. But I'll also throw on this one, which is more subtle and cool and has you wondering what'll happen next:
http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=fullsize&issue=35586671450%204 -
Bachalo's not high on my list of fave artists, but I know the transition you guys are talking about from relative realism to his kooky post-STEAMPUNK artwork. Sideshowbob puts it this way: "...as the manga influence entered his work more and more he devolved into such garbage." So here's my question: is the supposed manga influence on his work a *known thing*? Because I look at his current stuff on CAPTAIN AMERICA, say, and the stylizations I see aren't very manga-y. I see cartoony faces, massively bulky bodies, heavy uses of black, and somewhat arcane layouts - but these elements of style are hardly unique to Japan. Basically, what I'm wondering is whether the *general* backlash against manga encroachment is leading some readers to falsely attribute artistic stylization to manga influence, when in fact...sometimes it's just artistic stylization, period. I suppose this is why I brought up Kevin Maguire in my RUNAWAYS review in the first place - because I see someone like him as being more influential on Adrian Alphona's RUNAWAYS cartooning than the quirks of COWBOY BEBOP or RANMA 1/2. Same goes for Ed McGuinness. Even I see some grains of manga style in his work, but I think it was in flipping through this week's BATMAN/SUPERMAN hardcover that I saw the artist himself saying American animation was a lot more influential on him than anime and/or manga. So I'm just wondering...do you Bachalo acolytes know for a FACT that his work changed as a result of manga influence? I'm just curious, in the same way I'm curious as to whether Sam Keith, were he to hit the scene only just now, might have his quite American brand of stylized art dismissed by some as being "too manga."
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Apr 23, 2004 5:24:16 PM CDT
By the way, Static as notable African American hero is a fair ca
by dave_f
But, of course, his comic is long-since cancelled. I was thinking more of extant heroes, of which there are very, very few. Hmm, there was a Static cartoon, right? That still around?
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But given the 101 analogues to Iraq and Afghanistan we've seen in comics, I can hardly blame you. Really, so much of the fantasy of superhero vigilantism is rooted ultra-right notions, even fascism, but it's such an *idealized* fantasy (basically, the good guys are always right, the bad guys always deserve what they get) that it has little bearing on real-world notions of justice. Of course, this doesn't negate the possibility that Austen IS planning to use Superman to abstractly promote a hawkish foreign policy - it's the kind of stupidly literal thing I can see him doing - but I wouldn't rush to that assessment. I think there's a better than even chance that Supes whupping up on Darkseid was nothing more than Austen's way of saying, "Look - MY Superman's not gonna be a pussy." S'all speculation, though.
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Just reminding folks to check out Pfeifer's stuff. Issues 15-17 are worth taking a chance on. That is all.
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.....u really know how to send soemone flying back to their early teens!Thanks man those were great.Reminded me of walking to this comic store near my house in shorts and a tee shirt sucking on a slurpee with 2 dollars tucked into my sock.great covers.byt the way does anyone know if they ever made a trade of the punisher mini or how i can come by one?
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I think Corm's review of AQUAMAN was right insofar as #17 goes. It was a fun issue that actually had some momentum to it. And the end -- What was that thing? I gotta know. However, I have to disagree with him in regard to #15 and #16, which I felt were soooo drawn out that wishful thinking was the *only* thing that keeping me around. I mean, there's a point where "slow, suspensful build" becomes "indulgent, empty pacing," right? In any case, this was one of those rare instances where the wishful thinking actually paid off, and I hope AQUAMAN can manage to stay on this trajectory._______And in regard to Austen's Superman and Iraq War attitudes, I'd say it's inadvertant. Ironic, and inadvertant.
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Look at the difference between the White Queen in this alternate cover from issue 1, and the cover for issue 30. Granted, I am not the leading authority on manga artwork, but based on what I know this issue 30 cover wears the influence on it's sleeve. And in any case, it is a *massive* difference. At the time I actually dropped the book because I was such a fan of his early artwork that the change was disheartening (and thus the "garbage" comment, alhtough it is still crystal clear to me which of these pictures is better). I haven't seen his work on Captain America but his run on New X-Men last year probably split the difference between these two character designs, leaning towards the latter:
http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=fullsize&issue=34928052456%201%20FAN%20ED%201%2F2
http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=fullsize&issue=34928052456%2030 -
And I did a minute or two of Google searching to see about getting something straight from the horse's mouth. Now Bachalo doesn't mention manga specifically in this interview, but when asked of his influences, he sez: "Let's see... Growing up a kid I was a humble follower of Michael Golden and Bill Sienkiewicz , as a person in my twenties my eyeballs found the work of Michael Golden and everyone else you can image very attractive, and my influences today, a mild mannered gent in my 30's sitting on the porch, include Michael Golden and my Cliff dwelling Bros. Campbell, Ramos and MAD [Joe Maduiera]." So...manga not officially spoken of, but Ramos and Madureira are explicitely manga influenced, so it might as well have been. I hold to my general point, though, that maybe a little too often, completely non-Eastern cartoony art is being dismissed as "manga style." ***** Incidentally, Sideshow, my biggest beef with what I read of Bachalo's CAP stuff was that his storytelling didn't flow well. We're not quite talking the arcane layouts of STEAMPUNK, but the action wasn't always very clear, y'know? As for the style...not so explicitely manga anymore, I think. You can still see the Ameri-manga influence of guys like Madureira and Ramos, but I'm also seeing the detail of his early hero, Michael Golden (especially on those guns): http://www.comicboards.com/camb/view.php?trd=040408190547
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Apr 24, 2004 4:03:26 AM CDT
Ah geez. You can't bring up GI JOE without pressing my nostalgia
by dave_f
Y'know, I didn't care that much for the SPECIAL MISSIONS spin-off when it began - I was a dumb kid, y'see - but as the mainline book got more and more cartoonish and toy driven, I did finally come to gain an appreciation for it. Then a few years ago when I re-read the issues, I was honestly shocked at how sophisticated and cool these stories were. That first cover Sideshowbob posted, for instance, leads off a great story in which the otherwise one-note Joe mechanic and driver, Clutch, gains some Jewish heritage backstory and has to make some hard choices. The plot, from memory: the remains of a Nazi bomber have been found, half-frozen in a massive iceberg melting somewhere near Greenland. Intel points to the possibility that its original mission was a poison gas bomb run in America, with Greenland as a refueling point where something apparently happened to make it crash. The story has two threads: first, there's a Joe team sent to handle the precarious recovery effort and try to neutralize the potentially-leaking poison before the iceberg drifts into populated areas. Second, we've got Clutch heading to South America to cut a deal with an in-hiding Nazi war criminal who's heard about the bomber, professed involvment in the original operation, and is willing to provide info on neutralizing the toxins in return for amnesty and protection from the Israelis who're tracking him. And indeed, the Joes reluctantly tangle with a Mossad team who're also after the aging Nazi. The Joes all have moral problems with making a deal with this scumbag, but they cut it anyway, only to find shortly thereafter that their sister team has managed to neutralize the toxins without his help (they did have to blow up some Cobra guys, though). The finale of the story I'm going to cheat on, because I forgot a few specifics. This part I clipped from a G.I. JOE website: >>He (Otto) tells them they had a deal, and they can't go back on their word. Clutch shuts him up and tells him the rest of the story Alpine figured out after reading the bomber's log books. There were originally two bombers heading towards the Americas. Otto was onboard the plane set for the gas raid on the United States, while a second plane was carrying gold stolen from Jewish prisoners and was to deliver it to Argentina to begin funding a new Reich. Otto faked a hydraulics problem and radioed the other plane for assistance. When they all landed on the glacier, Otto killed the other crewman and stole the plane full of gold, heading off in the other plane for a new life in Buenos Aires. He sold out the Nazis and hoped no one would find out. The young Nazis had thought Otto was living a life of poverty in Argentina before they helped him.<< Otto's betrayal of the cause that's bound an entire compound of neo-Nazis to him for *decades* is, of course, what dooms him. The Joes fullfil only the specifics of their obligation to him - they escort the Israeli team off the plantation, both teams knowing full well that Otto's own men will show his betrayal no mercy. The last few panels show Clutch leading the team away, impassive as execution shots ring out from the planatation. Holy SHIT that was a great issue! The Zeck cover is great - it's what made me *buy* the thing as a kid - but the truth is that it's just the icing on the cake.
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Apr 24, 2004 4:31:37 AM CDT
My two favorite issues of GI JOE SPECIAL MISSIONS didn't have th
by dave_f
This is one of 'em: http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/35586671450.6.GIF Okay, it's a good enticement cover (again, you really want to know What Happens Next), just not one of Zeck's best. Featured potentially goofy Joe survivalist expert, Outback, using every dirty trick in the book to escape a small, militarily locked-down, Eastern European republic. My other favorite: http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/35586671450.8.GIF It featured a sniper mission gone wrong in the jungles of Thailand. Turns out the whole thing was a convoluted set-up by the Joe's CIA liaison based on a psych profile of the Joe sniper that *anticipated* him freezing up on a certain shot. And he DOES, but the team is resourceful enough to accomplish their mission anyway, inadvertantly sabotaging the CIA's gambit to let a traitor escape into KGB clutches. See, the computer chip he had on him that the Russkies wanted actually contained a computer virus the CIA *wanted* to go to the Reds, and the Joe sniper ambush was only implemented to give his defection credibility. Oops! Writer Larry Hama was definitely a pretty right wing guy, but not above critiquing the military for those times when the right hand isn't talking to the left.
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Thanks for the recap, Cormorant. I had forgotten how much they actually stuffed into those 22 pages. Also forgot that major appeal for me was that Cobra wasn't the enemy in that series (Cobra jumped the shark with Serpentor's introduction and never looked back). Guess I'll have to dig around for those back issues next time I'm at my parents house. Or are they compiled in trade form? That one, issue #6 was a continuation of a great story in the regular Joe line were a mission goes way wrong, everyone gets captured but Outback, who is told to slip away and use his skills to make his way back to camp, where he gets Hell and is alienated for not busting out his teammates (who are tortured by their captors). All in all, a very dark story for a "kiddie comic."
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When will that "Death of Capt Stacy" trade get released and how were able to review it weeks ago? I had no diea the @$$holes had such sway in the industry that you could get these things so far in advance? Maybe my local store just neglected to put it on the new release shelf, but amazon lists it as not being out yet either. You may want to post the link to that review when it does get released, as it was well-written. I'll have to put that one on my "retro-TBs to buy this summer" list, along with John Byrne's FF Visionaries, Vol2 (at last!). Anything else due out that belongs on that list? What happened to Marvel's plans to churn out TBs for a lot of 70s & 80s material?
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But the DEATH OF CAPTAIN STACY trade didn't require us to shake our collective money-makers. It's been legitimately released, and I've already seen it arrive at my store, sell out, and return as a re-order. Your local store is smokin' hash if it didn't put it out on the New Release wall, but to give 'em the benefit of the doubt, it's possible they only ordered a single copy and it just sold before ta saw it. The trade HAS been in print before, so it probably wasn't ordered heavily. That it's a new printing of an old trade is why I suspect Amazon is confused about its release date as well. In fact, I remember them being similarly confused when the DEATH OF *GWEN* STACY was released last year - another new printing.
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id just like to know peoples ("constructive") thoughts on d.c.'s focus line,now that each title has passed the milestone first issue.
im a fan of hard time,and found while fraction has borrowed marvels pacing problems it was a solid first issue,if somewhat bland.im willing to give kinetic a try for now and to my surprise seem to be the only one who disliked touch,i just found it boring and it doesnt deliver the type of story a concept like that is capable of.
so i just wanted to compare notes with "my new family"(oh dear).join me for an update on thses titles in say.....five months when all thse books will most likely be cellebrating there final issue,until then
please be kind. -
Apr 25, 2004 12:48:35 AM CDT
Awright, J, you're a few posts into the TalkBacking experience -
by dave_f
Just kidding. The only DC Focus book that's really impressed me is KINETIC, so I recommend folks give that one a try. HARD TIME had a good premise but weak moment-to-moment writing, though I noticed it improved a bit with issue #2, and I need to give the third a try just to see how it plays out. TOUCH I've already mostly forgotten (too straight-up superhero, even with its twists), and FRACTION was boring enough that I couldn't make it to the end. In other words, I think your Nostradumus-like prediction of doom is pretty spot-on. I just hope KINETIC survives in the same way RUNAWAYS looks to survive Tsunami's downfall.
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I may have been hasty in calling Adrian Alphona manga crap, as his art is closer to Josh Middleton than Kia Asamiya. I confess a lack of familiarity with Alphona
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Bachalo acknowledges Michael Golden as an early and still important inspiration. Michael Golden lists among his influences manga/anime, so the influence goes back further than Cliffhanger. To Mickey Mouse, in fact, who inspired Astro Boy, the foundation for most of the "cartoony" elements most often associated with manga/anime. Now, seeing as Americans were also influenced by Walt Disney, anything that looks like classic animation can also be considered to resemble manga/anime. What makes Bachalo, Alphona and whoever else you want to throw in "manga crap" is the fact that while guys like Michael Golden were riffing off anime in the 70's, that influence didn't blossom into a widespread movement in American comics until the 90's. The chief instigators? Art Adams and the Japanese dominance of children's animation from the 80's on. As "serious" adventures series began to eclipse all other genres in comic books over the years, a more realistic general style was favored in American comics through the 80's, but so the Japanese-fueled renaissance of more varied, often "cartoony" styles have caused all such artists to be lumped into the "manga" category. Nevermind that manga legend Ryoichi Ikegami renders a more literal reality than 99% of Westerns, but you can't argue with the warm embrace of blanket prejudice.
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I had forgotten about how great that book was!Great write up cormorant now im definately going to hunt those down on ebay.Unfortunately i have no idea where my original copies ended up so here i go again buying back a piece of my childhood at double what i paid originally.hey i know its off topic with the whole manga art debate going on but has anyone heard when Mage is starting again?I Love that series so i hope soon but considering the last one took 10 years to start im not going to hold my breath.godamn matt wagner and stephen king putting out things i love and then taking YEARS to give us more!Oh yeah any Sopranos fans here?whats up with season 5?im bored to fucking tears!someone needs to clip the writers
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So, the once-excellent, now-putrid Chris Bachalo says his current influences include Golden, Ramos and Maduriera? What's funny is that I greatly enjoy the art of those three influences. Runaways--picked up the regular comic last ish. due to this site, now got the little digest, and LOVE IT! And I'm 39 years old! It's terrific, really an original comic--something so rare! Also dug on She-Hulk #2. And the post right before mine referenced the Sopranos. Well, it's kind of interesting and well-acted, but, alas, nothing really happens anymore. But we keep watching, thinking maybe THIS week, something good is gonna happen..but it never does. And I, for one, really don't understand Buscemi's character at this point.
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You know i picked up Runaways when it first started and really only cut back on it because i buy too many books right now.I also stopped reading emma frost and a few others.i keep hearing how great it is but it never really got to me like some of the other books i get.i might have to give it another chance tho.as for sopranos i know exactly what u mean homer sexual about waiting and hoping THIS week will be ok.I know its a comic book TB but DAMNIT i need to vent!i liked buscemis character up to the point of his drastic 180 with the whole massage parlor thing.im still hoping the jersey crew goes to war with NY and it looks like he may be a pawn used in getting things started.the whole pool scene was cool in that it shows them being just normal people.but damn when chris almost got killed i about shit myself
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