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AICN COMICS REVIEWS DETECTIVE COMICS! Shatner's TEK WAR! RED SONJA! WOLVERINE! & MUCH MORE!!!
| #7 | 6/24/09 | #8 |
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DETECTIVE COMICS #854
WILLIAM SHATNER PRESENTS THE TEK WAR CHRONICLES #1
X-FACTOR #45
PLASTIC MAN ARCHIVES VOL.1
EXISTENCE 2.0 #1
WOLVERINE: WEAPON X #3
GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #1
RED SONJA #45
AMAZING SPIER-MAN #598
INCOGNITO #4
Indie Jones presents…
CHEAP SHOTS!
DETECTIVE COMICS # 854
Written by Greg Rucka
Art by J. H. Williams III
Published by DC Comics
Reviewed by Stones Throw
Some might say it’s a shame that an artist as talented as J.H. Williams III is wasting his time on superhero books, but I say, keep ‘em coming, J.H.!! He drew Paul Dini’s first issue on this title way back in the days when the DCU was recovering from a CRISIS in which the Batman had gone missing—no, the one before the last one—and I was left wondering why the non-Williams issues that followed didn’t seem so exciting. Then Grant Morrison’s Williams-illustrated “League of Batmen” arc was probably his best work on the character until the new BATMAN AND ROBIN title.
Now Williams is back and, no offence to Greg Rucka, but again it’s the art that is the main draw on this Bat-book. What we get is a perfectly serviceable introduction-cum-reintroduction to the young lady who’s running around in that Alex Ross-designed Batwoman costume, but when drawn by Mr. PROMETHEA it becomes something almost epic in scope. Batwoman knocks around a Turk-like stooge in an alleyway for information related to the whole Crime Bible-plot that’s been percolating in Rucka’s books. She has a tense rooftop meeting with the Batman, as is the wont for new characters set in Gotham City. Then she goes home and recuperates before launching an attack on the “Religion of Crime” in an atmospheric church.
It’s perfectly fine, ordinary stuff, probably well-above average in the character work with Batwoman’s father and her older girlfriend, who thinks she’s “playing the field” when she’s actually out fighting crime, but Williams’ art makes it weigh 1,000 tons. Sometimes it’s relatively simple stuff like the way the first page fades in from a monochrome first panel, only introducing color in the bold red and black of Batwoman’s costume as she first appears in a double-page spread—which is made all the more surprising by the way the typical action shot doesn’t appear until the last panel, this being the rare wise crook who decides to stop running and ask the hero what she wants. Or how Williams’ art changes from thick blacks and watercolors when Batwoman is in costume to much clearer linework and brighter colors during the day.
Other times it’s stuff only Williams does and which followers of his art will already know well from his work with Alan Moore on PROMETHEA and Warren Ellis on DESOLATION JONES. The ingenious page constructions which give panels an almost religious iconography, similar to Mike Mignola’s HELLBOY. This time frames are shaped like lightning bolts and bats, best seen in a double-page splash towards the end of the book which reminds me of Frank Quitely on WE3 in which Batwoman wreaks havoc among a crime coven, the central figure of a leaping Batwoman interposed over jagged bolt-shaped panels showing smaller details of action. Or his detailed character design that gives the Alice in Wonderland-inspired leader of the coven a creepiness that matches Rucka’s writing.
The thing looks great and for those of us who didn’t follow all of 52 it’s a fine introduction to a hero who has a pretty interesting setup behind her, with a military father who helps plan her operations and supplies her equipment, while she’s simultaneously trying to carry on with a normal life. My only concern is a minor one but it’s related to both the art and the series this springs from. J. H. Williams had a long lead time so he can bring us these purty pictures on a relatively regular basis, but in the meantime a Batman has come and gone either to a prehistoric cave or a hole in the ground in the pages of FINAL CRISIS. So in the obligatory, impressively depicted standoff with Batman at the start of the book, is it Bruce Wayne or Dick Grayson under the cowl? I can see the answer having a pretty big effect on the premise of the book. We’ve seen Bruce Wayne give the typical hard@$$ treatment to other heroes in Gotham probably too many times but I can imagine Nightwing’s reaction to a potential challenger would be rather different. It would be a shame to see this series handicapped right out of the gate by being out of synch with the other Bat-titles.
The backup, or co-feature as Dan DiDio wants the backups called, is a QUESTION caper also written by Rucka (and illustrated by Cully Hamner). Weirdly, it’s pretty similar to the main feature. You’ve got a lesbian detective hero, an older guy who helps her and a gang they’re investigating. I can see this either being an advantage or a deficit. Either way I see the backups as pretty much a temporary measure before the $3.99 price tag becomes uniform. This one was pretty slight but in the case of the MANHUNTER feature in STREETS OF GOTHAM #1 Marc Andreyko fit more story into nine pages than many writers get in a full issue. So I dunno.
Anyway, it’s great to have the main Bat-books being drawn by artists of the calibre of Frank Quitely, J.H. Williams III and…Ed Benes? Holy outclassing, Batman!
WILLIAM SHATNER PRESENTS THE TEK WAR CHRONICLES #1
Writer: William Shatner & Scott Davis
Art: Erich Owen
Publisher: Bluewater Comics
Reviewer: Matt Adler
To be honest, I was not expecting much from this comic. Up till this point, Bluewater has been best known for its biographical comics featuring well-known figures from the world of politics and entertainment. Usually when small publishers put out comics featuring big celebrity names, the end product appears to be relying solely on that name to attract readers, without much thought given to making it something people would want to read. And while William Shatner is an entertaining actor, I’d never heard him lauded as a writer. I knew that this comic was based on his Tek War novel series, co-written by Ron Goulart, but that was about it.
So it took me by surprise when this turned out to be a pretty compelling read. Granted, from what I understand, much of this first issue is directly adapted from the novel, but I have read many weak adaptations even of good novels. Pacing, especially, is difficult to get right when translating from one medium to another, and any adaptation inevitably has to choose what to use from the original and what to cut in order to make the read flow smoothly. All of this is done very well by writer Scott Davis.
Credit also has to go to artist Erich Owen, whose art is as compelling and professional as anything seen at the Big Two; of course, the irony is that when such artists get to show their stuff at smaller publishers, the Big Two invariably take notice and the artists are snatched up. Based on this issue, I feel confident that’s what will happen with Owen.
In terms of story, this one runs along the lines of movies like I, ROBOT and BLADE RUNNER. The lead character is a hard-boiled detective, fresh out of prison, who lives in a futuristic world (the year 2120) filled with androids, brain modification technology, and the requisite worldwide, centrally-controlled information network. Perhaps the most interesting concept here is that our protagonist, Jake Cardigan, is a junkie. His drug of choice is something called “tek”, which is apparently pieces of cybernetic programming that can interface directly with the human brain, giving its user a high. Cardigan has gotten an early reprieve from prison, ostensibly to work for a private investigations firm that needs his help on the case of a missing robotics specialist.
Much of this may sound like ground that has been covered in the aforementioned movies, but sometimes the worth of a book lies in the “how” rather than “what.” The singer, not the song, so to speak. That’s the case here, as the way that the creative team plays this out engrosses you, even given having seen many of these story elements before. It’s this performance of the material that’s the main reason I’m interested to see where this goes next.
X-FACTOR #45
Writer: Peter David
Pencilers: Marco Santucci & Valentine DeLandro
Published by: Marvel Comics
Reviewed by: BottleImp
Okay, so by now, regular AICN readers should know that X-FACTOR (having clung to life through an unfortunate period filled with unnecessary crossovers and some ugly, ugly Larry Stroman art) is one of Marvel’s best comics on the stands. We @$$holes have heaped praise on the title month after month—the great art by DeLandro and others, Peter David’s knack for writing scenes that take the reader’s breath away, the mere fact that a motley assortment of plainclothes amateur detectives make for more compelling characters than the most colorful spandex-and-leather wearing X-Men; I know that I’m not alone in my opinion that X-FACTOR is at the top of its game. So what else is there left to say that won’t turn this review into a feelgood snoozer? Is there anything negative that one can say about this series? Well, I’m going to try. Here goes…
If there is any failing in X-FACTOR, it is that Jamie Madrox’s team of unlikely detectives has become very fragmented. At this point in the series, Madrox has been brought eighty years into the future by the time-displaced Layla Miller (wasn’t it great, though, how Layla was brought back into the series? That was so cool how…oh wait, I’m supposed to be being critical), half of the XF Investigations team is focused on solving a case of why a former mutant is being targeted by assassination by someone called “Cortex,” and the other half is off trying to track down Madrox and getting attacked by former X-Forcer Shatterstar (which was a really cool reveal—seriously, who’d have ever thought that a crappy Liefeld creation like Shatterstar would ever…oops. Sorry, got me gushing again). Meanwhile the ultimate adaptive mutant Darwin was in trouble last issue as it was revealed that the telepathic super-strong Monet was under the control of “Cortex” (in a hilarious scene that showed the readers that Darwin was a lot smarter than he looked…shit, here I am looking at the positives again). See? Waaaay too fragmented. Totally terrible storytelling. Seriously, how am I supposed to remember what’s happening to each character when the story suddenly shifts away from one of them at a crucial juncture?
Here’s the good news for all the ADD kids out there: David is slowly pulling all the threads together in this issue. We finally are beginning to see the connection between the goings-on in the present day and the mystery that Madrox is trying to solve in the future. And there’s more—a wonderful glimpse of a future Dr. Doom and Layla Miller’s devastatingly insightful analysis of his psyche (and much more interesting than Millar’s recent take on Doom), the subtle hints (unless I’m totally overreaching) of the return of classic X-Men villains from the Claremont & Byrne days, and here’s the real reason to buy this issue. You know how the MTV Movie Awards have a “Best Kiss” category? Well if X-FACTOR #45 was a film, rest assured that the second-to-last panel on the last page would bring home that crappy gold-plated popcorn.
So there you have it, a completely harsh review of one of the best comics out there. Next time I’ll turn my critical wrath on NOVA—seriously, just because he’s an outer-space policeman doesn’t mean he ALWAYS has to be out in space. And don’t get me started on the annoying non-stop action and excitement…
When released from his Bottle, the Imp takes the form of Stephen Andrade, an artist/illustrator/pirate monkey painter from the Northeast. You can see some of his artwork here. He’s given up comics more times than he can remember. But every time he thinks he's out, they pull him back in.
THE PLASTIC MAN ARCHIVES VOL. 1
Story by: Jack Cole
Art by: Jack Cole
Published by: DC Comics
Reviewed by: Baytor
I’m not a particularly big fan of Golden & Silver Age books. There are a few exceptions, such as Will Eisner’s SPIRIT and EC’s New Trend line, but mostly I give the two eras a pass. Oh, sure, from time to time I’ll lay my hands on a SUPERMAN ARCHIVE or a FANTASTIC FOUR MASTERWORKS and I’ll eventually finish it, but, unlike Doritos, I always want to stop after one story. They’re just too simple minded or illogically plotted for me to get excited by them. I ordered the first volume of the PLASTIC MAN ARCHIVES on a lark. The character had come up in some desperately trivial message board argument; I looked him up on Wikipedia, got to reading about Jack Cole, and decided to give it a whirl.
Even without the preface by Will Eisner, it would have been clear to me that Jack Cole was aping the pre-war Spirit. Not content to aim his stories at semi-literate children, he initially mimicked The Spirit’s style and tone, which was more akin to newspaper strips at the time. Plas starts off as a semi-serious gangster turned crime fighter with a friendly rivalry with the head of the police and it’s told with wonky page layouts and lots of captions. In some ways, it’s better than its main influence, because Cole seems to have a natural instinct for pacing and doesn’t run into the problem that plagued a lot of early Spirit stories: cramming far too much plot into its brief page count. It’s still a bit abrupt in places, but there aren’t characters getting killed in between panels and it isn’t dependent on lots of linking exposition.
But over the course of the first twenty Plastic Man stories, you can see Jack Cole shed those early influences, transforming the strip from good to brilliant. The art gets loser, the captions start to disappear, and Plas starts getting truly creative with his powers (although he’s still a year or so away from the sort of shenanigans modern audiences are used to seeing). With the introduction of Woozy Winks, an unrepentant pick-pocket who is protected from injury by nature, the strip bravely steps into the surreal and never looks back. When a mob boss named Pogo is shown to have a pogo stick for the lower half of his body, you don’t even question it; you just accept the madness of Plas’ world.
The comic reminds me of the best children’s cartoons, which never forget that they’re supposed to entertain kids, but doesn’t use their youthful ignorance as an excuse to pass off a lot of tired clichés. Six decades later and a lot of comics under my belt, this still feels fresh to me, and I grinned like mad the whole time I read it.
If there were a lot more comics like this in the Golden Age, maybe comics wouldn’t have gotten the dismal reputation they’ve been desperately trying to shed for sixty years. This is undeniably kid’s stuff, but it’s glorious kid’s stuff. This book may have come out ten years ago, but do yourself a favor and seek it out. PLASTIC MAN is one of the most amazing comics of the Golden Age I've ever read.
EXISTENCE 2.0 #1
Writer: Nick Spencer
Artist: Ron Salas
Publisher: Image Comics
Reviewer: Optimous Douche
A few months ago I read an article in WIRED magazine about a baby-boomer millionaire who was ingesting a steady diet of life-extending vitamins so he could live long enough to see the “singularity” – a point in time when human consciousness could be transformed into digital data and then repurposed anywhere. EXISTENCE 2.0 plunks this concept of “downloading” our brain-being into another body in the here and now, and embroils it into a noir mystery of deceit, assassins and a cat in heat. The concept alone was enough to make ole’ Optimous suffer through reading a .pdf; the fantastic delivery though made it a downright pleasure to scroll through.
As I traversed the opening pages, I could not figure out for the life of me how Spencer was going to make the lead character, the inventor of this wonder of modern science, likeable or relatable. An ethics be damned man of tomorrow, he dabbles in the verboten topics of scientific exploration like cloning, cryogenics and gene manipulation with reckless abandon, doling out these discoveries to the highest bidder. His latest invention of consciousness transfer was funded by terrorists looking to supplant their cerebellums with airline pilots so it will be even easier to crash planes. This guy is a Beaker for profit with a frigid wife and piece of ass on the side. Then came the hook; the one redeemable trait this man has is his love for his daughter. When she gives our scientist her brand new kitty to keep him company during his months of lockdown as he finishes his invention, it’s easy to tell what will be the man’s saving grace.
As it turns out the cat they thought was a boy was actually a girl and going through her first heat (I hate cat genitals, practically hermaphrodites the lot of them). Our fallen hero decides to rig the time lock door to get the cat the hell out of his lab and onto the street for deep cat dicking. In those fleeting moments he is murdered and transfers, excuse me supplants, his consciousness into the assassin’s body. Realizing this guy is better looking, living the life of a rock star and is slightly taller, our scientist says good-bye to his old life never looking back--that is until someone shows him a newspaper article of his death (his new existence’s hit) and the fact that his daughter has been kidnapped.
Don’t be fooled by my linear and lackluster recounting of this book’s events. Spencer plays deftly with time ending the book a few moments after it began, and filling the middle with all of the back-story. The dialogue is sharp and most importantly feels real, never posturing and in some cases LOL hilarious (especially when Spencer recounts exactly how the cloning, cryogenics and gene manipulation were put to use). Also of note are Salas’ excellent pencils, not just of the individual characters, but also the unique points of views in each panel (loved the blowjob scene). The muted colors and deep shadows are where I received a definite noir vibe, but since the phrase is so overused these days I would rather say the shading heightens the dark nature of the title.
Probably my only regret right now is that the title doesn’t launch until mid-July (don’t say we never give you guys previews), so I will have to wait at least another 6 weeks before I can see issue 2. Woe unto the reviewer.
When Optimous Douche isn’t reading comics and misspelling the names of 80’s icons, he “transforms” into a corporate communications guru. "What if the whole world had superpowers? Find out in the pages of Optimous’ original book AVERAGE JOE. Read the first full issue on Optimous’ New Blog and see original sketches by fellow @$$hole BottleImp. If you are a publisher or can help these guys get AVERAGE JOE up, up, and on the shelves in any way, drop Optimous a line."
WOLVERINE WEAPON X #3
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Ron Garney
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: steverodgers
I jumped on WOLVERINE WEAPON X with issue two when I noticed, while browsing the racks, that Jason Aaron was the writer. Now, I like Wolverine as much as the next guy, but I was on a Wolverine hiatus, which I think even the most-undead Marvel Zombie occasionally needs to go on now and then to stave off Wolverine-oversaturation sickness. I have been on a Jason Aaron binge, however, after finally getting around to reading SCALPED (if you haven’t read it, get the first trade and head on down to the rez with the rest of us). This has led me to read everything Aaron is attached to, even reading GHOST RIDER for the first time since the 90s. And now, of course, WOLVERINE WEAPON X.
To catch up, Maverick (Legacy free, apparently) gives Logan the head’s up that there are some shady guys in Latin America— independent, military-contractor types called Blackguard who might be messing around with the old Weapon X mojo—and he better get down there before they start causing trouble. Too late, Maverick! Not only has Blackguard started some trouble, but it has managed to engineer 12 soldiers with healing factors, adamantium-laced bones, and (best of all) gamma-green colored laser claws! Laser claws: right there you know if you want to buy this; there are folks who like comics with guys with laser claws, and there are those who don’t. I am firmly and unapologetically in the camp that loves laser claws. Oh, and they also have guns that shoot cancer bullets. These guys mean business.
Meanwhile, an investigative reporter back in San Francisco for the Post (one of the few who hasn’t been laid off) starts snooping into Wolverine’s business because she needs a story. This leads her to Blackguard’s business, and you don’t want to go snooping into Blackguard’s business, especially since it has a big government contract coming up. This lady should be nervous; after all, Blackguard invented laser claws and cancer bullets. Blackguard sends the “HR” team to deal with her—an opportunity that gives our old friend Maverick a chance to be a hero.
The bulk of this issue is Wolverine wreaking havoc on the spruced-up Blackguard soldiers in the jungle, one furry mutant alone. This isn’t anything that hasn’t been done before, but it’s always nice when it is done well. Aaron has set up the Blackguard soldiers to be tough enough so you know they will give Logan a run for his money. The art by Ron Garney, which would look just as polished without all the fancy coloring and shading, is superb and every panel is put together to move the story forward. I’d forgotten just how good Ron Garney can be, and it’s nice to see him kicking ass on such a fun book.
It will be interesting to see if Aaron will begin to add the mystery and grit that makes SCAPLED such an excellent series. Maybe he will even be able to make the WEAPON X program interesting again. I’m not too worried, however, because right now this book is reminding me that it’s always enjoyable just to see Wolverine doing what Wolverine does best: one mutant alone, impossible odds, just killing a a bunch of guys with laser claws in the jungle. SNIKT!
GOTHAM CITY SIRENS # 1
Written by Paul Dini
Art by Guillem March
Published by DC Comics
Reviewed by Stones Throw, after “the Kid”
Catwoman was balanced upside-down on this big H.R. Giger-looking gargoyle above the streets of Gotham with the evening light reflecting fetchingly off her tight leather costume. Then she jumped down to save this couple who were being attacked by Boneblaster, one of the new villains trying to establish himself in the current topsy-turvy world of Gotham City. He was pretty funny because he was really pleased to get beaten up by a new Gotham City Siren each time. I was like, “I can sympathise, man!”
Then Poison Ivy showed up and she was wearing this really tight green swimsuit with just two leaves covering her…y’know. She was saying, “Catwoman and I don’t always see eye to eye, but I’m not going to watch her be manhandled by some meat sack.” And I was like, “I wouldn’t mind manhandling Catwoman’s meat sacks!”
Then Poison Ivy picked Catwoman up and her jacket had become unzipped in the fight so you could see down her…ahem. Poison Ivy told her “necessity makes strange bedfellows” and they went to Poison Ivy’s home where the Riddler was just sitting on the couch staring at them and drooling. She bent down so the Riddler’s face was almost in her…yowza.
The best part of the issue was when Paul Dini’s pet character Harley Quinn came in dressed in a Britney Spears-ten-years-ago outfit with a really short skirt and the blouse buttoned down all the way to her…uh, tchotchkes. She bent down in front of the Riddler too and he was just like, “Whatever you say, Pamela.” And I was like, “I can sympathise, Riddler!”
Artist Guillem March drew a good panel where Catwoman’s ass was in the foreground while she was talking to Harley and Poison Ivy. Then on the opposite side of the facing page there was a similar shot of Poison Ivy. That was a cool use of page layout.
Paul Dini’s second favorite character Zatanna also showed up and all she was wearing was a bathrobe that she was about to take off. Then she fell in the water and her butt was sticking up in the air and when she got up her, uh…magic rabbits were all wet. Poison Ivy was like, Catwoman needs some “positive female reinforcement” and I was like, “Cool!”
But then Boneblaster blasted in and he was like “only Boneblaster’s gonna whack the Joker’s chick!” And Harley was like, “I’ll give ya a night you won’t forget!” Then they all moved into this abandoned animal shelter and Harley said, “There’s something we need to get out in the open before we can be all sisterly and whatnot.” Then Catwoman got drugged and Ivy and Harley both bent down in front of her and I was like, “This would make a pretty good porno.”
Next issue I’d like to see Wonder Woman, Tigra and She-Hulk appear.
RED SONJA: SHE-DEVIL WITH A SWORD #45
Writer: Brian Reed
Art: Walter Geovani
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Reviewer: Mr. Pasty
RED SONJA (rhymes with I’d-Bone-Ya) is one of those comics that lives and dies on the merits of its artwork. Previous incarnations of Sonja have looked more like Doc Samson in drag than a sultry she-devil, but like any fanboy worth his weight in plaid, Walter Geovani has triumphantly mastered the objectification of women. That, coupled with the sort of bold and flashy colors you might expect from Ramon in “Beat Street”, and you have a book that cover-to-cover is about as aesthetically pleasing as they come.
Now color me subjective, but I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Big Red. Not even the foul stench of Brigitte Nielsen’s wretched and cardboard performance opposite a shameful Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1985’s “Red Sonja” could dampen my spirits (but they came pretty darn close). Like Conan, Sonja’s been around for quite some time and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say her imprint has been left on other books. I always felt there was a little bit of Sonja in Peter David’s Marlo Chandler character back when she was banging Mr. Fixit in a grungy Vegas casino. But I digress.
Despite the ambiguity of opening lines like “Generations ago…” RED SONJA is surprisingly well executed. Not to worry, you’ll get plenty of shots of a freshly waxed Sonja posing for the masses like a drunken debutante whoring up her MySpace page. But you’ll also find a crisp and fluid narrative that engages you to the point where you find yourself voluntarily paying attention. A less inspired writer might have simply sewn together whatever was left on the cutting room floor from prior books with just enough coherence to move Sonja from one panel to the next. Brian Reed, however, takes the time to craft a simple but engaging story that is violent, seditious and just plain fun.
The only reason I’m giving this book four stars instead of five is because RED SONJA, like most pornos, has a maddening habit of sucking you into a panel full of voluptuous warrior babes engaged in hand-to-hand combat -- only to slam a close-up of a sweaty man’s face into the next frame. Total buzzkill.
Think of the hottest girl you know. Then make her as smart as the nerdiest girl you know. Finally, give her a butcher knife and a bottle of Rumple Minze. That pretty much sums up RED SONJA. Oh, and did I mention there were killer female zombie ninjas with tight asses? What more could you ask for in a comic?
My Rating: 4 vacant shells out of 5.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #598
Writer: Joe Kelly
Art: Paolo Siqueira & Marco Checcetto
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Liam ‘The Kid’
Note: ‘The Kid’ is 8 years old and has been doing reviews on his own site since August of 2008. And you can now follow the kid’s daily ‘adventures’ on Twitter.
There are only two more issues until Spider-Man 600. That comic is going to be really great because it’s over 100 pages long and all of the stories inside are going to be new. There isn’t a lot of the old stuff that they put in the comics sometimes for the special issues. I saw Dan Slott again at the Philadelphia Comic Convention and he showed me and Ethan some of the pages from Spider-Man 600 and they look so cool. He said he had a lot of fun working on it and hopes that we’ll like it. There was a lot of cool stuff going on in the pages he showed us, especially with Doctor Octopus so I bet it’s going to be a really good comic.
Spider-Man didn’t get killed when Osborn shot him in the last comic. I knew he wasn’t going to die or else there would be no point for the book. Mr. Fantastic helped make Spider-Man’s new black suit so that all the bad guys would think he was really Venom. It didn’t work too good because everyone figured it out but he still made the mask extra special so it couldn’t be taken off and no one could stab him through the mask or shoot him or anything. That’s how he’s still alive.
So Spider-Man is now a prisoner at Osborn’s base. They have him trapped and Osborn wants Bullseye to figure out how to take his mask off and he’ll give him 10 million dollars if he can figure out how to kill Spider-Man or take off the mask. I like the part where Osborn asks Spider-Man why he cares so much about Harry and Spider-Man makes a joke about his hair that gets Osborn really angry and he sucker punches him. There is another good part where Bullseye is in charge of torturing Spider-Man and Spider-Man tells him a joke that makes Bullseye laugh so hard that he starts crying and then he says he’s sorry but now he’s going to have to finish killing him. It was strange that Bullseye was laughing at Spider-Man’s joke but I still liked it. Bad guys usually don’t laugh at his dumb jokes so I thought it was interesting. There is a weird part where Osborn is showing Harry all of this stuff in his lab about how he’s coming up with a way for Harry to have the same powers as Captain America. There is a picture of a guy with long blond hair in one of the tubes. It kind of looks like Thor but I don’t think Thor is captured. The first Captain America has blond hair but I don’t know how Osborn would have captured him.
The best parts of the book are with Spider-Man and Norman Osborn. Even though he’s not acting or dressing like the Green Goblin, Osborn is still really strong and really scary. I like how he and Spider-Man are always getting into it. My favorite part is when Osborn figures out how to destroy Spider-Man’s mask and it starts to fall apart and Osborn is all happy and tells Spider-Man to smile. Spider-Man breaks out of his trap and grabs Osborn’s face with his fingers and uses his wall climbing powers to have his fingers stick to Osborn’s face and then he rips his hand back and pulls off the skin so Osborn has all these scars. Then when he’s free Spider-Man starts choking Bullseye and takes him out pretty fast.
The problem is Spider-Man is really tired from his fight with Wolverine in the other comic and then Bullseye’s shooting him with arrows and torturing him and his fight with Osborn so when Osborn starts pounding on him he is losing real bad. Osborn is so angry and he’s telling Spider-Man that once he kills him and takes off his mask he’s going to hunt down all his family and kill them too. Even though Spider-Man is a prisoner for most of the comic there are still a lot of good parts, especially when Osborn and him are trash talking. They really hate each other. Spider-Man’s black costume is cool and I think he should keep it for when he goes out for special battles since it is stronger. There was a good amount of action in it too and the coolest part was Spider-Man using his powers in a different way.
The only thing I really didn’t like were the parts with Harry and Lily. She isn’t very interesting at all when she is just Lily and now when she turns into Menace she looks very strange. Harry never seems to know what’s going on so hopefully after this story he won’t be around her much. I liked the ending to this one. It was a little surprising and it will make next issue even more interesting.
Rating: 9 out of 10.
INCOGNITO #4
Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Sean Phillips
Published by Marvel Icon
Reviewed by Stones Throw
Dames, huh?
In this latest issue of Brubaker and Phillips’ excellent INCOGNITO, we have our anti-hero Zack Overkill ambushed and overpowered by the good guys in the comely shape of Zoe Zeppelin, daughter of Professor Zeppelin, the founder of the Special Operations Service (S.O.S.). Meanwhile, representing the bad guys, who are marginally worse, Ava Destruction is still causing trouble and by the end of the issue appears to have convinced poor Zack to turn back to the dark side. Plus the sexy co-worker who got him into all this trouble in the first place has finally started paying attention to him, but only cuz she’s turned on by his apparent close shave with a couple of super-criminals.
Dames, huh?
When INCOGNITO first started up its run I felt it might be a little similar to Ed and Sean’s modern classic SLEEPER at Wildstorm/DC, what with its sci-fi noir-ish superheroes and villains under deep cover (inside a super-crime ring in SLEEPER; in the Witness Protection Program here). But where that series, like CRIMINAL, was pretty relentless bleakness, here I’m starting to see elements of wicked humor creep in.
Firstly, the hero, Zack Overkill, is, in the classic pulp tradition, way over his head and just the right side of pathetic. In the first issue he’s a former B-level supervillain (I’m thinking Marvel’s Blood Brothers) who’s reduced to holding down a 9-to-5 job as an office clerk and getting high on lunch breaks. After regaining his powers and doing some surreptitious hero-ing he’s picked up by the S.O.S. (the guys who run the show in this world), but, instead of locking him up or busting out, they just put him straight back into his regular life to act as bait for other super-criminals!
Even more ironic, in this issue Zack is forced to say a few words in memorial for the friend who he was planning to kill, who, after he’d spared his life last issue, was immediately bumped off by two bad guys looking for Zack.
C’mon, that’s damn hilarious.
It’s black humor, but even so, I’m loving seeing this new side from Ed Brubaker. The guy’s proved he’s a dab hand at police procedural (GOTHAM CENTRAL), bleak-as-hell noir (CRIMINAL), old school action (DAREDEVIL) and superhero soap opera (CAPTAIN AMERICA), but this is the first time—without Matt Fraction—that I’ve seen his writing so lively and, well, funny. There are still the same plot twists and turns of the screw that regular readers of CRIMINAL will have come to expect, but it’s backed up by a malicious energy that gels perfectly with characters that fall somewhere between pulp, superhero and science fiction.
Phillips’ art is as hardboiled as usual but it too has a cool larger-than-life knowingness in the designs for villainous characters like Doctor Lester, the Black Death and Ava Destruction. This isn’t like a usual issue of CRIMINAL where characters are confined to a strict three-tier panel structure. Page layouts are much more unrestrained and the colors have a brighter, almost neon palette that works great combined with Phillips’ thick inks. Cleverly, this kind of stuff has become more prominent as Zack steps away from his mundane life in #1 back towards his past. I like it. Too often the grim’n’gritty / superheroes-gone-bad sub-genre is just dark and moody, like (most recently) Waid’s IRREDEEMABLE or, uh, SLEEPER. But Phillips and Brubaker aren’t afraid to embrace the more outlandish side of the genre, like the classic mad scientist in the shape of Doctor Lester or a mini-skirted villainess carrying a stonking great gun.
If you’re a regular reader of CRIMINAL—and if you aren’t, I’ve got a conical-shaped hat you can wear—you’ll know things always end up way worse than you could expect for the main character. I can’t wait to see what more trouble them damn dames are gonna spell for Zack Overkill.
Hey folks, Ambush Bug here with another mess of comics of the independent flavor. Take a taste, it won’t hurt ya!
VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS #10
Bluewater Comics
It was a treat to read this issue of VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS. Sure, it’s got a nice TWILIGHT ZONE feel to it where an everyday guy is thrown into an extreme and bizarre situation, and the twist ending was something I definitely wasn’t expecting, but the best part about this book was to see Patrick Broderick’s pencils again. I grew up reading Broderick’s pencils on GREEN LANTERN, and he’s still got what it takes upping the intensity of this story of a small traffic accident that gets blown waaaay out of proportion with skewed and tense angles and a wonderful looking rendition of the Master of Horror himself.
STRANGE EGGS: JUMPS THE SHARK
Slave Labor Graphics
This was a bizarre and frantic read. Basically, a number of artists got together to do a book with the same theme. Here the theme is a desperate pitch meeting where a group of suits try to save the STRANGE EGG bunch with a handful of wacky pitches. Some are more fun than others, but the talent in this book is evident. Some of my favorites were the scribble art adventure “Magic Unicorn Poop” by Paul Friedrich (it’s one of those stories that looks like it was done by a child, but the level of depravity within suggests otherwise); I loved the art on “Run, Dad’s Home…He’s Gonna Kill Us!” by Kenny Keil & Chris Reilly about a psychotic dad inventor and his out of control inventions; the surreal panels of “Episode XXX” by Jen Feinberg & Todd Meister entertained from corner to corner of the page with the sheer “that’s just wrong”-ness of it all; and JOHNNY THE HOMICIDAL MANIAC & SQUEE creator Jhonen Vasquez offers his usual uncanny drawings to this book in “All Bow Before Gloogh!” With the wide variety and senses of humor present here, there’s a lot to enjoy in STRANGE EGGS JUMPS THE SHARK.
LITTLE MOUSE GETS READY HC OGN
Toon Books
This kiddie book may not be on the radar of comic book lovers, but once you find out it’s written and drawn by BONE’s Jeff Smith, you may just change your tune. Toon Books has quickly become a cool place to go to get quality children’s stories. In this one, a tiny mouse gets ready to go visit the barn and one article of clothing at a time, he prepares for his visit. No, it ain’t Shakespeare, but if you’ve got a kid and want to turn him on to comics, this may be the book for you. This cute little ditty is slickly produced and guaranteed to a child, or the child in you, smile.
Ambush Bug is Mark L. Miller, reviewer and co-editor of AICN Comics for over eight years. Check out his short comic book fiction here and here published in MUSCLES & FIGHTS 3 and MUSCLES & FRIGHTS on his ComicSpace page. Bug was interviewed here and here at Cream City Comics. Look for more comics from Bug in 2009 from Bluewater Productions, including the just-announced sequel to THE TINGLER for their VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS series available in July’s previews (Order code: JUL09 0737) and on the shelves September 30th.
THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST #27
Marvel Comics
The ending of this title is sort of bittersweet for me at this time. On the one hand, I really have enjoyed the past couple arcs (even if I did think the last one ran an issue or two too long) and I think Swierczynski has just started to hit his stride on his take of the generational saga of the Iron Fist and the life of Danny Rand himself. But, on the other hand, this was more of a "just before the middle of the stack" book despite my enjoyment for quite a while, and with comics getting more and more expensive, as you know, seeing three bucks drop off my monthly comics budget isn't exactly something that's going to break my heart right now. I guess you take the good with the bad though, and at the least this has given me some exposure to Swierczynski's work (his novel "Severance Package" is awesome btw) and they've left the story open ended to be taken up in the "Deadly Weapons" minis coming up that actually bother to add extra content per issue for their extra dollar on the price tag. In the end I guess I'm just glad that one of my favorite C-list characters got a shot at making himself something, and I'm glad Swierczynski and crew at least brought the book out on an end note that saw some good character development and moments that can be picked up upon easily if the call ever comes back down to give Danny another shot again in like, 25 years or so. Never know I guess. – Humphrey Lee
THE SPIRIT #30
DC Comics
This was another filler issue, but a pretty good one from Michael Avon Oeming. It reminded me of Darwyn Cooke’s work on the title in its blend of modern day criminal gangs, in the shape of the Yakuza and Triads, with old-fashioned Eisnerian Spirit action. It seems a shame this title is ending in another two issues. What it really needed was another strong writer-artist like Cooke to come aboard and give it some direction. Sergio Aragones was okay but his run got bogged down in corny jokes and hokey mysteries, and the less said about the last three issues by the producers of Frank Miller’s SPIRIT movie, the better. I’d have loved to see Paul Pope’s SPIRIT. But Dan DiDio says the Spirit will be back with the pulp heroes being revived by DC soon, so we’ll see. - Stone
DARK REIGN: LETHAL LEGION #1
Marvel Comics
Although I'm starting to feel the weight of the number of DARK REIGN books out there at the moment, this one is an interesting detour from the norm. Frank Tieri writes this story about a lawyer visiting the Raft who represents a group of super criminals who decide to fight against Osborn's Reign instead of team up with him like every other criminal in the Marvel U. Yes, it's the same basic premise as last week's MR. NEGATIVE, but Tieri's handling of the team, which is made up of a lot of the Masters of Evil who wrecked the Avengers Hydrobase and beat the snot out of Jarvis in that classic story, makes this one unique enough to stand on its own. There are a couple of rocky parts, like when Tiger Shark describes his anxiety attack and references the SOPRANOS, that seemed a bit too obvious, and I thought the Raft was shut down at the beginning of NEW AVENGERS and replaced by Reed Richards’ Negative Zone prison, but I like the cast of villains at play here and the grainy artwork from Mateus Santolouco is going to insure a repeat visit when issue two drops. - Bug
ASTONISHING X-MEN #30
Marvel Comics
So Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi's first arc on AXM after Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's run for the ages end is not over as well, and, uh, that was okay I guess? Okay, here's the thing, I actually like the way Ellis' sort of standard Sarcastically Hard Edged dialogue played its way out through the characters, which I think he actually had a good grasp on as well. But the story itself was only alright, and when a pretty okay story plays itself out over the span of, what, at least a year now? It's just really hard to muster any excitement over. The much maligned delays on Whedon and Cassaday's run were bearable because that was one of the best X-Men runs pretty much ever, but an average book, even with some occasionally cool character moments and playful dialogue, sparsed out over the same amounts of time between issues...it's just hard keep any attention. Now, if this starts shipping more in the semblance of a monthly book, maybe even every six weeks, then I think this would be something I could look forward to, but as is, I think it might have to go the way of another dozen or so books that I've been eying down as cuts as the market has been making itself more expensive during this recession. - Humphrey Lee
FREDDY VS JASON VS ASH: THE NIGHTMARE WARRIORS #1
DC Wildstorm
The key to making a book like this work is making the initial reason for three of horror’s biggest icons getting together and tussling somewhat believable (as believable as you're going to get in a comic focusing on 80's serial killers), and in THE NIGHTMARE WARRIORS, they seem to be doing that in this first issue of the second series featuring these guys. Jason is once again resurrected. The nature of Freddy and Jason's powers (according to this book) come from the Necronomicon--that pesky tome that makes Ashley Williams AKA Ash's life a living hell. This is a plausible way of getting the three of them together, so from the get go, it works in that sense. Not sure if I like the new look for Jason (the lower half of his mask was blown away by Ash's shotgun in the previous miniseries), but the action here is pretty intense as a military squad bent on finding the Necronomicon run into the King of Campfire Resurrection in the middle of a snow covered lake. No sign of Freddy yet, but the set up for Ash to open a can of whomp-patoot has been torn open well in the final pages of this issue. All in all, a decent and plausible start to what looks like another fun series. If you're a fan of any or all of these films, you'll be buying these anyway, but unlike previous incarnations of Jason and Freddy in the funny books, this story is actually pretty good. - Bug
SECRET WARRIORS #5
Marvel Comics
Issue five of this book is just more proof of what I've been saying all along: Who gives a shit about the team when this just needs to be Nick Fury's book? Literally the Warriors themselves showed up for one panel in this book, and I never really noticed. This book's focus now is seemingly all on the shoulders of Nick Fury, now with long time comrade Dum Dum Dugan back at his side, and his war with Hydra. If that sounds like the action comic that needs to be, well, this is now it, with less F-list characters getting in the way except to be used as Fury's big gun in the fight, which is shaping up to be glorious come next issue. Hopefully this keeps itself running this way instead of trying to endear us with the cannon fodder. I came to see Fury kick some ass and right now, I am very content with what I'm seeing. - Humphrey Lee
DARK REIGN: ZODIAC #1 (of 3)
Marvel Comics
This one had me right up the last few pages, but left me with a big "wha-huh?" Joe Casey sets this up pretty well. You've got a masked villain with an identity unknown. You've got some obscure henchmen. You've got a grueling disembowelment scene, followed by a scene where 12 bodiless heads are rolled out of a bag for fun, followed by a scene where 100 HAMMER agents are found hung upside down and killed as if they were in a slaughterhouse (all in a Teen Plus rated comic book, mind you). Lack of parental advisory to the kiddies aside, it was fun seeing the new Zodiac run rampant and scheme to take down Osborn and his HAMMER organization. It was kind of fun seeing him take out the Human Torch as easy as he did (although enraging him by taking swipes at his heterosexuality is a bit on the ugly side making me root against both parties--Zodiac for bringing it up and Johnny Storm for getting so pissed off about the mere suggestion that he's gay). But the thing that really knocked me on my ass back to "what the fuh-?"-ville was the last panel reveal that under the Zodiac hood, is...
Wait for it...
Some sweaty guy.
Maybe I missed something, but after a reread, still, it's just some random, nameless guy under the hood. ZODIAC was fun 21 out of 22 pages; too bad the last panel left such a bad taste in my mouth. - Bug
Editing, compiling, imaging, coding, logos & cat-wrangling by Ambush Bug
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
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YEAH
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You forgot the 'Rating: 9 out of 10' for Sirens of Gotham.
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The Red Sonja movie was filmed in Italy with music by Ennio Morricone, who was also responsible for the music in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” also filmed in Italy. Both Red Sonja and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly are comic books published by Dynamite Entertainment. In film, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is revered while Red Sonja is loathed. In comics, at least for my tastes, it’s just the opposite.
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...about Iron Fist. I thought that the last 2 arcs were the best of the series. Guess it's time for Marvel to dust off Shang-Chi!
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I mean, we used to have MONTHLY COMICS paced faster than this. Cripes. The pernicious effects of the trades strikes again: Pace it as slow as you want, there are people who will only buy it as a trade and NEVER as a comic. Since that's where the money is, there's no motivation for writer or artist to pick up the speed.
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A pregnant Goblin on the cover...shit, I'm an adult and that freaks me out.
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But Latveria is six time zones to the east of you -- DOOM has the advantage!
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He could care less about Lily. He thinks it's the least interesting part of the book and I have to agree with him.
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It comes out today. It is a damn good book so be sure to check it out at the shop.
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It would be difficult to impossible to reach the heights of those late 70s issues. And kung fu was THE thing back then; the novelty effect (back before we were all familiar with the tropes and the situations) can't be brought back again. Not to mention his dad is Fu Manchu! Break out the polit correct squad for anything mentioning THAT again!
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i jizz in my pants.
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...it was a 7 out of 10. Possibly 6.5. I did enjoy the book quite a bit more than Dini's other new Bat-book, STREETS OF GOTHAM, the previous week, though. GOTHAM CITY SIRENS...MARVEL DIVAS (is that the book's name?)...what's going on here? Will we have DARK HORSE DAMSELS next? IMAGE WOMEN? I like how these books are masquerading as vehicles for strong female characters when really they're just an excuse for cheesecake. And doesn't the Marvel series rather redundantly have Hellcat and Black Cat in the team?
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Check out this blog:
comicsradio.blogspot.com
for Wednesday posts tracking the history of Silver Age Marvel comics on a month by month basis, with some keen analysis on why they were so good. -
How'd you like to stick your face in that, do the motorboat, play lollipop with her balloon knot? Yeah, you bet your bippy.
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Different shit. Shamless plug if I don't say so myself. http://tinyurl.com/n5al5e
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Is it in Black and white? The preview in one of the FCBD was in Black and white. Another end of the world book.
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Looked pretty shitty.
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All he needs is a John Holmes mustache and everything else will fall into place perfectly...
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No the book is in full color and the color palate they use is pretty damn good, actually. I'll try to find a link to some pages. Not an end of the world book, either. It's crime noir meets sci fi. I'd put it in the Brubaker/Phillips Sleeper category if I had to compare it to a specific book.
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Nice to see you commenting, Mr. Kent. I like the sister website of Marvel's MASTERWORKS series. Never bought one of the books, myself (I prefer the ESSENTIALS) but the website has cover galleries, a monthly chronology of Marvel comics in the Sixties and, best of all, click-and-read-able letters pages and Bullpen bulletins, where you can see the likes of Roy Thomas, Dave Cockrum and Steve Gerber writing in pre-employment at Marvel.http://tinyurl.com/3n8oqe
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11 pages here
http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album.php?aid=29130 -
Talk about comics, check out comics, blog your stuff!
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Yeah I just realized I was thinking about something else. I read a preview for it somewhere, back of something a couple weeks back. Maybe it was Overlook.
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Had anything to do with Tek War, besides slapping his name on it? At least the new stuff?
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I can see why some people aren't liking it. Although that is a crap cover (and nothing compared to the J.G. Jones variant), I thought overall the contents were in the respectful comics tradition of busty, long-legged females, and not crass like some American artists such as Ed Benes or Michael Turner (God rest his soul). It wasn't as good, but it reminded me slightly of Jordi Bernet on JONAH HEX in the fluidity and some of the expressions. I certainly far prefer his female figures to when he was drawing Nightwing in his first two-parter in the Bat family.
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Freddy and Jason pairs have always made sense to me but I've never really understood why people want to throw Ash into that mix. I've always though Ash would make a better and much funnier match up with Jack Burton from Big Trouble in Little China. Where is that ridiculous buddy cop formula comic?
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I'm gonna check out X-Factor. Peter David has always been iffy as a writer for me, we don't really seem to have the same kind of interests of focus when it comes to character work and I've never really been that interested in the characters he's done. Aquaman? Hulk? I've heard nothing but good about both runs, but I just don't find either character that interesting by themselves. Same with the characters in X-Factor ...but more and more lately, little things have caught my attention, they've sounded interesting and you guys certainly beat that particular drum, so I'm going to pick up the first trade.Astonishing didn't seem so much like an ending as more like a... "Can we stop, please, I'm bored." Just... lackluster and despite the really good, big ideas and fun characterization... What really happened over the last ga-billion years this run has been going on for? Nothing. The summary would be: "The X-men sort of discover that a secret inter-dimensional war may be about to kind of start or something and that Forge is also aware of this possibility. Then they go home." PLUS, it can't be said enough, bad choices for coloring or muddled and muddy art. Blech. Which is weird because in the close-ups, the art is kind of cool, but any other kind of shot? Shit. I'm glad this run is done. It was all: "Almost, could have bee" right from the start. Disappointing.I love Incognito. Its just good. I hope it keeps going for a long time, because I really want to explore this world. It needs to come out more often. I understand the Big stuff pays the rent, but books like this and Planetary are so good and interesting that I wish their creators would make them priority one.I like the balance of old and new in Secret Warriors. Jonathan Hickman is the shit, man, take a whiff and love it. This book is introducing a ton of new characters and Fury being fucking awesome is the best tool ever for keeping your interest while it does. It strikes me as so odd when I see that fear-of-the-new attitude in comics. Why wouldn't you want to new characters? Especially when they're balanced with a great old character? And with that art? I think Secret Warriors could be the best new mainstream comic in years.
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IT shouldn't be Jack Burton vs. Ash, they should be best buds, fighting monsters, kickin' ass and drinking beer cross country in the Pork Chop Express. Maybe Jack gets hired to haul some S-Mart merch and Ash is there as the escort and then... well... all Hell breaks loose.
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That's exactly what I 'm talking about! It would be gold, pure gold!
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Is going to pair up with Obama next.
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releaesed in the uk? And what are the giant coins about? There was one in All Star Superman also?
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Right now, I'm picking up STREETS OF GOTHAM because of the MANHUNTER co-feature. The addition of BLUE BEETLE is what has kept BOOSTER GOLD from getting axed off of my pull list. Anyone else?
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...that part of the appeal is that Freddy vs. Jason doesn't have a good guy. It's two undead villains without a hero. Ash provides a solution to that dilemma.And Ash and Jack Burton are a little too similar to team up, imo.
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...where I have no desire to go to the comic book store. I have no interest in any of the ongoing series that are coming out right now (except The Goon, and it hasn't had a new issue in awhile). And I'm tradewaiting on all the limited series that look good.Guess I'm saving money.
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Ben Bowder from Farscape and Nathan Fillion from Firefly as cantankerous brothers and starship co-captains flying around the galaxy with Harrison Ford as their grouchy dad and Bruce Campbell as their boozy, somewhat unreliable uncle. People couldn't handle that much pure unbridled rouge. Then throw in Natalie Portman as the love interst and Carrie Fisher as her mom... pure awesome-ness.
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Jul 01, 2009 11:29:47 AM CDT
Actually, I always thought Ash should crossover with Buffy.
by rev_skarekroe
There are times when Nicholas Brenden looked just like a young Bruce Campbell. Ash would've made a great role-model uncle for Xander.
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as in Captain America? Just sayin'
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Yes, I just helped count in 200+ Captains at my LCS
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Is that like the new MARVEL TAILS series, where Chuck Austen returns to "shine the spotlight on some of Marvels most iconic female characters."
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The previously mentioned Existence 2.0, Batman and Robin #2, Cap Reborn, JLA Cry For Justice and a slew of Boom Kids Muppet Books along with the amazing Irredemable
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Yeah, I've seen and read interviews where he wasn't super negative on them but has expressed how he thinks the only one that should be writing Ash is Rami.
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Is J. Scott Campbell COMPLETELY incapable of doing a monthly book anymore? Is it just half-assed pin-up covers from now on?
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Like does Sam or Bruce? Seeing that its his character and his likeness? If thats the case, I don't think Bruce would be that upset about the comics.
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Did they ever make a Jeeves comic?
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Back in the early-mid-90s Peter David made Hulk one of the best reads in comics at the time. While all the image guys were busy filling their books with pin-up images and no real story whatsoever, each month a Hulk comic with jaw-dropping art and a good mix of humor, action, and pathos would come out like clockwork.
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Torrent every book every week? I've got like the last 10 years of every major book sitting on my hard-drive. Good times. Generally any given week's books are up and and available within a couple days of release. Fuck you, 3.99 cover price.
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can't decide wether to buy these or not
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I'm just not interested in the Hulk as a character, beyond him acting as a force of nature that the Avengers have to stop, so I never picked it up.
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Though I initially loved this title, each subsequent issue has left me feeling a little less enthused. The concept is still great, but in my opinion Krause's art is starting to drag the comic down on the visual end. And Waid is doling out the plot pretty slowly, so the $3.99 cover price is starting to feel a little steep(er). Now I can just cut and paste this response for next week's review of #4.
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Because I'm not a thief. It's no different from walking into a distributor's warehouse - or your LCS - and kyping a copy.
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I'm going to die of old age before I find out. Is it Major Glenn Talbot? Who?
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No offense, but who wants to follow a frakkin' little kid on Twitter? No matter what you think of the reviews, Twitter is ridiculous to begin with.
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Like who the fuck gives a shit what anyone else is even doing at any given moment of the day unless you are a stalker. I heard a Cat has its own Twitter, I think I'll join to read that. 1:30PM, Licking my ass. 2:00PM Licking my ass. 2:30PM licking my ass. 3:00PM licking my ass. 3:30PM puking up ass hair ball. 4:00PM licking my ass.
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Nobody knows. Not even Loeb, who, when the time comes, will reveal Rulk as being a childhood friend of Bruce Banner introduced specifically to provide an identity for this mystery villain. Don't expect it to make sense.
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Going to be in the Hulk series now?
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is legend, LEGEND I TELL YOU!!! No matter what else Peter David does, he will always have that to hang his hat on. One of my top 5 favorite runs in comic history.
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was fucking lame. Childhood friend, how ridiculously weaksauce.
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I am peeved with you, raymar.
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One of the great tragedies of my adult life is the gradual dawning awareness that most people are stupid and lame. Iron Fist, a badass awesome book if there ever was one, apparently cant even make it to issue 30. Meanwhile, 37 different X books or 45 different Batman books (A character that, lets be honest, long since passed the date of ridiculous self parody) continue to chug along endlessly. Why? Because more people buy them then Iron Fist. Just like more people watched Everybody Loves Raymond then Serenity. Sigh.
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is rad. What a great book, although its fatal flaw is that the powers seem to be A) incredibly ill-defined and B) incredibly lame when Bru DOES define them. It's a fantastic book though, make no bones about it. I just wish I knew what Zack Overkill actually DOES.
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is Bruce Banner's dad, who he thought was cool his whole life but now realizes was actually evil all along.
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I had the same problem with Holden's powers in 'Sleeper.' I knew it had something to do with 'absorbing pain' but then... what? I never understood his abilities and don't understand Zack's. Which is probably only further proof of Brubaker's writing chops-- that in two major series I haven't been clear on the main character's powers and haven't cared enough to bitch.
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I'm with you. Concept = Awesome. First issue = Not bad. Subsequently = Meh-ish... And I can't really point to why. Its just, eh... Maybe its because I don't care about the characters he kills off? I don't know. If the trade's cheap, I'd say maybe, depending on how your funds are.
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He punches the fuck out of shit PERIOD. and when he was with his brother, they REALLY punched the fuck out of shit. Better recognize.
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http://www.slashfilm.com/
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http://www.slashfilm.com/
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http://www.slashfilm.com/
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http://www.slashfilm.com/
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http://www.slashfilm.com/
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Jul 01, 2009 1:53:48 PM CDT
I hear jessica biel may join thor, can anyone tell me more
by ironic_name
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I hope she plays Tits McFine-ass
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Look, she's good for exactly one thing. Does Thor need that?
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She's a good choice to play Thor, I wonder why they are going with a gender reversal on this one?
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Biel, go google the movie Powder Blue.
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Seriously, I've never seen a movie with her. I just know the name.
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Gave us Danny Crane and for that he is forgiven.
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is vastly overrated.
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Then she is proof of the existance of God
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But I am always a little floored when a comic reviewer says he is not a big fan of Golden & Silver Age comics. I mean, it is ONLY the birthplace of the comic book art and the super-hero genre. And about 80% of the titles and characters still come from those eras (especially the big sellers: Superman, Batman, Hulk, Spider-Man, etc.).
Plus you never would hear a movie critic (or at least one of any standing) say he didn't like older movies. What would you think of a critic who says he didn't like Golden Age films, like that Maltese Falcon or Citizen Kane, or never watched the works of DW Griffith or Chaplin?
Sorry to go off on a little rant there. To each there own and I doubt this takes away from you love of the medium or your ability to review them, But you got to admit it sounds strange for a comic book critic to say he doesn't like Golden Age & Silver Age comics. -
http://tinyurl.com/n5al5e
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It isn't PCism that prevents Fu Manchu's name from being mentioned in Marvel Comics as Shang-Chi's father, it is capitalism: he is still a copy-righted character and Marvel lost the rights to him in the 80s. Same thing with the Micronauts.
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but the character sucked for like 30 years
Even managed to suck the cool out of Luke Cage for a long time
Thanks god Luke made a comeback
Seriously 35 years of a single note: LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON LIKEUNTOATHINGOFIRON into infinity -
I fucking hate old people? Is that the same?
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By the way, very tricky of you earlier, Very tricky indeed...
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That wasn't Jessica Biel nude at all! Series7, you sir, are a liar!
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As certain mediums get more and more years under their belt, how is one expected to go back and watch all the old movies and read all the old comics that have come before their time? Also while trying to read any of the new stuff? Imagine 50 years from now just how many more movies and comics and book will have come out. I guess thats why we will create that Matrix "I know Kung Fu" thing.
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I did tell you all what to google if you really wanted to find out. I'm at work so I can't give you that link, so in the main time enjoy some other opinions.
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There is an importance inherent in the originators and innovators of the comic book medium. However, I have to agree with Baytor that for the most part, Golden Age comics could not be considered "good reading" for anyone over ten. As he pointed out, there are a few exceptions (including Jack Cole, Eisner, Reed Crandall, and Jack Kirby, though even Kirby's early work was very rough), but the vast majority of comics from that period were poorly written and illustrated. Important historically? Hell yes. Good reading? Not so much.
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Jul 01, 2009 3:32:50 PM CDT
I don't think you are required to read or see all the old stuff
by continentalop
But like TMC show "The Essentials" says, certain films (or comics in this case) established and helped shape the language of the medium. I think to understand a certain medium you have to go back and look at the masterpieces of it. You can't see where you are going unless you see where you came from.
Plus, look at the woman writing The Twilight books. She never researched any other vampire novels, movies or the folk lore and God does it show (glittering vampires?). -
If you're at work you shouldn't post a link that promises the hottest chick in the history of ever naked if you can't deliver. I'm just saying.
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I told you what to google if you want to see her. I think we all know how to use google.
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yeah in her fucking bank account. Teens don't do research anymore either.
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Always fuck up? They need to get on a new server.
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I wanted to see so I got Powder Blue on Bluray,nake Biel in high def (which is awesome) I
m just talking about the bait and switch. That would be like if Detective comics was featuring a unnecessary 3rd or 4th rate character in stead of Batman... oh wait. -
It was sneeky to get you to read other reivews besides AICN's ones, I know but I am a trickster.
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Super-hero comics do not make up very much of my collection. I do not think the sun rises or sets on Superman or Batman. I enjoy them from time to time, but that's not why I read comics. I can even enjoy the odd Golden or Silver Age comic, but my brains starts to turn to mush after about 15 pages. Reading through a Superman Archive, I was amazed that they managed to make a story feel rushed and padded at the same time, for in the middle of a exposition heavy tale, a sneak thief breaks into Clark Kent's room, discovers he's really Superman, then dies as Clark chases him... and this has nothing to do with the rest of the story. But mostly I'm a Vertigo/Indy sort of guy, which is why I probably enjoy The Spirit as much as I do, because I see a large chunk of that style coming from Eisner, Gaines, Kurtzman, and the rest of the sick EC crew. But old Batman or Spider-Man comics... they really don't speak to me in any way. They're fun in short bursts, I recognize the historical importance, but, again, that's not why I read comics.
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Jul 01, 2009 4:36:38 PM CDT
A Couple Examples Of Why Silver Age Marvel Makes My Head Hurt
by masterbaytor
In the first issue of Fantastic Four, Reed shoots up an emergency flare. The Thing tears up two city streets and a door getting there, while Torch melts his friends' car and has an atomic(!) missile shot at him over the city. What's the emergency? There's a situation that has Reed concerned and he's going to be keeping an eye on it for now... meaning this wasn't an emergency. How about later, in the middle of the big Galactus fight, the Fantastic Four take a group bathroom break... as Earth's final moments count down. Ummm, okay. How about a bit of X-Men. Profess X discovers a mutant at a nearby circus and invites Blob to join. Blob tells them where to shove it and attempt to go back to the circus. Cyclops, the hero of our story, forcibly attempts to prevent Blob from leaving (ummm, kidnapping) and inadvertently turns Blob to a life of crime. Now I know this is considered tons of fun for the folks who grew up with it, but the first time I read any of this stuff, I was in my 30s and I found I could not get into stories that so casually tossed little things like common sense out the window. I understand their importance, but, to quote the Shat, "I CAN'T GET BEHIND THAT!" :)
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It's a little hard to compare most Golden Age books to Citizen Kane or Maltese Falcon (both of which were made several decades after the birth of movies). Chronologically speaking, you could probably compare them to Alan Moore's Swamp Thing or Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Saying I don't like Golden Age super-heroes is more like saying I don't like Silent Movie Era slapstick.
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Why did the X-Men and Blob fight? Because they've both got cool powers and it makes for good comic book action. I first read FANTASTIC FOUR #1 in an anthology of Marvel number ones when I was about seven years old. The opening is a fantastic way of establishing their powers and personalities. You know who they are, it flashes back to how they got that way, then they're off to fight Mole Man. Maybe it wouldn't wash today, when writers spend five issues establishing a superhero's motive to go fight the villain, but back then comic books were visuals led.Ehh, I told this to Baytor already...
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with taking five issues to establish motivation, if its done well.
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I wasn't a youngster when I first read Silver Age Marvel. I think I read a few Spideys as a kid and the first six issues of The Hulk (which didn't make tons of sense to me even when I was eight), but I grew up on DC. Mostly stuff like House Of Mystery, but the DC super-heroes were the only ones I had more than a passing familiarity of, due to the simple fact that Marvel Comics tended to continue and I got my comics from a Used Book store and consecutive numbers were a rarity. Even DC super-hero stuff was an iffy proposition. Mostly, I think I was just far too old to be fully charmed by Marvel. I just see the massive plot-holes and gratuitous fight scenes that would make Michael Bay blush :)
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Jul 01, 2009 5:05:17 PM CDT
If you are a film critic and you said you didn't like Silent Era
by continentalop
You would be brushing off Chaplin, Keaton, Arbuckle, Lloyd and a bunch of other greats.
Early comic book might be the same as early Silent Films, but show me a director who doesn't appreciate Murnau, Griffith, Dryer, Eisenstein or even Edwin S. Porter and I will show you someone who is probably a sub-par director.
Not saying you are wrong, just stating my opinion. -
Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, Joe Orlando, Reed Crandall, Jack Davis, Bill Elder, John Severin, Al Williamson, Wally Wood, and Jack Cole. If there's a comic that is comparable to Griffith or Chaplin, trust me, I want to know about it and read it. But most Golden Age comics were written for 10 year old boys and don't exactly scale up to adulthood too readily. Back in the day, the head of DC was convinced that only kids and semi-literate adults read comics. Stan Lee came close to quitting comics because he didn't respect what he was writing. Will Eisner is downright insulting to the vast majority of the Golden Age by saying that comics were written for "ten-year old cretins". The sad fact is that the horrible reputation comics had is mostly earned. The Will Eisners and Harvey Kurtzmans and even Stan Lee & Jack Kirby (even though I'm not terribly fond of them) are few and far between. Seriously, if there's some Golden Age comics that are up to the standard of The Spirit, EC's New Trend line, and Plastic Man; I desperately want to know about them. But Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman really aren't up to that standard.
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That's one I've been meaning to read for the longest time. Otto Binder is a mad, mad, mad man, as his Jimmy Olsen comics will attest.
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...probably the most awful issues of DAREDEVIL ever published. Daredevil is unusual for Silver Age Marvel in that it didn't get a steady artist until Wally Wood and even then probably didn't hit its stride until Gene Colan came aboard. Those few issues before Wally Wood (who redesigned the ugly yellow and red costume) are too much even for me. He actually goes to space with Electro in the second issue. I can't recall why.
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Does anyone know if Daredevil has been back to outer space since then? Maybe Andy Diggle will address it in his forthcoming run. I'd "Diggle" it.
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Just like Edwin S. Porter isn't up at the same level as John Ford or Sergio Leone. But I don't know any serious film critic or director who doesn't have an appreciation for the earlier filmmakers, even those who skills levels were not equal to those who came later. Why? Because they were the innovators who we base the craft on. I mean, is there not an English Lit. major out there who hasn't read Beowulf, which is as awkward of read as you can find?
As for being for "10 year old cretins", the same could be said about the film industry, even when Chaplin and others worked in it. Film has long been looked down as being somehow "inferior" to theatre, especially in the first half of the century. It was mass entertainment, and mass entertainment isn't known for being high brow.
Now I am not saying you are wrong in your opinions, I just saw it as being strange and a little bizarre for a comic book critic to say he didn't like the "Golden Age" of his medium. Of course, you could argue you don't think it is a Golden Age, everyone is entitled but it just struck me as strange. -
A lot of comic critics haven't even bothered to read much Golden Age material. As for the "cretin" quote, that was Will Freakin' Eisner who said (and endlessly repeated) it. That's a man who was in the trenches working on comics at the beginning and pretty much despaired at the sea of crap surrounding him. I don't think Stan Lee was proud of anything he had written before Fantastic Four #1. The Spirit, EC, Plastic Man, and Captain Marvel (Shazam) are among a handful of Golden Age comics that are hailed as absolute classics. Batman & Superman hold a place in history, but they don't tend to get heaps of critical praise.
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Jul 01, 2009 5:39:09 PM CDT
And as for comic books being written for "10-year old cretins"
by continentalop
Since you like Vertigo/Independent comics it might not apply to you, but you could easily say that comics nowadays are written for 20 and 30-something losers who are still obsessed with childish power fulfillment fantasies of guys in costumes with funky names and abilities.
And yes, since I do read superhero comics so that would just as easily apply to me as everyone else. But you can't criticize how old comics were written for kids without also pointing out how adult comics are still mostly about the characters FROM those kid comics. At least they were honest about the target audience; we just like to come up with excuses why we read something that should be exclusively for Liam the Kid.
Now excuse me, I am going to look at my Essential Avengers vol. 3... -
Often sounds about right, especially if I've visited the John Byrne Forum recently :)
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People in the studio system have been putting down the quality of there films for years as well. I never assumed you said it, and i can understand why Eisner said it. He was pigeonholed by the market place - 10 year old kids. Just like most Hollywood filmmakers were pigeonholed by the marketplace and force to make westerns or some other type of action film.
And just for the record, I am not trying to insult you in anyway. I am just stating my opinion, which differs from yours. But at the same time I respect your opinion....
Except for Lee/Kirby. They were awesome. -
for the classic film comparison (Golden Age comics tend not to rate that high even among comic pros of the time). We all know The Spirit is the Citizen Kane of comics. Might be "The Birth Of A Nation" of comics, too; what with Ebony and all. :P Crime SuspenStories was the Maltese Falcon :)
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He was my first comic book artist/writer who I followed religiously. I remember getting a couple of issues of Iron Fist, Marvel Team Up (the Arcade/Captain Britain 2-parter), the Avengers, Doomsday+1 and some of the X-Men when i was really young, and then collecting every issue of the FF, Alpha Flight, Superman and She-Hulk. I even liked his latter stuff like WCA and Next Men. After that though...
Man, it is sad what he has become. One of the true greats in comics and now he is just bitter and obsolete. -
Like Dick Tracy or Terry & the Pirates? I got to say, that stuff rocks. Especially Terry & the Pirates. It has all the character motivation/development stuff Joenathan would love - after years of development the Dragon Lady goes from a typical Asian villainess to this incredibly mult-layered character. Damn good stuff.
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If you want comedy, catch him dissecting a Silver Age Marvel comic. He'll find like a bazillion nit-picky errors (the shop owner is reacting to The Thing taking off his coat but he's not looking at him in the panel)... while not seeing the big, gaping plot holes and completely illogical moments (the U.S. military shot an atomic missile at The Torch over a heavily populated city). Then he complains endlessly about a plot-hole in an Alan Moore comic that is actually explained in-story.
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Always mean to check out one of the big action/adventure strips of the Golden Age. Never seem to get around to it. I seem to have that comic strip blindness that many comic fans tend to have.
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There are good Batman and Superman stories from the 1940s. Most of them were written by Jerry Siegel or drawn by Ira Yarbrough or Wayne Boring. I've read some great ones, although most, especially the really early stuff, are pretty dull and like Baytor says somehow both underwritten and overwritten. On the Batman side, I've read less of that but Dick Sprang is similarly revered. Marvel, or Timely as it was known, was as far as I can make out largely an also-ran and DC imitator until the early Sixties.
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That was one of the few comics in my house that stayed around forever. The other one was the Golden Age Super-Hero Origin book whose name I keep forgetting. I have a tremendous fondness for the stories I read back when I was a kid. Stories I read as an adult... not so much. Oddly, the Spirit story in that origin book was one I absolutely hated (and still don't like), and made me think The Spirit had a white suit for ages and ages. But mostly, comics were gathered up once a month and taken back to the Used Book store to trade in for more comics. Me and my Dad would work our way through the stack of war, horror, and western comics.
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I am again in the minority, as I am about to drop X-Factor from my huge, 6-13 titles a week list. I just find Layla Miller uninteresting, and the whole series is rather smug and self-satisfied. I already read the Time Travelers Wife, and I didn't like that book, either. ps. I have last week's X-Factor, but haven't read it yet.
Gotham City Sirens could've been a 9 but was indeed a 6.5 or 7, due to March's art. It was serviceable at best, missing both the fun and the sexiness it needed. Not exactly Dodson level. Still, will NEVER drop this book. Mixing "strong female characters" with blatant sexy fun is totally my thing, and Harley Quinn is my #1 favorite character in comics. Yes, I love Jessica Drew, but Harley is waaaay better.
Haven't read last week's Incognito, either, which doesn't indicate me loving it. I quite enjoyed the first two issues, but don't remember #3 very well, and fear the book is heading into "it's fine" but not memorable territory.
Lethal Legion, you say? Well, I will check the price on that and if it's $2.99, I'll buy it.
I personally wouldn't call Whedon's AXM a run for the ages. We'll see, but I don't expect it to be remembered that much. I felt it was fine, rather airless and slow. Not much fun at all considering who did it.
When all comics go to $3.99 I am going to cut my stack in half, because that is just ridiculous. Marvel is sneaky right now, varying the price of the same books from month to month. Very Sly. -
She's a living mannequin. She and her male counterpart, the also ridiculously good-looking yet entirely lacking in personality, Ryan Reynolds, should make a movie together.
Oh, yeah, they did. See, everyone forgot about it. -
It was a huge market back then with so many titles that you have to look around to see the stuff that was any good (and I think a lot of the better comic books were not being done by either DC or Timely, or even Fawcett). Unlike the Golden Age of Film where they best movies dominated theatre space, I think the Golden Age of comics the 10% good had to fight out for rack space with the 90% crap every month.
Spirit was obviously mint, and so was Plastic Man at Quality, Phantom Lady had some pretty provocative covers, Wonder Woman at DC during the Golden Age was just a brilliant study in using subliminal sex to sell and broadcast ideas; Captain Marvel is probably the best example of the superhero as child wish fulfillment ever; Captain America was actually a damn good horror comic; Batman and Superman varied in quality issue to issue; and Airboy was pretty good.
My unsung title of the Golden Age is Harvey Comic's Black Cat. I think it holds up pretty well, and I think the extra stuff in the back like the jujitsu lessons are just awesome (and predating Punisher's similar advice in the 80's and 90s by four decades).
http://tinyurl.com/n7y7nh
http://tinyurl.com/lzart5
http://tinyurl.com/nwgvy7
http://tinyurl.com/n5ocrj
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I was so bummed when he quit She-Hulk, and over the silliest thing. I didn't know at the time that he quit because his editor (Bobbi Harris? Something like that) and he argued about Jennifer breaking razors trying to shave her legs, and Byrne quit because he said she wouldn't waste more than one razor blade.
Of all the nits to pick, but he has done good work as both writer and artist (Next Men, for example) and I would still check out something he did (unlike his x-partner, Claremont.) -
That's the name of the origin book put together by Jules Feiffer, whose essay appeared within... and was cribbed by Kill Bill.
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Love him
It warms my heart to think that he was showing The Kid and his brother that stuff from Spidey 600 when I'd imagine Marvel were trying to keep it under wraps. He's like a comic Santa!
That's a guy that understands the pure enjoyment of comics, for their own sake without any shame or any desire to be doing something else
When I read 90% of modern comics, and that Mark Millar style bullshit of "Ok here's the deal: Batman goes to prison and gets fucked in the ass" I just think these pricks are ashamed of comics, they're ashamed of the goofiness and the weirdness and want to try and step away from that nerd image, whereas Mr Slott loves it and is cool with it
Remember that Thing mini a year or so ago, when Spidey still had that shitty gold & red suit? And the Thing was giving him shit about why he only had three robo-arms, so he had seven 'legs' in total?
"People are just going to think you can't count"
Exactly motherfucker, exactly -
Thought I had put some breaks in that last post
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When Plastic Man was getting high on reefer and getting in a shoot-out with the cops.
Seriously, that's a story. -
They ruined a scene for me in the Watchmen extended cut. When Dr Manhattan is on the talk show and screams LEAVE ME ALONE!!! Rather than teleport to Mars. He teleports nowhere, but to the same place, but now the studio is empty. But then we kind of do get the scene. This time Night Owl is watching the Talk show on TV. Then Dr Manhattan screams LEAVE ME ALONE!!! again and now we teleport to Mars with Dr Manhattan. The entire scene is ruined. The build up is gone. That being said there are a few added scenes I like. Dr Manhattan's extended attack during the Vietnam war. Now features a cool shot of the helicopter carrying the Comedian flyby Dr Manhattan. As the Comedian is shooting his pistol like a wild man. He jumps off the copter and comes upon a Vietnamese with a torn off leg. He grins and roast him alive. What a bastard. The original scene was more simplistic. Dr Manhattan appears, zaps a few guys, comedian burns someone.
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Kuryakin, that was one of the best and most dead-on posts I've read on here in literally ages. All my months of trying to sum up why I generally think alot of these new-style writers and their bullshit Millar-isms are total shit, and Kuryakin locks it down in one post. "Batman goes to prison and gets fucked in the ass" is so perfect, I wish I had wrote it, "trapped in amber" has now been officially put to shame.
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"I don't really like Green Lantern. Has that trapped in amber feel."
"Yeah, but I can't really get into Millar or Bendis' stuff. Has that 'Batman got assfucked in prison' feel." -
"Yeah, but I can't get into Millar of Bendis. They have that "Batman assfucked in prison" thing going on."
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I'm generally interested in what happened in those comics as it pertains to today's continuity, but I have no interest in reading them. As I have stated before, when Buzz would do his reviews of "Classic Masterworks" or whatever, I would never read them. They weren't classic and aren't really masterworks. I understand a certain affection as viewed through the prism of sentimental nostalgia, but 98% of them are generally unreadable. I've stated on here before, you don't have to go all the way back to the 40's. try reading alot of 70's and 80's stuff now. Tripe, completely and utterly. Crisis on Infinite Earths? Tripe. Iron Man? Not nearly as good as you remember it. Cap? Mostly god-awful. Keep in mind I'm speaking of trying to read it now, as an adult. 3 storylines stand out off the top of my head as genuinely awesome even today: Masters of Evil invade the mansion, Sin Eater in Spidey, The Judas Contract in Titans (and thats borderline). I supposed DKR and Killing Joke, throw those in there.
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Beside that being a truly hilarious thought, then you can say "I dunno, Hal fucking Batman in the ass in prison seems kinda trapped-in-ambery". And then the universe can implode in onto itself in a black hole of suckyness.
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You'll find no bigger early X Factor/Madrox/Peter David supporter then me. I'll admit, the big reveal with Madrox's child was handled amazingly (THATS why you bring in Peter David, to write that issue. No one does it better, you bring in Bru to write hard boiled crime action, and you bring in Peter David to write issues like that, plain and simple). However......as much as I WANT to like that title, I simply am not feeling it. I havent spoken up because I thought I was alone on the island on this one, but I HATE Val Cooper. I hate everything about that side of X-Factor. I hate their boring missions that no one cares about, I hate Rictor being more useless then a screen door on a submarine, I hate Longshot and his hollow bones, I hate Siryn's one-note bitchfest. It is amazingly boring, and unfortunately IT TAKES UP HALF THE BOOK!! And the one character who IS consistently awesome, Madrox, is stuck in...wait for it....."Dystopian X-Future #3,781: Just Like Every Other Dystopian Future!!". I dont care!!! Its not the real future!! It never is! Its just yet ANOTHER alternate timeline to the power of infinity, and I simply dont give a shit. I wanna like it, I do, and it's holding on by a slim slim margin with me, but man, that title is making it hard to care anymore.
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Have an alternate future that is really happy. Everything rules. People are hot and getting laid 3 times a day. Oh, and rich. And only need to sleep 2 hours a night. Let's try that and see how it grabs ya.
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I actually suggested that before. Have a future were humans and mutants live in Harmony, were the Pym particle brings abundant food to everyone, where the Super-Soldier formula was recreated so everyone is perfect, where the crippled and handicapped have a Stark exo-skeleton, and where Reed Richards work in anti-gravity and space travel which means we have colonies on other planets.
I mean, what is the point of these heroes if they are not working for a better future? Imagine showing a GI during WWII a film that says "hey, guess what? You failed and the Nazis conquered the world!"
Dystopia bores the shit out of me. -
I can still pull out most of my Bronze Age collections and enjoy them because they do what they promise to do, bring me a tale of super-hero adventure. Pretty much anything Roger Stern did back then holds up, and so does a lot of other titles. Most modern comics bore me because they are not fun to read at all.
I prefer to stick with my old, outdated Korvac Saga where Cap stands up alone against Korvac. -
Which part of Wanted makes it superior to old comics? The part where he rapes that actress? The part where we meet characters named Shithead and Fucktard? Or the part where Eminem looks at the readers and says "This is my face while I fuck you in the ass"? I think I will just stick with my old, dated stories of when Cap faced off against Korvac all by himself.
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Bright, clever and whimsical without being silly and childish. These guys could make the idea of a talking anthropomorphic tiger seem reasonable and actually quite cool. Definitely better than the Superman stuff coming out at the same time.
Also check out William Moulton Marston's early Wonder WOman stuff. Not exactly great narrative-wise, but a WEIRD, fascinating window into one brilliant dude's very.....singular world view. Very ahead of it's time, -
"show me a director who doesn't appreciate Murnau, Griffith, Dryer, Eisenstein or even Edwin S. Porter and I will show you someone who is probably a sub-par director." Get ready for a lot of shitty summers at the movies...like, say, this one.
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Your talking about the shitstain at the bottom of the bowl of modern comics there, literally the worst of the worst. So you win on that one, Crisis crushes that one like a bug LOL I was going to give an example of say, Ex Machina, which is so far advanced over some late-70's Flash comic that it doesnt seem like they are even the same medium, honestly. However, Ex Machina isnt exactly known for a sense of freewheeling fun.....Ok, I can't believe I'm going to say this after all the trash I've talked, but......Green Lantern. Combines the fun, comic-y aspects of old school with the newer, "actually talk in some passing resemblence to how people might actually talk" aspects of today's comics. Best of both worlds (as is Nova). I would argue the dearly departed Iron Fist combined old and new school in a way that spanked the Bronze Age stuff like a naughty baby. Early Slott She Hulk. The aforementioned Peter David Hulk run (Future Imperfect, one of the all time slam dunk fucking awesome dystopian future stories EVER, could not have been written before 1988 or so, just couldnt have). I loved Whedon's run on Astonishing, couldn't love it more, and that doesnt even seem like the same language as the Bronze Age stuff.
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Of course what is permitted changes with each generation. Maybe Future Imperfect couldn't have existed pre-1988, but it never would have existed at all if they hadn't done Deathlok or Day's of Future Past, and they probably wouldn't have existed if there weren’t some sort of imaginary Superman or Batman story. Nothing exists in a vacuum, and everyone builds on the work of those before him or her.
The other thing is taste changes. I am a movie aficionado, so I can watch a lot of old or foreign movies. Most people can't, However, I do laugh when people say "Oh, it was good for its day" when describing Citizen Kane or some Film Noir like Out of the Past or Kiss of Death. Sorry, but it is good for any day, it is just that the audience taste and expectations have changed. The style of that film is no longer in a manner that audience members can appreciate; they can’t handle the acting styles, the b&w film and the expressionism. So people laugh at those movies and call them old fashion, which they are because those images have become so redundant (of course, in 30-40 years people will be laughing at modern movies just as much and finding them, redundant – robot testes might become a film trope).
The same thing with comic books. Modern audiences find old comic book stories redundant and want something else besides just super-hero fantasy - they want the illusion of sophistication and adult subject matter; just like guys in the 70s wanted the illusion that they were tackling social issues and guys in the 40s wanted them to tackle Nazis. Each generation expects something different out of comic books, but it doesn't make one generation intrinsically superior to another. It just means there tastes are different.
I could also point out how all these advances in comic books they have yet to come up with better characters than the big guys who appeared in the Golden or Silver Age, or have come up with more mind-blowing events than the original Galactus Trilogy, the death of Gwen Stacy, or death of Phoenix (first one).
I hope I don’t sound condescending, that isn't my aim. I am just stating my theory of how one era might be more “advanced”, it doesn’t necessarily make it better. Most of it is a matter of taste. Personally, I am a fan of older books because A) it is the era I grew up in so I am inclined to like them more; and B) to paraphrase Kuryakin, they seem to be less interested in ass-fucking Batman in prison.
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I am done. Long winded post suck for everyone else.
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I think we both agree on the substance and simply disagree on personal taste. I'll just leave it at this, in that some of those Green Arrow/Green Lantern, Spidey, Iron Man (the alcoholism saga), Cap (when Gruenwald was running the show) Avengers (Kree/Skrull, Death of Captain Marvel) stories are good for any era. For my own PERSONAL TASTE (strictly personal), those stories are fewer and farther between then maybe for you. But was some quality work being done in the time period? Yes. We simply disagree on the quantity, not the quality.
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Since it hasnt been mentioned, I'll give an old school shout out to something I cant believe I forgot: the epic, legendary Simonson run on Thor. You wanna talk about something that holds up today like the day it was written, there's your run. You could put that run out today untouched, as is, not a word altered, and people would be jizzing their pants. IT'S GOLD, JERRY!!!
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We seem to be on the same "old school" wavelength. But on the subject of Fu Manchu: Granted, I didn't know Marvel had lost the rights. (I didn't know there were any more to lose! I thought he was public domain by now.) But the Bullpen would never stick its neck out again to get them back. Look at what's been done recently to the Asian villians like the Mandarin and the Yellow Claw, and it's obvious they want to put a lot of distance between modern-day Marvel and the racist stuff of the past. Since Shang Chi has never been a title recognized by the general public, they just drop that detail about his origin and let the readers suss out the rest (good son at war with bad father -- at least he has a hot girlfriend to make up for his familial angst).
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and I'm still laughing over the cat twitter bit. "3:00PM licking my ass" good one Series.
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And therefore I guess I need to start ordering them off the internet now, as much as I hate that idea. Anyone have a preferred site for that?
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1) The family of Sax Rohmer I believe still hold the rights. The copy right was extended (and I think a special law was based to extend it). Whatever the case, I know that he is not a public domain character in North America or Europe, as both Marvel had to stop using him and Moore couldn't use him in LOEG (he was only referred to as The Doctor or The Devil Doctor, never by his name.)
I don't see Dracula or you Dr. Doom getting the same treatment because you are stereotypical Eastern Europeans. Yellow Claw and Mandarin are classic archetype villains - instead of getting rid of them or changing them into "non-evil guys, maybe they should think of a new way to depict them so the are not so stereotypical without reducing their villainy in the process. -
2) I agree about the PCism. Sure Fu Manchu, Mandarin and Yellow Claw are sinophobic and negative stereotypes, but they were also awesome archetypes. I mean, no one is changing Dracula or Dr. Doom because they are stereotypical Eastern European villains. Maybe they should just reduce their stereotypical elements without reducing their villainy (which is what unfortunately happened to Yellow Claw in AOA).
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Let me ask this, how often do you guys read the bible?
If we want to get technical Superman is a ripoff of Jesus. Does that mean I need to commit the new testament to memory to be a comic reviewer?
It's fine to show reverence for forgotten times, honestly it's how we progress as a society, but to fault someone for not liking these pieces seems a bit extreme.
With each year I see scenes, snippets or ideas that have come from books past. It's kind of our nature though. Take the common tenets of humanity and find new ways to articulate those ideas into the voice of the current generation.
As a theater major I was always ostracized by my erudite counterparts becasue I could not stand doing Shakespere(sic). My tolerence level for poetry is about 20 minutes not 4 hours plus. Does this mean I hate theater , far from it - Durang, Stoppard, Neil Simon - I love them all.
Time marches on and changes us. Appreciate the old stories for what they were and where they brought us. And hey if you love reading the oldies and the modern stuff, more power to you.
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...but most of 'em, I just can't relate to. I like a lot of the art. Stuff like the Spirit is great and holds up. Golden age horror, crime and westerns work better for me than the supes.Silver age, I mostly associate with DC, and while I can appreciate a lot of it, I've had to admit that I'm a DC-curious Marvel Zombie.Chronologically, I suppose that early Stan/Jack/Steve Marvel heroes fall into the Silver Age, but I associate it more with the Bronze Age, which means that I started reading comics as a pre-school kid in the Tarnished Bronze Age and became a hardcore reader during the Marvel Horror/Kung Fu/Blaxploitation/Dinosaur era, which I still the standard that I judge comics by.However...I don't expect a modern comic to be written like those Bronze nuggets, although I do expect it to elicit that same level of excitement. A comic book can be anything except boring and be okay. It can be stupid as long as it's not boring.I recently E-Bayed off a lot of my Bronze age comics. So many of my favorites don't hold up. The art is amazing but the writing is often the trouble. Not that even popular, current comic writing is much better. I wanted to like WANTED but it never got any further than wanting.Mostly, what I got out of studying Golden and Silver Age superhero comics is empathy for people who don't like the comics I grew up on.
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Everday, all day. I don't want to go to hell with all the weirdos.
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The writing is the problem. Art? Usually pretty great, alot of times I think the art is better back then, actually (coughcoughAdlardonWalkingDeadcoughcough), but the writing, ohhhhhhhh that writing. Yikes. Thats pretty much my argument in a nutshell on this topic: the best drawn books of today hold up against the best drawn books of yesterday. However, the best written books of today blow away the best written books of yesterday. Sorry, but I firmly believe there is nothing from the mid 70-s (and god knows nothing from before then) that is as well written as Fables, Sandman, Y, DKR, Etc. Are we seriously arguing that late 60's/early 70's Superman, take any single issue from a 10 year span, is better written then All Star Supes? Yeah, they are fun, but you realize by making that argument you are falling firmly on the Michael Bay side of things: mindless fun trumps all else. Some may disagree, but thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
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Comics fans are some of the most resistant-to-change people I know. I, for one, am interested in seeing NEW CHARACTERS develop. See, my thinking is that at one point Dum Dum Dugan was new, and people had to get to know him, and come to like him. Same with these new guys. My hope is that they'll stick to developing these people in longer brush-strokes so it's a gradual process, until you don't even realize how much you care for the characters. "Aw, no - they're not gonna kill off Phobos, are they? NO!" It'll happen, if you just open your mind a little. They're good characters, and so far one of my favorite moments from the series was all of the Secret Warriors sharing a drink and discussing eachother's lives.
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The big difference between golden age stuff and todays stuff that you hate is all the angst people in their 20-mid 30's have now. Most of those people grew up during the grudge age of music, and hating authority and life became the norm. While to older people, the form of revolt and rebellion was being a hippie, and they weren't into dick and ass jokes as much as grudge people are. Don't know if that makes any sense, but it does to me. Times change pretty much.
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Fu Manchu, Mandarin, Yellow Claw - heck, even Egg Foo Yung - all of them are gross stereotypes in their inception, but at the same time ... does that mean that characters can't be INCIDENTALLY Asian while stil being totally evil?There was a chat online with some of the creative people doing the excremental FLASH GORDON for Sci-Fi Channel before the show aired, and they were taking questions, and this was before they had even done any casting annoncements etc. My question: "So, before I even know anything about your show, I already know that you're definitively not going to allow Ming the Merciless to be Asian, and will instead go with the new anti-Capitalism trope of making him a rich, white businessman. Why can't an Asian be a bad guy?" There was a significant pause and my question got a reply: "We're really excited about the new direction we're taking FLASH GORDON and hope you give us a chance!" ****ers. They were pwned and they knew it.My point isn't how cool I am. Similar to the crap with Aang being white for THE LAST AIRBENDER WHICH ISN'T CALLED AVATAR ANY MORE THANKS TO M. NIGHT WUSSING OUT, the PC efforts only HURT the material. Ming is Asian. Aang is Asian. Mandarin should be Asian, too.
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Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen kicks ass.
I'm Serious.
No, really, I'm serious. I saw it on IMAX twice. A bit over-long and with a plot that doesn't make much sense, but I enjoyed it, leg humping and all. -
Were their any sterotypical Asian characters in the movie?
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I think the only slant I saw was Megan Fox's vag when she was working on the motorcycle....
Easy folks it was purely for humor....I will send this to three of my Asian friends to atone. -
... posed for pictures with the rest of the Autobots and they were using their fingers to make their eyes slanted. Except for the Ghetto-Bots, they're above that kind of racist nonsense. They're keeping it real, you pussies.
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Is that racist though since they were Japanese to begin with....
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All that stuff you mentioned would just lead to this fascist "we know what is best for you future" storyline and you know who would write it... Thats right, Millar. Bend over, Batman.
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When they start singing "Turning Japanese" while humping one another.
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Captain America unstuck in time? Was he in Dresden too? I hope theres a spaceship part.
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Is how crazy it drives people. I mean, its not that good a comic, but man, does it stick around. What is it about that comic that gets stuck in your craws so much, folks? The rape? The names? It can't be, because Ennis does the same shit all the time, in like every issue of almost every book he's ever done. So, what is it about Wanted?
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I guess there's no room for an in-door activity in an out-door world. On a related note... Why don't they make more things featuring Surfer Girls?
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Lets chat at length about Secret Warriors sometime.
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ITs not that characters, even bad characters, CAN'T be asian, they just can't be Asian Stereotypes. Badwriters can walk that line. i.e. the people who did Flash Gordon (barf)
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can't walk that line...
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I disagree, generally, those old books are fantastic. I'm not one to tolerate "goofy" which is why I don't read much DC superhero stuff, but the unbridled weird of those early books, the freedome and willingness to go anywhere shinies in a way that can't hlp but make you smile. Of course, this doesn't mean that I can't see the point of the people who don't enjoy reading them. Those comics certainly aren't familiar with the word "subtle" or bother much with 3-d characters, as defined by today's standards. Also, certain tropes that were common, every issue standards, now seem to silly to bear. I mean, how many times is Clark going to change just around the corner from the snooping bitch, Lois? Hey Clark! Go change somewhere else! But the arguement that without those old comics, there would be no new is very, very valid. While I would agree that All Star Supes is a vastly superior comic to maybe just about every other comic ever made, it owes almost the entirety of its being to those crazy old Superman one shot silver age yarns with their insane sensational covers.Concurrently, though, people say that there hasn't been any new characters as good as the old, and first off, I find that to be a massive and incorrect generalization. Secondly, I think the lack of a flood of front-line, big-time new characters is more due to corporate marketability and aversion to spend money on th unknown than a lack of creativity. You can't deny the creative powerhouse of current Marvel or the ability, but is Marvel going to stop showcasing Iron Man or Spider-man so they can spend the money on sombeody new? No. Its an issue that is beyond the realm of the creative staff and its not fair to deride them over it.The end result, I think, is that exploring those old comics is not just worth it for some great, funny, weird, stories, but for understanding where the current stage of comics come from.
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Where the hell did you find a comic shop????
When I was there last month we used the Garmin GPS and the closest shop was 200 miles away (which we just naturally assumed was on another island).
While I did end up staying next door to Lindsey Lohan and had a charming conversation with Kirstie Alley in LAX the vacation somehow felt incomplete without buying any books out there. -
Someone higher up in the TB was lamenting that the only one in Maui had closed and I thought it was an interesting statement on the lifestyle/activity focus of a place like Hawaii -- people just don't have time to be indoors comic booking when there's the beach to be had... which made me think of Surfer Girls... Blue Crush was a good movie...
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Did it feel like it was missing a page toward the end? Also I didn't fucking know Robin was only 10, that makes the whole thing just a joke now.
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About what? The magic of Oreos? I was at LAX once I saw the almighty boxer of Aliens there, Charles S. Dutton. He saw me eyeing him up, but I knew that he had spent 10 years in prison for stabbing a guy before he became the original Roc and was too afraid to talk to him.
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Yes she took up two seats, but she was very nice and corgial to someone that spanked a few out to her in her heyday.
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They were right, there isn't one damn shop on Maui and I can say this with certainty since we drove the entire damn island (you know with the exception of the lava fields).
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You have a comic book habit when you are in Hawaii on vacation driving around trying to find a comic book shop... I would do the same thing.
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and I could have too, because I'm so cool.
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I didn't feel like there was a page missing, but Morrison did start o get "jumpy" at the end.As for Robin being 10, thats how old Dick was when he started... besides, which is more improbable? 10 year old crime fighter? Flying Car? Toad man? Take your pick...
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Seriously, eight fucking years old.
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no...no...no Mrs. Douche would not have tolerated a comic hunt.
You have to drive to get to anything on the island and since we were for 5 days we saw the ENTIRE island.
She gave me one chance at trying to find one on GPS, when I asked if she wanted to hop over to the big Island to visit one I recived her icy stare of death.... -
I'll be hitting it next week, just submitted my review to Bug.
No. I don't think a dman thing was missing. And let us not forget Damien is a 10 year old raised by assasins. not even in the same league as the slow kid next door that still has to have velcro shoes because bunny ears confuse him. -
All the best shops are located in the lave fields. Speaking of habits, Joen did you get Dark Avengers/X-Men Alpha/Utopia (whatever it is)? Is it any good? I managed not to get it, but there are still copies at the shop and it’s kind of taunting me.
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That is hilarious. "Um so...just looking at the old GPS here, says that uh, just a quick plane ride to the big island and there is a shop right near the airport - it’s just that it's Thursday, and sometime they sell out of the good books, and uh... oh (looks into icy stare) just kidding! Just jokes… Comic books. Sheesh! They can wait! We're on vacation. let's go check out the lava fields!"
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I picked up Utopia, but my stack is still untouched on the nightstand because of all that other stupid life crap that doesn't involve me lazily reading comic books. I did a quick glance through though and it seems pretty good. Enough that I'm going to pick up Uncanny for the next installment. It seems very Dark Avengers in tone, so if you're into that... but then, I've been trimming a lot of bubble books, so I got the extra space in pull list right now.
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See, the comics "shop" on Maui closed months back, but the comics guy continued to sell them out of his cottage until last week. Now he's had to close even that, so I'm out of luck.
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and I know I've got my pull list, but they could miss something... there's this new kid that works there... Yes, I do think this is vacation appropriate... Well, what about the local comic book shop color... I mean, we wanted to experience the local culture, right? This is... honey? Honey? Where are you... Are you taking a walk? Will you be gone long? Honey? Look, if you're go9nna be gone long, I'm just gonna hop on over to the big island...
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And I give a resounding WTF!!!!
Perfectly fine as a stand-alone issue, but here we go again with disjointed stories between all of the titles.
Look, I don't expect the stories to be seamless, but you have Emma in AXM as one person and here as another.
Beast is tripping through time in the last issue of Uncanny meanwhiel he's been incarcerated for months in this.
What am I missing? -
So, I only know that they're in San Fran... other than that (shrug). As for AXM, its always been a slightly out of phase, use in continuity as you wish type of thing... not too mention on hiatus for the last decade and a half between issues...Also, I think this is the one that is supposed to bring the X-books back in step with the rest of the U.
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Seems like I am not missing much. Maybe if it's in the half-price trade bin at comic-con.
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No, it really wasn't a bad issue. Plus, I haven't been following Dark Avengers, so this was a nice familiar acclimation. It actually made me want to get more Dark Reign stuff.
Here's my problem -- AXM was out of step during the Wheedon time (which I was cool with), but since Ellis took over it has been in-step.
not trying to be a continuity prude, but Uncanny 512 just came out last week and everything was honkeydorey in that and 511. Now all of a sudden the X-Men are equivalent to Hitler -- out of the clear blue. -
I'll have read it by then... although trade-waiting seems like the smart move more and more often these days. I'm almost caught up with Invincible and I really like the 6 to 8 issue burst. Also, is anyone else here reading Scott Pilgrim?
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I mean, besides being in San Fran, the X-men seemed pretty well removed, as far as I could tell. Do they talk about the inter-dimensional war in Uncanny? I just looked at that last Ellis AXM last night again... man, talk about lackluster.On the other hand, I've really enjoyed Dark Avengers and a lot of the Dark Reign stuff. I'm looking forward to The List books.
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I'm not demanding someone has to watch or read it everyday, or even be a fan of it, BUT I will say I just found it strange that a person who is a comic book critic wouldn't be a fan. It just doesn't seem congruent for someone in like that not be enthusiast (or at least that has been my experience). It would be like finding out someone like Roger Ebert hated old movies - kind of a shocker. Not saying a critic HAS to like them, but it just seems like they are usually the biggest fans of the older stuff.
I guess I am just projecting my own personal opinion. I work in the film business, and I am a huge fan of older movies. It was the old guys who built the language and grammar of the medium. And when a director comes into my editing bad and doesn't have any knowledge of the classics, I know I am in for a long and painful job.
Oh, and Optimous Douche, I read the Bible once a year, alternating between Old and New Testament. I'm agnostic, so I need to keep up on it to drive my religious friends nuts by pointing out there hypocrisy. -
How is the organizing of the Comic Book Writers Championship?
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I thought I would hate it, but I'm actually loving it. I think it represents a natural progression of the characters and its a lot more interesting then they very similar premise already explored in Captain America. I'm also loving Streets of Gotham and Gotham City T&A, I mean, Sirens.
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You know what is he even more disturbing than an 8-year old robin?
Deathstroke and Terra where lovers during the Judas Contract story, and she was supposed to be 13 and he was God knows how old.
And in later stories he is shown as an HONORABLE villain (and even has a sit down with Changeling). The guy was fucking a 13-year-old and he is honorable? WTF? -
Is what I fucking dig. The panel where the flame guy gets sprayed with a fire extinguisher pretty awesome. Though that double page spread of panels where Batman is beating up the guys that are tied together, in the final panel he seems to be missing a leg. As far as missing a page, I guess I just don't know what to do if the comic doesn't tell me if its to be continued or The End.
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Oh! Because he's a kid... oh, how droll, sir... Ah... isn't pedophila fun?
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Not so well, both Didio and JoeQ are not returning my calls. Joe Q btw also hasn't returned my calls about my 400 page Rocket Raccoon/Jack Kerouac intergalactic team up pitch.. maybe I just need to send it again. "I know by now the Kree children must be crying in the land where they let the Kree children cry, and tonight the stars'll be out, and don't you know that God is Galactus and his belt has a little letter 'G' on it?"
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He's a new favorite for me now. I loved the way her drew the fight scenes in B&R. I understand Morrison and Quitely worked on ALL STAR SUPERMAN as well? I haven't read that one yet, but its on my list now, def.
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i have no idea where you can get more information about Jessica Biel in Thor. I wish someone would post a website.
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You might wanna get on that All Star Supes thing. Like, immediately.
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Morrison and Quitely made magic over in X-men a few years back too.
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Isn't just that it's mind-bendingly stupid, but that, like all Millar's work, it provokes slavish adoration from moronic 8-15 year olds (or people with that level of mental development). Hell, if I was 12, maybe I'd like it. But I was pretty stupid at 12. Comparatively, I mean.Kuryakin's excellent mock-Millar pitch should provoke a mock-Millar pitch-a-thon. I'll go first. "The guy you think is Reed Richards isn't-- he's actually Franklin Richards, from the future! And he's been pretending to be Reed for years! That's right-- Franklin Richards has been fucking his own mother! This is the most awesome comic ever!"
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Why doesnt someone review a golden age or silver age comic every week so us ignant folks can learn more about em and appreciate them more.
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Personally speaking, I would want to kill myself after about the third week of the assignment.
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i thought it was a good idea.
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You all are a bunch of Philistines.
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:P
I've got a Golden Age collection about 75 volumes strong, but I could barely come up with enough to say about the final Spirit Archive volume. Writing reviews about short story collections are really tough. -
Jul 03, 2009 4:40:43 PM CDT
Do you know how many comic books got published in the Golden Age
by stones_throw
I might not kill myself like Optimous, but I'd be dead before I'd even scraped the surface. The only comparable boom time is the collectors' craze in the '90s. I did review the BEST OF SIMON AND KIRBY collection a few columns back, though, and found it to be rather excellent, though, as the title suggests it was collecting the best of the best. I particularly liked the Fighting American, a 1950s half-satire on superheroes that only published about a dozen issues.
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Here's an obnoxious gag-review of the sizzlin' Silver Age classic number 21 of AVENGERS from Stan Lee and Don Heck that I did when Dan Slott's MIGHTY AVENGERS #21 came out, to the talkback response, of "Why are you doing that?" http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39924#4
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...is that he probably reads this site and I'd be scared they'd start showing up as Marvel series. And I didn't think you could get much lower than CIVIL WAR, OLD MAN WOLVIE and "Masters of Doom". Masters of Doom? It sounds like a Bill & Ted adventure.
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