Shipping This Week! -- 05.03.16

That Michael Turner ref is for me, I'll bet. I shake my fist at you, sir!

Oh, the dilemma: if I go this week, I'll only get what's on my list, because it's spring break for the girl, which means we're going to take a money-spending vacation; if I wait, I'll end up picking up at least some of the stuff from this week that's not on my list -- Ex Machina, Stormbreaker, Hulk, Donald Duck if it's a good issue -- but I'll have to wait.

(I know, same amount of money, but that's how it'll go anyway.)

However! Looking forward to getting at least a little more sense of what's going on in Young Avengers. And is this the first official use of "Ultimate Galactus" as the umbrella term for the Ellis minis?

BTW, the trucker link isn't just a har-har pisstake - it's good, funny, vulgar stuff! (If you like that sort of thing.) (Not that there's anything wrong w/ that.)

Also also - from the man that wouldn't shut up about She-Hulk or Ex Machina or who knows what else comes ... LIVEWIRES (by Adam Warren & Rick Mays)! Fun, fun stuff (and only 6 issues - it's a limited investment). That link goes to a preview of the 2nd issue; here's the promo falafel:

"Only hours ago, apparent adolescent girl 'Stem Cell' learned that she is, in fact, a 'humanform combat mecha'_ Now, her robotic teammates are rapidly schooling her in the lethal arts of their collective mission: sabotaging and destroying top-secret research programs. At 30,000 feet or on the sea floor, from playing with plasma grenades to sniping with laser rifles from 2000 yards out, the programmed-for-loyalty Livewires have an exciting but essentially suicidal line of work_ Will the freshly 'booted-up' Stem Cell be the next robot operative to be destroyed in the line of duty?"

I may take the week off, even though I'm hubba-hubba over a new Question issue and Black Panther #2 (and the Teen Titans should be Identity Crisis Revengeriffic), but I haven't been to the record store in months and there's that new Neil Michael Hagerty finally. And I stopped at an out of the way library branch yesterday after buying new specs (oh yeah, the real reason why I have to decide between music or comics) and found where they keep the Marvel Essentials stash. I get the feeling the first twenty issues of Fantastic Four were a hell of a lot more exciting in colour, but it's still pretty cool.
Oh, and they had Q&C #2: Op Morningstar, which I read last night after watching the original Ladykillers (phrased like that, it sounds like "The ORIGINAL Ladykillers" like some kind of male stripper revue), and I'm probably gonna buy more Q&C next time I feel like dropping a wad at the comic shop.

So, uh, I'll probably go pick up my three lousy comics on Wednesday.

Three! Meh!

100 PERCENT TP (MR) [not gonna get it, since I got the issues, but it's good! "Paul Pope draws the ugliest beautiful faces", says Leeeeeee!]
ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #638
BIRDS OF PREY #80
EX MACHINA #9 (MR)
LUCIFER #60 (MR)
MISS BETTER LIVING THROUGH CRIME TP [not gonna get it, but luv the title!] [I assume this is 2000AD-related; folks in the know, please expound]
PLASTIC MAN #15
QUESTION #5 (OF 6)
TEEN TITANS #22

INVINCIBLE #21

BLACK PANTHER #2
CAPTAIN AMERICA #4
INCREDIBLE HULK #79
NEW AVENGERS #4
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #74
ULTIMATE X-MEN #57
ULTIMATES 2 #4
WOLVERINE #26
YOUNG AVENGERS #2

HOPELESS SAVAGES B-SIDES ALL FLASHBACK SP ONE SHOT
LOVE & ROCKETS VOL 2 #13 (MR)

Also, don't forget about DINO-RACHEL! I kinda hope she gets her own mini, gets to hang out w/ Moonboy & Devil Dinosaur, maybe even reconvenes Fallen Angels, then moves permanently to MONSTER ISLAND to hang out with LATERUS, THE THING THAT WALKS SIDEWAYS. Sky's the limit.

Just Ex Machina, Lucifer, Human Target (it seems like these always come out on the same weeks), and Wolverine for me.

Yeah, I'm still getting Wolverine, even if MM & his sensationalistic plot-heavy shenanigans irk the crap out of me (even in the work of his I enjoy, like Ultimates) - the preview pages for the new issue look fantastic. I think Paul Mounts is coloring them - he's doing a bang-up job.

Also, according to Paul O'Brien, Northstar was killed THREE TIMES this month! WTF does Marvel have against teh gays? Unless they're all, um, TRUCKER FAGS IN DENIAL!

Maybe Northstar's death is supposed to be endemic of some hidden anti-France / anti-Canada agenda.

Hahaha what????

Yeah, Millar's Wolverine is basically stupid, but I might as well finish out the arc. Any idea who's taking over when he's done?

Yeah, that Enemy of the State storyline started well, but the end... oy. I'm going to be a sucker and pick up the new one, anyway -- I mean, the art! It's good.

Dan, please to clarify what your "what????" points to? (And, yeah, Chuck - it's all about JR JR. He's on fire!)

If you're wondering about where / how Northstar died - Wolverine (under the control of Hydra and some multi-colored undersexed multi-voiced inner-dialogue virus) kabobed Northstar in his (Wolvie's) title, and Northstar also took one for the team in Age of Apocalypse and (I believe) Exiles.

If I have any regrets, it's that I only have three lives to give.

Start giving, Scrooge!

Hahahahaha oh poor Northstar; see what happens when you are a supercilious self-absorbed asshat with superspeed whose name is NOT Quicksilver?

He's still alive in the Ultimate universe, though! He can hop through a Boom Tube, donate sperm, and propogate the family line (assuming Aurora's dead / sterile / not into that sort of thing)!

Isn't Aurora batshit insane, like to the point where she makes Polaris look like the epitome of rational thought?

I don't know. Last I remember, she was revealed to be part-elf. Insanity might've followed.

She was sort of stable-but-technically-crazy-by-virtue-of-having-multiple-personalities for a lot of Weapon X, and then I think she got less stable after the director (who was sleeping with her) slapped her around for being a disgusting mutant.

Oh, wait - part of Aurora's origin involved her in some seminary school, where she was smacked around by nuns, and developed split personalities, right? Jean-Marie was the mousy homebound one, and Aurora was the outgoing, permiscuous one! And Jean-Marie would pop up whenever head trauma came acallin'! In battle! Not cool!

Marvel: Messing With All Non-WASP Non-Male Non-Heteros Since Who Knows When.

Remember him this way:

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/alpha1.jpg

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/alpha2.jpg

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/alpha3.jpg

What the hell - the dude outed himself in regular-sized lettering? Weak! (& he's fighting Super-Mountie? Tom, you wrote about this piece of history on the Wedge, didn't you?)

I think so - and yes the feeble "I am gay" was blown up to monstrous proportions in my memory, however balanced against that is the fact that the drawing is EVEN WORSE than I remembered (there is an extraordinary splash page which I should upload.)

This has to be a Scott Lobdell Production. Also, IIRC, the cover's even better - Northstar's screaming like his soul's been torn asunder by sporks. Looks very Stallone-esque.

Also, WTF is Northstar doing on the 'roids?

(no Dan stop making awful jokes stop)

Further testimony -

The front cover (notice hairy hands!):

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/alphacover.jpg

That moving splash page in full:

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/alphawaist.jpg

Hey, readers, it's OK! Gays can be real men too!!

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/alphamanly.jpg

If that last picture was a piece of psuedocode, it would start out by setting the manliness variable to mFrillyLumberjackBlouse.

"We're not trying to say ALL Canadians are gay. Just the French ones."

My giganto #1 web-based order is shipping! Three weeks' worth of goodies! I'll have to knock down a wall in my living area to make space! Yippee!

In other news, archive.org just put up a dozen chapters from the 1937 Dick Tracy serial, if anyone cares (and it's fine if you don't!).

Pah! I got those on my state-sponsored digital cable tv.

Cas, that DT news deserves its own thread!

Anyway, I got my schwag, soooooooo:

WOLVERINE #26: Given my anti-MM jihad recently, I should step up and say when he does good. And he does it here. (Also, Northstar isn't dead. Well, he was, but now he's not.) Nice, dumb, over-the-top adventuring. Looks gorgeous, too. Dig the body count! And the two-page spread! Also a bonus - very little of the inner dialogue nonsense.

ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #638: It's Myxzptlk! Bringing Clark & Lois a baby! Rucka's Superman has been all sorts of uneven, but these goofy interludes have been the highlight of his run for me. Nice Calvin & Hobbes homage. Also, allusions to ... A CRISIS! Or some sorta thing.

INVINCIBLE #21: Possibly The Best Superhero Yadda-Yadda, sez the cover. Yeah, I'll buy that. Fun, brightly-colored teenage spandex shenanigans. With a nice helping of Big-Brothered conspiratorial machinations, too! And robots! The next issue is going for FIFTY CENTS (US), so if you're curious, give it a spin.

How's Brubaker's Authority?