Brad Curran: How about Rocket Racer? I'm in a shameless mood, so I'll ask if he's going to be in anything, too.
Tom Brevoort: I'm talking to somebody about Rocket Racer right now.
Cayman: Are you saying "don't ever mention Rocket Racer again if you want to keep working in this town?"
― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 12 September 2005 17:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― David R. (popshots75`), Monday, 12 September 2005 17:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 12 September 2005 17:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― David R. (popshots75`), Monday, 12 September 2005 17:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― David R. (popshots75`), Monday, 12 September 2005 17:56 (nineteen years ago) link
http://comicsbeat.com/marvel-sold-original-art-in-1973/
― If it were up to you we'd all be eating tea and strumpets. (WilliamC), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 19:53 (eleven years ago) link
where is the goddamn DCU ipad app?
― it was very clear that it's a sarcastic song (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 15:11 (eleven years ago) link
I'll be surprised if they do an app soon. They just got around to making it non-flash.
I've been using it on the ipad through Safari and it's nice.
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 15:13 (eleven years ago) link
Do we really need a Deadly Hands of Kung Fu revival? It's only been 40 years since the last one...let's give it another 40 to really let the nostalgia build up.
― WilliamC, Sunday, 4 May 2014 13:09 (ten years ago) link
Will it feature Shang-Chi? Still waiting on a reprint of Master of Kung Fu, which I think has always been scuppered by rights issue to do with the Sax Rohmer characters.
Love some of the Neal Adams covers on DHOKF
― Ward Fowler, Sunday, 4 May 2014 13:34 (ten years ago) link
Apparently so.
http://www.newsarama.com/20285-shang-chi-strikes-in-marvel-s-new-deadly-hands-of-kung-fu-series.html
― WilliamC, Sunday, 4 May 2014 14:09 (ten years ago) link
I liked Shang Chi as Moench wrote him, but Hickman making him a spaceship-piloting Avenger was a development so wrong-footed it's sort of put me off the entire company, except for Bendis' Miles Morales, Waid's Daredevil and Wilson's Ms. Marvel.
― WilliamC, Sunday, 4 May 2014 14:13 (ten years ago) link
I just don't get the love for Hickman (in some quarters), everything I've read by him has been a dreary mess with no real feel for Marvel history/characters/style. But I'm totally Team Bendis when it comes to the Avengers - the best run on the title since Englehart.
― Ward Fowler, Sunday, 4 May 2014 14:27 (ten years ago) link
Manhattan Projects is very good, can't really speak for his Marvel work besides a few FF comics which were pretty seemed fun.
― tsrobodo, Sunday, 4 May 2014 16:08 (ten years ago) link
xxp -- I forgot to mention Soule & Pulido's She-Hulk, which is 1001% fun, and beautiful to look at. Hawkeye has good moments but it's inconsistent.
― WilliamC, Friday, 9 May 2014 17:56 (ten years ago) link
mmm pretty seemed fun
― tsrobodo, Saturday, 10 May 2014 11:31 (ten years ago) link
I really like East of West. It's one of the few comics I'm reading month to month anymore.
― earlnash, Saturday, 10 May 2014 14:36 (ten years ago) link
lol 1985
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Br9h7WFCcAEo1fl.jpg
poor Groo :(
― Οὖτις, Monday, 7 July 2014 18:50 (ten years ago) link
Groo back issues are hard to come by!
― Look at this joke I've recognised, do you recognise it as well? (forksclovetofu), Monday, 7 July 2014 18:51 (ten years ago) link
I dunno if I have any anymore but that was a great book.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 7 July 2014 18:59 (ten years ago) link
sales must have turned around at some point cuz it had a pretty long run (120 issues?!). I have fond memories of the storylines with his dog, who was even stupider than he was.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 7 July 2014 19:00 (ten years ago) link
yo man, Hama GI Joe was dope can't argue with thati remember picking up Groo into the late 80s, it went forever
― Nhex, Monday, 7 July 2014 19:12 (ten years ago) link
these numbers are from may 85... groo's first marvel issue was march that year.
― fit and working again, Monday, 7 July 2014 19:22 (ten years ago) link
ah that explains it
― Οὖτις, Monday, 7 July 2014 19:23 (ten years ago) link
and yeah, groo was excellent.
― fit and working again, Monday, 7 July 2014 19:23 (ten years ago) link
Looks as if Groo was the second-highest selling Epic title after the flagship anthology. That's not too shabby, really.
It's hard to imagine Marvel making so much of their bread off of adaptated properties nowadays. Everybody but them seems to have cornered that particular market of late.
― The She's The Sheriff Mystery Hour (Old Lunch), Monday, 7 July 2014 20:08 (ten years ago) link
Was the New Universe the first time Marvel attempted the alternate, self-contained universe of titles gambit...? Was there any precedent of a similar approach from DC? (DC was pretty explicit about the separate universes, but they didn't have entire titles devoted to alternate universes, did they? At least not until Vertigo?)
― Οὖτις, Monday, 7 July 2014 20:34 (ten years ago) link
I think Marvel (copying 2000 AD and other sort of indie lines) was ahead of DC with Epic and OGNS and whatnot
― Nhex, Monday, 7 July 2014 20:35 (ten years ago) link
Kirby's Fourth World?
― mh, Monday, 7 July 2014 20:36 (ten years ago) link
that included Superman/Jimmy Olsen
― Οὖτις, Monday, 7 July 2014 20:40 (ten years ago) link
Epic and OGNS titles weren't related to each other tho. What I mean is something like Ultimates or New Universe, where there was a series of titles that were related to one another, but totally separate from the "regular" continuity.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 7 July 2014 20:41 (ten years ago) link
like, DC didn't have a bunch of Earth-2 titles (right?)
― Οὖτις, Monday, 7 July 2014 20:42 (ten years ago) link
There was All-Star Squadron and that's about it for Earth-2 ongoings.
― EZ Snappin, Monday, 7 July 2014 20:47 (ten years ago) link
It was the first line produced by Marvel Comics utilizing a pre-conceived shared universe concept.
― fit and working again, Monday, 7 July 2014 20:49 (ten years ago) link
I have a whole short box of nothing but groo. Can't even get at it rn (lol nyc) but I'm gonna wallow in them again someday.
― how will the milf survive? (Jon Lewis), Monday, 7 July 2014 23:04 (ten years ago) link
yeah, groo was awesome
― Look at this joke I've recognised, do you recognise it as well? (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 05:25 (ten years ago) link
i loved groo as a kid. a bit sad that the collections available on amazon are a tad pricey.
― The Littlest Boho (stevie), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 06:29 (ten years ago) link
Those figures are for postal subscriptions only, rather than newstand or comic book store sales
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 07:36 (ten years ago) link
Collections were only ever four issues too iirc, they could have gotten the whole series out if Evanier had switched to fat 12-issue tomes
sales must have turned around at some point
subscription figures aren't necessarily exactly proportionate with newstand and direct sales anyway
i remember picking up Groo into the late 80s, it went forever
it's still going, the last series was in 2010 (and there's a Groo Vs Conan that was due in 2011, but Sergio's illness knocked it off track [and Sakai's family troubles probably aren't helping him speed through it rn])
can't possibly believe the Heavy Metal knockoff magazine sold more than Elektra
Vertigo wasn't an alternate universe, it was a bunch of DCU and otherwise self-contained books
― boney tassel (sic), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 07:39 (ten years ago) link
Essential-style, phonebook Groo volumes wld be a winner, no?
Think Conan v Groo is finally coming out this year.
Before that there was an All Star Comics, also featuring the Earth-2 heroes, but since 'Flash of Two Worlds' DC have never exactly resisted crossovers between the two universes.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 07:54 (ten years ago) link
Groo was the first American-style comic I read after a childhood of Tintin and Asterix and The Beano. Anecdotally - it felt like Mad and Groo were much more widely read than the superhero books - maybe a UK thing? There were copies in every newsagent - plus (anecdotally again) it was never just boys who read them.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 8 July 2014 11:28 (ten years ago) link
Groo was always tough to find in my area (NY), never seemed that popular around here. Probably because of the times (late 80s/early 90s). I was often surprised when I was able to find a copy
― Nhex, Tuesday, 8 July 2014 13:48 (ten years ago) link
I think I got into Mad magazine as a kid before most comics but never saw Groo on a newsstand and hardly ever in a comics shop.
― mh, Tuesday, 8 July 2014 13:58 (ten years ago) link
Groo was dead easy to find in the UK, but I always suspected we mainly got the leftover comics that hadn't sold in the US
― The Littlest Boho (stevie), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 14:02 (ten years ago) link
Nah. For quite a while, Marvel US would swap a 15 cent (or whatever) front cover price plate for a 10p cover price place at the end of a run of 'colour' comics, so the Marvel titles in newsagents etc were produced specifically for the UK market, although certain titles (eg The Avengers) that had British Marvel equivalents were 'non-distributed' (ie you could only get them as imports.)
http://www.comics.org/issue/1057795/cover/4/
By the time that the cover price included both a US and UK price, comics were distributed to UK specialist shops just a couple of days after they went on sale in America, so not 'leftovers' either.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 14:12 (ten years ago) link
paper is heavy, I would imagine shipping comics overseas was at the bottom of their list of strategies
― mh, Tuesday, 8 July 2014 14:13 (ten years ago) link
really? woah, I always imagined when I was reading Marvel obsessively (86-88) that they were imports... thanks for clearing that up, Ward.
― The Littlest Boho (stevie), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 14:27 (ten years ago) link
As a kid, I was always fascinated with Marvel comics from the UK whenever some neighborhood kids got their hands on one (usually Action Force, IIRC). Those larger comics with the different paper stock felt like alien artifacts. Even later, non-tabloid stuff like Knights of Pendragon looked so much different from what I was used to (which was largely due to what I think might've been a completely different color process than what was standard in most US Marvel books at the time).
― The She's The Sheriff Mystery Hour (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 14:38 (ten years ago) link
I have mixed feelings on Kieron Gillen's recent Iron Man run, but using a couple Marvel UK characters (Death's Head and Dark Angel) was kind of entertaining
― mh, Tuesday, 8 July 2014 14:53 (ten years ago) link
Stevie, I hope you won't mind if I make things a little clearer, still
The small, colour Marvel comics were always technically 'imports', in that they were printed and published in America. When Marvel comics were first imported to the UK, they would have a cents price on them and over that t UK price stamp, normally bearing a T&P insignia, which stood for the British distributors Thorpe and Porter Lrd. The comics were brought over to this country by sea mail.
At some point in the early 1970s, Marvel in America began to print a certain amount of their color comics with a UK pence price, rather than a cents price. This was done at the end of the printing process, a simple matter of swapping a printing plate, but it meant that UK pence copies traditionally have had shittier printing, more colour mis-alignment etc, which may have contributed to your impression that these comics were somehow 'leftovers'. They are generally deemed less collectible than the 'real' cents comics. But they were American Marvels, printed and published in the US and imported here.
Not every American Marvel title was officially distributed in the UK (these comics are known in British collector circles as 'ND' - not distributed - comics.) When the British Marvel titles kicked off in the 1970s, reprinting the American comics in larger size, black and white (or two colour) weekly editions, lots of the series featured in these UK Marvel titles - Spider-Man, Hulk, Avengers etc - were removed from UK distribution, so as not to distract from the UK sales, or confuse readers with stories from vastly different time periods. The only way for a UK reader to acquire these ND comics would be to subscribe, visit America, order them via a mail order dealer either at home or in America, or buy them from one a dedicated comic book store, like Dark They Were and Golden Eyed in London. Distribution of the Marvel Comics with British prices was always extremely patchy, but there's no evidence that any particular titles were 'dumped' on the UK market.
Again, at some point in the 1980s, Marvel began to print only one version of their American colour comics, with both an American and British (and Canadian) price on the front. These titles would be imported in large quantities by air to UK comic shops, typically going on sale just a couple of days after they went on sale in America. Or you could wait a month or so and buy pretty much every Marvel or DC as a slightly cheaper (cover) price, sea-freighted and officially distributed to newsagents and even comic shops.
Looking at a gallery of Groo covers, it seems that the first one with a joint US/UK price was issue 16, cover dated June 1986:
http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/groo-the-wanderer/16-1.jpg
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 20:18 (ten years ago) link
Thanks for that, Ward. I could read ultra-granular comics minutia like that all day long.
― The She's The Sheriff Mystery Hour (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 20:38 (ten years ago) link
Seconded. And I'm pretty sure I had that Groo!
― The Littlest Boho (stevie), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 21:17 (ten years ago) link
Really interesting! I just finished the Sean Howe so am definitely in minutia mode. Follow-up question: when did DC/Marvel stuff start disappearing from UK newsagents? I stopped buying (for the first time) round Death of Superman time - I think they were still on the shelves then.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 8 July 2014 22:05 (ten years ago) link
Just noticed by a friend on Twitter and reposted to Facebook:
"Disney owns marvel.Marvel owns Thor.Thor is the son of a king.Thor is now female.Thor is now a Disney princess."
― Star Gentle Uterus (DJP), Friday, 18 July 2014 17:27 (ten years ago) link
it goes all the way to the top mannnnnnnn
― Look at this joke I've recognised, do you recognise it as well? (forksclovetofu), Friday, 18 July 2014 18:08 (ten years ago) link
Good idea I guess then
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 20 July 2014 22:34 (ten years ago) link
Marvel Unlimited is doing a month for $0.99 during Comic-Con, I'll get in on thishttp://marvel.com/mu
― Nhex, Thursday, 24 July 2014 14:55 (ten years ago) link
No ALL-NEW DOOP available, what a waste.
― Nhex, Friday, 25 July 2014 19:06 (ten years ago) link
If only for the sake of people that might read the title and have no context for it whatsoever, I love that there's a comic called All-New Doop.
I'll probably eventually get on the Marvel Unlimited train, but not until it gets a helluva lot closer to actually being Unlimited. For the time being, I'm content to stupidly spend all of my money in the futile attempt of getting physical copies of everything I want.
― Dr. Diapers (Old Lunch), Friday, 25 July 2014 19:17 (ten years ago) link
reminds me, I need to catch up on All-New Doop, I'm a bit behind
― mh, Friday, 25 July 2014 19:28 (ten years ago) link
Read some older Dark Wolverine issues. Man, it's infuriating - so many crossovers, every issue continues directly into another series, and there's no way to just go to the correct book without hunting it down. Netflix this ain't.
― Nhex, Friday, 25 July 2014 19:46 (ten years ago) link
I haven't used the service at all, but if Marvel's oft-nonsensical methodology with respect to physical collections is any kind of a barometer, I can only imagine that reading the more recent hyperinterconnected stuff is a total nightmare.
― Self-Satisfaction Guaranteed (Old Lunch), Friday, 25 July 2014 20:05 (ten years ago) link
How is the new Nightcrawler run from Chris Claremont?
― jamiesummerz, Friday, 8 August 2014 14:58 (ten years ago) link
I would love to give him the benefit of the doubt given that he is 90% of the reason why I read comic books today but, after the 90s, I'll be damned if I'm ever reading another new Claremont book.
― Star Gentle Uterus (DJP), Friday, 8 August 2014 15:15 (ten years ago) link
The new Nightcrawler is readable. It's not good by any means, but compared to DC, readable counts as a win.
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 8 August 2014 15:53 (ten years ago) link
what, you don't like reading captions with paragraphs of exposition and character description draped over soap operas? xp
― mh, Friday, 8 August 2014 15:53 (ten years ago) link
djp otm
― go ahead. make vid where u rap about this new TMNT movie. (forksclovetofu), Friday, 8 August 2014 16:31 (ten years ago) link
I thought Claremont came across quite menschy in the Howe book so I'll give him a shot
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 8 August 2014 21:47 (ten years ago) link
I haven't read comics for years, Marvel or otherwise, but I came across the Howe book at the library and have been blowing through it over the past few days. I just finished the Shooter years- which were the years I in which I discovered Marvel comics. Boy he did not come across well. I was cringing imagining working for him as depicted in his later tenure.
― Dokken played here for a Ribfest and people were total assholes (Sparkle Motion), Saturday, 6 September 2014 23:01 (ten years ago) link
Dreaded Deadline Doom notwithstanding, I loved the auteur years between Stan and Shooter as E-I-C. Shooter's ascension = the day the music died.
― Malibu Stasi (WilliamC), Saturday, 6 September 2014 23:18 (ten years ago) link
It's certainly seeming that way to me. The Gerber/Englehart/Starlin stuff sounds great - I've not seen much of it other than the odd issue or reference here or there. I'm thinking of getting a Marvel Unlimited subscription in the hopes that some of that material is represented.
― Dokken played here for a Ribfest and people were total assholes (Sparkle Motion), Saturday, 6 September 2014 23:59 (ten years ago) link
I really dug the Howe book too! So many pros are pissed about it.
I haven't read these yet, but I thought I'd pass them on, two-part Shooter defense:http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2013/01/jim-shooter-a-second-opinion-part-one-the-best-job-he-can/http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2013/10/jim-shooter-a-second-opinion-part-two-romper-room-on-crystal-meth-installment-1/
― Brakhage, Sunday, 7 September 2014 23:24 (ten years ago) link
omg lolz @ that Ghost Rider + Jesus storyline, never heard of that before
― Οὖτις, Monday, 8 September 2014 17:00 (ten years ago) link
no kidding! if your main gripe about Jim Shooter is that he didn't want to publish your story where Jesus helps Ghost Rider, then you really have no ammo whatsoever, really
― ⌘-B (mh), Monday, 8 September 2014 17:48 (ten years ago) link
Those Shooter defense articles have been linked to here before - they're still mostly bullshit. Creators had other, bigger gripes abt Shooter than that he wouldn't publish their Jesus/Ghost Rider story (but i mean, why not - this is a company that published Son of Satan, after all.)
I love the Sean Howe bk, gobbled it up, but I think there are other histories of Marvel and American comics still to be told - it's not, by any means, definitive.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Monday, 8 September 2014 18:41 (ten years ago) link
yeah idk if Shooter was in the right there (it's conceivable) I just find the whole prospect v v 70s and v v funny
― Οὖτις, Monday, 8 September 2014 18:56 (ten years ago) link
If I were to do a radio-button poll of Marvel 70s "auteur" series, what should I include?
Starlin's WarlockMoench/Gulacy Master of Kung FuMcGregor/Graham Black PantherMcGregor/Russell KillravenWolfman/Colan DraculaWolfman/Perlin Werewolf by NightRich Buckler DeathlokSteve Gerber, Howard the DuckGerber, Man-Thing
What else would fit in there? Any of the superhero titles?
― Malibu Stasi (WilliamC), Monday, 8 September 2014 19:23 (ten years ago) link
surely claremont's xmen, no?
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Monday, 8 September 2014 19:38 (ten years ago) link
Gerber's Defenders is the only obvious omission. Maybe Starlin's Captain Marvel. Claremont might be outside the purview of that particular endeavor.
― Coarse Apple Slaw (Old Lunch), Monday, 8 September 2014 19:38 (ten years ago) link
xpost
Is Wolfman's Werewolf by Night run really thought of as 'auteur' comics? Moreso than the Gerry Conway issues, or the Doug Moench issues?
Would also include
Englehart/Brunner/Colan's Doctor StrangeEnglehart/Starlin's Captain MarvelGerber's DefendersGerber/Skrenes' Omega the UnknownMcGregor's Power Man
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Monday, 8 September 2014 19:41 (ten years ago) link
the Claremont/Cockrum issues of X-Men are sort've the Marvel Comics equivalent of Jaws - recognisably the work of 70s auteurs, but also a harbinger of a new, less personally expressive/more commercially-minded way of creating comics
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Monday, 8 September 2014 19:44 (ten years ago) link
well put
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Monday, 8 September 2014 19:49 (ten years ago) link
My error on that one -- I meant to type Moench instead of Wolfman. The only issues I ever read were Moench/Perlin.
xp, yes, that's a great description of the X-Men revival
― Malibu Stasi (WilliamC), Monday, 8 September 2014 20:09 (ten years ago) link
Isn't Englehart's run on Cap A supposed to be pretty distinctive? I still need to order that essentials volume...
― Rand McNulty (Jon Lewis), Monday, 8 September 2014 20:35 (ten years ago) link
it's gd solid superhero comics w/ the odd bit of political 'relevance', but also slightly more 'straight'/mainstream than most of the titles william nominated (see also englehart's avengers) - i think in part that's because it was drawn by sal buscema (and often inked by vince colletta), so the storytelling and general look isn't so 'out' as say w/starlin (tho' sal b inked by klaus janson on gerber's defenders is a v. pleasing combo imho). the few issues of cap that gerber wrote later on are more bizarre than the englehart stuff (but then you could say the same abt kirby's seventies cap run)
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Monday, 8 September 2014 20:45 (ten years ago) link
All of his 70s Marvel work was pretty distinctive, but yeah, I would argue the Cap and Avengers runs could belong in this theoretical poll. Also, Don McGregor's wiki page says "He and artist P. Craig Russell engineered color comic books' first known interracial kiss, between the "Killraven" characters M'Shulla and Carmilla Frost, in Amazing Adventures #31 (July 1975)." But I just checked, and Gabe Jones' and Peggy Carter's kiss in Cap was a month earlier. (#186, June '75)
xp
― Malibu Stasi (WilliamC), Monday, 8 September 2014 20:49 (ten years ago) link
What would be a good corresponding radio-button list of 80s "auteurs selling out in style" blockbuster stories - Kraven's Last Hunt, Ground Zero (in Hulk), that sort of thing?
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 13 September 2014 12:13 (ten years ago) link
I've often thought how great it would be to have a Mad Men-style period drama set within the offices of a Marvel-esque publisher. Names changed obviously, but using real events as inspiration. The history of the industry being what it is, there are so many potential story avenues it could go down.
― Pheeel, Thursday, 18 September 2014 18:36 (ten years ago) link
Great idea. There was a great episode of Deep Space 9 where all the principals were staffers at a 1950s SF Pulp mag...
― arthur treacher, or the fall of the british empire (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 18 September 2014 18:58 (ten years ago) link
Didn't Will Eisner or somebody do a barely-fictionalized book about working in the Harry 'A' Chesler shop? An account of 65-77 Marvel from the POVs of Sol Brodsky, Flo Steinberg, John Verpoorten and (especially) Marie Severin would be cool.
― Malibu Stasi (WilliamC), Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:08 (ten years ago) link
Kavalier and Klay's strongest parts are basically this.
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:43 (ten years ago) link
Eisner's book is The Dreamer (all I can remember about it was that George Tuska was called 'Gar Tooth' in it!)
There's also this:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aOwTPlkDAmM/T5a3YlkQFQI/AAAAAAAAQlQ/WTaYH4Z8X7o/s1600/What-If-v1-11_00fc.jpg
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:49 (ten years ago) link
Wholly tangentially, I was reminded recently after pulling my copy out of storage that The Maximortal is basically the bloated, pustulant ancestor of Kavalier & Klay. Now that is an adaptation I'd pay good money to see.
― Kick And They Slap A Friend (Old Lunch), Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:52 (ten years ago) link
xpost thanking u for new dn
― Gar Tooth (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 18 September 2014 20:00 (ten years ago) link
http://namtab.com/phantomstranger/doompatrol53.gif
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 22 September 2014 01:27 (ten years ago) link
lol @ "original bullpen" with lantern-jawed, hair-headed Stan
― Starland Vocal Gland (sic), Monday, 22 September 2014 04:38 (ten years ago) link
I'm glad we have this thread -- I didn't want to throw a digression into the interesting discussion on the other thread. Just wanted to say that two issues in, Brian Wood's Moon Knight is just as awesome as Warren Ellis' was.
― it's taco science, but it works like taco magic (WilliamC), Thursday, 2 October 2014 15:51 (ten years ago) link
really? I run hot and cold on BW in that I was really into a lot of his work for years until I decided a lot of it falls kind of emotionally flat.
― ⌘-B (mh), Thursday, 2 October 2014 15:59 (ten years ago) link
bit sad that Hawkeye and Superior Foes Of Spiderman are both ending in an issue or two - two of the best Marvel runs of the moment...
― jamiesummerz, Thursday, 2 October 2014 15:59 (ten years ago) link
I just looked at his wiki page and realized that he's the guy who'd been accused of sexual harassment by Tess Fowler last year, a story I didn't follow beyond the headlines. I don't think I'd read anything by him before, but I like these two MK issues. Seamless transition from Ellis, not a jarring "MY WAY NOW!" reboot.
― it's taco science, but it works like taco magic (WilliamC), Thursday, 2 October 2014 16:19 (ten years ago) link
I jumped off of Moon Knight after Ellis but it's still on my pull list. It's a little sad putting that issue back on the shelf instead of removing it from the list but part of me perversely enjoys actively rejecting Wood based off of the Fowler allegations.
On a different note, everything Al Ewing has touched to date has ruled.
― 💪😈⚠️ (DJP), Thursday, 2 October 2014 16:30 (ten years ago) link
do you guys all buy new issues off the racks? Or off digital racks? I am solely limiting my marvel intake to the unlimited app so i dunno how far behind all of you i am.
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 2 October 2014 16:37 (ten years ago) link
I'm a rack man.
(Repost to the out of context thread in 5, 4, 3...)
― 💪😈⚠️ (DJP), Thursday, 2 October 2014 16:39 (ten years ago) link
otm about Al Ewing, Loki and Mighty Avengers are pretty much awesome every time
― ⌘-B (mh), Thursday, 2 October 2014 16:40 (ten years ago) link
I was a voracious floppy hog (yet another out of context gift) until about three years ago when I stopped cold turkey. I'm slowly filling in gaps now but I mostly don't know anything that's happened from Fear Itself to present day.
― Portly Backgammon (Old Lunch), Thursday, 2 October 2014 16:42 (ten years ago) link
dan/lunch: i quit buying floppies about five years ago when i bought my ninth bookshelf solely for comics... do you bag/board/box? Why do you guys still buy physical capes and tights books? they take about two minutes to read and a year to form a complete storyline that, nine times out of ten, is worth nowhere near that amount of effort and collected editions are cheaper and more manageable. What's the appeal for you?
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 2 October 2014 16:44 (ten years ago) link
I box my stuff out of necessity but I'm generally not precious enough about it to bag it (lotsa beat up comics). Back when I did buy floppies regularly, it was honestly in large part because of the addictive ritual of going to the shop every Wednesday. But also because it was easier to keep on top of the stuff I read than buying it after the fact would've been (especially given Marvel's horrendous reprint policy). Nowadays, I generally buy older stuff in trades, with the exception of anything crossover-y (I can't stand jumping all over the place within a trade/between multiple trades when I'm trying to read what's ostensibly a single story).
― Portly Backgammon (Old Lunch), Thursday, 2 October 2014 16:55 (ten years ago) link
Also, while I find good value in digital (it's lovely to have hundreds of comics at the ready when I'm on the train), I vastly prefer to read physical copies of comics/books/etc. E-readers were much more favorable to my ADD when they were single-purpose devices.
― Portly Backgammon (Old Lunch), Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:07 (ten years ago) link
The new Bucky Barnes: Winter Soldier is pure ilx-fodder. Trippy water-color imagery that takes place on the planets Syro, Exai and Mer-z-bow and involves aliens Ventolin and Rossz Csillag. The story, though, is a bit meh, and most of it is imcomprehensible. But I can't help but think it's cool that Marvel publishes this kind of thing. Hope it succeeds.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:12 (ten years ago) link
i do miss the ritual of comic book stores. sometimes i'll walk into one and kill an hour walking up and down the aisles but i generally leave with either a graphic novel i've long wanted or nothing.ipad comic reading does just fine for me honestly; any issues i have with lack of haptics pales in comparison to portability, accessibility and space issues.
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:27 (ten years ago) link
I have longboxes in basement storage and I like having physical, tangible objects
― 💪😈⚠️ (DJP), Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:40 (ten years ago) link
i'd like having basement storage!
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:48 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, I wish I had more storage space. We have a lockup in the storage room of our building which doesn't have space for much but even so I'm sure it's been a relationship saver.
― Portly Backgammon (Old Lunch), Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:53 (ten years ago) link
by the same token though, there's something to be said for being able to find anything you own in under ten minutes because it's on a shelf in front of you.for me, boxes ultimately made it easy for me to lose or forget ownership or have any reason to curb my buying habits. Once I dumped about eight long boxes and bookshelved everything that i wanted to keep, I found i got a lot more choosy about where i wanted to buy... and it was often less about disposable income and more about what I could justify wanting to keepthat said, I now have a very specific sort of library that multiple moves over the past five years has left spread out all over the place and no close and nearby comic buddies to share it with. this is why people have children, isn't it?
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:56 (ten years ago) link
I, uh, have a parrot and an eyepatch for current superhero stuff. And four longboxes, mostly 60s/70s Marvels and 80s indie floppies.
― it's taco science, but it works like taco magic (WilliamC), Thursday, 2 October 2014 18:00 (ten years ago) link
that said, I now have a very specific sort of library that multiple moves over the past five years has left spread out all over the place and no close and nearby comic buddies to share it with. this is why people have children, isn't it?
Feeling you. I also still have some stuff in a storage unit and in a shed at my mom's house. The thought of it all being in one place vividly illustrates the need for some hardcore paring down (or, perhaps, the selling of furniture). And, yeah, except for a few choice things my girlfriend's interested in, no one reads this shit but me, although I'd happily share the wealth.
― Portly Backgammon (Old Lunch), Thursday, 2 October 2014 18:28 (ten years ago) link
children are the worst man
― Nhex, Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:31 (ten years ago) link
I generally haven't bought floppies in years - not worth the time/space/effort - and with rare exceptions all I buy now are trades or graphic novels. I still have like 1 1/2 longboxes full of stuff I bought when I was younger and don't want to part with.
now, my daughter otoh - I buy her floppies of stuff she wants pretty regularly, maybe a couple a month. soon she will need a longbox of her own lol
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 2 October 2014 20:34 (ten years ago) link
a father's proudest moment
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 2 October 2014 20:35 (ten years ago) link
reading comics w kids is awesome I highly recommend it btw
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 2 October 2014 20:36 (ten years ago) link
right now all her comics are jammed into the coffee table
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 2 October 2014 20:37 (ten years ago) link
I buy floppies occasionally but half of them have coffee stains on them and once I am done with them I throw them in the recycling bin
― ⌘-B (mh), Thursday, 2 October 2014 21:09 (ten years ago) link
I only buy my kid trades. We don't really have the room for individual issues. Actually, at the moment, about two years into our mutual comic store trips period, we're even pushing our limit on trades. I'll have to rearrange the bookshelves soon.
― how's life, Thursday, 2 October 2014 21:13 (ten years ago) link
I only buy trades/GNs now in physical form. Ran out of space for floppies years ago, and have found that the art genuinely seems to look better on an ipad's backlit screen.
Really looking forward to my daughter being old enough for comics. Got some Moomin and other stuff already for when she can read.
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Thursday, 2 October 2014 23:53 (ten years ago) link
Straight scans of actual 60s and 70s marvel floppies look SO GOOD on a lit hd tablet screen.
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Friday, 3 October 2014 00:13 (ten years ago) link
Ah - I need directing to some better ones then! I had to delete my Gerber Defenders scans, they were kind of unreadable.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 3 October 2014 09:57 (ten years ago) link
there are definitely bad scans out there. most of the ones I've gotten from torrents have been pretty careful-looking. Haven't read my old defenders files yet-- I was most of the way through the gerber run in Marvel Essentials but I'm gonna start it over in color cbz.
for whatever reason, black and white comics don't seem right on a screen for me, even a really nice screen...
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Friday, 3 October 2014 15:38 (ten years ago) link
Our Marvel All-Ages series are now changing names, but the stories remain the same! Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man is now known as Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man Web Warriors. That's not all! Marvel Universe Avengers Assemble will now be called Marvel Universe Avengers Assemble Season 2.
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Monday, 6 October 2014 18:36 (ten years ago) link
Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man Beach Boys BBQ Blowout Bash Blast
― Certified Genious (Old Lunch), Monday, 6 October 2014 18:39 (ten years ago) link
in other news, squirrel girl
― ⌘-B (mh), Monday, 6 October 2014 18:43 (ten years ago) link
heh Ryan North gettin' work!
― Nhex, Monday, 6 October 2014 19:29 (ten years ago) link
what the everloving fuck with these guys― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Monday, October 6, 2014 1:36 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I'm so glad I got out of comics, this is insanity atop insanity
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 6 October 2014 23:53 (ten years ago) link
TBF, these are just marginal, 'based on the animated series!' comics, and the stupid titles are probably just edicts from some low-level Disney marketing exec. Not really reflective of the main line.
― Certified Genious (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 7 October 2014 00:07 (ten years ago) link
yeah, sorry tbf those are actually comix made for kids.but the constant rebooting!
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 7 October 2014 00:10 (ten years ago) link
the titling of comics for kids should be WAY LESS confusing than for 40-yo babymen
― Starland Vocal Gland (sic), Tuesday, 7 October 2014 00:21 (ten years ago) link
like in the mid-00s the all-ages Marvel books were all "something Adventures" and collected in $5 digests, not full-size TPBs - easy branding
― Starland Vocal Gland (sic), Tuesday, 7 October 2014 00:22 (ten years ago) link
I'm presuming they're trying to match the cartoon titles exactly
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 7 October 2014 00:23 (ten years ago) link
it's actually kind of a savvy (though also obnoxious) move to title a second year of books "season 2" to match the TV seriesweb warriors is a good idea considering there's going to be a separate canon Miles Morales series that will follow Axis (if i understand correctly)
― Nhex, Tuesday, 7 October 2014 06:08 (ten years ago) link
So is Axis going to be really bad or what?
― ⌘-B (mh), Tuesday, 7 October 2014 12:30 (ten years ago) link
Kinda old at this point but I don't remember seeing this piece on Ike Perlmutter posted anywhere around these parts. Pretty eye-opening. Among the alleged revelations: in order to punish the studios who are thwarting Marvel's desire to have all of their properties under one cinematic roof, there will be no new characters in the X-books and FF is being cancelled outright.
― Certified Genious (Old Lunch), Thursday, 9 October 2014 14:41 (ten years ago) link
Interesting, not aware of that guy. I didn't see anything about hobbling the X-Books and FF though, which sounds a little farfetched
― Nhex, Thursday, 9 October 2014 14:53 (ten years ago) link
That is more recent allegations. Can't remember who said there is a mandate not to create new x-characters, but it was someone with inside information. And it really seems as if FF will be canceled next year.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 9 October 2014 14:59 (ten years ago) link
Well, I imagine that sales of the FF comic are pretty marginal, and probably have been for years (it's sort've the same situation as with Superman - a foundational comic that doesn't actually sell that well.) But if only to protect the copyright, I'm sure the characters will continue to appear in Marvel Universe Comics, even if not in their own title.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 9 October 2014 15:04 (ten years ago) link
Oh, that stuff might've been in the io9 article I read last night that linked to the Perlmutter article. Sorry 'bout that.
― Certified Genious (Old Lunch), Thursday, 9 October 2014 15:05 (ten years ago) link
There's been an excess of X-characters since.. what, 1982? So that's not a totally bad idea to ease up on introducing new mutants. I say this just having read that years-long Messiah Complex-Messiah War run from ~2008-2010.
FF - yeah, I wonder when the last time FF was really a top Marvel book, maybe the 80s? How successful was that Waid run from the early 2000s in sales?
― Nhex, Thursday, 9 October 2014 15:08 (ten years ago) link
In a way, the Hickman run was pretty crucial, just in the way it showed what Hickman could do. He moved from there to Avengers. It also sold really, really well when one of them died. The Fraction FF with Shehulk, Medusa, Ant-man and, um, She-thing?, was pretty fun as well, and had good art by Allred.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 9 October 2014 15:14 (ten years ago) link
the last super hot FF run i remember was these:http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/04/23/comics-you-should-own-fantastic-four-347-349/
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 9 October 2014 15:16 (ten years ago) link
ha, EXACTLY what I was thinking of! that Arthur Adams art was awesome
― Nhex, Thursday, 9 October 2014 15:22 (ten years ago) link
Can't remember who said there is a mandate not to create new x-characters, but it was someone with inside information
Claremont.
― Starland Vocal Gland (sic), Thursday, 9 October 2014 16:01 (ten years ago) link
guhhhhh
http://comicsbeat.com/marvel-relaunching-secret-wars-in-2015-in-a-synergistic-fashion-across-the-marvel-brand
― warning, #4 can't be unseen (WilliamC), Friday, 10 October 2014 01:54 (ten years ago) link
fucks sake
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Friday, 10 October 2014 01:59 (ten years ago) link
i guess Miles Morales is gonna keep showing up in the 616 then...
― Nhex, Friday, 10 October 2014 02:20 (ten years ago) link
Those FFs are fun - checked them on MU. Thanks for that. And also this line in the CBR piece:
"Art Adams' women are gorgeous without being skanky."
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 10 October 2014 02:28 (ten years ago) link
The original Secret Wars was exactly what company-wide events should be: the crossover part of the plot was limited to one maxi-series, and only the after-effects were shown in individual titles, so you didn't have to read any of the tie-in issues to get what's going on. It's sad that Marvel seems to have forgotten this, the crossovers of the 00s and 10s have become increasingly incoherent messes, with different writers adding their own bits that often don't jibe with each other. Seems like the new SW will be like this too.
― Tuomas, Friday, 10 October 2014 06:18 (ten years ago) link
But I guess back in the 80s they had to consider the fact that most of their readers were kids who couldn't afford to buy every tie-in issue, not middle-aged geezers who can.
― Tuomas, Friday, 10 October 2014 06:29 (ten years ago) link
CBR is an appallingly written website. I have a bizarre compulsion to read their 'Comics Legends Explained' series every saturday morning, but I come for the trivia, not the prose, which is eye-wateringly clumsy and amateur.
― You've been yelped (stevie), Friday, 10 October 2014 08:33 (ten years ago) link
Not all of their writers are bad, though... Personally I like Greg Burgas, who currently has a nice article series running where he analyzes the stylish developments of various comic book artists. It's true that Brian Cronin, the guy who writes (among others) the Comic Book Legends series, has a weirdly amateurish writing style, even though he's done it for years and has even published a book on the those comic book legends.
― Tuomas, Friday, 10 October 2014 11:02 (ten years ago) link
was that book self-published? it's a good feature/book idea, but so badly written.
― You've been yelped (stevie), Friday, 10 October 2014 11:18 (ten years ago) link
Nope, it appears to have been published by a subsidiary of Penguin. And judging by that first Amazon review, it suffers from the same problems as his columns.
― Tuomas, Friday, 10 October 2014 12:06 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00LIsgWrKPs
― Pheeel, Friday, 10 October 2014 12:55 (ten years ago) link
that's a pretty good stan lee voice
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Friday, 10 October 2014 14:29 (ten years ago) link
The original Secret Wars was exactly what company-wide events should be
a legal dodge to safeguard against potential lawsuits from creators that the company screwed over? sounds about right
― Οὖτις, Friday, 10 October 2014 15:19 (ten years ago) link
??
I thought it was to sell toys.
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 10 October 2014 15:22 (ten years ago) link
dying at K&P sketch
― Οὖτις, Friday, 10 October 2014 15:24 (ten years ago) link
persistent rumor that makes a lot of sense (c+p'd from another forum): The reason for the Secret Wars was back in 1982/83, Jack Kirby was in a lawsuit against Marvel over the rights of the characters he created and to get his original art back. The rumor is that Jim Shooter wrote Secret Wars in order to subtly change some of the characters in case Marvel lost (Spidey in the Black suit, She-Hulk joining FF, various characters in costume/personality changes etc). Marvel were afraid that if Jack won, then other artists (ie-Steve Ditko), would file their own suit. Hence, the mass-scale change. After Kirby and Marvel settled the characters that were changed reverted back to their original conception.
I have no evidence to support this apart from the timeline lining up and my enduring confidence in the bottomless pit of Marvel's cynicism
― Οὖτις, Friday, 10 October 2014 15:33 (ten years ago) link
Kirby was not involved in a lawsuit with Marvel.
― Starland Vocal Gland (sic), Friday, 10 October 2014 16:17 (ten years ago) link
I couldn't remember if he was just threatening or it was a dispute or a lawsuit had been filed or not but I had faith that you would correct me
― Οὖτις, Friday, 10 October 2014 16:21 (ten years ago) link
Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man is now known as Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man Web Warriors
wtf
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 13 October 2014 15:56 (ten years ago) link
It's a comic for kids, as in actual kids five years old or something. It looks like this:
http://subscriptions.marvel.com/images/PRODUCT/FUL/3891_ful.jpg
It's got nothing to do with the Marvel Universe or the Ultimate Universe. It's just for little kids, so it's got a fun name.
― Eyeball Kicks, Monday, 13 October 2014 22:27 (ten years ago) link
Oh wait, it's the name of a cartoon for kids. So this is the comic of the cartoon.
― Eyeball Kicks, Monday, 13 October 2014 22:29 (ten years ago) link
Marvel's Ultimate Spider Man Web Warriors: The Comic of The Cartoon
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Monday, 13 October 2014 22:37 (ten years ago) link
Exactly.
― Nhex, Monday, 13 October 2014 22:37 (ten years ago) link
tbf almost every Marvel/DC animated show has had a counterpart book in the style of the show
― Nhex, Monday, 13 October 2014 22:38 (ten years ago) link
i see ultimate spiderman, classic spiderman, brock venom, SpiderMan2099, Scarlet Spider and Spider Girl... who are the other two?
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Monday, 13 October 2014 22:38 (ten years ago) link
The one on the right edge I think is Spider-Man Noir. Red/Yellow Iron Spidey was from Civil War-era. The two on the left I'm not sure about.
― Nhex, Monday, 13 October 2014 22:54 (ten years ago) link
lol "Spider Man Noir"; that sounds right.I'm pretty sure red/yellow spidey is the scarlet spiderBottom left is nu-hero Venom. It's the one above that I can't place.
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Monday, 13 October 2014 23:14 (ten years ago) link
Ha, the Iron Spider is an alternate universe Amadeus Cho! Nice!
― Nhex, Monday, 13 October 2014 23:27 (ten years ago) link
Spider-Ham makes an appearance. I might actually watch this show
― Nhex, Monday, 13 October 2014 23:29 (ten years ago) link
I think most of these and more will be in EDGE OF SPIDERVERSE
― ⌘-B (mh), Monday, 13 October 2014 23:31 (ten years ago) link
I thought you were joking but that's a real event!
― Nhex, Monday, 13 October 2014 23:55 (ten years ago) link
I know, right? Those pesky spider-killers are jumping across universes and only a team of spider-people can stop them!
― ⌘-B (mh), Tuesday, 14 October 2014 00:13 (ten years ago) link
Marvel's Ultimate Spider Man Web Warriors The Comic of The Cartoon presents EDGE OF THE SPIDERVERSE: And One Must Fall!
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 14 October 2014 01:04 (ten years ago) link
They haven't quite been there yet, forks
― ⌘-B (mh), Tuesday, 14 October 2014 01:47 (ten years ago) link
excelsior
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 14 October 2014 02:14 (ten years ago) link
The red/yellow Spider-Man is indeed from Civil War era: there were three clones (or something) that wore that costume, though AFAIK they weren't related to Scarlet Spider or the original Clone Saga. IIRC Spider-Man himself might've worn the red/yellow thing at some point too.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 14 October 2014 11:31 (ten years ago) link
Ah, apparently the CW era red/yellow spidermen were also called "Scarlet Spiders", even though they had nothing to do with the Clone Saga Scarlet Spider. How confusing.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 14 October 2014 11:35 (ten years ago) link
I believe they just violently killed Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends in a recent issue (no, really)
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 14 October 2014 11:49 (ten years ago) link
on an unrelated note i'm super into X-Statix right now, or at least I have been for a dozen issues or so--it's funny, ~90s edgy~ (they spend a third of their time in-fighting about marketing deals & manufacturing drama for ratings on their televised superheroics, the writers must have watched Natural Born Killers a bunch or something), surprising. none of the characters are likeable, but i'm most of the way through all 38 issues, so i'm sort of looking forward to the end.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 14 October 2014 17:00 (ten years ago) link
The Milligan/Allred run on X-Force/X-Statix isn't really typical of the 90s though, their take on superheroes as cynical celebrities was pretty unique. (The only precedent I can think of is Verheiden's "The American".) I hated the way it ended though, even if it made some thematical sense, given the way theit X-Force started.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 14 October 2014 17:31 (ten years ago) link
The Milligan/Allred run on X-Force/X-Statix isn't really typical of the 90s though, their take on superheroes as cynical celebrities was pretty unique
right, i've gathered as much--picked it up after gillen/mckelvie's young avengers run, read an interview where they cited it as a big influence.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 14 October 2014 17:39 (ten years ago) link
the writers must have watched Natural Born Killers a bunch or something
hoos I always find it curious that someone as political in life as you can be so enthusiastically into as virulently anti-labor a company as Marvel! but there's one writer of X-Statix and it's Peter Milligan
PS it's from the '00s, not the '90s, and feels distinctly an artifact of that time to me. Also if you didn't read Milligan & Allred's 12-issue run on X-Force that set up -Statix, pause the latter and go back immediately!
― Starland Vocal Gland (sic), Tuesday, 14 October 2014 17:53 (ten years ago) link
^^^ yes, do that
― 💪😈⚠️ (DJP), Tuesday, 14 October 2014 18:00 (ten years ago) link
it's from the '00s, not the '90s,
yeah i saw that just now looking at the wiki and was surprised, to me it feels very "gen x cynical" (whatever that means idk) but i suppose all the reality tv reference points probably mark it more clearly as an early 00s thing
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 14 October 2014 18:33 (ten years ago) link
hoos I always find it curious that someone as political in life as you can be so enthusiastically into as virulently anti-labor a company as Marvel!
i only really know what i hear alluded to around here and what i read in that mammoth jack kirby thread! i suppose i should grab the sean howe book or something
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 14 October 2014 18:34 (ten years ago) link
They don't pay royalties or foreign publication fees.
― Starland Vocal Gland (sic), Wednesday, 15 October 2014 18:27 (ten years ago) link
Charles Soule's She-Hulk to be cancelled after #12. If rebooting and renumbering a title after every creative team change is the way forward, I just want to go on the record as really really hating it.
― Pict in a blanket (WilliamC), Tuesday, 21 October 2014 20:24 (ten years ago) link
No worries, they'll also be renumbered for roughly six months whenever the number of cumulative issues from all seventeen volumes of a given title hits a notable benchmark ending in '00'.
― Remoistening The Trough (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 October 2014 20:52 (ten years ago) link
I wish the writing in the Soule issues was anywhere as good as the art.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 22 October 2014 10:40 (ten years ago) link
I wish the plot idea was anywhere as good as... I don't know, 1/2 of all Marvel comics plots of the last decade
― ⌘-B (mh), Wednesday, 22 October 2014 13:44 (ten years ago) link
I can't tell if it's Soule's style that leaves me cold (for any of his books) or if he's just, you know, not very good.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 22 October 2014 16:24 (ten years ago) link
I think he's a bit shit tbh.
― tsrobodo, Wednesday, 22 October 2014 19:00 (ten years ago) link
Though I think this one is less reboot and renumber than "miserable failure" sales-wise. Last issue sold 1/5 the copies of the current Hulk title for me, which is already one of the weaker big-name titles.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 23 October 2014 00:54 (ten years ago) link
i always liked what i'd read of soule's she-hulk, felt very fraction's hawkeye to me, which was a good thing in my (uh) book.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 23 October 2014 20:56 (ten years ago) link
Ditto, I was sad at the hatin' on it ITT.
― Pict in a blanket (WilliamC), Thursday, 23 October 2014 21:04 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, I like Soule's She-hulk, will be sad to see it go, as I was with Superior Foes
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Thursday, 23 October 2014 23:50 (ten years ago) link
There are 13 different covers for Marvel's first new Star Wars title. Fuck this shit.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 29 October 2014 21:41 (ten years ago) link
i think you only need to buy one to read the comics story
― jamiesummerz, Thursday, 30 October 2014 00:37 (ten years ago) link
variant covers are bullshit and an act of disrespect to readers and of financial violence to retailers
― Starland Vocal Gland (sic), Thursday, 30 October 2014 03:04 (ten years ago) link
true, but remember polybags? now THAT is an act of disrespect to writers
― Steve 'n' Seagulls and Flock of Van Dammes (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 30 October 2014 03:39 (ten years ago) link
Do not understand the pull of variant covers. Surely nobody buys these for speculator value any more? Is there even any such thing these days? And if you like the picture, fuck, download the JPG from Marvels's site and buy a cheap-cover copy.
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Thursday, 30 October 2014 04:56 (ten years ago) link
Varient covers are the crystal meth for collector nurds and the greasy sharks that surround them. The worst of the type are the guys who worry about a comic store putting as stamp or sticker on a Comic Book Day freebie. I'm not sure if that rung of hell is above or below the record collector nurds.
― earlnash, Thursday, 30 October 2014 22:38 (ten years ago) link
People worry about that?! I haven't had anyone complain to me, at least, or I would have started laughing.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Friday, 31 October 2014 01:26 (ten years ago) link
So does the nerd variant cover market subsidise the rest of us?
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 31 October 2014 22:58 (ten years ago) link
The ones I really don't understand are those sub-Calvin and Hobbes variant covers by - is it Chris Eliopoulos? They're just so... creepy and sad.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 31 October 2014 23:02 (ten years ago) link
It subsidizes retailers and/or pumps up numbers for titles - with the Amazing Spider-Man #1, between two stores I ordered 300 copies IIRC. My price on that would be $670 - I got one 1:300 sketch variant that I sold for $200, two more non-sketch variants of that cover that I sold for $100 apiece and ~10 other variants that sold for $10-75 apiece. I made back all my ASM#1 money before I sold a single issue. That was with a blockbuster, though.
A lot of the variants Marvel solicits these days sell for no premium, you can just order them if you hit a target of some kind - which is a massive PITA. If I normally order 40 of something and they have four variants that are tied to it but - I now have to order 60 if I want the 40 I need for the target plus five of each for the people who want Skottie Young or whatever Deadpool variant is out this week. So I just don't bother with most variants that aren't incentive variants I can sell to defray costs.
Variants can pump up numbers in situations like Star Wars - there's a 1:500 incentive variant and people are talking about ordering 500 just to get that one, when they might sell 100 of the issue itself. I'm not willing to bet that kind of money and have 400 extra copies on the chance I get a mint variant and can find a buyer. I grew up around comics and baseball cards, so I know how speculation works out with this stuff.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Friday, 31 October 2014 23:18 (ten years ago) link
I got one 1:300 sketch variant that I sold for $200
I'm glad it helps your store stay afloat, but I just don't get who's made enough to do this. It's not as though it's an actual original sketch, just a printed copy on a crappy floppy
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Wednesday, 5 November 2014 02:04 (ten years ago) link
MAD enough
there was a 75th anniversary hagiography on network tv tonight that i taped, curious to see how marvel presents its own history these days
― Steve 'n' Seagulls and Flock of Van Dammes (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 5 November 2014 02:32 (ten years ago) link
Someone asked me to recommend them issues of Deadpool, which I've never read, so would welcome yr suggestions.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 5 November 2014 07:29 (ten years ago) link
nah
― the incredible string gland (sic), Wednesday, 5 November 2014 09:08 (ten years ago) link
I've never read much Deadpool but I've been enjoying the recent Brian Posehn / Gerry Duggan Deadpool run via Marvel Unlimited. A nice mix of goofy fun stuff and some surprising character depth. I remember liking Gail Simone's Deadpool / Agent X issues back in the early years of the 21st century too.
― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, 5 November 2014 10:40 (ten years ago) link
Kind of looking forward to the day when all this Spiderverse silliness hits Marvel Unlimited
― mh, Wednesday, 5 November 2014 16:19 (ten years ago) link
^word
― Nhex, Wednesday, 5 November 2014 16:30 (ten years ago) link
reading the slott silver surfer right now, leaving me a little cold, but the writing is funny
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 5 November 2014 18:32 (ten years ago) link
OG Joe Kelly Deadpool run rules
― kissaroo and Tyler, too (DJP), Thursday, 6 November 2014 00:28 (ten years ago) link
Thank you BG and DJP for the DPool recs, have passed them on
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 6 November 2014 10:07 (ten years ago) link
I never followed Marvel in the Liefeld era and Deadpool feels a bit like a private joke I don't get
Or at least I kind of associate him with Robert Kirkman-style comics with no heart and lots of lovingly detailed gruey body stuff
Is that wrong? Or is that right, but the comics are still ok?
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 6 November 2014 15:32 (ten years ago) link
Pretty much every Deadpool thing I've read has been hot garbage, but I haven't read much/any of the Deadpool runs that are considered "classic" so my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.
― A Marvelous Pizza-Viewing Experience (Old Lunch), Thursday, 6 November 2014 15:48 (ten years ago) link
Half of Joe Kelly's run was spent making fun of Liefeld's nonsense and the other half was spent making fun of the rest of the Marvel Universe
― kissaroo and Tyler, too (DJP), Thursday, 6 November 2014 23:56 (ten years ago) link
It'll be interesting to see how all the currently Hickman/Avengers/8 months later countdown stuff reads when collected. There are enough intertwined story bits right now that reading it monthly is kind of rewarding. All the stuff he introduced at the beginning of his run has been kept in play and is now starting to flush out!
― jenny holzer, ilxor (mh), Wednesday, 19 November 2014 15:45 (ten years ago) link
I can't really think of many other writers/comics events that have juggled different teams and events while keeping all the balls in the air
― jenny holzer, ilxor (mh), Wednesday, 19 November 2014 15:46 (ten years ago) link
i find hickman exhausting and unpleasant to read. I'd like to request a moratorium on full page every issue recaps and black page / white text "NOW" dividers.
― So beautiful cow (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 19 November 2014 15:53 (ten years ago) link
I used to be on the fence! It's a time investment and it definitely doesn't work for everyone, but pondering how certain characters would react to events, to each other, with the different players and personalities in play and doing it over months instead of pages is something I think he's gotten better at.
― jenny holzer, ilxor (mh), Wednesday, 19 November 2014 15:55 (ten years ago) link
his SHIELD series stuff really fell flat for me originally but Secret Warriors was where I got on board with his Marvel work and went back to read the FF/Ultimate FF stuff
― jenny holzer, ilxor (mh), Wednesday, 19 November 2014 15:56 (ten years ago) link
i like how bendis has basically just carried over his avengers plotlines/characters to the x-books he's writing now.
can't get on w/ hickman at all.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 19 November 2014 16:00 (ten years ago) link
nice thing about Marvel right now is they have two completely different events with the same set of characters and don't seem to care at all. not sure how I feel about Axis, but it's somewhat interesting
which is fine with me. having strong continuity across the entire line just means you don't get to do what you want with characters
Jason Aaron's Thor is still pretty great!
― jenny holzer, ilxor (mh), Wednesday, 19 November 2014 16:04 (ten years ago) link
so far Axis can bite me
― the farakhan of gg (DJP), Wednesday, 19 November 2014 19:53 (ten years ago) link
Remender has been absolute shit since X-Force. But I wasn't into his pre-X-Force stuff so I'm thinking it's the anomaly and not what I hoped was an upturn in quality.
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 19 November 2014 19:54 (ten years ago) link
Don't get me started on "hey guys, we made Falcon into Captain America and then for his first trip out decided he should be EEEEEEEEVIL"
― the farakhan of gg (DJP), Wednesday, 19 November 2014 19:56 (ten years ago) link
I will cosign x-force tho'
― So beautiful cow (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 19 November 2014 20:06 (ten years ago) link
oh his X-Force was great
― the farakhan of gg (DJP), Wednesday, 19 November 2014 20:29 (ten years ago) link
is Mighty Avengers part of the Axis bullshit or no
― jenny holzer, ilxor (mh), Wednesday, 19 November 2014 22:41 (ten years ago) link
Unfortunately yes
― the farakhan of gg (DJP), Thursday, 20 November 2014 02:22 (ten years ago) link
Don't really know what thread to ask this on, might as well try this one.
My housemate, and occasional comic reader, was really into Moon Knight as a kid and I thought it might be fun to get him a MK trade for xmas. Are there any good runs from the last decade or so which have been collected?
― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Monday, 8 December 2014 19:56 (ten years ago) link
People have been speaking very highly about the recent Warren Ellis run, but I haven't read it. It's collected in a single cheap trade. There's also the recent but higher-priced Epic Collection featuring the earliest stories (basically the same stuff that's in the first Essential Moon Knight but in color).
― Hamhole and Fly Eyes (Old Lunch), Monday, 8 December 2014 20:03 (ten years ago) link
The new Ellis run is excellent, I'll cosign that as worth buying for sure.
― a stupid red mute juggalo (forksclovetofu), Monday, 8 December 2014 20:10 (ten years ago) link
yeah it pretty much ruled
― the farakhan of gg (DJP), Monday, 8 December 2014 20:21 (ten years ago) link
Cheers, seems like that'll be the one.
― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Monday, 8 December 2014 20:47 (ten years ago) link
xp -- Agreed.
The Bendis/Maleev series (12 issues, 2011-2012) wasn't so great. Scene-setting for Age of Ultron, killed off the character Echo. It did look good, though (I'm a big Maleev fan).
― Pict in a blanket (WilliamC), Monday, 8 December 2014 21:14 (ten years ago) link
I think I read that and blocked out them killing Echo :/
― valleys of your mind (mh), Monday, 8 December 2014 21:39 (ten years ago) link
I liked when she showed up to help in Japan as Ronin and it took until the very end for anyone to realize Ronin didn't catch what you were saying unless you had eye contact, even though there were clues
― valleys of your mind (mh), Monday, 8 December 2014 21:40 (ten years ago) link
Didn't realize Echo was dead. Thanks for spoiling a story from three years ago, jeez.
― Hamhole and Fly Eyes (Old Lunch), Monday, 8 December 2014 21:45 (ten years ago) link
Eh, she disappeared for years at a time anyway
― Nhex, Monday, 8 December 2014 21:47 (ten years ago) link
They reprinted the first Moon Knight series also in Marvel Essentials, which you might still be able to find. It's one of those series that really looks just as good in black and white especially Sienkiewicz's artwork.
― earlnash, Monday, 8 December 2014 23:43 (ten years ago) link
So, thanks to the success of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, Marvel has been reprinting Abnett & Lanning's GotG and various related titles (Annihilation Conquest, War of Kings, Realm of Kings, etc), which is nice, because I missed buying them in physical format when they first came out, I was poor back then and read them on the computer. Anyway, the second big GotG collection just came out, and rereading stuff has been tremendously fun and thrilling, I still feel these are among the best comics Marvel has put out in the last decade. (Too bad A&L exited the cosmic Marvel comics, and GotG is now being written by Bendis, in his trademark mediocre style.) They haven't reprinted Abnett & Lanning's Nova though, which is sad, because I remember it being almost as good and thrill-powered as GotG (even if the whole Nova Corps concept is a pretty shameless Green Lantern ripoff). Hopefully the sequel movie will expand the Nova stuff seen in the first movie and introduce Richard Rider, so they'd have an excuse to reprint that run too.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 9 December 2014 20:39 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, the lack of Nova re-reprints is just Marvel being Marvel. The two books were pretty intimately linked and tied into no fewer than four crossovers. If they're smart, they'll put out a couple of Cosmic Marvel omnibi after the upcoming Annihilation: Conquest omnibus and collect this material in a way that makes sense.
FYI, Abnett is currently writing a new Guardians title featuring the OG team.
― Hamhole and Fly Eyes (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 9 December 2014 20:49 (ten years ago) link
Ah, okay, I didn't know that! Does "OG team" mean the original seventies Guardians?
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 9 December 2014 21:43 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, as far as I know. I haven't read it yet but that's how it's been solicited.
― Hamhole and Fly Eyes (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 9 December 2014 21:45 (ten years ago) link
the hype! this event will live up to it! really!
― Οὖτις, Friday, 30 January 2015 19:34 (nine years ago) link
I'm gonna wind up spending so much money that I don't really need to be spending...
In other news, 6+ months later, I've just about finished reading all of the '60s Marvel stuff (up to mid-'69 at the moment). Trying to decide whether to just plunge insanely ahead into the '70s or if a break is advisable.
― Indiana Jones and the Sphincter of the Sphinx (Old Lunch), Friday, 30 January 2015 19:46 (nine years ago) link
Maybe a break before you head into the auteur years at Marvel, which is the most fascinating stretch of its history to me. Englehart, Starlin, McGregor, Moench, Wolfman/Colan on Drac, etc. A mix of their highest highs and most embarrassing failures. Everything up to Jim Shooter's ascension as Eastern Pontiff Ed-in-Chief, aka The Day the Music Died.
― WilliamC, Friday, 30 January 2015 20:27 (nine years ago) link
I feel like I should start a thread for '60s Marvel questions and fun facts while this stuff is still relatively fresh in my brain. One of the bigger revelations for me was John Romita Sr.'s early work (I'd never found him particularly noteworthy before) and the extent to which that early work was clearly super influential on Jaime Hernandez. The early appearances of Mary Jane are basically proto-Penny Century.
― Indiana Jones and the Sphincter of the Sphinx (Old Lunch), Friday, 30 January 2015 20:38 (nine years ago) link
my Bronze-era Marvel knowledge is p spotty, even though the tail end of that era was when I first started reading comics. The initial post-Kirby years are a total blank for me for the most part. I did pick up some Avengers vs. Thanos reprint collection the other day and it seemed to collect a lot of the key Starlin stuff, but it didn't blow me away or anything. It does seem like a v strange era.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 30 January 2015 20:42 (nine years ago) link
By the time he came to draw Spider-Man Romita Sr had been a comics professional for something like fifteen years, so calling his Marvel stuff 'early work' is not entirely accurate. Romita had been toiling away mainly at DC/National, drawing romance and war strips; like many National artists of the post-war period, Romita he was a devout Caniff worshipper, so the way he drew his female characters was clearly indebted to (but not swiped from) things like Caniff's Male Call. Working initially from Kirby layouts on Daredevil, he quickly picked up on the kind of artist-driven dynamic storytelling that was the Marvel house style throughout the 60s, and was always excellent at things like 'modern' clothing, haircuts etc. Stan Lee clearly adored the way he 'sexed up' Spider-Man following Ditko's departureand it doesn't seem a coincidence that Spider-Man became Marvel's best-selling title once Romita took over. His main problem - he wasn't fast enough.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Friday, 30 January 2015 20:58 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, I should've specified that I meant his early Marvel U work. Dude was clearly already super-polished by the time he started on Amazing so I figured he'd been doing it for a while at that point.
― Indiana Jones and the Sphincter of the Sphinx (Old Lunch), Friday, 30 January 2015 21:01 (nine years ago) link
Also revelatory (although disappointing) is the dearth of standout Marvel artists in the '60s. I mean, it's pretty much Kirby, Steranko (more for design sense than draftsmanship), Romita, Colan, and Ditko (who, after extended exposure to his prime Marvel era, I'm realizing I'm not actually that crazy about). Buscema and Barry Windsor Smith have just gotten started. Everyone else is workmanlike at best and laughable at worst. I guess there's a reason why those particular names are still known 40+ years after the fact.
― Indiana Jones and the Sphincter of the Sphinx (Old Lunch), Friday, 30 January 2015 21:08 (nine years ago) link
Those guys plus Heck and Ayers could, and just about did, draw the whole roster of titles before the distribution bottleneck was removed in 1968. There were some truly horrific inkers — coughgeorgeroussoscough — back in those days.
― WilliamC, Friday, 30 January 2015 21:23 (nine years ago) link
I also like the Severins, but John was, I think, doing mostly war and western in the '60s and Marie was mostly being inked horribly.
― Indiana Jones and the Sphincter of the Sphinx (Old Lunch), Friday, 30 January 2015 21:29 (nine years ago) link
Buscema began drawing for Marvel in 66, slightly before Steranko. And I can't think of a comics company w/ a better frontline than Kirby, Ditko, Buscema, Colan and Romita (not to mention intermittent appearances from Wally Wood, Gil Kane, Bill Everett, Bob Powell, John Severin etc etc).
I sort've prefer the crude vitality of George Roussos' inking to the dead line of Ayers (or ugh Paul Reinman), but they had some great inkers in the 60s, too - a young Tom Palmer, already possibly the greatest comics inker of all time, Joe Sinnott, Chic Stone, George Klein, Everett again doing luscious work on Kirby; even Vince Colletta raised his game on Thor for a while (until he started erasing Kirby's backgrounds to save time).
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Friday, 30 January 2015 21:41 (nine years ago) link
You know, you're absolutely right that those guys really are top-tier. I think I'm just more disappointed because I'd hoped to stumble upon more quality artists from this period that I wasn't already familiar with.
I don't think I realized before that Colan was such a cornerstone of silver age Marvel. I associate him mainly with Daredevil and Tomb of Dracula and, because his style is so distinct in comarison to anything resembling the house style, I had always figured him for more of a niche guy.
― Indiana Jones and the Sphincter of the Sphinx (Old Lunch), Friday, 30 January 2015 21:52 (nine years ago) link
Colan was the great third way of marvel storytelling, which wasn't really followed up. Lots of artists took after Kirby, some took after Ditko, but who the hell took after Colan?
Old Lunch you should totally get your thoughts down on this while they're fresh.
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Friday, 30 January 2015 23:47 (nine years ago) link
huh was unaware Colan took on Dr. Strange, and also
Colan admitted relying upon amphetamines in order to make deadlines for illustrating the series Doctor Strange,[28] for which he would personally visit the character's real-life Manhattan neighborhood, Greenwich Village, and shoot Polaroid photographs to use as location reference.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 30 January 2015 23:59 (nine years ago) link
I bet Colan had colorists in the mechanical separation days pulling out their hair, with his blurs and speed lines.
xp -- yeah, iirc Colan was the artist during that funky run when Strange and Clea went back to 1776 and Ben Franklin seduced her while Strange was off saving the world.
― WilliamC, Saturday, 31 January 2015 00:07 (nine years ago) link
Old Lunch, is there a timeline checklist that you're working off of?
― Sounds like a forks display name (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 31 January 2015 03:46 (nine years ago) link
also i find hickman's avengers work pretty much unreadable
― Sounds like a forks display name (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 31 January 2015 03:47 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, forks, I'm roughly following this site, which has been mostly on point.
And Jon, I may have been taking notes throughout this endeavor. Which is pretty much the only way to ensure that I won't have forgotten everything I've read six months from now.
― Indiana Jones and the Sphincter of the Sphinx (Old Lunch), Saturday, 31 January 2015 06:56 (nine years ago) link
OL, are you doing this through t0rrence or Marvel Unlimited? If the latter, i might play along someday.
― Sounds like a forks display name (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 31 January 2015 06:58 (nine years ago) link
The stupidest story element of the '60s, hands down, was Mike Murdoch. Secret identities are such a flawed and shaky concept to begin with (and require otherwise intelligent characters to suffer temporary brain damage when they get anywhere near putting the pieces together) that, naturally, the solution is to introduce a third identity in the form of your identical, jive-talkin' twin brother who no one has ever met before and with whom you're never seen. And then when the heat is on, kill off your fake twin (habeus corpus be damned) and just say that, uh, some other dude is Daredevil now...I guess?
― Indiana Jones and the Sphincter of the Sphinx (Old Lunch), Saturday, 31 January 2015 07:06 (nine years ago) link
i gotta say, everytime i try to read that era, the stan lee-isms just bring me to my knees.
― Sounds like a forks display name (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 31 January 2015 07:08 (nine years ago) link
xxpost Well, I have all of the '60s Essentials, so I have legit paper copies of 90+% of this stuff. But I've done a lot of my reading via Kindle on the train and don't want to deal with unnecessary gaps, so my electronic copies aren't precisely above board. I'll do Marvel Unlimited someday when my finances are a little rosier but I'm too much of a control freak about this stuff to not maintain my own complete collection on the side.
― Indiana Jones and the Sphincter of the Sphinx (Old Lunch), Saturday, 31 January 2015 07:12 (nine years ago) link
Aside from historical interest, I don't know how strongly I'd recommend '60s Marvel to the uninitiated. Not very strongly.
― Indiana Jones and the Sphincter of the Sphinx (Old Lunch), Saturday, 31 January 2015 07:14 (nine years ago) link
huh was unaware Colan took on Dr. Strange
Colan had two substantial runs on Dr Strange, in the 60s and 70s, both inked by Tom Palmer, both excellent - the 60s issues written by Roy Thomas (who gives Doc S a mask!), the 70s by Englehart at his most cosmically ambitious. Didn't know Gene the Dean was a speed freak tho (the history of comics and amphetamines still needs to be written).
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Saturday, 31 January 2015 09:58 (nine years ago) link
I always thought Gene Colan had a pretty unique cinematographic perspective to his pages. Most of the big Marvel/DC artists of his period more often would have the angle so you are looking down at the item in the picture, Colan would often use the perspective from looking up at the character in the frame. I think Colan had this in his earlier comics, but as he got working for Marvel and on into the 70s then back to DC, it became more his thing. It kind of reminds me of some of the camera angle tricks you would see in some 60s movies and TV shows, especially something where they wanted to give the effect of 'things are not right'.
Can't think of too many pros that directly looked like Colan, but I think some of that panel layout and perspective many other artists picked up from him. I think you see it in Miller's Daredevil quite a bit. Tom Mandrake is one 80s/90s comic artist whose style seems to have a heavy Gene Colan influence except less smooth and maybe a bit more jagged like from say Joe Kubert.
― earlnash, Saturday, 31 January 2015 16:40 (nine years ago) link
Frank Brunner is another artist that has similarities in his style with Gene Colan, I'd think that is perhaps one reason Colan was used as one of the artists on Howard the Duck.
― earlnash, Saturday, 31 January 2015 16:44 (nine years ago) link
So glad that you dudes with the deep comics knowledge are around here, seriously. I've always been more focused on writers and story so it's nice to read some history/commentary on the artists.
(An aside: I'm pretty sure my first exposure to Colan was via an issue of the Archie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series.)
― Indiana Jones and the Sphincter of the Sphinx (Old Lunch), Saturday, 31 January 2015 19:07 (nine years ago) link
a quick marvel unlimited check suggests they have most if not all of the 60's for reading so i'm giving this half a shot and just cracked 1963. The writing is atrocious! The art is consistently astonishing.
― the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 1 February 2015 17:53 (nine years ago) link
Feel free to share non-atrocious highlights...
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 1 February 2015 20:33 (nine years ago) link
well right off the bat, did Lee get confused as to how many skrulls were left on earth? Three turn into cows, the other is apparently free to join the escaping armada?And the grey/green hulk shift appears to be an accident of coloring, yes?
― the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 1 February 2015 20:41 (nine years ago) link
the early peter parker-looking mutant story in Tales to Astonish is the secret start of the X-Men isn't it?
Both Lee and Kirby had notoriously poor memories (which of course caused all sorts of grief later), and as production at Marvel cranked up, editorial resources were even more thinly stretched, so that there was nobody paying strict attention to the lore of the Marvel Universe until Roy Thomas turned up. A friend of mine owns an original Kirby Thor page where Jane Foster is described as 'Thor's Gal' in Jack's margin notes. Lee and Kirby were old pros enjoying a surprising second act; they weren't sweating the details, they were just riding the wave. The Fantastic Four between abt issues 25-80 is still, imho, pretty near-perfect superhero comics. Now most of that is Jack's doing, obviously, but I think Stan contributed something, too - not to mention Joe Sinnott, who really gave the comic a very sleek finish, with no details cheated on.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Monday, 2 February 2015 14:49 (nine years ago) link
I've been surprised by how long some of the '60s stories lasted (I think there was a stretch of Thor that sustained an ongoing narrative for about a year and a half). Most of them are total shaggy dog stories that end up miles away from where they started, but still. I expected "one and done" to be more of the norm but that largely tapers off in the early '60s. Although I understand that it does become more the norm in the late '60s/early '70s?
― Indiana Jones and the Sphincter of the Sphinx (Old Lunch), Monday, 2 February 2015 15:00 (nine years ago) link
There was definitely a period in the late 60s/early 70s where Marvel swore off continued stories, but they soon gave up on that.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Monday, 2 February 2015 15:10 (nine years ago) link
a lot of the 60s Thor run is overlapping story arcs - in the middle of one three-issue story they'll introduce the elements that lead into the next three-issue arc *rinse and repeat*. this gets messed up towards the end of the Kirby run, the last 6 months or so there is clearly some editorial meddling/fighting over the direction of the book
― Οὖτις, Monday, 2 February 2015 20:02 (nine years ago) link
also Ward mentioned him already but I wanted to give some more love to Chic Stone as a Kirby inker, some really nice looking issues got turned out under that combo
― Οὖτις, Monday, 2 February 2015 21:09 (nine years ago) link
i totally get that it's not a good look to be all "WHY AIN'T THIS FUNNYBOOK CONTINUITY RIGHT IN 1962, I DEMAND CLARITY" but they're just barely trying to keep the train on the tracks for much of this year. in any case, these are an easier read than i remember. reading on a pad is fun!
― the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 3 February 2015 06:18 (nine years ago) link
continuity is for chumps
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 3 February 2015 17:02 (nine years ago) link
hmm, i'm tempted to do the same. there a good reading guide for that era through MU?
― Nhex, Tuesday, 3 February 2015 17:09 (nine years ago) link
Quick question: is Masterworks dead? I've been steadily buying and enjoying the trade paperbacks. What am I supposed to do? I'm running out! Help!
― Allen (etaeoe), Tuesday, 3 February 2015 17:10 (nine years ago) link
I don't need continuity, but when continuity is an explicit goal, I appreciate when it's well-maintained. I get the logistical challenges involved (particularly over the course of several decades) and I'm not particularly pedantic about it, but if you're telling a story, I'm kind of a stickler for the basics of storytelling mechanics. Which implies at least a degree of consistency.
Not that this applies to early silver age Marvel. AFAICT, these guys were just beginning to move away from a world of one-off stories (or, at best, random snapshots of the lives of ongoing characters) so I'm forgiving of their narrative foibles.
― Venom Spritz (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 3 February 2015 17:13 (nine years ago) link
Nhex, I posted this link a few posts up.
And on the off-chance that anyone here wasn't already aware of it, the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators is a godsend of an online resource. Prepare to lose some productive hours.
― Venom Spritz (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 3 February 2015 17:16 (nine years ago) link
thanks OL
― Nhex, Tuesday, 3 February 2015 17:36 (nine years ago) link
Masterworks are still coming out sporadically
― jamiesummerz, Wednesday, 4 February 2015 09:32 (nine years ago) link
Ward- Do you consider the 60s Marvel artists even better than early 50s EC? I think Kirby and Ditko are more visionary than the EC guys, but I think EC stable is better because the sheer number of brilliant artists they had, no substandard guys. Even the not-so-great brief guest artists were pretty solid. Too many Marvel comics from the 60s look a bit shoddy. I'm a big fan of Bill Everett (or at least certain eras of him) but I don't think his work for Dr Strange, Hulk, Daredevil or various other things were very good. I think it looks like he's been pressured to modernise and it looks very uncomfortable.
Old mainstream comics are a source of endless bittersweet frustration to me. A lot of them are very important to me and I like those artists better than any other era of comics yet I feel the comics are like piles of crap with dazzling gems embedded in them. I really wish the creators could do it all over again with the hindsight we have today and condense all the good things into a smaller and better collection of books. But it's difficult to imagine how they'd do it. Anthology comics like Tales From The Crypt, Amazing Adult Fantasy, Creepy, Ghostly Tales and Twisted Tales are a real passion of mine but it's hard to imagine them being done to any really satisfying level. Coming up with that many good short stories seems impossible. It's no wonder they stole and recycled so many ideas.
I love the Essential/Showcase format so much that it's a real pain I can't fully enjoy anything on offer in them. Flipping through Dr Strange is great though. Part of me wishes all these artists had became fine artists instead. A disreputable bunch of fantasy artists.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 4 February 2015 18:48 (nine years ago) link
moments of genius amidst the shoddy/cliched/nonsensical stuff is part of the appeal for me, I think
― soref, Wednesday, 4 February 2015 19:20 (nine years ago) link
I'm warming more to the stories as i read them in bulk
― the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 4 February 2015 19:28 (nine years ago) link
yet I feel the comics are like piles of crap with dazzling gems embedded in them
― Nhex, Wednesday, 4 February 2015 19:39 (nine years ago) link
This reminds me of reading old Donald Duck comics. Carl Barks on ten pages, then pure crap the rest of the way.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 4 February 2015 19:44 (nine years ago) link
moments of genius amidst the shoddy/cliched/nonsensical stuff is part of the appeal for me, I think― soref, Wednesday, 4 February 2015
― soref, Wednesday, 4 February 2015
Have you ever seen something that was completely amazing and then said "I wish this had worse writing with insanely excessive pointless repetition, more sloppy/rushed looking visuals, worse designs, mistakes and recycling of good things that cheapens the first time they were done"?
Nhex- I think most of the better modern comics have less heaps of flaws than my favourite comics of 50s to mid80s.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 4 February 2015 20:09 (nine years ago) link
I'm a Doctor Who fan, so...
― "Go pet your dog" is the name of my dog (DJP), Wednesday, 4 February 2015 20:11 (nine years ago) link
Haha. I haven't seen much Doctor Who but what I liked some of the Pertwee era.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 4 February 2015 20:18 (nine years ago) link
― Nhex, Thursday, 5 February 2015 03:15 (nine years ago) link
also lol DJP
In modern comics I rarely find that sort of density that old comics are plagued with or The need they had to tell you everything a few times. That's one great thing about Japan, even their old comics breeze along by comparison.
I mean, what sort of problems do the better comics have today? Some of the colouring is really bad but I can't think of much else.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 03:43 (nine years ago) link
wait. i'm sorry, i totally misread you, i thought you were saying the opposite thing
― Nhex, Thursday, 5 February 2015 04:09 (nine years ago) link
Ward- Do you consider the 60s Marvel artists even better than early 50s EC?
I don't know about 'better'. As a comic strip artist (rather than illustrator) Kirby could do things Al Williamson couldn't (ie tell a dynamic and personally invested story), but it would be difficult to argue against the sheer craft of so many of the EC artists in their prime, and Marvel never really offered the same kind of freedom to experiment with form that people like Krigstein, Kurtzman or Craig enjoyed at EC (it also seems really obvious that the way that Marvel addressed its readership through letter columns and so on owed a great deal to the way that Gaines/Feldstein spoke to, and engaged with, 'EC Fan-Addicts'). In both Marvel and EC's case, it makes much more sense to read their comics on an installment basis, rather than in huge chunks, when the limitations of formula and genre start to become very apparent.
no substandard guys
Never been much of a Jack Kamen fan; the Harrison/Wood collaborations are horrible; Severin inked by Elder is not playing to either of their strengths; Feldstein's stiffly ugly artwork is the v definition of an acquired taste. There's plenty of dross in every major EC title if you dig deep enough, tho' by about '53 all of their major artists are absolutely ON FIRE.
Agree w/ this. It seems like a real fool's errand - or a recipe for perpetual disappointment - to expect a constant stream of 'masterpieces' from such a labour intensive and economically marginalised cultural form as the monthly American colour comic book. The dross illuminates the good stuff, if only by negative example.
the technology advances in production and printing alone have made comics a more consistently high quality product
Some of the 'modern' computer colouring, illustration and lettering tools used by current comic book artists look ineffably ugly and vulgar to my old school eyes, so I don't necessarily think technological improvement equates to a 'quality' product (actual 60s Marvel comics, printed from the original artwork, usually seem far more beautiful and elegant than the whizzbang stuff of today, imho). Obviously modern, streamlined storytelling techniques are a response to the fact that these days, comic book readers have so many other distractions and pleasures to choose from, so there simply isn't time for the huge amount of (over)writing that ppl like Stan and Roy Thomas could indulge in. Again, I don't think this means that the caption-less, thought balloon-less, read-it-in-five-minutes comic book is automatically superior, or inferior.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 5 February 2015 10:45 (nine years ago) link
great post, ward!
― #Research (stevie), Thursday, 5 February 2015 10:54 (nine years ago) link
Severin inked by Elder is not playing to either of their strengths
but it's so cuuuurious! such a weird blend of their two styles - not complementary, not an improvement, but a really interesting combination. like P Craig Russell on Mignola.
Some of the 'modern' computer colouring, illustration and lettering tools used by current comic book artists look ineffably ugly and vulgar to my old school eyes
I find 92% of '60s Marvel str8 unreadable but it's SO much easier on the eye to flip through, or look at images from, than 98% of modern assembly-line comics
― oochie wally (clean version) (sic), Thursday, 5 February 2015 12:17 (nine years ago) link
Ward otm
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 5 February 2015 14:28 (nine years ago) link
I like Kamen a lot, some of his rendering ability is stunning. His work for the picto fiction line is really impressive. Remember all those jokes about Kamen being "too nice?", get a load of thishttp://www.comics.org/issue/353075/cover/4/ I love Feldstein. His work always looks very alive and awake to me.
It really doesn't help that there's so much hype and worship around EC and silver age Marvel. The way reprints are often priced and presented reinforces that. There are still lots of seemingly otherwise sane adults who will freak out in denial if you say to them that these comics are badly written (I think Feldstein writes fine but there's just too way way way much of it). As a teenager reading all those TwoMorrows magazines, I felt like a blasphemer when I was admitting the flaws of the classics.
I really like the idea of reading Kirby era Fantastic Four but I just can't and that's pretty damming that lots of people feel this way. But I should say there are lots of golden and silver age comics that read just great and have very economical writing. Even some Stan Lee comics from the 50s are relatively restrained. I think Eisner's Spirit reads well. Kids comics should read like that. It's just incredibly unfortunate that two of the best sets of old American comics are written the way they are.
In the Masterworks reprints I remember Mike Allred going along with all the hype, so when Steve Bissette written his alarmingly frank introduction for Amazing Fantasy Omnibus, I was amazed Marvel printed it.
As much as I think it's true that people underestimated these comics, I think it's very important to see that the snobby public was half right that these comics are trash.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 15:07 (nine years ago) link
Heinlein's Law applies but i don't see why you can't also apply Oscar's Law.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxgWHzMvXOY
― the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 5 February 2015 15:14 (nine years ago) link
Marvel never really offered the same kind of freedom to experiment with form that people like Krigstein, Kurtzman or Craig enjoyed at EC
This is interesting because a lot of people consider EC too rigid with their overall form but they certainly allowed everyone their own drawing style. Krigstein had to fight to get his way with the panel arrangements at EC but he went nuts with his work for other publishers.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 15:15 (nine years ago) link
Forks, can you tell me the title of that video because my kindle doesn't show embedded videos.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 15:16 (nine years ago) link
Oscar the Grouch's "I Love Trash"
― the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 5 February 2015 15:21 (nine years ago) link
To be honest, I love a lot of the overwritten Stan Lee stuff. That's what I come for. To want to erase that or edit it out seems like a fool's errand along the lines of colourising old movies or, you know, the Star Wars special editions. These comics are what they are, they're a point in the evolution of the form, and trying to change them so they read better to current generations seems crazy wrong to me. If you don't like them then read modern comics that are more to your tastes (and which, in forty years, will doubtless seem as dated and unreadable as you feel Silver Age marvels are). You're not wrong or right to have issues with this era of comics, but they are what they are.
― #Research (stevie), Thursday, 5 February 2015 15:28 (nine years ago) link
I would never want them edited or changed by anyone. Feldstein at least seemed to understand he'd overdone it and made them less readable. Finding Stan Lee's cheer and goofiness charming is understandable but having blocks of text repeatedly explaining the same thing is something I don't know how anyone can defend. A lot of comics from that time never did this.
Wishing they were more economically written (like Eisner's Spirit or Joe Gill's Gorgo & Konga, Tezuka and lots of other old comics) is not remotely the same as colouring black and white movies or adding things to Star Wars. But Marvel actually does something along those lines. Not only are they horribly recolored in a way that ruins the art (ruining the best reason to buy these comics), some are even redrawn.http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.co.uk/2008/06/original-art-stories-marvel-masterworks.html They are fucking with their own comics in a way I think is vile.
Some earlier reprints removed the dotted eyes from Spiderman when he sees Uncle Ben's killer because apparently it looked too goofy for such an important moment. Some Tomb Of Dracula reprints (such as the Essential collections) covered up female nipples that were in the originals.http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.co.uk/2006/09/censored-essentials.html?zx=b452862fc142c0fb
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 16:50 (nine years ago) link
Re: experimentation in Marvel, Gene Colan faced resistance for his work.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 16:52 (nine years ago) link
And to be totally clear, in this context overwritten doesn't mean purple prose (I love HP Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. I actually prefer this style to most styles), it means writing the same information again and again and again as if you're trying to beat the information into a child.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 16:57 (nine years ago) link
Re: dotted Spiderman eyes.http://comiccoverage.typepad.com/comic_coverage/2008/08/humble-beginnings-spider-manaka-mr-peepers.html
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 17:04 (nine years ago) link
as if you're trying to beat the information into a child
uh this is what they were trying to do
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 5 February 2015 17:06 (nine years ago) link
I'm sure most children understood the first time. And if they didn't they'd go back and read it again. Like they'd do with any other well written comic for kids.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 17:11 (nine years ago) link
Chris Claremont is almost painful for me to read sometimes due to his style being that, forever. Every issue forever telling you that Storm is mistress of the elements, claustrophobic, and strong
― mh, Thursday, 5 February 2015 17:14 (nine years ago) link
Len Wein's Swamp Thing. "Shambling muck encrusted monstosity", I'm sure lines like that were repeated loads of times.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 17:18 (nine years ago) link
i caught the spider irises for the first time on this recent readthru and they are AMAZING
― the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 5 February 2015 17:18 (nine years ago) link
i think another thing to remember is that these comics weren't written to be masterpieces, or given the budget or timetables to become masterpieces - that they were written fast, and suffer for that low budget, hurried production process. i'm not saying that voids your issues with these comics, but they weren't being written for us to appreciate decades later - they were written to make money, and quickly.
― #Research (stevie), Thursday, 5 February 2015 17:21 (nine years ago) link
Given that situation, it was even less sense the way they were written. Stan Lee always praised his artists by saying they barely needed dialogue to be understood. So my theory is that he was trying to justify his presence with such an abundance of writing. Maybe he felt competitive. Most people facing Stan Lee's schedule would have been incredibly restrained.
I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was Spider-Man I wonder what they would say if they knew I was SpidaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 17:28 (nine years ago) link
Every issue forever telling you that Storm is mistress of the elements, claustrophobic, and strong
haha yeah I can't take this w Claremont either
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 5 February 2015 17:29 (nine years ago) link
"Given that situation, it was even less sense the way they were written" Should have written "it makes even less sense"
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 17:31 (nine years ago) link
the admittedly painful repetition of themes and key dialogue is easier to take if you break up the reading process and don't try to read the sheaf of pamphlets as if they were a novel.
― the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 5 February 2015 17:36 (nine years ago) link
One of my favorite lines to come out of this '60s Marvel readthrough: someone is confused by something ridiculous that happens in an issue of Tales To Astonish and Hank Pym's response is, "Explanations are too boring!"
― Mouth-Watering Broiled Chops! (Old Lunch), Thursday, 5 February 2015 17:55 (nine years ago) link
Ron Goulart is the first person I ever seen comment on this. He said it drove him nuts because it was like someone narrating a film while you watched it, describing everything on screen. I think he was told to write more words per panel and he took too much pride in his work to go along with that nonsense.
I think EC comics were possibly worse for this "tell it 3 times" phenomenon. Told in the caption, told in the image and then told in the dialogue balloon.
Example: a panel of two men, one looks angry and threatening, the other looks afraid and is starting to back away. Caption says "The stranger looked angry and Bobby was feeling threatened and he started to back away, fearing what the stranger might do". Dialogue has Bobby saying "hey fella, simmer down, you're scaring me. What are you gonna do?".
A lot of these comics had pages filled with that. Whether you're a kid buying them as they came out or an adult fan reading them decades later who wants to read large amounts of them eventually, it's difficult to space them out so it isn't too grating.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 18:01 (nine years ago) link
This isn't totally relevant but some of my favourite comics dialogue is this by Basil Wolverton. I memorized it without much trouble and I read it ten years ago. It's a couple afraid of two hairy ape men, the man says to his girlfriend "Let's tear, Claire! I don't care for that nightmare pair with the rare hair!"
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 18:08 (nine years ago) link
I was reading through the first collection of Remender's Uncanny Avengers (I give it a 4/10) and boy there a lot of fucking panels in it. I can't tell whether it's pastiche or deliberate. Either way the comic is not very good.
I think even the trashiest, hackiest of '60s Marvel comics have beautiful single panels or pages in them, even when the whole story together is garbage.
Marvel overwriting is weird - actually I find Claremont okay! His sentences are pretty clear and clipped even if they're bombastic/repetitive. It's the 70s era (Thomas/Wein/Gerber/Englehart/etc) I find quite hard work, except for maybe Jim Starlin.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 5 February 2015 18:10 (nine years ago) link
Also I grew up with Edgar P Jacobs' comics and those are fucking dull and wordy as shit, so maybe I'm not the average. (Beautiful art though.)
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 5 February 2015 18:13 (nine years ago) link
And obvs Kieron Gillen does some magnficent panel-overwordiness in Journey into Mystery.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 5 February 2015 18:15 (nine years ago) link
I never have to deal with this stuff because there are virtually no Marvel/DC superhero comics I want to read but this nicely sums up bad habits of the writing in the new stuffhttp://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2009/11/blackest-night-midpoint.html The middle bit with The Flash talking.
If I was to point out some problems of modern comics I liked. I think some of Alan Moore's work has text captions too visually descriptive to be put in with comic art. Particularly that Swamp Thing issue of psychedelic sex. I liked some of the writing in that but it's awkward reading a comics page and trying to visualise all these amazing things he talks about.
The new Sandman Overture looks like it has way too much blocks of text in with so much complex imagery. If they made it an illustrated prose book, I think I might have read it.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 18:47 (nine years ago) link
http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2009/11/blackest-night-midpoint.html
Corrected link
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 18:49 (nine years ago) link
Well, TBF, the existence of Blackest Night nicely sums up bad modern-era mainstream comics.
― Mouth-Watering Broiled Chops! (Old Lunch), Thursday, 5 February 2015 18:49 (nine years ago) link
Immediately after spending hundreds of dollars on that mess was roughly the point I jumped off the DC bus.
― Mouth-Watering Broiled Chops! (Old Lunch), Thursday, 5 February 2015 18:50 (nine years ago) link
geoff johns is SO BAD, history is not gonna be kind to him
― the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 5 February 2015 19:00 (nine years ago) link
Definitely a good touchstone there. He also links to the reintroduction of Black Hand in Green Lantern, which had some great artwork and storytelling, but at the same time was just so gratuitously grim. The pinnacle being that full-pager of him blowing his brains out with the laser - it's an incredibly arresting image, but just too much.
― Nhex, Thursday, 5 February 2015 19:05 (nine years ago) link
To be more positive, my favourite Marvel thing is mostly Dr Strange. I like lots of their anthology comics and it's easy to forget they published stuff like Powerhouse Pepper but the most I ever enjoyed a Marvel comic is when Baron Mordo chases Dr Strange across the world. I love that part where he divides into multiple identical versions of himself to mislead and confuse his enemies.
Gene Golan's Dr Strange work is amazing to flip through because it always looks like amazing and important things are happening.
http://comicartfans.com/galleryroom.asp?gsub=14639
I still like a lot of things about Ditko's Spiderman, for me the fashions and settings are important so it's hard for a modernized version to be as compelling. Some of Everett's Sub-Mariner looks really great. I think Marvel's big supernatural and cosmic space/multi-dimensional stuff has always been more compellingly visualized than DC. Thanks to a relative few artists for inventing that more operatic and psychedelic approach. For a very modern superhero approach I think Claudio Castellini's Silver Surfer is pretty impressive.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 19:21 (nine years ago) link
Gay, I'm 're-using too many words.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 19:23 (nine years ago) link
Sorry, WHAT THE FUCK is kindle doing, all these mistakes then making me sound like a homophobe.
Some have defended G Johns because apparently he takes his job very seriously as a way to impart his lessons about life. They say he really thinks of ways to make his readers lead better lives.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 19:31 (nine years ago) link
Maybe somebody hacked my kindle and put in all these ridiculous corrections that make no sense.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 19:33 (nine years ago) link
Geoff Johns thinks of ways to make me lead a better life by not giving me any reasons to read his funnybooks
― the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 5 February 2015 19:35 (nine years ago) link
Nicely put! But I'm not sure the world needs as much of the Sev/Eld stuff as we ended up with. The issues of Rom pencilled by Ditko and inked by PCR are also a tasty treat.
Wasn't this only really toward the end of Colan's tenure at Marvel, when he fell foul of some Jim Shooter bullshit about 'proper' comics storytelling?
The wordiness on 60s/70s Marvel Comics is obv a by-product of the 'Marvel Method', where the pages are drawn first and then dialogued/captioned after (sorry if explaining that is like explaining Storm's powers every issue - there are always new readers!) And yeah RAG, the writer/editor types like Lee, Thomas, Wein, Wolfman etc def looked upon it as their chance to wrest some of the storytelling control back from the artists - if the lazy/bloody-minded/more talented penciller hadn't drawn what had been plotted/expected, then that could be 'corrected' by a mass of words.
Excessive writing - in tone and quantity - was also a gesture towards the literary. Lee and Kirby had experienced first hand the 1950s anti-comics moral panic, so Lee's garrulousness could be presented as an attempt to broaden the vocabularies of his young readers, and position the superhero comics closer to the respectable literary novel. Again, the typeset (Kurtzman's war comics were hand-lettered) ECs strips written/edited by Gaines/Feldman were very 'aspirational' in terms of cultural reach, and that very much included their own mad idea of what constituted fine writing, expressed in pulp purple plastered all over the page.
And writing lots of words was seen as a benevolent gesture to the reader - it made the comic book a denser object, a 'bigger' read. These days, I don't think we're obliged to read every last 'face front true believers'.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 5 February 2015 19:40 (nine years ago) link
It could have been just Shooter against Gene Colan but I've heard people like John Romita Sr say that Stan Lee gave a lot of artists a hard time. Stan didn't like Gil Kane's art and many artists were pressured to look more like Kirby and Romita. Ditko was left alone obviously, I think Stan understood his work.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 19:52 (nine years ago) link
doubt Stan understood much of anything, Ditko likely less malleable than the others
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 5 February 2015 20:30 (nine years ago) link
http://dialbforblog.com/archives/296/one_or_the_other.gif
― the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 5 February 2015 20:34 (nine years ago) link
http://charm-of-charlton.de/ Elsewhere I talked about Gaines stealing horror concepts from someone else but I don't think I ever remembered the link but here it is. Sheldon Moldoff makes a pretty convincing case that he was done wrong but I don't think anyone can claim to have invented horror comic anthologies that late. The first horror comic anthology was a few years earlier and there were others before EC started.http://www.comics.org/issue/215631/cover/4/
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 5 February 2015 21:05 (nine years ago) link
I was gonna mention Jacobs' Blake & Mortimer as one of the worst example of the "words telling you the exact same thing as pictures" phemomenon Robert mentioned. Like, you could literally remove all the third-person narration boxes (which appear in abundance) from those comics, and the plot would still be as easy to follow. I find this particularly weird given that, before Blake & Mortimer, Jacobs worked for a long time as Herge's assistant in Tintin, which a complete opposite to B&M: Herge (correctly) trusted that the visual storytelling was enough, so Tintin comics have pretty much no narration boxes at all.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 5 February 2015 22:13 (nine years ago) link
To want to erase that or edit it out seems like a fool's errand along the lines of colourising old movies or, you know, the Star Wars special editions. These comics are what they are, they're a point in the evolution of the form, and trying to change them so they read better to current generations seems crazy wrong to me.
Robert touched on this but it can't be reiterated enough that the hideous recolouring (and NOT recolouring for white paper!) makes basically every Marvel reprint from the '50s to the '80s read worse to current generations, or other people with eyes
― oochie wally (clean version) (sic), Thursday, 5 February 2015 23:49 (nine years ago) link
except for Essentials I guess, which you must also be opposed to?
― oochie wally (clean version) (sic), Thursday, 5 February 2015 23:50 (nine years ago) link
aw I really like my Thor Masterworks - I have a few original issues too but idk if I would say they look any better, faded as they are
I don't like Essentials, fuck b&w reprints of color material
― Οὖτις, Friday, 6 February 2015 00:10 (nine years ago) link
reprints of 80s era stuff do look weird to me tho
― Οὖτις, Friday, 6 February 2015 00:11 (nine years ago) link
Ditko and Gene Colan look superior in black and white. Way more atmospheric. I think Colan prefers his work not being coloured.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 6 February 2015 00:38 (nine years ago) link
I think Eisner seen the Masterworks and DC Archives and made sure Spirit Archives didn't look like those. Respect.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 6 February 2015 00:41 (nine years ago) link
Is there a better version of the Nick Fury/SHIELD material that's been reprinted other than the TPB? Never got confirmation the Masterworks one is any different, but the trade has the worst coloring ever
― mh, Friday, 6 February 2015 01:08 (nine years ago) link
Well, at least bad enough that Steranko cringed for a while if someone showed it to him
Poor Steranko. When talking about the new colouring of Red Sonja, Frank Thorne said "They raped my Sonja".
Surely everyone agrees that Alex Toth and Mort Meskin look better in black and white?
I think 50s horror comics lose something when they're just black and white but I won't complain; I think Fantagraphics is doing a great job with their EC reprints. The recent EC Archives really blundered by changing the color to a more literal colouring. The originals had something similar to the impressionistic colourful lighting of Bava and Argento films.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 6 February 2015 01:11 (nine years ago) link
Some people even get torrents of scans from the original comics to avoid bad recoloring jobs. You hear that, big comic companies? Your recolouring is so bad it's creating piracy.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 6 February 2015 01:18 (nine years ago) link
I gave away that nick fury tpb. Just unreadable.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 6 February 2015 01:25 (nine years ago) link
There's a new trade of all the Steranko SHIELD material that came out sometime last year. I haven't seen it so I can't speak for the coloring.
― Brodozer Coke Buffet (Old Lunch), Friday, 6 February 2015 02:30 (nine years ago) link
I'd be surprised if they changed their reproduction methods. Don't know why a lot of the bigger publishers are often reluctant to use the type of cleaned up scans everyone else sensibly uses.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 6 February 2015 03:02 (nine years ago) link
I had no idea about artists reworking those TPB reprints - that is complete horseshit.Actually I do feel the same way about the B&W reprint volumes. Yes, sometimes they look better, but it always bothers me that it looks completely different as it did on publication.
― Nhex, Friday, 6 February 2015 03:12 (nine years ago) link
again, so do the colour ones
― oochie wally (clean version) (sic), Friday, 6 February 2015 04:09 (nine years ago) link
i don't disagree
― Nhex, Friday, 6 February 2015 06:36 (nine years ago) link
also
Some Tomb Of Dracula reprints (such as the Essential collections) covered up female nipples that were in the originals.http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.co.uk/2006/09/censored-essentials.html?zx=b452862fc142c0fb
― Nhex, Friday, 6 February 2015 06:41 (nine years ago) link
i am indeed shocked that mainstream comics had *gasp* nipples! in them
― Nhex, Friday, 6 February 2015 06:47 (nine years ago) link
The censored material first appeared in the black and white Tomb of Dracula magazine, which bypassed Comics Code Authority prohibitions against vampire nipples.
I agree that modern recolouring and 'restoring' of vintage material is on the whole very unsatisfactory - would much rather see reprints shot directly from clean copies of the original comics, as in The Smithsonian Book of Comic Books, or Spiegelman's children's comics anthology. Those huge original art repro books are very nice too, if you can afford them.
Part of the problem is that at the time, Marvel failed to keep decent film of the original artwork (which is of course now scattered far and wide, if it even still exists). DC, by contrast, have much better negatives of their old comics - the reproduction on their black and white reprint Showcase books is far superior to the repro in the Marvel Esssentials, by and large.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Friday, 6 February 2015 08:00 (nine years ago) link
― oochie wally (clean version) (sic), Thursday, February 5, 2015 11:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― oochie wally (clean version) (sic), Thursday, February 5, 2015 11:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
to be honest i thought we were discussing narrative and dialogue. i'm not so bothered about colouring, and while i'd much rather the Essentials volumes to be in colour, if I have to lose that to gain a phone-book's worth of comics at a small price I'm fine with that.
― #Research (stevie), Friday, 6 February 2015 09:32 (nine years ago) link
Anyone know if Marvel's Atlas era anthologies will ever go into public domain if they aren't already? Other publishers have reprinted bits of that work but is there some sort of limit on it?
Because Marvel are probably never going to do good reprints of them.http://ditkocultist.com/2014/01/30/original-art-tales-to-astonish-13-marvel-1960/
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 6 February 2015 13:04 (nine years ago) link
Don't think there's much here that hasn't be said before - and the text seems to be very verbatim - but still some nuggets of interest in John Romita's deposition to the Marvel/Kirby Family lawsuit:
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/03/09/the-john-romita-deposition-for-the-kirby-family-v-marvel-lawsuit/
Thought this bit was particularly interesting:
Q: So what would Stan do with notes or the dialogue in the margins?JOHN ROMITA: I used to write notes that I thought were clever. I’d say “maybe he should say ‘what’s up’,” you know, something like that.They sounded clever to me while I was doing the drawing. 3 in the morning everything sounds clever. He invariably would not use them, and I asked him once “why wouldn’t you use — why wouldn’t you let him” — he said something similar. He said, “because I can’t speak in somebody else’s vernacular.” He says, “when I am writing my characters, I am writing in Peter Parker’s personality and Aunt May’s personality and I write the captions in my personality. If I start putting your personality in there, I am going to confuse the reader.” So he used to -he told me — he invariably did not use anything that was in the margins that was cleverly suggested by the artists, because he said he did not want to stray from his normal approach. He had a dialogue going with the reader. Saying “dear reader, this is your editor speaking right now.” He used to do that. It used to drive me crazy. I used to tell him “you are puncturing the illusion.” It’s like opening a door in the theater and letting the sunlight in and everybody realizes they are watching a movie now. I said “you are ruining” — he said, “it doesn’t matter. I am talking to my readers.”
JOHN ROMITA: I used to write notes that I thought were clever. I’d say “maybe he should say ‘what’s up’,” you know, something like that.
They sounded clever to me while I was doing the drawing. 3 in the morning everything sounds clever. He invariably would not use them, and I asked him once “why wouldn’t you use — why wouldn’t you let him” — he said something similar. He said, “because I can’t speak in somebody else’s vernacular.” He says, “when I am writing my characters, I am writing in Peter Parker’s personality and Aunt May’s personality and I write the captions in my personality. If I start putting your personality in there, I am going to confuse the reader.” So he used to -he told me — he invariably did not use anything that was in the margins that was cleverly suggested by the artists, because he said he did not want to stray from his normal approach. He had a dialogue going with the reader. Saying “dear reader, this is your editor speaking right now.” He used to do that. It used to drive me crazy. I used to tell him “you are puncturing the illusion.” It’s like opening a door in the theater and letting the sunlight in and everybody realizes they are watching a movie now. I said “you are ruining” — he said, “it doesn’t matter. I am talking to my readers.”
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Friday, 6 February 2015 18:08 (nine years ago) link
I'd buy the Miller Daredevils as b&w Essentials if they existed, as the recolouring in the collected versions is atrocious.
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 7 February 2015 00:43 (nine years ago) link
agreed; i'm perfectly happy with the floppies
― the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 7 February 2015 01:55 (nine years ago) link
Something that often looks really brilliant: black and white with newly added grey tones.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 7 February 2015 15:14 (nine years ago) link
i wonder how the coloring in those TPBs is compared to the stuff on Marvel Unlimited. Do they put the redone stuff up on there?
― Nhex, Sunday, 8 February 2015 04:15 (nine years ago) link
Just got to Neal Adams on X-Men. One of the best draftsmen thus far but also one of the absolute worst storytellers. A series of pin-ups do not a coherent story make bud, bud.
― Brodozer Coke Buffet (Old Lunch), Sunday, 8 February 2015 08:01 (nine years ago) link
Oh, phone. Please suck a fuck.
― Brodozer Coke Buffet (Old Lunch), Sunday, 8 February 2015 08:02 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, the covers are the same, but the contents are recoloured (for Daredevil at least). It's annoying.
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 8 February 2015 19:20 (nine years ago) link
I can't remember, are there any members of the Council of Reeds left from Hickman's FF run, or did they all get killed or merged into a giant green head
― mh, Tuesday, 10 February 2015 19:09 (nine years ago) link
am I the only one who is inordinately excited about the idea behind A-Force
― "Go pet your dog" is the name of my dog (DJP), Tuesday, 10 February 2015 19:17 (nine years ago) link
looks cool!
I'm wondering how Al Ewing's Mighty Avengers will flush out
― mh, Tuesday, 10 February 2015 19:28 (nine years ago) link
plz tell me this is a reboot of Atari Force
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 10 February 2015 19:32 (nine years ago) link
oh wait that was a DC property wasn't it :(
http://www.cnet.com/news/a-force-assemble-all-female-avengers-team-on-the-way-from-marvel/
― "Go pet your dog" is the name of my dog (DJP), Tuesday, 10 February 2015 19:50 (nine years ago) link
"She's actually a cosmological event -- a pocket universe that gained self-consciousness during the radical upheaval of 'Secret Wars.'" Inspired by Q from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Singularity is "learning about the human race as an outsider," according to Wilson.
lol rmde
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 10 February 2015 20:34 (nine years ago) link
"that pocket universe has breasts!"
this is like the fourth "universe personified" Marvel has had!
― mh, Tuesday, 10 February 2015 20:35 (nine years ago) link
how is that (adjectiveless) all-female X-Men book doing?
― Nhex, Tuesday, 10 February 2015 20:46 (nine years ago) link
Yeah I mean Captain Universe is currently an Avenger, this is nothing new.
It's a top 100 book but afaict sales have been in a steady decline over the past year.
― "Go pet your dog" is the name of my dog (DJP), Tuesday, 10 February 2015 21:53 (nine years ago) link
not to mention the Beyonder, who... something something secret wars
― mh, Tuesday, 10 February 2015 21:54 (nine years ago) link
ftr I'm not as eye-rolly at things like Eternity or Captain Universe as I am at the idea that a universe has a gender
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 10 February 2015 21:56 (nine years ago) link
lady pocket universe's drive like THIS
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 10 February 2015 21:57 (nine years ago) link
gods having genders is stupid, sure
― mh, Tuesday, 10 February 2015 22:00 (nine years ago) link
um, today's Spider-Man comic has Peter Porker saying "Face it pal, you just got hamboozled!"
lol
― mh, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 15:25 (nine years ago) link
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 10 February 2015 19:32 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Think Atari Force was actually owned by Atari, and that's why those comics have never been reprinted (which is a shame - beautiful Garcia Lopez a/work on those early issues).
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 11 February 2015 15:28 (nine years ago) link
well, funny thing: https://archive.org/details/atariforcecomics#collection-title
― the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 11 February 2015 15:30 (nine years ago) link
shame about the marvel micronauts series for the same reason, and that's a series that was very dear to my heart. It had its longeurs but there were several stretches where mantlo caught fire (not just the initial run with M Golden).
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 11 February 2015 15:54 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, it's unfortunate that, between that and ROM, Mantlo cornered the market on popular late-'70s/early-'80s Marvel titles that will likely never be reprinted.
― Brodozer Coke Buffet (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 11 February 2015 16:08 (nine years ago) link
Well, him and Moench, I guess.
― Brodozer Coke Buffet (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 11 February 2015 16:10 (nine years ago) link
re: Moench are you referring to Kung Fu...? I follow Diversions of the Groovy Kind religiously and he's always putting up issues of that, and given that he p much sticks to stuff that's never reprinted I was wondering what the deal was there.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 16:38 (nine years ago) link
It's because Fu Manchu is still somehow under copyright.
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 11 February 2015 16:55 (nine years ago) link
jeez, is that why they never reprinted Master of Kung Fu? Damn.
― Nhex, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 17:07 (nine years ago) link
you'd think the copyright holder would be falling all over themselves to shed that most racist invention of the pulp era. But yeah. (I'm an HPL and REH fan despite their noxious facets, but I don't ever expect to reread Sax Rohmer).
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 11 February 2015 17:18 (nine years ago) link
Rohmer's Fu Manchu supporting characters Nayland Smith and Petrie also turn up in MOKF, tho I imagine their value as 'properties' are negligible.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 11 February 2015 18:50 (nine years ago) link
There's another 60s Marvel repeated annoyance!
"Hey, look at Harry Osborn's Fu Manchu moustache" "You like my Fu Manchu moustache Peter?"
Don't forget Mary Jane's outtasight "ginchy" new haircut.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 19:05 (nine years ago) link
bring back "ginchy"
― mh, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 19:06 (nine years ago) link
been there, done that
http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/FullTextSearchControllerServlet?terms=ginchy&offset=0&searchtype=text&startdate=&enddate=&artefact=messages&idtype=null&sortorder=Relevance&boardid=0
― "Go pet your dog" is the name of my dog (DJP), Wednesday, 11 February 2015 19:13 (nine years ago) link
I know the early Ultimate Spiderman comics had lots of nu-metal t-shirts and modern teenage speak but did any of those comics have stuff like "lol, random"?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 19:17 (nine years ago) link
this is just a thought but maybe you would enjoy reading comics from different eras more if you didn't come across as explicitly looking for things in them to complain about
― "Go pet your dog" is the name of my dog (DJP), Wednesday, 11 February 2015 19:20 (nine years ago) link
To be fair, Harry's mustache and Mary Jane's new do are probably the biggest '60s Marvel tonsorial mistakes I've seen outside of Doc Ock's perennial bowl cut.
― Brodozer Coke Buffet (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 11 February 2015 19:25 (nine years ago) link
Harry's mustache and Mary Jane's new do
don't recall these - pics?
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 19:29 (nine years ago) link
I read these comics mostly because those eras are my favourite in terms of American comic artists. Now I just tend to look at them instead of reading.
And I find some of the dialogue funny. There's a Spiderman annual with bonus page of Aunt talking hip and groovy and then Stan Lee actually apologizes for it in a caption below.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 19:30 (nine years ago) link
Harry's mustache has it's own marvel wiki page:
http://marvel.wikia.com/Harry_Osborn's_Fu_Manchu
― soref, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 19:33 (nine years ago) link
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130421143111/marveldatabase/images/2/2f/Harry_Osborn_in_1969.JPG
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6512/558/320/File0501.jpg
― Vittles, Morsels, and Assorted Num-Nums (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 11 February 2015 19:36 (nine years ago) link
nice.
― Nhex, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 19:36 (nine years ago) link
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 19:38 (nine years ago) link
Extra points to anyone who can get a scan of Aunt May talking hip. I almost certain it's a backup in a Romita drawn annual.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 19:45 (nine years ago) link
When I watched the first season of SNL, I was ultimately more fascinated with the shots of the audience than anything else. Talk about a time capsule of godawful hair and style choices. So given the way things were headed by the late '60s, I really look forward to seeing Marvel's depictions of 1975.
― Vittles, Morsels, and Assorted Num-Nums (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 11 February 2015 19:48 (nine years ago) link
Peter Parker's ugly jacket with tassels is the only thing that stuck out to me. I think his sideburns got longer too but it wasn't a bad look.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 19:50 (nine years ago) link
http://www.spidermancrawlspace.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/91.jpg
― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 21:57 (nine years ago) link
God DAMN but the influence on xaime is writ large there
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 11 February 2015 22:00 (nine years ago) link
it really is
― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 22:01 (nine years ago) link
Woody Allen Lives
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 22:04 (nine years ago) link
Well done Bizarro Gazzara. Funny that even Fu Manchu is there.
I always thought Gilbert was the most Romita inspired one.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 12 February 2015 00:15 (nine years ago) link
was wondering - is this Fu Manchu copyright thing also the reason the character is never referenced by name in the initial League of Extraordinary Gentlemen storyline?
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 17:25 (nine years ago) link
yeah, it is
― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 17:45 (nine years ago) link
someone should do an intentional meta thing about the strange numinous menace of the licensed-character-who-cannot-be-named. (someone probably has, probably moore even)
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 18 February 2015 18:35 (nine years ago) link
Should just call him Nu Manchu and get on with it.
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 18:44 (nine years ago) link
Marvel/Agents of Atlas sort of did that with Yellow Claw
― Nhex, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 18:46 (nine years ago) link
Yellow Claw has been around since the golden age.
― Steak Sauce On My Cummerbund (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 18 February 2015 19:02 (nine years ago) link
call him "Craig"
― "Go pet your dog" is the name of my dog (DJP), Wednesday, 18 February 2015 19:04 (nine years ago) link
The other Asian claw still gets used but he looks so monstrous that it probably doesn't register as racial caricature to most people.
I've got kind of a soft spot for characters like Fu Manchu, I always thought they were really cool but preferably the ones that don't caricature or portray Asians in general as sinister (like the crap old Karloff version of Fu Manchu). There's quite a few of these characters in videogames and Hong Kong martial arts films but I can't presume they aren't racist because sometimes they have racial typecasting that isn't obvious to western viewers, so I wouldn't really know when those cruel emperors are supposed to be associated with foreign people. Like I read that sometimes having Japanese or Malaysian villain was like having a German or Transylvanian villain.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 19:07 (nine years ago) link
xp I know - in the Agents of Atlas mini they actually try to clean it up by having the guy reclaim it as "dammit it's GOLDEN CLAW you dumb racist Americans"
― Nhex, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 19:24 (nine years ago) link
Which are the best crossover events worth reading?
Just finished the Infinity Gauntlet one and have all 51 issues of Infinity War lined up next (and then onto Crusade, Abyss, The End and Annihilation).
Any more recent ones worth checking out? Civil War? X-Men?
― groovypanda, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 21:28 (nine years ago) link
The worthiness of a given crossover can often be measured in part by how familiar you are with the characters/situations presented therein. There are several decent X-Men crossovers that may not do much for you if you haven't read a year or so ahead of when the crossover started.
The best crossover from recent years (and one that doesn't require much of a new reader) is Annihilation. The Infinity stuff doesn't really even provide much of a preamble to it. It's pretty easy to just jump right in.
― Steak Sauce On My Cummerbund (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 18 February 2015 21:36 (nine years ago) link
kind of - since it was all on MU anyway, i did find the preceding Marvel: The End and Thanos series that preceded Annihilation to be worthwhile
― Nhex, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 23:11 (nine years ago) link
really loved the mutant massacre
― IHeartMedia, the giant broadcaster formerly known as Clear Channel, (stevie), Wednesday, 18 February 2015 23:49 (nine years ago) link
idk where to put this (there's no Bronze Age Marvel or Superhero Spanking threads) so um yeah:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iN6RbCdaO_s/VPiE1ySuYLI/AAAAAAABIPE/XJCG_YRlnXc/s1600/MarvelTwo-in-One062-11.jpg
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 26 March 2015 18:50 (nine years ago) link
I died a little laughing at this:
http://www.frequency.com/video/staying-positive-in-apocalypse-pilot/208508354?cid=5-47
― RICHARD GROWTH (fake penthouse letters mcgee), Saturday, 28 March 2015 16:38 (nine years ago) link
More directly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV54wy_IBVg
― RICHARD GROWTH (fake penthouse letters mcgee), Saturday, 28 March 2015 16:40 (nine years ago) link
So I'm apparently going all-in on Secret Wars and its 25,847 crossover issues. In case you were wondering who'd be dumb enough to do that.
― Gimme Gimme Pop Secret (Old Lunch), Sunday, 29 March 2015 16:37 (nine years ago) link
post here.
― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 29 March 2015 16:48 (nine years ago) link
Make a thread like Aldo's 52 excursion.
― EZ Snappin, Sunday, 29 March 2015 16:54 (nine years ago) link
that video is pretty great btw
― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 29 March 2015 16:54 (nine years ago) link
The best thing about DC this week has been the last issues of a lot of books, and stories actually ENDING.
― the bowels are not what they seem (aldo), Sunday, 29 March 2015 17:53 (nine years ago) link
I'm a few years behind on Marvel stuff so I've put my silver age marathon on pause (up to '71 currently) to catch up on material that seems like it might be germane to Secret Wars. Having only read a little of Hickman's Secret Warriors and Fantastic Four before, my current deep plunge into that material has been overwhelming. I don't know if it's going to ultimately add up to anything or how long it's going to take to get there if it does, but every one of these issues is a massive info dump of new concepts and new characters and new timelines and locations. Pretty much the polar opposite of the decompressed style that was so in vogue just a few years prior. I can see where it might've been kind of a confusing slog to keep up with on a monthly basis, but it's been thrilling to read through a couple years' worth of this over a handful of days. Feel like that dude's home must be plastered floor to ceiling with notes and maps and strings connecting this map to that note. Depending on how adroitly he's been able to play the long game, I have a degree of faith that he'll be able to make Secret Wars Mk 2 an interesting failure at the very least.
― what are tbey going to do to keep the laughs coming (Old Lunch), Friday, 17 April 2015 16:11 (nine years ago) link
I'm actually quite excited to read it.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 17 April 2015 16:28 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, me too, despite being out of the modern day Marvel loop for a while. It feels more like a proper EVENT than the crossovers they've gotten in the habit of tossing out every few months. It's sparking a bit of the excitement I got from tracking down new Infinity Gauntlet installments back in the day, which is the thing that began my Zombification in earnest.
― what are tbey going to do to keep the laughs coming (Old Lunch), Friday, 17 April 2015 16:38 (nine years ago) link
I'm going to read it just in hopes of it starting out with a recap of what the hell's been happening in the Avengers titles for the last 2 years, because I'm pretty much lost.
― WilliamC, Friday, 17 April 2015 16:42 (nine years ago) link
I initially thought I'd just cover a little bit of the preamble by reading the Time Runs Out stuff but then I made the mistake of reading hints and allegations that Hickman has been planting these seeds for years and I appear to have fallen down a rabbit hole where I've deluded myself into thinking I can read the last half decade of Marvel's output in the next couple of weeks. Because that's my brain for ya.
― what are tbey going to do to keep the laughs coming (Old Lunch), Friday, 17 April 2015 16:50 (nine years ago) link
Nothing is directly tied to the Council of Reeds that he did back in FF, but there's definitely a line of continuity from those days to now
― mh, Friday, 17 April 2015 17:10 (nine years ago) link
the only prepping i've done is Hickman's New Avengers + Avengers runs and i feel totally prepared. overprepared even.
― Mordy, Friday, 17 April 2015 17:12 (nine years ago) link
The Avengers' insane plottiness makes it seem like Hickman is constituionally incapable of doing character work or jokes, but there's a lot of sweet-natured character stuff in his Fantastic Four. I wonder why he seems to have intentionally subsumed that aspect this time 'round (not that I don't enjoy the insane plottiness). I need an Anhillus on the crapper moment.
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 18 April 2015 06:59 (nine years ago) link
Started the Hickman Avengers - it's really nice art but the fight scenes are all completely incoherent. Totes impressed they could sell this to people issue by issue when half are just introducing a new character so far (through 8-9).
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Sunday, 19 April 2015 07:47 (nine years ago) link
One of my Secret Wars solicitations this month is "Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos." Basically rolling dice on ordering that.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Monday, 20 April 2015 03:16 (nine years ago) link
do it, what the hell
― Nhex, Monday, 20 April 2015 03:26 (nine years ago) link
I don't know if this is a useful metric but, while I probably would not usually have purchased a comic called Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos, I will be purchasing (and I guess I technically have already purchased) a comic called Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos because it will also have the words "Secret" and "Wars" on the cover.
― I Stepped On Your Samwich (Old Lunch), Monday, 20 April 2015 13:56 (nine years ago) link
So, Iceman's gay then.
On the Deadpool thing, he's been married to Shiklah Queen of the Undead for about a year.
― the bowels are not what they seem (aldo), Tuesday, 21 April 2015 20:35 (nine years ago) link
um, this seems counter to iceman's long term storyline?
― Premise ridiculous. Who have two potato? (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 21 April 2015 20:40 (nine years ago) link
Remember when he kept trying to date Opal, and his dad was furious because she was Japanese? And then, she kind of dumped him because he was never interested in her unless she was in trouble.
― mh, Tuesday, 21 April 2015 20:41 (nine years ago) link
iceman has successfully dated zero women, iirc
An interesting post about that.
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 21 April 2015 20:44 (nine years ago) link
having read two pages and not the entire issue where this is a plot beat, yes, it does seem really token and dismissive
really this is about establishing his sexuality as canon before this summer where we get an adult gay Iceman who has never been interested in women being the only multiversal survivor post-Battleworld
― mh, Tuesday, 21 April 2015 20:51 (nine years ago) link
that's weird and interesting reading AF, i'm at a loss at the suggestion that skirt-chasing bobby was just dealing with being in the closet for the past sixtyfive years but hey, whatever.
― Premise ridiculous. Who have two potato? (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 21 April 2015 21:09 (nine years ago) link
I'm a superhero comics infant, now about halfway through Infinity in the Hickman Avengers/New Avengers run and it's kind of off-putting how they'll spend five issues laying out plot and then BAM kind of incoherent resolution in the sixth issue just in time for the TPB collection.
Are the majors usually better about pacing, or is that par for the course?
I do like that Spider-Man is a bit of a dick.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Tuesday, 21 April 2015 21:34 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, the Mrs. Deadpool thing happened a while back (tbh, I measure big events/comic time in the ridiculous high-dollar variants I was able to sell on Ebay).
At least with most of the Secret Wars titles there's something I can connect to, but is Mrs. Deadpool going to sell the same as Deadpool? Nah. I wound up just matching that title to my lowest Secret Wars titles.
Reading the Hickman comics does give me hope that Secret Wars is going to be much less of a disaster than Convergence, but that doesn't take much.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Tuesday, 21 April 2015 21:36 (nine years ago) link
"Are the majors usually better about pacing, or is that par for the course?"
I don't know that there are any super hero comics going now that really excellent examples of the genre. Pacing has been pretty screwed up on current comics stretching for the trade.
While there are some really good super hero comics made in the last decade or so, I do somewhat agree with the idea that the high water mark was in the 80s.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 21 April 2015 22:21 (nine years ago) link
As Ed B told me once, "the writing was so much worse but the STORIES WERE SO MUCH BETTER"
― demonic mnevice (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 21 April 2015 22:42 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, that's true. Code comics were just different, they were more like the best Saturday morning cartoons you never saw.
You don't need to fret on the logic of why the Masters of Evil were busting into the Avengers mansion to beat the crap out of them, it was just what they did and it was cool. You get too serious and it all just breaks down.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 21 April 2015 23:38 (nine years ago) link
I dispute that! I mean, I read comics in a different way now to how I did when I was 12, obviously. But I still qualitatively enjoy them a lot, when they're good, and it feels like the last decade of comics was certainly better than the decade that preceded it - both of which I (just about) experienced as an adult (in purchasing power if not maturity).
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 21 April 2015 23:53 (nine years ago) link
Jesus fucking christ. I count 57 Secret Wars crossover issues in July's solicitations. 57.
― Honey Mustard On My Tunic (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 22 April 2015 01:13 (nine years ago) link
Yup. It's a nightmare on the retail side.
At least DC, with Convergence, made the main series returnable, offered decent discount incentives on the miniseries and all the new series launching have returnability. That made ordering easy - I met my return quota and I'll be able to adjust orders for future issues after I see how those #1s do.
Marvel doesn't give a damn. Even the number to get popular variants (like the Skottie Young covers) is high, much less to hit the few discount numbers they're offering.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 22 April 2015 02:15 (nine years ago) link
tbh you can charge an arm and leg for those, that is why they figure you'll buy all the issues and pump up their numbers
otoh, I had to look up who Skottie Young is because I just read the damn things and only really get into artists over a period of issues
― mh, Wednesday, 22 April 2015 03:11 (nine years ago) link
I really think some retailers just take the number of issues to get an incentive cover, multiply it by the per-issue wholesale cost, and then throw the incentive cover on eBay at that price.
― mh, Wednesday, 22 April 2015 03:12 (nine years ago) link
What's the appeal of those Skottie Young covers? They are like hella ugly Margaret Keane chintz
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 22 April 2015 09:28 (nine years ago) link
The Young covers just go for retail - it's a different kind of incentive, you have to meet or exceed the number on a prior comic.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 22 April 2015 17:32 (nine years ago) link
tbh i love the skottie young covers bcz they are adorable
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 22 April 2015 19:24 (nine years ago) link
I don't like all the teeth. But you know, potato potato
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 22 April 2015 20:24 (nine years ago) link
And the 1% retailer incentive audience say potàäæÂâåto.
― the bowels are not what they seem (aldo), Wednesday, 22 April 2015 22:06 (nine years ago) link
Finished Avengers/New Avengers past Infinity but I'm pretty burned out on it.
What's some Marvel Unlimited classic stuff I should try?
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Friday, 24 April 2015 06:04 (nine years ago) link
Added Simonson/Thor and the first Runaways series
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Friday, 24 April 2015 06:45 (nine years ago) link
Someone on the John Buscema Facebook page shared this great anecdote about Buscema's art tuition class:
So there we were, in Buscema's Workshop for Comic Book Art, at the Commodore Hotel - one day close to Christmas. Big John decided to hand out pages of original art as a gift to each of us. As he reached my seat, he was surprised to find this splash page in the stack! "I could get $50. for this one!" he exclaimed as he tried to shuffle it back to the bottom of the stack and hand me the next page down - but the next one had been heavily corrected & pieced together... Buscema paused for a moment, looked at this longingly, then shoved it at me... "What the Hell! Merry Christmas, kid!"
And this is the page:
https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/t31.0-8/s960x960/11406607_10207496983886091_7641302544163860037_o.jpg
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 18 June 2015 20:09 (nine years ago) link
wow. hell of a piece of art too!
― like a giraffe of nah (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 18 June 2015 21:02 (nine years ago) link
I never had much of an appreciation for Buscema (John, anyway...I was wild about Sal back in the day) until I started reading some of his old Conan stuff and wondering how the hell I'd overlooked him before.
― Feeding My Whole Family With A Pack Of Taco Shells (Old Lunch), Thursday, 18 June 2015 22:51 (nine years ago) link
FYI, still doing the pre-Secret Wars catch-up and started reading Remender's Captain America more out of a sense of completionism than real interest, but it's actually really good! The first arc, anyway, which is some Planet Hulk-level Big Action gamechangery.
― Feeding My Whole Family With A Pack Of Taco Shells (Old Lunch), Thursday, 18 June 2015 22:55 (nine years ago) link
i caught up on remender's cap recently too and really enjoyed it. cap's relationship with ian was surprisingly touching!
― bizarro gazzara, Friday, 19 June 2015 09:39 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, he really pulled off the hat trick that's eluded Marvel so much of late in creating a big and bombastic action story that also has legitimate emotional beats and characters the reader cares about and is invested in.
― Feeding My Whole Family With A Pack Of Taco Shells (Old Lunch), Friday, 19 June 2015 12:14 (nine years ago) link
Steve Rogers as a dad is really something that makes a lot of sense.
― Upright Mammal (mh), Friday, 19 June 2015 13:50 (nine years ago) link
It's good! I think the run kind of falls apart after that story, sadly, although the big blowout finish is worth slogging through to get to. But then the Falcon stuff back to being super generic.
Just noticed that Jeff Lemire is the X-men writer, which is a hot snooze.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 19 June 2015 16:30 (nine years ago) link
Stoked for:Captain MarvelDaredeveilDr. StrangeIron ManThorSam Wilson, Capt. AmericaVisionSpider-Man (Miles Morales)
Will give a chance for a few issues:A-ForceAll New All Different AvengersAnt-ManHawkeyeNew AvengersScarlet WitchSquadron SupremeUltimatesOld Man LoganSpider-WomanKarnak Uncanny InhumansIlluminati
Little or no interest:Agents of SHIELDAngelaNovaHulkUncanny AvengersWolverineAll New X-MenDeadpoolExtraordinary X-MenUncanny X-MenAmazing Spider-ManCarnageSilkSpider-GwenSpider-Man 2099Venom: SpaceknightWeb WarriorsMs. MarvelGuardians of the Galaxy (might check it for 1 or 2 issues)DraxStar-LordGamoraContest of ChampionsHoward the DuckHowling Commandos of SHIELD
― it's not arugula science (WilliamC), Tuesday, 30 June 2015 21:45 (nine years ago) link
They're on issue three (I think) of Lemire's All-New Hawkeye and it's pretty good, Hawkeye #22 hasn't come out and they're already announcing a #1 for a new Hawkeye series. Yeeesh.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 02:29 (nine years ago) link
a new hawkeye *other* than all-new hawkeye??
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 05:52 (nine years ago) link
All-New-Hawkeyeeye
― groovypanda, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 06:48 (nine years ago) link
Nothing by Hickman or Gillen, and Daredevil and Loki are finishing, so this is a net loss for me - especially Daredevil, which should've just carried on permanently like a Dick Tracy strip or something.
But still, some interesting-looking stuff. Al E has three titles, which is super, including a Mighty Avengers reboot. Jason Aaron on Doc Strange seems like a good match. Thor will probably carry on being great.
Still curious why Charles Soule and Jeff Lemire getting so much work, both kinda unexceptional.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 09:27 (nine years ago) link
What are the other two Al E titles?
― Tim, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 10:32 (nine years ago) link
Ulitmates (!) and New Avengers (!!)
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 10:50 (nine years ago) link
Actually I guess Ultimates is kind of the reboot (as it has Monica Rambeau and Blue Marvel, along with Black Panther, America Chavez, Captain Marvel and, er, Galactus). Contest of Champions, a video game adaptation, is his third.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 10:59 (nine years ago) link
Gillen has been coy and non-bridge-burning about it, but since The Wicked & the Divine has blown up, he's been describing his Battleworld work as his farewell (for now, depending on circumstances, etc) to Marvel - of course he's still writing Darth Vader.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 11:01 (nine years ago) link
I personally prefer his hackwork to his indie work, but really hard to begrudge that decision. Kind of hated his work until I finally read Journey into Mystery; he's really grown on me since.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 11:40 (nine years ago) link
Still haven't quite synced up with Gillen. On the other hand, I wasn't that into Jason Aaron based on what I'd read of his in the past but having just read his first year on Thor I may be changing my tune. Really good stuff, and I'm glad to see he's sticking with it.
― Turn That Pout Inside Out! (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 12:50 (nine years ago) link
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 16:22 (nine years ago) link
Cool to see Greg Pak back on the Hulk, as well.
― Turn That Pout Inside Out! (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 17:42 (nine years ago) link
I think Aaron's first year-and-a-half on Thor was my favourite trad superhero thing since, I dunno, Seven Soldiers. It's levelled out a bit since then, but it's still very good.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 20:22 (nine years ago) link
Finally a release date for Hawkeye #22 -- July 15th.
― dart scar rashes (WilliamC), Sunday, 5 July 2015 14:24 (nine years ago) link
What happened to Surfer?
― Allen (etaeoe), Sunday, 5 July 2015 15:17 (nine years ago) link
That's a very vague question.
― dart scar rashes (WilliamC), Sunday, 5 July 2015 15:29 (nine years ago) link
lately he's been traveling around space w/ his human love interest
― Mordy, Sunday, 5 July 2015 15:43 (nine years ago) link
― dart scar rashes (WilliamC), Sunday, July 5, 2015 2:24 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i'd completely forgotten this was coming lol
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 9 July 2015 20:31 (nine years ago) link
It remains to be seen if my theory pays off once I get caught up to Secret Wars, but I'm about a year into a bunch of the Marvel Now! reboot titles and it seems like almost all of them have contained a plot/subplot involving potentially-inadvisable time/space fuckery. I'm assuming at the moment that this is all part of the years-long planning that went into SW, so it'll be interesting to see how many of these plot strands get callbacks.
― Turn That Pout Inside Out! (Old Lunch), Thursday, 9 July 2015 23:18 (nine years ago) link
I was reading somewhere a review basically making the point that Silver Surfer is currently Doctor Who with the serial numbers filed off
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Friday, 10 July 2015 02:04 (nine years ago) link
ha, that's right! but allred, so great!
― like a giraffe of nah (forksclovetofu), Friday, 10 July 2015 04:29 (nine years ago) link
I assumed all the time-wimey stuff was just writers being told to go for broke with the status quo, safe in the knowledge that everything would reset after Secret Wars.
Daredevil seems to be (spoiler alert) going for a proper reboot, with MM back in New York, no one knowing his secret ID, and (presumably) none of Waid's supporting cast. Which is disappointing but I guess ultimately who cares. Is there a word for fridging via continuity reboot?
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 10 July 2015 10:00 (nine years ago) link
Judging from his Facebook page, Dan Slott, who is writing SS at the moment, is a massive Who fan
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Friday, 10 July 2015 10:12 (nine years ago) link
http://www.david-tennant-news.com/blog/pix-wizard-world-philly-celebrity-photo-highlights-includes-david-tennant-and-billie-piper/
*adds Silver Surfer to pull list*
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Friday, 10 July 2015 13:04 (nine years ago) link
too late, it's all over, man
― Upright Mammal (mh), Friday, 10 July 2015 13:44 (nine years ago) link
*hops into time machine*
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Friday, 10 July 2015 13:45 (nine years ago) link
If I had one request for Marvel at the moment, it would be that they let their post-Secret Wars titles just, y'know, keep running. Stop all the rebooting. We're about to get the third Uncanny X-Men #1 in less than five years. At the very very least, I would ask that they figure out a way for the collections to make sense of the reboot confusion (e.g. the multiple different Captain Marvel trades I saw in the bookstore labeled as Volume 1). I'm able to keep track only because I'm a super Marvel nerd, but the casual fan isn't going to give enough of a shit to try to figure out Marvel's lack of rationale wrt this stuff.
― Ooo! Ooo! Whattayado? (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 July 2015 13:55 (nine years ago) link
I've been reading random Marvel collections that are on scribd -- switched to it over Marvel Unlimited for a while since it also has IDW/Valiant stuff. Their organization is really bad, especially from the iPad app. Sometimes you can pick a collection and it'll know what sequence the following collections are in, but browsing is bad.
The lesson it has taught me is that randomly consuming storylines in nonsequential order isn't all that bad, but it's kind of irritating.
― Upright Mammal (mh), Friday, 10 July 2015 14:00 (nine years ago) link
I should start a thread about the new Valiant universe if we don't have one. There's some good stuff in there.
I wondered how long it was going to take for the wheels to start coming off of Marvel's Epic Collections plan (for those unfamiliar, they're unofficially replacing the Essentials but are being ambitiously released out of order with volume numbers assigned, e.g. Avengers v.17: Judgement Day) and the answer is 'a little over a year'. I bought the two books collecting the Spider-Man alien costume stuff, which are nicely comprehensive and cover all of the involved titles from that period...and which heavily overlap with a separate Spider-Man Epic Collection that was released last summer. And these books are super not cheap. So, y'know, yet another round of congratulations to the Marvel reprint department.
― Ooo! Ooo! Whattayado? (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 July 2015 14:03 (nine years ago) link
LOL. Why wasn’t it picked up? It isn’t in the new Marvel Previews. It’s my favorite Marvel title. :(
― Allen (etaeoe), Friday, 10 July 2015 14:49 (nine years ago) link
Every Marvel title is ending. Many of them are being rebooted (most with new creative teams) after Secret Wars is over.
― Ooo! Ooo! Whattayado? (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 July 2015 14:50 (nine years ago) link
I like them. They released an Iron Fist volume this week which is nice since Iron Fist never got a Masterworks paperback.
― Allen (etaeoe), Friday, 10 July 2015 15:10 (nine years ago) link
I like them in theory except that a) they're effing expensive and b) they're replacing an abandoned reprint series that was much more affordable. Like that Iron Fist Epic Collection is basically just a color version of Essential Iron Fist at double the price.
― Ooo! Ooo! Whattayado? (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 July 2015 15:20 (nine years ago) link
The expense might be worth it to people who prefer color reprints but I think it's a shame that the Essentials had to be sacrificed in the process.
― Ooo! Ooo! Whattayado? (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 July 2015 15:21 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, I miss the Essential, too. The repro on the Epic Collections looks OK on the whole, but a lot of them have new colouring, not always to good effect.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Friday, 10 July 2015 15:25 (nine years ago) link
Thankfully, I'm currently only about 10-12 books away from owning all of the Essentials, so I don't have too much work to do before they're all totally out of print and fetching exorbitant prices. Such is my sickness.
― Ooo! Ooo! Whattayado? (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 July 2015 15:29 (nine years ago) link
I held off buying the Black Panther Essentials because I had all the Kirby material in it, and now that's one of the ones going for stupid prices. And the Marvel Masterworks reprinting the McGregor stuff is also out of print. I guess there'll be an Epic Collection at some point, but can't see it being a big priority.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Friday, 10 July 2015 15:36 (nine years ago) link
It could be, with the impending movie. The MCU seems to be driving a lot of the reprints these days.
― Ooo! Ooo! Whattayado? (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 July 2015 15:43 (nine years ago) link
I mean, they're finally starting proper reprints of Priest's run starting this month or next. So keep your eyes peeled.
― Ooo! Ooo! Whattayado? (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 July 2015 15:45 (nine years ago) link
Ahh, didn't know there was a BP movie in the works. I was looking at an Ant Man Epic Collection just the other day - on the one hand, it reprints some very rare and expensive early Marvel comics at a reasonable-ish price - on the other hand, most of the stories are utter rubbish.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Friday, 10 July 2015 15:51 (nine years ago) link
Maybe it’s regional, but most Epics I’ve seen sell for $25.00 (i.e. $10 more than Essentials) and I’ve never seen them sold for cover price.
― Allen (etaeoe), Friday, 10 July 2015 16:13 (nine years ago) link
Nonetheless, they should’ve kept Essentials!
I like both Masterworks (paperback) and Essentials. They really need to rethink Omnibuses. They are way too expensive and impossible to read (for their price you’d expect a textbook binding).
― Allen (etaeoe), Friday, 10 July 2015 16:15 (nine years ago) link
<I>I mean, they're finally starting proper reprints of Priest's run starting this month or next. So keep your eyes peeled.</I>
!!! This is very good news, just recently discovered my old floppies.
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 10 July 2015 16:23 (nine years ago) link
And the second volume is due in December or something, so it looks like chances are good that they'll plow through to the end.
― Something Called Fudge (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 July 2015 16:29 (nine years ago) link
I was looking at an Ant Man Epic Collection just the other day - on the one hand, it reprints some very rare and expensive early Marvel comics at a reasonable-ish price - on the other hand, most of the stories are utter rubbish.
Yeah, those early Ant-Man stories are really awful. Pretty much the low point of the Silver Age, from what I've read. That collection is a little silly, since the material they're reprinting was already issued in an Essentials trade and, to the extent that the movie was an impetus for its publication, it would have made much more sense to put out a collection of the as-yet-unreprinted Scott Lang stuff from the '70s. Deep sighs, Marvel.
― Something Called Fudge (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 July 2015 16:32 (nine years ago) link
Tell me about the recoloring on the epic collections. I am defaulting to the assumption that it is hideous and detrimental but would love to hear to the contrary
― demonic mnevice (Jon Lewis), Friday, 10 July 2015 19:11 (nine years ago) link
It probably depends on what era is being reprinted, yeah? The coloring in those Spidey alien costume trades looks appropriately '80s-ish and understated, IIRC. I don't think I've ever seen recoloring as awful and garish as what Dark Horse, et al did to the reprints of the '70s R.E. Howard stuff, so I rarely have complaints in that regard.
― Something Called Fudge (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 July 2015 19:26 (nine years ago) link
I take it you haven't seen the Nick Fury paperback reprint of SHIELD stuff
― Upright Mammal (mh), Friday, 10 July 2015 19:28 (nine years ago) link
This is true. I will, however, probably buy the new, complete Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD omnibus sight unseen despite what I've heard about the earlier trade.
― Something Called Fudge (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 July 2015 19:50 (nine years ago) link
Jon, I wouldn't say that the (re)colouring on the epic collections is 'hideous' - I'm guessing that it's matched to the original comic printing in most cases, and as Old Lunch says, on the whole it's understated - they haven't added flashy computer colouring effects to old Kirby/Ditko pages. In comparison to the early hardcover Masterworks - truly some of the nastiest recolouring I've ever seen - they're a model of taste and restraint. But it is still obviously colour produced on a computer, so 'feels' wrong, and I would be more interested in Marvel reprints shot directly from the comics themselves. Of Of course,Marvel kept very very poor copies - if at all - of their early superhero titles, so that almost from the start, reprints of the Silver Age material have involved greater or lesser amounts of 'correction', redrawing etc, that often significantly departs from the original artwork and its first printing.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Friday, 10 July 2015 20:05 (nine years ago) link
hmmmmmhttp://nypost.com/2015/07/14/did-stan-lee-steal-spider-man-from-a-brooklyn-costume-shop/
― you are extreme, Patti LuPone. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 15 July 2015 16:47 (nine years ago) link
The costumes looks nothing alike, beyond what you'd get if you got two guys to design different spider-man costumes. I am curious how common the <something>-Man name would have been back then, though.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 15 July 2015 17:12 (nine years ago) link
I think there was a Superguy or something back then
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 15 July 2015 17:22 (nine years ago) link
there was also whatsisname, Batfellow
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 15 July 2015 17:23 (nine years ago) link
Aquachap
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 15 July 2015 17:24 (nine years ago) link
Amazing-Man, Atomic Man, Bronze Man, Bulletman, Cat-Man, Doll Man, Dynamic Man, Hawkman, Hourman, Hydro Man, Master Man, Mighty Man, Plastic Man, Robotman, Rockman, Sandman, Skyman, Starman, V-Man, Wonder Man
are all from the 40s
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 15 July 2015 17:28 (nine years ago) link
but seriously, while it's usually safe to assume that Stan Lee never thought up anything worthwhile by himself, the costume thing seems like a stretch
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 15 July 2015 17:29 (nine years ago) link
If you look at the mask and squint a little from a distance you get a little bit of the same feel as Marvel's Spider-Man but... yeah, this could be completely unrelated.
I mean, two independent people come up with spider-related costumes and they both use webs? What are the odds!
― Upright Mammal (mh), Wednesday, 15 July 2015 17:48 (nine years ago) link
xpost Ahem, Stripperella?
― Something Called Fudge (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 15 July 2015 17:56 (nine years ago) link
you're right, I stand corrected
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 15 July 2015 18:03 (nine years ago) link
some day we will figure out the composite of characters he absorbed traits from to come up with his Stan Lee character
― Upright Mammal (mh), Wednesday, 15 July 2015 18:05 (nine years ago) link
PT Barnum and Robert E Lee iirc
― you are extreme, Patti LuPone. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 15 July 2015 18:22 (nine years ago) link
he saw a funky flashman costume at some point
― Upright Mammal (mh), Wednesday, 15 July 2015 19:03 (nine years ago) link
http://brevoortformspring.tumblr.com/post/124153395043/can-you-explain-why-marvel-thinks-that-doing-hipuh
― you are extreme, Patti LuPone. (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 16 July 2015 18:44 (nine years ago) link
David Brothers is patient on that:
http://tumblr.iamdavidbrothers.com/post/124166143967/can-you-explain-why-marvel-thinks-that-doing-hip
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 16 July 2015 19:08 (nine years ago) link
booming response there, hope marvel pays attention
― bizarro gazzara, Friday, 17 July 2015 08:38 (nine years ago) link
still bigger than hip hop
― Upright Mammal (mh), Friday, 17 July 2015 14:10 (nine years ago) link
It looks like the response from David Brothers had already been written and reposted by Brevoort, along with another response that was responded to by Brevoort wherein he fleshed out his response, prior to any of this popping up in the thread.
― Something Called Fudge (Old Lunch), Friday, 17 July 2015 15:08 (nine years ago) link
Ok this made me chucklehttp://www.comicbookmovie.com/deadpool/news/?a=124258Marvel’s Latest Joke Is A Playful Jab At DC ComicsCheck out the new Deadpool "Candy Varient" in which Marvel takes a playful jab at DC Comics advertising department. For those who need to be caught up, read on after the jump
For those of you that need to be caught up, DC Comics stunned the comic book community a few months ago by stating that the June issues will feature half-page ads on story pages.http://oi58.tinypic.com/34y65c6.jpg
― tsrobodo, Friday, 21 August 2015 12:24 (nine years ago) link
They stunned the comic book community that aren't old enough to remember when half-page ads were kind of a regular thing.
Not that they were a good thing or that I'm in any way advocating their return. Just saying, y'know, there's precedent.
― Do you have or use horses? (Old Lunch), Friday, 21 August 2015 12:51 (nine years ago) link
When are we talking about? I've been reading for a few decades and it doesn't ring a bell (but my memory is terrible).
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 21 August 2015 12:55 (nine years ago) link
Frequent practice on both Marvel and DC comics throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s at least
More egregious - Marvel's early 70s trick of blowing up a single page into a double page spread
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Friday, 21 August 2015 12:58 (nine years ago) link
kinda amusing that marvel are decrying dc's commercial policies on the cover of yet another first-issue grab for those collector dollars
― bizarro gazzara, Friday, 21 August 2015 13:23 (nine years ago) link
Also, it's maybe not wise to draw attention to advertising practices being employed by the Distinguished Competition. Marvel's ad department might start getting ideas.
This seems particularly egregious with the price of floppies skyrocketing, but it just underscores my belief that the Big Two are pushing to make floppies as undesirable as possible before ultimately phasing them out altogether.
― Do you have or use horses? (Old Lunch), Friday, 21 August 2015 13:35 (nine years ago) link
most egregious: spelling ingest "injest" in the small print on that cover
― Credit: howtokeepapositiveattitudedotcom (stevie), Friday, 21 August 2015 13:37 (nine years ago) link
or is that something americans do?
only Americans who don't know how to spell
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Friday, 21 August 2015 13:38 (nine years ago) link
Well, given that the front cover is, you know, in jest...
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 21 August 2015 13:57 (nine years ago) link
americans: bad spellers, bad punners
― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, 21 August 2015 14:05 (nine years ago) link
There's a helpful little entry on this blog about Marvel's half page ads period:
http://hayfamzone.blogspot.co.uk/
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Friday, 21 August 2015 14:09 (nine years ago) link
I read James Robinson's FF run that led up to the present the other day. It's decent, but if anything it seems really rote compared to the crazy stuff Hickman was doing and the villain is underdeveloped. The kids seem... too childish compared to the other recent portrayals? I mean, they are kids, but after the Future Foundation run Val and Franklin are a couple of my favorites.
― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, 21 August 2015 14:15 (nine years ago) link
specifically on a variant cover
― let no-one live rent free in your butt (sic), Friday, 21 August 2015 14:41 (nine years ago) link
I'm reading Infinity at the moment and resigning myself to the impossibility of getting caught up soon enough to read any part of Secret Wars in real time. For those interested, I'd break down the first year of Marvel Now! stuff (that I've read) thusly:
I think it's great and recommend it highly:Captain AmericaThor: God of ThunderAvengersNew AvengersSecret Avengers
I think it's quite good or at least appreciate the effort:All-New X-Men/Uncanny X-Men/Wolverine and the X-MenUncanny AvengersYoung Avengers
I think it's, y'know, okay:Fantastic Four/FFGuardians of the GalaxyIron ManSuperior Spider-Man
I'm just not that into it:Avengers AssembleCaptain MarvelFearless DefendersIndestructible HulkNovaThunderbolts
― Do you have or use horses? (Old Lunch), Friday, 21 August 2015 16:07 (nine years ago) link
The newest iteration (I think! it keeps iterating) of Secret Avengers has a Modok that is in love with Maria Hill
― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, 21 August 2015 16:44 (nine years ago) link
You just made me wonder how a physical relationship with a Modok would work so "thanks" for that.
― Do you have or use horses? (Old Lunch), Friday, 21 August 2015 17:11 (nine years ago) link
I assume there's a lot of head
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Friday, 21 August 2015 17:47 (nine years ago) link
that's the DJP I know and love
― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, 21 August 2015 18:01 (nine years ago) link
lol, a+
― bizarro gazzara, Friday, 21 August 2015 18:28 (nine years ago) link
Two things I'd like to see in the wake of Secret Wars: 1) fewer title reboots (preferably zero of them, but this is the new world we live in) and 2) fewer mind-bendingly colossal threats to the earth/universe/multiverse. I'm digging Infinity thus far but, between the Builders and Thanos and the alternate earth incursions, the MU threat level has risen to the point where I don't know how anyone could top it.
― Do you have or use horses? (Old Lunch), Friday, 21 August 2015 19:31 (nine years ago) link
fewer mind-bendingly colossal threats to the earth/universe/multiverse.
feel like this is just the status quo for superhero comics from the 00s onwards. nobody just robs banks or fights crime or whatever anymore
― Οὖτις, Friday, 21 August 2015 19:33 (nine years ago) link
Hawkeyes does, to critical plaudits.
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 21 August 2015 19:35 (nine years ago) link
fwiw the above is what I liked so much about Ms Marvel; the threats were definitely rooted in neighborhood sensibility, routed through Inhuman concerns
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Friday, 21 August 2015 19:36 (nine years ago) link
One of the downsides of the publishing side at Marvel is that they can go bigger and bigger and bigger with no increase in costs; they kind of forget to tell the human story. The MCU is kind of doing that neighborhood sensibility thing better, via the Netflix show(s), by virtue of sfx budget constraints.
― rack of lamb of god (WilliamC), Friday, 21 August 2015 20:05 (nine years ago) link
Aaron's Thor is pretty good at doing both.
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 22 August 2015 22:11 (nine years ago) link
Warren Ellis's take on Karnak is a hoot. Well, maybe not a hoot, but very appealing.
Soule's Inhumans is less hooty, but there's an interesting thing about it: Steve McNiven, the inker, is billed ahead of Jay Leisten, penciler. Don't think I've ever seen that before. I know McNiven has the bigger name, but still odd and noteworthy.
― Exit, pursued by Yogi Berra (WilliamC), Thursday, 22 October 2015 19:05 (nine years ago) link
It kinda drives me nuts that Marvel has stopped indicating in their solicitations whether something is an actual series or just a miniseries. I don't think a single one of their post-Secret Wars books were listed as miniseries but I can't imagine, say, Karnak continuing beyond the six issues Ellis writes before he moves on to something else.
― I Was Picking Up A Teaspoon When Something Happened To My Spine (Old Lunch), Thursday, 22 October 2015 19:15 (nine years ago) link
I can sort of see the side of wanting to leave that status ambiguous in case it's a surprise hit. Has Ellis said specifically that he's only writing 6 issues?
― Exit, pursued by Yogi Berra (WilliamC), Thursday, 22 October 2015 19:23 (nine years ago) link
Isn't that Ellis's thing now? Limited runs, self-contained story arc, on to the next thing?
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Thursday, 22 October 2015 19:25 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, I just assumed. What's his longest run on a recent-ish Marvel title? Like 12 issues or so on Astonishing X-Men and Thunderbolts?
― I Was Picking Up A Teaspoon When Something Happened To My Spine (Old Lunch), Thursday, 22 October 2015 19:28 (nine years ago) link
I definitely get Marvel's decision to be cryptic about series length from a business perspective and I assumed that was the main reason behind it. It's still annoying. Unless it really is their intention to make everything theoretically ongoing until and unless it becomes clear that a given series doesn't have legs.
― I Was Picking Up A Teaspoon When Something Happened To My Spine (Old Lunch), Thursday, 22 October 2015 19:31 (nine years ago) link
McNiven, the inker, is billed ahead of Jay Leisten, penciler. Don't think I've ever seen that before.
When Alan Moore's Top Ten was running, you'd see reviews referring to "Zander Cannon's gritty inks" just because he was listed after Gene Ha.
― let no-one live rent free in your butt (sic), Thursday, 22 October 2015 21:03 (nine years ago) link
Some of Alex Ross' books are like that where he is painting on top of someone else's pencils and quite a few times where he is top billed with doing just the cover and co-plotting the comic.
― earlnash, Saturday, 24 October 2015 21:44 (nine years ago) link
Holy shit, guys. Master of Kung Fu omnibus in this month's comics solicitations. With mentions of Fu Manchu in the blurb. So I guess those rights issues are no longer an issue.
― The Squirrel Who Punched His Dad In The Neck (Old Lunch), Saturday, 28 November 2015 15:07 (nine years ago) link
I wonder if he finally hit public domain.
― phở intellectual (WilliamC), Saturday, 28 November 2015 16:20 (nine years ago) link
Isn't the standard copyright term in the US 95 years? So if the first Fu Manchu story was serialized from 1912 to 1913, it would've gone to public domain in 2007 or 2008, unless they managed to extend the copyright in some way.
― Tuomas, Monday, 30 November 2015 10:53 (nine years ago) link
It's usually X years from the author's DEATH. It's complicated by the way that in the US anything published pre-1923 is also public domain, so the early Fu Manchu is PD, but not all of it, and so the Rohmer estate uses the later stories to try to leverage the earlier stuff back into copyright.
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Tuesday, 1 December 2015 00:55 (nine years ago) link
I think they came up with a license. They are going to reprint the whole series in three omnibuses.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 1 December 2015 01:20 (nine years ago) link
Wonder how many kids became Fleetwood Mac fans thanks to MoKF? Biggest regret of selling collection pre-college is no longer having the complete MoKF run. These omnibuses sound great, and realistically, the $112 price tag is much less than rebuying the individual issues, but still, ouch. $450 or so to rebuy what I sold for pennies on the dollar makes me sad.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Friday, 4 December 2015 16:14 (nine years ago) link
$450 or so = Ran across one site yesterday that said four omnibuses.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Friday, 4 December 2015 16:15 (nine years ago) link
Wait for it to pop up on Amazon and you should be able to get them all for a pretty steep discount. Just don't wait so long that Marvel's infamous single, limited print run completely sells out.
― The Featureless Mash That Was Once My Face (Old Lunch), Friday, 4 December 2015 16:20 (nine years ago) link
Thanks, will do. And yeah, stalled on the complete hardcover Calvin & Hobbes and watched it go from mid-$60s to $125. Fool me twice...
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Friday, 4 December 2015 16:53 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, the Marvel printing policy is ridiculous. I'm thankful I managed to get the Simonson Thor and Annihilation omnibuses in time, because now they're both going for 250 bucks at Amazon. The Annihilation omnibus only came out last year!
― Tuomas, Friday, 4 December 2015 19:31 (nine years ago) link
If I don't preorder it before the December cut-off date (which the holidays make difficult, money-wise), I'm gonna have to snag this and the Nick Fury omnibus as early as possible in the new year. Because, yeah, Marvel's incredibly stupid about this stuff and they don't seem to make much of an adjustment based on potential demand. You generally just have to wait 5-10 years until they get around to reprinting the material in a different format. I had no idea about the Annihilation omnibus price hike, though! Thankfully preordered both of those omnibi (after stupidly selling the original trades and watching their second-hand prices skyrocket beyond anything affordable).
― The Featureless Mash That Was Once My Face (Old Lunch), Friday, 4 December 2015 19:40 (nine years ago) link
The binding on the hardcover was really bad FYI, and fell apart a lot.
― glandular lansbury (sic), Friday, 4 December 2015 22:56 (nine years ago) link
new Nick Fury omnibus? Does it have the same shitty re-coloring as previous collections?
― Οὖτις, Friday, 4 December 2015 23:03 (nine years ago) link
I don't know as I haven't seen it in person. But it collects all of the Lee & Kirby and Steranko stuff, so I'll be able to hold my nose if the reproduction is a little off.
― The Featureless Mash That Was Once My Face (Old Lunch), Saturday, 5 December 2015 00:40 (nine years ago) link
tomorrow is the end of the new Secret War
I am the only one looking forward to this after the last couple issues have had little more than "let's round up the forces," right?
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:23 (eight years ago) link
No, I'm looking forward to it as well; it's bound to be better than most of the post-Secret Wars books I've been reading
(btw in case you were wondering, almost every X-Men book I can think of is now irredeemably terrible)
― Very selfish, and very ironic (DJP), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:26 (eight years ago) link
Vision book has an interesting premise but I find that in practice, I don't give a single, solitary shit about a solo Vision story
― Very selfish, and very ironic (DJP), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:27 (eight years ago) link
I'm finding it kind of interesting but so far it's domestic drama... with robots...and now, witchcraft?
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:28 (eight years ago) link
X-Men titles seem equally split between "let's rally the troops" and "mysterious forces are making us inferior merchandising property to the Inhumans"
The Cullen Bunn one that seems like a rehashed X-Force (X-Men assault squad) seems like it could be interesting but again, it's all action to start things off
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:30 (eight years ago) link
the best post-SW title I picked up was the Karnak title, but it sounds like the artist has had some family problems and it's delayed
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:31 (eight years ago) link
I'm still working my way through the Secret Wars pre-preamble. Thoroughly expect to read the first issue sometime in the next year or two.
Fun fact (which I don't remember how I discovered): there were more Secret Wars crossover issues than the total issues put out under the New Universe banner. And I think more than 2099, as well, but I'd have to double check that. At any rate, the volume surpassed a couple of multi-year, multi-title lines.
― Reckless Recluse (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:32 (eight years ago) link
The only thing about Uncanny X-Men that I find "interesting" is the inclusion of M on the murder squad. I'm kind of done with the Psylocke/Archangel treadmill, good Sabretooth is basically indistinguishable from Wolverine, and Magneto being Magneto only less logical isn't a draw.
On the plus side, there are some hilarious Greg Land splash pages in there.
― Very selfish, and very ironic (DJP), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:36 (eight years ago) link
Someone needs to leave an enticing trail of skin mags and lightboxes that lead into a deep hole where Greg Land can live out the rest of his days.
― Reckless Recluse (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:38 (eight years ago) link
oh, so has marvel reality been reconstituted?
― Mordy, Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:40 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, as of a couple months ago.
― Reckless Recluse (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:41 (eight years ago) link
anybody wanna give me a capsule explanation? I've been reading on marvel unlimited and it's hard to follow .... or more accurately, hard to care about.
― Copy rights, pleasing all star wars fans, hiring professionals. (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:42 (eight years ago) link
titles in the reconstituted reality have been shipping for a while
how the reality got reconstituted, that's yet to be seen
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:43 (eight years ago) link
yeah I assume we find that out tomorrow
― Very selfish, and very ironic (DJP), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:53 (eight years ago) link
here's the dumb spoilers version of Secret War~do not read if you really care, but the Hickman unraveling of it has been somewhat interesting~
- Doom and the Molecule Man, accompanied by Dr. Strange, bombed the Beyonders with a box full of Molecule Men they saved. They'd been killing them across all the realities after MM revealed he was a singular being with one body in each reality, and was basically a reboot bomb that would destroy them all at once. Doom had created a cult that was doing his bidding over decades, as the Beyonders have a grasp on everything except for time, which Doom could manipulate. Some of Doom's cult became heretics like the Black Swan character that showed up a couple years (?) back. They ended up unwittingly helping the Beyonders in their new plot to smash universes together.
- Following the destruction of everything (survived by two life rafts: one containing 616 Reed Richards and friends, another containing Ultimate Reed Richards and the remains of the Cabal) Doom pulled together remaining pieces of everything into his own world. He's God, Strange is his right hand man, an army of Thors is his police force. Sue, Franklin, and Val from two (maybe three) realities are his family. Castle Doom sits on top of Yggdrasil, the world tree. There's a wall surrounding much of the world to keep out the annihilation horde and zombies. There are different Houses, led by assorted characters, governing the different states of Battleworld.
- The life rafts open, Doom's deception is starting to show, rally the troops, etc etc. Eight years passed in Battleworld while the people in the rafts only experienced a couple days. Strange confronts Doom, gets killed.
- Not so secret: a handful of characters find out about a room below Doomstadt and figure out the Molecule Man is still there.
~end spoilers
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:54 (eight years ago) link
Favorite moment: Molecule Man keeps complaining about being hungry, eats a hamburger
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:55 (eight years ago) link
i haven't read an issue in months and none of those were spoilers to me which means... nothing has happened since like august??
― Mordy, Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:57 (eight years ago) link
what a load of nonsense
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:57 (eight years ago) link
The main things that haven't been fully realized but will probably be integral are:- Strange left a care package for anyone who knew the secret Illuminati password in case anything were to happen to him, and Black Panther/Namor found it- Battleworld had no sun, until Doom got into it with Johnny Storm and exiled him to the sky. The sun's still shining on Battleworld for the minute.
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 19:58 (eight years ago) link
it's a ridiculous Marvel comics event with all possible characters, of course it's complete nonsense!
at least now we get a Dr. Strange comic drawn by Chris Bachalo
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 20:01 (eight years ago) link
ooh that is good news
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 12 January 2016 20:03 (eight years ago) link
other good SW moment: Doom and Thanos doing all kinds of posturing about who is a better god
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 20:05 (eight years ago) link
i had the same experience as mordyi appreciate the help condensing it there though mh
― Copy rights, pleasing all star wars fans, hiring professionals. (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 20:06 (eight years ago) link
I wasn't sure how many spoilers you guys wanted or how much plot summary was needed.
Since August it's only been issues 6/7/8, but 7/8 really are kind of a single split issue, and were mainly about troop rallying and the initial assault on Doom. There's a side story with an imprisoned Thanos finding out what happened to Ben Grimm, Val starts to figure things out, and Ultimate universe Reed acts shady, as usual
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 20:14 (eight years ago) link
now I feel like I write for avclub, let me go wash my hands
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 20:15 (eight years ago) link
it's genuinely useful!
― Copy rights, pleasing all star wars fans, hiring professionals. (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 20:18 (eight years ago) link
Judging by the summary, it sounds like Marvel is doing what DC did 30 years ago with CoIE, conflating their multiverse into just one universe? If that's the case, I don't get it, and I never understood why DC did it either, because their multiverses are such a great source for story ideas and a testing ground for new concepts.
Thankfully these days the only Marvel comics I'm reading are fringe titles like Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl, which are not that much tied into all this craziness. (There was a tie-in Ms. Marvel, but all you needed to know to get it was that the world was about to end.) I'm still bitter about how Marvel pretty much ruined Avengers Academy by continuously mixing it into various line-wide events, even though it would've been great as a stand-alone title. Let's just hope the same won't happen to these too...
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 12:07 (eight years ago) link
And I'm not saying Secret Wars might not be a good story, but I don't have the time or the money to read all these loads of comics you need to get it. (According to Internet sources you need to read to read 3 years of worth two Avengers titles by Hickman before this story to fully understand it?) I tried to do that with the Bendis crossovers of the previous, but after diminishing returns it just wasn't worth the effort.
For a while it was cool to follow the cosmic Marvel corner, because their crossovers were limited to two titles and some one-shots all written by Abnett & Lanning, so it was manageable and coherent. But that line ended with Thanos Imperative (which was actually as awesome and definite an conclusion as you're ever gonna get for a superhero title), and after that Guardians of Galaxy was given the typically mediocre Bendis treatment, so I decided I'm not gonna read Marvel titles that are heavily tied into 10 other titles, I just can't be arsed.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 12:21 (eight years ago) link
"you need to read 3 years worth of two Avengers titles"
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 12:22 (eight years ago) link
You do need to read three years' worth of two Avengers titles, but they *are* really good comics, so it's worth it, even if it takes a while. It's easily the best crossover I've read since Invasion!, way way back, which is what got me into superhero comics in the first place.
The only disappointing loose end [spoiler] was the central Cap vs. Iron Man conflict being resolved so weakly at the end of the Avengers run. And Infinity was a bunch of wank, really.
I'm glad Marvel have stood their ground against the fanboy moaners and kept the same artist in spite of the delays. It *has* dissipated the momentum, but you know, who gives tbh.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 14:16 (eight years ago) link
Out of the new titles, Iron Man, Totally Awesome Hulk and Captain America are surprising highlights; Thor continues to be great; Ms Marvel continues to run out of steam; Dr Strange and Waid's Avengers started weak but have promise; everything by Soule and Lemire is dull as shit.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 14:23 (eight years ago) link
Granted, I'm still about a year's worth of material away from Secret Invasion, but it seems pretty clear that Hickman's Avengers titles were intended from the start as a preamble for something much much bigger. So I guess it's worth thinking of his Avengers run less as a perfunctory chore in the lead-up to Secret Wars than the opening chapters of a long story which ends with Secret Wars.
― Professor Bworlph (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 14:23 (eight years ago) link
The new Devil Dinosaur series is pretty good and I like Weirdworld a lot.
― suffeeciant attreebution (aldo), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 14:59 (eight years ago) link
Right now, my favorite Marvel book is Doctor Strange
― Very selfish, and very ironic (DJP), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 15:03 (eight years ago) link
of course it is
only spoiler for today I will share is that the multiverse is still a thing ;)
― μpright mammal (mh), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 15:30 (eight years ago) link
have to say I share Tuomas's distaste for these UNIVERSE_SHATTERING-CONTINUITY-RESETTING-EVENTS but it seems like it's the only thing Marvel and DC can think of to do at this point, constant crises = sales + branding consistency, but it makes for shitty comics imo
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:22 (eight years ago) link
the thing is that they generally maintain for a decade or so in-between. short of starting over and heightening the stakes, after ten years of in-depth life with one character who can shoot lasers out of their eyes, what else do you do?
― Copy rights, pleasing all star wars fans, hiring professionals. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:37 (eight years ago) link
create new characters
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:38 (eight years ago) link
easy peasy
― Very selfish, and very ironic (DJP), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:39 (eight years ago) link
they've tried that too...http://www.multiversitycomics.com/columns/return-of-the-return-of-the-1993-marvel-annuals/http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/3/36267/729107-25143_20060601140205_large.jpg
― Copy rights, pleasing all star wars fans, hiring professionals. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:40 (eight years ago) link
I mean Alan Moore's got a lot of crazy opinions but he is absolutely correct about the Big Two's creatively bankrupt/entirely financially motivated interest in just exploiting their existing properties rather than encouraging the development of new ones. Kirby didn't draw Fantastic Four for 50 years, he moved on and made up new shit, as was pretty much the case with every comics creator for decades. But now we just get reiterations and recreations of the same old shit, just shuffled around and reconstituted in the most confusing money-grubbing manner possible.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:40 (eight years ago) link
cool
― Very selfish, and very ironic (DJP), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:41 (eight years ago) link
the alternative is that you get a good writer/artist team and pay them well and let them have creative control of their book and then build numbers so you have a legit following, a'la hawkeye, captain marvel, squirrel girl but that's not a long term solution and not good for the company. what team in their right mind would stay on a single book for a decade at the height of their creative peak when they don't own the characters? the few that are capable eventually become industries unto themselves and merge, borg-like with the company (bendis, byrne)
essentially, i think it's intractable and that the superhero universes will need to go through these weird entropic cycles for the rest of our lives.
― Copy rights, pleasing all star wars fans, hiring professionals. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:44 (eight years ago) link
short of starting over and heightening the stakes
tbh I preferred the direction DC were moving towards in the 80s with a kind of legacy/passing of the torch thing for major characters - the mantle of Flash being passed from Barry Allen to Wally West etc. You could still have the same basic premise and characteristics, but things could change or shift over time. But they long ago abandoned that tack, it's kinda too late to go back to something like that.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:46 (eight years ago) link
the only universal alternative these days appears to be emulation of the post grim'n'gritty Miller years... the 'more things in heaven and earth' philosophy founded by moore and filed to a razor by morrison wherein we never really understood these myths in a meaningful way to begin with, I WILL SHOW YOU THE LIFE OF THE MIND
perhaps not so strangely, my fave hero books are regressing back to sheldon meyer principles of slapstick, encyclopedia brown mysteries and character development. a "comics ARE for kids" comeback is one I'd welcome.
― Copy rights, pleasing all star wars fans, hiring professionals. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:51 (eight years ago) link
your suggestion of "torch passing" is being emulated in the xmen movie franchise and will likely make a serious comeback when the current avengers roster outdates their characters in 2022 or sooner. RDJ is in amazing shape for a fifty year old, but they're not gonna have a sixty year old iron man.
― Copy rights, pleasing all star wars fans, hiring professionals. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:53 (eight years ago) link
haha yeah that's true about the films, I wonder if that's gonna turn into a tale-wagging-the-dog kinda situation where the necessities of filmmaking impact the comics.
my fave hero books are regressing back to sheldon meyer principles of slapstick, encyclopedia brown mysteries and character development. a "comics ARE for kids" comeback is one I'd welcome
I'm totally in favor of this
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:54 (eight years ago) link
Shakes, a lot of your complaints seem to suggest that you haven't actually read any Marvel comics in a while. There is, for example, a whole lot of torch-passing going on of late.
― Professor Bworlph (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:57 (eight years ago) link
young avengers and whatnot
― Copy rights, pleasing all star wars fans, hiring professionals. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:58 (eight years ago) link
xpostSheldon Mayer, not Meyer
I definitely recall Alan Moore saying, in the late 1980s, how he wished superhero writers wld look to C.C. Beck's Captain Marvel for inspiration, rather than Watchmen or Dark Knight
― Chicamaw (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:59 (eight years ago) link
that is true I gave up quite awhile ago. I flip through things on the shelf sometimes but the only floppies I buy are for my daughter (who mostly prefers DC's kids' comics as far as superheroes go) and um GI Joe vs. Transformers, which is incredible.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 16:59 (eight years ago) link
marvels' and dc's explicit attempt at bolstering a female readership is one of the more interesting currently running inside stories imo
― Copy rights, pleasing all star wars fans, hiring professionals. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 17:00 (eight years ago) link
I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a Marvel comic tbh, it's been decades
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 17:00 (eight years ago) link
no wait I liked GMoz's X-Men run
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 17:02 (eight years ago) link
there are several good marvel books being put out right now! not that i'm buying floppies ever again for the foreseeable future but you should get Marvel Unlimited (connectivity issues aside) and set aside an hour and you will be amazed!
― Copy rights, pleasing all star wars fans, hiring professionals. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 17:02 (eight years ago) link
I don't own any digital device I would want to read comics on tbh
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 17:03 (eight years ago) link
I will check out Squirrel Girl and Ms. Marvel though, thx to this thread (I thumbed through Hawkeye but was kinda eh about it)
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 17:04 (eight years ago) link
The fifteen years since Morrison's New X-Men have featured some of the best-written comics in Marvel's history. Arguably, and admittedly not across the board, but still.
― Professor Bworlph (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 17:10 (eight years ago) link
i would also recommend howard the duck, mark waid's run on daredevil, basically all of the new star wars books, Nick Spencer's Ant Man, Groot, Dan Slott and Michael Allred's Silver Surfer, Warren Ellis' run on Moon Knight, phil noto's Black widow...
― Copy rights, pleasing all star wars fans, hiring professionals. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 17:11 (eight years ago) link
But, also, a lot of the comics they're putting out now don't resemble the stuff they were doing even 5-10 years ago. They're clearly trying to evolve.
― Professor Bworlph (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 17:12 (eight years ago) link
If Morrisonesque superhero comics appeal to you, you could do a lot worse than Hickman's Marvel work.
― Professor Bworlph (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 17:27 (eight years ago) link
Al Ewing's Mighty Avengers run has turned into the new The Ultimates, which seems pretty good so far. The core of the team includes the Blue Marvel, which had a kind of so-so "let's retcon a black superhero into the Marvel universe" origin but has really come into his own.
― μpright mammal (mh), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 18:50 (eight years ago) link
I think Marvel has mostly moved past the phase of comics where underserved characters are written with that as their main characteristic, which has been a problem.
― μpright mammal (mh), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 18:53 (eight years ago) link
I'm not enjoying The Ultimates as much as I enjoyed Mighty Avengers but I think that's partially because the team synergy with Hulkling, Wiccan and Squirrel Girl in the mix feels off
― Very selfish, and very ironic (DJP), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 18:54 (eight years ago) link
it's leaving plenty of room to grow, imo
― μpright mammal (mh), Wednesday, 13 January 2016 18:59 (eight years ago) link
I forgot to mention Al's New Avengers, it's excellent. The Ultimates, I haven't gotten into yet. On the whole I wish they'd kept Mighty Avengers happening. That was a great book.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 23:58 (eight years ago) link
MH, can you do one of your awesome summaries and explain me what happened in the last half of Secret Wars 9?
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 14 January 2016 00:00 (eight years ago) link
Sure!
Doom thinks he's smart enough to spot a distraction, but apparently not, as Reed and the Maker aka Ultimate Reed make their way to Molecule Man's White Room (not to be confused with the set of THX-1138, the phoenix entity's white room, or a room with black curtains). Owen's still hungry, as no one remembers to feed the poor bastard. Doom realizes he's being played, and fights both Reeds until he makes the crucial mistake of being badgered into admitting that Richards would have been able to imagine a better world. MM snaps to attention and hands the reins to his power over, which obliterates Battleworld, to be remade in Richards' image. There's a neat splash page with Reed/Victor talking, which goes back to all their past interactions. Reed is a nurturer, Victor's a protector.
Outside the room, as the world ends, Black Panther sees the light in his non-gauntlet-clad hand light up, indicating a world-destroying event is imminent. He seems to embrace it. After the flash of light, he finds himself in Wakanda, which apparently has a space program. He calls to the students studying nearby, calling them Makers, which is apparently the buzzword of the day.
Flash forward to eight months later (jeez these people love time lapses and countdowns) to Peter Parker and Miles Morales swinging around town. Miles's dead mom is back due to the universe smashing, possibly just a wink to him being the only one who packs a lunch.
The main aftereffect of the whole shebang is back on the moon, where Franklin is using his powers of imagination to dream up whole universes. There was a neat bit in the Hickman FF issues where the future Franklin coached his younger self into adventures every night where he'd explore worlds he'd conjure up, so he's in practice. Hopefully he's better at imagining Marvel universes than that time he created that Heroes Reborn clusterfuck, but who knows, Liefeld-verse might be out there. Reed still has the power Molecule Man has given him, and he's launching these fully formed universes into the void between multiverses and embedding a MM in each, who hopefully aren't bombs anymore. His power should diminish with each launch since he's giving up MM copies?
Sue is not the copy from Battleworld, but the original 616 version recreated so she assumes Reed saved her when the raft broke up. It's up in the air how many people remember Battleworld, but it's probably just those who were on the life rafts that didn't die. Reed's more optimistic than he's been in a long time, and likens his outlook to a belief in life and expansion instead of death and entropy, summing up the diseased universe breaking and collapsing and only being held together by Victor as opposed to his new role as cosmic creator.
Dr. Doom gazes across his balcony in Latveria, pulls off his mask to reveal an unscarred face (he was still hideously disfigured in Battleworld, unable to imagine a world where life and creation could blossom) and laughs.
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 14 January 2016 01:37 (eight years ago) link
At first I thought the gem that the Black Panther used as everything was winking out was yellow, the Time Gem, and he used it to go back to pre-Battleworld existence. But maybe it was orange, the Reality Gem, and he used it to reconstitute 616. From the coloring it's not entirely clear which gem it was.
― WilliamC, Thursday, 14 January 2016 02:08 (eight years ago) link
It's possible that the Doom piece of Battleworld is the center of the new 616 (or whatever) but as noted earlier in the series, the infinity gems only work in the universe of their origin, to the extent that Strange made sure Doom's castle was constructed on a world fragment where the gauntlet existed. So its power was limited in the scope of fixing things.
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 14 January 2016 02:30 (eight years ago) link
something poetic about a white-hooded man being confronted by a black panther with his fist in the air
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 14 January 2016 03:01 (eight years ago) link
Thanks MH!
It is depressing/existentially weird to think that almost everyone did, in fact, die, and that from now on all the versions of your Marvel favourites are just Reed and Franklin's recreations.
I've been haunted since I was a child by the idea that you "die" every night when you got to sleep - or, at least, that day's version of you dies, because you think and feel differently in the morning.
So - creepy. But I guess more satisfying/interesting than Superboy punching everyone different.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 14 January 2016 10:41 (eight years ago) link
Spider-Woman is the funnest thing going on currently.
― if thou gaz long into the coombs, the coombs will also gaz into thee (WilliamC), Thursday, 28 January 2016 14:07 (eight years ago) link
Funnier than Squirrel Girl?
― Tuomas, Thursday, 28 January 2016 14:08 (eight years ago) link
Haven't read SG. I'll give it a shot. Also, funnest not funniest.
― if thou gaz long into the coombs, the coombs will also gaz into thee (WilliamC), Thursday, 28 January 2016 15:37 (eight years ago) link
Oh sorry, I misread that.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 28 January 2016 16:59 (eight years ago) link
enh 'fun' applies to squirrel girl too. that galactus issue! so enjoyable.
― salsa shark, Thursday, 28 January 2016 21:49 (eight years ago) link
I don't like Squirrel Girl and I feel bad about it. (I think it just topped Tom's poll.) Sort of feels "amusing" but not actually "funny". Sorry, grouch.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 29 January 2016 13:18 (eight years ago) link
I was blase on issue #1 (the first issue #1) of Squirrel Girl until I noticed the running captions at the bottom of every page; that really made the book for me.
― its subtle brume (DJP), Friday, 29 January 2016 14:23 (eight years ago) link
Ok, I will try again, again
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 29 January 2016 15:08 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCivz_0fJNQ
― ulysses, Monday, 8 February 2016 19:14 (eight years ago) link
why were MTV's microphones so gigantic
― Οὖτις, Monday, 8 February 2016 19:15 (eight years ago) link
You know, I still think of the 90s if I type "Peter David's X-Factor issues" but the run in the 2000s when he returned, which ran quite a few issues, is pretty great.
― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, 12 February 2016 02:40 (eight years ago) link
I'm with you on that. His second run on X-Factor lasted way longer but that initial run is the one that's stuck with me.
― maybe my clam is just more toxic (Old Lunch), Friday, 12 February 2016 03:02 (eight years ago) link
So many mullets in that video! I don't know how I never saw those clips before. That would've aired at a time when I was both incessantly glued to MTV and in the initial throes of my Marvel obsession.
― maybe my clam is just more toxic (Old Lunch), Friday, 12 February 2016 03:05 (eight years ago) link
You should read some of that not so recent but 2000s run! I feel like he really did ponder what the characters are up to
― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, 12 February 2016 03:38 (eight years ago) link
I have read both runs (and like 95% of everything X-related, more generally). The second run started very strong but got more than a little aimless as it went on. I've also started but haven't finished All-New X-Factor which doesn't really resemble either earlier run in any meaningful sense and which hasn't exactly bowled me over thus far.
― maybe my clam is just more toxic (Old Lunch), Friday, 12 February 2016 03:56 (eight years ago) link
The 00s run is the one that starts with Jamie Madrox absorbing a dying clone and featured little notes on his family in the 'previously' page?
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 12 February 2016 10:12 (eight years ago) link
his = PADs
Yeah, that's the one.
― maybe my clam is just more toxic (Old Lunch), Friday, 12 February 2016 11:31 (eight years ago) link
I enjoyed the Secret War series he did where he mashed together his future X-Factor characters with his future Hulk characters
― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, 12 February 2016 15:19 (eight years ago) link
so they launched an 'all-new hawkeye' comic that actually ... had the exact setup of the preceding hawkeye comic, then after number five they launched another all-new hawkeye #1 which continues directly from #5
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Monday, 21 March 2016 14:36 (eight years ago) link
for something that I can get hundreds of thousands of issues to read without getting out of bed, marvel comics sure are inconvenient
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Monday, 21 March 2016 14:37 (eight years ago) link
Starting in June, every new issue of a Marvel comic will be branded as #1 in perpetuity.
― Horse Throat (Old Lunch), Monday, 21 March 2016 14:39 (eight years ago) link
The least they could do is some kinda '90s Superman numbering shit to keep things straight. I'm way on top of this stuff and it's confusing even for me. I cannot even imagine how casual fans make heads or tails of anything (like trying to keep track of the three volumes of Captain Marvel that have been released in the last couple of years, featuring Carol Danvers, who was previously named Ms. Marvel but who is not the Ms. Marvel who has had two separate volumes of her own comic within the same span of time).
― Horse Throat (Old Lunch), Monday, 21 March 2016 14:43 (eight years ago) link
the sad thing is that i could easily keep all this shit straight in my head when i was 15, when i'd have to travel for a couple of hours in each direction to buy my comics. now that i'm 35 and have access to 50 years of marvel to read anytime and anywhere, most of the time it's too much effort to work out which captain america or whatever i should be reading next and i just end up doing something else instead.
― Upset by racist left wingers calling me an egg (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 21 March 2016 14:51 (eight years ago) link
Well, twenty years ago, Marvel would actually continue issuing a single volume of a title for decades at a time rather than rebooting every six months. It was a much more streamlined thing. And they also put out about a third or a quarter of today's volume of titles.
― Horse Throat (Old Lunch), Monday, 21 March 2016 14:55 (eight years ago) link
does continually bringing out new #1s really have a positive effect on sales? i'd have guessed diminishing returns would have set in long ago but they keep doing it!
it doesn't help that marvel unlimited will frequently throw an additional spanner in the works by filing All-New Forbush Man as under 'A' rather than with all the other Forbush Man comics under 'F'. it took me like a year to realise that the new squirrel girl series was on there because it wasn't where i expected it to be under 'S'.
― Upset by racist left wingers calling me an egg (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 21 March 2016 15:09 (eight years ago) link
I honestly can't keep track of the verbiage for the line-wide rebranding. I don't know what's Marvel Now! and what's All-New Marvel Now! and what's Even Newer Marvel Tomorrow! and Super-Seriously Way-New Marvel Future!
― Horse Throat (Old Lunch), Monday, 21 March 2016 15:17 (eight years ago) link
also this hawkeye comic sucks
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Monday, 21 March 2016 15:21 (eight years ago) link
the thought of an all-new hawkguy without fraction/aja is deeply unappealing tbh
― Upset by racist left wingers calling me an egg (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 21 March 2016 15:30 (eight years ago) link
I wouldn't say the new Hawkeye sucks but it's definitely not as good as the Fraction/Aja/Wu iteration
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Monday, 21 March 2016 15:35 (eight years ago) link
in the first five the present day bits just felt like the same thing done less well (why are kate and clint being idiots?) and the kid stuff was just ...
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Monday, 21 March 2016 15:57 (eight years ago) link
We (me and my friends in middle school/high school times) used to think it was awesome that Thor was on issue 348 and capt America on issue 275 etc etc. it made us want to read those series more. I mean new titles were exciting too but those triple digit issue numbers were IMPOSING like the way hulk lifting 50 tons was imposing.
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Monday, 21 March 2016 18:04 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, that's pretty OTM. But everything is Tweets and Vines now, who has time for long shit, man.
― Horse Throat (Old Lunch), Monday, 21 March 2016 18:08 (eight years ago) link
The first issue of Uncanny X-Men I picked up was #273. This was immediately on the heels of a crossover (X-Tinction Agenda, I believe), and all of the X-teams were hanging out at Xavier's. I had no idea who 90% of these people were, and there was a ton of them. Totally baffling, but also totally intriguing because I'd jumped into the middle of this story that had clearly been going on for a looooong time, and the fascination with digging into that backstory has kept me going for a couple of decades since in a way that I don't know I would've been as inclined to do had I first picked up, say Uncanny X-Men v.3 #4.
― Horse Throat (Old Lunch), Monday, 21 March 2016 18:16 (eight years ago) link
One of my first X-Men issues was during the X-Cutioner's Song crossover. I still don't understand what happened in that crossover.
― μpright mammal (mh), Monday, 21 March 2016 18:21 (eight years ago) link
there's just too much now. I would be more inclined to dip my toe in if series naming/numbering wasn't so bafflingly complicated.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 21 March 2016 18:23 (eight years ago) link
One hopes that shit will settle down in the wake of Secret Wars but we shall see.
― Horse Throat (Old Lunch), Monday, 21 March 2016 18:26 (eight years ago) link
damn, and I thought I was kind of a latecomer to Uncanny X-Men at #210
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Monday, 21 March 2016 18:52 (eight years ago) link
I wasn't going any deeper into comics than G.I. Joe at that point.
― Horse Throat (Old Lunch), Monday, 21 March 2016 18:57 (eight years ago) link
huh, #272 was my first issue of uncanny!
― Upset by racist left wingers calling me an egg (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 21 March 2016 19:19 (eight years ago) link
Weird! And that was still most of a year away from Claremont leaving and all of the other big changes and new series, and a number of months before Infinity Gauntlet (the thing that cemented my own Zombification), so I don't even know what that's about. Synergy!
― Horse Throat (Old Lunch), Monday, 21 March 2016 19:25 (eight years ago) link
first one i remember was #176; i remember i thought it was wild that cyclops was destroying the name of the book
― ulysses, Monday, 21 March 2016 19:26 (eight years ago) link
90% of my Marvel Universe collection at that point was culled from whatever random stuff I found in grab bags and on drugstore racks. Like one issue each of Alpha Flight, Micronauts: The New Voyages, New Warriors, etc.
― Horse Throat (Old Lunch), Monday, 21 March 2016 19:38 (eight years ago) link
Renumbering Ms Marvel - an actually popular IRL life comic book that sells to audiences beyond the usual nerds - is bananas. But renumbering other books, when a new creative team starts, doesn't strike me as an intrinsically terrible idea. Cutting off bullshit comics like Howard and Uncanny Avengers - I mean, those comics are bad anyway so it's hard to get worked up about.
The new Daredevil comic is also pretty awful compared to the last run, and it seems like they've continuity-fridged Waid's great female lawyer character (unless she's turned up now - I quit after the second issue.)
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 21 March 2016 23:50 (eight years ago) link
Also, I hate to mention Waid with DJP just five or six posts up, but the new Black Widow #1 was super fun, and read even better on the iPad guided view thingy.
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 21 March 2016 23:53 (eight years ago) link
I was just reading Waid's Fantastic Four. I gave up quicker than I was expecting to.
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Tuesday, 22 March 2016 00:23 (eight years ago) link
Seem to remember it peters out after the face scar story.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 22 March 2016 00:36 (eight years ago) link
i gave up just after reed got it, you mean it was going to go downhill from there? terrifying
i remember reading a couple old issues -- human galactus, jack kirby god -- and quite liking them both. but the rest of the ideas seem less interesting and on a sentence by sentence level waid just can't write at all and they set up this whole 'they're explorers, adventurers!' thing in the first issue and then never do any exploring or adventuring and literally every single issue someone literally says 'we're not just a group of superheroes -- we're a family/'
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Tuesday, 22 March 2016 01:09 (eight years ago) link
oh, and mike wieringo's sue storm is just embarrassingly cheesecake all the time
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Tuesday, 22 March 2016 01:11 (eight years ago) link
For those keeping track of these things, a War of Kings/Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire omnibus has just been solicited. So it looks like there will be omnibi of, well, at least most of the Abnett & Lanning cosmic saga.
― I Can Say I Know We're Risin' Underneath The Blazin' Sky (Old Lunch), Thursday, 24 March 2016 01:48 (eight years ago) link
i kind of appreciated the thread of the "time runs out" arc where sue storm was undercover with shield. in a different uniform and situation, i just kept thinking "damn, what a badass" which is, unfortunately, the opposite of what most FF writers do
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 24 March 2016 14:03 (eight years ago) link
yeah that was great
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Thursday, 24 March 2016 14:22 (eight years ago) link
never really thought of it this way but if you think of Val's motivations being a result of her being Sue's daughter, not as some "dad vs. uncle doom / compromise" angle, she's an even stronger character
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 24 March 2016 14:28 (eight years ago) link
was there a comic where sue was doing that or do you just mean the like six total pages of new/avengers where she features
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Thursday, 24 March 2016 16:59 (eight years ago) link
hey, I think it was seven
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 24 March 2016 18:17 (eight years ago) link
Hickman's great with her in his FF run. The fact that she's basically secondary to Reed in Secret Wars was disappointing (although not surprising).
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 25 March 2016 21:56 (eight years ago) link
So is anything good from All New, All Different?
― Frederik B, Sunday, 27 March 2016 19:31 (eight years ago) link
Ultimates. Dr. Strange. Karnak.
The other decent stuff is continuing from before: Ant-Man, Thor, Ms. Marvel, etc.
Sadly, as with each reboot, almost all of it is hot garbage. The glut of Avengers/X-Men/Inhumans books area combo platter of suck now, which is a bummer.
― EZ Snappin, Sunday, 27 March 2016 19:40 (eight years ago) link
Overall it's weaker than their last relaunch - ball totally dropped on XMen and some of the Avengers books - but still miles ahead of DC. I like Al E's New Avengers a lot, moreso than Ultimates - although it's just been dropped into crossover hell. The Black Widow relaunch with Waid & Samnee was a great debut; at the same time Waid's Avengers book is some of his worst work in a while.
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 27 March 2016 22:35 (eight years ago) link
And I'm enjoying Bendis's two Iron Man titles before the plot one inevitably collapses into stasis as is Bendis's way.
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 27 March 2016 22:36 (eight years ago) link
Enjoying the heck out of:The UltimatesSpider-WomanVisionThorSpider-Man (Miles)KarnakCaptain MarvelDr. Strange
2nd tier/s'OK:Red WolfA.N.A.D. AvengersAll-New X-MenMs. MarvelMoon Girl & Devil DinosaurA-ForceAll-New Wolverine
Too soon to tell:Black WidowInternational Iron Man
Not really feelin' it:Uncanny InhumansOld Man LoganNew Avengers
NO:Uncanny X-Men
― Yoshimi P-We's Playhouse (WilliamC), Monday, 28 March 2016 00:40 (eight years ago) link
Add Daredevil to "not really feelin' it"
― Yoshimi P-We's Playhouse (WilliamC), Monday, 28 March 2016 00:57 (eight years ago) link
Oh yeah, Spider-Woman and Vision are both great and destined to end soon.
― EZ Snappin, Monday, 28 March 2016 01:18 (eight years ago) link
what did they do to the x men this time
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Monday, 28 March 2016 03:58 (eight years ago) link
Jesus william, do you own a comic shop or torrent or...?
― i believe that (s)he is sincere (forksclovetofu), Monday, 28 March 2016 04:25 (eight years ago) link
In a world that’s never hated or feared mutants more, there is only one constant: BIGGER THREATS REQUIRE MORE THREATENING X-MEN
oh goody
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Monday, 28 March 2016 09:11 (eight years ago) link
I think what's so confusing about this relaunch is that there seems to be no 'main books' now. In the last decade or so it has been the main Avengers writer who said the tone, no matter how bad Bendis became - and boy was he a self parody towards the end of his launch - if anything weird happened in a good book you were reading, you could go to the Avengers books to figure it out. But it seems the playing field is a lot more level now, and I'm confused as to what is going on.
That said, I checked out both New Avengers and Ultimates, and really, the trick is to read anything by Al Ewing, right? Those books begin pretty good, and picks up a lot of pieces from Hickmans run.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 29 March 2016 09:33 (eight years ago) link
The idea that there should be a main book leading the entire Marvel line hasn't existed since the Bendis rehaul of the 00s, has it? In previous decades (like in the 80s, when I first started reading this stuff), there were some people who read all comics across the line, but a lot of people just focused on their favourite corner of the Marvel universe, like the X-books or Spidey books or Avengers or whatever. Starting from Secret Wars here were some line-wide crossovers, but mostly these different sub-franchises still kept to themselves. Which was great for someone like me, who loved the X-Men but didn't much care for Spider-Man.
So if Marvel comics would actually return to this previous model, where one writer/comic/storyline doesn't dominate the entire franchise, that'd be great for casual readers like me. I don't have the time, the money, nor the interest to follow most Marvel books, but in last the 10+ years I have been been reading a handful of niche titles... And one of the worst things about the whole franchise being directed by Bendis was that books which could've/should've been mostly self-standing were constantly interrupted by various mega-crossovers. This undermined their own storylines and made them hard to follow for people like me, who weren't interested in what was going on in the Bendis Avengers books. Thankfully the Abnett/Lanning cosmic comics mostly took place outside Earth, which helped them stay out of these crossovers (though there still was a pointless Civil War tie-in in Nova), but books like Avengers Academy weren't as lucky.
While this sort of "everything is connected" approach maybe makes sense from a marketing point of view (to understand what's going on in your favourite comic book, you have to read 5 other books every month), it's also effective in driving away casual readers like me, who might be interested in one or two montly book, but can't be arsed to read 15 different titles. IMO this "for superfans only" attitude is one of the main reasons why Marvel comics haven't been able to get more new readers despite the popularity of the Marvel movies.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 29 March 2016 10:08 (eight years ago) link
It's a balance, really. I like reading New Avengers and seeing plot-threads from Young Avengers being picked up and developed. I loved it then, I like it now. I like seeing Pod and Sunspot further developed from what Hickman did with them. But then of course they'll mention something that happened in a book that I don't care about, such as Inhumanity or Sam Wilson: Captain America and I'll go 'ugh, enough with the continuity noodling!'
The good thing about late Bendis was how his changes were so stupid and superficial that you could get almost everything of it through reading an interview. 'Oh, so Norman Osborn is in charge of the Marvel Universe. And it's because he shot the queen skrull? Ok, I do not need to know anything else about this, please don't tell me more.' And then you could read on.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 29 March 2016 11:29 (eight years ago) link
It's not just that you in order to read Book A you needed to know what was going on in Book B, C, and D, it's that the crossover plots of Books B, C, and D kept interrupting the plot of Book A. I mention Avengers Academy again, because it's such a good example of this. The writer, Christos Cage, was clearly interested in building long arcs and mythos of its own for the book, but because it had the word "Avengers" in the title, at least once a year it had to include a multi-issue tie-in to various linewide crossovers, which diminished Cage's ability to give the book it's own, unique feel and arc.
I too like the idea that character backstories and old plot arcs are referenced, that's what gives the whole Marvel universe a lived-in feel: everything and everyone has a history. But these references should be integrated of the dialogue, or at most there could be a one or two page flashback to previous events. But there shouldn't be multi-issue detours into crossovers plots you don't care about, which you have to wade through to continue reading the plot that got you interested in the book to begin with.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 29 March 2016 11:48 (eight years ago) link
I think there are currently more niche titles, and a more diverse range of niches, than I can remember in a long time. Maybe not niche title groups, per se, but the niches are there.
I was just thinking the other day that Milligan's []X-Force[] was such a weird outlier at the time it was coming out but now it seems to fit right in with a lot of the stuff Marvel has been publishing lately.
― You will notice a small sink where your sofa once was. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 13:28 (eight years ago) link
More and more I'm realizing that I am more interested in who the writer is than I am in following specific characters; as a result, I am interested in Al Ewing's and G. Willow Wilson's books more than anything else.
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 15:02 (eight years ago) link
otm
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 15:06 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, definitely otm.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 29 March 2016 15:31 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, which is why DC is so frustrating - they have *great* characters and fuck all good writers
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 29 March 2016 16:05 (eight years ago) link
Geoff Johns is supposedly doing a Green Lantern book again. We need aldo to check out all the Rebirth books again. That thread was one of the best on this board.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 29 March 2016 16:36 (eight years ago) link
It's interesting how things have reversed between DC and Marvel... DC used to be the company with great writers who attracted readers outside the regular fanbase too (Morrison, Moore, Ostrander, Milligan, Robinson, Gaiman, Ennis, etc) whereas Marvel was more about devoted fans reading anything with their favourite characters (the X-Men and Spider-Man franchises being prime examples). But now it's pretty much the other way around.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 29 March 2016 17:39 (eight years ago) link
Obviously Marvel had great writers before the 00s too, but they were more in the category of "fan favourites": continuity-heavy plotters like Claremont or Busiek or Stern who were loved by those already into superhero comics, but didn't have the cross-audience appeal of Moore or Gaiman or Morrison.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 29 March 2016 17:44 (eight years ago) link
It's mostly hit and miss? Marvel's cultivated writers more since 2000, which is the same point where Axel Alonso jumped ship from editing Vertigo titles to work there. I think editorial gets short shrift when it comes to attributing success, but in terms of which writers/artists are cultivated it's more painfully obvious when they're less competent.
DC went through years of Karen Berger transitioning out of her role as part of Vertigo and it seems like their line has become weaker every year.
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 18:55 (eight years ago) link
This shift hugely attributable to editorial IMO
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 18:58 (eight years ago) link
I honestly have no idea who is holding the reins at DC editorial but every title I've enjoyed seems to have succeeded despite the greater editorial direction, not because of it
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 18:59 (eight years ago) link
Marvel's MO after the independent spinout of the early 90s (Image etc) seemed to be to pull in even tighter and have editorial dictate really mediocre story ideas while leaning on people who were willing to be their workhorses
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 19:01 (eight years ago) link
x-men titles kind of had this soap opera-lite feel that was indebted to claremont (although with less expository dialogue) that had only occasional entertaining moments but a lot of issues
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 19:10 (eight years ago) link
xxpost Last I knew, Bob Harras was running things (into the ground) at DC. Which, if you remember his stewardship of Marvel in the mid-'90s, lends some pretty heavy credence to your comments re: editorial.
― You will notice a small sink where your sofa once was. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 19:30 (eight years ago) link
good ol' Bob
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 19:31 (eight years ago) link
oh is THAT how Lobdell got a DC gig?
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 19:36 (eight years ago) link
what, you didn't notice the magic of Harras/Lobdell/Nicieza being at DC?
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 19:38 (eight years ago) link
lol at wikipedia's list of "key people" at DC
Dan DiDio (Co-Publisher)Jim Lee (Co-Publisher)Bob Harras (Editor In Chief)Geoff Johns (Chief Creative Officer)
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 19:43 (eight years ago) link
same list also appears on wikipedia as an example of the peter principle
― Upset by racist left wingers calling me an egg (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 20:14 (eight years ago) link
didio is garbage
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 21:23 (eight years ago) link
marvel banished jeph loeb to marvel studios, but i am unsure which bad decisions there are his
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 21:24 (eight years ago) link
i've always assumed loeb is behind any bad decisions marvel studios make
― Upset by racist left wingers calling me an egg (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 29 March 2016 21:35 (eight years ago) link
Thankfully, I don't think his is a creative role currently. Long may he remain exactly where he's at.
― You will notice a small sink where your sofa once was. (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 30 March 2016 01:12 (eight years ago) link
Not going to hugely disagree with the hits and misses people have mentioned above. I had really high hopes for Moon Girl but it's kind of meandering. I quite like the Parker Spidey book in Cuba/Latin America but I might be alone. ChoHulk is better than it deserves to be and the Patsy Walker book is at least as good as Squirrel Girl. Bizarrely, both the Venom and Carnage books are 100x as good as you'd expect. Illuminati is a frustrating read but is actually quite entertaining and Angela is imo superior in an awful lot of ways to LadyThor. Also Hercules not as much fun as when it was Hulk iykwim but worth a look. Oh, and Al's Contest of Champions thing is a throwaway delight.
Pleasant Hill is not actively bad. The Jim Starling cosmic thing is a giant pile of crap. And it's hard to work out which is the worst X-Men book but perhaps Greg Land saves Uncanny from that fate. Now THAT'S damning with faint praise.
Anyway, so Steve Rogers. Who didn't see that coming?
― suffeeciant attreebution (aldo), Sunday, 3 April 2016 13:40 (eight years ago) link
PS I could be tempted to do a Rebirth thread.
i'm always gonna be six months back with Marvel Unlimited... so the best things going six months back are the star wars books.
― ulysses, Sunday, 3 April 2016 16:44 (eight years ago) link
Aldo, please do a Rebirth thread.
― EZ Snappin, Sunday, 3 April 2016 17:00 (eight years ago) link
ulysses is not far off the mark, the Star Wars books (Vader especially) are some of the better things Marvel has published recently.
― suffeeciant attreebution (aldo), Sunday, 3 April 2016 17:09 (eight years ago) link
Yeah the two main Star Wars books are really aceing it since the big crossover.
Also - a great Spidey comic from Tumblr (!) http://hannahblumenreich.tumblr.com/post/141936003298/that-take-out-is-going-to-be-freezing-by-the-time
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 3 April 2016 19:03 (eight years ago) link
Aldo, please do rebirth!!!!!!!!!!
― a hairy, howling toad torments a man whose wife is deathly ill (James Morrison), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 12:55 (eight years ago) link
My god, do you want to actually kill the man?
― I am very inteligent and dicipline boy (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 12:58 (eight years ago) link
Worth it
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 13:08 (eight years ago) link
kudos to Al for this American Kaiju plot, I'm laughing
― μpright mammal (mh), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 13:45 (eight years ago) link
Coates's Black Panther selling huge number in some parts of the country (like 300 copies in a shop that normally sells 75 Amazing Spider-Mans per issue)l, I did okay but I'm not exactly shocked that TNC didn't generate a rush in the buckle of the Bible Belt.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 7 April 2016 06:52 (eight years ago) link
it's... readable? Little flowery on the prose. It's a single issue, hardly fair to judge anyone based on that.
― ulysses, Thursday, 7 April 2016 07:04 (eight years ago) link
$5 for 23pp, Black Panther is for the people
― glandular lansbury (sic), Thursday, 7 April 2016 07:42 (eight years ago) link
It¨s good. It's not earthshaking or twist filled, or unusual like something like The Vision. But it's thoughtful, well plotted, and some of the artwork is pretty awesome. The scene with the two lovers in silhouette was beautiful.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 7 April 2016 07:43 (eight years ago) link
Little flowery on the prose
Don McGregor tribute?
― Chicamaw (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 7 April 2016 07:56 (eight years ago) link
you tell mehttp://i.imgur.com/jVUruU1.png
― ulysses, Thursday, 7 April 2016 08:03 (eight years ago) link
btw, on thread recommendation I read the first six issues of Tom King's The Vision... it's great!
― ulysses, Thursday, 7 April 2016 08:31 (eight years ago) link
lol "beautiful"
why can't the internet tell me if the Tom King in comics from 2016 is the Tom King in comics from the 90s
― glandular lansbury (sic), Thursday, 7 April 2016 09:56 (eight years ago) link
Why is that lol?
― Frederik B, Thursday, 7 April 2016 10:02 (eight years ago) link
I mean, I doubt it, but I'd like to think DC finally caught on to the talent behind Snookums, That Loveable Transvestite
lol because the panel as posted by forks was unremarkable bigtwo drawing with block computer colouring (and clunky typing over the top, not that that's on Stelfreeze &/or whoever else, but it's still part of the panel)
― glandular lansbury (sic), Thursday, 7 April 2016 10:40 (eight years ago) link
It's not the most original drawing, no, and nothing in the scene is. But I still think it's beautiful. And it's not normally how the bigtwo draws black skin, I don't think, not to speak of how scenes with two half nude lesbians tend to be drawn.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 7 April 2016 12:07 (eight years ago) link
Marvel probably should lead with the 'two half nude lesbians' in those parts of the country where TNC isn't a hook.
― My Whole Existence Is Flan (Old Lunch), Thursday, 7 April 2016 12:13 (eight years ago) link
They've been discussed quite a bit in the pre-release interviews... Though mostly it was TNC talking with himself about his discomfort with the 'virgin warrior' concept of the dora milaje, how to deal with male gaze and that most of the creative team is male. Probably not the best strategy.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 7 April 2016 12:19 (eight years ago) link
I'd be hella psyched if The Vision tom king was pal-yat-chee tom king
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 7 April 2016 19:25 (eight years ago) link
different guy: https://www.facebook.com/tomkingauthor
― ulysses, Thursday, 7 April 2016 22:15 (eight years ago) link
that doesn't say he is, he could have gone bald in the 23+* years since Snookums
*wasn't it originally a Daily Texan strip, like Chris Ware and Robert Rodriguez, before Pal-Yat-Chee?
― glandular lansbury (sic), Thursday, 7 April 2016 22:41 (eight years ago) link
he's an ex CIA operative. I think he's been busy with other things.
― ulysses, Thursday, 7 April 2016 22:43 (eight years ago) link
Explains why he took a couple of decades off comics.
― glandular lansbury (sic), Friday, 8 April 2016 00:17 (eight years ago) link
The world needs to laugh!
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 8 April 2016 00:27 (eight years ago) link
I think daily Texan tom King is a storyboarder now
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Friday, 8 April 2016 00:30 (eight years ago) link
I finally switched from subscribing to single issues to subscribing to Marvel’s 5-issue paperbacks. Still reading: Doctor Strange, Howard the Duck, Ms. Marvel, and Squirrel Girl.
― Allen (etaeoe), Sunday, 10 April 2016 21:49 (eight years ago) link
It occurred to me today: does every Marvel superhero team now have someone who can teleport or at least some sort of teleportation device?
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 14 April 2016 02:29 (eight years ago) link
probably but only one is adorable
https://thewritersmultiverse.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/ms-marvel-generation-why-2.png?w=474&h=356
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Thursday, 14 April 2016 06:46 (eight years ago) link
lockjaw and ms marvel are so good together - reminds me of kitty pryde and lockjaw
― a lad of balls (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 14 April 2016 10:46 (eight years ago) link
uh, lockheed i mean. never realised how similar their names are before!
― a lad of balls (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 14 April 2016 10:47 (eight years ago) link
Speaking of Marvel names with "lock" in htem, I only recently found out why Psylocke was thus named... Apparently it's an incredibly convoluted pun:
What does a psyche open?A psylock.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 14 April 2016 11:56 (eight years ago) link
Yeeesh. Wasn't she created by Delano? That seems excessively punny for him.
― I Pith On Your Quip (Old Lunch), Thursday, 14 April 2016 12:04 (eight years ago) link
I'm pretty sure Claremont created her as a character, though maybe not the name? Betsy Braddock has been around since the old Cap Britain comics of the 70s that Claremont wrote, but I'm not sure when they started calling her Psylocke... Maybe that was Delano?
― Tuomas, Thursday, 14 April 2016 12:07 (eight years ago) link
Seems it was Claremont who chose the name too:
In New Mutants Annual #2 (1986), Claremont integrated Braddock into the X-Men franchise. The story sees her abducted to the Mojoverse, where she is subjected to brainwashing, fitted with bionic eyes, and referred to as "the Psylocke" for the first time.
That's totally a Claremontian pun, though IIRC that New Mutants Annual (or any other comic by Claremont) doesn't actually explain it as a pun, you're supposed to figure it out yourself.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 14 April 2016 12:11 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, I never read or heard that before. And you are correct, she was in the old Captain Britain comics, but she was just Brian's normal human sister and I think Delano was the one who made her a mutant.
― I Pith On Your Quip (Old Lunch), Thursday, 14 April 2016 13:03 (eight years ago) link
yeah, that sounds correct to me. delano and alan davis also scarred me for life when i was like eight and read the captain britain story where she's blinded by slaymaster:
http://www.littlestuffedbull.com/images/2013/psylocke/capbritain2-13c.jpg
that final panel is indelible in my mind
― a lad of balls (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 14 April 2016 13:07 (eight years ago) link
This conversation has made me go back through Betsy's history and MAN did a lot of bizarre, terrible things happen to her
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Thursday, 14 April 2016 13:32 (eight years ago) link
yeah, even by x-men standards she's been through some shit
― a lad of balls (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 14 April 2016 13:34 (eight years ago) link
Was it Slaymaster who possessed or posed as Brian and (at least) attempted to rape Betsy?
― I Pith On Your Quip (Old Lunch), Thursday, 14 April 2016 13:35 (eight years ago) link
no, i think that was a brian from an alternate reality - that panel of the assault is another that fucked me up as a kid
― a lad of balls (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 14 April 2016 13:38 (eight years ago) link
That was Kaptain Briton: http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Byron_Bra-Dhok_(Earth-794)
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Thursday, 14 April 2016 13:39 (eight years ago) link
Gah, can't even imagine reading that as a kid. That was some fucked up shit to see as an adult.
― I Pith On Your Quip (Old Lunch), Thursday, 14 April 2016 13:41 (eight years ago) link
YUP. That's one of the things where I was reading the history and went "wait WHAT THE FUCK"
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Thursday, 14 April 2016 13:44 (eight years ago) link
"hey guys, Betsy had to kill somebody again"
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 14 April 2016 13:53 (eight years ago) link
Every now and then the thought pops into my head that Psylocke isn't as murderous as the other X-Force characters and I wonder about her inclusion until I remember her actual backstory as opposed to only remembering how she was drawn pre-Siege Perilous
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Thursday, 14 April 2016 14:02 (eight years ago) link
I was thinking the other day about Rick Remender's additions to the mutant/Avengers stories and all told, I think it worked pretty well? He grabbed The World from Morrison's run, added the character of Father, and then managed to spin it into at least two different stories -- the accelerated time X-Force/Apocalypse thing, and the android ascension, tied to the original Human Torch, story in the Secret Avengers plot. And then he kind of merged the two -- with Deathloks!
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 14 April 2016 14:50 (eight years ago) link
for all the (deserved IMO) press Hickman gets, Remender did some stuff that was equally impressive in that same time frame IMO
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:05 (eight years ago) link
i'm way behind on avengers / x-men but that sounds agreeably batshit
I really liked remender's 'captain America gains a son in another dimension' arc
― a lad of balls (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:08 (eight years ago) link
Yes. The first stretch of his Marvel Now! Cap and Uncanny Avengers runs are all the Remender I've read, somehow. Oh, and his brief Secret Avengers run! That was good, too. I guess he's done with Marvel for the time being?
― I Pith On Your Quip (Old Lunch), Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:13 (eight years ago) link
I think Hickman is a bit better at that thing, at creating his own little fiefdom over several titles with Manifolds, Doctor Dooms, Sols Hammers, and all that. But yeah, Remender definitely was good at it as well. I did not read anything he did after AvX, though, is it good?
Gillen's work with Loki is up there as well.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:16 (eight years ago) link
I'm still very impressed with the worldbuilding in Pak's Planet Hulk et al. When I first saw the attendant handbook, it seemed clear that the dude had spent like the five previous years prepping his Hulk pitch.
― I Pith On Your Quip (Old Lunch), Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:22 (eight years ago) link
And Abnett and Lanning's cosmic stuff! It's been a good era for big stories.
― I Pith On Your Quip (Old Lunch), Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:23 (eight years ago) link
Axis was ehhh, but I can let that go
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:26 (eight years ago) link
The big problem with Axis was that it went on for waaaay too long (and I think everyone forgot that Havok was still inverted before the universe blew up)
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:29 (eight years ago) link
the inversion thing was pretty half-assed, I have the feeling it was pitched and a few projects (Iron Man, Carnage) were spun off, a few characters were conveniently changed for use in different titles (Sabretooth) and the rest of it was just kind of hand-wavey
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:33 (eight years ago) link
I also thought it was incredibly poor timing to have the mantle of Captain America pass over to Sam Wilson just in time to turn him into an honorless, murdering bastard as part of a widely-hyped company-wide crossover.
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:35 (eight years ago) link
very bad
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:36 (eight years ago) link
I mean, between that and launching a limited series by Jeph Loeb titled "CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHITE" it was an amazing time for ill-advised editorial direction
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:37 (eight years ago) link
I stared at that solicitation for so long, trying to convince myself it was a joke
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:38 (eight years ago) link
Remender's X-FORCE was great but I can't believe you guys liked anything else he touched. Total blind squirrel finding a nut situation.
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:38 (eight years ago) link
His Uncanny Avengers didn't end well but I enjoyed most of it. It was also MILES BETTER than the current incarnation, which appears to assume that everyone involved has had serious head trauma that has left them unable to not make the shittiest possible choice for any given situation.
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:43 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, compared to the shit dribble of the current Avengers continuum its passable but that's a damn low bar.
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:45 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, tried a few Remender issues of the Avengers (storyline involving the Red Skull?), and they weren't for me at all - thought they were badly written just in terms of the dialogue/captions, never mind the clunky plotting, and he didn't seem to have any real feel for the characters at all (but I'm a Bendis Avengers stan, which seems to put me v much in the minority here)
― Chicamaw (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:47 (eight years ago) link
Btw who other than Al Ewing is doing this world building stuff at the moment?
― Frederik B, Thursday, 14 April 2016 15:48 (eight years ago) link
The following, from the letters page of this month's All New Hawkeye, maybe sums up what a clusterfuck Marvel is just now.
So there you have it, the end of All New Hawkeye by Jeff Lemire and Ramon Perez. I know what you're thinking: "What?! They can't go!! Those guys just got here!!" I know, I know... I had the same reaction at first. Chill. Though this is technically issue #6 of our series, it's really more like part 11 of an (almost) yearlong story that Jeff and aragon wanted to tell. If you've been reading Hawkeye since Matt Fraction and David Aja's run...or if you've been reading since Jeff and Ramon's first issue... or if you've been reading since their second first issue... we thank you for joining us for this ride.
If you've been reading Hawkeye since Matt Fraction and David Aja's run...or if you've been reading since Jeff and Ramon's first issue... or if you've been reading since their second first issue... we thank you for joining us for this ride.
― suffeeciant attreebution (aldo), Monday, 25 April 2016 20:04 (eight years ago) link
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/10/103503/3744893-face+palm.png
― wario testino (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 25 April 2016 20:26 (eight years ago) link
Not sure you know, but that Loeb series fits in with other origin tales he has done with Tim Sale. The Hulk one is Green, the Spider-man is Blue and the Daredevil was Yellow (as in his original costume.). There was a first issue of that Cap series published like 5 years ago, so Sale must have finally finished the rest.
― earlnash, Monday, 25 April 2016 21:07 (eight years ago) link
I guess there was a "preview issue" in 2008, but yeah, I think we're all aware it's a thematic thing
The fact they released the real series years later implies it's not really contingent on continuity and could be released at any time which actually kind of makes it _worse_ that they decided the right time to release it was when the titular Captain America was a black man
it just sat around for eight years, couldn't it wait another year or so?
― μpright mammal (mh), Monday, 25 April 2016 21:10 (eight years ago) link
Or been burned in a heap along with everything else Loeb ever wrote? Is that really too much to ask?
― Your Ass Is Grass And I Will Mow It With My Face (Old Lunch), Monday, 25 April 2016 21:54 (eight years ago) link
can we have an international ilx meetup to burn our copies of jeph loeb comics? i feel like it'd be theraputic for all of us
― wario testino (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 26 April 2016 13:45 (eight years ago) link
I might not have any, at least in print
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 26 April 2016 13:47 (eight years ago) link
I have at least the first three of his Challengers Of The Unknown miniseries, nothing since that
― glandular lansbury (sic), Tuesday, 26 April 2016 13:50 (eight years ago) link
i can lend you some for the occasion, no problem
― wario testino (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 26 April 2016 13:50 (eight years ago) link
Cannot unsee Ultimatum
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 26 April 2016 14:28 (eight years ago) link
Burn my eyes
TASTES LIKE CHICKEN
― Your Ass Is Grass And I Will Mow It With My Face (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 26 April 2016 14:35 (eight years ago) link
I feel like the comics he's best known for are mostly just origin retellings or by-the-numbers plots that drop in the most well-known allies/villains with the "this is character X who acts in this way and progresses the plot by doing what they always do, in a way that ties back to the main antagonist"
which is, to be fair, a lot of non-Loeb comics but it really highlights how quickly he goes off the rails when he doesn't retell stories
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 26 April 2016 14:37 (eight years ago) link
Old Lunch otm
I will reiterate the props I've formerly given to Loeb for Ultimate X, which was good (with beautiful Art Adams art) and which redeemed like .00001% of the soul he tarnished so thoroughly by writing Ultimatum.
― Your Ass Is Grass And I Will Mow It With My Face (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 26 April 2016 14:43 (eight years ago) link
(It was more than a little jarring to see Loeb briefly on the rails and realize that he can actually write competently if he wants to. But I guess trying is hard or something.)
― Your Ass Is Grass And I Will Mow It With My Face (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 26 April 2016 14:45 (eight years ago) link
turns out I've been Loeb-free for 25 years (had seen Teen Wolf previously)
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2010/05/11/comics-you-should-own-flashback-challengers-of-the-unknown-1-8/
those Baker and Hempel covers tho
― glandular lansbury (sic), Tuesday, 26 April 2016 15:58 (eight years ago) link
Never forget that Loeb wrote Commando. Yes, the Schwarzenegger movie.
― Your Ass Is Grass And I Will Mow It With My Face (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 26 April 2016 16:39 (eight years ago) link
the musculature and body poses of both cap and falcon is absolutely kraken me up herehttp://i.cdn.turner.com/tntla/images/portal/10108/37298/75244/2412122.jpg
― ulysses, Friday, 29 April 2016 19:03 (eight years ago) link
like how deep is the spandex into the creases of those guys quads
Good ol' Bart Sears. I remember when he was the 'realistic' alternative in a sea of Liefeld-a-likes.
I wonder what caused Sam's muscles to start melting.
― Your Ass Is Grass And I Will Mow It With My Face (Old Lunch), Friday, 29 April 2016 21:56 (eight years ago) link
Justice League Europe was one of the first superhero comics I ever bought, so I'll always have time for Bart Sears, and his steroidal duck faces.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 29 April 2016 23:18 (eight years ago) link
This guy is like the Todd Van Der Werff of awful comics writing:
http://www.vulture.com/2016/04/captain-america-takedown-apology.html#
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 6 May 2016 16:25 (eight years ago) link
here's a pair of pages from Marvel's Planned Parenthood promotional comic from 1976, "The Amazing Spider Man vs The Prodigy".Different times.http://i.imgur.com/4XVl0mg.png
― ulysses, Friday, 13 May 2016 14:57 (eight years ago) link
I just got a vivid image of Spidey swinging into a music venue and pulling the plug on a mind control device just before the Prodigy launched into their new hit single, 'Knock My Bitch Up'.
― Peanut Duck (Old Lunch), Friday, 13 May 2016 15:07 (eight years ago) link
I scanned across that image for "twisted firestarter", didn't find it, closed tab
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Friday, 13 May 2016 15:09 (eight years ago) link
spidey discovers the contemporary pro life conservative agendahttp://i.imgur.com/IL7Moz0.png
― ulysses, Friday, 13 May 2016 15:15 (eight years ago) link
Just read Millar's Civil War for the first time - the digital version was on sale. What an incredible piece of garbage! I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. But still -- baffled why anyone would choose to film it -- the story just turns all your faves into gigantic murdering arseholes. (I assume the movie is much better.)
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 13 May 2016 15:45 (eight years ago) link
clicked through just long enough to check it was Abraham Riesman
― glandular lansbury (sic), Friday, 13 May 2016 15:56 (eight years ago) link
tbf, he's an even worse television writer
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, May 13, 2016 4:45 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
That's Millar's shtick all over, isn't it. Everyone's either a psychotic arsehole or a victim of needless cruelty.
The film is nothing like that, thankfully.
― Pheeel, Saturday, 14 May 2016 17:22 (eight years ago) link
to be fair to millar, sometimes they're a psychotic arsehole AND a victim of needless cruelty
― (main prostitute from Game Of Thrones) (bizarro gazzara), Sunday, 15 May 2016 17:13 (eight years ago) link
I think my perspective on Civil War is salvaged somewhat by having read the entire crossover, of which Millar's contribution was just a small piece.
― Peanut Duck (Old Lunch), Sunday, 15 May 2016 17:28 (eight years ago) link
It's a solid concept, and the art is pretty decent at humanising Millar's childish dialogue, but so much of it - Robot Thor killing Goliath, for example, is proper "what were they fucking thinking?!?" without the saving grace of being at least interestingly batshit.
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 15 May 2016 19:29 (eight years ago) link
ugh, I just remembered speedball's s&m makeover :(
― (main prostitute from Game Of Thrones) (bizarro gazzara), Sunday, 15 May 2016 21:14 (eight years ago) link
that was actually the character Voldo from the SoulCalibur video game series
― μpright mammal (mh), Sunday, 15 May 2016 21:16 (eight years ago) link
― (main prostitute from Game Of Thrones) (bizarro gazzara), Sunday, 15 May 2016 21:28 (eight years ago) link
It's kinda weird that they chose Millar to write the central book in a huge crossover, given that his contributions to the Marvel Universe proper at that point consisted of his Marvel Knights Spider-Man book and a brief run on Wolverine.
― Peanut Duck (Old Lunch), Sunday, 15 May 2016 22:16 (eight years ago) link
Ostrander had written nothing for DC before Legends, and Byrne had drawn one issue of a Batman miniseries in 1980. Mantlo had written nothing for DC, Sears had drawn nothing for DC, and McFarlane had done a few months on Infinity Inc before Invasion!. It works fine if the people are any good at what they do.
As further illustration of this principle, Brad Meltzer had written one six-month run on Green Arrow before Identity Crisis.
― glandular lansbury (sic), Sunday, 15 May 2016 22:51 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, but there's no accounting for the stuff those weirdos at DC do.
― Peanut Duck (Old Lunch), Monday, 16 May 2016 01:57 (eight years ago) link
Old Lunch sums up what I was thinking, succinctly
― μpright mammal (mh), Monday, 16 May 2016 02:10 (eight years ago) link
This is such a fugly cover. Luke Cage looks like Rick Ross and WTF is up with Iron Fist's eye.
http://nerdist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Power-Man-and-Iron-Fist-Cover.jpg
― earlnash, Monday, 16 May 2016 05:02 (eight years ago) link
0_o
― (main prostitute from Game Of Thrones) (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 16 May 2016 08:18 (eight years ago) link
I like it! Luke has a weird forehead tumour tho
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 16 May 2016 08:42 (eight years ago) link
I like it too. There's some cartoonish exaggeration, but the artist clearly knows what he'd doing, it's not like the exaggeration comes from Liefeldian ineptitude. IMO it's cool that in recent years Marvel has allowed more cartoonish/non-realistic art styles to be used with their characters instead of just sticking to a realistic house style.
― Tuomas, Monday, 16 May 2016 10:35 (eight years ago) link
OTM, I was just thinking the same yesterday. Except when the artist in question mixes a cartoonish/non-realistic art style with Liefeldian ineptitude and has been effing ubiquitous for the past decade (*coughhumbertoramoscough*).
― Peanut Duck (Old Lunch), Monday, 16 May 2016 15:33 (eight years ago) link
sometimes I love Ramos, sometimes I think he is the worst thing in the world
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Monday, 16 May 2016 15:40 (eight years ago) link
I think the thing of his I enjoyed most was DV8
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Monday, 16 May 2016 15:41 (eight years ago) link
Ramos and Chris Bachalo are both kind of indistinguishably annoying to read - both dreadful at panel layouts, and everyone has a pointy head
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 16 May 2016 16:17 (eight years ago) link
I will not allow bad things to be said about Chris Bachalo!
― μpright mammal (mh), Monday, 16 May 2016 19:43 (eight years ago) link
Bachalo's layouts are sometimes incoherent, though
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Monday, 16 May 2016 19:50 (eight years ago) link
bachalo is a terrible storyteller but i've always liked his style
― (main prostitute from Game Of Thrones) (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 16 May 2016 19:55 (eight years ago) link
hmm ok you guys get a pass for this reasonable criticism
― μpright mammal (mh), Monday, 16 May 2016 19:56 (eight years ago) link
Yes, agree 100%. I've always loved Bachalo's art but he couldn't storytell his way out of a potato sack.
― Peanut Duck (Old Lunch), Monday, 16 May 2016 20:11 (eight years ago) link
it's nice in the potato sack
― μpright mammal (mh), Monday, 16 May 2016 20:13 (eight years ago) link
now we've put that to rest i'd like to say that I really like humberto ramos and i've never had a problem with his layouts
that power man and iron fist cover isn't ramos tho is it? looks more like paul pope to me but i don't think it's him either
― (main prostitute from Game Of Thrones) (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 16 May 2016 20:36 (eight years ago) link
Sanford Greene, apparently.
http://marvel.com/comics/issue/57948/power_man_and_iron_fist_2016_1
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 16 May 2016 20:42 (eight years ago) link
ah glad someone else thought it looked like Paul Pope (albeit kinda shittier and uglier than he generally is)
― Οὖτις, Monday, 16 May 2016 20:48 (eight years ago) link
looking up sanford greene just led me to the news that darwyn cooke has died at 53. fuck :(
― (main prostitute from Game Of Thrones) (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 16 May 2016 20:51 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, I like Bachalo too, although much prefer his old Shade style. Felt more human. Right now I can't imagine him drawing a character like Kathy, say, who feels like they could exist as a real person. Maybe he should stick to Giffen-style nine and six panels or something.
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 16 May 2016 20:52 (eight years ago) link
(I meant Lenny not Kathy)
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 16 May 2016 20:53 (eight years ago) link
bg - some more news here: Rolling SERIOUS GRAPHIC LITERATURE Thread for Comics in 2016
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 16 May 2016 21:09 (eight years ago) link
Bachalo still had decent storytelling skills in his older works, like Shade or Death the High Cost of Living. But it seems that as his artwork got more stylized, his layouts and pacing became less and less coherent. It's too bad, I actually like his more cartoonish style a lot, but it's true that a lot of his later comics are practically unreadable because the plot is so hard to follow. I guess he should stick to doing cover art.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 17 May 2016 08:38 (eight years ago) link
omghttp://pbfcomics.com/archive_b/PBF275-The_Offenders.pngxpost to every thread everywhere obviously
― ulysses, Tuesday, 17 May 2016 14:04 (eight years ago) link
Put storytelling first or GTFO and do covers/portfolios, is my basic stance
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 17 May 2016 14:05 (eight years ago) link
I think there can be great comics without great storytelling, tho - comics where narrative, clearly delineated action, seamless transitions between panels etc take second place to sensation, pyrotechnics, mystery, psychedelic excess (I'm thinking of someone like Druillet)
― Chicamaw (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 17 May 2016 14:32 (eight years ago) link
prob not nearly in the ballpark you are talking about Ward but now I want to reread We3
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Tuesday, 17 May 2016 14:51 (eight years ago) link
love We3
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 17 May 2016 15:05 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, I'm sad that the proposed film of that lost momentum.
― pleas to Nietzsche (WilliamC), Tuesday, 17 May 2016 15:45 (eight years ago) link
How on earth would that work? Most of the best things about We3 are specifically about the medium.
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 17 May 2016 16:10 (eight years ago) link
Ang Lee's We3
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Tuesday, 17 May 2016 16:11 (eight years ago) link
I'm afraid I'm a sucker for cleanly delineated action. I couldn't even handle Prophet! I'm a much more impatient comic-book reader than book-book reader - I get bored if there's too few words, or too many.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 17 May 2016 16:12 (eight years ago) link
(xpost)
fuck... i can't even think about We3 without getting choked up inside. not sure i can bring myself to reread it.
also i'm not exactly carving out new or savvy ground but quitely is pretty much the best imo
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Wednesday, 18 May 2016 01:12 (eight years ago) link
I just finished reading Remender's Uncanny X-Force for the first time (as a prelude to his Uncanny Avengers) and it really is as good as I'd heard. I think I'd put it up there with Morrison's New X-Men (its obvious predecessor and inspiration).
I'm still sloowwwwly making my way through Marvel Now! (I've read almost everything prior to Original Sin and Axis thus far, hope to get to Secret Wars before the end of President Trump's second term). There are a few garbage series or series that eventually turned to garbage but the hit rate is surprisingly high, and some of it really is top tier Marvel.
Although: I've been a fan of almost all of the earlier Bendis Marvel stuff but his Marvel Now! work is doing pretty much nothing for me.
― Corn Elephant, Jr. (Old Lunch), Saturday, 21 May 2016 22:29 (eight years ago) link
Prophet is a fun read. It's reads to me like a nature documentary or at least I hear the captions in that way.
Read the last Punisher run by Nathan Edmondson picking up the set cheap at my local shop. It gets off to a good start with battle with Elektro. The run kinda falls flat in the second part, partially as you can tell they got the "wrap this up" everything is rebooting that led the conclusion to condense. Parts are just as awkward and kinda loony as The Punisher written by anyone ends up being. Don't think this version of the Howlin' Commandos will really catch on. Oh yeah, Frank gets a pet coyote.
― earlnash, Sunday, 22 May 2016 03:59 (eight years ago) link
Reread Brubaker on X-Men, not his better-known Marvel work. Hoping no one at Fox reads it and attempts to make their own GotG ripoff starring the Starjammers.
― μpright mammal (mh), Sunday, 22 May 2016 20:54 (eight years ago) link
So this Captain America thing is asinine.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 16:27 (eight years ago) link
I think it's pretty funny, personally
― DJP, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 16:28 (eight years ago) link
you mean the #getcaptainamericaboyfriend thing?
― ulysses, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 16:36 (eight years ago) link
it's news that is best revealed by googling IMO
― DJP, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 16:39 (eight years ago) link
Didn't Hickman basically just do this in Secret Warriors a few years back? And is the ultimate switcheroo likely to be any different than Hickman's at the end of that series?
― Wet Food (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 16:48 (eight years ago) link
psyched for the thinkpieces arguing that america's slow descent into fascism is being reflected in the heel turn of its greatest champion etc
does rob bricken have a hot take on this yet
― benzarro ghazarri (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 16:57 (eight years ago) link
I wish I hadn't read the spoiler. I've been so good about avoiding discussion of pretty much everything that's happened over the past year and a half. So with that in mind:......SPOILERZ.........How shitty is Hydra at activating double agents if they've allowed one to regularly participate in their defeat for the past 75 years?
― Wet Food (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 17:00 (eight years ago) link
what they should really do is make it that it comes out that in the past captain america made a pragmatic agreement w/ hydra in order to pursue other more immediate goals + threats and now some self-righteous superhero teen is calling him out for being corrupt and in bed w/ hydra.
― Mordy, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 17:07 (eight years ago) link
It's funny, I was just thinking the other day when DC's Rebirth revelations leaked that Marvel, despite sweeping changes across their books, haven't made a change yet that I can remember pissing off a sizeable portion of their audience in the way that DC has become infamous for, but this might be the one depending on the execution.
― Wet Food (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 17:31 (eight years ago) link
I'm pretty sure Disassembled and House of M and Civil War pissed off a lot of people for ruining characters and franchises they liked and for shittng on earlier stories done by better writers.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 17:39 (eight years ago) link
The Bendis era is pretty much the most divisive Marvel era of them all, with some saying he was a hack only cared about his pet characters and who ignored most of the previous continuity, while others thought he revitalised parts of the MU that weren't doing so well, such as the Avengers.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 17:43 (eight years ago) link
I kinda think both things are true...
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 17:47 (eight years ago) link
the idea of bringing bucky back seemed super ill-advised but it ended up being one of the defining cap stories so i'll give this the benefit of the doubt for now
in other cap news, i've been reading through mark gruenwald's run on cap via marvel unlimited and it's such good fun
― benzarro ghazarri (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 17:47 (eight years ago) link
I mean, putting Wolverine and Spiderman on the Avengers was sorta a no-brainer move, but boy did that run run out of steam.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 17:50 (eight years ago) link
In the last year all they did was eating Chinese food and bickering while waiting for Norman Osborn to win over public opinion yet again.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 17:51 (eight years ago) link
if this lasts longer than eight issues i would be shocked
― ulysses, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 17:55 (eight years ago) link
Gruenwald Cap is just about the epitome of cozy '80s Marvel for me.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/95/207779351_7110d8eda2_o.jpg
― Wet Food (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 17:55 (eight years ago) link
lol would Captain America: Agent of Hydra be the same one who was changed from an old man back to his youth self, and also has his greatest enemy running around with Xavier's telepathic powers?
― μpright mammal (mh), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 17:55 (eight years ago) link
I mean, I have no idea when, among about fifty recent incidents, they could have swapped or brainwashed this guy
― μpright mammal (mh), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 17:56 (eight years ago) link
there are an unusual number of dudes-sharing-showers scenes in the first couple of years of gruenwalds run
as a britisher i just assumed it must be a vital part of the fabric of american life
― benzarro ghazarri (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 17:59 (eight years ago) link
Yes, hence the well-known phrase 'it's as American as showering with dudes'.
― Wet Food (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 18:07 (eight years ago) link
some saying he was a hack only cared about his pet characters
This is true of virtually every major mainstream comics scripter, and it's one of the ways that different writers and artists on the Avengers have distinguished themselves eg Steve Englehart w/ Moondragon, Roy Thomas w/ the Vision etc etc.
― Chicamaw (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 18:54 (eight years ago) link
Not what you're talking about, but I'm now thinking of Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers
― μpright mammal (mh), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 19:02 (eight years ago) link
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR9HgFH2zuiYw8aEzn5gAgCu8R0sNeFQCbP4vFeR1rgiu42VZh3
― Chicamaw (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 19:05 (eight years ago) link
Any Marvel writer worth his or her salt should care equally about all 58,673,912 characters across the multiverse. Yes, even SuperPro.
― Wet Food (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 19:07 (eight years ago) link
Mark Gruenwald's anniversary issue of Captain America (350?) is the greatest. It's like the best piece of comic book hackwork ever.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 20:55 (eight years ago) link
Speaking of hackwork, Nick Spencer has turned into a terrible writer! Lousy overextended dialogue on every page.
xp yeah, it's a blast. steve rogers vs john walker! the red skull returns in a cloned captain america body! gruenwald's stories sure ran at a hell of a clip
― benzarro ghazarri (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 21:16 (eight years ago) link
xpost Aw, I was about to say that just about the only thing this nutzoid idea had going for it was Nick Spencer. I've really enjoyed everything I've read of his (through I guess like late 2014?).
― Wet Food (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 25 May 2016 21:41 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, he's been better. Blame the editor, perhaps?
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 23:42 (eight years ago) link
Retconning the Spider-Man marriage would probably count here
― Sharia Laws and Lambchop (The Yellow Kid), Thursday, 26 May 2016 00:12 (eight years ago) link
Ohhhhh yeah. Good call on that one.
― Wet Food (Old Lunch), Thursday, 26 May 2016 01:28 (eight years ago) link
That time they let Jeph Loeb wreck the ultimate universe
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 26 May 2016 03:12 (eight years ago) link
This issue also introduces us to a new generation of Hydra fighters, who resemble ISIS and white supremacist organizations. What were your influences there?
That’s exactly right. Those are the two things that are being conflated here to some extent. The Red Skull obviously has a lot of experience with fascism and Nazism and white supremacy movements. What we’re seeing here is an adoption of modern-day terror tactics. For me, those were an interesting couple of components to put together. What we see throughout the world right now is that these kinds of movements are heavily resurgent and seeing record-breaking recruitment numbers. So some of this is trying to be a little forward-thinking in picturing what the world might look like if these kinds of organizations decide to adopt these kinds of tactics.
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Friday, 27 May 2016 06:53 (eight years ago) link
As a Spiderman reading guy for over a decade there was all the shit with Aunt May being dead or not; Peter Parker finding out he was a clone, hitting his wife with a mighty punch, teaming up with Jackal and poisoning people; Green Goblin getting Gwen Stacy pregnant. Stopped reading not long after the last example (but I was mostly going off the superhero genre).
But if I was a young fan when Dr Octopus taken over Parker's body, I fear how I might have acted online, because that sounded incredibly vulgar and stupid. I know I would have been mad as hell.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 27 May 2016 14:08 (eight years ago) link
it worked out pretty well, though!
― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, 27 May 2016 14:14 (eight years ago) link
still kind of amazed how that changed the spider-man status quo considerably and wasn't followed up by a swift reset
The idea sounded stupid for sure, and I'm not the world's biggest Slott fan, but Superior Spider-Man was decent. Mostly because the concept wasn't "now Spider-Man is evil" but rather "now Dr. Octopus is feeding his ego by trying to be an even more effective version of Spider-Man".
― I Have A Hot Dog Stuck To My Neck (Old Lunch), Friday, 27 May 2016 14:16 (eight years ago) link
I felt kind of bad for Otto at the end!
― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, 27 May 2016 14:26 (eight years ago) link
I've been filled in about it, something like Parker acting as a ghostly Jiminy Cricket, Octopus becoming a good person and I'm still pretty sure I would have hated it.
Never liked Otto much.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 27 May 2016 14:28 (eight years ago) link
Basically he copied his mind into Peter's and vice versa, but he needed Peter's memories in order to take over his life, so Peter's not really gone. A little Jiminy Cricket-ish, but not irritatingly so.
Otto as Spider-Man isn't really a "good person," he's still a narcissist and has what amounts to a Spider-Militia on call. But what he does do is really throw all of his potential into creating Parker Industries, which is something Peter could have done but never really had the confidence to do.
― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, 27 May 2016 14:33 (eight years ago) link
But if I was a young fan when Dr Octopus taken over Parker's body, I fear how I might have acted online
I was thinking about the late 80s Dr Fate comic - Doctor Fate went from being a man, to being a man/woman hybrid, to being a woman, to being a man, then a woman, etc.
Maybe I read the wrong publications (and admittedly it was a C-list title) but I don't remember the gender swap being an issue. Right-wing nerd whining about gender/race issues seems like a very 2000-2010s thing - at least, the internet has broadened its reach from nut fringe to not-at-all-fringe.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 27 May 2016 14:38 (eight years ago) link
Where does Spider-Man's radioactive sperm fit in all of this?
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 27 May 2016 15:44 (eight years ago) link
deep in the fallopian tubes iirc
― ulysses, Friday, 27 May 2016 15:46 (eight years ago) link
Right-wing nerd whining about gender/race issues seems like a very 2000-2010s thing - at least, the internet has broadened its reach from nut fringe to not-at-all-fringe.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, May 27, 2016 9:38 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I think the only appropriate response to this recent hue and cry is for the creative community to do whatever they can to induce mass MRA aneurysms all the time.
― I Have A Hot Dog Stuck To My Neck (Old Lunch), Friday, 27 May 2016 15:53 (eight years ago) link
I support this strategy
― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, 27 May 2016 15:54 (eight years ago) link
Yeah I am now completely behind the Captain Nazi plot twist after seeing all the entitled online whining
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 27 May 2016 16:53 (eight years ago) link
So many people are saying it's an insult to Jewish Kirby & Simon but I never thought Hydra were supposed to be Nazis, aren't they more like communists inspired by Russia and China?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 27 May 2016 17:51 (eight years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/CeCfOzS.png
I love the first appearance of Hydra where their leader has a giant rotary dial on his wall with pictures of animals on it. did anyone ever bring this concept back in later years?
― soref, Friday, 27 May 2016 18:03 (eight years ago) link
Hydra first appeared in Strange Tales #135. In its original continuity, it was headed by nondescript businessman Arnold Brown, who was killed as S.H.I.E.L.D. apparently crushed the organization. Hydra soon returned, however, headed by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, with the support of the Nazi Red Skull; Hydra's changing origin was one of Marvel's earliest retcons. After its initial defeat, several of its branches, such as its scientific branch A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) and the Secret Empire, became independent.
so yeah, the very second appearance has HYDRA linked the the Red Skull and Strucker, both nazis
― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, 27 May 2016 18:13 (eight years ago) link
dial h for hydra naval action sea dragons look like some grant morrison shit for sure
― ulysses, Friday, 27 May 2016 18:30 (eight years ago) link
nice beaver
― benzarro ghazarri (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 27 May 2016 18:57 (eight years ago) link
the big hydra wheel is kind of like the round table of Hickman's Secret Warriors run that connects it to the ancient SHIELD series he did. it's star signs instead of animals, though.
― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, 27 May 2016 19:02 (eight years ago) link
I really hope it was an homage to the animal wheel
― μpright mammal (mh), Friday, 27 May 2016 19:03 (eight years ago) link
Dear Brian Michael Bendis, it's clear that you do layouts for the comics you write, which is cool and all but please listen when I tell you: these two page layouts you do are always confusing. Always. When a panel on the left-hand page ends at the gutter, the reader's natural inclination is to move to the panel below it on the same page, not the adjacent panel on the right-hand page. Please stop doing that because there's no reason to do that. Thanks!
― I Do Dumb Things And Then I Cry (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 1 June 2016 02:01 (eight years ago) link
You could stop reading Bendis comics?
― glandular lansbury (sic), Wednesday, 1 June 2016 02:17 (eight years ago) link
I don't think I can. He completes me.
― I Do Dumb Things And Then I Cry (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 1 June 2016 02:20 (eight years ago) link
The guided view on the Marvel app is made for Bendis. Suddenly all the micropanels make sense and the bad page geography disappears.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 05:59 (eight years ago) link
Oh god, Bendis two pagers. One of his books has six of them. IN A ROW.
I've gotten used to hunting a bit for the reading order. I'm more annoyed that he abuses spreads for stuff that doesn't particularly benefit from it.
― salsa shark, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 18:08 (eight years ago) link
I've come to the conclusion that I hate reading Bendis
― DJP, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 18:28 (eight years ago) link
This is tangential but I wanna ask: Who among you still buys individual floppies on a monthly basis? And why?
― ulysses, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 20:38 (eight years ago) link
i do! i hate hate hate reading comics on a screen and i like the weekly comic book store ritual.
― adam, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 20:58 (eight years ago) link
i don't really buy marvel or dc books on a consistent basis though because i have learned my lesson (over and over again)
― adam, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 20:59 (eight years ago) link
I got used to screen reading and ran out of shelf space. After i filled seven bookshelves, I am now on new book lockdown.I more or less NEVER enjoyed the weekly ritual of going to the store; always feel silently judged by the behind the counter guy. Probably just me.
― ulysses, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 21:02 (eight years ago) link
I don't buy anything regularly but what I do buy is floppies or trade paperbacks
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 21:04 (eight years ago) link
i got an "excellent choice" today in re: new shigeru mizuki kitaro collection /basks in forbidden planet employee approval
― adam, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 21:11 (eight years ago) link
i can understand buying trades, i have a harder time understanding buying floppies (especially if they're from DC/Image/Marvel). Resale value is basically nil and you run the chance of missing an issue and having an incomplete story... plus the little buggers are hard to store!
― ulysses, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 21:16 (eight years ago) link
I make an effort to pick up the occasional stack of issues when it's a low-selling series I want to make sure they'll be interested in collecting
― μpright mammal (mh), Wednesday, 1 June 2016 21:30 (eight years ago) link
Man, Civil War II is awful.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 21:34 (eight years ago) link
Nothing makes sense, the 'moral argument' is ludicrous, not a single memorable line or drawing. Just pure unrelenting Bendesque dullness.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 21:35 (eight years ago) link
How is the repro on the new Shang Chi omnibus?
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 1 June 2016 21:53 (eight years ago) link
I buy floppies because I like the medium. They are digestible in 5-10 min and easy enough to throw into longboxes.
― DJP, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 22:23 (eight years ago) link
when i hit thirty longboxes, i migrated everything to bookshelves. the pokemon collector in me gets obsessive about full runs and that way lies madness and poverty. Trades saved my soul.
― ulysses, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 22:27 (eight years ago) link
would any of y'all want a fancy wooden longbox, or would you feel weird paying more for your box than the comics inside it?
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 22:41 (eight years ago) link
i've known at least one guy who used full longboxes as a boxspring for his mattress.
― ulysses, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 22:43 (eight years ago) link
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/55/da/7e/55da7e7654945e0f31ef3e57178365ea.jpg
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 23:12 (eight years ago) link
I buy floppies because I enjoy being part of a cultural moment, that this is comic book day and I'm finding out the same time as hundreds of thousands of other people, a shared communion.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 23:42 (eight years ago) link
And while I'm there, I might as well pay for all the books that aren't The Wicked and The Divine, as well.
I regularly buy an embarrassing number of floppies, mostly Marvel. And trades of older stuff. At a steep discount, but still. You would probably be alternately impressed and ashamed. And, yeah, space has not yet but probably will start to become an issue soon.
― What's Your Definition of a Dirty Baby? (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 1 June 2016 23:47 (eight years ago) link
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a8/69/e2/a869e2ffabfdb27ab85a71b0a2d4d281.jpg
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 23:58 (eight years ago) link
i would be afraid i'd fuck up my books putting them in that thing but i gather you'd be meant to have them mylar bagged and boarded if you were at that level of collectordom. Nice handiwork nonetheless.
― ulysses, Thursday, 2 June 2016 00:04 (eight years ago) link
I gave up floppy buying on the reg five years ago, went back to doing so weekly when a comic shop was on my commute route (on the road I drove most of the way in a neighborhood where the speed limit was 25 so I couldn't not stop) and am mostly digital now
Six or seven years ago I moved temporarily to a smaller space and gave away 90% of my comics. Just took them to a well-connected friend's place and said "find these a good home"
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 2 June 2016 00:42 (eight years ago) link
ownership and reading of floppies has always seemed ephemeral, even if people collect them. I've mentioned it elsewhere on ilx, but when I was probably 13 years old, a neighbor who owned a rental house had his tenant bail and the guy forgot a few longboxes that had pretty much every x-men issue from the Phoenix saga to around when Jim Lee started, along with a lot of other random comics of the era. I carefully read all those and returned them.
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 2 June 2016 00:45 (eight years ago) link
You better be pretty strong if you are moving around full wooden long boxes.
One odd thing I do notice about new comics is that they seem to be quite a bit heavier than the old newsprint comics, even more so for a box of trades.
― earlnash, Thursday, 2 June 2016 00:51 (eight years ago) link
you can set coffee on them multiple times before the rings soak through the cover
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 2 June 2016 00:53 (eight years ago) link
I'm only buying monthly at the moment while Prophet is wrapping up, and it'll drop down to every few months after that. If I'm living in America next year near a shop that gets Retrofit and Youth In Decline and Koyama and Oily and the like, I'll be back to it - but Diamond has destroyed distribution for individual creative voices: I've bought more comics in the US and Canada in the last three years than I have in my local comic shop.
Prophet is only because I've been following it for four years or whatever and want to ride the story out - I love the comic book format, but loathe coverless books, which would rule out the rest of Marvel, Image & DC if the content didn't already. I bailed out on Island after it went coverless, or that would be one to keep a monthly visit ticking over. (Sometimes takes me seven weeks to make it in, though.)
― glandular lansbury (sic), Thursday, 2 June 2016 01:08 (eight years ago) link
Possibly because I own a store I mostly read via digital (mostly Marvel Unlimited, some purchased on Comixology) unless I take damaged copies home with me (I pretty much always get destroy orders for them so I read and recycle).
It's too hard for me to keep up since I see so many titles every week and by the time I've unpacked and sorted on Tuesday I can no longer think about what I might want to read. Never had the collector gene so stacking boxes of them isn't for me and too often with floppies I'll give away or recycle an issue and have forgotten what happened (esp with long layoffs ala Saga or Sex Criminals) in the issue I no longer have from months ago.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 2 June 2016 01:30 (eight years ago) link
Although I buy a ton of floppies and appreciate having a physical thing made of paper over pixels, I don't have any special attachment to them as floppies. It'd be awesome if I could eventually trade a lot of them off for their equivalent collected editions.
― What's Your Definition of a Dirty Baby? (Old Lunch), Thursday, 2 June 2016 02:18 (eight years ago) link
sorry, what's a "coverless" book?
milo, I would love to hear your thoughts on piracy as i am a marvel unlimited subscriber and a fairly unrepentant torrenter of things I solely want to read once and discard or keep as a reference library or are simply unavailable in the states. I still buy creator made material either on the web or at cons and trades at used book stores or amazon or ebay but I gave up on buying floppies more or less at the end of brubaker's run on daredevil. Am i evil? It's okay, you can tell me.
― ulysses, Thursday, 2 June 2016 02:58 (eight years ago) link
i might add to that guilt ridden screed that I make a point of blowing fifty bucks at any comic book store i go into more or less as penance but that often leads to me buying stuff I don't care for which keeps me away from comic books, vicious cycle
― ulysses, Thursday, 2 June 2016 03:07 (eight years ago) link
I spend the equivalent of a small nation's GDP on comics and, because I like having a digital library at my fingertips, I also t0rrent the shit out of comics (many/most of which I've already procured via "legal" means). I don't subscribe to Marvel Unlimited because they don't have everything and because limited control, but my floppy addiction probably singlehandedly bought Alonso a new Jag so I can't imagine they're too brokenhearted about it.
― What's Your Definition of a Dirty Baby? (Old Lunch), Thursday, 2 June 2016 03:28 (eight years ago) link
ha, I was using that term because I thought the technical "self-cover" would be too obscure. Five years ago Marvel stopped having covers around the 32-page signatures that their books are printed on, and just ran the cover image and back cover ads on the outer sheet of the internal signature. DC and Image have followed suit gradually. With the paper stocks these things are printed on, it means that they puff up around your fingertips in humid weather, crumple easily, get loose and flappy, etc.
It's historically been an indicator of intended disposability, not a "real" comic that anyone might be expected to hold onto and read again. The current stocks survive through mass shipping much better than newsprint would, but the implication is telling. And just feels gross and insubstantial to my hand. But I'm someone who cares about paper and print quality already.
― glandular lansbury (sic), Thursday, 2 June 2016 04:19 (eight years ago) link
Y'know...I totally hadn't even noticed that, but you're absolutely right, now that I'm comparing recent stuff with comics that are just a bit older. I guess I failed to notice the transition because that would've been right after I stopped buying comics altogether for a couple of years.
― What's Your Definition of a Dirty Baby? (Old Lunch), Thursday, 2 June 2016 05:05 (eight years ago) link
that dates how long it's been since i've picked up a current marvel/dc/image book as that's news to me.
― ulysses, Thursday, 2 June 2016 05:30 (eight years ago) link
ReBirth was the first floppy I've bought in years, apart from those two oversize issues of Criminal that parody Marvel magazines of the 70s - aside from anything else, floppies just seem to be such poor value for money (and the fact that ReBirth was 80 pages of story material for $3 tells me that's one of the reasons the comic has been so successful)
― Foster Twelvetrees (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 2 June 2016 07:07 (eight years ago) link
Back when I was a kid I bought superhero comics, published by the local Marvel and DC affiliates in Finnish, in the floppy form, because that was the only option. Occasionally I came across some of the early American TPBs, like Elektra Assassin, but my English wasn't yet good enough to read them. I still have a few those floppies left, like the one with the ending of the original Phoenix saga (Finnish superhero comics typically included two American issues per one Finnish issue, so it included both issues 136 and 137). That was actually pretty hard to acquire even in the late 80s, I remember having to pay almost twice the official cover price for it in some used book store.
(Here's the Finnish cover for it, btw:
http://files1.comics.org//img/gcd/covers_by_id/1017/w400/1017369.jpg
As you can see, the Finnish X-Men comics were a few years behind the American ones back then... When they began publishing X-Men in their own book, they started from the beginning of the Byrne/Claremont era instead of the most recent issue. But after the Byrne era was through, the Finnish publisher began to co-print the X-Men comics with the Hungarian Marvel affiliate, which was way ahead of us in the X-Men chronology, so we jumped straight from the Byrne era to the JRJr. era. The Paul Smith era X-Men stories were eventually published in special editions, but the second Cockrum run was never available in Finnish.)
Today, superhero comics translated into Finnish are pretty much extinct; maybe some Spider-Man comics are still getting translated, I dunno, but I prefer to read everything in English. I don't buy American floppies though, they're pretty hard to obtain in here (there's practically just one or two comic stores left that sell them), and since the stores import themselves, the prices are fairly steep - you'd certainly have to pay much more for getting the same story as floppies than as a TPB. Only occasionally I've mail-ordered some American floppies, if the story wasn't available in collected form, like Flex Mentallo or Brute Force.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 2 June 2016 07:21 (eight years ago) link
Whoops, sorry, that image link doesn't work, here's the X-Men cover:
http://www.ensipainos.fi/tuotekuvat2/11003_5848_4.jpg
― Tuomas, Thursday, 2 June 2016 07:37 (eight years ago) link
sweet
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Thursday, 2 June 2016 07:45 (eight years ago) link
The blurb on the cover says "The Rage of the Dark Phoenix", which as a kid I thought was kinda stupid, since the Phoenix is clearly dead in that pic.
Also, "Ryhmä-X" translates to "Team-X" or "Group-X"... They couldn't translate the name "X-Men" directly, because in Finnish "men" always refers to males only, it can't be used as a synonym for "humans", so it would've been weird to have a team with women in it with a name like that.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 2 June 2016 08:31 (eight years ago) link
Before I went directly to comic stores, in the 90s I bought 3 comics-in-1 Marvel UK comics. It was a really good deal and you could follow those ridiculous storylines because they reprinted all the main Spiderman and X-Men titles and some of the more important one-shots and miniseries. They were two years behind the latest storylines. They went for a long time but I doubt they're still going. For the first several years they had original cover art from Marvel UK. They had no adverts either. If I had grown up in America I doubt I would have followed these comics and bought all the necessary titles.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 2 June 2016 10:47 (eight years ago) link
I can't argue that piracy doesn't cost companies/creators/retailers money to some extent but I've always thought the vast majority of piracy (to a varying scale, music was hit hardest) was never going to get converted into sales no matter what. I pirated George Plimpton's Shadow Box recently for my Kindle - he's dead, it's not available as an e-book, my conscience is clean.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 2 June 2016 16:09 (eight years ago) link
Marvel just relaunched the 3-in-1 books as "Timely Comics" here in the US. Issues 1-3 of current series for $3.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 2 June 2016 16:10 (eight years ago) link
are they on newsstands and bookstores? I mean, as much as those places carry comics anymore
sic's point about comics without a different cover stock are something I notice on occasion. it's weird because the covers seem more absorbent than the cheap old covers of the 80s, but the interior pages are definitely better than newsprint
it's weird that they swung all the way to this direction after the years where the covers were practically cardstock
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 2 June 2016 16:50 (eight years ago) link
I don't know about bookstores/news stands. I know that B&N gets their comics from a company that places books in the stores on a commission basis, buying from the same channels as me so they technically could have them.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 2 June 2016 17:25 (eight years ago) link
Does America get that cheap Marvel graphic novel series that the UK gets?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 2 June 2016 17:40 (eight years ago) link
Re: our recent discussion of floppy vs. digital, the surprising revelation that digital comics don't seem to be hurting physical sales, and that physical sales have actually steadily risen over the past five years.
― What's Your Definition of a Dirty Baby? (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 7 June 2016 16:19 (eight years ago) link
Digital has some disadvantages over floppies (where a Kindle doesn't really over paper books) - but it's hard to beat the ability to easily acquire and read a run in order across multiple series (just downloaded Grant Morrison's Batman run myself).
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Tuesday, 7 June 2016 23:01 (eight years ago) link
Can you create a "playlist" that puts all the different issues of different series of Morrison's run in order? With the two relevant issues of 52 at the start, interleaving the Batman issues with the Final Crisis and Superman Beyond and Return Of Bruce Wayne issues, etc?
― glandular lansbury (sic), Tuesday, 7 June 2016 23:20 (eight years ago) link
can we incorporate douglas wolk's annotations into some sort of interactive hypertext encarta tome?
― adam, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 23:28 (eight years ago) link
I've seen Torrents do the playlist by putting the order number first before title and issue, so that in your cbr reader the next issue will come up regardless of which title.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Tuesday, 7 June 2016 23:34 (eight years ago) link
This one breaks it down into storyline sections, I think, but seems to be missing some parts (no 52 issues).
https://kat.cr/complete-grant-morrison-batman-comic-run-pre-new-52-t7100920.html
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Tuesday, 7 June 2016 23:35 (eight years ago) link
Not only is it missing parts of Morrison, it appears to have more non-Morrison bullshit than Morrison, and not put all the Morrison in the right order
― glandular lansbury (sic), Wednesday, 8 June 2016 01:35 (eight years ago) link
As soon as I saw the word "Hush" I was thinking, wtf is this shit
― μpright mammal (mh), Wednesday, 8 June 2016 01:39 (eight years ago) link
I don't think we have a thread about collectible comics, so I'll use this one. Has anyone here ever had any comics graded & slabbed? I have a set of FF #48-50 that I've been holding on to for about 30 years and just looked at the prices they're going for. Pretty sure the cost of grading would be recouped in any sale.
― pleas to Nietzsche (WilliamC), Thursday, 9 June 2016 21:40 (eight years ago) link
i'm opposed to slabbing on principle
― De La Soul is no Major Lazer (ulysses), Thursday, 9 June 2016 21:41 (eight years ago) link
old comics are still worth money? I have some Kirby FFs, I forget which issues, Inhumans are involved
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 9 June 2016 21:42 (eight years ago) link
I don't have an opinion about slabbing, but I'm completely in favor of collectors giving me their money for old paper.
― pleas to Nietzsche (WilliamC), Thursday, 9 June 2016 21:46 (eight years ago) link
If you're going to sell them yourself on Ebay, slabbing is the only way to go IMO. The slow service options aren't horribly expensive.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 9 June 2016 22:19 (eight years ago) link
I always thought that Silver Age Marvels in Fine+ condition were pretty much the gold standard when it comes to collectible old comics, so wld def slab those FFs if they're no longer required as reading material (ditto FFs w/ the Inhumans).
What puzzles me is the value attached to pre-Silver Age titles - yes, they're no doubt scarce in decent condition, but will the next generation of collectors actually give one fuck about old issues of Mr District Attorney or whatever? I guess certain libraries/archives might want them, the odd historian/researcher, but actual readers...hmmmm...
Also feels like original artwork has replaced old comics as the ultra-desirable collectible object.
― Foster Twelvetrees (Ward Fowler), Friday, 10 June 2016 08:15 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, I think back to those days when Dave Sim was selling Cerebus pages for something like $30 each and just grit my teeth...
― pleas to Nietzsche (WilliamC), Friday, 10 June 2016 12:41 (eight years ago) link
I had to look up slabbing to see wtf you guys were even talking about. But I know what you mean now that I see it. Yeah, that shit's perverse as a general practice (I see so much garbage getting that treatment and going for $$$ on ebay and elsewhere) but I geddit if you have old stuff of some value. I'm coming from the opposite end of the collector spectrum, where I just reluctantly bagged and boarded a bunch of my stuff because I'm moving it and didn't want it to get more banged up than it already was. And I know I have at least a handful of things that have skyrocketed in value (unrelated to this particular conversation but it's starting to look like I could trade my Kirby Fourth World omnibi for an economy car) but that I don't have any intention of selling so whatevs.
― Manspread Mann (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 June 2016 13:04 (eight years ago) link
Jesus Christ, I just looked at the prices of the Annihilation omnibus, and the lowest-priced used copy is now 500 bucks on Amazon and 400 bucks on Ebay! (Even the Simonson Thor omnibus costs peanuts compared to that, you can get a used copy for mere 200 bucks.) Not that I intend to sell the one I have, it's one of my favourite Marvel comics of the 2000s, but Marvel's policy of reprinting any of their collections has made most of their omnibi a solid investment indeed.
― Tuomas, Friday, 10 June 2016 13:23 (eight years ago) link
And yeah, I had to goole "slabbing" too, comics as collectables is a foreign world to me.
― Tuomas, Friday, 10 June 2016 13:25 (eight years ago) link
So glad I picked up those Annihilation books in time (after stupidly selling the original trades in a time of financial distress and realizing with utter dismay when I tried to rebuy that their value had quintupled). For better or worse, it seems that the collections are becoming the collector's items. I've taken to preordering any omnibi I want when they're initially solicited.
― Manspread Mann (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 June 2016 13:27 (eight years ago) link
My current back issue bonanza strategy is to fill as many holes as I can prior to the release of a new character's cinematic debut. The GotG shit went haywire when the movie was released, and everything Apocalypse-related has been fetching big bucks for a while. Trying to snatch up the little bit of Dr. Strange stuff I'm missing and was planning on following suit with Black Panther but now I'm noticing that even the recent Hudlin runs (trades of which you used to be able to pick up for a couple of bucks used) are hard to track down. Black Panther Masterworks vol 2 coming soon, though (collecting a lot of Kirby and the entirety of BP vs. the Klan, I believe)!
― Manspread Mann (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 June 2016 13:36 (eight years ago) link
ha ha i gave my entire abnett/lanning cosmic collection to goodwill when i moved
― adam, Friday, 10 June 2016 13:41 (eight years ago) link
xpostBP vs the Klan was started by Don McGregor but completed by Ed Hannigan, some years later, so it's not a very satisfactory read unfortunately
― Foster Twelvetrees (Ward Fowler), Friday, 10 June 2016 13:45 (eight years ago) link
The prices for the Abnett/Lanning Nova TPBs have also become ridiculous now, because they were never reprinted, unlike the GotG ones and the Annihilations. I was missing the last few issues of their Nova run, and I had to order them from the US as floppies, because the TPB containing them had gone up to 50 euros or something.
― Tuomas, Friday, 10 June 2016 13:49 (eight years ago) link
xpost That's too bad. Just picked up a big, cheap lot of Marvel Comics Presents with McGregor's complete 25 part 'Panther's Quest'. Hopefully that'll balance the scales.
― Manspread Mann (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 June 2016 13:52 (eight years ago) link
I've never read a good comic by Dan Abnett. Do they exist?
I saw this in part because Death's Head II was one of the things that put the boot in me reading comics for several years.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 10 June 2016 21:50 (eight years ago) link
xps always hoping i'll find a reasonable price on those early Fourth World omnibuses, especially vol. 2 which is way worse than the rest for some reason
― Nhex, Friday, 10 June 2016 23:40 (eight years ago) link
I haven't read much of his early 90s Marvel UK comics, only the Knights of Pendragon, but the '00s comics he cowrote with Andy Lanning are way better than those. Their Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova run, which begins in Annihilation Conquest, continues in the CotG and Nova ongoing titles, and culminates in The Thanos Imperative, is my favourite long-form Marvel story of this millennium. There's so much sense of wonder and Silver/Bronze Age inspired thrills in those comics, especially considering that at the same time most of the Marvel universe was stuck in Bendisian "hard boiled"/"gritty" bullshit and increasingly pointless mega-crossovers. (Since CotG and Nova weren't set on Earth, they managed to avoid those crossovers; they had a few of their own, but those were small-scale and mostly plotted by Abnett/Lanning, so much better than Bendis and Millar ones.)
I don't think it's a coincidence that Guardians of Galaxy movie was mostly based on the Abnett/Lanning run (and the groundwork laid for it by Keith Giffen in Annihilation and Annihilation Conquest), not the original version of the team (which had an almost completely different cast of characters). Those were some quality comics, and the movie-makers must've recognized that too.
― Tuomas, Saturday, 11 June 2016 08:33 (eight years ago) link
Otm. Some of the best fun comics I've ever read.
― albvivertine, Saturday, 11 June 2016 12:24 (eight years ago) link
Had no idea about slabbing or what it was
My FFs are p banged up i doubt they rate as Fine (probably VG at best). But i dont wanna sell them anyway
― Οὖτις, Saturday, 11 June 2016 14:25 (eight years ago) link
Guys, the variant cover theme for September's books is, um, Prostate Awareness Month.
I await the final covers with bated breath.
― Manspread Mann (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 June 2016 23:48 (eight years ago) link
they know their audience
― Nhex, Wednesday, 22 June 2016 01:43 (eight years ago) link
'bated breath.
― Vernon Locke, Wednesday, 22 June 2016 03:00 (eight years ago) link
Any thoughts on RiRi Williams beyond "which black name generator did Bendis go to in order to make that name"?
― volumetric god rays (DJP), Wednesday, 6 July 2016 17:12 (eight years ago) link
ouch, lol
― mh, Wednesday, 6 July 2016 17:52 (eight years ago) link
I keep imagining him watching tennis highlights with "Work" playing in the background while he was working up the backstory
― volumetric god rays (DJP), Wednesday, 6 July 2016 17:54 (eight years ago) link
I was thinking more "standing at the grocery store, reading names off the magazines at the check-out aisle"
― mh, Wednesday, 6 July 2016 18:05 (eight years ago) link
lol that's probably more accurate
― volumetric god rays (DJP), Wednesday, 6 July 2016 18:36 (eight years ago) link
i have zero issues with marvel's desire to broaden the racial/ethnic/gender base of its headliners but boy do moves like "RiRi Williams" feel patronizing. also, i had never seen this origin story panel beforehttp://wetalkpodcasts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Power-Man-V1-17-Page-19.jpg
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Thursday, 7 July 2016 15:21 (eight years ago) link
aaaahhhhhhhh
― Nhex, Thursday, 7 July 2016 15:22 (eight years ago) link
I'm sorry, that is the best "coming up with my superhero name" panel ever
― mh, Thursday, 7 July 2016 15:31 (eight years ago) link
Is that mcgregor Gerber englehart or thomas
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 7 July 2016 16:39 (eight years ago) link
Len Wein
― pleas to Nietzsche (WilliamC), Thursday, 7 July 2016 16:58 (eight years ago) link
http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/scans/PM17_AceOfSpades.JPG
It gets even better than that, right before coming up with Power Man he was considering "The Ace of Spades", but thought it was "too ethnic"!
:-o
― Tuomas, Friday, 8 July 2016 06:38 (eight years ago) link
This one breaks it down into storyline sections, I think, but seems to be missing some parts (no 52 issues).https://kat.cr/complete-grant-morrison-batman-comic-run-pre-new-52-t7100920.html― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, June 8, 2016 9:35 AM (1 month ago)Not only is it missing parts of Morrison, it appears to have more non-Morrison bullshit than Morrison, and not put all the Morrison in the right order― glandular lansbury (sic), Wednesday, June 8, 2016 11:35 AM (1 month ago)otmAs soon as I saw the word "Hush" I was thinking, wtf is this shit― μpright mammal (mh), Wednesday, June 8, 2016 11:39 AM (1 month ago)
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, June 8, 2016 9:35 AM (1 month ago)
― glandular lansbury (sic), Wednesday, June 8, 2016 11:35 AM (1 month ago)
― μpright mammal (mh), Wednesday, June 8, 2016 11:39 AM (1 month ago)
just looked at this on a computer for the first time, so I could actually count: out of the first 90 comics in this "complete Morrison Batman" torrent, FIFTY-THREE are by other people
the 11 reprints from 1951-64 are at least more relevant to his run than all the contemporaneous stuff. (and the last 42 issues are uninterrupted Morrison.)
― glandular lansbury (sic), Friday, 8 July 2016 09:25 (eight years ago) link
What a travesty for Kick Ass Torrents!
― Tuomas, Friday, 8 July 2016 09:34 (eight years ago) link
ha ha
I was thinking more for milo trying to read the whole thing
― glandular lansbury (sic), Friday, 8 July 2016 09:37 (eight years ago) link
After putting it off for years I finally did finish reading the Morrison run. well almost - the weird thing is towards the end, after New 52 started the Batman universe is really weird being half-rebooted and half-not, but the Morrison run does slightly intersect with the other Bat-titles (Synder Batman/Detective Comics/Batman & Robin/Nightwing etc.) so while I've read Batman Inc - Leviathan I still have to read Death of the Family...
― Nhex, Friday, 8 July 2016 11:23 (eight years ago) link
I've read the 13 issues that came after Leviathan and I have no idea what Death Of The Family is
― glandular lansbury (sic), Friday, 8 July 2016 14:29 (eight years ago) link
It's a Snyder thing, you wouldn't understand.
To steer this back towards the topic at hand, I've been catching up on the secondary and tertiary All-New X-titles, and I've been pleasantly surprised to see the extent to which Morrison's New X-Men run has been referenced in recent years, especially after the embarrassed, 'shove it under the rug and forget it' treatment it received for so long. I guess we just had to wait for a new, Morrison-inspired generation of writers to come 'round.
Spurrier's X-Men Legacy (not exactly the book I was referencing but clearly a beneficiary of that legacy) is good stuff, btw.
― some anal dread (Old Lunch), Friday, 8 July 2016 15:18 (eight years ago) link
as much as I hated their "resurrect Grant Morrison's toys he created then killed" approach, I guess I'll let them have Xorn now
― mh, Friday, 8 July 2016 15:19 (eight years ago) link
Good grief Civil War II must be one of the most relentlessly un-fun comics I've read since Countdown or Identity Crisis.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 14 July 2016 20:24 (eight years ago) link
wtf is going on re: Civil War II
― http://porno (DJP), Monday, 18 July 2016 17:48 (eight years ago) link
I kinda dig it for reflecting the zeitgeist but Chuck is OTM, it ain't fun.
― pleas to Nietzsche (WilliamC), Monday, 18 July 2016 17:54 (eight years ago) link
i know basically nothing about CWII, what's the deal?
― Nhex, Monday, 18 July 2016 17:58 (eight years ago) link
minority report divided by world war hulk with bendis dialogue
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Monday, 18 July 2016 18:00 (eight years ago) link
guy sees futurepeople ask if it's a series of self-fulfilling prophecieshawkeye kills banner because ?!?
― mh, Monday, 18 July 2016 18:17 (eight years ago) link
Welp, there's that spoiler I'd been assiduously avoiding.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Monday, 18 July 2016 18:19 (eight years ago) link
Apparently the deal is "Bendis murders old characters to make space for new ones"
― http://porno (DJP), Monday, 18 July 2016 18:20 (eight years ago) link
it hardly feels like a major plot beat, more "then this thing happened"
― mh, Monday, 18 July 2016 18:25 (eight years ago) link
ah, it'll retrofit in a year anywaykilling major characters is as serious and stable as a jenga set
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Monday, 18 July 2016 18:30 (eight years ago) link
Seriously. To the extent that I kinda wish they'd just stop doing it for like a decade or so.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Monday, 18 July 2016 18:32 (eight years ago) link
lol as if Banner is really gonna give anyone a way to kill Hulk
― mh, Monday, 18 July 2016 18:33 (eight years ago) link
It's like a bigger ontological problem at this point. Why does death even mean anything to characters in the Marvel U? Why is that a universe where death would've ever even been considered more than a minor annoyance in the first place? Because all of the people who've died seventeen times on average look at Uncle Ben's as-yet-undisturbed grave and say, that could be us?
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Monday, 18 July 2016 18:35 (eight years ago) link
I will lol if they murdered Banner in order to prevent Hulk from killing all the heroes and Amadeus Cho freaks out and kills everyone in order to keep himself sage
― http://porno (DJP), Monday, 18 July 2016 18:36 (eight years ago) link
even if death isn't permanent i'm sure dying is still uncomfortable (especially dying violently), and being out of the scene for anywhere from 6 months to years is also a sad thing. maybe not any more sad than someone going on a long vacation but still. and the chance that you don't ever get resurrected makes it a bit russian roulettish. maybe knowing death is rarely permanent might make you more willing to take risky heroic chances that put yr life into jeopardy but they are already doing that on a regular basis so either it's bc they know and so that kind of heroism is a logical result of knowing you can't die permanently or bc they're just big heroes and thank god there's a safety net to catch them if they ever fall off the tightrope of the living.
― Mordy, Monday, 18 July 2016 18:56 (eight years ago) link
(waves at friend's mangled corpse) Have a nice trip!
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Monday, 18 July 2016 18:58 (eight years ago) link
One of the best recent-ish stories I've read along these lines revolved around Siryn refusing to grieve Banshee's death because he was an X-Man and therefore due to be resurrected any day now.
― http://porno (DJP), Monday, 18 July 2016 18:59 (eight years ago) link
I was thinking of that exact story, too. This big secret re: death is being referenced in-universe more and more frequently.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Monday, 18 July 2016 19:01 (eight years ago) link
pretty sure he came back during the x-force thing where the dead remained half-dead, but allied with selene xp
― mh, Monday, 18 July 2016 19:01 (eight years ago) link
tbf the reaction from almost every character running into a "reanimated" character in that plot was "aw, hell no"
― mh, Monday, 18 July 2016 19:02 (eight years ago) link
xpost Yeah, he did. Don't recall what ultimately became of those resurrected Horsemen.
I wish it were at least treated in some manner similar to Buffy's death and resurrection. Like, there are at least consequences or things lost from being brought back from the dead.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Monday, 18 July 2016 19:03 (eight years ago) link
I guess they kinda went there with Nightcrawler's resurrection, but it doesn't really have as much gravity as a one-off thing.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Monday, 18 July 2016 19:21 (eight years ago) link
iirc peter david did something interesting back in the pantheon-era hulk days, where rick jones' gf marlo was brought back from the dead but was basically in a vegetative state for a while xp
― report your crimes to my burning ghost cock (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 18 July 2016 19:29 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, for like maybe a year at most, iirc. Nothing like that ever lasts.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Monday, 18 July 2016 19:31 (eight years ago) link
Did they fix Nightcrawler's problem of not having a soul yet? :(
― mh, Monday, 18 July 2016 19:42 (eight years ago) link
Why does Bendis still have the keys to the Marvel Universe, I thought everyone was bored of him already? At least Hickman did something cool and imaginative with those keys. Bendis' previous big story (Age of Ultron) was one of the most tired, needless crossovers I've ever read, can't imagine this one being any better?
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 07:39 (eight years ago) link
Oh this one is much much worse. Ultron was at least dumb fun, and had two really great Vic F crossovers.
On the other hand this one has taken Al's Ultimates team (i.e. the optimistic, hopeful ones) and turned them into The Bad Guys.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 09:16 (eight years ago) link
I wonder if time will out whose idea Civil War II was. My guess is that it wasn't a writer. Could be that Bendis took the job cuz no one else wanted it.
I was a Bendis fan back in his earlier Marvel days but kinda feel these days like he needs to focus on maybe like the Miles Morales book and otherwise just relax and enjoy the big money he surely has at this point. Pass that baton, bruh.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 12:31 (eight years ago) link
https://twitter.com/JHickman/status/752939781684797440
― mh, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 13:52 (eight years ago) link
I'm not even caught up to the point where he left but I miss Hickman already.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 13:54 (eight years ago) link
It feels like Bendis has been churning out plot long enough that everything is kind of bland. I'd rather see some whimsical or really weird ideas fall flat than another by-the-book plot trickle through.
When I was thinking about "Road to road to Civil War 2.5" or whatever is going on had its "shocking" character death, and how as readers we're primed to disbelieve it's permanent, it reminded me of what Hickman did with the Human Torch. He's lost, presumably dead, in the Negative Zone for a reasonable amount of time but never shown to die on panel. I don't think, as a reader, I was ever supposed to believe he was dead, but his absence meant something to the plot.
...and his return meant even more! The reveal that he was killed _many times_ and rebuilt for these drudging fights (which is, at its root, what comic superheroes are put through, although not as literally) was commentary on superhero death, and when he finally reappears, it's one of the main events that turns the tide in a much larger battle! The Negative Zone portal popping open, and Johnny Storm standing there with Annihilus on a leash, was.. fun? Comics can be fun!
― mh, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 14:09 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, good call. Too bad that, again, his grueling time in the Negative Zone didn't seem to affect his personality for long.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 14:12 (eight years ago) link
I guess that's my main complaint about Bendis, nothing seems fun or novel, just a slog through ideas that could be interesting but come off like checkmarks on a list of plot progression waypoints.
I picked up a few of Al's new Ultimates issues in a comic shop and the cashier hadn't been reading them and the cover with the golden Galactus on it kind of gave him pause, because he actually wanted to read it to figure out what was going on. I'm not sure "oh, I guess Doom is Iron Man now" gives the same sort of sense of curiosity.
― mh, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 14:14 (eight years ago) link
But...it's a different suit of armor! The possibilities!
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 14:16 (eight years ago) link
for sure, this one has green eyes
― mh, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 14:20 (eight years ago) link
feels like Bendis has been churning out plot long enough that everything is kind of bland
Bendis comics have been bland since 1994
― Shakey δσς (sic), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 15:25 (eight years ago) link
where'd I post that anecdote about overhearing dudes talking about Bendis? still funny
― mh, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 15:27 (eight years ago) link
I definitely went through a period of wading back into comics and picked up the collected crime fiction works and gave them away not long after
― mh, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 15:28 (eight years ago) link
Contrarian take: I like Bendis! Sure, not 100% of his stuff is good (agreed on the pointlessness of Age of Ultron) but the quality of his good stuff outweighs the bad easily imo
― Nhex, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 16:23 (eight years ago) link
I'm with you. The pre-Marvel stuff, though...not recommended. A large part of the reason it took me a while to get around to his Marvel stuff.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 16:32 (eight years ago) link
The two Iron Man titles were fun until recently when the Civil War stuff kicked in.
Aside from usual gripes (annoying panel layout, too much talking, his only idea for action scenes is "a big thing explodes") I do think he's a very good writer for a certain type of enjoyable, base-level Marvel comic. But he has no discipline, and everything he does becomes a slog after six issues.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 16:54 (eight years ago) link
A slog?A slog.You're saying his work becomes a slog.Yes, a slog. After six issues.Six issues?Six issues.Why six?Because it's more than five.More than five?More than five....A slog?
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 16:56 (eight years ago) link
[Hellicarrier explodes.]
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 17:16 (eight years ago) link
What was the first egregious resurrection/retcon that started this trend? Did it happen before Jean Grey/X-Factor?
― woke newt (stevie), Thursday, 21 July 2016 09:32 (eight years ago) link
http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/uncanny_x-men_65.shtml
Although Xavier's behavior is consistent with his explanation for why he was pretending to be dead all this time. It turns out an alien race called the Z'Nox are heading to Earth on their planet/spaceship.
Their MO is to fly close enough to a planet that they intend to invade and let their planets' gravitational pull do all the work.
Xavier became aware of the Z'Nox while "engaged in telepathic star-scanning" and was "desperately seeking a means of countering it" when the Changeling showed up. Changeling had been diagnosed with a sickness that gave him 6 months to live, and he wanted to make up for the bad things he'd done in his life.
Xavier had him mimic him and "divide[d] some of my powers between him and Jean".
Well, i guess that settles why Xavier had to fake his death, putting his poor students through all that heartache (and forcing Jean, who knew about it, to lie to her friends), right? No? You say that if he needed some time to prepare, Xavier could have just asked his students to give him some alone time? Hrmm. I guess he hadn't thought of that. Also not even a token explanation as to why he wouldn't have reached out to the Fantastic Four or Avengers for help (even though the Avengers were providing minor support to the X-Men during the time period that Xavier was thought dead, and even though the FF are shown in this issue).
― Tuomas, Thursday, 21 July 2016 09:42 (eight years ago) link
Captain America returning in Avengers 4 seems like the start of this kind of thing, at least for Marvel (tho of course Cap hadn't actually died in the comics previously, just been cancelled - a fate worse than death for any comics character). Things like 'The Death of Superman' from 1961 also addressed the idea of superheroes being mortal; even tho it was an imaginary story, it clearly had a big effect on comic book readers of the time, and helped to establish the death/resurrection parallels between superheroes and Jesus.
― Foster Twelvetrees (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 21 July 2016 09:42 (eight years ago) link
And here it's confirmed that the intention was really to kill Xavier:
Per Roy Thomas in the intro to Marvel Masterworks: The X-Men vol. 4 (written in 2004):
"At the time, I believe it was our intention that he was really dead - as dead as Bucky Barnes, and that's dead, my friend - but I recall mentally leaving myself an "out" to bring him back, if we ever wanted to."
The "out" is using the Changeling, and that's what ultimately is used to bring Xavier back.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 21 July 2016 09:46 (eight years ago) link
Captain America returning in Avengers 4 seems like the start of this kind of thing, at least for Marvel (tho of course Cap hadn't actually died in the comics previously, just been cancelled - a fate worse than death for any comics character).
I'm not sure if this really counts since, as you said, it hadn't been established earlier that he was dead, and the "death" was introduced as a retcon in the same story he was resurrected. Later on they even had to do another retcon to explain why Cap had been active in the '50s, if he died in WWII.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 21 July 2016 09:49 (eight years ago) link
Possibly the Green Goblin?
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 21 July 2016 09:58 (eight years ago) link
Wasn't he revealed to be alive only in the mid-90s, i.e. a decade after the Jean Grey retcon?
― Tuomas, Thursday, 21 July 2016 10:00 (eight years ago) link
I get confused about Harry Osborn. Didn't JM DeMatteis kill him off in the early 90s?
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 21 July 2016 10:42 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, he didn't come back until that Spidey super-retcon Brand New Day.
― Nhex, Thursday, 21 July 2016 11:07 (eight years ago) link
I'll have to have a flip through the old OHOTMU book of the dead to confirm, but my recollection is that not many major characters died before, like, the '80s, and when they did die (and it wasn't a one-issue feint or something) they generally stayed dead.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Thursday, 21 July 2016 12:39 (eight years ago) link
Uncle Ben, Bucky, Osborns Norman and Harry, Gwen Stacy, Captain Marvel, Kraven...most of those deaths were Big Deals (some with storylines/graphic novels specifically dedicated to the event), and most have stuck or at least weren't undone until much later.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Thursday, 21 July 2016 12:41 (eight years ago) link
Is that not just a factor of the fact that no-one was planning in the mid-term? And of course that no-one was planning, with those deaths, for their return at all.
(xp Tuomas completely OTM about Jean Gray prededeceasing Norman Osborne)
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 21 July 2016 12:46 (eight years ago) link
Preressurrecting, I assume you meant.
― Night Jorts (Old Lunch), Thursday, 21 July 2016 12:50 (eight years ago) link
On the rare occasions I dip into Marvel continuity since I stopped reading comics in like 1988 or so*, it strengthens my resolve to discount anything that happened in comics since I stopped reading in like 1988 or so. In my head, Gwen is still dead, etc, and it's a better place to be.
* Loved the Morrison and Whedon runs on X-men tho. I am corny.
― woke newt (stevie), Thursday, 21 July 2016 12:54 (eight years ago) link
Isn't the "real" Gwen Stacy still dead tho? AFAIK Spider-Gwen is a parallel universe version of her or something?
― Tuomas, Thursday, 21 July 2016 12:56 (eight years ago) link
I think Captain Marvel proved that the best way to kill a character and ensure he stays dead is to have him succumb to a real-life mortal illness. Because having someone come back from that would be considered bad taste, even if it makes no sense that Reed Richards or any of the other Marvel super-scientists haven't come up with a cure for cancer yet.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 21 July 2016 12:58 (eight years ago) link
don't tempt millar
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Thursday, 21 July 2016 13:07 (eight years ago) link
Deadpool has cancer, and his rogue super-healing factor keeps him from dying - in theory without the cancer his cells would keep growing and kill him.
And that, I've just found out, is why Normal Osborne found a cure for cancer, put it in a bullet, and fired it at Deadpool.
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 21 July 2016 13:23 (eight years ago) link
See, these are plots I would have rejected for being too ridiculous back when I was a six-year-old playing with action figures.
― woke newt (stevie), Thursday, 21 July 2016 13:49 (eight years ago) link
I... kind of like that idea for taking out Deadpool, particularly coming from Osborne.
help
― http://porno (DJP), Thursday, 21 July 2016 13:59 (eight years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/AcsCubh.jpg
― mh, Thursday, 21 July 2016 14:01 (eight years ago) link
Sauron makes a valid point
― http://porno (DJP), Thursday, 21 July 2016 14:11 (eight years ago) link
all we are is rice paper puppies
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Thursday, 21 July 2016 14:13 (eight years ago) link
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/comics/2010-09-01-onemonth-marvel01-ST_N.htm
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Thursday, 21 July 2016 14:41 (eight years ago) link
okay I can't deal with that
― http://porno (DJP), Thursday, 21 July 2016 15:11 (eight years ago) link
it's on marvel unlimited! gonna read it real quick.
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Thursday, 21 July 2016 15:18 (eight years ago) link
surprise! it's remender in hateful and weird mode! and the purple man shows up at the end of the first issue. I will be stopping now.
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Thursday, 21 July 2016 15:23 (eight years ago) link
http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/sienkiewicz-calls-out-fox-over-x-men-apocalypse-dazzler-art-credit
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Tuesday, 9 August 2016 13:47 (eight years ago) link
― Very selfish, and very ironic (DJP), Wednesday, January 13, 2016 9:03 AM (6 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I just started on this (copped the "Timely Comics" three-issues-in-one deal for $1) and, WOW.
― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 9 August 2016 22:34 (eight years ago) link
I think Aaron's easily the best staff writer at Marvel right now, but I find Strange kind of unreadable - maybe it's the art? Thor is a bit offgame too, compared to the 2012-5 stretch, but it's still fun.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 10 August 2016 01:21 (eight years ago) link
I was a little chagrined about Aaron's move to Marvel because I wasn't crazy about some of his earlier stuff, but I have to admit he's really been knocking it out of the park.
― Neither F.I.S.T. Nor Fletch (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 10 August 2016 01:28 (eight years ago) link
Aaron's first year on Thor - it's one long story - is my fave comic of the past few years. Just this super fun, super-casual epic with no particular continuity. I kind of wish he'd go back to that style with the new Thor.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 10 August 2016 01:38 (eight years ago) link
Was that the one with the Godkiller arc?
― Nhex, Thursday, 11 August 2016 01:27 (eight years ago) link
I'm a sucker for Chris Bachalo tho, especially having come up on his Shade the Changing Man.
― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 11 August 2016 21:30 (eight years ago) link
Vision is _really_ good btw.
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Monday, 15 August 2016 20:01 (eight years ago) link
Keep hearing good things about it. Will it make sense if you have no idea of current marvel universe, or is it all avengers linked?
― 🐸a hairy howling toad torments a man whose wife is deathly ill (James Morrison), Tuesday, 16 August 2016 01:07 (eight years ago) link
The issues I read were almost completely isolated from the rest of the Marvel U
― Don't boo, vote (DJP), Tuesday, 16 August 2016 02:03 (eight years ago) link
they are and thank god. basically you can walk in knowing nothing and it's fine.
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Tuesday, 16 August 2016 05:01 (eight years ago) link
Just read the first twos use, they're really fun! Robots arguing about grammar. So far I kind of prefer fhe quotidian stuff to the action stuff, but book's gotta have a plot I guess.
I get why people were interested In him doing Batman now - this seems a lot better, though?
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 07:21 (eight years ago) link
*two issues
batman curdled on the third issue for me tbh10 issues into vision and 9 into sheriff of babylon and they're both just about the best comix coming out right now on a monthly basis for my moneytom king has a very specific style and i like it a lot.his run on vision ends at issue 12http://www.vulture.com/2016/07/sheriff-of-babylon-comic-book-iraq-war.html
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Tuesday, 16 August 2016 16:29 (eight years ago) link
imo Omega Men is the DC title written by Tom King to go by, not this Batman run that just started. Like Vision, it's divorced enough from continuity and editorial direction to be its own thing.
― mh, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 17:32 (eight years ago) link
Omega Men felt a little compressed at the end - like editorial told him he had to wrap it up before Rebirth - but until the last few issues its the best thing DC has done since Dial H.
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 18:39 (eight years ago) link
we're all omega men now
― mh, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 18:42 (eight years ago) link
It was cancelled at 7 then given another 5 issues due to fan outcry.
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 19:38 (eight years ago) link
man DC really has no clue what's good
― mh, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 19:40 (eight years ago) link
I couldn't get into Omega Men but I keep hearing good things. Should I try again and persist? I also couldn't get into Dial H, despite wanting to...
I think Tom King was also involved in Grayson, which I enjoyed.
― salsa shark, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 19:58 (eight years ago) link
The Omega Men series had an issue #0 I missed on first reading. It sets the stage for the first act, which is otherwise a little muddled although it's doing the work of setting up the basis for the rest of the series. The main plot turn is when their abductee, Kyle Raynor, finally sees why the group is fighting together, despite their different origins.
The actual rebellion/battle would have probably gone on much longer had the series continued, and expanded on the denouement, which nevertheless ends up with the gray moral resolution that the series deserves
― mh, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 20:22 (eight years ago) link
i agree about omega men being "compressed"; it's still notably better than about 95% of what DC has put out in the past five years.i get the sense he really barely has any interest in writing batman but it pays super well and sells books.
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Tuesday, 16 August 2016 21:34 (eight years ago) link
Such a boring character for writers. I'd do it in a second of course, but ugh.
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 16 August 2016 23:49 (eight years ago) link
from King's Ringer interview:
“Batman is its own beast,” King said. “It’s weird. I write these very thinky comics where there’s no hero. Sheriff doesn’t have a hero; no one at the end of it is gonna be like: ‘Yay! I triumphed and solved terrorism!’ Vision, at the end, it’s set up as a tragedy and I know how it ends, it’s tragic. What Batman is, is a story about a hero triumphant. The best thing Batman can do with me is to be a good comic that takes people a little bit outside of their day, where they can read and be like, ‘Holy shit!’ That gives you a jolt of pleasure. I’m not trying with Batman to be like, ‘OK, here I want to comment on the world.’ I want to make Die Hard.”
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 00:01 (eight years ago) link
pretty sure it's being guided by editorial to use a bunch of characters and plot devices familiar with their movie and tv properties. as the gotham tv show season featuring hugo strange ends and the suicide squad movie comes out, we get batman dealing with... hugo strange and amanda waller
― mh, Wednesday, 17 August 2016 00:03 (eight years ago) link
what do you mean by morrison-isms?
― Nhex, Tuesday, 23 August 2016 15:52 (eight years ago) link
darkgrimgritty played through a stream of consciousness filter plus rapid fire mamet dialogue
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Tuesday, 23 August 2016 17:48 (eight years ago) link
All respect, but that's the sort of misleading if not inaccurate description of Morrison I'd read in like USA Today
― Two Kisses and Three Wet Mouths (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 23 August 2016 17:52 (eight years ago) link
yeah, that is not really Morrison, imo
I thought you'd at least throw in the two or three speech vocalisms he spells out (*tch* or whatever) and uses every series
― mh, Tuesday, 23 August 2016 17:58 (eight years ago) link
It's 'tt'. Also 'UUUUIIIIIII' (scream emitting from otherworldly creatures).
― Two Kisses and Three Wet Mouths (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 23 August 2016 18:18 (eight years ago) link
thanks, I was going to google for examples at work but I knew you'd have my back :)
― mh, Tuesday, 23 August 2016 18:25 (eight years ago) link
Of course. It's one of the like four extremely niche and generally pointless things I'm good for.
― Two Kisses and Three Wet Mouths (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 23 August 2016 18:29 (eight years ago) link
i'm a fan of nnnnnaaaaaaAAAAAAAiiiii myself.intelligent men differ but the psycho pirate stuff and ms. gotham doing the "I'm scared" bit put me in the mind of morrison. I've read my share of it!
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Tuesday, 23 August 2016 18:57 (eight years ago) link
I believe that you have! That description doesn't do him justice, though (e.g. his employment of darkgrimgritty is almost always in the service of some loftier comment, rapid fire Mamet dialogue is way more Bendis than Morrison).
― Two Kisses and Three Wet Mouths (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 23 August 2016 19:00 (eight years ago) link
Trying too hard to be cool dialogue, I'll give you.
― Two Kisses and Three Wet Mouths (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 23 August 2016 19:01 (eight years ago) link
well, less mamet of the Bendis variety
"What did he tell you""the boss""no the other guy""what""of course the boss""well than just say the boss then""I gotta talk the way you want me to?""just say the boss"
"i tried to save gotham""I know""But it just... You can't. You just can't""I know""Good bye batman""Good bye gotham"KBAMMMM"hmmm"
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Tuesday, 23 August 2016 19:06 (eight years ago) link
as for the "loftier comment", i am not of the school that gives morrison carte blanche. i suppose king's point in this first run is that death changes a man, changes.... A CITY and that minus the meta is not much shallower than much of what I've read of GM as of late
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Tuesday, 23 August 2016 19:09 (eight years ago) link
does anyone give morrison carte blanche? c'mon man everyone has good and bad work
― mh, Tuesday, 23 August 2016 19:56 (eight years ago) link
i find GMs stuff has a tendency to be overrated but i'm aware i'm in the minority in that for this board.
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Tuesday, 23 August 2016 21:46 (eight years ago) link
I'd just like to rep for aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot)
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 23 August 2016 21:53 (eight years ago) link
^^^ thanking u for screen name
― aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot) (WilliamC), Tuesday, 23 August 2016 22:05 (eight years ago) link
Haha, you're welcome
Anyway I haven't seen folks mention the Waid/Samnee Black Widow, which just finished a super fun first six issues, and features lots of panels like this:
http://i.imgur.com/PQHmsOW.jpg
Also it's one of the few comics that reads really well on the app with Guided View - maybe better than in print, even
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 23 August 2016 22:50 (eight years ago) link
I think of "tt" as being something Morrison had Batman say - where else has he flogged it?
― Shakey δσς (sic), Wednesday, 24 August 2016 00:25 (eight years ago) link
I remember 'hh' (impatient sigh, presumably) being used for Batman.
― Two Kisses and Three Wet Mouths (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 24 August 2016 00:55 (eight years ago) link
Yes, I'm really enjoying the current Black Widow series. While I was reading #6 I had the thought that Waid was pitching a ScarJo solo film.
― aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot) (WilliamC), Wednesday, 24 August 2016 00:56 (eight years ago) link
*flips through Invisibles* "TT" first appears two or three issues in
― mh, Wednesday, 24 August 2016 01:44 (eight years ago) link
it actually took me a little while of reading Morrison before I realized his predilection was for two letter guttural vocalizations. Wasn't sure if it was that or some weird abbreviation scheme I missed
― mh, Wednesday, 24 August 2016 01:46 (eight years ago) link
Sound effects were always the giveaway for which 52 pages GM was writing
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 24 August 2016 08:46 (eight years ago) link
haven't read the black widow series but on the strength of those two panels chuck_tatum posted i'm going to rectify that asap
― i can pee through time (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 24 August 2016 13:05 (eight years ago) link
Looking forward to reading Black Widow and Vision and all of the Marvel series that I've been buying and putting into boxes over the past couple of years once I get caught up (just finished Original Sin...sigh...this is never going to happen, is it?).
― Two Kisses and Three Wet Mouths (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 24 August 2016 13:14 (eight years ago) link
Original Sin was pretty good btw, for those of you who are further behind than I am. I'm kinda over Marvel "killing off" major characters but I dug most of the secret history reveals, which were largely impactful without being too dismissive of what came before. Not crazy about Dum Dum, though, wtf.
― Two Kisses and Three Wet Mouths (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 24 August 2016 13:37 (eight years ago) link
Original Sin payoff is definitely a long game, since we still don't know what made Thor drop the hammer!
― mh, Wednesday, 24 August 2016 14:04 (eight years ago) link
Ugh, wish I had it in front of me to confirm but I thought the implication was that Fury used something like an Asgardian cheat code to render Thor unworthy.
― Two Kisses and Three Wet Mouths (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 24 August 2016 14:12 (eight years ago) link
Still enjoying the Aaron Thor issues. I like the really transparent ploy at the end of the current issue. Thor and Jane Foster are both present?!? I thought Thor was Jane! What kind of trickery is... wait... oh yeah
― mh, Wednesday, 24 August 2016 14:15 (eight years ago) link
Yeah it's gotten better the past couple issues after a boring patch
This is persnickety but, while I dig the artist, I find his panel shapes really annoying
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 24 August 2016 14:28 (eight years ago) link
i guess no one else has talked about how much fun Squirrel Girl is? It's fun.
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Wednesday, 24 August 2016 16:40 (eight years ago) link
I think we have somewhere, maybe on another thread. The issue with Galactus is one of my favourite issues of anything ever.
― salsa shark, Thursday, 25 August 2016 19:49 (eight years ago) link
omg the last issue of vision is SO SAD
can't remember having that "count the days until the next issue" feeling for a while
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 28 August 2016 22:04 (eight years ago) link
― Nhex, Monday, 29 August 2016 03:54 (eight years ago) link
in my head its the only marvel comic discussed on this board bar hickman's universe-ending thing i've just totally blanked on the name of. this is obv inaccurate. anyway squirrel girl yeah it's great
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Monday, 29 August 2016 04:09 (eight years ago) link
i think it's good in a way that 'fun' is unnecessarily diminutive of actually
but that's my weird predilection for narrative art that exists by virtue of the preposition 'hey, most narrative art of this genre is dumb'
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Monday, 29 August 2016 04:10 (eight years ago) link
Genndy Tartakovsky is doing a Luke Cage book and it looks like this:
https://thenerdsofcolor.org/2016/07/11/who-is-marvels-blaxploitation-luke-cage-comic-even-for-exactly/
― Don't boo, vote (DJP), Wednesday, 7 September 2016 16:45 (eight years ago) link
Jesus Christ.
― how's life, Wednesday, 7 September 2016 16:52 (eight years ago) link
that looks... suspect, but i'll warily give Genndy the benefit of the doubt until the book comes out because Samurai Jack was so good
also wow this was actually announced nine years ago??
― Nhex, Wednesday, 7 September 2016 17:43 (eight years ago) link
That's a nicely written piece though, by comics bloggin standards
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 7 September 2016 20:58 (eight years ago) link
see, to me that cage sample reflects less tartakovsky and much more destefano: the rubbery limbs, contorted faces, bigfoot-style cartooning all 'roundi love destefano's work in general but Marvel putting him on something as culturally loaded as a blaxploitation take of power man running concurrent with the netflix relaunch of Cage as "unapologetically black" is tone deaf to the point of ugliness. i don't think there's anything inherently wrong with a bigfoot Luke Cage story, but why not give it to Milton Knight or (DeStefano's Instant Piano cohort) Kyle Baker? Shit, I would buy those books in a heartbeat! Even Sanford Greene's work would be more appropriate and i don't even dig that guy's style.anyway pulliam-moore otm
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Thursday, 8 September 2016 16:45 (eight years ago) link
I'll personally wait on dropping the otm-bombs until we have more than one dialogue- and context-free page of art upon which to judge.
― Our Meals Are Hot And Fresh! (Old Lunch), Thursday, 8 September 2016 17:14 (eight years ago) link
(sitting stunned by how much I would love a Kyle Baker Luke Cage)
The elephant in the room here is surely that the reason he's a big deal these days is almost entirely due to a white guy.
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 8 September 2016 17:51 (eight years ago) link
no offense OL but unless the placement of that page of art is "thing that luke cage reads in a grocery store tabloid and then shakes his head walking away" there is no particular context in which it's gonna play well.
the reason he's a big deal these days is almost entirely due to a white guy.
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Thursday, 8 September 2016 18:15 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, I thought he was a big deal because he released some acclaimed graphic novels in the '90s, I have no idea who this "white guy" is?
― Tuomas, Thursday, 8 September 2016 18:44 (eight years ago) link
I assume that he's saying Luke Cage is a big deal because of a white guy (or, really, a long succession of white guys) but I'm not sure why that's an elephant.
― Our Meals Are Hot And Fresh! (Old Lunch), Thursday, 8 September 2016 18:48 (eight years ago) link
TBF, I'd predict that Luke Cage is on track to become a bigger deal than ever almost entirely due to the performance of a black guy.
― Our Meals Are Hot And Fresh! (Old Lunch), Thursday, 8 September 2016 18:50 (eight years ago) link
the white guy Andrew Farrell is referring to is Bendis, right?
― soref, Thursday, 8 September 2016 18:58 (eight years ago) link
That's who I thought he meant.
― Foster Twelvetrees (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 8 September 2016 19:01 (eight years ago) link
I thought he was talking about Iron Fist.
― how's life, Thursday, 8 September 2016 19:02 (eight years ago) link
xxp I'm willing to hear a counterfactual, but as far as I know Luke Cage's profile has received an enormous boost over the last decade because Brian Michael Bendis featured him as a prominent character in a lot of his Marvel work - supporting character and love interest in Alias & The Pulse, and himself and Jessica Jones have been in various Bendis-written Avengers books since - they provide the "new family - how can we have children in a world/life like this?" role to varying degrees of eye-rolling depending on who's writing them.
I could certainly have been clearer that I meant Cage and not Kyle Baker, true.
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 8 September 2016 19:42 (eight years ago) link
I too would love a Kyle Baker Luke Cage
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Friday, 9 September 2016 00:45 (eight years ago) link
If this is your kind of thing, the collected Steranko SHIELD is on sale for £3 on the Marvel app. It's about 500 pages.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 15 September 2016 20:28 (eight years ago) link
I've been reading late '00s Spider-Man, likely because I have a deep-seated self-loathing I'm trying to work through and reading questionable comics is how it's playing out.
I started out right before "One More Day." It's really as bad as everyone said it was! The partial retcon definitely helped, although it's still very clumsy in execution. It divided the two events that the plot encapsulated into more-digestible bits, at least.
The multiple issues per month deal was sloppy in that it kept the number of plots and variability of quality that you'd get across multiple Spider-Man series, but all under the banner of Amazing Spider-Man. You still end up feeling like there's a main title and some interesting side stories, but they end up being neatly divided between "written by Dan Slott" and "some other stuff."
The integration between Spider-Man and the two (!) teams he's on is decent, but still a little sloppy. You no longer end up asking "if the Sinister Six (or however many villains there are this week) are so powerful and they're in New York, then how come the Avengers don't help out?". It also gives Slott the chance to do a couple FF stories during Hickman's run, and you end up with some fun stories that are less about the plots-within-plots and more about Spidey playing off of the Richards family.
I really liked Superior Spider-Man! I'm sure the new status quo is starting to show some wear, but having Doc Ock take over was the world's longest shortcut to pushing Peter into being a more developed human being. Him being a scientist only because he had to sell out to Tony Stark via the Civil War shenanigans just never felt right, and now he has an actual job instead of decades of bouncing between photography and teaching gigs. He's turned into a little too much of an Iron Man-lite version now, though.
― dr. mercurio arboria (mh 😏), Monday, 19 September 2016 20:19 (eight years ago) link
I remember some decent Waid/Marcos Martn stories in that period.
Feel like he's much more interesting as a photographer than a scientist.
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 19 September 2016 20:50 (eight years ago) link
agreed, those were some of the better stories!
imo having him do science stuff is good, him being really successful is probably bad
there's also the weird anachronism of him showing up to the office with the classic "check out these pictures!" and "can we make the evening edition" style banter that continues on way too far into this century when absolutely no news room operates like that and I have no idea why he isn't uploading his pictures and while editions are important, newspapers upload shit all the time
Slott himself seems only half-sold on the Parker Industries thing at first. there's at least one "spider-mobile!" joke per issue for six months
― dr. mercurio arboria (mh 😏), Monday, 19 September 2016 20:59 (eight years ago) link
I've recently started catching up slowly on some of the Marvel books from the last few years. Are they publishing anything else these days as focused and idiosyncratic as Tom King's Vision?
― one way street, Monday, 19 September 2016 21:21 (eight years ago) link
Karnak had a shot, but artist issues and disastrously blown deadlines kind of derailed that.
― aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot) (WilliamC), Monday, 19 September 2016 21:26 (eight years ago) link
Karnak is nearly far enough behind that Marvel Unlimited will have all the released issues by the time the next is out
― dr. mercurio arboria (mh 😏), Monday, 19 September 2016 21:45 (eight years ago) link
it's only up to issue three right? first two were real good.
― thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Monday, 19 September 2016 21:55 (eight years ago) link
I think I'm cautiously optimistic about Mariko Tamaki's take on Jennifer Walters; I don't know how well Tamaki's strengths will carry over to superhero comics, or how much of a free hand editorial will give her, but she's always been deft at character studies.
― one way street, Monday, 19 September 2016 22:01 (eight years ago) link
Karnak's up to #4 (came out in mid-May). Theoretically #5 is out this week.
― aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot) (WilliamC), Monday, 19 September 2016 23:00 (eight years ago) link
Mariko Tamaki's doing She-Hulk?! This is excellent news!
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Monday, 19 September 2016 23:46 (eight years ago) link
I'll rep for the current Moon Knight series. Half a dozen issues in and I genuinely don't know whether the lead character has just had a breakdown and is imagining it all.
― Horizontal Superman is invulnerable (aldo), Tuesday, 20 September 2016 05:55 (eight years ago) link
Got to say that Luke Cage trailer looks cool on Netflix.
― earlnash, Monday, 26 September 2016 06:00 (eight years ago) link
Re: my previous post about Genddy Tartakofsky's Cage!...
After reading the first issue, I'm comfortable proclaiming that this is an indefensible piece of shit on pretty much every level. Even more racist than the previous dialogue- and context-free page of art would suggest, a pathetic 'story' that barely hangs together, shitty dialogue, no characterization. I thought at least the art/design would offset any other subpar elements but even that's no great shakes. I'm surprised Marvel actually put this out, and especially surprised that they timed its release so poorly as to coincide with a much better show that'll probably send people to the comic shop in search of further Cage material. Avoid!
― I Can Thrill You More Than Elliott Gould Would Ever Dare Try (Old Lunch), Thursday, 20 October 2016 14:57 (eight years ago) link
Also, it's completely incidental that this is a Luke Cage book or that it's set in the Marvel U at all. This could've been any random-ass character.
― I Can Thrill You More Than Elliott Gould Would Ever Dare Try (Old Lunch), Thursday, 20 October 2016 14:59 (eight years ago) link
it's shitty, yes.
― the notes the loon doesn't play (ulysses), Thursday, 20 October 2016 15:27 (eight years ago) link
And there's ample evidence on this board to suggest that I'm as big a Marvel apologist as it gets. Like, I can't think of anything Marvel that I've read from the past, I dunno, 5-10 years that I personally would call outright shitty. But this was outright shitty.
― I Can Thrill You More Than Elliott Gould Would Ever Dare Try (Old Lunch), Thursday, 20 October 2016 15:42 (eight years ago) link
I mean, I do understand "don't judge a book by its cover" but we were actually given some severely offensive contents to peruse, I don't know how much benefit of the doubt was actually necessary here.
― ¶ (DJP), Thursday, 20 October 2016 15:51 (eight years ago) link
Agreed. If I was a fan of the show and saw this, it might put me off comics entirely.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 20 October 2016 16:34 (eight years ago) link
I hadn't heard about the writer of Mockingbird being chased off of Twitter because of an MRA-baiting feminist joke on the cover of the series finale but this just more intensely fuels my belief that every Marvel comic should be an overt celebration of everything scared little man-babies wet their regressive widdle drawers over. The Scarlet Witch proclaimed 'no more hetero white dudes' and, lo, many neckbeards were drenched with tears on that day.
― I'm not a dummy. I'm not. (Old Lunch), Friday, 28 October 2016 00:01 (eight years ago) link
I enjoyed the Mockingbird run quite a bit and read a few articles about the writer, with whom I wasn't familiar, before all this harassment bullshit. I might check it out now, so... hey
― mh 😏, Friday, 28 October 2016 00:23 (eight years ago) link
Vision was the best series since Superior Foes of Spider-Man. Almost makes up for how much utter crap they've been publishing since Secret War.
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 28 October 2016 01:54 (eight years ago) link
Ack! I know. I'm putting off the last issue as I don't want it to be over.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 28 October 2016 10:04 (eight years ago) link
i'm starting to wonder what it might say about me that comic books and videogames, two of my favourite things, attract fans who are regularly so fucking vile
brb gonna get into classic literature, crochet and gardening
― yokohama fuckdolphin (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 October 2016 10:47 (eight years ago) link
vision ends well btw
― the notes the loon doesn't play (ulysses), Friday, 28 October 2016 13:39 (eight years ago) link
Any medium/genre that appeals to a multitude of age groups is going to unfortunately attract some people with arrested development. But a whimpering fanboy who wishes that dumb girls understood they're not welcome in his cloistered superhero clubhouse are ultimately no different than the dude with Truck Nutz on his pickup who longs for the halcyon days of the '50s when those gays didn't use their mental powers to make unsuspecting hetero folks think of ding dongs rubbing together all the time. The world moves on, some people have difficulty with that, and the worst among them lash out in confusion and fear. It maybe just seems more pronounced in a smaller community. But, yeah, there's a reason why 99% of my comics discussion and celebration has been relegated to very particular online haunts.
― I'm not a dummy. I'm not. (Old Lunch), Friday, 28 October 2016 14:07 (eight years ago) link
Feel like the whole bro/neckbeard culture never made it to the UK, but I could be deluding myself. It's not like we don't have a very conservative culture (obviously), they just aren't very interested in comics or computer games, except from the "ban this sick filth" angle.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 28 October 2016 14:19 (eight years ago) link
Actually, I know next-to-nothing about computer games, so have no idea on that front. And Milo is British, isn't he? So never mind.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 28 October 2016 14:20 (eight years ago) link
xxp true, and clearly the ability to organise like-minded people via social media has made it easier for hateful bags of shit to find each other and conduct harassment campaigns.
i guess maybe (although i fucking hope not) the same witch-hunts against 'sjws' are happening in the online classic literature / crochet / gardening communities too but i'm much more likely to be aware of campaigns by comic book and videogame fans because i pay them more attention.
and yeah, thank god for the relative sanity of ilx when it comes to talking about this stuff because there are so many shitty, horrible forums out there that are unfathomably popular
― yokohama fuckdolphin (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 October 2016 14:21 (eight years ago) link
xxpost To be fair, I had pretty much zero offline exposure to those types in the US but, to be even fairer, my offline exposure to other comics fans is just a few ticks north of zero.
― I'm not a dummy. I'm not. (Old Lunch), Friday, 28 October 2016 14:23 (eight years ago) link
chuck, bro culture might be less of a thing here in the uk but, assuming by 'neckbeard' you mean the redpill/mra mindset, that's definitely and unfortunately an international phenomenon. thanks internet :(
― yokohama fuckdolphin (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 October 2016 14:24 (eight years ago) link
Ah - oh well. I keep thinking everyone else is like ILX and Camden Mega City.
Gonna buy my protest Mockingbird anyway - was actually waiting for the collection. First ish was surprisingly good but felt like it'd read better together.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 28 October 2016 14:31 (eight years ago) link
This is a treacherous thought to entertain but -- I feel like the DC milieu is just a wee bit more nourishing a Petri dish to your mra gamergate swarmer than the marvel milieu. There's something baked right into the characters of superman and (modern) batman that feeds it...
― his eye is on despair-o (Jon not Jon), Friday, 28 October 2016 14:33 (eight years ago) link
My gf was aware of the furor because she reads, like, actual books or whatever, and Chelsea Cain is apparently another one of those legitimate book writin' people who've taken a stab at comics of late. Sadly, she's probably learned her lesson on that front.
― I'm not a dummy. I'm not. (Old Lunch), Friday, 28 October 2016 14:36 (eight years ago) link
Jon, I don't think that's an unfair assertion at all. Although they admittedly still have work to do, Marvel has made serious strides at diversifying both their creative staff and their character pool in recent years. DC wouldn't let Batgirl get married, and generally still seems to be putting out a lot of regressive stuff (to say nothing of the behind the scenes culture, like the shit that was allowed to go down in the Superman office).
― I'm not a dummy. I'm not. (Old Lunch), Friday, 28 October 2016 14:40 (eight years ago) link
yeah, it feels correct to me, jon - marvel are at least making an effort, miles morales has definitely become a beloved character in spite of the questionable objections people raised at the time of his debut, but they're also publishing the fairly indefensible tartakovsky luke cage book...
― yokohama fuckdolphin (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 October 2016 14:50 (eight years ago) link
It's a big tent!
― ¶ (DJP), Friday, 28 October 2016 15:03 (eight years ago) link
I would've loved to be a fly on the wall during the discussions about whether or not to release that new Cage book. I don't think Tartakovsky's involvement on its own was enough to justify it even from a business standpoint, so I have no idea what they were thinking but it stands out pretty starkly in relation to the direction in which they've been heading.
― I'm not a dummy. I'm not. (Old Lunch), Friday, 28 October 2016 15:07 (eight years ago) link
i guess it's probably instructive that marvel seem to be working to build a more inclusive cast of high-profile characters while dc have worked to roll back new versions of established heroes in favour of reinstalling hal jordan, barry allen et al
― yokohama fuckdolphin (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 October 2016 15:10 (eight years ago) link
I am curious as to whether there's more going on there than just the enormous batsignal you send up by making Geoff Jones the Chief Creative Officer.
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 28 October 2016 15:12 (eight years ago) link
I'm curious to see if DC gets any kind of shakeup if AT&T does ultimately wind up buying WB.
― I'm not a dummy. I'm not. (Old Lunch), Friday, 28 October 2016 15:26 (eight years ago) link
what's up with people who have the worst creative direction ideas having names that are atypical variations on "Jeff"
― mh 😏, Friday, 28 October 2016 15:28 (eight years ago) link
going to apply for a job in comics, my name is... Joephh
i don't think it's entirely a regime thing, though DiDio and his shitty ethos have been in place far far longer than I expected. The bedrock of modern DC is this this self-pitying neo-nietszschean humorless trip which is always gonna be ambrosia to a certain kind of asshole
― his eye is on despair-o (Jon not Jon), Friday, 28 October 2016 15:30 (eight years ago) link
assbrosia if u will
― yokohama fuckdolphin (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 October 2016 15:33 (eight years ago) link
my name is jerf please let me direct tv show
― mh 😏, Friday, 28 October 2016 15:45 (eight years ago) link
BREAKING: DC NAMES NEW CREATIVE DIRECTOR
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/gameofthrones/images/4/4c/JoffreyBaratheon-Profile.PNG/revision/latest?cb=20160626094917
― yokohama fuckdolphin (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 October 2016 15:49 (eight years ago) link
My name is J'eehpf, English is sixth language and have traumatic head trauma impairing plot- and character-formation centers of brain, I would like to run your universe.
― I'm not a dummy. I'm not. (Old Lunch), Friday, 28 October 2016 15:49 (eight years ago) link
A few years back Chris Sims (and IIRC others with an even more strident tone?) made the case that part of the problem is DC's hangups about its "legacy heroes" - who, being created during and before WWII are almost all white. So the urge to reach back to classic versions, and the primary pantheon itself, end up kind of accidentally being all-white: http://comicsalliance.com/the-racial-politics-of-regressive-storytelling/
I would push that a lot further though - the urge to go back to a putative golden age of heroic clarity is reactionary on its face, and in America, the "good old days" narrative only makes sense for a certain reactionary slice of the white audience. I'm thinking of "Make America Great Again," but also that viral comic strip where people get excited about traveling back in time to different periods, and the one member of a racial minority ultimately has to point out to these bozos that none of the periods they want to go back to look particularly fun for him. So there's this sense with DC that there's a great enduring canonical past where Heroes Were Heroes, and all changes after a certain date are just disposable products of temporary Crises awaiting the next reboot to the 'classic' status quo, the "real" versions. It's a narrative that basically invokes an all-white, pre-liberal-meddling golden age even before you look up the character sheets and find out that indeed that is exactly what it is.
Marvel is definitely NOT without versions of this problem, and the new Cage comic stands as Exhibit A that there is something really fucked up in their editorial culture/practices, that that could seem normal and just slip on through. But I do think there's something important to Sims's point about the chronology of character creation - there are all these really popular characters with decades of established material whose "real" versions are minorities - there is no white Storm to reboot the character to. And that's even before you get into more recent variants of legacy characters (e.g. Miles Morales) that have managed to 'stick' so far, at least in some capacity.
― DOCTOR CAISNO, BYCREATIVELABBUS (Doctor Casino), Friday, 28 October 2016 16:05 (eight years ago) link
I think even that gives DC too much of a free pass - the reason that there was a situation to revert to Barry/Wally/Ray Palmer is that DC has a history of passing on mantles (generally to other straight white dudes, granted). Marvel still had all of the original Avengers / FF / Spiderman, so it was more of a break to go "Fuck it, Thor is a girl now, suck it up", and still they did it.
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 28 October 2016 16:55 (eight years ago) link
doc casino otm, although it's kinda ironic / sad / disappointing that chris sims was himself responsible for fucking horrible online shit towards val d'orazio
― yokohama fuckdolphin (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 October 2016 17:28 (eight years ago) link
the shit that was allowed to go down in the Superman office
ooh, what shit?
― Is that my hand, manatee? (stevie), Friday, 28 October 2016 17:37 (eight years ago) link
Google 'Eddie Berganza'.
― I'm not a dummy. I'm not. (Old Lunch), Friday, 28 October 2016 18:07 (eight years ago) link
Ahh fuckkkkk, I remember hearing about the D’Orazio thing but somehow didn't connect the dots or internalize that Sims was the perpetrator. Shit.
― DOCTOR CAISNO, BYCREATIVELABBUS (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 29 October 2016 00:24 (eight years ago) link
DC is so basically bad right now it would be funny if it weren't kinda depressing that they are still the biggest/second biggest fish in the pond.
― the notes the loon doesn't play (ulysses), Sunday, 30 October 2016 00:21 (eight years ago) link
DC comics could feature nothing more than Batman and the Flash discussing hummus recipes or passing a turd back and forth every month and it would still be one of the top two.
― I'm not a dummy. I'm not. (Old Lunch), Sunday, 30 October 2016 04:10 (eight years ago) link
Didn't Neal Adams write that comic?
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 31 October 2016 10:35 (eight years ago) link
big fan of Batman: Odyssey over here
― mh 😏, Monday, 31 October 2016 14:31 (eight years ago) link
ditto; wish marvel would hire him to do a similar ongoing series with literally any characterimagine black bolt talking about his problems about talking
― the notes the loon doesn't play (ulysses), Monday, 31 October 2016 14:49 (eight years ago) link
the entire comic would be Black Bolt's word balloons getting crowded out by increasingly-pulverized rubble
― ¶ (DJP), Monday, 31 October 2016 14:52 (eight years ago) link
also an ice axe for some reason
― the notes the loon doesn't play (ulysses), Monday, 31 October 2016 16:06 (eight years ago) link
His First X-Men thing or whatever it was called was shit.
― EZ Snappin, Monday, 31 October 2016 18:33 (eight years ago) link
re: Chris Sims, I hadn't heard about him, Val D'Orazio or the shit he did to her until now, so I can say that I hated X-Men '92 because it was terrible and not because his bad behavior tainted the comic for me.
― ¶ (DJP), Monday, 31 October 2016 19:36 (eight years ago) link
I'm reading the old Doctor Stranges starting with the Strange Tales back-of-the-book appearances and I'm at a loss as to why Marvel doesn't even try to do this kind of anthology series anymore - test new characters, let things get weird, keep people interested in a title unto itself rather than just following Spider-Man.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Monday, 21 November 2016 19:33 (eight years ago) link
I guess throwing 842 titles a month at the wall and seeing what sticks is effectively like publishing a really expensive anthology. Stuff like Squirrel Girl and Hellcat seem to be doing pretty well under that model, whereas they probably would've been quickly cancelled when Marvel was more conservative wrt the number of monthly books they put out.
― i need microsoft installed on my desktop, can you help (Old Lunch), Monday, 21 November 2016 19:45 (eight years ago) link
Marvel kind of did that with the Spider-Man consolidation/biweekly publishing thing they tried after the One More Day garbage. A lot of the issues had shorter main stories followed by backup stories.
I believe the main reason they had these dual-story issues back in the day had more to do with artificial constraints on how many titles they were allowed to have on the newsstand at a time
sorry for the reddit link, it was the only one I quickly found:https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/30vuva/how_did_dc_limit_marvels_distribution_from/
― mh 😏, Monday, 21 November 2016 19:52 (eight years ago) link
the gist of it is that Marvel lost distribution in 1957 and until 1968 they were distributed by the company that owned DC, so they were limited to eight titles per month
― mh 😏, Monday, 21 November 2016 19:54 (eight years ago) link
xxp - pretty well is relative, the internal numbers I've see have Squirrel Girl/Hellcat-type of titles selling ~10% of Spider-Man, it's actually pretty shocking that they haven't been cancelled.
By anthology, though, I also mean trying different types of stories and target groups. I feel like the way Strange Tales started (Marvel's version of EC SuspenStories/horror) with the marketing push of Marvel AND the opportunity to do oddball stuff with the usual characters on occasion would sell.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Monday, 21 November 2016 20:09 (eight years ago) link
Marvel Comics Presents was probably the series that fit the bill when I first started reading comics
― mh 😏, Monday, 21 November 2016 20:13 (eight years ago) link
i bought the shit outta MCPMarvel does those infinite digital comix that are sort of fast and easy anthology type stories?
― the notes the loon doesn't play (ulysses), Monday, 21 November 2016 21:06 (eight years ago) link
There were quite a few anthology titles put out during Secret Wars and CivWar 2, mostly tryouts for new artists and writers. Taking Sides and Street Dance Battle or something. I can't recall reading any really good ones, though :/
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 21 November 2016 21:43 (eight years ago) link
Isn't it the case that anthology formats have traditionally been unpopular with US comic buyers? That's one of the reasons that's usually given for why 2000AD never really caught on out there.
― Pheeel, Monday, 21 November 2016 23:48 (eight years ago) link
2000AD is popular to a general audience in mass-market locations in the UK. Archie is popular to a general audience in mass-market locations in the US. Heavy Metal is successful to a general audience in mass-market locations in the US. Best American seems to be successful with a bookstore audience in bookstores in the US. Marvel Comics Presents is probably the last time a superhero anthology at an economical price was offered to a general audience in the US?
― sad, hombres (sic), Tuesday, 22 November 2016 05:34 (eight years ago) link
I liked MCP but also remember it being pretty unpopular, one of those series always found in bargain bins
― Nhex, Tuesday, 22 November 2016 10:11 (eight years ago) link
MCP started off as more of an a-list title with strong modern stuff alongside '70s luminaries revisiting famous haunts (Gerber on Man-Thing! Moench on Shang-Chi! McGregor on Black Panther!) but, with some exceptions, slowly became a regular 'who's that?' in terms of the talent involved.
― i need microsoft installed on my desktop, can you help (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 22 November 2016 13:02 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, MCP as far as I could tell was always middling and died off around the time distribution focus shifted from newsstands to comic book shops.
The only issues I remember kids trading or looking for were those containing that Weapon X arc
― mh 😏, Tuesday, 22 November 2016 14:43 (eight years ago) link
Weapon X and early Sam Kieth work is pretty much the only mid-period MCP stuff that stands out in my memory but I never read it that consistently. Perhaps there are hidden gems I'm unaware of.
Oh, yeah, there was also Nocenti's Typhoid Mary batshittery (which was recently collected).
― i need microsoft installed on my desktop, can you help (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 22 November 2016 15:05 (eight years ago) link
Got the 2 vols of tom king's vision on google play for $8 each, and they really were as good as everyone said
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Monday, 12 December 2016 23:40 (eight years ago) link
Yeah. It works really well as a miniseries, but would have been happy for it to carry on.
It is *highly* emo without being cloying or clever or meta, which I haven't seem comics do effectively very often. Maybe Love and Rockets?
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 13 December 2016 13:41 (eight years ago) link
I just read the Claremont/Miller Wolverine series for the first time and was impressed. Haven't read any Claremont besides Dark Phoenix and Days of Future Past, but he came across quite menschy in the Sean Howe book, and this was fun and more well-written than I was expecting given Claremont's reputation. Is anything else of his worth checking, or is it just Miller making him look better than usual?
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 2 January 2017 01:32 (seven years ago) link
The classic X-Men run and New Mutants (especially the Sienkiewicz issues) are essential but nothing else has ever really grabbed me. His 00s X-Men stuff isn't horrible but is mostly forgettable -- all the character development isn't anything he hadn't done before, and the plot arcs are kind of lame.
He never lets go of the "Character, from the rolling hills of New Zealand, feels the primal forces of nature and her power of feeling primal forces weighs heavily on her conscience as she flies over the desert (not her native terrain by any stretch of the imagination) to help her friends, the mutants known as the X-Men!"
I think he's fluctuated but there are issues where it's 90% exposition boxes over the first half of the issue
― mh 😏, Monday, 2 January 2017 01:45 (seven years ago) link
Where does the "classic" run begin and end?
I actually kind of enjoyed the exposition, which was what surprised me. He's a pretty good sentence-writer, albeit within what I'm guessing is a limited bag of tricks. I don't want to overrate him - I was just surprised by its enjoyable competence and relative lack of purple-ness. No doubt diminished on repetition.
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 2 January 2017 01:57 (seven years ago) link
Claremont's X-Men/New Mutants/Excalibur stuff ca. '75-'91 is essential and highly recommended (some eras and storylines more than others, obvs).
― what is the lever disease? (Old Lunch), Monday, 2 January 2017 02:01 (seven years ago) link
imo you can drop off a ways before '91
― mh 😏, Monday, 2 January 2017 02:48 (seven years ago) link
I think you stick with each title until a little while after the next one starts publishing. You can see his interest shift. So drop the X-Men after the Asgardian Wars in '85, the New Mutants sometime after Excalibur gets going in '88, and leave Excalibur at the end of the Cross-Time Caper.
― EZ Snappin, Monday, 2 January 2017 03:14 (seven years ago) link
good theory
― mh 😏, Monday, 2 January 2017 03:24 (seven years ago) link
In my view, the classic Claremont run begins with the first Shi'ar story (in Uncanny X-Men #104-105) and ends with the Fall of the Mutants (in Uncanny #225-227). FotM feels like a conclusion to Claremont's run in many ways: ...(WARNING! SPOILERS FOR SAID STORYLINE!)...The X-Men "die", the whole "heroes feared by the world" running theme is put to rest (for a while), Storm gets her powers back, etc. Also, Claremont begans seeding that storyline years before (in the issues right after Storm loses her powers), so if you quit reading at Asgardian Wars, you'll never find out how the story concludes. And pretty much every other dangling Claremont subplot is resolved by then, so it feels like a logical place to stop. (The only major exception I can think of is the question of who Mr. Sinister is and why he ordered the Mutant Massacre, but I don't think those get resolved during the rest of Claremont's run either.)...(SPOILERS END.)...Before the first Shi'ar story you still get some weird 1970s goofiness such as Wolverine vs. leprechauns, but that story introduces some of the most enduring elements of Claremont's run, and Byrne arrives just in time to conclude it. And after FotM you get the Australian era, when Claremont clearly starts to get bored with the whole concept of the X-Men, so he starts to deconstruct it in odd ways, which might provide for some interesting individual stories, but it doesn't feel like "proper" X-Men to me anymore.
Then Jim Lee arrives and starts to influence the plotting more and more, often is stupid ways (such as making Psylocke into a ridiculous bikini ninja), and you can see Claremont losing his control until he's mostly just providing dialogue for Lee's cheesecake pinups. Claremont's final story (in X-Men #1-3) is a mess and a sad ending for his lengthy run. So yeah, better to stop at FotM, so you won't have to witness this sad decline.
Though arguably Claremont's humanist and, ultimately, optimistic tone wasn't a good fit for the grim & gritty superhero comics of the '90s, so even without the Lee debacle it seems unlikely he could've continued to write X-Men in his trademark style. Presumably he would've faded away if he hadn't be forced to quit.
― Tuomas, Monday, 2 January 2017 10:14 (seven years ago) link
Never read much claremont, but as an Australian the idea of reading him doing anything set in Australia makes my teeth hurt
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Monday, 2 January 2017 10:30 (seven years ago) link
The "Australian" things in those issues are mostly just limited to them having a secret base in the middle of the desert. Other parts of the country aren't really shown, nor do they interact with Aussies, except for a stereotypically portrayed Aboriginal mutant teleporter. Said teleporter allows to them travel anywhere in the world, so the fact their base is in Australia isn't really important, it could be anywhere in the world as long as it's not in the US. (At this point the X-Men were pretending to be dead, so presumably Claremont moved them to another country so it'd be easier to sell the idea that no one recognises them.)
― Tuomas, Monday, 2 January 2017 10:45 (seven years ago) link
Of all the 'major' post-Kirby Marvel writers, Claremont seemed to benefit the most from working with 'good' artists - or at least, younger artists like Cockrum, Byrne, Miller, Sienkiewicz who were heavily invested in the plotting etc of the comics that they created with Claremont. I have great fondness for Marvel stalwarts like Sal Buscema and George Tuska, but I'm pretty sure Claremont's reputation would be much lesser if he'd had them as regular collaborators (as Englehart and Gerber did). Against that, Claremont's dialogue, captions and, especially, thought balloons are highly distinctive (and therefore easy to parody); so he arrived at a 'voice', slightly overwrought and ever-so-serious, quite early on, and stayed at the top of his profession for a very long time, long past his writing having any merit or interest.
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Monday, 2 January 2017 12:20 (seven years ago) link
Started with the issue 162 last night, because who could resist a Wolverine so erotic even his head is shaped like a cock:
http://i.imgur.com/c17En44.jpg
Aside from that, a few issues in and great fun so far. Did someone pinch the Dominator design (sort of) from the Brood?
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 2 January 2017 13:07 (seven years ago) link
Is that the issue where Wolvie is all alone on the Brood planet when all the others have been infected with their eggs? I remember it being really bleak and intensive for a superhero comic of its era, didn't expect Claremont being capable of what is essentially survival horror.
― Tuomas, Monday, 2 January 2017 14:11 (seven years ago) link
There was that Kitty vs. the demon story before, but that one felt like it was more in the standard superhero mold.
Man, Claremont really liked ripping off Alien, didn't he?
― Tuomas, Monday, 2 January 2017 14:13 (seven years ago) link
That's the one. I think he's pretty restrained, panel exposition-wise, compared to Starlin, Wein and Gerber. In the issue I just finished, Ms Marvel mutates into a cosmic powers hero called Binary, because the 80s. It's leading up to the Paul Smith run, which I heard was good. The reprints are A5-sized digests with crappy binding made by Panini, but the crappiness adds to the reading texture. No computerised colouring thank God. They're just about to put out the Miller Daredevil run, which might make it the only way of reading it in the original colours (aside from buying the back issues).
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 2 January 2017 16:33 (seven years ago) link
I picked up some of those panini digests a couple of years back, a great cheap way to read those comics - I already had the b&w phonebooks (but you really miss the colours) and some of the original issues or Classic X-Men reprints (but up in a loft somewhere). som volumes are bizarrely expensive now, though.
― There shouldn't be a thread for Dennis Perrin tweets (stevie), Monday, 2 January 2017 18:58 (seven years ago) link
For me, Claremont X-men kind of lost its way after the mutant massacre, which I found totally gripping when I read it in real-time as a kid. Up till then, though, I love even his overly verbose tics. What a great series of comics to grow up with.
― There shouldn't be a thread for Dennis Perrin tweets (stevie), Monday, 2 January 2017 19:00 (seven years ago) link
speaking of comix + aliens this was the first time i learnt about aliens in any format:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman/Aliens
― Mordy, Monday, 2 January 2017 19:05 (seven years ago) link
I started reading X-Tinction Agenda, which was referenced by a lot of the X-Men comics I read as a kid. I always assumed it was decent -- after a few years of reading comics I realized that superhero comics were an incoherent mess by '92 or so when I really got into them, so anything before was probably a little better. I'd gone back and read all the classic X-Men stories (Lee/Kirby, the new lineup, Claremont peak years) but... it turns out I hadn't missed anything.
X-Tinction Agenda was not good.
― mh 😏, Monday, 2 January 2017 19:40 (seven years ago) link
Mutant Massacre was the last gasp.
― EZ Snappin, Monday, 2 January 2017 22:27 (seven years ago) link
I started with Uncanny literally one issue after the X-Tinction Agenda finished. Had zero idea what was going on or who anyone was but I was immediately hooked.
― what is the lever disease? (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 3 January 2017 00:57 (seven years ago) link
what the hell is going on in captain america
http://68.media.tumblr.com/296c685fe1a698d24b5f21402b198a04/tumblr_inline_ojac1tpaE31svg1vl_400.pnghttp://68.media.tumblr.com/35e97de80ca3c15aa99ba747ea3fb559/tumblr_inline_ojac0kGkkx1svg1vl_500.jpghttp://68.media.tumblr.com/2f2753977c6619db594c122003f212e9/tumblr_inline_ojac4ipGYz1svg1vl_500.png
― MY MUTANT BRAIN WILL DETECT TREACHERY! (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 5 January 2017 22:42 (seven years ago) link
wow didn't realize the New (Social Justice) Warriors title was debuting in there
― mh 😏, Thursday, 5 January 2017 22:48 (seven years ago) link
Who scripted that
― his eye is on despair-o (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 5 January 2017 23:26 (seven years ago) link
nick spencer, apparently
― MY MUTANT BRAIN WILL DETECT TREACHERY! (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 5 January 2017 23:28 (seven years ago) link
yikes
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 5 January 2017 23:29 (seven years ago) link
eh, it's just a (not very good) comedy fill-in issue
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 5 January 2017 23:42 (seven years ago) link
*googles spencer*
Well he's not a republican or a trumpist so I guess he 'kids because he loves'
― his eye is on despair-o (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 5 January 2017 23:43 (seven years ago) link
i don't think it's even that significant, it's just 2-3 pages of a terrible comic that's mostly about something else
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 5 January 2017 23:54 (seven years ago) link
What I've read of Spencer's has been pretty good, and he's never struck me as a douchebag (a surprisingly high number of current Marvel writers seem fairly progressive). That dialogue may be cringey but I'm fairly confident that it's at least well-intentioned.
― Grand Moff Tarkus (Old Lunch), Friday, 6 January 2017 00:30 (seven years ago) link
... how?
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 6 January 2017 00:36 (seven years ago) link
neo nazi guy: "aw, did that trigger you?"me: "Oh I am way 'triggered'!" *pulls triggers on my half dozen giant guns turning him into red goo*
― mh 😏, Friday, 6 January 2017 01:03 (seven years ago) link
i guess this and Jeremy Lin is what it takes for more Asian Americans to show up lol
― Nhex, Friday, 6 January 2017 20:06 (seven years ago) link
http://zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/index.html
idk if this is something everyone here is already familiar with, but I've just gone down the rabbit-hole of this incredibly detailed website that makes the argument that the first 30 years of Fantastic Four comics are The Great American Novel. it includes graphs:
https://static.minichan.org/img/1475125041967855.gif
it all seems sort of reminiscent of that movie where ppl have intricate theories about The Shining
― soref, Sunday, 8 January 2017 21:05 (seven years ago) link
"Zaps Franklin" was some seriously heavy shit, for real.
― aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot) (WilliamC), Sunday, 8 January 2017 21:30 (seven years ago) link
that kind of nuclear-grade nerd shit is like catnip to me tbh
― She squashes the baked goods in her free time.... (bizarro gazzara), Sunday, 8 January 2017 21:49 (seven years ago) link
when was the Waid run? that's the last one i actually read
― Nhex, Monday, 9 January 2017 22:57 (seven years ago) link
Jeez...it started maybe fifteen years ago? I'm surprised to suddenly realize I've read everything from that point on. Only run that I'd highly recommend since then is Hickman's.
― Dr. Shitfuck (Old Lunch), Monday, 9 January 2017 23:28 (seven years ago) link
i've been reading bits of that site over the last couple of days and it actually seems to put forward a pretty coherent argument! at the very least it does a great job of charting the genuine evolution of the characters over decades, the scale of which i don't think i'd every appreciated before.
either way i've started reading stan and jack's ff again and it really is one of the towering achievements of not just superhero comics but comics as a form. so much wild creativity packed into every issue - i can't imagine how impossibly exciting it must have been to read them month-to-month as they were published.
― hunk of poo, big fart, girlfriend, and Dove soap (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 15:50 (seven years ago) link
Having somewhat recently read silver age Marvel in its entirety, I can confirm at least that Lee & Kirby FF is one of a small handful of silver age Marvel things worth reading in its entirety.
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 15:55 (seven years ago) link
i could happily live without the egregious sexism, that's for sure. from what i remember from reading the first 125 issues or so of amazing spider-man in the essential collections a decade or so ago, they mostly read pretty well too.
what were the standouts from your insane journey into mystery the silver age, by the way? once i've worked my way through the ff i might do some more marvel unlimited reading furtehr down the line...
― hunk of poo, big fart, girlfriend, and Dove soap (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 16:05 (seven years ago) link
I'll have to go back and review. One surprising highlight for me was Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, which was much grittier and far less perfunctory than I would've imagined. The unquestionable lowlight was Ant-Man, which I honestly don't know if I even finished because it was completely perfunctory and awful. It was like something they whipped together on the train while riding to work but didn't have time to finish so they got like the janitor to put the finishing touches on it before it went to press.
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 16:37 (seven years ago) link
Lee/Kirby original run of Thor is incredible
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 10 January 2017 16:38 (seven years ago) link
sure there's a lot of big dumb fight scenes and "I SAY THEE NAY!" but so much fun, and so many crazy ideas
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 10 January 2017 16:39 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, I mean, most of the generally-accepted highlights held true. Lee & Kirby FF and Thor (and I'd put their Captain America and Nick Fury stuff pretty high up there, too), for sure. The 'Tales of Asgard' backups in Thor might be my favorite of all. Steranko's Nick Fury, of course. Ditko's Spider-Man and Doctor Strange are both good but kinda overrated imo (at least inasmuch as they're often held in regard as paragons of the form). A lot of the other stuff is kind of a haphazard mess. Romita on Amazing and Colan on Daredevil get top marks in the art department. I left off around 1970, when they just seemed to be getting a handle on how to tell longer stories, so I think I'm likely to find the bronze age to be more rewarding once I get back around to it.
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 16:47 (seven years ago) link
Steranko's Nick Fury art is a great extension of Kirby but omg did I get sick of all the exposition
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 10 January 2017 16:50 (seven years ago) link
when I re-read that run recently I was struck by just the sheer volume of words I was carelessly skipping over
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 10 January 2017 16:51 (seven years ago) link
lolling at the thought of old lunch ploughing through old issues of ant-man out of some misguided sense of duty and also coming to the grim realisation that it's exactly the kind of pointless waste of time i'll probably end up doing sometime too
i've been meaning to read the lee/kirby thor for a while - am i right in thinking it ends with a bit of a whimper due to stan and jack falling out?
― hunk of poo, big fart, girlfriend, and Dove soap (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 16:55 (seven years ago) link
yeah the very end of the run is weird because you can tell the plotting/writing was fucked with. From existing original artwork it looks like Kirby wanted to run with this Galactus+Thor teamup angle and then Lee clumsily reconfigured it into something else. Plus the artwork scale was changed (much to Kirby's displeasure) and that hampers things as well. The last issue is a standalone thing that feels more like one of Kirby's Fourth World stories (a bizarre super-rich dude with a mind-swapping machine!)
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 10 January 2017 16:59 (seven years ago) link
You have no idea how much art and entertainment I've consumed out of a misguided sense of duty, bizarro. It's sick.
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 17:06 (seven years ago) link
the pre-Marvel Universe issues of Tales to Astonish and Tales of Suspense are on Marvel Unlimited, there's lots of good stuff there - great art by Kirby, Ditko and others, some hilariously hokey "twist" endings
― soref, Tuesday, 10 January 2017 17:07 (seven years ago) link
I like that FF great american novel thing, some of his arguments seem a bit of a stretch but there is some genuinely insightful stuff there as well imo. particularly enjoyed his argument that Kirby was actually an excellent writer of dialogue for comics (which I agree with 100%)
― soref, Tuesday, 10 January 2017 17:10 (seven years ago) link
Stan Lee is a terrible terrible scripter imo
― A big shout out goes to the lamb chops, thos lamb chops (ulysses), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 17:39 (seven years ago) link
yes
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 10 January 2017 17:40 (seven years ago) link
I've always thought that Kirby dialogue was a wonderful complement to his art, inasmuch as both underscore the extent to which the dude existed in a whooooole different kinda headspace.
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 17:46 (seven years ago) link
definitely - literal universes breathed into life in a cloud of kirby's cigar smoke. no wonder alan moore had him show up as god in supreme
― hunk of poo, big fart, girlfriend, and Dove soap (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 18:07 (seven years ago) link
heh, I'd forgotten this dialogue - 'cognitive zone'!
http://www.littlestuffedbull.com/images/comics/24hrswkirby/supremereturn6b.jpg
― hunk of poo, big fart, girlfriend, and Dove soap (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 18:09 (seven years ago) link
(Total aside, I don't know how I overlooked your new display name, bizarro. Probably my favorite Sonic Youth album.)
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 18:15 (seven years ago) link
enh, i wish there were more lee ranaldo tracks on it
― hunk of poo, big fart, girlfriend, and Dove soap (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 18:20 (seven years ago) link
The later issues of the Kirby Thor run are p messy - by about 1968, there's a definite sense that Jack is disengaging from Marvel and holding back on giving them any more juicy new characters - but many of these issues are inked by Bill Everett rather than the wretched Vince Colletta (who erased backgrounds etc from Kirby's pencils) and the difference is astounding, even at the smaller art size.
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 09:53 (seven years ago) link
I would also say that the Human Torch solo stories in Strange Tales are even worse than Ant-Man.
And The Avengers is pretty consistently great for its first 200 issues or so - the Roy Thomas-scripted issues drawn by John Buscema and Gene Colan that were inked by either George Klein or Tom Palmer are just sublime superhero art.
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 09:56 (seven years ago) link
Totally agree
― his eye is on despair-o (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 12:11 (seven years ago) link
the pre-Spidrman Amazing (Adult) Fantasy has some of Ditko's best art imo (along with some pretty terrible scripts)
http://www.marvelmasterworks.com/marvel/mm/amfan/images/panel_amfan009b_omni.jpg
― soref, Wednesday, 11 January 2017 12:26 (seven years ago) link
^Unpleasant modern recolouring on that
I generally prefer Ditko's 50s Charlton work - things like Tales of the Mysterious Traveler - to his pre-superhero Atlas/Marvel stuff, though again, the scripts are nothing to write home about
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 12:30 (seven years ago) link
The lack of full stop after "I am death", presumably a mistake, is actually kind of chilling
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 11 January 2017 13:47 (seven years ago) link
Yes the omission of periods has a real and sometimes powerful stylistic effect IMO
― his eye is on despair-o (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 16:02 (seven years ago) link
Was the Bixby Hulk TV series a big splash in the UK, as well? I'd been curious as to why, when they first started producing original content, Marvel UK didn't really do much with existing characters beyond the Hulk, but I just realized that this happened around the same time as the show.
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 16:18 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, it was pretty popular. The original Hulk material appeared during Dez Skinn's tenure as Marvel UK's Editor-in-Chief, and he did manage to commission some other new strips, most notably Night Raven drawn by David Lloyd, in some ways a trial run for V for Vendetta.
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 16:21 (seven years ago) link
Complete Night Raven collection coming soon in the US! I'm glad they've gotten around to dredging up more obscure and hard to find material lately (I have the recent collection of UK Hulk stuff somewhere).
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 16:28 (seven years ago) link
The Hulk show was huge in the UK. I was only 4-5 when it was aired, watched the Banner scenes and would run out for the room whenever he turned into Hulk. A Les Dawson sketch where he turns into the Hulk gave me nightmares for a while.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 11 January 2017 22:32 (seven years ago) link
from what i remember from reading the first 125 issues or so of amazing spider-man in the essential collections a decade or so ago, they mostly read pretty well too.
― hunk of poo, big fart, girlfriend, and Dove soap (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 16:05 I dunno, I read all that and after Ditko leaves the goods are few and far between, but ably drawn by Romita and Kane. Good Romita/Kane era stuff you get is Spiderman growing six arms, Rhino, Shocker, Morbius and Prowler but a lot of the other new bad guys are just crappy gangsters (including Kingpin). You barely get to know Gwen and her dad so when they die it doesn't carry much impact, which was surprising because I'd heard so much hype for her being a great character (although I understand kids at the time would have been attached to her). Romita said his Terry And The Pirates tribute issues are his favourite thing he ever did but I found them pretty bland. The 105-107 Spider Slayer story is the first time I felt the creators truly didn't care. The rematches with Dr Octopus are boring and I think he's an overrated villain to begin with. Mary Jane's "ginchy" haircut is not good.
Surprises in the Ditko era is just how much time Frederick Foswell gets. The Enforcers are the shittest thing in the Ditko era.
After Hulk's decent initial miniseries I found the first Essential Hulk volume pretty awful. The Ditko Hulk stuff from Tales To Astonish is pretty joyless and often badly inked by another artist.
I love a lot of the Dr Strange stuff, Ditko's era is pure classic even when the stories aren't. I'm a Bill Everett fan but his 60s superhero work looks boring and like he was struggling to be modern. Marie Severin's art is quite interesting and Adkins is a pretty solid hand but the stories are a complete chore. I love Gene Colan's stuff but by that time I gave up reading the text.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 12 January 2017 22:50 (seven years ago) link
I don't know, I think the scene where Mary Jane turns up to console Peter after Gwen's death is pretty much the apex of Marvel, and perhaps of comics themselves
― It's called, "giving a shit". (stevie), Friday, 13 January 2017 12:15 (seven years ago) link
It's not the story itself so much as we barely knew Gwen.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 13 January 2017 13:43 (seven years ago) link
xp that particular set of panels is one of my all-time favorites, so strong
― Nhex, Friday, 13 January 2017 21:12 (seven years ago) link
I think Lee's scripting has buckets of charm, in small doses, when he's "on".
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 14 January 2017 13:54 (seven years ago) link
And possibly, if his comics had had 50% less words, he might even have been considered a great writer. It's not that what's there is dreck, there's just too much of it.
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 14 January 2017 13:56 (seven years ago) link
Unfortunately that's the case for a lot of old comics.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 14 January 2017 15:43 (seven years ago) link
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, January 14, 2017 1:56 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
If I remember my Marvel history, Lee had always intended to eventually get out of the comics biz and become a "serious" writer, but could never make the transition. You definitely get that "frustrated novelist" vibe from a lot his stuff.
I bought quite a few Marvel Essentials before I realised that Lee's shtick gets very tiring when read in large amounts. The early years of Spidey are a bit of a golden patch though, but I was surprised how boring it got once Ditko quit.
― Pheeel, Sunday, 15 January 2017 02:00 (seven years ago) link
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, January 10, 2017 5:06 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I tend to do this too, but only because I'm a horrible completist. That's what led to me reading the entirety of Bronze Age Wonder Woman.
― Pheeel, Sunday, 15 January 2017 02:05 (seven years ago) link
I can't imagine Stan writing a novel tbh.
― Οὖτις, Sunday, 15 January 2017 02:09 (seven years ago) link
this is billed as "legendary comic creator Lee's first prose novel", idk how much input he actually had into it compared to the guy credited as co-writer (I'm guessing not that much?)
https://www.amazon.com/Zodiac-Legacy-Convergence-Stan-Lee/dp/1484752538
― soref, Sunday, 15 January 2017 02:17 (seven years ago) link
Are you implying that Stan would just slap his name on someone else's work????
― Οὖτις, Sunday, 15 January 2017 02:20 (seven years ago) link
Certainly by the end of the 60s, Stan was much more of a frustrated - or failed - movie/tv screenwriter than he was literary novelist.
― Bongo Herbert (Ward Fowler), Sunday, 15 January 2017 07:29 (seven years ago) link
Maybe they left spaces where the dialogue should be and he just filled them in at the end?
― Pheeel, Sunday, 15 January 2017 10:04 (seven years ago) link
For some reason last night I found myself looking at Spider-Man: Reign, pretty all of which I knew beforehand was it was the one with the radioactive spider-jizz.
Even going in knowing about that particular plot point, I hadn't anticipated just how bad it would actually be, a truly ham-handed attempted to give Spider-Man his own DKR. The sub-par sub-Miller art and dialogue is embarrassing enough, but then Andrews lampshades it by putting in a character called "Miller Janson"! No. No. Sorry, no.
It feels like an escapee from the nineties grim-n-gritty era that somehow managed to get published in 2006.
― Pheeel, Sunday, 15 January 2017 11:27 (seven years ago) link
Wordiness is not just a problem with Lee, but with most American superhero comics (and most other genre comics) up until the '80s. It seems like there was a rule that you simply couldn't have "silent panels", i.e. panels without a text, and preferably each panel should explain what's happening either in dialogue or narration, as if the images weren't enough. For me, that's a big reason why many French and Japanese comics from the '50s/'60s/'70s read much better today than old superhero comics, they were often more confident in letting the images do the narrative work.
― Tuomas, Monday, 16 January 2017 08:23 (seven years ago) link
Sorry, by French I mean "Franco-Belgian".
― Tuomas, Monday, 16 January 2017 08:24 (seven years ago) link
preferably each panel should explain what's happening either in dialogue or narration
and in chris claremont's case, often the same unwieldy phrases over and over again, which is why the words 'the focused totality of my psychic powers!' sometimes pop up in my brain, unbidden and unwanted
is there a decent biography / analysis of chris claremont's work anywhere out there? it feels like he's up there with william moulton marston in terms of turning his throbbing sexual obsessions with bdsm and mind control into superhero fiction and i'd be really interested to find out more about it
― hunk of poo, big fart, girlfriend, and Dove soap (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 16 January 2017 09:38 (seven years ago) link
Heh, when Claremont used to attend British comic conventions in the 80s, he always used to bring with him a sketchbook where he would get artists to draw him bondage pictures of Storm.
― Bongo Herbert (Ward Fowler), Monday, 16 January 2017 09:43 (seven years ago) link
We have a thread of its own devoted to Claremont's stock phrases:
here is where we list CCCs (Chris Claremont Cliches)
― Tuomas, Monday, 16 January 2017 09:53 (seven years ago) link
that does not surprise me at all - he's probably got hundreds of them stashed under his bed xp
― hunk of poo, big fart, girlfriend, and Dove soap (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 16 January 2017 10:34 (seven years ago) link
Did he get it from John Byrne or vice versa?
("focussed totality etc" is at least something that is difficult to infer from the images)
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 16 January 2017 11:06 (seven years ago) link
For me, that's a big reason why many French and Japanese comics from the '50s/'60s/'70s read much better today than old superhero comics
**cough** Edgar P Jacobs
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 16 January 2017 13:31 (seven years ago) link
(I do like those EPJ books though.)
Yes, I was going to mention Jacobs, and even some of the Tintin albums - especially Flight 714 - are quite 'wordy', too. I'm sure there are plenty of other examples.
I dimly recall reading that American comic books generally resisted wordless panels because they were worried readers would think the balloons had fallen off the page! At Marvel in particular, the 'Marvel Method' always gave writer/editors the last word, literally: I think Stan often used to overwrite as a way of 'course correcting' Kirby et al (there are plenty of instances of dialogue and image being radically at odds in Marvel Comics) and just generally exerting his 'authority' over the printed page. What's especially excessive at Marvel is that you frequently got captions, dialogue AND thought balloons all in the same panel, which did make for a very cluttered reading experience.
I love this panel from an old Avengers comic where Steve Englehart takes the piss out of Don McGregor's incredibly prolix Black Panther comics:
https://materioptikon.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/a137_bp.jpg
― Bongo Herbert (Ward Fowler), Monday, 16 January 2017 14:10 (seven years ago) link
Lol "nay"
― Οὖτις, Monday, 16 January 2017 14:37 (seven years ago) link
can't wait to see chadwick boseman deliver that dialogue in avengers: infinity war
― hunk of poo, big fart, girlfriend, and Dove soap (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 16 January 2017 14:40 (seven years ago) link
I SAY THEE NAY
― mh 😏, Monday, 16 January 2017 14:53 (seven years ago) link
That "nay" combined with Thor's expression just made me laugh harder than I have in a while.
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Monday, 16 January 2017 14:59 (seven years ago) link
"mauve shadows of regret"
― mh 😏, Monday, 16 January 2017 15:00 (seven years ago) link
Moebius/Jodorowsky stuff is super-wordy too, although obvs that's balanced out by other amazingness. But I do tend to fall back on skimming the words and looking at the pictures. (Also possibly bad translations.)
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 16 January 2017 15:17 (seven years ago) link
steve englehart otm
― his eye is on despair-o (Jon not Jon), Monday, 16 January 2017 15:20 (seven years ago) link
I think we've discussed Edgar P. Jacobs' extreme wordiness in some other thread, but yeah, he's an example that shows some Franco-Belgian writers could do that too. But my point was that walls of text were way common in American mainstream comics than Euro ones, not that Euro comics never had them.
― Tuomas, Monday, 16 January 2017 15:44 (seven years ago) link
I guess this is also because US mainstream comics normally have a separate writer and artist, whereas Euro ones don't? So the US writers didn't feel comfortable with just letting the artist do the heavy lifting? Wordless panels start to become more common in superhero comics in the 80s, and I feel the biggest single influence on that was Miller, who of course didn't have to worry about the aforementioned writer/artist division.
― Tuomas, Monday, 16 January 2017 15:50 (seven years ago) link
I have to admit the bottomless fan service of Web Warriors is kind of fun. Catching up on Marvel Unlimited and... Spider-Ham 2099 and Ducktor Doom 2099!
― mh 😏, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 04:36 (seven years ago) link
I'm reading Spider-Verse atm, which is much the same. Except probably less 'fun' (e.g. the Hostess Fruit Pie universe's Spider-Man just got eaten).
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 05:01 (seven years ago) link
This was one of those things where I worry about the mental health of people who write comic books (and read them)
http://comicvine.gamespot.com/forums/gen-discussion-1/rip-to-spider-man-and-his-amazing-friends-1608607/
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 10:23 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, I didn't realize going in that Slott was going to be taking such Johns-ish glee in killing off the iterations of Spider-Man people are most likely to remember from childhood.
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 13:25 (seven years ago) link
Seems like the trend of killing off characters you deem not cool enough. Or killing more kid friendly characters to be more shocking.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 14:14 (seven years ago) link
TBF, the whole storyline is about a group of people who kill Spider-Men across dimensions and many other Spider-Men are killed or at least threatened with death. But, yes, it's telling that he made those particular decisions (although the newspaper strip Spider-Man was very specifically spared when he clearly should've been the first to go).
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 14:18 (seven years ago) link
it's been a while since i read through spider-verse but i didn't think there was any malice in slott's portrayal of the alternate spider-people's deaths, it was more of a way to a) sell the threat of the villains by showing how easily they were able to murder their way through the multiverse and b) celebrate the weirdness of the many different interpretations of spider-man and throw some more into the mix for future creators to play with if they'd like.
and, most importantly, kinda bring spider-ham into marvel universe continuity because everyone loves spider-man
― How To: Make the perfect summer jorts (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 14:33 (seven years ago) link
er, everyone loves spider-ham, i mean
Doesn't sound like a promising story either way.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 14:42 (seven years ago) link
i really enjoyed it fwiw! the way it's presented in that comicvine link is the worst kind of 'boohoo dan slott is destroying my childhood!' fanboy bullshit that isn't supported at all by the story itself
― How To: Make the perfect summer jorts (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 14:45 (seven years ago) link
The greatest moment I've encountered so far was the Anarchic Spider-Man short which, as far as I can tell, was astoundingly published before Trump announced his candidacy but features President Osborn leading a paramilitary squad and literally bloviating about 'making America great again' before Anarchy Spidey smashes his head open with a guitar.
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 14:57 (seven years ago) link
i dunno if i've said this anywhere else on ilx but at the risk of repeating myself i think slott's spider-man run is one of the best in the character's history - one of the best recent examples of doing fun new things in the marvel sandbox, and so full of affection and understanding for the character of spider-man and his supporting cast
(admittedly i'm not up to speed with much past spider-verse so if it all goes to shit afterwards i reserve the right to claim that dan slott has destroyed my childhood)
― How To: Make the perfect summer jorts (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 15:05 (seven years ago) link
I've enjoyed the Slott Spider-Mans I've read too - he always seems to make an effort, and the Superior Spider-Man spin-off was especially enjoyable - but the most recent collection I sampled, where Peter Parker has become a kind of Tony Stark-alike tech entrepreneur, seemed like a really duff new direction.
― Bongo Herbert (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 15:10 (seven years ago) link
i actually liked that direction quite a bit - i thought it was pretty clever to have one of the outcomes of the superior spider-man saga become that doc ock ends up pushing peter into a position where he actually has to do something constructive with his genius
― How To: Make the perfect summer jorts (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 15:18 (seven years ago) link
Ha, I didn't read the copy on that ComicVine thing, but not a fan of the "female character dies gorily but chest still perky" cliche
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 15:18 (seven years ago) link
And there does seem something witlessly mean-spirited about those two examples (although, like you say, out of context).
Always find Slott's comics look fun (he seems to have a lot of luck with artists) but kind of a chore to read. I liked that She-Hulk series, ten years ago?
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 15:21 (seven years ago) link
XPOST
They got a comic for the winners in the worldI want a comic when they lose
― Bongo Herbert (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 15:25 (seven years ago) link
I'm with bg, Slott gets that even when Spider-Man was in the depths of Ditko-style stories of learning about individual responsibility that he was still *fun* which is something a lot of Spider-Man comics forgot. When I was a kid there seemed like there was an A storyline where Spider-Man had the better creative team but was still becoming increasingly grimdark post-Venom, and the B stories (Spectacular and Web of Spider-Man) where it was just him beating up the Kingpin's goons or family and punching hired thugs with guns
They'll winnow out some of these characters eventually, but now they have: - Peter, who is an actual adult who can succeed as an intelligent scientist dude. He can build things in his life without perpetually working a myriad of jobs and never getting ahead in a relationship/career after the Doc Ock being a better Parker loophole - Miles, who is still a kid and has to balance family and school - Cindy (Silk) who is Peter's age but has no real world experience so she's stringing along jobs and always on the verge of being fired Parker-style
Then there's Spider-Gwen and all the alternate universe shenanigans of Web Warriors
― mh 😏, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 15:28 (seven years ago) link
Ward, Cindy and Miles are your losers :)
I guess, TBF once again, I can't really remember any other sadistic moments in Slott's near-decade of writing Spider-Man so it's probably unfair to treat a single panel featuring dead Amazing Friends as a sign of the same mental illness that Geoff Johns demonstrates on the regular.
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 15:32 (seven years ago) link
the best gimmick was visiting the newspaper strip's universe, where nobody could get anything done because they kept halfway resetting and summarizing dialogue from the previous three panels
― mh 😏, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 15:39 (seven years ago) link
yeah, slott's consistent efforts to deepen and expand spider-man's supporting cast have been super-welcome, not just through introducing new powered and unpowered characters but through doing new things with existing ones, like jjj becoming mayor or aunt may finding a love interest who isn't a supervillain. it's textbook 'illusion of change' stuff but it really works
― How To: Make the perfect summer jorts (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 15:40 (seven years ago) link
Heard that Geoff Johns made some jabs at his fellow creators for being too grimdark in the most recent DC reboot.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 15:59 (seven years ago) link
GEOFF JOHNS: 'no-one out-dismembers geoff johns!'
*turns over a table, runs out of the room weeping*
― How To: Make the perfect summer jorts (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 16:08 (seven years ago) link
Ok! I'm going to check out some more Slott things then.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 16:21 (seven years ago) link
I was going to see if I could find an image from the issue where Peter Parker retakes his body from Doc Ock and might post it later. It was cheesy at some level but incredibly heartfelt -- Peter returns to consciousness as a gestalt of all his memories that Otto was keeping around. He recognizes that his life has had its ups and terrible downs but that so much of it was *fun*.
Recognizing that he loves being Spider-Man *and* Peter Parker works past all of the darkness of so many years of him neglecting parts of his life or feeling he has to sacrifice in a way that breaks him. That he can embrace the fact that he doesn't shy away from sacrifice without it wrecking that inner joy.
― mh 😏, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 16:59 (seven years ago) link
Part of my aversion to that Dr Octopus storyline is the absolute certainty that it inspired lots of disgusting porn.
I just checked to see if there's Trump cartoon porn and indeed there is.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 17:45 (seven years ago) link
if that's your criteria for consuming media then i think you've basically ensured you'll never watch / read / play anything ever again
― How To: Make the perfect summer jorts (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 18:16 (seven years ago) link
(also i really don't mean this unkindly or mean-spiritedly, i promise, but do you realise how often you bring up porn on unrelated threads on ilx?)
― How To: Make the perfect summer jorts (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 18:18 (seven years ago) link
he's just keeping us up-to-date
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 18:21 (seven years ago) link
I do realise.
However pure Slott's intentions might be, I'd never be able to shake off the suspicion that he's doing a Claremont, Byrne, Piers Anthony, Jack Chalker thing. Grosses me out.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 18:26 (seven years ago) link
having actually read the story in question, i'd have to say that if slott is getting his jollies from pushing doc ock into spider-man's unwilling mind he's doing a much better job of hiding his intentions than the guys you mentioned
― How To: Make the perfect summer jorts (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 18:31 (seven years ago) link
Slott has had good luck with artists? Didn't he get Humberto Ramos? Not lucky.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 18:36 (seven years ago) link
Well, I do at least agree with you on that point. I want to set Ramos up with a really nice job that pays him as much as he's currently making but that involves no drawing ever again for the rest of forever.
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 19:20 (seven years ago) link
Land & Ramos Party Planning Inc. has a nice ring to it, I think.
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 19:22 (seven years ago) link
It's okay not to bring up porn in every thread. Really.
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 19:37 (seven years ago) link
ironically though he got yelled at for bringing up porn IN the porn thread, so what can he do at this point
― Nhex, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 19:38 (seven years ago) link
Keep it to TMI?
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 19:40 (seven years ago) link
Land, Ramos, and whoever's coloured JR JR's comics since 2004
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 19:54 (seven years ago) link
98% of comics colorists.
Really disliked that black coat and shades Dr Octopus design Ramos did.
Who are the better artists working for Marvel these days?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 20:00 (seven years ago) link
(*don't type greg land as a joke, don't type greg land as a joke...*)
Greg Land
― mh 😏, Tuesday, 17 January 2017 20:11 (seven years ago) link
I dunno, I kinda prefer the artists that Greg Land traces over.</pornojoke>
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 20:13 (seven years ago) link
I want to do a parody of a Land comic where all of the characters are barely-altered lightboxed illustrations of old-school blow-up dolls.
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 17 January 2017 20:14 (seven years ago) link
greg land is beyond parody tbh
― How To: Make the perfect summer jorts (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 09:35 (seven years ago) link
I'm not a fan but I'm not sure why people hate his work so much more than other similar artists. I've never read any of his comics. I guess it's the sometimes awkward integration of photo reference into his work? I've mostly seen cover art by him.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 12:59 (seven years ago) link
http://comicsalliance.com/files/2013/08/Monica.png
It's not just that it looks like it's swiped from a (probably caucasian) porn star, but take a look at the thigh gap. And also, this was an Al Ewing book, and the cast was supposed to be more 'progressive' than other books.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 13:10 (seven years ago) link
He does the awkward photo reference thing constantly. It's like rotoscoped spank mag fumetti with hastily-sketched masks and capes.
Also he's just bad and lazy.
https://cdn.bleedingcool.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/the-thing.jpg
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 13:11 (seven years ago) link
Just now realized where her neck sits on her torso... That's not healthy.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 13:11 (seven years ago) link
I'm guessing it's swiped from two different porn stars now.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 13:12 (seven years ago) link
now i'm wondering whether theres's a porn star who looks like the thing
if only we had a dedicated ilx porn correspondent who could address my question
― How To: Make the perfect summer jorts (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 13:14 (seven years ago) link
Maybe he was drawing Monica mid-cabbage patch
― (The caption: “fine dining.”) (DJP), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 13:35 (seven years ago) link
First example does like a tad like Mia Khalifa but I doubt I know most of the stuff Greg Land looks at. I don't watch lamestream porn and I don't read lamestream comics. Those panels are pretty bad.
But honestly most of the porn stuff I talk about are things I dislike intensely but I find it interesting in the same way I find right wing trends interesting. Just a lot of morbidly fascinating behaviour that tells you a lot about bigots.
I promise soon I'll be back to blabbing about Art Zoyd, Supersister, Summoning and goth bands.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 13:39 (seven years ago) link
i wouldn't even mind the photo-reference so much if land could actually tell a decent sequential story using those materials, but he's not talented enough to turn a series of pin-up photos into anything other than a series of pin-up drawings
thanks for the new screenname, rag!
― i don't watch lamestream porn (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 13:43 (seven years ago) link
Teehee
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 13:47 (seven years ago) link
Greg Land drew what I thought was a pretty cool rendition of Pixie until I realized she was only supposed to be like, 13
― (The caption: “fine dining.”) (DJP), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 14:22 (seven years ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Land#Critical_reception
he openly admits to using porn as source material!
btw I only mentioned him to clown a certain line of conversation and let's keep him out of our minds
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 14:55 (seven years ago) link
I'm all-too-happy to do so, particularly since I can only seem to envision him drawing pantsless.
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 14:58 (seven years ago) link
This thread has been vomited upon by a moderator
― (The caption: “fine dining.”) (DJP), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 15:04 (seven years ago) link
his lower half is suspiciously absent from view in one of the few pictures i could find of him online, lending credence to your theory
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/a/ad/Greg_Land_001.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20070103155707
― i don't watch lamestream porn (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 15:04 (seven years ago) link
http://jimsmashextended.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/greg-land-tracing-swiping-recycling.html?m=1
― Mud... Jam... Failure... (aldo), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 15:32 (seven years ago) link
My favourite, not in that collection, was when he traced the #1 GIS for Angry Old Woman.
― Mud... Jam... Failure... (aldo), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 15:37 (seven years ago) link
I guess if you're going to go for it, go bold
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 15:41 (seven years ago) link
I mean, comic book artists have used real models and photo reference for decades (that's Milton Caniff below) so I don't think it's necessarily wrong for Land to use porn as a reference - I'm guessing it's a good way to 'study' the undraped male and female body - just that in his case, the original source is far too obvious and ludicrously, needlessly sexualised (beyond the sexualisation that is an inherent part of all superhero costuming). Also, he's crap.
http://art.cafimg.com/images/Category_2953/subcat_145322/caniffphotodragonlady.jpg
― Bongo Herbert (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 15:44 (seven years ago) link
As in Caniff paid a model and photographer to create specific poses for photo reference? That sounds like a lot of work when you can google "sexy woman legs crossed"
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 15:52 (seven years ago) link
I'm waiting for the next level of Greg Land-style work where someone just hunts through pictures of cosplayers at comic conventions against solid color backdrops
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 15:54 (seven years ago) link
I suppose it's to Land's credit that he's never accidentally traced any body fluid spillage.
― Gorvernment Stoodge (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 15:54 (seven years ago) link
Wow, you weren't lying!
http://www.eviepurves.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/angry-old-lady.jpg
http://angryjogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/scared-old-woman.png
https://cdn.bleedingcool.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Mighty-Avengers-2-2013-Page-12-600x701.jpg
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 16:22 (seven years ago) link
srs q: does anyone really, genuinely enjoy greg land? are there ride-or-die greg land fans out there? maybe i'm enjoying the benefits of never really taking in comic-book news and comment outside a handful of relatively grown-up sites (and ilx, obv) but i just don't get how someone so abjectly terrible keeps getting such high-profile work
― i don't watch lamestream porn (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 17:01 (seven years ago) link
Seems they missed out his Obama as Norman Osborn.
When he started drawing Sojourn I thought he was really impressive but I rarely saw his interiors. Now I think he's actually capable of competent work if he really goes for it but I just don't like the style.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 18:16 (seven years ago) link
I'm guessing he's excellent with deadlines
― (The caption: “fine dining.”) (DJP), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 18:26 (seven years ago) link
are ppl really complaining about the use of photo references? or just greg land being terrible at using photo references
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 18:47 (seven years ago) link
credit where credit's kinda almost due: he's managed to couple his basic competence at drawing with his ability to trace the top results of any given google image search and a deep swipe file of pinups and porn into a successful career in funnybooks xp
― i don't watch lamestream porn (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 18:48 (seven years ago) link
greg land being terrible at using photo references
this one
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 18:16
I should note I was 15 when I thought those Sojourn covers were impressive and that he is capable of drawing well but just usually doesn't seem to but I'm not a fan either way.
Οὖτις - it does look like some people complain about Land using photo reference at all but I think it's mainly that he uses it badly.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 18:50 (seven years ago) link
that and there's some appeal to what he's doing -- it's not anything i'd pick up for the art alone, but it's semi-competent. it's like a really hackish bryan hitch thing
there's also a different between using a photo reference, which he seems to do sometimes, and just finding a photo that sort of fits what you need and literally tracing over it
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 18:52 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, it's poor use and recycling he deserves ire for.
― Mud... Jam... Failure... (aldo), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 18:54 (seven years ago) link
that one with a woman in a sprawled sitting pose with her arm at an awkward angle where it's obviously a rip of porn imagery where he just moved her hand from her groin to the side is mind-numbingly bad
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 18:57 (seven years ago) link
Yes, that was my guess too. Plus - comic book fans have terrible taste!
― Bongo Herbert (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 18 January 2017 20:34 (seven years ago) link
https://bitchmedia.org/article/marvel-new-hulk-gender-ptsd
― A big shout out goes to the lamb chops, thos lamb chops (ulysses), Monday, 6 February 2017 16:31 (seven years ago) link
What you guys reading these days? I switched my All-New Wolverine sub to Gwenpool, cuz just can't get with where "ANW" has been going (I don't like my heroes to be killers, even if "i'ts complicated"). I feel like Dennis Hopeless's Spider-Woman (a longtime fave) has also kind of squandered its initial potential... the first "reboot" ish (http://marvel.com/comics/issue/49517/spider-woman_2014_5) is one of my fave single issues of anything, but the series has kept getting derailed by crossovers and tie-ins, and never really hit its stride.
"The Unworthy Thor" is great, if you're into Jason Aaron and his Thor schtick.
― morrisp, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 19:48 (seven years ago) link
I enjoy both current versions of the Thor shtick
― mh 😏, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 19:49 (seven years ago) link
Did you read the one-shot issue with the "history" of Mjolnir? That was so awesome... it was my first encounter with Aaron (I've since gone back and read more of the recent Thor stuff). I love the blend of sci-fi & fantasy, and the way he cuts the Asgardian diction with slangy/informal bits and punchlines. It's Good Stuff
― morrisp, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 19:55 (seven years ago) link
Mariko Tamaki's "Hulk" is off to a strong start, "Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat" and "Unbeatable Squirrel Girl" are low-stakes but charming, "Black Widow" and "All-New Wolverine" have been consistently enjoyable, and the Hydra-Cap series has been more compelling than I expected, although it's getting demoralizing to follow that character arc under the current political conditions. I've been meaning to catch up on the present Thors, although I've only really read a few issues of the Simonson "Thor" and Ewing's "Loki, Agent of Asgard," so I'm not sure where to start.
― one way street, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 20:10 (seven years ago) link
I read "PWAH!" for a while, and I agree it's super-cute. I've been meaning to get back into it -- maybe I'll catch up with the next TPB collection. The "low-stakes" side of nu-Marvel (represented by Hellcat, Gwenpool, Charles Soule's She-Hulk run from a few years back, etc.) tends to be the sweet spot for me.
― morrisp, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 20:16 (seven years ago) link
("Unstoppable Wasp" seems like another potentially good new one along those lines; I've only read #1 so far tho.)
― morrisp, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 20:20 (seven years ago) link
I've been meaning to catch up on the present Thors, although I've only really read a few issues of the Simonson "Thor" and Ewing's "Loki, Agent of Asgard," so I'm not sure where to start.
Maybe start with Straczynski's Thor (although I recall the arc fizzles out near the end, when Kieron Gillen takes over briefly), the onto Jason Aaron's. Aaron's run is widely praised and brings you up pretty much to current day, I think.
Kieron Gillen's run on Journey into Mystery is worth trying after that. It might make Agent of Asgard make more sense.
― salsa shark, Wednesday, 8 February 2017 08:02 (seven years ago) link
I'd agree that's a good start, if only to give the excellent Gillen run context. Aaron's run which later turns into Goddess of Thunder is also pretty dang good. I've been reading the Aaron run over the last year and haven't been disappointed. Need to catch up on all things Loki.An unnecessary (though good) detour might be the pre-"Avengers Assembled" Thor "Ragnarok" run setting him up to die prior to Civil War, I liked that story. The JMS run takes place on his return following Civil War. But ultimately, everyone forgets that it happened.
― Nhex, Wednesday, 8 February 2017 08:15 (seven years ago) link
Aaron's run and Journey Into Mystery are contained enough that you shouldn't have to read anything before them. Is the Straczynski run any good? He sounds like a berk, which has put me off reading it, although I guess I've read enough Comics By Berks by now that it really shouldn't matter.
I'm reading less Marvel stuff than I have in years - just Black Widow and the Thors - and Black Widow is ending soon I think. Wish Dr Strange had a different artist. Wish Waid was capable of writing more than one good book at a time - his other books right now are *awful*. I think they need to steal Tom King from DC and get him on some Hickman-style epic Avengers run for the next 5 years.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 8 February 2017 12:45 (seven years ago) link
I think Daredevil is bringing back Waid's cast next month, presumably to shit over/retcon it.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 8 February 2017 12:46 (seven years ago) link
Straczynski's Thor run is pretty good, certainly better than any other comic by him that I've read... It sorta fizzles towards the end, as for whatever he quit in the middle of a story arc, but the Gillen took the reins and made the book even better during his short run, which set the stage for his incredible Journey into Mystery run, which is pretty much the best Marvel run of the last 5 or so years. So yeah, it's all worth reading.
Unfortunately the main Thor book wasn't very good during Gillen's JiM run, as Matt Fraction had no idea how to write these characters... But thankfully JiM's crossovers with the main book don't really require you to know what's going on there to get what Gillen's doing. He pretty much took the liberty he had with writing such a fringe book, and made it into the Animal Man of the '10s. And Ewing's Agent of Asgard, which is almost as good, continues those themes with Loki.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 8 February 2017 17:05 (seven years ago) link
"as for whatever reason he quit in the middle of a story arc, but then Gillen took the reins"
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 8 February 2017 17:06 (seven years ago) link
Agreed that Thor was the best mainstream Marvel book Straczynski did (never read his Supreme Power stuff).
― Transformed From The Norm By The Nuclear Goop (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 8 February 2017 17:08 (seven years ago) link
!
http://marvel.com/games/play/34/create_your_own_comic
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 8 February 2017 17:14 (seven years ago) link
The Straczynski Thor seemed almost as good as could be when it started, a great mesh of Thor finding his new place in the Marvel universe - having Asgård hover over Oklahoma was a pretty great idea - and Loki plotting to nefarious means. But once the plotting all became clear, it didn't really add up to anything... Gillen couldn't really save the ending, but JiM is as good as everyone says it is.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 8 February 2017 18:33 (seven years ago) link
i feel like i woulda killed whole weeks with that "make your own comic" thing as a kid.
― A big shout out goes to the lamb chops, thos lamb chops (ulysses), Wednesday, 8 February 2017 18:38 (seven years ago) link
Here's some random blabbery -- what do y'all think of the way Marvel uses S.H.I.E.L.D. these days? I feel like they get too "deus ex machina" with it -- S.H.I.E.L.D. can see anything, go anywhere, pop up at the climax of any issue to "tie things down," etc. I sort of roll my eyes at the scenes where Nick Fury Jr. and Agent Hill stand there looming sternly above our heroes, their arms crossed, talking about "protocol" and "need-to-know basis". I also feel like once you've seen one (anti-)hero fight her way out of the Helicarrier and jump into thin air, it's been done (yet even that, I've seen twice).
I know S.H.I.E.L.D. has always been around, but they didn't figure much into the comics I read in the '80s... now they seem to loom so large. I'm sure the popularity of the movies and TV show has something to do with it.
― morrisp, Wednesday, 8 February 2017 21:54 (seven years ago) link
― A big shout out goes to the lamb chops, thos lamb chops (ulysses)
when i was a kid those were called "colorforms"
― increasingly bonkers (rushomancy), Wednesday, 8 February 2017 22:57 (seven years ago) link
well yeah!
― A big shout out goes to the lamb chops, thos lamb chops (ulysses), Wednesday, 8 February 2017 23:33 (seven years ago) link
or presto magix really
what do y'all think of the way Marvel uses S.H.I.E.L.D. these days?
idk about their role in terms of storylines since I tend not to read/watch much with direct SHIELD involvement, but more generally: I find SHIELD irritating because its arrangement/set-up doesn't fit contemporary global politics. It seems to go back and forth (or is entirely vague) about whether it's a body of/related to the American government or the UN. If the former: it's a completely outdated cold-war concept that an American organisation would be responsible for global affairs, and that other countries would be happy with that arrangement. If the latter: it's highly unbelievable that so many SHIELD agents would be American and its heroes would be dominated by Americans. Different cultural perspectives would be nice. It's not like Marvel doesn't have markets outside the US.
― salsa shark, Sunday, 12 February 2017 17:34 (seven years ago) link
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, February 8, 2017 7:46 AM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I only read the first part of Waid's run, but got back on Daredevil with the current volume. It's a pretty good read I think, much more 'classic' Marvel than the other stuff I see on the shelves. Charles Soule is writing the book right now and Ron Garney has done some nice artwork on the book.
The only other Marvel books I have been reading is The Punisher, Star Wars and now Doctor Aphra since Dr. Doom ended. Gillen's Star Wars comics are really good. He's paired up with Kev Walker on the Doctor Aphra book and he is really good.
― earlnash, Monday, 13 February 2017 02:11 (seven years ago) link
<i>It seems to go back and forth (or is entirely vague) about whether it's a body of/related to the American government or the UN.</i>
I thought SHIELD reported to some shadowy cabal of world leaders (and not necessarily "elected" ones), with no other oversight -- which may account for why the org has had to be reformed and rebuilt "from the ground up" so many times, due to corruption/infiltration/etc -- but I'm not too familiar with the whole deal. My impression was that SHIELD originally functioned as sort of a stand-in for the CIA, but later grew beyond that (and the CIA now even "exists" in the Marvel Universe?). I recently read the "Mockingbird: Bobbi Morse, Agent of SHIELD" TPB -- highly recommended, btw -- and in one of the stories from the '70s, SHIELD was funneling $$ appropriated by Congress to a Latin American strongman who went rogue... so yeah, basically the CIA.
― morrisp, Wednesday, 15 February 2017 18:12 (seven years ago) link
(sorry, forgot to do the "convert HTML" thang)
SHIELD has been retconned significantly over recent years to have a greater historical depth, but in a way that links it to past organizations without making them essential to the American-focused, post-WW2 SHIELD.
In its original incarnation it basically cast Nick Fury as the american James Bond, complete with other field agents, a love interest, one-off costumed villains like Scorpio, and Hydra as a Spectre-esque villainous organization. There's not a real analogue because it's a take off of the Bond movies, not the Bond books, so it's all too fantastic and larger than life to be an analogue of real American organization
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 15 February 2017 19:02 (seven years ago) link
Interesting... Well, James Bond has ended up faring better than his American counterpart, seeing as Nick Fury is now an all-seeing wraith chained to the moon. (The worst indignity that Bond has suffered is being played by Pierce Brosnan.)
― morrisp, Thursday, 16 February 2017 04:21 (seven years ago) link
And having his testicles battered with a carpet-beater
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Thursday, 16 February 2017 07:13 (seven years ago) link
http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/galleries/x701/74426.jpg
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 16 February 2017 10:44 (seven years ago) link
Oh cool, they finally made an Obnoxio the Clown movie
https://uncannyxmen.net/sites/default/files/images/covers/oneshots/obnoxiovsxmen1.jpg
― Bongo Herbert (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 16 February 2017 10:47 (seven years ago) link
three month marvel unlimited code if anyone wants it: A7YNUZJXFM6
― removed from the rain drops and drop tops of experience (ulysses), Thursday, 16 February 2017 20:15 (seven years ago) link
ooh thanks
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 16 February 2017 22:01 (seven years ago) link
I like the Sfar and Trondheim ones:
http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/jean-samuel-kriegk/8-auteurs-de-bd-francais-se-reapproprient-lunivers-marvel/
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 20 February 2017 13:17 (seven years ago) link
i would read an entire marvel universe drawn from trondheim
― Mordy, Monday, 20 February 2017 15:55 (seven years ago) link
tbf, i would read anything by trondheim
― removed from the rain drops and drop tops of experience (ulysses), Monday, 20 February 2017 21:11 (seven years ago) link
Tarot the Black Witch by Lewis Trondheim
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Tuesday, 21 February 2017 00:13 (seven years ago) link
another three months of marvel unlimited for anyone who wants it - gotta be used today tho
OUOB6QJZEXK
― for sale: steve bannon waifu pillow (heavily soiled) (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 07:56 (seven years ago) link
looks like it's too late :(
― Nhex, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 09:10 (seven years ago) link
wait, i think i misread the email - try this: FFHPYPI1YHJ1
― for sale: steve bannon waifu pillow (heavily soiled) (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 09:20 (seven years ago) link
nope
― Nhex, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 10:02 (seven years ago) link
:(
― for sale: steve bannon waifu pillow (heavily soiled) (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 10:51 (seven years ago) link
I'm currently making my way thru ESSENTIAL SPIDER-WOMAN, VOL. 1. Jessica Drew's origin/background are pretty weird and funky, even by the standards of the typical "superhero with a tortured past." FUN FACT: Jess originally had short, light-brown hair; and her famed long dark locks were a wig that she sewed into the costume(!)
― morrisp, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 22:54 (seven years ago) link
I was rereading some old Wolverine the other day and had forgotten she makes an appearance in Madripoor when he's lying low as Patch
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 22:56 (seven years ago) link
That reminds me, Marvel is running a sale on digital editions of X-23 (Laura Kinney) collections; it ends tomorrow night: https://comicstore.marvel.com/X-23-Collections-Sale/page/14082.
I assume they did this to tie into the upcoming "Logan" movie (which features a young Laura); tho you'd think they'd run the sale *after* the movie comes out...
― morrisp, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 23:04 (seven years ago) link
Also, I didn't realize how deep Jessica's roots were with the X-Men... Vol. 2 of that collection has a run of Chris Claremont stories (with Tom Orz lettering) that basically look & feel like X-Men books, and feature some of that crew.
― morrisp, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 23:09 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, Claremont tended to weave whatever titles he was writing at the time into one another. Jessica Drew and Misty Knight were like secondary/tertiary characters in Uncanny in the late '70s-ish.
― Hurry Up And Eat Your Face! (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 23:53 (seven years ago) link
A properly expansive collection of UXM from that era would also have to include relevant issues of Ms. Marvel, Marvel Team-Up, etc. You're missing bits of the story if you only read the main title. Nothing crucial, but still.
― Hurry Up And Eat Your Face! (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 23:56 (seven years ago) link
Yeah...that is one big classic Uncanny X-men compilation that Marvel has not yet done. You could make big book with all those stories.
Sabertooth also starts in Iron Fist, I think originally it might have been thought to make him Rand's arch villain at some point and later they did all the stuff with Wolverine.
Another one never compiled with either classic 80s X-men nor Spider-man is the Marvel Fanfare story-line where both of them end up in the Savage Land.
Nightcrawler had a story in Amazing Spider-man too that I don't think Claremont wrote. Stern wrote the Avengers/X-Men miniseries, but it looks like that one is going to get reprinted in the Epic Collection series.
It would be better if those were printed in order with the X-men books, but I would imagine if ever compiled - they will be in a separate book.
― earlnash, Thursday, 23 February 2017 05:52 (seven years ago) link
There's prob stuff missing still, but sorting Claremont into date order on Marvel Unlimited works quite well (thanks again ulysees).
Just started reading the Ditko Spider-Man's for the first time - they're amazing (obviously) - I've had the telephone book in my house for 10 years but never opened it till now. The cliche is true - every issue is basically millions of $$$ in future IP. Also Stan's scripting is relatively subdued and fun (and actual good jokes - I'm assuming these aren't Ditko's).
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 23 February 2017 10:06 (seven years ago) link
And Peter is a surprisingly bitter, sad fellow.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 23 February 2017 10:07 (seven years ago) link
and actual good jokes - I'm assuming these aren't Ditko's
perhaps the safest assumption in history
― for sale: steve bannon waifu pillow (heavily soiled) (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 February 2017 10:13 (seven years ago) link
I always thought that Lee's Spiderman scripts were his best claim to be something more than just someone who got famous by putting his name on other people's work (there *are* jokes in some of Ditko's solo work imo, funny jokes even, but they tend to be somewhat odd and very different in tone to Spiderman). kind of feel like Spiderman without Lee would have been all bitter, sad stuff though, without enough light or irreverence.
― soref, Thursday, 23 February 2017 10:28 (seven years ago) link
i always thought that the care that those early spider-man books took to establish the two sides of peter's character, the nebbish and the wisecracking hero, felt a bit like stan was throwing in some autobiography
― for sale: steve bannon waifu pillow (heavily soiled) (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 February 2017 10:38 (seven years ago) link
Stern wrote the Avengers/X-Men miniseries, but it looks like that one is going to get reprinted in the Epic Collection series.
This was already collected in the Avengers Epic Collection titled "Judgment Day", which came out a couple of year ago. It's a pretty weird mini, apparently Stern wanted it to end with Magneto becoming a villain again, but someone (probably Claremont?) didn't like that resolution, so Stern was asked to change the ending... He refused and walked out, and DeFalco was brought in to write the last issue, where the plot kinda fizzles out and the question of Magneto's villainy is sidestepped in a disappointing way.
Given how protective Claremont was of his pet characters, it seems like the Marvel editorial made a mistake in giving the whole mini to Stern in the first place. Even if he'd gotten to write his preffered ending, I'm sure Claremont would've found a way to retcon it.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 28 February 2017 17:03 (seven years ago) link
If Stern had gotten his way, we would've missed out on Claremont's much more narratively-satisfying explanation that Moira MacTaggert had somehow scienced a temporarily baby-fied Magneto into a more beneficent being.
― The Flautist of Flatus (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 28 February 2017 17:31 (seven years ago) link
hahaha what?
― Nhex, Tuesday, 28 February 2017 20:12 (seven years ago) link
All was revealed in the final story from Claremont's initial run (the first three issues of the new '90s X-Men series). Yes, this is how he chose to go out.
― The Flautist of Flatus (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 28 February 2017 20:25 (seven years ago) link
oh god really? i bought those issues. i must've just blocked it out in my memory
― Nhex, Tuesday, 28 February 2017 20:27 (seven years ago) link
yeah that was revealed during the "magneto reappears and he's aaaangry" storyline. fatal attractions, maybe?
― mh 😏, Tuesday, 28 February 2017 20:42 (seven years ago) link
He came back aaaaaaangry in Fatal Attractions because of the revelations from that final Claremont story, IIRC.
― The Flautist of Flatus (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 28 February 2017 21:09 (seven years ago) link
I did the preorder for whatever related thing gave you a copy of "Magneto #0" (zero issues were still an amazing novelty) that was a reprint of an old Magneto story plus some more info from whatever agency was tracking him -- I think it was the first time they revealed his name was Eric Lensherr and everything else was an alias
― mh 😏, Tuesday, 28 February 2017 21:12 (seven years ago) link
(sorry, I mean the first time they revealed THAT alias)
He'l always be Xorn to me.
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 28 February 2017 21:13 (seven years ago) link
He'll, even.
so he went through a ton of comics and years as Magneto with "Magnus" as a supposed given namethen eventually we find out he's "Erik Magnus Lehnsherr" but it turns out that's what he was calling himself when he met Xavier and Gabrielle Hallerthen they finally revealed post-2000 that his name is Max
― mh 😏, Tuesday, 28 February 2017 21:14 (seven years ago) link
I miss Mr. Xorn
― mh 😏, Tuesday, 28 February 2017 21:15 (seven years ago) link
Magneto the tweaker who is so jacked up on mutant meth he keeps hearing Xorn was great
― mh 😏, Tuesday, 28 February 2017 21:16 (seven years ago) link
wait how did I miss that Magneto is now named Max
― ornate orchestral arrangements (DJP), Tuesday, 28 February 2017 21:17 (seven years ago) link
How did you not know he was the kid in Where The Wild Things Are?
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 28 February 2017 21:19 (seven years ago) link
His name is actually Max Neato.
― The Flautist of Flatus (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 28 February 2017 21:20 (seven years ago) link
Magneto becoming a 'good guy' was around when the X-Men kinda moved into the background for me. It's kind of the beginning of the loss of moral center for the whole title and like when I came back you got Professor X being really pretty damn evil when you add it up and then Cyclops finally losing his mind and becoming pretty much Magneto Jr. Of course, at this point after that last Marvel Crisis on infinite red worlds whatever - there is no moral center to about ANY of the characters. They are all pretty much jerks and just as terrible as whatever is on our Earth 2761 or whatever it actually might be called.
― earlnash, Thursday, 2 March 2017 01:31 (seven years ago) link
I had forgot about the whole Stern thing on that title, that must have been about the time DeFalco also gave him the boot on ASM and he eventually migrated to DC. Roger Stern is one of the better Marvel writers of that era, although all of them even the dudes like Mantlo who did WAY too many comics did some cools issues at one point or another.
― earlnash, Thursday, 2 March 2017 01:32 (seven years ago) link
Mantlo micronauts was frequently cool as shit.
― Cognition (Remix) (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 2 March 2017 01:36 (seven years ago) link
<i>Of course, at this point after that last Marvel Crisis on infinite red worlds whatever - there is no moral center to about ANY of the characters. They are all pretty much jerks and just as terrible as whatever is on our Earth 2761 or whatever it actually might be called.</i>
This is one of my big problems with the whole Civil War business. Marvel heroes have always been "flawed" and complex (that's part of why they're so compelling), but they're supposed to remain heroes. In fact, their struggles and achievements in the face of their "flawed" humanity make them all the more heroic. (It's "easy" to be a hero when you're Superman; less so when you're Peter Parker.) But the characters in CWII crossovers that I read aren't heroic; they have no (as you say) moral center. And I'm talking about heavy-hitters like Steve Rogers and ("Old Man") Logan. The whole thing feels like a series of cynical plot devices to sell comics.
― morrisp, Thursday, 2 March 2017 19:17 (seven years ago) link
someday I will remember to convert those html tags
― morrisp, Thursday, 2 March 2017 19:18 (seven years ago) link
I think Roger Stern was a much better Marvel Comics writer than Bill Mantlo, Micronauts maybe excepted (and it sure didn't hurt having the first twelve issues of that drawn by Michael Golden). Just for starters, Stern's Captain America run with John Byrne and his run on Avengers with Buscema/Palmer are excellent, and far less slapdash than Mantlo in superhero hack mode.
― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 2 March 2017 20:06 (seven years ago) link
Made the mistake of buying "X23: The Complete Collection" during that recent digital sale (I know & enjoy the current incarnation of the character in "All-New Wolverine," but not the backstory). It is so, so bad. Totally cliched writing; bad (and inappropriately "sexy" art); graphic violence and tons of gore; child abuse used as a cheap plot device. Marvel in the 2000s was so bad! I'm sure there are exceptions (and I've come across a few), but geez. Seeing how low they sunk, when I was largely looking the other way, makes the "renaissance"/turnaround that started with Marvel Now! look all the more remarkable.
― morrisp, Saturday, 4 March 2017 16:52 (seven years ago) link
i wouldn't defend nyx and the x-23 series as great comics, but i liked them, especially the sadness of the runaway storiesactually i just looked up the collection and realized nyx 1/2 aren't even in there so :(
― Nhex, Saturday, 4 March 2017 18:10 (seven years ago) link
They recently put out three of those collections, one for the complete NYX and two for the remainder of the solo X-23 stuff.
― The Flautist of Flatus (Old Lunch), Saturday, 4 March 2017 18:59 (seven years ago) link
Yeah the NYX material isn't in the one I bought -- it's a few "origin" miniseries (which are what I'm primarily referring to in my rant above), and then some random stuff from way later, after she's been hanging with the X-Men a while.
― morrisp, Sunday, 5 March 2017 00:56 (seven years ago) link
Al E has a great list of comics up on the "Discover" tab on MU right now
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 6 March 2017 12:22 (seven years ago) link
LOL @ these pics: http://ew.com/movies/thor-ragnarok-exclusive-first-look-photos/thor-chris-hemsworth/
(Both current "Thor" series are so good, btw. "THE UNWORTHY THOR" wraps up next ish... supposedly it will be revealed what was whispered to Odinson that made him unworthy!)
― morrisp, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 22:05 (seven years ago) link
from all the way back in Original Sin? geez that's a long payoff that will inevitably disappoint
― Nhex, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 22:18 (seven years ago) link
Definitely a long tail on that mystery. (The whispered secret: "MOST COMICS WILL NOT INCREASE IN VALUE")
― morrisp, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 22:28 (seven years ago) link
"No more mutants."
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 9 March 2017 00:40 (seven years ago) link
Probably something shameful about how he could have saved lives, or secret Asgard shame
― mh 😏, Thursday, 9 March 2017 02:18 (seven years ago) link
"You caused Jane's cancer."
― scattered, smothered, covered, diced and chunked (WilliamC), Thursday, 9 March 2017 02:46 (seven years ago) link
why is hemsworth doing thor as god of war now?
― removed from the rain drops and drop tops of experience (ulysses), Thursday, 9 March 2017 02:48 (seven years ago) link
nah it's thor as maximus
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Thursday, 9 March 2017 03:09 (seven years ago) link
IIRC, the next Thor movie is supposed to be a gloss on Planet Hulk. He probably got a style upgrade against his will.
I took Fury's whisper to Thor in Original Sin as some sort of Asgardian cheat code. So it was probably just something like 'up down up down left right right left A B start, and poof you can no longer lift your hammer but now you have infinite health and ammo, you're welcome.'
― The twin snake of violence and sex is more like a sick wolf. (Old Lunch), Thursday, 9 March 2017 04:44 (seven years ago) link
It reminds me of "Hitchhiker's Guide" -- that machine which reveals the true scope and complexity of the universe, and each individual's utterly insignificant place within it; and anyone who goes in emerges a crumpled, gibbering heap... except Zaphod, who walks out whistling and asks, "When's lunch?" [b/c he was in a replica/pocket universe created just for him]. ...Anyway, whatever this "secret" that caused Odinson to lose his mojo, probably shouldn't have had that effect on a *true* Thunder God. I bet Odin would have just laughed in Fury's face!
― morrisp, Thursday, 9 March 2017 06:19 (seven years ago) link
WmC on to something
― mh 😏, Thursday, 9 March 2017 15:57 (seven years ago) link
Missed this story a while back:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/3/11853862/marvel-thanos-infinity-gauntlet-oven-mitt-recall
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 10 March 2017 13:16 (seven years ago) link
I would've totally burned the shit out of my own hand if I'd known that existed.
― The twin snake of violence and sex is more like a sick wolf. (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 March 2017 13:34 (seven years ago) link
fuckin' lootcrate
― im a male feminist, i have a fleshlight just to eat it out (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 10 March 2017 13:43 (seven years ago) link
I don't understand the point of it. Hey, here's a box of completely random garbage with maybe one thing in it you think is maybe kinda okay but wouldn't actually purchase on its own, give us your money, thank you.
― The twin snake of violence and sex is more like a sick wolf. (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 March 2017 14:07 (seven years ago) link
it's for dorks who have too much disposable income and a fetish for getting surprises in the mail i guess
― im a male feminist, i have a fleshlight just to eat it out (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 10 March 2017 14:44 (seven years ago) link
Ohhhh, right, that dude at the comic shop who presumably already has a spot on a shelf in a dedicated room for the Rogue bust that he's buying.
― The twin snake of violence and sex is more like a sick wolf. (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 March 2017 15:15 (seven years ago) link
I think I have some nerdy coworkers who don't usually buy comic/video game/movie merchandise but were looking for an excuse to do so and they were getting them. I think their small children were into the whole surprise aspect
― mh 😏, Friday, 10 March 2017 15:38 (seven years ago) link
it's basically a slightly-more-adult happy meal package afaict
― im a male feminist, i have a fleshlight just to eat it out (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 10 March 2017 15:43 (seven years ago) link
Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like Charles Soule's Marvel work is somewhat serviceable but complete hack work?
I'm disappointed he's picking up a new Darth Vader series, but it fits the pattern of work he's had so far. I might be giving him too little credit, but everything he's done for them has felt like an editorial meeting put together the basic outline of a comics event (Death of Wolverine, Inhumans/X-Men stuff) and he's scripted the most pat stories that hit all the required points.
― mh 😏, Saturday, 11 March 2017 18:30 (seven years ago) link
Yep, him and Jeff Lemire. Both seem super boring but get a lot of work.
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 11 March 2017 19:42 (seven years ago) link
I don't mind Lemire -- his characters seem more relatable, but he's got a lot on his plate
― mh 😏, Saturday, 11 March 2017 19:45 (seven years ago) link
haven't really read much by Soule but definitely agree that most of what I've read from Lemire is just okay, sad because I definitely dug Trillian
― Nhex, Saturday, 11 March 2017 21:15 (seven years ago) link
He's not very well-suited to writing ensemble books like his take on X-Men, I think; Essex County works because he's able to sympathetically inhabit his protagonists while also suggesting the ways in which their perspectives are naive or self-serving, but he hasn't been able to translate that tension into compelling comics with more complicated character systems.
― one way street, Saturday, 11 March 2017 21:30 (seven years ago) link
His Moon Knight is interesting.
― EZ Snappin, Saturday, 11 March 2017 21:34 (seven years ago) link
I guess Chelsea Cain doesn't need more work from Marvel as she writes proper books, but I wish they'd given her more to do after the trolly awfulness around Mockingbird (which was overstuffed but pretty good! and had a distinctive voice, like charles soule doesn't)
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 11 March 2017 23:14 (seven years ago) link
That said i've dipped back into Daredevil to find out how Soule retcons his way out of the Waid status quo. Not looking good so far. Retconning female characters is basically just a kinder, gentler fridging.
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 11 March 2017 23:21 (seven years ago) link
I enjoyed soule on she-hulk... He is a lawyer in real life, and brought interesting legal ideas to the stories. Other stuff by him not so much.
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Sunday, 12 March 2017 01:02 (seven years ago) link
I haven't read his She-Hulk and that sounds like he'd have a natural angle.
But Chuck is right, Chelsea Cain definitely had an authorial voice that I enjoyed. Lemire's Moon Knight stuff has been interesting, and I enjoyed his Bloodshot series for Valiant and a couple of his own books, but the ensemble stuff and the publisher demands they're subject to haven't been good at pulling out his best work.
― mh 😏, Sunday, 12 March 2017 02:15 (seven years ago) link
His Animal Man was pretty good, and his Vertigo series Sweet Tooth was lovely - slightly surreal, tense, post-apocalyptic.
― Andrew Farrell, Sunday, 12 March 2017 09:22 (seven years ago) link
I've only read his She-Hulk run; thought it was v good.
― morrisp, Monday, 13 March 2017 03:53 (seven years ago) link
Btw (on a different tack) -- I saw the Logan movie today. It's the first X-Men movie I've seen in ages; looked like one not to miss. I thought it was very well done... better even than I hoped/expected. Intense, super violent; but largely nails the right "tone" and steers clear of action-movie cliches (though it maybe grazes a few here and there).
The depiction of the Laura character, and the young actress who plays her, are both excellent. Logan and Xavier are played a lot differently from what I've come to expect from comics (and previous movies); but their portrayals are def. interesting, and fit the story, (I'm not sure where the story belongs in the X-Movie saga; is it an alternate timeline, or something?)
I had minor quibbles with a few plot points and "directorial choices" -- but on the whole, I came away very pleased (and I don't see many movies, so when I do, it's a big thang).
― morrisp, Monday, 13 March 2017 04:17 (seven years ago) link
Threadkiller Jones, back with another journal entry...
I got this miniseries collection "Karnak: The Flaw in All Things": https://www.amazon.com/Karnak-Vol-Flaw-All-Things/dp/0785198482. I wasn't really familiar with the character or the writer, but I read a few pages when the first issue came out, and was intrigued enough to take a gamble and wait for the TPB.
It was worth it -- the book's great. I read it in one sitting (didn't want to put it down). The writing is very good, and undercuts the character's dead seriousness with frequent (and effective) dry humor. Karnack's "philosophical" musings are a bit silly, but the book doesn't require you take them seriously (and, in fact, the story nicely complicates their underpinnings). It's also a SHIELD-heavy story, something I have complained about upthread; but the Coulson-and-Helicarrier schtick works well enough here.
It's very cool that Marvel puts out relatively offbeat, "uncommercial" series like this. Check it out!
― morrisp, Saturday, 18 March 2017 22:20 (seven years ago) link
You're unfamiliar with Warren Ellis?
― EZ Snappin, Saturday, 18 March 2017 23:11 (seven years ago) link
Didn't know Ellis did that, will totally read now
― Nhex, Sunday, 19 March 2017 01:39 (seven years ago) link
Yep, checking out his Wikipedia entry now. Looks like he broke into mainstream comics around '94(?), which was right after I checked out for a few decades.
I see he cowrote (with Kelly Sue DeConnick) a few issues of Captain Marvel in 2015, which I have read.
― morrisp, Sunday, 19 March 2017 05:23 (seven years ago) link
Yeah man, you must've checked out hardcore. Ellis is one of the most-known comics writers of the past couple decades.
― Milkwalker's World (Old Lunch), Sunday, 19 March 2017 13:53 (seven years ago) link
Most well-known, most-known, whatever.
― Milkwalker's World (Old Lunch), Sunday, 19 March 2017 13:57 (seven years ago) link
Would Transmetropolitan still be the best way to get into him these days?
― Nhex, Sunday, 19 March 2017 14:30 (seven years ago) link
Trees, Karnak and Moon Knight are all recent and great.
I'd take Planetary over Transmet any day.
― Mud... Jam... Failure... (aldo), Sunday, 19 March 2017 14:33 (seven years ago) link
And Nextwave. Nextwave Nextwave Nextwave.
Also, Nextwave.
― Mud... Jam... Failure... (aldo), Sunday, 19 March 2017 14:38 (seven years ago) link
Nextwave is amazing, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it for Rip Van morrisp
― Andrew Farrell, Sunday, 19 March 2017 14:53 (seven years ago) link
i'm a big transmet fan, nhex. check it out esp if you like cyberpunk/posthumanism urban genre fiction (which i love).
― Mordy, Sunday, 19 March 2017 15:23 (seven years ago) link
Oh yeah, I love Transmet. Just musing for the benefit of morrisp.Ellis, like many other prolific writers, just has done SO MUCH work in the past 20 years it's a task to separate the wheat from the chaffI really liked Planetary also, but feel like that (and Nextwave) definitely have some historical comics love/nerdity required for full impactHe's also done tons of mediocre, unremarkable work, like virtually everything he did for Ultimate Marvel
― Nhex, Sunday, 19 March 2017 15:33 (seven years ago) link
imo a lot of the stuff he did early relied on the same character types and fell into a rut plot-wise while doing some wacky character acrobatics and a lot of the more recent things are more sedate but much stronger in working within traditional plot structure
― mh 😏, Sunday, 19 March 2017 15:40 (seven years ago) link
I've never figured out how to enjoy Ellis as much as other people seem to. There's something a bit Reddit Man about him.
Nextwave is fun, though, and super-accessible. Jack Cross and the James Bond books are not my cup of tea, but they're on similar lines to Karnak, if you liked that.
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 19 March 2017 15:52 (seven years ago) link
Ellis is very talented but some of his hardmanism severely undercuts my enjoyment of his work. But I've been varying degrees of a fan from when he was writing Excalibur and Doom 2099 in the '90s. And Ruins was an appropriately nihilistic take on Marvel for teenaged me.
― Milkwalker's World (Old Lunch), Sunday, 19 March 2017 16:46 (seven years ago) link
Right. He has these too-perfect, onanistic tough guy heroes - who are usually white - and I keep expecting some sort of ironic commentary, but it never happens. Even Ian Fleming's Bond is more ironic and self-aware than Ellis's. (!)
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 19 March 2017 17:14 (seven years ago) link
His stuff has always turned me way off.
― chip n dale recuse rangers (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 19 March 2017 17:25 (seven years ago) link
Hey, gimme some credit... I've heard of Bryan Michael Bendy and Matt Friction!
― morrisp, Sunday, 19 March 2017 18:26 (seven years ago) link
It's Matte Friction. He doesn't write glossies.
― EZ Snappin, Sunday, 19 March 2017 19:09 (seven years ago) link
*applause*
Actually, Authority would probably be a good place to start to figure out what happened to Superheros over the last 20 years too.
― Andrew Farrell, Sunday, 19 March 2017 20:17 (seven years ago) link
There's pretty much a straight line from The Authority -> Marvel's Ultimates (to the extent they even had Bryan Hitch on art duties) -> a lot of the ideas in the Marvel cinematic universe
― mh 😏, Sunday, 19 March 2017 20:30 (seven years ago) link
Authority's good - even the first couple of series of the Ultimates were good (by Millar) - but I'm talking about the snoozers like UFF, Ultimate Galaktus, etc
― Nhex, Monday, 20 March 2017 02:58 (seven years ago) link
I have a lot of time for Ellis but imho transmetropolitan holds up very poorly. best read as a document from a time and place.
imho (as others have noted) Planetary is the highwater mark.
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Monday, 20 March 2017 15:26 (seven years ago) link
His recent Moon Knight run was outstanding. I also loved his Stormwatch/Authority runs and Transmet was great right up until it wasn't.
I'd agree with the consensus that Planetary and Nextwave are his best efforts.
― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Monday, 20 March 2017 15:53 (seven years ago) link
Only knock I got on Warren Ellis is that if the sales fall off a series, many of his series get left off unfinished. There are probably about at least ten series in that dead letter office.
Knock wood The Trees and Injection last long enough to be sufficiently completed. I think the Trees might only have one more series/trade until it is done.
Ellis is a lost master of the one issue comic book. Global Frequency, Planetary, the Apparat Singles series and some of his Marvel work are good examples of his single issue packs a punch. This is one thing I wish some modern writers would take from Ellis.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 08:42 (seven years ago) link
Ellis is a bit rubbish, and all his heroes sound like Warren Ellis writing fanfiction about warren Ellis
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 09:18 (seven years ago) link
ellis has done some great stuff (moon knight def a recent highlight) but he can easily fall into self-parody. he's written so prolifically that there's a lot of sub-par stuff out there which can make it harder to sift out the gems
there was a particularly painful stretch in the mid-2000s where you could almost guarantee that an article on weird physics in new scientist or wherever would get shamelessly recycled into an ellis story six months or so down the line
Ellis is a lost master of the one issue comic book.
agreed, but he's also the master of the wordless two-page-spread space-filler of, like, a character opening a door and walking across the room to a desk
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 09:33 (seven years ago) link
Only knock I got on Warren Ellis is that if the sales fall off a series, many of his series get left off unfinished
i enjoyed catching up with his new universal series on marvel unlimited recently and it was super-disappointing when it just... petered out
desolation jones is another good example of a promising series that just fell off a cliff never to be heard from again
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 09:36 (seven years ago) link
Feel like Ocean was the peak of this.
I think I've said it before, but he really is the worst Disco Dad in comics. Has anyone else read his ultra-steampunk book? It's called...
wait for it...
Captain Swing And The Electrical Pirates Of Cindery Island.
I mean ffs.
― Mud... Jam... Failure... (aldo), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 09:40 (seven years ago) link
No, I'm sure he intended that title to be take entirely seriously.
I don't know that this is a problem tbh, a chronicle of historical futures is a useful thing to have in popular culture. He is kind of coasting on how much he got right in Transmetropolitan, but he is still a good writer chewing over current events from a variety of different directions, so he'll keep getting my money - and also he wrote Nextwave, so he'll keep getting my money.
Disclaimer: I read his newsletter.
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 11:07 (seven years ago) link
Ellis' recent James Bond series (plural) with Dynamite were surprisingly good.
― removed from the rain drops and drop tops of experience (ulysses), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 14:47 (seven years ago) link
agree there
also agree that he's very good at "wordless" stuff, but seems to counterbalance that by claremont-ing all his dialog pages
transmet as "product of its time"? yes, but kind of read as wish-fulfillment wank at the time, too
that said, as anyone who's attended a comiccon should know, he seems like a nice guy
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 14:52 (seven years ago) link
x-post
did that 2nd dynamite JB story ever finish?
I've attended plenty of comic conventions where 'nice guy' was not the phrase people were using about Warren Ellis tbh.
― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 14:59 (seven years ago) link
i assume most massively successful comic book writers are compulsive assholes, tbh. something's gotta drive them to be able to put out that much work and it's usually not a good thing
― Nhex, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 16:19 (seven years ago) link
I'm sure there are exceptions, but I've always assumed that there isn't much overlap between the set of skills that inform writing prolificity and those that inform healthy social functioning.
― I Ate Four Bufords (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 16:28 (seven years ago) link
Interesting! I met him a couple times and he seemed okay. Full of himself (which comes across in the writing) but friendly.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 16:56 (seven years ago) link
isn't much overlap between the set of skills that inform writing prolificity and those that inform healthy social functioning
i don't think there's a genuine correlation between those things (i've met too many nice writers) but there is certainly a tendency among assholes who happen to be writers to buy into that myth for expedience's sake
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 17:01 (seven years ago) link
xp to you Chuck: yep, Eidolon wrapped up with issue 12, though that ending was about as perfunctory and Ellis-onian as could be imagined. let me know if you want me to spoil it for you.
― removed from the rain drops and drop tops of experience (ulysses), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 17:21 (seven years ago) link
the current bond series (minus bond, it's felix leiter) is written by James Robinson and is not much fun.
― removed from the rain drops and drop tops of experience (ulysses), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 17:23 (seven years ago) link
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, March 21, 2017 12:01 PM (twenty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Not a correlation but, yes, basically what you said (the prolificity creates space to excuse oneself from the development of social skills if one is so disinclined).
― I Ate Four Bufords (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 17:34 (seven years ago) link
I'm not exactly a paragon of either skillset, so I ain't sitting in judgment.
― I Ate Four Bufords (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 17:35 (seven years ago) link
Any comic writers that end up writing a long box or so of books are going to end up with a stack of clunkers. I'd say Ellis has a decent signal to noise ratio, it is just unfortunate that a couple of really interesting series setups like Desolation Jones or Fell went into the ditch.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 20:05 (seven years ago) link
I feel like he had some deeper life complications going on than the "my laptop died and I lost some scripts" line that was floated, so I'm glad he seems to be doing well. I prodded in a couple online discussions of his work about Desolation Jones and he's really just tired of talking about it.
I have the suspicion the concentrated coffee/whiskey lifestyle caught up with him a couple times, as it will for anyone who makes a go of that
― mh 😏, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 21:00 (seven years ago) link
xpost to Ulysees
Yep! Just read, you're wholly correct re: perfunctory. Interesting comic, pretty piss-poor take on the character.
Anyway, Marvel Comics
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 21:36 (seven years ago) link
He was friendly enough at the con I saw him (and GMo!) at in '99. He asked our group what we were getting up to that evening - we knocked him back as we had tickets to go see The Phantom Menace.
― Vernon Locke, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 00:08 (seven years ago) link
Marvel comics! Ellis' Wolverine four-parter Not Dead Yet is a good read, if you can get past the phonetics used for the Scot character's dialogue.
― Vernon Locke, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 00:11 (seven years ago) link
I've been to comic conventions on three continents and Warren Ellis has never been there
have heard various stories without the "nice guy" punchline, but only one was in a hotel bar the night before a comic convention
― (±\ PLO;;;;;;; Style (sic), Wednesday, 22 March 2017 01:34 (seven years ago) link
I'd assume the intention was to cite comic conventions Ellis was actually at in reference to his character but I respect sic's pedantry
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 01:57 (seven years ago) link
I thought Chuck was intimating that Ellis goes to lots of conventions and socialises
― (±\ PLO;;;;;;; Style (sic), Wednesday, 22 March 2017 02:45 (seven years ago) link
tbf he makes elliscon every day
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 03:13 (seven years ago) link
Well, if this is the level of pedantry we're dropping to...
never been to those continents, or never been there when you were?
the story was set in a bar, or you were in a bar when you heard the story?
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Wednesday, 22 March 2017 04:34 (seven years ago) link
He was in Melbourne in 1999. https://www.armageddonexpo.com/General-Info/History/ (scroll way down).
He's no fan of cons iirc.
― Vernon Locke, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 05:01 (seven years ago) link
He = Warren Ellis, obv.
― Vernon Locke, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 05:02 (seven years ago) link
TBF, being a writer at a comic convention is my idea of hell.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 08:01 (seven years ago) link
(In Toronto, at TCAF/Beguiling and some more mainstreamy one I forget the name of. 2004-6ish?)
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 22 March 2017 10:48 (seven years ago) link
Well, the fifth and final issue of "The Unworthy Thor" is out (to circle back to a topic from further above). Without saying too much, I'll just say that the issue is... anticlimactic, in several respects. (And yes, the content of Fury's "whisper" is revealed...)
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 March 2017 04:37 (seven years ago) link
In other news, some poor schmuck of a casting director needs to find *two* white-haired actresses: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/spider-man-spinoff-thor-writer-tackling-silver-sable-black-cat-movie-988065
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 March 2017 04:41 (seven years ago) link
calling it now: that movie will never be made
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 10:47 (seven years ago) link
seconded
― mh 😏, Thursday, 23 March 2017 13:53 (seven years ago) link
As a Jessica Drew fan, I'm bummed she's not the subject of the "secret female spinoff project" (I assume her character is encompassed by the Spider-Rights which Sony controls). I think Dennis Hopeless's fun, modern reimagining of the character would translate well to the screen (though can't imagine how they would deal with her weird origin and complicated history). Maybe someday...
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 March 2017 14:57 (seven years ago) link
A Black Cat/Silver Sable movie makes zero sense and is completely stupid and it will never get made and I'm glad. Where do people even get these fucking ideas? I'm straining to recall if those two characters have ever directly interacted to any meaningful extent.
― Ambling Shambling Man (Old Lunch), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:03 (seven years ago) link
Can't wait for the Night Thrasher/Lyja Lazerfist team-up movie!
― Ambling Shambling Man (Old Lunch), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:05 (seven years ago) link
Where do people even get these fucking ideas?
the studio's paid for the rights to these characters dammit, they're gonna make a fuckin' movie out of them no matter what!
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:16 (seven years ago) link
I feel like they were both involved in that Foreigner storyline in the late '80s (when Parker wuz boning Felicia), but yeah I can't visualize/recall them sharing a panel.
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:17 (seven years ago) link
So maybe it'll be a movie that just cuts back and forth between them each doing their own completely unrelated thing. Fun times. Fuuuuuuuuuun times.
― Ambling Shambling Man (Old Lunch), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:19 (seven years ago) link
xp was Peter waiting for a girl like her
― mh 😏, Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:21 (seven years ago) link
i understand kenneth lonergan is involved in scripting a bittersweet drama about the father-son relationship between leap-frog and frog-man which is due for release in spring 2019
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:21 (seven years ago) link
they broke up because felicia was cold as ice to peter when he wasn't wearing the spider-man suit iirc
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:22 (seven years ago) link
SoHo loft, Nagel poster on the wall, Bambi/Candi/Randi as his neighbors... '80s Parker was cold lampin'!
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:31 (seven years ago) link
I've lived my life wrong
― mh 😏, Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:38 (seven years ago) link
if it's any consolation, each of us is here posting about marvel comics on an internet messageboard, so i think we've all lived our lvies wrong tbh
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:42 (seven years ago) link
I recall it ended for good when Spidey burst in on Felicia and the Foreigner right after a lovemaking sesh, and the Foreigner flipped the mattress while Felicia fought Spidey off ("Sorry, lover...!"). Parker had already figured out that FH had been playing him for a fool, and that was the big showdown/confrontation.
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:50 (seven years ago) link
i was just making a joke about the foreigner song 'cold as ice' tbrr
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:52 (seven years ago) link
Jessica Drew should co-star in the second season of Jessica Jones imo.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 23 March 2017 15:58 (seven years ago) link
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, March 23, 2017 10:42 AM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Are you by any chance selling engraved plates emblazoned with this motto and if so where should I send my money?
― Ambling Shambling Man (Old Lunch), Thursday, 23 March 2017 16:01 (seven years ago) link
i am now, ilxmail me yr credit card details
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 16:05 (seven years ago) link
I don't care about spider-plots, I'm just here for bad music jokes
― mh 😏, Thursday, 23 March 2017 16:08 (seven years ago) link
you're fooling no-one, nerd
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 16:09 (seven years ago) link
Haha, ok, now I get those jokes (duh). Guess I'm better with refs. to '80s comics than '80s music...
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 March 2017 16:45 (seven years ago) link
you know that you are
― mh 😏, Thursday, 23 March 2017 16:49 (seven years ago) link
Morrisp it is URGENT (emergency) that u rectify this
― chip n dale recuse rangers (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 23 March 2017 16:54 (seven years ago) link
learning more about 80s music is a great way to become a jukebox hero
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 16:59 (seven years ago) link
This is cruel we gotta stop playing these head games with him imo
― chip n dale recuse rangers (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 23 March 2017 17:38 (seven years ago) link
Just between you and me, it feels like the first time we gave a dirty white boy double vision.
― Ambling Shambling Man (Old Lunch), Thursday, 23 March 2017 17:56 (seven years ago) link
Don't do me like that, you guys
― morrisp, Thursday, 23 March 2017 18:05 (seven years ago) link
Douglas Wolk doing some kind of Marvel thingy
https://allofthemarvels.tumblr.com/
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 23 March 2017 22:17 (seven years ago) link
Oooh, thanks for that. Love Douglas and miss his presence here.
― Ambling Shambling Man (Old Lunch), Thursday, 23 March 2017 22:42 (seven years ago) link
I believe that is bound to be bound at some point iirc
― i believe that (s)he is sincere (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 23 March 2017 23:02 (seven years ago) link
Douglas was the one who first told me about ilx, at some comics show in 05 or 06
― chip n dale recuse rangers (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 23 March 2017 23:17 (seven years ago) link
Did Coates's Black Panther ever become good?
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Friday, 24 March 2017 03:58 (seven years ago) link
also love this "sister tumblr" linked to on there
https://marvelbah.tumblr.com/
― soref, Friday, 24 March 2017 09:35 (seven years ago) link
need something like this, but just for marvel comics
http://i.imgur.com/xdi7djI.png
― soref, Friday, 24 March 2017 09:39 (seven years ago) link
i read the last two issues of Coates' Black Panther. it has not gotten better.
― removed from the rain drops and drop tops of experience (ulysses), Friday, 24 March 2017 14:29 (seven years ago) link
I've read the first few issues of THE MIGHTY CAPTAIN MARVEL, for no particular reason... the writer, Margaret Stohl (a YA author), seems to be going for something similar to Kelly Sue DeConnick's style and breezy humor, but without quite nailing it (no knock on her, it's a tall order). It seems marginally better than the series which preceded it.
I feel like Marvel hasn't really known what to do with Carol Danvers, post-DeConnick (other than give her a butch haircut and stick her on a space station). I know Carol played a big role in CWII, but I avoided that. The DeConnick/Lopez era of CAPTAIN MARVEL was just such a perfect synthesis of character, writer, and artist... I wanted to keep following that specific incarnation of the character for a long time... (but that's comics for ya) :(
― morrisp, Friday, 24 March 2017 17:09 (seven years ago) link
Good strategy re: avoiding the fuck out of Civil War 2
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 24 March 2017 19:00 (seven years ago) link
Re: Thor, as you mentioned upthread - it's not so much that the Fury-whisper reveal is a letdown - I thought it was kind of interesting! - but I'm not really sure it needed to be dragged out over two years?
Meanwhile, in Mighty Thor - I think it was Tom E who once said something about the Shi'ar making everything BORING, no matter what - that's still the case, then.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 24 March 2017 19:03 (seven years ago) link
I've been enjoying the "contest of the gods" Shi'ar storyline, mainly thanks to the wit of Aaron's dialogue; but it is one of those stories that would have taken up a single issue in the old days (or two-parter, at most), and is now stretched out over an entire year-long arc.
― morrisp, Friday, 24 March 2017 21:58 (seven years ago) link
http://www.cbr.com/no-diversity-didnt-kill-marvels-comic-sales/
Kind of a hubbub right now
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 6 April 2017 19:34 (seven years ago) link
I'd argue that releasing 472 titles per month might be a bigger drag on sales.
― Break the meat into the pineapples and pat them (Old Lunch), Thursday, 6 April 2017 19:51 (seven years ago) link
if you're the VP of sales and marketing, maybe don't obviously shoot yourself in the foot when you're doing an interview
― Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Thursday, 6 April 2017 19:53 (seven years ago) link
This was a good response:
http://gwillowwilson.com/post/159094504658/so-about-that-whole-thing
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 6 April 2017 20:03 (seven years ago) link
In the past five years Marvel's lost Fraction, DeConnick, Brubaker, Hickman, Gillen, Remender - but even in the comics press, no one's like "oh yeah, the writers"
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 6 April 2017 20:05 (seven years ago) link
b-b-b-b-but BENDIS tho
― Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Thursday, 6 April 2017 20:07 (seven years ago) link
what writers? the characters are real and the sales reflect whether people like them or not. i am confused
― iris marduk (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 6 April 2017 20:23 (seven years ago) link
They were onto something with that whole 'architects' idea. Particularly when they had such solid people at the helm.
― Break the meat into the pineapples and pat them (Old Lunch), Thursday, 6 April 2017 20:28 (seven years ago) link
What is DC Rebirth doing that's giving them so much competition?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 6 April 2017 20:33 (seven years ago) link
I have the suspicion someone noticed that sales go up for an issue #1, then diminish a little, and in the face of lower sales the proclamation was to put "#1" on as many things as possible
even the series that aren't getting renumbered have had a "#1" somewhere on the cover lately, whether it's an indicator an event is over, new creative team, etc
it's impressive this isn't the dumbest thing about marvel's sales tactics
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Thursday, 6 April 2017 20:36 (seven years ago) link
the other thing that blows my mind is the lack of cross-sales. the "agents of shield" tv show is still running, they've put analogues of the characters in a comics series, and I've never seen any "follow the further adventure of Agent May this month in the comic!" promos. ever!
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Thursday, 6 April 2017 20:37 (seven years ago) link
The synergy between the Marvel media divisions is...lacking, generally speaking. But I'm happy to blame any and all tv-related shortcomings on Jeph Loeb.
― Break the meat into the pineapples and pat them (Old Lunch), Thursday, 6 April 2017 22:22 (seven years ago) link
Srsly -- almost everyone has an iPad; millions of ppl must be fans of the Marvel movies & TV shows who have never read a comic... I'd think Marvel would be pushing the h-e-l-l out of the comics. This is their big chance to expand the readership, right? But it's like someone has done the math and figured it's not worth trying. If new readers are coming in, where do they come from? How are comics marketed these days... do kids just stumble on them, or get initiated by older friends / family members? I have no idea.
― morrisp, Friday, 7 April 2017 04:51 (seven years ago) link
G. Willow Wilson mentioned something key in that linked article - the direct comics market/Marvel/DC etc. generally ignore the huge rise of YA/teen/female-oriented comics, similar to manga a while back. At my local library, Raina Telgemeier's books are very popular. Another source is, frankly, tons of licensed stuff from TV and movie properties like LEGO, Batman, Star Wars, etc., and Marvel is cashing in on the kids' MCU tie-ins like Guardians and Avengers AFAICT, though I don't know the sales numbers.
― Nhex, Friday, 7 April 2017 07:06 (seven years ago) link
The iPad thing is a conundrum because Marvel doesn't think digital comics sales count as comics sales. Even day-of, same price as in the store sales. I think it's out of solidarity with the direct market store owners and some sort of notion that those are the sales that "count" but it's ridiculous. They supposedly don't count digital when it comes to deciding which series to continue or collect in trade paperback, only paper monthlies.
Which makes even less sense when it comes to the licensed cartoons, because nearly every one of my friends' kids has access to a tablet of some sort and a kid wanting to read more Spider-Man adventures after watching the show seems like a win
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Friday, 7 April 2017 13:44 (seven years ago) link
holy crap that is eye-burningly stupid
― iris marduk (Jon not Jon), Friday, 7 April 2017 16:34 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, we're probably looking at an impending implosion of the marketplace on par with the music industry's inability to recognize the ways in which technology adulterates consumption.
All else aside, selling digital comics for the same price as the floppies is batshit. And unsustainable, I would think.
― Break the meat into the pineapples and pat them (Old Lunch), Friday, 7 April 2017 16:40 (seven years ago) link
marvel's digital all-you-can-eat subscription is the one smart thing they're doing better than anyone else in the industry but yeah their (and basically everyone's) handling of e-comics is a disaster.
― Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Friday, 7 April 2017 16:44 (seven years ago) link
Could be very wrong but I've got a vague feeling that they don't want to advertise their comics after the tv shows because people might be grossed out and think "ewww, I'll watch a show based on them but I'm not going near that shit".
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 7 April 2017 16:49 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, you could be very wrong.
― Break the meat into the pineapples and pat them (Old Lunch), Friday, 7 April 2017 16:51 (seven years ago) link
I had heard Marvel doesn't show its logo at the start of Legion because they didn't want viewers to pre-judge the show. That's a very different thing obviously but I just think maybe some viewers would find the comics offputting. Does DC advertise their comics?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 7 April 2017 17:25 (seven years ago) link
No, I see that. People like superheroes but think they're above the comics, or just aren't interested. Loads of people at my work office talked about GotG and Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, but they were still a bit "Oho! A Children's Comic Book!" when I was reading Black Widow or something.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 7 April 2017 17:32 (seven years ago) link
Which is fair! I like Expanse but I get bored reading sci-fi.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 7 April 2017 17:34 (seven years ago) link
Also there is the larger problem that comic book covers and panels look kind of shitty and cheap and silly - on TV in a way that, say, animation doesn't.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 7 April 2017 17:36 (seven years ago) link
people might be grossed out and think "ewww, I'll watch a show based on them but I'm not going near that shit".
If these people exist, they're presumably not in the audience for the comics in the first place?
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 7 April 2017 17:36 (seven years ago) link
Well if they're advertised after the tv shows they'll see them.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 7 April 2017 17:42 (seven years ago) link
I'm going to need you to try that again.
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 7 April 2017 17:50 (seven years ago) link
???
You joking about a tv show based on literal shit? Like turds, feces?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 7 April 2017 17:54 (seven years ago) link
You have lost me and that's fine.
But, anyway. If there's people who will see an ad after a TV show - and have presumably enjoyed it - and have the reaction you've described, then these aren't lost sales, are they? These are people who were never going to pick up the comic in the first place.
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 7 April 2017 17:58 (seven years ago) link
bottom line is that marvel cares about 1)movies, 2)television, 3)merch, 798,453) comics
― Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:00 (seven years ago) link
I hear what Chuck's saying, and I'm not sure that physical comics are ever going to lose their unpleasant sheen - but selling an app with the same characters and similar writing should be doable.
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:01 (seven years ago) link
Andrew- Maybe but I thought it's a possibility that a portion of the audience will be so embarrassed by the comics advert that they'll be put off the show. That would probably be a very small number but maybe that's what marvel would be scared of. Their comics cramping the style of the tv shows.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:03 (seven years ago) link
I'm just boggled that they don't consider digital revenue in their go no go assessments for ongoing series
― iris marduk (Jon not Jon), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:28 (seven years ago) link
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/books/marvel-comics-diversity-thor-hulk.html
<I>As Brian Hibbs, the owner of the two Comix Experience stores in San Francisco, said in an interview, Marvel has recently been experiencing a “massive sales slump” because of more basic factors: the frequent restarting of series with new No. 1 issues; fan fatigue over story lines that promise changes but fail to deliver; and the introduction of a deluge of new series. There is also the expense of comic collecting.</I>
― morrisp, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:41 (seven years ago) link
Another interesting tidbit from that article: In February, Ms. Marvel, about Kamala Khan, a teenage Muslim girl living in Jersey City, sold an estimated 19,870 copies. It landed at 109 out of the top 300 comics for the month. But the series is known to be doing well digitally and with collected editions.
So not only does Marvel neglect to factor in digital sales (as discussed above), they also don't factor in TPB collections? And yet the "TV season" / story-arc format that they heavily favor for comics series these days, really lends itself to "waiting for the collection to come out." So they're shooting themselves in both feet.
― morrisp, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:49 (seven years ago) link
it seems like i guess bc of the film contract marvel is dedicated to never putting out a good x-men comic ever again
― Mordy, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:50 (seven years ago) link
I thought they were noting the book sales these days? Isn't that why 's Marvel was such a big success?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:52 (seven years ago) link
why MS Marvel is such a big success?
And yet the "TV season" / story-arc format that they heavily favor for comics series these days, really lends itself to "waiting for the collection to come out." So they're shooting themselves in both feet.
― morrisp, Friday, April 7, 2017 1:49 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
This reminds me of another arena in which Marvel is flailing at the moment. Being the anal completest I am, I buy all of the MCU stuff when it's released on Blu-ray/DVD. Except Marvel has suddenly stopped issuing their shows on home video in the US. Thankfully, they're still available in region-free format from the UK, but...really?
― Break the meat into the pineapples and pat them (Old Lunch), Friday, 7 April 2017 19:00 (seven years ago) link
tbh i can't shake irritation with the misrepresentation of David Gabriel's original comment, which seems to be a pretty clear "i will acknowledge that our valued retailers have told us that mouthbreathing gamergaters high on their own b.o. are blaming "diversity" but we're not really buying it."
i dunno maybe i've got it twisted
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Friday, 7 April 2017 19:06 (seven years ago) link
wasn't how i read it but maybe i wasn't paying attention.
― Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Friday, 7 April 2017 21:52 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, I also read his original comment as a sad observation about conservative comic book guys, not "Ok, we'll be back to all with the white guys you love soon, promise!!"
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 7 April 2017 22:14 (seven years ago) link
I take it back, I think the SHIELD tv show did have a short comics endorsement... in the form of a promotional tie-in with the tv show's sponsor of the time, Lexus (?!?)http://marvel.com/comics/series/19061/lexus_presents_marvels_agents_of_shield_in_the_chase_2014
so there you have it, the consumer segment that likes comics tv shows and are potential Lexus buyers, that's the market
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Saturday, 8 April 2017 03:45 (seven years ago) link
I guess I could go door-to-door selling GRIT subscriptions in a new Lexus....
― morrisp, Saturday, 8 April 2017 17:39 (seven years ago) link
I read comics and watch the show and drive a used Lexus and I still think this is a really bad tie-in.
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Saturday, 8 April 2017 19:49 (seven years ago) link
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/04/08/marvel-artist-ardian-syaf-hid-anti-christian-jewish-messages-weeks-x-men-comic/
― Οὖτις, Saturday, 8 April 2017 22:16 (seven years ago) link
Very very strange
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 8 April 2017 22:30 (seven years ago) link
Syaf's apparently been fired now?
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 11 April 2017 18:17 (seven years ago) link
Looks like. Marvel's initial promise of 'disciplinary action' was...unsatisfying. Glad they clarified.
― Break the meat into the pineapples and pat them (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 11 April 2017 18:19 (seven years ago) link
More on this guyhttps://coconuts.co/jakarta/news/officially-fired-marvel-indonesian-artist-ardian-syaf-officially-says-jews-offended-no-mercy/
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 13 April 2017 12:04 (seven years ago) link
When Jews are offended, there is no mercy,
and that's how you double down!
what a dickhead
― years of immersion in the seduction community (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 13 April 2017 12:12 (seven years ago) link
Have some pity, the man's career is over now. I'm actually crying for his plight as I type.
― Break the meat into the pineapples and pat them (Old Lunch), Thursday, 13 April 2017 12:48 (seven years ago) link
first they came for the bigots, and I said nothing
― years of immersion in the seduction community (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 13 April 2017 12:52 (seven years ago) link
It's almost like there's a countdown clock in situations like this for the progression from 'expresses regret for saying/doing something that resulted in termination' to 'expresses sentiment whose offensiveness blows the original offensive act out of the water'.
― Break the meat into the pineapples and pat them (Old Lunch), Thursday, 13 April 2017 12:58 (seven years ago) link
uh......: http://screenrant.com/captain-america-hydra-evil-explained/
― morrisp, Thursday, 20 April 2017 21:40 (seven years ago) link
there's someone on twitter who's been tweeting a lot about Marvel's inability to figure out how their editorial actions actually affect comic sales (it's going to be an article, I'll link it when it comes around) but has also been delving into how ineffective the Captain America storyline has been by its "we'll not just have it both ways, we'll have it all ways" philosophy
like Captain America is a villain but he's not racist or anything, and HYDRA is this ancient organization that had Nazis but they weren't really antisemitic, and the Sam Wilson stuff where it reflects contemporary politics but they fiercely deny anything is allegorical
secret empire sounds horrible and tbh I stopped reading anything Nick Spencer was writing, even in Marvel Unlimited
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Thursday, 20 April 2017 21:47 (seven years ago) link
I know they're playing the long game with this and that there will probably be an ultimate reveal on par with the one in Secret Warriors (there are rumblings about big shake-ups with the impending Generations) but in terms of optics this was an unfortunate path to go down for more than a couple of months.
I'm sort of talking out of my ass, though, as I'm only caught up to just before Secret Wars atm.
― Lipbra Geraldoman (Old Lunch), Thursday, 20 April 2017 22:17 (seven years ago) link
i've been reading the cap stuff; it's near gibberish
― Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Thursday, 20 April 2017 22:25 (seven years ago) link
that was the other reason I jumped off -- neither the single issues nor arcs are interesting or even intelligible in intent
Hickman had a tendency to make all his characters too terse and his plot arcs were jigsaw puzzle-like in that once you got to the end and all the pieces made a clear picture. The Capn stuff just actively turned me off after a couple issues
Dan Slott's whole Doc Ock Spider-Man switch at least had some heart
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Thursday, 20 April 2017 22:33 (seven years ago) link
So is the idea that Cap as we knew him was only "pretending to be good" this whole time; or was that an "alternate Cap," created via post-WWII kosmic kube manipulation, and now the "original" (WWII-era) Hydra cap has returned? Even the summary in that article was confusing...
― morrisp, Friday, 21 April 2017 00:00 (seven years ago) link
it sounds like:as far as we knew, Cap was normal until the cosmic cube, in the form of a little girl, rewrote reality to make him always hydra
it sounds like that was partially retconned, and he was in fact Always HYDRA (tm) and the Allies actually used a cosmic cube to rewrite reality and win WW2, but they magically preserved his memories and the recent encounter only brought them to the surface
probably they're going to do some rehashed shit about how his prior cube exposure made the reality rewrite not quite take, so it had to come up with a different take. maybe Bucky shows up and tells him "Steve, forget!" and the whole thing is zapped
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Friday, 21 April 2017 00:13 (seven years ago) link
I guess DC has its gonzo reboots, and Marvel has its gonzo retcons/clones/Skrull impersonations
― morrisp, Friday, 21 April 2017 00:16 (seven years ago) link
steve rogers is really a nazi was one of the dumbest ideas in marvel history
― Mordy, Friday, 21 April 2017 00:16 (seven years ago) link
no you see he's hydra, which is uhhh not really anti-Semitic they just allied with the nazis for power or something
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Friday, 21 April 2017 00:19 (seven years ago) link
That is almost the exact party line delivered very knowingly in a recent episode of Agents of SHIELD (where the team is currently stuck in a virtual reality alternate Hydra world). I'm disinclined to believe that comics Marvel is less aware of how tone deaf a position that is than TV Marvel. But then I did recently read the first issue of Cage!, so...
― Lipbra Geraldoman (Old Lunch), Friday, 21 April 2017 04:30 (seven years ago) link
For all DC books are shit, Marvel is where the real impenetrable and/or outright shit lies at the moment. So many of the X-books are unreadable and IvX might as well not have happened - it was an 'event' that not even all the books that should have done paid attention to, and finished with no consequences as far as anyone could tell (except the X-Men now live in Central Park).
― Mud... Jam... Failure... (aldo), Friday, 21 April 2017 09:48 (seven years ago) link
This is why I mainly stick to the "fun stuff" on the margins (although lately I haven't really been feeling any of it that strongly... kind of an "ebb" period for me).
― morrisp, Friday, 21 April 2017 13:50 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, Marvel seems to have really crashed lately :(
― Frederik B, Friday, 21 April 2017 13:54 (seven years ago) link
I'm disinclined to believe that comics Marvel is less aware of how tone deaf a position that is than TV Marvel.
almost typed this exact thing yesterday, other than at this point I think the opposite is very much true re: HYDRA
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Friday, 21 April 2017 14:02 (seven years ago) link
Oh, I just remembered the scene: brainwashed Matrix schoolteacher Coulson smacking down a student's legit concerns about Hydra's alignment with the Nazis by explaining that the organization had been around for centuries. While the show has gone to great lengths in demonstrating that a Hyrdra-run US is basically the apotheosis of a Nazi state.
― Lipbra Geraldoman (Old Lunch), Friday, 21 April 2017 14:18 (seven years ago) link
tbh the show is also doing a better job of keeping continuous numbering while having short, digestible plot arcs
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Friday, 21 April 2017 14:19 (seven years ago) link
I've been a lonely champion from day one but they're really hitting it out of the park lately, it's true.
Now I feel the need to jump ahead to see how they're mishandling this in the Captain Hyrdra book.
― Lipbra Geraldoman (Old Lunch), Friday, 21 April 2017 14:22 (seven years ago) link
Re: Agents of SHIELD's digestible plot arcs, it was kind of genius for them to split this season up into three discrete mini-arcs. I don't recall a series that's done that before, but it's a very elegant way of handling the unwieldy 20+ episode order of a standard network TV series.
― Lipbra Geraldoman (Old Lunch), Friday, 21 April 2017 14:27 (seven years ago) link
I'm pretty sure this is Colin Spacetwinks (www.twitter.com/spacetwinks); their essay on Marvel is available here:
https://spacetwinks.itch.io/shut-the-fuck-up-marvel
― one way street, Friday, 21 April 2017 15:20 (seven years ago) link
Correction: https://mobile.twitter.com/spacetwinks
― one way street, Friday, 21 April 2017 15:21 (seven years ago) link
yeah! I was about to drop that link in today but have forgotten so far. thanks!
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Friday, 21 April 2017 15:22 (seven years ago) link
started reading it, pretty decent so far.some of the ground covered in Susanne Polo's article for Polygon about how insane the pre-order direct market is in there, which still seems insane to me that i didn't know this information until so recently
― Nhex, Friday, 21 April 2017 16:18 (seven years ago) link
consumers should know how the messages they’re sending with their money are received
this has to be the most depressing phrase (from that Susana Polo clip) that indicts the whole comics sales/marketing system in a nutshell
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Friday, 21 April 2017 16:28 (seven years ago) link
Buying single issues of Marvel comics in a store serviced by the direct market: Good signal, series may be continued or collected
Buying digital comics: ??? no one knows, no sales numbers released, might do something?
Buying trades: You should start buying the single issues! Trades are for catching up! We only count single issues!
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Friday, 21 April 2017 16:30 (seven years ago) link
single issues are such a hassle, I'm strictly a trade guy at this point
― Οὖτις, Friday, 21 April 2017 16:33 (seven years ago) link
Yeaaaaaah, it kinda feels like we're one Trumponomicspocalypse away from the complete collapse of the direct market (which, obviously, is my primary concern in the event of a Trumponomicspocalypse).
― Lipbra Geraldoman (Old Lunch), Friday, 21 April 2017 16:33 (seven years ago) link
it's crazy that it hasn't collapsed by now, its soul has been dead since the big Distributorkreig of 94 (was it 94?)
― gimmesomehawnz (Jon not Jon), Friday, 21 April 2017 16:36 (seven years ago) link
it's another reason why the NYT killing the graphic novel bestseller list was a bummer
― Nhex, Friday, 21 April 2017 16:43 (seven years ago) link
but yeah, i am not gonna start buying floppies again, let alone pre-ordering titles for books months in advance, which I never did even as a kid when I was at the comic shop every week. it's absurd
― Nhex, Friday, 21 April 2017 16:44 (seven years ago) link
yeah, I feel guilt because the guy I'd chat with who worked at a local comics shop that moved started his own store and I've never even been in. as far as I can tell, he has comics and nothing else, which is awesome
a couple other local stores do the comics/gaming thing and the comics half of the store is half Funko Pop stuff. I have this theory that a significant portion of the entertainment economy is funko-based at this point, in that they occupy tons of space in comics stores, video game stores, hot topic, etc. and took over shelf space for things that people just don't buy in stores anymore
if anything happens to funko there will be a death spiral
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Friday, 21 April 2017 16:48 (seven years ago) link
Tsum Tsum will be there to save the day.
― Lipbra Geraldoman (Old Lunch), Friday, 21 April 2017 16:52 (seven years ago) link
the stores in my area are the same, funko is insane. one store is exactly as you described, ~50% funko, but then the rest of it is like sadly 10% comics, 40% cards and figurines. it's also bad because funkos are sold everywhere, not just comic shops, it's just screaming for a market crash sooner than later(also, the actual product is garbage, even compared to the rest of the minifig market. look how shit they are compared to Disney Infinity or Amiibos. it baffles me)
also am forcing myself to occasionally frequent a local store opened by a guy i went to high school with. i don't even really know the guy, but i appreciate the principle of him even opening a comic book store in town after there hasn't been one in about 15 years. small world lol/sigh
― Nhex, Friday, 21 April 2017 18:49 (seven years ago) link
I mean, all of the signs are there that in a post-apocalyptic or hell-ravaged world the figurines will be one of the few things with high value -- from Fallout 3 onward, finding a Vault Boy bobblehead is a rarity but one of the most valuable things in the game world. Same for the new Doom game and finding Doomguy figures.
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Friday, 21 April 2017 19:08 (seven years ago) link
Some of the funko figures are pretty well made! Some batches have bad painting, but they're really pretty consistent. They have to be a significant force in the local economy where they're actually manufactured (the two I have sitting here leads me to believe it's Vietnam, but they might be sourced from several places)
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Friday, 21 April 2017 19:09 (seven years ago) link
I guess I'm blissfully oblivious cuz I've never noticed these funko things - my local shop is all comics + books + art, plus a kids section and a few standup vintage video games
― Οὖτις, Friday, 21 April 2017 19:16 (seven years ago) link
Uhhh so just read SPIDER-WOMAN #17, and it turns out to be the final issue of the series! (...at least this time Jessica wasn't banished to the astral plane, and all memories of her erased). So now I gotta ask Marvel (Midtown) to replace it with another title for the rest of my subscription (or they start sending me SPIDER-GWEN or something)?
― morrisp, Friday, 21 April 2017 23:09 (seven years ago) link
The series was going downhill, btw (as I mentioned somewhere above)... but this feels like another nail in the coffin, for the moment (as discussed more recently above).
― morrisp, Friday, 21 April 2017 23:12 (seven years ago) link
Good "state of the publisher" piece by Brian Hibbs -- http://www.comicsbeat.com/titling-at-windmillls-259-what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-marvel-comics-anyway/
― 20-lol pileup (WilliamC), Thursday, 27 April 2017 12:05 (seven years ago) link
Good piece, but it's interesting/irksome that he never mentions WRITERS (although some commenters do).
Weird take on Black Panther too - surely reader attrition has more to do with it completely sucking than with brand dilution?
Also not convinced by his faith that readers will return to Marvel if the product improves. I'm sure Vision would still be in print if it had been published at Image with a made-up-replacement hero.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 27 April 2017 18:16 (seven years ago) link
this is the part where i remind everyone to read sheriff of babylon as proof that Tom King can do more than just play with other people's toys
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Thursday, 27 April 2017 18:23 (seven years ago) link
Unrelatedly this is one of the most goddamn ugly covers I've seen in a long time
Not sure what look they're trying to cultivate here, it's sort of "early 90s RPG back cover art"
https://cdn.bleedingcool.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/STL043704.jpg
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 27 April 2017 19:54 (seven years ago) link
(x-post)
Re: a point made at the end of the article... Marvel has done "side" reboots / continuity resets (M2, Ultimate), and they've been pretty successful, yeah? I wonder about the "value" of the storied Marvel continuity at this point... a new reader of "Capt. Marvel" doesn't care about Carol Danvers' 40-year history; and for longtime readers, the continuity seems to be treated by Marvel as either often irrelevant, something to be glancingly referenced, or an in-joke (the idea that the characters never age, etc.).
But of course there's more immediate value in the backstory to the characters introduced more recently, like in the 2000s. And if Marvel really did do a "true" reboot, I'm sure they'd just end up going over familiar ground, and/or the old continuity would eventually be reintroduced (as in DC)... one more familiar "trick."
― morrisp, Thursday, 27 April 2017 19:59 (seven years ago) link
"continuity" is worthless imo. It really backs comics into a narrative corner. I was thinking about Dr C's defunct X-Men blog and how much Claremont's handling of the characters contributed to this by virtue of the series popularity and impact - centering your narrative around the emotional conflicts/growth of your characters requires some kind of continuity in order to be coherent or have any kind of impact. But that bucks up against the industry's other needs of having things continue in stasis, indefinitely (maintaining value of intellectual copyrights, characters that don't age, etc.) So you end up with this muddle, where things are continually being "reset" or retconned or hand-waved away in order to reconcile these different needs, but after decades of this shit the "continuity" is just a total incomprehensible mess.
idk what the solution is. Maybe just self-contained series that have their own internal consistency but that's it.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 27 April 2017 20:13 (seven years ago) link
tbf Claremont also had so many captions and so much expository dialogue that after a couple issues you'd get the hang of what was going on
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Thursday, 27 April 2017 20:28 (seven years ago) link
right, but I'm not talking about the reader having a hard time following it. What I'm getting at is that if you're writing a soap-opera style serial that's all about the characters relationships, past histories, internal struggles, etc., that *requires* that you have continuity. It's a totally different way of writing stories from, say, the early issues of the Justice League where no one has a discernible personality and the story is all centered around solving a specific, isolated problem. The latter can be easily self-contained, the former can't. That's why Claremont kinda *had* to have all those captions and expository dialogue, because those were the things that *mattered* to the story, all of that stuff is what made the narrative make sense and hooked the readers.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 27 April 2017 20:34 (seven years ago) link
but unlike with televised soap operas (where they're unable to avoid characters/actors aging naturally) superhero comics got stuck with their characters torn between two mutually exclusive demands: 1) never change/maintain statis and 2) be part of a lengthy, sprawling, convoluted, internally-consistent narrative.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 27 April 2017 20:36 (seven years ago) link
I mean, that's partially true, but Claremont also did the "this character is a hero, they have this superpower, they're normally the steadfast heart of the team, but today events have..."
so you have this character development and soap opera element, but it's balanced with the fact the reader is constantly being retold the origin and main attributes of a character
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Thursday, 27 April 2017 20:45 (seven years ago) link
Tom King's doing this well on Batman - it's not a great comic, but individual issues make sense as discrete units, even when they're part 2 (of 6) or whatever.
TBH I love comics but I find most Marvel/DC stuff unreadable at the moment - I literally don't have patience to read them without skimming.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 27 April 2017 20:49 (seven years ago) link
oh yeah, Claremont def went overboard in that dept, not denying that
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 27 April 2017 20:59 (seven years ago) link
It was a little grating but also adaptive -- for a while after a major change, like the X-Men being in Australia, you'd get more exposition about it but it'd taper off as it became the status quo. So if you were reading comics from the newsstand, you'd be able to miss an issue or two and still jump back in.
I hate to be cranky old man about this, but the few comics where you can miss a couple issues now are those where _nothing fucking happened_
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Thursday, 27 April 2017 21:04 (seven years ago) link
Anytime people start suggesting that Marvel should just ditch continuity, my eyes start a-rollin'. Like, the fact that there's been an attempt by hundreds of creators, over basically the span of a human lifetime, at maintaining an ongoing narrative and shared universe (however shaky it is and however batshit and ultimately doomed to failure such a gargantuan effort may be) is a huge part of the appeal. There's plenty of other modes of serialized fiction out there if this one doesn't float your boat.
― How many gigabyte is in trilobites (Old Lunch), Thursday, 27 April 2017 23:13 (seven years ago) link
and hey that's why I don't read Marvel comics!
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 27 April 2017 23:16 (seven years ago) link
(well, one among many reasons)
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 27 April 2017 23:17 (seven years ago) link
And I'll acknowledge again: this attempt was never going to work as a fully-satisfying narrative. Part of its charm is its reflection of the ultimate futility of grand human endeavor. I find it humbling.
― How many gigabyte is in trilobites (Old Lunch), Thursday, 27 April 2017 23:17 (seven years ago) link
so you would prefer for it to continue indefinitely, no matter how awful or stupid it gets?
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 27 April 2017 23:23 (seven years ago) link
it doesn't matter if there's all this shit that happened as long as you're telling new stories without specifically requiring readers to know all that history in order to enjoy your new work
I mean, it's cool if something in your story is kind of a macguffin but there's a little footnote explaining it's a reference to, say, a prior story from years past that you could pick up in trade paperback. Or not read at all! Knowing backstory should be complementary, not mandatory
For instance, I've been reading Jason Aaron's stories in the new Thor comics and there are some callbacks to Thor history (and additions) but, secret shame time, I've never read the full Walt Simonson run or many other classic stories. All I know is that Thor is a norse god dude with a hammer and he (well, she in this case) is a good guy. And it's all perfectly enjoyable
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Thursday, 27 April 2017 23:48 (seven years ago) link
having past continuity doesn't mean you have to write all your stories in service to it, or even acknowledge it in depth
I mean, most novels set in the real world assume you know a bunch of shit about class, social norms, cities, but are still comprehensible if you lack that grounding.
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Thursday, 27 April 2017 23:51 (seven years ago) link
I very much agree with the above two comments -- and have read some recent titles that do clever things with old history (e.g., "Patsy Walker Aka Hellcat") -- but I also think the deep continuity can get in the way sometimes; like when you end up having to suspend disbelief and try to reconcile the idea that (to pick a random example) today's Hawkeye is "the same guy" as the '80s Hawkeye.
― morrisp, Thursday, 27 April 2017 23:58 (seven years ago) link
Also, the Thor titles are a good example of something -- for me, Marvel's gonzo continuity begins to feel more like a "mythology" (with bits and pieces that can be referenced or discarded/ignored at will), than it does any kind of "real" history that all these characters could possibly have shared... and that mythology approach seems like a more natural fit for something like Thor, than for human/earthbound characters whom we saw in 1960s NYC and somehow they're still only in their early '30s.
― morrisp, Friday, 28 April 2017 00:03 (seven years ago) link
I'm new to Marvel (in the past two years). I read regularly USG, Black Panther, Ms. Marvel, Moon Girl, Mockingbird, Spider-Man, Black Widow, and Dr. Strange. I started/stopped three times as many series in the same period because of crossovers, new number ones, proliferation of new lines, and specialty events. Non-Marvel titles I read are: 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank (limited), Backstagers, Lumberjanes, Bitch Planet, Gotham Academy, Paper Girls, and a bunch of weird indie stuff. I'm deliberately trying to cultivate a feminist collection, and these are the only titles with which I've been able to continue due to frustration and/or fatigue. There've been lots of other attempts (Jane Foster Thor, Mockingbird, Vision, Spider-Woman, Captain Marvel, Luke Cage, Nova, Silk) that've petered out due to the fact they were *planned* as a limited run or lost their initial talent. Nothing at all in DC is interesting to me, and I gave Wonder Woman a hell of a shot after reading the Jill LePore book on the title.
― remy bean, Saturday, 29 April 2017 21:04 (seven years ago) link
oh, i also like the slott/alread silver surfer but i can't afford to keep up
― remy bean, Saturday, 29 April 2017 21:06 (seven years ago) link
You might want to check out Mariko Tamaki's new (She-)Hulk series.
― How many gigabyte is in trilobites (Old Lunch), Saturday, 29 April 2017 22:19 (seven years ago) link
I started/stopped three times as many series in the same period because of crossovers, new number ones, proliferation of new lines, and specialty events.
Sounds like empirical (or a least anecdotal) evidence to support the thesis of the article linked above!
There've been lots of other attempts (Jane Foster Thor, Mockingbird, Vision, Spider-Woman, Captain Marvel, Luke Cage, Nova, Silk) that've petered out due to the fact they were *planned* as a limited run or lost their initial talent.
I'd probably still be reading Silk today if it hadn't lost its original artist. Mighty Thor continues to be good (and AFAIK has retained its original talent), but I find the Jane/Thor character to be fairly ill-defined (almost a supporting player in her own book), so I can see how it wouldn't necessarily appeal from the feminist / "strong female character" perspective (also a focus for me).
Have you read "Patsy Walker"?
― morrisp, Sunday, 30 April 2017 01:33 (seven years ago) link
Also, "The Unstoppable Wasp" is cute (and ties into the same backstory as Black Widow); though it's so gentle as to barely even qualify as a "superhero" comic. The series promotes STEM education for girls / young women -- both in the story itself and back-of-book material (several women scientists/engineers are interviewed at the end of each issue) -- which is an interesting angle, even if not very relevant to me personally (an older dude who's bad at math).
― morrisp, Sunday, 30 April 2017 01:59 (seven years ago) link
Also...no mentions of Squirrel Girl?
― How many gigabyte is in trilobites (Old Lunch), Sunday, 30 April 2017 03:27 (seven years ago) link
Did USG mean Unbeatable Squirrel Girl?
― Frederik B, Sunday, 30 April 2017 06:37 (seven years ago) link
Doreen is chill
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Sunday, 30 April 2017 06:53 (seven years ago) link
USG did mean Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. I haven't read Patsy Walker yet, but it's in the hopper. I tried the Riri Williams Iron Man (Iron Heart?) line too, but Bendis's racial blundering put me off.
― remy bean, Sunday, 30 April 2017 12:25 (seven years ago) link
Check out the "L.A. Woman" volume of Matt Fraction's HAWKEYE run (it's the book with Kate's adventures in L.A.).
― morrisp, Sunday, 30 April 2017 18:52 (seven years ago) link
(There's also a current/ongoing series featuring Kate, but I have not read it. Waiting for the TPB.)
― morrisp, Sunday, 30 April 2017 18:58 (seven years ago) link
Is that where should I start w/ Kate Hawkeye? The Fraction TP? I haven't really ventured into the Avengers universe except for incidentally. The sheer amount of history and number of different titles are pretty intimidating. I don't, frankly, know anything about Hawkeye except that he shacked up with Bobbi Morse, that Jeremy Renner plays him in the MCU, that he wears a t-shirt and has a dog, and that sometimes he is a woman.
― rb (soda), Sunday, 30 April 2017 20:04 (seven years ago) link
also he was dead for a while, is from Iowa, and has a villain brother named Barney
hawkeye series is good, it has comedy russian mobsters and a dog
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Sunday, 30 April 2017 20:27 (seven years ago) link
OT: how do you guys do that thing where you make a humorous pseudonym appear next to your (login handle)?
― morrisp, Sunday, 30 April 2017 21:04 (seven years ago) link
site preferences, under "profile" it's the "display name" you can set
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Sunday, 30 April 2017 21:13 (seven years ago) link
Thx!
― retconned out of existence (morrisp), Sunday, 30 April 2017 21:17 (seven years ago) link
good pick
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Sunday, 30 April 2017 21:19 (seven years ago) link
also he was dead for a while
He was also deaf for a while (which plays a role in the Fraction series a bit).
― retconned out of existence (morrisp), Sunday, 30 April 2017 21:37 (seven years ago) link
As a partially deaf person, I love a "conveniently deaf until everyone forgets" style recovery
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 30 April 2017 21:46 (seven years ago) link
I'm sure paraplegics were equally thrilled with Professor X's on again/off again disability.
― How many gigabyte is in trilobites (Old Lunch), Sunday, 30 April 2017 22:11 (seven years ago) link
Kate is really good in the Gillen/McKelvie Young Avengers book as well.
― Frederik B, Sunday, 30 April 2017 22:33 (seven years ago) link
Hawkeye (almost wrote Popeye) started out wearing a purple miniskirt and nobody ever questioned it, which I thought was very progressive.
― 20-lol pileup (WilliamC), Sunday, 30 April 2017 22:43 (seven years ago) link
(x-posts)
There's a klassic FF panel in which Alicia Masters -- Ben Grimm's blind girlfriend -- reads a newspaper.
― retconned out of existence (morrisp), Sunday, 30 April 2017 22:51 (seven years ago) link
surely a trap to solicit no-prize letters
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Monday, 1 May 2017 00:33 (seven years ago) link
Can someone familiar with "Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows" explain the ontological status of that particular Peter & Mary Jane? It seemed like their story was just another "What If?" concept when they appeared in Secret Wars, but somehow they stuck around and got their own series(?)
Are they established to live in a different "universe" (as with Spider-Gwen or any of the many other alternate Spiderverse-folks)?
― retconned out of existence (morrisp), Friday, 5 May 2017 04:36 (seven years ago) link
No such thing really because the last Hickman event collapsed pretty much all Marvel Universes into 616,
And then Spider-verse and the Great Web makes it all moot anyway because it established all the Spider-mans all exist in all the MUus. So they have been in 616, still might be and could always have been.
― Mud... Jam... Failure... (aldo), Friday, 5 May 2017 13:26 (seven years ago) link
aldo, no... it didn't. the very end was Franklin Richards channeling the Molecule Man's power to recreate a bunch of other universes, so the multiverse is different but extant
the Spider-Verse is still a thing: Spider-Woman, Spider-Gwen, and Silk had a three book crossover that is old enough it just wrapped up on Marvel Unlimited. involved people infiltrating from Spider-Gwen's world to 616 to steal tech, and had a male Jessica (Jesse) Drew
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Friday, 5 May 2017 14:35 (seven years ago) link
afaict the "Renew Your Vows" post-Secret Wars series is an alternate universe series that implies the Parker family explored in SW is still having adventures in some sliver of the new multiverse
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Friday, 5 May 2017 14:36 (seven years ago) link
the tangle that is contemporary spider man continuity is really amazing; only matched by superman in its spectacularly unnecessarily convoluted imperviousness to logic
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Friday, 5 May 2017 14:40 (seven years ago) link
(all allusions intentional i'm sure)
re: Hawkeye's deafness, didn't Tony give him some supertech cochlear implants or something similar?
― her squamous hamhocks (DJP), Friday, 5 May 2017 14:45 (seven years ago) link
probably
I was thinking he got his hearing back after Wanda brought him back, but no... after the bad comics post-Onslaught, he was recreated with his hearing.
I think I just realized a stupid way they could resolve Secret Empire, urgh
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Friday, 5 May 2017 14:56 (seven years ago) link
that is, the problem with Steve Rogers having "always been HYDRA" or whatever
nothing's going to resolve the poorly-conceived story telling
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Friday, 5 May 2017 14:57 (seven years ago) link
and then The Clown deafened him again during Fraction's run
― her squamous hamhocks (DJP), Friday, 5 May 2017 14:58 (seven years ago) link
completely forgot or didn't read that
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Friday, 5 May 2017 14:59 (seven years ago) link
http://www.avclub.com/article/hawkeye-19-uses-deafness-help-broken-clint-barton--207612
IMO this issue rivaled the Pizza Dog issue
― her squamous hamhocks (DJP), Friday, 5 May 2017 15:01 (seven years ago) link
The pizza dog issue was great, but then they kinda weakened it by going over the same events "for real this time" (i.e., from the human characters' p.o.v.) later.
― retconned out of existence (morrisp), Friday, 5 May 2017 16:37 (seven years ago) link
<i>the Spider-Verse is still a thing: Spider-Woman, Spider-Gwen, and Silk had a three book crossover that is old enough it just wrapped up on Marvel Unlimited. involved people infiltrating from Spider-Gwen's world to 616 to steal tech, and had a male Jessica (Jesse) Drew</i>
That crossover started with Spider-Woman and Silk literally popping over to Spider-Gwen's universe for lunch (and then getting "stuck there") -- that's how easily permeated the line is in the Marvel multiverse these days, it's pretty funny.
― retconned out of existence (morrisp), Friday, 5 May 2017 16:42 (seven years ago) link
Reading a great collection of Dr. Strange stuff from '68-'74 or so. Gardner Fox, Englehart, tons of robert e. howard/lovecraft stuff, v fun. Opens w a couple issues of Gene Colan art that are fantastic.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 5 May 2017 16:42 (seven years ago) link
Sounds great -- Amazon link(?)
― retconned out of existence (morrisp), Friday, 5 May 2017 16:46 (seven years ago) link
Thought the first issue of Secret Empire was better than expected. Might have been okay as a standalone summer crossover instead of a 3-year-long epic. But at least it'll be over soon.
In other news, I read Revolutionary War, which was Marvel UK's equivalent of the Sleeper/Bluetones reunion tour - I think it came out in 2014? Anyway, it's dumb fun and is a definable story with a beginning and end (remember those?). If it's the sort of thing you like, you'll like it. God knows why but I still have a v. sentimental attachment to Death's Head. (The first one, not Death's Head II, you monsters.)
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 5 May 2017 17:05 (seven years ago) link
Marvel's generally not giving a fuck about long-term continuity and the consistency of its parallel universes is, I think, one of its strengths.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 5 May 2017 17:08 (seven years ago) link
it's this one: https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Strange-Epic-Collection-Separate/dp/0785194444/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1494004246&sr=1-5&keywords=Dr.+Strange
― Οὖτις, Friday, 5 May 2017 17:11 (seven years ago) link
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Friday, May 5, 2017 9:40 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
It's actually shockingly straightforward*! Spider-Verse was astoundingly coherent, given the millions of balls it was juggling.
*If, at least, you consider the period since Mephisto reset Spidey's reality as its own discrete thing separate from what came before.
― Jigsaw Pizzle (Old Lunch), Friday, 5 May 2017 17:11 (seven years ago) link
first issue in the collection is here
including hilariously gratuitous Tom Wolfe cameo:http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C4z0Cn4w8Go/Tv-2DQhepoI/AAAAAAAAbAU/pRzpr7FCnGU/s1600/DrStrange-18010.jpg
― Οὖτις, Friday, 5 May 2017 17:15 (seven years ago) link
Haha, wtf (and where's the famous white suit, at the cleaners?)
― retconned out of existence (morrisp), Friday, 5 May 2017 17:19 (seven years ago) link
Circling back to Spidey -- while the fact that they "undid" Peter & MJ's marriage, via the Mephisto thing, is a nonstarter to me; I'm also not interested in reading "Renew Your Vows" (which you'd think would be giving me exactly "what I want"). So I guess there's no degree of "fan service" that will suffice in this case (at least for this "fan") -- and maybe that's unfair. (But in my defense, I read the first ish of the Secret Wars "RYV" and it was really bad.)
― retconned out of existence (morrisp), Friday, 5 May 2017 17:48 (seven years ago) link
hee hee 'millions of balls'
― finger my 60s Soul Pie (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 5 May 2017 17:51 (seven years ago) link
yeah, marvel did a thing that month across some of their books where journalists had little cameos - hunter s thompson showed up in avengers, woodward and bernstein were in fantastic four and lester bangs was in amazing spider-man iirc
― finger my 60s Soul Pie (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 5 May 2017 17:54 (seven years ago) link
It's actually shockingly straightforward*! Spider-Verse was astoundingly coherent, given the millions of balls it was juggling.*If, at least, you consider the period since Mephisto reset Spidey's reality as its own discrete thing separate from what came before.
― i believe that (s)he is sincere (forksclovetofu), Friday, 5 May 2017 20:05 (seven years ago) link
Any residual patience I have with Bendis these days comes from my appreciation with him being the last person to do spidey right (in ultimate)Slott is horrible imo
― i believe that (s)he is sincere (forksclovetofu), Friday, 5 May 2017 20:12 (seven years ago) link
Heck even miles has been okay this far until the recent poorly considered Claremontesque soap opera direction
― i believe that (s)he is sincere (forksclovetofu), Friday, 5 May 2017 20:17 (seven years ago) link
it's not that hard -- again, you can grasp all the basics about Spider-Man and pick up on the few minor changes like his job, current girlfriend, etc and just read an issue where he's stopping a villain and it's fine. it's the issues that are based completely on some aspect of past events, not just using them as a framing mechanism for the story being told, that are completely broken for new readers
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Friday, 5 May 2017 20:20 (seven years ago) link
To be clearer, I guess I am not saying it's "difficult to follow" so much as I am saying "it is dumb and bad"
― i believe that (s)he is sincere (forksclovetofu), Friday, 5 May 2017 20:23 (seven years ago) link
and I'm saying forget it happened, just read good spider-man issues
― a landlocked exclave (mh), Friday, 5 May 2017 20:26 (seven years ago) link
xpostThose Colan issues of Doctor Strange were the first time that Tom Palmer had inked Colan's pencils - Palmer was only about eighteen years old at the time, but could already claim to be Colan's best inker with George Klein his only real rival. Just beautiful stuff, and Roy the Boy back before he was a Republican, writing some great naively psychedelic opportunistic hipster stuff, w/ decent plotting and invention.
Tom Wolfe made a follow-up appearance - in the white suit - in a Thomas scripted issue of the Hulk pleasingly called "They Shoot Hulks Don't They"
https://i2.wp.com/i41.photobucket.com/albums/e256/caker23/more%20pix/Hulk142Wolfe.jpg
― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Friday, 5 May 2017 21:12 (seven years ago) link
this anecdote:Englehart and Brunner created another multi-issue storyline featuring sorcerer Sise-Neg ("Genesis" spelled backward) going back through history, collecting all magical energies, until he reaches the beginning of the universe, becomes all-powerful and creates it anew, leaving Strange to wonder whether this was, paradoxically, the original creation. Stan Lee, seeing the issue after publication, ordered Englehart and Brunner to print a retraction saying this was not God but a god, to avoid offending religious readers. The writer and artist concocted a fake letter from a fictitious minister praising the story, and mailed it to Marvel from Texas. Marvel unwittingly printed the letter and dropped the retraction
― Οὖτις, Friday, 5 May 2017 21:14 (seven years ago) link
Not sure if Gary Glitter and milk bottle man are still in continuity
https://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/1105907.jpg
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 5 May 2017 22:24 (seven years ago) link
lester bangs was in amazing spider-man iirc
waaaaht how come I can't find an img of this
― Οὖτις, Friday, 5 May 2017 22:32 (seven years ago) link
That xpost plot synopsis is everything I love best about marvel
― gimmesomehawnz (Jon not Jon), Friday, 5 May 2017 23:31 (seven years ago) link
how come I can't find an img of this
Incredible how this has been suppressed.
― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Saturday, 6 May 2017 03:11 (seven years ago) link
it's almost like it never happened
― the world's smallest 13-inch (bizarro gazzara), Saturday, 6 May 2017 05:47 (seven years ago) link
My son got a "blind box" with a "Captain America: Civil War"–themed bobblehead; I couldn't identify the character upon opening it (a blonde woman wielding sticks), so I checked the Web and figured out it's the SHIELD agent who was portrayed in the movie by the Emily Thorne actress from "Revenge." (I watched half the movie on TV recently, but it left almost no impression.)
Then I checked further, and learned that this particular character (Sharon Carter) has been around since 1966(!): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_Carter
That's the kicker with Marvel; you can scratch the surface and find there's tons of history on a character you've never even heard of. (I rarely encountered SHIELD when I was a reader in the '80s and early '90s, so didn't know most of the backstory.)
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Monday, 22 May 2017 03:23 (seven years ago) link
status quo for most of the last decade or two is that she's captain america's girlfriend in the comics
at least when he's not being killed or stuck in time or actually the red skull, and she's not being brainwashed
― mh, Monday, 22 May 2017 14:34 (seven years ago) link
Also worth noting that Captain America's girlfriend is the niece of Captain America's dead ex-girlfriend. Which, y'know, a little weird.
― human/hutt hybrid (Old Lunch), Monday, 22 May 2017 14:41 (seven years ago) link
Oh, is her aunt that "Agent Carter of SHIELD" from the TV show set in the 1940s?
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Monday, 22 May 2017 15:22 (seven years ago) link
yeah, she was in the first Captain America film
― mh, Monday, 22 May 2017 15:23 (seven years ago) link
Great-aunt, I think.
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 22 May 2017 15:26 (seven years ago) link
Actually, Peggy is quite a bit more than incidental -- she's in The First Avenger as a possible romantic foil for Captain America but he "dies," she reappears in the Winter Soldier basically on her deathbed and in flashback to the origins of SHIELD (they made the tv miniseries take place in that time), and then in Civil War there's a scene with her funeral.
Yeah, she's been retconned to be age appropriate for whenever Captain America thaws out. The women stay the same age, but WW2 just gets further in the past every year.
― mh, Monday, 22 May 2017 15:29 (seven years ago) link
war never changes iirc
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Monday, 22 May 2017 15:45 (seven years ago) link
https://media.giphy.com/media/OWrtdm1irskAE/giphy.gif
― 🎵 it's grey pubic now, stoner blue 🎵 (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 22 May 2017 15:47 (seven years ago) link
That's what I love about Carter girls, man. They get older, and I stay the same age and start dating their nieces at some point.
― human/hutt hybrid (Old Lunch), Monday, 22 May 2017 15:51 (seven years ago) link
defrosted and confused
― 🎵 it's grey pubic now, stoner blue 🎵 (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 22 May 2017 15:52 (seven years ago) link
I think Sharon was Peggys sister to begin with, and it wasn't until Brubaker that she was changed to her niece. And it was pretty controversial at the time.
― Frederik B, Monday, 22 May 2017 21:07 (seven years ago) link
This actually a part of larger problem that comes with the sliding timeline: Marvel may retcon the origins of some heroes that relate to real-world events (Ben and Reed aren't WWII veterans anymore, the origins of Iron Man and Punisher aren't tied to the Vietnam War any longer), but Cap, Peggy Carter Red Skull, Namor, the original Human Torch, etc, are so intricately tied to 2nd World War that it's very hard to retcon that, and they have never tried. But this raises the question, why haven't there been any superheroes in the gap between the 1940s and whenever the origin of the FF takes place in the ever-adjusting timeline? At the moment that gap must be something like 60 years, and it keeps getting bigger.
In the 1960s, the gap was less than two decades, and the recent emergence of mutants was explained by atomic testing that began in the 1940s, so the children of the atomic era were only then coming of age. But now we know mutants have been around for centuries, so where were they before the 00s, or whenever the X-Men started according to the current timeline? Why didn't the costumed heroes of the 1940s inspire a new generation of heroes until 60 years later, but after that new heroes start to pop up constantly?
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 23 May 2017 10:10 (seven years ago) link
baby boomers too self-absorbed to fight crime iirc
― 🎵 it's grey pubic now, stoner blue 🎵 (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 23 May 2017 10:12 (seven years ago) link
I sorta felt like Jonathan Hickman was going to try and explain this in S.H.I.E.L.D., but then he never finished it.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 23 May 2017 10:20 (seven years ago) link
The members of Agents of Atlas are mostly from the '50s. Plus they've retconned plenty of characters into that era ('50s Avengers, Byrne's Lost Generation).
― human/hutt hybrid (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 23 May 2017 10:21 (seven years ago) link
imo it's easier to gloss over the difficulties in how your near-ageless characters relate to humans when they're also the gorilla man
― mh, Tuesday, 23 May 2017 13:32 (seven years ago) link
Isn't it, Captain America is perpetually World War II guy, and that's fine, you just update his defrost date, then at some point Sharon will have to be Peggy's grandchild or whatnot.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 23 May 2017 19:50 (seven years ago) link
only one solution: freeze Sharon
― PJD PDJ DPJ (DJP), Tuesday, 23 May 2017 19:53 (seven years ago) link
seriously though, Agents of Atlas did some smart moves on the ageless character front. a robot, a guy from uranus, a goddess, gorilla dude, all of them are divorced enough from humanity it all just works
― mh, Tuesday, 23 May 2017 20:31 (seven years ago) link
I'm sorry, a guy from where
― PJD PDJ DPJ (DJP), Tuesday, 23 May 2017 20:38 (seven years ago) link
oh, you know
fwiw he was Marvel's original "Marvel Boy" and he now goes by... The Uranian
http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Robert_Grayson_(Earth-616)
― mh, Tuesday, 23 May 2017 20:43 (seven years ago) link
Uranian? Hallelujah.
― human/hutt hybrid (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 23 May 2017 21:57 (seven years ago) link
Was not aware of this fellow, but sounds like a respectful "R.I.P." is in order: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/james-galton-dead-marvel-president-ceo-was-92-1012944
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Wednesday, 14 June 2017 17:33 (seven years ago) link
Nah, corporate hack who appears to have had little or no creative/aesthetic vision, did zilch for creator's rights during his time at Marvel and presided over the artistic decline of the Shooter era.
― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 14 June 2017 18:45 (seven years ago) link
the direct market was an idea that worked really well for a while, until it completely wrecked so many things
― mh, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 18:47 (seven years ago) link
as far as release day comics go...
I have the feeling that Jason Aaron is having a lot of fun with this Star Wars book
― mh, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 19:10 (seven years ago) link
I didn't know Aaron was doing Star Wars.... he's so great with Thor. I've never read an SW comic, even tho I enjoy the motion picture property (like the rest of Gen-X humanity).
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Wednesday, 14 June 2017 22:31 (seven years ago) link
Star Wars is quite good - Kieron Gillen's Darth Vader is excellent though.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 22:46 (seven years ago) link
I think out of the half dozen or so series maybe only one has been mediocre. I have Charles Soule some flack before but combined with the right artist (Alex Maleev) on Lando he's ok!
Really I think the really middling to bad art on the Dark Horse stuff is what kept me away from Star Wars comics in the past
― mh, Thursday, 15 June 2017 00:04 (seven years ago) link
I'm told that none of that old stuff is SW "canon" any longer, anyway... (for what that's worth, probably not much).
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Thursday, 15 June 2017 01:17 (seven years ago) link
quite a bit, actually! they're doing really well with keeping things in line with all the nu-canon, and while some of the material released (looking at a certain book series here) feels a little like it's connecting dots between dictated points, there are references between the books, comics, television and movies that make sense
I think a couple of the main departures have been Luke seeking out Jedi ephemera in the space between the original films, and the post-original trilogy lack of Jedi that leads in well to the new films
all stuff for the Star Wars threads, though. just pick up that Vader book and watch him taking down entire groups of rebels
― mh, Thursday, 15 June 2017 01:33 (seven years ago) link
The photo-referencing on Larocca's art is getting out of hand. Every panel looks like a bad papaerback. it's like he's a whole new, much worse artist since Dath Vader ended.
Also for some reason the redhead baddie has exactly the same facial features as an ex and it's freaking me out.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 15 June 2017 23:37 (seven years ago) link
it's because salvador is "referencing" your ex if you get my drift ;)
― mh, Thursday, 15 June 2017 23:47 (seven years ago) link
kudos to Jason Aaron on taking Thor back up another notch
― mh, Wednesday, 21 June 2017 14:39 (seven years ago) link
Thanks for the cue. Best issue in a long while. Feel like it's been a bit snoozy since Secret Wars.
I've never had this with an artist before - I love Dauterman's art, and he's a good storyteller, but his panel layouts are fucking annoying.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 23 June 2017 10:08 (seven years ago) link
I'm not a fan of the "bokeh" effect employed sometimes in the "Thor" artwork -- but I assume that is more likely the work of the "color artist," Matthew Wilson (rather than Dauterman).
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Saturday, 1 July 2017 19:03 (seven years ago) link
i wondered if that had a term for it. thought of it as cheesy motion blur
― Nhex, Saturday, 1 July 2017 19:42 (seven years ago) link
Guess that is how it manifests on the most recent cover (blur of hammer in downward motion). Thought I noticed it before more as a "depth of field" / camera-out-of-focus effect. Either way, it looks fake and, indeed, cheesy.
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Sunday, 2 July 2017 18:27 (seven years ago) link
This was a very good issue, btw (#20). The parallels being drawn with the war in Syria were clear, but effective (and affecting) -- not always the case with such "torn from the headlines" maneuvers.
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Monday, 3 July 2017 04:41 (seven years ago) link
One other note -- I actually agree with sentiments of the final letter in the letterpage (from "Kevin in Columbus, OH"): as great as this series has been, Thor/Foster is not as richly developed a character as the hero of a series usually is. (Think I said something similar above.) The assoc. editor sort of brushes it off, saying "Jane's cancer has been a theme since issue #1"... I assume she's not suggesting that giving a character cancer is a substitute for depth/complexity(!), but is rather saying that Jane's struggle against her disease should be providing what Kevin is asking for (character development via "overcoming an adversary"). Regardless, I just wish Jane's personality came through more strongly. Especially in a book with so many strong (Asgardian) personalities, Thor tends to fade into the background of her own book.
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Monday, 3 July 2017 04:57 (seven years ago) link
Yep agree. Aaron doesn't write Jane as well as he writes regular Thor, or even Roz.
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 3 July 2017 13:03 (seven years ago) link
imo Jane-as-Jane is harder to write -- Roz is the charismatic, sarcastic secret agent, Jane is holding on for dear life to that hammer and thinks, for some reason, that she needs to have both human frailty and act as Thor, and I feel like that's been leaned on a little heavily
the whole ongoing bit with the history of mjolnir and her special relationship with the hammer has been pretty good
― mh, Monday, 3 July 2017 20:27 (seven years ago) link
imo the letter you mentioned (and to an extent, the response) are kind of garbage in that the response just mentions the cancer, and the letter itself never directly states it but has the implication "hey, I like this, but if Jason Aaron wants to sell why a WOMAN is Thor then he's doing a disservice by not making her character more compelling"
as if a woman has to be twice as enigmatic as a main character in order to sell the fact there's a female lead, and to justify it. no one's going to say "why does <censored> get to be the War Thor?"
the reason Jane Foster is Thor is pretty simple -- Thor lost the hammer because deep down, he believed the enemy in that Godkiller storyline was right -- the gods do not deserve their status because they can't fulfill their responsibilities
Jane deserves the hammer because she's completely devoted to the job, and does it with humility. it's lot of fun to be Thor, boast and preen, but she's the anti-hubris Thor
― mh, Monday, 3 July 2017 20:38 (seven years ago) link
I read the letter more as saying, "When this particular woman character is only *half* as charismatic as a typical lead (male or female), you guys run the risk of seeming like you just 'checked a box' by making her Thor, and didn't feel the need to do the usual work of developing her personality...."
But I don't want to put words in "Kevin's" mouth, or really argue this particular point. I don't think Aaron is sexist or anything; and Jane as Thor is great, without any need for "justification." I just wish I "knew her better"...
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Tuesday, 4 July 2017 02:22 (seven years ago) link
(But I do also get the logic of the retort, "Would you be saying the same thing if it were a male 'replacement' character with an allegedly underdeveloped personality?")
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Tuesday, 4 July 2017 02:26 (seven years ago) link
they should give her an angry dad
― mh, Tuesday, 4 July 2017 02:37 (seven years ago) link
Or, in the Mighty Marvel tradition, a Troubled Past that she is Working To Leave Behind Her...
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Tuesday, 4 July 2017 03:20 (seven years ago) link
I'm reading THE SAVAGE SHE-HULK #1 (Feb. 1979)... Stan the Man (and an uncredited letterer) get things off a crackling start by doubling up on the "(UN)TIL TODAY" schtick in the first panel of pg. 1:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DEBm_5jWsAIfS_e.jpg:small
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Thursday, 6 July 2017 04:57 (seven years ago) link
(Also -- "a monster a'borning!"? Stan must have been eating a ham salad sandwich with one hand, and approving promo Spidey merch with the other, as he scribbled this script between bites. Not long afterward, Banner gives Jessica a blood transfusion at her kitchen table; which is pretty badass of Dr. David/Bruce/Bob.)
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Thursday, 6 July 2017 05:03 (seven years ago) link
(Sorry, *Jennifer* -- I tend to get her name mixed up with Lucille Bluth's)
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Thursday, 6 July 2017 05:05 (seven years ago) link
several years late, but damn, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is the bee's knees
― Nhex, Thursday, 6 July 2017 08:28 (seven years ago) link
You guys, I must correct the record -- Bruce doesn't perform the self-to-cousin transfusion in Jennifer's kitchen. I cleared failed to read the text with Talmudic attention. Instead, he observes a "doctor's shingle" at the house next door, and breaks in to find the necessary equipment. (For a sort of Self-No-Prize, the doctor next door does remain a plot point in subsequent issues.)
Issue #2 finds the series' permanent creative team coming on board - David Anthony Kraft (w) / Mike Vosburg (p). The plot of said issue is absolutely gonzo; one of those "Whatever, the kids won't notice" '70s storylines driven by absurd coincidences, impossible events, and improbable character choices. It is fun, though!
Flipping ahead in this fat collection (Essential Savage She-Hulk, Vol. 1), I am struck by how radically Vosburg's art appears to change over the next few years... his line seems to become much more "mature" / refined. Stay tuned for (hopefully no further) updates!
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Thursday, 6 July 2017 22:11 (seven years ago) link
David Anthony Kraft wrote a beloved-by-young-me issue of the defenders which was literally just the defenders and the zodiac beating the shit out of each other from cover to cover
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 6 July 2017 22:16 (seven years ago) link
I just went poking around for that on Marvel Unlimited. Was it one of the issues between 48 - 50? Looks like they have those on the service because of a Scorpio plot
It’s not really comics related, but every time I use the MU app I’m tempted to see if they still have a software developer/architect position listed (they did at one point) for their service because I have a guess of why it takes so long to load issues and I have some ideas about how to alleviate it.
― mh, Thursday, 6 July 2017 22:36 (seven years ago) link
Issue 50
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 6 July 2017 22:47 (seven years ago) link
excellent, thanks
― mh, Thursday, 6 July 2017 22:56 (seven years ago) link
Also -- "a monster a'borning!"? Stan must have been eating a ham salad sandwich with one hand, and approving promo Spidey merch with the other, as he scribbled this script between bites.
Stan used this "a'borning" construction several times, it's also in some Galactus origin story in Thor towards the end of the Kirby run
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 6 July 2017 22:59 (seven years ago) link
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F--KC_KJxTUj8%2FUIfD4tXSfVI%2FAAAAAAAAStk%2FbO8WmYjgea4%2Fw1200-h630-p-nu%2Fgalactus-origin-thor-162-001.jpg&f=1
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 6 July 2017 23:04 (seven years ago) link
So funny. Merriam-Webster has an entry for "aborning"; but it's an adverb that seems to be used differently: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aborning
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Thursday, 6 July 2017 23:09 (seven years ago) link
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp),Or Spider-Woman's.
― Mike Dixn, Thursday, 6 July 2017 23:20 (seven years ago) link
"Jessica" and "Jennifer" definitely big '70s names.
Interestingly, Wikipedia sez that She-Hulk was the last character that Stan Lee created (until "Ravage 2099," in '92).
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Thursday, 6 July 2017 23:36 (seven years ago) link
You guys, I'm starting to think that Stan Lee makes up words that he thinks sound impressive!
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 6 July 2017 23:40 (seven years ago) link
his grammar is a'borning
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 6 July 2017 23:43 (seven years ago) link
Excelsi---i'm outta here!
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Friday, 7 July 2017 00:00 (seven years ago) link
The character is comin' to the small screen - http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/marvels-new-warriors-squirrel-girl-cast-milana-vayntrub-derek-theler-topline-freeform-comedy-1019588
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Monday, 10 July 2017 21:17 (seven years ago) link
I can get behind that casting choice. She always seemed like she was slumming it in those AT&T commercials.
― Duane Quarterdump (Old Lunch), Monday, 10 July 2017 22:12 (seven years ago) link
oh god i love that girl. she was also good in little-seen Yahoo Screen series Other Space with Karan Soni
― Nhex, Tuesday, 11 July 2017 04:26 (seven years ago) link
I read the first few issues of the original New Warriors series (from early '90s); I recognize Speedball and Night Thrasher from there, but not some of these others.
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Tuesday, 11 July 2017 04:46 (seven years ago) link
The only thing that looks good about this is Lockjaw: https://youtu.be/xU9Z6cKsbY0
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Friday, 21 July 2017 03:13 (seven years ago) link
Oof yeah. Medusa looks straight up silly
― i believe that (s)he is sincere (forksclovetofu), Friday, 21 July 2017 04:46 (seven years ago) link
Lockjaw looks awesome! Christ the acting though
Is there anyone, anywhere who likes the Inhumans? Do they have some weird fan cult like Legion of Super Heroes? It's like trying to get excited about a Shi'ar show
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 21 July 2017 21:12 (seven years ago) link
i've heard they keep pushing inhumans bc they don't have the film rights to x-men
― Mordy, Friday, 21 July 2017 21:13 (seven years ago) link
yup
― mh, Friday, 21 July 2017 21:15 (seven years ago) link
Kirby-era Inhumans are some of his best comics
― Οὖτις, Friday, 21 July 2017 21:16 (seven years ago) link
I love the Inhumans! One of my favourite 'supergroups' - great Kirby character design and unusual personalities/powers.
― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Friday, 21 July 2017 21:21 (seven years ago) link
yeah they're a great kind of "cousin" family to FF
― Οὖτις, Friday, 21 July 2017 21:25 (seven years ago) link
Completely off-topic... I came across a ref. to this book today in a Wikipedia footnote. I had it as a kid (this exact edition), and must have read it cover-to-cover 4 or 5 times. Anyone else?: https://www.amazon.com/Comic-Book-Heroes-Silver-Present/dp/0517554402
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Saturday, 22 July 2017 01:52 (seven years ago) link
Yep
Author is a pedophile btw
― Οὖτις, Saturday, 22 July 2017 02:46 (seven years ago) link
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Jones
― Οὖτις, Saturday, 22 July 2017 02:47 (seven years ago) link
uh.... :/
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Saturday, 22 July 2017 02:56 (seven years ago) link
I dig the Inhumans, and I think a Shi'ar show could be great in the right hands. So there.
― The miniaturized human skeleton in Martin Short's stool (Old Lunch), Saturday, 22 July 2017 03:16 (seven years ago) link
I have wondered why Marvel hasn't introduced an MCU version of Kamala Khan, considering how popular a character she is (and not just in the comics world). Like why not include her among the "New Warriors" discussed above, instead of some of those other randos... Squirrel Girl and Ms. Marvel, on TV together, c'mon... everyone would luv it.
But I take it they're introducing the Inhumans as a general concept, before moving on to Terrigen Mists, etc.? Maybe they even want to wait until after the Capt. Marvel movie, so Carol Danvers can still serve Kamala's hero/inspiration (and the mainstream audience will know who she is). So, gonna be awhile, LOL...
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Saturday, 22 July 2017 04:08 (seven years ago) link
Also, maybe her funky powers would be hard to portray convincingly on a TV budget... but that apparently isn't stopping them with "Speedball."
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Saturday, 22 July 2017 04:12 (seven years ago) link
The Inhumans (excluding the royals) have been a central element of Agents of SHIELD for several seasons now.
― The miniaturized human skeleton in Martin Short's stool (Old Lunch), Saturday, 22 July 2017 04:16 (seven years ago) link
Terrigenesis, their Kree origins, etc. have all been pretty fully fleshed out at this point.
― The miniaturized human skeleton in Martin Short's stool (Old Lunch), Saturday, 22 July 2017 04:17 (seven years ago) link
Well there you go. Terrigen Mists and all? One less excuse...
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Saturday, 22 July 2017 04:19 (seven years ago) link
I wonder if they're not planning on doing something with Kamala in the upcoming Captain Marvel movie, given her popularity.
― The miniaturized human skeleton in Martin Short's stool (Old Lunch), Saturday, 22 July 2017 04:23 (seven years ago) link
That would be cool... introduce her, and set things up for her own movie.
I'm psyched for "Captain Marvel"... will be interesting to see what they incorporate from Carol's long, complex history (and how they do it).
― face it, tiger... you just hit middle age (morrisp), Saturday, 22 July 2017 04:40 (seven years ago) link
(Also, I saw the Wonder Woman movie y'day, so I'm hyped up for more ass-kickery. I choose my superhero movies carefully!)
― absorbed carol channing's powers and psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 22 July 2017 20:37 (seven years ago) link
xp i can only assume they're not gonna do Space Rape or the million costume/name changes
― Nhex, Saturday, 22 July 2017 21:57 (seven years ago) link
Yeah... I assume she won't even ever be known as "Ms. Marvel" -- tho the script will probably contain a few wink-wink references to '70s feminism.
― absorbed carol channing's powers and psyche (morrisp), Sunday, 23 July 2017 00:40 (seven years ago) link
Hey now - http://variety.com/2017/film/news/captain-marvel-brie-larson-90s-prequel-1202503813/
― absorbed carol channing's powers and psyche (morrisp), Sunday, 23 July 2017 02:34 (seven years ago) link
I've got to say, the editorial direction where they decided the ultimate universe Reed Richards is a slimy little fucker is being pretty consistently implemented. He's popping up in a few different comics, notably Al's Ultimates run, and I've got a bad feeling about this
― mh, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 14:48 (seven years ago) link
the generations series of books looks pretty bad.
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 14:56 (seven years ago) link
I have no idea wtf they're doing, other than taking the "your constant renumbering is bad and hated" criticism and responding in a dumb way
― mh, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 15:01 (seven years ago) link
it's old-meets-new namesake stuff, utterly superfluous and with generally uninspiring creative teamshttp://www.cbr.com/marvel-generations-vanishing-point/
Describing the series, which Marvel has already assured fans won’t spark a big crossover,
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 15:08 (seven years ago) link
You're conflating Generations with Legacy, mh. The former appears to be a wholly self-contained thing and the latter is the nonsensical renumbering initiative wrt all some of the ongoing series. I'm not sure I understand what they're trying to achieve. Maybe just the benefit of another soft reboot without having to deal with flak for putting out multiple 'first' issues of a series within a year and a half of one another?
― Chock Full of Love and Sexy Feeling (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 15:37 (seven years ago) link
I am going to crankily proclaim they're all the same thing
― mh, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 15:38 (seven years ago) link
but yes, I was referring to the Legacy thing, although "wtf they're doing" refers to pretty much every decision
― mh, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 15:39 (seven years ago) link
xp if by "same thing" you mean "on a continuum between sort of readable but hardly recommendable and straight garbage", i'm going to bet you're right
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 15:40 (seven years ago) link
jacking around with numbering, limited series, event shit, anything that doesn't involve having a good idea for a comic and assigning an interesting creative team and regularly releasing issues
that's all I want, you can even switch creative teams occasionally, idgaf. I'll probably read it if it's interesting.
― mh, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 15:43 (seven years ago) link
The perpetual event-ing of Marvel is kind of a plague atm. It's gotten increasingly out of control over the past decade and I don't see how it'll fail to negatively impact sales in the long run. Particularly when they're pulling new series into the crossover du jour within a few issues of their inception.
― Chock Full of Love and Sexy Feeling (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 15:52 (seven years ago) link
If you have a series only run ten issues, and two or three of those are part of some crossover, it's a wreck!
On the rare occasion they let the writer kind of work around at and the crossover only tangentially interferes with the plot but even then, I think there's the impulse when you see the little crossover banner on the cover to think "hey, I'll skip this one"
― mh, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 15:54 (seven years ago) link
The marvel i read these days with some enjoyment is Peter Parker (pretty good so far!), All-New Guardians, Silver Surfer, most of the star wars books (darth maul, darth vader, star wars, doctor Aphra, though emphatically NOT poe dameron), Black Bolt, Squirrel Girl and Zombies Assemble.
The core Doctor Strange, Thor and Daredevil books aren't bad at the moment either. I guess i'm also reading bendis' jessica jones/spiderman/Invincible and infamous Iron Man though all of those with some exasperation. the nick fury reboot is interesting visually. Secret empire is a pretty painful slog. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur and Ms Marvel are good for a fast skim. Same for the Elektra, Kingpin and Iron Fist minis that just wrapped up.
tbrr, that's not a bad capes-n-tights pile, especially in comparison to the DC's slim pickins. all the xmen and avengers books are a disaster as of late tho'.
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 15:56 (seven years ago) link
I subscribed to Generations a little while back - on spec - just to have some new content coming into the house. Looked like some of the issues may be fun, but I'm totally prepared for it stinking.
― absorbed carol channing's powers and psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 16:47 (seven years ago) link
Looks like Generations and Legacy are linked somehow (or the former will lead into the latter?): http://io9.gizmodo.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-marvels-legacy-projec-1797202223
― absorbed carol channing's powers and psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 16:51 (seven years ago) link
Warning for those looking to hope for something non-terrible: it looks from the article that Alex Ross has been involved.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 17:07 (seven years ago) link
Ross was involved in Earth X (et al), which is one of my all-time favorite Marvel things, so that's not an instant disqualifier.
― Chock Full of Love and Sexy Feeling (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 17:19 (seven years ago) link
I actually kind of like the fact that this won't be a typical mega-huge cataclysm to tie all the books together. I'd give it a chance, but no way in hell will I read like 30 books
― Nhex, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 18:10 (seven years ago) link
I like the idea of mixing old and new, and mashing up the continuity (if that's what they're doing). I don't care about the issue numbering thing, though I understand why others do.
― absorbed carol channing's powers and psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 18:51 (seven years ago) link
On the one hand, it might give Marvel pause the next time they want to restart a series at #1. On the other hand, it won't.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 19:56 (seven years ago) link
their two ideas: renumbering everything at #1 and renumbering everything at the old number. surely there's other possibilities out there
― Nhex, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 20:37 (seven years ago) link
just... stop... renumbering
― mh, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 20:39 (seven years ago) link
Every issue is someone's first issue, so every issue should be #1.
― this iphone speaks many languages (DJP), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 20:40 (seven years ago) link
every issue is assigned a random number between 1 and 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
― Number None, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 20:41 (seven years ago) link
numbers to be replaced with emoji, starting with spider-man #⛺️ (coverdate nov 2017)
― the shape of a hot willie lumpkin (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 20:44 (seven years ago) link
starting to think DJP works at Marvel
― mh, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 20:45 (seven years ago) link
Using month/year cover dates (like magazines do), instead of issue numbers, seems like a not-entirely-terrible idea. I imagine they would never do it, though, because (among other reasons) it would highlight the disparity btw. real time and comic-book time, and make older issues sound "dated."
― absorbed carol channing's powers and psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 22:37 (seven years ago) link
But it would solve this treadmill problem... "High-numbered issues are off-putting to new readers, let's start at #1" -> "This constant renumbering is silly, and the legacy numbering is meaningful to fans" -> repeat ad nasueum
― absorbed carol channing's powers and psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 22:48 (seven years ago) link
I don't think it hit me until now how incredibly repetitive Marvel's gotten when it comes to certain solo character books. I've enjoyed them, but the pattern is kind of ridiculous.
- Jessica Jones has a day job as an investigator, an office she constantly has problems with making rent on - Hawkeye (Kate, not Clint) goes to the west coast and becomes an investigator - She-Hulk miniseries where she quits her job at a big law firm, has problems making rent at her new office, and has an investigator (Hellcat) and an assistant with secret super powers - Spider-Woman has a day job, an assistant with a super criminal past (he has a suit that seems to give him some powers), and Ben Urich helping with investigations
― mh, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 23:16 (seven years ago) link
At least Jessica Drew can claim to have been investigatin' since the '70s. Of course, her series also didn't stick to any particular concept, and then was cancelled :/
― absorbed carol channing's powers and psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 27 July 2017 01:52 (seven years ago) link
I liked it, in a comfort food serial television way
― mh, Thursday, 27 July 2017 01:55 (seven years ago) link
Also, Jessica Jones was initially intended to be Jessica Drew but got turned into a new character because Marvel didn't want Spider-Woman cursing and having anal sex, I guess.
― Chock Full of Love and Sexy Feeling (Old Lunch), Thursday, 27 July 2017 02:09 (seven years ago) link
back when they were wary of this Bendis guy messing up their property instead of handing him property to make boring
― mh, Thursday, 27 July 2017 02:45 (seven years ago) link
*tries to hit 'Like' button; realizes where I am*
― absorbed carol channing's powers and psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 27 July 2017 03:54 (seven years ago) link
Side complaint: did Marvel change their cover designers? Everything (layouts, font, art) looks so amateurish lately. They look like 1990s role-playing-game manuals.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 27 July 2017 13:32 (seven years ago) link
really? i disagree, having casually looked at the rack recently. actually appreciating that the covers tend to reflect the content inside rather than just being generic pin-ups which felt like a problem last decade
― Nhex, Thursday, 27 July 2017 14:45 (seven years ago) link
This sort of thing. And this. Just a weird 90s-chunky sort of ugliness.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 27 July 2017 15:22 (seven years ago) link
oh ok. i see what you mean
― Nhex, Thursday, 27 July 2017 15:27 (seven years ago) link
Yeah. But I do miss Marvel being good! Seemed like they were on a roll just 4-5 years ago.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 27 July 2017 15:59 (seven years ago) link
ugh yeah that secret empire cover is terrible. it's not actually illegible but it might as well be.
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Thursday, 27 July 2017 16:43 (seven years ago) link
chuck: i see it too. I think it's retro nostalgia to the target audience which i presume to be men in their thirties?
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Thursday, 27 July 2017 17:19 (seven years ago) link
That Ironheart/Iron Man cover finally answers the pressing question "What if Rob Liefeld understood proportions and could draw feet?"
― this iphone speaks many languages (DJP), Thursday, 27 July 2017 18:10 (seven years ago) link
That Generations cover is a variant. The real ones are better - https://comicstore.marvel.com/Generations-2017/comics-series/97936
― absorbed carol channing's powers and psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 27 July 2017 19:09 (seven years ago) link
haha
https://twitter.com/SenatorWatcher
― soref, Friday, 28 July 2017 22:13 (seven years ago) link
funny and upsetting!
― Nhex, Saturday, 29 July 2017 04:18 (seven years ago) link
Reading Jason Aaron's Wolverine run from 10 years ago (!), its good trashy fun.
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 30 July 2017 18:50 (seven years ago) link
I figure that those who care probably know, but hadn't seen it mentioned: The Cosmic Trippiness that Al Ewing is writing in The Ultimates 2 is totally amazing - if you like that sort of thing, then it's probably a career highlight (and I've liked-to-loved pretty much everything he's done apart from That One Book)
― Andrew Farrell, Sunday, 6 August 2017 11:35 (seven years ago) link
couldn't get into that; very metal hurlant which isn't my thing i guess
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Sunday, 6 August 2017 16:05 (seven years ago) link
I can't really get into it. I miss Mighty Avengers tbh
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 6 August 2017 21:54 (seven years ago) link
The intergalactic mercenaries in Al Ewing's Rocket seemed very familiar to me, so a quick check on Wikipedia confirms that I do remember them, not as Technet, but as the Special Executive, from near the end of Alan Moore's run on Excalibur. I don't think I remember reading it at the time, but it's definitely been at least 20 years, and it's a classic Moore "all of these characters are interesting and also they as a team have a specific agenda and there's a great fight scene, and the whole thing is maybe 10 pages" - I'd consider it as part of a spanning set of "Why comics are great"
Also of course reading a wiki entry about any Marvel characters who have been around for that long is a bit like listening to a young child make up an incoherent story - shout out to the paragraph that opens "The Technet were allowed to stay in Brighton, England, where they would use their alien technology to provide the city with sunny weather."
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 17:55 (seven years ago) link
They were later used by Claremont and Davis in their US run of the same characters; that's where I remember them from. Really loved that book as a kid!
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Tuesday, 8 August 2017 18:01 (seven years ago) link
yeah, I remember them from the Claremont/Davis years
there's something essential british about them imo, but I can't put my finger on what it is
― mh, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 18:06 (seven years ago) link
IIRC, a couple of them had fairly OTT British speech patterns.
Do not overlook the brief period during the Alan Davis solo run on Excalibur (one of the best Marvel runs ever, btw) when the Technet lived in the lighthouse and became the N-Men under Nightcrawler's tutelage.
― I'm Calling My Loyer! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 8 August 2017 18:22 (seven years ago) link
Looks like the Silver Sable / Felicia Hardy movie ("Silver and Black") is really happening: http://deadline.com/2017/08/silver-and-black-marvel-sony-movie-sicario-2-holmes-and-watson-bad-boys-3-release-dates-1202147448/
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 12 August 2017 03:04 (seven years ago) link
I've read a few of the "Generations" issues so far (Jean Grey / Phoenix and Wolverine / All-New Wolverine).
Alex Alonso apparently said, "These stories do happen, they really count. They really matter. This isn't some alternate reality story or some time-travel story." – OK, but these seem like the definition of the one-shot "time-travel story" (and not much more)
The Wolverine ish is pretty good, and genuinely touching at the end (through Tom Taylor still can't write well in Logan's voice, IMO).
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 2 September 2017 01:36 (seven years ago) link
Also, they seem to be violating their own "compressed timeline" rules (re: "only 13 yrs. have passed since FF #1," or whatever); but I'm not complaining about that...
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 2 September 2017 02:05 (seven years ago) link
Just skimmed the Secret Empire plotline (for background on the time-travel). Nutty stuff. Is the Marvel Universe "remade" every few years now? (Oh, and BlackWidow is dead? Puh-leeze...)
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 2 September 2017 03:20 (seven years ago) link
Welp, thats one less spoiler i have to mind now thanks
― i believe that (s)he is sincere (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 2 September 2017 03:25 (seven years ago) link
Whoops sorry :/
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 2 September 2017 03:25 (seven years ago) link
ah, no biggie. just hadn't read the last week or two of continuity; i think i'll be able to handle the shock
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Saturday, 2 September 2017 17:29 (seven years ago) link
I can also now report there is a spicy/intriguing reveal at the end of the Thor (Jane F.) / Unworthy Thor (young Odinson) issue of "Generations" (...no spoilers!)
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 2 September 2017 18:24 (seven years ago) link
http://www.indiewire.com/2017/09/marvels-inhumans-review-imax-abc-worst-1201873382/
― albvivertine, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 21:58 (seven years ago) link
The Hawkeye "Generations" is the best one yet -- and actually one of the best single issues of anything I've read in a while. Kelly Thompson does a great job of nailing the Kate / Clint verbal interplay; and in her portrayal of young Clint, accurately hearkens back to Clint as recognizable in the old days (e.g., the Mark Gruenwald series).
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 11 September 2017 16:53 (seven years ago) link
So this is what Legacy is all about (big spoilers): http://www.cbr.com/how-marvel-legacy-changes-everything/
Not to judge a book by its online summary, but I don't see anything here that psyches me up about the current state of the Marvel U. Of course, it comes down to the quality of individual series, anyway; and unfortunately, I'm not sure what the "quality" ones are anymore.
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Friday, 29 September 2017 20:16 (seven years ago) link
they’ve got to pull a Poochie with Old Man Logan now
― mh, Saturday, 30 September 2017 19:51 (seven years ago) link
I think we are due for a "wipe everything out and start over, this shot is too complicated" reboot in two years which, given marvel's cultural capital, is a level of mismanagement only matched by the us government
― i believe that (s)he is sincere (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 30 September 2017 19:55 (seven years ago) link
Forbidden Planet in Glasgow had a special midnight opening for this, which seemed a bit ambitious.
― Gunpowder Julius (Ward Fowler), Saturday, 30 September 2017 19:58 (seven years ago) link
people do midnight events for practically everything these days
I thought the Legacy event book was better than most of that type, but mostly because they let Jason Aaron script it (meaning, the dialogue and connective tissue between dictated plot points) with art that didn’t seem rote.
That’s praise of a very corporate construction, but if you didn’t feel invested in any characters before, nothing seemed very rousing. I’m hopeful they don’t do a back-to-basics Fantastic Four instead of the elder statesmen/young geniuses thread that culminated after Hickman’s run.
― mh, Sunday, 1 October 2017 03:26 (seven years ago) link
O.M. Logan & OG Logan are probably gonna have a “Bub”-off (while Laura rolls her eyes in the background).
Something funny about these “soft reboots” is how they don’t necessarily affect the continuity of many of the series themselves (this point may have been made in the article). Even something as huge as the last Secret Wars was wiped from most characters’ memories; their lives resumed like nothing had happened; etc. So who are these complex rewrites of history “meant for”? Your average Marvel fan who’s more into backstory than character?
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Sunday, 1 October 2017 03:31 (seven years ago) link
aren't they pretty transparently efforts to "shake things up" and sell books since they've told every story literally hundreds of times for every character
― Nhex, Sunday, 1 October 2017 03:54 (seven years ago) link
the first thing I thought of with the Wolverine appearance (spoilers: he rolls up in a semi truck with BEER on the side) was the episode of Chappelle’s Show where the guy rolls up in a truck full of menthols he bought with his reparations money
― mh, Sunday, 1 October 2017 15:50 (seven years ago) link
Oh, no doubt... I guess I'm wondering why they don't simply continue to "shake things up" by engaging top talent for interesting, creative, and offbeat work, as seemed to be the mission statement for a few years there.
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 2 October 2017 04:21 (seven years ago) link
sadly i suspect those books don't sell. at least, that's the excuse they love to give
― Nhex, Monday, 2 October 2017 04:46 (seven years ago) link
like i wonder how that Vision series did
― Nhex, Monday, 2 October 2017 04:52 (seven years ago) link
they're reissuing it in semi-prestige two-issues-in-one format now, so i assume reasonably well
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Monday, 2 October 2017 15:01 (seven years ago) link
luv2shake things up by returning to the status quo
god i wish marvel could just run the comics division as a loss-leading content farm for movie ideas - if they get one billion-dollar box-office smash out of a story adapted from the comics, they should be able to fund endless wolverine romance comics or whatever in perpetuity
― Mr. Eulon Mask, urging the UN to ban the "homicide robot" (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 2 October 2017 15:07 (seven years ago) link
actually, can we have a wolverine romance comic where old man logan and regular logan get it on
'i'm the best there is at what i do. and what i do... is very, very nice'
― Mr. Eulon Mask, urging the UN to ban the "homicide robot" (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 2 October 2017 15:23 (seven years ago) link
hah, that reminds me of the criticism of newspaper op-ed columns: most people only have a really good idea to launch a story every so often, but you've got to run a column every week regardless of the quality of the pitch
it's worse with serialized content, because all of the ideas in-between the good ones are just continuity grist for the mill
it's why the x-men have to sit around at the mansion and clean their rooms, go to the mall, or play baseball a few times a year. and they should.
― mh, Monday, 2 October 2017 15:24 (seven years ago) link
I would lol a lot if they revived The Crimson Dawn
― Marcus Hiles Remains Steadfast About Planting Trees.jpg (DJP), Monday, 2 October 2017 15:24 (seven years ago) link
you are a bad man and should feel bad
― mh, Monday, 2 October 2017 15:25 (seven years ago) link
who's the comics equivalent of david brooks, i wonder
i just read the crimson dawn wikipedia page and it is utterly impenetrable
― Mr. Eulon Mask, urging the UN to ban the "homicide robot" (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 2 October 2017 15:33 (seven years ago) link
it's chuck austen
― mh, Monday, 2 October 2017 15:38 (seven years ago) link
although it looks like jeph loeb wrote the crimson dawn junk, and he's another good candidate. he's also failed upwards stupendously
― mh, Monday, 2 October 2017 15:40 (seven years ago) link
chuck austen is a solid choice, yeah - and unlike the inexplicably successful loeb, he doesn't even have the screenplay for commando in his credits to burnish his reputation
― Mr. Eulon Mask, urging the UN to ban the "homicide robot" (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 2 October 2017 15:44 (seven years ago) link
scott lobdell maybe?
― Mr. Eulon Mask, urging the UN to ban the "homicide robot" (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 2 October 2017 15:46 (seven years ago) link
frank tieri?
Lobdell did ok with the between-event crap (I know DJP enjoys his Gen X stuff) but not so great with original ideas
I can't remember Tieri's stuff enough to care either way?
― mh, Monday, 2 October 2017 16:02 (seven years ago) link
John Byrne
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Monday, 2 October 2017 16:38 (seven years ago) link
Crimson Dawn was a Loeb/Lobdell twofer
The thing I liked about Lobdell's writing was how willing he was to throw every single plot idea he had in his head onto the page at any given time, making the X-Men stories into an interlocking series of subplots that would then hammer into big events in weird and sometimes unexpected (and sometimes unintentionally hilarious) ways. The problem is that half of his ideas were really dumb, but he was very good at juggling them right up until he wasn't.
― Marcus Hiles Remains Steadfast About Planting Trees.jpg (DJP), Monday, 2 October 2017 18:02 (seven years ago) link
I drive my beer truck staight through your heart, Old Man Logan.
― Mike Dixn, Monday, 2 October 2017 23:33 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxAo6KhBFFs
― Nhex, Monday, 2 October 2017 23:36 (seven years ago) link
Meanwhile, some really good artwork (by Paolo Villanelli) in the "Ms. Marvel / Ms. Marvel" issue of Generations.
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 4 October 2017 03:09 (seven years ago) link
Ms. Marvel art is consistently really top-notch
― rb (soda), Wednesday, 4 October 2017 21:25 (seven years ago) link
so that northrup comic book then
― Dr Keith Assblow (stevie), Friday, 6 October 2017 21:37 (seven years ago) link
This whole Marvel Legacy turn in the past few years is pretty funny when you consider the years that many of the zombies ragged DC comics for years about having multiple versions of the same character and a constantly changing 'universe'.
― earlnash, Monday, 9 October 2017 01:52 (seven years ago) link
When the universe is so pliable that Franklin Richards or an Infinity Gem can remake it on a whim -- and this happens biannually -- it begins to feel like there's nothing at stake.
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Tuesday, 10 October 2017 05:34 (seven years ago) link
...sorry, make that "Cosmic Cube," not Infinity Gem.
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 11 October 2017 05:25 (seven years ago) link
So I've blasted through most of the first six months of All-New, All-Different material, and the reports that things went severely downhill after Secret Wars has me scratching my head. The quality is really quite high on average (the worst I'd say is that some of the books are pretty inessential). Maybe it's just like Civil War II people were complaining about? Haven't made it that far yet, so we'll see.
Anyway. I mostly just wanted to mention that Spider-Woman is really, really good so far. The pregnancy storyline legit got me a little choked up.
― Fresh Toast (Old Lunch), Sunday, 12 November 2017 15:39 (seven years ago) link
There was great AN/AD stuff, and CWII did end up sidetracking it without recovery (IMO). I loved (pre-sidetrack) Spider-Woman, and the pregnancy storyline in particular.
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 13 November 2017 21:24 (seven years ago) link
I, too, enjoy the Spider-Woman
― mh, Monday, 13 November 2017 22:15 (seven years ago) link
OK, in this crazy digital sale I've bought the first 2 vols each of Spider-Woman, Squirrel Girl and Gwenpool. What else is worth it?
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Wednesday, 22 November 2017 22:58 (seven years ago) link
Vision is great, as is Waid's short run on Black Widow, which reads really nicely on the "guided view" part of the app.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 23 November 2017 00:14 (seven years ago) link
Vision I have, and it was wonderful. Black Widow I will investigate. Cheers!
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Thursday, 23 November 2017 00:28 (seven years ago) link
The Matt Fraction "Hawkeye" series (especially the "L.A. Woman" volume) -- if you've never read it!
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 23 November 2017 01:56 (seven years ago) link
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, all of the Ms. Marvels A+++ charming and surprisingly deep.
― rb (soda), Thursday, 23 November 2017 02:06 (seven years ago) link
Yes, I was very pleasantly surprised by Moon Girl. Hadn't really heard much chatter about that one.
I've finally started Waid's run on DD. The writing isn't blowing me away but the art/design is gorgeous.
― Ripped Taylor (Old Lunch), Thursday, 23 November 2017 02:22 (seven years ago) link
Squirrel Girl is good fun
― mh, Thursday, 23 November 2017 02:28 (seven years ago) link
Moon Girl's pretty great, from what little i read
― Nhex, Thursday, 23 November 2017 02:34 (seven years ago) link
I really dig that they've maintained this sub-imprint of sorts comprised of fun, well-written, smart, and fairly progressive stuff featuring young female protagonists. I'd like to think it's actually being enjoyed by a similar demographic and not just the usual old dudes like me. The Squirrel Girl letters pages seem to reflect that they are.
― Ripped Taylor (Old Lunch), Thursday, 23 November 2017 02:53 (seven years ago) link
So have the "Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat" letters pages...
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 23 November 2017 03:38 (seven years ago) link
OK, have also bought the Patsy Walker, Black Widow and Moon Girl TPBs.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Thursday, 23 November 2017 03:57 (seven years ago) link
co-sign on Black Widow, Vision, Fraction Hawkeye... I think the new Black Bolt is pretty good! I've fallen off for the past four months or so.
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Thursday, 23 November 2017 17:11 (seven years ago) link
Al Ewing's Ultimates / Ultimates^2 is great fun if you like the big cosmic Marvel, Galactus and Eternity and such.
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 23 November 2017 17:34 (seven years ago) link
Okay I was just talking about how gorgeous the art in Waid's DD is and I come across an issue which inexplicably features art by Khoi Pham, who is maybe my least favorite Marvel artist since the halcyon days of REALLY bad art in the mid-'90s. But tbf, I don't know his biographical details, maybe he draws really well for a twelve-year-old.
― Ripped Taylor (Old Lunch), Friday, 24 November 2017 13:49 (seven years ago) link
Just read THE MIGHTY THOR #700. It's a pretty epic jam!
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 30 November 2017 06:45 (seven years ago) link
Apropos of nothing, I'd like to share with y'all what might be my favorite Marvel Comic cover of all time, from 1994's Namor the Sub-Mariner annual number 4:
https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/0/6754/1375638-namor.sub_mariner.annual4cover.jpg
― Ripped Taylor (Old Lunch), Sunday, 3 December 2017 00:56 (seven years ago) link
I knew that it was going to be something amazing before clicking on it, and was not disappointed
― mh, Sunday, 3 December 2017 01:37 (seven years ago) link
Leaping orca (check); mutant Seagal (check); monstrous version of "swimmer's physique" (check)... yep, a stone classic
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Sunday, 3 December 2017 06:30 (seven years ago) link
i’m particularly taken with the contrast between namor’s obsessively detailed musculature and the weirdly um how do I say this nonspecific depiction of the contents of his green speedo
― Dic Space has been contacted for comment. (bizarro gazzara), Sunday, 3 December 2017 07:43 (seven years ago) link
forgot what my new screen name was before posting, seems apt to the discussion at hand
― Dic Space has been contacted for comment. (bizarro gazzara), Sunday, 3 December 2017 07:44 (seven years ago) link
and while we’re talking about sub-marine dicks is the orca a subtle free willy reference?
― Dic Space has been contacted for comment. (bizarro gazzara), Sunday, 3 December 2017 07:48 (seven years ago) link
Don’t know what you’re talking about, you can clearly see the top of his shell, I’m disgusted.
The artist also appears to have determined that water, on exposure to air, immediately turn into sand.
― Andrew Farrell, Sunday, 3 December 2017 09:41 (seven years ago) link
someone *approved* this lmao
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Monday, 4 December 2017 05:01 (seven years ago) link
I’m transfixed by those two orifices located where his armpits should be
― harbinger of failure (Jon not Jon), Monday, 4 December 2017 13:47 (seven years ago) link
davenold cronenegger
― Dic Space has been contacted for comment. (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 4 December 2017 14:06 (seven years ago) link
This commentary is not disappointing. Thank u all.
― Ripped Taylor (Old Lunch), Monday, 4 December 2017 14:06 (seven years ago) link
I've learned that this painter also did the box art for the Genesis Punisher game:
http://r.mprd.se/media/images/38924-Punisher,_The_(USA)-1459831342.png
― Ripped Taylor (Old Lunch), Monday, 4 December 2017 14:14 (seven years ago) link
every picture by this guy has that same facial expression
https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/9/90/Thor_Vol_1_460.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20070405011804 https://78.media.tumblr.com/5f3140f0fa7bf7dc3342a536df8be6bf/tumblr_n8y3m3VMW31twdz6wo1_500.png
― soref, Monday, 4 December 2017 14:21 (seven years ago) link
completely surprising that his work appeared in a marvel swimsuit specia
― mh, Monday, 4 December 2017 15:05 (seven years ago) link
*special
And lo!, Thor did release a god-sized geyser of piss into his speedo on that day.
― Ripped Taylor (Old Lunch), Monday, 4 December 2017 15:06 (seven years ago) link
YouMUSTBuyThisIssue!
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Monday, 4 December 2017 16:44 (seven years ago) link
umhttp://i.pinimg.com/736x/a6/8b/2d/a68b2d55b91648645a419ed5024eae6e--marvel-villains-marvel-comics.jpg
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Monday, 4 December 2017 16:47 (seven years ago) link
https://78.media.tumblr.com/a2b75ed3e389d88dd624cd8b93491ed1/tumblr_inline_ordl9xl5vR1rvztey_540.gif
― Dic Space has been contacted for comment. (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 4 December 2017 16:50 (seven years ago) link
I'm enjoying these tributes to Whizzer and Chips mainstay Full O'Beans
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55d9a2ebe4b090d1642480e9/t/578bc3b6d2b85738b5d59cb6/1468777432235/
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 4 December 2017 17:53 (seven years ago) link
I desperately want to unsee the Blob's asscrack, and yet at the same time I keep scrolling up and looking at it....
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 4 December 2017 19:28 (seven years ago) link
it really follows you around the room huh
― Dic Space has been contacted for comment. (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 08:09 (seven years ago) link
i'll go with scrote fold vs. asscrack
― Nhex, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 08:15 (seven years ago) link
kickstarter to have Ed Luce redo that Blob painting
― shackling the masses with plastic-wrapped snack picks (sic), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 09:11 (seven years ago) link
Looks like Disney is looking to buy Fox's movie and TV productions. I'm guessing this would include getting the Marvel movie rights back and is a big part of the deal.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 16:00 (seven years ago) link
Fiiiiiinally got around to reading Sean Howe's book, revealing how little I knew about what's gone on behind the curtain. I immediately followed it up with the newly released Slugfest!, which details Marvel and DC's decades-long rivalry. It's slight and covers some of the same ground as Howe's book but it's pretty entertaining. I think I'm going to check out Dan Raviv's Comic Wars next. Any other recommendations along those lines?
― Encyclopedia Beige and the Case of the Bland Sandwich (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 20 December 2017 14:37 (seven years ago) link
TCJ 1979 - 2005.
― shackling the masses with plastic-wrapped snack picks (sic), Wednesday, 20 December 2017 18:05 (seven years ago) link
Assuming one already has a cache of scanz of TCJ 1979-2005 (and Amazing Heroes 1981-1992), what might be your follow-up recommendation?
― Encyclopedia Beige and the Case of the Bland Sandwich (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 20 December 2017 18:08 (seven years ago) link
I don't know if you're interested in British comics, but Pat Mills recently wrote a history of 2000AD that looks fun, and Chris Donald's book from a while back about setting up Viz Magazine is full of fun anecdotes and charmingly pedantic score-settling. There's also Grant Morrison's book, which I've never read as it was published around the time he stopped being interesting (which I'm still sad about) and sounded like it had some less-than-lightened views on creator rights.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 21 December 2017 00:53 (seven years ago) link
I read Morrison's book. I don't recall being bowled over (even though I still generally rate him as my favorite mainstream comics writer).
I am interested in British comics (just bought the second in what surprisingly appears to be a series of Misty trades) but my engagement has been fairly slight. I intend to do a deep dive someday when Marvel deep diving doesn't consume quite as much of my comics reading time.
― Encyclopedia Beige and the Case of the Bland Sandwich (Old Lunch), Thursday, 21 December 2017 01:15 (seven years ago) link
(The 'surprisingly' is because 2000AD/Rebellion doesn't reprint a whole lot of stuff for the US market, and Misty seems pretty niche in comparison to the more popular material that's been ignored stateside or allowed to go out of print ages ago.)
― Encyclopedia Beige and the Case of the Bland Sandwich (Old Lunch), Thursday, 21 December 2017 01:20 (seven years ago) link
Morrison's book is woeful overall, not just for the go-go-sharecropper bits. Donald's is delightful, though preferable in hardcover so you get the original title. That said, it has perhaps slightly less of the history of Marvel & DC's publishing machinations than OL was asking for.
― shackling the masses with plastic-wrapped snack picks (sic), Thursday, 21 December 2017 03:31 (seven years ago) link
Morrison’s viewpoint always has this forced joy for the work, while the subtext (when it stays in there) seems like it’s suppressed fretting for the foundation the industry sits on. But the interplay between superhero trends and corporate control is integral to the work, at least when you’re writing about the history of comics plots. It’s probably a viewpoint that keeps you sane if you’re trying to work in the system, but the detachment doesn’t lend well to writing a history
― mh, Thursday, 21 December 2017 03:45 (seven years ago) link
I recall enjoying Men of Tomorrow when I read it years ago, but given what has been revealed about that book's author since, I'm not sure if I could recommend it. Steal it maybe.
― Vernon Locke, Thursday, 21 December 2017 05:27 (seven years ago) link
I am interested in British comics (just bought the second in what surprisingly appears to be a series of /Misty/ trades) but my engagement has been fairly slight. I intend to do a deep dive someday when Marvel deep diving doesn't consume quite as much of my comics reading time.
― dipso inferno (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 21 December 2017 10:21 (seven years ago) link
and then there’s the broons obv
― dipso inferno (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 21 December 2017 10:30 (seven years ago) link
*googles Gerard Jones*
Yikes. Did not see that coming.
― "Taste's very strange!" (stevie), Thursday, 21 December 2017 12:26 (seven years ago) link
This is a good fun companion read to the Howe book:
https://www.amazon.com/Stan-Rise-Fall-American-Comic/dp/1556525419
As for British Comics, I highly recommend this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-British-Comics-Paul-Gravett/dp/1845131703
― Akdov Telmig (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 21 December 2017 12:35 (seven years ago) link
Some time back, I (ahem) 'found' a lovingly-curated cache of 2000AD serials sorted chronologically and by subject, so I'm prepped when the time comes. It's just a bit intimidating to plow headlong into a publication which recently surpassed 2,000 issues, but I look forward to the endeavor (or 'endeavour', if you will).
― Encyclopedia Beige and the Case of the Bland Sandwich (Old Lunch), Thursday, 21 December 2017 13:49 (seven years ago) link
Thank u all for the recommendations. Tangentially, there's a new tell-all book about the X-Men animated series that sounds like it could be pretty great.
― Encyclopedia Beige and the Case of the Bland Sandwich (Old Lunch), Thursday, 21 December 2017 13:54 (seven years ago) link
Howe's Tumblr is fun - it's mostly images and Weird Marvel whatnot, but there's some fun stuff: http://seanhowe.tumblr.com/
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 21 December 2017 15:03 (seven years ago) link
erstwhile ilx presence Al Ewing wrote some fun 2000AD stuff so, uh, check it out if you enjoy his Marvel workIn other 2000AD news, I found out I missed the release of a Mega City Undercover collection at some point so I spent yesterday catching up.
― mh, Thursday, 21 December 2017 17:25 (seven years ago) link
Bummed that Al has abandoned these haunts (or has he...?!?) since becoming A Big Deal but pleased for his deserved success.
― Encyclopedia Beige and the Case of the Bland Sandwich (Old Lunch), Thursday, 21 December 2017 17:45 (seven years ago) link
He is writing all of Marvel, that must take some time.
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 21 December 2017 17:45 (seven years ago) link
I enjoyed reading negative reviews of Howe's book by people who love Marvel at their worst, including one guy who was saying "what? Maximum Carnage was the greatest!"
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 21 December 2017 22:18 (seven years ago) link
Al's story in the Christmas 2000ad special is astonishing. Dredd gets called out to a guy whose life is a choose-your-own-adventure.
― Thomas Gabriel Fischer does not endorse (aldo), Thursday, 21 December 2017 22:23 (seven years ago) link
I'd been wondering if Al Ewing was maybe the writer of the Starlord strip in the current issue of 2000ad? (it's credited to 'Ken Niemand' which is presumably a pseudonym?) The style seemed similar, anyway
― soref, Thursday, 21 December 2017 22:27 (seven years ago) link
Which issue is that in, Aldo? I just bought the Christmas ish (prog 2061!) but couldn't find it
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 22 December 2017 17:33 (seven years ago) link
Ah wait, it was in Festive Thrillpower 2017 so might be old.
― Thomas Gabriel Fischer does not endorse (aldo), Friday, 22 December 2017 18:26 (seven years ago) link
So I hear that (***SPOILER ALERT***) it turns out the Ultimate Universe is still around, after all?
This is getting ridiculous!
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 28 December 2017 04:33 (six years ago) link
in which title are they delving into that topic?afaik there’s still a Marvel multiverse, the new not-FF title might delve into that. post Secret Wars, the Richards family has been out there creating new universes and throwing them into the void so who knows what could exist
― mh, Thursday, 28 December 2017 04:58 (six years ago) link
Here's the reveal: https://www.cbr.com/spider-men-ii-ultimate-universe/
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 28 December 2017 05:36 (six years ago) link
I feel like that’s the weird canon trap that pedantic readers fall into, and try to lawyer around every time they see something that doesn’t fall into their conception. I caught myself arguing about the Runaways tv show, of all things, on io9 comments. An editor, writer, whoever, saying a story falls into a comics universe, cinematic universe, whatever... it doesn’t matter to the work you’re reading until it actually ties into a story and matters in a way that affects the work. If I see something that seems like magic, and someone pipes in “oh they said this is the same universe as blah, so magic is like blah” it adds nothing to the work I’m watching unless magic being the same, or even connected, is part of the plot!They kind of create artist ions in the fictional geology of the work, universe numbers, events explaining a link, but it’s all a workaround to make something more meaningful to readers. If Marvel has an ultimate universe maybe this one’s now the equivalent of 1611 or 1607 instead of 1610. The shitty ultimatum thing never happened, or the whole place is rewound a few years so what was contemporaneous never was. The more I read different fictional works with their self-contained continuity the more clear it becomes that events fucking with that continuity, or tying disparate pieces together, are only good if they’re good stories. The fan service pedantic bits are just horrible. No-prizes all the way down for me.
― mh, Thursday, 28 December 2017 06:11 (six years ago) link
the end of Secret Wars II had the Franklin kids rebuilding the multiverse so... but yeah, every time DC rebooted that would bring back the Earth-Xs pretty fast, so no surprise
― Nhex, Thursday, 28 December 2017 07:44 (six years ago) link
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, December 21, 2017 12:53 AM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I have not read it yet but Steve McManus's recent autiobiog about his time in the UK comics biz had some decent reviews.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mighty-One-Inside-Nerve-Centre/dp/1781084750/
― Pheeel, Thursday, 28 December 2017 12:09 (six years ago) link
I discover these things late because I mail-order my monthly haul but apparently at least part of the reason Marvel engaged in their Legacy renumbering is so they could celebrate (warning: fake examples) issue 900 of Sleepwalker and issue 750 of NFL SuperPro with (drumroll please) lenticular covers! Do I smell a Clone Saga II around the corner? Perhaps the unnecessary purchase of a trading card company?
― Senior Soft-Serve Tech at the Froyo Arroyo (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 14:15 (six years ago) link
I'm cautiously optimistic about this Chip Zdarsky/Jim Cheung "Marvel Two-in-One" ploy, when it comes to the stealth number catching-up
― mh, Wednesday, 24 January 2018 15:03 (six years ago) link
In theory, I'm totally on board with restoring the original numbering. In practice, though, a) they seem to have fudged an awful lot of these numbers, and b) come on, is anyone under any illusions that we'll see every title revert to a Totally All-New All-Different For Real This Time #1 within the next couple of years?
― Senior Soft-Serve Tech at the Froyo Arroyo (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 15:16 (six years ago) link
As someone who only reads library trades periodically, all these events, series retitling and renumbering have effectively killed that Marvel interest, too. Not sure what that says, other than I'm easily confused, and the catalogs don't easily compile and sort different titles / authors / characters in date published order. If I was more OCD, I'd print off Wikipedia lists for guides. It is nice, though, not to be complaining about character deaths or revamps.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 21:33 (six years ago) link
No, I totally get it. Those tendencies are a major barrier of entry for anyone with a casual interest. Renumbering seems to be only for the sake of short-term gains at the expense of any audience beyond the one that's already on the train. I'd love to see them stick with the Legacy numbering but I have approximately zero faith that they'll do so.
― Senior Soft-Serve Tech at the Froyo Arroyo (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 23:03 (six years ago) link
I think the terrible packaging and pricing of collected editions hurts more than random floppy renumbering - you know, even something minor like Aaron's run on Scalped has been collected in two different ways, with covers that aren't substantially different - and collecting the whole run is somewhere between 100 to 150 quid. Meanwhile, Miller's Daredevil run is collected under the name "Visionaries" and comes packaged with all the terrible Roger Mackenzie stories. And Claremont's 80s Xmen/New Mutants run isn't collected *anywhere* except in cheap UK-only pocket sized editions.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 24 January 2018 23:36 (six years ago) link
xp I'm telling you, the publishers should ditch numbering on the cover altogether -- just use "January 2018," "February 2018," etc. (or "Early Jan. / Late Jan.", for bimonthly titles). There's no good reason for using issue numbers as the primary means of identification, and the first thing I usually want to know when I see an issue # is, "When exactly did that come out...?"
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 23:39 (six years ago) link
there's a lot of bi-weekly / non-monthly comics that would get messed up by that
― Nhex, Wednesday, 24 January 2018 23:40 (six years ago) link
Fuck 'em!
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 23:41 (six years ago) link
Srsly, tho -- don't most consumer publications use cover date as the main thing, and then also print "Vol. #, Issue #" in the publication data (so if you're afraid you missed an issue, or in cases of irregular publication schedule, you can keep track)?
I swear that issue numbering is one of those super geeky comics things that I would think serves as an accessibility barrier, no matter if the numbers are high or low... Isn't it cooler to ask the guy/gal at the counter if they have the March issue of "Captain Marvel," rather than "Issue #15" (*push glasses up on bridge of nose*)?
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 23:54 (six years ago) link
I kind of hate calling into comic shops and and having to say something like "hey, er, do you have Captain America 673" but that is *literally* what the clerk is there for so I guess it's ok
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 24 January 2018 23:58 (six years ago) link
I find comic shop employees/owners often treat customers as if they're "in the way"; so AFAIC, they can and should answer whatever you ask when you call.
I was once browsing in a shop on a Tuesday afternoon, and a guy came over and scolded / warned me that I couldn't touch the new issues he was putting out, as they're embargoed until the next morning. (I was like, "Gotcha... I'm not looking at those.")
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 25 January 2018 00:04 (six years ago) link
they're not all Comic Book Guys anymore, these days. most owners i've met have been quite chill
― Nhex, Thursday, 25 January 2018 00:07 (six years ago) link
xpost I'm sorry that that's been your experience, but it's fairly reductive as a general statement. There are plenty of cool and helpful comic shop staffers. None of the shops I visit semi-regularly are run by chuds.
― Senior Soft-Serve Tech at the Froyo Arroyo (Old Lunch), Thursday, 25 January 2018 00:10 (six years ago) link
Also, the place you mention shouldn't be putting embargoed issues out on a Tuesday. That shit's kinda on them.
― Senior Soft-Serve Tech at the Froyo Arroyo (Old Lunch), Thursday, 25 January 2018 00:11 (six years ago) link
Didn't mean to be reductive, tho it has been my experience at several places (one of which went out of business soon afterward, so there's that). There is a shop in my hood whose owner is cool, and has a female-centric focus in the product she stocks, which I think is interesting. Somewhat less fortunately (IMO), she calls her shop "The Perky Nerd" (she also serves coffee).
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 25 January 2018 00:14 (six years ago) link
As a former book (and comic book) store clerk, I didn't work with a lot of chuds, but any public-facing retail job will turn you into an asshole eventually.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 25 January 2018 00:19 (six years ago) link
there's a lot of bi-weekly / non-monthly comics that would get messed up by thatBi-weekly comics are a bad thing for the DM overall so discouraging them is only a positive
― Haribo Hancock (sic), Thursday, 25 January 2018 02:23 (six years ago) link
is there anything good for the direct market that doesn’t involve enforcing the weird direct market rules more stringently to make sure people only can buy comics according to existing rules?
I wonder if upturning the ideas of what’s bad and coming up with things that fit how people who want to casually buy comics instead of enforcing the rules would work better
― mh, Thursday, 25 January 2018 05:24 (six years ago) link
Marvel kind of flirted with the idea with their “timely comics” revival but limited it to a specific collection idea
― mh, Thursday, 25 January 2018 05:26 (six years ago) link
how are bi-weekly comics hurting the direct market? i've only seen 'em for very successful titles like Batman or Superman
― Nhex, Thursday, 25 January 2018 06:50 (six years ago) link
Biweekly titles require Marvel's customers to spend double upfront every month on titles they "have" to stock, reducing the capital available to invest on material that grows their business with their customers
― Haribo Hancock (sic), Thursday, 25 January 2018 06:53 (six years ago) link
is there anything good for the direct market that doesn’t involve enforcing the weird direct market rules more stringently to make sure people only can buy comics according to existing rules?I wonder if upturning the ideas of what’s bad and coming up with things that fit how people who want to casually buy comics instead of enforcing the rules would work betterCasual customers are not the ones who come in so frequently that biweekly titles suit them. If the shops have spent 79% of their budget on stuff of which they haven't been given time to assess the sales potential, likely with bullshit variant percentages leaving them choking on even more unsold stock, there is even less possibility for them to shelf-stock with material that appeals to the casual buyer.
― Haribo Hancock (sic), Thursday, 25 January 2018 07:00 (six years ago) link
Heroes World was TWENTY-THREE years ago. To imagine that Marvel will do something revolutionary to repair the damage of that one act, let alone what they have continued to do since then, is more creative than anything they've published in that time.
― Haribo Hancock (sic), Thursday, 25 January 2018 07:06 (six years ago) link
seems like the answer to most shops (as I've seen, anyway) is to diversify and get away from relying on floppies as main income. floppies are far less than half the product in most shops i've been in this past decade, filled with toys, collectibles, trades, etc
― Nhex, Thursday, 25 January 2018 07:25 (six years ago) link
those rules for prebuys from Diamond are obviously awful ofc
― Nhex, Thursday, 25 January 2018 07:31 (six years ago) link
Sadly they seem to diversify by having walls of fucking funko pops.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Thursday, 25 January 2018 09:45 (six years ago) link
started to draft a post of my past comics buying habits but it's really tl;dr
I guess the bottom line is that Marvel and company need to make some significant change or single monthly issues are pretty much fucked, more so than they are now.
If they were a freestanding company and not owned by Disney I'd joke that they'd be merging with Funko
― mh, Thursday, 25 January 2018 14:58 (six years ago) link
Are digital floppies from the Big Two still the same price as physical floppies? The physical floppies that often include a free digital download? Because if I were looking to make changes, that's a place I'd start.
― Senior Soft-Serve Tech at the Froyo Arroyo (Old Lunch), Thursday, 25 January 2018 15:03 (six years ago) link
Yes, although I believe they're discounting more rapidly. Digital pricing is a complete shitshow, though
― mh, Thursday, 25 January 2018 15:55 (six years ago) link
marvel's (6 month late) subscription service Unlimited seems the right model but i have no idea how much money it's making.
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Thursday, 25 January 2018 16:17 (six years ago) link
unlimited is fantastic value, even if the app could use a good overhaul
― your skeleton is ready to hatch (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 25 January 2018 16:20 (six years ago) link
It's really weird in that Marvel Unlimited still has some horrible app design decisions, freezes on start because it updates all the "new/featured issue" feeds before it lets you do anything, has weird metadata problems (clicking on a writer's name sometimes sends you to some series from 1995 instead of books by that writer), and their curation is iffy
Comixology Unlimited also has some Marvel stuff, although typically only to tease current series, and has none of the technical problems. The depressing thing to me is that each has an exclusive Black Panther series (read neither so far) in the run up to the movie. Comixology gets an original series that's free with Unlimited or purchasable per issue. Marvel Unlimited gets... "BLACK PANTHER: SOUL OF A MACHINE" which is a multi-issue Lexus advertisement
Somehow MU has the car advertisement in their "most read" section, over the Priest run they have highlighted in their featured content. o_O
― mh, Thursday, 25 January 2018 16:27 (six years ago) link
Marvel had a job posting for someone to work on the app and I almost wanted to apply, not because I'd want the job, but because I'm embarrassed by how bad some of the issues with the app are
― mh, Thursday, 25 January 2018 16:28 (six years ago) link
it's def better than it was a couple of years ago but they certainly don't seem to be in a hurry to fix any of the longstanding issues
― your skeleton is ready to hatch (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 25 January 2018 16:34 (six years ago) link
Said this before, but there's gotta be a ton of nerds who would literally pay to work on cataloguing and fixing Unlimited. It's lame that that's still not fixed.
A small problem that's always bugged me with iPads and Comixology - why is the page always resized to fit screen? Seems much better to fix it to page width and scroll a little.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 25 January 2018 16:38 (six years ago) link
It is very very weird that a major event book is being written by an ex-ILXor and Mark Waid.
The book itself isn’t, sadly, very weird at all, just packing 3 or 4 dozen characters in and ending with another person who’s been injected into continuity as an Avengers founder.
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 2 February 2018 23:05 (six years ago) link
What’s the deal with Ms. Sentry? And why should anyone care? So far this thing’s a steaming pile.
― EZ Snappin, Saturday, 3 February 2018 00:02 (six years ago) link
^ yr reading marvel comics tbh
― Haribo Hancock (sic), Saturday, 3 February 2018 07:48 (six years ago) link
sadly true
― EZ Snappin, Saturday, 3 February 2018 16:06 (six years ago) link
Kinda not the look I was expecting: https://pagesix.com/2018/01/25/first-look-at-brie-larson-as-captain-marvel/
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 3 February 2018 19:01 (six years ago) link
She is too young. I assume the green is either to enable digital replacement because of because the costume is still Kree(ish)?
― rb (soda), Saturday, 3 February 2018 19:49 (six years ago) link
Beyond the costume — when I heard “set in the ’90s,” I guess I wasn’t expecting her to literally have the “Rachel” haircut.
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 3 February 2018 22:59 (six years ago) link
it's the original Kree costume, makes sense
― Nhex, Saturday, 3 February 2018 23:00 (six years ago) link
candid set photos always look like garbage tbf
― i gotta be a gazpacho man (bizarro gazzara), Saturday, 3 February 2018 23:01 (six years ago) link
word
― Nhex, Saturday, 3 February 2018 23:02 (six years ago) link
If you are drawing women characters, you may not want to make their boobs sketchy, impressionistic blobs: http://media.comicbook.com/2018/02/x-men-red-1-1080574.jpeg
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 15 February 2018 17:22 (six years ago) link
I for one am scandalized to see comics art that betrays a hazy understanding of human anatomy, particularly female human anatomy. An unprecedented affront imo.
― I Wanna Be A Door (Old Lunch), Thursday, 15 February 2018 17:44 (six years ago) link
decades of mainstream comics have warped my mind and my thought was "whatever, seems ok"
― mh, Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:09 (six years ago) link
The new Jean Grey costume is a... weird bit of design. Cheek and forehead pads?
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:13 (six years ago) link
I think it's pretty much the classic headpiece from the 90s but most of it's covered up by her hair
not that it ever made a lot of sense as a practical piece of clothing
― mh, Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:17 (six years ago) link
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/cmx-images-prod/Item/609190/609190._SX1280_QL80_TTD_.jpg
― mh, Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:18 (six years ago) link
― I Wanna Be A Door (Old Lunch), Thursday, February 15, 2018 9:44 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― mh, Thursday, February 15, 2018 10:09 AM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
The bar has been raised, tho -- there's been some great art in recent years, and I'm looking for that trend to continue! (That said, I know I'm nitpicking here; and this artist doesn't seem bad overall, if maybe not my style.)
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:19 (six years ago) link
There is nothing classic about any 90s Marvel designs
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:26 (six years ago) link
I particularly liked the way David Lopez drew Laura (see below), because he gave her a somewhat unique anatomy (shorter/ more muscular) -- similar to Logan, which made sense. But subsequent artists have drawn her taller/leaner. (Not that I obsess over female anatomy in comics, but it was handled so poorly for so long...)
http://www.multiversitycomics.com/wp-content/themes/mvc/images/timthumb.php?src=https://multiversitystatic.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2015/12/All-New-Wolverine.jpg&q=95&w=488&zc=1&a=t
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:29 (six years ago) link
Well, David Lopez is a legitimately good artist. Granted, Marvel does employ an unusually high number of those at the moment. But there are also probably not enough good artists to cover all 453,921 titles they put out every month, so you're gonna get some weird boobs from time to time.
― I Wanna Be A Door (Old Lunch), Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:35 (six years ago) link
I had the same thought as EZ immediately after typing the word "classic" but.. I think that is really where they're at with their throwback strategy right now.
― mh, Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:39 (six years ago) link
Marvel - you're gonna get some weird boobs from time to time
― Number None, Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:39 (six years ago) link
I hear you, Old Lunch... I guess my feeling is that I'm intrigued by a new X-title written by Tom Taylor and featuring the return of "OG" JG, a new mutant heroine, etc.; but I'm sadly reluctant to pay $4.99 if the art is dodgy. (I "want to" want to buy it, y'know?)
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:45 (six years ago) link
If I may: one other cool thing about that Lopez panel is that you can see she's wearing underclothes beneath her costume -- and I say that not in a pervy way, but because it shows an attn to detail and looks a bit more like how it would actually look if someone were wearing superhero tights, while still retaining that classic "superhero" look.
Lopez's faces can be a bit weird and same-y, but he's such a great artist when it comes to figures, posture, movement, etc.
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/c2/54/03/c25403f929025bcfbedae349d3cf07fc--all-new-wolverine-marvel-art.jpg
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:54 (six years ago) link
Trinary? Honey Badger? Gentle?
― albvivertine, Thursday, 15 February 2018 20:15 (six years ago) link
Namor?
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 15 February 2018 20:44 (six years ago) link
Honey Badger seems to be the new code name (yeah, it's not a good one) for Gabby -- the youngest of the three Laura clones introduced in the "Three Sisters" story arc from All-New Wolverine: http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Gabrielle_(The_Sisters)_(Earth-616).
Trinary is a newly introduced character, and Gentle is apparently a mutant from Wakanda (I had to look him up when I came across this y'day).
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 15 February 2018 20:57 (six years ago) link
kinda love and hate "Searebro"
that is a good look for Laura - though, tbf all her original incarnations do have her as a super skinny/tall/wiry teenager body. Daken also followed this to a lesser extent
― Nhex, Thursday, 15 February 2018 20:58 (six years ago) link
I don’t mind Honey Badger because she’s a kid and it’s supposed to be a dumb name a kid would pick!
― mh, Thursday, 15 February 2018 20:59 (six years ago) link
It's kind of cute -- tho apparently it was given to her by "Daken" (Logan's son? I've missed all that): https://www.cbr.com/wolverine-gabby-codename-honey-badger/
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 15 February 2018 21:18 (six years ago) link
Oh okay. I just thought they were unusually awful names.
― albvivertine, Thursday, 15 February 2018 21:34 (six years ago) link
Can I get a Hulk update from someone who follows?
― earlnash, Friday, 16 February 2018 00:17 (six years ago) link
the real crime here is "searebro"
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Friday, 16 February 2018 00:21 (six years ago) link
xp: bruce banner is still dead i think and the refocus is on jen walters; i don't think there even IS a current issue of the hulki might be cynical but i'm fairly sure the only reason for this is movie rights issues
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 16 February 2018 00:37 (six years ago) link
Cho is still Hulk iirc, and there are separate Hulk and She-Hulk titles currently.
― I Wanna Be A Door (Old Lunch), Friday, 16 February 2018 00:40 (six years ago) link
How do movie rights play in(?)
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Friday, 16 February 2018 00:40 (six years ago) link
hawkeye killed the hulk btw. i think the amadeus cho "totally awesome hulk" is still bumping around in the Champions series but his role in the MU seems pretty minimal these days. there was a horrible weapon x/hulk storyline last year that pretty much killed all my interest in the character. he was not too badly written for awhile there!
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 16 February 2018 00:42 (six years ago) link
http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2017/07/how-marvel-made-hulk-movie-that-was-never-supposed-to-happenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-Dvi9KzZK8
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 16 February 2018 00:43 (six years ago) link
don cheadle busting the hell outta ruffalo's balls there
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 16 February 2018 00:44 (six years ago) link
they’re going to bring Bruce back soon, I think
― mh, Friday, 16 February 2018 00:44 (six years ago) link
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, February 15, 2018 12:44 PM
Btw (circling back), this also struck me as funny... wasn’t Namor a member of like the most powerful secret team of heroes ever assembled (the “Illuminati”)... and now he’s hanging with these scrubs?
“Despite my hatred and distrust of surface-dwellers, I could not resist the opportunity to team up with... Honey Badger!”
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Friday, 16 February 2018 00:47 (six years ago) link
"you're too old now, let's be real" :D
― Nhex, Friday, 16 February 2018 02:37 (six years ago) link
Didn't Banner come back already? Or am I confusing it with the last time he died and came back?
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 17 February 2018 14:31 (six years ago) link
the hand resurrected him for a minute
― mh, Saturday, 17 February 2018 14:36 (six years ago) link
tbf if I were them I wouldn’t have passed up the opportunity, either
― mh, Saturday, 17 February 2018 14:37 (six years ago) link
So is that Hawkeye killing the Hulk thing tied to Old Man Logan or something? I saw that Old Man Logan was in the regular comics for a while, but haven't followed it all in a few years. I kinda checked out around time Bendis' Avengers run ended.
― earlnash, Saturday, 17 February 2018 20:20 (six years ago) link
Old Man Logan is one of a handful of characters (can't remember all of them...Miles Morales, an alternate universe Squadron Supreme member, etc.) from other earths who crossed over to 616 (or whatever they're calling it now) during the Secret Wars thing.
― Love Theme from Biodome (Old Lunch), Saturday, 17 February 2018 21:26 (six years ago) link
Old Man Logan's still in the regular comics and has his own title set in a contemporary period. I can see where the covers and promotion would make it confusing. The character has both had a mystical trip back to his own reality, where hulks are villains, and has encountered more hulks that were dimension- and time-displaced that he had to wipe out, and he picked Hawkeye to help him.
― mh, Saturday, 17 February 2018 21:41 (six years ago) link
So because Clint killed Banner he’s now an expert Hulk-killer?
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 17 February 2018 22:25 (six years ago) link
it was mentioned, but it was more an homage to the Clint/Old Logan plot of the original storyline
― mh, Saturday, 17 February 2018 22:38 (six years ago) link
Yeah I noticed they’re doing an “Old Man Hawkeye” series now.
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 17 February 2018 22:41 (six years ago) link
Just a mini, I believe, set in the original OML timeline.
― Love Theme from Biodome (Old Lunch), Saturday, 17 February 2018 22:53 (six years ago) link
It seemed super familiar to me, and then I realized I was thinking of Old Green Arrow from “The Dark Knight Returns.”
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 17 February 2018 23:09 (six years ago) link
I seem to remember Hickman destroyed Millar's future Marvel timeline *ages* ago during his Fantastic Four run, but I guess Secret Wars punched the universe or something
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 17 February 2018 23:29 (six years ago) link
All imaginary stories iirc.
― Andrew Farrell, Sunday, 18 February 2018 00:35 (six years ago) link
Infinite earths and all that. I think there's always the easy out of positing the existence of yet another reality which is nearly identical to one that we've already seen.
They kinda did this during Secret Wars itself in the Ultimate End mini where the Ultimate characters interacted with their 616 counterparts...except they were actually like 616 counterparts from a different earth than the actual 616 characters who've been around for decades (because by that point 616 had already been destroyed save a handful of survivors). It was kinda confusing as all hell.
― Love Theme from Biodome (Old Lunch), Sunday, 18 February 2018 01:16 (six years ago) link
They were the Grand Rapids 616
― EZ Snappin, Sunday, 18 February 2018 01:22 (six years ago) link
This is why I don’t get why DC or Marvel still pretends to “destroy” a universe or timeline. They always come back or are revived in a near exact facsimile. Same as “killing off” a major character.
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Sunday, 18 February 2018 01:36 (six years ago) link
every story is a story that can be revisited in fiction
you just say “here’s a magic box that lets these two things interact” and boom, there you go
― mh, Sunday, 18 February 2018 01:54 (six years ago) link
If you remember how exciting “Crisis on Infinite Earths” was, the first time around — it felt like DC was doing radical things that would change their universe forever. Can only go to that well once!
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Sunday, 18 February 2018 02:32 (six years ago) link
then again https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/0/09/Superman_vs_The_Amazing_Spider-Man_001.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20071025040848
― mh, Sunday, 18 February 2018 02:58 (six years ago) link
Oh jesus christ, come the fuck on already: https://www.polygon.com/comics/2018/2/20/17031924/marvel-fresh-start-relaunch-announcement
Everything is relaunching! Again!
― Jock Totty's Monocle (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 21 February 2018 14:00 (six years ago) link
Marvel, I'm the biggest apologist Zombie in the world, and this is me telling you that I'm frankly sick of this shit.
― Jock Totty's Monocle (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 21 February 2018 14:02 (six years ago) link
Not paying any attention to current Marvel product, didn't know this before, which seems absolutely insane to me:
Marvel will be abandoning the confusing renumbering of September’s Marvel Legacy, which renumbered every Marvel title as if it had never been relaunched or renumbered. As an example, Black Panther #18 in September 2017 was followed immediately by Black Panther #166 in October.
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 February 2018 14:27 (six years ago) link
That is not in and of itself a bad idea, and has happened on a title-by-title basis once or twice - not being able to hold to it for more than six months is just laughable, though.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 21 February 2018 15:00 (six years ago) link
they should take an arbitrary large number that's more than any particular series has run and start the numbering there
everyone's at issue #900 next year
― mh, Wednesday, 21 February 2018 15:08 (six years ago) link
The Legacy renumbering was, I'm sure, an adjustment for some people but it made some sense if, as Andrew says, they'd stuck with it. Now it just makes them look insane.
― Jock Totty's Monocle (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 21 February 2018 15:15 (six years ago) link
The Yoshida Cebulski era is not off to a very auspicious start.
― Jock Totty's Monocle (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 21 February 2018 15:17 (six years ago) link
The received wisdom in the comics biz was always that huge issue numbers put 'new readers' off, because they didn't like the thought of trying to collect and read eg 899 prior comics.
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 February 2018 15:21 (six years ago) link
I'm curious to know how new readers feel about four different Amazing Spider-Man #1-s in less than five years.
― Jock Totty's Monocle (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 21 February 2018 15:25 (six years ago) link
I'm curious to know if there are any 'new readers' any more.
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 21 February 2018 15:26 (six years ago) link
(Sorry, I may have exaggerated the number of issues by one. But only because the first was technically Superior Spider-Man #1.)
― Jock Totty's Monocle (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 21 February 2018 15:26 (six years ago) link
xpost Seriously. I can't believe that initiatives like this attract new readers in significant numbers, but I'm sure they turn off new-ish readers who wonder why the fuck things are constantly restarting and they definitely turn off long-time readers who want them to just keep telling their goddamn stories already without all the gimmicky bullshit.
― Jock Totty's Monocle (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 21 February 2018 15:28 (six years ago) link
This old reader feels odd about Dan Slott suddenly having written Spider-Man for a decade, I'll tell you that for nothing.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 21 February 2018 16:25 (six years ago) link
I guess he's done as of the relaunch? Marvel's been cagey with their May solicits so I can't be sure. I think Nick Spencer is taking the reins.
― Jock Totty's Monocle (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 21 February 2018 16:36 (six years ago) link
Jason Aaron taking over Avengers is a welcome change, I will say.
― Jock Totty's Monocle (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 21 February 2018 16:37 (six years ago) link
For sure, shame it's Ed Mcguiness though
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 21 February 2018 17:25 (six years ago) link
Also these new lines will invariably have their trade paperbacks labeled as Vol 1 - it's insane trying to figure out the order of Marvel's trades, every comic has like 10 Vol 1s!
― Screamin' Jay Gould (The Yellow Kid), Wednesday, 21 February 2018 17:42 (six years ago) link
It's like having a page-a-day calendar that starts over at January 1st every couple of months.
― Jock Totty's Monocle (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 21 February 2018 17:45 (six years ago) link
Fair play, they did keep the same TPB numbering for Ms. Marvel when it was restarted back in (oof) 2016.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 21 February 2018 18:03 (six years ago) link
Agreed re: Jason Aaron – that’s the only detail here that keeps my eyes from rolling any back further in my head. But otherwise, yeah – this is totes redunk. The “Legacy” thing just happened! It’s still ramping up!
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 22 February 2018 05:05 (six years ago) link
(If there are good series with good creative teams, idgaf about the numbering. But the ever-faster clip of these new “initiatives” smell so phony and desperate.)
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 22 February 2018 05:06 (six years ago) link
a propos of nada i'v been going back through hickman's run starting with secret warriors... it's pretty amazing tbh. like all the seeds of Secret Wars are there in secret warriors and early FF run
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Thursday, 22 February 2018 05:20 (six years ago) link
xps uugh Ed McGuinness. Him and Humberto Ramos need to be flagged for "dead '90s style" and have their numbers retired
xp yeah, Squirrel Girl had to do the same thing with their trades. i mean they even ended up rebooting twice in one year at some point
― Nhex, Thursday, 22 February 2018 05:21 (six years ago) link
https://10deb7fbfece20ff53da-95da5b03499e7e5b086c55c243f676a1.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/3ef847520fcec477b2309a4a6057c2e3_xl.jpg
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 22 February 2018 07:25 (six years ago) link
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 22 February 2018 07:26 (six years ago) link
I'm kind of dying at the fact that any time someone references an infinity stone/gem in one of the movies, someone at Marvel decides they need another comic arc about them for maximum synergy. And every plot has to be titled "Infinity <Something>", or just "Infinity" if you count the arc that wasn't really about them during Hickman's giant Avengers crossover thing.
Now that I think about it, why the heck was that called Infinity, anyway
― mh, Thursday, 22 February 2018 15:37 (six years ago) link
It's amazing they haven't had a Secret <Something> film yet.
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 22 February 2018 15:45 (six years ago) link
don't give them any ideas
― mh, Thursday, 22 February 2018 15:46 (six years ago) link
wait people don't like ed mcguinness??!
― NEW CHIMP THREAT (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 22 February 2018 15:50 (six years ago) link
Yeah, I don't know what that's about. I mean, I guess I get it if the exaggerated cartoony-ness isn't your thing, but unfavorably comparing him to Humberto Ramos is just nuts.
― Jock Totty's Monocle (Old Lunch), Thursday, 22 February 2018 15:56 (six years ago) link
i really like mcguinness' clean, chunky style - it's really distinctive
mind you as i've attested elsewhere i like humberto ramos' work too so what do i know
― NEW CHIMP THREAT (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 22 February 2018 15:58 (six years ago) link
can we get Nick Spencer booted from everything and whoever is writing that X-Men book with Kitty Pryde leading a team of fascists booted from that book
mcguinness is fine, the biggest weakness he has is too many loeb collaborations
― mh, Thursday, 22 February 2018 15:59 (six years ago) link
ed mcguinness, you stand accused of collaborating repeatedly with jeph loeb - how do you plead
― NEW CHIMP THREAT (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 22 February 2018 16:02 (six years ago) link
Yeah, I like McGuinness' stuff too - at his best he's like a cross between Ron Wilson and Richard Corben. His style doesn't seem especially 90s.
Ramos otoh...
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 22 February 2018 16:14 (six years ago) link
I'll give Ramos props for never drawing a character the same way twice. Who's that guy? Oh, I guess it must be the same guy from the previous panel. You're keeping me on my toes, Ramos!
― Jock Totty's Monocle (Old Lunch), Thursday, 22 February 2018 16:20 (six years ago) link
All right, maybe I jumped the outrage gun a bit. Only a couple of titles reverting to #1 in May, with most other titles retaining their Legacy numbering. But I reserve my right to blow a gasket over something completely lacking in consequence once this matter once again rears it's ugly head.
Hey, Hickman is finishing his SHIELD mini at looooooooooooooooong last, so that's something. And a weekly Deadpool miniseries/RPG(?!?) by Al Ewing? Color me intrigued!
― Jock Totty's Monocle (Old Lunch), Thursday, 22 February 2018 22:57 (six years ago) link
I don't mind Mcguiness - I think the first issue of that JL story he did around (gulp) 15 years ago with Morrison is one my fave single issues EVAH. But his cartoony beefcake style is better suited to DC.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 23 February 2018 02:09 (six years ago) link
concentrated so much, unfairly, on writers over artists for so long that I’m loving this conversation
― mh, Friday, 23 February 2018 03:41 (six years ago) link
oops my bad, i confused McGuinness with another artist on the same title. he's fine, i guess.
― Nhex, Friday, 23 February 2018 06:09 (six years ago) link
That Hulk story line Loeb and McGuinness did is all-time awful.
― earlnash, Friday, 23 February 2018 19:10 (six years ago) link
You will not besmirch the christening of the Rulk in my presence, good sir.
― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Friday, 23 February 2018 19:22 (six years ago) link
I'm pretty sure a six-year-old would laugh at another six-year-old for coming up with something as stupid as 'Rulk'.
― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Friday, 23 February 2018 19:38 (six years ago) link
‘rulk’http://static4.uk.businessinsider.com/image/59721be39d0918319c32a05e-480/scooby-doo-shocked.png
― NEW CHIMP THREAT (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 23 February 2018 20:14 (six years ago) link
I hated what they did to Doc Sampson, he was always one of my favorite characters in the Hulk.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UfxRdYiDtPI/WZBYCZWL6UI/AAAAAAAAAVs/5NLd9-NX0zEpAr1FhwTSjQBXXz2uGVQ9ACLcBGAs/s1600/Batman%2Band%2BDoc%2BSamson.jpg
I guess that's pretty minor than Hulk having kids with his cousin, Green Goblin sleeping with Gwen Stacy or some of the other transgressive story lines from the past decade or so.
― earlnash, Saturday, 24 February 2018 19:50 (six years ago) link
The Brave, Bold, and the Misplaced Apostrophe in “Parent’s”
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Sunday, 25 February 2018 04:32 (six years ago) link
you realise that's a fake cover
― Haribo Hancock (sic), Sunday, 25 February 2018 05:03 (six years ago) link
Seriously. Batman never appeared in The Brave and the Bold. Get real.
― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Sunday, 25 February 2018 13:08 (six years ago) link
So pass my critique along to the faker!
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 26 February 2018 20:01 (six years ago) link
And every plot has to be titled "Infinity <Something>", or just "Infinity" if you count the arc that wasn't really about them during Hickman's giant Avengers crossover thing.
Now that I think about it, why the heck was that called Infinity, anywa.
AFAIK, Hickman's Infinity was originally supposed to be only about the Builders (which makes sense since his Avengers run had been leading up to the conflict with them), but someone upper in the hierarchy made him add Thanos to the story (possibly because of Thanos' higher visibility thanks to the MCU?), so I guess the "Infinity" name came from there.
IMO this wasn't a good idea, since Hickman can't really write Thanos, and he decided to ignore all the character development Thanos had gone through since the conclusion of Infinity Gauntlet, making him into a megalomaniac tyrant leading a bunch of space pirates, just like he was at the beginning of IG.
On top of that, it wasn't very long after Abnett & Lanning (who do know how to write him) had given the big T a fitting and sweet conclusion to his story in the Thanos Imperative, so there was really no need to bring him back so quickly (though you can blame Bendis for that). I guess it was inevitable he would eventually be resurrected, especially considering the cross-marketing possibilites with the MCU, but he doesn't really add anything to Hickman's Avengers arc.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 14:12 (six years ago) link
I've been mostly out of loop with Marvel since the ending of Secret Wars, since a lot of the creators I liked have left or been reshuffled to titles I don't care about. I've only been following Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl, but what else has been good with post-SW Marvel? Besides Al Ewing's books? Or is Marvel's latest golden age completely over now?
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 14:17 (six years ago) link
Chip Zdarsky's Spidey is good.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 14:57 (six years ago) link
Tom King's Vision series is as good as everyone says.
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 14:58 (six years ago) link
It’s been a very dry 2-3 years for marvel
I dug Waid’s short run on Black Widow. Bendis started well on Iron Man until he Bendis’d it. Thor has been solid but not as good as the pre-SW run. Zdarsky’s improving as a writer but still workmanlike.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 16:35 (six years ago) link
David F Walker on Luke Cage is cool if you're into 70's grindhouse...oh I just googled to make sure I had dude's name right and apparently it got cancelled :/
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 16:54 (six years ago) link
Thor is the only thing I’m still reading regularly, I think it’s very good.
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 18:35 (six years ago) link
I think she's got an edge against the Mangog -- Jane's lacking most of the hubris that the Mangog feeds on, could be an interesting angle in the story
― mh, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 18:38 (six years ago) link
I'm still only about six months into the post-Secret Wars books. I'll take a glance through what I've read and see what I'd recommend. Moon Girl is the first thing that springs to mind as pleasant surprise.
― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 19:23 (six years ago) link
ThorUltimates/Ultimates²U.S.AvengersBlack Bolt (underrated gem imo)Royals
Dr. Strange w/the Aaron/Bachalo issuesBlack Panther And The Crew (might be good collected, kind of long on exposition so far without much action)
― mh, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 19:37 (six years ago) link
No idea if it has stuck/will stick, but Ewing's repurposing of Galactus in Ultimates is pretty brilliant.
― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 19:43 (six years ago) link
that is definitely cool
although I have an even bigger soft spot for the fact he gave Ego a body for a story arc
― mh, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 19:44 (six years ago) link
Bruh. Spoilerz.
― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 19:50 (six years ago) link
Throwing my unread Ultimates comics in the trash as I type. I really am that prodigious a typist.
― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 19:51 (six years ago) link
that's a small detail that should make you run to read the rest, imo
― mh, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 19:52 (six years ago) link
Retrieving soiled copies of Ultimates from the trash, wondering if it was really necessary to immediately soil them after throwing them away.
― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 19:54 (six years ago) link
Al Ewing is also having fun doing noir/heist with the crew that will always be the Special Executive to me, in Rocket.
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 20:06 (six years ago) link
Also I wasn't here but https://alewing.tumblr.com/
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 21:26 (six years ago) link
apparently he's going to have a Hulk-as-horror comic soon!
― mh, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 21:27 (six years ago) link
Ah, fuck Marvel. Just read vol 1 of Spider-Woman, where she's pregnant and has a baby, and it was very enjoyable, so i start vol 2, which I bought at the same time (same writer, same artist, etc), and of course it is A DIFFERENT vol 2, so it's older, and is in the middle of an older storyline, and I wasted my fucking money.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 2 March 2018 02:13 (six years ago) link
Sorry about your luck, brother. Always feel free to check with the nerdz itt before you buy, or the ever-trusty Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators.
― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Friday, 2 March 2018 02:36 (six years ago) link
At least you didn't accidentally buy the previous vol 1, which is all just Spider-Verse crossovers.
And Greg Land art. You dodged the bullet at least a little, is what I'm saying here.
― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Friday, 2 March 2018 02:37 (six years ago) link
Which Vol. 2 did you buy? “New Duds” – which immediately precedes the volume you already have(?) That’s a good one!
Btw, I also like the Spider-Verse “Vol. 1”... the art isn’t my style, but it’s not terrible and it fits the story (Jess looks like Eva Longoria, which is kinda cool). Dennis Hopeless writes great dialogue!
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Friday, 2 March 2018 04:58 (six years ago) link
(Also, btw, “New Duds” isn’t the middle of an older storyline – it starts at the beginning of the relaunch, after Spider-Verse. So you haven’t missed anything!)
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Friday, 2 March 2018 05:02 (six years ago) link
(FTR, I liked Spider-Verse but I would've likely been very displeased if I'd accidentally bought a volume of Spider-Verse crossover issues thinking it was actually a discrete story unto itself.)
(And also, Pornmag McLightbox Greg Land is always terrible.)
― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Friday, 2 March 2018 05:29 (six years ago) link
That volume is the only Spider-Verse thing I’ve read, and it reads coherently enough for me...
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Friday, 2 March 2018 06:09 (six years ago) link
It was New Duds. It opened with a many-page story so far thing, but I will actually read it now. Thanks!
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 2 March 2018 09:57 (six years ago) link
Keep in mind that there's a gap between the volume you just bought and the one featuring Jessica's pregnancy but you won't have missed anything in between because the Marvel U was busy getting a hard refresh at the time and the storylines in all of the post-Secret Wars books jumped ahead 8-9 months into the future.
― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Friday, 2 March 2018 13:08 (six years ago) link
(I wish I could figure out a way to shoehorn my facilities with assembling IKEA furniture and parsing Marvel's publishing eccentricities into my resume somehow.)
― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Friday, 2 March 2018 13:16 (six years ago) link
This is true -- though if you're looking to be a stone completist, there's a funny little 4-pg. Spider-Woman story at the end of ASM #1 (2015) (the post-SW relaunch issue) that teases the new series: https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spider-Man-Comic-No/dp/B01509IS3Q
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Friday, 2 March 2018 15:47 (six years ago) link
...unless they thought to include that story in the "Baby Talk" volume (which would make sense) (which means they probably didn't do it!).
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Friday, 2 March 2018 17:03 (six years ago) link
And they say modern comics are inaccessible to the casual reader!
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 2 March 2018 18:44 (six years ago) link
And they're absolutely right!
― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Friday, 2 March 2018 18:46 (six years ago) link
Actually, that 4-pager WAS in Baby Talk, miraculously enough.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 2 March 2018 23:47 (six years ago) link
Nice, I’m glad!
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 3 March 2018 00:02 (six years ago) link
Has anyone been reading the AMERICA series? If so how is it?
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Tuesday, 6 March 2018 05:04 (six years ago) link
She punches Hitler at the end of the first issue - I didn’t read a second.
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 6 March 2018 09:59 (six years ago) link
Read em all and loved em all. Heard it go canceled?
― rb (soda), Tuesday, 6 March 2018 10:06 (six years ago) link
finally!
SPOILER: I'm bringing back Jonah's catchphrase "buy yourself some twist records" and also Peter's catchphrase "is what I like also" pic.twitter.com/ZBrcUUh6cs— Chip Zdarsky (@zdarsky) March 6, 2018
― mh, Tuesday, 6 March 2018 21:20 (six years ago) link
xpostApparently so, RE: cancellation: https://www.polygon.com/comics/2017/12/22/16810138/marvel-exec-insists-wave-of-cancellations-not-motivated-by-books-diversity
Maybe I'll check out the TPB collections...
Also, if I may, a "cover connection":
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/cmx-images-prod/Item/529575/529575._SX1280_QL80_TTD_.jpghttps://thenextissuepodcast.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/lrvol1-24.jpg
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Tuesday, 6 March 2018 21:21 (six years ago) link
That Jaime cover is pretty much the coolest thing ever drawn...
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Tuesday, 6 March 2018 21:28 (six years ago) link
Squirrel Girl's lookin' scary mean there
― Nhex, Tuesday, 6 March 2018 23:52 (six years ago) link
and yeah it is. the poses are like perfect
I want to start reading Fantastic Four. But where? What are good arcs/eras/writers? I don't even know where to begin. Usually I get collections/trades from the library digital service –– what should I check out?
― rb (soda), Friday, 9 March 2018 19:23 (six years ago) link
what sort of thing do you want to read, that you're looking to find in Fantastic Four?
― just noticed tears shaped like florida. (sic), Friday, 9 March 2018 19:58 (six years ago) link
The Jonathan Hickman run is probably the best thing he ever did at Marvel.
― Frederik B, Friday, 9 March 2018 20:17 (six years ago) link
If you have a taste for silver age comics, checking out the early F4 is the place to start. Lots of the Marvel Universe started in that comic first. Visually those comics are great and they mostly hold up pretty well if you consider they were written for kids of that time.
John Byrne's long run on Fantastic Four is probably the best known outside Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.
― earlnash, Friday, 9 March 2018 20:42 (six years ago) link
I'm not sure how the essentials collections are as far as different versions, but it'd be a good start.
― mh, Friday, 9 March 2018 20:46 (six years ago) link
Essential Fantastic Four volume one through...I dunno, five? six? collects the entire Lee & Kirby run.
― Ape Wipes (Old Lunch), Friday, 9 March 2018 21:04 (six years ago) link
― I’m 16 and a member of UKIP’s youth wing, young independence (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 9 March 2018 22:26 (six years ago) link
The early FFs are - even by the standards of fly-by-night kids' comics more than sixty years old - pretty crude stuff, tho' obviously absolutely foundational, year zero, to marveldom ever after. Lee and especially Kirby were at career low points when they produced FF #1, and Jack certainly wasn't giving it his all on those early issues. Mostly lousy inking doesn't help - issue 5 is pleasingly inked by Joe Sinnott (who wouldn't ink another issue of the FF until #44), but the artwork doesn't really start to cook until Chic Stone takes over as inker from issue #28. From #44 on to almost the end of Kirby's run (say about issue #90, when Jack really wanted OUT), artwork/storylines are pretty sublime, as good as Silver Age superhero comics ever got. There's a really great Prisoner rip-off/Doctor Doom three parter in the #80s that is Kirby's last great hurrah. If you've never read these issues before, you are in for a treat.
After Kirby, FF remained Marvel's 'flagship' book (but not most popular - that was Spidey of course) so the company's top talent - John Romita, John Buscema lusciously inked by Sinnott - were assigned to the art. Polished tho' this stuff was, neither of these artists, or new writers Archie Goodwin and Roy Thomas, could come close to matching Kirby's intensity and cosmic inventiveness, the driving force behind the FF's glory years.
I do really like Roy Thomas' second stint as FF writer, later on in the 1970s, mostly drawn by a young George Perez and tidied up by good old Joe Sinnott, still - you get a great Hulk story, a great issue where they try to recruit new members, some good cosmic monkey stuff.
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 9 March 2018 23:30 (six years ago) link
^Those are issues are roughly #164 to #175 - I'd forgotten, there's also a really fantastic Puppet Master-Luke Cage story in #170. Caveat: all 70s Marvels have much higher word counts than the Marvel comics of today, and Roy Thomas was one of the biggest gasbags.
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 9 March 2018 23:38 (six years ago) link
I enjoyed Simonson's FF run - dinosaurs, robot Stalin in a mech suit
― Screamin' Jay Gould (The Yellow Kid), Saturday, 10 March 2018 00:00 (six years ago) link
Noted. I started reading essentials collection from number one, and ... yeah, they were pretty sloggy. I’m trying to get a sense of the important stories / relationships, and also trying to have fun figuring out exactly why they’re gone from the canon now.
― rb (soda), Saturday, 10 March 2018 01:26 (six years ago) link
The reveal of the Hate-Monger's identity (either at the end of the first or the beginning of the second Essential volume) was where I was like, yeah, okay, yes, totally on board now.
― Ape Wipes (Old Lunch), Saturday, 10 March 2018 02:38 (six years ago) link
I love the issue where Dr. Doom steals the Baxter building. I'd love to see a Bruce Timm version of F4 cartoon of that issue.
― earlnash, Saturday, 10 March 2018 14:34 (six years ago) link
I can't tell if this story is badly written or I'm too tired to follow it properly, but either way, oy: https://www.thedailybeast.com/picked-apart-by-vultures-the-last-days-of-stan-lee
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 12 March 2018 13:19 (six years ago) link
there is some ridiculous amazon/comixology sale right now with digital tpbs priced at a buckhttps://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=15280919011
― mh, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 03:27 (six years ago) link
recs?
― Nhex, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 04:15 (six years ago) link
Whoa! Thanks for this. I picked up 5 things (including the complete “Vision” series), then got tired of scrolling thru the pages (and figure I’ve got enough to last me a while!)
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 05:07 (six years ago) link
there are a few masterworks ones in there, although some have the bad recoloring problem. but this might be the first time I've seen them really throw in a lot of Atlas-era stuff
Vision for sure
― mh, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 13:47 (six years ago) link
I obviously bought the Atlas collection with GOOM on the cover, because... GOOM
I grabbed the complete Vision - for 69p, it seemed wrong not to, plus all those nine-panel-pages are perfect for phone reading.
Nothing else really inspired me but I picked up a couple of Epic Collections because they're so BIG - the Nocenti/Daredevil collection, and one from the unloved late period of PAD's Hulk run. I realised I miss reading weird, B grade, journeyman superhero comics - which was most of my comics reading when I was a kid.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 16:49 (six years ago) link
Nocenti DD and David Hulk are both golden. Good choices. Nocenti remains one of the weirdest voices to ever grace mainstream comics imo.
― Ape Wipes (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 17:11 (six years ago) link
I went on a nostalgia run - New Defenders, Longshot, Wolverine/Nick Fury Scorpio Connection, Excalibur's Cross-Time Caper - and picked up the Nick Fury Marvel Masterworks (coloring be damned).
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 17:13 (six years ago) link
Is that Black Bolt thing good?
― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 17:39 (six years ago) link
It's okay but I didn't love it. Fine for a dollar though.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 17:47 (six years ago) link
"I'd buy that for a dollar!" (sorry)
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 21:14 (six years ago) link
apropos of nothing here's a giant list of Marvel crossovers/'events'
― Brakhage, Friday, 16 March 2018 14:31 (six years ago) link
A pair of old polls on that very subject:
The Greatest Marvel Universe Event!The Greatest Marvel Universe Event (X-Edition)!
― Another helping of mouthwatering cobbler? (Old Lunch), Friday, 16 March 2018 14:35 (six years ago) link
pic.twitter.com/k2TD5D1mNP— Al Ewing Writes Comics And Tells You About Them (@Al_Ewing) March 28, 2018
― mh, Wednesday, 28 March 2018 16:16 (six years ago) link
Amadeus Cho already on the chopping block, huh
― Nhex, Wednesday, 28 March 2018 18:00 (six years ago) link
I haven't kept up, is he still on Planet Hulk 2.0?
― mh, Wednesday, 28 March 2018 18:29 (six years ago) link
I'm reading the "Vision" collection, but not really digging it... I think its particular brand of literary pretension is not my preferred brand of literary pretension (or something).
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Sunday, 8 April 2018 02:51 (six years ago) link
On another note, I just read TALES TO ASTONISH #44 – first appearance of The Wasp – it’s pretty fantastic (both Kirby’s art and the scripting).
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Sunday, 8 April 2018 03:31 (six years ago) link
Psersevere till the end, it’s only short and very worth it, honest
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 8 April 2018 18:22 (six years ago) link
OK, will do!
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Sunday, 8 April 2018 18:33 (six years ago) link
There are like a half dozen collections of Fantastic Four material solicited for July, and all of the True Believer one-off reprints are also FF-related. Your guess is as good as mine as to what that portends. My money is on a surprise summer theatrical release of the Corman film.
― Across the You Never Her (Old Lunch), Thursday, 19 April 2018 13:59 (six years ago) link
They already announced their bring back the Fantastic Four comic. Nothing more than that.
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 19 April 2018 14:01 (six years ago) link
They’re, fucking autocorrect
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 19 April 2018 14:02 (six years ago) link
so they're starting at #1 instead of adding up all the issues and using the current Human Torch/Thing to patch their way up to a landmark issue? lame
― mh, Thursday, 19 April 2018 14:08 (six years ago) link
Oh that reminds me: Marvel recently announced that, while they're clearly going all-in on renumbering their books every couple of years, their covers will soon feature both the issue number for whatever reboot they're currently on as well as the actual number of the issue you'd be holding in an alternate universe where Daredevil had just been allowed to run uninterruptedly for several decades. Hopefully this will help eliminate some of the completely avoidable confusion which I'm sure keeps new readers at a distance (no word yet on whether forthcoming collections are going to be subject to a similarly-sensible initiative).
― Across the You Never Her (Old Lunch), Thursday, 19 April 2018 14:18 (six years ago) link
Who is the intended audience for a number reboot, collectors or new readers? And has anyone measured the long-term effect of long-term short-termism?
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 19 April 2018 14:37 (six years ago) link
Numbers tend to get goosed, then quickly sink to below the level they were previously at.
― chilis=lyrics...hypocrits (sic), Thursday, 19 April 2018 17:30 (six years ago) link
or below, depending on the title. it's often... below
― mh, Thursday, 19 April 2018 17:31 (six years ago) link
below or below, either way
― chilis=lyrics...hypocrits (sic), Thursday, 19 April 2018 17:59 (six years ago) link
Don't sales occasionally dip, as well? And while it's a rare occurrence, we should probably note that they also decline from time to time.
― Across the You Never Her (Old Lunch), Thursday, 19 April 2018 18:51 (six years ago) link
This is making me Highly Anticipatory of his upcoming Hulk comic.
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 26 April 2018 13:39 (six years ago) link
strange...
― Nhex, Thursday, 26 April 2018 14:42 (six years ago) link
I’ve lost touch with AE’s work since Mighty Avengers and Loki ended, but his current weekly run on Avengers with Mark Waid (!) is a lot of fun
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 26 April 2018 15:03 (six years ago) link
Man, I think that weekly Avengers thing is hot fucking garbage. To each their own.
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 26 April 2018 15:30 (six years ago) link
Ha, I've only read the first two, but liked them enough. Here goes nothin'
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 26 April 2018 15:46 (six years ago) link
It gets more Waid-ish as it goes on
― mh, Thursday, 26 April 2018 15:50 (six years ago) link
Sometimes that's good! Sometimes... it isn't
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 26 April 2018 16:00 (six years ago) link
One of the digital TPBs I bought in that recent .99 sale is "Hawkeye: Kate Bishop Vol. 2: Masks (Hawkeye (2016-))" [complete titling for y'all], which collects issues #7-12 of the current series. It's outstanding! Kelly Thompson's scripting and Leonardo Romero's artwork are totally on point. I've been casually following the series (I love the character), and it's been good-not-great until now; but everything comes together in the main story arc in this collection. Highly recommended.
(A few points docked for a groaner misrepresentation of L.A. geography... the Hollywood sign is NOT a short jog up a hill from the Sunset Strip!)
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Sunday, 29 April 2018 04:55 (six years ago) link
Haven't read it yet, but it's one the handful of Marvel titles nominated for an Eisner and which have already, to a number, been cancelled. Akira Yoshida's Cebulski's tenure as EiC is off to a pretty great start.
― a REAL SCARIE robot!!!! (Old Lunch), Sunday, 29 April 2018 12:06 (six years ago) link
I'm gonna double down on AVENGERS NO SURRENDER MAYBE THERE'S A COLON SOMEWHERE. I read the whole thing over two super-lazy weekend brunches and thought it was terrific. It's very DC for a Marvel comic - it reminded me of Grant Morrison's JLA run: big cosmic baddies, heroes in costume at all times, lots of character bits using superpowers to solve specific problems, action-heavy but without grimdark violence, the focus on second-tier heroes... etc. Good, disposable fun. Anything that involves Waid comes with a pre-packed amount of squareness, obviously, but it didn't tip the balance here.
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 29 April 2018 14:16 (six years ago) link
Also Al's new villain was a mind controlling octopus called MENTACLE.
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 29 April 2018 14:17 (six years ago) link
and which have already, to a number, been cancelled.
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Sunday, 29 April 2018 15:12 (six years ago) link
There was a letterer who worked for Marvel mostly in the mid-70s, Denise Wohl. I liked her work, thought it was distinctive — tall ascenders, slightly thicker line. I googled her the other day and got a bunch of results about an NYC socialite who sold her co-op apartment in 2015 for $15M+. According to Sean Howe, they're the same person. I'd love to know her story and the route from Marvel letterer to wealthy socialite, or how the 2 paths ran concurrently.
― WilliamC, Monday, 30 April 2018 20:00 (six years ago) link
Wohl has sold the co-op apartment where she lived for 25 years with her husband, real estate titan Larry Wohl, before the two's reported split.
hmm!
http://observer.com/2007/11/wohl-goes-woowoo-socialite-denise-mother-of-arden-shills-spiritual-comic-book/
Denise Wohl, mother of headband-wearing alterna-socialite Arden, has started a new comic book company, Intrinsic Comics, hiring James Shooter, the former editor in chief of Marvel Comics, where she used to work as a letterer, to help realize her vision.
I vaguely remember hearing about that, but...
1. Work at Marvel2. Meet and marry real estate guy in NYC3. Start comics company4. ??
― mh, Monday, 30 April 2018 20:13 (six years ago) link
I can't think of any plan that wouldn't be vastly improved by bringing the temperamental co-creator of Warriors of Plasm onboard.
― a REAL SCARIE robot!!!! (Old Lunch), Monday, 30 April 2018 22:46 (six years ago) link
how about living in a cave
― chilis=lyrics...hypocrits (sic), Monday, 30 April 2018 23:05 (six years ago) link
that observer article has a lot of incredibly questionable ideas, truly a divinely inspired venture
― mh, Monday, 30 April 2018 23:12 (six years ago) link
living in a cave with Jim Shooter seems like it might make for a better comic premise
― mh, Monday, 30 April 2018 23:13 (six years ago) link
He's always bumping his head on the stalactites, it's hilarious.
― a REAL SCARIE robot!!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 1 May 2018 00:14 (six years ago) link
Wait, why haven't anyone told me S.H.I.E.L.D. #5 is out today?
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 23 May 2018 21:41 (six years ago) link
oh hey frederik S.H.I.E.L.D. #5 is out today btw
― i am fast and full of teeth. i willl die in a barn fire (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 23 May 2018 21:46 (six years ago) link
He's always bumping his head
this was my joke btw btw
― we used to get our kicks reading surfing MAGAzines (sic), Wednesday, 23 May 2018 21:49 (six years ago) link
Thanks, bg
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 23 May 2018 22:04 (six years ago) link
Al Ewing’s You Are Deadpool is a love letter to both 40 years of Marvel and Choose Your Own Adventure books. It’s also a full-throated example of the latter, including “Man-Thing has 5d6 combat dice - but if you are carrying a mirror, turn to 45”
It does have Kieron Gillen’s worst pun during the tutorial, though.
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 28 May 2018 09:43 (six years ago) link
Looks like this is the logical replacement to the cancelled Hawkeye & Gwenpool series that I really liked: https://news.marvel.com/comics/89123/kelly-thompson-west-coast-avengers/
Although, not sure about this angle-- Instead, to get funding, the team will be part of a reality show while living together under the same roof.(??)
I also don't think I have experience w/the artist (Stefano Caselli).
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Thursday, 7 June 2018 18:29 (six years ago) link
I dig Caselli's work. Nice mix of realistic and cartoony. He did the art for most of Hickman's Secret Warriors.
― This Bobo Isn't Going to Honk Itself (Old Lunch), Thursday, 7 June 2018 18:33 (six years ago) link
Cool... maybe I'll go 4 it.
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Thursday, 7 June 2018 18:35 (six years ago) link
I might read it just for more America Chavez punching adventures. But let's face it this will be canceled by issue 9
― Nhex, Friday, 8 June 2018 02:26 (six years ago) link
Immortal Hulk, y’all
― mh, Friday, 8 June 2018 12:54 (six years ago) link
I’ll probably dig it, but isn’t that the plot of X-statix?
― Allen (etaeoe), Friday, 8 June 2018 13:43 (six years ago) link
xpostYeah, I can’t imagine it will last long...
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Saturday, 9 June 2018 17:38 (six years ago) link
Hulk was cool. I prefer Al E like this, in non-cosmic mode. It’s heavy-handed, but heavy-handedness suits the glum horror mood. I think it would benefit from telling single-issue stories for a while, and save the world-building for the second year (and hopefully it lasts that long).
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 10 June 2018 12:36 (six years ago) link
Belatedly caught up with the conclusion of the Jane Foster Thor saga ("The Mighty Thor" #706) – a nice wrap-up. Also read the one-shot epilogue that follows it ("The Mighty Thor: At the Gates of Valhalla").
Is anyone reading the new "Thor" series, with Odinson back in the role? Looks like there's been a few issues so far.
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Saturday, 7 July 2018 06:05 (six years ago) link
he's dropped by Hel with his bros and there's a monster truck and a flying boat
― mh, Saturday, 7 July 2018 18:24 (six years ago) link
https://variety.com/2018/film/news/whats-next-for-the-spider-man-universe-after-venom-exclusive-1202900203/
Some of Sony’s previously announced plans for Spider-Man and company are being reworked. Namely, the studio is scrapping “Silver & Black,” which was supposed to chronicle the team of Silver Sable, a mercenary who runs a company that hunts war criminals, and Black Cat, a burglar named Felicia Hardy. Instead, the characters will be in standalone films, the first of which will likely feature Black Cat.
― empire bro-lesque (morrisp), Thursday, 9 August 2018 18:44 (six years ago) link
Also — Silk would be cool; but Jackpot and Nightwatch? (admittedly, I’m not too familiar with either of them)Will a Jessica Drew movie ever be even contemplated?
― empire bro-lesque (morrisp), Thursday, 9 August 2018 18:48 (six years ago) link
TBF, I thought it was just a stupid idea that would eventually get quashed, not a stupid idea that would become two stupid ideas.
They're making a Kraven film as well, now. WTF is Kraven even without Spider-Man. Who wants that. Who. WHO, SONY.
― Funkface LLC (Old Lunch), Thursday, 9 August 2018 18:49 (six years ago) link
Venom is probably the one chance they have to make a successful Spider-Man-free Spider-Man movie. If it tanks, watch this entire slate get wiped out in one fell swoop.
― Funkface LLC (Old Lunch), Thursday, 9 August 2018 18:50 (six years ago) link
I could see a standalone Silver Sable or Felicia Hardy movie being cool; they’re both interesting characters
― empire bro-lesque (morrisp), Thursday, 9 August 2018 18:58 (six years ago) link
Sure, but we're talking about big Hollywood movies that depend upon an audience's familiarity with the IP which are, thusly, doomed to failure.
I mean they could get a big star in the title role and pull off a 'RDJ as Iron Man' shockeroo but c'mon...this is Sony we're talking about here.
― Funkface LLC (Old Lunch), Thursday, 9 August 2018 19:17 (six years ago) link
What, Old Lunch, you don't remember *digs through notes* when Nick Fury made a pre-Avengers version of the Avengers in popular title Avengers 1959 with Kraven included?
― mh, Thursday, 9 August 2018 20:14 (six years ago) link
I’d watch Richard D. James as Iron Man!
― empire bro-lesque (morrisp), Thursday, 9 August 2018 21:05 (six years ago) link
reminder that any time you spend money on Marvel you are giving it to https://www.propublica.org/article/ike-perlmutter-bruce-moskowitz-marc-sherman-shadow-rulers-of-the-va
― 16, 35, DCP, Go! (sic), Thursday, 9 August 2018 21:16 (six years ago) link
Eh, not really. AFAIK Perlmutter's been sidelined like a MF-er by Disney.
― Funkface LLC (Old Lunch), Thursday, 9 August 2018 21:34 (six years ago) link
He's still the CEO. He gets his fair share of Marvel money.
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 9 August 2018 21:40 (six years ago) link
I actually send his cut of the proceeds from any Marvel products I'd buy directly to Mar-a-Lago with a note marked "please apply to Ike's membership fees" and then pirate the comics online. To make sure the wrong people aren't getting any of my money.
― mh, Thursday, 9 August 2018 21:46 (six years ago) link
He still dictates Marvel's one-bathroom-per-gender and no-backlist-of-books policies.
― 16, 35, DCP, Go! (sic), Thursday, 9 August 2018 21:50 (six years ago) link
Is there a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g good happening / worth reading on the Marvel front at the moment?? I’m totally out of it.
― empire bro-lesque (morrisp), Tuesday, 14 August 2018 03:19 (six years ago) link
The new Hulk book is good, and I like TNC's new Captain America - he's definitely improved since his terrible start on Black Panther. Aaron's Avengers comic is meh so far, annoyingly.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 09:17 (six years ago) link
I'm inching eeeeever closer to the present day, caught up to the beginning of last year now. Shit got political, I see (particularly Waid's Champions, of what I've read thus far). I hope they kept it up.
― Funkface LLC (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 14 August 2018 12:09 (six years ago) link
I’m reading everything marvel published in 1975, month by month. I’m up to March. This really is THE way to read 70s marvel despite the time investment. I’m only ‘allowed’ to skip reprints. Ultimate goal is to complete 1975-1984 aka the original span of my time as a marvel kid. (Obviously a friend with sick torrenting skills is involved in this opportunity)
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 14 August 2018 15:58 (six years ago) link
In terms of volume, old-school Marvel seems to be the saner option wrt these hardcore reading projects. It took me less time to make my way through the entire silver age than it has for me to catch up on 2013-present.
― Funkface LLC (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 14 August 2018 16:06 (six years ago) link
1975 is at least 20% horror and 10% martial arts, I really love that fact. So many black and white mag titles! SO MANY DOUG MOENCH SCRIPTS PER MONTH! He must have been tweaking.
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 14 August 2018 19:56 (six years ago) link
This is my favorite era of comics, the Marvel auteur "dreaded deadline doom" years before Shooter came in and fucked up the trains by making them run on time.
― a shomin-geki poster with some horror elements (WilliamC), Tuesday, 14 August 2018 20:37 (six years ago) link
My favorite too. Five hippyish nerds who have all read lovecraft writing a whole comics company
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 14 August 2018 23:19 (six years ago) link
Well more than five. Eight or nine.
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 15 August 2018 01:36 (six years ago) link
I started Gerber's Defenders last week and it's just as odd as I could have hoped for
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 15 August 2018 16:30 (six years ago) link
is there a good TPB of that...?
several times over the last few years I have idly considered attempting to read everything published by the DC and Marvel in the 70s but it would be too hard (and probably not worth it) to track down some stuff
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 15 August 2018 16:39 (six years ago) link
All of Gerber's stuff was collected in the Essential Defenders volumes. All of the Essentials are technically out of print at this point, but some of them are still cheap on the secondary market.
― Funkface LLC (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 15 August 2018 16:50 (six years ago) link
There’s no way to do it without downloads, so much of this stuff was only printed the once.
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 15 August 2018 20:23 (six years ago) link
Marvel Essential was overall a pretty decently complete reprint series of the 60s and 70s comics. It's as close as they ever came to reprinting the line. Nick Fury Agent of Shield is probably the biggest title they did not do at all in an Essential, although they did put it out in the Masterworks series.
I'd say if you want to get a few Essentials, look for the Warlock one. That is one of the best ones. They did a decent job reprinting some of the monster mag stuff in essential volumes too.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 15 August 2018 23:34 (six years ago) link
I hate those b&w reprints tho :(
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 15 August 2018 23:43 (six years ago) link
They seem to be going all-in on the Epic collections. They release a couple a month and they're very quickly closing gaps in the as-yet-unreprinted old-school material (not to mention retreading Essentials ground, but now in color!). Unfortunately wrt this particular conversation, they've only put out a few volumes of post-Gerber Defenders thus far.
― Funkface LLC (Old Lunch), Thursday, 16 August 2018 00:14 (six years ago) link
several times over the last few years I have idly considered attempting to read everything published by the DC and Marvel in the 70s
This would be an insane number of comics!
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 16 August 2018 08:00 (six years ago) link
not as insane as the '80s or '00s
― 16, 35, DCP, Go! (sic), Thursday, 16 August 2018 08:48 (six years ago) link
I'm sure you're right. I was trying to do the math for the 70s - say Marvel and DC brought out 50 comics/mags a month between them, that would be 600 comics a year, over 7,000 comics in a decade. Some of those would be reprint titles, but even so...
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 16 August 2018 09:00 (six years ago) link
That Marvel Comics: The Untold Story book did a really good job of evoking that era and making it seem like Marvel's peak. Like a comics equivalent of the psychedelic-into-prog era.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 16 August 2018 11:32 (six years ago) link
^^^EXACTLY
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 16 August 2018 20:34 (six years ago) link
I've gone back to the original Lee/Kirby/Ditko (?) issues of Incredible Hulk, prompted by the lettercols in Al's new (excellent!) Hulk comic.
The first issue is astoundingly fun and relatively light on dialogue for a Stan Lee comic. Highly recommended if you've got Unlimited.
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 15 September 2018 20:14 (six years ago) link
Ditko co-created The Leader and Glenn Talbot, that alone is a big influence on the Hulk series. Might be a stretch to my memory of last reading them, but I think there was a bit more cold war paranoia in those issues too than the first ones.
Marvel needs to scrape out all those modern looks and finally get back to giving The Leader back his big head. I kinda like the later Sal Buscema flat top version, but he was the artist back when I was a kid on the Hulk.
https://usercontent2.hubstatic.com/5762687_f496.jpg
― earlnash, Monday, 17 September 2018 02:38 (six years ago) link
https://78.media.tumblr.com/1d6fcf03271b8667a7d146837f746e0a/tumblr_n2z2whuAIV1twc725o1_1280.jpg
― earlnash, Monday, 17 September 2018 02:42 (six years ago) link
I like broccoli head Leader.
― EZ Snappin, Monday, 17 September 2018 02:46 (six years ago) link
It’s funny to me how even the Leader isn’t intelligent enough to overcome male pattern baldness.
― stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Monday, 17 September 2018 04:22 (six years ago) link
Might be a stretch to my memory of last reading them, but I think there was a bit more cold war paranoia in those issues too than the first ones.
There is a great cold war baddie in the very first issue. I groaned when I first saw him and thought it would derail the story, but then there's also an UNEXPECTED TWIST
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 17 September 2018 18:37 (six years ago) link
the leader looks like such a doughy middle-aged sad sack in that panel earlnash postedit’s like i’m looking in a mirror tbh
― 🧛🏻♂️ F A T 🧛🏻♂️ D R A C U L A 🧛🏻♂️ (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 17 September 2018 18:39 (six years ago) link
bg, stay calm, I'm calling emergency services 4 u because u should not be that color bro
― I Don't Have Any Ears, I Am Positive (Old Lunch), Monday, 17 September 2018 18:53 (six years ago) link
exactly the kind of cloddish response i'd expect from an inferior mind such as yours
― 🧛🏻♂️ F A T 🧛🏻♂️ D R A C U L A 🧛🏻♂️ (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 17 September 2018 19:06 (six years ago) link
Bah! I am but an oaf, ever-striving but ever-failing to comprehend the mysteries of your verdant hide! Curses!
― I Don't Have Any Ears, I Am Positive (Old Lunch), Monday, 17 September 2018 19:10 (six years ago) link
https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.writeups.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2FLeader-Hulk-Marvel-Comics-Doc-Samson-h3.jpg&f=1
― 🧛🏻♂️ F A T 🧛🏻♂️ D R A C U L A 🧛🏻♂️ (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 17 September 2018 19:13 (six years ago) link
How did you know I was wearing my 'Pathetic Human Trash' t-shirt today, oh right, all-powerful broccoli brain.
― I Don't Have Any Ears, I Am Positive (Old Lunch), Monday, 17 September 2018 19:21 (six years ago) link
SHEK!
― Nhex, Monday, 17 September 2018 19:35 (six years ago) link
mods, ‘broccoli brain’ is hate speech - please temp-ban this user until i can work the kinks out of the accursed targeting system of this array of gamma bombs i have in low-earth orbit and i can arrange a more... permanent ban of my own*tents fingers, laughs maniacally*
― 🧛🏻♂️ F A T 🧛🏻♂️ D R A C U L A 🧛🏻♂️ (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 17 September 2018 19:37 (six years ago) link
"Subliminal Bonds" = cool album name
― stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Monday, 17 September 2018 23:08 (six years ago) link
Somebody tell Gary U.S. Bonds
― EZ Snappin, Monday, 17 September 2018 23:15 (six years ago) link
To me, that original visage of The Leader looks a bit Mike Mignola to me or at least you could see a character like that in Hellboy.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 18 September 2018 01:32 (six years ago) link
The music is hella annoying, but looks potentially cool: https://youtu.be/Z1BCujX3pw8 (Capt. Marvel trailer)There’s gonna be sooooo many “omg it’s the ‘90s” jokes
― stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Tuesday, 18 September 2018 15:00 (six years ago) link
Also over on Captain Marvel (2019), dir. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 18 September 2018 16:03 (six years ago) link
ILE = Elseworlds (to me)
― stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Tuesday, 18 September 2018 16:35 (six years ago) link
Warning, deep-dive nerdgasm printing talk commencing...now: Marvel has switched to some a new glossy paper stock this month, some weird velvety marshmallowy shit that barely feels like anything and that my fingertips find suuuuuuuuper unpleasant. And this right on the heels of Marvel starting to send their trades to some new print shop that's fucking up the spines and using some kind of cover stock that starts curling upon exposure to the air.
Okay, done complaining about things only I care about.
― I Don't Have Any Ears, I Am Positive (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 19 September 2018 01:34 (six years ago) link
Has this already happened? I thought something was.. off about the comics i picked up this month, at least the covers felt different somehow
― Nhex, Wednesday, 19 September 2018 04:10 (six years ago) link
That stinks... the trades, too?!
― stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Wednesday, 19 September 2018 05:09 (six years ago) link
Long shot and niche request but are there any good podcasts out there discussing 60s/70s/80s Marvel comics in a nerdy way, or podcasts with good interviews with creators from that era?
― canary christ (stevie), Wednesday, 19 September 2018 10:15 (six years ago) link
Maybe the new cover stock is supposed to function like those red cellophane fortune telling novelties? Depending on which way it curls and/or torsions itself, you will fall in love or be afflicted with a terrible illness etc
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 19 September 2018 14:00 (six years ago) link
There's that Baxter Building podcast by the Wait, What? people that goes through all the Fantastic Four in order. Never listened to it because I give no shits for the Fantastic Four, but ymmv.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Wednesday, 19 September 2018 23:46 (six years ago) link
Thanks James!
― canary christ (stevie), Thursday, 20 September 2018 11:32 (six years ago) link
I’m tempted to check out Marvel’s new “Wolverine” podcast, if only to hear the SFX when he pops his claws.
― growing up in publix (morrisp), Thursday, 20 September 2018 16:30 (six years ago) link
It'll probably be something like 'TSSSSSNIKTSSSSSS'.
(Wolverine has hot claws now, for those who didn't know. Yes, seriously. No, I don't know why.)
― I Don't Have Any Ears, I Am Positive (Old Lunch), Thursday, 20 September 2018 16:46 (six years ago) link
This guy does Logan's voice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Armitage_(actor)
He actually looks like not unlike Logan (...though he's a Brit, guess he's good at accents?)
― growing up in publix (morrisp), Thursday, 20 September 2018 16:56 (six years ago) link
that podcast came out six months ago and the best press it has received is a) this exists and b) Chris Gethard being bemused at getting star billing when he plays a henchman or librarian or something for a scene or two
― Mighty Seething Bat (sic), Thursday, 20 September 2018 16:57 (six years ago) link
Huh - I heard an ad for it on another podcast this morning (made it sound "new").
― growing up in publix (morrisp), Thursday, 20 September 2018 16:58 (six years ago) link
Who asked for this and can we put them in jail for asking for this: https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/09/26/rob-liefeld-is-working-on-a-huge-x-men-crossover-for-2019/
― Mummenschanz in a Metal Mood (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 26 September 2018 21:32 (six years ago) link
"Now that they have them more, what was told to me was..."
-- a writer
― growing up in publix (morrisp), Wednesday, 26 September 2018 21:40 (six years ago) link
I guess demonstrating the ability to write down words does technically make one a writer.
― Mummenschanz in a Metal Mood (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 26 September 2018 23:07 (six years ago) link
Here’s the deal. Since the X-Men movies came out and Disney didn’t have them, I don’t know if you’ve ever paid attention, but Marvel kind of turned the volume down on the X-Men for almost 20 years. Now that they have them more, what was told to me was, ‘Oh yeah. Our budgets on the X-Men books are back up to what they used to be because now we own them all.’
― Nhex, Thursday, 27 September 2018 03:38 (six years ago) link
There may be a germ of truth to what he's saying (see: Perlmutter sidelining the FF to spite Fox) but I'd wager he's getting his wires crossed a little.
― Mummenschanz in a Metal Mood (Old Lunch), Thursday, 27 September 2018 03:45 (six years ago) link
Yeah I’ve heard that said by readers (mutants supposedly being sidelined, in favor of Inhumans, due to the movie rights thing), but was never sure how much truth was actually in it.
― growing up in publix (morrisp), Thursday, 27 September 2018 04:09 (six years ago) link
I do believe that about the TV/media properties - mutants not existing in Marvel Studios properties, hence the ballooning of the Inhumans in Marvel Comics over the past decade - but does it look like they really cut back on the X-Men books? They still had high profile creators, and several titles going on - team and solo characters alike - going at any given time. I mean, how many failed X-Factor/X-Force books there were alone...
With FF/Ghost Rider/Punisher other non-MCU properties, it's easier to make the argument they didn't get pushed, because I think they never do well in sales anyway
― Nhex, Thursday, 27 September 2018 04:24 (six years ago) link
It's at least true that Marvel has put a ton of energy into raising the profile of the Inhumans, with decidedly mediocre results.
― Mummenschanz in a Metal Mood (Old Lunch), Thursday, 27 September 2018 11:59 (six years ago) link
They are mediocre characters to begin with (except the dog, the dog is great)
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 27 September 2018 12:05 (six years ago) link
lockjaw is an absolute fucking treasure
protect lockjaw at all costs
― heteroflexible pansexual polyamorous relationship anarchist (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 27 September 2018 12:21 (six years ago) link
:)
https://www.bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Funko-Lockjaw-Plush-2-600x462.jpg
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 27 September 2018 16:06 (six years ago) link
Spider-Man was Marvel's biggest character/title even before the deal with Sony, I doubt that at any point in the last 5-10 years there's never been less than 5 X-Men-related books going at once.
― louise ck (milo z), Thursday, 27 September 2018 18:48 (six years ago) link
New Captain Marvel series coming, with Carol back on Earth: https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/kelly-thompson-and-carmen-carnero-will-take-captain-marvel-on-her-next-adventure
― brush ’em like crazy (morrisp), Tuesday, 2 October 2018 22:06 (six years ago) link
I also read a detailed spoiler/review of a "battle at the end of the universe" story in a recent issue of Thor... sounds pretty, er, gnarly.
― brush ’em like crazy (morrisp), Tuesday, 2 October 2018 22:07 (six years ago) link
guess it was time for a new #1 for the movie release. or ya know, a Tuesday
― Nhex, Tuesday, 2 October 2018 22:10 (six years ago) link
I just learned there's a new (since July) "X-23" series, featuring Laura & Gabby? They couldn't use "All-New Wolverine" anymore, now that the "real" Wolverine is back? That's kinda lame. (What do her teammates call her in "X-Men Red" -- "Hey, you?")
― brush ’em like crazy (morrisp), Thursday, 11 October 2018 19:15 (six years ago) link
they're also killing off Old Man Logan iirci'm reading X-23 anyway, it's decent and i like Tamaki
― Nhex, Friday, 12 October 2018 03:55 (six years ago) link
Cool, maybe I’ll get the TPB. I love Laura, just didn’t like the direction “ANW” went.
― brush ’em like crazy (morrisp), Friday, 12 October 2018 04:59 (six years ago) link
how's that? post-Victim Syndicate?
― Nhex, Friday, 12 October 2018 05:35 (six years ago) link
I stopped prior to that... when Laura & Gabby drive cross-country and Laura is exposed to the "trigger scent"; goes to Madripoor; etc.
― brush ’em like crazy (morrisp), Friday, 12 October 2018 16:58 (six years ago) link
ugh, fuck Marvel all over the placehttps://www.themarysue.com/marvel-star-wars-chuck-wendig-fired/
― louise ck (milo z), Saturday, 13 October 2018 00:13 (six years ago) link
seriously. between this and Gunn you start to wonder if the comicsgaters have someone powerful on this inside
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Saturday, 13 October 2018 03:14 (six years ago) link
to me it reads as some old-timey execs who don't understand the world we're living in now. if you're a human being, you're probably gonna have some kind of response to these douche nazis
― Nhex, Saturday, 13 October 2018 05:58 (six years ago) link
Ike Perlmutter?
― brush ’em like crazy (morrisp), Saturday, 13 October 2018 15:07 (six years ago) link
morrisp yeah kinda what I’m thinking
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Saturday, 13 October 2018 15:29 (six years ago) link
The thing with Gunn was a dumb decision but at least made a tiny bit of sense, given how freaking awful those old tweets were. But it's not really clear what Wendig did, except exist, on Twitter.
I mean, given the two firings, and the re-trenching back to *mostly* white comic leads, and the creative stagnation, and the mediocre number of female creators at Marvel right now, maybe the "powerful on the inside" theory isn't too ridiculous. I can't think of anything must-read they're putting out now (except Hulk).
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 13 October 2018 15:50 (six years ago) link
Trying to think who their decent writers are right now. Even Jason Aaron's been off the boil for a long while now. TNC seems to have gotten a *lot* better in the past few years but I need to catch up.
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 13 October 2018 15:53 (six years ago) link
Yeah and the Gunn thing was also (as I understand it) a Disney/Marvel Studios matter.
― brush ’em like crazy (morrisp), Saturday, 13 October 2018 16:10 (six years ago) link
Here’s another thing in the news: https://www.cbr.com/marvel-vision-chelsea-cain-canceled/
― brush ’em like crazy (morrisp), Saturday, 13 October 2018 16:14 (six years ago) link
Yeah given the shit she had to put up with last time, Marvel should really be in the Do Whatever The Fuck Chelsea Cain Wants business. Also, she's a good comic book writer!
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 13 October 2018 22:36 (six years ago) link
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Sunday, October 14, 2018 2:29 AM (seven hours ago)
Wendig says it was his editor, since-the-days-of-Malibu veteran Mark Paniccia. I don't think I've ever heard a story of Perlmutter being involved in hiring or firing of creators, and doubt that he's read a single comic book since buying the company.
― My Gig: The Thin Beast (sic), Saturday, 13 October 2018 23:06 (six years ago) link
part of a thread:
This was done with purpose and swift measure, suggesting an ideological bent. Further, nothing I'd said or done in my tweets recently had made the news -- well, it made cuckoo alt-right news blogs, which is the only place I make that kind of splash.— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) October 13, 2018
― My Gig: The Thin Beast (sic), Saturday, 13 October 2018 23:10 (six years ago) link
Interesting thread, and what a crappy thing. F*** Marvel, I guess.
― brush ’em like crazy (morrisp), Sunday, 14 October 2018 05:12 (six years ago) link
Yeah fuck marvel for throwing chum to these fuckers
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 14 October 2018 11:50 (six years ago) link
I’m down on Marvel, but this Target moment was undeniably cool:https://i.imgur.com/zUtvE7r.jpg
― too busy or too stoned (morrisp), Tuesday, 6 November 2018 05:19 (six years ago) link
It’s amusing how even this (well-done) newspaper survey of all these Spider-characters doesn’t know how to summarize Jessica Drew’s background: https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-et-hc-spider-verse-spidey-characters/Looking forward to seeing this movie with my kid, btw.
― underqualified backing vocalist (morrisp), Sunday, 9 December 2018 23:39 (six years ago) link
Why were marvel superheroes always getting put in tubes in the 1970s
― Οὖτις, Sunday, 9 December 2018 23:47 (six years ago) link
https://lamardelibros.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/avengers_vol_1_174.jpg
― Οὖτις, Sunday, 9 December 2018 23:54 (six years ago) link
My favorite variety of tube is that which requires the captive to be nude for some reason but whose restraints thoughtfully cover all bathing suit areas.
Jessica Drew is the Hawkman of Marvel. Her past is a mess so the best thing you can do is just move forward.
― vocabulary is just a way to sound samrter than you actually are (Old Lunch), Monday, 10 December 2018 02:12 (six years ago) link
My favorite variety of tube is that which requires the captive to be nude for some reason but whose restraints thoughtfully cover all bathing suit areas.LOL, for reals!
― underqualified backing vocalist (morrisp), Monday, 10 December 2018 02:41 (six years ago) link
Irregularly shaped, Kirby-style tangles of machinery are perfect for shackles that strategically cover those areas on a nude captive.
― underqualified backing vocalist (morrisp), Monday, 10 December 2018 02:46 (six years ago) link
It occurs to me that Spider-Ham’s somewhat awkward/counterintuitive origin story (spider bitten by radioactive pig) is a semi-parody of Jess Drew’s OG origin.
― underqualified backing vocalist (morrisp), Monday, 10 December 2018 03:05 (six years ago) link
Another onehttps://comicvine.gamespot.com/marvel-presents-12-the-shipyard-of-deep-space/4000-17692/
― Οὖτις, Monday, 10 December 2018 03:21 (six years ago) link
I dreamt the other night that I had to retcon every single Marvel Event since the beginning of whenever, even ones I had no idea existed. I think I was doing Seige when I woke up.
― Bimlo Horsewagon became Wheelbarrow Horseflesh (aldo), Friday, 28 December 2018 07:11 (five years ago) link
dreams vmic
― H00kup with Jaundice Singles!! (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 December 2018 09:11 (five years ago) link
:D
― sans lep (sic), Friday, 28 December 2018 09:15 (five years ago) link
Do y'all know about Douglas Wolk's "616 Society" reading group? A deep dive into a single Marvel comic every day, done messageboard style.
https://www.patreon.com/douglaswolk/overview
The Patreon angle is that he's charging a dollar a month to join the discussion and will use that money to finance startup of a podcast when his All the Marvels book comes out.
I signed up even though I don't have Marvel Unlimited, though I may drop out pretty quickly -- the first week's comics include two from the 1960s and five from 2001-2015. I only have access to one of the seven.
― Juul Haalmeyer Dancers washout (WmC), Friday, 28 December 2018 13:04 (five years ago) link
It hit me that a way to explain how the Marvel Universe comics 'changed' and all this weirdness started to happen because when it was put back together in the Infinity Gauntlet, it was all a degraded copy.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/Infinity_Gauntlet_1.jpg
Timeline wise, considering that story happened in '91, just as the 90s weirdness hit the Marvel books - kinda works to me.
― earlnash, Friday, 28 December 2018 13:05 (five years ago) link
Is this the place to talk about the Spider-Verse movie, or am I supposed to do that in an ILE thread or something?
― underqualified backing vocalist (morrisp), Friday, 28 December 2018 23:16 (five years ago) link
There are two Spider-Verse threads already , imo bump some unrelated one from 2002 and chat about it there
― sans lep (sic), Friday, 28 December 2018 23:21 (five years ago) link
Might I recommend I just the Spiderman trailer!
― Loggins and Rogers and G are...K3NNY (Old Lunch), Saturday, 29 December 2018 00:48 (five years ago) link
Thanks... now that a few hours have passed, I feel like all I really have to say is, “That was very very cool, but here are a few plot holes bugging me: ” — and no one really needs that.
― underqualified backing vocalist (morrisp), Saturday, 29 December 2018 01:49 (five years ago) link
Signed up for DW's Patreon, looking forward to it. Not sure I'll get involved with the bulletin board but I like Douglas's writing, and the year he did 52 Pickup was probably my favourite year of comic booking as an adult.
WmC I can er share those with you, if you like
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 29 December 2018 21:17 (five years ago) link
Thanks Chuck, I'll take you up on that. I have FF#51 from week 1 but none of the others.
― Juul Haalmeyer Dancers washout (WmC), Sunday, 30 December 2018 00:40 (five years ago) link
I've ILXmailed you a link - hopefully that works!
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 30 December 2018 21:37 (five years ago) link
That address is defunct -- could you send it to wmcrµmp at gmail?
― Juul Haalmeyer Dancers washout (WmC), Sunday, 30 December 2018 23:01 (five years ago) link
Done!
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 30 December 2018 23:40 (five years ago) link
👍
― Juul Haalmeyer Dancers washout (WmC), Monday, 31 December 2018 00:19 (five years ago) link
I brought up my plot-hole observations to my 6-yr-old kid. I’m that guy.
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Saturday, 5 January 2019 03:22 (five years ago) link
My son asked why Peter Parker calls himself “your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man,” and I said — good question.I assume it’s a play on an advertising slogan from the ‘60s or ‘70s; like, “Ask your friendly neighborhood grocer”?
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Tuesday, 8 January 2019 17:04 (five years ago) link
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/06/26/origin-spider-mans-friendly-neighborhood/
― Eyeball Kicks, Tuesday, 8 January 2019 17:08 (five years ago) link
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Tuesday, 8 January 2019 17:12 (five years ago) link
That article is incorrect in at least one regard, as it was first used in one of the like first five issues of ASM (was just reading about that particular issue the other day).
― Hootie and the Banshees (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 8 January 2019 17:12 (five years ago) link
Oh, you're right. Seems like Spider-Man uses it when he's (spoilers) sucking up the Sandman with the vacuum cleaner in issue 4.
― Eyeball Kicks, Tuesday, 8 January 2019 17:21 (five years ago) link
I was flipping thru a reprint of Am Fantasy #15 the other day, and was impressed by how economical the storytelling is... Spidey's origin, from introduction to costume, takes like two pages. You're so familiar with the "beats" of the story, from seeing it told & retold so many times; and then you're reminded that originally there were only those "beats" (a panel with the spider bite; a few panels of the wrestling match; etc.).
IIRC, Action Comics #1 is even more extreme -- Supe's origin story takes up just a few panels on the intro page, and the (brief) issue contains two full adventures and a cliffhanger.
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Tuesday, 8 January 2019 18:08 (five years ago) link
(I guess thanx to Bendis, you can now pay $5 to see a few characters argue in a room for most of an issue.)
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Tuesday, 8 January 2019 18:10 (five years ago) link
I had this when I finally read The Hobbit a couple months ago - Battle of Five Armies, three hours on the screen, three paragraphs on the page.
Also, I got caught in a Garfield wormhole while procrastinating at work (I ran out of Nancy), and those comics may not be funny, but they are pretty incredible at concision (in a way that, say, Peanuts isn't - it's more like a rumination)
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 8 January 2019 23:02 (five years ago) link
It’s interesting to read the old Sunday “Peanuts” before Schultz had figured out that the first two panels (which some papers omit to save space) should be a separate little gag, and instead was using them to “extend” the main strip... which usually really f’d up the rhythm by sticking this superfluous padding at the beginning.
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Wednesday, 9 January 2019 03:36 (five years ago) link
*Schulz
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Wednesday, 9 January 2019 05:39 (five years ago) link
Read a thing last night that made me feel like a toooooootal Marvel newb dunce: the name 'Giant-Man' contains Pym's prior codename in its entirety.
― Hootie and the Banshees (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 9 January 2019 14:15 (five years ago) link
Wow, I've never noticed that before either!
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 9 January 2019 14:40 (five years ago) link
i'd like to present both of you with an anti-no-prize for this one, smdh
― tacticool spank bank material (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 9 January 2019 15:08 (five years ago) link
Yeah, that’s cool...Hey, for anyone who’s been following along — has Marvel revealed the deal behind that mysterious new heroine who was retconned into the Avengers’ entire history a year or so back? I would look it up, but don’t remember her name, the “event” name, or anything else...
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Wednesday, 9 January 2019 15:15 (five years ago) link
during that "no surrender" deal? she was a plant by the grandmaster, actually his daughter. she wasn't part of their history, it was just a mind game so he could get the edge in the battle
― mh, Wednesday, 9 January 2019 15:53 (five years ago) link
on a "today's comics" note i've got to give jason aaron some credit for having an issue dedicated to setting up an avengers support team ("agents of wakanda" since black panther's done the recruiting) that has a very ewing-esque lineup
i'm a sucker for anything featuring gorilla-man, though
― mh, Wednesday, 9 January 2019 15:55 (five years ago) link
better known by his prior codename "Illa-man"
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 9 January 2019 16:47 (five years ago) link
Tuomas and OL to the “things you were old when you realised” thread
― sans lep (sic), Wednesday, 9 January 2019 17:19 (five years ago) link
... i never realized that either ;_;
― Nhex, Wednesday, 9 January 2019 18:24 (five years ago) link
picturing a version where he's wearing a karate gi now
― mh, Wednesday, 9 January 2019 20:21 (five years ago) link
G.I. Ant-Man
― Love is Scarface (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 9 January 2019 20:27 (five years ago) link
Bill Watterson discusses his frustration with this practice at some length in the Calvin & Hobbes Anniversary Book. Eventually, he demanded that the strip had to be bought as is or not at all. It caused some outrage at the time but all the papers caved pretty quickly
― Number None, Thursday, 10 January 2019 10:09 (five years ago) link
Schulz, of course, would never rock the boat like that... he even stuck with a name he hated (“Peanuts”) for all those decades
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Thursday, 10 January 2019 15:43 (five years ago) link
I never thought about it before, but is Peanuts meant to signify some kind of "show about nothing" vibe, or is it just a random non-sequitur?
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 10 January 2019 15:53 (five years ago) link
So who decided on the name Peanuts? The credit usually goes to a man named Bill Anderson, a production manager at United Features Syndicate, who submitted Peanuts, along with nine other alternative names to the UFS brass.The appeal of Peanuts was obvious, since as Nat Gertler, author and webmaster of a startlingly detailed guide to Peanuts book collecting, notes: “The name Peanuts invoked the ‘peanut gallery’- the in-house audience for the then-popular Howdy Doody television series.”
The appeal of Peanuts was obvious, since as Nat Gertler, author and webmaster of a startlingly detailed guide to Peanuts book collecting, notes: “The name Peanuts invoked the ‘peanut gallery’- the in-house audience for the then-popular Howdy Doody television series.”
― Number None, Thursday, 10 January 2019 15:54 (five years ago) link
Always assumed it was meant to be a loose homophonic allusion to the male organ of generation myself.
― Love is Scarface (Old Lunch), Thursday, 10 January 2019 15:55 (five years ago) link
pea is stored in the nuts
― more ham for me myself and i (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 10 January 2019 15:56 (five years ago) link
Shultz thought it sounded diminutive, insulting; “like a name for something worthless, or an animal or child” (I’m making up that quote from memory, tho I think it’s pretty close).
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Thursday, 10 January 2019 16:08 (five years ago) link
Schulz, of course, would never rock the boat like that
Well at the time that Peanuts was given that name, Schulz was an unknown cartoonist with absolutely no leverage over his syndicate. By the time he did have that kind of clout, the name Peanuts was far too well-established for him to do anything about it. He did however "rock the boat" about plenty of other things, perhaps most notably when he introduced an African-American character into the strip in the late 1960s:
Schulz also recalled a discussion with Larry Rutman, who at the time ran King Features Syndicate (which distributed Peanuts to newspapers). Schulz said, “I remember telling Larry at the time about Franklin—he wanted me to change it, and we talked about it for a long while on the phone, and I finally sighed and said, “Well, Larry, let’s put it this way: Either you print it just the way I draw it or I quit. How’s that?”
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2018/07/50-years-franklin-charlie-brown/
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 10 January 2019 16:13 (five years ago) link
Yeah, I didn’t think about that; he did rock the boat when it counted. (I recall he considered a title change to “Charlie Brown” at some point, but didn’t want to cause inconvenience.)
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Thursday, 10 January 2019 16:25 (five years ago) link
For the sundays, it carried a "peanuts" in small script with "featuring Good Ol' Charlie Brown" in bigger script for at least a decade
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 10 January 2019 16:29 (five years ago) link
In Denmark 'Peanuts' is called what would be 'The Radishes' instead. It's very weird.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 10 January 2019 16:38 (five years ago) link
xp Guess that sort of solved both issues!
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Thursday, 10 January 2019 16:51 (five years ago) link
(One of the “issues” being those expendable first panels — wasn’t he using a big panel with the title and sort of a sight gag?)
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Thursday, 10 January 2019 16:52 (five years ago) link
The two "disposable" panels on the Sundays followed the large title panel.
― sans lep (sic), Thursday, 10 January 2019 18:37 (five years ago) link
Ah, hmm
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Thursday, 10 January 2019 19:03 (five years ago) link
the radishes!
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Friday, 11 January 2019 14:57 (five years ago) link
If anyone was tempted by Douglas Wolk's Marvel comics Patreon but hasn't joined yet, I highly recommend it. Fun discussion of Master of Kung Fu going on right now; Nocenti's Daredevil next week. It's a dollar a month.
https://www.patreon.com/douglaswolk/posts
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 15 January 2019 18:04 (five years ago) link
In the forthcoming movie "Spider-Man: Far From Home," does Parker fight Wolverine in a graveyard, and then return to his hotel room to find Ned Leeds in a Hobgoblin costume? I'm just gonna assume that's what happens...
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Wednesday, 16 January 2019 00:09 (five years ago) link
Sometimes, when revisiting Marvel issues from the ‘80s, I Google the names of the staffers in those “Pro Files” with the little caricatures and data points (Favorite Performers, etc.). Kind of interesting to see what young Assistant Editors and the like ended up doing later in their careers. Tonight I ran across this interesting blog entry on the subject: http://generaleclectic123.blogspot.com/2008/12/marvelous-tales-making-comic-book.html(I’m sure there are entire books about Marvel that talk about this stuff in detail, but I’ve never read them.)
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Wednesday, 23 January 2019 07:28 (five years ago) link
Thank you for that very cool link!
― E Pluripubis Unum (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 23 January 2019 11:22 (five years ago) link
the Virgil/Matt lineup does not work at allassuming those were just flukes if scheduling though
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 23 January 2019 12:18 (five years ago) link
i dunno, the virgil/matt issues of ghost rider were underrated imo
― “I'm the sexy gorilla and I'm going to hell“ (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 23 January 2019 14:20 (five years ago) link
It was a weird decision for Marvel to do an in-continuity adaptation of the Aeneid, and even weirder to hire Joe Matt for the job, but damn it...it just works.
― E Pluripubis Unum (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 23 January 2019 14:28 (five years ago) link
Guys, he's talking about The House That Jack Built.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 23 January 2019 15:45 (five years ago) link
The worst Fables spin-off
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 23 January 2019 16:05 (five years ago) link
I just this week learned of the existence of the Third Eye blacklight posters from the early '70s and...I don't think I've ever coveted anything more in my life.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nickderington/sets/72157608615767554/
https://www.coolandcollected.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/marvel_third_eye_poster_blacklight_thor.jpg
― Why have more than 1,000 of my bucks disappearded? (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 6 February 2019 03:36 (five years ago) link
I had the Amazing Spider-Man one
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 6 February 2019 04:17 (five years ago) link
Omg the Hela one rules
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 6 February 2019 04:56 (five years ago) link
very cool
― Nhex, Wednesday, 6 February 2019 05:15 (five years ago) link
i remember hanging at someone's house who had the silver surfer one and it lodged permanently in my brain
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 6 February 2019 05:52 (five years ago) link
I've been getting irrationally cheery when it's Immortal Hulk release day
― mh, Wednesday, 6 February 2019 15:17 (five years ago) link
Now that the Conan license is back in their hot little hands, Marvel brings you this:
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZHYbXPsI7HZP0Zv4xgmLf87qB9A=/0x0:931x1397/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:931x1397):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13759173/sav_avengers_1.jpg
If this is the price of getting the OG Conan material back in print, so be it.
― The kids call it 'artisinal going to the bathroom' (Old Lunch), Friday, 15 February 2019 01:02 (five years ago) link
I thought most of the OG Conan stuff got republished by Dark Horse over the years?
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 15 February 2019 01:18 (five years ago) link
yeah, it did. Is that Brother Voodoo and Elektra on the left there?
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 15 February 2019 01:31 (five years ago) link
Yes, indeed it is.
Dark Horse had been reprinting Conan for years but they've been kinda awful about reprinting the reprints so random collections were selling for stratospheric prices.
― The kids call it 'artisinal going to the bathroom' (Old Lunch), Friday, 15 February 2019 04:12 (five years ago) link
I hope you don’t think Marvel will do a better job keeping things in print
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 15 February 2019 04:32 (five years ago) link
^ since your pal & Trump’s head of veteran affairs’ policy is literally to keep nothing in print
― steven, soda jerk (sic), Friday, 15 February 2019 05:42 (five years ago) link
I'm on top of it this time around and all-too-aware of Marvel's reprint policies. And look, having Perlmutter over occasionally to sup and discuss how we might collectively MAGA does not a pal make, pal.
(Someday in the not-too-distant future he will be pushing up the daisies. Just sit back and meditate with me upon that blessed notion.)
― The kids call it 'artisinal going to the bathroom' (Old Lunch), Friday, 15 February 2019 11:26 (five years ago) link
Wow, that's a whole bunch of random grim & gritty characters in that book! Besides Wolverine and Punisher, do any of them have any sort of history together?
― Tuomas, Friday, 15 February 2019 16:18 (five years ago) link
Punisher and Elektra were teammates with benefits in Thunderbolts.
I think Venom and Conan might be cousins.
― The kids call it 'artisinal going to the bathroom' (Old Lunch), Friday, 15 February 2019 16:21 (five years ago) link
Wolverine and Elektra have history too with The Hand, etc.
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 15 February 2019 17:29 (five years ago) link
i guess Wolverine has gotten franchise rights
― Nhex, Friday, 15 February 2019 19:12 (five years ago) link
Give him a break, dude's been dead for a couple of years. He has a lot of gratuitous book hopping to do.
― The kids call it 'artisinal going to the bathroom' (Old Lunch), Friday, 15 February 2019 19:35 (five years ago) link
After he died there may have been even MORE Wolverine books than when he was alive! (X-23, Wolverines, Old Man Logan... not to mention the X-Men books, Weapon H, Avengers, and the ridiculously extraneous Hunt for Wolverine saga)
― Nhex, Friday, 15 February 2019 19:43 (five years ago) link
I can't see that link but I believe the Conan crossover is one of Al E's things
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 15 February 2019 21:38 (five years ago) link
It's Duggan but Conan seems to be getting a new book every month so I'm sure Al will get his shot.
― A functioning gazebo made of Candlebox cassingles (Old Lunch), Friday, 15 February 2019 22:28 (five years ago) link
Here y’go - thought this might have been the earlier link
https://mobilestore.marvel.com/Avengers-No-Road-Home-2019-6-of-10/digital-comic/50918?r=1
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 16 February 2019 02:56 (five years ago) link
Oh no, sorry, that was just Conan's introduction to the modern Marvel universe. Now we're talking a whole new Avengers book with him on the team.
Conan the Avenger. That's a thing.
― A functioning gazebo made of Candlebox cassingles (Old Lunch), Saturday, 16 February 2019 04:22 (five years ago) link
sure, why not
― mh, Saturday, 16 February 2019 15:17 (five years ago) link
i just realised that all i ever wanted from life is conan punching galactusmarvel make it happen
― a surprise challenge that ended with a gunging (bizarro gazzara), Saturday, 16 February 2019 15:23 (five years ago) link
sure, why notabsolute bullshit, Conan is obviously a Defenders kinda guy
― steven, soda jerk (sic), Saturday, 16 February 2019 17:56 (five years ago) link
It's not a proper crossover until you get the Thing screaming "BY CROM!!!"
― earlnash, Sunday, 17 February 2019 01:19 (five years ago) link
I do like whatever 8 sided die roll put Brother Voodoo in this comic. Looks like he is going corp with the suit, might be Doctor Voodoo now.
― earlnash, Sunday, 17 February 2019 01:21 (five years ago) link
I'm not entire certain that putting a black man in a suit on a cover devoted to Savagery will work out okay for Marvel.
― Andrew Farrell, Sunday, 17 February 2019 09:34 (five years ago) link
I appreciate that you think the allusion to Marvel's long-running Savage Sword of Conan is more problematic than the black character named Brother Voodoo.
― A functioning gazebo made of Candlebox cassingles (Old Lunch), Sunday, 17 February 2019 13:55 (five years ago) link
nobody really seemed to notice with Brother Voodoo got promoted to B-lister in the last decade
― Nhex, Sunday, 17 February 2019 17:01 (five years ago) link
brother voodoo should probably be quietly allowed to pass and maybe we just make some new and less problematic black characters
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 19 February 2019 01:38 (five years ago) link
I finally saw Spider-Man: Homecoming (my son has been heavy into the Spider-Man movies, and finally worked his way up). Guess it was very much a MCU movie: some great/funny stuff; some absurd/turn-off stuff; about 20 mins. too long; too much CG action.The kid who plays Peter — and whole cast, really — were great. I liked most of the elements that departed from the usual Spidey setup; even if they meant it didn’t quite feel like “Spider-Man” in some ways. #timelyfilmreviews
― yuh yuh (morrisp), Friday, 1 March 2019 22:26 (five years ago) link
I watched it last night as wellI felt like middle-aged Peter was put in there just for me
― mh, Saturday, 2 March 2019 15:27 (five years ago) link
I also saw Spider Verse this week, finally
Was rad (obviously) but I enjoyed the plotless meander of the first half-hour much more than the multiverse stuff
That said, I felt pretty choked when Nick Miller Peter leaves at the end
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 2 March 2019 18:02 (five years ago) link
fat dirtbag spider-man is my spirit animal
― Backdoor Pathway To Making Human Penis Started With A Wallaby (bizarro gazzara), Saturday, 2 March 2019 18:26 (five years ago) link
I’m really looking forward to the Spider-Gwen/Silk/Jessica Drew movie
― yuh yuh (morrisp), Saturday, 2 March 2019 19:39 (five years ago) link
I was under the impression that the Defenders were comprised of the OG quartet from the start, and having just read their first adventure I've discovered that, while that was Dr. Strange's intention, Silver Surfer flew too hard into the barrier that kept him earthbound back then and knocked himself out cold before he could be recruited. Which is...just...so goddamn hilarious. Bravo.
― Goody Rickels on the Dime (Old Lunch), Monday, 18 March 2019 22:41 (five years ago) link
that incompetently numbered multi-part defenders thing that just happened was pretty good
― mh, Tuesday, 19 March 2019 00:58 (five years ago) link
the "best defense" five parter? yeah, i have no idea what order to read those in. it's five #1s!
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 19 March 2019 02:27 (five years ago) link
Picked up a recent issue of SPIDER-GWEN: GHOST SPIDER... Not sure why she's going as "Ghost Spider"; but apparently her identity has become public in her own universe, which I assume is partly a way for her to transition to simply using "Spider-Gwen" as her superhero name? She also seems to have gained a symbiote costume, though not much of note appears to be happening.
It is cool to see Takeshi Miyazawa's artwork; I'm familiar w/him from SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE.
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Thursday, 28 March 2019 21:25 (five years ago) link
mentioned elsewhere i think but i can strongly recommend the Avengers: No Road Home with Conan xover; it's well written and fun. The interaction with Hawkeye and Hulk in particular is fun to watch.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 28 March 2019 21:49 (five years ago) link
would love to read it but afraid to get on any weekly series as my LCS can be ass (yet i keep throwing money at them out of princple). i'll wait for trade
― Nhex, Thursday, 28 March 2019 21:56 (five years ago) link
so immortal hulk kinda absolutely fuckin rules huh
― a photographer, satanist and ukip voter (bizarro gazzara), Saturday, 6 April 2019 22:09 (five years ago) link
welcome
― mh, Saturday, 6 April 2019 22:26 (five years ago) link
it's so good! this al ewing guy is going places, lemme tell ya
the horror vibe works so well with the hulk, it's weird that it's been so rarely explored. it feels a lot like moore's swamp thing to me, which is about as high a praise as i can offer a book like this. lots of high weirdness and unexpected, unnerving twists on old tropes - it's a great example of a writer playing in new ways in the the marvel sandbox
i was definitely not expecting it to be emotionally affecting, but the moment in issue #13 where the hulk outlines his true relationship with banner (trying v hard not to spoil here) really got to me!
― a photographer, satanist and ukip voter (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 8 April 2019 10:35 (five years ago) link
the devil hulk!
― mh, Monday, 8 April 2019 13:57 (five years ago) link
one could say immortal hulk has given me
sympathy for the devil
― TV presenter and animal lover, Matt Baker (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 8 April 2019 14:05 (five years ago) link
Another unexpected consequence: some actually pretty awesome, non-boring Alex Ross covers
https://i.redd.it/5x3syd9anls11.jpg
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 8 April 2019 14:14 (five years ago) link
yeah, he's been doing really good work! and i say that as an avowed alex ross hater
― TV presenter and animal lover, Matt Baker (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 8 April 2019 14:16 (five years ago) link
emaciated hulk vs eviscerated absorbing man was a v cool visual
for surehttp://i.ytimg.com/vi/myfgjWIzTd4/hqdefault.jpg
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 8 April 2019 15:24 (five years ago) link
Moore's Swamp Thing is the exact comparison I've seen in glowing reviews that I've only glanced at for fear of spoilers. I look forward to reading it sometime in 2024 when I'm caught up with stuff being currently released (starting Secret Empire soon, can't wait for two years ago!).
― Hangover Ape (Old Lunch), Monday, 8 April 2019 15:35 (five years ago) link
If it'll help, Immortal Hulk seems pretty much entirely removed from other continuity.
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 8 April 2019 15:39 (five years ago) link
I'm enthusiastic but also worried about the idea someone will pitch and actually get to write a Puck (mini)series after he's been a great character in several books, Immortal Hulk included
― mh, Monday, 8 April 2019 15:58 (five years ago) link
i feel like ewing is def angling for a puck-led book at some point
― TV presenter and animal lover, Matt Baker (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 8 April 2019 16:00 (five years ago) link
Puck's the next John Constantine.
― EZ Snappin, Monday, 8 April 2019 16:01 (five years ago) link
Got to say, I was pretty underwhelmed by the usually great John Cassaday's cover to the recently released Conan Omnibus.
That said, editorial actually did some work on this one and it is packed with some really good bonus stuff if you are a fan of the original Barry Windsor Smith era of the title. They redid the colors more to the original 4 color and they don't look bad, always going to look different as the paper stock is so much brighter white in the first place.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51zK4pwlXqL.jpg
― earlnash, Monday, 8 April 2019 16:42 (five years ago) link
This one is better. Don't get what happened to Conan's head on the omnibus, I guess that is volcano head or something.
https://www.previewsworld.com/SiteImage/CatalogImage/STL106693?type=1
I kinda like modern artists doing interpretations of the original covers, if they have to use one not from the original series.
― earlnash, Monday, 8 April 2019 16:45 (five years ago) link
I know this is a nerdy, late-night-at-summer-camp discussion topic, but has Marvel ever offered a cosmological explanation for how its different “universes” were created* & how they exist in relation to each other; why so many details across the various Earth-xxx’s are the same, but then timelines/characters diverge at certain points; how warping between them is so easily achieved; etc.? Or is it just “comic book logic”? *notwithstanding their re-creation by Franklin Richards in the wake of Secret Wars, or whatever went on there.
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Thursday, 11 April 2019 04:04 (five years ago) link
I don't know, and looking at DC, I don't want to know.
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 11 April 2019 07:43 (five years ago) link
Ahem, I believe you'll find that, while Franklin Richards created the Heroes Reborn universe in the wake of Onslaught, that it was actually Franklin's father who was instrumental in the creation of Prime Earth after the end of Secret Wars. (pushes up glasses, brushes nacho crumbs from stained Wlzards of the Coast t-shirt)
― Hangover Ape (Old Lunch), Thursday, 11 April 2019 10:20 (five years ago) link
Morrison actually did a decent job of putting the multiversal shit in order over at DC (even if DC ultimately took a shit all over his attempts). Marvel hasn't made quite as sweeping an attempt afaik.
― Hangover Ape (Old Lunch), Thursday, 11 April 2019 10:24 (five years ago) link
Al Ewing's Ultimates series (two of them when you count a mid-run renumbering, iirc) get into the cosmic entities pushing the buttons outside of the multiverse in a fun way
― mh, Thursday, 11 April 2019 13:53 (five years ago) link
yeah, i'm working my way through those at the moment and there's some v fun cosmic creation/destruction stuff in there
this al ewing guy is going places, lemme tell ya
― arli$$ and bible black (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 11 April 2019 13:54 (five years ago) link
I mean, I like other writers but he's good at what he's doing.
I'm kind of making the uncharitable assumption (well, uncharitable for the other writers) that he's responsible for most of the good character beats in the Avengers crossover fiasco title, too.
― mh, Thursday, 11 April 2019 13:59 (five years ago) link
i've only just started catching up with his stuff on marvel unlimited and his morrison / moore / ellis influences are worn maybe a little too obviously on his sleeve sometimes but the stories themselves are always fun and creative
― arli$$ and bible black (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 11 April 2019 14:04 (five years ago) link
Mighty Avengers had a lot of heart and he salvaged about half the character team for the Ultimates gig
the actual series was screwed over by a relaunch that was immediately jacked up by that Axis event, and then ended relatively early due to another
― mh, Thursday, 11 April 2019 14:20 (five years ago) link
man, i HATE thesehttps://www.uniqlo.com/us/en/ut-graphic-tees/marvel-x-jason-polan
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 15:05 (five years ago) link
not feeling those
― mh, Tuesday, 23 April 2019 16:05 (five years ago) link
Draftsmanship on the buildings is p tight, everything Marvel-related looks like hot trash.
― Joan Lunden just stole your laptop and I didn't even try to stop her (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 21:53 (five years ago) link
Guess those decades of IP really panned out, huh? It’s wild to see this marginal-seeming stuff I grew up with turn into a zillion-dollar cultural juggernaut. Excelsior, I guess...
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Sunday, 28 April 2019 23:29 (five years ago) link
i hear you with that. The entire world is obsessed with a Darkseid knock-off!
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 29 April 2019 00:07 (five years ago) link
Would legit have liked to see Thanos taken down by Hawkeye and Ant-Man.
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 29 April 2019 05:51 (five years ago) link
I lost track of Jason Aaron's Thor as it got a bit dithery towards the middle of the Jane Foster run. The last book, though, "The Death of..." is a real return to form.
Not sure about the crossover stuff right now, as I haven't got that far...
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 1 May 2019 12:45 (five years ago) link
I'm wondering if there's a maximum number of big crossovers per year and they've been pushing the "war of the realms" that Aaron's been writing across Thors down the road for quite a while
― mh, Wednesday, 1 May 2019 13:31 (five years ago) link
War of the Realms is typical Marvel insanity with regards to their publishing - a million tie-in minis. I'll wait until they're all collected and hope they end up at the library.
― Nhex, Wednesday, 1 May 2019 22:33 (five years ago) link
So how y'all feel about Hickman's (apparently long-planned) major overhaul of everything X-related? I know his Avengers run is divisive but I'll be damned if I know why. Dude's pretty much torn it up with all his Marvel work so I'm psyched to see what's in store.
― 5 favrite kind of animal. jaguar. giraffe. (Old Lunch), Monday, 20 May 2019 21:20 (five years ago) link
I'm down for the two weekly miniseries, will see how it continues from there. I'm guessing everything they've done this year in Uncanny (Disassembled/Age of X) is some kind of set-up/filler for whatever he has in store.
― Nhex, Monday, 20 May 2019 21:30 (five years ago) link
I know his Avengers run is divisive but I'll be damned if I know why.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 21 May 2019 07:29 (five years ago) link
I think Hickman's on record about having Thanos foisted upon him. He did seem rather shoehorned into the saga.
― 5 favrite kind of animal. jaguar. giraffe. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 11:57 (five years ago) link
I guess I do understand the qualms re: characterization, although I think he did all right given the scope of the story he was juggling. In the case of the impending X books, I think he's only committed to the two minis so I'd assume he's just engaged more with the worldbuilding, which I'm cool with.
― 5 favrite kind of animal. jaguar. giraffe. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 12:19 (five years ago) link
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 21 May 2019 12:35 (five years ago) link
"any way HE wanted to"
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 21 May 2019 12:36 (five years ago) link
Nah I geddit. There's probably an argument to be made that Thanos should only be written by or in consultation with Starlin (an edict which Marvel clearly doesn't respect inasmuch as Starlin has said the next Thanos hardcover is his last work for them).
FWIW, Thanos is one of the very small handful of characters who actually survived the destruction and recreation of the universe in Secret Wars so he is, in theory at least, the same Thanos he's always been.
― 5 favrite kind of animal. jaguar. giraffe. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 12:51 (five years ago) link
Excited by this! There hasn’t been a big-ticket, over-complex long-ass run on something at Marvel or DC that I’ve enjoyed for a while - probably since GMo’s Batman and Hickman’s Avengers runs, really. Everything Hickmsn’s done for Marvel has been great or at least interesting - unusually, it’s his indie work where he’s more variable.
(Tbh I don’t really care about Thanos or his character consistency)
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 21 May 2019 13:18 (five years ago) link
In the case of the impending X books, I think he's only committed to the two minis so I'd assume he's just engaged more with the worldbuilding, which I'm cool with.
He’s writing an ongoing after the minis too!
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 21 May 2019 13:22 (five years ago) link
Didn't know that! Cool.
Yeah the two storylines you mention and maybe like Annihilation et al are probably my favorite mainstream epics of the century. Would love to think this might reach those heights but I'm tempering my expectations.
― 5 favrite kind of animal. jaguar. giraffe. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 13:25 (five years ago) link
They’re doing a Marvel Age reprint series; I picked up the Black Widow volume... it reprints six old stories (going back to Mystic Comics #4), and has a long introduction by Ralph Macchio.
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Saturday, 25 May 2019 18:20 (five years ago) link
Knowing nothing about it other than the bus ads (and, of course, the underlying property), I think I may like to see the “Dark Phoenix” movie when it opens in a few weeks. #ClaremontCinema
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Monday, 27 May 2019 02:30 (five years ago) link
Have the recent X-Movies been decent-ish? (not counting “Logan,” which I did see)
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Monday, 27 May 2019 02:31 (five years ago) link
Eh. First couple Young X-Folks flicks were dece, Apocalypse was kinda lame and forgettable. You should maybe catch up on everything since First Class, but also probably don't bother since they're pretty much only screening this film because it was finished when Disney bought Fox.
― John Denver – Led Zeppelin IV (Part II) (Old Lunch), Monday, 27 May 2019 03:36 (five years ago) link
I just wanna see that shuttle cockpit heat da fuq up
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Monday, 27 May 2019 05:08 (five years ago) link
Seems feeble that they're doing a Dark Phoenix movie AGAIN, as though there aren't some other X-plots over the years to draw on.
― And according to some websites, there were “sexcapades.” (James Morrison), Monday, 27 May 2019 07:21 (five years ago) link
they fucked it up the first time tbf
― michael keaton IS jim thirlwell IN ‘foetaljuice’ (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 27 May 2019 07:46 (five years ago) link
I got some cool back issues. Got five issues of Adventure into Fear with Morbius...The Living Vampire and the magazine version of the Blade Runner adaptation.
Al Williamson's artwork on that Blade Runner adaption is really good. That man could really draw.
― earlnash, Monday, 27 May 2019 08:28 (five years ago) link
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Tuesday, 28 May 2019 04:05 (five years ago) link
yeah i didn't mean to imply they'll do it better this time
― michael keaton IS jim thirlwell IN ‘foetaljuice’ (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 28 May 2019 08:13 (five years ago) link
as though there aren't some other X-plots over the years to draw on
it's interesting (ish!) that the MCU movies rarely seem to draw from specific storylines the way that x-men does and nolanbats did
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 28 May 2019 09:01 (five years ago) link
(and that's a good thing, i think?)
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 28 May 2019 09:02 (five years ago) link
Several MCU movies have drawn from specific plotlines: Winter Soldier, Civil War, Ragnarök, The Dark World, Age of Ultron, Infinity War / Endgame, Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange... They're not super faithful adaptations of those storylines, but then again, neither is X-Men: Apocalypse or the The Dark Knight Rises.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 29 May 2019 06:41 (five years ago) link
(Age of Ultron obviously is not an adapation of Age of Ultron the comic, rather than the first Ultron story in The Avengers.)
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 29 May 2019 06:42 (five years ago) link
Al Williamson was a god. That Blade Runner adaptation is indeed great - and that Steranko cover!!
― Carly Jae Vespen (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, 29 May 2019 07:21 (five years ago) link
Claremont and Sienkiewicz with one-off New Mutants
― Brakhage, Friday, 14 June 2019 18:21 (five years ago) link
Wow
(Whatever happened to that New Mutants movie that was being developed; is that still on?)
― Theodor Adorno, perhaps the greatest philosopher alive today (morrisp), Friday, 14 June 2019 18:46 (five years ago) link
The film is mentioned in that article.
― Tuomas, Friday, 14 June 2019 18:54 (five years ago) link
Its release date has been pushed back about a half dozen times and, with Disney's acquisition of Fox and assured future incorporation of mutants into the MCU, seems likely to get a quiet MOD release sometime in 2025.
― Morrie Antoilette (Old Lunch), Friday, 14 June 2019 19:12 (five years ago) link
I read somewhere that the audience testing for the Mutants film was absolutely dire, so I think it's lost in reshoot/editing hell
― Brakhage, Friday, 14 June 2019 20:36 (five years ago) link
Silver Surfer Black is pretty good; kinda like a Rick Griffin take visually
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 14 June 2019 20:37 (five years ago) link
Muthafuckin Scioli following in Piskor's footsteps and bring us the gift of Fantastic Four: Grand Design, y'all. That is just speechlessifyingly good news.
― Logy Psycho (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 9 July 2019 21:38 (five years ago) link
Have u heard about this thing they're doing, "Marvel Comics #1000"? Sounds kinda cool: https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/marvel-comics-1000-celebrates-marvel-s-80-year-legacy
― stan by me (morrisp), Tuesday, 9 July 2019 22:16 (five years ago) link
I mean potentially so but I'm not expecting much more than Heroes for Hope 2: Hope Harder.
― Logy Psycho (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 9 July 2019 22:22 (five years ago) link
oh shit, i'm excited by that Scioli info! Really looking forward to that.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 9 July 2019 22:23 (five years ago) link
I like Scioli a lot but find this sort of disappointing tbh. Piskor's X-Men: Grand Design was mildly entertaining but it just underscored how random and stupid X-Men lore is. Would've preferred it if he'd kept cranking out Hip Hop Family Tree, which was like an actual act of public service.
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 9 July 2019 23:17 (five years ago) link
I do wish I could read Scioli's Kirby Comic, is that just an Instagram thing or will that ever be printed/collected?
Sorry that you have to wait a little longer for Scioli's Madballs vs. MUSCLE, shakes. Hope you survive the experience.
― Logy Psycho (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 9 July 2019 23:32 (five years ago) link
I do wish I could read Scioli's Kirby Comic
More than this?: http://www.tomscioli.com/?p=280
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Tuesday, 9 July 2019 23:48 (five years ago) link
not coming out till October in any case by the look of it
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 10 July 2019 00:50 (five years ago) link
loved X-Men Grand Design, looking forward to this!
― Nhex, Wednesday, 10 July 2019 15:31 (five years ago) link
this took me a second to get the joek tbh
GI Joe vs Transformers is amazing fyi
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 10 July 2019 15:32 (five years ago) link
yeah I hate reading comics onscreen, I want a printed version!
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 10 July 2019 15:33 (five years ago) link
xpost I know, bruh! Scioli can do no wrong imo (haven't read his GoBots mini yet, tbf). He had some delightfully weird Wonder Twins backups in one of the Young Animal titles for those who may have missed it.
― Logy Psycho (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 10 July 2019 16:22 (five years ago) link
Anyone reading these hyped up new X-Titles?
― 60... 90... 120 Minute IPA (morrisp), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 04:20 (five years ago) link
i'm pretty excited by Powers/House of X #1. lots of groundwork already.not super excited about following 6 new titles in October, might just two the two Hickmans and ignore the rest
― Nhex, Tuesday, 6 August 2019 05:34 (five years ago) link
yeah it’s early but the Hick-Men books seem promising
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 05:40 (five years ago) link
They’re not bad.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 11:52 (five years ago) link
I have a few theories about what's actually going on in the Hickman X-books but I'd be outing my knowledge of too-many-X-things from the last decade of relatively mediocre books
― untuned mass damper (mh), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 16:33 (five years ago) link
They really have been mediocre. Both X-Men and their putative replacements the Inhumans have suffered from Perlmutter's infantile edicts over the past several years. Here's hoping Hickman and co. can right the ship.
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 16:41 (five years ago) link
the multiple simultaneous timeline's is a neat trick but i could see it wearing thin quickly.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 16:44 (five years ago) link
https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/marvel-ike-perlmutter/
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 17:24 (five years ago) link
I'd love to hear theories! I like it so far, but every second page I go 'huh, weren't they dead?'
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 6 August 2019 17:42 (five years ago) link
I've read some of the Uncanny X-Men '19 reboot and skipped the big Age of X-Man event entirely (again, god, so many books to follow just for that. skipped War of the Realms for the same reason. Marvel's out of control) so can someone who has been following them explain to me how Hickman is able to do essentially a hard reboot of the entire X-Men timeline? Did Nate Grey blow shit up a second time? Or is that deliberately obscure at the moment for the story?
I mean I even read this and was still left scratching my head on a lot of things (especially at the reveal that Chuck was resurrected in.. Astonishing X-Men? at some point?) but I'm still amazed that Marvel grim-rebooted X-Men in December '18 (X-Termination/new Uncanny #1) only to re-reboot it in 7 months. I hope there's a good explanation for Pirate X-men and two edgelord kill-team books.
― Nhex, Tuesday, 6 August 2019 17:43 (five years ago) link
I'm not up to date but apparently they had Hickman lined up for a while and were secretly laying the groundwork for his run at least as early as the most recent Uncanny reboot.
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 18:08 (five years ago) link
Also from what I understand the Age of X crossover, despite being yet another alternate universe narrative, apparently does figure in to Hickman's plans.
Sorry so vague and possibly wrong. I've been trying to glean news without encountering spoilers.
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 18:11 (five years ago) link
I think Xavier's in The World (the one Fantomex is from) pulling recreations of his original X-Men from pods, calling his mutant homeland "Krakoa" as some sort of veiled reference, and doing accelerated time experiments at the same time we're being show glimpses of a far-flung future and humanity's being offered medical solutions that seem ahead of their time
“All this structured chaos reeks of machination” -- line Hickman's already used in Secret Wars but will probably paraphrase in six months
― untuned mass damper (mh), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 19:17 (five years ago) link
The fact that 'Powers of X', the book that takes place in years 1, 10, 100 and 1000 of X-men history, is pronounced 'Powers of Ten' is so stupid that I absolutely love it.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 6 August 2019 19:34 (five years ago) link
Hey guys I read a recent Marvel comic! It was Tom King's Vision. Pretty good, not as good as Miracle Man, which both had better art and a layer of narrative ambiguity that I liked.
Also made me kinda bummed out that superhero comics are so murder-y now. Which is weird given that no one stays dead. Like, narratively we are still supposed to register murder as extreme, transgressive, dramatic, etc. even though its impact has been undermined by both overuse and its lack of lasting consequences.
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 6 August 2019 19:51 (five years ago) link
art imitating life there
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 20:02 (five years ago) link
was unaware of people constantly rising from the dead irl but maybe I'm missing something
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 6 August 2019 20:07 (five years ago) link
"narratively we are still supposed to register murder as extreme, transgressive, dramatic, etc. even though its impact has been undermined by both overuse and its lack of lasting consequences" = the past four days of news
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 20:42 (five years ago) link
oh I got the reference I just don't agree that that's analogous
death in the real world always has consequences
murder has been very common throughout human history (comics, not so much) and not really convinced this era is any more murderous than previous eras tbh
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 6 August 2019 20:47 (five years ago) link
dunno if comparing modern age to bronze age either irl or in marvel eras is ever going to be partic fruitful.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 20:50 (five years ago) link
why not? it seems to me like the levels of murder in mainstream superhero comics is fairly easy to track and it's gone from non-existent to super-rare to fairly common to omnipresent
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:06 (five years ago) link
rip comics code
― untuned mass damper (mh), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:13 (five years ago) link
Spoiler: mainstream (read: Marvel, those being the ones I read and am most familiar with) comics aren't actually all that murdery, at least inasmuch as murder is by no means omnipresent. The books with a high body count are enough of an outlier that they're fairly noteworthy.
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:13 (five years ago) link
So five (I think?) people getting murdered in this Vision book was an outlier?
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:14 (five years ago) link
my opinion is that everyone who wants to read marvel comics should be buying more issues of unbeatable squirrel girl
― untuned mass damper (mh), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:15 (five years ago) link
xxp well i wasn't looking to have a serious conversation about this, but i would suggest that graphic murder in mainstream comics was an every issue thing in the thirties and forties, waned considerably through the fifties, mostly disappeared in the era of the comics code and then came roaring back as a grim and gritty thing throughout the 90's and 00's. homicide as character development is currently undeniaby lodged in the goiterous throats of marvel and dcs glut of more mediocre titles; i think you could argue that's a side effect of the mid-90's death of superman/breaking of batman? anyway, i blame geoff johns.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:15 (five years ago) link
And I can't recall a time when there were as many non-specialty titles (i.e. stuff that isn't based on a licensed property or released under a YA sub-imprint) specifically geared toward younger audiences.
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:16 (five years ago) link
Yes, Vision was an outlier with a darker tone than most (but certainly not all) of Marvel's other titles.
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:17 (five years ago) link
never forget, the second issue of action comics features superman straight up killing a guy but it's okay cause he deserved ithttp://i.imgur.com/xVKJnZv.png
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:19 (five years ago) link
Blaming Geoff Johns is a good general policy in this and many other, wholly-unrelated instances.
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:19 (five years ago) link
also, here's batman shooting a "vampire"https://i.imgur.com/TQkQjoW.png
maybe i should start a "when superheroes kill" thread
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:21 (five years ago) link
graphic murder in mainstream comics was an every issue thing in the thirties and forties, waned considerably through the fifties, mostly disappeared in the era of the comics code and then came roaring back as a grim and gritty thing throughout the 90's and 00's
yeah this sounds about right
that Superman page never fails to crack me up, Supes is so "now this is happening" about it
I can't recall a time when there were as many non-specialty titles (i.e. stuff that isn't based on a licensed property or released under a YA sub-imprint) specifically geared toward younger audiences.
totally agree with this, it's crazy the wealth of stuff that's available and perfectly suitable for my daughter that bears absolutely zero relation to the DC/Marvel/licensed characters axis
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:23 (five years ago) link
OL on the mark about the COMIX FOR KIDS onslaught, which is great! but there's still a fuckton of weirdly ultraviolent books out there where murder is the case that they give you. The Punisher's last four(?) or so volumes treat human life like kleenex.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:24 (five years ago) link
batman versus dracula: a one panel thrill ride
― untuned mass damper (mh), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:24 (five years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/PYQ3cgv.png
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:26 (five years ago) link
Batman Stops a Pogrom
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:28 (five years ago) link
on a slightly more modern marvel notehttps://i.stack.imgur.com/ult59.jpg
bon voyage, baron blood!
― untuned mass damper (mh), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:28 (five years ago) link
Comic Panels of Superheroes Killing People
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:29 (five years ago) link
Yeah, scrolling through the books released in the year I'm just wrapping up (2017), the only stuff that stands out as particularly murdery are Punisher, the Bullseye mini (which was frankly fucking gruesome), and, well, anything with Rocket Raccoon (I neither understand nor care for this retcon of the character as utterly kill-crazy). Some Deadpool stuff, naturally, but during his time on the Avengers they tamped it down quite a bit.
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:30 (five years ago) link
allow me to introduce you to what DC did with "deathstroke"http://i.imgur.com/9tZmy33.png
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:35 (five years ago) link
I'm trying not to.... oh hell
Remember when Jeph Loeb wrote a little story called Ultimatum and Marvel pretty much burned their Ultimate Comics line to the ground?
― untuned mass damper (mh), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:36 (five years ago) link
What else...Old Man Logan, Thanos, Carnage. I mean, you know what you're getting with most of these books that feature characters who've always been 'edgy'. You don't have to worry that you're gonna turn the page in most of the other other Marvel titles and suddenly find Marvin being graphically devoured by Wonder Dog (thanks again, Geoff).
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:38 (five years ago) link
you're right about Rocket, that's the movie to blame for that i think in that they needed a way for people to not read him as a cartoon. which i guess leads to his Bendis catchphrase:http://i.imgur.com/M4lSKua.png
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:45 (five years ago) link
Deeply, deeply, deeply hate that catchphrase.
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:48 (five years ago) link
all the "old man" series are murderfests; here's a random panel i found in the first page of old man hawkeye i openedhttp://i.imgur.com/HeG5k2L.png
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:49 (five years ago) link
The Nighthawk book was dark but kinda righteous, too (black vigilante unapologetically taking out racist white folks).
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:50 (five years ago) link
Important to recall that Millar kicked off that whole 'old man' future timeline.
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:51 (five years ago) link
yeah, he's responsible for a lot of this post-miller grim and gritty bullshit too. i'm not even gonna post the relevant JR JR Hit-Girl panels.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 21:56 (five years ago) link
Marvel stuff coming out this week:
Probably some murders imoABSOLUTE CARNAGE #1COSMIC GHOST RIDER DESTROYS MARVEL HISTORY #6DEAD MAN LOGAN #10IMMORTAL HULK #22 (in a horror comic style, though)MAJOR X #0OLD MAN QUILL #8PUNISHER #14 (of course, I mean...)STAR WARS #70 (someone's gonna get shot or lightsabered in a cantina)
probably not murdery?AGENTS OF ATLAS #1BLACK CAT #3DAREDEVIL #9HOUSE OF X #2SAVAGE AVENGERS #4
no gratuitous deaths here, folks (hopefully, no guarantees)CHAMPIONS #8AERO #1FUTURE FOUNDATION #1 INVISIBLE WOMAN #2
― untuned mass damper (mh), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 22:03 (five years ago) link
i will bet you a shiny nickel that house of x and savage avengers will have at least one murder
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 22:07 (five years ago) link
a random 2019 monthly body count of marvel vs dc vs usa would be an interesting if depressing project
I can't tell if you guys are arguing for or against my point anymore (ie whether or not Vision was an outlier - kinda doesn't look like it if there's a consensus that >50% of Marvel's monthly titles = murdery). But idk you guys read so much more of this crap than I do.
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 6 August 2019 22:11 (five years ago) link
kings vision is not more murder-y than most of marvel's books but it takes murder a bit more seriously.
i think the unspoken mainstream superhero "comics code" wrt murder for the past two decades is that it's okay to show villains killing if it *furthers the plot* and it's okay for heroes to kill if the people they're killing REALLY deserve it. the murders in Vision are unwarranted and have grave repercussions as opposed to punisher just fucking killing people left and right.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 22:13 (five years ago) link
That Cosmic Ghost Rider mini is basically a humorous gloss on What If afaict.
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 22:13 (five years ago) link
Shakes, Marvel puts out 457 titles a month, no way is that <50%.
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 22:14 (five years ago) link
cosmic ghost rider has been quite fun imo but, as far as this discussion goes, it takes killing people as seriously as deadpool does
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 22:15 (five years ago) link
>50% rather
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 22:15 (five years ago) link
the murders in Vision ... have grave repercussions
do they though? They appear to have grave repercussions *at first*, within the context of the story, but by the end he's escaped the consequences of actions by virtue of his wife's sacrifices... and he just starts building himself another wife. Also no one really cares that that Grim Reaper is dead cuz c'mon now. And the dead civilians fade into the background.
I was just going off the weekly list mh posted OL
xps
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 6 August 2019 22:18 (five years ago) link
I'd need to reread but i recall the murders destroying vision's family, even though he's saved the universe 17 times yadda yadda yadda so they certainly proved impactful enough to dislodge a cyborg god's way of being
here's a fun recap of the house of ideas monthly hit ratio in 2017https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/2017-year-almost-everything-went-wrong-marvel-comics-1070616
i think marvel and DC put out about 50 to 60 single issue titles a month? maybe more? it's got to be an unprecedented glut at the moment.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 22:20 (five years ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_Marvel_Comics_publicationshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_DC_Comics_publications
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 22:24 (five years ago) link
I've been sorting comics lately and (as you might imagine) have quite a number of Marvel comics. I think I have roughly the same number of boxes for stuff from the past five years as I do for maybe a decade and a half that preceded it. It's kinda ridiculous.
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 22:26 (five years ago) link
Humblebrag here
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 6 August 2019 22:31 (five years ago) link
if one were to purchase a hard copy of every new single issue marvel book solicited for release in october (excluding reprints, knick knacks, bound editions and whatnot), it would run you about $390 plus tax. add in variant covers and you're pushing $500 a month.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 22:33 (five years ago) link
It's probably more 'admission of serious illness' than 'humblebrag' but potayto potahto I guess.
― Liberals are insane in the mimbrain!!! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 August 2019 22:33 (five years ago) link
I'm probably the only one who cares, but a little disappointed that the current version of Marvel Comics Presents will probably end with #9. It's been a fun book - the Soule Wolverine ongoing story is fun and I like the hidden conceit of this series - throwing characters into different real life time periods (Wolverine going through every decade since the '40s, Tony Stark in 2008, Spider-Man in 1983, etc.)
― Nhex, Wednesday, 7 August 2019 03:30 (five years ago) link
*starts reading House of X #2*
----ALERT------giant retcon incoming--
― untuned mass damper (mh), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 14:43 (five years ago) link
i have enjoyed the MCP reboot but i have enduring nostalgia for that series in general as v1 was the first book i ever had pulled from my local store
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 14:53 (five years ago) link
heh yeah nostalgia is probably a big draw for me too
― Nhex, Wednesday, 7 August 2019 15:26 (five years ago) link
Okay, I'm going to do a bodycount check for this week of Marvel/DC releases
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 19:46 (five years ago) link
may take a minute.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 19:47 (five years ago) link
I think the Marvel count was lower than I expected, but I maintain that many of these titles are definitely high bodycount!
― untuned mass damper (mh), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 20:18 (five years ago) link
limiting this to reasonably clear on-panel murders:Punisher #17: Punisher kills between 6 to 10 people, Ghost Rider appears to kill an additional two to five. Total body count: 8 to 15Old Man Quill #8 - Rocket kills 2 people/aliens, Gamora kills 3 people/aliens and mangles one of them after death, Drax rips 1 person/alien in half and impales another person/alien with half of them, a group of aliens/people stomps drax to death, gladiator incinerates mantis, the guardians (in a multi-panel flashback) kill around 6 to 15 people/aliens, quill (in an iron man suit) incinerates an imperial guard's head. Total body count: 16 to 25Absolute Carnage #1 - Mass grave with dozens of bodies unearthed, about a dozen people infected and presumably killed by carnage with a burrowing symbiote. Let's call it 12 dead with an asterisk?Aero #2 - nobody gets murderedStar Wars #70 - nobody gets murderedHouse of X #2 - 10 to 12 scientists are killed by the brotherhood of evil mutants, a character who has the ability to be reborn is burned to death "slowly, so she doesn't forget how dying like this feels", a sentinel kills a mutant in flashback, Moira assassinates four people, captain america/ms marvel/several others killed in a flash-forward sequence. Let's call that between 18 to 20 Marvel Comics #1 - This one reprints the original Marvel #1 from 1939, plus books from 1990, 1994 and 2009. 1939: torch kills two people, a thug kills three people, the Angel kills four people, two thugs kill each other, Sub Mariner kills five guys and wrecks a ship and an airplane, gun thugs kill a guy, the Masked Raider kills two guys (possibly more), two aboriginal Caribbean men are killed, aboriginal Caribbean men kill three invading guys, Ka-Zar's dad is killed, the torch kills two more people in a retelling of the same story. Total head count is 28. Golden Age!Sensational Spider Man #1 - no one is murderedDaredevil #9 - no one is murderedFuture Foundation #1 - no one is murderedSavage Avengers #4 - no one is murdered (though several people really REALLY try hard to murder each other)Major X #0 - Wolverine kills one to three people, Rob Liefeld murders perspectivethere's another ten or so books but this is boring me silly
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 20:28 (five years ago) link
Rob Liefeld murders perspective
the biggest lol in the otherwise awkward Seth Rogen/Charlize Theron "Longshot" film I watched last week was at the end when Rogen brags that his "First Mister" portrait in the White House was painted by Rob Liefeld
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 7 August 2019 20:57 (five years ago) link
Aero #2 - nobody gets murderedStar Wars #70 - nobody gets murdered
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob1rYlCpOnM
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 21:19 (five years ago) link
The whole horror gore stuff in movies has pretty much trickled down to being very mainstream at this point. Big shooting splatter shots is a big thing in lots of those TV cop dramas etc for a few years now.
The mainstream comic death that caught me as gruesome from a few years ago was when Black Hand "killed" himself in Green Lantern before Blackest Night. I think Doug Mahnke was the artist and I thought it was pretty bloody for Green Lantern.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 7 August 2019 22:43 (five years ago) link
i'll concede that I generally dig Hickman's use of the Marvel toybox, but after reading House of X #2 color me very optimistic for whatever that giant retcon might look like.
esp enjoyed the cameo appearance of Chulthu Island, which was obv the most excellent tree fort of all Magneto's various tree forts
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Thursday, 8 August 2019 02:13 (five years ago) link
Xpost
Yeah, I’m more troubled by gore than murder (stupid but true) but that’s what growing up when Rambo and 2000AD were popular will do for you.
OTOH Superman killing Zod is prob the most shocking panel on the other thread and that’s not gruesome at all.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 9 August 2019 11:41 (five years ago) link
Loving the Hickman X books so far, especially House of X 2. Well-told, smart, longform stories are *exactly* what I love reading in superhero comics an adult — and what I’ve missed since Hickmanks Avengers and GM’s Batman runs ended. I’m actually excited to pick up a new issue on a Wednesday for the first time in forever.
At any rate, if any line was crying out for a hard reboot, it’s the X line, so I don’t have any problem with that — I just hope Hickman doesn’t get tangled up trying to reattach the books to continuity in future issues.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 9 August 2019 11:53 (five years ago) link
xpost Always important to note how Superman's execution of the Kryptonian criminals was handled, too. He did what he saw as absolutely necessary and then immediately thereafter exiled himself to outer space because he felt he'd betrayed himself and the world by resorting to murder. A memorable alternative to the usual 'oops, sorry bruh' school of post-homicidal reactions in comics.
― Where Is The Univers (Old Lunch), Friday, 9 August 2019 11:54 (five years ago) link
Superman exiled in space was also when I started reading superhero comics! That seems worth the murder.
Usage Yojimbo might be a good example of a VERY murdery protagonist in a totally kid friendly comic
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 9 August 2019 12:11 (five years ago) link
Also something about the way the Zod murder isn’t presented in a kickassy/artsy way (i.e. Geoff Johns-style)
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 9 August 2019 12:15 (five years ago) link
You mean the thing where Superman avoids the urge to rip one of them in half and forcefeed his entrails to another before fashioning a new costume from the flayed skin of the third.
― Where Is The Univers (Old Lunch), Friday, 9 August 2019 12:25 (five years ago) link
Right, or the one where he rips off Zod's head and throws it, cannonball-style, through the chests of the other two
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 9 August 2019 13:33 (five years ago) link
I feel like Johns's compulsions might've been better served by like apprenticing under Tom Savini or something.
― Where Is The Univers (Old Lunch), Friday, 9 August 2019 14:02 (five years ago) link
You are truly a generous man to find a positive side to Geoff Johns’s worst habits
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 9 August 2019 14:27 (five years ago) link
Here’s some real blabbery... is this book worth getting? I’m intrigued by the below page, but the reviews of the collection aren’t strong...https://i.imgur.com/xfJEFb9_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium
― 60... 90... 120 Minute IPA (morrisp), Saturday, 10 August 2019 00:02 (five years ago) link
(I love Spider-Woman, that’s my main focus here)
― 60... 90... 120 Minute IPA (morrisp), Saturday, 10 August 2019 00:06 (five years ago) link
Hah. I overall liked Bendis' New Avengers run - you might as well start from the beginning if you're gonna dive into it
― Nhex, Saturday, 10 August 2019 00:12 (five years ago) link
I don't know that I'd recommend a random volume of crossover-bound Bendis Avengers sight unseen (although I'm perhaps the rare voice that will rep for his run more generally), but there is actually a collected Spider-Woman: Agent of SWORD miniseries by Bendis if you're looking for more of this specific thing.
― Come and Rock Me, Hot Potatoes (Old Lunch), Saturday, 10 August 2019 00:14 (five years ago) link
Yeah yeah no I have that, and like it a lot... and that dialogue makes this sound like a “continuation” of sorts? What’s the very beginning of this whole Bendis Avengers saga?
― 60... 90... 120 Minute IPA (morrisp), Saturday, 10 August 2019 00:17 (five years ago) link
They recently put out 'Complete Collections' of his entire run on New Avengers, so grab volume one and go to town.
― Come and Rock Me, Hot Potatoes (Old Lunch), Saturday, 10 August 2019 00:22 (five years ago) link
All you really 'need' beyond that is the event collections along the way (House of M, Civil War, etc.). Also check out Secret War, which is kind of a prequel to his NA run.
― Come and Rock Me, Hot Potatoes (Old Lunch), Saturday, 10 August 2019 00:24 (five years ago) link
megalol at last post
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Saturday, 10 August 2019 00:29 (five years ago) link
Go to your local library, I think you can start with Avengers Disassembled? iirc
― Nhex, Saturday, 10 August 2019 00:30 (five years ago) link
Unpack, sic. I'm tired and my feeble brane needs help to comprehend your lulz.
― Come and Rock Me, Hot Potatoes (Old Lunch), Saturday, 10 August 2019 00:33 (five years ago) link
tha dialogue makes it sound... like every bendis snappy patter page he’s done, imoit’s not bad, but he has a few patterns he repeats as nauseum (male/female crime fighter or cop doing snappy patter followed by “are you flirting” is definitely in there) and the plots on the marvel junk get progressively worse on the main titlesspider-men 2 or whatever is serviceable but it’s bare-bones plotwise
― untuned mass damper (mh), Saturday, 10 August 2019 01:35 (five years ago) link
My brief take: good Bendis is good, bad Bendis is baaaaaad. As to the determinant of what mode he'll be in for a given project, I haven't a clue. Like I would've said he's safely ignorable after like 2013 (his X-stuff was meh, his Guardians of the Galaxy was a slap in the face to Abnett and Lanning), but then his Miles Morales and Jessica Jones stuff remained solid.
― Come and Rock Me, Hot Potatoes (Old Lunch), Saturday, 10 August 2019 01:50 (five years ago) link
Thanks all — to be clear, I meant plotwise that convo clearly comes after Agent of S.W.O.R.D. — and I haven’t read much Jessica Drew stuff falling in the period between that and the Dennis Hopeless reboot. I’m not interested in the whole Skrull impersonation storyline that comes before it, but I wondered if there are significant blanks to be filled in...
― 60... 90... 120 Minute IPA (morrisp), Saturday, 10 August 2019 01:54 (five years ago) link
I vaguely remember a Spider-Woman origin mini coming out around that time about her childhood, not by Bendis though
― Nhex, Saturday, 10 August 2019 01:56 (five years ago) link
Yeah I haven’t read that, I think it’s all “dark & gritty” or something
― 60... 90... 120 Minute IPA (morrisp), Saturday, 10 August 2019 02:02 (five years ago) link
Actually, it is by Bendis (if we’re taking about the same thing).
― 60... 90... 120 Minute IPA (morrisp), Saturday, 10 August 2019 02:04 (five years ago) link
get Marvel Unlimited and read all the Spider-Woman stuff you want
― EZ Snappin, Saturday, 10 August 2019 02:07 (five years ago) link
Eh, I couldn’t justify the monthly cost, my reading opportunities... are sporadic. (Plus, I understand those payments are funneled directly into Ike P.’s account at the Mar-A-Lago clubhouse.)
― 60... 90... 120 Minute IPA (morrisp), Saturday, 10 August 2019 02:15 (five years ago) link
Jessica Drew is one of the main players in Bendis's New Avengers run. Lots of intrigue early on re: which side of the fence she's really on.
― Come and Rock Me, Hot Potatoes (Old Lunch), Saturday, 10 August 2019 02:31 (five years ago) link
Thanks, maybe I’ll start from the beginning with these Complete New Avengers volumes... looks like library or something is the way to go. I do have one random digital issue with more Bendis banter (someone asks if Spider-Man and Spider-Woman are partners, and Peter says something like, “No. We’re absolutely not related in any way.”) — but not much actually happens in it, IIRC; the Avengers basically fly on a plane together somewhere.
― 60... 90... 120 Minute IPA (morrisp), Saturday, 10 August 2019 02:48 (five years ago) link
Yeah, whatever your opinion of his work generally, I think most would agree that you're not gonna get much out of any individual Bendis issue.
― Come and Rock Me, Hot Potatoes (Old Lunch), Saturday, 10 August 2019 02:58 (five years ago) link
if you like his banter and plotting style, his stuff becomes like comfort food
― Nhex, Saturday, 10 August 2019 04:02 (five years ago) link
Bendis team books are uniformly awful, aren't they?
― And according to some websites, there were “sexcapades.” (James Morrison), Saturday, 10 August 2019 08:19 (five years ago) link
His Avengers run from Disassembled -> New Avengers -> House of M -> Civil War (not by him, but it's important) -> Mighty Avengers -> Secret Invasion -> Dark Avengers -> Siege at least kinda manages to tell one coherent overarching story. That page is at the end of that. After that, he just sorta continued with no ideas and it's shit.
― Frederik B, Saturday, 10 August 2019 09:58 (five years ago) link
I do agree that post-Siege a lot of his mainstream Marvel stuff was weak (though I think Ultimate Doomsday was around this time and fantastic, not to mention he continued to do Ultimate Spidey/Miles Morales which was obviously good). Didn't like his Guardians at all, DID very much like his time-displaced teen All-New X-Men. I did recently enjoy the post-Secret Wars Infamous Iron Man storyline as well. Civil War II was a waste.
Like every successful comic book writer, he just got spread way too thin, tried to do too much - I imagine they all reach this point where they figure they gotta grab the money while it's available, given the industry's lack of long-term support. It's happening now to Dan Slott and Tom King too. (Hell, even now, Bendis is publishing a gazillion creator-owned titles he wrote during his Marvel tenure that they wouldn't publish while doing two Superman titles and editing a teen group sub-label at DC.)
― Nhex, Saturday, 10 August 2019 14:58 (five years ago) link
With the billions of dollars Marvel comics is bringing in through it's exploitation in other media, there should really have been a way to siphon some of that money off to the most loyal writers. I mean, nobody is ever going to give up any rights, but it's weird that the Brubaker tv work is making a weird art series with Refn, instead of just placing him in a 'advisory' role on the Winter Soldier and Falcon show. In the long run, everyone would profit off of that, I would think.
― Frederik B, Saturday, 10 August 2019 15:09 (five years ago) link
have you only just heard of Marvel Comics?
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Saturday, 10 August 2019 16:12 (five years ago) link
Eh, I think the real answer as to why they'd never do this is the influence Geoff Johns had over the DC Universe...
― Frederik B, Saturday, 10 August 2019 16:57 (five years ago) link
Geoff Johns’ influence over the DC universe is definitely the reason that Steve Ditko quit Spider-Man.
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Saturday, 10 August 2019 17:01 (five years ago) link
No, it was a dispute over residuals from the Spider-Man tv show.
― Frederik B, Saturday, 10 August 2019 17:15 (five years ago) link
🤔
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Saturday, 10 August 2019 17:17 (five years ago) link
every large publicly held corporation’s goal is to extract the maximum value from all assets (including employees) while not spending a dollar more than necessary, and seldom questioning whether changes in process or incentives could make them more effectiveI’m also pretty sure the corporate way of retaining popular writers for longer would be to give the top level of management more money if they improved the retention rate
― untuned mass damper (mh), Saturday, 10 August 2019 22:53 (five years ago) link
imagine how many promotions Didio would have received in the last 15 years if he actually did his job well
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Saturday, 10 August 2019 23:29 (five years ago) link
― Theodor Adorno, perhaps the greatest philosopher alive today (morrisp), Friday, June 14, 2019 11:46 AM (one month ago)
― Tuomas, Friday, June 14, 2019 11:54 AM (one month ago)
Update here:
Disney is optimistic that handing Fox superhero properties such as “Fantastic Four” and “X-Men” to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige will improve the quality of these movies, but bumps must be smoothed over in that transition. The studio is unimpressed with “New Mutants,” an “X-Men” spinoff with a haunted-house vibe, and believes it has limited box office potential.
― 60... 90... 120 Minute IPA (morrisp), Tuesday, 13 August 2019 20:03 (five years ago) link
Well okay, after expressing my general lack of enthusiasm for Deadpool over in the Liefeld thread, I see that they've announced that Kelly Thompson will be writing the latest iteration of his title. She's low-key doing some of the best work at Marvel rn so I guess I'm onboard.
― Come and Rock Me, Hot Potatoes (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 13 August 2019 21:56 (five years ago) link
http://www.tcj.com/it-is-time-to-boycott-marvel/
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 15 August 2019 17:17 (five years ago) link
(i know, fantagraphics piece on leaving marvel is very dog bites man but still)
Why is Disney mentioned zero times in that editorial.
― Amply Drizzled with Pure Luxury (Old Lunch), Thursday, 15 August 2019 17:30 (five years ago) link
I was gonna say... I think Perlmutter's involvement in Marvel is totally gross, but I guess you could just as truthfully point out that Bob Iger is "making bank" off Marvel product, and he's a big Democratic contributor.
― Stub yr toe on the yacht rock (morrisp), Thursday, 15 August 2019 17:35 (five years ago) link
comments go into that with some vigor
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 15 August 2019 17:38 (five years ago) link
My uninformed sense is that Disney would be thrilled to give Perlmutter the boot but can't for reasons I'm sure only sic knows.
― Amply Drizzled with Pure Luxury (Old Lunch), Thursday, 15 August 2019 18:05 (five years ago) link
but I guess you could just as truthfully point out that Bob Iger is "making bank" off Marvel product
https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/evandorkin/781303/165826/165826_600.jpg
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Thursday, 15 August 2019 19:02 (five years ago) link
Wrong company, how embarrassing 4 u
― Amply Drizzled with Pure Luxury (Old Lunch), Thursday, 15 August 2019 19:06 (five years ago) link
give it a year or two
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Thursday, 15 August 2019 19:13 (five years ago) link
When will the "Marvel vs. DC" movie happen
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 15 August 2019 19:35 (five years ago) link
xxp (?) I'm not rationalizing or arguing that anyone should buy Marvel product if they don't want to (if that's what you're implying by posting that strip), just pointing out that the logic of the editorial cuts both ways.
― Stub yr toe on the yacht rock (morrisp), Thursday, 15 August 2019 19:40 (five years ago) link
Disney has only owned Marvel for ten years; Perlmutter forced out Perelman after the suicide-by-Heroes-World.
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Thursday, 15 August 2019 19:46 (five years ago) link
(and continues to impose his bathroom / paperclip / warehouse policies that individual ppl did or didn't count as boycott prompts pre-Disney, as well as the labour policies that Marvel has run on forever)
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Thursday, 15 August 2019 19:48 (five years ago) link
Sounds like you're writing your own editorial (and probably a better one).
― Stub yr toe on the yacht rock (morrisp), Thursday, 15 August 2019 20:05 (five years ago) link
RJ is 3-for-3 on editorials where I agree with the principles, but think the details are insufficiently elucidated to argue those principles to people who might not typically assess spending options against such frameworks.
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Thursday, 15 August 2019 20:18 (five years ago) link
Such a boycott would hurt Your Favorite Creator far more than any CEO, sadly. (And really, who's gonna drop all Disney, Star Wars AND Marvel properties?)
― Nhex, Friday, 16 August 2019 00:46 (five years ago) link
Raises hand
― Οὖτις, Friday, 16 August 2019 00:55 (five years ago) link
Its not really that hard
I've tried to buy my twice-a-decade Marvel comic two months in a row now. Last Jedi was the first Star War I saw since Caravan Of Courage. I do watch most Pixars tho
Such a boycott would hurt Your Favorite Creator far more than any CEO, sadly
this is absolute nonsense though, My Favourite Creator is much better served by my buying the work that they own and control
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Friday, 16 August 2019 01:10 (five years ago) link
ok so the last Marvel comic I bought was Strange Tales II
I have bought other comics by Nick Bertozzi and Thien Pham and Kate Beaton and Jillian Tamaki and (in anthologies) Shannon Wheeler and Frank Santoro and Kevin Huizenga and Dash Shaw and Nicholas Gurewitch and Xaime Hernandez and Beto and Jeffrey Brown and Paul Hornschemier and Tony Millionaire and David Heatley and James Stokoe and Ben Marra and Michael Deforge, but I have not bought any other Marvel comics by any of these cartoonists
I HAVE bought other Marvel comics coloured by Laura Allred, but only as a package deal
I bought one (1) other Marvel comic by Farel Dalrymple, vs ten or so of his own comics, and I bought the $5 digest of Ty Templeton's Spider-Man / Human Torch: I'm With Stupid.
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Friday, 16 August 2019 01:22 (five years ago) link
(wait Strange Tales aside I guess I bought a couple of Roger Langridge comics from Marvel c. 2009-10 as well. I declined to buy the deluxe hardcover collection of his Muppet comics that came out after Disney bought Marvel, though, because they would not pay him. it's honestly really easy to make decisions like that!)
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Friday, 16 August 2019 01:26 (five years ago) link
If only we could do both. Alas, I have pledged unyielding allegiance to the House of Mouse, apologies to all of those b&w books by depressed people about...I dunno, their feet or whatever.
― Amply Drizzled with Pure Luxury (Old Lunch), Friday, 16 August 2019 02:00 (five years ago) link
(I'm pretty sure I've bought Los Bros a car each given the number of times I've repurchased the same stories in a different format.)
― Amply Drizzled with Pure Luxury (Old Lunch), Friday, 16 August 2019 02:02 (five years ago) link
If only we could do both. it’s only a small point of order, but I don’t think you technically can both boycott and not boycott the same product
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Friday, 16 August 2019 02:31 (five years ago) link
I was talking about supporting a creator's corporate and independent work simultaneously, ya goof, but I suspect you could've grokked that without my assistance.
― Amply Drizzled with Pure Luxury (Old Lunch), Friday, 16 August 2019 02:53 (five years ago) link
I guess I’ve really been letting Kate Beaton and Frank Santoro and Kevin Huizenga and Dash Shaw and Nicholas Gurewitch and Xaime Hernandez and Beto and Paul Hornschemier and Tony Millionaire and David Heatley and James Stokoe and Ben Marra and Michael Deforge down by not supporting all the work they’ve done for Marvel since October 2010I already didn’t buy all of Jeffrey Brown’s Star Wars books before Disney bought Lucasfilm, though
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Friday, 16 August 2019 07:21 (five years ago) link
Fantagraphics promoted a similar boycott when Marvel were insisting Jack Kirby sign a disgraceful contract before they returned any of his original artwork to him. These things are hard to quantify, but I think it did have some effect (on public opinion/perception if nothing else) - at least, Marvel eventually caved in iirc. Of course the stakes are quite different now, but at the very least, public opposition to Perlmutter and what he stands for can't do any harm.
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 16 August 2019 08:00 (five years ago) link
I guess I’ve really been letting Kate Beaton and Frank Santoro and Kevin Huizenga and Dash Shaw and Nicholas Gurewitch and Xaime Hernandez and Beto and Paul Hornschemier and Tony Millionaire and David Heatley and James Stokoe and Ben Marra and Michael Deforge down by not supporting all the work they’ve done for Marvel since October 2010I mean you can see how your case might be enhanced if your position was, “I Love Marvel stuff but refuse to buy it on principle,” rather than “I’m boycotting something that causes me no pain.”Like I guess we’re supposed to just laugh at the Batman fan in the strip, “what a buffoon,” but his is the position that we identify with (as fans) — we all know what it’s like when you “gotta have your” (something).
― Stub yr toe on the yacht rock (morrisp), Friday, 16 August 2019 14:47 (five years ago) link
I only buy Batman works that degrade or render the character ridiculous, hoping to cause an accelerationist death spiral of increasingly untenable Batman content that slowly dissolves the franchise, and even DC/WB itself, from within
― untuned mass damper (mh), Friday, 16 August 2019 15:11 (five years ago) link
I mean, you'd have to go some distance to outpace DC's efforts there, and still..
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 16 August 2019 15:13 (five years ago) link
lest someone think I was being literal, that was completely tongue in cheek
I do look forward to future Batman efforts by Frank Miller and Neal Adams, though
― untuned mass damper (mh), Friday, 16 August 2019 15:24 (five years ago) link
I would go so far as to say, I honestly don’t give a shit if my mainstream comics purchases have a negative political or ecological footprints for the industry and the world beyond. It’s a tiny industry. I support and pay for independent creators on a monthly basis. I’m okay with junk food.
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 17 August 2019 00:04 (five years ago) link
I mean you can see how your case might be enhanced if your position was, “I Love Marvel stuff but refuse to buy it on principle,” rather than “I’m boycotting something that causes me no pain.”Like I guess we’re supposed to just laugh at the Batman fan in the strip, “what a buffoon,” but his is the position that we identify with (as fans) — we all know what it’s like when you “gotta have your” (something).
Like I guess we’re supposed to just laugh at the Batman fan in the strip, “what a buffoon,” but his is the position that we identify with (as fans) — we all know what it’s like when you “gotta have your” (something).
― Nhex, Saturday, 17 August 2019 00:40 (five years ago) link
Because it's important to express an opinion when you have one.Marvel will outlast fucking Perlmutter. It'll probably outlast its current corporate steward once Feige leaves and the movies start to suck shit and lose money. I'm firmly on board until they start regularly pissing all over themselves a la DC. And I will somehow still muster the will and the wherewithal to read and support (*gasp* *choke*) independent comics and their creators. It's a weird wild wonderful world.
― Amply Drizzled with Pure Luxury (Old Lunch), Saturday, 17 August 2019 01:43 (five years ago) link
Nobody brought up shitting on indie comics at all.
― Nhex, Saturday, 17 August 2019 04:48 (five years ago) link
I'm probably the only one who cares, but a little disappointed that the current version of Marvel Comics Presents will probably end with #9. It's been a fun book - the Soule Wolverine ongoing story is fun and I like the hidden conceit of this series - throwing characters into different real life time periodsI bought #8 (because of a Jessica Drew story), didn’t think it was very good, and was thrown for a loop by the ad for an indie rock band on the back cover — in the format of a one-page Avengers strip, à la the old Hostess comic book ads. Interesting marketing strategy, I guess.
― Stub yr toe on the yacht rock (morrisp), Monday, 26 August 2019 05:57 (five years ago) link
Found an old Spider-Man from a charity shop – with Giffen art! Story is Mantlo and trashy – Spider-Man fights gentrifying crime gangs! – but the art is nice. Rare Giffen Marvel moment maybe, in full Munoz mode
https://i.imgur.com/4RvFzoX_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 26 August 2019 13:53 (five years ago) link
What year is that from?
― Stub yr toe on the yacht rock (morrisp), Monday, 26 August 2019 14:11 (five years ago) link
Has to be somewhere between March 1985 and... let's say June '87.
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Monday, 26 August 2019 17:23 (five years ago) link
it's spectacular 120 iirc, so November 86
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 26 August 2019 17:27 (five years ago) link
my Giffen-sense was tingling!
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Monday, 26 August 2019 17:34 (five years ago) link
lol / wow apparently this was an inventory script from 1979 or earlier that got dug up for a fill-in during the black-suit Spidey era
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Monday, 26 August 2019 17:46 (five years ago) link
that's an awesome spread
― Nhex, Monday, 26 August 2019 18:46 (five years ago) link
I knew Bill Mantlo wrote quite a few Peter Parker issues...I'd guess #104 was also an inventory script.
The Spectacular Spider-Man #6, 9–10, 12–15, 17–34, 36–40, 42, 53, 61–89, 104, 120, Annual #1, 4 (1977–1986)
― earlnash, Wednesday, 28 August 2019 00:49 (five years ago) link
After barring the Spiegelman essay they commissioned for Marvel Comics #1000, Marvel have also censored political references from a Mark Waid essay about America in the same comic
https://www.comicsbeat.com/marvel-depoliticizes-captain-america-marvel-comics-1000/
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Thursday, 29 August 2019 05:24 (five years ago) link
"b&w books by depressed people about...I dunno, their feet or whatever" is a pretty weird way to characterize Kate Beaton
Anyway, anyone still reading Ms Marvel? New writer's first move was to whisk her away from the New Jersey setting that imo is the heart of the series for some tedious space opera business. Hoping it'll get better now she's back home, but I dunno...
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 29 August 2019 09:49 (five years ago) link
It seemed a decent way to actually in-comic deal with "holy fuck I have just taken over a book that's both good and Important" - but I stopped after a few issues.
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 29 August 2019 10:44 (five years ago) link
It was, how you say, a troll.
― McGrief the Crying Dog (Old Lunch), Thursday, 29 August 2019 11:34 (five years ago) link
Was Waid’s essay (including in its original form) meant to be in the voice of Captain America?
― Stub yr toe on the yacht rock (morrisp), Thursday, 29 August 2019 14:53 (five years ago) link
the two hickman x-books are the only marvel stuff i've enjoyed + followed in a few years. are there other ongoings right now that are must-reads? or recent runs (like over the last 5 years) i may have overlooked?
― Mordy, Thursday, 29 August 2019 20:18 (five years ago) link
i'm enjoying Jason Aaron's ongoing run on Thor and I've not been a big fan of a lot of his other work! His style fits the character.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 29 August 2019 20:55 (five years ago) link
The Immortal Thor run is pretty good two tpbs into it.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 29 August 2019 21:59 (five years ago) link
Immortal Hulk, not Thor. Goodnight everyone.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 29 August 2019 22:00 (five years ago) link
Almost every Marvel run I've read has been derailed sooner rather than later by being taken into space, and DC/Marvel visions of space are almost invariably as derivative and boring as fuck
― And according to some websites, there were “sexcapades.” (James Morrison), Friday, 30 August 2019 02:36 (five years ago) link
If I wanted to read bad 1950s pulp SF I can get that free at Project Gutenberg
no, Waid himself wears a mask and carries a shield every day, even when he's typing or cooking
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Friday, 30 August 2019 04:25 (five years ago) link
That would be a “sic” burn — except the original passage mentions none of those things and seems not to be written in Steve Rogers’ voice, while the 2nd one does and is, which I why I (naturally) wondered if the entire focus of the essay shifted. You should pause to consider the context before firing up your fearsome Sarcasm Eye Beams!
― Stub yr toe on the yacht rock (morrisp), Friday, 30 August 2019 05:33 (five years ago) link
I paused to assess the context of your parentheses before making a silly joke offering some 100% accurate information that I have about Mark Waid’s personal life
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Friday, 30 August 2019 05:49 (five years ago) link
☮️
― Stub yr toe on the yacht rock (morrisp), Friday, 30 August 2019 05:52 (five years ago) link
Btw — the Spider-Woman story in Marvel Comics Presents #8 is apparently one in a series depicting “previously untold tales of Marvel Heroes” dealing with “major historical events that for whatever reason we have not been able to fully wrestle with, either because they happened too quickly or even because they were too raw a subject.”The “real-life event” tackled in this story is “Misinformation on Social Media” — which a long blurb describes as, “Bad information from bad sources [...] whose sole purpose was ad revenue based on clicks, with no regulation, peer control or obligation to the truth.”I think the way they chose to frame this particular issue (“ad revenue”?) shows that Marvel may not yet be able, or at liberty, to fully wrestle with this particular subject. (Plus, the story sucks!)
― Stub yr toe on the yacht rock (morrisp), Friday, 30 August 2019 06:10 (five years ago) link
yeah... they're not all winners tbf
― Nhex, Friday, 30 August 2019 13:14 (five years ago) link
I saw 'X-Men Red' mentioned in an article on HoXPoX, and read the first TPB this week. It's pretty great, all X-Men as political metaphor, with an emphasis on feminism. The writer, Tom Taylor, did the All New Wolverine book, so I'll check that out afterwards. That one ran 33 issues! That's an eternity for a new comic book. Hope it's as good as this, there are few things as pleasant as a good long comic run.
― Frederik B, Saturday, 7 September 2019 14:06 (five years ago) link
ANW starts out great – definitely check out The Four Sisters (Vol. 1). I eventually bailed b/c I didn’t like where it went after that.
― #YABASIC (morrisp), Saturday, 7 September 2019 15:16 (five years ago) link
All New Wolverine is a solid book, blessing the world with the character of Honey Badger. I agree it peters out a bit by the end, but it was worthwhile imo (the very last arc which is a what if?-style alternate future dig was real fun). Tom Taylor's the guy who also did the epic Injustice comic series of series. The follow up-to ANW is X-23 by Mariko Tamaki which is OK but not probably quite as good. Tamaki's indie stuff is great, but her Marvel work has been just OK (see also her gray She-Hulk run).
― Nhex, Saturday, 7 September 2019 15:33 (five years ago) link
There’s a new Gwenpool miniseries,(Gwenpool Strokes Back), from a new creative team, but it’s really bad... they ruined the character, she’s annoying and unlikeable (and weirdly sexed-up). The art sucks, too. It really reinforces the uniqueness of what Christopher Hastings (and Gurihiru) achieved in the original series.
― #YABASIC (morrisp), Tuesday, 17 September 2019 04:48 (five years ago) link
(*Typo fix, it’s “...Strikes Back” — they’ll probably make a dumb pun like that though, the “humor” is at that level.)
― #YABASIC (morrisp), Tuesday, 17 September 2019 04:50 (five years ago) link
Marvel was so great for a minute there; it’s really a bummer to me what‘s become of most the stuff I used to be so jazzed about. (I’m sure the complex,time-spanning mutant epic is all right, but that’s not my kind of jam.)
― #YABASIC (morrisp), Tuesday, 17 September 2019 04:55 (five years ago) link
current marvel books i will rep as readable at worst and greatly enjoyable at best:Avengers, Conan (and Savage Sword of Conan), Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Guardians of the Galaxy, House of X / Powers of X, Immortal Hulk, Invisible Woman, King Thor, Loki, Punisher, "Punisher Kill Krew", Savage Avengers, Silver Surfer Black, Star Wars, Squirrel Girl, Valkyrie.
I know there's like six books forthcoming next month but is this the first moment since the 1950's that (limited series aside) there are NO currently running X books? Teenage me would be agog.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 17 September 2019 04:57 (five years ago) link
also, against every prediction i would've made, the War of the Realms crossover was both great fun and well done!
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 17 September 2019 04:58 (five years ago) link
I’ve heard Star Wars is good, but I’ve never read a SW comic and it seems a little late to start now.
― #YABASIC (morrisp), Tuesday, 17 September 2019 05:43 (five years ago) link
There aren't that many of them and I'd bet most libraries have the collections
The arcs are somewhat connected but tend to be writer-centric and you won't really need much backstory because, for the most part, it's just a continuation and extrapolation of the movies. The only exceptions would be the new Doctor Aphra character, although she bounces through situations that include a number of fringe movie characters and a brief period working with Vader
― untuned mass damper (mh), Tuesday, 17 September 2019 14:20 (five years ago) link
kieron gillen's darth vader is really, really good
― don’t bore us, get to the aeon of horus (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 17 September 2019 14:21 (five years ago) link
Yeah, crucially they restarted everything around the time of The Force Awakens, so there's only a few years to catch up on.
And the Vader is really good.
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 17 September 2019 14:33 (five years ago) link
little reminder that v1 of squadron supreme was hella fucked uphttp://www.comicosity.com/deadly-nightshade-poison-ivy-squadron-supreme-and-a-history-of-sexualized-violence/xp to comics heroes killing people too
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 03:42 (five years ago) link
i should get around to reading that one of these days (and more Gruenwald in general)
― Nhex, Wednesday, 18 September 2019 04:19 (five years ago) link
Take it to the only real contribution I’ve made to this board
― #YABASIC (morrisp), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 04:21 (five years ago) link
I remember attempting to read Squadron Supreme because I'd heard the bullshit about it being the Marvel equivalent to the "seriousness" and "maturity" of Watchmen, and man was it a load of crap.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 07:03 (five years ago) link
It’s kind of a weird, brutalist, Twilight Zone version of a comic miniseries, without Watchmen’s guardrails of literary respectability (and, I guess, “good writing”). I think Squadron’s bizarre scenarios are more disturbing, because they’re presented in a way that doesn’t tell you what to think about them.
― #YABASIC (morrisp), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 14:54 (five years ago) link
dang new house of x got me all choked up
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 23:04 (five years ago) link
Liefeld is going to sue Marvel over something Deadpool related, no further info at present.
But he did reveal they tried to sue him in 1996 for creating the Fighting American so he could self-publish fake Captain America stories. His lawyer turned up to court with the Marvel anthology of Fighting American, which the company brief didn't know existed, and showed the judge the Kirby and Simon ownership credit. Marvel also tried a supplementary lawsuit that FA shouldn't be allowed to have a shield, which failed also.
― So, your CV says you're a (checks notes) DJ and stand-up comedian (aldo), Tuesday, 8 October 2019 13:59 (five years ago) link
Are you sardonically reporting that Liefeld has a very confused misremembering of the Agent America lawsuit that was heavily reported on at the time, or are you accidentally misreporting Liefeld’s statement today, or...?
― now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Tuesday, 8 October 2019 14:31 (five years ago) link
Aldo's pretty much quoting directly from Liefeld, there.
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 8 October 2019 14:52 (five years ago) link
For anyone who doesn’t remember 1996, then: unsurprisingly, Mr Liefeld’s account of events is not especially accurate.
― now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Tuesday, 8 October 2019 15:13 (five years ago) link
Which would mark the first occasion of Mr. Liefeld disregarding accuracy.
― Furter-Bursting Tater Squirter (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 8 October 2019 16:07 (five years ago) link
unsurprisingly
my mistake
― now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Tuesday, 8 October 2019 16:23 (five years ago) link
I mean, i can believe Marvel legal are dumb as shit, but stupider than Liefeld???
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 9 October 2019 02:10 (five years ago) link
Note that the lawsuit was filed by Marvel because:
- four years after leaving Marvel to launch the Image imprint at Malibu, and then forming Image as a publisher with others, Rob and Jim Lee returned to Marvel to do two 12-issue series each
- Rob, having had his contracts terminated due to poor quality subcontracted hackwork by teenagers mercurial refusal to respond appropriately to editorial low sales, simply formed a new company called Awesome Comics and solicited the next issues of his Captain America run, but titled Agent America, and without wings on the side of his head. (He also changed the Carrie Kelly-style sidekick that he had gifted Cap from redhead to blonde.)
During this period Rob also:
- got fired from Image, the company he had founded, because he was using company resources and infrastructure to publish competing titles drawn by a sweatshop of teenage/college-age Liefeld impersonators (AIUI he had stopped physically assaulting said employees by this time, but who knows) under Maximum Press, another publisher he had founded
- had Maximum go bankrupt (or possibly just collapse due to incompetence?) once he was no longer able to defraud Image's office structure to solicit and print the books
- teamed up with career scam artist Scott Rosenberg as his new publishing partner on Awesome, leading to the situation where in 2018 he discovered that Rosenberg had sold the rights to Youngblood and 513 other Liefeld properties to the truly unhinged gentleman who tanked Comico around the time Image launched, heisted Bill Willingham's Elementals, and spent years trying to heist Grendel from Matt Wagner
― now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Wednesday, 9 October 2019 05:49 (five years ago) link
i presume the current lawsuit is gwenpool related and if so har har har
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 9 October 2019 06:24 (five years ago) link
So is this Jonathan Hickman __ of X stuff good? A friend recommended it as the best X-Men in forever. Then I read a synopsis and it sounds bananas but also baroque and near-incomprehensible?
― change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, 9 October 2019 16:58 (five years ago) link
it’s pretty good and the two conjoined series wrap up today so a collection is probably forthcoming. hopefully in a format that makes it easy to read in release order
― mh, Wednesday, 9 October 2019 17:28 (five years ago) link
"best X-Men in forever is a mighty low bar but these are fun to read and I look forward to rereading the whole thing in one sitting.i am SO over the whole four-pages-of-comics-and-now-three-pages-of-"dossier"-plus-one-unnecessary-chapter-heading-page schtick that Hickman does; just give me a fucking comic already
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 9 October 2019 17:47 (five years ago) link
i love it! i'm one of those guys who loved Handbook of the Marvel Universe as a kid, bear in mind(but i doubt they'll continue this now the Dawn of X is about to start proper)HC collection is set for December, I think
― Nhex, Wednesday, 9 October 2019 19:35 (five years ago) link
looking at the x-men costume redesigns and realizing that while Jean’s looks very retro, it’s also an insanely cosplayable design (green dress, gold gloves and headpiece). seems... canny
― mh, Wednesday, 9 October 2019 22:37 (five years ago) link
seems to be mostly the same as her Marvel Girl costume during the '60s era (which may/may not have some relevance to the plot)
― Nhex, Wednesday, 9 October 2019 22:43 (five years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/zI1wrc7.jpggives me an excuse to post this cover image
― Nhex, Wednesday, 9 October 2019 22:49 (five years ago) link
new doc doom book is very good!
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 10 October 2019 04:54 (five years ago) link
Kevin Feige named Marvel Chief Creative Officer. May or may not be a great thing for the comics, but anything that takes Perlmutter further out of the loop and nudges him closer to the door is super cool. And the suggestion is that Jeph Loeb is being booted out of the tv division so double bonus imo.
― Furter-Bursting Tater Squirter (Old Lunch), Thursday, 17 October 2019 02:29 (five years ago) link
Just read Immortal Hulk #25, the extra-length space apocalypse one. I don't know if this direction's gonna be <i>good</i> per se, but damn, I love that they're trying.
― Nhex, Sunday, 27 October 2019 22:21 (five years ago) link
Love this title. Al’s done great work for ages but he’s been properly Reaganing on this run for the last year
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 27 October 2019 22:24 (five years ago) link
I’m at a kids’ costume party... a girl showed up in a very authentic-looking Spider-Gwen outfit, and I was like, “OMG, that’s so cool”
― dracula et son fils (morrisp), Sunday, 27 October 2019 22:40 (five years ago) link
Reaganing?
― Nhex, Sunday, 27 October 2019 22:48 (five years ago) link
Al Ewing on Guardians of the Galaxy is the only writer that could make me interested in that title. Seems like a dream match, an Ultimates book that people might actually read!
― Frederik B, Monday, 28 October 2019 09:11 (five years ago) link
yeah, this ruled - i haven't enjoyed a book as much as immortal hulk in a long time
― non-euclidean lenin (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 28 October 2019 10:54 (five years ago) link
“Reaganing” = old 30 Rock joke
https://30rock.fandom.com/wiki/Reaganing
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 28 October 2019 17:54 (five years ago) link
immortal #25 felt in some ways like a nod to the moore "intergalactic swamp thing" saga
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 28 October 2019 18:34 (five years ago) link
Yeah, ST #60 – “Loving the Alien”
― Brakhage, Monday, 28 October 2019 22:43 (five years ago) link
ding ding ding
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 28 October 2019 23:17 (five years ago) link
Just read the Amazing Spider-Man arc, Hunted, and War of the Realms in trade - both pretty fun
― Nhex, Friday, 15 November 2019 13:46 (five years ago) link
hulk's turn towards apocalyptic anticapitalism in the new issue was pretty rad - this book is so good
― actor Robert de Niro disguised as an Uzbek homeopath (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 15 November 2019 14:04 (five years ago) link
https://people.com/human-interest/first-marvel-comic-ever-sells-record-auction/
― FODMAP of the reef (morrisp), Sunday, 24 November 2019 03:49 (five years ago) link
Guys, I'm like two years late in noticing but Al totally made a Wrinklepaws reference in an issue of USAvengers. And I'm sure 99.9999999% of the readership was totally baffled.
― War Crimes Tribunal of the Network Stars (Old Lunch), Sunday, 24 November 2019 04:41 (five years ago) link
lmao I’d completely forgotten that
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Sunday, 24 November 2019 11:19 (five years ago) link
I had to stop and question for a sec if I'd been mistaken in thinking of that as an ILX-exclusive reference but a quick google search confirmed that, yes, he really was just writing it for the 77 knuckleheads on this board.
― War Crimes Tribunal of the Network Stars (Old Lunch), Sunday, 24 November 2019 13:51 (five years ago) link
I'd figure fans of the original Marvel Handbooks and Marvel Saga might like this one. I picked up the first couple issues off the stand and have enjoyed reading them. Artwork is beautiful and how Waid ties it together pretty well. The mad joy is the later section that references the issues etc.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51LkCCdCjsL.jpg
― earlnash, Wednesday, 27 November 2019 03:34 (five years ago) link
Anyone been following along with Dawn of X? They're apparently collecting every series into specific 'Dawn of X' trade paperbacks, really as if it's all one big story. Which at this point is up at three comics a week. It's crazy. But on a plot-level, not at all as crazy as HoXPoX
― Frederik B, Saturday, 30 November 2019 14:01 (five years ago) link
I’m psyched that a new Spider-Woman series is coming, tho I hate this cover art. Anyone have experience w/the actual creative team (Karla Pacheco & Pere Perez)? I tried looking up Perez’s artwork, and found what appears to be a softcore scene of Rogue & Gambit swimming...
― Soy Bean False Chicken (morrisp), Saturday, 30 November 2019 15:10 (five years ago) link
I've been on the Dawn of X-train. It feels inevitably slow compared to House/Powers of X, but then I try to remember that none of these series is even past the second issue yet.
Btw, I love that artist on Handbook (Javier Rodriguez), I first caught his work on Saladin Ahmed's Exiles series.
Also ugh back to the old Spider-Woman costume
― Nhex, Saturday, 30 November 2019 17:01 (five years ago) link
No kidding (on the costume)! Was this due to “popular demand,” or something?
― Soy Bean False Chicken (morrisp), Saturday, 30 November 2019 17:18 (five years ago) link
Protip: they seem to be collecting all of the newer Handbook/Saga-esque material (eg History of the Marvel U, Piskor's Grand Design) in an oversized Treasury Edition format. I've been buying the individual issues but I think this might call for a rare double dip.
― War Crimes Tribunal of the Network Stars (Old Lunch), Sunday, 1 December 2019 00:04 (five years ago) link
I had to stop and question for a sec if I'd been mistaken in thinking of that as an ILX-exclusive reference but a quick google search confirmed that, yes, he really was just writing it for the 77 knuckleheads on this board.― War Crimes Tribunal of the Network Stars (Old Lunch), 24. marraskuuta 2019 15:51
― War Crimes Tribunal of the Network Stars (Old Lunch), 24. marraskuuta 2019 15:51
Haha, I just read the issue in question and did exactly the same, 'cos I couldn't remember anymore whether "oh, xxxxpaws" originated here or somewhere else. Gotta love Mr. Ewing!
― Tuomas, Monday, 30 December 2019 10:35 (four years ago) link
I'm also sure the gag he did in the U.S. Avengers tie-in of Secret Empire, where he referenced the opening narration of Asterix (HYDRA has conquered all of France! "Well... Not quite all. One small group remains...") flew over the heads of most American readers.
― Tuomas, Monday, 30 December 2019 10:43 (four years ago) link
Anyone been following along with Dawn of X? They're apparently collecting every series into specific 'Dawn of X' trade paperbacks, really as if it's all one big story. Which at this point is up at three comics a week. It's crazy. But on a plot-level, not at all as crazy as HoXPoX― Frederik B, Saturday, November 30, 2019 2:01 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Frederik B, Saturday, November 30, 2019 2:01 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink
I'm an on-again/off-again comics guy. For the most part, I just wait until things I want to read are out in trades, but a couple months ago I scooped up all the House of X/Powers of X issues, along with the first Marauders issue which had come out that week. Then I went back this weekend hoping there'd be another issue or two and somehow there are 5 at this point! If feel like it's going to be a bit of an onslaught on my wallet if I want to check out all the Dawn of X stuff. Is it common for comics to have such an aggressive release schedule?
― ☮️ (peace, man), Monday, 6 January 2020 13:22 (four years ago) link
I don't think so, they are really trying to make a giant story out of this. There was one week with five new issues! If it helps, you can safely drop Fallen Angels, it's crap. Excalibur doesn't really have anything to do with the main plot either, I don't think. But Marauders is pretty central, and pretty good, X-Force had the most important plot point at all so far, and New Mutants is pretty good and sometimes written by Hickman as well. So that's still four series, and probably two a week... Let's see how long they can keep it up, it already seems as if it's too much to handle, with issues being delayed and moved around.
― Frederik B, Monday, 6 January 2020 13:36 (four years ago) link
Oh hey, they're also dropping some Hickman-penned one-shots into the mix in the coming months!
― Drive Like a Demon From Steakhouse to Steakhouse (Old Lunch), Monday, 6 January 2020 13:41 (four years ago) link
yeah, they're really pushing the limits of how much I'm willing to buy. 6 titles was already a big stretch, and they're introducing Wolverine and Cable solo titles. I'm probably not gonna get those.Fallen Angels is not very good, but at least it ends after six issues. But it gets replaced with a Hellions title immediately after.Frankly none of these are that great yet, but we're also only about 3-4 issues into any given book. But so far they're squandering the promise of Hox/Pox. Only the main X-Men book and Marauders are reliably good imo, but I'll keep hanging on at least through issue 6 for all of these.
― Nhex, Monday, 6 January 2020 15:17 (four years ago) link
I actually like the concept of Excalibur as a separate, magic-focused title, but it's just OK so far. A lot of intriguing setup but not much plot so far. X-Force has an ongoing plot but so far is a shock title, with grisly violence every issue.New Mutants is up and down. Got sick of the space stuff already, kinda the writing went back to Earth for now.
The five issues in one week hit me hard, but then i realized they probably only did it because it was the week before Christmas. Still, kinda sucks that these are going biweekly!
peace, man - they're gonna release Dawn of X in six trades/hardcovers with all the series in sequence pretty quickly (vol 1 has all the #1s, vol 2 has all the #2s, etc.), at least they're already solicity for six volumes.
― Nhex, Monday, 6 January 2020 15:21 (four years ago) link
Hellions is written by Zeb Wells, so don't get your hopes up for improvement.
― Drive Like a Demon From Steakhouse to Steakhouse (Old Lunch), Monday, 6 January 2020 15:23 (four years ago) link
what did Wells do? i know he's involved with Robot Chicken but I don't really remember any of his Marvel work
― Nhex, Monday, 6 January 2020 15:48 (four years ago) link
It'll all be on Marvel Unlimited in six months
I've been reading the Hickman-penned ones, though
― babu frik fan account (mh), Monday, 6 January 2020 15:51 (four years ago) link
If I remember correct, Zeb Wells was in the rotation on Spider-man when they were trying the kinda weekly rotating artist/writer teams.
Check this thing out...
https://www.amazon.com/X-Men-Children-Atom-Box-Set/dp/1302924028/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=x-men+box+set&qid=1578522209&sr=8-2
It is pretty much a complete X-men up to like '81.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 8 January 2020 22:26 (four years ago) link
Zeb Wells wrote an okay issue of Tangled Web that Fegredo drew and some terrible backup story that wasn't cartooned by a genius
― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Wednesday, 8 January 2020 22:37 (four years ago) link
hey guys! I bought a Marvel comic for the first time in... 25 years? It was the first Immortal Hulk tpb. It was good.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 27 January 2020 21:18 (four years ago) link
good choice
― babu frik fan account (mh), Monday, 27 January 2020 21:22 (four years ago) link
I've been reading them from the library and a) the paper is fuckin hideous, and b) there's a fill-in in the fifth issue by someone who can cartoon well and I felt a low-level tension headache evaporate a few pages in
― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Monday, 27 January 2020 21:33 (four years ago) link
idk you have issues with paper and colors that I don't, generally speaking
― Οὖτις, Monday, 27 January 2020 21:35 (four years ago) link
did you get the one with the first five issues or the omnibus with #1-10?
― babu frik fan account (mh), Monday, 27 January 2020 21:58 (four years ago) link
first five
― Οὖτις, Monday, 27 January 2020 22:01 (four years ago) link
I have to move the book about nine times a page just to scoot the glare around in order to be able to see the words and drawings in each panel
― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Monday, 27 January 2020 22:01 (four years ago) link
HULK TOO SHINY
― babu frik fan account (mh), Monday, 27 January 2020 22:02 (four years ago) link
It gets even better as it goes along, too
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 27 January 2020 23:04 (four years ago) link
fill-in in the fifth issue collection
― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Monday, 27 January 2020 23:16 (four years ago) link
I can tell you it's up to issue #30 right now, and still bangin'. Dammmn good.
― Nhex, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 00:00 (four years ago) link
Doc Samson still dead?
― earlnash, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 01:00 (four years ago) link
iirc the current status is anyone who's drank from the well of gamma never really dies
not as long as the green door is open
― babu frik fan account (mh), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 02:42 (four years ago) link
Yeah, the Immortal Hulk is awesome and probably the highlight of Ewing's Marvel career. I just finished the latest TPB, and the revelation of the Hulk's ultimate future was just an incredible issue, pure science fiction goodness. The change of artist was a good choice for that issue, as great as Joe Bennett is at drawing grotesque gamma monsters, I don't think he could've pulled off what German García did there.
TIH also benefits from Hulk and his supporting cast being fairly independent from the big superhero teams, so the title hasn't become saddled with having to take part in Marvel's various crossovers, which has happened with pretty much all of Ewing's previous ongoing Marvel comics.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 07:37 (four years ago) link
Also, Ewing's nod to a certain Great Lakes Avengers character was cool, and appropriate for the story. I love how has this deep knowledge of Marvel lore and isn't afraid to reference fairly obscure characters and stories from years ago, but he always does it in a way that doesn't baffle readers who might not be familiar with the stories he's referencing. So it's fun for old-time Marvel readers but not uninviting to newbies; that's the way you should write in a decades-old shared continuity.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 07:44 (four years ago) link
"I love how he has"
Guys, I'm like two years late in noticing but Al totally made a Wrinklepaws reference in an issue of USAvengers. And I'm sure 99.9999999% of the readership was totally baffled.― War Crimes Tribunal of the Network Stars (Old Lunch), Sunday, November 24, 2019 4:41 AM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglinklmao I’d completely forgotten that― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Sunday, November 24, 2019 11:19 AM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink
― War Crimes Tribunal of the Network Stars (Old Lunch), Sunday, November 24, 2019 4:41 AM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Sunday, November 24, 2019 11:19 AM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink
Just saw this from months ago. What was the context for the reference?
― ☮️ (peace, man), Friday, 31 January 2020 14:44 (four years ago) link
Sunspot making fun of a government stooge.
― Tuomas, Friday, 31 January 2020 14:50 (four years ago) link
xpost There really wasn't any context. Roberto da Costa says it offhandedly to some brusque authoritarian who's all like '...wtf-paws?' in response, thus reflecting the experience of so many who have spent too much time on ILX.
― Dr. Teeth and the Women (Old Lunch), Friday, 31 January 2020 14:50 (four years ago) link
Rolling Comic Book thread 2017
― Doubling down on out of date information (aldo), Friday, 31 January 2020 14:52 (four years ago) link
Thanks!
― ☮️ (peace, man), Friday, 31 January 2020 14:58 (four years ago) link
It's like when Matt Fraction was dropping Best Show references into his comics yet even more insular and incomprehensible to all but the like +/- 50 people on planet earth who both regularly read Marvel comics and frequent ILX.
― Dr. Teeth and the Women (Old Lunch), Friday, 31 January 2020 15:05 (four years ago) link
i've been on this board a long time but...it just doesn't seem like a good idea
― Nhex, Saturday, 1 February 2020 00:48 (four years ago) link
this new costume sucks, wtfhttps://static0.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Spider-Woman-NewCostume.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=450&h=523&dpr=1.5
― Ticket Tout (morrisp), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 05:06 (four years ago) link
Why would she adopt Spider-Man’s webbing
― Ticket Tout (morrisp), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 05:08 (four years ago) link
Which Spider-Woman is that? The Secret Wars one (forget her name) always had a suit that was derivative of Spidey's.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 25 February 2020 07:41 (four years ago) link
Yes — this is Jessica Drew, who has no relation whatsoever to Spidey.
― Ticket Tout (morrisp), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 14:40 (four years ago) link
(...And who already got an awesome new costume just a few years back. Plus, her “classic” costume is one of Marvel’s best. She didn’t need a crappy third costume.)
― Ticket Tout (morrisp), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 14:43 (four years ago) link
Forget the costume, whoever's writing this thing better be prepared to outdo that Hopeless run or why even bother.
― Expart of Languidge (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 15:03 (four years ago) link
Yeah. It’s Karla Pacheco
― Ticket Tout (morrisp), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 15:06 (four years ago) link
Jessica Drew is my favorite Marvel hero about whom I know practically nothing
Like, I never followed her stories or anything but I LOVE her entire look and whenever she shows up as a secondary character, I cheer
― totally unnecessary bewbz of exploitation (DJP), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 17:08 (four years ago) link
Yeah, I can't fully explain my love for the character (tho I have gone back and read most of her solo stuff)... there's just something really compelling about her.
― Ticket Tout (morrisp), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 17:23 (four years ago) link
she's cool, also a brainwashed spy of some sort
― Nhex, Tuesday, 25 February 2020 19:13 (four years ago) link
It's too bad they retconned her seventies origin story, where it was revealed she was originally a spider that had been uplifted into a human by the High Evolutionary. That's an awesomely grotesque superhero origin.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 27 February 2020 07:29 (four years ago) link
that is great
― Fantastic. Great move. Well done (sic), Thursday, 27 February 2020 09:11 (four years ago) link
To be fair, that original origin (when she was intended to be just a one-shot character, to establish trademark rights in the name) was immediately retconned later the same year, the next time she appeared.
― Murdered-Out Highlander XLE (morrisp), Thursday, 27 February 2020 15:39 (four years ago) link
(And I think she could not have seen long-term success with such a bizarre origin.)
― Murdered-Out Highlander XLE (morrisp), Thursday, 27 February 2020 15:41 (four years ago) link
One more point: as far as retcons go, revealing that the High Evolutionary had “gaslighted” her into thinking she had evolved from a spider, for psychological manipulation purposes, is still a pretty satisfyingly f’d-up background.
― Murdered-Out Highlander XLE (morrisp), Thursday, 27 February 2020 16:10 (four years ago) link
xp you say that but its 2020 and Spider-Pig is a household name whoooooooooooo
― Nhex, Thursday, 27 February 2020 19:44 (four years ago) link
Spider-Ham, right? Spider-Pig was in the Simpsons movie
― mh, Thursday, 27 February 2020 19:46 (four years ago) link
Was gonna say but figured my pedantry could be put to better use.
― Expart of Languidge (Old Lunch), Thursday, 27 February 2020 19:52 (four years ago) link
there is no better use for pedantry than correcting people on the accuracy of Peter Porker's sobriquet
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 27 February 2020 20:15 (four years ago) link
Simpsons movie did more box office and has been on home video for 12 years, it's more likely to have generated a household name tbh
― Fantastic. Great move. Well done (sic), Thursday, 27 February 2020 20:27 (four years ago) link
I demand they bring back Goose Rider
I had the original Marvel Tails comic and still occasionally think of the panel captioned "Goose Rider summons the demons of heck"
*HONK*
― mh, Thursday, 27 February 2020 20:29 (four years ago) link
You may be in luck. The second of two collections of all the OG Spider-Ham material is forthcoming and a new title has just begun in the past month. We're in the midst of a veritable Ham-issuance.
― Expart of Languidge (Old Lunch), Thursday, 27 February 2020 20:33 (four years ago) link
― mh, Thursday, 27 February 2020 20:35 (four years ago) link
*WANK*
― Miami weisse (WmC), Thursday, 27 February 2020 20:48 (four years ago) link
for the youngsters:http://i.imgur.com/8AG3bUL.png
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 27 February 2020 21:31 (four years ago) link
still hilarious
― totally unnecessary bewbz of exploitation (DJP), Thursday, 27 February 2020 21:35 (four years ago) link
The apex of comics
― Οὖτις, Friday, 28 February 2020 03:33 (four years ago) link
So, the summer X-Men event is revealed, and it's called 'X of Swords' and is about X-men getting swords...
― Frederik B, Friday, 28 February 2020 22:11 (four years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Djz_cLWU4AAueVU.jpg
― Generous Grant for Stepladder Creamery (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 February 2020 22:16 (four years ago) link
― Nhex, Saturday, 29 February 2020 15:44 (four years ago) link
That's Dazzler.
― EZ Snappin, Saturday, 29 February 2020 16:07 (four years ago) link
https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/introducing-the-new-new-warriors
I’m dying
― DJP, Wednesday, 18 March 2020 17:47 (four years ago) link
am unclear if that's meant to be wildly tone deaf or just is wildly tone deaf
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 18 March 2020 17:52 (four years ago) link
lol those character names
― absolute idiot liar uneducated person (mh), Wednesday, 18 March 2020 19:57 (four years ago) link
It is so gloriously dumb
― DJP, Wednesday, 18 March 2020 20:11 (four years ago) link
Whoever is editing this book must be entirely devoid of shame
channeling the spirit of Stan Lee
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 18 March 2020 20:12 (four years ago) link
eh think I'll wait for the new new NEW Warriors
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 18 March 2020 20:41 (four years ago) link
I am seriously worried that my local shop is gonna go under :(
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 18 March 2020 20:42 (four years ago) link
"I wanted to have teen characters who felt as "now" as the New Warriors did in 1990,” explains Kibblesmith. “The New Warriors have been zeitgeist characters from the beginning, you get edgy skateboarding Night Thrasher in the '90s and the Reality TV team in the 2000s, and now in 2020, we have New Warriors who have never grown up without the Internet, and one character who appears to essentially live inside it.
this almost makes it sound intentionally dumb, a tribute to fumbling, already-dated-when-they-debuted attempts at being contemporary from earlier decades? all of this really does sounds corny in almost exactly the same way as introducing a brooding skateboard-riding superhero called 'Night Thrasher' in 1990 was corny
― soref, Wednesday, 18 March 2020 21:55 (four years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/4XnucnS.png
― soref, Wednesday, 18 March 2020 22:01 (four years ago) link
I like that I can't tell from that semi-page if it's a Colon or Kyle issue
― Dollarmite Is My Name (sic), Wednesday, 18 March 2020 22:05 (four years ago) link
I thought the current Cantwell/Larocca Doctor Doom series was limited, got to issue #6 and realized it's ongoing. Awesome!
― Nhex, Sunday, 29 March 2020 21:42 (four years ago) link
Immortal Hulk #33 / LGY # 750, "The Thoughtful Man". Oversized issue, they used the extra pages to have many many double page spreads of amazing grotesque. This series...
― Nhex, Friday, 5 June 2020 23:32 (four years ago) link
marvel appears to be working with a partner on a kickstarter inspired premium linehttps://marvelmade.net/
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 27 October 2020 17:08 (four years ago) link
That's actually not THAT terrible price for what you get, though I won't be throwing around that kind of scratch for one setInteresting that it's by ReedPOP (the NYCC people and so on) and they tied in a bonus for being an Unlimited subscriber
― Nhex, Tuesday, 27 October 2020 17:19 (four years ago) link
Exclusive new 20-page story by Chris Claremont & Salvador Larroca
Is there a more expensive offering where you don't get this
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 27 October 2020 18:25 (four years ago) link
the internet
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 27 October 2020 18:28 (four years ago) link
oh lol, i thought you meant JUST get thatno, these get distributed to your apple watch; you have no chance to survive, make your time
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 27 October 2020 18:29 (four years ago) link
The lack of a proper collected edition of Claremont’s run remains pretty annoying/baffling. The only good attempt I’ve seen so far is the half size UK glossy versions
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 28 October 2020 09:08 (four years ago) link
The Marvel Masterworks versions are all you need - includes the Wolverine series, God Loves Man Kills, Majik, and Kitty Pryde and Wolverine.
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 28 October 2020 15:26 (four years ago) link
All of the Claremont issues of the X-Men are collected in Essential X-Men 1-11 too
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 28 October 2020 17:46 (four years ago) link
I watched an episode of the Disney+ docuseries Marvel’s 616 that profiled two Spanish artists (Javier Garron and Natacha Bustos). Their stories were interesting, but the Marvel corporate folks were annoying, and the pace of the show was really slow; it felt like gauzy in-house Mouse House marketing (no surprise).Anyway, I hoped it might address the question of why there are so many successful artists from Spain working in U.S. comics (I think I posed it a few years ago ITT); but no dice.
― down like 6:30 (morrisp), Sunday, 22 November 2020 07:20 (four years ago) link
There’s an episode on women comics creators that looks interesting, tho I fear it may reverberate with the sound of Marvel patting itself on the back.
― down like 6:30 (morrisp), Sunday, 22 November 2020 07:34 (four years ago) link
i dunno, so finding the loose, unfocused style enjoyable and not a hard marvel sell, but def not something i could see ppl not already invested in being fans off
― H in Addis, Sunday, 22 November 2020 20:01 (four years ago) link
I tried watching that other episode, but it’s just sooo slooowwww...Like, why not capture the zing & zest of comics at least a little bit?
― down like 6:30 (morrisp), Monday, 23 November 2020 05:22 (four years ago) link
My kid’s watching the first episode, about the Japanese Spider-Man tv series from the ’70s... It’s actually pretty interesting.
― wet tip hen ax (egg drop mix) (morrisp), Monday, 7 December 2020 02:25 (four years ago) link
Just a note that the FF:Road Trip one-off from last week is worth checking out. Well-written (by Halt & Catch Fire guy Christopher Cantwell) and gruey and fun at the same time, a very "makes it look easy" sort of comic.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 10 December 2020 15:33 (four years ago) link
Oh, that's how he's known? I've been digging his Doctor Doom ongoing, was wondering how he suddenly just started writing a bunch of mid-tier Marvel titles this year
― Nhex, Thursday, 10 December 2020 15:54 (four years ago) link
from chip zdarsky, i lol'd
Marvel has decided to bring back Marvel Two-In-One with me as writer again, but this time the “Two” is talking heads and action and the “One” is the story. Will we be successful? Absolutely not, but I could really use the paycheck.
― the serious avant-garde universalist right now (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 6 January 2021 17:53 (three years ago) link
I bought the first TPB collection of the new Spider-Woman series – it’s not good, just some origin retcon BS. Meanwhile, I’m fleshing out my Kate Bishops via eBay before the Steinfeld Chronicles drives the prices of those up.
― Four Jacks and a Jill (morrisp), Thursday, 7 January 2021 00:34 (three years ago) link
i like zdarsky but wish his comics were as interesting and funny as his public personality
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 8 January 2021 11:25 (three years ago) link
like, as a writer, he's basically just a more-interesting charles soule
I'm a steady fan from Sex Criminals and his Peter Parker, Spider-Man run. Will get around to reading Daredevil at some point
― Nhex, Friday, 8 January 2021 13:24 (three years ago) link
oh, i think his artwork is great. i wish he'd be less dignified and more himself as a writer
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 8 January 2021 14:40 (three years ago) link
He wrote the Spider-Man run! Give it a shot, it's largely goofy fun Spidey-times. Mainly involving Pete's secret sister joining continuity and the big secret identity reveal to JJJ -> hijinx.
― Nhex, Friday, 8 January 2021 14:53 (three years ago) link
I think the episode is really worth watching for long-time Marvel fans. Obviously the whole series is mostly uncritical of Marvel as a company, so you'll have to accept that, but this particular episode has interviews of people like Nocenti, Louise Simonson, and June Brigman, none of whom I've ever seen interviewed in a proper documentary. It has, among other things, a lovely scene of Nocenti and Simonson getting together and reminiscing on what it was like working in the male-dominated bullpen in the 1980s. Of course they also interview newer creators like G. Willow Wilson and Kelly Sue DeConnick too, but for me it was particularly touching to hear the stories the older generation of women, whose comics I grew up with, from the era before Marvel really started to diversify their roster.
In fact, all of the episodes of "Marvel's 616" are pretty well-made, and have a fairly varied approach to their subjects, so IMO the whole series is worth watching out. Another standout was the cosplay episode, they did a great job of finding a diverse group on interviewees, and showing how for them cosplay can be a way of positively affirming, for example, their queerness or Black identity.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 08:27 (three years ago) link
what the fuck
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/joe-bennett-apologises-over-immortal-hulk-43-anti-semitic-error/
― Joe Biden Stan Account (milo z), Thursday, 4 February 2021 07:28 (three years ago) link
they’ve failed to notice spelling errors in the lettered dialogue, so.... I’m not surprised editorial didn’t catch it
― mh, Thursday, 4 February 2021 13:46 (three years ago) link
he said that was a Cronenberg nod - what's it referring to?
― Nhex, Thursday, 4 February 2021 13:58 (three years ago) link
the name of the store was Cronenberg, which people read as an intentional dig as a "jewish name"lots of diamond district stores have stars of david and i could see "Jewery" done backwards as an honest if catastrophic mistake. if anybody put up any resistance on a recall my spidey sense would go off but i think this was just a particularly dumb error. I hope!
― That's not really my scene (I'm 41) (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 4 February 2021 16:12 (three years ago) link
oh lol. Cronenberg was misspelled too
― Nhex, Thursday, 4 February 2021 16:16 (three years ago) link
xp I had a quick Google Street View drive-by (47th street, between 5th and 6th avenue) and couldn't see any - but then there's some artistic license in that the shops don't have anything much written on the windows, because it'd get in the way of the jewelry!
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 4 February 2021 16:47 (three years ago) link
i'll amend that to "less prominent stars of david;" i imagine part of why the "our bad" response wasn't taken entirely at face value is pushing that imagery is stereotypical in any case.
― That's not really my scene (I'm 41) (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 4 February 2021 16:51 (three years ago) link
you know, you watch Uncut Gems and try to do an unsubtle diamond merchant sketch and fuck it up three ways...
― mh, Friday, 5 February 2021 01:39 (three years ago) link
Long piece on Marvel's history (I haven't read it yet) - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/02/15/who-really-created-the-marvel-universe
― babe for the weekend (morrisp), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 16:49 (three years ago) link
Kim O'Connor read it so I didn't have to risk my blood pressure reading praise for R13sman
It's a really cogent and balanced explainer! Until the very end, where it's just like..... I genuinely don't know where to start pic.twitter.com/5ezJpZsIcL— Kim O'Connor (@shallowbrigade) February 9, 2021
― shivers me timber (sic), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 18:32 (three years ago) link
I didn't expect to see a former ILXor namechecked in that
― Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 18:35 (three years ago) link
so should I read his book?
― Nhex, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 18:44 (three years ago) link
hasn't Old Lunch also been reading Every Marvel Ever?
― babe for the weekend (morrisp), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 18:48 (three years ago) link
Still curious about Douglas' book, not about Abrah4m's.
― shivers me timber (sic), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 18:52 (three years ago) link
Wolk is always good value, imo. Wish he would return to these parts.
I've been making the effort, morrisp (made it as far as the early '70s, and then started plowing through the daunting volume of the past eight years or so), but I do not have his fortitude/focus.
― Vladislav Bibidonurtmi (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 18:57 (three years ago) link
The linked article is pretty decent though
― Nhex, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 19:03 (three years ago) link
Another article about the career of Lee, that takes AR's book as its only source, and repeatedly reads between the lines to tease out startling conclusions that Lee may have overstated his contributions, abilities, beliefs and creativity. Imagine the reviewer's potential shock if she'd consulted a second source!
https://newrepublic.com/article/161130/stan-lee-true-believer-marvel-comics-review
― shivers me timber (sic), Wednesday, 10 February 2021 05:08 (three years ago) link
TwoMorrows put out a book recently called Stuf' Said! which chronologically plots Lee & Kirby interview snippets re: attribution.https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1513
― Vladislav Bibidonurtmi (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 10 February 2021 05:32 (three years ago) link
I only noticed yesterday that ILX's very own Al Ewing has gotten a gig of writing Guardians of the Galaxy! Has anyone read it, is it good? Ewing + cosmic Marvel feels like the best possible combination to me, IMO his Ultimates run was the best thing he's done for the company.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 10 February 2021 08:23 (three years ago) link
Immortal Hulk!
― Nhex, Wednesday, 10 February 2021 12:32 (three years ago) link
Yes, that one is very good too, I just love the cosmic stuff more. I've never been that interested in occult themes, so the whole Satan thing he's doing there has left me cold, as good as the series is otherwise.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 10 February 2021 12:38 (three years ago) link
he also writes SWORD iirc
― mh, Thursday, 11 February 2021 00:49 (three years ago) link
We Only Find Them When They’re Dead is a good read btw
― That's not really my scene (I'm 41) (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 11 February 2021 14:05 (three years ago) link
Amazing piece of Houseroyism in the Hollywood Reporter: in which Roy argues the R13sm4n bio to be a hit piece because he finds it 95% fair and accurate but 5% mean to Stan.
Thomas argues that it's absolutely unfair to suggest that Kirby did nearly all the writing on the Lee/Kirby comics, because one uncontested primary source exists: Lee's written plot for Fantastic Four #8. By Roy's account, this consists of "three longish paragraphs," containing no dialogue, but "complete with Reed Richards trying to stretch his malleable arms far enough to save a man falling from a building but not quite reaching him, so that the Human Torch has to catch him on the fly," and a subplot about Richards wanting to restore the Thing's human form.
He acknowledges that Kirby wraps up the three-paragraph plot in seven pages, while the story goes on for 13. He brings up the fact that the "yarn's ending as printed" recalls one in a Kirby story from the 1950s, but argues that this makes it likely that Stan dictated a second synopsis over the phone to Kirby, rather than that Jack repeated himself.
Elsewhere, the rascally one argues that it was fair to not pay the artists for writing, because they could go and starve if they didn't like it, and anyway the writers were paid worse. Thomas also argues virtuously that the Marvel Method was fair, because as editor-in-chief, he wouldn't have hired a writer who didn't partly plot over the phone, "so an artist could make some money by starting work a day or so sooner on a story."
A true classic of the genre.
― armoured van, Holden (sic), Thursday, 18 March 2021 00:16 (three years ago) link
Interesting article on Lee’s dalliances with Hollywood as an actor by Riesman, which sidesteps the issue of comics authorship entirely but is telling in its own way: https://www.polygon.com/movies/22289175/stan-lee-cameos-non-marvel-moviesI think Roy Thomas always comes at this from the wrong angle, by concentrating on “what does the physical evidence say” as opposed to “was Stan Lee an inveterate bullshitter.” I’d ask whether whether a guy who called himself “one-take Lee” because he thought he nailed it in one, and didn’t bother listening to his friends when they told him about where to look when on camera, would have been that much more invested in managing the plots of comics when he’d already written up a short summary. Lee’s legacy is locked in. Kirby and others had been trying to claw back a piece of the credit they’d likely deserved, for decades, without a lot of traction. Questioning that legacy now still doesn’t do much to change his stature.
― mh, Thursday, 18 March 2021 13:19 (three years ago) link
I think Roy Thomas is just trying to get the details cataloged, the guy has spent quite a bit of time trying to get some of the details of that whole period of American comics history captured in general. That being, you have to take that his opinion is as someone who was actively involved with those issues and his own point of view. If viewed as a rap battle, he's definitely one side of the beef.
― earlnash, Thursday, 18 March 2021 15:48 (three years ago) link
I haven't been reading a ton of issues, but I have read Roy Thomas Daredevil run and his Hulk run in the past months. There is some good late 60s wacky goodness in those comics. That issue of the Hulk where Tom Wolf shows up and Valkrie is in the story is one of the strangest comics of the time.
― earlnash, Thursday, 18 March 2021 15:50 (three years ago) link
I think Roy Thomas always comes at this from the wrong angle, by concentrating on “what does the physical evidence say” as opposed to “was Stan Lee an inveterate bullshitter.”
also the physical evidence that he's citing shows the exact opposite of his claim!
― armoured van, Holden (sic), Thursday, 18 March 2021 20:24 (three years ago) link
He does make a case that implies he has never watched a legal show on television
― mh, Friday, 19 March 2021 18:40 (three years ago) link
haha, they've decided to screw comic shops harder than DC
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Thursday, 25 March 2021 17:35 (three years ago) link
looks like it's more they're thinking that Diamond will be bankrupt soon?
Signed non-exclusively with Penguin/Random House for direct market and bookstore distro from October 1st. Press release highlights
After a thorough analysis of the market environment, Marvel has chosen PRHPS as its distribution partner to create a sustainable, productive supply chain and enhanced infrastructure for Marvel publications that will benefit comics retailers and fans alike for years to come. Penguin Random House is known for its state-of-the-art multi-ranging services that enable independent booksellers to increase efficiency and profitability.
and
Penguin Random House is a free-freight company, allowing retailers to simplify their business models while alleviating the volatility and complexity of reducing freight costs and planning. Through many of PRH’s standard offerings, like its rapid replenishment program for graphic novels and advanced supply chain, Direct Market retailers will experience more flexibility to manage inventory and stock their stores to best serve their customers.Direct Market retailers can choose to order Marvel products direct from PRH, or alternatively, through Diamond as a wholesaler under terms established by Diamond in the US and the UK. Hachette Book Group will continue to manage distribution of Marvel’s graphic novels and trade collections to the book market.
Direct Market retailers can choose to order Marvel products direct from PRH, or alternatively, through Diamond as a wholesaler under terms established by Diamond in the US and the UK. Hachette Book Group will continue to manage distribution of Marvel’s graphic novels and trade collections to the book market.
― armoured van, Holden (sic), Thursday, 25 March 2021 21:01 (three years ago) link
So Penguin is distributing to comic shops while Hachette distributes the same product to bookstores? Seems weird.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 25 March 2021 21:13 (three years ago) link
They're signed exclusively with PRH, anyone else (ie Diamond) will have to buy from PRH and then distribute from there.
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Thursday, 25 March 2021 21:33 (three years ago) link
The discount being cut down to 50% across the board is the screwing shops harder bit - DC didn't fuck with margins at least.
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Thursday, 25 March 2021 21:34 (three years ago) link
IIRC, Penguin won't charge for shipping so that's the incentive over Diamond?And milo, you're saying the discount is overall worse than it was with Diamond?Third - I assume this isn't another Heroes World-type debacle since it's unlikely PRH will go down in flames.
― Nhex, Thursday, 25 March 2021 21:52 (three years ago) link
and god help us for the inevitable shipping fuck-ups that will occur in Oct
― Nhex, Thursday, 25 March 2021 21:57 (three years ago) link
Yes - shops of any size were getting 55-56% (up to 58%ish at very high tiers) on Marvel comics and trades via Diamond. For big launches, Marvel would run promotions that would take that up another 15%. Now they're all at 50%. Diamond shipping wasn't eating up 5-8% unless you're located in Alaska.
It also means that the discounts and shipping are going to be worse for manga, Boom/IDW/Dark Horse/Image/etc. with less weight to spread around sans Marvel. Theoretically you could keep buying Marvel from Diamond but now you've gone from 56% and 2% shipping to 50% max and 2% shipping - no way to make that make sense.
This seems to pretty clearly be Marvel getting a better deal from Penguin because Penguin doesn't discount as much, not anything to do with Diamond's future prospects.
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Thursday, 25 March 2021 22:06 (three years ago) link
Bookshops usually only get 40% from publishers, surprised PRH will go higher for comic shops.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Thursday, 25 March 2021 22:23 (three years ago) link
ahh right. thanks for the extra context in the last post too
the line about trusting this distribution partner will exist for years seems pointed to me, especially with last year's multiple reorgs of the Geppi family of companies, DC's lines about not being confident that Diamond are solvent, it coming out that DC had let their right-to-buy deal lapse a few years ago...
― armoured van, Holden (sic), Thursday, 25 March 2021 22:35 (three years ago) link
xp comics aren't returnable outside of special circumstances so the discounts are higher.
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Thursday, 25 March 2021 22:50 (three years ago) link
This feels a little like Marvel's contribution (alongside DC raising the price of some single issues to $7) to the Munchausen-by-proxy-ing of the floppy, or at least Big Two floppies.
― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Thursday, 25 March 2021 23:29 (three years ago) link
Both would kill for readers to go digital-only but that has stalled out pretty badly.
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Thursday, 25 March 2021 23:36 (three years ago) link
I dunno, I'm a staunch physical copy holdout, but $7 a pop across the board would be a pretty effective strategy to ensure that I drop monthlies altogether.
― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Thursday, 25 March 2021 23:42 (three years ago) link
And with Marvel's new deal, if shops' customer-side preorder discounts wind up scaling back as I'd expect, that'll result in a lot of people scaling back the number of titles they purchase in a given month. Which will result in more titles getting cancelled (the sales just aren't there!).
― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Thursday, 25 March 2021 23:46 (three years ago) link
thx milo. couldn't really understand the articles i've read, your take was much clearer
― Nhex, Friday, 26 March 2021 00:59 (three years ago) link
xp - re Geppi Industries Inc solvency, from what I gather Disney and AT&T were both incredibly pissed that Diamond unilaterally stopped shipping product (and sending them money for said product) last March/April. Which is both mind boggling (at Disney/AT&T's stupidity) and unsurprising (at Disney/AT&T's stupidity) - people weren't even at stores to receive shipments! The piling up of bills for weeks on end when stores couldn't have been open would have wiped the direct market off the face of the planet.
The path to digital uptake would be to sell comics much cheaper but for whatever reason they don't want to dip below cover price (presumably not worth it for Marvel Comics to exist if they're making $.15 per digital copy sold after Comixology takes their cut) + tablets/iPads have not really had the necessary penetration + generations of readers learned through the lens of collecting and want a bookshelf of Vol. 1-12 trades.
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Friday, 26 March 2021 01:27 (three years ago) link
I have a mild aversion to paying for discrete units of digital media but I have an extreme aversion to paying for those units when I can only access them via some proprietary platform (eg the one and only video that I ever bought from the Apple store and realized to my chagrin I couldn't watch in VLC Player as I can with literally every other video format under the sun). Like until these companies are selling their digital comics in a .cbr format or something similar that I can use/access/organize precisely how I choose, I'm not paying for that shit.
― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Friday, 26 March 2021 01:38 (three years ago) link
Another retailer’s perspective: https://www.progressiveruin.com/2021/03/26/we-interrupt-this-program-with-an-important-bulletin/
― armoured van, Holden (sic), Friday, 26 March 2021 12:03 (three years ago) link
As happened with DC the welcoming competition spin is strange - none of these deals creates competition. They’re just different exclusives so instead of one monopoly for comics, there are separate monopolies for Marvel/DC/Image.
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Friday, 26 March 2021 14:07 (three years ago) link
What I don't understand is why Marvel and DC (and some other US publishers, I guess) still continue to sell individual comic books monthly instead of just TPBs? AFAIK the sales of monthly comics have become quite small, and most of their comics these days are written in longer arcs instead of done-in-one-issues anyway, so why don't they just move to only releasing larger books less often with a smaller per-page price? Or they could release individual issues in digital format only, and the collected editions on paper - that way both the ones who want a monthly fix and the ones who want to read their comics on paper would be satisfied. I get it that the monthly comic book has a long history, but if the sales for them are now minuscule compared to the heyday of the medium, is there really some good reason to keep them alive? Releasing larger chunks of a story in fewer installments has worked very well for comics in many European countries, as well as for several smaller US publishers, I can't imagine it couldn't work for Marvel and DC as well?
― Tuomas, Sunday, 28 March 2021 16:21 (three years ago) link
Guessing from a position of profound ignorance - seeing the drop from a first to a second issue gives you some idea how many people will want the next few, and is cheaper (and you've probably sold a lot of #1s) than just gambling everything every six months?
― Andrew Farrell, Sunday, 28 March 2021 18:00 (three years ago) link
AFAIK the sales of monthly comics have become quite small
The sales of TPBs are smaller. You make less money without amortising the costs of production in advance.
Or they could release individual issues in digital format only, and the collected editions on paper - that way both the ones who want a monthly fix and the ones who want to read their comics on paper would be satisfied.
As noted in recent posts, this has literally been proven not to be the case.
Also, both companies (esp. Didio's DC) have aggressively worked on reducing their core audience to middle-aged men who value the monthly paper ritual and the serial experience.
― armoured van, Holden (sic), Sunday, 28 March 2021 18:42 (three years ago) link
― Tuomas, Sunday, 28 March 2021 19:12 (three years ago) link
That is actually starting to happen a bit. Stuff like Batman - The Adventures Continue started digital and then got printed monthly. I will probably get the DCeased: Hope at World's End series that was digital-only and getting collected in HC in May. Marvel has done this at least a couple of times that I can remember, like those Jessica Jones digital series that eventually were printed in issue format / trade. sic's very possibly right that they're not successful, but this I feel like this still a fairly recent development to watch.
Both companies are printing more children's/YA books that are small format, one-shot TPBs and skipping over floppies, emulating the success you see from publishers like Scholastic. They seem to be doing well, so I hope this continues.
It's a bit of a trap for an old consumer. I definitely want to help keep my LCS alive, and that means buying more floppies, gradually converting more buys to trades since I can't keep up with reading 20 series a month anyway. Have similar feelings about my local movie theater and physical media in general - want to support this stuff and these people, you know you're paying a premium over digital for principle. But can any of it last?
― Nhex, Sunday, 28 March 2021 19:16 (three years ago) link
Well, in here the local comic shops have been selling TPBs from the US and "albums" (the European standard TPB format for stuff like Asterix, Tintin, Valerian & Laureline, etc.) from Europe as their main product for as long as I can remember. Some of them did use to carry floppies as well, but it was a minority of the customers who bought them, because importing them from the US meant that the per-page price when compared to TPBs was even higher here than in the States.What has killed most of the local comic stores in the last 15 years is not the low sales of floppies rather than online stores selling TPBs and albums for cheaper than them.
― Tuomas, Sunday, 28 March 2021 19:25 (three years ago) link
― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Sunday, 28 March 2021 20:08 (three years ago) link
yeah the "late" part is relevant there, as well as the actual form - Marvel dropped cover stock well over a decade ago (and their TPB trade dress and layout templates remain hideous). When either of them try and diversify or reach out in terms of content, it's almost always crammed into a package that doesn't complement the content. DC's OEL was one-fifth-assed at best.
Interesting, I would've thought TPBs sell more (at least when you adjust the sales to the higher price) than floppies, because you don't need to go to a specialist comic store to get them ... What are the average global sales figures for, say, a Marvel TPB then?
I doubt even Marvel have global figures, but looking at the US bookstore-market sales for 2019:
#1 was a collection of 1991's The Infinity Gauntlet, moving 27k off the back of the plot being used for the previous five years of MCU movies.
#2, #3, #6 and #8 were digest-formatted or "Scholastic"-formatted Spider-Man books aimed at children, collecting material up to eight years old, two volumes of which were branded specifically as Spider-Verse tie-ins - those sold 19k and 14k, the other two 8k and 9k.
#4 was the first volume of Ms Marvel, from 2014. 11k sold.
#6 was the fourth volume of the Darth Vader comic, 9.6k sold.
#9 was a $60 hardcover (at 8700 sold, retail on this would have been $522,000. The average retail sales figure for a Marvel book was $7,110.) of House Of X, the big event crossover of that year.
#10 was the first Ta-Naheisi Coates Black Panther book from 2016; this sold 36,000 the year before when the movie was out, dropping to 7500 this year.
The Diamond sales figures for 2019 similarly show catalogue nearly completely dominating the top ten in books, and periodicals being 9 "events" and specials, plus one new Marvel #1 with 54 (FIFTY-FOUR) variant covers.
― armoured van, Holden (sic), Sunday, 28 March 2021 21:02 (three years ago) link
Also, Marvel are absolutely terrible at keeping TPBs in print, and haven't digital sales hit a ceiling that on its own would seem unprofitable to the big companies?
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Sunday, 28 March 2021 22:36 (three years ago) link
Marvel are absolutely terrible at keeping TPBs in print
This is incorrect: they simply do not keep material in print.
― armoured van, Holden (sic), Sunday, 28 March 2021 23:18 (three years ago) link
Thanks again for all you do, Ike.
― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Monday, 29 March 2021 00:11 (three years ago) link
For a while, I labored under the misapprehension that they were making an exception with the Epic collections. Because you figure, even if nothing else passed muster, at the very least their newish endeavor of issuing numbered volumes of their legacy material would be worth putting some extra effort into. But then I wound up scrambling to patch holes in my collection when I started noticing random volumes suddenly fetching exorbitant prices.Also tbf, comics publishers in general are pretty terrible at keeping books in print. There's a proportionate number of smaller press collections that I gave up on because some edition or another was effectively unobtainable for non-thousandaires (RIP, Gasoline Alley).
― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Monday, 29 March 2021 00:32 (three years ago) link
Also weird about the Epic Collections - they decide they'll do a certain year, ignoring what's been published. So when they do even bother to print those, there are still enormous gaps in the timeline. Once I looked up the Spider-Man at the one point and it was nuts - they got 1-5, 7, 15, 17-22, etc...
― Nhex, Monday, 29 March 2021 01:33 (three years ago) link
They print them in a random sequence (the rationale escapes me), but they do go back and fill in the gaps. Unfortunately for them, I can think of at least one instance where they painted themselves into a 'there aren't nearly enough issues to fill this two-volume gap' corner.
― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Monday, 29 March 2021 01:40 (three years ago) link
Actually, tbf, the Epic collections are about as close as Marvel gets to keeping collections in print, as they've gotten much better about reprinting the older volumes (there's at least two new Epic printings in this month's Diamond solicitations). There's still sometimes a multi-year gap between the time a book falls out of print and when it's reprinted but, as sic notes, they don't reprint much (generally opting, at best, to issue OOP material in a whole new form), so this is about as good as it gets.
― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Monday, 29 March 2021 01:54 (three years ago) link
Thanks for the TPB sales info, Sic. Though I do feel global and online sales figures would be way more interesting than US bookstores sales only, because the "buying monthly floppies from your local comic book store" culture is still kinda prevalent in the US, I guess, whereas (as explained above) in many other countries getting floppies monthly might be prohibitevely expensive and/or difficult, and getting TPBs from the bookstore or an online retailer like Amazon is cheaper and easier, so I'm assuming TPBs sell better than floppies there (this is definitely the case in Finland).
AFAIK, Marvel still releases TPBs of almost new every series they publish? And some of the more popular ones get first printing in hardcover, and are later reissued in omnibus format, even if the TPBs themselves rarely reissued. So presumably there must be some profits to be made in TPBs and other collected editions, because why would they keep printing them so widely if there isn't? If the main point of publishing superhero comics were to keep the intellectual properties alive and to provide fodder for the movies and series, surely the floppies would be enough for that?
― Tuomas, Monday, 29 March 2021 08:43 (three years ago) link
More profits to be made in TPBs than in the floppies, yes, because you've theoretically paid for the labour with the floppies, and spread that expense across several months while also recouping in sales and evaluating demand.
--
Good piece by Rob Salkowitz at ICV2 speculating on the reasons and benefits for Marvel to shift distributors: https://icv2.com/articles/columns/view/47974/whats-behind-marvels-move-prh
― armoured van, Holden (sic), Tuesday, 30 March 2021 09:32 (three years ago) link
And if no one buys the floppies, they might not even publish the trade, in theory. Though as Tuomas said Marvel collects almost every new series now, in the first year.I wonder if Marvel Unlimited makes pure profit or loses money.
― Nhex, Tuesday, 30 March 2021 15:28 (three years ago) link
And thx for that ICV2 article, sic
― Nhex, Tuesday, 30 March 2021 15:39 (three years ago) link
James Romberger on the R13sman Stan Lee bio, from a Kirbyist perspective.
― armoured van, Holden (sic), Tuesday, 30 March 2021 18:52 (three years ago) link
More from ICV2: Griepp on PRPH's long-term plans.
― armoured van, Holden (sic), Friday, 2 April 2021 21:23 (three years ago) link
I do think Marvel is probably leaving some cash on the table by not having some stuff that sells in continual print. Local shop stated that he about quit ordering back list trades from Diamond as they were shite for showing stuff in stock and never getting the stuff until like 13 weeks later.
Deal they SHOULD do is setup way that the guy can buy at the store and drop ship to their house and throw a few shillings to the local dude for making the order happen.
I think the smart idea that talking to my local shop owner is that he thinks the dudes in Image should put together their own indie distribution partnership, possibly tied to selling McFarlene's and others toy business and then become an indie distributor. Partner up with some people that know how to warehouse and ship stuff.
― earlnash, Friday, 2 April 2021 21:53 (three years ago) link
on point 2: that's kind of the bookshop.org model right now, i think. kinda wish my LCS got in on that
― Nhex, Friday, 2 April 2021 22:07 (three years ago) link
No one really wants to order comics from a bunch of different places - it's workable with trades but comics are a weekly order where subscriptions and special orders keep you alive. Too easy to miss ordering issue 3 because you got busy.
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Saturday, 3 April 2021 00:21 (three years ago) link
I just started reading the 2012 Matt Fraction / David Aja Hawkeye series, and hot damn it is good. (Bought Vol 1 waaaaaay back in 2013, never read it until now.) Surprisingly the trades seem to be out of print. Any chance or news that it'll be reprinted ahead of the Disney+ series coming out? Otherwise I'll just buy the omnibus for $25 digitally, but I'd rather own physical copies.
― Nhex, Monday, 5 April 2021 03:42 (three years ago) link
I recently bought a nice copy of Vol. 3 (L.A. Woman) for $4.95 on eBay. You could try picking up the individual volumes that way, if you don’t mind remainders etc.
― come along you starbucks lovers (taylor’s version) (morrisp), Monday, 5 April 2021 04:10 (three years ago) link
good point... i'll look on eBay as well. weirdly, vol. 2 seems to be the most rare/expensive volume out of the four.
― Nhex, Monday, 5 April 2021 04:26 (three years ago) link
Surprisingly the trades seem to be out of print.
― armoured van, Holden (sic), Monday, 5 April 2021 05:42 (three years ago) link
I'd guess that there's a good chance we get another reprint around when the show drops. Marvel is at least getting better at taking advantage of the release of big film and TV projects to push out related print material. We got two Black Widow Epic Collections last year, two Morbius Epics, they reprinted at least one of the old Vision and Scarlet Witch minis (it looks like the other collection might've been solicited and then either cancelled or delayed) plus a couple of related WCA Epics, and they have an omnibus of Rick Remender's Cap run (featuring Sam's first appearances as Cap) coming soon. You can generally expect a collection or two of something related, but given how closely related the Hawkeye show appears to be to Fraction's run, I'd be surprised if we didn't see a reprint of that specific material.
― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Monday, 5 April 2021 11:19 (three years ago) link
I wonder how much of an uptick in sales they see (in related print material) when these movies and shows come out.
― come along you starbucks lovers (taylor’s version) (morrisp), Monday, 5 April 2021 14:48 (three years ago) link
not the same female Captain Marvel so maybe unrelated
― armoured van, Holden (sic), Monday, 5 April 2021 19:15 (three years ago) link
Definitely unrelated. Kamala Khan seems to be one of the few legit breakout Marvel superstars of the 21st Century (see also: Miles Morales).
― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Monday, 5 April 2021 20:01 (three years ago) link
Got me curious so I glimpsed the Diamond Top 100 from 2019. Infinity Gauntlet is the the obvious standout, but nothing else I saw from Marvel was a classic reprint, mostly brand new collections of 2018 material (Spider-Geddon, Life of Captain Marvel, Cosmic Ghost Rider) or disconnected from the MCU (House/Powers of X, Immortal Hulk).
Non-Marvel media tie-ins of note that showed up: The Boys omnibus reprints (Amazon show), Umbrella Academy trades (Netflix show), Joker (Azzarello/Bermejo) reprint (film), Deadly Class (SyFy show). So I believe the strategy likely does work, maybe Marvel's doing a crappy job at embracing it?
(this doesn't include bookstore sales, since it's Diamond, i assume)
― Nhex, Monday, 5 April 2021 20:06 (three years ago) link
Marvel's reprint strategy seems haphazard at best, I will grant you. If you're anal like me and make sure that you preorder pretty much everything you want (and, perhaps more importantly, have a clear idea of what you want and how what you want is being collected), they do a pretty great job and seem serious about slowly reprinting as much of their material as possible. If you come at it from a more casual angle, I'm sure it's incredibly frustrating both to keep track of how things are being reprinted and to deal with the inevitable and ongoing OOP issue.
― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Monday, 5 April 2021 20:12 (three years ago) link
good to know they’re still living in opposite world where casual readers who’d want to pick up a TPB are out of luck
I’d hazard a guess that they sell a fair number of TPBs to libraries? those few that still have a budget
― mh, Monday, 5 April 2021 20:22 (three years ago) link
the Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel is definitely librarian bait! in a good way
― mh, Monday, 5 April 2021 20:23 (three years ago) link
Definitely unrelated.
Right, though looks like Black Panther barely was too: 28k in 2018 without a movie, 36k with a movie. the Kamala Khan book sold 13k in 2018 (and, because Marvel, no other volumes charted in either year).
― armoured van, Holden (sic), Monday, 5 April 2021 20:35 (three years ago) link
xp Kamala K. was the first book I picked up when I got into nu-Marvel in the mid-2000s... it was getting significant mainstream / "general reader, check this out" press.
― come along you starbucks lovers (taylor’s version) (morrisp), Monday, 5 April 2021 20:38 (three years ago) link
It was a pretty decent series but got derailed a lot by crossover events like Secret Wars and Civil War II
― Nhex, Monday, 5 April 2021 20:41 (three years ago) link
Yeah, I read few books and then hit the Secret Wars wall. (I also couldn't really get into the teenage-focused content, but that's just me.)
― come along you starbucks lovers (taylor’s version) (morrisp), Monday, 5 April 2021 20:44 (three years ago) link
Lolz
Do I really live in a universe where Ta-Nehisi Coates has written a Captain America comic featuring a parody of my ideas as part of the philosophy of the arch villain Red Skull? https://t.co/waFsAvWlfd— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) April 6, 2021
― groovypanda, Tuesday, 6 April 2021 12:43 (three years ago) link
oh no, he found out
― mh, Tuesday, 6 April 2021 12:46 (three years ago) link
A guy published this blog post(I don’t get how he isolated the logos; did he redraw them?); Tom Orz popped into his Twitter, suggesting he credit the original designers.
― Yawnsomely Literal Cover Band (morrisp), Saturday, 17 April 2021 04:20 (three years ago) link
it's not that hard to isolate text with solid borders using photoshop or any other software with a magnet selection tool
― mh, Saturday, 17 April 2021 17:09 (three years ago) link
https://reaganray.com/img/blog/marvel-lettering/doctor-strange-3.jpg
From that post, this Doctor Strange logo from 1988 feels like it's homaging some TV show or movie logo from the same era, but I can't quite recall which one... Can anyone think of a logo similar to it?
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 08:37 (three years ago) link
no, but I'd bet $7 that logo is by Todd Klein
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 09:48 (three years ago) link
Hmm. Klein pegs the then-recently-revealed movie Strange logo as based on his 1988 logo in this 2014 blog, buuut the original logo he shows looks more '90s to me.
This 1988 Marvel Doctor Strange #1 has the logo posted above, and the next movie logo was just released the other day, and looks like a very close adaptation of the (real) 1988 one.
That one only lasted four issues before being replaced with a riff on the 1970s logo; Klein's (other?) one is indeed from 1992, and came in on issue 62 of the '88 series.
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 10:05 (three years ago) link
xxp Tuomas, I assume you're not thinking of the (current-day) Stranger Things logo(?)
― smoking grass, poor caddying. (morrisp), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:37 (three years ago) link
i love that logo and that era of doctor strange
― Draymond is "Mr Dumpy" (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 16:54 (three years ago) link
https://i.redd.it/ciex4a8ta1vz.png
I can see it.
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 21:40 (three years ago) link
Stranger Things titles are more of an homage to the typography of '80s horror paperback covers (and Stephen King specifically).
― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:21 (three years ago) link
Right, I just wondered if the vague similarities (stacked script + "Strange") may have tripped T's neurons.
― smoking grass, poor caddying. (morrisp), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:23 (three years ago) link
Heavily dipped serifs, the dramatic, swooping cross-bar on the A, the Stranger Things letterforms look closer in height to the actually-tall Doctor Strange bcz of the high crossbar on the H - a lot of casual similarities, intentionality completely aside.
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:33 (three years ago) link
Dr. Stranger
― mh, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:36 (three years ago) link
Stranger Docts
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:22 (three years ago) link
I think comics logos are underappreciated, but that blog post doesn’t really do them justice… I feel like you need to see them full-size, on the actual covers, to really get the impact; not abstracted and isolated in tiny squares.
― smoking grass, poor caddying. (morrisp), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 02:41 (three years ago) link
Like the classic ASM logo (especially when accented with webbing) is one of the GOAT, but this anemic image hardly captures why:https://reaganray.com/img/blog/marvel-lettering/spider-man-1.jpg
― smoking grass, poor caddying. (morrisp), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 02:43 (three years ago) link
agreed
― Nhex, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 02:44 (three years ago) link
Got a bunch of TPBs of ImmorTAL Hulk and the current Marvel TPB is a thin and anaemic looking thing.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 05:48 (three years ago) link
technically speaking this isn't that similar but in terms of era and general vibe the Doctor Strange logo made me think of this:
https://tvseriesfinale.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/murder-she-wrote-e1513781745389.jpg
― joygoat, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 12:52 (three years ago) link
The Doctor Strange logo looks like the sign for a fern bar in Dallas
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Thursday, 29 April 2021 04:03 (three years ago) link
From a couple of weeks ago, Hibbs going long on the PRH situation and repurcussions:
But this is the crux of my fear: Diamond, on the face of it, would not seem to be able to pivot to a more modern GN distribution business structure now that they’ve lost the majority of their volume, and the reasons that most DM retailers had to deal with them. They could have, once – but now it’s probably too late. While Steve and his team are smart, and conceptually Steve has resources that could be liquidated to keep things going for a while, it is very hard for me to see where the payout can possibly be. We know what happens to a distributor who loses both Marvel and DC’s business, and have Image comics as their largest exclusive vendor...
ultimately my biggest fear is that the vanguard of independence for making comics, the ability of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or a Bone or even a Walking Dead to rise up “out of nowhere” and to build that periodical behemoth which then allows indy creators to leverage the book format, is about to be severely tested, and perhaps entirely lost. And while people will find a way to make comics –of course they will –the likeliest result is going to be that comics will start to pay a lot less for creators as a general class, and comics will get “safer” and less experimental as even more corporate control is consolidated. I’d rather that Eastman & Laird or Jeff Smith or Robert Kirkman & co are the ones who get to reap the rewards nstead of giant multi-national corporations – and this has always been the greatest promise as well as the greatest gift of the Direct Market.
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Sunday, 2 May 2021 00:58 (three years ago) link
I kinda get what he's saying, but... thankfully, many young creators aren't waiting for a big publisher to print floppies for them anymore and see (or have been forced to find) the other outlets available.
― Nhex, Sunday, 2 May 2021 03:36 (three years ago) link
His three examples are 37, 30, and 18 years old. Utterly irrelevant to the current market.
― EZ Snappin, Sunday, 2 May 2021 04:05 (three years ago) link
As someone who thinks well-printed, well-designed comics are the ideal presentation for the medium, I wish that a retail infrastructure for them will continue to exist.
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Sunday, 2 May 2021 04:15 (three years ago) link
https://www.gamesradar.com/wandavision-success-leads-to-continued-comic-sellouts-and-back-orders/
(apparently Newsarama is GamesRadar now)
Ahead of WandaVision's debut on January 15, Marvel Comics' collections department printed new editions for two books - The Vision Complete Collection, and House of M - as well as three new collections of older material - Scarlet Witch by James Robinson: The Complete Collection, Vision & Scarlet Witch: The Saga of Wanda and Vision, and Marvel-Verse: Wanda & Vision.The response was quick, as by the end of WandaVision's first season in March most of these comics had sold out at the distributor level - with new printings not becoming available again until a month after the show ends.Now that we're a few months out from WandaVision's finale and Marvel Comics is re-initiating new plans for Wanda (such as the Darkhold comic book event), Newsarama checked in again to see if collections of these stories of Wanda and Vision's past are any easier for customers to get.Unfortunately, these five collections are still hard to come by. The printings from earlier this year have all sold out at the distributor level for comic shops, and most are either unavailable on Amazon or only at a mark-up from second-party sellers.Marvel-Verse: Wanda & Vision(Image credit: Marvel Comics)The Eisner-winning The Vision Complete Collection has gone through multiple printings since its November 2019 debut. The last printing hit shelves in April and sold out in two months, with another new printing scheduled for July 21.Marvel-Verse: Wanda & Vision apparently sold out in March, then again in May. A third printing is scheduled to debut July 28.The three other collections - Vision & Scarlet Witch: The Saga of Wanda & Vision, House of M, and Scarlet Witch by James Robinson: The Complete Collection - have also sold out at the distributor level, however Marvel has not announced plans to reprint them despite the apparent demand.The other new collection of older material, Vision & Scarlet Witch: The Saga of Wanda & Vision, sold out quickly after its January 2021 debut. It's currently on back order, with no announced plans by Marvel to reprint it despite the apparent demand.
The response was quick, as by the end of WandaVision's first season in March most of these comics had sold out at the distributor level - with new printings not becoming available again until a month after the show ends.
Now that we're a few months out from WandaVision's finale and Marvel Comics is re-initiating new plans for Wanda (such as the Darkhold comic book event), Newsarama checked in again to see if collections of these stories of Wanda and Vision's past are any easier for customers to get.
Unfortunately, these five collections are still hard to come by. The printings from earlier this year have all sold out at the distributor level for comic shops, and most are either unavailable on Amazon or only at a mark-up from second-party sellers.
Marvel-Verse: Wanda & Vision(Image credit: Marvel Comics)
The Eisner-winning The Vision Complete Collection has gone through multiple printings since its November 2019 debut. The last printing hit shelves in April and sold out in two months, with another new printing scheduled for July 21.
Marvel-Verse: Wanda & Vision apparently sold out in March, then again in May. A third printing is scheduled to debut July 28.
The three other collections - Vision & Scarlet Witch: The Saga of Wanda & Vision, House of M, and Scarlet Witch by James Robinson: The Complete Collection - have also sold out at the distributor level, however Marvel has not announced plans to reprint them despite the apparent demand.
The other new collection of older material, Vision & Scarlet Witch: The Saga of Wanda & Vision, sold out quickly after its January 2021 debut. It's currently on back order, with no announced plans by Marvel to reprint it despite the apparent demand.
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Wednesday, 16 June 2021 20:44 (three years ago) link
They're very good at this.
― Jerome Percival Jesus (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 16 June 2021 22:58 (three years ago) link
you can't spell "permanently unavailable, leaving retailers and customers alike muttering bitterly" without Perlmutter
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Wednesday, 16 June 2021 23:14 (three years ago) link
I generally preorder Marvel collections that I want, knowing that there's a good chance that waiting will = unavailability.This is not a business model that makes sense to me.
― Jerome Percival Jesus (Old Lunch), Thursday, 17 June 2021 00:32 (three years ago) link
Marvel comics is a business model that has not made sense since '62. Completely unbelievable that it became such a cash cow considering how it had bordered on insolvency on and off for decades.
― earlnash, Thursday, 17 June 2021 01:00 (three years ago) link
Just read ASM #304 (1988) with my kid… it begins with Peter learning that the Bugle has published a book of his Spider-Man pics, which they can do because they own his work “lock, stock, and negatives.” JJJ offers him a $100 “gratitude fee”—but the publisher tells him that if he goes on tour and signs autographs, he can earn some money from it. I didn’t get Michelinie’s subtext around all this, when I was a kid myself… but I get it now!(Also in this ish: Pete & MJ visit Disneyland.)
― we don't have to be around all these coffee shops (morrisp), Saturday, 26 June 2021 03:15 (three years ago) link
I'm painting in broad strokes here but maybe it makes perfect sense, your preorder purchase is confirmed, the company will not be left with unwanted stock and scarcity/demand is built back into the model. Comics (or the collecting of them at least) thrive on scarcity.I think back to the swamping of the comics market and inflated secondary narket that was going on around and after the first Burton Batman movie, LotDK. It was unsustainable and precipitated the wider bust that inevitably comes with a boom. Issues from A Death In the Family were on shop walls for ridiculous money but everyone had a copy.I sympathise however, I came late to Adam Warlock and followed him in trades right up to Infinity Crusade vol 2. Cant seem to get that book without someone else always willing to pay that little bit more than me, not even touching the bonkers bot prices on amazon.
― ringworm, Sunday, 27 June 2021 08:38 (three years ago) link
what about the bathroom policy, does that make sense
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Sunday, 27 June 2021 09:31 (three years ago) link
I still weirds me out that Marvel published an Avengers book that had Hank Pym romping through Janet’s vagina
― an eco-conscious Music Box (DJP), Sunday, 27 June 2021 13:03 (three years ago) link
Well, it was written by Geoff Johns, so I guess we should just be thankful that he didn't rip her in half afterwards.And now it's my turn to be weirded out remembering that Marvel published a book that had the Blob literally eating Janet.
― I Scream For Ice Cream But Also Just All The Time And For No Reason (Old Lunch), Sunday, 27 June 2021 13:54 (three years ago) link
Same era that has the Hulk making kids with his cousin She-Hulk and the Green Goblin having kids with a teenager...so makes sense.
― earlnash, Sunday, 27 June 2021 14:54 (three years ago) link
I'm painting in broad strokes here but maybe it makes perfect sense, your preorder purchase is confirmed, the company will not be left with unwanted stock and scarcity/demand is built back into the model. Comics (or the collecting of them at least) thrive on scarcity.
Comics might, trades don't. Invincible Compendiums have been the hottest superhero item this year and buyers of those $65 books are shockingly unconcerned with condition, because they're readers (or reader/collectors) - the big Image compendiums get damaged just looking at them.
Marvel sets trade/gn/etc. print runs before stores put in their orders (and thus consumer preorders) so it's not a case of ensuring that there are no leftovers. They just let some things go out of print for a while before they get back around to firing up the printing presses if it seems like demand warrants. (They've instituted a system where shops can put in prospective reprint orders to let them know what to put back in print.)
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Thursday, 1 July 2021 00:56 (three years ago) link
You would think somewhere in the Disney empire would be some distribution wing where they could sell books and actually have a back list.
DC always had the Time Warner books distribution system, so they have had many things 'always' stay in print.
I'm just pi$$ed that I have not been able to get the 2nd Omnibus volume of Tomb of Dracula for a freaking decade even though having the 1st and 3rd and I'll be damned to pay what the vultures on ebay etc. want for one. They reprinted the 1st one not all that long ago and have started a TPB run of the series, but never have gotten to the latter part of the run and the first one of that series is like stupid expensive.
― earlnash, Friday, 2 July 2021 01:32 (three years ago) link
They've instituted a system where shops can put in prospective reprint orders to let them know what to put back in print.
So all we need to do is figure out how to spam this system with our wants list!
― ringworm, Friday, 2 July 2021 07:15 (three years ago) link
They're releasing a portfolio of reproductions of the '70s Third Eye black light posters. Presumably full size. It's fairly 'spensive but I've considered buying the originals for a lot more.
For the uninitiated: https://www.coolandcollected.com/marvel-third-eye-blacklight-posters/
― Marty J. Bilge (Old Lunch), Friday, 30 July 2021 03:15 (three years ago) link
yeah, i fuckin love those
― think “Gypsy-Pixie” and misspelled. (We are a white family.) (forksclovetofu), Friday, 30 July 2021 03:52 (three years ago) link
https://www.denofgeek.com/comics/marvel-announces-new-projects-that-could-tease-mcu-future-avengers-5-title
― groovypanda, Wednesday, 1 September 2021 07:55 (three years ago) link
If you want to know what the future of the MCU looks like, just look at what Marvel Comics is publishing right now.
I'm not really convinced by this - my impression was that Marvel had been hilariously bad at giving anyone coming out of a movie theater and into a comic book store anything resembling what they'd just seen.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 1 September 2021 09:49 (three years ago) link
i agree but the idea is that their lineup gestures awkwardly in the direction of the films because they presumably know what the arc is better than most.
― think “Gypsy-Pixie” and misspelled. (We are a white family.) (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 1 September 2021 13:33 (three years ago) link
The closest they come is rushing out a glut of reprints when characters have an upcoming film or show (e.g. finally collecting all of the early Morbius material this year). Which I appreciate.
― Marty J. Bilge (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 1 September 2021 13:39 (three years ago) link
they've been giving the various Young Avengers a push again in the comics (America Chavez getting a mini, Kate Bishop getting a solo series again, Wiccan and Hulkling getting event tie-in oneshots despite not being in any series right now) for the past year or so, and many hints in the MCU/D+ shows (Hawkeye show, Kid Loki, Wiccan/Speed showing up in Wandavision)
...what is "gypsy-pixie" supposed to stand for though??
― Nhex, Wednesday, 1 September 2021 14:57 (three years ago) link
Do you have a link to the new Kate Bishop series? (I can never find anything on Marvel.com/comics)
― Shallot Shortage 2021 (morrisp), Wednesday, 1 September 2021 15:54 (three years ago) link
It was announced pretty recently... A five-issue mini, like the America one:https://screenrant.com/hawkeye-kate-bishop-new-series-mcu-comics-nijkamp/Scheduled for November
― Nhex, Wednesday, 1 September 2021 15:59 (three years ago) link
Cool, hope it’s good
― Shallot Shortage 2021 (morrisp), Wednesday, 1 September 2021 16:18 (three years ago) link
xp to nhexabysmal real names
― think “Gypsy-Pixie” and misspelled. (We are a white family.) (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 1 September 2021 20:50 (three years ago) link
I'm still wondering what it could actually be!
― Nhex, Wednesday, 1 September 2021 21:34 (three years ago) link
prediction: Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur remains a cult fave (such as any Marvel/DC comic isn't cult at this point), the Daredevil event is well-received and does pretty good (but not X-Men core or Spidey numbers), the Wolverine story disappoints fans, the rest are flops, all are washed away and forgotten by next summer
― papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 3 September 2021 02:35 (three years ago) link
Marvel sales are probably going to take a hit this winter, the new distribution deal is making it both harder to order and more expensive for everyone but tiny accounts so fewer people seem willing to take a risk on what they're pumping out.
― papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 3 September 2021 02:38 (three years ago) link
Timelesshttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/Goldie_Timeless.jpg“Wash… away… the tears”
― tumblin’ dice outro (morrisp), Friday, 3 September 2021 03:05 (three years ago) link
what the fuckhttps://bleedingcool.com/comics/joe-bennett-apologises-over-immortal-hulk-43-anti-semitic-error/― Joe Biden Stan Account (milo z), Thursday, February 4, 2021 2:28 AM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Joe Biden Stan Account (milo z), Thursday, February 4, 2021 2:28 AM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink
So about that...
looked it up to see what it is he did and apparently it includes straight up fanart of bolsonaro beheading political opponents, so yeah fuck this joe bennett guy pic.twitter.com/uTzSIvi2wu— Zuk (@garaboldin) September 1, 2021
― peace, man, Friday, 3 September 2021 12:57 (three years ago) link
Al Ewing did offer a public apology and severance of his relationship with Bennett.
There’s an image doing the rounds that Joe Bennett drew back in 2017. I won’t link to it, but I have seen it, and it’s reprehensible. Thread follows. /1— Al Ewing Writes Comics (@Al_Ewing) September 2, 2021
― peace, man, Friday, 3 September 2021 13:02 (three years ago) link
That's a shame, I loved his contributions to Immortal Hulk. Also: Al is short for Alasdair???
― Nhex, Friday, 3 September 2021 15:54 (three years ago) link
Marvel Unlimited finally redesigned their app!!!!
Except it’s… worse? Like… much worse? The design is a little more modern, and it crashes less, but it’s now entirely geared to new readers (which is fine!) but they’ve also killed off all the search filtering, so create digging — while not impossible — is really annoying now. If you want to find, say, Claremont’s 80s work, you have to start at 2021 and scroll down dozens of pages of icons until you reach 1980 - except the dates of publication aren’t listed anymore, just the tittle and issue number.
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 11 September 2021 19:30 (three years ago) link
Wolk's book is out TODAY
― Donald Fhtagen (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 12 October 2021 12:47 (three years ago) link
was gonna post that yesterday re wolk's bookbarreled through it last night and had a ton of funreading about the impetus for project was very moving and sweet
decided to see how reviews were and was happy fellow comics nerd junot diaz was the Times reviewer, was thinking of him when reading the book as was delighted when first read brief wondrous life of oscar wao to read all the footnotes showing off his marvel geekery (and just the use of footnotes took me back to reading marvel comics) - tons of fun footnotes in this book too
diaz review here https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/12/books/review/douglas-wolk-all-of-the-marvels.html
― H in Addis, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 10:37 (three years ago) link
last issue of the Al Ewing-written Hulk’s out today
― mh, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 14:06 (three years ago) link
Have enjoyed The Immortal Hulk a lot, though favorite persona is the gentle, misunderstood, Trimpe-era Hulk. Each time I watch "Ant-Man", when he first shrinks to the quantum realm, wish fulfillment has me spotting a Jarella civilization on the way down.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Wednesday, 13 October 2021 15:15 (three years ago) link
Really looking forward to this! I remember Wolk's bulletin board from a few years back, where they read and discussed a Marvel comic every day - was exhausting and impossible to keep up (sadly) so I'm looking forward to this more digestible version.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 17:11 (three years ago) link
Wolk’s book already under attack from the Marvel Method crew on FB for giving Stan Lee undue credit as per usual.
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 20:17 (three years ago) link
Not actually the case afaict. Unless folks are just getting their dander up because Wolk gives Lee any credit.
Book's a pretty fun ride so far, although quite a bit more slight than I'd hoped. Ironically, it's probably better suited for those who aren't as steeped in Marvel lore.
― (a picture of a defecating pig) (Old Lunch), Friday, 22 October 2021 01:46 (three years ago) link
Marvel changes the Punisher's logo: https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/punisher-new-skull-logo-debuts-surprising-marvel-comic-series/
― Not Dork Yet (alternate toke) (morrisp), Tuesday, 8 March 2022 17:41 (two years ago) link
Eh, this one isn't even pretending to be a permanent change. call me if they really decide to go ACAB
― Nhex, Tuesday, 8 March 2022 17:42 (two years ago) link
that's pretty obviously just his "I'm working for the ninja death cult" look
― mh, Tuesday, 8 March 2022 19:57 (two years ago) link
is it the skull of a bull?
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 9 March 2022 10:29 (two years ago) link
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/d/d9/Beast_%28Demon%29_%28Earth-616%29_from_Elektra_Assassin_Vol_1_1_001.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/300?cb=20100421205349
looks like the version of The Beast, the demon that the Hand follow. If the image link works, it’ll show the Elektra: Assassin version
― mh, Wednesday, 9 March 2022 16:08 (two years ago) link
eh no luck, it’s halfway down this page
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Beast_(Demon)_(Earth-616)
RIP Tom Palmer, for my money the greatest comic book inker of all time.
https://www.tcj.com/an-interview-with-tom-palmer/
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 19 August 2022 15:27 (two years ago) link
Ike Perlmutter has been "laid off" by Disney.
― Xennial’s School for Jaded Oldsters (morrisp), Wednesday, 29 March 2023 19:17 (one year ago) link
Perlmutter gives interview to sympathetic folks @ WSJ
― hypnic jerk (morrisp), Thursday, 6 April 2023 17:17 (one year ago) link
Don’t know if this goes under Marvel or Fanta, but it’s cool: https://www.marvel.com/articles/culture-lifestyle/fantagraphics-rediscovers-the-wonders-of-marvel-s-atlas-comics
― morrisp.fandom.com (morrisp), Thursday, 27 April 2023 03:38 (one year ago) link
Thought the thread revive wld be for this major scholarly work
https://www.marvel.com/articles/culture-lifestyle/abrams-books-marvel-value-stamps-a-visual-history-roy-thomas-charles-kochman-interview
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 27 April 2023 08:28 (one year ago) link
LOL @ that cut-up spread of Stan.
xp Hmm interesting that Marvel didn't want to bother with this themselves
― Nhex, Thursday, 27 April 2023 14:19 (one year ago) link
I cut out all those fuckin' stamps and taped them together on my wall, thereby effectively ruining a huge number of books. Seems like Marvel could have come up with a less destructive way to get people to be completists.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 27 April 2023 14:21 (one year ago) link
a win for them - if you're a true completist you'd have to buy even more copies!
― Nhex, Thursday, 27 April 2023 15:14 (one year ago) link
Those Atlas reissues from proper scans are long overdue, I thought I might have to wait much longer. Surprised Fantagraphics are doing it but they already did Disney books so there's no real leap. That Maneely book is 75 dollars though.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 27 May 2023 14:57 (one year ago) link
the Artists Library series are at a larger trim size and on fancier paper than the regular Atlas Library — probably more like the EC Bradbury book from last year
― least said, sergio mendes (sic), Saturday, 27 May 2023 16:19 (one year ago) link
I really like Archangel's blue/pink costume (especially when he let his bright yellow hair out), can't find anything more than a suggestion that Walt Simonson designed it. I also really like the Spiderman 2099 costume and it has similar colours/design.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 14 June 2023 23:25 (one year ago) link
Only (barely) related – I dug this costume redesign, but think it only lasted for a minute(?):
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/6/63/X-Factor_Vol_1_26.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/329?cb=20180228041215
― Day 1 fan (morrisp), Wednesday, 14 June 2023 23:32 (one year ago) link
(Hmm... the one time I don't test my shit out in the "html test" thread...)
― Day 1 fan (morrisp), Wednesday, 14 June 2023 23:33 (one year ago) link
Why come this never happened:
Hello. We're X-Factor, here to capture the dangerous mutant you've identified in the area."Huh... you're a red-headed lady and a guy wearing AmberVision glasses, with a big 'X' on your jumpsuits. You look a lot like, y'know, that famous mutant team that's always in the news..."Yes, it's a coincidence. What are the odds. Anyway, sometimes the lady covers her hair with a hat. Lead us to the mutant threat, please.
― Day 1 fan (morrisp), Wednesday, 14 June 2023 23:58 (one year ago) link
Oh, and the blond gentleman just has a really thick back. Those aren't folded wings. Why would you think that.
― Day 1 fan (morrisp), Thursday, 15 June 2023 00:00 (one year ago) link
hello yes this is marvel girl she’s back. the fact my wife is identical to her is weird and awkward. hope we resolve this in the next few dozen issues
― mh, Thursday, 15 June 2023 04:07 (one year ago) link
Out of nowhere (at least to me), Hickman and Hitch are writing a new Ultimate mini-series this week, which is apparently going to Kick Off Big Things.
The issue itself follows directly on from Secret Wars and nothing much happens, but it's quite good (won't spoil).
I wonder -- is this Hickman's thing, now? Instead of writing yearslong epics, he starts a story with a bang, pisses off, and gives it to someone less interesting to finish.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 22 June 2023 14:00 (one year ago) link
I am a completist by nature and this is a very bad quality to have with comics. I read ALL the Swamp Things and there is not a lot to recommend after Moore.
I'm currently trapped in She-Hulk. I got through Savage She-Hulk which was fine for being a dopey old comic. The Byrne stuff was good sometimes but the breaking the 4th wall eventually got tiring. I realized after reading the Byrne omnibus that there was an entire chunk missing when he left for a while. I'm reading those now and it's a slog. A good bit is written by Steve (Howard Duck) Gerber and it tries way too hard to be clever. The stuff in between Gerber and Byrne's return is dreck. Soon I'll get into more modern stuff and I'm hoping that will pick up a little.
― Cow_Art, Thursday, 22 June 2023 15:09 (one year ago) link
I am a completist by nature and this is a very bad quality to have with comics.
Oh man, feeling u...
I read ALL the Swamp Things and there is not a lot to recommend after Moore.
No longer feeling u! Veitch 4 life (although I realize I'm in a serious minority for believing it to be one of the greatest comics runs of all time).
― Fish Sticks in the Fanny Pack (Old Lunch), Thursday, 22 June 2023 15:45 (one year ago) link
Veitch wasn’t great, but he was waaaay better than what came afterwards. The idea of Nancy Collins ST sounds good, but nope. The idea of teenage ST daughter sounds good, but nooooope.
― Cow_Art, Thursday, 22 June 2023 15:55 (one year ago) link
Yes, both of those runs were terrible. Not-so-secretly love the Wheeler run, though.
― Fish Sticks in the Fanny Pack (Old Lunch), Thursday, 22 June 2023 16:11 (one year ago) link
Veitch run is great, Millar run frequently approaches competency.
― serving bundt (sic), Thursday, 22 June 2023 16:29 (one year ago) link
about the Hickman bit?he did the x-men thing for a couple years. exiting seemed planned, he was just setting up a much different status quothe ultimate thingy seems less like a secret wars continuation than a backdoor way to return to his ultimate universe master plan imoin other Marvel news, is that spider-man plot cycle they’re going through right now as bad as it seems? barely checked it out but it seems like “well, we have to explain the crazy shit that started the flash-forward in time status quo and just made up something”
― mh, Friday, 23 June 2023 02:04 (one year ago) link
the internet theory is that they intended to kill off MJ and chickened out at the last minute leading to some weird, but pro-corporate synergy choices.
The Spencer run had some similar meddling, seemed like they were finally about to undo the One More Day thing and then... nothing, run ended. Also had a crazy super retcon finale arc that was very strange. Followed by an odd stop-gap year with Ben Reilly returning temporarily ("Beyond")
― Nhex, Friday, 23 June 2023 04:59 (one year ago) link
I'm ride or die for the Millar Swamp Thing, which is not challenging Moore for the best Swamp Thing, but is definitely the best Millar.
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 23 June 2023 06:49 (one year ago) link
Yeah the last Spider-Man run is not good. It’s like Spider-Man is Marvel’s Superman, they’re always breaking the status quo for no particular reason, perpetually whiffing it
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 23 June 2023 10:25 (one year ago) link
I still haven’t read Moore’s run. I really should…
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 23 June 2023 10:26 (one year ago) link
Oh man, it's the best.
― Cow_Art, Friday, 23 June 2023 11:24 (one year ago) link
I was not very pleased w/the last Spider-Woman series (though I bought all the trades), but I am pleased to see a new one (with different creative team) is coming: https://www.fandompost.com/2023/08/08/marvel-comics-sets-new-spider-woman-solo-series/
Jess is my favorite character, fwiw
― Clientless (Scooter's Version) (morrisp), Tuesday, 22 August 2023 21:46 (one year ago) link
Can anyone recommend a good 1980s Spider-Man run for a boring January evening? I know (and enjoy) the early 90s DeMatteis run — is there anything else like that?
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 20 January 2024 18:15 (eleven months ago) link
I’m mildly intrigued by this
https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/4373093/avengers-twilight-1
― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 23 January 2024 22:11 (eleven months ago) link
But is the Dream?
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 24 January 2024 01:16 (ten months ago) link
Chip-written alternate reality? I'll give it a shot at some point
― Nhex, Wednesday, 24 January 2024 03:03 (ten months ago) link
Disappointed at the lack of shiny vampires.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 24 January 2024 10:39 (ten months ago) link
Zdarsky's career is so weirdly split between fun stuff and glum journeyman product. I like his Batman run right now, it's very silly but very readable. The first issue of Twilight was fine, but everyone's read a billion of these things by now and this one isn't anything special.
(FWIW the Cliff Chiang Catwoman miniseries from last year was a actually pretty fun, original take on "what if superheroes but dystopia and they're old so their back hurts")
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 24 January 2024 15:00 (ten months ago) link
since I enjoy reading random stuff on Marvel Unlimited, I started reading through the original Alpha Flight series from 1983. John Byrne might be a notorious shithead, but he could at least do a little X-Men style Canadian spinoff that had some interesting, if very dated by 2024 standards, moments
I guess it was subtle for the time since people weren’t looking for obvious tells, but any summary (see Wikipedia) that tries to say it took a while for the series to hint about Northstar’s sexuality is… wrong
I’ve been cracking up because every time he shows up there’s some obvious “hey did you know this guy is gay? he’s gay!” setup
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 04:08 (ten months ago) link
I've always found Byrne to be vastly overrated. Most of his art is just so static, and there is a bland sameness that he brings to everything. I consider him the anti-Kirby.
I did enjoy the Doomsday +1 book he did for Charlton very early in his career.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 04:37 (ten months ago) link
yeah, I wouldn't say he's good per se compared to my favorites, but I think he's generally cohesive/consistent
with the whole Marvel Unlimited deal I've tackled a pretty broad swath of comics and tapped out more than a few times. so, I'm putting that caveat on my comments
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 16:15 (ten months ago) link
When I was a kid in the 80s, I found Marvel Comics annoying because they had too many captions compared to DC.
That is probably... not true, but it's how it seemed at the time.
Anyway - I was reminded as I'm rereading Byrne's Superman run, for the first time since the UK reprints came out in the early 90s. They seem way more zippy and readable than his Marvel comics (although possibly more hacky - and his Superman is a real prude!)
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 7 February 2024 16:40 (ten months ago) link
I think the Marvel Method often leads to overwriting - scripters trying to fill every available space on the finished artwork. Claremont never could resist a lengthy thought balloon or two. Once Byrne wrote full scripts for himself, he could let more of the artwork do the talking.
I do think it's a shame that the thought balloon has pretty much vanished from modern comics storytelling, tho - it's one of comics most distinctive literary devices!
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 7 February 2024 16:44 (ten months ago) link
Claremont never could resist a lengthy thought balloon or two.
Orzechowski's lettering is so nice, it's probably hard to resist...
― atmospheric river phoenix (morrisp), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 17:04 (ten months ago) link
Claremont having a little catchphrase to describe the powers of each individual character, and the fact it was deployed about once per issue, makes you start to go a little insane after a while. I guess that in theory this would make it easier to start reading a comic at any point during the run, but it also makes a certain portion of each issue this background framework
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 17:07 (ten months ago) link
Steve Gerber could go on at length like nobody's business.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 17:11 (ten months ago) link
I mean, all these Marvel writers are taking their cues from Stan the Man, who overwrote like crazy as a way of asserting himself on the product (and lol at the 'story' credit on this one):
https://www.comicsbookcase.com/features-archive/daredevil-comic-1966
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 7 February 2024 17:29 (ten months ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/LOYDFzn.jpg
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 7 February 2024 17:31 (ten months ago) link
How will you know that some real shit is going down if Betsy isn’t talking about the focused totality of her psychic powers?
― the new drip king (DJP), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 17:32 (ten months ago) link
LOL at Foggy already scheming about Karen.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 17:34 (ten months ago) link
xp lmao
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 17:56 (ten months ago) link
Stan did have a flair for titles.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 17:59 (ten months ago) link
I may be alone in this but I think Claremont and Ann Nocenti are two of the better over-writers in comics. They can be purple and weird but they're very readable. Gerber, on the other hand...
Meanwhile I'm also rereading Milligan's Shade and some of those Vertigo titles are just as bad as Marvel.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 9 February 2024 13:02 (ten months ago) link
... how would you be alone in liking Claremont in Nocenti, they're fairly beloved
― Nhex, Friday, 9 February 2024 16:53 (ten months ago) link
I mean, it's a cliche that they're both a bit prolix. But I don't really see that - I think they're some of comics better sentence writers, i.e. wordy but easy to read. So often, reading comics feels like wading through sludge, and I don't get that with them.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 13 February 2024 10:34 (ten months ago) link
I think it's relative. Compared to Alan Moore or some later writers, maybe they read as corny. But compared to the writing in most of the mainstream comics at the time they were on another level. Definitely soapy and wordy, but they helped bring more nuanced emotions into superhero books.
― Cow_Art, Tuesday, 13 February 2024 11:32 (ten months ago) link
Well Nocenti is really a post-Claremont writer - she’s at the very tail end of the ‘overwriting’ era, a Shooter writer (whereas Claremont is very much a Roy Thomas writer).
Steve Gerber a million times better than either of them, of course.
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 13 February 2024 11:49 (ten months ago) link